DAQRI Acquires AR Pioneer ARToolworks
The augmented reality startup DAQRI, which is working on a HoloLens-style AR helmetand already offers a number of AR software tools, today announced that it has acquired ARToolworks, the company behind the popular open-source ARToolKit libraries. As part of this acquisition, DAQRI will now make ARToolKit’s commercial Pro tools available for free under an open source license. The company says it will continue to invest in ARToolKit, too.
ARToolworks was one of the first augmented reality companies on the market. It was founded in 2001 to offer commercial service for ARToolKit. It now owns a number of AR patents and is widely used by AR developers all over the world.
DAQRI’s focus is mostly on industrial uses of AR, so it makes sense of the company to mostly end ARToolworks’ licensing business in order to focus on its core business.
See the full story here: http://techcrunch.com/2015/05/13/daqri-acquires-ar-pioneer-artoolworks/
and the press release here: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20150513006304/en/DAQRI-Acquires-Augmented-Reality-Software-Pioneer-ARToolworks#.VVTVxmBiBrg
Rovio Demos Virtual Reality Version Of Angry Birds
Now if you remember the Angry Birds title from your mobile devices, it seems that its developer Rovio showed off a virtual reality demo of the game at the Rock in Rio festival over the weekend. Basically instead of flinging birds at pigs in structures from a side view, the virtual reality version will see you follow the bird as it reaches its target, which we reckon might be a bit unnerving.
The demo was shown off using the Samsung Gear VR headset and is basically a fresh and unique perspective on the game.
See the full story here: http://www.ubergizmo.com/2015/05/rovio-demos-virtual-reality-version-of-angry-birds/
Longtime Hollywood Exec Peter Guber Says He’s Betting ‘Millions’ on Virtual Reality
Mandalay Entertainment CEO Peter Guber thinks virtual reality is “the secret sauce for live entertainment” — and to put his money where his mouth is, he’s investing in NextVR, one of the companies figuring out the ingredients of that sauce.
“The social element is critical, live in the arena,” he said of attending a live sports game. “But you can only fill 18,000 seats, and there are seven billion people in the world.”
NextVR films and broadcasts live events that, when viewed in VR, allow the user to look in any direction they like while also having a closer vantage point on the action than they might get on TV. As the company’s executive chairman Brad Allen described it at a sports VR event last week, “you actually feel like you’re there.”
See the full story here: http://recode.net/2015/05/13/longtime-hollywood-exec-peter-guber-says-hes-betting-millions-on-virtual-reality/
Virtual-Reality Goggles for Stroke Victims
MindMaze can help patients retain their brain and regain motor functions
Form and function: MindMaze says its virtual-reality goggles, combined with exercise software and other games, can help stroke patients retrain their brain and regain motor function faster than with traditional physical therapy.
Training: The exercises fool the patient’s brain into activating neurons and areas that can take over functions of the damaged ones. Tadi says that in a 20-person clinical trial, patients using the equipment two and a half hours a day for three weeks improved their motor function by as much as 35 percent.
Next Steps: Tadi says MindMaze will submit its system for Food and Drug Administration approval this summer and move to San Francisco by yearend. The startup’s 16 full-time employees will release a home version of its equipment later this year, he says. Elliot Roth, chair of physical medicine and rehabilitation at Northwestern University, says VR is a logical next step for stroke therapy and can help patients move in a more natural fashion than typical basic exercises.
See the full story here: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-05-04/mindmaze-s-virtual-reality-goggles-for-stroke-victims
OTOY demonstrates first ever light field capture of a real world environment
At FMX 2015 cloud graphics company, OTOY Inc., announced the first ever capture of a spherical light field of a real world environment used to produce a completely accurate, navigable scene in virtual reality.
"In a session titled “Light Fields for Virtual Reality”, OTOY’s Chief Scientific Consultant, Paul Debevec, demonstrated the groundbreaking process used to capture the light field of a room using a prototype camera array. The light field data of the room was rendered instantaneously in VR, mirroring the reality and grit of the natural world, while allowing a user in that world to look in any direction and move around in the space as if they were actually there."
