National Geographic Channel Announces Its First Virtual Reality Short Documentary Film from Academy Award Winner Kathryn Bigelow in Partnership with Here Be Dragons and Annapurna Pictures

Ahead of World Ranger Day, Sunday, July 31st, National Geographic Channel (NGC) announced today its first production of a virtual reality (VR) documentary short film, The Protectors. The project will expose the dangerous and grueling reality faced by rangers protecting African elephants from ivory poachers. Academy Award-winning director Kathryn Bigelow (“Last Days,” “The Hurt Locker”) and VR creator Imraan Esmail (“The Displaced,” “Valen’s Reef”) will co-create this 12-minute VR film in partnership with Here Be Dragons (formerly Vrse.works), one of the leading innovators in VR spherical filmmaking, and Megan Ellison’s Annapurna Pictures, known for their critically acclaimed films including “Zero Dark Thirty,” “Her,” “Foxcatcher” and “American Hustle,” The Protectors will transport users to a day in the life of African rangers protecting elephants from ivory poachers.

See the full story here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160730005026/en/National-Geographic-Channel-Announces-Virtual-Reality-Short

Lionsgate Promotes ‘Nerve’ With Daring Virtual Reality Experience

The studio and its VR partner are using the experience, officially dubbed “Nerve – Do You Dare” to promote Lionsgate’s new “Nerve” movie starring Emma Roberts and Dave Franco. In the movie, the two actors play high schoolers thrown into a world of dares that gets ever-more dangerous.

In the app, viewers can experience some of those dares first-hand, thanks to 360-degree video that can be viewed with a Google Cardboard-compatible VR headset, or simply by tilting a phone back and forth. One of those dares involves riding on a skateboard while holding onto a police car, while another takes viewers on a ladder to climb from one New York high-rise to another.

See the full story here: https://www.yahoo.com/movies/lionsgate-promotes-nerve-daring-virtual-reality-experience-212530780.html

Why Virtual Reality Could Inspire More Impactful and Emotional Employee Evangelism

New York-based Imminent is currently in talks with Columbia Sportswear, Shock Top and the UN Foundation to test the concept with its newly launched Imminentvr studio. The studio's chief selling point hinges on creating inspiring, episodic content that will make employees unusually proud to push VR videos among their friends and family online, potentially generating a series of powerful organic marketing.

Employee evangelism has its advocates, namely IBM, which last summer enlisted 1,000 employees to push branded content via their social channels.

"It's not a requirement at all, but it's something that, if they do it, they get recognized for it," Amber Armstrong, program director at IBM Marketing Digital, told Adweek at the time.

See the full story here: http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/why-virtual-reality-could-inspire-more-impactful-and-emotional-employee-evangelism-172728

Augmented Reality Law, Privacy, and Ethics, 1st Edition

Law, Society, and Emerging AR Technologies

Release Date:10 Dec 2014

Imprint:Syngress

Print Book ISBN :9780128002087

eBook ISBN :9780128005248

Pages:360

Dimensions:235 X 191

See the listing here: http://store.elsevier.com/Augmented-Reality-Law-Privacy-and-Ethics/Brian-Wassom/isbn-9780128002087/

Are Augmented Reality Games Liable for Depictions of Buildings, Trademarks or Artwork?

In the case of Pokémon™ Go, does Niantic risk liability under copyright law for using images of buildings? Most likely not.

Historically, buildings constructed before November 30, 1990 are not subject to protection under US copyright law, so use by Niantic of representations of these buildings is without restriction.

However, no matter when the building was constructed, PokéStops and gyms depicting sculptures, murals, or other works of art, may not be as safe from a challenge, even if the works are associated with publicly visible buildings. If the images display copyrighted works, they may be infringing on the holder's creative rights. Interestingly, Pokémon™ GO may still avoid liability under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA).

Does Niantic risk liability under trademark law if the game displays any trademarks in connection with depictions of the buildings? Again, most likely not.

