BBC – Page 5 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 1, 2018

BBC Brings Civilisations AR to iOS and Android

Last month VRFocus reported on the BBC announcing its first ever augmented reality (AR) app for mobile devices, Civilisations AR. Developed by BBC Research & Development, BBC Arts and Nexus Studios the app has launched today for iOS and Android.

Civilisations AR image1

Developed as part of a major collaboration between the BBC and more than 30 museums and galleries as part of the Civilisations Festival, Civilisations AR features over 30 artefacts from museums across the UK that have been digitally scanned and are now available to view in 3D.

Exhibits include a fourteenth century Italian sculpture of Madonna and Child from the National Museum of Scotland, Turner’s painting Bridge over the Moselle from the Oldham Museum and Art Gallery, an ancient Egyptian mummy from the Torquay Museum and the Rosetta Stone from the British Museum.

The app marks the launch of new arts and culture series, Civilisations, which begins on BBC Two tonight, with the full series due to be available on BBC iPlayer. The series follows presenters Simon Schama, Mary Beard and David Olusoga as they travel far and wide across six continents to find answers to fundamental questions about human creativity.

“We’re thrilled to have started our augmented reality journey with Civilisations AR,” said Eleni Sharp, executive product manager for BBC R&D in a statement. “The app enables users to explore an amazing range of exhibits, while enabling the BBC R&D team to experiment with a new technology and test how a new format can complement a linear show. However, this is just the first outing for the app. We’ve designed and built it to be a totally reusable product, and we will be looking to use develop more AR projects in the future once we have had the chance to analyse the data from this one.”

Check out the full list of exhibits included in Civilisations AR below. While this might be the first AR app from the BBC, the broadcaster is well versed in virtual reality (VR), creating apps like Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, The Turning Forest, and a Doctor Who experience. For any further BBC VR or AR updates, keep reading VRFocus.

Artefact	Museum	Location Origin	Year
The Clonmore Shrine	Ulster Museum, Belfast	United Kingdom	650
Tea Pot	Ulster Museum, Belfast	United Kingdom	1808
Carved Ivory Salt Cellar	National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh	Nigeria	1550
Madonna and Child	National Museum of Scotland, Edinburgh	Italy	1350
The Kiss by Rodin	National Museum Wales, Cardiff	France	1898
Crested Firedog	National Museum Wales, Cardiff	United Kingdom	50
Hippo Bowl	Manchester Museum, Manchester	Egypt	3500 BCE
Sundial from first railway station	Museum of Science and Industry, Manchester	United Kingdom	1830
Bridge over the Ticino by Turner	Gallery Oldham, Oldham	Switzerland	1842
Tang Dynasty Horse	Gallery Oldham, Oldham	China
Ebenezer Elliot bust	Barnsley Museum, Barnsley	United Kingdom	1800
Zeus Ammon	World Museum, Liverpool	Egypt	100
Statuette of Horus the Child	World Museum, Liverpool	Egypt	300 BCE
Lady Emma Hamilton as a Bacchante by Vigée-Le Brun	Lady Lever Art Gallery, Wirral	United Kingdom	1782
Gandahar Sculpture	Oriental Museum, Durham	Pakistan	200
Roman Statue of Mars	The Yorkshire Museum, York	United Kingdom
Open Work Head by Moore	The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield	United Kingdom	1936
Reclining Figure by Moore	The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield	United Kingdom	1934
Mother & Child by Hepworth	The Hepworth Wakefield, Wakefield	United Kingdom	1963
Christ Washing Disciple’s Feet by Tintoretto	Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead	Italy	1547
Ogoni Mask	Derby Museum and Art Gallery, Derby	Nigeria	1900
Oak Samson Statue	Norfolk Museum, Norwich	United Kingdom	c.1600
Corinthian Helmet	Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter	Greece	1000 BCE
Gelede Mask	Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter	Nigeria	1850
Peruvian Stirrup Stout Pot	Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Exeter	Peru	1450
Roundway Beaker	Wiltshire Museum, Wiltshire	United Kingdom	2000 BCE
Divination Bowl	Bristol Museum, Bristol	Nigeria	c.1860
Corinium Cockeral	Corinium Museum, Cirencester	United Kingdom	150
Mummy in Egyptian Coffin	Torquay Museum, Torquay	Egypt
The Rosetta Stone	The British Museum, London	Egypt	196 BCE
Roman Hunter God	Cumming Museum, London	United Kingdom	150
Gold Trophy Head	The Wallace Collection, London	Ghana	1850
The Blood of the Redeemer by Bellini	National Gallery, London	Italy	c.1460
Japanese Gun Powder Flask	Ashmolean Museum, Oxford	Japan	1640
Octopus Storage Jar	Ashmolean Museum, Oxford	Greece	1400 BCE
Reliquary Casket of St Thomas Beckett	Ashmolean Museum, Oxford	France	1200
Red Figure Neck Amphora	The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge	Greece	470 BCE
Iznik Jug	The Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge	Turkey	1592
Māori ‘God Stick’ Tiki Wanaga	Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Colchester	New Zealand
Titus Flavius Demetrius	Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Colchester	Egypt
Native American Mask	Colchester and Ipswich Museums, Colchester	USA

