Future of Virtual and Augmented Reality
Technological advances will enable the 5 human senses, and ultimately, consciousness itself, to be re-created in the virtual environment.
See the full story here (required subscription!) http://www.businesstimes.com.sg/young-investors-forum/future-of-virtual-and-augmented-reality
Facebook Demos Prisma-like Augmented Reality App for Live Video
Facebook is working on new camera technology that overlays famous artists’ styles onto your live videos. This feature was demonstrated on stage at the WSJD Live conference, but it’s not something that will be released in the foreseeable future.
Chris Cox, Facebook’s chief product officer, said the company predicts that in the next five years, 70 percent of internet traffic will be video.
What Facebook is exploring is not applying filters after the fact, but rather using live filters for in-the-moment experiences. Cox explained that real-time implementation was the hardest challenge the company faced, as the program functions at 24 frames per second. “It’s taking something that’s a known technology, but it was getting it to be fast on a phone and to be able to be done at a low-enough latency, without dropping frames, stuttering, or…blurring.”
The feature is just a prototype right now.
See the full story here: https://uploadvr.com/prisma-facebook-ar/
Macrophilia: Why men want SEX WITH GIANT WOMEN & why it’s the net’s fastest-growing fetish
Men will trawl the internet exploring the fetish, which involves women the size of King Kong, with internet forums packed full of threads exploring it.
One recent study suggested macrophillia was the fastest-growing fetish on the internet.
And now virtual reality is set to take the fantasy to the next level.
Users on online fetish forums say Virtual Reality headsets have the ability to transport users to indulge their fantasy, which provides the ultimate experience.
See the full story here: http://www.express.co.uk/news/uk/726453/Sex-fetish-giant-women-fantasy-virtual-reality-Macrophilia
DISTURBED Releases Virtual Reality Experience For ‘The Sound Of Silence’ Via LITTLSTAR
DISTURBED has released a virtual reality experience for the band's certified-platinum single, a cover version of SIMON & GARFUNKEL's "The Sound Of Silence", via Littlstar, the premier global network dedicated to immersive virtual reality and 360-degree video. The video was produced by Dekker Dreyer of Clever Fox, and was directed by Matt Mahurin, who also created the visually stunning official video for "The Sound Of Silence", which has accumulated more than 125 million YouTube views.
Set in a dystopian world, the VR experience expands on the universe first introduced in the official video. ...
Fans can experience "The Sound Of Silence" through Littlstar's apps for the web, iOS, Android, VR headsets including the Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, Sony's Bravia TV, Apple TV and the new PSVR.
See the full story here: http://www.blabbermouth.net/news/disturbed-releases-virtual-reality-experience-for-the-sound-of-silence-via-littlstar/
Watch the 360 video on your laptop here https://littlstar.com/videos/bb1fe3aa
Minecraft Players Experience the Game in Virtual Reality
[Philip Lelyveld comment: oddly, the picture is the AR version with Hololens!]
There are two Minecraft VR supports, one for Windows 10 edition, the Oculus Rift, and the other one for Minecraft PE, for Gear VR.
...news is the availability of demo stations in some Microsoft stores where players can get a feel of the low-fidelity Minecraft VR version.
See the full story here: http://neurogadget.net/2016/10/29/minecraft-players-experience-game-virtual-reality/44554
South Africa Making Strides in Virtual Reality Sphere
“The big problem right now will be to make sure Africa puts its flag in the ground creatively speaking, as almost 100% of the content currently available on [major] platforms…is not from Africa,” says Neil Brandt, a producer with Fireworx Media, which this year launched Cyclops (Pvt.) Ltd., a subsidiary company focused exclusively on VR and 360 productions.
“While much of the technological and story-telling innovation is coming out of the ‘global north,’ we believe that our perspectives…will have a unique place to fill in the VR content landscape,” he says.
...Already, though, he’s seen hundreds of clients request Samsung’s Gear VR along with content commissioned from his studio. “The speed has been amazing,” he says.
“The major challenge is probably investment into start-ups,” says Brandt, “as South African VCs are traditionally risk averse, ... Very little is available in Africa for out-of-the-box thinkers.”
It’s a challenge that sparked the creation of Electric South, a Cape Town-based non-profit focused on developing the tools to effectively produce and distribute new-media content coming out of Africa.
See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/south-africa-making-strides-virtual-reality-sphere-063948008.html
Arab Universities on the Road to Virtual Reality
“VR is starting to grow. I know there are many groups in Arab universities who are interested,” says Wadee Al-Halabi, director of the Visual Reality Center at Effat University in Saudi Arabia. “However, it is in its early stages now, and most of these attempts lack large funds.”
Hammami says several major universities in Arab countries—especially in the Gulf—have invested in the concept, either for particular programs and staff or for all departments to use in their teaching and research. Effat University has a virtual reality research center; King Abdullah University of Science and Technology has what it calls a visualization core laboratory and Qatar University has a virtual reality section.
These centers focus on using virtual reality for teaching and research. The technology is also used to help students enhance their skills and to express their creativity in how they conduct applied research and present scientific data.
“VR is going to have very significant applications for universities and the early adopters of virtual reality technology are going to have a big advantage over the late adopters,” he says.
See the full story here: http://www.al-fanarmedia.org/2016/10/arab-universities-road-virtual-reality/
Even In A Virtual World, The Harsh Reality Of Sexual Harassment Persists
Writer Jordan Belamire describes how she was "groped" and "chased," while playing the medieval archery game, by a user called BigBro442.
Prior to reading Belamire's story, Schenker and his fellow developers did initially have a "personal bubble," setting, a feature that aims to reduce minor annoyances from other players.
So for more egregious instances like Belamire's experience, that personal bubble has now intensified, Schenker says.
"Now ... if you have the setting on, someone who, kind of, walks into your personal space, simply fades out of existence," Schenker says.
To help combat the Internet trolls, as Jesse Fox calls them, Rep. Katherine Clark, D-Mass., has campaigned for more effective tactics for dealing with online harassment. Furthermore, organizations such as Crash Override Networkassist with the creation of safe spaces for those who feel they've been attacked online.
At 31 percent, women age 18 or older represent a significantly greater portion of the game-playing population than the 17 percent that concerns men age 18 or younger, according to the Entertainment Software Association.
"I really appreciate what QuiVr has done," Fox says. "It's empowering users to decide when they're uncomfortable. That being said, trolls are trolls. And that's a little hard to deal with."
See the full story here: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/10/30/499243803/even-in-a-virtual-world-the-harsh-reality-of-sexual-harassment-persists
Surround Sound for Virtual Reality
The topics virtual reality, augmented reality and 360° video are gaining in importance, especially through the use on mobile devices. The IRT has devoted itself to the previously neglected topic spatial sound reproduction via headphones.
See the full story here: https://www.irt.de/en/activities/av-technologies/surroundsound-for-virtual-reality/