New virtual reality gadgets and signs of funding slowdown are among week’s L.A. tech highlights
As it stands now, virtual reality headgear from Facebook-owned Oculus VR will start arriving on doorsteps March 28 for $599. The Vive will reach consumers’ hands beginning a few days later for $799. Sony’s PlayStation VR headset is likely to be more affordable when it goes on sale later this year. Google, Apple, LG and others are working on fancier virtual reality viewers too.
Virtual reality has excited traditional entertainment companies too. On Tuesday, ABC’s “Good Morning America” plans to stream to virtual reality viewers a live feed of animals “in their natural habit” in Tanzania.
That follows a virtual reality stream Sunday of the Daytona 500 auto-racing event, which kicked off a five-year agreement struck last week between broadcaster Fox Sports and Laguna Beach-based technology provider NextVR to bring more sports to VR headsets.
They noted the growth in “bridge rounds,” or financing deals smaller than what a company has previously raised.
Essentially, the companies are looking to buy time to reach sales levels or other key milestones that would make them more attractive to buyers or investors seeking to write bigger checks.
See the full story here: http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-virtual-reality-la-tech-funding-20160222-story.html
Epson Announces Moverio BT-300 Augmented Reality Glasses, Big Improvements
Perhaps the biggest change is a shift from the LCD-based glass display (at a meager QHD resolution) to a custom silicon OLED projection based panel, which should provide more responsiveness, more brightness (the BT-200 measured 1050cd/m2, the BT-300 1200cd/m2), better contrast (it goes from 230:1 in the BT-200 to 100,000:1 in the BT-300), a wider color gamut (90% NTSC vs the 52% for the BT-200), and more visual precision, as well as more efficient power usage. The resolution is now 720p (or 1280x720).
Gone is the ghosting you normally see in many AR experiences. These are still binocular glasses, with a 23 degree field of view.
The BT-300 uses a quad core Intel Atom X5, running at 1.44GHz, using Android 5.1. ...the controller has also changed. ...it is certainly sleeker and more ergonomic. It has a touchpad on the bottom and a directional pad and a selector at the top. It's truly more of a powerful Android controller than a crippled smartphone.
The front facing camera is now 5MP.
The BT-200 included a GPS and compass in both the headset and controller, a gyroscope and an accelerometer, and all of those are in the BT-300, and improved, we're told. Battery life remains the same (6 hours), and WiFi capabilities are better (the BT-200 supported 802.11b/g/n at 2.4 GHz, and the BT-200 adds 802.11a and 802.11ac and supports both 2.4 GHz and 5 GHz). Head tracking performance hasn't changed; the BT-200 polled the gyro at 60fps, and since this isn't VR the head tracking performance doesn't have to be as high, according to Epson.
Epson has worked across industries to build use case partnerships, according to Eric Mizufuka, Epson’s product manager for new ventures. “In addition to pursuing new markets for our technology, we will rapidly scale in areas where we’ve had commercial success, including drone photography, remote support, AR training/maintenance, healthcare, retail, logistics and more.”
The BT-300 will be available later this year and Epson is currently taking pre-orders here. The BT-200 was $700 and the BT-300 will be around the same price.
See the full story here: http://www.tomshardware.com/news/sthash.zQaXXlww.uxfs
THE NEXT FRONTIER FOR VIRTUAL REALITY STORYTELLING? SUBVERSIVE COMEDY AND FART JOKES
PARK CITY, UT - JANUARY 22: Actors Paul Scheer (L) and Rob Huebel attend Funny Or Die World Premiere of the first-ever virtual reality comedy short, "Interrogation", featuring comedians Paul Scheer and Rob Huebel at The Samsung Studio during The Sundance Festival 2016 on January 22, 2016 in Park City, Utah. (Photo by Neilson Barnard/Getty Images for Samsung)
The unpredictability of the future allows no one to be prophetic. When I ask Scheer how VR will roughly pan out in the next five years, he responds with laughter. "I think the question is, how will VR play out in five months?" He explains that VR has radically changed since he started getting involved a mere eight months ago. "We've talked a lot about doing Crash Test as a VR special, because it would really work for that world."
