Enjoy Zaafirah > Ideas > Interactive Multicultural Media System Concept
This article was originally written by Ismaila Ikani Sule in March 2010 (withdrawn UK patent application number GB1004067.3). Acknowledgement also goes to Professor Hamid Arabnia and Chul Woo Lim at the University of Georgia, USA, for their assistance in reviewing the article and sourcing out similar research projects for further study (see videos 2 and 3 below).
| Introduction
This concept deals with the multicultural consumption of entertainment content, movies in particular. The entire movie content is literally translated in terms of the visual elements and audio content in ways to match the cultural tastes of the individual consumer. Movie-makers can produce one version of movie which can be modified by the invention to match cultural differences amongst viewers around the globe. Someone in Tanzania or Thailand watching a Hollywood movie would be able to not just add subtitles interpreting what the actors are saying or playback audio in the person's native language, but actually 'translate' the entire movie – the actors' attires, choice of words in English or another chosen language and even automatically focus out of unwanted scenes based on preset options.
Background of the Concept When we watch movies on media like DVDs, Blu-ray disks and others we have several features included to make the experience more interactive and entertaining. We can view special features, select preset languages or add subtitles. Online video sites like also provide us with similar features. However these features on their own do little to actually enrich the actual content we're viewing our listening to according to our own particular cultural tastes and needs. Someone in the UK may have different tastes in content to someone, say, in Egypt. In a world made up of a variety of cultures affecting the way in which users consume the content being offered to them, providing more choice and freedom gives the product (i.e. the movie) a wider market audience. The issue of matching video and audio content to suit the different tastes of audiences, particularly when it comes to different cultural backgrounds, has been quite tricky for the movie industry worldwide. Several approaches have been adopted:
The challenge would be to have movie makers and actors do and say whatever they want in the movie
then have movie viewers see and hear only the things they want to see and hear. Consumer Choice Movie audiences would be able to select how they wish to enjoy them. The viewer can alter the shape of an actor’s clothes into any other desired shape or fashion, for example a shirt into a kimono while maintaining the original texture and design patterns. Audiences wanting action-packed content only without all the kissing scenes, do not hit the fast-forward button, but just keep watching while the media system automatically detects two heads about to kiss and zooms in on something else on another part of the screen. Squeamish viewers avoid gory scenes, by having the system automatically move displayed images away to other safe images within the same scenes. Remain in the same scenes and view what you're comfortable with even if it means using your imagination to guess what you're not seeing (no need to close your eyes, turn your head or run out of the room in fear). Explicit viewers watch and listen to the language they're used to, non-explicit audiences have the system simply replace words matching the tones and audio quality to make everything flow as normally as possible. No irritating beeps, the 'F' word could become 'food' or 'disease' depending on whichever word the viewer opts to use. How about even watching the latest movie but having all the characters dressed up in clothes from the 1920s complete with the slangs and monochrome effects? Commercial Value Developers could share their themes or settings (clothes/audio effects) which can be added to give movie viewing even more variety and taste – not just say for example, clothes and items from anime or the gaming world, but actual professional works of fashion from designers and aspiring artistes. These could be shared over the web or mobile devices. Movie-makers and actors can ask for royalties for such use of their material generating more revenue. How It Would Work First, the entire length of a movie would is mapped out frame by frame identifying objects like the characters and their body structures, their postures, movement and clothing and other items in their surroundings. This information is captured digitally using animated, basic 3D geometric shapes overlayed on the movie images. Structural points are dotted out on the images and corresponding coordinates subsequently stored as metadata to be used by the media system. These points help determine the various shapes and angles to which clothes can be stretched and fashioned out. Objects overlaying each other, exposed skin as well as other covering like hair, sheets or leaves are also identified within the collected data to distinguish them from the clothing worn by actors. Metadata identifying objects like clothing, skin, blood, body postures and movement and so on are set and stored as files along with movie's digital content either on the storage medium such as disks or during TV or online Internet-based broadcasts. The metadata files associated with the movie would provide the particular skeletal framework to be used by a programme or software on the multimedia system for adding user viewing/audio options and themes to that movie. When the system receives movie and associated files from the medium, the metadata files provide the specifications and dimensions (shapes, colours, angles, tones, motions, moods, sounds, etc.) related to characters, clothing, objects and dialogue which can be modified. The system has a default setting featuring options common to all users. Preset options, themes and choices are available to system users as well as the means of them developing and adding their own desired themes, features and options. More can be shared and downloaded over the Internet. To alter clothing in the movie – the system communicates with the metadata file to identify each actor or character's clothing, shape and motions; using this information the system digitally 'stretch' and alter actors' clothes and their textile patterns, pixel by pixel, into preset shape themes or to new user customised ones; the finished output is displayed to the viewer. To alter audio or move the users' view of sections of selected scenes, the system again matches metadata information with the themes and choices available. Similar Research Projects [1] Engadget - Kinect lightsaber, and other inevitable milestones for the open-source robot eye (video, 2010) [2] MovieReshape: Tracking and Reshaping of Humans in Videos (2010) [3] Xiaolin Wei - VideoMocap: Modeling Physically Realistic Human Motion from Monocular Video Sequences (2010) |
