Market Newsdesk

LOS ANGELES, Calif., Nov. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Today, Digital Domain announces “Douglas,” the most realistic real-time autonomous digital human in the world. Currently in development, Douglas was designed to break down the barriers in human-to-machine interactions, yielding conversations that feel natural and easy. With unmatched facial realism, Douglas is chameleon-like in its ability to switch faces, providing future customers with even more flexibility when it hits the market in 2021.

“Everywhere you look you see virtual assistants, chatbots and other forms of AI-based communication interacting with people,” said Darren Hendler, director of Digital Humans Group at Digital Domain. “As companies decide to expand past voice-only interactions, there’s going to be a real need for photorealistic humans that behave in the ways we expect them to. That’s where Douglas comes in.”

Douglas uses numerous types of machine learning and Digital Domain R&D to reproduce the most common mannerisms people expect to see in a lifelike digital human. By focusing on language processing, expressions, vision tracking and more, Douglas can do everything from leading conversations to remembering people. And because Douglas’ response rate is currently the same as Alexa and Siri, these conversations have a natural flow, removing the long pauses that slow other autonomous digital humans down.

While perfect for any project that requires facial realism, Douglas will be especially helpful to companies who need an avatar to answer questions or help customers with repetitive tasks. The current version can already connect to any chatbot or assistant system, bringing a friendly face and an emotionally intelligent response to real-time interactions. Once finished, this technology can be easily deployed online, in meeting platforms or in kiosks around the globe.

Douglas is the latest technology built off the likeness of Senior Director of Software R&D, Dr. Doug Roble, which has already led to several advancements in both real-time digital humans and AI facial capture. By comparing Douglas to the real-life Roble, Digital Domain has been able to advance the realism of their design as they prepare the technology for wider use.

To create Douglas, Roble submitted to over a hundred hours of performance capture, including a live book reading that logged his voice and expressions. A neural rendering tool was also trained by taking photos of Roble in a variety of lighting conditions. From this data, the tool can now deliver levels of realism that would have been impossible to achieve before with traditional techniques, including replicating the mannerisms of another person with only few expressions. In recent months, the team has begun swapping out faces and trying on new voices, an edit that only requires 30 minutes of audio or 10 minutes of video.

“Douglas has introduced a level of realism unseen before in the autonomous human world, even before it comes to market,” said Daniel Seah, chief executive officer of Digital Domain. “As Digital Domain continues to expand our R&D into facial capture and autonomous behavior, we’ll be able to extend these innovations out to consumers and tech partners who are looking to enhance virtual human capabilities beyond simple voice recognition applications.”

Digital Domain is scheduling demos now and is interested in all opportunities around Douglas including investments, partnerships and client work. To schedule a call (or talk to Douglas), please contact: [email protected].

To see Douglas in action, click here.

About Digital Domain
Digital Domain creates transportive experiences that entertain, inform and inspire. Throughout the last quarter of a century, the studio has grown to lead the visual effects industry, expanding globally into digital humans, virtual production, previsualization and virtual reality, and adding commercials, game cinematics and episodics to the robust film roster. Digital Domain’s rich legacy consists of hundreds of blockbuster feature films for every major studio and thousands of commercials, music videos, game cinematics and digital content by world-renowned directors and brands.

A creative force in visual effects and premium content, Digital Domain have brought artistry and technology to films including Titanic, The Curious Case of Benjamin Button and blockbusters Ready Player One, Avengers: Infinity War and Avengers: Endgame. Staff artists have won more than 100 major awards, including Academy Awards, Clios, BAFTA awards and Cannes Lions.

Digital Domain has successfully become the first independent visual effects studio to enter Greater China. In 2018, Digital Domain acquired one of China’s VR hardware equipment pioneers and leaders – VR Technology Holdings Ltd, Shenzhen（“3Glasses”).

Digital Domain has locations in Los Angeles, Vancouver, Montreal, Beijing, Shanghai, Shenzhen, Hong Kong, Taipei and Hyderabad. Digital Domain Holdings Limited is listed on the Hong Kong Stock Exchange (stock code: 547).

Digital Domain: www.digitaldomain.com

Attachment

• DHG_dougLaptop_v001 (1)

Boston, Nov. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Three in four dentists who are using telehealth anticipate a steady or increased reliance on the technology over the coming months as they continue to navigate the COVID-19 crisis and resume routine care, according to a new report by the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement. 

The report, based on an August survey of nearly 2,800 dental providers across 20 states, found that nearly a quarter (23%) of dental providers are seeing patients via telehealth or virtual platforms. Additionally, 11% of providers who are not currently utilizing telehealth for patient care have plans to use it in the near future. This utilization rate is consistent with the 27% of providers who were seeing patients via telehealth in June when dental offices were largely limited to providing urgent and non-elective services, showing significant promise for the longevity of telehealth in dentistry.

