Category: Google

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Google Confirms Huawei Mate 9 Pro Now Daydream Ready

Google Confirms Huawei Mate 9 Pro Will Be Daydream Ready

Update: Google today announced that both the Huaewi Mate 9 Pro and Mate 9 are Daydream-ready devices via an Android update. No word yet on the upcoming Huawei-made Daydream headset, though.

Original story: Daydream’s launch yesterday was just the first step in a long journey. The first headset, Daydream View, works with the first Daydream-ready phones, Google’s Pixel and Pixel XL, but other companies will be bringing new devices to the ecosystem over time. It looks like Huawei could be the next to do so.

Earlier this month the China-based smartphone maker revealed its latest handsets, the Mate 9 and enhanced Mate 9 Pro. The latter of these two devices had already been rumored to support Daydream, but Google’s VP of VR, Clay Bavor, just confirmed it. Speaking at Recode’s An Evening With Code Mobile event this week, Bavor stated that the Mate 9 Pro will be “Daydream-ified over a software update soon.” He didn’t say how soon, though the Mate 9 Pro isn’t even available in western territories yet and we don’t know when it will be.

According to GSM Arena, the Mate 9 Pro boasts a AMOLED 5.5 inch display with a resolution of 1080 x 1920. It’s powered by a 1.8GHz octa-core HiSilicon Kirin 960 processor and has 4GB RAM. That’s not a make of chipset we’re familiar with, though if it’s Google-approved for Daydream it obviously meets to quality standards the company has laid out for its mobile platform.

Huawei is just one of many companies making Daydream-ready smartphones, though, and we’re still expecting to see handsets from Samsung, ZTE, LG, Asus, Lenovo and others, as well as new takes on the headset.

We don’t know which of those we’ll see next, but Bavor did drop a hint as to when we might here some news. “I’ll just say it, I think CES and Mobile World Congress will be very exciting for VR,” he said later on in the interview. CES takes place in January while Mobile World Congress gets underway at the end of February. Daydream-related reveals for both events seems likely.

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Life In 360°: The Cave Of Wonders

We end the week on Life In 360° by heading back underground. You may recall last week we travelled 200 feet below the city of Seattle to check in on the feat of engineering might that was the construction f a major tunnel beneath the city.

Today though we’re not in America; in fact we’re somewhere we’ve yet to go on our 360 degree adventures. We’re off to Vietnam to join RYOT and Google as part of their news series The Turnaround. In Saving Son Doong, the companies went there to visit a location in Quang Binh Province known as Son Doong. A recently discovered cave system and the largest cave in the world, containing a pristine and untouched ecosystem.

Untouched until now: because despite surviving being in one of the most bombed areas in the world, a cable car company are set to potentially destroy this previously untouched natural resource for the sake of commercialism.

RYOT and Google investigate in this two parter, which you can find out more about here: http://www.ryot.org/stories/saving-son-doong.

VRFocus will be back on Monday at the usual time with more adventures in 360 degrees.

Part One:

Part Two:

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Google’s Next Phone Box Might Also Be A VR Headset

Google’s Next Phone Box Might Also Be A VR Headset

Mobile VR companies are practically giving headsets away in order to kick start their ecosystems. Gear VR is often bundled with new Samsung smartphones, and Google’s Daydream came free with anyone that pre-ordered a Pixel phone. But this new patent from the latter company reveals perhaps the most ingenious way to get VR into people’s hands yet.

The patent, published last month and discovered by TechRadar, details a box for a new smartphone that doubles as a VR headset. It’s got a pair of lenses embedded inside the box along with space for your nose. It opens on a hinge, so the first time you open it you’ll find your phone ready and waiting inside, and then you’ll place it back there every time you want to access VR.

It sounds very similar to Google’s Cardboard concept, which was born on the idea of making a VR device out of every day materials. We’d like think the sturdy cardboard that phone boxes are usually made out of could make for a better experience than a DIY kit, though. And if Google shipped its phone with a Daydream remote too then these could be the most accessible Daydream VR devices yet.

It’s hard to think of a much better way to get mobile VR into people’s hands than to make it a part of the packaging that a new phone comes in. Imagine a future where you don’t have to opt into getting a VR headset as part of a bundle, it just comes as part of what you ordered. Even without this idea, Cardboard has done incredibly well, shifting over 10 million units in its lifetime thus far.

Of course, we have no idea if Google would ever actually employ this idea even if it does have the patent.

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YouTube verbessert VR-Videos

Es ist eine der wichtigsten Plattformen für 360-Grad-Videos mit einer großen Menge an Inhalten, die man über seine jeweilige VR-Brille betrachten. Das Problem ist oft noch die Qualität. Und die will Google jetzt verbessern.

