Sony Pictures Buys Nurulize, a Virtual Production Software Startup
Sony Pictures Entertainment’s Sony Innovation Studios has acquired Nurulize, a startup whose software lets users edit, color and enhance volumetrically captured images in a real-time collaborative environment.
Terms of the acquisition aren’t being disclosed. Under the deal, Nurulize’s 12 employees are joining Sony Innovation Studios, which the company launched last year to give producers a way to virtually capture physical sets and use those digital assets in a variety of ways.
Nurulize’s Atom View software “enables us to integrate the highest-quality volumetric data capture with traditional workflows for film, television, and gaming, ushering a new method of content creation — the blending of the digital and the real — in truly innovative ways,” said Glenn Gainor, president of Sony Innovation Studios and head of physical production for Screen Gems.
Culver City, Calif.-based Nurulize was founded in 2013 by software development and VFX industry veterans Philip Lunn and Scott Metzger. It raised $2 million in seed funding led by Chaos Group, a CGI rendering software developer.
See the full story here: https://variety.com/2019/digital/news/sony-innovation-studios-nurulize-acquisition-1203261061/
Virtual reality app trains would-be Hajj pilgrims
“For people who come to us for performing Hajj, it is important that they go through a training first,” Maqbool said.
The training camp is for three days. An instructor is present to guide the person in their choice of language, whether it is Sindhi, Punjab, Pashto or Balochi.
Related: Karachi students create eye-controller to move cars
Labbaik VR gives a realistic depiction of the sacred sites of the Hajj, so that when they go to perform Hajj, users can perform the rites with ease and safety.
“We have tried to be accurate down to a centimeter to give users the most authentic virtual experience,” said project developer Faisal Khalid.
The startup is currently in talks with the government of Saudi Arabia for a collaboration to take their app worldwide.
See the full story here: https://www.samaa.tv/technology/2019/07/virtual-reality-app-trains-would-be-hajj-pilgrims/
Wait, Did WarnerMedia Just Make A Huge Leap Forward In the Streaming Wars?
"We have a portfolio of opportunities to drive," Jesse Redniss, GM, WarnerMedia Innovation Lab told me as he showed me renderings atop a chic terrace hovering over La Croisette at one of the company’s events during the recent Cannes Lions Festival. He continued, "What we'll be focusing on is answering the question, 'what would content look like for 170 million phones as they converge with 5G and IoT?' And then determining how the company can share such knowledge, once it's developed, between all the units so that we can continue to be a future-forward media company."
Currently, WarnerMedia has seven foundries focused on various areas, in addition to Code Labs for HBO. Redniss says that there will be numerous collaborations between them with the Innovation Lab and that the information and findings will flow between executive leaders from various departments of the company who have been selected to make up an overall Innovation Council in order to best integrate new ideas and concepts. "Our intent," explains Redniss, "is rapid iteration."
The fact that the Lab will focus on areas that expand the company's core capabilities and create additional revenue streams from VR to Gaming to AI and much more, should make for interesting developments in the industry that could heat up the streaming wars even further.
Though WarnerMedia is based at Hudson Yards, this Lab will occupy space in the Chelsea neighborhood of New York City come Q’1 of 2020. In case you missed it, this will be the company’s first innovation tech hub in Manhattan and one of AT&T’s first permanent 5G experience centers.
This Hipster Barbie Account Perfectly Mocks Every Annoying Person On Instagram
See the full story here; https://www.buzzfeed.com/stephaniemcneal/hipster-barbie?fbclid=IwAR0O-CFP4ollvPpvQ83vPTc6encjNC6my9vEJ1T8PpztBUdObL4Fp4P6kUI
Ann Frank House VR Puts a New Spin on Education
Anne Frank House VR is an education based experience made by Force Field Entertainment and The Anne Frank House Museum. In the experience, you are guided through a tour of the Secret Annex where Anne hid from Nazi persecution during World War II. Excerpts from Anne’s famous diary are narrated while the user gets to explore the various rooms of the Annex and pick up certain items spread throughout. Other options include being able to go through a self-tour variant and is available in 25 different languages. All for free. Anne Frank House VR was originally released for the Oculus Go, Rift, and Samsung Gear VR back in 2018. More recently, the app was ported over to the Oculus Quest in June of this year.
Overall, I have to say the app was pretty impressive. Experiences like this could really be the future of education. The Anne Frank House Museum should also be given a ton of credit here. Trusting an established game development team to add layers of immersion to Anne’s story made it that much easier to connect with. I look forward to what other kinds of experiences can be had with educational VR. The Anne Frank House VR app is available now on Oculus Go, Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift, and Oculus Quest.
VIRTUAL REALITY STRESS TRAINING PREPARES POLICE FOR HIGH-RISK SITUATIONS
Virtual reality is also providing new opportunities in police training. In the Shotpros project, psychology-based training scenarios are being developed in order to improve decision-making and action-taking behaviours while under stress. The aim is to avoid violence and collateral damage in high-risk situations.
VIRTUAL REALITY INNOVATION FACTOR
Traditional training focuses on aspects such as being able to run fast and to use weapons skillfully. However, stress management and strategy are called for first and foremost in high-risk situations. Stress limits perception and thus the ability to make the right decisions and act accordingly.
PROJECT PARTNER RAÔUL OUDEJANS
Among the research partners, is also the team from the Center for Technology Experience at the Austrian Institute for Technology (AIT). Its task is to examine the triggers, management and regulation of stress and emotions within virtual realities – and how they are measured. AIT project team member Sebastian Egger-Lampl explains that the training principles are based on psychological research dealing with decision-making and its underlying influences. Project partners involved in this part are the experts led by Raôul Oudejans, associate professor at the Department of Human Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, and at the Faculty of Sports and Nutrition, Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences. They also provide expertise in the training to help improve decision-making under stress.
TRAINING MATERIAL
The training material is then created based on these findings. These consist of:
- software with training scenarios in virtual reality;
- a training plan that combines real training with virtual reality training;
- project outcomes, which will be circulated as best practice in a Europe-wide virtual reality training network.
See the full story here; https://innovationorigins.com/virtual-reality-stress-training-prepares-police-for-high-risk-situations/