Videospace selected into Innovate UK Business Growth programme

We are delighted to announce that Videospace has been selected into the Innovate UK Business Growth programme.

The mission of this exclusive programme is to empower innovation-driven businesses, like Videospace, to grow at pace and achieve industry- and society-transforming ambitions. Our selection hinges on Innovate UK's stamp of approval for Videospace as a company with cutting-edge technology, high growth potential and significant impact.

“We are excited about being part of this programme. With assistance from Innovate UK, we will be able to identity the most effective strategy to accelerate Videospace’s growth and maximise its potential.” says Videospace CEO, Alex Chan. “Innovate UK will help us open doors to resources to deliver, from IP expertise to investor networks and international partnerships”.

We believe Innovate UK Business Growth programme will accelerate Videospace's mission of enabling everyone to "unleash the true power of video data".

Using AI to promote Singapore start-ups with Videospace

Besides naming Babbobox as one of the top start-ups for FUTURE of ENTERPRISE AI, Enterprise Singapore has adopted our Video AI platform - Videospace, to promote Singapore start-ups.

Jointly organised by Enterprise Singapore and the Monetary Authority of Singapore, Deal Fridays is a platform for dealmaking opportunities as a lead up to the Singapore FinTech Festival (SFF) x Singapore Week of Innovation and Technology (SWITCH) 2020.

Using various video AI from Videospace, the team from Deal Friday is able to reduce manual processes by 8 to 10 times, while providing benefits where only AI can provide, like deep video search.

“We are delighted to be named as one of Singapore’s top start-ups” Alex Chan, CEO of Babbobox “The bigger validation is that Enterprise Singapore recognises our value proposition and adopted Videospace . We are proud to become part of the Deal Fridays programme and eco-system in promoting Singapore’s top start-ups.”

Keep Calm and Carry on Part 3 - 360 Videos (Beta)

This COVID-19 period is proving to be one of our most innovative periods ever. Our foray into 360 Videos is our third beta in 3 months after:

• Translated Machine Speech (announced on 13 April)

• Live Transcription (announced on 12 May)

360 videos is the way to go if you want to do a virtual tour or an interactive immersive experience. 

We are delighted to announce that Videospace will be supporting 360 videos on our enterprise grade video platform. 360 videos, also known as immersive or spherical videos, are video recordings where a view in every direction is recorded at the same time. Research shows there are clear benefits of 360 degree video content:

• the unlimited possibility it gives to viewers and content creators

• encourages engagement

• over 3 times the conversion rate of traditional video content

• over 30% higher repeated view rate.

• 70% who have used 360 videos say it has increased engagement

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Need 360 content production? Fret not!

We are partnering iMMERSiVELY for cutting edge 360 video content production. iMMERSiVELY is a creative startup specialising in immersive media technologies – producing applications and solutions for businesses across various industries. From Augmented and Virtual reality content and technology development, to 360° content production and more, iMMERSiVELY harnesses these technologies to advance communication, innovation, story narratives and in education.

“We are excited about this partnership because this partnership opens up new opportunities and frontiers for both Babbobox and iMMERSiVELY.” says Babbobox CEO, Alex Chan. “Both companies believe that this partnership will only strengthen and solidify our pioneers status in the virtual and media industry”.

KEEP CALM and CARRY ON Part II - Video Live Transcription (Beta)

About a month ago, we launched our first beta (Translated Machine Speech) during this COVID-19 period. Barely a month passed, we are at it again! This time, our beta is Video Live Transcription. This is done while delivering video via live-streaming in high definition.

Hang on… you might think. Isn’t this been done before? The answer would be yes. We have probably experienced some form of live transcribing before on TV or on video conferencing platforms. BUT doing this for a live video event on a live-stream is a totally different matter.

Those who can deliver this is limited a handful of broadcasters with specialized equipment. Also, if budget is not a problem, one can even get a team of human transcribers to provide live captions. However, this also means it’s expensive and not exactly scalable. That’s the reason why we don’t see live transcribing much at all on broadcast or live-streaming.

Just ask anyone in broadcast, they would appreciate the difficulties in delivering a service like this. Getting the live transcription is one thing, but getting the live caption or subtitles in sync with the video and audio feed is a totally thing.

