philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Fully-funded Research Doctoral Scholarship: The role of visualisation and augmented reality in increasing energy efficiency in the built environment

Teesside University - Technology Futures Institute
A stipend of £15,000 per annum is offered to a strong candidate for this full time PhD scholarship in the Technology Futures Institute at Teesside University.

The studentship will be part of the Doctoral Training Alliance (DTA) in Energy, a new postgraduate training initiative which builds on the research strengths and industry-focused ethos of the University Alliance. The DTA aims to develop independent, highly-employable researchers with knowledge, expertise and skills in strategically-important research areas and is the largest multi-partner and only nationwide initiative of its kind.

People spend 90% of their lives in buildings, being responsible for 40% of energy consumption and 36% of CO₂ emissions in the developed countries. Efficient consumption of resources, particularly the use of energy, represents a major challenge in achieving the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Therefore, the strategic priorities of the European Union for 2030 include a reduction in Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions by 40% (compared to 1990 levels), an increase of energy efficiency of at least 27%, and the implementation of renewable energies of at least 27%.

See the full post here: http://www.jobs.ac.uk/job/ANQ668/fully-funded-research-doctoral-scholarship-the-role-of-visualisation-and-augmented-reality-in-increasing-energy-efficiency-in-the-built-environment/

The ‘point and shoot’ Vuze 3D VR camera is coming this fall for $799

Though bigger than a Theta or or Samsung's spherical Gear 360, the Vuze is still small enough to pocketable (depending on the size of your pockets, at least). It has eight full HD cameras, two on each side, each with 120-degree horizontal / 180-degree vertical fields of view. That setup allows it to capture stereoscopic 360 videos in 4K resolution at 30fps. An accompanying iOS / Android app is used for controlling the camera.

HumanEyes is touting the Vuze's "point and shoot" capabilities and that extends to post-production. The company says it will have "near real-time processing" (i.e., about one minute of processing per minute of footage) through its Vuze Studio app, that stitches the footage together using a variety of techniques, including a proprietary algorithm it calls adaptive blending. Based on the test footageavailable, the Vuze's stitching isn't quite seamless —

Originally shown at CES, the full kit is now available for preorder for $799, with an estimated ship date of sometime in October.

VR documentary Nomads arrives on Gear VR

Oculus VR wants you to know that virtual reality can be a medium for serious film and documentaries, and it's first high-profile project, Nomads, is ready for public viewing on the Gear VR. Created by Félix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphaël, the duo behind Montreal-based VR studio Felix & Paul, Nomads takes you to three distinct parts of the planet to embed viewers in the fabric of a foreign lifestyle. You can explore the Mongolian steppes with a group of yak herders, visit the Maasai tribe in Kenya, and travel the Malay Archipelago with Borneo's Bajau tribe.

Chapters of the trilogy, each of which are around 12 minutes in length, have already screened at film festivals like Sundance and Tribeca. But the full series is available now as an exclusive on Samsung's Gear VR headset.

See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/2016/5/11/11657358/oculus-gear-vr-nomads-documentary-felix-and-paul-studios

Hollywood’s special effects industry is cratering, and an art form is disappearing along with it

From 2003 to 2013, 21 visual effects companies closed or filed for bankruptcy, according to the short documentary Life After Pi. The respected studio Rhythm and Hues declared bankruptcy 11 days before collecting an Academy Award for best visual effects for the 2012 film Life of Pi. When special effects supervisor Bill Westenhofer tried to call attention to the industry’s plight in his acceptance speech, producers cut his microphone off.

Survivors have found ways to adapt. The practical effects company Amalgamated Dynamics (ADI) won an Academy Award in 1992 for its work on the film Death Becomes Her. ... “ADI has gone through really lean times when we’ve turned to other fields—medical modeling, government work (I know that sounds mysterious, but that’s all we can say about it), architectural models,” said Woodruff.

