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What is The Key to Immersive Game Design?
development game development vr
In an attempt to make a best-selling game, many studios put their focus on a pitch – some key aspect of the project that users will be awed and amazed by. Too often, they focus on things like story, graphics, gorgeous animations, and the like. To be fair, all of these things are important and can "make or break" a game, but many studios overlook immersive tech and the spectacular features it can add to a title. We are here to give you the full picture of immersive game design and how it factors into full-cycle game development.
What is Immersive Game Design?
From a technical standpoint, immersive games are those built using immersive technologies like AR and VR. They take the first-person principle of games to another level and use the physical surroundings of a user as the backdrop for the game, or completely replace the physical world with a digital one, covering most of a user's senses.
Of course, you could also make the argument that immersion is a characteristic present in games on other platforms (PC, console, etc.) and simply means how well a game captivates and interests players. This is true, but this article will mostly examine games that are immersive from a tech standpoint.
Making immersive games for augmented and virtual reality comes with a broad set of challenges, and we hope this guide will make the process smoother for any company that chooses this path.
What Makes a Video Game Immersive?
When designing a game, there are multiple considerations you should make to ensure that it fits on the intended platform and keeps users entertained, engages, and playing it for a long time:
Graphic immersion
AR and VR offer unique graphic capabilities that other platforms cannot match. For example, graphic immersion with AR is created by utilizing a device camera and scanning the user's surroundings. Even after digital models and objects are added to these visuals, the player still feels like they are standing somewhere familiar in the game. With VR, immersive graphics are delivered with a headset that replaces the user's field of view, allowing them to only see a virtual world around themselves.
Audio immersion
Sounds and music can be used to great effect to make the player experience more realistic and captivating. For example, music is great for creating an atmosphere, evoking emotion, and setting the player in a particular mindset as they advance. Similarly, sounds can create emotional reactions (e.g. fear, shock, relief) as well as tell the player more about the world. For example, the sound of a twig snapping can be made loud or quiet to give the player a sense that they are being stalked by something nearby/far away.
Great storytelling can compensate for many lacking aspects of a game or substantially strengthen them if they are already good. In this day and age, it is getting increasingly harder to come up with unique and unprecedented story ideas, but the rewards are worth it. Players are drawn to rich and expansive worlds, compelling and fallible characters, and stories that involve plenty of twists and turns. Delivering on these aspects while maintaining a cohesive narrative greatly improves the odds of a project succeeding and creating a buzz.
Though most games do not feature motion-captured actors or recorded camera clips, you can still make characters much more real with good voice acting. Reading text dialogs simply doesn't have the same effect as hearing someone speak, words filled with emotion and intent. This effect will also carry over into the world, adding to its realism and immersion.
Top Practices for Immersive Game Level Design
Beyond making the levels of your project functional, you should try to play to the strengths of the technology while keeping an eye on overall interest and engagement from the user. Some helpful tips in this regard include:
Take preparation seriously
If you come up with an interesting new mechanic halfway through development, it may already be too late to implement it based on the current physics and mechanics of your game. That is why we recommend creating a game design document prior to development that lists all the goals you plan to implement and the strategy for doing so.
Set clear objectives and rewards for players
In the minds of players, structure is important. For example, in a fight-driven game, they expect to encounter foes that get progressively harder, and boss fights that culminate in the final boss. Even if your game has another genre, you should always make the player feel like what they are doing is leading up to something and they are not wandering around aimlessly. In addition to that, they can be kept motivated through rewards (e.g. more powerful weapons) that will have a positive impact on their further gameplay.
Leave room for breaks
There is nothing wrong with providing plenty of action and keeping the player on a straight and narrow narrative path, but going through the same mechanics for a long time can be mind-numbing. That is why many games benefit from interludes and pauses – times when the action dies down and the player has time to explore the world, look for new items, perhaps interact with minor characters. This adds some variety to gameplay and lets people relax before they move on to more complex tasks demanding their full attention.
Create a realistic user POV
Point of view is extremely important for captivating players and making them feel like they are inside the game. Obviously, third-person view is not optimal, since it only looks like you are controlling a character, but first-person lets you see through the main character's eyes. If you do choose first-person, you can improve engagement by adding plenty of detail and realism. It is small things (like how shadows fall and water moves) that convince our minds that what we are seeing is real.
Add plenty of maps and scenery
Certainly, adding dozens of maps may not feasible for a project built under tight timelines, but we recommend adding as much scenery and unique play areas as possible. Even when the user is applying the same mechanics that they have for the past several hours, the new scenery will keep the experience fresh and interesting. Of course, you also don't want to go overboard with the maps and bore the player with repetition.
Don't forget fun tidbits
We are referring to easter eggs, puzzles, and fun bonuses that surprise a player and put a smile on their face. Just when they think they know what to expect in the next room, they find something unexpected that they can enjoy and maybe tell their friends about. Building these little bonuses should not take much time, but this extra mile will surely be appreciated by players.
Are Immersion Strategies Different in VR and AR?
While augmented and virtual reality both fall in the category of xR (extended reality) technology, the differences in the mechanics they offer to users are vast. Accordingly, the design process for each technology should prioritize different things. Let's take a look at the key differences:
AR Design VR Design
Player location AR games can be enjoyed anywhere and benefit from high user mobility. Additionally, the software can be built to take advantage of location services and visual markers, so players can move around (outside or inside) and scan real-world objects to get the full game experience. VR games are not meant to be played everywhere, and require that the user stand (or sit) in a spot with a relatively small radius. Most VR headsets also require an electric socket to work, so the software should be designed with the assumption that the user will play in just one spot and not move around much.
Movement and interactions Movement in AR apps can be divided into two categories: 1) gestures on the screen of the mobile device (taps, swipes, etc.) and 2) gestures that the device camera captures. As a rule, tracking movement with a camera and incorporating it into gameplay is a much better immersive tactic. VR software registers movement through changes in headset orientation and special controllers (in some cases, gloves). This equipment provides a much more realistic and advanced tracking system than AR, and allows you to implement more complex and realistic mechanics (e.g. holding a rifle and pulling the trigger, using a three-finger gesture, etc.).
Play Time While designing for AR, you have to keep in mind that most users will access the software through their smartphone, and likely during short breaks when they have free time. Thus, it is recommended to make most game interactions short (within the span of a few minutes). There is a certain amount of preparation needed to enjoy a VR experience, so most layers that fire up a game like this will be able to dedicate substantial time to the experience. Thus, you can easily design levels and objectives that take hours to complete.
Collaboration Augmented reality allows for the provision of several variants of multiplayer. For example, the application can be designed for 2 or more players to play on a single device. As another option, users can each play with one device but the game experience will be influenced by other people (e.g. gym battles in Pokemon Go). Adding multiplayer in VR can be tricky, since most existing games are meant for solo play. Still, it is possible to make a game that will feature two players (each with their own headset). One alternative is for players to connect online with other people using headsets, such as in the highly popular VRChat app (where people with digital avatars meet in virtual rooms just to chat).
User safety It is incredibly important to implement safety guidelines in AR apps, such as warnings and restrictions. When people get too captivated by a game, they can stop paying attention to their surroundings and fall prey to hazards. If it is not feasible to make your app recognize these hazards, it is recommended to at least add warnings for the user's safety. Unless your application involves a lot of walking (which is not a good idea with blocked vision), players will likely be confined to a small play area. You can let them know that they should choose this area wisely, and remove any impediments or objects that could cause them harm during movement. Additionally, in-game movement should be smooth so as not to induce motion sickness.
Best Immersive Game Examples
Augmented reality apps have been in public use for about a decade (VR for longer), and though the technology is fledging, we have already seen some great games arise both in the AR and VR categories:
This best-selling VR game combines two things that most people love – lightsabers and music. In Beat Saber, the player is placed in a dimly lit world where blocks and obstacles fly towards them to the beats of songs. The gameplay is very dynamic and immersive, as they slice and evade the blocks to survive.
Half Life: Alyx
Before Alyx came out, people had been waiting years for a Half-Life sequel, and this one did not disappoint. Players put on their VR headsets and returned to the dangerous and rich world of Half-Life, fighting numerous enemies and progressing the story of Alyx, the main protagonist.
This game was initially released for PC and console play, but grew so popular that it was ported to VR. To say that the game is immersive would be an understatement. You play as a spacefaring scientist, traveling to hundreds (even thousands) of unique planets, colonizing and documenting everything that makes them unique.
ARchy the Rabbit
ARchy was designed by Game-Ace and features a playful 3D rabbit character that players control. As the name suggests, this is an AR app, so it can be accessed on mobile devices. After the app is launched, players can see Archy visualized in their current surroundings, and enjoy watching him carry out the entertaining commands that they choose.
Ingress is the elder statesman of AR games, being released in 2013 when the technology was brand new. It draws users into a world of factions and battles for resources. Players must move around the physical world (based on real maps), capture portals, and increase their XP. At the same time, other players are also fighting for territory on the map.
How to Start Designing an Immersive Game
If you have not developed a game before or built one for AR/VR, we should warn you that there will be a lot to learn before you even start writing code or creating 3D models. You will need to get acquainted with the basic principles of immersive development, as well as the peculiarities of working with AR/VR-specific software, like ARKit, ARCore, Vuforia, and possibly Unity/Unreal Engine.
As an alternative to painstaking independent learning and development, you can consider delegating design to a partner. For example, Game-Ace has years of experience in creating games for various platforms, including VR and AR. We are the studio behind the game ARchy the Rabbit mentioned previously and dozens of other titles with major player bases.
You can count on us to make a game that will draw users in not just based on technology, but also smart level design and spectacular graphics. Additionally, we can handle game porting and art design as services separate or included with development.
Ready to discuss your game project? Contact us and we can help!
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If Putin can speak English, UTSA students can speak Russian
By Jennifer R. Lloyd on June 14, 2013 at 9:58 AM
Russian President Vladimir Putin listens to President Bush during a joint news conference at the White House, Sept. 15, 2005. (Associated Press file photo)
While Russian President Vladimir Putin is busy showing off his English skills, more University of Texas at San Antonio students could soon be honing their advanced Russian speaking skills online.
This week the University of Texas at Arlington and UTSA announced a grant of about $205,000 from the UT System's Institute for Transformational Learning, which will help the two universities create a language telecollaboration. The partnership aims to enroll more students in languages critical to government and business, like Russian, but which aren't taught as often, according to a university news release.
"It shows how we can leverage technology and available faculty expertise at both universities to provide an expanded educational opportunity to our students," said Sunay Palsole, UTSA associate vice provost for education technology, in a prepared statement.
Both schools have classrooms with digital videoconferencing capabilities and, starting this fall, both will use the Blackboard Learn platform to provide the content either live or at the same time, according to the news release.
UTSA will offer beginning Japanese to UTA. UTA will return the favor with Portuguese. Later on, students at both universities may be able to take intermediate and advanced Russian online. Further down the road, the telecollaboration may include Arabic, Chinese and Korean.
UTSA already offers a minor in Russian, elementary and intermediate Arabic, Chinese and Japanese courses, and a noncredit intermediate and advanced level Korean language and culture class, according to a UTSA spokeswoman.
In the meantime, watch Putin speak in English as he pitches his case for the Russian city Ekaterinburg to host the World Expo 2020 below:
– Jennifer R. Lloyd
Jennifer Lloyd

