Dreamscape’s Big Dreams for Immersive VR
The two producers were convinced that by combining Hollywood talent and storytelling with Artanim’s technology, they could create something exceptional. “We plan to use the medium to create large scale cinematic experiences”, Parkes explained. They brought their new Swiss partners and the system to LA for a series of demonstrations which created tremendous enthusiasm from creatives, studios, and investors. In just a few months they were able to assemble strategic investors like Westfields Malls, three movie studios, IMAX and Parkes’ former boss Steven Speilberg. “We wanted either three studios or none, because we wanted it to be clear that Dreamscape was “agnostic” with regard to content”, Wall explained.
Relying on Hollywood serendipity and a powerful rolodex, the partners nabbed as CEO the Disney Chief Creative Officer behind the massive Shanghai Disneyland project, Bruce Vaughn, who had planned to take a well deserved sabbatical, until Wall interrupted him with Dreamscape’s ambitious plans. Along with other Disney Imagineers recruited for the effort, Vaughn’s job is to spearhead development of both the experiences and the venue, which is being designed by Yves Behar, who Forbes described as “the most influential designer in the world.”
Dreamscape Immersive is planning to open its flagship at the landmark Century City Mall in Los Angeles this fall.
...there are a dozen programmers and artists collaborating and iterating with them from Geneva, and they are not making a shooter. “That’s the opposite of what we want to do”, said Wall.
See the full story here: https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2017/03/28/dreamscapes-big-dreams-for-immersive-vr/#5f2b760419a2
IMAX and Warner Bros. to create VR experiences based on Justice League films
The VR project Warner Bros. has planned for Justice League includes a series of original VR experiences, created in partnership with IMAX and with an exclusive first launch window in IMAX’s new VR centers.
VR as an arcade-style entertainment has done well in certain markets, including Asia, but has yet to really get started in earnest in North America.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/28/imax-and-warner-bros-to-create-vr-experiences-based-on-justice-league-films/
Apple and Facebook join race to build augmented reality glasses
Although design chief Sir Jonathan Ive told the New Yorker in 2015 that the user’s face was the “wrong place” for the technology, chief executive Tim Cook has begun to talk up AR. At a Utah tech conference in October, Mr Cook said AR would “take a little while” to arrive but “we will wonder, when it does, how we lived without it. Kind of how we wonder how we lived without our phones today.”
Facebook’s Mr Zuckerberg has said that it could take up to 10 years before the technology catches up with his vision for AR, even as its Oculus Research division works to solve the many tough engineering challenges involved in creating a product that is compact and lightweight yet powerful enough to use all day.
See the full story here: https://www.ft.com/content/eac83150-10db-11e7-a88c-50ba212dce4d
NASA ISS Astronauts Train in Augmented Reality
A new mixed-reality simulator lets International Space Station crew members hone their skills on the ground before rocketing into low Earth orbit.
By strapping on a consumer VR headset (in this case, it appears NASA is predominantly using the HTC Vive) and tapping into Unreal Engine’s integrated networking support, trainees can work together from different locations around the globe.
NASA is no stranger to emerging technologies: The agency last year launched its Mars 2030 VR experience, allowing players to conduct several short missions on the red planet.
In August, it tried out the new High Dynamic Range Stereo X (HiDyRS-X) camera in an effort to analyze video from a test of the Space Launch System’s solid rocket booster. The HiDyRS-X can capture high-speed video with orders of magnitude higher dynamic range than your smartphone.
See the full story here: https://www.geek.com/tech/nasa-iss-astronauts-train-in-augmented-reality-1694019/
The Virtual Reality Company Explores Magical New Worlds with VR Animated Series Raising a Rukus
The Virtual Reality Company announced a new, original animated virtual-reality series on Monday called Raising a Rukus.
Raising a Rukus follows two siblings and their mischievous dog Rukus as they travel to different worlds and embark on various magical adventures together.
“We’ve all seen animated stories before, but for the first time, we’re actually immersed in this world with the characters,” VRC’s co-founder and chief creative officer Robert Stromberg tells PEOPLE.
Raising a Rukus will premiere in theaters in Canada this spring, and get wider distribution across North America later this summer.
