philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Slumdog ‘Adtech’ Billionare: Bringing Augumented Reality to the World

[Philip Lelyveld comment: interesting bio of Bippar founder]

Had Ambarish Mitra not dropped out of his school at 16, he probably would have been an engineer living off a handsome six-figure salary, which he never wanted because of his love for the Internet. So he started with being a runaway teen, a slum dweller, a magazine subscriptions seller on Delhi streets to a tech entrepreneur at 17 in 1997. His story, now with UK-based Blippar – a global $1.5 billion valuation visual discovery app, is nothing short of a classic rags-to-riches tale.

After doing a couple of tech start-ups including an IPO in 2000, few tech jobs in start-ups and an insurance company AXA in London, Mitra’s next big eureka moment came in 2010 in the form of augmented reality, image recognition and machine learning. He along with his friend Omar Tayeb (now co-founder and CTO, Blippar) were having drinks in a pub in one of south-west England’s remote village when the duo came up with the idea.

“Blippar was literally born out of a joke. Looking at the £20 bank note that I put down for the bill, I cracked a joke to Omar that imagine if the Queen of England came out of it; but Omar, who had a dark sense of humour, took the joke too seriously and built the first prototype of Blippar app,” says Mitra.

See the full story here: https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/274223

News Corp in augmented tech play

News Corp Australia chief technology officer Alisa Bowen said AR represented the “next wave of consumer engagement” as Facebook, Samsung, and Sony develop new products to experience games, movies and more.

According to Bowen, Plattar’s cutting-edge technology adds layers of digital information — videos, 3D models, live streams, images, audio — directly on items in the physical world.

See the full story here: http://www.theaustralian.com.au/business/media/news-corp-in-augmented-tech-play/news-story/25eca7894340826ee26741d02ede3e56

Virtual Reality Check: A look at the 10 best VR experiences

[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is a good list.  It isn't in any order.  Keep Talking and Nobody Explodes is missing.]

After spending time with the recently released consumer editions of the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive virtual reality systems, here are the 10 best VR titles out now:

— "Adr1ft": If the film "Gravity" was a video game, it would be "Adr1ft." The weightless saga for Oculus casts players as an astronaut struggling to survive while exploring a shattered space station.

— "Elite: Dangerous": While the open-world space simulator "Elite: Dangerous" has been out for two years, a VR edition adds another level of immersion by placing players in the cockpit of their spaceship.

— "EVE: Valkyrie": This sci-fi dogfighter — one of the first full-fledged games to be created for modern-day VR — convincingly pits online gamers against each other in out-of-this-world locales.

— "Fantastic Contraption": In this physics-based puzzler, there's a wacky frenzy as players are tasked with constructing virtual inventions to navigate a glowing pink blob across increasingly more complex levels.

— "Hover Junkers": Duck! The controllers for the Vive are transformed into a gun and a hovercraft's throttle, in this addictive multiplayer shooter that implores players to use their whole body.

— "Job Simulator": This could be the first-ever VR sitcom. "Futurama" meets "Portal" in Owlchemy Labs' quirky game where players take orders from robots in such roles as line cook and store clerk.

— "Space Pirate Trainer": For those gamers who've ever wanted to dodge bullets with their whole body like Keanu Reeves in "The Matrix," this arcade-like game will have them muttering, "Whoa."

— "The Lab": Valve didn't release a new "Half-Life" game alongside the Vive, but they did create a dynamic "Portal"-themed mini-game collection boasting high-fidelity archery and realistic VR vistas.

— "Tilt Brush": One of the most impressive VR experiences isn't a game at all. Google basically designed a 360-degree version of Photoshop where users can craft sculptures with everything from paint to rainbows.

— "Vanishing Realms": In this clunky but captivating fantasy game, players are cast adventurers who must wield swords, shields, bows and magical wands as they navigate dungeons and fight skeletons.

See the original post here; http://bigstory.ap.org/article/b2e7170f79a249d2aad612963d875ea1/virtual-reality-check-look-10-best-vr-experiences

The Coachella Virtual Reality Experience

Organizers have teamed up with Vantage.tv to let fans in Indio and abroad experience the festival in virtual reality. Each festivalgoer has already received his or her own cardboard virtual reality headset. Using the Coachella VR app — available for iOS, Android, and Samsung Gear VR — they can go on tours of festival and campgrounds, see 360-degree photos from previous years, and watch exclusive interviews with performers including Matt & Kim and Gallant.

Fans outside Indio can also experience the fest via the app, as long as they have a VR headset. (\

See the full post here: http://kfmbfm.com/dsc/coachella-gets-teched-out-with-virtual-reality

Ikea VR Experience

https://killscreen.com/articles/virtual-reality-showrooms-turn-your-living-room-into-a-universal-storefront/

Coachella 2016: You can now experience the festival in virtual reality

Using the dedicated app, Mashable reports that those equipped with a VR headset can go on tours of the festival's site thanks to a team up with Vantage.tv.

See the full story here: http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/music/news/coachella-2016-you-can-experience-the-festival-in-virtual-reality-a6985521.html#gallery

Drone statistics

See the full story here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3965434-gopro-vuzix-set-take-flight-enterprise-drone-market

WEARVR new homepage design

www.wearvr.com

Outlyer Technologies’ Advrtas brings ads to virtual reality

Outlyer Technologies is announcing its Advrtas platform today, which enables the creation of interactive ads in virtual reality. The ad technology enables the development and distribution of fully interactive 360-degree advertising. Since VR is expected to be a huge new gaming, media, and entertainment platform, the $77 billion digital ad industry is itching to come up with ways to create ads for the medium.

With its patent-pending Panamorphic technology, it enables brands to serve 360-degree and virtual reality ad content across any Internet Advertising Bureau-compliant rich media ad space. It breaks the boundaries of the traditional ad frame, can be navigated using motion, and provides significantly more ad real estate for the same buy thanks to the 360 design.

Advrtas ads are designed to work across smartphones, tablets, laptops and desktops, engaging audiences wherever they are.

Car shoppers can also move around outside and inside a car. Grocery shoppers can view an entire store, cruise down the aisles, and check out ingredient lists. Then they can order products for delivery.

Outlyer has 10 employees and was founded in 2014.

See the full story here: http://venturebeat.com/2016/04/14/outlyer-technologies-advrtas-brings-ads-to-virtual-reality/

LYTRO: THE CINEMA OF TOMORROW AT NAB 2016

The first short film produced with Lytro Cinema, “Life”, will be premiered April 19 at NAB 2016, produced with Academy Award Winners Robert Stromberg, DGA and David Stump, ASC in Association with The Virtual Reality Company.

With Lytro Cinema, every frame of a live action scene becomes a 3D model: every pixel has color and directional and depth properties bringing the control and creative flexibility of computer generated VFX to real world capture. The system opens up new creative avenues for the integration of live action footage and visual effects with capabilities like Light Field Camera Tracking and Lytro Depth Screen — the ability to accurately key green screens for every object and space in the scene without the need for a green screen.

By capturing the entire high resolution Light Field, Lytro Cinema is the first system able to produce a Light Field Master. The richest dataset in the history of the medium, the Light Field Master enables creators to render content in multiple formats — including IMAX, RealD and traditional cinema and broadcast at variable frame rates and shutter angles.

See the full story here: http://www.provideocoalition.com/lytro-brings-cinema-tomorrow-nab-2016/