philip lelyveld The world of entertainment technology

Intel Introduces Virtual Reality to March Madness with TrueVR

Wired reports that, after TrueVR’s processing software synchs, color-corrects and stitches the images in real-time, “the stream is pushed out through the March Madness Live VR app,” which can be viewed via a Samsung Gear VR headset. The mobile-first TrueVR platform is “an end-to-end system any sports network could use to package highlights and full game livestreams in VR.”

For the TrueVR March Madness experience, a gold ticket, which costs $3, “features VR-specific broadcasters, and gives you control over which camera location you’re watching from,” and a silver ticket, which costs $2, “stations you at one courtside camera and pipes in commentary from the regular television broadcasters.”

Although not known for being an “innovator in sports media,” Intel last year unveiled its Project Alloy tetherless wearable AR/VR system that the company is using to research “how the next wave of VR will be made and experienced.” In addition to being tetherless, Project Alloy has sensors in the headset and “doesn’t require a controller to interact with the virtual environment.”

Project Alloy leader Achin Bhowmik, part of Intel’s perceptual computing group, is most excited about the latter feature. “In psychology there is a term called proprioceptive cue,” he said. “That means, when I look at my own limb, I just expect it to be there in the way that I know it. If it is not there, or it looks different, subconsciously you get nervous. It’s one of the reasons why people get nervous in a VR environment.”

See the full story here: http://www.etcentric.org/intel-introduces-virtual-reality-to-march-madness-with-truevr/