See the full story here: https://tribecafilm.com/stories/interview-virtual-reality-comedy-funny-or-die-paul-scheer-rob-huebel-reggie-watts
AMD to supply Associate Press with VR equipment
Advanced Micro Devices Inc. will power virtual reality reporting for the Associated Press, enabling the news agency to produce more 360-degree videos and other interactive content.
The company said it will provide the hardware to run AP's virtual reality content on both high-end virtual reality headsets such as the Oculus Rift produced by Oculus VR Inc. as well as cheaper phone-based models. Click here to see some of the AP 360-degree videos already produced using AMD technology.
See the full story here: http://www.bizjournals.com/austin/blog/techflash/2016/02/amd-associated-press-link-up-for-virtual-reality.html
TED 2016: The Void offers new taste of virtual reality
[Philip Lelyveld comment: so much for the idea that VR experiences have to be short!]
Had I remained there longer than the 10 minutes it took to complete - and I could happily have stayed inside for hours - I may have started to believe more deeply in my strange new reality.
Entering the Void was a very different experience and felt like I had finally fulfilled my childhood dream of stepping inside the TV.
There are walls to touch and a stone throne that you are invited to sit on. It all takes place in a small room but the space feels much larger, with corridors that lead to jungles and pools full of sea monsters. You have to pick up virtual torches and when walls crumble you believe that the bricks are falling on you.
See the full story here: http://www.bbc.com/news/technology-35583355
It’s Going to Be a Virtual Reality World at TED
[Philip Lelyveld comment: I expect full reports from my fellow TEDster!]
“There are speakers at TED who’ll be arguing that VR and augmented reality offer the chance of a dramatic shift in how we interact with computers and with the real world,” TED curator Chris Anderson told Re/code. “From digital to analog, from two-dimensional to three-dimensional, from observation to immersion, the demos they are working on are jaw-dropping. We can’t wait.”
Among those presenting is Meta, which has a new augmented reality technology that has Robert Scoble gushing. Scoble likens his experience with Meta to seeing the first Mac. The last time he got this overwhelmed, it was Microsoft’s World Wide Telescope that had him all weepy.
Speaking of Microsoft, HoloLens and Kinect creator Alex Kipman is speaking on Thursday morning.
Meta CEO Meron Gribetz said he sees 2016 as a big year for both augmented reality and virtual reality and said some people will begin to replace computer monitors with headsets.
“Our objective in our own offices is to replace our external monitors by the end of the year,” Gribetz said.
But Gribetz said the industry still faces the challenge of becoming a tool and a utility versus a toy and a novelty.
See the full story here: http://recode.net/2016/02/15/its-going-to-be-a-virtual-reality-world-at-ted/
An NYU Research Project Is Trying to Make Virtual Reality Less Lonely
“Holojam is a set of practical experiments to prototype a future that does not yet exist,” said Ken Perlin, principal investigator of Holojam.
We’re interested, not about when it’s cutting edge and exciting, but when it’s boring.”
“Seeing somebody in VR gives you a sense of them that you don’t get from video,” explains Lobser, who’s done all of the art for Holojam so far. “The way that they express themselves becomes more cartoony. Certain things are simplified, and certain things are amplified.”
In virtual reality, he demonstrated by switching from leg to leg, balancing on each. There’s not much subtlety possible in here, which lends itself to more extravagant gestures. He offers me a high five, which is his favorite way to blow the minds of the uninitiated; making physical contact with something you can see in virtual reality is, I can confirm, wild.
While the team works on Holojam in some form throughout the week, Thursdays are the most exciting time. From 5:00 to 8:00 on Thursday evenings, graduate students and faculty gather in one of NYU’s computer science buildings to talk, plan, code and occasionally just hang out in virtual reality. Running a project with this many volunteers can be messy—I haven’t been inside the development of Sony’s PlayStation VR, but I expect it’s different than the consensus-run meetings of Holojam.
See the full story here: http://motherboard.vice.com/read/an-nyu-research-project-is-trying-to-make-virtual-reality-less-lonely