Wevr Thinks You’ll Spend Hours in Virtual Reality
The technology Wevr is developing, he added, is intended to make it possible for creators to make something once and publish it on the myriad of VR devices heading to market.
That’s more complicated than it sounds, because those devices can be dramatically different. Some are powered by Android smartphones, while others run on sophisticated personal computers. When a VR app made for the PC won’t run on a phone, for example, Wevr’s plan is to offer users — via apps or embeddable Web widgets — the ability to buy and remotely download that software to their more powerful computers.
“We want to make it frictionless for people who peruse VR to find content,” co-founder Anthony Batt said. “We want developers to know for sure, ‘I can get this out there.'”
The studio has already convinced some Hollywood talent, including “Pulp Fiction” screenwriter Roger Avary and “The Walking Dead” producer David Alpert, to sign on to this plan. Simultaneously, it’s developing more of its own content, including a longer version of theBlu (the CGI whale demo) as well as several live-action video projects, including a 12-minute video/CGI film starring comedian Reggie Watts and a 40-minute trap music concert film.
Batt disagreed with the conventional wisdom that consumers won’t sit through a 40-minute virtual reality experience.
see the full story here: http://recode.net/2015/10/26/wevr-thinks-youll-spend-hours-in-virtual-reality/
Emergent VR, A Smartphone-Based VR Video Capture And Viewing Startup, Raises $2.2 Million
Emergent VR, a startup that promises full video capture that can be viewed on virtual reality headsets like the Gear VR, has raised $2.2 million from Accel Partners, Rothenberg Ventures and Google Ventures.
Emergent VR’s play is that it can build a simpler experience for users who want to capture video that can be viewed through VR devices. The three Emergent VR demos Wilkins showed me indicated that there would be some element of live video capture as part of the service. The goal was to make it a more seamless user experience than “setting up 20 GoPro cameras” when it comes to capturing VR-optimized video, he said.
One of the big selling points of the company is that the entire capture is done through a smartphone, Wilkins said, which is then shared to Emergent VR’s network.
“We did some tests, and we were able to create a really compelling experience using just content from the smartphone,” he said. “It takes a lot of work to get there, with what we can do with algorithms to make that automatic. We want to just make it a seamless app that people can download, and bring it out of the realm of professional video capture.”
Wilkins was mum on the capture technology, so it remains to be seen whether it works.
This is also Accel Partners’ first investment in a virtual reality startup.
See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2015/10/15/emergent-vr-a-smartphone-based-vr-video-capture-and-viewing-startup-raises-2-2-million/?mc_cid=c1edb09e1f&mc_eid=cd6a4d9ecf
Virtual Reality is the New Reality
If you look at film and cinema, the idea behind it has always been to forget who you are and become lost in another world. You can experience something else and be somewhere else. Virtual reality does that in a game-changing way. It truly is the next evolution of storytelling, and the future of entertainment in general.
CG: Los Angeles continues to attract many innovative companies, entrepreneurs, and startups. Given the intersection between your work and the entertainment industry it seems logical for you to be based out of "Silicon Beach." Overall, what is your take on the Silicon Beach startup ecosystem?
MM: We think it's incredible - it's the future. If you look at the reason that Silicon Valley started there, it's because it's where the chip manufacturers went. Here in LA we focus on entertainment. For example, Snapchat is one of the biggest tech companies in Silicon Beach and they deal with content. Content is a driving force of entertainment.
The name Silicon Beach is clever. But it could even switch away from Silicon Valley, because Silicon Beach is not based on silicon. The really neat companies in Los Angeles are really more about connecting people through entertainment.
See the full story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/carlos-m-gutierrez-jr-/virtual-reality-is-the-ne_1_b_8283072.html
The real life Q: Ralph Osterhout on how smart glasses will change our lives
So far, augmented reality has mainly come via mobile devices and has been used as a marketing gimmick by companies like Ikea, which allowed users to see how the Swedish giant's furniture would look inside their home by scanning the catalogue.
But Mr Osterhout credited Google with bringing the concept of head-worn technology into the mainstream.
He said it would inevitably become part of everyday life, from using facial recognition to remind wearers who they were talking to when they ran into old acquaintances, to providing directions when travelling, to calling for help in emergencies.
