Thinking Pictures
Encyclopedia
Thinking Pictures is an American
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...

 multinational corporation
Multinational corporation
A multi national corporation or enterprise , is a corporation or an enterprise that manages production or delivers services in more than one country. It can also be referred to as an international corporation...

 specializing in software
Software industry
The software industry includes businesses involved in the development, maintenance and publication of computer software using any business model...

, media, and consulting. It was founded in 1993 by Stephan Fitch and Olivier Pfeiffer. Thinking Pictures has introduced a number of innovations in the fields of Internet
Internet
The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the standard Internet protocol suite to serve billions of users worldwide...

 technology, interactivity
Interactivity
In the fields of information science, communication, and industrial design, there is debate over the meaning of interactivity. In the "contingency view" of interactivity, there are three levels:...

, and digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

.

History

After its foundation in 1993, Thinking Pictures established partnerships with the media industry. One of its first large projects was an Internet broadcast of a Rolling Stones concert. 20 minutes of video were broadcast at 10 frames per second, utilizing the Mbone
Mbone
Mbone was an experimental backbone for IP multicast traffic across the Internet developed in the early 1990s. It required specialized hardware and software...

. This was the first time a major artist had broadcast a live concert over the Internet, paving the way for modern webcasting. Thinking Pictures was a finalist for the first annual 1995 NII Awards
NII Awards
The NII Awards was an international awards program designed to recognize excellence and innovation in use of the Internet. The National Information Infrastructure Awards program, later known as the Global Information Infrastructure Awards, was a non-partisan, private-sector initiative made...

 in the category of Arts and Entertainment for this event. Thinking Pictures continued to broadcast concerts by other recording artists, including Tori Amos
Tori Amos
Tori Amos is an American pianist, singer-songwriter and composer. She was at the forefront of a number of female singer-songwriters in the early 1990s and was noteworthy early in her career as one of the few alternative rock performers to use a piano as her primary instrument...

 and Duncan Sheik
Duncan Sheik
Duncan Scott Sheik is an American singer-songwriter and composer. Sheik initially found success as a singer, most notably for his 1996 debut single "Barely Breathing". He later expanded his work to include compositions for motion pictures and the Broadway stage, leading him to involvement in the...

.

In 1995, Thinking Pictures launched rock.com, which used a proprietary webcasting technology to provide on-demand music videos. The site was one of the first to integrate web-based media, e-commerce, and social networking.

In 1996, Thinking Pictures partnered with Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group
Universal Music Group is an American music group, the largest of the "big four" record companies by its commanding market share and its multitude of global operations...

 to develop a digital content description language. This was integrated into the Universal Media Player interface, also developed by Thinking Pictures and licensed to UMG, and distributed on over 1 billion music compact discs between 1998 and 2005. This was a major innovation in digital rights management
Digital rights management
Digital rights management is a class of access control technologies that are used by hardware manufacturers, publishers, copyright holders and individuals with the intent to limit the use of digital content and devices after sale. DRM is any technology that inhibits uses of digital content that...

, providing a way for artists to include electronic press kits (EPKs) or other information on CDs. Thinking Pictures continued to develop the UMP as a platform-independent device which could make DRM more widely available within the music industry.

Thinking Pictures founder Stephan Fitch also founded Squib International in 1999, gaining a patent for wearable video. Fitch partnered with MSN
MSN
MSN is a collection of Internet sites and services provided by Microsoft. The Microsoft Network debuted as an online service and Internet service provider on August 24, 1995, to coincide with the release of the Windows 95 operating system.The range of services offered by MSN has changed since its...

, which featured the new technology at a conference in May 2000.

In 2000, Thinking Pictures partnered with a number of national movie theater
Movie theater
A movie theater, cinema, movie house, picture theater, film theater is a venue, usually a building, for viewing motion pictures ....

 chains to produce interactive displays for theater lobbies. The ThinkPix Smart Displays are capable of showing full-motion video. They also integrate cameras to report on the performance of trailers and posters shown on the display. The Smart Displays are also capable of interacting with viewers; planned future upgrades include the ability to read smart cards provided to moviegoers by theaters, tailoring trailers and other content to the preferences of individual moviegoers.

Around this time, Thinking Pictures also began developing the proprietary Interactive Visual Content Architecture (IVCA). The technology is intended to use information about audiences and feedback from sensors during a film screening to alter the film, giving each audience a tailored narrative and increasing satisfaction with the experience.

Recent company developments

Thinking Pictures is currently collaborating with The New York Times on a network of digital newsracks, called the Timestation Digital Newsracks. The Timestation devices display random samples of a newspaper’s content and allow users to manage their online subscriptions. About 50 Timestations are deployed, mostly in New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...

. The Wall Street Journal is also experimenting with the technology.
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