Starbreeze acquires French virtual reality, augmented reality and toys-to-life technology company ePawn
ePawn is a next generation VR and toys-to-life company merging real life gaming experiences with their digital counter part through its gaming boards and mats in table and room scale sizes. ePawn's patented technology captures everything that happens on the game board and feeds digital applications with information. Up to 40 objects equipped with off-the-shelf NFC (Near Field Communication) tags can simultaneously be put into play on a game board and ePawn's technology will calculate their position, orientation and altitude in real-time and at the millimeter level. ePawn has developed several versions of its technology to fit many gaming-related markets, such as video games, toys, board games and greatly enchanted augmented reality support between for example a toy and a mobile device.
To Be The Very Best: Pokémon Enters Into Augmented Reality
Halfway through your walk to school, a wild Charmander appears. Just a few throws of a Pokéball, and it could be yours. Will you stop to catch it?
Nintendo is betting you will. Not just that, they're betting that you've waited most of your life to see a Pokémon in the real world.
The challenge for the app's developers, according to Will Mason, co-founder of the virtual reality industry website Upload, is "normalizing the linkage between digital and physical."
Like Ingress, Pokémon Go will create interactions based on users' locations. If it sounds like a fantasy version of Google Maps, that's because it is: Hanke was involved in developing Google Maps, Google Earth and Street View, and he wanted to apply those technologies in new ways.
Rather than the linear adventure narrative of the core games (like Pokémon Red and Blue, or Diamond and Pearl), Go at times resembles a game of capture-the-flag. Players pledge allegiance to one of three teams, and battle with Pokémon to gain control of Gyms.
The central conceit should ring familiar, though. Wander anywhere outside, and the app will alert you when you come near a Pokémon — either through an alert on your phone, or on the forthcoming Pokémon Go Plus, a Bluetooth-connected device that looks and works like a tricked-out Fitbit.
"We try to be true to the canon of Pokémon and the way things should work in that world," Hanke says.
That is, Pokémon will appear, behave and fight the way they do in the games and TV shows. Water-types, for instance, will appear only near bodies of water like rivers or lakes. Rare Pokémon in the games will similarly be scarce in the Go version.
While using AR in public — like wearing Google Glass— may currently be distracting or even awkward, society could get used to the notion. Proto-AR products like Pokémon Go, its developers believe, may pave the way to a world where that tech becomes ingrained in people's daily lives.
See the full story here: http://www.npr.org/sections/alltechconsidered/2016/06/30/483857216/in-pokemon-go-an-app-to-become-the-very-best
Deadmau5 Launches Virtual Reality Game
After picking out a ride, it's on to the business of performing. "Users maneuver live-action obstacles to get deadmau5 to his concert destination on time. The culmination of the experience is a concert in which the artist performs his new track, 'Saved' in front of a live audience shot in the artist's hometown of Toronto."
See the full story here: http://www.billboard.com/articles/news/dance/7423876/deadmau5-launches-virtual-reality-game
Jesus in VR: Virtual-Reality Movie About Christ Story Set for Christmas 2016 Release
Jesus Christ is coming to VR screens: Autumn Productions and virtual-reality production firm VRWERX have slated the release of “Jesus VR – The Story of Christ” for Christmas 2016.
The 90-minute film will be available on all major mobile and premium VR platforms including Google Cardboard, Samsung Gear, Oculus Rift, PlayStation VR and the HTC Vive, according to the companies. Pricing has not yet been set.
The film’s religious adviser is Father William Fulco, who also consulting on “The Passion of the Christ.”
Producers promise a you-are-there VR experience for the entirety of Jesus’s life and death, from his baptism to the Sermon on the Mount, and from the Last Supper to his crucifixion.
“This is the most powerful story of all time and virtual reality is the perfect way to tell it.”
See the full story here: http://variety.com/2016/digital/news/jesus-vr-story-of-christ-virtual-reality-1201771737/
Google Daydream VR: Google’s Way of Addressing Virtual Reality
[Philip Lelyveld comment: Google Daydream is supposed to standardize VR across android platforms, avoiding the multi-version android problem of a few years ago.]
With the introduction of Google Daydream, Google’s VR division finally showed the world what Google’s vision for VR is and perhaps where we can expect VR to go. Google’s Daydream platform makes several nods to Facebook’s Oculus platform in their UI and use of a controller, both of which look strikingly similar to what Facebook’s Oculus has done with the Rift.
Google’s Daydream VR platform is a way for Google to finally reign in many of the VR devices and decisions under one performance profile, and more importantly experience, before there is too much fragmentation. Google appears to be trying to prevent the mess that they had with Android in the early days when it came to different operating system versions and hardware specs. Daydream will enable device makers and developers to both deliver a certain level of experience based on the Daydream software and hardware specifications. In fact, Google has developed both a reference platform for Daydream as well as announced plans to develop their own Daydream device that will likely serve as a platform for Daydream developers.
Virtual Reality Aimed At The Elderly Finds New Fans
Virginia Anderlini is 103 years old, and she is about to take her sixth trip into virtual reality.
In real life, she is sitting on the sofa in the bay window of her San Francisco assisted-living facility. Next to her, Dr. Sonya Kim gently tugs the straps that anchor the headset over Anderlini's eyes.
But in the virtual world, Anderlini is on a Hawaiian beach, and it's sunset, and she is surrounded by a glistening sea and a molten, purple-red sky. If she looks up, she sees the fronds of an enormous palm tree, and falling rainbow specks that dance in the air like the light from a disco ball.
For a virtual reality entrepreneur, Kim has an unusual target audience: the elderly. Anderlini is the first private client for Kim's Aloha VR program, which Kim envisions as a way to help people relax, an alternative to endlessly watching TV and a change of scenery for those who can't get out much.
"When I was driving back home from that visit, I couldn't stop sobbing," Kim says. "As a single woman without any kids, I thought, when I'm her age, who's going to call me? Who's going to take care of me?"
That interaction led Kim to found One Caring Team in 2014. Staffers regularly phone seniors at home to check on their mood, medications and appointments, and prompt them to chat about positive subjects, like what makes them happy or what they could do to bring joy to someone else.
"There are over 100 clinical research papers that are already published that show proven positive clinical outcomes using VR in managing chronic pain, anxiety and depression," she says. "And in dementia patients, all those three elements are very common."
Kim's company has created a handful of virtual environments for demonstration purposes, but it will take time and money to build more. So, for now, they also buy off-the-shelf programs to give the clients a little variety. (They recently teamed with the Virtual World Society, a group that intends to use VR to promote social good. The group's founder, the University of Washington's virtual interface pioneer Dr. Tom Furness, is now One Caring Team's acting chief technology officer.)
See the full story here: http://www.npr.org/sections/health-shots/2016/06/29/483790504/virtual-reality-aimed-at-the-elderly-finds-new-fans