philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Walmart’s Store No. 8 Ventures Into Virtual-Reality Retail

In its relentless quest to improve shopping, Walmart is trying to recreate an in-store experience for online shoppers using virtual reality developed by Spatialand, a software start-up the retail giant acquired earlier this year.

The company is already using VR to train its new sales associates by simulating challenging situations like November's dreaded Black Friday.

Eventually, Walmart plans to use VR to market more experiential products, which Finnegan separates from "consumables" like groceries and toiletries, for customers who may want a preview.

See the full story here: https://cheddar.com/videos/walmarts-store-no-8-ventures-into-virtual-reality-retail

Augmented Reality Recreates A New York City Not Seen for Centuries

Today, Governor’s Island is a scenic destination broken up into a small national park and several historic sites. But originally, it was a seasonal outpost for Native Americans (who inhabited the whole region) to set up camp and collect fish. The British arrived, and the island changed hands several times between the English and Dutch — specifically, the West India Company, which made the island the base of its operations.

The brainchild of mixed reality artist Roi Lev (a former Israeli intelligence officer but more recently a master’s graduate from New York University), Inventing America features a cast of virtual characters and a branching storyline that users can freely follow, explore, or ignore as they see fit. It’s entirely up to each person how much they want to interact with the app’s narrative and cast of virtual colonists. And because the project relies on augmented reality rather than a virtual reality simulation or standard video, the only way to explore the virtual island is to wander the physical island.

“This is a first episode of experiences of the city in different times,” Lev told Futurism. “We recently started developing an experience set in the Lower East Side in the beginning of the 20th century.”

See the full story here: https://futurism.com/augmented-reality-time-travel/

Alphabet Backs Augmented Reality Platform Company

Scandit, a technology company that develops mobile computer vision, barcode scanning and augmented reality, has raised $30 million in Series B funding led by Alphabet’s GV, formerly Google Ventures.

The company, which previously raised $13 million, plans to use the new funds to accelerate global expansion and further develop its mobile computer vision platform.

Scandit’s technology enables the capturing and decoding of text, object and other visual identifiers using wearables, drones, robots or stationary cameras, allowing the identification and tracking of everyday objects, which then can be identified via augmented reality.

Brands using the technology include Sephora, Louis Vuitton, DHL and Levi Strauss & Co.

See the full story here: https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/322984/alphabet-backs-augmented-reality-platform-company.html

NEWS Snapchat Adds Speech-Activated Lenses to Its Augmented Reality Capabilities

At launch, Snapchat will only respond to a select list of English words, with on-screen prompts for the user to repeat.

The new capability is an extension of the sound recognition capability that Snapchat rolled out earlier this year.

In fact, Snapchat's engineers have been extra busy adding new capabilities to the AR experiences of late, including body tracking and sky segmentation.

See the full story here; https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/snapchat-adds-speech-activated-lenses-its-augmented-reality-capabilities-0186307/

Interventional radiology in oncology: augmented reality enters the operating room

European Radiology EXPERIMENTAL has recently published a study on a new augmented reality system, which can guide procedures in interventional oncology. A three-step experiment proves this system to be precise and reliable enough to facilitate image guidance critical to the success of interventional oncology procedures.

Using a back-face camera and a tablet PC to visualise the patient, the system projects 3D images of body structures such as organs, lesions, and vessels on the video image of the patient. The projections are extracted from pre-operative CT and/or MR scans, and 3D change angles depending on the corresponding camera direction of the tablet. This gives the interventional oncologist the experience of seeing through the patient.

See the full story here: https://www.myesr.org/article/1851

What Does a UX/UI Designer Do? [Interview]

What is the difference between UX and UI design?

In short, UX is the high-level interpretation of what a product should look like or work like, and UI is the specific details of your prototype.

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...For instance, in an e-commerce UI, you will want to design to attract traffic, whereas in a data analytics UI, you will have to represent the data in a way that it is meaningful and understandable to your audiences.

...Interaction design and screen design is when I get to create a new feature/entirely new product or make a better version out of the current one. This is where it gets fun! I would follow the normal Design Thinking process – Empathize, Define, Ideate, Prototype, and Test.