See the full story here: http://qz.com/674547/hollywoods-special-effects-industry-is-cratering-and-an-art-form-is-disappearing-along-with-it/

Virtual reality’s new frontier: peacekeeping, Iraq War therapy, and digital paradises

Om takes me on a tour of her daily life in Palestine. I meet her husband and children, ride around in the husband's taxi, watch the kids play on the carousel. I watch Om fold laundry and go through the weary steps of preparing to give birth while dealing with the loss of two of her children in the 2014 airstrikes, when Israeli forces bombedseveral United Nations schools. She meets with a support group of other women who also lost children in the conflict.

I watch her begin and end her day with her family, praying that no one will ever have to experience her own levels of loss and devastation. I’m able to do everything but reach out and touch.

Vrse.works. My Mother’s Wing is a short 360-degree film that recently debuted online and on the Vrse mobile app.

It’s the third of a series of VR films that the UN has commissioned to take viewers into the daily lives of people impacted by the UN’s work. Previous films have introduced viewers to Syrians living in a Jordanian refugee camp and a Liberian Ebola survivor.

The Virtual Human Interaction Lab (VHIL) at Stanford, which studies human interactions in immersive environments, has conducted numerous studies illustrating that virtual reality can significantly increase empathic responses in its subjects.

In one study, participants who experienced the simulated experience of being colorblind in a VR environment spent more time helping someone who was actually colorblind after the study ended. In another study, virtually turning people into superheroes made them more likely to help others in real life.

Ana Serrano is the chief digital officer at the Canadian Film Centre. She notes that what we have instead mostly consists of 360-degree films instead of other forms of immersive VR, like the meditation I participated in, or more fully interactive VR.

To accelerate the process of inventing the medium, it would be good to get over the delusion that this is a 360-degree movie screen, so we can take better advantage of the possibilities for active navigation and interactivity," she told me.

The use of VR as a tool for therapy is also expanding. Among Serrano’s projects at the CFC Media Lab is a virtual reality meditation piece that builds on biofeedback from the user to build its interface in real time.

See the full story here: http://www.vox.com/2016/5/10/11651938/virtual-reality-expanding-therapy-art-journalism

Reggie Watts to appear live in virtual reality this May

Reggie Watts is one of the most unique and innovative comedians of his generation. On May 26, he is taking his forward thinking approach to comedy to the next level by appearing live in virtual reality, free of charge.

The comedian is teaming-up with AltspaceVR and JASH to perform in 3D on Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. There will also be a 2D version of the show available on Mac or PC for those who don't have 3D capability.

Another dream of mine comes true: I’m going to perform in #VR May 26th LIVE in AltspaceVR,” he said. “Check it out: http://altvr.com/reggie #Vrcomedy.”

See the full story here: http://www.axs.com/reggie-watts-to-appear-live-in-virtual-reality-this-may-83818

Wayfair announces a virtual reality lab for home furniture

[Philip Lelyveld comment: A recent study found that the consumers say the #1 use for mobile VR is viewing online products before they buy.  http://www.ericsson.com/res/docs/2015/consumerlab/ericsson-consumerlab-10-hot-consumer-trends-2016-report.pdf ]

Wayfair announced the opening of its Wayfair Next Research and Development Laboratory here, developing virtual reality and other technologies that will help customers see that sofa in the home before they touch the "buy" button.

The center at the home furnishings e-commerce retailer's headquarters, is “dedicated to accelerating the shift to online shopping by improving the visualization of products through first-party technologies that will drive innovation in home furnishings and décor,” the company said. It’s currently exploring 3D scanning techniques to digitize its product catalog to be used for augmented reality, virtual reality and 2D rendering.

The Wayfair Next lab also hosts the “Wayfair Virtual Reality Experience,” a hands-on demo that allows users to transform a room by customizing the model, material, color and layout of furnishings and décor. The company offered a taste of this to attendees at the High Point Market and indicated virtual reality brick and mortar shops may not be too far off in its future.

See full story here: http://www.furnituretoday.com/article/531406-if-wayfair-announce-virtual-reality-lab-does-it-really-exist

and here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160511005150/en/Wayfair-Announces-Opening-Research-Development-Laboratory

Infinitus Prime is an Enterprise Focused VR Headset with 5k Horizontal Resolution

The Infinitus Prime tVR headset packs two 1440p displays and the Czech company behind the project are aiming the device squarely at industry applications.

