As Professor Farnsworth on Futurama would say: “Good news, everyone!” Because Monday’s Life In 360° has absolutely nothing about the American political process. Yes, regular readers were probably expecting me to find some form of 360 degree coverage of the Inauguration or subsequent events for today’s post. But no. I think we’ve all had quite enough of that, and besides we’ve already reported on something Trump and virtual reality (VR) related in the last week. Let’s just get away from all that for a bit, shall we?
We’re sticking with America though, or the U.S. Navy at least. As thanks to defense company Raytheon we have a ringside seat for the testing of a new missile. It’s called the Standard Missile-6 (SM-6), and has in actuality been in use for some time at this point. However the footage, which shows the missiles both being loaded onto and launched from the deck of USS John Paul Jones actually took place back on August 1st 2015.
Or as Raytheon describes it: “The SM-6® missile delivers a proven over-the-horizon defensive and offensive capability by leveraging the time-tested advantages of the legacy Standard Missile airframe and propulsion. It’s the only missile in the world that can perform both anti-air warfare and terminal ballistic missile defense from sea, and it recently added anti-surface warfare to its repertoire.”
Fancy. I guess.
You can see the video below. VRFocus will be back Wednesday for another look into 360 degree video.
When it comes to nuclear power most people seem to possess one of two opinions. Either that nuclear power is a potentially dangerous services that offers far more in the way of negatives and potential negatives than positives. Or that it is still a resources not yet properly tapped that could ultimately solve many of the Northern Hemisphere’s power needs. There seems to be very little in the way of middle ground.
For those within the industry dealing with the legacy of the past is as much a part of nuclear power as providing for the future – and not just waste materials. What, for instance do you do with an out of date site that is being decommissioned? Is there potentially a better way?
For the UK, perhaps the most famous nuclear power station is Sellafield, located in Cumbria in Northern England. The plant, comprising two sites which at one time was the first commercial power station in the world able to produce electricity on an industrial-level scale, is in such a process. A dangerous process to be sure, and the team are keeping an open mind as to any possible new and innovative solutions.
To that end National Decommissioning Authority (NDA), Innovate UK and Sellafield Ltd have announced a competition to generate ideas – and virtual reality (VR) is one technology the team are “particularly interested” in
In its simplest form, the decommissioning requirement is the removal of all of the pipes, vessels and steelwork from the cell, then packaging the waste for disposal or storage in an optimised manner. There are numerous aspects to this, such as:
Characterisation
Visualisation and planning
Decontamination
Size reduction
Contamination management
Holding
Moving
Waste packing
Officially opening January 30th, with a briefing event in London on February 14th. The deadline for submissions being April 26th. More information can be found on the NDA Blog.
For more information on the creative ways industry is looking to utilise VR and more, stay tuned to VRFocus for updates.
This week on The VR Job Hub we’ve a quartet of roles for you to look into, placed all over the world – but with one common factor: They’re all with major companies involved with the industry. HTC, Samsung, Facebook and Oculus. The most intriguing though is possibly the Facebook role which will see the successful applicant working with Facebook’s own Augmented Reality (AR) camera.
“This a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to work with the creative team at Facebook to develop an iconic body of work that will establish the defining characteristics Facebook’s AR camera product. The Prodcuer will establish and maintain operational procedures for the creative team responsible for producing animated, and interactive 2D/3D digital effects, support the design and development of custom tooling, and oversee the ongoing content development cycles for the Facebook Camera.”
If you’re an employer and are looking for someone to fill a VR or AR related gap on your workforce and would like your role to feature on next week’s VR Job Hub, then please send details of the role to either pgraham@vrfocus.com or keva@vrfocus.com
Check back withVRFocus 4pm GMT every Sunday for the latest positions in one of the most progressive industries.
Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies are ever changing, ever developing and ever evolving. When you look at each system/head-mounted display each has their own advantages, their own selling points for buyers and developers alike but what’s it like to actually work with the hardware itself?