February 21, 2018

Damming The Nile Is A VR Documentary From The BBC

The BBC has been pretty active in the immersive tech space of late, releasing a new Daydream project last week, announcing its first augmented reality app a few weeks back and launching its new virtual reality hub late last year. This week sees the launch of one of the first projects to come out of that hub.

That project is a VR documentary called Damming the Nile, which is available to watch completely free of charge. It’s a two-part 360 degree video piece in which viewers will follow the journey of the world’s longest river. Specifically, the piece focuses on a new dam built around the Blue Nile in Ethiopia.

Over the two 10+ minute episodes you’ll fly high over the river, inspect the dam up close and even meet the richest man in Sudan. It’s the first VR documentary from the organization.

The series is available now on YouTube, meaning you can watch it through PSVR and most mobile VR headsets, or head to the BBC app on Gear VR to watch it from there.

Tagged with: BBC

February 20, 2018

BBC Launches VR Documentary Series Damming the Nile VR

Today, BBC VR Hub and BBC News have announced a new virtual reality (VR) series exploring the water politics of the river Nile in Egypt, Damming the Nile VR.

Damming the Nile VR

The two-part documentary series follows BBC Africa Correspondent, Alastair Leithead, on assignment across the Nile, taking viewers on a journey down the famous river, taking in its beautiful sights and dramatic sounds as they travel through canyons and fly above waterfalls. But it’s also where the world’s first war over water could be fought. A major new project – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – threatens to upset the balance of power between neighbours and rivals Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

Damming the Nile VR looks to give audiences a unique perspective on the dispute, joining the crew as they hear from locals in the cafés of Khartoum and street corners of Sudan, meet the richest man in Sudan, and grill ministers fighting their countries’ corners. Viewers will have to opportunity to inspect the dam up-close, then explore some of the local ancient wonders including Sudanese pyramids and Egyptian temples from a hot air balloon,

“As a foreign correspondent, my job is to introduce people to new and fascinating places, challenge stereotypes and explain how countries are growing and changing. Virtual reality means films like Damming the Nile VR can actually take our audiences there so they can see it for themselves,” said Leithead in a statement. “Once you put on a headset and enter the virtual world, you come with us on assignment to Ethiopia, Sudan and Egypt to explore their issues up close, and understand the politics of the Nile through a unique new perspective.”

Damming the Nile VR

Filmed in stereoscopic VR and featuring fully spatialised audio, Damming the Nile VR includes music from The Nile Project, a collective of musicians from countries along the river.

Zillah Watson, head of BBC VR Hub, commented: “We want to create high quality mobile VR pieces that give audiences experiences they can’t find anywhere else. Damming the Nile VR does this by making you feel like you’re there, unearthing the story as you go, and getting a better understanding of the different cultures and points of view at play. Audiences can also enjoy the sheer scale and beauty of the Nile, alongside the major infrastructure projects that have shaped its past and will continue to shape its future.”

