Category: Thinktank

  • How-to: Create AI product ads with consistent characters using Google’s new “nano banana” and Veo3 models

    How-to: Create AI product ads with consistent characters using Google’s new “nano banana” and Veo3 models

    Google’s flagship video generating model Veo3 is around for so time and if you are a frequent tiktok or other video social media platform user you for sure stumbled upon the Yeti, Bigfoot or talking baby videos that have been created with Veo3. They feature quite realistic movements and also lipsynch speech and sound effects. In term of AI video generation it is the benchmark at the moment.

    However it got problems with keeping character consistent over more then 1 prompt/video generation. So when you look very closely the Yeti or Bigfoot has variations over videos from the same account.

    A model named “nano banana” was hyping in the AI see as it made appearance on LmArena and was showing excellent results in terms of realism, consistency and quality. It war rumored that Google is behind this new flagship model and last week we got the confirmation: https://developers.googleblog.com/en/introducing-gemini-2-5-flash-image/ . What sets the model apart from many competitors is the ability to keep character consistency and make super fast context aware edits (for the record: similar workflows would be also possible with flux and flux-kontext models). see example of character consistence images of me with the Past Forward tool:

    What AI tools you need:

    • AI Studio from Google for the flash 2.5 image generation
    • Google Flow for the Veo3 video generation (also possible in the Gemini app)
    • (alternatively the google model you need are also available in fal.ai)

    Character

    random character i created using flux 1.1 ultra. (You can use whatever image model you feel best comfortable with, midjourny has obviously the best result still)

    Product

    For testing i chose my previously with AI generated Jack Daniels gummy bears:

    Step 1: Combining in a product scene using flash image 2.5:

    Generate an realistic image like in a advertising campaign of the person in the image provided sitting in a forest in front of a campfire. in the back we can see his tent – he is obviously on a camping trip. the man is eating gummy bears from the bag shown in the other image. the brand and the visual of the gummy bear bag should be clearly recognizable like in a product ad.

    This is the outcome (first try):

    You can easily adapt the scene more to your needs with simple prompts like remove the whiskey bottle, change the sweater color to green etc.

    Step 2: Creating the product video with Veo3

    We take now the image as input reference for the Veo3 video. With the prompt we bring the image to life and add voice over to the video – like in a real advertising. For more advance use case you can also use Json prompting and my tool I especially created for this: https://veo3json.moweco.com/

    A man eating the jack Daniels gummy bears from his bag sitting in the forest in front of a campfire saying: “enjoy real freedom with the new whiskey flavored gummy bears”

    camera: professional like in an advertising campaign, slowly moving towards the man sitting
    light: natural light, evening mood

    sequence 1:
    man eating from the bag and then saying “enjoy real freedom with the new whiskey flavored gummy bears” and smiling. 0-6s

    sequence 2: big product shot of the gummy bear bag on white background. on the right top side we see then a big yellow background insert “Available now”

    Unfortunately Google flow wouldn’t let my upload and use realistic images of people (cause of country restriction in Europe. So you might want to use a VPN or like me, use the fal.ai Veo3 endpoint for the creation (used to work as well with the Gemini app).

    This is my result (1st attempt – I could have created more versions to optimize and also to get rid of the typo in the end frame or to get the product image exactly in the end frame – but just to demonstrate what a first version looks like):

    The result is far from being a real advertisement someone would use, but I just wanted to briefly show the process in general. Especially the Veo3 output needs more refinements to get a real descent result. Also here the character consistency unfortunately breaks. But with some more tweaks I am sure you can get advertising quality like result with those tools.

  • Why I started to write here again after almost 10 years of a break…

    When I was starting to write texts at this place it was called blogging and the term influencer was not even coined (although I was an early tech focused influencer/blogger with mobilepulse.de). In May 2006 the first postings went live and I continued in a good regular pace till around 2014 to inform about project progress and other minor important things. Somehow then in 2015 I completely stopped to post. Why? I don’t really know, maybe I lost interest in sharing news, got bored of the way of sharing or of the writing process. Honestly I cannot recall 100% why I stopped 10 years ago but I it was a wave of blogs that went silent in that time. Social Media especially social networks took over completely online consumption and writing a blog somehow got out of fashion, I guess.

    First visual appearance of this blog/website

    But there are 2 aspects that made me again write: In 2022/2023 I traveled for a couple of month South East Asia and South America and used newly created pages here to document my travels. It was some sort of travel diary and was great fun to write. From this on I started to write again on a regular basis. The topic I mostly covered was definitely AI and my journey to work with AI. This is very exiting to write as it also documents the progress of AI in the past 2 years. Why I do write this things down? It is a good way for myself to document, reflect and experiment with tools, tasks and approaches. And there is hopefully also value in it for the ones that read the articles.

