The scope of Microsoft’s Windows Mixed Reality efforts is actually awesome
Many Windows 10 and even Microsoft Office apps have added support for 3D and 360-degree video content. Microsoft launched Remix3D to help users share the content they created in Paint3D, and made 3D an important element of their Story Remix feature.
More recently Microsoft introduced their Windows Mixed Reality headset ecosystem, supported by hardware by a wide variety of OEMs, and also by a push with developers to provide content, including a social element with their recent purchase of AltSpace.
Statements by Alex Kipman makes it clear that he sees Windows Mixed Reality as the future of communication and computing, and he already speaks of doing most of his computing in that environment.
L’Oreal UnMasks Next Startups In Beauty Tech Accelerator
Beauty and makeup giant, L’Oreal, launched a beauty tech startup accelerator last year in partnership with Founder’s Factory. The partnership calls for a six month acceleration program that includes workshops, mentoring, introduction to influencers in the health and beauty sector as well as access to resources within the ecosystems of both Founder’s Factory and L’Oreal.
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Riviter is another startup using artificial intelligence and augmented reality in innovative ways. Their technology is designed to recognize products in images and in the real world and match them to products online. It goes beyond that and is able to match precise locations and detailed attributes of the products. The US based company was founded by, Andi Hadisutjipto, Kris Woodbeck and Rachel Chen.
See the full story here: http://www.nibletz.com/accelerators/loreal-accelerator-startups
How Facebook plans to get 1 billion people into virtual reality, according to the VP tasked with doing it
The mission of leading Facebook's virtual reality business now falls on Hugo Barra, who joined Facebook six months ago with the newly-created title "VP of VR."- Despite lackluster consumer interest, early missteps, and a lot of change in leadership, Facebook still has big plans to get a billion people into virtual reality.
- Barra sat down with Business Insider and explained how he intends to accomplish such a lofty goal.
One of Barra's recent announcements is the Oculus for Business Program, which allows enterprise customers to buy bulk orders of Oculus headsets for commercial use.
Meanwhile, Facebook will also try to raise awareness for VR in other ways. Oculus will run ad campaigns for its forthcoming Go headset and the lowered cost of its higher-end Rift system.
In fact, Facebook tested the retail idea a bit last winter, when it showed off its Oculus Rift technology in various short-term pop-up stores around the country.
Barra points to the 2,000 apps, including titles from the likes of Pixar, and over 100 million downloads on the Oculus platform as evidence that VR is already catching on outside of the early-adopter crowd. Zuckerberg has said Facebook plans to spend billions of dollars over the next several years on developing VR along with paying developers to create apps and games.
"Awareness comes with having a wide product portfolio," said Barra. "Amazing things take time to build."
See the full story here: http://www.businessinsider.com/how-facebooks-oculus-go-santa-cruz-headsets-plan-to-make-vr-mainstream-2017-10
Tech Museum embraces augmented reality with Body Worlds Decoded exhibit
The Body Worlds Decoded installation is a permanent exhibit of “plastinated human bodies,” or a spin off of the popular Body Worlds exhibit that has traveled around the world.
The exhibit stands on its own, but you can enhance your experience with AR, which turns the whole place into an anatomy lab. Incatasciato handed me a Google Tango tablet, the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which was running Iris, an app for the Body Worlds Decode exhibit. The museum partnered with the Institute for the Future to build the software.
I pointed the tablet at the exhibit area and walked around. I could see on the tablet screen that there were some icons floating in space. I tapped on one of the star icons and came face-to-face with a human eyeball.
“The AR lets us see motion,” said Incatasciato. “It visualizes what you might otherwise see as just a 2D picture in a book.”
The bodies and specimens were preserved by Gunther von Hagens’ Institute for Plastination, which created Body Worlds exhibitions to help people better understand the human body and its function.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/10/15/tech-museum-embraces-augmented-reality-with-body-worlds-decoded-exhibit/
The perils of augmented reality
A lesson masquerading as a comic.