To mark the launch of Damming the Nile VR, the BBC has launched a new BBC VR app for free on Samsung Gear VR, combining all of its mobile VR experiences (The Turning Forest, Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel, Himalayas: A Trek to School and Bloodhound) into one place. For any further updates from the BBC, keep reading VRFocus.

February 14, 2018

BBC Brings VR Nature Experience ‘BBC Earth: Life in VR’ to Daydream

BBC Worldwide and Google have partnered to bring a new BBC Earth VR experience to Daydream. Dubbed BBC Earth: Life in VR, the computer generated experience takes the user to the Californian coast, and the bustling underwater world filled with sea life nearby.

Production studio Preloaded says that much like a conventional documentary, Life in VR has a “strong narrative voice to tell a core story,” but critically features an open world design that they say both provides “agency and rewards exploration.” Preloaded also says the experience was meticulously researched, and designed with VR newcomers in mind.

The educational experience boasts a number of popular animals which were featured in the BBC Blue Planet TV series, including sea otters, giant squids, great white sharks and sperm whales. You’ll even get a chance to shrink down in size to see microscopic sea life in action.

You can download BBC Earth: Life in VR here for free.

The post BBC Brings VR Nature Experience ‘BBC Earth: Life in VR’ to Daydream appeared first on Road to VR.

February 14, 2018

Life In VR Is A Blue Planet-Inspired VR App From The BBC

Fans of the BBC’s Blue Planet series will definitely want to check out the organization’s latest app, available now on Google Daydream.

BBC Earth: Life in VR is a fully interactive VR experience inspired by the corporation’s nature documentaries. Instead of another companion 360 degree video like those made for Planet Earth and Blue Planet, users will be able to dive into a 3D world and learn about its inhabitants. For the first installment, California Coast, you’ll explore Pacific waters, meeting all kinds of wildlife along the way. Check out the trailer below.

Viewers will start out following a sea otter foraging for food before diving deeper into the trenches and uncovering unique kinds of aquatic life. You’ll be able to interact with those you meet along the way using the Daydream controller. It looks like a colorful piece that will demonstrate the educational benefits of VR quite well.

The piece was developed by Preloaded in partnership with BBC Earth Products. Like BBC’s other VR apps, which include the excellent The Turning Forest, it’s free to download. This might be kind of app that feels right at home on Lenovo’s upcoming standalone Daydream headset.

Tagged with: BBC, Life in VR: California Coast

February 14, 2018

Blue Planet II Comes to Google Daydream as BBC Earth: Life in VR

So far over the course of this month the BBC has delved into whether virtual reality (VR) can help mental illness, released its first augmented reality (AR) app, and today announced another VR experience. BBC Worldwide has teamed up with Google on a natural history app called BBC Earth: Life in VR for Google Daydream.

LifeinVR

Built by BAFTA-winning videogame studio Preloaded in collaboration with BBC Earth Productions and BBC Studio’s VR team, BBC Earth: Life in VR has been inspired by series like Blue Planet II and Planet Earth II. The app allows the user to enter a real-time world, moving them from a passive viewer to an active participant, witnessing first hand the creature behaviours and relationships which sustain the ocean’s rich and diverse ecosystems.

“The journey begins on the Californian Pacific Coast, following a mother sea otter as she forages in the coastal waters,” states the official description. “After exploring kelp forests the player can plunge into the depths of an oceanic trench, experiencing this unique environment and behavior of the animals who live there. Along the way they meet and can interact with a range of animals from microscopic plankton to giant squid and a gargantuan sperm whale.”

Kellee Santiago, Sr. Producer forDaydream Apps said in a statement: “BBC Earth’s experience on Daydream makes exploring the wonders of our world more immersive and accessible than ever before. It allows audiences to guide themselves, based on whatever takes their interest. The experience truly showcases the unique capabilities of the interactive and immersive format of Daydream to provide a platform for deeper understandings of our world.”

