Category: Google Cardboard

Posted on

Unity 5.6 Launches Bringing Native Google VR Support for Cardboard and Daydream

Today Unity Technologies launched Unity 5.6, bringing to a close the Unity 5 cycle. The new version brings lots of new features, for virtual reality (VR) there’s now native support for Google VR.

With Google VR support on Unity 5.6, developers will find it easier to publish to Google Cardboard and Google Daydream.

Daydream View Headset

In its blog posting Unity said: “To get optimal performance and latency from the Daydream platform, we integrated with the Google VR NDK to leverage the platform’s asynchronous reprojection and VR performance modes.
“Compared to the Daydream support in the Google VR SDK for Unity released at Google I/O, we now provide a more streamlined workflow, significant optimizations and reduced latency. No prefabs, scripts or manual manifest modifications are required to get started–simply enable VR and add Daydream as a targeted platform to begin making your own virtual worlds.

“We have also made it easy to switch in and out of VR mode so that your applications can easily expand to the full Google VR audience and target Google Cardboard with full native support. Applications which target Cardboard will work on older devices so you can reach as many users as possible. At this time, Cardboard support is exclusive to Android with iOS Cardboard support coming soon.”

Earlier this month Unity also teased details of Unity 2017 beta, saying it would be geared towards non-programmers, with a range of features designed for artists and designers. The beta is due for release next month.

Unity is one of the most popular middleware development engines, utilised by developer for VR and non-VR work the world over. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Unity, reporting back with the latest announcements.

Posted on

NSFW: Gold Club SF VR bringt Unterhaltung für Erwachsene ins Wohnzimmer

Unterhaltung für Erwachsene ist seit Jahrzehnten der Antrieb für digitale Technologien und Videotechnologien. Sie wird als großer Einflussfaktor für den Erfolg von VHS über Betamax, Blu-Rays über HD-DVDs betrachtet. Zudem hängt sie mit der Einführung der Onlinebezahlung per Kreditkarte oder der Verbesserung zum High Speed Internet zusammen. Dementsprechend ist der Einfluss in der VR-Szene wenig überraschend. Es gibt bereits einige VR-Erfahrungen in diesem Bereich, eine davon ist Gold Club SF VR.

Der erste VR Strip Club für zu Hause

Der Gold Club Stripclub liegt eigentlich in San Francisco in Kalifornien und ist dort ziemlich berühmt für seine Liveshows. Dementsprechend wollte man diese Form der Unterhaltung mit der VR vereinen. Dafür entwickelte der Gold Club eine eigene VR-Erfahrung. Innerhalb der VR-Erfahrung wird das Innenleben des Clubs mitsamt Empfang, Main Stage, Bar und Eingangstür dargestellt.

Des Weiteren enthält Gold Club SF VR 15 Tänzerinnen, davon vier aus dem Gold Club und 11 Darstellerinnen aus der Pornoindustrie. Darunter Namen wie Chloe Amour, Megain Rain, Andria Rae und Alexis Monroe. Die Tänzerinnen kann man entweder auf der Bühne betrachten oder einen Trip in den Champagnerraum, für eine Privatshow mit bis zu drei Frauen, belegen. Die VR-App steht zwar kostenlos zum Download verfügbar, jedoch muss man in Echtgeld Trinkgelder bezahlen, damit sich die Tänzerinnen entkleiden. Die App wurde im Februar 2017 veröffentlicht. Neben der App gibt es die Möglichkeit des Streams.

Der Club veröffentlichte außerdem ein Werbevideo für die VR-Erfahrung:

Derzeit ist Gold Club SF VR für die Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard und Oculus Rift verfügbar. Der Download befindet sich auf der Webseite des Clubs. Für die nahe Zukunft ist außerdem eine PlayStation VR Version geplant. Die Kombination aus Unterhaltung für Erwachsene und VR ist ein umstrittenes Thema, jedoch könnte es zur Entwicklung der VR- und AR-Technologien beitragen, wie es der Verlauf anderer Technologieformen vorführt.

(Quelle: UploadVR)

Der Beitrag NSFW: Gold Club SF VR bringt Unterhaltung für Erwachsene ins Wohnzimmer zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Posted on

VR Video Streaming in 12K is Now Possible

Virtual reality (VR) and 360-degree video streaming company Visbit have announced that they have successfully streamed 360-degree video in 12K, using commercially available hardware.

12K video is very close to the level of detail for average human vision. This technology will allow for much higher quality VR video streams. Visbit’s new system means that users watching video streams can zoom in and focus on specific details in a way that was previously impossible. The applications for such technology include the ability for surgeons to stream a procedure to colleagues and peers all over the globe to get their advice, or judges in sporting events able to focus in on a specific event to determine if it is allowable under the rules or not. There are also applications when it comes to safety, as a video stream in sufficient quality taken during a disaster could be examined for clues to the cause.

