Drone statistics
See the full story here: http://seekingalpha.com/article/3965434-gopro-vuzix-set-take-flight-enterprise-drone-market
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/
How Facebook’s Social VR Could Be The Killer App For Virtual Reality
...a demo that Schroepfer showed on stage at F8 was just a very early prototype of what social VR could be, and while the company would surely love to hand ready-for-primetime social VR experiences to users today, it’s a safer bet to expect them when they’re ready, and really capable of delivering what the company calls "social presence"—the sense that you’re really with other people, sharing real experiences, when you’re using multiperson VR.
Oculus first began showing people multi-user VR last year, it’s "Toybox" experience, a delightful two-person romp that utilizes the company’s hand-held Touch controllers, which integrate users’ hands in three-dimensional space. If you ever listen to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg talk about VR, you’ll inevitably hear him talk about how you can play ping-pong against another person in VR. That’s Toybox.
Now, though, Facebook is making multi-user VR much more social. During his keynote, Schroepfer showed how he and Mike Booth, a Facebook engineer located at the company’s Silicon Valley headquarters more than 30 miles away, were able to jump together into a series of 360-degree photographs, with each person represented by an animated avatar, and each able to see all around them as they interacted.
They even pulled out a VR selfie stick and took an instant selfie, which they then uploaded directly to Facebook. This was totally social—no game mechanics at all. That’s because, Social VR product manager Mike Beltzner explained to Fast Company at F8, Facebook found through its research that playing games, even with other people, took away from the social experience. "The more game-like it is," Beltzner said, "the less you interact."
"Some have raised concerns that VR and [augmented reality] might be disconnecting, but Facebook's social VR demo shows how these immersive experiences can bring people together," said Linc Gasking, the cofounder and CEO of 8i, a leading VR technology developer. "It's clear that the holy grail for VR and AR is people. It's real humans that are going to drive these social interfaces that will connect us in ways we haven't yet imagined. Soon you'll not only be able to take a virtual selfie with your friend, but imagine taking a selfie with your friend and Steph Curry after watching a Warriors game in VR."
While the on-stage demo involved Schroepfer and Booth interacting inside a still 360 image, Beltzner told Fast Company that the social VR group has worked with 360 video as well.
Anthony Batt, co-founder of the VR production company Wevr. "The Internet has taught us that computers are as much about communication as they are about computation.
Gasking said "These immersive platforms will bring about a transition of how we experience the many tech applications we use on a daily basis. In the future, we'll essentially walk into volumetric immersive applications, not just social apps like Facebook, but also e-commerce, real estate, dating, education, or any number of apps we consume on a flat screen today."
See the full story here: http://www.fastcompany.com/3058914/how-facebooks-social-vr-could-be-the-killer-app-for-virtual-reality
What Began as April Fool’s Day Joke is Now $49 VR Headset
Pockulus is based on another Next Thing invention, PocketChip, which combines the Linux-based CHIP computer with a 4.3-inch screen and QWERTY keyboard. CHIP also has a Web browser, word processor, built-in Wi-Fi, storage, a battery and programs to make music and games.
Currently, people are using Pockulus to play “homebrew 3D games, as well as some 3D games that Nintendo made in the mid-1990s for its Virtual Boy system.” In fact, although Virtual Boy was Nintendo’s least successful system, a group of enthusiasts have continued to code games for the system — and all of them are compatible with Pockulus.
“Armed with the knowledge that Pockulus does in fact work, we’re really excited to see what the people do with it.”
Among the “crazy things” that hackers have done with it are to make a $10 version of the Amazon Echo or an old Teddy Ruxpin doll that says nutty things.
See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/what-began-as-april-fools-day-joke-is-now-49-vr-headset/
Orah 4i live-streaming Prosumer VR camera from VideoStitc
measures about 3.1 x 2.7 x 2.5 inches and weighs only 17 ounces
four fisheye 8-layer f2.0 lenses and four Sony Exmore image sensors.
four microphones in it for capturing four-channel "ambisonic" sound
captures and streams all of that video in 4k
anodized "precipitation-hardened" aluminum
requires you to attach it to what VideoStitch is calling a "Stitching Box," which is essentially a single-purpose computer dedicated to stitching together the 360 video. The box has an Intel CPU, an Nvidia GeForce GPU and an 120GB SSD. Also aboard are four USB 3.0 and two USB 2.0 ports, dual Gigabit LAN, WiFi 802.11 ac/b/g/n and Bluetooth 4.0.
Will retail around $3,600, though the company is running a promotion right now where it's only $1,800.
Caveats;
-there is a 30-second delay in the ‘live’ stream
- not truly portable, because the Stitch Box requires a power source
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-See the full story here: http://www.engadget.com/2016/04/06/orah-live-360/