8i – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

February 25, 2018

Explore Life on Mars with Buzz Aldrin

Dr Buzz Aldrin is one of the most recognisable names in the history of space flight, being part of the historic 1969 Apollo 11 moon mission. He is also a strong advocate for establishing human colonies on Mars. Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars shows some of Dr Aldrin’s vision for the future of space travel.

The virtual reality (VR) experience of Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars takes users into space and towards the red planet. Though the surface of Mars is desolate, and its atmosphere somewhat hostile to human life, Dr Aldrin has a plan for how Mars can be transformed to allow for a human colony.

The experience users room-scale VR to depict Mars in an absorbing and education way as Dr Aldrin details his plan for how humans could reach Mars, and ultimately make a home for themselves there.

Developers LIFE VR and 8i used motion capture and image capture in order to preserve the appearance of Buzz Aldrin, so his hologram can be preserved to provide information to future generations. Dr Aldrin is firm in his belief that though the space missions of the 60s and 70s were historic and important moments, further progress needs to be made.

“While the moon landing was a monumental achievement for humanity, there’s no greater mission than mankind’s journey to Mars,” said Buzz Aldrin, “I have a plan for creating a human settlement on Mars, and thanks to virtual reality and holographic technology from 8i, we now have an exciting new way to communicate this plan with the world and to leave my legacy behind for future generations of aspiring space travellers.”

Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars is available for free for the Oculus Rift, available from the Oculus Store. The below trailer provides some further information on what users can expect from the VR experience.

As always, VRFocus will bring you news and updates regarding new and innovative VR experiences.

December 18, 2017

VR Hologram Company 8i Undergoes Major Restructure

Though virtual reality (VR) has led to huge success for some, others are still trying to get to grips with the technology, or experiencing some hiccups along the way. One of those is 8i, who are having to undergo significant restructuring, resulting in roughly half of its staff being let go.

8i is a start-up with offices in Los Angeles and New Zealand who are aiming to leverage VR technology and real-time rendering to create realistic hologram images of celebrities. 8i previously released a compilation of its technical demonstrations to show the progress that has been made in its efforts.

According to Variety, 8i have been forced to lay off almost half of its 70-strong team as a result of the company restructuring required by New Zealand regulations that go along with significant workplace changes.

A company representative said in a statement to TechCrunch: “Although we’ve made significant progress, we are continuously challenging our assumptions about where the AR/VR market is headed and how it will develop. And like any early stage company we need to be honest with ourselves and our employees about what kind of company we should build and how fast we need to grow. Consequently, we are consulting internally on a proposal for changes to our organization that would align our teams and resources with important core technology initiatives that create the most long term value.”

Earlier this year, TimeWarner led a $27 million (USD) investment in 8i to assist in growing the company. Some experts noted that the company already faces an uphill battle with the technology requirements for some complex real-time graphical rendering, and now it will need to continue that work with fewer staff.

“This is incredibly hard as we are saying goodbye to valued members of our team who have helped build 8i into the company it is today,” 8i said. “While this is hard, the streamlining of our business is crucial to remaining nimble as we empower our world-class team to continue to deliver industry leading breakthroughs and advance the world’s leading format of volumetric video.”

Further news on 8i and other VR startups will be right here on VRFocus.

August 19, 2017

Finalists Announced For Innov8: V-Commerce Competition

You may recall a story we covered on VRFocus back in July, where Store No.8 and Thrive Global came together to launch a new competition which focused on virtual reality (VR), not for games, but as a tool to aid commercial endeavours. The contest was called the Innov8: V-Commerce Competition and it had some potentially invaluable rewards, on a business level, should you have been chosen as a winner. Not just development capital in oprder to facilitate the development of your idea, but mentorship and the chance to work with big names in the retail sector who could potentially be your busiess partners.

Submissions ended at the beginning of the month and earlier this week the ‘Innov8tors’ selected were announced. There are five finalists in total, all of whom five finalists that will present their ideas
at Innov8’s exhibition on October 18th 2017.

You can find a little bit more about all five below:

Fyusion

Based in San Francisco, Fyusion is “on a mission to fundamentally change the definition of photography” as they explain on their website.

“The company’s breakthrough technology generates deeply immersive “surround view” images that fuse the capabilities of a traditional photo, a panorama, motion capture and 3D to create a more complete, captivating photography experience.”