Of the systems out there perhaps the one that is the most of an unknown quantity is the Hololens. Microsoft’s $3,000 mixed reality system is looking to acquire the best of both worlds in terms of VR and AR and is also targeting social and research. It’s already being used for finance, architecture and design, making services more than you could ever think possible – and of course silliness.
‘Opportunities are there for game makers’, as Microsoft has said previously. But what is the reality of making games for Hololens? If you are wondering then there’s good news courtesy of GDC who have recently put up a session video from last year’s VRDC event on that very subject.
Hololens developer Ralph Barbagallo goes into what you can expect for HoloLens’ gaming capabilities and offers some tips and tricks to working around areas where it it currently lacking. You can find the video itself below.
As its markets continue to fluctuate with talk of Brexit a new report suggests that the UK could find a valuable tool in Augmented Reality (AR) were the technology more widely available to the public. The research, commissioned by Manchester-based tech firm DigitalBridge, revealed that potential customers were more likely to move forward with purchases items such as if they were able to see an AR visualisation of the product in their own home.
This “imagination gap” as it is termed, in not being able to visualise what household products such as items of furniture or decorative products like wallpaper was found to have affected 56% of those surveyed and that people had, as a result of not being able to see what such a product would look like in their own home, decided not to move ahead with a purchase. Such a lack of spending among millions of people would have resulted in an additional £1 Billion of sales within the UK economy, according to the report.
“With so much uncertainty already swirling around about the future of UK retail, businesses need every advantage they can get to remain competitive, especially those competing for attention online.” Explained DigitalBridge’s CEO David Levine. “With as much as £1bn of revenue up for grabs in the home décor market alone, retailers can no longer overlook the value of virtual and augmented reality as a commercial tool. More than half of the consumers who took part in this survey said they would be more likely to make a purchase after using this technology.”
“These types of visualisation tools could be the ‘undo button’ to home interiors that consumers have been calling for. Just imagine the benefits a customer would get from a retailer that allowed them to preview any product they wanted using nothing more than a picture taken on a smartphone.” Levine continues. “These types of visualisation tools could be the ‘undo button’ to home interiors that consumers have been calling for. Just imagine the benefits a customer would get from a retailer that allowed them to preview any product they wanted using nothing more than a picture taken on a smartphone.
Such technology is of course being investigated and tested. Almost a year ago VRFocus reported on iStaging, a winner of Intel’s APEC Global Challenge in October 2015. The Taiwanese-based startup won many plaudits that year for its iStaging App, which used VR and AR to aid interior design. Whilst in the same year retailer John Lewis trialled the technology, in partnership with Cimagine, at its flagship Oxford Street store in London.
As it happens John Lewis’ Buying Director for Home, Christine Kasoulis, also commented on the report’s findings.
“In areas like furniture and floor coverings we know that the majority of our customers shop across our website and our shops, and there is a long and considered journey to the point of purchase.” She added. “Customers want to see how a product will look in their own home – both for style and to understand scale. There is a gap at this point in the customer journey at the moment and it is one that visualisation tools will fill in the near future, helping a considered purchase to feel less complex.”
If you are interested in finding our more the report, entitled The Imagination Gap – Retail’s £1bn Problem can be found at http://digitalbridge.eu/downloadreport-2/. VRFocus will bring you more information on the continued development of AR and VR solutions for retail as we get it.
We’ve mentioned or discussed a number of times on VRFocus about the importance, not just of visual fidelity in virtual reality (VR) but of audio as well. Sound quality can make or break an experience in just the same way as the look. As such a new release from Los Angeles-based studio G’Audio Lab is looking to provide an additional audio solution for VR and 360 degree video content in the form of G’Audio Works.
Features include support for the simultaneous use of three audio signals to create realistic sound with environmental ambience. Incorporating simple mono tracks, traditional 2.0 or 5.1 channel-based tracks and so-called ‘ambisonics’ to deliver sounds captured by 360° microphones. It also includes the G’Audio Lab’s own patented binaural rendering technology and suite of tools. Real-time editing and off-line bouncing are also supported.