Die Qualität der VR-Videos soll verbessert werden

Das 2005 gegründete Videoportal YouTube gehört seit 2006 zu Google. Und das Suchmaschinen-Unternehmen aus Mountain View in Kalifornien hat diese Woche angekündigt, dass die zuständigen Abteilungen für YouTube und Google Daydream zukünftig eng zusammenarbeiten werden. Deren Ziel ist es, die Qualität der VR-Videos zu verbessern. Das ergibt durchaus Sinn. Denn Youtube ist eine der wichtigsten, wenn nicht sogar die wichtigste Plattform für VR-Videoinhalte. Und Google möchte seine Plattform Daydream-Plattform weiter ausbauen. Zumal der Start für die Daydream nicht optimal verlief.

Google hat ein neues Verfahren entwickelt

40 Minuten verbringt laut Google ein Daydream-Nutzer pro Woche in der virtuellen Realität – hauptsächlich um dabei 360-Grad-Videos anzusehen. Diese Zeit wolle man deutlich steigern, aber das geht nur mit qualitativ hochwertigem Content. Konkret soll es dabei um die Projection gehen, die auf die atmosphärische Abbildung bezieht, die im rectangular layout dargestellt wird. Oder anderes ausgedrückt: Die Darstellung im YouTube-Fenster, was man direkt im VR-Headset betrachten kann.

Seit dem Start der VR-Videos in YouTube arbeitet die Firma mit equirectangular projection. Dabei werden die Pixel ober- und unterhalb des Bildausschnittes am qualitativ hochwertigsten gerendert, während in der Mitte des Bildes eine niedrigere Pixel-Qualität dargestellt wird. Der Grund ist einfach, denn diesen Bildabschnitt betrachtet der Nutzer durchschnittlich am wenigsten. Jetzt hat Google ein System entwickelt, das sich equi-angular cubemaps nennt und ein konstanteres und damit besseres Bild verspricht.

Ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung

Nähere Details über diesen Prozess hat Google auf seinem Blog veröffentlicht. Auch wenn das Ergebnis bei Weitem noch nicht perfekt ist, so ist es sicherlich ein Schritt in die richtige Richtung, der viele YouTube-Nutzer erfreuen wird. YouTube-Videos können mit sehr vielen VR-Brillen betrachtet werden. Dazu gehört unter anderem auch das Playstation-VR-Headset. Wobei die Qualität schwanken kann.

(Quelle: uploadvr.com)

Der Beitrag YouTube verbessert VR-Videos zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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VRTV’s weekly recap includes Samsung Price Drops, a VR gaming convention in VR and more

For VRTV’s fourth episode there’s been plenty going on in the virtual reality (VR) industry during the last seven days. The weekly news roundup is full of stories you may have seen or completely missed, covering the entire breadth of what’s going on.

Whilst there’s no major events taking place but in the news this week there’s been price drops from Samsung, Oculus has had one of the lawsuits against it dismissed, Esper developer Coatsink will be supporting the new Gear VR controller, in-VR plans to be the first VR dedicated convention to be solely attended in VR and loads more.

This week has also seen Nina review I Expect You To Die, interview World War Toons developer Studio Roqovan and talk to Nordic Trolls about its upcoming RPG videogame Karnage Chronicles.

Checkout the next episode below for further info, and stay tuned to VRFocus  and VRTV for more news and videos.

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YouTube Is Improving The Quality Of Its VR Videos

YouTube Is Improving The Quality Of Its VR Videos

YouTube offers thousands of hours of content for your VR headset with its 360 degree videos, but the massive amount of data these clips require means they often show up blurry. Google is working to fix that.

The search engine giant this week announced that its YouTube and Daydream divisions are working together as part of a new series looking at how to improve the quality of VR video. It makes sense; YouTube is one of if not the biggest providers of VR video content in the world and Google’s Daydream mobile VR ecosystem features a dedicated app for watching those videos.

This week, the company is talking about projection, which refers to mapping spherical content into the rectangular layout that you’ll see either in a YouTube window or through the limits of your own field of view inside a VR headset.

Since launch in 2015, YouTube has been using equirectangular projection, which renders pixels best at the top and bottom of an image, where a user normally isn’t looking, and has lower quality pixels closer towards the center of the screen, where they usually are looking. After comparing saturation of pixels with cubemaps, Google has come up with what it calls equi-angular cubemaps, which gives a more consistent image.

A detailed run through is available on the Google blog, but the image above shows you some improvement, however marginal. Still, the company says this project method offers “better results” and “more efficient use of resources”.

Though the results are far from perfect, it’s great to see that companies are working to resolve VR video’s blur problem. YouTube is available across a range of VR headsets, including Sony’s PlayStation VR (PSVR), but the quality of the videos can often deter people from spending much time watching them. News that YouTube is doing something about that will come as a big relief to fans of the platform.