See the original here: https://www.bostonglobe.com/ideas/2017/10/14/the-perils-augmented-reality/o8xQtfuIwfsQ5urFrqyBDM/story.html
Busan: Virtual Reality Conference Draws Big Crowds
The keynote was delivered by Jerome Blanquet, creator of the narrative VR experience “Alteration,” starring Bill Skarsgard, Pom Klementieff, Lizzie Brocheré and Amira Casar, that has taken audiences at the Tribeca and Venice festivals by storm earlier this year, and won the special jury prize at the Paris Virtual Film Festival.Virtual Reality For Empathy Versus Entertainment
Facebook’s virtual reality tour of Puerto Rico offers a case study in what happens all too often when Silicon Valley attempts to apply its technological capabilities to the humanitarian world. From talking about “really cool” applications to an “interesting video” of destruction to describing standing in the midst of a completely destroyed town as “really magical,” the disaster itself becomes secondary to the technology demo, with the narrators seemingly oblivious to the scenes of destruction and pain surrounding them as they laugh and high five against the backdrop of a flooded street.
In response to the backlash against the tour, Zuckerberg subsequently issued the brief apology “One of the most powerful features of VR is empathy. My goal here was to show how VR can raise awareness and help us see what's happening in different parts of the world. I also wanted to share the news of our partnership with the Red Cross to help with the recovery. Reading some of the comments, I realize this wasn't clear, and I'm sorry to anyone this offended.”
In stark contrast to Facebook’s approach is the Emmy-nominated virtual reality film Behind The Fence, produced by The Nexus Fund, which also uses a VR approach to communicate personal stories and life in a Rohingya camp in Burma. Instead of Facebook’s top-down approach of outsiders explaining the lives of others, The Nexus Fund worked with individuals inside the camp who were looking for a way to show the world what life was like there and to tell some of the stories of those living there. They chose the medium of a short VR film, with its 360-degree panoramic viewpoint to offer an experience that could immerse viewers far better than a traditional television screen.
As The Nexus Fund’s Executive Director Sally Smith put it when asked how they approached the making of the film, “There is a tremendous difference between entertainment from people suffering and using a novel medium to feel and take action.”
In short, Silicon Valley appears to have once again decided to tell the story of "people far away" without actually inviting them to the table to tell their own stories. The result is disaster tourism, complete with laughter and high fives about the “magical” technology, rather than an exploration of how VR could be used to help generate empathy and understanding for events on the ground.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kalevleetaru/2017/10/14/virtual-reality-for-empathy-versus-entertainment/#64f7c2096ef2
In ‘The Hubble Cantata,’ opera blasts into the world of virtual reality
McNitt’s VR experience is the metaphorical tail on the multimedia comet that is classical composer Paola Prestini’s “The Hubble Cantata,” which swept up that huge audience in Brooklyn’s Prospect Park last summer and stages its West Coast premiere Wednesday at the Ford Theatres in Hollywood. Presented in association with Los Angeles Opera, the show features soprano Jessica Rivera and baritone Nathan Gunn singing a libretto by Royce Vavrek. Members of the L.A. Opera Orchestra, L.A. Opera Chorus and Los Angeles Children’s Chorus are also part of the production.
“What is so exciting about this project was being able to bring a new perspective to an art form that has existed for so long in order to provide a new way of experiencing it,” McNitt said by phone from New York. “I think storytelling is at the heart of all these experiences. We are trying to leave people with a sense of wonder and awe.”
Using real footage from the telescope, McNitt crafted a film that took scientific theories grounded in hard data and interpreted them through an artistic lens, making sure to consider crucial points of interest including the color of a star when it is born and what solar flares look like when they’re circling off the body of a star.
‘The Hubble Cantata’
Where: Ford Theatres, 2580 Cahuenga Blvd. E., Hollywood
When: 8 p.m. Wednesday
Tickets: Start at $65 (subject to change)
Info: (323) 461-3673, www.fordtheatres.org
See the full story here: http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-et-cm-hubble-cantata-20171010-story.html