The State of Virtual Reality
...Microsoft remains firmly committed to the technology, Kipman said.
"We are all-in on mixed reality," he said. "Our primary focus is making our Windows Mixed Reality experiences a success.
This year alone, Acer, Asus, Dell, HP and Lenovo plan to ship Windows Mixed Reality-enabled headsets that work on Windows 10. Microsoft also recently unveiled motion controllers that are designed to be plug-and-play with those headsets and which will hit this holiday.
While Microsoft also has its own HoloLens augmented reality device, the company isn't saying much about it right now.
Bringing computing into the 3-dimensional world in which humans have always existed is the next step in making computing truly more personal.
Vive recently announced plans for an "all-in-one" Google Daydream-supported, mobile-phone-powered VR headset and earlier this year the company announced a tracker that can be used to help inject real world, trackable items into the virtual world. Both seem tied to where Vive sees VR heading.
"In the future, devices will become lenses, lenses that will allow us to see, touch and feel mixed reality," Kipman said. "Mixed reality will enable us to freely and instinctually mix real people, places, and things; with virtual people, places and things. This will unlock amazing new experiences anchored to the physical world around us.
"In the future, we won't need to choose between transparent or opaque headsets. Devices will adapt instantly blending the real and the virtual into mixed realities."
The PlayStation Eye introduced the concept to PlayStation gamers in 2007. From that came a redesign of the camera and more AR games. There were even AR games for the PlayStation Portable and Vita.
See the full story here: https://www.polygon.com/e3/2017/6/8/15761548/virtual-reality-e3-2017
Snap is developing a second version of Spectacles which may include augmented reality
It seems increasingly likely that Spectacles II will ship with augmented reality features built in. A major clue came last month when a Snap patent application for AR glasses was discovered by Mashable. The filing, dated November 2015, details how Snap plans to use a dual-glass arrangement to sense a user’s location and then beam digital content into the space around them.
Snap’s app is already primed to support such a move. It recently rolled out an augmented reality feature — called World Lenses — in April which allows users to place digital objects around them. Unlike masks and filters, users can walk around the 3D objects which exist in their space when viewed through the Snapchat app for a limited time before disappearing.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/12/snap-is-developing-a-second-version-of-spectacles-which-may-include-augmented-reality/
A Breakdown of the What Apple’s New ARKit Can Do for iPhones & iPads
Using only the RGB cameras and other sensors built into iPhones, along with a technique called visual-inertial odometry, or combining information from the device's motion-sensing hardware and computer vision through the device's camera, Apple has added a version of world tracking and virtual object anchoring that is comparable to some of the depth sensors that exist. Considering the lack of additional hardware the tracking is really impressive.
In addition, through the use of hit-testing, world tracking can understand the scene it sees. At least, on a basic level. Using plane detection the iPhone can find flat surfaces in the camera view which will allow the user to place a virtual object on a table for example.
ARKit also does ambient light estimation, which allows the application to more accurately match its virtual lighting to the lighting in the area. This will provide a more seamless and immersive AR experience for the user.
Along with all of these new additions to their SDK, they have added in Unity and Unreal support. Unity has a bitbucket repository up with a plugin to enable all of the added ARKit functionality to Unity applications for iOS.
So while the revelations presented at WWDC may not be the new AR wearable some of us were hoping for, and a few expected, they have in a single move created the world's largest AR platform.
See the full post here: https://next.reality.news/news/dev-report-breakdown-what-apples-new-arkit-can-do-for-iphones-ipads-0177958/
The State of virtual reality
This is a lengthy pre-E3 article at https://www.polygon.com/e3/2017/6/8/15761548/virtual-reality-e3-2017
Why Car Companies Are Hiring Computer Security Experts
“These are no longer cars,” said Marc Rogers, the principal security researcher at the cybersecurity firm CloudFlare. “These are data centers on wheels. Any part of the car that talks to the outside world is a potential inroad for attackers.”
It is no wonder that Mary Barra, the chief executive of General Motors, called cybersecurity her company’s top priority last year. Now the skills of researchers and so-called white hat hackers are in high demand among automakers and tech companies pushing ahead with driverless car projects.
One year later, a team of Chinese researchers at Tencent took their research a step further, hacking a moving Tesla Model S and controlling its brakes from 12 miles away. Unlike Chrysler, Tesla was able to dispatch a remote patch to fix the security holes that made the hacks possible.
