Here’s how Google’s Ingress will be moving from the phone to your wrist
Ingress, the augmented reality game by Niantic Labs (a startup within Google), has picked up an impressively large following since its open beta started just over a year ago. But as it cracks eight million downloads, Niantic founder John Hanke is looking at where to go next.
The game launched on iOS earlier in the year, helping to boost its popularity significantly in a number of markets, particularly Japan. As a game that tries to meld virtual and reality by turning planet Earth into one massive battlefield, wearable tech feels like the next obvious step. And that's exactly where efforts are now being focused.
Hanke explained that once it's up and running on Android Wear, users will be notified when they're near a portal, the real-life landmarks players must virtually take control of. "We're still working through the details on the UI in terms of which particular situations you'll be notified on your watch," he added. "But then you would be able to take an action just by tapping on your watch, so you'd be able to hack the portal, or attack the portal, or deploy Resonators on the portal just by tapping on your watch.
See the full story here: http://www.techradar.com/us/news/gaming/here-s-how-google-s-ingress-will-be-moving-from-the-phone-to-your-wrist-1277454?src=rss&attr=all
Samsung is Demo’ing Gear VR at America’s Largest Mall
One of virtual reality’s greatests strengths—that it’s a unique and unprecedented experience for most—is also one of its greatest weaknesses when it comes to marketing the technology. Without actually trying VR for themselves, how do you sell someone on the experience?
At the King of Prussia Mall, Samsung has seen fit to install a pop-up booth in one of the mall’s busy corridor hubs. The pop-up booth lets shoppers get their hands on Samsung’s latest gadgets, including Gear VR—which takes up residence in a glass enclosed demo area which is branded with Samsung and Oculus logos.
Samsung has similar pop-up booths inside of Best Buy stores. While Samsung apparently shipped Gear VR demo units to the big-box tech store as early as September, we’ve yet to hear reports that Best Buy has actually put those units on display for the public to try.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/samsung-demoing-gear-vr-americas-largest-mall/
Eden River HD Launches on Steam and Google Cardboard, a VR Relaxation Experience
Eden River, a virtual reality relaxation experience, is now available on both Steam and Google Cardboard. The game, which essentially replicates the experience of floating down a lazy river, was produced by indie game studio Unello Design as an effort to elevate the artistic side of gameplay while creating a space for quiet reflection.
Although not a traditional game per say, due to the general lack of concrete objectives, what Eden River excels at is offering a beautifully detailed place to recharge and refresh—making it a new breed of anti-game that VR is so adept at conveying. In fact, the original game has found its way into some rather unconventional environments already, such as The Polish Academy of Sciencesin Warsaw where it has been used in research to see what influences mood and emotion. The kid-friendly title also landed into the classroom of Mathieu Marunczyn, a primary school teacher in Australia who uses the Oculus Rift in conjunction with games like Eden River to help calm down children with moderate to severe autism.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/eden-river-hd-launches-steam-google-cardboard-vr-relaxation-experience/
Crayola, Daqri Partner to Make Kids’ Crayon Drawings 3-D
A fun new partnership between Los Angeles-based augmented reality firm Daqri and crayon maker Crayola. An iOS mobile app called Crayola Color Alive, coming to Android this week and Windows Phone next month, scans the pictures from special tie-in coloring pages and turns their colored-in subjects into 3-D characters on the screen.
The app is free, but the 16-page books will cost $6 when they go on sale in January, bundled with seven crayons. Parents can also buy sets of coloring pages, $2 per half book (reprintable endlessly), from inside the Color Alive app.
See the full story here: http://recode.net/2014/12/22/crayola-daqri-partner-to-make-kids-crayon-drawings-3-d/
Sony to Debut Smart Glass Clip-on
Sony is making glasses smart. The technology giant announced the development of “an attachable single-lens display module that can turn eyewear of varying designs into smart devices.” Sony said it will show a concept version at CES and expects to start mass production of the device within the coming year.
The module sports an organic light-emitting diode microdisplay for high-res colors, a micro-optical unit for image quality and a “miniaturized control board with arithmetic processing capabilities on par with smartphones that was made possible by high-density packaging technology.”
See the full story here: http://www.tvtechnology.com/article/sony-to-debut-smart-glass-clip-on/273792
Virtual and Augmented Reality to Have Major Presence at CES
By Phil Lelyveld
December 18, 2014
Virtual and augmented reality tools have been around for at least 40 years. In 2014 the next generation of VR and AR hardware was being energetically developed, beta tested, and discussed by the niche VR community. It was also used to create small-scale experiences as part of the marketing campaigns for other entertainment assets. Expect 2015 to be the year when hardware, software, and content companies work towards consumer adoption of VR and AR resources and experiences.
Oculus, with its Rift HMD (head-mounted display) technology, held the attention of the press and public for most of the year. Oculus was acquired by Facebook, and partnered with Samsung to develop a phone-based HMD, the Gear VR. Motion tracking hardware vendor Leap Motion developed a mount that added hand gesture recognition capabilities to the headset.
The Oculus Connect 2-day gathering in late September at Hollywood and Highland captured the attention of both the developer and the Hollywood community, and gave the Oculus senior management team a platform for building excitement among the developer community.