LifeinVR

“We are really excited to be working with Google to bring BBC nature content to Daydream. VR allows us to provide our audiences a new level of immersion unparalleled by other mediums and tell stories of the natural world in a new and exhilarating way,” adds Bradley Crooks, Head of Digital Entertainment & Games, BBC Worldwide.

BBC Earth: Life in VR is available now from Google Play as a free downloadable app. VRFocus will continue its coverage of the BBC, reporting back with further VR and AR announcements.

February 7, 2018

BBC’s First AR App Will Let You Explore Ancient Artifacts With Your Phone

The BBC is already heavily involved with VR, having created and backed several projects from 360 videos to full experiences like Home: A VR Spacewalk. Soon, though, the organization will make its first foray into AR.

This morning the BBC announced that it will be launching an AR companion app to its upcoming Civilisations series, set to air this spring on BBC2. The series is set to take a look at the foundations of British culture and the history behind it, exploring significant artworks, artifacts and architecture throughout time that led us to where we are today. It’s a spiritual successor of sorts to a similar series from 1969, redesigned for a new generation.

The companion app, meanwhile, will allow users to explore virtual recreations of some of these artifacts using their phones. Exhibits will include an Egyptian mummy from the Torquay Museum, Rodin’s The Kiss from the National Museum of Wales and the Umbrian Madonna and Child from the National Museum of Scotland. Users will be able to rub through layers of history, reviving the initially faded sculptures to discover how they would have first appeared after completion hundreds of years ago.

Look for the app to launch in the coming weeks on both iOS and Android. This could be a great example of the educational benefits of AR.

Tagged with: BBC

February 3, 2018

BBC Asks If VR Can Help Us Understand Mental Health With New Video

We’ve already seen many companies make the move to help us understand and treat mental health conditions. Samsung are trying to develop a virtual reality (VR) system that can help with mental health, and Emteq believe that VR can help people with mental health conditions without the aid of medication or drugs. Now, even the BBC are looking into how VR can be used to help us understand people with mental health conditions.

Mental illnesses often have invisible symptoms. Can VR help people show what's going on inside their heads, for real? #TimeToTalk pic.twitter.com/wq2QDOQ9EM

— BBC (@BBC) February 1, 2018

In a video the BBC released on their Twitter page, they show a number of people using HTC Vive head-mounted displays (HMDs) and motion controllers to create their own head spaces, allowing people to step inside and try to understand what it’s like to suffer from mental health conditions.

The people in the video share stories of their experience, highlighting the unseen difficulties people with mental health conditions go through. Katy has borderline personality disorder, and explains how the voice in her head seemed very much like real voices she would hear. She explains; “I never really understood that I was hearing voices, because I’ve had it for most of my life. I used to think that they were actually happening.”

James shares his experience with anorexia and bulimia, and uses the HTC Vive motion controllers to create a virtual cocoon, symbolising how he shut himself off from the world around him and felt isolated during his experience.

Danika also shares he experience with psychotic depression, which left her with psycho-somatic physical symptoms. Her psychosis made her believe she was physically unwell, including pain and symptoms, which were all in her head.

Using mixed reality (MR) two documentaries are being built to help understand mental health, and show a new way to share the experiences that people with mental health conditions suffer through.

The video is embedded above, showing the creations the participants made in the virtual space while they talk about their experiences. It’s a heartfelt video, showing that some people with serious illnesses often go without showing any physical signs of distress.

For more on the ways VR can be used for health and education, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.

January 1, 2018

Life In 360°: A Bygone Celebration

So we’re here, 2018. To be honest this particular edition of Life In 360° is being written on December 29th so I have absolutely no idea as to what might have transpired between December 31st and January 1st. Perhaps the world has been conquered by aliens. Perhaps world peace was declared. Perhaps Garth Brooks was elected as the new Pope. Not a clue. There’s a very good chance most of us here are hungover and wouldn’t have any idea what was going on anyway.

Life In 360° / 360 Degree Video Well, since we can’t exactly prepare in advance for something that hasn’t actually happened yet let’s take a look at the year that was shall we? More specifically let’s do a space time rewind to London and the striking of midnight LAST year and the end of 2016 and beginning of 2017.