“Today, 360-degree videos are mostly streamed at 1080p and occasionally at 4K. You rarely hear of 6K video streaming, so 12K, a resolution that is very close to the acuity of 20/20 human vision, is unheard of, especially when streaming on today’s regular Wi-Fi and LTE conditions,” said Visbit Co-Founder and CEO Dr. Changyin (CY) Zhou. “There have been advancements in networking technology, such as Intel and Ericsson’s recent demo of a 5G prototype to support 8K VR live streaming from a local server at Mobile World Congress this year, but average consumers won’t have 5G at home for years to come. With our Visbit View-Optimized Streaming technology, 12K video in 360-degrees can run on today’s networks with existing hardware, meaning that viewers can now zoom in and focus on granular details with today’s 2.5K HMD screen and achieve a viewing experience equal to 12K. This unlocks a whole new user experience for viewing 360-degree VR video, as well as new possibilities for content creation.”

Visbit’s streaming service is currently in closed Beta on Gear VR and Google Cardboard. The open Beta is expected to become available later this year.

VRFocus will bring you further updates on Visbit and VR streaming as they come in.

Posted on

Fire Service Use VR to Let People Experience A Burning House

Firefighters in New Zealand are using a new way to teach the public about the dangers of a burning building, and educate them on the importance of having an evacuation plan.

The Fire Service has created a 360-degree virtual reality (VR) experience called Escape My House, which puts people inside a burning house and tasks them with attempting to escape. Floating text presents options for how they can escape, and points out where potential avenues may be unusable – such as a window that cannot be opened due to being painted shut.

The New Zealand Fire Service filmed the experience by burning down a derelict building called the Palmerston North house and filming what happened inside as the temperature soars to over 900 degrees Celsius. Within the Escape My House experience, the fire is started by some washing which is left too close to a heater, which quickly spreads until the house is completely engulfed only a few minutes later.

Firefighters are hoping that it will help raise awareness of the need to create and rehearse an evacuation plan in case of fire. Statistics have shown that though 61% of people say they have an evacuation plan, only 29% have actually rehearsed the plan.

Fire Service training officer Chris Kennedy, who managed to project, says it is also about showing just how fast fire can spread: “In those first few moments it’s flight or fight, so a key point is to make sure any escape plan is second nature,” he said.

Escape My House can be watched on phones, computers or using a Google Cardboard headset.

VRFocus will keep you updated on use of VR technology in firefighting, safety and related topics.

Posted on

Power Rangers Morph onto Mobile VR

To tie in to the upcoming release of the new Power Rangers movie, Lionsgate has partnered with Reel FX and QuiverVision to create a mobile VR experience for Google Cardboard users.

The new mobile VR experience is named Zords Rising and is based on a Power Rangers VR experience that was previously demonstrated at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES). The new VR experience allows Power Rangers fans to watch the powerful robot Zords rise up from the earth.

The experience lasts for two and a half minutes, but the app also includes other features, such as an augmented reality (AR) colouring book that allows the user to use the camera like a paintbrush, or a function to create custom Power Rangers suits in 3D and place them against a real-world background, which can then be filmed or photographed and shared on social media.

The Zords Rising VR experience was made based on Qualcomm technology as a way to show off their new Snapdragon 835 processor, and the original version of the Power Rangers VR experience that Zords Rising was based on was originally shown at Qualcomm’s CES booth.

The Power Rangers movie is based on the popular 90s television series Mighty Morphin’ Power Rangers, which originally aired in the 1990s. The series was itself based off a series of Japanese ‘Tokusatsu’ shows called Super Sentai. While the original series used footage from the Japanese series to fill in much of the action, the new movie is all filmed from scratch, using state-of-the-art special effects.

VRFocus will keep you updated on VR movie tie-ins.

Posted on

Google Daydream: Patent für neue VR Brille

Google hat mit dem Daydream System eine Plattform erschaffen, die den Mobile VR Markt aufmischen soll. Anstatt sich auf eigene Smartphones zu beschränken, erlaubt es Google anderen Herstellern ihre Smartphones Daydream Ready zu gestalten, damit diese auch Zugriff auf die Anwendungen im Daydream Store erhalten. Dennoch wird die Daydream View Brille Google nicht aus den Händen gerissen, da Daydream Ready Smartphones noch recht teuer sind und die Anzahl an hochwertigen Anwendungen überschar ist. Eventuell könnte Google die Zielgruppe mit einer kompakteren Brille aber demnächst erweitern.

