Cadillac Bets on Virtual Dealerships
General Motors Co.’s luxury division has about three times as many U.S. stores as German luxury auto makers or Toyota Motor Co.’s Lexus, but sells only about half the volume. Short of steering around rigid state franchise laws and hammering out financial settlements to shutter stores, a plan is being hatched to convert a portion of Cadillac’s 925 stores into virtual dealerships that will be low on overhead and big on sophisticated technology.
In a somewhat unprecedented way of moving metal, Cadillac President Johan de Nysschen will this month begin looking for commitments from some store owners willing to set up showrooms where buyers can get a car serviced or learn about products via virtual reality headsets without getting behind the wheel. Driving off immediately with a new vehicle will be impossible because these stores won’t have inventory.
See the full story here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/cadillac-bets-on-virtual-dealerships-1465172482
Can virtual reality threaten the brothel industry?
Electronics have treated Sheri’s Ranch well. The cathouse in Pahrump, which claims to be the “unofficial brothel of CES,” reports a 70 percent increase in business when tech employees roll into Las Vegas for the massive trade show each January.
But that cozy relationship might not last. Some in the brothel industry — Sheri’s included — have expressed concerns that virtual-reality porn, which offers an immersive 3D experience, could pose a threat to business. On its blog in December, Sheri’s Ranch wrote that the VR devices displayed at CES “may be one of the biggest challenges to the future of the legal prostitution industry.”
The goal is to make the viewer feel like a participant rather than a passive observer, said Brian Shuster, CEO of a VR-porn production company that recently shot in Las Vegas. It’s not at that stage today but will be in about five years, he said. And it’s not out of the realm of possibility that a participant could virtually enter a brothel setting using a headset.
“We see it as an asset, a way to grow our business,” said Richard Hunter, a spokesman for Hof, who has appeared in the HBO series “Cathouse” and is running for a seat in the Legislature. “As the technology progresses, I think a lot of it will depend on what its (potential) and what its limitations are.”
See the full post here: https://lasvegassun.com/news/2016/jun/06/can-virtual-reality-threaten-the-brothel-industry/
Kevin Kelly – AI, Virtual Reality, and The Inevitable
http://fourhourworkweek.com/2016/06/05/kevin-kelly-ai-virtual-reality-and-the-inevitable/
Kevin is Senior Maverick at Wired Magazine, which he co-founded in 1993. He also co-founded the All Species Foundation, a non-profit aimed at cataloging and identifying every living species on earth. In his spare time, he writes bestselling books, co-founded The Rosetta Project, which is building an archive of all documented human languages, and serves on the board of The Long Now Foundation. As part of the last, he’s investigating how to revive and restore endangered or extinct species, including the Wooly Mammoth.
Kevin’s most recent project is The Inevitable: Understanding the 12 Technological Forces That Will Shape Our Future. The praise for the book is incredible, with Marc Andreessen saying it’s, “an automatic must-read.”
In this conversation, we touch on all sorts of things, including:
- Stories about Jeff Bezos and his email management approach
- Tech literacy
- Why there are no “VR experts”
- Artificial Intelligence (AI)
- Network effects
- GMOs
- And much, much more
If you only have 5 minutes, check out the technology Kevin thinks you should be worried about.
AWE 2016 Addresses Rapidly Evolving VR and AR Ecosystem
This year’s Augmented World Expo (AWE) in Santa Clara was equal parts augmented and virtual reality. Curtis Hickman of The Void presented some compelling instances in which physical and psychological misdirection are effective tools for the VR experience. Meta CEO Meron Gribetz demonstrated the sub-millimeter hand tracking accuracy of his company’s AR HMD. Jared Finder provided an update on the core tech components of Google’s Project Tango. Baobab Studios CEO Maureen Fan discussed the importance of image composition and story beats in VR. Highlights from the show floor included the latest ODG AR glasses and waveguide AR displays from Epson and Lumus.
