[Dolby] Virtual reality filmmakers are discovering new things about the power of audio
Joel Susal, Dolby’s director of virtual and augmented reality.
Audio has always been Dolby’s bread and butter. The division Susal runs only came about in March—largely because Jaunt, a VR studio whose backers include Disney, was searching for audio technology to create immersive “3D” sound. One of Jaunt’s board members, Peter Gotcher, happened to be the chairman of Dolby, and helped make the connection.
Dolby turned out to be a good fit because it already had a technology that could be adapted for virtual reality: Dolby Atmos.
To translate Atmos to headphones, Dolby updated its algorithm to render audio in such a way that tricks the brain into believing sound is coming from multiple sources when there are only two speakers embedded in the headphone cups.
“It’s not really about the number of speakers,” explains Brett Crockett, Dolby’s vice president of research and development. “It’s about recreating spatial resolution.” To achieve this, Atmos directs the audio at specific angles so the sound waves bounce off parts of the ears before reaching the ear canal. (Dolby has also partnered with speaker manufacturers to create Atmos-enabled computer speakers and TV sound bars. In those products, the sound waves bounce off the ceiling to create 3D audio.)
Because VR viewers are constantly moving their heads to see different parts of a scene, audio needs to remain consistent, so that a knock from the door doesn’t appear to come from the wall just because a viewer changed positions.
Filmmakers also have to reconcile moving audio objects and stationary sound—an orchestral soundtrack, for example, that doesn’t come from any particular direction.
“This is a VR-specific feature that never existed before,” explains Susal.
See the full story here: http://qz.com/579185/virtual-reality-filmmakers-are-discovering-new-things-about-the-power-of-audio/
2015: The year that Microsoft started getting the benefit of the doubt
This focus on the positives represents a shift in perception of the company. It's not a product of any one thing; as cool as HoloLens is, there's a broader backdrop: the greater openness to creating software for other platforms, the greater embrace of open source, the more communicative Windows 10 development process. These all add up.
The optimism has its limits, and Microsoft certainly has to prove that it was warranted. The release of HoloLens development units next year will be significant; if it goes well, it should reinforce the belief that Microsoft really can do bold, innovative new things and that the company is still one that can shape our future. It will take a long time for Microsoft to build an image and perception that's as resiliently positive as Apple's. Nonetheless, that people are willing to give the company the benefit of the doubt makes 2015 a special year. Microsoft is changing—and so are we.
See the full story here: http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2015/12/2015-the-year-that-microsoft-started-getting-the-benefit-of-the-doubt/
HTC Wants to Send Its Vive VR Headset to 100,000 Chinese Internet Cafes
To make virtual reality truly popular, you have to make cheap and accessible. And HTC is zeroing in on a huge market: Chinese internet cafes. It’s the latest example of tech companies worldwide trying to get VR in the hands of massive groups of users, quickly and cheaply.
At a VR conference in Beijing last Friday, Taiwan-based HTC announced plans to promote its Vive VR headset by partnering with Hangzhou Shunwang Technology, a Chinese internet cafe operator that could demo the headset to its 100 million customers for a small hourly rate.
The pilot program’s already underway in Hangzhou, Road to VR reports, charging players anywhere from $2 to $5 for 10 minutes of Vive time. Shunwang Technology provides software for over 100,000 Chinese internet cafes, totaling 70% of the market, which serves over 100 million people. (It’s still unclear how many of those cafes will actually be participating in the Vive program, though.)
Chinese internet cafes, infamous for being huge and filled with gamers for hours on end, have seen drops in numbers in recent years.
See the full story here: http://gizmodo.com/htc-wants-to-send-its-vive-vr-headset-to-100-000-chines-1749439260
Estonia’s Flagship Tech Conference Latitude59 Will Discuss Artificial Intelligence, Virtual Reality, and Virtual Nation
One of the key sub-divisions of the Virtual Nation block of topics is e-Residency and building new services on its platform. Estonia’s e-Residency is a transnational digital identity that was revealed at last year’s Latitude59. Since then the project, also considered the world’s first government startup, has gained more than 7,500 e-residents. But e-Residency is not willing to stop there – its goal is to make Estonia the world’s biggest country that has only 1.3 million physical inhabitants. The e-Residency program has set a goal of recruiting 10 million e-residents by 2025.
See the full story here: http://www.investinestonia.com/en/about-estonia/news/article/1062-tech-conference-latitude59-will-discuss-artificial-intelligence-virtual-reality-and-virtual-nation
Marxent Positioned At Center of $100 Billion Virtual and Augmented Reality Market
Marxent positions itself as the leader in branded Augmented Reality experiences for retailers and manufacturers and virtual 3D products. Companies like SanDisk, Baxter Pharmaceutical and Lowes, among many others partner with them for AR apps that get results, delight customers and defy reality.
The 45 year-old Beck Besecker and his brother Barry (Marxent CTO) founded the company in 2011. But the venture-backed creator of 3D virtual products has experienced more than his fair share of business-related obstacles. Throughout his career as an innovator, Beck has experienced failures ranging from unenthusiastic audiences to over-saturated markets to failed business models that he changed again and again.
See the full profile here: http://www.forbes.com/sites/brucerogers/2015/12/21/marxent-positioned-at-center-of-100-billion-virtual-and-augmented-reality-market/
Nvidia, EA, Facebook Among Jefferies’s Top Virtual Reality Picks
Jefferies & Co. analysts Marc Lipacis, Brian Pitz, and Brian Fitzgerald, and colleagues, today offer up a 48-page think piece titled the “VR Handbook” that promotes the view the technology is “the next computing platform.”
“We view 2016 as a watershed in computing with at least three Virtual Reality Platforms launching within the next 6 months,” the authors write, by which they mean Facebook’s (FB) Oculus division’s forthcoming head-mounted display (HMD); Sony‘s (SNE) competing effort, “PS VR“; and an HMD from phone maker HTC (2498TW), developed in collaboration with video game studio Valve, called “HTC Vive.”
[10M units in 3 yrs] would put VR somewhere in the vicinity of recent console gaming machines in the time they took to reach levels of sales, as laid out in this handy chart.
Among content providers, the authors mention several for these more broad applications: MedVR, PatientVR; NextMed; Lensar; Psious; VR Studios; EvolVR; YouVisit; Augmented Pixels; STRIVR; MetalO; River Studios; WevR; EEVO.
See the full story here: http://blogs.barrons.com/techtraderdaily/2015/12/22/nvidia-ea-facebook-among-jefferiess-top-virtual-reality-picks/