Virginia Tech’s first immersive environment specialist makes virtual reality accessible
Research activities in the Cube are led by the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology, which recently hired Zach Duer, the university’s first immersive environment specialist.
Duer provides a range of support services for Virginia Tech faculty and students interested in conducting research in the Cube, from providing step-by-step guides for using the facility’s equipment to creating augmented and virtual reality environments from scratch.
“We created the immersive environment specialist position at ICAT to ensure we were providing users with a superior customer-service experience,” explains Ben Knapp, director of the Institute for Creativity, Arts, and Technology. “I read a story about Apple CEO Steve Jobs emulating the customer service Ritz Carlton hotels provide its guests at his Apple retail stores. This really resonated with me and we brought Zach on board to support Virginia Tech researchers in every way, including anticipating what they might need for a project. He’s available to be their immersive environment expert.”
See the full story here: http://vtnews.vt.edu/articles/2016/07/icat-immersiveenvironment.html
Here’s How to See the Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience at Comic-Con
On July 21, join the cast of Mr. Robot at San Diego's Petco Park for the premiere of the Mr. Robot Virtual Reality Experience, a first-of-its-kind VR simulcast stunt. The 12-minute VR experience was written and directed by Mr. Robot show creator, Sam Esmail, produced in partnership with Here Be Dragons, and presented on Chris Milk's Within platform. And believe us when we tell you -- you don't want to miss this one.
See the full story here: http://www.usanetwork.com/mrrobot/blog/heres-how-to-see-the-mr-robot-virtual-reality-experience-at-comic-con
How filmmakers are inventing the language of VR
“In the last great art transition, the major stage play directors tried to become film directors, and a lot of them didn’t succeed because they did things like put the camera in front of the stage,” said Chung.
Today’s recipe for great film doesn’t work on an Oculus or HTC headset.
“We have experimented with lots of things — including scale. … For us, we want to create these big open worlds. We actually think about ourselves as creating worlds first, and then the stories and characters as secondary,” said Chung.
In Allumette, the viewer sees each scene as if they were perched in the clouds, a god-like view. You move the camera by looking around, like any other VR experience out today, but you can also change the scale of the set and characters simply by walking toward them. You watch it standing up.
If you’re going to do it in VR, then you have to rewrite it for VR.”
Rose Troche, whose second VR piece, Perspective Ch. 2: The Misdemeanor...The viewer sees the film from the perspective of each character ...
Neither The Misdemeanor nor Allumette are significantly interactive, but each work successfully transports the viewer somewhere else.
See the full story here: http://venturebeat.com/2016/07/19/google-unveils-accelerated-mobile-pages-for-ads/
Jack in the Box Tests the Boundaries of Virtual-Reality Marketing
The (virtual) reality: sitting in a bar with two women on one side eyeing my burger, while a rowdy man on the other argues with the bartender. After the bartender serves a beer (which I can’t actually drink in real life), Jack--the chain’s iconic mascot with a pointy nose and yellow hat--serves up the burger himself.
Even Jack in the Box admits virtual reality may not be quite ready for the mainstream, at least when it comes to promoting a juicy cheeseburger. The VR experience was designed specifically for members of the media to get as close as possible to Jack and the new menu item,...
See the full story here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/jack-in-the-box-tests-the-boundaries-of-virtual-reality-marketing-1468606744
Nico360: Meet world’s smallest 360 degree virtual reality camera
While Ricoh Theta S is only capable of recording full HD videos, Nico360 can record 2560 x 1440 resolution videos at 30 frames per second. It also comes with 32GB inbuilt storage for saving all those footages shot in 360 degrees.
Nico360 is waterproof which makes it readily usable at adventure sports and can be docked to bike or car with supplied mounts. Nico360’s biggest differentiator will be the ability to livestream 360 degree videos without connecting to a PC. The camera supports both 5G WiFi and Bluetooth standards.
Nico360 expects to start shipping the device by October 2016 and teh estimated retail price is set at 199 dollars, which is way cheaper than Samsung Gear 360 or Ricoh Theta S.
See the full story here: http://indianexpress.com/article/technology/gadgets/nico360-worlds-smallest-360-degree-virtual-reality-camera-2917929/
Virtual Reality Is Coming For Weddings
Rogers, who recently launched an app tailored toward 360-degree and live wedding videos called LiveKnot.com, views the wedding market as a growing addition to his client roster.
But with the latest technology—a combination of more affordable and advanced 360-degree cameras and quicker post-production editing programs—360-degree wedding videos are no longer a wildly expensive, farfetched idea. It’s not necessarily cheap (services range from $2,000 to $10,000), but it’s potentially doable. LiveKnot.com has already garnered over a few hundred requests, particularly from couples doing "destination" weddings.
That growth has helped David Marlett, founder and CEO of Cinemersia, a live-action VR cinema production company that will record several 360-degree weddings this season. He currently relies on the Samsung Gear 360, but come October, when his own daughter will marry, he’ll likely upgrade to the Nikon KeyMission.
Tatiana Byron, founder of the Wedding Salon, a premier luxury bridal showcase, has seen it all in recent years: interactive photo booths, wedding drones, you name it. The various trends make her skeptical about the future of VR in the world of wedding video.
"Considering most couples now really only want a three-minute MTV-style video, it will really depend on how [companies] price it." she says. "Video is not something most couples typically splurge on for weddings."
Using Virtual Reality to Create a New Corporate Headquarters
Nvidia harnessed its graphics chips and rendering software to help create its new headquarters largely because of Mr. Huang, who established Nvidia in 1993 and has built it into a company with $5 billion in annual revenue. He began with a vision for the new structure where thousands of employees could collaborate under the canopy of a sky-high tree, with the light filtering through onto their work spaces.
Mr. Huang hired the design firm Gensler for the project, working with the architect Hao Ko to capture Nvidia’s culture of being open, collaborative and flexible in the building design.
To make real the notion of light filtering from above, they began with a scattered array of triangle-shaped skylights. The triangle is emblematic of the basic graphical component of modern software rendering systems that create 3-D graphical images that the Nvidia hardware generates.
Mark Cuban Patenting Vertigo Treatment with Virtual Reality
Finally he finds a doctor who treats his dizziness with a controlled video treatment that helped re-establish his brain's connection with his otolith -- the problem spot. And boom -- it worked. But it requires an Epley chair, of which there are only about 20 in the country. None in Dallas where Cuban lives. So Cuban created a facsimile of the Epley chair experience with his Samsung VR goggles, a product he purchased to learn more -- as an investor -- about Virtual Reality. It worked, so Cuban and his doctor (Dr. Mango) are now patenting the process.
See the full story here: http://2paragraphs.com/2016/07/mark-cuban-patenting-vertigo-treatment/