Architecture comes alive through Carnegie Museum of Art’s new Plaster ReCast augmented reality app
At Carnegie Museum of Art, it’s serene in the Hall of Architecture as impressive plaster casts of giant, structural wonders loom all around. It’s easy to get lost in the 150 building facades, monuments and fragments from across the Western world. But admiring the details of a solitary column begs the question of how it looked as part of a bygone edifice.
With a Google Tango tablet in hand, Josh Bard, an assistant professor at the Carnegie Mellon University School of Architecture, points at the column and taps a button. On the screen, a 3D animation of the Tomb of Mausolus in Turkey, a historical site built circa 350 BC, takes shape. It’s surrounded by columns on all sides.
The tablet is outfitted with Plaster ReCast, a new augmented reality app soon to become available to the public for playtesting. Created by CMU’s Entertainment Technology Center under the supervision of Bard and fellow architecture professor Dr. Francesca Torello, the technology is designed to help visitors better engage with the CMOA’s plaster cast collection.
Established in 1907 by the museum’s founder, steel magnate Andrew Carnegie, the Hall houses the third largest architectural cast collection in the world, right behind those at the Victoria and Albert Museum in London and the Cité de l’Architecture in Paris. While the Hall and its collections are rich with history, including fantastic origin stories (one piece was part of a mysterious giant water clock that confounded experts for years), much of that gets lost in the museum’s efforts to retain its beauty.
The app allows guests to explore the Hall while learning about several select pieces. Three interaction modes allow you to more closely investigate 3D scans of the casts, pull up detailed models of the building to which it once belonged, and read about a cast’s history, complete with scans of old documents and images.
“Museums, in general, are still grappling with how much technology to provide in galleries,” says Skjeie, pointing out that visitors are already distracted enough by their own smartphones. “We’re very curious to see how visitors react to it.”
See the full story here: https://www.nextpittsburgh.com/latest-news/architecture-comes-alive-through-carnegie-museum-of-arts-new-plaster-recast-augmented-reality-app/
Novel Augmented Reality Device Displays Visual Data Array
For any anesthesiologist who has ever had to twist his or her neck to look at a monitor while performing a procedure, the future is almost here. Researchers at the University of Toronto have developed a novel augmented reality system that can display a variety of visual data—including ultrasound imaging—in real time while performing anesthesia-related procedures. Although the system has yet to be tested on patients, simulations demonstrate great promise for the technology.
As Dr. Matava reported at the 2017 annual meeting of the Canadian Anesthesiologists’ Society (abstract 280260), the HoloLens was connected to an ultrasound machine and patient monitor via a device called an Arduino, which is an open-source electronics platform designed for interactive projects (www.arduino.cc). ...“Using the HoloLens, you can see the images wherever you are and whenever you want,” Dr. Matava noted. “In addition to that, you can actually see the vital signs while you perform the procedure.”
See the full story here: http://www.anesthesiologynews.com/Technology/Article/10-17/Novel-Augmented-Reality-Device-Displays-Visual-Data-Array/44779
ZephVR – wind on your face in VR
The team behind a new accessory for virtual reality headsets that will create wind and synchronize it to VR events, immersing users even deeper into the VR content, came up with the idea for their gadget by happenstance.
Paige Pruitt, the cofounder and CTO of Weasel Labs, hit on the idea for what would become the company’s ZephVRproduct while playing the Playstation VR game “London Heist.” In it, there’s a car chase scene where you’re supposed to lean out the window of a virtual car and shoot down some bad guys.
A Kickstarter campaign to crowdfund the ZephVR goes live on Nov. 2 and runs for 30 days with a funding goal of $30,000. Pricing for the ZephVR will start at $49 for early backers on Kickstarter.
Weasel Labs, which is part of the inaugural class of the HMC INQ incubator in Santa Monica, sees their product as helping amplify and stoke interest in the space, helping people enjoy deeper experiences with the content.
See the full story here: http://bgr.com/2017/10/30/vr-headset-accessories-feel-wind-zephvr-interview/
Review: Daydream View (2017) Virtual Reality for the Masses
I have a feeling that Google isn’t expecting a lot of people to just go out and pick up a Daydream View. At $99, it’s meant to be the flagship product of a platform that the company is hoping to proliferate through the VR market. I have a suspicion that Google is more interested in using the headset to attract more developers to the platform and to expand the demand for these unique experiences.
Google wants to put the technology in the hands of developers now to ensure that creativity and innovation flow on its platform first before a company like Apple gets in the game. So although the app and game marketplace is somewhat limited, the foundation for the future of VR is what matters. While we are years into having VR technology, we still have a long way to go and Google continues to be a serious player in that conversation.
