
Japan's Latest Rock Star Is A 3D Hologram - Draws Huge Crowds - kkleiner
http://singularityhub.com/2010/11/09/cant-miss-videos-of-japans-3d-hologram-rock-star-hatsune-miku-in-hd/
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BjornW
Wow! This reminds me of the book Idoru by Willam Gibson.

Idoru on Wikipedia: "In the post Tokyo/San Francisco earthquake world of the
early 21st century, Colin Laney is referred to agents of the aging mega-rock
star Rez (of the musical group Lo/Rez, and seemingly very much styled after
former The Smiths frontman, Morrissey) for a job using his peculiar talent of
sifting through vast amounts of mundane data to find "nodal points" of
particular relevance. Rez has claimed to want to marry a synthetic personality
named Rei Toei, the Idoru (Japanese Idol) of the title, which is apparently
impossible and therefore questioned by his loyal staff, particularly by his
head of security, Blackwell.[...]" source:
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru>

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zacharycohn
This reminds me of a short cyberpunk story. I can't remember the name/author,
but it was about a world where the next level of entertainment was essentially
generated from a brainmap of the "artist." There was a girl who was
disabled/disfigured/diseased, and she ended up becoming the biggest and most
popular artist ever due to the raw emotions she was conveying.

At the end she transfers her consciousness "to the cloud" and becomes
completely digitized.

Anyone else read this?

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srcerer
Also Gibson <http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Winter_Market>

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zacharycohn
Bingo, thanks.

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camtarn
There's a good documentary on Hatsune Miku here - it's in Japanese but with
English subtitles (click the 'CC' logo in the bottom right of the YouTube
player to turn them on): <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xBZOlipfjkQ>

I find the Hatsune Miku phenomenon somewhat amusing at the moment, given the
trend of overt Autotuning in pop music - while virtual singers' voices are
getting more realistic, real singers' voices are being manipulated to sound
impossibly accurate and digital.

It's also an interesting study in image and marketing: Crypton really pushed
the concept of associating a character with the voice, as if Vocaloids were
virtual pop stars whose services you could buy, rather than just another
virtual instrument.

~~~
moomba
I guess its the next logical step. If the pop singer doesn't write their own
song, doesn't sing their own song live, and doesn't understand the lyrics; you
might as well just use a hologram.

I never realized how frightening a life sized version of an anime character
is. Still, its an interesting phenomenon.

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joezydeco
This looks more like rear-projection video (note the starburst in the back of
the stage) or Pepper's Ghost, although the scrim is too vertically oriented to
be that.

Nothing here looks 3D, but of course these videos are very carefully shot and
enhanced from all appearances.

~~~
drinian
You're right, this is the same technology used for the Gorillaz tour a few
years back. In that case, some very talented, real musicians were hiding their
wrinkles and gray hair behind the screens.

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joelmichael
Here are some famous Miku Hatsune videos.

Po pi po (the vegetable juice one):
<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T0-2lzA7_Cg>

"Yukkuri shiteitte ne", which means "take it easy", a Japanese meme/philosophy
based on the "yukkuris": <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cHsNnDfmDs>

Disappearance of Miku Hatsune, about someone deleting the vocaloid program
from their computer: <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lN7mR_ECQjo>

It's worth noting that all of these videos and songs are completely fan-made.
There is no official representative of Miku Hatsune; that's sort of the point.
You can make her sing anything you want. She's more of a platform than a star.

There are several other vocaloid singers besides Miku. The whole thing is very
popular on the Japanese video site Nico Nico Douga.

~~~
JulianMorrison
"Love is War" is my favourite <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0dYk5Plhl9Y>

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zdw
Life imitates anime - anyone else get a Macross Plus flashback about the
concept?

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radley
Sharon Apple will happen:

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tWUb04t6_ws>

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tocomment
We can make computer controlled, real-time holographic displays now? That
seems like bigger news than a rockstar.

Isn't that the holy grail of 3D displays?

~~~
amelim
It's still just a projection onto some sort of medium.

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Timothee
I wasn't expecting an anime character, but more something like in the movie
S1m0ne (<http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0258153/>).

In that movie, the movie/pop star is computer generated but is a "real" person
and there actually is a scene with a 3D hologram of her on stage.

As someone else mentioned, though I find that to be fascinating, I'm more
interested in what they mean exactly by "3D hologram" and how it works.

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cullenking
If we are talking a "virtual" rock star, I prefer a hybrid approach, like
sushi k in snowcrash. A real, single musician writing and performing, but
using different mediums - the metaverse in snowcrash, or maybe even holograms
in real life.

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daten
I previously heard of Hatsune Miku because she did a cover of "Still Alive"
from the computer game "Portal".