The groundbreaking demonstration marks an important step for the medium, opening the door to compelling, authentic virtual reality recreations of popular travel and tourism sites, and new sports and entertainment opportunities, while moving the industry closer to achieving photorealistic live action VR experiences using light fields and the ultimate goal of enabling a complete sense of presence when in a VR environment. Just as light fields have been used to capture feature film actors and actresses to create exacting digital doubles for special effects use, light fields can now be used to capture environments with the same level of detail for virtual reality.
Despite the complexity of the scene, the compression capabilities of OTOY’s ORBX media format produces a manageable file size for the light field scene while enabling the high frame rates VR applications need.
See the OTOY press release with the video here: http://home.otoy.com/otoy-demonstrates-first-ever-light-field-capture-for-vr/
Theatre Makers: 3 Tips for Revitalizing Theatre for the Millennial Generation
Here are three action items that will help you during both the creative and marketing process to engage Millennials on their terms:
Integrate Digital -- Integrate digital storytelling into the theatre you make. Millennials live fully in both the physical and virtual world, and your work should account for their augmented sense of reality.
Extend the Relationship -- Don't just blast social media with advertisements. Create unique content for your audience to engage with you across media platforms before and after the event.
Think Live -- Think beyond the story as our primary artistic element, and rather focus on what makes theatre unique: the live performance event.
See the full story here: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/isabella-mehiel/theatre-makers-3-tips-for-revitalizing-theatre-for-the-millennial-generation_b_7246006.html
The Future of Remote Work Feels Like Teleportation
[Philip Lelyveld comment: this is an excellent overview article on telepresence that mentions key players, Oblong Industries, Intel's RealSense technology, Personify, Altspace, and Univ of Penn's DORA project.]
Virtual-reality headsets, 3-D cameras help make videoconferencing immersive
One of the avatars started talking to me, and while it lacked facial expressions, I discovered something remarkable—just by virtue of our both having bodies in a virtual space, I could tell whom he was addressing, and I could even read his body language, as his robot avatar’s head tracked every movement of his actual head, even though it was thousands of miles away and, like mine, wearing a VR headset.
AltspaceVR is in a closed beta for now, but won’t remain so for long, says AltspaceVR CEO Eric Romo. Already, it is possible to bring up any Web page or a variety of three-dimensional content inside AltspaceVR, which suggests all kinds of ways teams might use it to hold meetings and collaborate on everything from documents to virtual prototypes.
See the full story here: http://www.wsj.com/articles/virtual-reality-tools-will-redefine-remote-work-1431299263
Oculus is experimenting with social, online multiplayer movie theaters in virtual reality
It's not about making something work in VR, it's about using VR to make experiences and applications better, or brand new.
"One thing we're prototyping internally is what does it mean to watch content with other people in the same virtual space as you?" Cohen asked.
They're using an audio SDK with 360-degree audio so when someone "sitting" to your left speaks, you hear them from the left.
"Some people like to say VR is isolating, but I think it can be incredibly inclusive.
See the full story here: http://www.polygon.com/2015/5/8/8573301/oculus-movies-virtual-reality
Centimeter-Accurate GPS System Could Transform Virtual Reality
Researchers at the Cockrell School of Engineering at The University of Texas said the centimeter-accurate GPS-based positioning system is far more precise than the orientation capability currently available on smartphones and could allow virtual reality (VR) headsets to be used outdoors.
Researchers said the advanced GPS coupled with a smartphone camera could be used to quickly build a globally referenced 3-D map of one’s surroundings that would greatly expand the radius of a VR game or experience.
“Imagine games where, rather than sit in front of a monitor and play, you are in your backyard actually running around with other players,” said Todd Humphreys, assistant professor...
Humphreys explained that his team is working with Samsung to develop a snap-on accessory that will tell smartphones, tablets and virtual reality headsets their precise position and orientation.
See the full story here: http://vrscout.com/news/centimeter-accurate-virtual-reality/