Drone Racing Seeks Attention With a Speedy Flyby
Drone racing is still something of a guerrilla sport, even though ESPN has agreed to air a drone special on its ESPN3 channel this fall. Money is tight, and most pilots have to keep their day jobs. While high-profile races like the World Drone Prix, held last March in Dubai, United Arab Emirates, pay as much as $250,000 to the winning pilot, such affluence felt distant in the shell of the Hawthorne Plaza Shopping Center.
The trick, he said, is making the audience feel the same thrill as the pilots. That is why his league lights up each quadcopter and its pilot’s goggles with matching colored LEDs, which help spectators track the tiny drones. It is also why pilots wear T-shirts emblazoned with nicknames like KittyCopter, Rekrek and Zoomas. Pilots’ back stories and slick editing build up the drama for videos put online.
The fast-talking Horbaczewski, 35, helped turn Tough Mudders, a quirky half marathon in which people pay to slog through artificial quagmires, into a more than $100 million business as its chief revenue officer. He sank his own money into the drone league last year, though he also raised $8 million from the likes of Steve Ross, the Miami Dolphins’ owner; the talent business Creative Artists Agency; and the media giant Hearst.
See the full story here; http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/08/sports/drone-racing-seeks-attention-with-a-speedy-flyby.html?_r=0
Step into Miyazaki’s world with Studio Ghibli virtual reality
[Philip Lelyveld comment: if the video in the story is any indication, it is an inferior reworking of the original art.]
Scenes from three of Hayao Miyazaki's most beloved films — Spirited Away, My Neighbor Totoro and Howl's Moving Castle have been developed for virtual reality by British developer Fire Panda — and are available for download now.
For now the demos are just environments. You can't interact with the characters or anything like that. But as the film industry grapples with how to use VR, this is at least a pretty nifty grain of an idea.
It's not entirely clear whether Ghibli is working directly with Fire Panda on the project.
See the full story with videos here: http://mashable.com/2016/05/06/virtual-reality-studio-ghibli-hayao-miyazaki/#UU_X.5l5qZqs
Spherica’s Hardware-stabilized Horizon Rig Makes VR Camera Movement More Practical
...when filming for VR, moving the camera can quickly lead to visual discomfort. As it turns out, one of the major reasons for that discomfort may simply be that the scene’s horizon is likely to wobble when the camera is moved.
Spherica’s hardware-stabilized 360 camera rig uses a three-motor gimbal to keep the viewer’s horizon incredibly steady.
Ultimately, such effective stabilization could mean more camera mobility for VR film directors who have had to try to adapt to totally static camera placements.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/spherica-hardware-stabilized-virtual-reality-vr-360-camera/
Full arm tracking in virtual reality – Manus VR experiment
Manus VR, which showed off its VR gloves last year, just released footage of an experimental experience that allows you to have your arm and elbow movements tracked in VR. The dynamic sets up all kinds of new scenarios, including more realistic VR boxing matches, VR archery as well as VR interfaces that you could access on your arms.
Although the demonstration uses the HTC Vive, with its two controllers strapped to the user's arms, the company says this is only an experiment.
See the full story, with badly done video, here: http://mashable.com/2016/05/07/virtual-reality-arm-tracking/#xxeLbhihqiq4
Minecraft goes VR
LOS ANGELES, CA - JUNE 15: Mojang's "Director of Fun" Lydia Winters speaks about 'Minecraft' during the Microsoft Xbox E3 press conference at the Galen Center on June 15, 2015 in Los Angeles, California. The Microsoft press conference is held in conjunction with the annual Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) which focuses on gaming systems and interactive entertainment, featuring introductions to new products and technologies. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
Some Minecraft gamers wonder if the gameplay would be a lot different from what they used to know. Luckey, on the other hand, assured gamers that Microsoft had worked very hard to make sure the essence of the game stayed the same.
Read the full story here: http://www.inquisitr.com/3040076/minecraft-goes-vr-how-will-the-microsoft-game-adjust-on-virtual-reality/
Teach-U: VR uses virtual reality to let anyone learn piano or drums
Kelly and Shi used Google’s Cardboard VR device with an infrared sensor from PMD added to enable hand gestures into the virtual environment. So beyond merely observing via Cardboard, users can reach out, touch and play their virtual instruments. They also adapted the setup — which was developed using Unity, Carnival’s SDK and good ol’ fashioned tinkering — to allow two concurrent users in the same virtual reality space: the teacher and the student.
The Void opening VR Theme Park in Times Square
The New York attraction is being called "Ghostbusters: Dimension" and will open on July 1st, just ahead of the film's July 15th debut.
It uses a VR headset powered by a supercomputer backpack to allow for untethered walking. Participants wear a haptic suit that tracks their movement and provides a sensory experience. Moving podiums, fog machines, and heat lamps give the VR world a physically convincing atmosphere. The sales pitch is that this is not just virtual reality, it's hyper reality, and all the reviews so far have testified to an experience that lives up to this moniker.
The company's business plan is to create entertainment centers around the world, small-scale versions of what it built in Utah powered by the same tech. ... If you go to see Star Wars in theaters and you love it, you can pay an additional $10 or $20 to spend 15 minutes actually walking around in the universe interacting with its characters and environment. Today it announced the launch of its first public experience, a partnership with Sony Pictures around its new Ghostbusters film.