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Weekly Tech Recap - № 263 - Live Link Face, Astro City Mini, H.266/VVC, LinkedIn, E-waste

July 10, 2020.

Live Link Face

Live Link Face App.

Live Link Face App. © Epic Games.

A new iOS app from Epic Games allows game developers to easily and quickly register facial expressions and import them directly into the Unreal engine. The application uses several existing Apple technologies, notably its ARKit augmented reality platform and the TrueDepth camera that Apple introduced with the iPhone X in 2017. These are the same technologies that Apple uses for its Animoji and Memoji software, which reproduce your facial expressions on avatars. The Epic app can be used by game designers and developers, but also by studio actors in motion-capture suits. Once imported into Unreal Engine, the facial animation data can be adjusted. The Live Link Face app is now downloadable for free from the App Store.

Live Link Face App.

Unreal Engine, Ryan Mayeda, “New Live Link Face iOS app now available for real-time facial capture with Unreal Engine.”

The Verge, Jon Porter, “Unreal Engine can now capture facial expressions via an official iOS app.”

 

Astro City Mini

Astro City Mini.

Astro City Mini. © Sega.

After the excellent Genesis / Mega Drive Mini and the recent Game Gear Micro, Sega has unveiled an unexpected surprise: the Mini Astro City. For those unfamiliar with the original 1993 Astro City, this is not a console, but an arcade machine used in Japanese game rooms. These terminals, manufactured in the thousands, are still very common in Japanese arcades. The Mini comes with 36 classic arcade games including Virtua Fighter, featured in the first version of the Astro City. It has an HDMI output at the back as well as two USB-A ports, a Micro USB port and a headphone jack. The Astro City Mini is expected to be available in Japan later this year, and will cost JPY 12,800 (approximately CAD 160).

Astro City Mini.

Ars Technica, Kyle Orland, “Sega’s next retro hardware is a 1/6th-scale multi-game arcade cabinet.”

 

H.266/VVC

8K.

© iStock.

The Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute has announced the year-end release of a new video encoding standard which reduces the size of video files by 50%. H.266 / VVC (Versatile Video Coding) follows the current H.265 / HEVC compression standard and was developed by the Institute in collaboration with companies such as Sony, Apple, Intel, Huawei, Microsoft, Qualcomm and Ericsson. At a time when 4K videos are becoming more common and as 8K emerges, this codec is very timely. Reducing the size of video files should also be useful for people with poor internet connectivity and / or weak devices. According to the Institute, H.266 offers “equal perceptual quality” to its predecessor for half the data. The first encoding / decoding software will be available this fall.

The Verge, Nick Statt, “Fraunhofer’s new H.266 codec promises to cut the cost of streaming 4K video in half.”

 

How do you say your name again?

LinkedIn.

© LinkedIn.

Have you ever seen someone’s name in writing but not been sure how to pronounce it? Have you been embarrassed at making a massacre of the name of the person with whom you had an appointment at a company? LinkedIn has added a handy feature that will avoid a lot of awkwardness: the ability to record 10-second audio clips to let others know how to pronounce your name. Recordings can only be added via LinkedIn’s mobile apps on Android and iOS, but playback is available everywhere. To add a recording, simply go to your profile in a mobile application, click on “View profile”, then on “Edit” and finally on “Add name pronunciation”. The option will be gradually rolled out to all 690 million users of the networking platform this month.

The Verge, James Vincent , “LinkedIn will let you upload audio clips to tell people how to pronounce your name.”

 

An e-waste glut

E-waste.

E-waste. © iStock.

In 2019, we set a record for the amount of electronic waste produced worldwide: 53.6 million tons of phones, computers, TVs, cameras and other gadgets were scrapped. According to a new international report that was intended to document global progress, this is a 21% increase over 2014. Only 17% of this waste has been officially recycled. The vast majority of it was either sent to a landfill or incinerated. And according to forecasts, the problem will only get worse: the amount of electronic waste could almost double by 2030, compared to 2014. This waste contains toxic substances such as mercury, but also valuable raw materials. An estimated 57 billion dollars of gold, copper, iron and other minerals could have been extracted from electronic waste alone last year.

The Verge, Justine Calma, “Humans left behind a record amount of e-waste in 2019.”