Cutting-edge virtual reality technology is set to be used at a concert at the Taipei Arena today to honor the 20th anniversary of the death of famed singer Teresa Teng (鄧麗君). Teng died following an asthma attack aged 42 in May 1995 while on vacation in Chiang Mai, Thailand.
The Teresa Teng Foundation has collaborated with California-based Digital Domain 3.0 to hold the concert, which is set to feature a hologram of the singer.
Wearers of virtual reality headsets provided by the company will be able to see a stage, the audience on the back row if they look behind them and even the audience on either side, Digital Domain chief executive officer Daniel Seah (謝安) said, adding that the 3D images make viewers feel as if they are attending a live event.
Screen grab from Digital Domain Holdings Ltd’s Facebook account
Seah said that future developments in 3D technology would allow people to enjoy such concerts from their own homes, adding that the idea to make a virtual rendition of Teng came from watching the movie Tron: Legacy.
The movie, filmed using advanced 3D cameras, features then-61-year-old actor Jeff Bridges playing two characters, one a computer avatar that bears an image of his face altered to appear 35, which is grafted onto the body of a younger actor using special effects.
Using motion-capture technology, the company has managed to recreate a concert featuring late rap artist Tupac Shakur and a previous concert featuring Teng, Seah said.
A recording of the concert featuring a 3D hologram of Shakur at the Coachella Valley Music and Arts Festival in California in 2012 received more than 6 million views on YouTube in one day, Seah said, while a representation of Teng featured on-stage with Mando-pop king Jay Chou (周杰倫) in 2013.
Digital Domain 3.0 was the company behind the computer imagery that transformed Brad Pitt in The Curious Tale of Benjamin Button filmed in 2008.
Pitt, ostensibly playing the lead role, actually performed for less than 20 percent of the time his character was on screen, Seah said, adding that the movie won Academy Awards for Best Achievement in Art Direction, Best Achievement in Makeup and Best Achievement in Visual Effects.
“Do you know why films about world destruction tend to be shot around the White House and New York? It’s because we’ve done [the virtual simulations] for both cities and they are ready to be implemented. It saves on production costs,” Seah said, adding that it was the reason the movies 2012 and The Day After Tomorrow had some similar scenes.
Seah said the company has video clips featuring volcanic eruptions, tsunamis, earthquakes and simulations of dinosaurs that are easy for them to turn into virtual reality backdrops.
Using the movie Jurassic World as an example, Seah said that an audience wearing the virtual headsets would see themselves sitting in cars used by the characters in the film and see dinosaurs running past them if they opened the car door.
Audiences watching a Los Angeles Lakers game, filmed by a camera in the VIP seats, would experience the game as if they were in those seats and could see Kobe Bryant or Jeremy Lin (林書豪) up close, Seah said.
Such an effect is achieved by the company’s understanding of “360° environmental direct playback technology,” Seah said, adding that such technology has not been mastered by competitors such as Google or Facebook.
Digital Domain 3.0 is working on signing more authorization deals from companies or family members of deceased celebrities, Seah said, adding that such technology could eventually be used to watch auroras in Iceland, exhibits in museums, or to attend a class at National Taiwan University by day and a seminar at Cambridge University by night, Seah said.
When the audience is exposed to virtual reality that gives them a 360° perspective, they might become more observant, Seah said, adding that the technology puts a new spin on the saying “seeing is believing.”
Taiwan has received more than US$70 million in royalties as of the end of last year from developing the F-16V jet as countries worldwide purchase or upgrade to this popular model, government and military officials said on Saturday. Taiwan funded the development of the F-16V jet and ended up the sole investor as other countries withdrew from the program. Now the F-16V is increasingly popular and countries must pay Taiwan a percentage in royalties when they purchase new F-16V aircraft or upgrade older F-16 models. The next five years are expected to be the peak for these royalties, with Taiwan potentially earning
STAY IN YOUR LANE: As the US and Israel attack Iran, the ministry has warned China not to overstep by including Taiwanese citizens in its evacuation orders The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday rebuked a statement by China’s embassy in Israel that it would evacuate Taiwanese holders of Chinese travel documents from Israel amid the latter’s escalating conflict with Iran. Tensions have risen across the Middle East in the wake of US and Israeli airstrikes on Iran beginning Saturday. China subsequently issued an evacuation notice for its citizens. In a news release, the Chinese embassy in Israel said holders of “Taiwan compatriot permits (台胞證)” issued to Taiwanese nationals by Chinese authorities for travel to China — could register for evacuation to Egypt. In Taipei, the ministry yesterday said Taiwan
Taiwan is awaiting official notification from the US regarding the status of the Agreement on Reciprocal Trade (ART) after the US Supreme Court ruled US President Donald Trump's global tariffs unconstitutional. Speaking to reporters before a legislative hearing today, Premier Cho Jung-tai (卓榮泰) said that Taiwan's negotiation team remains focused on ensuring that the bilateral trade deal remains intact despite the legal challenge to Trump's tariff policy. "The US has pledged to notify its trade partners once the subsequent administrative and legal processes are finalized, and that certainly includes Taiwan," Cho said when asked about opposition parties’ doubts that the ART was
If China chose to invade Taiwan tomorrow, it would only have to sever three undersea fiber-optic cable clusters to cause a data blackout, Jason Hsu (許毓仁), a senior fellow at the Hudson Institute and former Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) legislator, told a US security panel yesterday. In a Taiwan contingency, cable disruption would be one of the earliest preinvasion actions and the signal that escalation had begun, he said, adding that Taiwan’s current cable repair capabilities are insufficient. The US-China Economic and Security Review Commission (USCC) yesterday held a hearing on US-China Competition Under the Sea, with Hsu speaking on
RSS