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


text:
A grim father, daughter border drowning underlines peril facing many migrants
By Peter Orsi
PUBLISHED: June 26, 2019 at 8:14 am | UPDATED: June 26, 2019 at 10:53 am
Guest Commentary: I scouted the U.S.-Mexico border looking for dignity and leadership
By Morgan Smith
PUBLISHED: June 4, 2019 at 1:25 pm | UPDATED: June 4, 2019 at 1:25 pm
Influx of children at Arizona's border shows immigration system on brink
By Maria Sacchetti
PUBLISHED: May 28, 2019 at 9:00 pm | UPDATED: May 28, 2019 at 9:00 pm
U.S. resorts to expanded "catch and release" as migrants surge at border
By Cedar Attanasio
President Trump seeks to cut foreign aid to El Salvador, Guatemala and Honduras
By Jonathan Lemire
Trump plans to cut aid to three Central American countries as fight widens over U.S.-bound migrants
By Kevin Sieff
President Trump offers a "Dreamers" deal for border-money proposal to end government shutdown
By Jill Colvin
Wednesday, Jan. 2, 2019 letters: Shutdown, children's deaths, robo-calls
By DP Opinion
PUBLISHED: January 2, 2019 at 5:00 am | UPDATED: January 2, 2019 at 10:32 am
U.S. says 8-year-old Guatemalan child has died in immigration custody
PUBLISHED: December 25, 2018 at 11:50 am | UPDATED: December 25, 2018 at 11:53 am
United States pledges $10.6B aid for Central America, southern Mexico
By Mark Stevenson
PUBLISHED: December 18, 2018 at 7:11 pm | UPDATED: December 18, 2018 at 7:11 pm


text:
Impact Freshmen
Phil Mafah
Latest on Shelton Mitchell injury
By Will Vandervort November 8, 2016 11:17 am Follow	@steelerwill
By Will Vandervort | November 8, 2016 11:17 am	Follow @steelerwill
Clemson point guard Shelton Mitchell suffered a knee injury in Monday's practice and will undergo a procedure on Tuesday afternoon.
The Clemson Insider has learned that the procedure today is a scope of the meniscus. There is no timetable on his return.
Mitchell had an MRI Monday night. We are told it was a lateral meniscus tear. He is supposed to have surgery at 12:30 p.m., and they will know more at that time.
Clemson has announced the transfer from Vanderbilt, who was expected to start in Friday's season opener, will not play against Georgia.
Mitchell injured his knee during non-contact. The sophomore scored 15 points and had five assists in Clemson's exhibition game with Lander last Thursday.
—Photo courtesy Clemson Athletic Communications
Clemson basketball, Shelton Mitchell, Basketball
Virginia wasn't a good match after COVID paused team activities
The Clemson Football program is losing one of its best analysts to the coaching ranks. The Clemson Insider has confirmed Cameron Aiken, who has been a part of Dabo Swinney's staff for six seasons, is leaving (…)


text:
Historical Foundation
History of L. Frank Baum
Oz & Local Links
OZ BLOG-NEW
135days until
Oz-Stravaganza! '20
Parade 2020
News Releases & Upcoming Events
Author's and Artist's Alley
Costume Contest 2019
Coloring Contest 2019
Live Entertainment 2019
Munchkin Mile Fun Run & Toto's Toddler Trot 2019
Past Special Guests
Special Guests 2019
Sponsorships 2020
Wizard's Wonderful Silent Auction 2019
Vendor Info 2020
Welcome > History of L. Frank Baum > All Things Oz (Exhibit/Baum's Bazaar) > Mission Statement > World Record Attempt > Calendar > Sponsorships 2020 > Live Entertainment 2019 > Special Guests 2019 >
Special Guest/After the Wizard Movie Cast
"After the Wizard" is a heartfelt, often humorous and always entertaining story about a 12-year-old girl named Elizabeth who lives in an orphanage in Kingman, Kansas. Like millions of girls her age she has read the beloved L. Frank Baum novel "The Wonderful Wizard of Oz" countless times. But unlike other girls, Elizabeth believes she is Dorothy...and maybe she is.
With Elizabeth referring to herself as Dorothy and constantly looking for Toto and a way back to Oz, the headmistress at the orphanage worries about Elizabeth and fears that she is losing touch with reality.
Meanwhile back in Oz things have not gone well for the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman or the Lion. Oz is in trouble and they believe Dorothy is the one person who can help save their home, just as she did before. Only this time they have to find her.
The Tin Woodman and Scarecrow embark on an incredible cross country adventure as they leave Oz to search for Dorothy in Kansas. Traveling by hot air balloon, train, bus and foot, the endearing duo find themselves lost in a world full of colorful strangers who are familiar with them, including a group of New Jersey schoolchildren they mistake for Munchkins and a wise Southern blind man who guides them on their journey.
An unforgettable story unfolds as the Scarecrow and Tin Woodman search for and are reunited with Dorothy…the kind of story that lives on in the imagination and hearts of people forever.
—AftertheWizard.com
DIRECTOR AND CAST BIOS
HUGH GROSS - WRITER/DIRECTOR.
Hugh Gross is the writer and director of "After the Wizard," a feature length family film based on the iconic "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" characters created by L. Frank Baum. Marking his feature film directorial debut, "After the Wizard" had its World Premiere screening in Kingman, Kansas on July 2, 2011 and was released theatrically in Los Angeles, Kansas City and Kingman on August 10, 2012. An accomplished novelist and playwright, Gross penned "Same Bed, Different Dreams," winner of the inaugural Mid-List Press.
His play "Hilly Cohen and The Sounds of New York" was produced at the Los Angeles Theatre Center and published by International Readers' Theatre. "Freedom Rider," a musical Hugh wrote with composer Marijane Zimmerli, was produced by Phillips Temple CME Church in Los Angeles. "Stated Income," a comedy, was produced at the Pan Andreas Theatre. Gross is a member of the Dramatists Guild, the Authors Guild, Pen West and the Alliance of Los Angeles Playwrights
JORDAN VAN VRANKEN as Elizabeth/Dorothy.
Jordan Van Vranken currently stars in "After the Wizard," a feature length family film based on the iconic "Wonderful Wizard of Oz" characters created by L. Frank Baum. Quickly becoming "one to watch," the beautiful young talent also appears in the Cameron Diaz comedy "Bad Teacher." The winner of the 2011 Young Artist Award for Best Actress in a Voice Over for her role of Ripley in the WB web series "Chadam," Jordan was also recognized at the 2010 Young Artist Awards for Best Performance in a TV Series for her guest starring role in "Criminal Minds." Credits also include episodes of "The Unit" and Nickelodeon's "Big Time Rush," as well as more than 20 independent films.
JERMEL NAKIA as the Scarecrow.
Jermel Nakia stars as the Scarecrow in feature film "After the Wizard." Multi-talented, Nakia starred in the thought-provoking and fun film "The Sacred Broccoli Uprising." His credits also include the short film "The One Who Wears Red," the hit television series "24," and "Mind of Mencia" on Comedy Central. Jermel starred with Irma P. Hall just this April in "A Lesson Before Dying" at the African-American Repertory Theatre in Dallas-Fort Worth. His many stage credits include performances of such classics as "A Raisin in the Sun."
ORIEN RICHMAN as the Tin Woodman.
Orien Richman stars as the Tin Woodman in "After the Wizard." A member of a talented family of actors, several of whom appear in "After the Wizard," Richman has numerous credits including the feature films "4 Faces," "B-Movie," "Double Down," "Pool Hall Junkies" and "Spring Break 83." Theater credits include "It's Just Sex" and "Stated Income," at the Two Roads and The Pan Andreas Theatres.
For more information about the movie, more cast bios, and view the trailer of "After The Wizard,"
please visit: www.afterthewizard-themovie.com
Copyright ©2013 Oz-Stravaganza! is part of the Greater Sullivan Area Chamber of Commerce. All rights reserved.


