Second Life Creator Opens Social VR World Sansar to the Public
Linden Lab, the company behind Second Life, publicly launched its new social virtual reality world Sansar as part of a public beta test Monday. Sansar offers anyone with a compatible headset or PC the ability to visit VR experiences, mingle with others, as well as create their own virtual games and locations.
Linden Lab has been working on Sansar since early 2014, and began privately testing it with some 2000 creators a couple of months ago. Those creators have since built around 1700 VR experiences ranging from narrative games to virtual museums. “It’s been a very active period,” said Linden Lab vice president of product Bjorn Laurin.
Sansar offers anyone signing up during the open beta an area of 4 by 4 kilometers of virtual lands for free to develop their own residences or experiences. Users can either import existing 3D renders done with programs like Maya, or simply go tho the Sansar store and buy pre-made assets — something that Linden Lab senior director of global communications likened to real-life clothing and furniture shopping: “It’s much like most of us create in the physical world.”
Sansar comes with a free tier as well as a paid $9.99 subscription for creators that want to build more than three separate experiences.
Sansar can not only be used with the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but also with a regular PC without any additional VR hardware.
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/sansar-vr-public-beta-1202510905/
Why Hollywood Could Make Billions From Self-Driving Cars
The Mercedes-Benz F 015 Luxury in Motion.
"Our mobile lifestyle is expanding into cars — that is the next journey for entertainment. Hollywood is an important part of that discussion," says Ted Schilowitz, futurist at Paramount Pictures. He points out that while passengers will continue to use personal mobile devices, a self-driving car could deliver a more sophisticated offering of movies, TV and games as well as emerging platforms such as virtual, augmented and mixed reality. In a driverless car, "there's a lot of real estate," says Schilowitz. "If you look at the windshield and windows, they are 'screens' at the right distance to be entertainment portals. Can the windshield be the movie screen of tomorrow?"
The broadcast industry is positioning itself for this scenario: Its next-gen broadcast standard (known as ATSC 3.0) brings together internet and live over-the-air signals with mobility for delivering video-on-demand content, Ultra HD (4K resolution) and High Dynamic Range TV. "In cars, that might mean riders view network or new types of programming," says ATSC spokesman Dave Arland. "Broadcasters are interested in conversations with automakers. ATSC 3.0 is a very big [content] pipe into the car."
"Artificial intelligence will be permeating every aspect, from monitoring what's going on outside the vehicle — making sure the road is clear and safe — to a robust in-car AI system that recognizes who is in the car via facial recognition," says Danny Shapiro, senior director of automotive at tech developer NVIDIA. "The content personalization possibilities are endless and will be based on a voice-activated and gesture-based system. The telcos, content providers, game developers and e-commerce companies will be transacting business within the car. We'll also see new types of interfaces — we can even turn the whole interior of the car into a holodeck."
See the full story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/why-driving-cars-could-be-hollywoods-next-big-thing-1031554
SpaceVR Is Building Robots Controlled By VR To Reduce Labor Costs
Speaking to UploadVR, Holmes said that Human would power low cost labor by skipping the AI factor. “As these jobs are performed, we will introduce automation blocks one task at a time using the data gathered from the tasks being performed until all human tasks are automated,” he said over email. Holmes imagines a world in which making food, performing manufacturing jobs, bar-tending, painting, playing games, elder care, child care and more can all be taken care of by robots.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/spacevr-is-building-robots-controlled-by-vr-to-reduce-labor-costs/
8th Wall raises $2.4 million for augmented reality tools
8th Wall has raised $2.4 million in funding to make a suite of tools for building augmented reality applications. The Palo Alto, California, company’s twist is that 8th Wall believes its tools can help build apps that run on 90 percent of all smartphones. It works with or without supporting native AR frameworks, such as Google’s Tango or Apple’s ARKit.
8th Wall has a team of seven people, including alums from Google and Facebook, with backgrounds in computer vision, image processing, music, and messaging.
Investors include Norwest, the VR Fund, SV Angel, Greylock, Betaworks, and Third Kind. Murphy-Chutorian cofounded the company in August 2016.
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/08/28/8th-wall-raises-2-4-million-for-augmented-reality-tools/
Apple’s ARKit and The Future of Augmented Reality
Facebook is also embracing AR, but they don’t own the mobile platforms (iOS / Android), so they are limited by what iOS and Android allow them to do. The camera effects and social aspect of their tools will make it a player with consumers, but we haven’t seen consumers adopt the camera tools for Facebook to date. That said, Facebook has some amazing technologists at work on this, and we should see more this year.
See the full story here: https://www.space150.com/the-future-of-augmented-reality/
5 Reasons Why UX Is Important For AR & VR
What’s UX and how it affects site designs?
Smooth and hassle-free navigation is the key
Integrating UX into the future ‘reality
1 – Mobile app development
These concepts and innovations seem to be interdependent where VR and AR technologies are helping designers create real-world experiences
2 – Immersive experience
Users are always looking for something different,.... There’s been a paradigm shift, where UX determines the performance or appeal of an AR or VR device.
3 – Developing the design ecosystem
Virtual Reality devices such as the Oculus Rift is no less than innovation. ... it’s none other than UX helping you out.
4 – Action automation
Personal interactions seem to be of paramount significance, and it’s a lot about how users interact with a particular app or game.
5 – Intuitive and Interactive
Last, but certainly not the least, UX designing brings along the element of intuitiveness and interactive behavior.
See the full story here: https://www.goodworklabs.com/5-reasons-why-ux-is-important-for-ar-vr/
Virtual Reality Reaches The Big Leagues With Intel
Beginning during the 2017 MLB regular season, Intel True VR is livestreaming one MLB game every Tuesday. Available via the Intel True VR app, the technology uses multiple panoramic, stereoscopic camera pods to create a more natural, realistic and immersive view that brings MLB fans closer to the action. (Credit: Intel Corporation)
Only a few dozen ticket holders in Queens could see under the dugout overhang, but anyone from Hoboken to Hong Kong could witness the same ritual and feel like they, too, were mere feet away. This otherwise hidden moment became an accessible experience through Major League Baseball’s new, weekly virtual reality broadcast powered by Intel True VR.
For this baseball game, the 11th Intel has produced in VR in addition to NCAA tournament games and The Players Championship golf event, the dugout camera was one of five installed with four stereoscopic panoramic units in the sport’s classic high-home placement providing an overheard view of the entire field, down the first-base line, in the right-field corner and a low-home view thanks to a camera box embedded into the backstop. Viewers at home could opt to watch a director-led “VR-Cast” that resembled traditional television game watching or choose a particular viewpoint for as much of the action as they like. The user can become his or her own cameraman.
See the full story here: https://www.sporttechie.com/virtual-reality-mlb-intel/
New Virtual, Augmented Reality Lab to Prepare Students for Technology Jobs
The University of Central Florida’s new virtual- and augmented-reality lab that will open Tuesday is designed to give hands-on experience for students to better prepare them for high-tech jobs in the field.
The Interactive Computing Experiences Virtual Reality Lab, located in the Barbara Ying Center on UCF’s main campus, provides the space and the same cutting-edge technology used in industry so that anyone at UCF can develop projects using virtual and augmented reality, and at the same time contribute to advancing the technology forward.
Orlando recently ranked as the ninth-best city beyond Silicon Valley for getting software jobs, according to Glassdoor’s 2017 study of high-tech job growth.
Equipped with five virtual-reality stations and one augmented-reality station, the lab will be open around the clock to allow students and their team members to work on their projects.
See the full story here: https://today.ucf.edu/new-virtual-augmented-reality-lab-prepare-students-technology-jobs/