8i

Based both in Culver City, California and Wellington, New Zealand, 8i‘s technology is implimented to transpose recordings of humans into immersive reality spaces.

“8i provides the easiest way to create, mix and experience human holograms that look real and feel as if they were in the same room. Our proprietary technology transforms video from an array of cameras into a photo-realistic 3D hologram of a human that can be viewed from any angle, on any device for virtual, augmented or mixed reality.”

Nurulize

A VR software developer from Los Angeles who already this year took GTC’s Grand Prize at VR Content Showcase, Nurulize work on Atom View which they describe as “a cutting edge tool for raw volumetric data processing, color management, and delivery. Built from the ground up for VR, Atom View helps you integrate the highest quality volumetric data on the planet with traditional workflows for game or film.”

Specular Theory

Based in Venice Beach, California Specular Theory create VR films and have had selections at both Sundance and Tribeca since their foundation. The company “creates and distributes cutting-edge, premium, and authentic experiences for virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed-reality and location-based entertainment (LBVRE).”

Obsess

New York based Obsess provide three types of 360 degree experiences giving different levels of immersion and retail options. You can find an example of one of their campaigns here: https://360experience.verabradley.com/

VRFocus will bring you news on the event in October and any updates in the meantime as we get them.

June 23, 2017June 24, 2017

Holo Introduces Holograms Of Real People to Your Pictures And Videos

8i continues to blaze a trail through the immersive industry with its capture technology, cultivating partnerships with companies such as L’Oreal and even enabling legendary astronaut Buzz Aldrin to give us an in-person explanation on how we’ll colonize Mars.

VidCon is a celebration of online videos from the viewers to the creators and 8i took to the annual conference to share that it is making the technology available to consumers by way of a new app called Holo, which allows them to take pictures and record video in what they term as 3D holograms.

To simultaneously promote the new technology and an upcoming film, 8i partnered with Sony Pictures to give users a hologram of Spider-Man from the Homecoming film to add to their pictures and videos. Holo adds the holograms to your image or video while you’re in camera view and they’re not just static, augmented overlays. Spider-Man, for example, can flip, facepalm, and pose for a selfie.

“People are creating, augmenting and sharing content like never before directly through the cameras on their phones,” says Steve Raymond, CEO of 8i, in the press release for the new development. “With Holo, we’re introducing a new way to create and express yourself using holograms of real people combined with the AR capabilities of smartphones. Until now, it’s never been possible to direct your own videos using recognizable characters and celebrities and we’re seeing lots of creative storytelling from Holo users.”

The partnership with Sony is just the beginning of their desire to have exclusive content available for the app. Holo currently includes content from Cosmopolitan (Magic Mike dancers) and holograms of various go90 stars and, if the app permeates throughout social networks, more big ticket partnerships are sure to sprout up in the future. Holo is available for free on the iOS Store for iPhone and on Google Play Store for Android devices.

Tagged with: 8i, Sony Pictures

March 15, 2017March 17, 2017

SXSW 2017: Buzz Aldrin Shows Us The Pathway To Mars Colonization

Update: The full Buzz Aldrin: Cycling Pathways to Mars experience is now available in Time Inc’s LIFE VR app on combat mission isolation for astronauts, and this new experience is essentially an extension of that. Aldrin has had a complex theory for how the colonization of Mars would begin, but it was not something easily explained to those that don’t share Aldrin’s level of expertise. The immersion of VR coupled with Aldrin’s knowledge made for a narrative experience where his words are brought to life and viewers, such as myself, come away with a much better understanding.

Cycling Pathways To Mars places you on a platform with a projection system on the floor that displays the virtual Buzz Aldrin as he theorizes the different steps needed to move toward Mars colonization. As he walks us through his ideas, the space around us unfolds to match what he describes. We’re shown his original moon landing, the moon of the future, the proposed journey to Mars on massive ships called “Cyclers” and, finally, the Mars colony. The experience is running on an HTC Vive in roomscale, so you’re able to walk around the platform and get a look at things from a different perspective.

Planets fly through you as you’re surrounded by the solar system and you’ll even fly through the Cycler and get a close look at its components. There was an interesting interaction I was making that I didn’t realize until my host told me after the hands-on. Ben Stein, 8i’s General Manager, pointed out I gave Buzz Aldrin’s hologram a wide berth and those before me had done the same. I moved through the other digital assets with no problem, but I really felt like Aldrin was sharing the space with me. 8i has shared images of their volumetric projections before, but seeing one close up really reveals how impactful they can be.

