British Museum – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

November 17, 2017

Oculus Showcases the Best of What React VR can do

Earlier this year, Oculus unveiled React VR, a new library that would enable developers to quickly build and ship virtual reality (VR) experiences across multiple channels. Today, the company has decided to showcase several pieces of content that use React VR, covering entertainment, education, travel and more.

First up is entertainment, with Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle 360-degree experience available to try today on PC, mobile devices, and VR headsets including Oculus Rift, and coming to the Oculus Browser on Gear VR on 21st November. A sort of VR scavenger hunt, the experience tasks you with finding hidden objects to unlock new content – including behind-the-scenes footage – as you explore the treehouse.

“Building an immersive experience for this movie was a goal from the start. It was important for us to give fans the opportunity to journey into the rich world of Jumanji. Interactive 360° video and the React VR platform was the perfect solution,” says Sony Pictures Executive Vice President, Digital Marketing Elias Plishner on the Oculus Blog. “We were blown away with the technology and the fact that it could be easily accessed on a platform people use every day.”

Moving onto education, the British Museum teamed up with Oculus to create an exclusive tour, letting users reach out and examine 3D models of their most popular exhibits, from the tomb-chapel of Nebamun to mummies, funerary art, and more.

“We’re hugely excited to offer people around the world access to this first-of-its-kind gallery tour,” says Hannah Boulton, Head of Press & Marketing. “The British Museum has always been open to everyone, but this kind of technology means we can make this a reality in an unprecedented way, allowing anyone across the world to immerse themselves in our Egyptian collections. We’re proud to have worked with Oculus on this important project.”

Additionally, Oculus also worked with the National Gallery to bring its Sainsbury Wing galleries into VR, including the Wilton Diptych, Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, Botticelli’s Venus and Mars, and Leonardo da Vinci’s The Virgin of the Rocks. All of which will be available in December.

“The National Gallery believes immersive media like VR has the potential to change the way people create, consume, and distribute art,” says Digital Director Chris Michaels. “We want to explore the many different ways that will impact what we do and are delighted to work with Oculus, Vizor, and Matterport on this brilliant collaboration.”

Moving further afield, Oyster.com has used React VR to build an interactive experience that lets travelers try before they fly. “Our goal at Oyster is to let travelers know exactly what they’re going to get before they check in,” explains Senior Product Manager Tracy Drossman. “We’ve done this through undoctored photos and honest reviews from our in-person hotel and cruise ship visits. With Oyster on Oculus, travelers can now feel like they’ve come along on those visits.”

In addition to all these collaborations to create content using React VR, Oculus has also begun testing native React VR integration and experience playback within Facebook News Feed.

As further details are released, VRFocus will keep you updated.

May 17, 2017

Virtual reality brings ninth century Viking invaders’ camp to life

Exhibition to feature scenes and artefacts from large-scale winter base where soldiers prepared to conquer Anglo-Saxons in 872

The Viking armies that invaded Britain in the ninth century were far larger than had previously been realised, according to academic research that forms the basis for a groundbreaking virtual reality project.

A major exhibition at the Yorkshire Museum, staged in partnership with the British Museum, draws on new research by the universities of York and Sheffield. According to Professor Dawn Hadley, one of the co-directors of the universities’ project at the site of a Viking winter camp, archeologists and historians had thought that the invading Viking armies numbered in the low hundreds. But archeological work at the camp on the river Trent at Torksey, Lincolnshire, suggested otherwise.

March 16, 2017

Discover Two Million Years of History with the British Museum’s latest VR experience

The British Museum has partnered with virtual reality (VR) content developer Boulevard to create a way for museum-goers to interact with ancient objects.

Boulevard has created an Oculus Touch application called Two Million Years of History And Humanity which allows Oculus users to view and compare 48 objects from the British Museum’s vast collection of artefacts. Using the Oculus Touch, it is even possible to reach out and pick up objects such as the Mesopotamian Flood Tablet, or a two-million-year old stone chopping tool which is the oldest item in the British Museum collection.

The British Museum - Galleon ship

The British Museum is the world’s oldest national public museum. Its staff are known as world leaders in history, archaeology and anthropology and its collection is one of the most diverse and fascinating, covering world cultures from the dawn of humanity, to the ancient Egyptians to the Renaissance right through to the present day.

Chris Michaels, Head of Digital and Publishing, British Museum said: “Virtual reality is the next frontier for museums. Though nothing can replace the experience of visiting a museum, and learning about an object through looking, this adds a whole new element to that experience – opening up a kind of intimate study previously reserved only for specialist curators. The British Museum is delighted to partner with Boulevard on this amazing new way to share our collection with the world.”

Two Million Years of History And Humanity is available for free from the Oculus Store for users around the world.

VRFocus will bring you further information VR experiences as we get it.