App uses augmented reality to help diamond buyers
Once that safety goal was reached, Diamond Hedge was launched. That was in early 2015, but news about the existence of the price comparison site for mobile, tablet and desktop broke just recently.
Its founder and CEO is Mehul Sompura, son of the New York-based owner of Maruti Jewelers. His idea is to allow people to “try on different engagement rings from anywhere in the world using augmented reality, and then compare that diamond from the leading diamond companies to make sure they are getting the best price for that diamond.”
Besides the augmented reality feature where users can find up to 1.3 million different stones, change their shapes and sizes according to their liking, and choose among a variety of 15 retailers to purchase them, the site and app host a blog where they can learn how to select a gem based on cut, clarity, colour, carat, price and other specifications.
See the full story here: http://www.mining.com/app-uses-augmented-reality-help-diamond-buyers/
10 Virtual Reality Innovators to Watch Powered by Dell
See the full story here: http://variety.com/gallery/vr-innovators-to-watch/#!11/armand-weeresinghe/
Ian Cheng’s videogames blend art and artificial intelligence in his first solo show at MoMA PS1.
Mr. Cheng, whose first museum solo show, “Ian Cheng: Emissaries,” is on view at New York’s MoMA PS1 through Sept. 24, has spent the past three years developing software that simulates animated games—with backdrops that include an ancient village nestled against a rumbling volcano, a teeming wildflower field and a spare, sandy atoll. The key distinction is that he has populated his scenes with foliage and figures who twitch and fight and feed each other in real time with no predetermined outcomes, an endless unspooling of artificial intelligence in beta mode.
At one point during the volcano simulation, Mr. Cheng said that he watched a group of villagers gang up on an outlier, kill him, drag his body into the center of town and urinate on him. “There was no algorithm for that,” he said. “It was horrifying, but it felt like a revelation since they had not been told to do anything like that.” In another simulation, he watched a pack of dogs encircle a man and repeatedly lick him, a man’s-best-friend response that was also unscripted.
See the full story here: http://www.cetusnews.com/life/Ian-Cheng’s-Videogames-Take-On-a-Life-of-Their-Own.rJegvaLnKb.html
How Virtual Reality Takes Immersive Contemporary Art To The Next Level
Artists experimenting with VR artwork
Earlier this year in March, Art Basel teamed up with Google to launch a VR art project in Hong Kong. Using Google Tilt Brush, artists like Yang Yongliang, Cao Fei and Sun Xun created works of art by painting in three-dimensional virtual space.
In May, Chinese multimedia artist Cao Fei unveiled her BMW Art Car #18 at Minsheng Art Museum, Shanghai. Her work is a combination of VR technology and video art, which fuses ancient Chinese traditions and the rapid technological advancements happening in contemporary China.
Application of VR at auction houses
Not only are artists and museums curious about the potential of virtual reality—auction houses are also experimenting with VR. For one of Sotheby's sales in March, the auction house released a virtual reality 360 video to let viewers experience what it's like inside the paintings.
See the full story with videos here: http://hk.asiatatler.com/arts-culture/arts/how-virtual-reality-takes-immersive-contemporary-art-to-the-next-level
IN ITS OREGON SKUNKWORKS, INTEL IS PLOTTING TO TURN YOUR LAPTOP INTO A VR RIG
Intel wants to be a part of the entire VR scene, from the most lavish desktop rigs to budget laptops. Making that more than virtual reality will take a lot of work, so we swung by Intel’s Hillsboro, Oregon campus to discuss the company’s plans in person with Kim Pallister, director of Intel’s Virtual Reality Center of Excellence.
Good 2 minute Intel VR promo video here: https://www.digitaltrends.com/computing/intel-virtual-reality-skunkworks/
Is virtual reality the next 3D TV? Like VR, it was hyped, pricey and consumers didn’t care
What to watch?
Getting people to sample quality VR is one hurdle. Only about one-third of consumers between 18 and 64 have tried VR, according to research by the Magid consulting firm. But there’s also reason for optimism in the numbers: 84% of those who’ve used VR on a mobile device would recommend the technology to others; 86% of those who’ve used it on a PC or console would do the same.
Experimentation remains the order of the day. “Half the fun is this ongoing discovery as we figure out what the new language is for telling stories and enabling users to interact with VR,” says Samsung’s director of immersive products, Tom Harding,
By way of example, he points to architects who’ve been using Gear VR to give clients tours of buildings ahead of construction, letting them envision, say, how the changing sun alters how inhabitants will experience the place during different times of the day.
“I think it is going to be one of those paradigm changing technologies over the next ten years,” he says. Ultimately VR “will have a dramatic impact on how we work and how we socialize.”
Adds Microsoft's Kipman: “I think people over-predicted how fast consumer (VR) was going to take off. But I think the pendulum is swinging the other way, under-predicting how fast it is going to become mainstream.”
See the full story here: https://www.usatoday.com/story/tech/columnist/baig/2017/09/04/virtual-reality-next-3-d-tv-like-vr-hyped-pricey-and-consumers-didnt-care/616961001/
A Tribe Called Red Releases Virtual Reality Music Video for Indian City
The footage – which was shot on 10 different cameras – was sent to Pinnguaq, a technology startup born and based out of Pangnirtung, Nunavut, where a “stitcher” went through all of the files and stitched them together to make them look seamlessly as one. The stitched footage was then sent to Nyla Innuksuk at NKSK Productions, where she helped complete the video and sound mix.
“David Jenkins and Carley Gallant created short animated sequences and assets that were then passed on to Electric Square who were able to build on those assets and do a visual ‘mix’ of the animated sequences that matched the beats within the music,” comments Innuksuk. “As all of this was going on, our friends at The Post Office were creating multiple ambisonic and 360 sound mixes that allowed us to achieve our goal of creating a ‘gaze-based sound experience’.
See the full story here: http://cashboxcanada.ca/8610/tribe-called-red-releases-virtual-reality-music-video-indian-city