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\section{Introduction}
Specular highlights often exist in real-world images due to the material property of objects and the capturing environments. It is always desired to reduce or eliminate these specular highlights to improve the visual quality and to facilitate the vision and graphics tasks, such as  stereo matching~\cite{guo2019deep,khanian2017photometric}, text recognition~\cite{long2021scene}, image segmentation~\cite{arbelaez2011contour,fleyeh2006shadow} and photo-consistency~\cite{wang2015occlusion,wang2019image}. See Fig.~\ref{fig:examples} for examples, the performance of the end-to-end text detection and recognition drops due to the existence of highlight in the images, while our method is designed to detect and remove the highlight so as to improve the subsequent OCR performance.

In the last decades, many approaches have been proposed to address this challenging specular highlight removal problem. These existing works can be roughly classified into three categories: dichromatic reflection model-based methods~\cite{tan2004separating,yang2010real,ren2017specular,fu2019specular,son2020toward}, inpainting-based methods~\cite{tan2003highlight,Ortiz2005a,Arnold2010automatic,Meslouhi2011automatic}, and deep learning-based methods~\cite{funke2018generative,lin2019deep,muhammad2020spec}. The dichromatic reflection model~\cite{shafer1985using} linearly combines the diffuse and specular reflections, and subsequently many methods are proposed based on this model. These methods usually require some simplifying assumptions. In addition, they often need to carry out the pre-processing operations, \emph{e.g.}, segmentation, when encountering images with diverse colors and complex textures, which results in low efficiency and weak practicability. Inpainting-based methods mainly recover the original image contents behind the highlight borrowing the techniques from the image inpainting community. This kind of methods have limited performance for the large highlight contamination. Considering the complexity of single image specular highlight removal, some recent works~\cite{funke2018generative,lin2019deep,muhammad2020spec} are proposed based on the deep neural networks, \emph{e.g.}, convolutional neural network (CNN) and generative adversarial network (GAN). With the aid of the powerful learning capacity of deep models, these deep learning-based methods usually have better performance compared with traditional optimization-based methods. However, these deep learning-based methods require the large-scale training data, especially paired real-world images with necessary annotations, which are time-consuming even difficult to collect.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{Fig/result_withmask.pdf}
    \put(-330,-10){{Highlight Image}}
    \put(-255,-10){{OCR Result}}
    \put(-175,-10){{Mask}}
    \put(-110,-10){{Ours}}
    \put(-55,-10){{OCR Result}}
\caption{Selected single image specular highlight removal results of our method. ``Mask'' and ``Ours'' separately are the outputs of our first-stage and second-stage networks.}
\label{fig:examples}
\vskip -0.4cm
\end{figure}

Existing specular highlight removal methods mainly process the medical images, natural images, and specific-object images, however, there is no work to focus on the text images. On the other hand, for the end-to-end text detection and recognition, many approaches are proposed to handle texts with arbitrary shapes and various orientations. To our knowledge, the case of text images with specular highlight contamination is rarely studied. Therefore, in this paper, we conduct an extensive study on the text-aware single image specular highlight removal problem including dataset collection, network architecture, training losses, and evaluation metrics.
The main contributions of our work are as follows:
\begin{itemize}
    \item We first raise and study in the literature text-aware single image specular highlight removal problem. To study this challenging problem, we collect three high-quality datasets with fine-grained annotations.
    \item We propose a novel two-stage framework of highlight regions detection and removal implemented with two sub-networks. The highlight detection network provides the useful location information to facilitate the subsequent highlight removal network. For the training objectives, we jointly exploit detection loss, reconstruction loss, GAN loss, and text-related loss to achieve the good performance.
    \item For the result comparison, we suggest a comprehensive measurement set, which contains the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance and auxiliary visual quality evaluation.
\end{itemize}

\section{Related Work}

\subsection{Dichromatic Reflection Model-Based Methods}
The dichromatic reflection model~\cite{shafer1985using} assumes that the image intensity can be represented by a linear combination of diffuse and specular reflections. This model have been widely used for specular highlight removal. Based on the distribution of diffuse and specular points in the maximum chromaticity-intensity space, Tan \emph{et al.}~\cite{tan2004separating} separated the reflection components by identifying the diffuse maximum chromaticity and then applying a specular-to-diffuse mechanism. Inspired by the observation that diffuse maximum chromaticity in a local patch of color images changes smoothly, Yang \emph{et al.}~\cite{yang2010real} enhanced the real-time performance and robustness of the chromaticity estimation by applying the bilateral filtering. To exploit the global information of color images for specular reflection separation, Ren \emph{et al.}~\cite{ren2017specular} proposed a global color-lines constraint based on the dichromatic reflection model. Fu \emph{et al.}~\cite{fu2019specular} reformulated estimating the diffuse and specular images as an energy minimization with sparse constraints, which can be approximately solved. Recently, Son \emph{et al.}~\cite{son2020toward} proposed a convex optimization framework to effectively remove the sepcular highlight from chromatic and achromatic regions of natural images. These dichromatic reflection model-based approaches often have limited performance for processing the images with diverse colors and complex textures.

\subsection{Inpainting-Based Methods}
Inpainting is to complete the missing regions of images by propagating information from the known regions, and this technique can be used to restore damaged paintings or remove specific objects~\cite{bertalmio2000image}. Tan \emph{et al.}~\cite{tan2003highlight} first proposed an inpainting-based method for highlight removal by incorporating the illumination-based constraints. Ortiz and Torres~\cite{Ortiz2005a} designed a connected vectorial filter integrating into the inpainting process to eliminate the specular reflectance. Park and Lee~\cite{park2007inpainting} introduced a highlight inpainting method based on the color line projection, however, this method needs two images taken with different exposure times. Inpainting-based highlight removal methods were also proposed to
handle the medical images, such as endoscopic images~\cite{Arnold2010automatic} and colposcopic images~\cite{Meslouhi2011automatic}. However, these inpainting-based methods are only effective for images with small areas of highlight contamination.

\subsection{Deep Learning-Based Methods}
Different from the aforementioned two kinds of methods, the deep learning-based methods do not require the specular highlight model assumption, and thus have the potential to handle various scenarios. Lee \emph{et al.}~\cite{lee2010removal} proposed a perceptron artificial neural network to detect the specular reflections of tooth images and then applied the smoothing spatial filter to recursively correct the specular reflections. Due to the lack of paired training data, Funke \emph{et al.}~\cite{funke2018generative} adopted the cycle GAN framework~\cite{zhu2017unpair} and introduced a self-regularization loss aiming to reduce image modification in non-specular regions. Similarly, Lin \emph{et al.}~\cite{lin2019deep} also adopted a GAN framework and proposed a multi-class discriminator, where classifying the generated diffuse images from real ones and original input images as well. Muhammad \emph{et al.}~\cite{muhammad2020spec} proposed two deep models (Spec-Net and Spec-CGAN) for specularity removal from faces. The former takes the intensity channel as input while the latter takes the RGB image as input. These methods mainly proposed for the medical images, specific-object images or facial images, whereas our work pays attention to the text images.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.80\linewidth]{Fig/dataset_process.pdf}
\caption{The collection pipelines of real dataset (a) and synthetic dataset (b), and an example of paired data sample (c).}
\label{fig:Dataset_process}
\vskip -0.45cm
\end{figure}

\section{Datasets}
In the literature, there is no publicly available dataset for studying the text-aware single image specular highlight removal problem. Therefore, in this work, we collect three high-quality datasets including a real dataset and two synthetic datasets. The pipelines of datasets collection and an example of paired data sample are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:Dataset_process}.