Speaking on the release, G’Audio Lab’s CEO and founder Henney Oh said, “We’re passionate about empowering VR content creators across the film, animation and gaming industries to produce more immersive experiences, which require fully interactive 3D audio to support 3D video components. Works delivers unparalleled freedom for mixing multiple audio signals to create the most realistic sounds possible.”
“While today’s 3D movies and interactive video content are successfully immersing users in a simulated experience, there’s still a void in the market for audio solutions that can deliver truly interactive sound,” continues Oh. “We are filling that void by offering the interactive 3D audio tools needed to cultivate better and more dynamic sound experiences with any regular headphones.”
Interested parties can find G’Audio Works available a free download from the company website. A tutorial video can also be found below. VRFocus will bring you more news on new audio and visual VR solutions soon.
With the Computer Entertainment Show (CES) now long done there’s been several stories here and there since Christmas that have involved sport in some small way. Some though you may not have even realised involved sport as is the case with one item in our weekly round-up.
Tottenham Takes Fans On A Trip To The New White Hart Lane
London-based football club Tottenham Hotspur have turned to virtual reality (VR) as an additional means of showcasing what the club’s £400 million redevelopment of its historic White Hart Lane ground will look like. According to the UK’s Daily Star, the club has created a 360 degree virtual walkthrough, available on Oculus Rift’s at the ground, for fans who want to get an idea of what the stadium will look like when work is complete.
The new stadium will all but double the current capacity of the ground to 61,000 which is also set to act as a concert venue and a new home for the NFL’s semi-regular London visits. You can see a preview video here.
WWE’s Stars Take On PlayStation VR In Latest UpUpDownDown Let’s Play Videos
It should not surprise you that even the most devoted athlete is also an avid gamer, and that’s no more truer than in the locker room of the WWE. In fact, if you did not know it, WWE superstar Xavier Woods is so passionate about the subject he hosts his own gaming YouTube channel UpUpDownDown in his spare time, which features many of the stars of the WWE as they relax and blow off steam between shows. That’s not to say they aren’t competitive – as anyone who has seen their annual Madden tournaments can attest to.
Their latest recording in the Monday Night RAW dressing room has focused on the PlayStation VR, with Woods inviting first superstars Cesaro to become a gangster in the PlayStation VR Worlds Collection‘s The London Heist and R-Truth to take on Danger Ball. The gameplay quickly draws the attention of other wrestlers, who whether heels or faces (bad guys or good guys, if you’re not up on wrestling’s vernacular) are keen to see what VR has to offer, some even relaying their own experiences. RAW superstar Sami Zayn even exclaiming that “This is the future!” Although Chris Jericho jokingly (we hope) doesn’t look too impressed. C’mon Chris, it’s the gift of VR! Drink it in maaaaan!
You can see how well both Cesaro and R-Truth did in the videos below.
The Vive Tracker Targets Sports Training
The announcement of the Vive Tracker at CES caught many by surprise. Announced alongside the Vive’s ‘Deluxe Audio Strap’ the future-proofed interface to VR accessories that will allow connectability and motion tracking of many objects had a number of active demonstrations for attendees to try. One of these included, as the press release puts it, “training applications for Major League Baseball players”.
VR’s use as not only as its widely acknowledged position as recreational platform but as a training and educational tool has long been touted by those in the industry. VRFocus has covered many stories of professional sports teamsand players investing in the technology and it is interesting that this was specifically called out in the release.
The trailer for the tracker too also targeted sports, showing the tracker being suggested for use in tennis and golf. It will certainly be interesting to see who, if anyone, takes up the suggestion.
Cycle Training Gets Gamified With FitBit and VirZoom
It’s arguably a match made in technology heaven. The sort that makes you wonder why no one thought of it before. But VirZOOM, purveyor of online multiplayer VR sports experiences played via their eponymous bike accessory has teamed up with health and fitness wearable firm FitBit.
The partnership sees users gain credit for your virtual ride within the FitBit app, effectively bringing an additional level of gamified tracking to workouts. Speaking in a press release, FitBit confirmed how things would work.
