philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Why Daqri has spread its bets with augmented reality technology

Certain types of displays you don’t need, but experiences will change to support it. Mimicking a display in AR will probably never be as good as a physical display. However, the benefit of it being virtualized could outweigh that, and the perceptible differences can be smoothed out. The question is, if I can have anything I want in real space, would I want it to look like a display, or do I change it completely into something more intuitive? Do I have a screen with an email icon and a little notification on it, or do I have a 3D model of a piece of mail sitting in front of me? I can physically intuit certain things by seeing a 3D model.

See the full story here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/03/why-daqri-has-spread-its-bets-with-augmented-reality-technology/

This New Lab company wants to use augmented reality to improve indoor farming

“Imagine a future where farmers wander through the rows of a greenhouse, wearing augmented reality glasses that tell them what type of tomato or strain of marijuana they’re looking at,” writes Motherboard. “Cameras installed above watch for signs of disease and pests, and monitor watering needs and growth rates. If the system spots an anomaly, it pings one of the augmented farmers to isolate the problem before it spreads.”

See the full story here; https://technical.ly/brooklyn/2017/06/02/new-lab-company-wants-use-augmented-reality-improve-indoor-farming-motherboard/

SONICAM: The World’s First Affordable 3D Virtual Reality Camera

SONICAM is a professional, spherical VR camera with 9 fish-eye cameras, 64 microphones, 4K HD resolution, and 360 degrees field of view.

See the full story here: http://interestingengineering.com/meet-sonicam-worlds-first-affordable-3d-virtual-reality-camera/

Launch Academy’s startup visa program gives entrepreneurs permanent residency in Canada

As the U.S. seems to be hell-bent on making itself less attractive to immigrants and visitors, its neighbors to the north are sensing an opening and going the other way in an effort to attract the smartest tech entrepreneurs.

Launch Academy and its advisers will vet applicants and recommend them to the Canadian government for the visa and permanent residency process. Because of this, it’s not just an option for startups but also for founders of more mature companies that want to put their roots down in North America.

Successful applicants — and their families and core team — will be immediately eligible to apply for work visas and permanent residency. Those visas should arrive within weeks (and potentially faster) and the residency process should take about six months.

The Launch Academy team tells me that it received about 100 pre-applications with more than 20 promising candidates. Geographically, they hail from all over the world and include Harvard, Yale and MIT grads, as well as former Google and Facebook employees.

See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/06/02/launch-academys-startup-visa-program-gives-entrepreneurs-permanent-residency-in-canada/?ncid=tcdaily&utm_medium=TCnewsletter

AWE

We could see that at Augmented World Expo this week in Santa Clara, Calif., where all the major tech companies — Google, Intel, Qualcomm, Microsoft — and many others had augmented reality technology on display. The event drew more than 4,700 people, compared to 3,850 a year ago and just 200 about seven years ago. It also drew 212 companies, compared to 120 last year.

More here: https://venturebeat.com/2017/06/03/why-daqri-has-spread-its-bets-with-augmented-reality-technology/

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

This app uses virtual reality to help people quit smoking once and for all

The app features guided meditation and calming imagery to encourage introspection. Simply place your smartphone in the cardboard headset, stick it over your face and feel the calming vibes wash over you, before going on to an animated smoking experience, complete with sitting down with a cigarette in hand.

It feels like you’re smoking, but you’re not. You can experience what smoking feels like, without poisoning your lungs, heart, mouth, skin, and pretty much everything else that tobacco smoke attacks.

See the full story here: http://metro.co.uk/2017/06/03/this-app-uses-virtual-reality-to-help-people-quit-smoking-once-and-for-all-6681646/#ixzz4j95zbtWq

My ETC presentation at Augmented World Expo

The ETC@USC’s Phil Lelyveld gave a presentation on the dark side of AR at Augmented World Expo on Friday, June 2, 2017 (http://www.augmentedworldexpo.com/agenda/session/179581 ). His goal was to raise awareness of some fundamental issues now; before there is resistance to change from established AR and VR business models. Phil began by describing how the AR and VR landscape is integrally linked to the Internet of Things (it feeds data to the AR/VR experience), Artificial Intelligence (it will shape the end-user experience and avatar behavior), and to a lesser degree robotics (the relatable face of the AI). He then raised three dark-side issues; lack of adequate security, exponential increase of personal data gathered, and embedded bias and psychological manipulation in the AI that may go undetected for a long time. In each case Phil referenced work on possible paths to solutions. Phil closed by saying that these are not problems; they are known elements of an emerging system and should be part of any planning discussion. “We are defining the starting point and ‘training set’ for future generations” he said.

Philip’s presentation deck is posted here (170602 AWE final deck). The video of his presentation should be available on the AWE2017 website (www.augmentedworldexpo.com) around June 15^th.

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/