Einstein once said, “If I had an hour to solve a problem and my life depended on the solution, I would spend the first 55 minutes determining the proper question to ask. For once I know the proper questions, I could solve the problem in less than 5 minutes.”

See the full story here: https://techacute.com/what-does-a-ux-ui-designer-do/

Simplicity and accessibility: the beauty of digital design at airlines

Any new branding both in digital and material, should be launched together. A universal roll-out of digital can be completed more quickly than repainting liveries, outfitting cabins, and refurnishing lounges and check-in desks. That time advantage can be used to set the scene for everything that follows, but digital should be planned as carefully as the selection of materials and furnishings.

KLM has long been best-in-class for its digital touchpoints. The airline maintains its azure, the iconic crown symbol, and a whimsical, very legible proprietary font “Noa KLM” used in all assets. KLM’s website is fully accessible, including easily recognized buttons that change the color scheme for high-visibility and legibility. The lay-out is simple, structured around primary functions including flight search and self-service. Even advertising is sectioned in such a way that it neither clutters nor confuses. This simple, powerful UX and UI design extends to mobile, self-service kiosks, and to IFE. The result is a harmonious, user-friendly digital and material brand.

Another example of elegant UX can be found on Norwegian Air, which updated its digital branding in 2015. It is minimalistic, but manages to be warm and cheerful – helped in large part by the charming pictograms that embellish simple menus. ...

See the full story here: https://runwaygirlnetwork.com/2018/07/31/simplicity-and-accessibility-the-beauty-of-digital-design-at-airlines/

Mall of America to debut Star Wars virtual reality experience

This will be the VOID’s first Midwest location. The company currently has locations in Anaheim, Calif., Glendale, California, Las Vegas, Orlando, Florida, New York City, Dubai, U.A.E., and Toronto, Ontario.

Mall of America has more than 520 retail stores and restaurants; Nickelodeon Universe, the nation’s largest indoor theme park; SEA LIFE Minnesota Aquarium; FlyOver America; Crayola Experience; Hard Rock Café; The Escape Game; CMX Cinemas and more.

See the full story here: https://www.chainstoreage.com/real-estate/mall-of-america-to-debut-star-wars-virtual-reality-experience/

‘It’s been almost 100 years, and people still don’t know’: Virtual reality project to bring Black Wall Street history to life

Using virtual reality technology, the creators of Greenwood Avenue: Virtual Reality Experience aim to place viewers in Agnes’ shoes and bring the history of Black Wall Street back to life.

Greenwood, an economically prosperous but segregated black district in Tulsa, was nicknamed Black Wall Street by Booker T. Washington. Within a 14-hour period starting May 31, 1921, more than 1,000 white Tulsans, including members of the Ku Klux Klan, descended on Greenwood, looting, bombing and burning nearly the entire district to the ground.

The National Guard was called in to restore order, but too late to save 1,256 homes and an unknown number of lives taken in the massacre, more commonly known as the Tulsa race riot. At least 37 death certificates were issued, but most experts agree that casualties were higher.

She began the project three years ago at the University of Southern California, shortly after learning about the riot for the first time.

See the full story here: https://www.tulsaworld.com/news/local/it-s-been-almost-years-and-people-still-don-t/article_cc220f33-5b7c-5813-9ac3-2a7b3e1d5625.html

A SEATTLE MUSEUM’S TECH BONANZA, FROM CLASSIC VIDEO GAMES TO VIRTUAL REALITY

The museum began in 2012 as a modest repository for Microsoft co-founder Paul Allen’s collection of old computers: a PDP-10 from his Harvard days, a working MITS Altair 8800, a (Tandy/Radio Shack) TRS-80. It started adding and restoring donated machines, and now has the largest publicly accessible collection of vintage operating computers in the world.

Operating is the key word here. The institution’s motto is: “Most museums put glass in front of their stuff — we put a chair.”

Indeed, one of the few things encased in glass is a tattered Atari version of the 1980s arcade classic Defender, excavated from a landfill in 2013 by a Canadian entertainment company as part of the documentary “Atari: Game Over.”

See the full story here: https://www.vi-mm.eu/2018/07/31/a-seattle-museums-tech-bonanza-from-classic-video-games-to-virtual-reality/