\subsection{Real Dataset}
\label{subsec:real_data}

Fig.~\ref{fig:Dataset_process}(a) illustrates the pipeline of real dataset collection. For the real dataset, we collect 2,025 image pairs: image with text-aware specular highlight, the corresponding highlight-free image and binary mask image indicating the location of highlight. The image contents include ID cards and driver's licenses, which contain a lot of text information. We first put the transparent plastic film on the picture and turn on the light. Then, the camera shoots to obtain a highlight image. Correspondingly, we obtain a highlight-free image by turning off the light. The shapes and intensities of the highlights are various by adjusting the location of the plastic film. Binary mask image is achieved from the image with specular highlight and highlight-free image through difference and multiple threshold screening. We randomly split this dataset (named RD) into a training set (1,800 images) and a test set (225 images).

\subsection{Synthetic Datasets}
To further enrich the diversity of our dataset, we construct two sets of synthetic images using the 3D computer graphics software Blender. Fig.~\ref{fig:Dataset_process}(b) shows the pipeline of synthetic dataset collection. We first collect 3,679 images with texts from supermarkets and streets, and 2,025 images mentioned in Sec.~\ref{subsec:real_data}. Then, we use the Blender with Cycles engine to automatically generate 27,700 groups of text-aware specular highlight images, the corresponding highlight-free images and highlight mask images. In particular, the highlight shapes include circles, triangles, ellipses, and rings to simulate the lighting conditions in real-world scenes. The material roughness is randomly set in the range [0.1,0.3], and the illumination intensity is randomly chosen from the range [40,70]. To force the specular highlight on the text areas of the image, we provide the Blender with the location information of the text areas obtained via the text detection model CTPN~\cite{tian2016detecting}.

Because the product or street view category contains less texts per image, while the texts in ID cards and driver's licenses are more dense. Under the same illumination condition, the difficulty of restoring the text information interfered by the specular highlight in these two kinds of images is different. Therefore, we divide the above two types of images into two datasets, namely, SD1 and SD2. SD1 contains 12,000 training sets and 2,000 test sets. SD2 contains 12,000 training sets and 1,700 test sets. Note that, the image contents of RD and SD2 are same.

\section{Proposed Method}
In this work, we propose a two-stage framework to detect and remove the specular highlight from text images. The whole architecture is shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:framework}. In the following, we describe the details of our network architecture and the loss functions.

\begin{figure}[t]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.95\linewidth]{Fig/relf_main_network.pdf}
\caption{The whole structure of our proposed specular highlight removal framework, which consists of a highlight detection network, a highlight removal network, and a patch-based discriminator. Symbol $\bigoplus$ means the channel-wise concatenation.}
\label{fig:framework}
\vskip -0.5cm
\end{figure}

\subsection{Network Architecture}

\paragraph{\textbf{Highlight Detection Network.}} The highlight detection network $Net_D$ takes the text image $\mathbf{I}_t$ with specular highlight as input and outputs a mask $\mathbf{M}_{out}$ indicating the highlight regions. Each element of $\mathbf{M}_{out}$ is in [0,1], and a larger value stands for a higher probability that the corresponding location of image $\mathbf{I}_t$ is covered by the specular highlight. Due to the same width and height of $\mathbf{I}_t$ and $\mathbf{M}_{out}$, for this network, we adopt a fully convolutional architecture consisting of three downsampling and upsampling layers. Each downsampling layer is followed by two convolutional layers, and each upsampling layer is followed by three convolutional layers.

\paragraph{\textbf{Highlight Removal Network.}}
After achieving the highlight mask $\mathbf{M}_{out}$, the highlight removal network $Net_R$ is then applied to remove the specular highlight and recover the text information. As input, $Net_R$ accepts an input text image $\mathbf{I}_t$ and detected highlight mask $\mathbf{M}_{out}$. The output of our highlight removal network $Net_R$ is a highlight-free image $\mathbf{I}_{out}$. Through introducing $\mathbf{M}_{out}$, network $Net_R$ can pay more attention to the highlight regions and achieve more better removal performance. For the network architecture of $Net_R$, in this work, we adopt an encoder-decoder network with skip connection. This network consists of two downsampling layers, four residual blocks, and two upsampling layers. To further enhance the removal performance, we also apply a patch-based discriminator~\cite{miyato2018spectral}. The discriminator $D$ includes one convolutional layer and five downsampling layers with kernel size of 5 and stride of 2. The spectral normalization is utilized to stabilize the training of the discriminator.

\subsection{Loss Functions}
Next, we illustrate the loss functions used for training our network.

\paragraph{\textbf{Highlight Detection Loss.}} For the objective function of highlight detection network, we use $l_1$ loss, \emph{i.e.}, $\mathcal{L}_{Net_D} = \| \mathbf{M}_{out} - \mathbf{M}_{gt} \|_{1}$, where $\mathbf{M}_{gt}$ is the ground truth of highlight mask.

\paragraph{\textbf{Reconstruction Loss.}}
The reconstruction loss is to add constraints on the pixel and feature space. The pixel-aware loss consists of pixel-wise difference item and total varition (TV) item: $\mathcal{L}_{P} = 5 * \| \mathbf{I}_{out} - \mathbf{I}_{gt} \|_{1} + 0.1 * (\| \mathbf{I}_{out}(i,j) - \mathbf{I}_{gt}(i-1,j) \|_{1} + \| \mathbf{I}_{out}(i,j) - \mathbf{I}_{gt}(i,j-1) \|_{1})$. The feature-aware loss including perceptual loss~\cite{johnson2016perceptual} and style loss~\cite{Gatys2016image}: $\mathcal{L}_{F} = 0.05 * \| \Phi(\mathbf{I}_{out}) - \Phi(\mathbf{I}_{gt}) \|_{1} + 120 * \| \Psi(\mathbf{I}_{out}) - \Psi(\mathbf{I}_{gt}) \|_{1}$, where $\Phi$ is the feature maps of pre-trained VGG-16~\cite{simonyan2014very} and $\Psi(\cdot) = \Phi(\cdot)\Phi(\cdot)^{T}$ is the Gram matrix~\cite{Gatys2016image}. The feature-aware loss improves the visual quality of results.

\paragraph{\textbf{GAN Loss.}}
In the highlight removal network, we use a patch-based discriminator $D$ to enhance the visual realism of results. For the GAN loss, we adopt the hinge loss. Therefore, the adversarial loss for $Net_R$ is $\mathcal{L}_G = - \mathbb{E} [ D(\mathbf{I}_{out}) ]$. The loss used for training the discriminator $D$ is formulated as $\mathcal{L}_D = \mathbb{E} [max(0, 1 - D(\mathbf{I}_{gt}))] + \mathbb{E}[ max(0, 1 + D(\mathbf{I}_{out}))]$.

\paragraph{\textbf{Text-Related Loss.}}
In this work, our specular highlight removal is text-aware. This means that the highlight removal network $Net_R$ needs to pay more attention to recover the texts hidden behind the highlights. To do this, we apply the pre-trained text detection and recognition models to provide the supervision on the text recovering. More specifically, we add the consistent constraints on the feature maps of $\mathbf{I}_{out}$ and $\mathbf{I}_{gt}$ extracted from above two pre-trained models, and the text-related loss is formulated as $\mathcal{L}_{T} = \sum_{c=1}^{3}  \|\phi_{c}(\mathbf{I}_{out})-\phi_{c}(\mathbf{I}_{gt})\|_1 + \|\phi_{d}(\mathbf{I}_{out})-\phi_{d}(\mathbf{I}_{gt})\|_1$, where $\phi_{c}$ stands for the $c$-th layer feature map from the pre-trained CTPN model~\cite{ChineseOCR} and $\phi_{d}$ denotes the $d$-th layer feature map from the pre-trained DenseNet~\cite{ChineseOCR}.

To this end, the total objective function of $Net_D$ and $Net_R$ is $\mathcal{L} = \lambda_{Net_D} \mathcal{L}_{Net_D} + \mathcal{L}_{P} + \mathcal{L}_{F} + \lambda_{G} \mathcal{L}_{G} + \mathcal{L}_{T}$. In all experiments, we set $\lambda_{Net_D} = 10$ and $\lambda_{G} = 0.01$.

\section{Experiments}

\subsection{Implementation Settings}
Our network is implemented with TensorFlow 1.15. As GPU we use a TITAN RTX from NVIDIA\textsuperscript{\textregistered}. The Adam optimizer~\cite{kingma2015adam} with a batch size of 4 is used to train our network, where $\beta_1 = 0.5$ and $\beta_2 = 0.9$. The learning rate is initialized as 0.0001. In our experiments, all the images are of size of $512 \times 512$. Note that, the text recognition model used for result evaluation is different from the model used in text-related loss.