Providing live captions has the following benefits:

• Improves Accessibility - especially for hearing-impaired. Making your event more inclusive.

• Increases Engagement - provide better comprehension of what is said

• Improves Comprehension - longer view times and more interaction with your brand

So this is what this beta is about. It is to provide these benefits with a simple and highly affordable video live transcription service along with your live-stream.

If you this might be useful to you, please write to me! Or forward this to someone whom you think might be useful. Please note that my COVID-19 message applies. 

Stay indoors! Stay safe! Stay healthy! But most importantly, stay positive!

Yours sincerely,

Alex Chan
CEO, Babbobox

KEEP CALM and CARRY ON - Translated Machine Speech (Beta)

What a time to launch a beta! Right in the middle of a lock-down from a global pandemic. Even while we are all indoors grappling and making adjustments to the current situation, we need to live and work as normally as we can. Our team had a long chat about this and decided that we must press on, including innovation. 

The objective of this beta is rather simple - To convert a video into multiple languages using machine speech. 

Perhaps you have read my COVID-19 message a couple of weeks ago, here's the short version in Hindi (with machine speech). Or you can listen to the same message in 9 different languages HERE

The video is based on my original English version, but I have no idea how accurate it is since I don't understand Hindi. However, to improve accuracy, users can edit both the original and target language text before finalizing the audio. 

There is a story to this beta. The idea came from a client about a year ago. They needed to overcome the language barrier so to spread their message to different countries and communities. While subtitling helps, but it's just not the same as speech. We were too engaged with other work then to do anything about it, but it has always been on the back of my mind. So fast forward one year, the beta is born. 

Translated Machine Speech is available in 45 languages. Some languages are available in both male and female voices. 

We think this can solve some real world problems. It is particularly useful for global engagements, speeches, announcements, lessons, training, sermons, news, etc. But we are limited by what we know. Thus, we would love to work with some real world scenarios and shape this into something useful. 

If you can think of a scenario, please write to me! Or forward this to someone whom you think might be useful. Please note that my COVID-19 message applies. 

Stay indoors! Stay safe! Stay healthy! But most importantly, stay positive!

Yours sincerely,

Alex Chan
CEO, Babbobox

Announcement: Videospace is now a registered Trademark

We are happy to announce that Videospace is now officially a registered trademark.

“A registered trademark provides protection for both ourselves and our customers, making it an important part of running a successful service” said Alex Chan, Babbobox CEO. “This shows our pride and commitment in making Videospace a robust and reliable service for our customers.”

We would like to take this opportunity to thank everyone for your support. We look forward to many more successful engagements in the future.

Videospace is the official Video AI platform for Singapore Fintech Festival 2019 (11 - 15 Nov 2019)

We are excited that Videospace is the official Video AI platform that will be powering Singapore Fintech Festival 2019 (11 - 15 Nov 2019). This will be one of the largest Fintech event in Asia-Pacific with an expected audience of 45,000.

The annual event itself is transforming digitally by providing a AI-infused video platform (SFFxSwitch GO) where subscribers can discover fresh concepts and ideas by viewing presentations with searchable and translatable subtitles of speakers from the best of the industry.

“We are excited that Videospace is handpicked as the official Video On-Demand platform for SFF 2019.” says Alex Chan, Babbobox CEO. “We understand the importance of this event for Singapore and around the region. Thus, we are thrilled that the audience will experience SFF in a transformational way.”

We believe this will transform conference as an industry:

• Who? Especially beneficial for those who can't attend.

• How? Physically or virtually attending.

• When? During and beyond the event dates.

• What? It is impossible to attend every talk during an event, this will allow one to.

• Why? It is just a natural extension of an event like SFF.

Videospace is enabling the journey of journey of digital transformation of the conference and events industry.

Note: Videospace runs on Microsoft Azure.

ANNOUNCEMENT: Babbobox and Ricoh enter into a strategic partnership to drive Digital Transformation in Asia with Artificial Intelligence

A.I. Storage for every Enterprise

Singapore, 15 May 2019 - Babbobox announces the strategic partnership with Ricoh Asia Pacific for the official launch of AIspace (www.aispace.co, pronounced as “i”space) in Asia. This partnership is aimed at providing an innovative enterprise-grade Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) storage solution that enables digital transformation in the Asian workplace.