See the full story here: http://fkks.com/news/are-augmented-reality-games-liable-for-depictions-of-buildings-trademarks-o?utm_source=Mondaq&utm_medium=syndication&utm_campaign=View-Original

and http://www.mondaq.com/unitedstates/x/514596/Trademark/Are+Augmented+Reality+Games+Liable+for+Depictions+of+Buildings+Trademarks+or+Artwork

HTC’s $100 Million ‘Vive X’ VR Accelerator Announces First 33 Investments

The first batch of startups were chosen from a pool of approximately 1,200 applications globally, 50% of which came from China, and range anywhere from content creators, to companies focusing on enabling technologies, hardware and services, says HTC.

Participating startups will develop their tech across four Vive X locations—San Francisco, Beijing, Taipei, and a hardware-focused location in Shenzhen—and will have four months “to produce marketable products/content which will be presented to potential investors upon their graduation.”

The HTC-led Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance (VRVCA), a consortium of venture capital firms focusing their funds on virtual reality, has also admitted eight new members, bringing the total investible capital beyond $12 billion.

See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/htcs-100-million-vive-x-accelerator-confirms-33-vr-companies/?utm_source=Road+to+VR+Daily+News+Roundup&utm_campaign=10061fe30a-RtoVR_RSS_Daily_Newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_e2e394ad33-10061fe30a-168170213

Democratic National Convention Goes Virtual Reality with 360-Degree Live Stream

Politics junkies now have a new way to follow the Democratic National Convention (DNC) in Cleveland this week: The whole event is being live streamed in 360-degree video.

Viewers can find the 360-degree DNC live stream on YouTube, where they can pan around by tilting their phone, or using their PC’s mouse to change the perspective and switch back and forth between speakers and their audience.

In addition, viewers can also switch to Cardboard mode, and watch the stream with a Cardboard-compatible virtual reality headset. Select 360-degree video highlights are going to be made available on the DNC’s YouTube channel as well.

See the full post here: http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/dnc-virtual-reality-360-live-stream-1201824493/

‘Rec Room’ for HTC’s Vive brings people together by giving them more to do than chit-chat

What makes it so engaging is that the other inhabitants of Rec Room are avatars of real people too.

Rec Room has been called the “Wii Sports” of VR and the comparison to the Nintendo game that sold millions of motion-controller consoles works on several levels. Not only are the rudimentary graphics and mini-games similar to those found on the 2006 title, but Rec Room serves as an intriguing introduction to VR.

Rec Room — created by developers at Against Gravity, the Seattle-based start-up who also worked on Microsoft’s HoloLens headset — works better than other attempts to bring people together in virtual worlds because it gives them something to do.

Without filters or moderation, there is scope for abuse.

See the full story here: https://next.ft.com/content/d1bf05c6-53e4-11e6-9664-e0bdc13c3bef

Fighter pilots invented a revolutionary way for surgeons to peer inside people’s skulls

Fighter pilots and brain surgeons have a lot in common.

With limited time and a high degree of risk, they must zero in on a dangerous target with the intent to destroy, making sure to minimize any collateral damage.

Perhaps no one understands that relationship better than Alon Geri and Moty Avisar, veterans of the Israeli Air Force and co-founders of Surgical Theater, an Ohio-based company that brings state-of-the-art virtual reality to brain surgeons.

Physicians in thick black goggles can step inside a patient's skull, explore the malformed region, craft a strategy for entry, elimination, and exit, and even do dry runs of the surgery itself.

The technology, which Surgical Theater calls SNAP (Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform) uses existing MRI scans to create 3D models, which are compatible with virtual reality. Geri and Avisar, both engineers, developed SNAP after working extensively on flight simulation. They realized in the early 2000s that the problems facing brain surgeons were nearly identical to those of their fellow pilots.

"You do it wrong the first time, and it's either game over or you spend the rest of the surgery putting out fires," Geri tells Tech Insider.

SNAP is being used in nine locations so far, including Stanford, UCLA, and New York's Mount Sinai Hospital. A tenth location will adopt the technology later this year, Geri says. Doctors have performed about 900 surgeries using SNAP to date.

See the full story here: http://www.techinsider.io/virtual-reality-brain-surgery-2016-7

Mr Robot VR experience

Step inside the world of Mr. Robot like never before and experience a pivotal moment from Elliot's past. There are a variety of ways to view the Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience - see below for the different ways to watch.

See the full story here: http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/vr