\subsection{Qualitative Evaluation}
We qualitatively compare our method with two recent advanced specular highlight removal methods: Multi~\cite{lin2019deep} and SPEC (Spec-CGAN~\cite{muhammad2020spec}) on our collected three datasets. The results are shown in Fig.~\ref{fig:Qualitative_comparisons}. Among these three methods, our method can better remove the highlight and achieve the superior end-to-end text detection and recognition performance. For example, our method successfully recovers the name, address, and id number in the third row. Multi has apparent highlight remnants in the third and fourth rows due to its blind removal property, whereas our method can better perceive the highlight regions. Compared with Multi, the results of SPEC have less highlights, however, the capability of recovering the texts is limited for the cycleGAN framework as SPEC followed.

\begin{figure}[!ht]
\centering
\includegraphics[width=0.94\linewidth]{Fig/result_compare.pdf}
    \put(-322,-10){{Ground Truth}}
    \put(-260,-10){{Highlight Image}}
    \put(-175,-10){{Multi}}
    \put(-110,-10){{SPEC}}
    \put(-45,-10){{Ours}}
\caption{Qualitative comparisons of our method with Multi~\cite{lin2019deep} and SPEC~\cite{muhammad2020spec}.}
\label{fig:Qualitative_comparisons}
\vskip -0.4cm
\end{figure}

\subsection{Quantitative Evaluation}
In addition, we quantitatively compare the above three methods in terms of the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance and visual quality. For the end-to-end text detection and recognition evaluation, we adopt the common metrics~\cite{lucas2003icdar}: recall, precision, and f-measure. We choose the current advanced text detection and recognition algorithm Paddle OCR~\cite{PaddleOCR} to calculate these three metrics. For visual quality evaluation, we utilize the PSNR and SSIM.

Table~\ref{tab:comp} reports the numerical results of the three methods on our three datasets. Due to the same image contents of RD and SD2, for real dataset (RD), we fine-tune the model trained on SD2 using the training set of RD for all three methods. From Table~\ref{tab:comp}, we can find that our method achieves the best performance for end-to-end text detection and recognition (see 3-5 columns). Take the recall as an example, our method can improve the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance by 6.89\% (SD1), 3.07\% (SD2), and 13.65\% (RD), respectively. This improvement indicates that our method can better recover the original texts hidden behind the specular highlight. In addition, the end-to-end detection and recognition performance of Multi and SPEC sometimes is lower than that of Light Image. The reason is that these two methods remove the highlight and texts as well. For PSNR and SSIM, SPEC is worst, while our method and Multi are competitive for synthetic datasets, and our method is better than Multi for real datasets. PSNR and SSIM of our method sometimes are lower than that of Multi, however, these two metrics are not exactly the same as the visual quality that the human eyes perceive. More importantly, we focus on the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance after highlight removal, and the visual quality is an auxiliary aspect.

\begin{table*}[t]
\caption{Quantitative comparison of our method and two recent state-of-the-art methods: Multi~\cite{lin2019deep} and SPEC~\cite{muhammad2020spec}. All three methods are trained and tested on our collected three datasets separately. Recall, precision, f-measure, and SSIM are in $\%$.}
\label{tab:comp}
\centering
\footnotesize
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{4pt}
\begin{tabular}{cccccccccccccc}
\hline
Datasets & Methods & Recall ↑ & Precision ↑ & F-measure ↑ & PSNR ↑ & SSIM ↑ & \\ \hline
\multirow{4}{*}{SD1}
     & Light Image & 85.03 & 94.70 & 88.70 & 17.58 & 82.37  \\
  & Multi(2019) & 86.28 & 94.76 & 89.30 & \textbf{26.29} & \textbf{89.86}   \\
   & SPEC(2020) & 82.39 & 93.12 & 86.31 & 15.61 & 68.82  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} & \textbf{91.92} & \textbf{96.32} & \textbf{93.57} & 22.65 & 88.33   \\ \hline \hline
 \multirow{4}{*}{SD2}
 & Light Image & 80.50 & \textbf{95.89} & 87.10 & 11.79 & 66.42  \\
  & Multi(2019) & 79.21 & 93.82 & 84.88 & 28.99 & \textbf{91.81}  \\
    & SPEC(2020) & 78.87 & 95.10 & 85.55 & 9.66 & 53.95  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} &\textbf{83.57} & 95.00 & \textbf{88.42} & \textbf{29.21} & 90.67  \\ \hline \hline
  \multirow{4}{*}{RD}
 & Light Image & 64.85 & 90.60 & 73.49 & 17.05 & 65.04  \\
  & Multi(2019) & 61.58 & 87.63 & 70.72 & 17.17 & 64.23   \\
    & SPEC(2020) & 70.59 & \textbf{91.62} & 78.38 & 14.82 & 52.49  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} & \textbf{78.50} & 91.34 & \textbf{83.34} & \textbf{21.62} & \textbf{77.19}   \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\end{table*}

\subsection{Ablation Study}
To verify the effectiveness of the text-related loss, we perform the ablation experiments and report the corresponding results in Table~\ref{tab:Ablation_loss}. We observe that the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance of our method with text-related loss is consistently improved for three datasets. This indicates that the text-related loss can enforce the highlight removal network to conduct the text-aware restoration. In addition, we can find that the end-to-end text detection and recognition performance of our method is already better than that of Multi and SPEC (comparing the first row of each dataset in Table~\ref{tab:Ablation_loss} with the corresponding rows in Table~\ref{tab:comp}), even though there is no text-related loss.

\begin{table*}[t]
\caption{Performance of our method without and with text-related loss on our collected three datasets.}
\label{tab:Ablation_loss}
\footnotesize
\centering
\setlength{\tabcolsep}{4pt}
\begin{tabular}{cccccccccccccc}
\hline
Datasets & Methods & Recall ↑ & Precision ↑ & F-measure ↑ & PSNR ↑ & SSIM ↑ & \\ \hline
\multirow{2}{*}{SD1}
    & w/o text loss & 91.43 & 94.12 & 92.75 & 21.88 & 87.19  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} & \textbf{91.92} & \textbf{96.32} & \textbf{93.57} & \textbf{22.65} & \textbf{88.33}   \\ \hline \hline
 \multirow{2}{*}{SD2}
    & w/o text loss & 82.69 & 93.48 & 87.76 & 28.12 & 89.93  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} & \textbf{83.57} & \textbf{95.00} & \textbf{88.42} & \textbf{29.21} & \textbf{90.67}  \\ \hline \hline
 \multirow{2}{*}{RD}
   & w/o text loss & 77.04 & 89.66 & 82.87 & 21.38 & 76.11  \\
 & \textbf{Ours} & \textbf{78.50} & \textbf{91.34} & \textbf{83.34} & \textbf{21.62} & \textbf{77.19}   \\ \hline
\end{tabular}
\vskip -4mm
\end{table*}

\section{Conclusion and Future Work}
In this work, we studied and solved the challenging specular highlight removal problem of single text image. To facilitate this study, we collected three high-quality datasets with fine-grained annotations. We proposed a two-stage framework including a highlight detection network and a highlight removal network. The output of highlight detection network is used as an auxiliary information, which guides the highlight removal network to pay more attention to the highlight regions. In addition, text-related loss was introduced to improve the recovering of texts. Our source code and datasets are available at\\ \re{\url{https://github.com/weizequan/TASHR}}.

In the future, we would like to construct lager and richer dataset to promote the development of related research. We would also like to design more effective networks and loss functions. Furthermore, an exciting research problem is to suggest more complete and exact visual quality measurements.

\section*{Acknowledgements}
This work was supported by the National Key R\&D Program of China (2019YFB2204104) and the National Natural Science Foundation of China (61772523).

{
\input{refer.bbl}
\bibliographystyle{splncs04}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaArXiv


Description: Absolutely beautiful, new to our Royal Collection, Dazzling Swarovski crystal hair vine, headpiece. Bold vines of Swarovski crystals on flexible wire to adjust and style as needed.
approx 10" long x 2" wide. with hoops on each end for bobbie pins.


