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.
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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.
Google Is Bringing Augmented Reality Functionality to Chrome
Google looks like it is trying to extend its cross-platform edge to the world of augmented reality (AR) with a new product, tentatively called Article, which will integrate AR into the company’s Chrome browser. In a blog post, Google said, “To help bring (AR) to as many users as possible, we’ve been exploring how to bring augmented reality to the web platform, so someday anyone with a browser can access this new technology.”
Article is likely meant to compete with Apple’s proprietary ARKit.
See the full story here: https://futurism.com/google-bringing-augmented-reality-functionality-chrome/
Tech Giants Brace for Europe’s New Data Privacy Rules
[Access the GDPR here: https://gdpr-info.eu ]
Over the past two months, Google has started letting people around the world choose what data they want to share with its various products, including Gmail and Google Docs.
Amazon recently began improving the data encryption on its cloud storage service and simplified an agreement with customers over how it processes their information.
And on Sunday, Facebook rolled out a new global data privacy center — a single page that allows users to organize who sees their posts and what types of ads they are served.
While these changes are rippling out worldwide, a major reason for these shifts comes from Europe: The tech giants are preparing for a stringent new set of data privacy rules in the region, called the General Data Protection Regulation.
Set to take effect on May 25, the regulations restrict what types of personal data the tech companies can collect, store and use across the 28-member European Union. Among their provisions, the rules enshrine the so-called right to be forgotten into European law so people can ask companies to remove certain online data about them. The rules also require anyone under 16 to obtain parental consent before using popular digital services. If companies do not comply, they could face fines totaling 4 percent of their annual revenue.
“G.D.P.R. is going to introduce very fundamental changes to the way the internet works for everyone.”
The rush of activity is a reminder of how Europe has set the regulatory standard in reining in the immense power of tech giants, while other places — including the United States — have largely taken a noninterventionist stance.
Since the new rules require individuals to give their consent before a company accesses data, for example, Google has had to redesign many consent agreements, as well as change underlying technology to make it easier to remove someone’s data.
On Sunday,[Facebook] began offering a new privacy center that puts user security settings on one page instead of dispersing them across different sections of the social network.
Amazon, too, has made changes. Last April, the company wrote a blog post outlining its efforts to comply with the new European regulations. The internet retailer said it would strengthen the encryption around the data it stores on its cloud storage services, and reaffirmed the rights of customers to choose which region — Europe or otherwise — where they want their data stored.
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2018/01/28/technology/europe-data-privacy-rules.html
Among the new policies approved on Tuesday:
■ Allowing national watchdogs to issue fines, potentially totaling the equivalent of hundreds of millions of dollars, if companies misuse people’s online data, including obtaining information without people’s consent.
■ Enshrining the so-called right to be forgotten into European law, giving people in the region the right to ask that companies remove data about them that is either no longer relevant or out of date.
■ Requiring companies to inform national regulators within three days of any reported data breach, a proposal that goes significantly further than what is demanded by American authorities.
■ Obliging anyone under 16 to obtain parental consent before using popular services like Facebook, Snapchat and Instagram, unless any national government lowers the age limit to 13.
■ Extending the new rules to any company that has customers in the region, even if the company is based outside the European Union.
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/16/technology/eu-data-privacy.html
Google for Education Launches Beta for ‘Create Your Own’ Virtual Reality Experience
Educators and their students can now be part of a beta program to create their own Google Expeditions virtual reality experiences. The opportunity was unveiled this week at Bett, the world’s largest educational technology show here.
Classes enrolled in what Google calls its “pioneer program” will be able to create their own immersive virtual experiences with a 360-degree camera and the Google app.
A “create your own” experience “is the top feature that teachers and students wanted in Google Expeditions,” said Holland. The students can collaborate on and share one another’s creations.
See the full story here: https://marketbrief.edweek.org/marketplace-k-12/google-education-launches-beta-create-virtual-reality-experience/
Researchers Used Virtual Reality to Gain Insight into How Our Brains Assemble Memories
Researchers from the University of California, Davis, studied how our brains assemble memories within context of time and space by immersing participants in a VR experience. Afterwards, the scientists used functional magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to observe activity in the hippocampus while the subjects recalled their memories of the experience.
In the VR experience, the subjects “went” into different houses that had different objects in them. They tried to memorize the objects in two separate contexts — which video and which house. This tested both episodic (video) and spatial (house) memory, which each activated different regions of the hippocampus.
See the full story here: https://futurism.com/virtual-reality-brains-assemble-memories/
MyndVR Taps Littlstar to Launch Exclusive Virtual Reality Content Service for 55-Plus Adult Communities Nationwide
MyndVR, the national leader in providing virtual reality (VR) solutions for senior living communities, and Littlstar, a global content network dedicated to virtual reality, 360-degree video and immersive experiences, are pleased to announce an exclusive partnership to deliver VR content to older adults. MyndVR powered by Littlstar will provide seniors with access to immersive and meaningful experiences from the top content producers in the world, including DiscoveryVR, National Geographic, USA Today Network, and The Wall Street Journal.
MyndVR’s goal is to provide a unique blend of licensed and original content designed to improve the lives and cognitive outcomes of adults 55-plus. Using Littlstar’s industry-leading streaming capabilities and a customized MyndVR interface, the partnership will provide freshly updated content on a regular basis as part MyndVR’s end-to-end solution which also includes VR headsets and technical support.
See the full story here: https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20180123006234/en/MyndVR-Taps-Littlstar-Launch-Exclusive-Virtual-Reality
ABOUT MYNDVR
MyndVR is a health and wellness company providing virtual reality solutions to senior living communities, home health care agencies and directly to senior consumers. The company is intelligently curating a vast library of VR content and creating innovative genres of recreational, prescriptive and on-demand content. MyndVR offers a promising future of cognitive health and wellness for the dynamic aging population. MyndVR uses a compassionate approach and understands the best way to deliver the right content to adults 55-plus. Pilots have demonstrated the positive impacts on seniors.
MyndVR is committed to conducting clinical trials in order to measure the therapeutic effect of VR. These trials will also measure the health care outcomes, including cognitive, visual, emotional and physical effects on seniors. The company plans to bring happiness and wellness by providing immersive virtual reality experiences revolving around meaningful content with a purpose.