“The numerous challenges that the COVID-19 pandemic has brought to providers and the oral health community has created a real opportunity for a new path forward in dentistry,” said Dr. Sean Boynes, vice president of health improvement at the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement. “Now is the time for innovation, to create a new model of oral health care, one that will be cost-effective, efficient and more equitable for all. What we’re seeing is that telehealth adoption and application is fast becoming a key tool for dentists to provide care that enhances disease prevention and whole-person health.”

Telehealth—primarily done through phone calls and virtual video meeting software—has been used to provide a wide variety of dental services, including COVID-19 symptom screenings, mouth/teeth examinations, referrals, patient triage, pain management and oral hygiene instruction. Survey findings suggest that while dental providers are primarily using telehealth for prescribing medication and triaging patients, there is a significant opportunity to expand its use for more preventive services.

Among providers, the report found that those in public health settings used telehealth the most, along with those in states like Pennsylvania, Washington, Florida, Kentucky and Arizona — likely as a result of favorable payment and coverage policies in those states. Additionally, providers who are not seeing their patient volume return to near-normal levels, serve primarily Medicaid patients and anticipate long-term changes in dentistry were more likely to embrace telehealth. In fact, dentists with more than half of patients enrolled in Medicaid were 39% more likely to use telehealth platforms.

As a result of telehealth utilization, providers are finding increasing opportunities for financial sustainability. According to the report, telehealth users are 34% more likely to be familiar with alternative payment models (APMs) and 45% more likely to have an increased interest in learning about APMs. As the oral health industry begins to embrace value-based care and shift toward APMs, telehealth can provide additional revenue while enhancing dental care access for current and new patients. Furthermore, it can offer cost-savings by providing access to primary and preventive care and keeping patients out of emergency departments for non-emergency dental needs.

As growth in telehealth utilization continues in oral health, permanent policy changes are vital for the widespread adoption of telehealth-enabled preventive services, minimally invasive care and care coordination. Providers and state policymakers should act now to ensure that policies permit members of the dental workforce to deliver telehealth services, as well as update reimbursement policies so that both public and private insurers cover remote provider-patient interactions through live video or store-and-forward mechanisms.

“Telehealth brings a wide range of benefits to the future of oral health care. It is key to expanding value-based care in our communities and improving outcomes for both oral health and overall health,” said Dr. Myechia Minter-Jordan, president and CEO of the DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement and Catalyst Institute, Inc. “As we continue to leverage telehealth as a short-term solution for the pandemic, we must ensure its longevity to make it part of the dental ecosystem moving forward. That means taking the necessary steps right now to remove barriers that may prevent the widespread adoption or utilization of telehealth in the future.”

Read the full report here.

The DentaQuest Partnership for Oral Health Advancement is a nonprofit organization working to transform the broken health care system and enable better health through oral health. Through strategic grantmaking, research and care improvement initiatives, we drive meaningful change at the local, state and national levels. The DentaQuest Partnership is affiliated with DentaQuest, a leading U.S. oral health enterprise with a mission to improve the oral health of all. Find out more at www.dentaquestpartnership.org.

Attachments

• telehealth-encounter-volume_1200x683
• telehealth-by-state_1200x683

NEW YORK, Nov. 19, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — Pawar Law Group announces that a class action lawsuit has been filed on behalf of shareholders who purchased shares of Innate Pharma S.A. (NASDAQ: IPHA) from March 10, 2020 through September 8, 2020, inclusive (the “Class Period”). The lawsuit seeks to recover damages for Innate Pharma S.A. investors under the federal securities laws.

To join the class action, go here or call Vik Pawar, Esq. toll-free at 888-589-9804 or email [email protected] for information on the class action.

According to the lawsuit, defendants throughout the Class Period made false and/or misleading statements and/or failed to disclose that: (1) Innate touted the results of their various Phase 2 trials as being within expectations; (2) Innate continued to reassure investors that they were eligible for the $100 million payment upon first dosing of Phase 3 trials; (3) Innate failed to timely disclose their renegotiations with AstraZeneca to split the $100 million payment into two $50 million payments, to be partially contingent on performance during the Phase 3 trials; and (4) as a result, Defendants’ statements about its business, operations, and prospects, were materially false and misleading and/or lacked a reasonable basis at all relevant times.

If you wish to serve as lead plaintiff, you must move the Court no later than December 22, 2020. A lead plaintiff is a representative party acting on behalf of other class members in directing the litigation.

No class has been certified. Until a class is certified, you are not represented by counsel unless you hire one. You may hire counsel of your choice. You may also do nothing at this time and be an absent member of the class. Your ability to share in any future recovery is not dependent upon being a lead plaintiff.

Pawar Law Group represents investors from around the world. Attorney advertising. Prior results do not guarantee or predict a similar outcome with respect to any future matter.
——————————-

Contact:  
Vik Pawar, Esq.  
Pawar Law Group  
20 Vesey Street, Suite 1410  
New York, NY 10007  
Tel: (917) 261-2277  
Fax: (212) 571-0938  
[email protected]