How Survios has navigated the rocky shoals of consumer VR

Survios has been toiling away in virtual reality since 2013. The Los Angeles company has seen the hype cycle around VR since before Oculus was acquired by Facebook, and it has persevered through the slower-than-expected growth of VR in the past couple of years.

Other companies have pivoted into video games or enterprise VR, but Survios has stayed true to its roots in consumer VR games. And it has had strong titles such as Raw Data, Creed: Rise to Glory, and the newly launched Battlewake. It also teamed up with HBO to create Westworld Awakening, it launched a VR arcade, and its games are now played in 2,600 VR arcade locations around the world.

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2019/11/02/how-survios-has-navigated-the-rocky-shoals-of-consumer-vr/

Ten Colorado state parks launch augmented reality trail missions

Colorado Parks and Wildlife is partnering with Agents of Discovery, an educational mobile gaming platform, to create augmented reality trail missions at 10 different state parks.

The missions, which task users with accomplishing educational and fun outdoor activities at state parks, can be accessed by smartphone users by downloading the Agents of Discovery app from the App and Play stores. Missions are free to play and, once downloaded, do not require Wi-Fi or a data connection.

“So many people have smartphones. Instead of fighting with them to keep it in their pockets, why not let them use it to discover interesting things about the park?”

State parks with augmented reality trail missions:

Barr Lake

Chatfield

Cherry Creek

Cheyenne Mountain

Eleven Mile

Ridgway

St. Vrain

Staunton

Steamboat Lake

Trinidad Lake

See the full story here: http://www.chaffeecountytimes.com/free_content/ten-colorado-state-parks-launch-augmented-reality-trail-missions/article_8db59456-fc21-11e9-9786-37ab42b06258.html

What to Read, Watch, and Listen to In Preparation For the Robot Apocalypse

PhilNote: yes, its a list.  But an interesting list!

See the full story here; https://www.esquire.com/entertainment/movies/g29653413/best-ai-artificial-intelligence-movies-tv-shows-books-podcasts/

Magic Leap Preps Magicverse, Facebook Reveals Computer Vision Research, HBO’s ‘Watchmen’ Enter AR

Speaking at the Future Investment Initiative conference in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia on Thursday, Magic Leap's chief product officer, Omar Khan, revealed that the Magicverse SDK 1.0 release is scheduled to drop in the first quarter of 2020.

A slide from his presentation confirms that the SDK will be available for not only Lumin OS but also for Unity, Unreal, iOS, and Android. This would enable developers to build apps that work between Magic Leap One and mobile devices.

Facebook is also looking to the future of augmented reality software and hardware. This week, it published research for new computer vision methods that could make their way into future products and services.

Meanwhile, 8th Wall continues to capitalize on the current mobile AR segment with a new offering that promises to make development and publishing of web-based AR experiences even easier for brands. And HBO continues to deploy augmented reality as a means for advertising its prestige drama properties.

See the full story here: https://next.reality.news/news/market-reality-magic-leap-preps-magicverse-facebook-reveals-computer-vision-research-hbos-watchmen-enter-ar-0210983/

Amazon will pull its movies from theaters to Prime faster

An Amazon prime video logo it's displayed on a Sony Xperia Z5 premium during the Mobile World Congress on the third day of the MWC in Barcelona, on March 1, 2017.
Phone makers will seek to seduce new buyers with artificial intelligence functions and other innovations at the world's biggest mobile fair starting today in Spain. / AFP / Josep Lago (Photo credit should read JOSEP LAGO/AFP/Getty Images)

In an interview with Hollywood Reporter, Amazon Studios head Jennifer Salke said the company is working on getting movies to its Prime subscribers "as soon as possible." Part of that means fulfilling contractual obligations around theatrical release, but it's prepared to take a hit on that if it means a later pay-off on Prime. She cites Late Night as an example, noting that while it's been used as a cross to hang Amazon -- because no-one saw it in theatres -- it's still been watched by "tens of millions" of people on the streaming service.

The upshot is that people are essentially a lot less picky about what they choose to watch on their devices, compared to what they're prepared to see at theaters. Netflix's deal with Adam Sandler is a good example of this: Murder Mystery racked up more than 30 million views during the first three days of its release -- figures that would be difficult to replicate in cinemas. As Salke says, if a theatrical release is necessary in order to get to that stage, so be it.

