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, VRFocuswill bring you news and updates regarding new and innovative VR experiences.
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.
You may recall a story we covered onVRFocus 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).”
Perspective Chapter 2: The Misdemeanor
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
8i is one of the most intriguing virtual reality companies operating today, but for the past several months it has also been one of the most quiet. The New Zealend-based company is working to pioneer new methodologies for creating volumetrically captured, photorealistic holographic humans. Today, the company peeking its head above water just long enough to announce its plans for the new year and to tease us once again with the promise of powerful future technology.
In a series of blog posts published today, 8i stormed the Internet with several corporate updates. The first, and perhaps most significant is the appointment of Steve Raymond as the company’s new CEO. According to a post published by 8i co-founder Linc Gasking:
Since joining us nine months ago as President of Studios, Steve has been a close partner and adviser to me and our management team, a respected and loved mentor to our employees, an unwavering believer in our mission and opportunity, and an unflappable leader and strategist in the face of complexity common in early stage startups. In leading our studio business, Steve doubled the growth of our team and established our fully operational professional studio, created and grew countless relationships with brand and content partners, as well as vastly improved information flow with our core technology team in Wellington. More on this later.
Raymond will have plenty to occupy him in 2017. In the past year 8i has scaled from 25 employees up to around 75, inside sources confirm. This year will also mark the true beginning of the company’s western expansion, beginning with a brand new United States research office in Seattle, Washington and a US headquartered in Los Angeles, California.
Details are thin surrounding the Los Angeles location beyond the fact that it will also house a brand new 8i studio. More can be learned, however, about the Seattle office based on who exactly it will house. Several notable researchers will make this research center their home including Charles Loop and Phil Chou.
Although no official word has been given by 8i proper concerning the work that will be done in Seattle, Individual blog posts published today by Chou and Loop point toward one bleeding edge technology: telepresence.
Loop in particular seems passionate about unlocking holographic communications for humans. He wrote in his post that:
Several recent breakthroughs are behind making holographic telepresence a reality.
Real-Time Depth Acquisition. Digital cameras record a color at each pixel of a digital image. A depth image stores the distance along an invisible ray, from the focal point of a camera to the nearest object hit by the ray. “Real-time” means that a new depth image can be acquired at least 30 times per second. This technology became widely available with the introduction of Microsoft’s Kinect device in 2010. Since then, several similar “depth camera” devices have appeared, including the Intel RealSense camera. Strictly speaking, these are not really depth cameras, but rather ordinary monochrome cameras combined with infrared light projectors and filters that utilize various software algorithms to estimate the depth at each pixel.
Programmable Parallel Processing. Driven by the insatiable desire for realism in videogames, processors capable of executing thousands of floating point operations simultaneously, millions of times per second, have evolved both in terms of performance and programmability over the last two decades. This massive parallelism has ignited revolutions in many fields of science and engineering, including artificial intelligence and machine learning. It is this abundant compute capability that we leverage for holographic telepresence.
AR/VR Head Mounted Displays. Devices capable of tracking the orientation of a user’s head, and presenting geometrically correct synthetic stereo imagery are now widely available.
Loop closes his post by writing that he is joining 8i in Seattle specifically to study this problem and, hopefully, discover a meaningful and scalable solution.
For his part, Chou will be participating in work that could inform and advance Loop’s telepresence ambitions. Chou will be working to “help with the compression and communication of volumetric media” and he writes in his blog that:
“The birth of volumetric media, known popularly as holograms, is an extraordinary moment in the history of human communication. Holograms represent a new generation of immersive media: the third generation after audio and video.”
These advancements for 8i are significant and position the company as one of, if not the, early leader in the field of holographic communication. As Loop put it:
“Twenty years from now, holograms may become as ubiquitous in communication and storytelling as digital video is today. I am expecting to look back on this moment as the birth of volumetric media, and to see that 8i has played a key role in establishing not only how content is created and consumed in this new medium, but also how it is compressed and how it is delivered over the network to end users.”
However glorious the life of an astronaut may seem, there are realistic pitfalls of the incredible missions they undertake. The journey into space is an isolated and claustrophobic one, but company 8i is hoping to combat that. A company on a mission to “make virtual reality human”, 8i, has partnered with TIME Inc. to bring holographic messages from second-man-on-the-moon Buzz Aldrin, as well as entertainer Reggie Watts, to the LIFE VR platform. The “Message to Mars” recordings will be used during a Mars simulation journey and are made possible through 8i’s technology that brings lifelike holograms to virtual spaces. Using this format, “Message to Mars” could provide an immersive tool that could help cope with the isolation of the lengthy trip to the red planet.
“As humans embrace the extraordinary commitment to leave Earth and make Mars their home, virtual reality will be a very important way of staying in touch,” said Aldrin. “What could be more stimulating to students, scientists, and political leaders on Earth than to experience life on another a planet, and for the astronauts journeying to Mars to receive messages from back home? I’m honored to leave my message behind for these courageous men and women who will go down in history in a way that no one ever has before.”
Aldrin will be sharing his own experiences through “Message to Mars” while Watts will be beatboxing and bringing a humorous style all his own for his message. Additional messages from people other than Aldrin and Watts are slated to be revealed early next year and hopefully they’ll continue to strike this balance between informed encouragement and pure entertainment. We reported previously on LIFE VR, one of the tools being used to bring this to life, and TIME Inc’s VR initiative is already making interesting strides in storytelling.
Nurulize
