philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Monitorless Is A Samsung AR Headset That Lets You Use PCs Without A Screen

The electronics giant revealed this concept today ahead of a showcase at the 2017 Mobile World Congress event in Barcelona next week. Designed by the company’s Creative Lab, Monitorless uses a pair of glasses that connect to your smartphone, which in turn connects to your PC. The glasses can then be used to view the screen on either device as an AR overlay. In theory, you could use the headset to access your PC and smartphone without actually having them right next to you. You can see the headset in a video below.

Samsung claims the glasses also have VR functionality. Judging by the end of the video, this simply refers to how much of the real world you can see when using the device; a slider lets them completely black out the surrounding world (noted as VR), while moving further towards the AR end brings the world back into view and makes the display transparent.

See the full story with video here: https://uploadvr.com/monitorless-is-samsungs-ar-headset-that-lets-you-use-pcs-without-a-screen/

Technicolor Launches Virtual and Augmented Reality-Focused Sound Lab

Technicolor's new immersive audio unit, dubbed The Sound Lab at Technicolor, is up and running at its Burbank headquarters. It will also use space at the company's Technicolor at Paramount sound facility and work closely with its Technicolor Experience Center.

The Sound Lab was conceived to explore creative approaches and new technical workflows for developing immersive content, including virtual, augmented and mixed reality; video games; and experiences for theme parks and other special venues.

The facility is led by veteran supervising sound editor and designer Scott Gershin, Technicolor's director of sound editorial, whose work spans features (American Beauty, Pacific Rim), TV and games. "VR, AR and MR are touching many areas of entertainment, from mobile to special venue," he said, adding that content developers are still learning "how to capture their audience and identify the audiences of the future."

While the Burbank facility was being set up, the company handled sound for a few projects via the Technicolor Experience Center. That included VR/AR piece Wonder Buffalo (a collaboration with the Entertainment Technology Center at USC)...

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/technicolor-launches-virtual-augmented-reality-focused-sound-lab-140000081.html

Sotheby’s launches virtual reality surrealist paintings

The auction house has become the first to commission designers to create a 360 degree experience, translating the original paintings into a lived experience through Occulus Rift headsets.

Nigel Hilditch, director of video for Sotheby’s Europe, said the VR technology would add to the depth of understanding of each painting, capturing the atmosphere as close to the artist’s original intentions as designers could manage.

The finished product had won over Sotheby’s surrealist specialists, he added, and was intended as a “complementary” offering alongside the traditional exhibition of paintings.

See the full story here: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/02/23/sothebys-launches-virtual-reality-surrealist-paintings/

Virtual reality pioneer Philip Rosedale (and his avatar)

In the High Fidelity office, south of the city’s financial district, Rosedale and I — wired up to headsets and sat in separate rooms — enter his new online universe. His avatar is dressed in black, the tall, athletic build, tousled grey hair and striking blue eyes an accurate representation of the man himself. His conventional choice turns out to be exceptional. Hearing a young woman’s voice behind me, I turn to face a dwarf skeleton with a storm trooper’s helmet for a head; Rosedale introduces Michelle, one of High Fidelity’s coders who may, or may not, be actually sitting at a desk on the other side of the office. A Shakespearean courtier with the face of an elf flies past on what appears to be a broomstick.
Within minutes I am exploring: investigating my new virtual limbs; chatting with other avatars; teleporting over vast distances; firing off a gun that shoots fireworks 100 metres into a desert sky where they explode in a colourful pyrotechnic shower. After 20 minutes of surreal, intoxicating virtual reality, I take off the headset and return, blinking and exhilarated, to the single-desk room where it has all taken place.

See the full story here; https://www.ft.com/content/97d62cae-f39e-11e6-95ee-f14e55513608

Khronos Announces VR Standards Initiative

The Khronos™ Group, an open consortium of leading hardware and software companies, today announced a call for participation in a new initiative to define a cross-vendor, royalty-free, open standard for access to modern virtual reality (VR) devices.

The rapid growth of the virtual reality market has led to platform fragmentation, forcing VR applications and engines to be ported and customized to run on multiple VR runtimes, and requiring VR sensors and displays to be integrated with multiple driver interfaces. This fragmentation slows the widespread availability of compelling VR experiences, creating added expense for developers wishing to support multiple VR devices, and hindering the adoption of innovative user interface technologies.

See the full press release here: https://www.khronos.org/news/press/khronos-announces-vr-standards-initiative

Khronos home page: https://www.khronos.org 

Google Research and Daydream Labs: Seeing eye to eye in mixed reality

Using a combination of machine learning, 3D computer vision, and advanced rendering techniques, we’re now able to “remove” headsets and show a person’s identity, focus and full face in mixed reality. Mixed reality is a way to convey what’s happening inside and outside a virtual place in a two dimensional format. With this new technology, we’re able to make a more complete picture of the person in VR.