Like all new technology, it takes time and a unique set of circumstances for the masses to adopt it into their daily lives. The newest Daydream View isn’t going to change that in any substantial way, but it’s another step down the right path.
See the full story here: https://www.pastemagazine.com/articles/2017/10/daydream-vr-headset-review-virtual-reality-for-the.html
Universal Music Group Announces Strategic Alliance With Virtual Reality Company Within
Universal Music Group on Monday announced a strategic alliance with virtual and augmented reality entertainment company Within to create and develop experiences featuring artists from UMG’s roster.
The companies will work together to create multiple immersive experiences that will be distributed on Within’s app, according to a press release, and to help market and promote new songs.
“Music is one of the most uniquely transformative mediums of human expression; combining it with immersive AR and VR experiences creates a new artform exponentially more powerful than the sum of its parts,” said Chris Milk, Co-Founder and CEO of Within. “This partnership allows us the incredible opportunity to work with top artists at UMG to create ever more meaningful and expressive immersive music experiences.”
Michele Anthony, Executive Vice President at UMG.
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/universal-music-group-announces-strategic-alliance-with-virtual-reality-company-within-1202602238/
Spectacular pictures show China’s £1 billion virtual reality sci-fi theme park which lets tourists visit aliens, ride UFOs and fight dragons
- Virtual reality attraction is developed by the stock market listed Oriental Times Media Corp's animation unit
- The massive park is situated in Guizhou province, China, and the first phase is set to complete in December
- A main feature is an impressive 174ft tall transformer structure constructed out of 750 tonnes of steel
However, the new venture will be devoted to virtual reality movie making, with a cutting-edge media research and development center.
Additionally, the park will feature China's first VR roller coaster and 13 pavilions showcasing different UFOs, which can help children explore outer space in a digitally immersive way.
See the full story here: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/china/article-5023575/Spectacular-pictures-China-s-1-billion-VR-park.html
IS VR SAFE FOR CHILDREN? LEEDS UNIVERSITY WARNS AGAINST IT
[Philip Lelyveld comment - these appear to all be 3D stereography-related problems that are no different from test results from 3D movie studies. They do not appear to be unique to VR and AR.]
As covered by The Guardian, researchers at Leeds University have performed a study on twenty children aged between 8 and 12. These children were tasked with playing a virtual reality game for 20 minutes, after which they were physically examined for signs of problems with eyesight, nausea and so on. The results indicated a short-term disruption in “stereo-acuity”, which describes the ability to perceive depth. At least one child also suffered a brief case of dizziness/vertigo in the aftermath.
See the full story here: https://vrworld.com/2017/10/28/vr-safe-children-leeds-university-warns/
Recently funded VR/AR companies
See the full table here: https://www.crunchbase.com/lists/recently-funded-virtual-and-augmented/2a72ed1e-6fd2-4924-bed6-ddde2ec5fc3c/organization.companies
Startup studios go Hollywood as CAA launches Creative Labs
Mount Lee, Hollywood Hills, Hollywood, Los Angeles, California, USA.
Continuing a tradition that began with the incubation and launch of Funny or Die (alongside Sequoia Capital and Will Ferrell’s Dirty Sanchez productions), one of Hollywood’s top agencies is partnering with a group of Canadian investors to finance a new venture studio, Creative Labs, with $12.5 million.
“We have been incubating companies at CAA over the years,” says CAA’s head of business development, Michael Yanover.
For Yanover, the creation of Creative Labs was a response to the shifting expectations of later stage venture investors — including his own CAA Ventures, he said.
“Every time we came up with one of these ideas we had to put the money together and raise the money… it was somewhat tedious to build this stuff from scratch,” he said.
To ensure the alignment of interests, employees of the studio have an equity stake in the venture studio and will be able to receive equity in all of the businesses that are spun out from it. They also have the option of graduating from the studio to participate in the development of the individual startups as those businesses mature, Edwards said.
“The premise of anything that we incubate is that we want to bring a piece of CAA’s DNA into the mix,” says Yanover.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/10/27/startup-studios-go-hollywood-as-caa-launches-creative-labs/?utm_medium=TCnewsletter
Vive’s Wands And Trackers Used To Control Robots Like Puppets
As revealed by The Verge, scientists at the University of Tokyo in Japan are using the devices, which are tracked by two base stations to deliver accurate positional tracking, to control rescue robots like puppets.
It works exactly how you think it would; one user holds two Vive controllers in their hands and then straps two of the Vive trackers — which are yet to be released to consumers — to their feet and another around their torso. It’s a setup identical to the one currently used to simulate full-body tracking inside of VR experiences. In this instance, though, the user’s movements are directly imitated by a humanoid, life-size robot to an incredible degree of accuracy.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/vives-wands-trackers-used-control-robots-like-puppets/