English Entertainment
Work your shoes to watch more TV
MUMBAI:An interesting innovation in the US might just change the kids viewing patters in America. A final year student at the Brunel University has come about with a unique way of incetivising children to get kids to stay fit
The idea being the shoe dubbed through ‘square eyes’ which is linked to a base station, which transmits to the TV how much exercise the child has taken over the day, in terms of steps taken.
The base station inturn converts steps to TV time, hence in effect this specialised shoe will control the amount of TV the kids watch.
While one button on the shoe records the amount of steps taken by the child over the day, another transmits this information to a base station connected to the TV. Interestingly, the TV will automatically switch off once the time earned has expired.
The whole idea stems from the thought of children being exposed to varied television offerings and kid’s channels. While a decade ago, children entertained themselves by playing outdoor games, now its the television that dictate their lives.
Square-eyes will be an endeavour to help children to include exercise in their daily routines from an early age.
Pedometers, which measure the number of steps taken are becoming popular, and it’s hoped that the Square eyes shoes will have a similar appeal.
However, the target of the Shoes is a little higher than the recommended average on the pedometer, 12000 steps a day for girls and 15000 steps for boys, equating to a maximum of 2 hours TV time a day.
Obesity is on the increase in the UK. In 1995, 9.9 per cent of two to 10-year-olds were classified as obese. This figure further grew to 13.7 per cent in 2003.
Square-eyes will be showcased alongside the other work of Brunel graduates at the University’s School of Engineering and Design next week.
This project is viewed as an excellent example of realising a concept and creating a wholly feasible future project.
English Entertainment
Ellison takes his Paramount-Warner Bros case straight to theater owners
The Skydance chief goes to CinemaCon with promises and a skeptical crowd waiting
CALIFORNIA: David Ellison strode into a room packed with thousands of cinema owners and executives at CinemaCon in Las Vegas on Thursday and did something rather bold: he looked them in the eye and asked them to trust him.
The chief executive of Paramount Skydance vowed that his company would release a minimum of 30 films a year if regulators greenlight its proposed $110 billion acquisition of Warner Bros Discovery, a deal that has made theater owners deeply, and loudly, nervous.
“I wanted to look every single one of you in the eye and give you my word,” Ellison told the crowd. “Once we combine with Warner Bros, we are going to make a minimum of 30 films annually across both studios.”
It was a confident pitch. Whether it landed is another matter. Cinema operators have already called on regulators to block the deal, and scepticism in the room was hardly concealed.
Ellison pushed back by pointing to recent form. Paramount, born from the merger of Paramount Global and Skydance Media last August, plans to release 15 films this year, nearly double the eight it put out in 2025. Progress, he argued, was already underway.
He also threw theater owners a bone they have long been chasing: all films, he pledged, would run exclusively in cinemas for a minimum of 45 days, drawing applause from a crowd that has spent years fighting for exactly that commitment across the industry.
“People can speculate all they want,” Ellison said, “but I am standing here today telling you personally that you can count on our complete commitment. And we’ll show you we mean it.”
Fine words. The regulators, however, will have the last one.