The first step to removing the VR headset is to construct a dynamic 3D model of the person’s face, capturing facial variations as they blink or look in different directions.

Next, we use an HTC Vive, modified by SMI to include eye-tracking, to capture the person’s eye-gaze from inside the headset. From there, we create the illusion of the person’s face by aligning and blending the 3D face model with a camera’s video stream. A translucent "scuba mask" look helps avoid an "uncanny valley" effect.

Finally, we composite the person into the virtual world, which requires calibrating between the Vive tracking system and the external camera. We’re able to automate this and make it highly accurate so movement looks natural. The end result is a complete view of both the virtual world and the person in it, including their entire face and where they’re looking.

...if you’re game to go deeper, we’ve described the technical details on the Google Research blog. This is an ongoing collaboration between Google Research, Daydream Labs, and the YouTube team.

See the full story here: https://www.blog.google/products/google-vr/google-research-and-daydream-labs-seeing-eye-eye-mixed-reality/

Augmented reality start-up Daqri to develop hologram powered super-fast 3D printing device

The super-fast 3D printer uses a laser to cure a light activated monomer into a solid plastic. The technique is to scan the whole object at once using constant coherent radiation or hologram to create the perfect shape. The whole scanning of the desired object makes the process rapid and precise. The 3D printer flashes a green laser which shines up into a petrified dish full of goo. A paper clip then emerges which seems ghostly at first but turns solid eventually. In seconds, the clip is clean and is ready for use.

The heart of the device is a holographic chip developed by Daqri.

Since the Hologram powered Daqri’s 3D printer does not use the layer by layer scanning technique for printing the solid objects. This way, the output doesn’t suffer from minute strains. In a back and forth technique, the output product is affected by grain-sized heaps or strains.

See the full story here: https://www.technowize.com/augmented-reality-start-daqri-develop-hologram-powered-super-fast-3d-printing-device/

Phantom AR Seeks to Democratize Augmented Reality

Compatible with Android and iOS-based headsets, as well as the Microsoft HoloLensand Meta 2, Phantom AR runs the entire augmented experience, including the user interface, applications, asset and resource management, and interaction with environments and other users. Running as an application over the lower layers of the operating system, Phantom replaces the default user interface with AR features.

See the full story here: https://augmented.reality.news/news/phantom-ar-seeks-democratize-augmented-reality-0176258/

Financial technology companies embrace artificial intelligence and virtual reality

Jessica Liberi of Fidelity's eMoney delighted us with a live AI demonstration of an integration between Alexa and eMoney's eMX platform.

She asked Alexa, "What were the last three transactions in my bank account?" and "What will happen to my financial plan if I retire three years early?" and Alexa provided the answer in real time.

The audience knew we had witnessed a first and clapped loudly.

Separately, eMoney senior animator Ryan Gallini showed off the first virtual reality 3D eMX planning experience. This truly blew me away.

An initial study by the firm found that individuals said the least stressful way to create a financial plan was via a guided online experience at home, without an adviser, paired with an online video session with an adviser afterwards to discuss the results and assist with implementation.

See the full story here: http://www.investmentnews.com/article/20170217/BLOG09/170219905/financial-technology-companies-embrace-artificial-intelligence-and

8i Demos Hologram Production, Set to Debut Holo Mobile App

Hologram production studio 8i plans to show off its technology and Holo, its new mobile app, at Recode‘s Code Media conference in California. The company, which gained visibility recently by creating a holographic video of actor Jon Hamm and NBA player D’Angelo Russell, also just received a $27 million series B round led by Time Warner Investments and including Baidu Ventures, Hearst Ventures, Verizon Ventures, German businessman Carsten Maschmeyer and others. That brings total funding up to $41 million.

8i uses 41 cameras in a cylindrical green screen space to create a “volumetric capture” of people and places. Past demos, which included one of astronaut Buzz Aldrin, required viewing with a VR headset. Now, the Holo app, which currently only runs on the Lenovo Phab 2 Pro smartphone loaded with Google’s Tango software and sensors, can scan the room and map its dimensions.

Then app users can pick from among several holograms and place one in the room. With the smartphone as a lens, the user can then interact with the hologram, and take a selfie or shoot a video.

The holograms, which are still “rough” with some pixilation, are labor-intensive to create. 8i chief executive Steve Raymond, noting that, “the most scarce resource we have in this industry is creativity,” said the company will focus on “easier, low-cost tools” so that “people in the industry… can make great content.”

Raymond notes now that 8i is offering a mobile app that obviates the need for a head-mounted display, conversations with potential clients have become easier.

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/8i-demos-hologram-production-set-to-debut-holo-mobile-app/