Not to be outdone, Google invested in Magic Leap, a company with an extensive portfolio of patents related to augmented reality. Magic Leap is still in stealth mode, but its prototype demos are rumored to be amazing.
Beyond those headline-grabbing companies, many other startups and established companies spent the year developing new self-contained HMDs (examples: Sony Morpheus, CastAR, Avegant Glyph, AntVR, VRelia, Fove), HMD frames into which you insert mobile devices (examples: Google Cardboard, Seebright, FOV2GO, Durovis), and related controllers and peripheral devices (examples: Sixense, Virtuix Omni, Control VR).
As for content, a number of VR experiences have been created for marketing purposes, including properties for the films “Into the Storm,” “How to Train Your Dragon 2,” and “The Hobbit.” Jaunt, Vevo, and others have produced short films (“The Mission,” “Black Mass”) and concert experiences (Beck, Paul McCartney, Austin City Limits) to demonstrate the media’s potential for live action experiences.
Looking globally, many individuals and groups have developed interesting VR experiences; such as Seattle’s The Nightmare Machine, “the world’s first VR haunted house.” And many videogames have been adapted for use with VR headsets.
A challenge going forward is developing the language of VR. What audio and visual creation and editing techniques work, and how should they be used? How does VR storytelling differ from cinema and gaming? What are the strengths of live-action VR versus computer-generated VR? How do you bring other senses into play? The ETC is planning an event in early 2015 during which these questions and others will be discussed.
Where to find Virtual and Augmented Reality at CES:
Game Zone at the front end of South Hall 2
Oculus (#26002) — Crescent Bay HMD, Samsung Gear VR. Watch for the “Wild – The Experience” VR short with Reese Witherspoon.
ImmersiON-VRelia (#25212) — Wide field of view VR and AR glasses.
Virtuix Omni (#26008) — Omnidirectional treadmill.
3D Head (#25808) — Full body tracking and gameplay.
AntVR (#26311) — VR/AR HMD startup.
Occipital (#25405) — iPad-based object and room scanner for AR games.
Central Hall
Sony (#14200) — Expected to once again show its Morpheus HMD.
Samsung (#11906) — Samsung Gear VR with the Galaxy Note 4.
Tech West (Sands Convention Center)
Avegant (#74547) — Micromirror-based video headset.
Fove (#71374) — HMD with built-in eye-tracking.
Giroptic (#72070) — Consumer market 360 camera.
Panono GmbH (#74273) — Toss the spherical camera into air, and it takes a full sphere photo at highest point.
Remote Reality Corp. (#75621) — High resolution 360 camera for military use.
3DRudder ( #75667) — Feet-controlled 3D navigation and motion controller.
EyeTech Digital Systems (#72034) — Licensable eye tracking on a chip.
The Eye Tribe (#72040) — Eye-tracking software for camera-enabled CE devices.
Tobii (#71837) — Eye-tracking software for camera-enabled CE devices.
Ultrahaptics (#75619) — Ultrasound mid-air tactile feedback.
Seebright (#72474) —Phone-based AR HMD tech startup.
Westgate Hospitality Suites
Leap Motion (Suite 1265) —Hand-tracking motion-capture bar mounts onto the front of the Oculus Rift.
Novasentis (Suite 1965) — Manufacturer of thin flexible haptic actuators and sensors.
Lumus (Suite 335) — Israeli developer of VR and AR glasses.
See the original post here: http://www.etcentric.org/virtual-and-augmented-reality-to-have-major-presence-at-ces/
Virtual Reality ‘Wild’ Trek, With Reese Witherspoon
It is a three-minute, 360-degree, virtual reality encounter with Ms. Witherspoon in character as Ms. Strayed, as she lugs her backpack through the trees and plunks down next to the viewer.
She is skinny, scruffy and almost eerily present.
Soon, Ms. Witherspoon turns to look at the viewer. Or, more properly, through the viewer. Turn right, and it is clear she is staring at the memory of her mother, played by Laura Dern, who appears where seconds earlier there was only a rock.
They trade words. Ms. Witherspoon ambles down the trail, now behind the viewer, who can turn and watch her go.
“For us, it was about the intimacy,” said Félix Lajeunesse, a Montreal-based virtual reality artist. He and his business partner, Paul Raphael, directed the sequence, which uses no computer-generated effects.
See the full story here: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/15/business/media/virtual-reality-wild-trek-with-reese-witherspoon.html?_r=0
Latest in Professional VR Shown at I/ITSEC 2014 Conference
Deep inside the inlands of Florida, a technology conference was held that brought together a collection of virtual reality headsets and simulations that focused primarily on military applications. The event was called I/ITSEC(Interservice/Industry Training, Simulation and Education Conference) and was touted as the “world’s largest modeling, simulation, and training conference”.
The technological thread that strung all the demos together had to do with the preparing people for particular real life events through the use of virtual reality. That included medical training, battle simulations, parachute challenges, and many others.
See the full story here: http://www.roadtovr.com/latest-developments-professional-military-vr-shown-iitsec-conference-orlando-florida/