Rupert Murdoch’s Sky Launches Virtual Reality App
Content highlights in the app at launch include:
Sky Cinema’s “Star Wars: Red Carpet” – walk the red carpet at the premiere of “Star Wars: The Force Awakens”
“Anthony Joshua: Becoming World Champion” – see Joshua as he becomes IBF world heavyweight boxing champion.
Disney’s two VR experiences from “The Jungle Book” — enabling viewers to get up close and personal with King Louie and Kaa
Fox Innovation Lab’s “The Martian Sneak Peek” – transports viewers to Mars to follow the film’s protagonist Mark Watney after he has been stranded on the planet
Warner Brothers’ “Suicide Squad: Squad 360” – viewers can see what it’s like to be a member of the Suicide Squad during a scene from the film.
“Team Sky – Journey to the Tour” — follow the Sky cycling team preparing for their third Tour de France.
“F1 – Team Williams” – lets fans go behind the scenes of the Williams Formula 1 racing team, in the pit lane and in-car viewing.
“Sky News – Calais: The Jungle” – taking viewers inside “The Jungle,” a refugee camp in Northern France.
“Baobab Studios — Invasion” – a VR animation about a duo of aliens aiming to take over the world, but needing to overcome two fearsome rabbits.
“Jaunt – Paul McCartney: Dance Tonight” — McCartney takes viewers through the “creation story” of this song and its music video.
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2016/digital/global/sky-ups-vr-ante-launch-app-video-david-beckham-1201876154/
Are Virtual Reality Headsets Safe for Children?
A lack of data and guidelines is leaving consumers in the dark about virtual reality's potential negative side effects for kids
The Oculus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR headsets are recommended for ages 13+, while Sony's recommendation for its PlayStation VR is ages 12 and up. HTC's Vive is not designed for children, according to the company, and HTC said young children shouldn't be allowed to use the headset at all. And Google said its relatively low-tech Cardboard headset should be used by kids only under adult supervision.
Companies have offered little explanation for these age recommendations. So what does the science say? According to Marientina Gotsis, director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, not a lot.
"We do not have enough data on the safety of current VR technology for children," she told Live Science. "So, the sparsity of research data and what we know about neuroplasticity [the brain's ability to reorganize itself] and children does not make me comfortable to recommend what is available now as is."
See the full story here: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/are-virtual-reality-headsets-safe-for-children/
Enterprise virtual reality startup Envelop VR cuts staff as ‘an adjustment to market conditions’
Founded in 2014, Envelop is specializing in virtual reality applications for the business world, allowing employees to work in a virtual environment in order to more quickly solve problems. Its “immersive computing platform” creates a virtual Windows desktop for using applications with a virtual reality headset.
I had a chance to test Envelop’s software this summer and came away impressed. It is a fascinating way to interact with desktop apps. The software lets you switch between different tabs and programs in a truly immersive world with infinite monitors inside a 3D space. You can open multiple windows, adjust their sizes, and place them anywhere you’d like.
It is also an increasingly competitive market. Early competitors in the space include Virtual Desktop for Rift and Vive, Valve’s Steam Desktop Theater, and the virtual desktop mode in Microsoft’s own HoloLens, which is a Windows 10 device in the form of an augmented reality headset.
Envelop is one of several virtual reality/augmented reality startups in Seattle. Others include Pluto VR, VREAL, Pixvana, VRstudios, Convrge, Polyarc, and Endeavor One.
See the full story here: http://www.geekwire.com/2016/enterprise-virtual-reality-startup-envelop-vr-cuts-staff-adjustment-market-conditions/
Storytelling in the Virtual Age at FoST Fest
A cavernous, six-story space on Fifth Avenue and 109th Street will soon be temporarily transformed into a phantasmagoria of virtual reality, augmented reality, olfactory experiments, immersive theater and numerous mind-bending tricks.
At the Future of StoryTelling Festival, or FoST Fest, participants who pay $75 for various interactive experiences will have three hours to join a flock of birds following a mother bird; tap into their five senses to experience gender fluidity; or watch “Riot,” a film that uses facial recognition to take users on a journey through a violent protest.
“We are creating a unique story world,” said Charles Melcher, the festival’s founder. “Our tag line is ‘All the world’s a stage, come be a player,’ and this is the ultimate expression of that sentiment.”
