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This bloody scene is from The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers Helm’s Deep battle. One of the first on-screen battles to use Massive, a piece of software created especially for the Lord of the Rings series, was this one. Its function is to build computerized armies that employ artificial intelligence (AI) to simulate terrifyingly large-scale real battles.
In the past, films like Star Wars transformed special effects, and companies like Pixar influenced how computers were used to make animations. The way the contemporary film industry functions has changed thanks to extensive software created by engineer Stephen Regelous. The software contributed to improving the epic battles’ visual effects, which viewers have come to anticipate on the big screen. Regelous himself received the Academy Award for Scientific and Technical Achievement for this work.
The final season of Game of Thrones and the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame both featured iconic fight scenes that Massive helped create and perfect over the past few years.

The final season of Game of Thrones and the blockbuster Avengers: Endgame both featured iconic fight scenes that Massive helped create and perfect over the past few years

Fuzzy logic – the backbone machanism

If traditional logic states that something is true or false, then fuzzy logic allows for possibilities in between. In Massive’s case, this implied that, depending on the reason that had been established to govern the interaction of figures, there would be various ways in which an Orc and an Elf could engage in combat if one of them crossed paths. There will never be a repetition of any interaction on the battlefield after the software multiplies it by thousands.
According to Regelous, using fuzzy logic offers not only specific interactions but also more usage flexibility when compared to neural networks. Typically, when people talk about artificial intelligence, they refer to neural networks or “artificial neural networks.” A simple example to comprehend is an object identification system, which necessitates the presentation of thousands of photos of various objects for the system to identify the thing. It might take months for the neural network to teach the AI characters to become more hostile, for instance, if the screen had decided that a bunch of orcs needed to be more aggressive in a scene. However, Massive enables those adjustments to be performed fast.

The future of Massive

Massive 9.0, a new software version, is anticipated to be launched with features like improved compatibility with other programs like Autodesk’s Maya. Regelous is still committed to moving Massive forward despite making hundreds of films and TV episodes and winning a few Emmys and Oscars because it has got off to a good start.

References:

How “Lord of the Rings” Used AI to Change Big-Screen Battles Forever—CNET. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2022, from https://www.cnet.com/culture/entertainment/features/how-lord-of-the-rings-used-ai-to-change-big-screen-battles-forever/

Multiple_Agent_Simulation_System_in_a_Virtual_Environment.pdf. (n.d.). Retrieved September 24, 2022, from http://people.ucalgary.ca/~far/Lectures/SENG697/PDF/tutorials/2002/Multiple_Agent_Simulation_System_in_a_Virtual_Environment.pdf

Thompson, K. M. (2006). Scale, Spectacle and Movement: Massive Software and Digital Special Effects in The Lord of The Rings (pp. 283–299). Brill. https://doi.org/10.1163/9789401201513_021

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Smart sea water-cooling system

Five meters under Exchange Square – the house of Hong Kong’s vital offices, operating a water-cooling system that pumps 26 Olympic-sized swimming pools of seawater daily to cool down the complex building above. The system consumes only 65 per cent energy required for the conventional air conditioning system. Exchange Square’s water-cooling system is only a part of Hongkong Land’s sustainability automized command center. Interestingly, the entire monitoring and management process is located on the top floor of the 52-story Two Exchange Square building, where artificial intelligence, machine learning, Internet of Things (IoT), and other advanced technology process are all concentrated in a 400 square meters room. The developers of this process managed to save 30% energy and reduce carbon emissions by 40% at the end of 2021 compared to the prior cooling system in 2008.

IoT and data analytics in power-metre systems

Green Performance Pledge is an inventive program from a HongKong commercial landlord that aims to reduce “carbon footprint” throughout the office tenancy cycle, from installations to operations. The system helps monitor energy use in different areas and appliances in the office. Exemplary practices include removing underused equipment, detecting surges in the thermostat of air conditioners, replacing LED lights, integrating motion sensors, and installing initiate smart scales under trash cans to collect recycling data. The collected data is then used to fine-tune the building design and electricity usage. After running for seven months, the program records reductions in 14% waste per employee and 51,847kg of carbon dioxide emissions, equivalent to planting 1,250 trees.

Passive Radiative Cooling Paint 

The idea comes from a group of Ph.D. students and researchers from the City University of Hong Kong who were inspired by the Saharan silver ant ’s hair structure. They Studied the mechanism of reflecting sunlight and dissipating heat passively in the ant hair structure and then incorporated the technology into a mixture of polymers and nanoparticles to develop iPaint. The cooling iPaint can reflect up to 95% solar radiation and dissipate the building’s heat into space in the form of mid-infrared radiation.

Compared to conventional white paint, iPaint, when painted on buildings’ rooftops, can produce an instant cooling effect around 4 to 7 Celsius. As stated by Martin Zhu, co-founder of I2Cool, by using one square meter of iPaint, constructors could save 120 kWh of electricity and remove 70kg of carbon dioxide emissions annually, the equivalent of planting six trees.

In brief, the three practices above exemplify how developers, landlords, and construction firms can use the latest technologies to address the environmental impact. Practically, tropical countries or countries suffering from annual heat waves may adopt these technologies in developing low-carbon-footprint cooling systems to combat the hot air.

Reference sources:

How smart tech keeps Hong Kong’s concrete jungle cool and green. (2022, September 10). South China Morning Post. https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3191988/ai-cooling-paint-how-smart-tech-helps-hong-kong-buildings-cut-cost-staying

I2Cool | HK Tech 300. (n.d.). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.cityu.edu.hk/hktech300/start-ups/stories/i2cool

Swire Properties, New World offer solutions for tenants to cut energy, water usage and reduce waste | South China Morning Post. (2022, July, 1). Retrieved September 18, 2022, from https://www.scmp.com/business/article/3183716/why-swire-properties-and-new-worlds-climate-initiatives-are-win-win-office