If you’re at SXSW, you owe it to yourself to check out Cycling Pathways To Mars. It is being hosted at the Marriott in downtown Austin until Thursday March 16. On Friday, it will be available through TIME Inc so others can experience it as well.

Tagged with: 8i, buzz aldrin, SXSW

February 13, 2017

8i Raises $27 Million to Create Holo: Holograms for Your Phone

Holographic technology company 8i is announcing today that it has raised a $27 million series B round of fundraising for the development of new products including its new smartphone hologram program: Holo.

Holo’s tagline encourages users to: mix your world with holograms. According to 8i, Holo is a:

“…Consumer mobile app that gives people an easy way to create mixed reality content with holograms of their favorite celebrities, brands, and characters. Holo lets users add holograms to their real-world environments and take videos and photos they can share with friends across their social channels and messaging apps.”

Part of the technology that enables Holo’s dynamic AR imaging is Google’s Project Tango. Tango is a unique system of cameras, depth sensors and software that is being built into more and more smartphones. Holo’s beta is currently being tested by select users on the Tango-enabled Lenovo Phab 2 Pro. The purpose of the beta, according to 8i, is to see, “how users interact with the new technology and a limited selection of sample 3D holograms.”

Later this year, however, the company plans to release “a new version of the app with content partners and programming later this year on Tango-enabled smartphones, and other mobile devices.”

8i made headlines last month when it announced its new CEO Steve Raymond as well as a Seattle-based research facility that seems to be working on bringing holographic telepresence to mass-communications. As one of the first 8i products to ever release, Holo will continue 8i’s apparent mission: to create high quality holograms and show the world the many ways they can be used.

Holo itself seems to be mostly a Snapchat-esque entertainment product that focuses primarily on giggling with your friends as goofy holograms prance across your screen. However, there is serious technological innovations behind those giggles. Tango is one of the most important AR systems in existence today, and the widespread distribution of high-quality holograms has never truly been attempted on a consumer level. Holo may seem innocent, but it’s also a chance for 8i to introduce holograms to the world and whet our collective appetites for what’s coming next.

8i’s $27 million series B was raised with Time Warner Investments, with participation from Baidu Ventures (its very first VR/AR investment), Hearst Ventures, Verizon Ventures, One Ventures, Carsten Maschmeyer’s Seed & Speed Ventures, and existing investors.

Tagged with: 8i, holo, hologram, investment, million, raised, smartphone

January 27, 2017

Step Inside a VR Recreation of the Smithsonian American Art Museum by Framestore and Intel

The Smithsonian American Art Museum is world renown for having some of the most iconic pieces of art and sculpture anywhere. Not everyone can travel to the US to view the exhibits so Intel has collaborated with Framestore, VALIS Studios, 8i and xRez Studio to recreate the second floor east wing of the museum in virtual reality (VR).

To create the experience an Intel-powered LIDAR scan provided the ground work, which was then combined with photogrammetry provided by 3D specialist Greg Downing (xRez Studio) to build a high level of detail. VALIS Studios’ lead creative director and producer Peter Martin put the team together, with 8i providing the volumetric capture and Framestore provided the Unity build.

Framestore - Smithsonian Museum image 2

Built for room scale VR, the experience allows users to explore the museum using teleportation, where they’ll find three pieces that can be examined far more closely. First is the Adams Memorial, a famous bronze sculpture by Augustus Saint-Gaudens. As users draw in close a text overlay appears which details the story of ‘Clover’ Adams, wife of writer Henry Adams, who committed suicide in 1885 by drinking chemicals used to develop photographs. Her grieving husband commissioned the sculptor to create a memorial.

The next takes viewers to Aurora Borealis, the original oil painting created in 1863 by artist Frederic Edwin Church. Approaching the painting reveals the option to teleport into the art piece. It’ll take them to Iceland, where a 360-degree video at 6K resolution of the aurora borealis, provided by designer and photographer Olafur Haraldsson is viewable.

The last piece to explore takes place in a virtual theatre where the 2013 three-channel video installation, Face in the Crowd, plays on three walls. As viewers turn around, they’re are faced with a scan of the artist herself, Alex Prager, who tells them the inspiration for the work.

For all the latest VR news from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.