Curtis Hickman, chief creative officer of The Void and a professional magician, gave a keynote on “The Illusion of Reality” and how misdirection is key to a winning the VR experience. Misdirection is “that which directs the subject away from the method and toward the effect.” There are two types of misdirection: physical and psychological.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/awe-2016-addresses-rapidly-evolving-vr-and-ar-ecosystem/
Google really likes making things out of cardboard
Google's foray into virtual reality has involved a lot of heavy-duty paper, and even its fancy new hardware for VR is no exception. Google VP of Virtual Reality Clay Bavor tweeted a picture of an early controller prototype for the company's Android-based VR platform, Daydream, and as you an see, it's much more... cardboardy than the sleek controller design it unveiled at I/O 2016.
See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/6/5/11862258/google-cardboard-daydream-controller
Paul McCartney embraces virtual reality to recall the Beatles’ best recordings
The noted music video director Tony Kaye (best known for directing American History X) filmed McCartney telling the stories behind some of his most famous singles while hanging out and playing instruments in his home studio. Viewers can watch online at Jaunt’s website, but to get the full experience they should download the app and either watch on a cellphone with a Google Cardboard or fancier VR headsets.
In all the clips there are little bits of animation – such as a magic light pen drawing pictures of the Beatles, or diagrams of chord progressions that appear and disappear – that are sprinkled throughout the environment.
Instead, what newcomers to VR can experience is just what the medium is capable of: the way that even these slightly boring tales can be rendered with mind-bending immediacy as suddenly their entire view is taken over by black-and-white images of stringed instruments or strange scarlet drawings of John Lennon.
See the full story here: http://www.hitc.com/en-gb/2016/06/04/paul-mccartney-embraces-virtual-reality-to-recall-the-beatles-be/
Cine Gear: Virtual Reality Stitching Can Cost $10,000 Per Finished Minute
[There’s a company] that charges $10,000 per finished minute, and that sounds like a lot but that’s a pretty fair price,” he cited as an example. “Stitching is a multistep process. You bring [the camera footage] into software where you are basically taking the multiple video streams together. Then you’re 90 percent there. But that last 10 percent is extremely hard and can involve compositing and rotoscoping.”
Added director of photography Eve Cohen: “In VR the blocking is so crucial; it’s a way to guide the viewer. You don't have specific frames anymore but you have perspective.” She added that this fall, she's embarking on a feature-length VR production.
Several speakers addressed the question of camera movement: Can you move the camera in VR, and if so, how?
"The similarity [with traditional filming] is you are drawing the viewers attention; in almost every other sense it's different," said director of photography Andrew Shulkind. "We tested Steadicam, Jib ... [but when you are shooting 360-degrees], any system for stabilization is in the shot [unless you remove it in postproduction.] That's part of the argument for 180-degree VR experiences, but that's less immersive."
Closing the session, ICG president Steven Poster asserted that "this is a cinematographers' medium and the technology is growing rapidly.
See the full story here: http://www.hollywoodreporter.com/behind-screen/virtual-reality-stitching-can-cost-899697
Microsoft HoloLens Getting Outlook Mail, Calendar Apps
[Philip Lelyveld comment: Hololens is being positioned for the infinite desktop.]
Microsoft has taken another step towards bringing HoloLens into the enterprise. This week marked the launch of Outlook Mail and Calendar apps built for the untethered augmented reality headset.
The decision to start by focusing on business apps comes as no surprise. CEO Satya Nadella noted in a 2015 interview that commercial use-cases for HoloLens would precede consumer use-cases.
See the full story here: http://www.informationweek.com/software/productivity-collaboration-apps/microsoft-hololens-getting-outlook-mail-calendar-apps/d/d-id/1325782
Scottish architects offer a new reality in Venice Biennale
In a multimedia exhibit that showcases Scottish materials alongside augmented reality technology, the chapel has been filled with a huge wooden model of Scotland, Scandinavia and the Arctic.
The exhibit presents a vision for the future in which the country is repositioned at the heart of a sustainable North Atlantic economy.
The project’s curators are encouraging visitors to interact with the exhibit, which features customised apps developed by Soluis to highlight innovative approaches to design and development across the Highlands and Islands. People can use tablet computers to overlay different types of data on the huge floormap of Scotland, and experience virtual reality renderings of locations past, present and future.
The exhibit also uses virtual reality headsets in sculpted animal heads representing creatures associated with the north, including a polar bear and a unicorn. Visitors use them to transport themselves to rural Scotland.
See the full story here: http://www.scotsman.com/lifestyle/scottish-architects-offer-a-new-reality-in-venice-biennale-1-4146155