See the full story here: https://www.engadget.com/2019/10/31/amazon-movies-theaters-prime-faster/

AI could help us deconstruct why some songs just make us feel so good

In this paper, we investigate how music affects brain activity, physiological response, and human-reported behavior. Using auditory features related to dynamics, timbre, harmony, rhythm, and register, we predicted brain activity in the form of phase synchronizations in bilateral Heschl's gyri and superior temporal gyri; physiological response in the form of galvanic skin response and heart activity; and emotional experience in the form of continuous, subjective descriptions reported by music listeners. We found that using multivariate time series models with attention mechanisms are effective in predicting emotional ratings, while vector-autoregressive models are effective in predicting involuntary human responses. Musical features related to dynamics, register, rhythm, and harmony were found to be particularly helpful in predicting these human reactions. This work adds to our understanding of how music affects multimodal human experience and has applications in affective computing, music emotion recognition, neuroscience, and music information retrieval.

VR Simulation Puts You On The Frontline Of The Hong Kong Protests

To help spread awareness of the protests and assist users in empathizing with protestors, a team of Hong Kong students has developed a VR simulation that puts you on the frontline of the ongoing conflict.

Players take on the role of a frontline protestor and are tasked with dodging tear gas, ducking behind barriers to avoid projectiles, and avoiding capture by riot police. According to an interview with one of the developers, it was important for the team that the player only be allowed to commit non-violent actions, as to more accurately represent the non-violent behavior of real protestors. As a result, payers are unable to inflict damage on riot police or engage in any illegal behavior.

Along with participating in anti-government demonstrations, players also have the opportunity to learn about the actual protests. Player can visit a VR recreation of one of the cities “Lennon Walls,” which feature words of encouragement written across colorful post-it notes; this includes phrases such as “fight for freedom” and “five demands, not one less.” There’s also an interactive element that educates players on major protest events, such as the Yuen Long Mob Attack, the Prince Station Attack, and the highly-publicized shooting of an 18-year-old protestor by law enforcement on National Day.

The development team is currently speaking to online distributors in the hopes of releasing the title to the public next month, though past events have shown the process to be anything but simple.

See the full story here: https://vrscout.com/news/hong-kong-protests-vr-simulator/?utm_source=VRScout+Scouting+Report&utm_campaign=88cf770829-VRScoutReport_110119&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3642cd298-88cf770829-162003161#

Smart Fabric Technology Brings Touch Haptics To The Oculus Quest

...one-size-fits-all Forte Data Glove can now be combined with the Oculus Quest controllers, integrating BeBop’s hand tracking technology with the Quest’s 3D tracking. Together, these two tech systems — along with BeBop Sensors SDK, allow you to experience force, location, size, weight, bending, twisting, and various other presences across any size, resolution, and geometry in VR.

...the response time between the real-world and the virtual world is just under 6 milliseconds, all thanks to fast sensor speeds clocking in at 160Hz and six full-range haptic actuators.

See the full story here: https://vrscout.com/news/smart-fabric-haptic-touch-oculus-quest/?utm_source=VRScout+Scouting+Report&utm_campaign=88cf770829-VRScoutReport_110119&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_f3642cd298-88cf770829-162003161#

Measuring egocentric distance perception in virtual reality: Influence of methodologies, locomotion and translation gains

Virtual reality has become a popular means to study human behavior in a wide range of settings, including the role of pedestrians in traffic research. To understand distance perception in virtual environments is thereby crucial to the interpretation of results, as reactions to complex and dynamic traffic scenarios depend on perceptual processes allowing for the correct anticipation of future events. A number of approaches have been suggested to quantify perceived distances. While previous studies imply that the selected method influences the estimates’ accuracy, it is unclear how the respective estimates depend on depth information provided by different perceptual modalities. In the present study, six methodological approaches were compared in a virtual city scenery. The respective influence of visual and non-visual cues was investigated by manipulating the ratio between visually perceived and physically walked distances. In a repeated measures design with 30 participants, significant differences between methods were observed, with the smallest error occurring for visually guided walking and verbal estimates. A linear relation emerged between the visual-to-physical ratio and the extent of underestimation, indicating that non-visual cues during walking affected distance estimates. This relationship was mainly evident for methods building on actual or imagined walking movements and verbal estimates.

See the full story here: https://figshare.com/collections/Measuring_egocentric_distance_perception_in_virtual_reality_Influence_of_methodologies_locomotion_and_translation_gains/4720817

Mark Zuckerberg admits that Facebook’s $2 billion bet on virtual reality ‘is taking a bit longer than we thought’ to pay off

• Mark Zuckerberg's vision for VR and AR at Facebook is "taking a bit longer than we thought" to materialize, he said Wednesday during the company's quarterly earnings call.
• Facebook purchased Oculus, a virtual reality headset startup, five years ago, but has struggled to cultivate even a niche audience for the product. However, Zuckerberg is still optimistic.
• The tech giant is still betting on a future where VR is more prominent — Facebook unveiled its newest VR headset, the Oculus Quest, in May, and the product has made headway in early sales.

See the full story here: https://www.businessinsider.com/mark-zuckerberg-facebook-oculus-vr-bet-taking-longer-than-expected-2019-10