WayRay Aim to be Augmented Reality Glass Company of the Future

WayRay has had a huge amount of interest since Alibaba invested in the company last year, since then Swiss augmented reality (AR) specialist company has been looking for developers to create AR applications for cars in their True SDK Challenge in February 2018. VRFocus recently spoke with Mary Glazkova, Vice President of Communications at WayRay, about Navion and their original equipment manufacturer (OEM) solution for vehicles wanting to implement AR into their windshields.

Navion WayRay — The Navion, WayRay’s True augmented reality solution.

After four years of R&D, WayRay has showcased two products this year. The first is the Navion, a holographic AR navigation system. Navion attaches to the dashboard of your car and shows drivers their speed, route and other trip details. The device is able to indicate real-time events such as pedestrians, potential hazards, points of interests and is completely hands-free. Navion also responds to voice commands and hand gestures.

Navion uses a holographic optical element created by WayRay; a photopolymer film that retains the properties of a periodic nanostructure after the recording process. It has a full HD camera for continuous mapping of the environment whilst simultaneously keeping track of the car’s location within it. WayRay call utilised simultaneous localisation and mapping (SLAM) for this technology, and also has a mobile app where you can control information from such as restaurants, gas stations or hospitals. Glazkova says that this will be released in the middle or the end of this year, as the company is releasing their first SDK soon and are hoping developers can create applications for it.

WayRay’s second solution is a larger scale product than Navion, intended for OEMs. The Chinese automotive industry have been the first to embed WayRay’s solution into their car production lines which will be seen by the end of this year. When asked why all the solutions were in Chinese vehicles, Glazkova responded that they’re faster and not as old-fashioned as Western car manufacturers who require more time.

WayRay_TECHSPECS — Tech specs of WayRay’s Navion.

With the oncoming of self-driving cars, drivers will be able to be hands-free. This opens up the opportunity for all modes of transportation to become a form of entertainment. From buses and planes to cars. Having a screen that is capable of information overlay means that advertisers may already be thinking of ways of grabbing your attention, while WayRay has already devised a method of dealing with this called ‘action acts’. Advertisers in future will be able to target drivers and passengers in self-driving cars, and will have to pay in order to be featured to targeted audiences. To find out more watch the video below, and for all the latest from WayRay stay right here at VRFocus.

March 28, 2018

TechTree Look To Bring Mouse And Keyboard Accuracy To VR With The Po!nt Controller

Conventional virtual reality (VR) controllers require you to hold a controller in each hand. However, when you’ve mostly been a PC gamer and you’re moving to an unconventional position in gaming, be it standing or seated on a sofa versus a desk – you might miss having that accuracy your mouse and keyboard provided you. Dutch-based company TreeTech have created a controller modular that will allow this for the first time. VRFocus spoke to Christof de Vries, Lead Developer and Co-Founder of the company about their product the Po!nt Controller.

Po!nt_Controller_TREETECH

The Po!nt Controller has the a mini version of the W-A-S-D key setup, along with the Q, E, shift and control keys, those that are predominately used by gamers, as buttons on the back of the controller. The touchpad at the back acts as the mouse. The front end of the controller is completely customisable and can be changed depending on which game the user wants to play.

“We are looking for gap between handheld and normal game controllers,” de Vries explains. “We noticed that PC gamers moving from the PC to the couch, with VR, with Steambox streaming it to the TV want their mouse and keyboard there as well. Well, you don’t want to sit with the mouse and keyboard on your lap, so we decided to integrate the mouse and keyboard first.”

TreeTech Po!nt Game Controller So TreeTech spoke to various gamers, videogame and VR developers and found that VR controllers lacked input options. They decided to build the Po!nt Controller that can be used for console, PC and also with drones. The Po!nt controller seems extremely flexible and de Vries claims it can be custom made for any game and any experience. For PC VR de Vries explains that you can use the bottom to move physically in a space whilst you can use the joystick to move your arms and buttons for the grip to add true immersion. Though he does admit it requires a small period of adjustment, perhaps fifteen minutes to learn it, then muscle memory would kick in.

The feedback to the controller so far has primarily been positive. “We are always a bit amazed we hardly get any negative feedback, people are quite amazed at how simple it works. It’s a simple idea but it works great.” The Po!nt Controller will be produced in Q3 this year and come to the market during Q4.

To find out more watch the interview video below:

March 26, 2018

Create and Curate Your Own Virtual Art Exhibition With Ikonospace

Virtual reality (VR) is known for being able to transport an individual and immerse them into another world. People can feel quite frustrated trying to get up close and personal to art works or attending art exhibitions. Tourists will be taking selfies in-front of paintings and it can get very crowded. What if you didn’t have to endure all that, and had an exhibition or museum completely to yourself to study and enjoy some art in peace?

