Legally blind Stockton dad uses augmented reality app to help him ‘see’
The app allows him to call a trained agent who then in real-time is able to tell him what he's seeing either through the camera on his phone or through specially made glasses.
"For the things that we can't see, their job is to describe it," Hy, 40, explained. "They don’t give us an opinion or anything, their job is to describe things and tell us what it looks like."
Aira agents are on-call and available from 4 a.m. to 10 p.m. (PDT). They can help with anything from reading papers to navigating a new street to shopping.
See the full story here: http://www.abc10.com/news/local/legally-blind-stockton-dad-uses-augmented-reality-app-to-help-him-see/498766281
How virtual reality is opening up some of the world’s most inaccessible archaeological sites
Just over an hour’s drive north from Los Angeles is the Wind Wolves Preserve. At nearly 100,000 acres, the preserve protects a wide range of endangered and threatened species in the heart of the most populous state in the US.
It also hosts two remote archaeological sites situated in the San Emigdio Hills. Pleito, one of the most elaborately painted rock-art sites in the world, and Cache Cave, with one of the most significant in-situ collections of perishable objects, including baskets, ever discovered in the American West. The oldest of the rock paintings and baskets appear to be over 2,000-years-old. However, exploring it is problematic. The paintings at Pleito, found on exfoliating sandstone, are extremely fragile. Meanwhile, the Cache Cave is a complex, narrow cave system.
Now our team of researchers from the University of Central Lancashire in the UK has created a VR model of the sites.
See the full story here: http://theconversation.com/how-virtual-reality-is-opening-up-some-of-the-worlds-most-inaccessible-archaeological-sites-88286
Snapchat Users Can Now Create World Lenses with AR Tool
The new Lens Studio tool could help Snapchat compete with the recently launched Camera Effects AR platform from Facebook.
To start, Snapchat’s platform only lets users create World Lenses and not selfie masks, but “more AR toys will give Snapchat a much-needed boost to sharing and viewing at a time when user growth has slowed to a trickle in the face of Instagram’s competition,” suggests TechCrunch.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/snapchat-users-can-now-create-world-lenses-with-ar-tool/
kea Is Stepping Into Virtual Reality by Creating a Game for New Store Openings
Working with the recently merged MEC-Maxus agency Wavemaker, Ikea worked with incorporated a virtual reality experience for one of its store openings in a Dallas suburb, immersing visitors in an Ikea world where they could play a “pillow toss” game with a coffee table or hang out with a panda inside a bamboo lamp. Nearly 300 people tried out the popular Swedish brand’s VR for the first time, spending between three and five minutes playing games, examining furniture or learning about sustainability and design.
Just a few months ago, the company releasing an AR app, which lets shoppers see how hypothetical purchases would look by holding up their iPhone camera in their home. While the AR app only requires a smartphone, Ikea used the HTC Vive headset for visitors to try inside the Dallas store.
However, Ikea’s VR game is something it can potentially reuse. Now that Ikea has set up the framework, it’s now replicable and portable for future store openings, according to Noah Mallin, Wavemaker’s head of experience, content and sponsorship.
See the full story here: http://www.adweek.com/digital/ikea-is-stepping-into-virtual-reality-by-creating-a-game-for-new-store-openings/
Virtual Reality Visor Could Help Protect Drivers
As part of the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency’s Ground-X Vehicles technology program, the company demonstrated a visor that provides the driver with a 160-degree virtual reality image of outside terrain. Drivers can then operate in an enclosed, windowless vehicle, “which would then allow the driver to be safe, protected from snipers, shrapnel or anything else,” Brian Aleksa, senior technical manager of research and development at the company, said in an interview.
One important feature of the visor is the “snap algorithm,” Aleska explained, meaning that the user is unconsciously switching his view among multiple cameras as he turns his head.
“You turn your head from left to right and you’re actually looking through different camera pairs, different high [resolution] high-definition cameras,” he said. “You don’t even . . . perceive you’re switching from one pair to the next, so it’s really like a natural vision system.”
See the full story here: http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2017/12/18/virtual-reality-visor-could-help-protect-drivers
IMMERSIVE VIRTUAL REALITY EXPERIENCES AT THE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF SINGAPORE
18 immersive VR experiences are available to the public at the National Museum
of Singapore. The innovation in the adaption of virtual reality in this museum has
been the logical next step in its digital adventures. Also, this innovation has had
some effect, which is, for instance, the increased number of visitors wanting to see Farquhar’s actual drawings, after viewing the corresponding interactive digital installation of Farquhar’s animal and plant drawings.
See the full story here: https://www.vi-mm.eu/2017/12/17/immersive-virtual-reality-experiences-at-the-national-museum-of-singapore/
All the world’s a virtual stage: augmented reality theatre venture raises cash
A start-up that promises a new type of theatre experience has raised £3m from investors, including the founders of online estate agency Purplebricks.
Ellipsis Entertainment is developing a method of “fusing augmented reality with the sets and actors of traditional theatre”, said co-founder Andrew McGuinness, an advertising executive.
See the full story here: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/edition/business/all-the-worlds-a-virtual-stage-augmented-reality-theatre-venture-raises-cash-th90s2s9w
Google to shut down its augmented reality platform Project Tango for ARCore
ARCore uses three key technologies: motion tracking, environmental understanding and light estimation.
“ARCore’s understanding of the real world lets you place objects, annotations, or other information in a way that integrates seamlessly with the real world. You can place a napping kitten on the corner of your coffee table, or annotate a painting with biographical information about the artist. Motion tracking means that you can move around and view these objects from any angle, and even if you turn around and leave the room, when you come back, the kitten or annotation will be right where you left it,” Google wrote on ARCore’s website.
ARCore is available today as a developer preview, enabling developers to experiment with AR apps. It currently supports Google Pixel, Pixel XL, Pixel 2, Pixel 2 XL and Samsung Galaxy S8.
“We’re turning down support for Tango on March 1, 2018.
See the full story here: https://sdtimes.com/google-shut-augmented-reality-platform-project-tango/
Also
But how different are the two technologies? Despite its limitations, Tango’s refined hardware makes it faster and more accurate than ARCore. Instead of tracking planes in a video feed like ARCore and ARKit does, Tango uses its hardware to compile a 3D map of a designated area, one that allows you to leave objects in space and return to them later.
Currently, there are only two devices that utilize Tango: The Lenovo Phab 2 Pro and the Asus Zenfone AR. They are both optimized with extra hardware — such as a barometer, motion-tracking camera, and an infrared depth-sensing camera — which improve the function of various AR applications. ARCore, which will run on many Android phones and doesn’t require specific hardware components, has made these two phones redundant.
See this full story here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/mobile/tango-vs-arcore-theunlockr/