UFC & MLB events Broadcasted in Virtual Reality with Gear VR
Sporting entertainment is now available in virtual reality with Gear VR and Google Daydream. Users can now experience 360 degrees of the favorite spots in virtual reality.
UFC 212 will be streaming live today via the Samsung VR application in connection with the VR Live Pass. Samsung has a time table for the streaming event on their main website. The company has noted the following times for the UFC live stream. (All times are set for Eastern Standard Time).
- Main card 10:00 PM
- FS1 Prelims 8:00 PM
- UFC Fight Pass 6:30 PM
MLB fans can watch highlights and one game a week with the Intel True VR app. The company noted:
- Intel announced a three-year partnership with MLB to deliver live and on-demand virtual reality experiences to baseball fans starting with the 2017 MLB regular season.
- “Intel True VR Game of the Week” enables fans to personalize their VR experience with multiple camera angles, post-game highlights, on-demand content and statistics.
See the full story here: http://crescentvale.com/2017/06/ufc-mlb-events-broadcasted-virtual-reality-gear-vr/
‘Largest virtual reality arcade in North America’ opens in Calgary
Vrkade is now the second virtual reality arcade experience to open its doors in Calgary, located in Deerfoot Meadows. According to its marketing manager, Riley Grieveson, it’s the first to focus only on virtual reality. The other venue, Level 1, also offers escape rooms.
Grieveson said it is the largest virtual reality arcade in North America with 20 stations available.
See the full story here: http://calgaryherald.com/entertainment/local-arts/largest-virtual-reality-arcade-in-north-america-opens-in-calgary
Vuforia’s Project Chalk lets people communicate in augmented reality
Internet of Things and augmented reality technology provider PTC announced that it is working on an application that lets people make ink-like virtual marks on AR images they can view using AR goggles.
“Project Chalk is a new form of communication,” Wright said. “It enables remote presence.”
See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/05/31/vuforias-project-chalk-lets-people-communicate-in-augmented-reality/
Glove powered by soft robotics to interact with virtual reality environments
Other research teams and industry have worked on gloves as VR interfaces. But these are bulky and made from heavy materials, such as metal. The glove the engineers developed has a soft exoskeleton equipped with soft robotic muscles that make it much lighter and easier to use.
"This is a first prototype but it is surprisingly effective," said Michael Tolley, a mechanical engineering professor at the Jacobs School of Engineering at UC San Diego and also a senior author.
The system involves three main components: a Leap Motion sensor that detects the position and movement of the user's hands; a custom fluidic control board that controls the gloves' movements; and soft robotic components in the glove that individually inflate or deflate to mimic the forces that the user would encounter in the VR environment. The system interacts with a computer that displays a virtual piano keyboard with a river and trees in the background.
Watch a video of the glove in action here: https://youtu.be/gCka1qsD4q8
See the full story here: https://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2017/05/170530140713.htm
Ride A Virtual Reality Water Slide Through Oxford Street
Strap on a pair of virtual reality goggles and get ready for a wet and wild ride through Oxford Street. This 360° experience has opened in-store to mark the start of the summer season and is completely free to try. Topshop are even taking this experience one sensory step further by pumping the smell of suncream into the store to, presumably, get you in the holiday mood.
See the full story here: https://secretldn.com/2017/05/ride-virtual-reality-water-slide-oxford-street/
New virtual reality film captures the anguish of eating disorders
"Virtual reality is known as the empathy machine," she said. "We saw an opportunity to let people walk a mile in the shoes of someone with an eating disorder and really get into their heads."
"Mental health is challenging generally but eating disorders are particularly complex because there are two aspects: the psychological as well as the physical.
See the full story here: http://www.smh.com.au/nsw/new-virtual-reality-film-captures-the-anguish-of-eating-disorders-20170525-gwcq3k.html
Benefits of Augmented Reality Video Games: A Pokémon Go Study
A study surveying 399 players of Pokémon Go during its peak of popularity demonstrates positive influences on psycho-social wellbeing and physical activity in the areas of mood, positive nostalgia, social-bond formation and exercise. Those participants with anxiety demonstrated less pronounced mood enhancement, but less negative nostalgia and regret.
There is far from a plethora of research regarding benefits of AR to date, and most existing studies focus only on educational benefits. A recent study by Bonus and colleagues in Media Psychology was the first of its kind, evaluating AR as it relates to two theories; the Broaden-and-Build theory of positive emotions and the Differential Susceptibility to Media Effects Model (DSMM). The Broaden-and-Build theory posits that being engaged in brief experiences that elicit joy lays the foundation for personal evolution by increasing positive emotions and expanding creativity. The DSMM looks at the positive effects of media by investigating the effects of exposure on well-being, taking into consideration emotional, social, cognitive and physiological factors.
See the full story here: https://www.medicalnewsbulletin.com/benefits-augmented-reality-video-games-pokemon-go-study/