Ikonospace

Dutch based company Ikonospace have created a software toolset to enable this. VRFocus spoke to Jerome Demnard about the platform and how he hopes cultural institutions and artists from around the world can showcase their art pieces in a beautiful environment completely created by themselves.

One of the key features about Ikonospace is that it can be created using both Mac and PC, Demnard says. “We’re a software toolset to really facilitate cultural institution and even artists to basically create a 3D environment and showcase their art. To be able to create virtual exhibition for tablet, PC but most importantly we really want people to create content for VR.” The virtual spaces that are created go up on a server and can then be viewed or experienced on the Oculus Rift or HTC Vive.

Users can create the space, bring in scans of 3D objects or 2D art pieces into the space by simply dragging and dropping a folder into the environment editor. They are also working on adding points of interest, for if the curator or artists would like to add more information to the pieces or the user wants to find out more information. They are also looking to add features such as audio guides, videos as well as potentially ways of integrating interactivity with art pieces.

Demnard says that having users in the space is potentially also healthy and therapeutic. He tells VRFocus that they’re based in Amsterdam where it always rains. They put a woman into their VR museum who was a little depressed, and she was able to explore a beautifully lit museum where the sun would come streaming down and she didn’t want to leave the VR experience.

At the moment Demnard is focusing on making Ikonospace as an alternative for small artists hoping to showcase their art, artists who might not have been picked up yet. They are exploring into making it an e-commerce platform where artists can also potentially sell their art through the platform too. They are also looking at creating a gallery through Steam VR, to help build a platform for artists to publish content to.

The Ikonospace Beta is in development and will go live over the next two months. You can find out more information about Ikonospace in the video below.

March 16, 2018

Serious Factory Enables Users to Create Custom Training in Virtual Reality

Creating a virtual reality (VR) experience may seem extremely complicated; especially if you have no knowledge in character animation, coding or you just don’t have the time to learn the software. Virtual Training Suite aims to solve this problem with Serious Factory, an editor that will allow for simple, low-cost creation of education and training scenarios. VRFocus spoke to William Pérès, Founder and CEO of the company about their latest software, where not a single line of code is required to use it.

Serious_factory2 — Choose any pre-selected environment or bring in your own images or video for the scenes.

So, what’s the best way of testing an applicant on how they are expected to work – or for that matter convey to them the incorrect way? How can you test and then quantify the results? What is the ‘right’ way to sell a watch? How do you thoroughly explain the consequences of, say, being rude to a customer? Well with Serious Factory you can now take complete directorial control, as well as receiving information about how well the user did going through the training scenario. With the ability to add reactions and responses to the participant. It’s as if you are the Director in a film starring just them.

Serious Factory are based in Paris, France but have various offices elsewhere. Pérès explains that the Serious Factory software enables users to help create simulations of day-to-day scenarios and that this would change the conventional method of training where after a few weeks the knowledge disappears. Being able to take an experience to somebody’s house and enabling them to practice regularly would allow individuals to not only learn new skills but also master them. Users are able to score different levels of competencies and are able to see where they are lacking and need to improve. This is completely customisable in order to fit different scenarios.

Serious Factory costs £5,000 (GBP) annually, and allows you to create as many scenarios for as many users are you want. The end product can be distributed to PC, tablet, smartphones as well as VR.

Pérès showcased this to VRFocus at the Consumer Electronic Show (CES) and explains that they were showcasing a prototype and that Serious Factory will be out by the end of Q1. To find out more watch the video below.

March 15, 2018

Depth-sensing, Algorithms and Retail Shopping Allowing AiFi to Push the Boundaries of Interactivity

Founded by former Google and Apple engineers, AiFi is combining artificial intelligence (A.I.) with ARKit on Apple products such as iPhones and iPads. Speaking to VRFocus, co-founder and CEO Steve Gu explained how AiFi has enabled consumer products to understand detailed 3D shapes and activities, including individuals and their surroundings.

Wonderlens_AiFi

The first application Gu showcases is Wonderlens, an application for your iOS devices that allows you to ‘segment yourself’ or distinguish yourself from the background in real-time. Similar to how conventional methods would use green screens to ‘transport’ the individual on screen somewhere else, with AiFi’s technology no laborious hours of keying out are needed to get a rough outline. No green or blue screen is needed either. All you need is an iPhone or iPad, and the user is able to transport themselves to the top of a mountain or watch creatures swim by under the ocean as shown in the image above. Wonderlens is available on the App Store now. Gu mentions that it will be coming to Android devices in the future as well.