The Infinitus Prime packs dual 2560×1440 IPS LCD panels in what looks to be a canted arrangement. As a result, the new HMD boasts not only a pretty sizeable footprint, it also claims to deliver a pretty substantial 140 degrees horizontal field of view. ... if this is starting to sound and look a little familiar, you may recall a French project called InfinitEye, another VR headset which sported similar design and specification goals and of course became StarVR, unveiled during the E3 in LA last year.  ...The Starbreeze owned StarVR of course also boasts a 5k horizontal resolution, but ramps the FOV up to a staggering 210 degrees.

See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/infinitus-prime-is-an-industry-focused-vr-headset-with-5k-horizontal-resolution/

‘VR Funhouse’ is NVIDIA’s Virtual Reality Physics Sandbox

NVIDIA today announced a number of software tools and updates to go along with the company’s newest GPU, the long-awaited GeForce GTX 1080 and the budget GTX 1070. Among them was a VR sandbox that shows off all the cool physics-based interactions you can have with the greater horsepower afforded by the new hardware and software optimizations.

VR Funhouse is set to be released on Steam and opened sourced so developers can borrow, and improve upon the concepts housed in the carnival games, which includes things like target practice with bow and flaming arrows, arcade basketball, skeet shooting, and much more listed below.

• NVIDIA Flow — Grab a bow and arrow in our target-shooting mini-game. Set the arrow aflame and you’ll be able to shoot it at targets that burst into flames when they’re hit. Our NVIDIA Flow technology physically simulates experiences such as fire throughout VR Funhouse.
• NVIDIA HairWorks — The whimsical feel of our colorful “The Mole the Merrier!” and “Knock’Em Silly” challenges is enhanced by NVIDIA HairWorks technology. Jab at your targets. Give them a knock and you’ll see their colorful hair bounce. Or pat them on the head to flatten their jazzy haircuts.
• Physics for VR — Poke, punch, pound and explore. VR Funhouse is filled with objects that you can interact with in surprising ways using your hand controllers. Our PhysX for VR technology gives the objects in the game realistic physical behavior, enabling proper graphics, collision detection, and haptics force feedback.
• NVIDIA FleX — In our “He’s Flexible” mini-game, you’ll be able to pick up gooey, colorful blobs — that stretch and jiggle in surprising ways in your hand — toss them at targets and watch them ooze toward the ground. You’ll find this next-generation particle-based physical simulation used all over VR Funhouse.
• NVIDIA VRWorks Audio — Walk into “Flight of the Clown,” and you’ll need to use your ears to locate a stealthy drone. VRWorks Audio uses our Pascal GPUs to ray trace sound waves in real-time, realistically simulating how audio propagates and reflects across the room.  The reflections and echoes created by VRWorks Audio will test your skills in locating the drone.
• VR SLI — The more, the merrier. If you’ve got two GPUs, this technology will let one GPU render images to your left eye, and the other to your right, maximizing performance and minimizing latency.

See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/vr-funhouse-nvidias-virtual-reality-physics-sandbox/

The Eyse camera shows friends what you’re doing in virtual reality

The glory of virtual reality is to live in another person's shoes — to feel what they feel, experience what they experience, and see what they see. The Eyse camera, which launches on Kickstarter today, aims to make that a possibility for anyone with a smartphone. Eyse's promotional video shows a grandma attending her grandson's birthday party from afar and friends out hiking projecting the scenery to someone at home. It's a pleasant vision, and really, if this camera works, it'd be really cool. But still, it's pretty expensive for something being marketed as a toy, with it being sold at $299 for the early bird special. That will eventually rise to $399.

The stereoscopic camera relies on two HD cameras to create a full image.

See the full story here: http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2016/5/9/11639362/eyse-virtual-reality-camera-phone

More at Kickstarter - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/vairdo/eyse-wifi-3d-camera-for-real-time-vr-experiences?token=bb541b72