text:
Fairy Tale Media Fix: Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale Theatre.
Faerie Tale Theatre! Faerie Tale Theatre! Whenever I ask people about fairy tale TV shows, someone inevitably brings up ShelleyDuvall's Faerie Tale Theatre! I had only ever watched a few episodes of it when I was young. Probably because it aired on Showtime which was a premium cable channel and my family didn't pay for premium cable channels (Faerie Tale Theatre aired on Showtime, both Jim Henson's The Storyteller and Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child both aired on HBO. What is it with fairy tale anthology shows and premium cable?). Anyway, I only saw a few episodes of it when the show came to PBS for a short period of time.
For those who don't know, back in the early '80s Shelley Duvall decided she wanted to create a better class of children's television. So, she shined the Shelley Duvall Signal into the sky and a bunch of her actor and director friends came running to help out (okay, so maybe I'm confusing Duvall with Batman a little bit and for reasons you'll get as you read more, but you get the gist of what I'm saying). The end result is a collection of 26 hour-long adaptations of famous fairy tales with one or two more obscure ones thrown in. The show is supposedly inspired by the show Shirley Temple's Storybook, which I just found out about recently.
I finally took this series out from one of the local libraries and gave it a watch. So, what did I think? Well, I honestly thought it was kind of a mixed bag.
I mean, it's interesting to see fairy tales depicted in a way kind of reminiscent of the 1966 Batman show with famous guest stars in abundance (I told you the Batman analogy would make sense soon). Some of the actors do great jobs in their roles. Both Matthew Broderick and Christopher Reeves make excellent Prince Charmings in "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" respectively. James Earl Jones does an admirable job as both genies from "Aladdin and the Wonderful Lamp" and Peter Macnicol does a surprisingly good job as the title character in "The Boy Who Went to Learn About the Shivers" among others (note: I'm just listing the first ones that come to mind. There are so many '80s stars in this show it's hard to keep up). However, there are others that I'm just not keen on. For example, I could have certainly done without Paul Reubens (aka Pee Wee Herman) as Pinocchio and I could have really done without Father Guido Sarducci's (real name Don Novello) narration of the tale. I'm also not sure that someone of Mick Jagger's considerable Whiteness should have played an Asian emperor in "The Nightingale". Also, it may be a personal preference, but I couldn't stand Ben Vereen as Puss in Boots. It's probably because of the annoying "cat voice" he gave him.
The camera and editing tricks they use to create the magic in the series look cheap now but was probably the best they could manage with both a TV budget and the technology of the time. The backgrounds and scenery are all inspired by the works of certain artists and storybook illustrators. While that's an interesting idea, it often makes all the scenery look like something set up for a school play. Script-wise, you can tell when they've overextended themselves. Usually when they're given the task of stretching one of the shorter tales into an hour (Goldilocks, The Three Little Pigs) or shortening a long tale (Pinocchio, The Snow Queen). In the case of the shorter tales, sometimes they go off on weird new directions like how their version of Goldilocks seems to straddle the line between compulsive liar and con artist. In some other cases I just wondered how many adults they thought were watching. The early episodes have their share of adult jokes and innuendos slipped in (In Rapunzel, when Rapunzel's mother tells her husband about her craving for vegetables, he asks if she'd like a cucumber, *wink, wink, nudge, nudge*). It's nothing that would necessarily be too much for kids, but it would still be lost on a very young audience.
And yet, sometimes they knock it out of the park.
Some episodes are really, really good. They had an episode based on Robert Browning's poetic version of "The Pied Piper of Hamelin" starring Eric Idle and it was fantastic. It was very faithful to the text and was able to stir up a whole lot of emotion. Another fantastic effort is the "Beauty and the Beast" episode starring Susan Sarandon which is a straight-up homage both in story and design to the movie version by Jean Cocteau. I also thought they did a pretty good job adapting the more obscure "The Youth Who Went to Learn about the Shivers", which is kind of a hard one to adapt. I also thought their take on "The Emperor's New Clothes" was really good, relying very much on the chemistry between Art Carney and Alan Arkin who play the two swindlers who trick the Emperor. Also, even when they don't do the greatest adaptation, sometimes they can provide ideas that are kind of interesting. In one fairly prophetic turn, they're one of the earliest examples I've seen of a production depicting the Snow Queen as good or misunderstood. Before Disney's Frozen made the idea an in vogue depiction of the Snow Queen, Faerie Tale Theatre gave us the twist of claiming that the Snow Queen had abducted Kai in order to try and cure him of the shard of the evil mirror he was afflicted by. They didn't even really change her role in the story as Kai's abductor, just asked you to look at it differently and placed the bulk of the blame on the goblin who made the mirror.
Overall, I don't think it's bad. I admire the effort that was put in. This was clearly a passion project for Duvall and it shows with how much well-known talent she got to sign on for it. I wouldn't necessarily tell you to run out and buy the DVD set, but it's probably worth a watch if you can get it from the local library like I did. What it really did was get me thinking about fairy tale anthology shows and what the next one might be like. There hasn't been a fairy tale anthology show on US television for a while and it's kind of surprising. We're arguably at the end of a trend in which fairy tales were getting some serious play on television, but in every case it was fairy tale plots and ideas being folded into ongoing dramas rather than shows anthologizing the tales directly. In the past, every anthology had its own style and hook. Faerie Tale Theatre had the hook of having lots of well-known acting talent. Jim Henson's the Storyteller had cutting-edge practical effects and an acknowledgement of the oral tradition. Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales for Every Child took popular tales and adapted them to different cultures. Grimm's Fairy Tale Classics is remembered best probably for being the first anime a lot of Americans who grew up in the '90s ever saw as well as focusing exclusively on tales from Grimm. If there's another one, where will it come from and what will make it stand out? I sure hope I have the chance to find out (though, knowing my luck with premium channels, it will probably be on Netflix. I'm not subscribed to Netflix).
Sue Bursztynski October 1, 2016 at 2:46 PM
I'm fairly sure there was another anthology series(I borrowed from the video library when there were still such things)in which Christopher Walken was Puss In Boots and was it Jason Connery as the young man? And a version of Aladdin with Leonard as the villain
Adam Hoffman October 1, 2016 at 8:32 PM
The version of Aladdin with Leonard Nimoy as the villain was this show.
As for the Christopher Walken version of Puss in Boots, that's a whole other thing. That was actually a movie from 1988. You see, back in the 1980s there was a production company called Cannon Films. Cannon Films was a branch of Golan-Globus Productions. Today, Golan-Globus is famous for making some of the most hilariously bad movies of the '80s including Superman IV: The Quest for Peace, Breakin' 2: Electric Boogaloo and the MST3K favorite Alien from LA. Anyway, back in the late '80s these two schlock-meisters decided that they were going to take on Disney by making their own series of live action fairy tale musicals that they called Cannon Movie Tales (totally not kidding). 14 films were planned but only 9 were released. And lucky me, I managed to acquire a DVD set containing most of them. Stay tuned.
Kristin October 1, 2016 at 3:00 PM
My sister and I were obsessed with the 12 Dancing Princesses from Faerie Tale Theatre when we were kids! I later watched the BATB and Cinderella episodes but they did seem a little odd and dated to me by then. It was such a great project though and sad there seems to be no more modern equivalent
Interestingly, the 12 Dancing Princesses were diminished in number in this show's version. There were only 6 princesses. Though, it was a decent adaptation. I've seen worse like the movie The Wonderful World of the Brothers Grimm which changed it to 1 dancing princess and used the story as a showcase for the dancing skills of Fred Astaire for some reason (probably just for the reason that they managed to sign Fred Astaire).
Sujani October 3, 2016 at 7:18 PM
The tales were magical and took off the dreariness of everyday life when I watched them as a child in India. Yes, they spread that far. I would not critically assess them for that reason. :)
Gypsy Thornton October 7, 2016 at 11:45 AM
Great review and I agree on pretty much everything. Not to minimize the effort or the passion of Duvall, but I very much share the impression of the "glorified school play" that pops up more often than not. I think current directors might be able to handle such limitations a little better and make that a plus, but then they also have better cinematography and lighting options which would help too. I think OUAT is the modern day equivalent of the production, except that OUAT uses green screen rather than actual sets and props much of the time. The writing, however, is definitely for stage most of the time, not TV and I think that adds to the school play vibe too.
I sound like I'm down on the series when I'm really not. It's a stellar effort and I would have been happy to be involved with any of it. There are weird choices but some interesting ideas and risks too. I remember watching the Mick Jagger performance for the first time and thinking "who would have thunk this rock dude liked fairy tales?!" but was impressed with his performance all the same. I just found him a really weird choice for a Chinese person. (I actually wondered, at the time, if perhaps he had some Chinese ancestry I didn't know about, but then I was naive about misrepresentation then too.) You have to wonder if Jagger himself wonders why he agreed to that role now!
Liked your pointing out the unique approach to Snow Queen. (I'm still stumped by why Disney believed they couldn't make a film out of HCA's story until the Frozen idea - a change in perspective, like FTTh did is all the change you need to distill it.)
Great review - thanks again!
When it comes to Disney, I think part of it had to do with the song "Let it Go" and part of it was that they really wanted to do a movie about sisters. Why they didn't just choose a new story is probably because they had already been trying to make a Snow Queen movie ages ago and then had to file it away. Sometimes (or maybe often times) the story becomes what the movie makers want it to be. For another example, Big Hero 6 was originally a Marvel comic about the official superhero team of Japan. The comic included Hiro, a young genius who builds a personal bodyguard robot named Baymax who is based on his stern, yet loving father who passed away. For Disney's version, Japan is replaced with an America/Japan hybrid and Baymax is now a kind robot nurse built by Hiro's dead brother. Why? Probably because Disney wanted to make a movie based around the idea of brothers the way Frozen was about sisters. It was still a good movie, arguably better than the comic it was based on. It just wasn't that much like the original idea.
estebandesade September 19, 2021 at 4:26 AM
Hi, I grew up watching these episodes and Rapunzel was definitely one of my favorites. Some of it was quite scary but still so fascinating. The evil screaming radish in the Mother's nightmare always was, still is, and always will be absolutely terrifying forever more.
I must say, that episode of Sleeping Beauty, near the ending where Christopher Reeve has a battle with Beverly D'Angelo playing the Evil Faerie Henbane with her long nails, reptilian scales make-up painted on her skin, sharp teeth and her tongue rapidly wagging from one side of her mouth to the other, that right there scared the living Hell out of me, I did not want to sleep by myself in my bedroom as a child for a long time.
One thing I am so badly wanting to find out is, that music, that very weird, strange and hypnotic sequence of notes, that musical melody phrase that starts immediately as the Mother of Rapunzel bites into a radish and you hear the crunch. I heard that very same musical melody phrase briefly on a reality show "90-day Fiance", and instantly recognized it, and it sounded as if this version had been recorded with the traditional musical instruments of a symphonic orchestra. It must be a somewhat fairly familiar piece of music to classical genre enthusiasts, but I have no idea what the name of it is or who composed it. I have searched the episode credits, blogs, information anywhere I could find, and still have know answer, so I was just wondering if you might possibly know? Thanks
Fairy Tale Media Fix: Shelley Duvall's Faerie Tale...
Once Upon a Pixel: Video Game Round-Up, Level 2.
The Stuff of Legends: Robin Hood.
Character Study.
Fairy Tale Media Fix: Red Riding Hood Double Feature.