The second application similarly uses Apple products. Holo Messenger allows users to take a video or image of themselves and send that as a hologram. Inspired by the holographic messaging system used in Star Wars, Holo Messenger lets users record a video message using their phones, then applies augmented reality (AR) filters to make the image appear like the grainy, blue-tinted holograms used in the movies. You simply need to record an image or video recording of yourself, and the message will be sent to users with Holo Messenger for them to see the holographic version of what you recorded on a flat surface through a droid from Star Wars like BB8 or R2D2.

“Our engineers and scientists have been developing this enabling technology to power future business applications,” said Steve Gu, CEO, AiFi. “Imagine that once even a single cell phone camera can understand the intricate motion, 3D shape, and various activities of individual people, the implication is simply tremendous and mind blowing. We could easily enable cameras to interpret your gesture, intention, body shape, motion, and activities practically in the blink of an eye.”

AiFi is not only using their technology for instant real-time AR creations on consumer-facing technology, but is also focusing on retail environments. Through AiFi’s system, shoppers will be able to come into a retail store and pick up items without having to use cash, a card or scan bar codes. They are hoping to bring it to hospital settings, physical therapy and sports as well and are looking for partners to further expand on their SDK’s.

“Today we are bringing a blend of the physical world and digital world into everyone’s life with tools they can use,” Gu continues, “but as we go forward we are taking these solutions and working with great partners to solve large scale checkout free solutions for the retail space. We are very excited that we can use these technologies to improve user experience, to entertain, and to benefit humanity at large.”

To find it more watch the video below.

March 14, 2018

Senseglove Showcase Haptic and Force Feedback

When it comes to immersion, you may lose the sensation when presented with something that requires the use of a controller to operate it when you’d normally just use your hands to accomplish the task. Everyday experiences in virtual reality (VR) such as opening or closing doors, or feeling absolutely no resistance of an object might distort or break the illusion of reality in a virtual world. VRFocus spoke to Gijs den Butter, the co-founder of Senseglove, about incorporating haptic feedback as well as force feedback to create a more realistic experience.

Feel the sensation of crushing an egg in VR.

Spawning from a graduation project around a glove for rehabilitation, den Butter and his co-founder realised they could use concepts of the glove in virtual reality (VR) applications. Den Butter says he tried VR and was quite sad when he had to push a button to pick up an object. They decided to take what they had of their glove and turned the motor functions around in order to enhance motion, so users could feel objects in a virtual space.

Originating from a graduation project that den Butter was working on with glove rehabilitation, then tried VR. button to pick up an object, we had the glove similar but turn around the motor controls to enhance motion so you can actually feel now. At the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this year in Las Vegas, individuals were able to try and squeeze various round objects in their hands, such as eggs or a squishy ball. They were asked to squeeze their hand, feeling first the tension then the release as the ‘egg’ broke. This received a lot of positive feedback and when asked if people were impressed den Butter says, “to be honest, yes.”

At the moment Senseglove has 500 units available for pre-order on their website. All of the functions and capabilities of the glove on the show floor will also be available in their DK1 version, which should be ready to ship around July 2018. These include being able to push buttons, pull a trigger or, for example, use a welder. Den Butter says that the next steps would be to make the glove smaller, in different sizes with hard parts that will always be 90 degrees above the fingers.

To find out more watch the video below:

February 27, 2018

Yaw VR Might be the Motion Simulator You’re Looking for at Home and in VR Arcades

One of the many problems when trying virtual reality (VR) is motion sickness, this is mostly due to your brain realising it’s physically moving in a space but your body is not. One of the ways to combat this horrible feeling is by being in a motion simulator. The price of high-end VR is already expensive, but if you really want to take yourself to the next level and avoid motion sickness getting a Yaw VR might be the solution. VRFocus recently spoke to Founder Zslot Szigetlaki about Yaw VR.

yaw vr motion simulator

When VRFocus spoke to Szigetlaki it was at the CES 2018, and they were busy with their Kickstarter. Since the video, they have secured $219,281 having added a $200,000 stretch goal to its campaign, giving the standard edition a custom colour and the Yaw VR Pro back and headrest support. The Yaw VR motion simulator is a compact device designed to make virtual reality (VR) videogames even more immersive by twisting and rotating players. Supporting headsets like Samsung Gear VR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, Yaw VR is perfect for those situations where space is at a premium, with the entire device folding away into a neat storage solution – as the GIF above demonstrates – with a diameter of 29 inches and a height of 15 inches when folded, weighting in at just 33 lbs.

