Virtual Reality for Teachers
“In Singapore and Tokyo, we saw how comfortable students and teachers were with virtual reality and augmented reality,” says Brown. In Singapore, the two watched students in an aeronautics class scan QR codes that simulated malfunctioning equipment on board a virtual plane and then work in small groups to fix the issue.
Back at HGSE, the two began what they described as “a second job” outside of their Ed.L.D. Program, designing the early version of VRsatility. They spent months testing software and writing scenarios.
“Our big picture is spurring social innovation in education,” Brown says. “We have one more year on campus, and we want to make sure we walk away with a viable project that can go to market.”
See the full story here: https://www.gse.harvard.edu/news/19/09/virtual-reality-teachers
HTC Replaces HTC Vive With New $699 Vive Comos VR Headset
The new Vive Cosmos, which HTC first announced at CES in Las Vegas this past January, will be available for a retail price of $699 starting October 3.
The Vive Cosmos also offers far superior graphics, thanks to LCD display with a combined resolution of 2880 by 1700 pixels. That’s 88% better than the original Vive,...
The company now has to convince consumers that it will deliver on the promise of these mods — something that hasn’t worked well for mobile phone manufacturers in the past. What’s more, the Vive Cosmos costs significantly more than other headsets out there. Facebook’s PC-based Rift S headset retails for $399, and the social networking giant is selling the all-in-one Quest VR headset for $399 as well.
HTC wants to sweeten the deal for the Cosmos by offering consumers who pre-order the device a year’s worth of free access to the company’s Viveport Infinity VR subscription service, which usually costs $13 per month. But ultimately, the company bets on the higher screen resolution to make all the difference. The Vive Cosmos was a premium consumer VR headset, argued O’Brien. “There is a price for that.”
See the full story here: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/htc-vive-cosmos-release-date-price-1203333291/
Augmented reality – Apple makes it almost reality?
The new chipset and the opportunities created by the camera's point in the direction of more augmented reality capabilities. The U1 chip allows for more ‘spatial awareness’ of the device and the enhanced camera should allow for software upgrades in the future that bring functions such as depth sensing to the devices.
The warning that comes with this mission is that there’s a fine line between creating a contextual experience and simply building something out of curiosity.
Customers reject technology if it’s thrust at them without purpose or value. The lesson here is don’t develop things in a vacuum.
Dan Moran is the managing partner, head of product management at Karmarama (Accenture Interactive).
See the full story here: https://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2019/09/11/augmented-reality-apple-makes-it-almost-reality
Wondering Who Did That Painting? There’s an App (or Two) for That
With companies racing to develop Shazam for art, we see what instant-identification apps really add to your experience in museums and galleries.
Magnus is part of a wave of smartphone apps trying to catalog the physical world as a way of providing instantaneous information about songs or clothes or plants or paintings. First came Shazam, an app that allows users to record a few seconds of a song and instantly identifies it. Shazam’s wild success — it boasts more than a billion downloads and 20 million uses daily, and was purchased by Apple for a reported $400 million last year — has spawned endless imitations. There is Shazam for plants or Shazam for clothes and now, Shazam, for art.
The art-oriented apps harness image recognition technology, each with a particular twist. Magnus has built a database of more than 10 million images of art, mostly crowdsourced, and aims to help prospective art buyers navigate the notoriously information-lite arena of galleries and fairs.
Other apps are geared toward museumgoers: Smartify, for example, takes an educational approach, teaming up with museums and sometimes galleries to upload digitized versions of their collections, wall texts, and information about artists. Google Lens — Google’s advanced image recognition technology — is making new forays into the art world. In June, Google Lens announced a partnership with the de Young Museum in San Francisco to show parts of the museum’s collection. In July, Google began collaborating with Wescover, a platform oriented toward design objects, public and local art, furniture, and craft — enabling you to learn the name of that anonymous painting in your WeWork space or coffee shop.
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Then there is a more salient question for these platforms: What information can an app provide that will enhance the user’s experience of looking at art? What can a Shazam for art really add?
Mr. Resch’s answer is simple: transparency. Galleries rarely post prices and often don’t provide basic wall text, so one often has to ask for the title or even the artist’s name.