<http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_12b6Om758Q>

~~~
jrockway
Wow, nice. I will never complain about the audience singing along at Jonathan
Coulton concerts again.

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whalesalad
Reminds me of Genki Rockets, which also has a "vocaloid" singer synthesized
from a couple of female singers. I first found out about this sort of think
when I was working for Henk Rogers (Tetris mogul) down in Honolulu. The office
was always full of really big names from Japan, like the guys from Square
Enix, Nintendo, etc... The guys that made Lumines II were in the office
playing some sick blu-ray footage of a Genki Rockets concert and from that
moment on I was hooked. The DJ was wearing an astronaut suit and there was a
hologram projection of Lumi singing and dancing above the crowd. So sick!

Here is a link to Genki Rockets --
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genki_Rockets>

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djtumolo
Is this really that different from Gorillaz? They are also cartoon personas
that perform music.

If it gets to the point where an artificial intelligence composes and
performs, then we will be in Gibson's Sprawl.

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camtarn
Slightly different. Gorillaz band members are usually voiced by one real
artist (although this artist can change from album to album), whereas Hatsune
Miku is one step removed - while there was a real voice actress providing the
foundation for her voice, the actual lyrics sung don't pass through any human
mouth.

The persona of Hatsune Miku also seems to have evolved a little more
organically: the style and personalities of Gorillaz are basically driven by
Damon Albarn and Jamie Hewlett; Hatsune Miku started out as an image on a
software box, but got adopted by the internet community who produce videos
based on her, with quite diverse personality and style.

As for artificial intelligence composition, Emily Howell is probably the
closest we've got at the moment:
[http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/09/virtual-
composer...](http://arstechnica.com/science/news/2009/09/virtual-composer-
makes-beautiful-musicand-stirs-controversy.ars)

~~~
djtumolo
So do they record and then playback, or is it voiced fully by computers?

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DrPhish
Fully voiced by the computer. Think of a midi keyboard that also has a
'syllable' component for each note: So for example you make her sing the
syllable 'Ka' in middle C. There are also a dozen or so other knobs that
control how it is sung at that particular point in time.

~~~
ars
So the singing is synthesized, but the band is real?

Backwards world :)

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Vivtek
I have to admit, I'm getting a little uncanny-valley vibe from that. The
movement is too crisp (they've got to be digitizing the movement of a human
dancer?) in combination with the cartoony appearance.

~~~
stcredzero
Yes. I think it would've actually worked better if the toon shading was a bit
more "toony" and the frame rate was lowered to 12. It would seem more
"magical" that way, like the mixed live/cartoon scenes in Mary Poppins.

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RodgerTheGreat
I'm reminded of NG-Resonance[1] from Deus Ex 2. Of course, in that case, it
was based on a real person.

[1]
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Invisible_War_characte...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deus_Ex:_Invisible_War_characters#NG_Resonance)

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ENOTTY
Somebody correct me if I'm wrong, but I looked into this when Hatsune Miko
made the rounds on reddit a month or so ago.

I think the technology used is done by a company called Musion.
<http://www.musion.co.uk/>

And it's based on an old visual trick called Pepper's ghost
<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pepper%27s_ghost>

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agotterer
An unrelated observation, is the layout of this site completely ripped off of
techcrunch?

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FiddlerClamp
They really missed the boat by not naming her Jem.

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najirama
That would be truly outrageous.

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locopati
I want a t-shirt that says 'Gibson FTW!'

<http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Idoru>

EDIT: Looks like BjornW and I had the same idea

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runjake
This disturbs me beyond words.

It seems like a real loss for humanity and a real gain for special interests
(although it can be argued that humans can be manipulated as easily as this
hologram for such purposes).

In any case, this isn't part of any future I'll be embracing.

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electromagnetic
So a 'performer' that doesn't write their own songs, sing their own songs or
even do their own choreography isn't already a real loss for humanity?

We elevate talentless, brainless schmucks to the pinnacle of our culture
apparently just to watch them fall from grace. How is going one step further
to an artificial performer less human? At least no one is hurt when they go on
a crack/booze/heroin/etc binge. And at least I won't have to hear of some dumb
bitch shaving her head and nigh-on abusing her kids on a daily basis.

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hasenj
Wow! Japan never ceases to amaze me.

Would be interesting if the 3d hologram can be controlled by a human in real
time.

Although that would probably suck for the self-esteem "I'm not good enough,
they put a fake anime hologram in my place".

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tomjen3
Hmm, interesting. Can't wait for the first time they have to sue a real flesh
and blood human being over the copyrights to a song by a hologram.

Still, the future its going to be awesome.

~~~
daten
I would guess that with most pop. music performers the copyright to their
songs are owned by the "Record Label" or company that signs their paycheck.

None of the money from current RIAA lawsuits goes back to the artists.

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waterlesscloud
Meanwhile American labels waste time suing people when they could be rolling
in the dough by producing American vocaloids.

I wonder which one of them will figure that out first?

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Towle_
Have the Japanese hit such an enormous creative block that they're
investigating our PBS cartoons from 1998 in hope of business plans?

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NewHighScore
I didn't know it was possible to have video 3d holograms like that! Does
anyone know where to find out more about the technology used?

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swah
If only the crowds could also be an hologram.

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cafard
I guess The Archies were ahead of their time.

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jrnkntl
'Rock'-star? That's not rock.

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perplexes
I hate the future.

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dkersten
You mean the present?

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damncabbage
The otaku subculture is getting creepier.

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astrange
By holding pop concerts? Have you seen _anything_ else they do?