There are two different occasions you may want to purchase a Yaw VR for. The first is for hardcore VR enthusiasts who might have some extra cash to spend $900 on a 15kg lightweight Yaw VR for at home. The second more professional Yaw VR is meant for out-of-home entertainment use cases such as VR arcades, for $2,000-$3,000. Szigetlaki explains that he started Yaw VR due to the lack of affordable motion simulators. “We like virtual reality and just realised there is no solution for simulation of motion in VR, or you have to spend a lot of money and cannot use at home because they’re huge and really heavy. There’s nothing on the market.”

When trying out the Yaw VR it felt very similar to the 4D rides you would go on when at an amusement park. The VR experience would have to be perfectly suited to the VR experience, so you would need to be inside a car, cockpit or spaceship in order for it to make sense to be physically sitting down during the experience. This would be a great, portable and affordable way to introduce VR to consumers at events or out-of-home locations such as arcades. Especially if they’re prone to being nauseous. However it can be a great way of travelling through space or racing on a track rather than buying a really expensive racing chair.

Szigetlaki will start delivering in August, for professional users a little bit sooner. To find out more watch the video below.

February 6, 2018

Fibrum Discuss Their Virtual Reality Platform Desirium

Fibrum is a Russian-based company that are trying various endeavours in the world of virtual reality (VR). This involved manufacturing a mobile VR headset called the Fibrum Pro, VR apps such as the Rollercoaster, VR Cinema or VR videogame Space Stalker whilst partnering up with StartApp to introduce new ways of bringing advertisement into VR. VRFocus spoke to Michael Bakaleinik, the Business Developoment Advisor of Fibrum at CES 2018 in Las Vegas to discuss Fibrum’s VR platform Desirium.

Fibrum has slowly veered away from manufacturing headsets and is now leaning more towards software. Their journey has led them to create Desirium, a VR platform that should be able to support various VR head-mounted displays (HMDs). Bakaleinik explains that at the moment there is a lot of hardware and not a lot of software developers to match it. At the moment Fibrum has 30 VR applications, most of which are VR videogames made for mobile devices that can be downloaded from the Google Play Store or the App Store for iPhones.

Fibrum are starting by having their content on the Desirium platform first and want to grow by introducing third-party content. They have already been speaking to a lot of 360-degree content producers to bring their content to the platform. Desirium will be available on standalone headsets from Oculus Go and Google Daydream to HTC Vive (this could also mean standalone headset Vive Focus). Bakaleinik explains that by creating Desirium Fibrum are addressing the problem of users having a VR HMD that costs over $100 USD, but with barely any content available. It seems that Fibrum’s target audience are the mobile VR users, not specifically 6 DoF VR content but rather the casual user.

When it comes to monetization, Fibrum will have a subscription model similar to the Viveport that would enable users to pay for access of three months, six months or a year. Users could also choose to buy their in-app currency in order to get access to specific applications. When it comes to developers or third-party content creators, they can choose to also follow Fibrum’s subscription or in-app currency model or offer their experience for free but with advertisements. Fibrum offer various different ways to use their platform, you can find out more about Fibrum and the way in which they’re approaching VR watch the video below. If you’re looking for other things that were showcased at CES, VRFocus did a little summary here.

February 5, 2018

Can Stressjam Help us Control Work-Related Stress With the Help of Virtual Reality?

Jamzone, a Dutch tech and digital health company is combining psychology and virtual reality (VR) videogames to help people prevent and treat emotional or behavioural patterns. By combining VR and biofeedback technology, Jamzone has created a VR experience called Stressjam, which it showcased at CES 2018. During the event VRFocus spoke to Jozef Meerding, Chief Game Officer at Jamzone about the how the studio believes Stressjam can help individuals cope with stress at work.

STRESSJAM_INGAME — The cartoon-like game will ask you to do simple tasks, but to complete them you have to make yourself calm or stressed.

Meerding explains that most individuals believe and view stress as unhealthy, but new research has shown that individuals who believe that stress is actually good for your system, are actually healthier than those who don’t. Meerding is the game developer that’s designed Stressjam and has created a cartoon World of Warcraft-style videogame that is fun and immersive. The title asks users to put on a special waistband that measures their heart rate variability. The user then goes on a guided journey to solve puzzles or complete tasks by changing their state of mind from calm to stressed or vice versa. The videogame is essentially a toolkit that gives users real-time feedback on their heart rate and with that knowledge, trains users to change and finally control their state of mind. VRFocus gives a perspective with a hands on experience here.

