Keepin’ it Real

on stage… Scooter is a TED Speaker.

“On behalf of puppets and puppet governments everywhere…” he opened, and then called TED2012 the “Academy Awards for nerds” (perhaps not knowing that the very next speaker would embrace that epithet in her opening slide).

Scooter’s TED Talk title: “Can Tactile Icons Survive in an Integer-Driven Environment?” In other words, Muppets vs. CGI. Or “Formulas vs. Felt.”

What are some of the spurious claims about computer-generated characters surpassing puppets:

– “CG can do 3D? Well, Muppets have always been 3D. Yup. And real time.”

– “CG can do motion capture? This is simple. Hand moves, puppet moves. Motion captured.”

– “Artificial intelligence? Artificial? In all the years I’ve been with the Muppets, we never had to do anything intelligent, artificial or otherwise.”