Virtual reality roller coaster, funnel cake restaurant to open at LEGOLAND
The Great LEGO® Race is the first virtual reality roller coaster experience designed for kids. It’s the first time the LEGO brand and mini-figure characters have been integrated with VR technology in a theme park attraction.
Guests must be at least 42 inches tall to ride The Great LEGO Race, or be accompanied by a responsible adult at least 48 inches tall.
The Funnel Cake Factory will also open this spring. The Funnel Cake Factory will be just steps away from the roller coaster in the theme park’s LEGO® Technic area and will offer freshly made-to-order funnel cakes with toppings including fresh fruit, powdered sugar and soft-serve ice cream.
See the full story here: http://wfla.com/2018/02/05/virtual-reality-roller-coaster-funnel-cake-restaurant-to-open-this-spring-at-legoland/
Royal Caribbean will add trampoline virtual reality experience to Independence of the Seas
In a press release about the Skypad coming to Mariner of the Seas, the experience is described as, "Guests will strap in and don their virtual reality headset to transport them to another time and planet to bounce over moon craters or compete in intergalactic games. The out-of-this-world experience is for guests of all ages, and also can be enjoyed without virtual reality headsets, for those who prefer to look out over the ocean as they leap toward the sky."
See the full story here: https://www.royalcaribbeanblog.com/2018/02/01/royal-caribbean-will-add-trampoline-virtual-reality-experience-independence-of-the-seas
Pokémon GO creator Niantic buys Escher Reality AR startup
Escher Reality builds backend services for cross-platform mobile AR so users can interact with each other and objects in the environment. The startup offered functionality for shared experiences that was absent in both Google’s ARCore and Apple’s ARKit.
Persistent experiences mean that the AR system remembers where you placed objects in your AR home or can tell when another person is moving them around and keep you updated accordingly; it extends much deeper than that, but foundationally it makes interactive environments capable of being shared.
The startup was one of the clear standouts from its Y Combinator class and we even highlighted it in our list of favorites. What made it so appealing was that it delivered less-sexy backend services to a platform everyone was talking about but nobody (still) really understands.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2018/02/01/niantic-buy-escher-reality-ar-startup/
New designs for ‘neuromorphic’ processors could mean faster, cheaper AI
To understand what these researchers have done, you need to know a little about neuromorphic chips. The key difference between these processors and the ones used in your computer is that they process data in an analog, rather than a digital fashion. This means that instead of sending information in a series of on / off electrical bursts, they vary the intensity of these signals — just like our brain’s synapses do.
This means that more information can be packed into each jolt, drastically reducing the amount of power needed. It’s like the difference between morse code and speech.
A big difficulty with building neuromorphic chips, though, is being able to precisely control these analog signals. Their intensity needs to vary, yes, but in a controlled and consistent fashion.
See the full story here: https://www.theverge.com/2018/1/24/16927040/ai-neuromorphic-engineering-computing-mit-brain-chip
PLEX BRINGS BIG SCREEN SOCIAL EXPERIENCE TO VR
This week, client-server media player maker Plex, Inc. announced the availability of Plex VR, an app that brings the company’s product suite to Google Daydream-enabled VR devices.
As explained on the company’s blog, the new app allows users to view Plex Media Server content while immersed in a VR environment.
Not only does this equate to a “big screen” viewing experience for video content, including 3D and 360/180 video, but it also brings real-time social features to the platform.
In terms of cost, like the company’s other software, Plex VR is free. However, additional features can be unlocked for those with a Plex Pass subscription.
Experience On Demand: Stanford Researcher’s New VR Book Is Required Reading
The majority of the book’s 10 chapters are devoted to focusing on what VR can do to help society. Examples include changing a person’s worldview for the better, becoming better at your job or a sport through lots of practice in a simulation, the fun of visiting a virtual world rich with things to discover, or changing the perception of pain by distracting someone:
The power of presence–the mental transportation into a virtual world–has a useful side effect: absence. Being present in a virtual world takes one’s attention away from his own body.
That said, Chapter 2 “You Are What You Eat” contains some nuggets for people to ponder about the risk of VR, including learning bad behavior from others and escaping the real world for too long.
...
frame rates:
It’s always the right strategy to reduce visual detail to ensure the highest frame rate
The role of tracking:
For every unit increase on the technology side of tracking there was a bigger increase in psychological presence compared to the other technological improvements
Bottom Line
Those who closely follow the VR industry will find sections of Experience on Demand familiar and skimmable, but I would still recommend the book to practically anyone.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/experience-on-demand-vr-jeremy-bailenson-book/
Oculus Hiring Spree Suggests Facebook is Accelerating VR/AR Plans
Starting toward the end of 2017, the number of listed job openings at Oculus has nearly tripled, with the current number of openings floating around an all time high.
Across Oculus’ 15 locations, the company is currently listing 443 available openings, spanning 20 categories from Research to Software Engineering to Computer Vision, and more. The number of openings has spiked significantly since November, data collected from the last 20 months by Road to VR shows.