Whilst there are a number of 360 degree videos of the chimes of Big Ben sounding and the London Eye – that’s the big ferris wheel they put up on the side of the Thames years back now for those not familiar – being lit up with fireworks galore. Feel free to look them up for a view from the crowd. The footage instead comes from Auntie herself, the British Broadcasting Corporation – the BBC. Who very kindly recorded (or at least BBC Taster did) the whole shebang from the sixty second countdown, to the ringing in of the new year and to the final whizzbang.

It’s a musical and visual extravaganza packed full of contemporary pop music and plenty of modern crowd pleasers. The BBC even provided a track list for the mashup/remix which is pretty good of them. Keep an ear out for:

Prince – 1999
Prince – Let’s Go Crazy
Prince – Alphabet St
Prince – Kiss
Sigala (feat. John Newman & Nile Rodgers) – Give Me Your Love
Walk the Moon – Shut Up and Dance
Buggles – Video Killed The Radio Star
Jimi Hendrix – Crosstown Traffic
Fatman Scoop (feat. DJ Kool) – It Takes Scoop
Orbital – Chime
Woodkid – Run Boy Run
Frankie Goes To Hollywood – Relax
Kungs vs. Cookin’ on 3 Burners – This Girl
TNGHT – Higher Ground
M Beat (feat. General Levy) – Incredible
Fatboy Slim and Riva Starr (feat. Beardyman) – Eat, Sleep, Rave, Repeat
Edmundo Ros & His Orchestra – London is the Place for Me
Coldplay – A Sky Full of Stars (Hardwell Remix)
David Bowie – Fame
David Bowie – Space Oddity
David Bowie – Suffragette City
David Bowie – Ziggy Stardust
Chromeo – Jealous (Dillon Francis Remix)
Swedish House Mafia (feat. John Martin) – Don’t You Worry Child

As usual, just because there’s a major holiday going on that doesn’t mean there’s not going to be things happening throughout the day on VRFocus so please do keep a look out for those. Li360 will be back tomorrow for the last video in our slightly later festive timeslot.

December 14, 2017

Doctor Who fans pilot the TARDIS in the BBC Latest VR Experience

Earlier this year the BBC launched a 360-degree mobile experience for mobile devices based on its long running hit sci-fi TV show, Doctor Who. Called Time Vortex 360, the broadcaster has now rebooted the experience as a webVR virtual reality (VR) videogame.

Developed for the BBC by Goodboy Digital, the videogame has been created using the WebVR API and combines cutting edge HTML5 and WebGL using PixiJS v5.0. Just like the earlier 360 title, the VR version is an endless runner, which gets more and more difficult the longer people play, taking them on a visually intense journey through the iconic vortex from the show’s opening credits. Using the device’s accelerometer, players control the game by physically moving around, even giving the player the ability to turn around and travel backwards in time.

Time Vortex VR

As players progress through the game, they are transported into different time zones from past eras, from the current vortex to re-imagined designs from the 1960s and 1980s. To play, fans simply need to visit bbc.in/TimeVortexVR.

“This game allows you to step inside one of the most iconic title sequences in TV history, as you pilot the TARDIS through modern, 80s and 60s versions of the vortex. Digital innovation is at the very heart of Doctor Who – and this new game combines casual, arcade-style gaming with virtual reality to create an unforgettable experience,” said Jo Pearce, Creative Director, BBC Digital Drama. “After releasing the 360 version of the game, we had lots of comments from players suggesting it would make a great VR experience. For this re-boot we wanted to offer a VR gaming experience that is as accessible as possible and test the limits of what is possible to develop using WebVR.”

Time Vortex VR is available to play using cardboard headsets, Google Daydream, Samsung Gear VR and HTC Vive via your web browser. However, those without headsets can play the title with mobiles and tablets running newer versions of Android or iOS and the latest versions of Chrome, Firefox or Safari.

This is just another in a growing lineup of immersive titles from the BBC, with previous experiences including THe Turning Forest and Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel. For the latest BBC VR experiences, keep reading VRFocus.