USA Today – 5 awesome tech takeaways from SXSW 2016

Dan Ferguson

May 3

USA Today - 5 awesome tech takeaways from SXSW 2016

Fusing the arts with emerging technology, the 23rd annual South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive Festival has just wrapped up in Austin, Texas.

Featuring multiple panels, seminars, exhibitors and meet-ups over five days, topics ranged from high-tech movie making and coding games to robotics and artificial intelligence to more practical themes such as how start-ups can secure funding, "MedTech" and "FinTech" (financial technology) solutions.

And, yes, I took advantage of silly photo ops, too, such as posing with Grumpy Cat, a woman riding a unicorn or an enormous TIE Fighter spacecraft from Star Wars. Welcome to Austin.

What was most impressive? The following are five technologies, products and services that caught my eye at SXSW Interactive.

Here, here

Winner of the coveted Best of Show nod at the SXSW Interactive Innovation Awards, Doppler Labs' Here Active Listening System is a pair of wireless earbuds and an app that let you personalize how you hear sound around you. Whether it's adding more bass at a concert or blocking out a crying baby in the seat behind you, you're in control of the equalizer settings of your environment via the pre-set filters available on the app. Along with the 5-band EQ, the successful Kickstarter project also lets you adjust volume to your surroundings and play around with fun effects to alter incoming sounds in real-time, too (such as adding reverb, flange, or a vinyl crackle filter). While the official launch date hasn't been confirmed, you can join the waitlist for the Here Active Listening System, for $199, which includes a carrying case that holds two additional battery charges.

Interactive tabletop

Generating buzz at SXSW was Sony's Future Lab, a newly announced research and development initiative that emphasizes an "open creative environment and direct lines of communication with society, through which it aims to co-create new lifestyles and user value in the future," says Sony Corp. One of the more impressive prototypes was an "Interactive Tabletop," a special top-down holographic-like projector that uses augmented reality, gesture sensors, and motion tracking; it superimposes digital information on top of the real world – and lets you manipulate the content, too. One demo involved Lewis Carroll's classic book Alice in Wonderland, with animated images that sprung to life off the pages, and can be dragged with a fingertip from the book to the table or other objects like a teacup or deck of playing cards. No word on if and when the Interactive Tabletop would be available commercially.

Follow me

Awarded for the "coolest scientific achievement or discovery that before 2015 was only possible in science fiction" – yes, that's the official distinction by SXSW – the Lily Camera is dubbed the world's first true flying camera. This small black drone with 1080p HD camera and microphone can be thrown in the air and it'll follow you to record your outdoor adventures, via a wrist-mounted tracker, and it'll fly itself and use GPS and computer vision to keep its eye on you. Out this summer but available now for preorder, this $899 "throw-and-shoot camera" can fly up to 25 miles per hour, as far as 100 feet away from its tracker. Flight time averages 20 minutes, and takes 2 hours to fully recharge before your next outing.

Small talk

Capital One and Amazon chose SXSW to announce a first-of-its-kind feature tied to Alexa-enabled devices, such as Amazon Echo, Amazon Tap, Echo Dot, and Fire TV. Available now, customers can use their voice to get real-time information or conduct transactions tied to their bank accounts and credit cards. For example, while your hands may be busy cooking or cleaning in the kitchen you can say "Alexa, when is my credit card payment due?," "Alexa, pay my credit card bill," or "Alexa, ask Capital One for recent transactions on my credit card." Whether you opt for a verbal personal key (PIN code) or not, Capital One is the first company to let you interact with your financial information through Alexa-powered devices.

Happy meals go VR

Virtual reality was, er, virtually everywhere at SXSW, and with many mainstream brands, such as Gatorade to Gillette, embracing the technology to provide immersive experiences for festival goers. Right across from the Austin Convention Center was the McDonald's Loft, a popular hangout with a fun VR element: Guests donned a pair of HTC Vive glasses, dual controllers and headphones, and were transported into a giant Happy Meal. Participants were then encouraged to walk inside of the box and customize it with virtual paint brushes, lasers, and colorful balloons (bonus points for zapping butterflies). Created by Groove Jones using Epic's Unreal Engine, the VR Happy Meal environment measures 15 feet by 15 feet in scale. A printed photo print of our virtual artwork was handed to us after the experience, as well as the option for an emailed or texted GIF video. Truthfully, I was lovin' it.

Original USA Today Article - https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/saltzman/2016/03/19/5-awesome-tech-takeaways-sxsw-interactive/81916428/