“It will be distributed to audiences around the world over the course of the next several months,” says Primus, adding that you don’t necessarily need VR goggles to view the series. “We are taking this out to theaters to give even more people access to Raising a Rukus.
See the full story here: http://people.com/movies/virtual-reality-company-raising-a-rukus/
Facebook hires Apple veteran to lead virtual reality hardware efforts at Oculus
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg wants the company to own the future of virtual reality, and in the short term that means putting a lot of VR headsets on a lot of faces. Even for a company with nearly 2 billion monthly active users, hardware is still an incredibly difficult beast to master. To do so, the company is hiring Michael Hillman, a 15-year veteran of Apple, to lead the VR product roadmap for Oculus as head of VR hardware.
An Oculus spokesperson tells Bloomberg that Hillman will work closely alongside Oculus COO Hans Hartmann in his role.
Oculus head of VR hardware Michael Hillman
Hillman worked in senior engineering and design roles at Apple where he worked on products like the iMac. According to his LinkedIn, Hillman spent his final four years at Apple working in a confidential hardware role. Hillman is listed as an inventor on a number of Apple patents related to displays and battery technologies. Hillman left Apple in 2015, later joining Zoox, an autonomous vehicle startup.
See the full story here: https://techcrunch.com/2017/03/27/facebook-hires-apple-veteran-to-lead-virtual-reality-hardware-efforts-at-oculus/
HTC Wants to Use Steven Spielberg’s ‘Ready Player One’ to Sell Virtual Reality to the Masses
HTC has entered a worldwide partnership with Warner Bros. to exclusively distribute virtual reality(VR) experiences for the studio’s upcoming “Ready Player One” sci-fi movie, which is being directed by Steven Spielberg and is set to be released on March 30, 2018. HTC Virtual Reality SVP Rikard Steiber told Variety that the partnership could be a break-through moment for his industry: “This movie could be defining VR to the broader public.”
As part of the partnership, HTC will distribute VR experiences through its Viveport platform for both the HTC Vive headset, as well as mobile devices. “Ready Player One” VR will also be available at film festivals and other events, and the company is looking to make some of the material available to VR arcades through its B2B platform for location-based VR.
Steiber didn’t go into details about the nature of the experiences, but said that at least some of it will be available before the movie opens.
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2017/digital/news/htc-ready-player-one-virtual-reality-1202017116/
How Virtual Reality Brings Real Benefits to Senior Living
Rendever Health, a startup begun by a duo of graduate students at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) Sloan School of Management.
Since its inception, the company’s virtual reality subscription service has been praisedby Brookdale Senior Living (NYSE: BKD) and adopted by other senior housing providers across the country, co-founder Dennis Lally tells Senior Housing News.
Other senior living communities, meanwhile, have warmed to virtual reality technology without the help of a third-party vendor. That’s the case at Morning Pointe of Columbia, a 42-apartment assisted living and memory care community in Columbia, Tennessee. Virtual reality has been especially popular in community’s 18-apartment memory care wing, The Lantern—a fact that took Lantern Program Director Britney Hill by surprise.
“Just because they are in a secured environment doesn’t mean they don’t have an interest in traveling and experiencing new things,” Morning Pointe of Columbia Executive Director Tyler Sneed says. The community primarily downloads free virtual reality apps for residents to use on a Samsung Gear VR headset.
Rendever, on the other hand, works with several partners that create content for Samsung Gear VR headsets, Lally says. The startup also creates its own virtual reality content, which helps mitigate any potential complications that could arise from seniors’ use of the headsets.
Sometimes, residents opt to visit memorable locations from their past, like their childhood home or their college town.
“There’s a profound reaction from that,” Lally says.
Activity directors use tablets to control the virtual reality headsets, so residents don’t have to worry about whether they’re doing it right. Rendever has also enabled a “group sync functionality,” so groups of residents can take part in the same virtual reality experience together.
For the most part, though, residents’ reluctance to try virtual reality is quickly overcome once they see other residents having fun with it, Lally and Sneed agree.
See the full story here: http://seniorhousingnews.com/2017/03/27/virtual-reality-brings-real-benefits-senior-living/