The company will livestream key OC5 moments in Oculus Venues, so you can experience keynotes, esports action and gameplay alongside other fans in the crowd, using Oculus Go or Gear VR.
20Sep/18Off
Israelis experience Palestinian home life in virtual reality
An art exhibition in Jerusalem that gives Israelis the chance to experience a Palestinian family’s living room – by wearing virtual reality goggles – has laid bare the entrenched separation of two societies that live side by side but, increasingly, worlds apart.
The Israel Museum, where the exhibition is being held, is less than two miles from Arab neighbourhoods in Jerusalem where thousands of Palestinians live. And it is only six miles from the West Bank village where the family who agreed to be filmed for the project live.
Landau’s room, called “Visitors”, has been sliced down the middle, with one side decorated like the home of a Jewish family and the other as a Palestinian home. Virtual reality glasses give visitors a 360-degree view of the homes and they can listen to stories from family members.
Israelis and Palestinians – societies that once knew each other intimately – have never been as physically divided as they are today. After two intifadas, Israeli military crackdowns and ensuing bloodshed, there have been moves for complete separation.
The two families Landau filmed for the project live just tens of metres apart but have never met because they are separated by the wall that divides the West Bank.
See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/sep/20/israelis-experience-slice-of-virtual-reality-of-palestinian-home-life
20Sep/18Off
MovieCoin’s Public Presale For Blockchain-Based Technology
VentureBeat reports that, according to chair/chief executive Christopher Woodrow, “MovieCoin comprises content financing and production, business and consumer services, and technology development and licensing.”
“The content financing and production business offers ownership of filmed entertainment assets to financial investors seeking institutionalized, programmatic access to financing of premium content,” he added. “Our team of seasoned Hollywood media executives will source and qualify commercial feature film and entertainment investment opportunities.”
The MovieCoin Smart Fund, he added, is a “financing program established to finance and own a portfolio of wide-release, feature-length major motion pictures.” MovieCoin Smart Fund (MSF) tokens are used to fund content production on the MovieCoin platform, enabling investors to partake in film financing at a lower cost than traditional financing models.
Similar to crowdfunding, MSF tokens allow “users to stake a claim in the industry at a lower level than before,” and could also be used “to purchase movie tickets and other entertainment offerings.”
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/moviecoins-public-presale-for-blockchain-based-technology/
20Sep/18Off
Transference Review: A Black Mirror VR Nightmare Come To Life
Platforms: Rift (reviewed,) Vive, and PSVR. Also supports non-VR.
POSITIVES
- Top-notch performances from cast
- Palpable tension from start to finish
- Creative meta commentary on VR technology
- Absolutely beautiful visuals
NEGATIVES
- Extremely short at about 90 minutes
- Most puzzles were extremely easy
- Lots of recycled assets
In many ways this is the perfect embodiment of what people mean when they say “VR experience” rather than “game” or “story” as the narrative itself ebbs and flows as something that exists around you rather than something that’s told to you as you play. And after spending about 90 minutes to get through it all from start to finish in one sitting, I can’t stop thinking about it.
...most set pieces revolve more around results from you actions than the actions themselves.
For that reason, Transference really is best experienced in a single sitting if possible.
Final Score: 9/10 – Great
Transference is available starting today on PC for Rift (Oculus Home) and Vive (Steam), as well as PS4 (PSN page) with optional PSVR support. It’s also available in non-VR mode for PC as well as Xbox One. All versions start at $24.99. And check out these official review guidelines to find out more about our process.
20Sep/18Off
Sony Patents VR Headset That Combats Simulation Sickness With Eye-Tracking And More
The patent was originally filed in early 2017 (six months after the original PSVR’s release) and published last week. It describes a system for fighting what it describes as “virtual reality sickness” using a head-mounted display (HMD) that’s fitted with a range of biometric sensors such as a thermometer, eye-tracking cameras, a moisture sensor and exterior orientation sensors.
According to the patent, the given headset would use these features to establish a “health threshold value” that could presumably tell when a VR experience was becoming too intense for the user and then act accordingly. There’s even a microphone that will listen out for “negative” words and noises that might suggest you’re having a bad time (or you’re just doing the Mr. Baker chase in Resident Evil 7).
... this patent suggests Sony may come up with a system that accepts people get ill in VR and tries to help them when they start feeling nauseous.
That said, based on the chart below, it looks like the system would be more concerned with alerting the VR user to their condition rather than dynamically changing the given experience for it. ...
Of course, some elements of the headset could also be used in other ways. Eye-tracking, for example, is considered essential for the next step of VR. It allows for foveated rendering,...
18Sep/18Off
‘USA Today’ Turns to Augmented Reality to Tell the Story of Corruption in Chicago
Debuting Sept. 24, The City examines the backroom politics of several American cities, with the Windy City serving as the subject in its premiere. The podcast's first episode focuses on how municipal government, organized crime, and federal authorities conspired to dump trash in a vacant lot of Chicago's North Lawndale neighborhood.
Available today in the USA Today app for iOS, the AR experience presents the audience with a 3D aerial model of the North Lawndale neighborhood.
As the audio story unfolds, a time-lapse animation of the dump grows in size and height. Visual prompts within the field of view direct viewers to points of interest on the model as the story continues.
USA Today has not been as prolific in the practice as the Times, whose immersive content team has published about a story per month since starting the AR production in February 2018. Considering that augmented reality, particularly in the area of news reporting, is still an emerging technology, it will take some time before media companies achieve the scale necessary to produce content on a more consistent basis.
See the full story here: https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/usa-today-turns-augmented-reality-tell-story-corruption-chicago-0187468/
18Sep/18Off
Why Apple Is Betting Big On Augmented Reality With Latest Range Of Phones
The numbers support this Apple's decision; AR is seeing increased investment as interest in VR (beyond enterprise) cools. For years, there’s been a stable demand for augmented reality among tech geeks. But, the price of the technology required to make it a mainstream product was too staggeringly high. Times have changed, though, and that means that you can reap the rewards of actually playing with augmented reality in a way that previously was impossible.
Understanding AR's potential to make or break a business is now mission-critical for businesses. [AR's rise] is about technology evolving to the next level.”
Apple's Bionic chip and its unique neural networks mean that coaches can improve your free throws and you can play Galaga without going to an arcade but there's more to come. Apple is already working on autonomous vehicles, an AR/VR headset and glasses all of which will have extra screens to augment. Apple is just getting started in a new world of screens. The world is no longer just what you see; it's what you'll augment.