    What’s next? I don’t know, maybe I will again loose motivation for writing here or this will go on for some time. We will see…

  • The very worst of AI: scammer shops put together with AI

    Overly I am very positive to see what impact AI has on work efficiency and other aspects of our life’s. But as with every technological revolution there are super fast miss-use, fraud and other soft crimes around the corner that are only possible because of this new awesome new technology. This use-case is of course a minority but I find it also important to draw our attention towards it, as in the news and discussions there is mostly only hype and over-exaggeration on what AI will change for good presented.

    So I saw an ad on social media, that was clearly an Ai generated image from an elderly man that claims his leather shops is about to close and he is selling now his last hand made pieces. This is a very nice and heartbreaking story – but it is completely made up.

    The shop where the grandpa like old man is selling his products is a simply standard theme shopify store that was quickly built together. The images are clearly all created from AI and Hermann is not existing in reality.

    Furthermore the product are prized really really high around a couple of 100 euros each. But they somehow don’t look like hand made leather product from Germany but rather like factory stuff from Asia.

    Researching a bit I found lots of complaints about the shop and also a official warning from an internet watch no-profit from Austria. But in reality some people seem to really fell for this fake shop and fake narrative which turn out to be just one more of those drop shipping shops selling rubbish from China.

    Of course there is no impress, also the domain was acquired using an anonymisier tool, so there are no traces to the real operator of this little scam venture, who will probably get away with it and make some extra money.

  • AI software development – recap from a non dev person

    I am a non deep tech person. But I used to learn programming at university and I wrote code as part of my job in my early years. So I know how to code, how to set up a team based software dev project etc. With the progress of my career I shifted more and more in management roles and of course you don’t do anything code related there anymore. So it must have been somewhen around 2016 when I wrote my last line of code – until 2024.

    First steps in 2023…

    But playing around with all sort of AI technology let me again dive into the field of software development and I dig into writing code again. Of course with the help of AI, which actually means that AI wrote the code and I checked for functionality and output. My first steps with that approach was late 2023 with chatGPT and the output was not quite satisfying. Basically the code produced by the AI was very ugly and just worked after manual bug-fixing. I was not very impressed about AI in software dev back then.

    But as the model improved it really also progressed the application in software generation. Comparing the quality of the model from end 2023 to mid 2024 is a huge step forward. I used now again chatGPT but as well Claude. The generated code was not the best in class, but working and additional conversations with the AI did actual work quite smooth to further evolve the code and create bigger projects. Claude Sonnet 3.5 especially is really the leading model here. I was able to create with it simple tools for my consulting business like a QR code generator, a funnel generator and other small single page concepts.

    Going a step further: AI first IDE

    For this small tiny projects AI generated code works pretty well. I also started to use cursor – an AI first integrated development environment based on VSCode. This make the entire process of querying the AI and put the results back into the code base super smooth. This is at the moment the approach that works the best. There are additional tools, where you can create prompts based on design inputs, which you can then put into Cursor or an AI interface to generate code.

    The downside

    Beside being really surprise from the progress of AI based software development, there are also major downsides I also experience myself. First of all, you don’t know the code, as it is not yours but from the AI generated. To change minor things, which would normally a 1 minute tasks take longer or you just ask again the AI. This can be really problematic when second you run into the typical problem of a bug, that the AI is not able to fix. This is a condition that you will sooner or later experience and the AI is not helpful any more. Means you have to dig into a code, that you hardly know, and fix a bug manually. Software dev probably know this situation when there is the need to fix a bug in someone else’s code and there is no or very little focus on code quality or style. So this can be very painful and time consuming.

    So it is in my opinion super important that you actually have coding skills to overcome to above described problem situation and work properly with AI generated code.