Enterprises know the need for digital transformation. They also know the importance of A.I. in staying competitive and being future-ready. However, many enterprises perceive A.I. to be out of reach because they think it is either too costly or have little knowledge about its benefits to them. AIspace will be challenging that perception with its mission “to make A.I. accessible to all enterprises”. 

The Babbobox and Ricoh Asia Pacific partnership is aimed at making A.I. accessible and affordable to Asian enterprises by introducing A.I. to something every enterprise need - Storage. AIspace applies numerous A.I. like Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing to digital assets (documents, images, media) that already exist within enterprises; making them discoverable with the World's First Unified Search Engine. 

AIspace’s Document AI capability allows users to automatically identify the main points of a document without the need to read the document. Using techniques from class-leading Natural Language Processing (NLP) toolkits, AIspace automatically extracts information (about people, places, events, and much more) from text documents. Imagine the time saved for enterprises that handles large volumes of documents daily. 

The biggest storage challenge for images is that you cannot search them. Current platforms that allows image search requires users to tag all images manually. AIspace is changing that by applying A.I. to automate this process where it analyzes images and return results based on thousands of recognizable objects, living beings, scenery and actions. Along with our search engine, images are indexed with tags created and made searchable automatically.

"We are excited about this partnership with Ricoh Asia Pacific," according to Alex Chan, CEO of Babbobox. "We believe that our partnership enables Ricoh customers to further extend the usage of their Ricoh Multifunctional Printers (MFP), thus creating more value. We also believe AIspace is a game-changer in this enterprise space because we are making A.I. accessible and affordable to enterprises, and thus, allowing Ricoh’s customers to reap its benefits." 

With this partnership, AIspace will be exclusively available in nine Asian countries via Ricoh Asia Pacific channel networks. These 9 countries are Australia, Hong Kong, Malaysia, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Taiwan, Thailand and Vietnam.

About Ricoh

Ricoh is empowering digital workplaces using innovative technologies and services enabling individuals to work smarter. For more than 80 years, Ricoh has been driving innovation and is a leading provider of document management solutions, IT services, commercial and industrial printing, digital cameras, and industrial systems. 

Headquartered in Tokyo, Ricoh Group operates in approximately 200 countries and regions. In the financial year ended March 2018, Ricoh Group had worldwide sales of 2,063 billion yen (approx. 19.4 billion USD).

For further information, please visit www.ricoh.com 

About Babbobox

Babbobox developed one of world's most advanced AI-infused Unified Search Engine where it combines numerous advanced technologies (Speech Recognition, Video OCR, Cognitive Services, Image Analysis, Artificial Intelligence and Enterprise Search) into a single platform. In 2017, Babbobox launched VideoSpace - the next generation of Video AI Platform. Babbobox has evolved, transformed and has become a global leader in Video Search Engine technologies by creating Four World's First. Babbobox is using these breakthroughs into their data and video platforms to enable enterprises unleash the true value of their digital assets. 

For further information, please visit www.babbobox.com

To find out more about AIspace, please contact us. 

Bringing AI Video Search to Broadcast Asia

We are super excited about bringing our A.I. Video Search to Broadcast Asia after starting out in UK, US and China in 2018. It feels so good to be home!

Babbobox CEO, Alex Chan will be talking about "The Age of AI" and how it will transform the entire broadcast and media industry with Video Search, Personalized Content and Video Big Data.

We will also be making a big announcement and showcasing it during the show! We are pretty sure it will blow you away! So do drop by and say Hi!

Video Big Data (Part 3) – From Mess to Intelligence?

The objective of Big Data is to gain Business Intelligence. Video Big Data is no different. The obvious difference is the source and the type of data that can be extracted out from videos. In there, lies the main challenges - Extraction, Transformation and Analysis.

In this instalment, we will explain why Artificial Intelligence is central to the “mess” in video big data.