Patent für neue VR Brille

Das neue Patent beschreibt eine Verpackung für Smartphones, die gleichzeitig als Virtual Reality Brille genutzt werden kann. Der Formfaktor unterscheidet sich also deutlich von Daydream View und die Brille soll damit zum Alltagsbegleiter und zur Einstiegsdroge werden und  das Reisegepäck als sperriges Zubehör nicht unnötig vergrößern. Im Endeffekt erinnert das neue Patent sehr stark an das Google Cardboard und dennoch könnte Google mit diesem Produkt einen wichtigen Schritt zur Erreichung des Massenmarktes gehen. Die Box kann nämlich zum Anfixen von Menschen dienen, die noch nicht überzeugt von Virtual Reality sind. Wenn Google Daydream Ready Smartphones in einer solchen Verpackung ausgeliefert würden, könnten Menschen direkt einen Blick auf die Möglichkeiten dieser Technologie werfen, ohne sich eine entsprechende Daydream Brille kaufen zu müssen.

Aktuell kennen wir aber die wahren Pläne von Google nicht und das Patent bedeutet ebenso nicht, dass Google die Pläne auch tatsächlich umsetzen wird. Es bleibt spannend, ob sich Daydream zu einem starken Konkurrenten zur Samsung Gear VR entwickeln wird. Samsung konnte immerhin bereits über 5 Millionen Samsung Gear VR Brillen in die Haushalte bringen und hat damit eine echte Virtual Reality Erfolgsgeschichte geschrieben.

Der Beitrag Google Daydream: Patent für neue VR Brille zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Posted on

Google Patent Shows Smartphone Packaging that Doubles as a VR Headset

A recently published Google’s patent application describes an ‘Integrated mobile device packaging and virtual reality headset’. The concept is to provide a ‘relatively low cost’ VR headset solution by shipping the smartphone in packaging that doubles as a VR viewer.

Google introduced Cardboard, their inexpensive VR solution to the world in 2014, producing a VR viewer enclosure for smartphones made from Cardboard. Since then, over 10 million Cardboard viewers have shipped, along with many similar products, ubiquitous to the point of being distributed free as promotional items. Google’s patent describes integrating an enclosure similar to that of Cardboard as a novel packaging solution for a smartphone, an especially interesting idea given that the much improved VR performance that comes with ‘Daydream Ready’ phones can also extend to VR apps made for Google Cardboard.

SEE ALSO
Google Job Listings Point to New "Mass Production" AR/VR Hardware in the Pipeline

A Cardboard-like headset that ships with capable smartphones could act as a ‘VR lite’ option, with those especially interested in VR able to upgrade to a more capable VR viewer like Google’s Daydream View. Such an approach could help the company achieve their goal of ‘hundreds of millions of users in a couple of years’ using VR on Android.

google-cardboard-vr-headset-smartphone-packaging-2A few companies have experimented with integrating a VR viewer into packaging, such as Coca-Cola’s DIY viewer made from 12-pack boxes, and McDonald’s ‘Happy Goggles’ made from a Happy Meal box. More substantial VR headset shells (closer to a Gear VR in build quality and materials) are sometimes bundled with smartphones, and Alcatel’s Idol 4S packaging goes a step further, using the shell as part of the ‘unboxing’ experience in some regions, as shown in this video.

Originally filed on February 24th 2016, Google’s patent refers to cardboard or heavy paper stock for the main portions of the unit, and ‘glue’ and ‘tape’ are suggested several times as appropriate adhesive material; the quality of the enclosure they have in mind is probably closer to a Cardboard viewer than their Daydream View unit, although plastics and fabrics are also mentioned.

It isn’t clear if this patent is related to a Google’s recent hiring spree for AR/VR hardware expertise that appears to point to significant new AR/VR hardware on the way from the company.

The post Google Patent Shows Smartphone Packaging that Doubles as a VR Headset appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Google könnte viele neue AR und VR Projekte veröffentlichen

Seit dem Start des Google Daydream hat Google, zumindest gefühlt, weniger für seine Marktdominanz getan als erwartet. Jetzt weisen einige Job-Ausschreibungen des Suchmaschinen-Unternehmens daraufhin, dass mehr Virtual Reality und Augmented Reality bezogene Produkte in der Mache sein könnten.

Google legt noch nicht den VR-Standard fest

Eigentlich müsste Google bereits den VR-Standard für Smartphones festlegen. Denn angesichts der Marktdominanz von Android-Geräten (9 von 10 Smartphones laufen mit diesem Betriebssystem) wird künftig jeder Smartphone-Hersteller- außer Apple – ein Daydream-kompatibles Gerät im Angebot haben. Bis jetzt haben aber nur Motorola, Asus, ZTE und Huawei Daydream kompatible Smartphones im Angebot. Die Google Dominanz scheint also nicht besonders dominierend momentan.