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It’s telling, perhaps, that even as these apps build out their databases, some museums themselves are starting to shy away from apps altogether. The Metropolitan Museum, which rolled out its own app with fanfare in 2014, shuttered it last year.
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/09/11/arts/design/smartphone-art-app.html?
Lenovo, Disney Launch Marvel AR Headset
Lenovo has once again teamed up with Disney to bring one of the studio’s iconic franchises to augmented reality (AR). After first launching the “Star Wars: Jedi Challenges” AR headset in 2017, the two companies are back with a new “Marvel Dimension of Heroes” experience running on slightly revamped hardware.
News of Lenovo and Disney working on this product was first reported by Variety in April.
Now called the Lenovo Mirage AR headset, the device once again relies on a consumer’s phone, and an app that can be downloaded for free, to super-impose pictures over their view of the real world. “You are still grounded in your world,” said Lenovo senior product marketing manager Wahid Razali. “You are bringing the heroes into your space.”
And while the first iteration of the headset shipped with lightsaber controllers, this new version comes with a pair of more generic grip controllers that can be used to power a variety of games.
See the full story here: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/lenovo-disney-marvel-ar-mirage-heroes-1203324652/
What can theme parks teach us about smart cities?
Most are prioritising changes “under the hood”, using IoT and sensors to create more interconnected and cohesive systems for the benefit of inhabitants and to reduce costs.
Take Los Angeles, for example. The city is replacing 4,500 square miles of street lighting with stronger LEDs in a network that reports the maintenance status of each bulb. Additionally, Columbus, Ohio, is investing in initiatives that create sustainable transportation, reduce freight truck congestion using smart logistics, and improve traffic information delivery to its citizens.
Experience is everything
Like theme parks, smart cities benefit from a focus on the guest experience
At first glance, it may appear that theme parks and smart cities could not be more different. However, behind-the-scenes, theme parks are technology-heavy, complex ecosystems that must be run and maintained at maximum efficiency across the lifecycle of their operations. The goal of smart cities and theme parks is ultimately the same as too: providing a better guest experience even if the type of experience may differ.
It is no surprise that some greenfield smart city deployments are using Disney theme parks as a model to create new interconnected destinations, such as Elysium City in Spain. When finished, this initiative will include government buildings, a high-speed rail system, conference centre, data centre, sports stadiums, a marina and more, but the cornerstone will be a theme park to promote tourism.
See the full story here: https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/opinions/opinions/what-can-theme-parks-teach-us-about-smart-cities
Speedo launches AR app so you can virtually try on goggles
Speedo has launched an AR 3D face scanning app allowing shoppers “to interact with the product before they make a purchase”.
The Speedo Mirror mobile app scans the user’s face, then superimposes virtual models of swimming goggles on top to give an accurate 3D visual representation of how they would look.
The swimwear company, owned by Pentland Brands, has been testing the technology for the last two months, seeing 3500 users virtually try on 30,000 goggles.
See the full story here: https://www.chargedretail.co.uk/2019/09/10/speedo-launches-ar-app-so-you-can-virtually-try-on-goggles/
drew label. Debuts Augmented Reality App and Street Art To Famous LA Landmarks
Art is riding on the crest of the wave of AR technology. Artists have used canvases, city walls, and now use mobile phones as a direct medium to express their artistic vision. drew label. has the spirit of DIY and a no limits perspective. The new augmented reality app exists in a unique era of art history. This is where tech, typically bound by code, has converged with boundaryless art.
Juanita: You have 15 art installations waiting to be found all around Los Angeles. Such a great idea! There are no city permits needed for AR. There is only artistic license! Love this.
drew label.: The thing I’m most excited about with AR art is what it represents. For the first time, we can reach our audience directly. Unless you’re one of the ten big-name contemporary artists, as I am not, your opportunities to show your work to the public are so small. AR changes all that. Now, we can reach anyone with a smartphone, with no middlemen or gatekeepers restricting what we can or cannot do. Now, we’re limited only by the things we can imagine.
See the full story here: https://arpost.co/2019/09/10/drew-label-augmented-reality-app-street-art-famous-la-landmarks/