He said doctors and other emergency personnel would also be able to immediately identify injuries and recall treatments.
Mr Osterhout said smart glasses for military would also incorporate so-called Doppler technology, which he claimed could see through walls and detect a beating heart from up to 150 metres away.
"Now you don't see their form, you see their beating heart, you see their lungs expanding and contracting as Doppler radar detects movement."
He said the head-worn technology industry could be worth hundreds of billions of dollars.
"Those that are in it and committed to it and do it right will run naked through the streets of opportunity," he said.
See the full story here: http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-10-14/ralph-osterhout-augmented-reality/6854314
I Watched the Debate in Virtual Reality. Things Got Weird
Last night, CNN aired the first Democratic debate of the 2016 election to millions of TV viewers, and to an indeterminate but undoubtedly much smaller number of virtual-reality headset owners. CNN worked with California company NextVR, which is building a live-broadcast infrastructure for the VR community. Using Oculus’s software and Samsung’s hardware, they brought a real-time broadcast to face-computer-wearing viewers everywhere.
Roller says NextVR is working on ways to integrate graphics, social media, and even broadcasters into the stream. He thinks that when it works right, virtual reality can combine the best of being there with the best of TV, in a single experience.
“Ultimately, we have the ability to have people go to the debate,” he says, “where you’re at your house and I’m at my house, but we’re both watching the debate together from better than a front-row seat. And we’re able to stop it, and start it, and ultimately—hey, did you see someone do that? And then rewind and see it again.”
Forget Twitter—what if we were all there, at the Wynn, together in the audience? Someday, I think, virtual reality will enable that. But there’s a long way to go. The screen resolution, the camera setup, the entire industry’s understanding of how virtual reality is supposed to work when it’s streamed live to everyone’s face-computer. Oh, and one more thing: It needs to not overheat my phone right in the middle of closing arguments.
See the full story here: http://www.wired.com/2015/10/dnc-debate-virtual-reality-gear-vr/
Sony Acquires Belgian 3D Sensor Firm SoftKinetic
Continuing efforts to focus on its successful image sensor business, Sony announced today that it has completed the acquisition of SoftKinetic Systems for an undisclosed amount. The eight-year-old, Belgium-based business develops 3D vision technology for gaming, imaging and other applications.
Among the SoftKinetic technologies Sony is interested is the "time-of-flight" range image sensors, which use light to determine distances to objects. Sony said that it plans to combine that sensor technology with its own to develop "the next generation of range image sensors and solutions," according to a statement released today.
"We will continue to refine the hardware from various aspects, while working alongside third-party developers and publishers and SCE Worldwide Studios, in order to bring content that deliver exciting experiences only made possible with VR," said EVP Masayasu Ito, division president of the PlayStation Product Business and vice president of the Software Design Division, in a statement at that time.
See the full story here: http://www.cio-today.com/article/index.php?story_id=021000OCFVA6
Virtual reality: Microsoft experiments with multi-user technology codenamed Comradre
Microsoft is experimenting with multi-person virtual reality that allows people to interact and share virtual worlds with other people for the first time, according to reports. The Comradre project (pronounced "comradery"), led by Jaron Lanier, has already involved several projects in which more than one person experiences and interacts with the same object in virtual reality.
The VR experimentation is not connected to Microsoft's HoloLens holographic computer, Technology Review reports, instead it uses custom headsets made from smartphones and laptop computers. The exact applications that Microsoft plans to use the technology for are not yet clear, though it is expected to find use in gaming and communications.
Within virtual worlds, multiple users would potentially be able to find new and innovative ways to handle and access information, allowing for more immersive collaborative projects. Researchers involved in the project have so far developed a wide-range of applications, ranging from a way to visualise mathematical equations, to a platform for children to play together in virtual reality.
According to the researchers, the main factor currently holding back multi-person virtual reality is the limitations of technology used to track users. "The critical aspect for multi-person virtual reality is that you have to track everybody's movements very accurately in their own scene," said Jeremy Bailson, founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab.
With the Comradre devices, external sensors track the wearer's head movements, while the headset monitors the movement of the other user. Microsoft is yet to respond to a request from IBTimes UK for more information about the Comradre project.
See the full story here: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/virtual-reality-microsoft-experiments-multi-user-technology-codenamed-comradre-1523566