Jamzone has had to test out Stressjam before and the results from the first study apparently have been AAA for usability and reliable data. Meerding, perhaps appropriately, compares the ability to change ones state of mind in relation to stress to riding a bicycle. Once you learn how to ride a bicycle, keep the wheels in motion, you won’t forget in the same way you train your mind how to recognise signs and coping mechanisms to dealing with stress. In other words you become self aware of your own stress system, and becoming aware of it enables you to regulate it. One of the pieces of feedback that’s given in a video where Nij Smellinghe hospital participants try out Stressjam is: “playing this game, gives me a good sense that stress can also be positive.”

At the moment Stressjam is being used in the Netherlands by companies who want to make their employees less stressed at work. The hope is that in future, employees are able to control their stress and enable them to be healthier in their state of mind, and thus work more efficiently. Jamzone are licensing Stressjam to companies that want to make their employee happier and less stressed for €20 EUR a month per employee or €2,000 a year. At the moment companies that want to use Stressjam need to have an HTC Vive headset as well as a PC or laptop that is VR ready and the waistband needed to play Stressjam. When asked about whether Stressjam was available for home users (or those who have a Steam and HTC Vive headset at home), Meerding said that this is a possibility for the future.

STRESSKAM_HEARTRATEMONITOR — Waistband that measures your heart rate variability, to measure stress.

Jamzone are a team of entrepreneurs, psychologists, digital health experts and game developers that are seeking to prevent and treat emotional or behaviour patterns through new emerging technologies. It seems they are doing well with Stressjam winning Product Digital Innovation of the Year Award in the Netherlands in 2017 and nominated for the Accenture Innovation Awards 2017. When asked about the next steps, Meerding says that at CES 2018, Jamzone was looking to find more investors to expand their company. The expansion would help them create more content, more levels and implement more scientific research in order to create a responsible way of managing stress levels.

Watch the video below to find out more.

February 4, 2018

See Everything VRFocus Did At CES 2018 In Our Video Recap

It feels like we only just got home from the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2018 in Las Vegas, or our sleep cycle does, but we saw so many excellent bits of promising technology and new virtual reality (VR) hardware and experiences that we just can’t wait to show you anymore.

We’ve got full recaps of everything we knew before and after CES 2018, Las Vegas, below in video form, where you can see Nina and our other team members hard at work covering everything CES 2018 has to offer for all of you at home. Aren’t we nice?

Nina on the Road: Pre-CES – Vive Pro, Nvidia, Sony and Zeiss in VR

Before CES 2018 even had the chance to begin we were seeing manufacturers and companies reveal loads of new uses for VR technology. Nvidia was using augmented reality (AR) technology in autonomous cars, and built AutoSIM for virtually testing the reactions of autonomous cars. It’s excellent to see the driver-less car future is getting closer every day.

Nina on the Road: CES DAY 1 – Ultrahaptics, vTime and Black Box VR

On day 1 of CES 2018 we see Nina and Peter investigating various booths and stands, including Black Box VR where both Nina and Peter put themselves to the test and sweat a little bit in VR. Also look at Pisoftech’s 8K VR camera, which can create incredibly impressive 360 images with very little effort.

You can also hear the melancholy in Nina’s voice as she discovers her fingernails are a bit too long for one creative VR controller in particular.

Nina on the Road: CES Day 2 – The Power Cut

On day 2 the team once again head out on to the show floor and have loads to see. They were blown away by virtual headphone technology, where you don’t have headphones but it sounds like you do. The looks on their faces say it all. They also look at some fascinating space information with Astroreality, which use AR technology in conjunction with 3D printed models. There was also a chaotic moment with a power cut – in the middle of CES 2018, of all places!

Nina on the Road: CES Day 3 – 8K VR, Augmented Reality in Cars and TPCAST

On day 3 we take a look at Kodak’s brand new cameras and some brand new AR tracking technology for your mobile device. Not just that, we see how AR technology is now being used in cars, and take a look at TPCast foot powered VR controllers.

Nina on the Road: CES Day 4 – VR Gloves, Healthcare, Art, Holograms and Training

On day 4 Nina goes even deeper into VR once again, by looking at Serious VR, Tree Tech, Ikonospace and more. The new glove-like VR controllers are fascinating, and the variety of VR videogames and software and very promising. Timescope is also featured, which claim to be The Ultimate Time Travel Experience. Well, until we can actually travel through time, at least.

VRFocus: Post-CES Highlights

And finally we come to our Post-CES highlights, where we recap a little bit of everything we saw from across the show and put together our favourite moments. We saw so much at CES 2018, but what would you say is the most interesting piece of technology we saw at the show? Let us know in the comments below, and for all of the CES and event coverage you want on VR technology, make sure to keep reading VRFocus.