VRStudios raises another $3M for enterprise virtual reality platform, plans to expand overseas
The startup originally launched five years ago as a virtual reality gaming company called VRcade. In July 2014, that LLC was restructured as VRstudios Inc. with a revamped business model that expanded beyond gaming and into additional commercial enterprise simulation opportunities.
Late last year, it began shipping and installing systems in places like the U.S., China, and France to customers who are using the technology to solve business needs, whether it’s a pre-construction walk-through for architects or a gaming environment at a family fun center.
The company is one of many new up-and-coming virtual reality startups in Seattle. Others include Envelop VR, Pluto VR, Pixvana, VREAL, Convrge and Endeavor One.
See the full story here: http://www.geekwire.com/2016/vrstudios-raises-another-3m-enterprise-virtual-reality-platform-plans-expand-overseas/
EON Reality And The Governor Of The State Of Mexico Announce New Virtual Reality Center Focused On Education, Health, And Safety
EON Reality Inc., the world leader in Virtual Reality based knowledge transfer for industry, education, and edutainment, announced an investment into the State of Mexico, together with a local partner, for an Interactive Digital Center (IDC) to produce Virtual and Augmented Reality content and train future AR and VR professionals. The IDC aims to empower the local population in the State of Mexico through improved knowledge transfer, create high quality jobs, and build a bridge to employment for students in the local EON Entrepreneur School.
“We are excited to bring our technology and VR knowledge to the State of Mexico,” said Dan Lejerskar, Chairman of EON Reality. “We believe that knowledge is a Human Right and over our seventeen years of business we have worked to bring knowledge via VR and AR to people around the world. This is a great platform to help bring applications like EON Experience AVR to Spanish speaking communities in North and Central America.”
EON Reality Mexico is scheduled to open around the middle of September and is currently taking applications for its EON Entrepreneur School.
See the full story here: http://www.eonreality.com/press-releases/eon-reality-governor-state-mexico-announce-new-virtual-reality-center-focused-education-health-safety/
Virtual Reality In The Music Industry Needs To Be A Tool, Not Just An Experience
Would it be possible to create a VR experience around metadata, both to educate and inspire consumers and to empower creators? Behind every music file is a complex ecosystem of singers, songwriters, session musicians, producers, publishers and other stakeholders, and it may be more effective to visualize this ecosystem in a digital, 360-degree field of vision, rather than just talk and complain about it as many industry professionals often do. Rights holders could collaborate on visualizations and implementations of metadata to ensure not only that viewers are receiving the right information, but also experiencing (yes, inevitably bringing that word back) the information in a compelling way.
See the full story here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/cheriehu/2016/04/23/virtual-reality-in-the-music-industry-needs-to-be-a-tool-not-just-an-experience/#19f78a76308d
How Victorian-Era Tech Can Make Virtual Reality Clearer
The Dartmouth and Stanford researchers applied this insight to an Oculus and Google Cardboard VR headset by adding a pair of focus tunable liquid lenses to the set up. The resulting contraption is elegant in its simplicity: it’s just a 3D-printed custom mount that houses the adjustable liquid lenses and can be attached directly to the viewing area of the headset. These lenses can then be set to two different fixed optical lengths (one far, one near) for the duration of a VR experience, or manually adjusted in real time by the user as needed.
The end result is the user is able to mitigate the vergence accommodation conflict by using the team’s lenses to manually accomplish the adjustments our eyes do naturally when they’re not a few inches away from a VR screen.
While the manually adjusted lenses are a start, this innovation could really blossom in conjunction with eye tracking software, which would allow the lenses to automatically adapt their focal lengths in real time without the user needing to manually adjust them. By tracking the user’s eye motions, the software would be able to tell which object the eye is trying to focus on and its distance from the eye as rendered in the virtual environment. The eye tracking software could then make adjustments to the focal length of each eye’s tunable lenses in real time as the user looks around the environment.
Based on the feedback the team received from users who tried their modified Oculus headsets, monovision corrected VR is a definite improvement.
See the full story here: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/how-victorian-era-tech-can-make-virtual-reality-clearer
454 VR companies grouped by markets
See the full post here: http://www.niemanlab.org/2016/03/report-2016-will-be-critical-for-growth-of-vr-in-journalism/
Can You Commit a Real Crime in Virtual Reality?