VirZOOM offers an easy online setup so all of your VirZOOM vSports and VirZOOM VR bike play will automatically sync to your Fitbit account, giving you credit toward your goals. Each workout will be logged as an exercise in the Fitbit app and will include workout duration, distance pedaled and calories burned. If you wear a Fitbit device that tracks heart rate during your VirZOOM session, your Fitbit heart rate data will also be captured in your exercise log in the Fitbit app. By syncing your VirZOOM workouts with your Fitbit account, all of your data will be in one centralized location so you can view a more complete picture of your overall health and fitness.
Fitbit’s Senior Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer Tim Rosa commented on the partnership: “We embrace new partnerships with brands that share our goal of creating experiences that enable people to lead a healthier, more active lifestyle and we are always looking for fun, innovative ways to keep our community engaged and motivated on their health and fitness journey, Whether you enjoy racing through a virtual reality world as an F1 driver, or you are motivated to pedal your heart out with a group class in the comfort of your own home, the Works with Fitbit program makes it easy for users to enjoy, track and measure their health and fitness stats all in one spot.”
VRFocus will be back next week with more sport related stories.
We’re off on our travels once again, this time to Scotland. Not only that we’re going back in time, so you’re getting plenty of Li360 Air Miles today.
We’re heading back for today’s video to the New Year, because 2016 was so gosh darn horrendous I think it’s worth celebrating it’s end again. We’re also of to the beautiful city of Edinburgh where we get to see the celebrations and fireworks of another glorious Hogmanay, courtesy of BBC Scotland.
Hogmanay for those who aren’t aware is effectively the Scottish term for new year’s celebrations. Being synonymous with that, although technically is actually means the last day of the year.
VRFocus returns with another 360 degree video on Monday.
When it comes to video game social media it would be difficult to think of another account that has had as much impact than that for the Sonic The Hedgehog brand. The Twitter account – run by SEGA of America (SOA) – has, over the last 18 months almost deliberately eschewed actual news updates in favour of off-the-wall content and ever increasingly bizarre meme-based antics.
Their latest video, seen below, features the character ‘Sanic’. An infamous awkwardly drawn representation of Sonic made famous in fan art ‘running’ across the SOA offices as a joke virtual reality (VR) experience. Intentionally or unintentionally, it is somewhat reminiscent of the Young Conker experience revealed almost a year ago to much negative reaction. Indeed, the trailer for that has (at the time of writing) over 28,000 dislikes against only 1,757 likes.
What is more interesting however is that it does out that SEGA not only have a Hololens, as seen in the beginning of the video but they are, apparently, experimenting with it. The social media team did however preemptively pour cold water on the prospect of a Sonic VR (or even, heaven help us, a Sanic VR), commenting in the video’s description that “Sometimes, you get a shiny new toy to make vidja games on. Sometimes, you let the social team get their hands on it. We do not apologize.”
That said, few games studios have showed they possess the very expensive kit, and it does make you wonder just what else SEGA might be using it for. Coincidentally, next week’s VR vs. column is already confirmed to be relating to SEGA, and will be discussing potential franchise that could make the leap to VR and/or AR.
VRFocus will of course bring you news of SEGA support for any of current crop of headsets as it is announced.
Midweek and another 360 degree video start things off. In fact, let’s all just take in some breakfast since it is an appropriate time when this is going up!
So, you may recall last month during the Christmas Life In 360°-fest that at one point we headed over to the kitchen of Tastemade for some 360 degree surf and turf cookery. The result of this step-by-step guide to “Hors d’oeuVRes” was a sudden craving for properly done lobster.
Well we’re heading back to the series today as Tastemade‘s Megan and Jimmy make some tasty breakfast tacos – or to be more precise, cheesy breakfast tacos with bacon and avocado relish. Which sounds positively scrummy. You can check out the video below.
Speaking of things to check out, after three weeks my little VR vs. mini-series on predictions for 2017 is complete. Part 3 went up yesterday and you can find Part 1 and Part 2 via the links. Life In 360° returns to VRFocus, of course,on Friday.
