Another innovative application of technology reported by Don Kennedy and Ryo Osuga of DigInfo.TV.

Visual SyncAR, under development by NTT, uses digital watermarking technology to display companion content on a second screen, in sync with the content being viewed on the TV.

“For example, you can show a CG character dancing in sync with an artist like this. Or a CG character can jump into the picture, and things in the picture can jump out. In this way, the system enables new forms of expression using video.”

“In this scene, you can easily see what’s happening. The system also recognizes the position of the screen that shows the video. You can watch the CG from different angles, by changing whether the screen is facing left or right.”

NTT has developed mobile video watermarking technology which can be quickly detected by a tablet or smartphone. Digital watermarks are embedded in the video sequentially as time codes. The app then reads these time codes, confirms the timing of the video being played, and displays the relevant content.

“We’re thinking of using this in several ways. For example, in a public signage video, if tourist information is being displayed, it will ordinarily be in Japanese, but if a foreigner places their tablet or smartphone near the video, information in that person’s language could be shown in sync. Or if a person with impaired hearing brings their tablet near the video, the information could appear in sign language.”

“Regarding the basic technology for this system, the mobile video watermarking, that’s very close to being practical. For example, we’re already doing field tests with terrestrial digital broadcasting, using this system to lead people from a shopping program to a shopping site. And regarding application to AR displays, we’re getting feedback at events such as this, to see what kinds of applications people want. We’d like to use this feedback to improve the technology, so we can implement actual services.”