...what happens when virtual reality crosses into unethical territory? In a new play, The Nether, that opened this month at the Woolly Mammoth Theater in Washington, D.C., playwright Jennifer Haley explores the troubling questions that arise when the main character known as Papa uses advanced software to create a fantasy environment where adult clients molest young children and then kill them.
For those concerned about a Frankenstein future of misguided technology, the production raises a number of thorny questions. Should there be limits on human fantasies involving heinous thoughts? Do fantasies that remain in the private realm of someones brain warrant any rules or regulations by society as a whole?
More complex is the relationship between fantasy and reality. Even if the bad behavior rests solely in one individuals private thoughts, does that thinking pose a danger to other people?
For example, there is some evidence that repeated exposure to pornography is associated with harmful conduct towardwomen and that it legitimizes violent attitudes and behaviors.
For privacy buffs, ...should those suspected of engaging in questionable activities be compelled to reveal the location and contents of their computer file servers?
Currently, there are limits on children purchasing violent games but not adults. For the latter, the societal norm remains libertarian in nature.
See the full story here: http://www.msn.com/en-nz/news/other/can-you-commit-a-real-crime-in-virtual-reality/ar-BBs9N1P?li=BBqdg4K
Finally, you can eat cereal in virtual reality with a dead Egyptian queen
Users are taken back to via Oculus' Rift headset, showing Cleo's 3D breakfast chamber complete with table, bowl, milk jug, and semi-naked guard. It's not an entirely visual experience, though, as participants will have a real bowl of cereal in front of them, as well as a spoon strapped to one of Razer's Hydra controllers to translate real-world shoveling motions to virtual reality. It's a strange combination, but this isn't even the first time Kellogg's has cashed in on the virtual boom to sell cereal.
See the full post here: http://www.theverge.com/2016/4/20/11376224/vr-cereal-eating-cleopatra-finally
My NAB deck – The Current State of VR
The deck that I presented at NAB to kick off the VR Summit on April 20, 2016 can be found here: The Current State of VR Email me if your organization would like me to give a slower, more in-depth, and more comprehensive version of the presentation, and/or consult on strategic planning for the emerging business opportunities, art/language, and technology of VR and AR.
The Google I/O 2016 schedule is packed with virtual reality talks
"VR" is an entire content track at Google I/O this year, with seven sessions dedicated to virtual or augmented reality. The most ominous session is titled "Google's Vision for VR." The session description is a single sentence, promising to cover "what we have built, what we have learned, and where we are headed." Google I/O session descriptions are usually a full paragraph, so the ones with really vague, short session descriptions suggest that Google is trying to avoid spoilers. Clay Bavor, the head of Google's new "Virtual Reality" division, will lead the talk.
Google is slowly building up a large presence in VR. The company already makes a VR painting app called "Tilt Brush," which our own Sam Machkovech called a "killer app" for the HTC Vive. It supports "VR Videos" on YouTube with 3D, 360-degree video formats. Google Cardboard is the company dipping its toes into the VR space with the cheapest possible platform—a smartphone in a cardboard box. It acquired Thrive Audio, a positional 3D audio company, and has integrated some VR features into the latest version of Android N. Inside the company, some of the most important employees have moved to the VR team, like the former lead designer of Google Search, Jon Wiley, and Alex Faaborg, the former lead designer for Firefox, Google Now, and Android Wear. And supposedly this is just the tip of the iceberg. Google is rumored to be building a VR interface for Android, a standalone VR headset, a Gear VR competitor, and custom SoCs aimed at VR and AR.
Besides the "Vision for VR" talk, there's also talks on "VR & Cinema" featuring "Google’s Principal Filmmaker for VR," Jessica Brillhart. Google already has a few 360-degree videos under its belt with Google Spotlight Stories. There's also a talk with a gaming-focus called "Live coding: Make a virtual reality game."
Several other sessions are dedicated to Project Tango, Google's 3D-sensing augmented-reality capable smartphone. The company already announced the Lenovo would be building the first consumer Project Tango device, with a release in "Summer 2016." Judging by the I/O schedule, we'll take a guess and say that Lenovo's Project Tango phone will be the I/O freebie device that all the developers get to take home.
See the full story here: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2016/04/the-google-io-2016-schedule-is-packed-with-virtual-reality-talks/