text:
Film, Video 10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, leaving cars Tenth United States Infantry, Second Battalion, leaving cars / 10th U.S. Infantry and Battalion leaving cars
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10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, leaving cars
Tenth United States Infantry, Second Battalion, leaving cars
10th U.S. Infantry and Battalion leaving cars
"American infantry troops dressed in field uniforms of the Spanish-American War can be seen close to the foreground of the camera position. Three companies of men, in columns of fours, march by the camera. In the background are railroad passengers, indicating the film was photographed on a rail siding area"--Early motion pictures.
Paley, William Daly, 1857-1924, production, camera.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc.
Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress)
Niver (Kemp) Collection (Library of Congress)
United States : Edison Manufacturing Co., 1898.
- United States.--Army.--Infantry Regiment, 10th
- Spanish-American War, 1898
- United States.--Army.--Mobilization
- Railroad stations--Florida--Tampa
Actualities (Motion pictures)
- 31440 U.S. Copyright Office
- Copyright: Thomas A. Edison; 20May1898; 31440.
- Duration: 1:20:00 at 18 fps.
- Paper Print shelf numbers (LC 1885) was changed when the paper prints were re-housed.
- Filmed May 1, 1898, in Ybor City, Tampa, Florida.
- Sources used: Copyright catalog, motion pictures, 1894-1912; Musser, C. Edison motion pictures 1890-1900, p. 423; Niver, K. Early motion pictures, 1985; Edison films "war extra" catalog, May 10, 1898, p. 3-4 [MI].
- Available also through the Library of Congress Web site as digital files.
viewing print 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 36 ft.) : si., b&w; 16 mm.
viewing print 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 100 ft.) : si., b&w ; 35 mm.
dupe neg pic 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 36 ft.) : si., b&w; 16 mm.
dupe neg pic 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 100 ft.) : si., b&w ; 35 mm.
reversal master pos 1 film reel of 1 (ca. 36 ft.) : si., b&w; 16 mm.
paper pos 1 roll of 1 (ca. 100 ft.) : b&w ; 35 mm.
paper pos (copy 2) 1 roll of 1 (ca. 100 ft.) : b&w ; 35 mm.
FLA 4899 (viewing print)
FEC 3008 (viewing print)
FRA 1900 (dupe neg pic)
FPE 9354 (dupe neg pic)
FRB 1700 (reversal master pos)
Box 0323J (paper pos)
Box 5176A (paper pos, copy 2)
Library of Congress Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division Washington, D. C. 20540 USA dcu
http://hdl.loc.gov/loc.mbrsmi/sawmp.1885
OCLC Number
https://lccn.loc.gov/00694317
The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures (82)
Inventing Entertainment: The Early Motion Pictures and Sound Recordings of the Edison Companies (432)
Motion Picture, Broadcasting and Recorded Sound Division (2,124)
Paley, William Daly
Thomas A. Edison, Inc
Infantry Regiment, 10th
Preparation - African American Identity in the Gilded Age - Lesson Plan
"Remember the Maine": The Beginnings of War | The Motion Picture Camera Goes to War | Articles and Essays | The Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures | Digital Collections
Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division, Library of Congress
The Library of Congress is providing access to the Spanish-American War in Motion Pictures for educational and research purposes. The Library is not aware of any copyrights or other rights associated with this Collection. However, users should note that the written permission of the copyright owners and/or other rights holders (such as publicity and/or privacy rights) is required for distribution, reproduction, or other use of protected items beyond that allowed by fair use or other statutory exemptions. Responsibility for making an independent legal assessment of an item and securing any necessary permissions ultimately rests with persons desiring to use the item.
U.S. Troops Landing at Daiquirí, Cuba; Troops Making Military Road in Front of Santiago; Pack Mules with Ammunition on the Santiago Trail, Cuba; and 25th Infantry are reproduced here courtesy of the Theodore Roosevelt Association.
Credit Line: Library of Congress, Motion Picture, Broadcasting, and Recorded Sound Division.
More information about American Memory and Copyright.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc, Paper Print Collection, and Niver. 10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, leaving cars . United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1898. Video. https://www.loc.gov/item/00694317/.
Thomas A. Edison, I., Paper Print Collection & Niver. (1898) 10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, leaving cars . United States: Edison Manufacturing Co. [Video] Retrieved from the Library of Congress, https://www.loc.gov/item/00694317/.
Thomas A. Edison, Inc, Paper Print Collection, and Niver. 10th U.S. Infantry, 2nd Battalion, leaving cars . United States: Edison Manufacturing Co, 1898. Video. Retrieved from the Library of Congress, <www.loc.gov/item/00694317/>.
More Films, Videos like this
Military camp at Tampa, taken from train
Military camp, Tampa, panoramic view "A wide plain, dotted with tents, gleaming white in the bright sunshine. Soldiers moving about everywhere, at all sorts of duties. In the background looms up a big cigar factory; giving the...
Contributor: Paley, William Daly - Thomas A. Edison, Inc - Paper Print Collection (Library of Congress) - Niver (Kemp) Collection (Library of Congress)
Transport "Whitney" leaving dock "This boat was the first one to leave for the South with troops. On board is a battalion of the 5th U.S. Infantry. She is a sidewheeler, and the churn of her...
Soldiers washing dishes Some men in military uniform, others in civilian clothes, bringing cups and cutlery to wash, tents and building in background. Actual washing not shown.
Cuban volunteers embarking Men carrying rifles and bedrolls boarding ship via gangway.
Colored troops disembarking
Colored troops disembarking (24th U.S. Infantry) "The steamer "Mascotte" has reached her dock at Port Tampa, and the 2d Battalion of Colored Infantry is going ashore. Tide is very high, and the gang plank is extra steep; and...
Roosevelt's "Rough Rider's" [sic] arrival at Tampa, Fla., U.S.A. 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph.
Contributor: Keystone View Company - Singley, L. (Benjamin Lloyd)
Roosevelt's "Rough Rider's"[sic] arrival at Tampa, Fla., U.S.A. 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph. | Off-loading men and horses at railroad facilities.
Contributor: Keystone View Company
Expandability of the 21st century Army / "MR-1190-A." Includes bibliographical references (p. 169-170). Also available in electronic form via the RAND Corporation Web site.
Theodore Roosevelt as a Rough Rider at Tampa, Florida 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph. | Stereograph showing Theodore Roosevelt standing in the shade of a tent with two men inside.
Contributor: American Stereoscopic Company
Moving camp - Eighth U.S. Infantry, Tampa 1 photographic print on stereo card : stereograph. | Soldiers loading covered wagon.
Contributor: Strohmeyer & Wyman


text:
import queryMap from "../data/complete.queryMap.json"
import { info, error } from "./loggers"
import { RequestHandler } from "express"

export const fetchPersistedQuery: RequestHandler = (req, res, next) => {
  const { documentID } = req.body
  if (documentID) {
    const query = queryMap[documentID]
    if (query) {
      info(`Serving persisted query with ID ${documentID}`)
      req.body.query = query // eslint-disable-line no-param-reassign
    } else {
      const message = `Unable to serve persisted query with ID ${documentID}`
      error(message)
      return res
        .status(404)
        .send(message)
        .end()
    }
  }
  next()
}

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaGithub


Cystic Fibrosis Worldwide Inc. is a 501(c)(3) tax exempt organization based in Worcester, Massachussets, USA. All donations are tax-deductible. Donors will receive a letter via email for their tax records.
CF Worldwide works to bring care to people living with CF who have no access to necessary medication, equipment and trained CF caregivers. They live in countries where little is known about CF and they have little hope of living beyond childhood without the help of CF Worldwide. Our programs are making a huge difference in lives of people who suffer from CF.
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If you're earning a gross salary of £46,100 per month, you'll take home £25,353 after tax and national insurance. A monthly gross salary of £46,100 will result in a £553,200 yearly salary. We'll use this sum to calculate your tax, NI, and take home pay below.
As we already mentioned above, if your total yearly earnings are £553,200, you'll get paid £25,353 every month after tax, in your bank account.
We've also calculated your hourly rate, which is £265.95, assuming that you'll work a full time 40 hours a week.
You will have to pay a total tax of £19,495 per month (£233,940/year)out of your gross £46,100 monthly income.
You'll also have to pay pay £1,252 National Insurance every month (or £15,028 per year) in the 2019 - 2020 tax year.
One important fact about your £553,200 yearly salary (equivalent to £46,100 / month) is that you have a personal allowance of £0 in the tax year 2019 - 2020 (or £0 per month). Which means that you'll only pay tax on £553,200 of your earnings for the total year.
According to our calculations, you'll have a total taxable amount (the part of your salary that is getting taxed) of £553,200 (we extracted your personal allowance from your yearly wage).
Apart from tax, you'll also have to pay national insurance, which is truly just another form of tax. You won't pay NI on the full amount of your salary - you can earn up to £8,632 a year (or £166 a week) £553,200 (we extracted your personal allowance from your yearly wage).