  • How to set up usb tethering with a nexus 5 on windows xp

    I really like Google products and how easy they work but trying to get USB tethering working on my Nexus 5 almost drove me crazy: no documentation or wrong one from google, old driver sets. So I am quite sure there are many people out there facing the same issue. So here is how I did it finally:

    First of all stick to the official documentation you can find here. You need the driver file tetherxp.inf which is unfortunately not linked in the help file – I dunno why. When you google for the file on the web you will easily find it but it won’t work cause it’s outdated. The thing is that every device needs to be mentioned with the correct device id in the file. Most of the files you find are 2 or more years old, so no nexus 5 device id is included. I modified the tetherxp.inf file in order to make it work:

    tetherxp.inf

    Rename the file to tetherxp.inf and follow the steps from the official documentation:

    • Follow the steps above to turn on USB tethering for your phone or tablet.
    • Download the following configuration file (tetherxp.inf) to your Windows XP computer. Typically, you can right click on the link and choose “Save As”. (If your browser adds “.html” to the file name, you’ll need to edit the name to remove the .html extension and replace it with “.inf” instead.)
    • Connect your phone or tablet to your computer using a USB cable.
      When Windows XP’s New Hardware Wizard opens, select No, not at this time, then click Next.
    • Select Install from a list or specific location, then click Next.
      Click Browse to browse to the directory where you installed the configuration file you downloaded in Step 1, then click Next.
    • When Windows XP finishes installing the software for Android USB Ethernet/RNDIS, click Finish.

  • Warum das wahrscheinlich mein letzter Festivalsommer war

    Ich mag Festivals total gerne und fahre seit Jahren auf dergleichen um für kleines Geld möglichst viel Musik zu erleben. Was mir aber gerade in diesem Jahr extrem aufgefallen ist, dass die Festival-Szene immer mehr zu einer Maturareise & Ballermann Szene abdriftet. Und man muss dazu sagen, dass ich nicht auf die klassischen Rock-Festivals fahre, wo Trichtersaufen etc. Standard ist, sondern auf (ehemals Underground) Festivals für elektronische Musik. Es scheint aber so, dass auch die nun schon von der pickeligen Youngster-Partymeute entdeckt worden sind und als Training für kommende Springbreak Europes oder ähnliche geistlose Besäufnisse genutzt werden.

    Man kann versuchen dem ganzen aus dem Weg zu gehen – was bleibt einem anderes übrig, aber es hat sich hier definitiv kräftig was verändert. Für die Veranstalter ist es sicher toll, da die Veranstaltungen immer mehr Leute anziehen, nur verunstaltet diese neue Kollegen auch konsequent die Campingplätze, sorgen für schlechte Stimmung und benehmen sich einfach nur vollkommen daneben. Es scheint als ist Dubstep jetzt die Allerweltsmusik der 16 Jährigen und jeder ist sooo Underground wenn er sich Skrillex am Campingplatz ertönent aus Mamis Küchenradio zu einer Trichterladung voll XXX reinzieht. Das hat für mich nichts mit Underground, noch mit sonst einer Musikszene zu tun – das ist einfach nur unterstes Ballermann Niveau. Soll auch Leuten gefallen und ist ja alles legitim, aber warum finde ich solches Verhalten jetzt auch schon auf nicht-mainstream Musik Festivals?

    Ich für meinen Teil überlege mir sehr gut, ob ich mir das alles nächstes Jahr nochmals antun will, denn ich rechnen kaum mit einer Verbesserung der Situation. Oder vielleicht fahre ich auch zu den Kollegen auf den Ballermann und verpass ihnen eine Ladung Underground 🙂

  • Warum facebook mit Home auf Konfrontationskurs mit Google geht

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    Aus welchem Grund Google eigentlich Android aufgebaut hat dürfte wohl schnell klar sein: Das eigene mobile Ökosystem hat nur den einzige Grund die eigenen Services an die Pole Position zu bringen. Dass jetzt auch mit der Übernahme der Mobility Sparte von Motorola auch bald eigene Geräte kommen werden kompletiert hier die Dominanz an der gesamten Wertschöpfungskette. Umso genialer ist der Schachzug von facebook die sich mit facebook Home direkt in die von Google mit sehr viel Mühe und Kapitaleinsatz aufgebaute Wertschöpfung setzen – und zwar an die erste Stelle.

    facebook Home ist ein Launcher der den vorinstallierten Launcher von Android ersetzt. Seit Beginn von Android gibt es diese Apps und findige Leute, die sicher in der Minderzahle sind, haben sich damit auch schon ihr eigenes Custom Android gebaut. Dass aber facebook mit seiner Userbase sich diesem Thema annimmt hat schon eine ganz andere Bedeutung.

    Die Home App war sicher mit einem sehr geringen Kapitaleinsatz zu entwickeln hat aber sehr nachhaltigen Effekt: facebook muss nicht die hintere Standard-Position innerhalb der Android Oberfläche für seine Apps in Kauf nehmen sondern positioniert sie eine logische Schicht höher. Der Launcher ist in Android so etwas wie die App #1 die jeder User sieht. Da jetzt facebook diesen Launcher kontrolliert gelangt es sehr tief in die Nutzergewohntheiten des Anwenders und kann diese nach eigenen Interesse beeinflussen. facebook schafft mit einer sehr kreativen Lösung sich direkt in die Aufmerksamkeitsspanne des Users zu setzen und dort seine Services bevorzugt zu positionieren.