FoST Fest is much larger, with more than 70 hands-on exhibits, as well as panel discussions and satellite events like performances from Punchdrunk’s immersive theater piece, Sleep No More, and “{THE AND},” an interactive documentary about human relationships by the Skin Deep, a creative studio.
See the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/10/02/nyregion/storytelling-in-the-virtual-age-at-fost-fest.html?_r=0
Watch HypeVR’s Impressive Volumetric 360 3D Video In Action
HypeVR may be poised to alter the 360 video landscape with their depth-mapped, volumetric video system that lets VR users move in, out and around the captured scene. Watch Fox’s Futurist Ted Schilowitz as he gives one of the first real time demonstrations of the technology.
HypeVR’s proprietary system uses 14 Red Dragon, 6k Video Cameras rig-mounted to capture a 360 degree field of view. Recording at 60Hz currently (with 90Hz planned) the definition of the resulting footage, once stitched would probably be impressive enough in and of itself, but there’s more. HypeVR’s rig is extended to use a Velodyne LiDAR scanner, capable of capturing up to 700,000 points of 3D depth information every second at a range of up to 100M.
The practical upshot of all this is that, the resulting data captured allows any recorded scene to be reassembled and ‘played’ with the scene able to respond in real time to a viewer’s movements – this means parallax within a video and even the ability to move in and out of the scene.
As he begins moving around, the video (a looping coastal scene) can be seen to respond to his shifts in position, with both parallax and advancement / retreat in and out of the scene displayed.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/watch-hypevrs-impressive-volumetric-360-3d-video-in-action/
New Interactive Features Enhance Bucs Gameday
When the Buccaneers took the field for their home opener in Week 3, the team simultaneously launched two new interactive features on their official app – 15 Seconds of Fame and a collection of interactive games. The Bucs are the first professional sports teams to utilize augmented reality for in-stadium interactive games.
The Bucs' Pirate Ship Race is an interactive ship race featuring three pirate ships. Through the use of augmented reality, the field becomes water. The Buccaneers are the first professional sports team to utilize such technology for their in-stadium experience. Users will tap or swipe the ship they want to win. The ships will race across the water powered by the user's input.
Bucs Showdown has been in existence for over a year. It is played throughout the Bucs’ games, both home and away, and allows fans to make predictions as the game goes on. For example, one Bucs Showdown question could be how many passing yards Jameis Winston will rack up before the final whistle.
See the full story here: http://www.buccaneers.com/news/article-1/New-Interactive-Features-Enhance-Bucs-Gameday/b220dc5a-1cf1-4b3e-b942-fa7b47dd75eb
VR job on Las Vegas Strip (at The Linq)
We are located on the Promenade at the Linq on Las Vegas Blvd.
VR Adventures is a cutting edge and never-before-seen immersive experience that plunges guests into a three-dimensional virtual world. Guests will put on goggles that Facebook spent 2 billion dollars to develop, and be transported to a virtual reality. Unlike other video games, VR Adventures requires gamers to use hand movement, walk, sidestep or jump to explore or fly through the virtual world. Honestly...the experience redefines magical!
VR Adventures offers gamers up to FOUR unique experiences to escape from the everyday games and into the virtual world.
www.VRadventures.net
General Responsibilities include:
-Enthusiastically immerse the guest in their VR experience
-Retail Sales
-Cash handling
-Up Selling
-Taking photos and selling photo packages
-Guiding guests on an interactive VR Adventure
-Ensuring guest safety while using VR Unit
-Promoting the experience and upselling tickets
-Solid understanding and communication of all the elements of the attraction
-Position requires employee to memorize a script for the guests
Helpful skills:
-Promotional sales and upselling
-Excellent communication skills
-Retail and sales experience
-Ability to steady customers if they lose their balance
-Ability to stand for long periods of time indoors and outdoors
AES 2016: An overview of the key talking points
The event was bookended by two fascinating keynote speeches. The first, presented by Philip Lelyveld, virtual reality/augmented reality initiative program manager at the USC Entertainment Technology Center, Los Angeles, on 'The Journey into Virtual and Augmented Reality', defined how virtual, augmented, and mixed reality will impact entertainment, learning and social interaction. “Just as TV programming progressed from live broadcasts of staged performances to today’s very complex language of multithread long-form content,” Lelyveld stressed, “so such media will progress from projecting existing media language into a headset experience, to a new VR/AR/MR-specific language that both the creatives and the audience understand.”