Celtic's reserves travelled up to Ardee for the sem-final of the Reserve Cup and started brightly with Mark Corrigan and Anthony Craig dominating the centre of the park while Lee Dixon was having a great game flying up and down the left flank. Craig came close on 25minutes with an effort from the edge of the box that just went wide, Aaron Winters was putting in a great shift up top.
The second half started like the first ended with Celtic on top, but 10 minutes in Dimmy Higgins picked up a second yellow card Arden scoring shortly after that. With 30 minutes left Celtic pushed on to try to get back into the game but Ardee are a good side and spread the ball around which made it difficult for Trim to make any head way. Lee Dixon had a goal ruled out for offside and even with the 10 men Celtic had Ardee back but couldn't get on the score board.
Best for Trim Celtic were Anthony Craig, Aaron Winters, Mark Corrigan and Paul Bartley.


text:
Kindle Prime Eligible Books: Arts & Entertainment
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Merch by Amazon is Amazon's newest platform and it allows ANYONE to create print-on-demand t-shirts! All you need is an image, a little understanding of their platform, and you'll have your shirts available for sale on Amazon.com. Shirts are printed on demand which means that there is never any...
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You can read the Mobile Book Oscars Best Picture by ipad or smartphone(some need install epub file reader). See which nice movie you haven't watched. Book Oscars Best Picture list, IMDb Top 250, AFI's 100 Years...100 Movies....
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The true account of a progressive actor, who travels to Hollywood to chase his career. He stays all over Los Angeles during a three month period and encounters sexual perversity, mistaking a certain Mexican narcotic for Cocaine, acting in a feature film in a casino and living on a three bedroom...
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Circus Mind is a compilation of rock n roll inspired poems by Ryan Cox. The book weaves through the annals of rock n roll to paint an expressive history of the bands and their music. Exploring the reaches of every corner of the music world from the Rolling Stones recording of Exile on Main St in...
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Drawing Funny Cats and Dogs How to Create Amazing Drawings of Your Pets in a DAY! There are several fun and exciting ways to draw cats and dogs. Modern, traditional, cartoon are just some examples. This guide will step you through seven different versions of...
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In the ancient world, terracotta sculpture was ubiquitous. Readily available and economical—unlike stone suitable for carving—clay allowed artisans to craft figures of remarkable variety and expressiveness. Terracottas from South Italy and Sicily attest to the prolific coroplastic...
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Knitting in the Round 10 Knit Sock Patterns and Knitted Slipper Patterns gives you everything that you need to make some of the cutest socks and slippers around. The patterns collected in this awesome, free eBook are sure to delight you and anyone you decide to make them for since these knitting in...
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This book covers five topics related to eliminating errors or developing new photographic habits. There are 45 tips listed on these pages, so you will have no excuse for leaving your camera in the cupboard. Let's get you motivated!Topics include:13 Bad Habits That Can Ruin Your...
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An absolute beginners guitar pedal guide: If you'd like to learn how to make a guitar pedal but have no idea how, then you've picked up the right guide! This book is a great way to get started in discovering a fun and highly rewarding pastime, even if you've no experience in electronics at all;...
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Outdoor painting (en plein air) has exploded in popularity over the world. First made famous by the impressionists outdoor painting is back to stay. Whether you are a beginner or looking to try something new you will love the outdoor painting experience. This beginner's guide by professional...
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If you're ready to embark on the journey of writing your own song, then this book is for you!Read on your PC, Mac, smart phone, tablet, or Kindle device.Songwriting is a skill that many people take for granted. It's actually quite easy to write a song, but to write...
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In Misiones, Pierre is sended by a multinational to manage forest cuts and pine plantations. As a Rugby amateur, he also leads the young local team "Los Carpinchos". In his profession, Pierre has no qualms; he brings the trees down, burns and spills agrochemicals in this fertile land to improve his company's performance. In Misiones, malformed babies, cancers and mentally ill children are countless because of the use of those same agrochemicals. As a complain movement rises and spreads through the local population, Pierre has to face desertions among his own workers. Also, Pierre is in love with Ana, a young activist teacher who takes up the cause of the population. Cornered, Pierre will have to choose sides.


text:
Aug 10, 2022 Spotlight
In the Spotlight: Aug. 8-12, 2022
Kudos to these faculty, staff, students and programs!
Do you have a spotlight item to share with the NAU community?
E-mail your announcements to Inside@nau.edu, or use our online submission form.
Robert Church, NAU's director of emergency management, graduated from the National Emergency Management Advanced Academy. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) hosts the Advanced Academy to provide emerging leaders an opportunity to refine their skills in strategic thinking, communication, program management and more. Church completed the full curriculum at the Emergency Management Institute in Emmitsburg, Maryland.
NAU will be recognized by the American Indian Science and Engineering Society (AISES) in the November issue of their nationwide publication Winds of Change as one of the top 200 colleges for Indigenous students. The list is curated through a research-based approach and provides statistical and survey data on the quality of support for Indigenous students at these institutions. Carson Pete (Diné) oversees the NAU AISES program alongside his work as an engineering lecturer.
Frederick DeMicco, executive director and professor in the School of Hotel and Restaurant Management, collaborated with NAU alumna and entrepreneur Vicki Mayo on an article about a new solution to the often overwhelming and pervasive stress of traveling. "Revealed: Breakthrough Wearables Revolutionizing the Hospitality and Travel Industry" discusses how a new wearable device called TouchPoints can actively reduce a wide range of stressors that influence anxiety and mental strain. The devices are placed on both sides of the body and elicit a subtle vibration that activates the body's "calm" response, which gives travelers more control over balancing their stress.
After impressive debut seasons last fall, seven NAU Lumberjacks were selected for the 2022 Phil Steele Preseason All-Big Sky Conference Teams. Sophomore running back Kevin Daniels received First Team Preseason honors, while senior offensive tackle Jonas Leader, senior guard PJ Poutasi, junior defensive end Eloi Kwete and senior safety Morgan Vest earned Second Team Preseason recognition. Rounding out the honorees were sophomore quarterback RJ Martinez and junior defensive lineman Cosmas Kwete.
Rising junior and prolific NAU golfer Ekaterina Malakhova won this summer's Russian Golf Championship for the fourth time in her career. Fellow Lumberjack teammates Aleksandra Chekalina and Nina Lukyanenko placed sixth and eighth respectively on the leaderboard, giving NAU three golfers in the top 10 overall. Prior to the championship, Malakhova, Chekalina and Lukyanenko soared to the top of the Russian Amateur Golf Championship's leaderboard where they won the first, third and fifth place spots respectively.
Kelsey Banister, who received their MS in informatics in December and is starting as a Ph.D. student this fall in Joseph Mihaljevic's lab, won two awards for their research at the Global Amphibian and Reptile Disease conference. Banister won second place for the best grad student 15-minute talk and second place for crowd favorite.


Danny Boyle's untitled 25th James Bond film will be the last one for Daniel Craig. There were many rumors going around about who's gonna play the most famous, suave spy. While Most of the fans are very eager to see Idris Elba taking the role, one ex-Bond has another idea. Pierce Brosnan voted Tom Hardy as the next successor.
In an interview with The Mail on Sunday, the 65-year-old actor said, "I think Tom Hardy could be a good Bond, I'd be happy to see him do it. You need an actor who can put a bit of wiggle into it, that's what makes Bond". Brosnan also praised actor Daniel Craig by saying, "Daniel Craig has been an incredible Bond. He's very physical, he looks lethal. You genuinely believe this is someone who could kill a man."
Over the years, Hardy's name got mentioned many times alongside Elba, Tom Hiddleston and Damian Lewis. It seems like everybody wants to see their own elegant British in the expensive secret agent suits. After the latest Bond movie hit the theatres on November 8, 2019, we will learn soon enough who's gonna drive the most expensive cars and sleep with the most dangerous, beautiful women.
Johnny Depp Finally Speaks About His Breakup with Amber Heard!