    Google betreibt mit seinen Bemühungen das selbe Interesse, jedoch zu einem vergleichbar höheren Preis. Sicher sitzt Google am längeren Ast und kann alle Launchers aus dem OS werfen. Aber bis diese Maßnahme bei den Endkunden ist, dauert. Laut Infos spricht facebook auch schon mit Apple um eine Integration zu fördern – die haben sich ja schon vor einiger Zeit entschlossen Twitter tiefer ins System zu integrieren. Die Idee mit den Launcher finde ich genial und wird sicher bald Nachahmer finden: zb. MNOs können sich wieder mehr ins Licht rücken.

  • Most overhyped trends in 2013 an why they don’t matter at all

    Gamification

    Was already a big hype in 2012 but will go even bigger in 2013 cause people think they can sell their crappy services much better when they try to “motivate” their users with badges or other game like mechanism. Just ask yourself: What was the most addictive game you ever played: Probably Tetris or Super Mario or one of the Call of Duty games? Do you see any badges or competition in these games? No – because their basic mechanism was the factor that makes the game addictive. The cool story or just the way you put bricks together was the key. When we add gamification to any other existing service or tool we want to give extra motivation to the users. Good point, but why not fixing the main issue in making a service useful, fun to use that you don’t need this “tricks”? You see gamifacation mechanisms in Google, amazon, facebook, Dropbox, etc? No, because the services are working as they are built. Foursquare may be the most popular example where you can earn badges. But is this the main reason to check in at a specific place? No, the main motivation is the narcissism to show off to your friends at which cool places you have been – no badges or rankings needed here.

    Big data

    Since big companies invented data warehouses or business intelligence they are collection huge amounts of data. Nothing really new, this happens since the 90s. But now someone asks “Hu, we collected lots of data during all the years, what do with this stuff?”. This is where big data and big data analysis comes into the game. We collected all this data over the years and now we realize “ups, we can’t process this huge amount of data with our current techniques”. But why now? Why this analysis have not evolved parallel to collecting the data? I can’t give an answer for that cause it is absurd for me to collect something that i can’t use in a valuable way. Big data is the excuse for something that should have happened all over the time we collected data.

    Browser Games

    Very popular last year and seeing a large amount of investments. Things changed dramatically in this field and also the market is going towards a consolidation. Big industry players like Bigpoint and Zynga are shrinking down their game portfolio to drop operating costs. 2013 we’ll see the peak of online browser gaming and from this point on a constant decrease in players and revenues. Also in-game purchases and virtual-goods-trading will decrease. Players become bored of building farms and moving towards serious games with attractive multiplayer functions.

    Social TV

    Social TV is another movement trying to make more out of TV as it actually is: a lean-back entertainment box in your living room. It might be true that there is a lot of social media buzz related to TV shows and series going on. But this buzz is good as it works and need not to be bundled and put into a social tv app. Also the potential is 1:1 related to the content. Means, no engaging content no social (tv) activity. As a mater of fact there is only little tv content that have this potential: casting shows, ongoing tv series, quiz shows, etc. The main problem is that TV is not social. Social Media is social and these are just TV Inputs generated into that channels. This trend will no mather in 2013 because no TV station will get the problem solved to make TV more social – because it is not solvable (at the moment).

    iPad magazines

    Digital magazines, mostly for iPads, were one of the biggest promises for the struggling print industry. With the closing down of Rupert Murdoch’s “The Daily” we have the prove that it can’t be turned in to a success story even with huge resources and money spendings. Digital magazines are far away from being a mainstream product but exactly this is a requirement to turn them via reach into money. The main issue is probably that reader devices will need sufficient more years to be spread in the market and also user experience must be improved significant. And the most important point is, that digital newspapers or magazines are not the solution to save the struggling print industry. It’s maybe a way of media consumption we will experience in 10 or something years but at the moment printed and online/web are the most common consumption ways. Here are the issues that must be solved.

    Mobile

    Since I could imagine every year there was a prediction that 20xx will be the year of mobile. And guess what, it wasn’t until now. And guess again, 2013 will also not be the year of mobile. Why? Because we are in the middle of a constant evolution moving towards a past PC area where mobile devices are the majority of “computers”. All other related buzz words like “mobile first” or even “mobile marketing” go along with this steady development but there will be no year of mobile at all.

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