These Augmented Reality Sculptures Make Any Environment An Art Installation
Los Angeles-based artist Nancy Baker Cahill recently released 4th Wall, an iOS appthat allows audiences across the globe to view her drawings in their own environments through the wonders of augmented reality. With AR, they can become a part of many different environments, at least temporarily. Over the last few weeks, her work has turned up in some surprising places, a few of which have been documented on the app's Instagram feed. They've flown through the sky above Malawi, dangled over a London street, and floated down the Los Angeles River. One even traveled the baggage carousel at Los Angeles International Airport. With an app, Cahill's drawings can go anywhere.
"It really is a new iteration of public art," says Cahill by phone. To create this project, the artist herself stepped inside AR's cousin, virtual reality.
See the full story here: https://www.good.is/articles/nancy-baker-cahill-vr-ar
Midwifery students use virtual reality to learn the stages of pregnancy with 3D female figure
MIDWIFERY students at the University of Newcastle are going beyond textbooks, dolls and diagrams to learn about the stages of pregnancy via a virtual window into the human body.
The world-first virtual reality technology, developed by the university’s School of Nursing and Midwifery and IT Innovation team, is giving students a visual insight into the internal stages of childbearing, and its effect on the human body.
“At the moment we teach with dolls and pelvises, and I can tell you firsthand from being a student, as well as an educator, the position of the placenta is one of the hardest things to learn, and yet it’s absolutely one of the most imperative things to know."
With a digital headset, students can explore and observe the gestational stages of a detailed, life-sized 3D female figure without any visual barriers.
See the full story here: http://www.theherald.com.au/story/5258905/world-first-virtual-reality-tech-gets-under-the-skin-for-students/
CryptoHunt Aims To Mix Cryptocurrency With Augmented Reality
Those interested in a new way to earn some extra Cryptocurrency will be pleased to know that it is getting the gamification treatment with CryptoHunt.
CryptoHunt is a location based augmented reality (AR) videogame that is designed to make the act of farming Cryptocurrency a more social and fun activity. By using a similar setup to that of Pokémon Go, players will be able to walk about, earning real value coins as they explore, hunt and solve riddles to collect the CryptoHunt tokens.
A demo for CryptoHunt allows users on both iOS and Android to create an account and start exploring the title in real time.
See the full story here: https://www.vrfocus.com/2018/02/cryptohunt-aims-to-mix-cryptocurrency-with-augmented-reality/
Moss Review: Virtual Reality Done So, So Right
Leaning forward, craning my head down, I come face to face with Quill, an adorable mouse with a scarf around her neck and a sword in her hand. Having just worked together to dispatch a small army of mechanized insects, Quill smiles up at me and raises her paw. I reach out with my controller, giving her a high five. Moss, for PlayStation VR, is utterly enchanting.
Moss is most easily described as a fairy tale, only one that the player gets to take an active role in telling.
As "The Reader," you soon learn that you have the ability to influence Quill, guiding her along paths, up and over obstacles and into battle. At the same time, you'll be manipulating various parts of the environment; pushing, pulling, twisting and sliding all manner of objects in order to help Quill move from one page of her story to the next.
At its heart, Moss is a puzzle platformer with some brief bursts of combat thrown in for good measure. The objectives start out nice and simple, but eventually grow in size and complexity.
Each locale has been lovingly crafted with a sometimes staggering attention to detail, all ready to be explored by a brave little mouse and her trusty companion, the ever-present Reader.
Each page of the adventure is a diorama, one you can fully explore simply by leaning into the world and seeing what secrets it hides.
Wanting a better view of the higher platform, I finally stood up from my couch and marveled all over again at the wonders of VR gaming. There was plenty to see up there, so long as I was willing to move around move and take the time to look.
I've been vague about the game's mechanics simply because discovering all of the ways you can interact with Quill, the world and even her enemies is a large part of the fun in Moss.
See the full story here: https://www.cinemablend.com/games/2317271/moss-review----virtual-reality-done-so-so-right
Augmented Reality: Google partners with three OEMs to bring AR to China
Most Google services in China do not work due to the censorship, but Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung have all signed on to release devices that will include ARCore support over the coming months, the report added.
These devices would be "higher-end" smartphones. The software side is "trickier since the Google Play Store is not available in the country and the third-party app store is fragmented", Xiaomi, Huawei and Samsung would release ARCore apps through their own app stores.
Recently, Google partnered with Tencent, invested in China-based startups and announced an AI lab in Beijing.
Google also gained a large tech presence in Taiwan via the completion of its acquisition of a chunk of HTC and it opened a presence in Shenzhen.
See the full story here: http://www.business-standard.com/article/technology/augmented-reality-google-partners-with-three-oems-to-bring-ar-to-china-118022400233_1.html
Google’s ARCore hits version 1.0, brings augmented reality to 100 million devices
Flagship smartphones from Google, Samsung, OnePlus, and LG are now compatible.
Just like Apple's ARKit, ARCore allows normal smartphones to run augmented reality apps. ARCore apps will either overlay 3D objects on top of the phone's camera feed or allow you to use the phone as a camera in a 3D world, moving your viewpoint around as you move the phone.
Google's blog post lists the following phones as compatible: "Google’s Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL; Samsung’s Galaxy S8, S8+, Note8, S7 and S7 edge; LGE’s V30 and V30+ (Android O only); ASUS’s Zenfone AR; and OnePlus’s OnePlus 5." All together, that's about 100 million devices that can run augmented reality apps. In the future, Google says, "Samsung, Huawei, LGE, Motorola, ASUS, Xiaomi, HMD/Nokia, ZTE, Sony Mobile, and Vivo" will bring ARCore to their upcoming smartphone releases.
Another interesting tidbit is that Google is also launching ARCore in China.
See the full story here: https://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2018/02/googles-arcore-hits-version-1-0-brings-augmented-reality-to-100-million-devices/