In the first installment (Part 1), we explained:

• Why Video Big Data will absolutely dwarf current Big Data, and
• How Video is the most difficult medium to extract data

In the previous instalment (Part 2), we examined:

• the kind of data elements that we can extract from videos (speech, text, objects, activities, motion, faces, emotions)

But first, let’s examine why there is a mess in video data. The short explanation is because a large part of video data is unstructured data. In particular, data from speech and text. For example, text extracted from a 30 minutes news segment could cover multiple topics and events, mentioned numerous places and persons. To add to the complexities, we have to time-aligned when these words are spoken. In many ways, text (e.g. slide presentations that appear in videos) are the same.

Thus, we have to answer 2 key question:

1. How do we meet sense of ‘messy’ video data?
2. How can we extract knowledge or intelligence from that mess?

The answer lies in another form of Artificial Intelligence (A.I.) - the study of Natural Language Processing (NLP). That is because it can process and attempt to make sense of unstructured text in the following areas:

• Topic detection
• Key phrase extraction
• Sentiment analysis

The reason is because NLP can be used to turn unstructured video data into structured data. Only then can we start making sense and manipulating the data into either intelligence or actionable items like alerts, triggers, etc.

The field of Video Big Data is just starting. Without the advancement in multiple areas of Artificial Intelligence in multiple areas (Speech Recognition, Computer Vision, Facial Analysis, Text Analytics, etc.), Video Big Data wouldn’t even exist as it needs these fields to work in tandem or in sequence.

Given the rate that we are producing videos, alongside our ability to extract video data using A.I. The only way is up and we are not even close to uncovering the tip of Video Big Data iceberg.

Video Big Data will be bigger than BIG. 

VideoSpace will be right in the middle of it all. Let’s put this prediction into a time capsule and revisit it in a few years.

Microsoft recognizes Babbobox as key global partner for Media Services

We are delighted to be listed as a key Microsoft global partner for Azure Media Services on http://amslabs.azurewebsites.net/. (Please scroll down)

This is in recognition of Babbobox's pioneering Unified Search Engine and Video-Search-as-a-Service where both services are World's First. 

"We are honoured to be invited by Microsoft to be part of this exclusive club of partners." said Alex Chan, Babbobox's CEO, "Considering Babbobox is still a relatively new entrant in comparison to other partners, to be invited into this elite group shows that Microsoft recognizes the huge potential in the things that we are doing. That Babbobox is pushing the boundaries and transforming the way we search in future."

Find out more about Babbobox Search Engine.
Watch this space for more updates!

Announcement: VideoSpace to add Japanese Speech Recognition support to Video.Search and Video-Search-as-a-Service

VideoSpace is happy to announce the release of Japanese language speech recognition to its Video.Search capabilities. This release will also be added to Video-Search-as-a-Service (VSaaS). This release will increase the total number of languages supported to nine. These nine languages are:

• English
• Chinese
• Spanish
• French
• German
• Italian
• Portuguese (Brazilian)
• Arabic (Egyptian)
• Japanese

 "We are excited about this new release because this means Japanese enterprises can now benefit from VideoSpace's unique value proposition" says Babbobox CEO, Alex Chan. "Search is a fundamental need for humankind. Adding a new language means making more native knowledge discoverable via our Video Search. This explains our excitement every time a new language is added"

Japanese language support on VideoSpace is now available! For further enquiries, please write to contact us. 

ANNOUNCEMENT: VideoSpace to launch Video Translation service with 50+ supported languages

There are many translation services out there. Some of the best are even free. However, they are all text-to-text translation. However, what we offer is Video-to-Text translation service. 

In other words, what makes our Video Translation service unique is that we can take your video, machine-transcribe speech-to-text and then translate it to over 50+ languages. After which, we are able to use these translated text for Video Subtitles (Caption) in Multiple Languages.

Our Video.Translation Engine allows publishers to add subtitles in up to 50+ language to their web video delivering a rich contextual multimedia experience. We also allow your viewer to choose which  subtitle language to watch content directly from the video.

Video.Translation is ideal for:
- foreign language viewers and users who prefer to watch your videos without sound.
- enabling your content to reach for hard of hearing and the deaf community with the ability of subtitled content. 

"We are excited about this new development and service." said Alex Chan, Babbobox CEO "We believe that our Video.Translation service will deliver the cutting edge for VideoSpace. Most importantly, delivering value to clients whom may not be able to afford traditional professional services fees."