5G Lets Horror Movies Watch And React To You

Do you remember that last time a horror movie scared you to death? Take that moment and all the suspense which led to it. Now imagine that horror movie is adjusted for you, changing its story based on your attention level, making you put your guards down before suddenly throwing a horrifying bomb.

In case being scared is not your favorite sort of fun, think about a romance film pausing when you roll your eyes, or changing the character’s eyes color closer to yours to make the story more relatable to you.

That’s what 5G can do.

When thinking of 5G, most people think of a high-bandwidth and ultra-fast connection allowing a bunch of shows to be downloaded within minutes. However, 5G goes way further than that, it may present you to a whole new way of watching videos as well as pose some privacy risks.

In an interview this month, Dan Garraway, co-founder of Wirewax interactive video company, said that at present, videos are made in the same way as for TV. But things change when you make your video into a conversation between the video itself and your audience. You audience touch and interact inside the video and make things happen accordingly.

Videos will have interactive layers, analyze your emotions which are captured with your phone’s front-facing camera and change what you’re watching in real time. As far-fetched as it may seem, one of 5G’s main feature is ultra-responsive connection without any lag, which means the network and systems will be so fast that they can react to your physical responses.

5G, with the first compatible smartphones to launch next year, is on the cusp of reality. Although these media forms haven’t even appeared yet, the potential is vast. As forecasted by Ovum and Intel, 5G is likely to make an annual revenue up to $67 billion with ten years. 5G is expected to increase the value of mobile media market by over three times, which then may reach $420 billion in 2028.

Generational leap

Before using 5G, let’s recall how the last mobile connectivity boom, from 3G to 4G LTE, changed the way we consume videos. We can watch and upload videos on Youtube with our mobile devices, reimagining how we watch TV and the sorts of programming that are big business. Ten years ago, after two years of transiting from DVD mailings to streaming, Netflix made an annual revenue of $1.4 billion. This year, the number jumped over 10 times, $15.806 billion.

The widespread availability of 4G resulted in a huge improvement of video distribution. Now with 5G, new forms of video media can be delivered into a mobile device, according to Jim Spare, Eko interactive video company’s COO.

The potential of 5G in videos results from some big changes to video distribution and creation. The biggest of which is that 5G has love latency – the lag time between the moment you call up a page and the time the network responds. 4G has a lag time of 20 milliseconds, 5G can minimize this number to as small as 1 millisecond.

5G can also handle huge amounts of data more effectively. According to Sandvine, video is now among the heaviest data online, which makes up nearly 58 percent of the downstream traffic on the Internet this year.

Not only does 5G lighten that load, it can also deliver new access to videos.

One application to mention is like DVD extras on steroids. For example, Jurassic World with hundreds of digital asset which was never used to the end of the movie. There are crane rigs that swept shots across the park with 360-degree cameras attached underneath. Yet, as noted by Garraway, little of those assets were seen.

Garraway explained that an interactive movie allows you to relive that footage in the time you’re watching, switching cameras on the fly. 5G has the speed and capacity that allow creating video sin real time based on how you respond. Since films and shows are generated from computers, character become malleable.

Taking your cues

Now some homes has already had fats internet already, so how come these types of media aren’t happening? The difference lies in the mobile phone and how much better it is in collecting information. You need a phone with touch screen, mics, cameras, gyroscope and GPS that you can take anywhere. That makes it easier to get intel about what you want, where you are and what you're doing.

So, when Claire Underwood says to the camera in the film House of Cards, you can reply to her and get responded.

The mobility of 5G can take video experiences to new places. As an example, Spare cited from Minority Report, enter a Gap retail store and get greeted with name. Moreover, the store could generate a 3D video staff for your phone – a pseudo-hologram help you find what you need. With 5G’s ability of making virtual and augmented more accessible, you can see how an outfit looks on you without trying it on.

The craziest, maybe creepiest thing is that 5G allows videos to react to your cues and data that are unconsciously provided. A show can mimic the time of day or weather closer to real-life atmosphere.

For all the strikingly impressive possibilities, 5G poses a tangle of questions on privacy. 5G can take advantage of every single piece of information that a phone can see with its front and back cameras in real time. This capability paves the way for automatic video interaction.

Yet, it also poses a potential privacy nightmare.

With a recognition of these technologies, Garraway advocate for in-the-moment disclosure. Garraway explained his opinion, if you’re watching an interactive movie, and it’s reacting to your emotions, it had better inform you when it’ll start doing that instead of asking at the beginning when you have no idea what it means.

However, the potential profit of billions of dollars has already evoked companies to compromise their privacy terms.

Does this make you feel like a personalized horror show for your own is already by your neck?