Gesucht werden ein Produkt Entwickler und ein Hardware Validation Manager

Dazu passt allerdings, dass Google jetzt ein paar interessante Job-Ausschreibungen veröffentlicht hat. Diese deuten darauf hin, dass Google neue Hardware in der Pipeline hat, wie roadtovr.com herausgefunden hat. So sucht Google momentan konkret nach einem Elektrotechniker für das AR/VR-Team – der von der Entwicklung über die Konzeption bis hin zur Produktion einiges an Erfahrung mitbringen sollte. Aber auch andere neue Job-Gesuche erschienen bei den Ausschreibungen. So könnte relativ schnell ein Technical Lead Product Design Engineer im kalifornischen Mountain View anfangen. Auch die Ausschreibung eines gesuchten Hardware Validation Manager könnte dafür stehen, dass Google den Fokus auf weitere konsumentenorientierte neue VR- und AR-Produkte legt.

Die erste VR-Brille des Unternehmens, die Google Daydream, ist eigentlich noch ein relativ simples Produkt für den Mobile-VR-Markt. Auch wenn die Daydream ein massentaugliches Design hat, dass eine weiche Außenhülle und sehr guten Tragekomfort umfasst, steckt wenig Technik in den Brillen. Das Headset beinhaltet lediglich einen NFC-Chip sowie Linsen und wird mit einem einen einfach gehaltenen Controller ausgeliefert. Google war allerdings bereits mit der Veröffentlichung der Google Cardboard, Googles erster VR-Brille aus Pappe, Vorreiter auf dem Mobile-VR-Markt. Die Google Daydream stellt somit die logische Weiterentwicklung der Cardboard dar.

Der Beitrag Google könnte viele neue AR und VR Projekte veröffentlichen zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

Posted on

Google Has Shipped Over 10 Million Cardboard Viewers

The Google VR team shared some impressive figures at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week – more than 10 million Cardboard viewers have been shipped worldwide. Google’s low-cost smartphone enclosure for viewing VR content has been available since 2014.

With media attention on Oculus’ successes in reinvigorating the VR industry in 2014, Google’s surprise announcement of Cardboard looked like an amusing experiment, but it quickly became a huge success, as it was just good enough to provide anyone with a smartphone a small taste of VR. At the Mobile World Congress in Barcelona this week, and announced via Google’s blog, the team revealed that more than 10 million Cardboard viewers have shipped worldwide, with 160 million downloads of Cardboard apps on Google Play. The 30 most popular apps have more than 1 million downloads.

SEE ALSO
Google Daydream Review: Casual VR Closes the Gap

With two small lenses fixed inside a basic cardboard enclosure, Google’s Cardboard design never intended to deliver a truly immersive VR experience, but it provided an incredibly lower barrier for entry, and a stepping stone towards Google’s high-performance mobile VR solution, Daydream. In turn, the research and investment in software development for the Daydream ecosystem has filtered back to Cardboard; since October, Cardboard apps running Google’s VR SDK share some of the performance improvements developed for Daydream-ready phones. As such, Cardboard is likely to continue to remain relevant for years to come.

The Google VR team also took the opportunity to announce Sky VR, a new premium VR video content app, and three new augmented reality experiences – The Sims, Chelsea Kicker and WSJ AR – for Tango-enabled devices.

SEE ALSO
Asus 'ZenFone AR' Google Tango, Daydream VR Phone Launched, Specs Revealed

The post Google Has Shipped Over 10 Million Cardboard Viewers appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Unity 3.6 Dated, Set To Introduce Google Daydream and Cardboard Support

Unity announced at GDC that they will be introducing support for Google Daydream and Google Cardboard for both Android and iOS for it’s unity Game engine.

The announcement was made by Lucas Meijer, Technical Director for Unity as part of their keynote speech at GDC today. “Obviously as with every release there’s always some news in the area of platform growth. Unity 5.6 adds yet again two more platforms to the never-ending crazy list – and we have to make it all work!” He joked. “The never-ending crazy list of platforms that Unity developers can bring their content to. And this time around it’s support for Google Daydream and Google Cardboard. For Android as well as iOS.”

Unity-5.6-Google-Support

Unity is a cross-platform game engine developed by Unity Technologies and released for OSX in 2005. It currently supports 27 platforms, including Windows, Nintendo 3DS, PlayStation 4 and Android.

The Unity 3.6 release is currently scheduled for March 31st 2017. A beta is currently available at the official Unity website.

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on GDC throughout the week.