In all the cases, the car hacks were the work of well meaning, white hat security researchers. But the lesson for all automakers was clear.
But as more driverless and semiautonomous cars hit the open roads, they will become a more worthy target. Security experts warn that driverless cars present a far more complex, intriguing and vulnerable “attack surface” for hackers. Each new “connected” car feature introduces greater complexity, and with complexity inevitably comes vulnerability.
See the full story here: https://www.nytimes.com/2017/06/07/technology/why-car-companies-are-hiring-computer-security-experts.html?_r=0
Startups ODG and Meta One-Up Microsoft HoloLens
ODG brings a lot to the party though. First, the R8 is incredibly light at under 5 ounces, and more comfortable than any VR headset on the market. Second, you aren’t isolated from the world around you
Finally, the R8 is completely un-tethered, so you can use it for a few hours between charges wherever you are.
One nice touch is that Meta has integrated the use of a physical mouse with the virtual environment, so you don’t have to mimic an orchestra conductor to get work done. The end result is that, for 15 minutes at least, I could imagine myself working in that environment instead of at my traditional multi-monitor desktop setup. More importantly, I can envision setting up an external GPU on my laptop on the road and having my entire office appear in front of me at will.
Does First Amendment protect augmented reality games like Pokémon Go? Suit raises the issue
Milwaukee County counters that “Texas Rope ’Em” isn’t entitled to First Amendment protection because it doesn’t convey any messages or ideas, the dismissal motion (PDF) says. The game “has no plot, no storylines, no characters and no dialogue,” the county argues.
Nor is there any federal court decision extending First Amendment protection to augmented reality games, the dismissal motion says.
Candy Lab’s complaint is full of ad hominem attacks on Milwaukee County and colorful allegations about all the ways in which the new ordinance violates its First Amendment rights,” the dismissal motion says. “But Candy Lab forgets one thing. There can be no First Amendment violation where there is no First Amendment right.”
See the full story here: http://www.abajournal.com/news/article/does_first_amendment_protect_augmented_reality_games_like_pokemon_go_suit_r
The flash mobs arising from Pokémon Go have turned out to be a singular phenomenon. According to a ComScore report, the number of daily average users of Pokémon Go in the US went from 28.5 million in mid-July, 2016 to about 5 million by the end of the year.
See this related story here: https://www.theregister.co.uk/2017/06/07/permits_for_augmented_reality_games/
Polygraph for pedophiles: how virtual reality is used to assess sex offenders
In a maximum security mental health facility in Montreal is a “cave-like” virtual reality vault that’s used to show images of child sexual abuse to sex offenders. Patients sit inside the vault with devices placed around their penises to measure signs of arousal as they are shown computer-generated animations of naked children.
“We do develop pornography, but these images and animations are not used for the pleasure of the patient but to assess them,” said Patrice Renaud, who heads up the project at the Institut Philippe-Pinel. “It’s a bit like using a polygraph but with other measurement techniques.”
The system, combined with other psychological assessments, is used to build up a profile of the individual’s sexual preferences that can be used by the court to determine the risk they pose to society and by mental health professionals to determine treatment.
The patients sit on a stool inside the chamber wearing stereoscopic glasses which create the three-dimensional effect on the surrounding walls. The glasses are fitted with eye-tracking technology to ensure they aren’t trying to trick the system by avoiding looking at the critical content.
“These guys do not like going through this assessment,” said Renaud, pointing out that the results can be shocking for the patient.
See the full story here: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/jun/07/virtual-reality-child-sexual-abuse-pedophile-canada-research
Virtual reality helps Honeygrow worker-bees acclimate
But after just 15 minutes under the spell of a virtual-reality headset and spiffy VR program created by Northern Liberties “experiential video” shop Klip Collective, new hires at the Philadelphia-based Honeygrow fast-casual dining chain are already feeling the company spirit.
They’re connecting with its “HG Engine” best-practices philosophy. Learning food-prep techniques. Practically tasting the dishes. So they’re instantly energized, eager to dive into the work themselves, said company executives.
“Our goal was to provide a consistent yet unique onboarding and initial training experience for all employees, regardless of geographic location or who the individual performing the training would be,” Justin Rosenberg, Honeygrow’s founder and CEO, said Wednesday.
See the full story here; http://www.philly.com/philly/business/technology/vr-helps-honeygrow-worker-bees-acclimate-20170607.html