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Holpriger Google Daydream Start – alles kein Problem?

Google ist mit großen Ambitionen in das Virtual-Reality-Geschäft eingestiegen – große Taten folgten daraus allerdings noch nicht. Erstaunlich eigentlich wenn man bedenkt, dass Google dank der Android eine dominierende Marktmacht hat (9 von 10 Smartphones laufen mit diesem Betriebssystem). Für Googles VR-Chef Amit Singh sei der holprige Start aber kein Problem.

Trotz Android keine VR-Dominanz

Eigentlich müsste Google bereits längst den VR-Standard für Smartphones festlegen. Seitdem Google im Rahmen der I/O 2016 die Virtual-Reality-Plattform Daydrem gestartet hatte, sollte eigentlich mittlerweile jeder Smartphone-Hersteller- außer Apple – ein Daydream-kompatibles Gerät im Angebot haben. Bis jetzt haben aber nur Motorola, Asus, ZTE und Huawei Smartphones im Angebot die Daydream-ready sind. Die Google Dominanz ist also nicht besonders dominierend momentan. In einem Gespräch mit der österreichischen Futurezone hat Amit Singh, Googles VR-Chef, jedoch geäußert, dass das alles kein Problem sei. Auch wenn die Strategie noch nicht aufgegangen sei, dass Daydream das für Virtual Reality wird, was Android für Smartphones ist.

Auch Samsung setzt nicht auf Google

Die Daydream-VR-Plattform sei erst vor wenigen Monaten gestartet, sagt Singh. Da könne man noch nichts über das Knie brechen. Schließlich denke man voraus und wolle langfristig bestehen. Zudem sei Amit Singh überzeugt davon, dass die Zahl Daydream-fähiger Smartphones in Zukunft massiv anwachsen wird. Da sei es auch kein Problem, dass die Anzahl an Smartphones, die mit Daydream kompatibel sind, sich noch in Grenzen halte. Das bekannteste Daydream kompatible Smartphone ist dabei noch das eigene Google Pixel. Auch die neuesten Flagschiffe anderer großer Hersteller, die auf dem Mobile World Congress (MWC) in Barcelona vorgestellt wurden, sind nicht Daydream-ready.

Allerdings scheint Singh zu stören, dass das neue GearVR-Headset mit Controller nicht auf den Google Standard setzt. Der Google-Manager geht jedoch davon aus, dass auch mehrere Alternativen am Markt Bestand haben werden. Momentan stelle man einige Marktforschungen bezüglich des Nutzerverhaltens an – und fand heraus, dass nicht Spiele, sondern Videos der beliebteste Content ist. 40 Minuten verbringe ein Google-Daydream-Nutzer pro Woche in der virtuellen Realität. Diese Zeit wolle man deutlich steigern.

Google legte mit der Google Cardboard den Grundstein für die neue, heutige VR-Welle. Der Konzern aus Mountain View in Kalifornien, lieferte bis heute über zehn Millionen Cardboards aus.

Der Beitrag Holpriger Google Daydream Start – alles kein Problem? zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

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Google’s creating higher quality streamed video with Equi-Angular Cubemaps

The world is used to watching videos on YouTube and depending on bandwidth, altering the resolution to get a steady stream, regardless of quality. For immersive 360-degree content however that’s not as easy. While poor internet speeds can ruin virtual reality (VR) viewing, low resolutions can also destroy immersion and make content an unwatchable mess. So in a joint effort between the YouTube and Daydream teams, they’ve been working on new techniques to solve the issue, one of which is Equi-Angular Cubemaps (EAC).  

In a new series of blog postings, Google VR will be taking an in-depth look at improving VR experiences, and with immersive video gaining popularity as it becomes more widely available the company has chosen to start there.

So what are Equi-Angular Cubemaps and how do they help improve 360-degree content? 360-degree videos require a significant amount of pixels to create a decent experience, ideally being 60 pixels per degree of immersive content to match human visual acuity. But due to current device capabilities and internet speeds this isn’t generally possible, instead clever projection methods are needed.

EAC2DVisualization_Cropped.width-845

There’s Equirectangular Projection, where latitudes and longitudes are used to form a square grid, but as Chip Brown, Staff Software Engineer, Daydream, explains: ‘when used for video transmission, it has serious problems. First, the poles get a lot of pixels, and the equator gets relatively few.’ Then you’ve got Cube Maps, this deforms a sphere into a cube which can then be unfolded. “This is an improvement over equirectangular projections, but it still causes substantial variation in pixel density,” explains Brown. “The problem is that the centers of the cube faces are close to the sphere, while the corners are further away.”

This is where Equi-Angular Cubemaps come in. “The traditional cubemap has samples of varying length depending on the sample’s location on the cube face. EAC is specifically constructed to keep these lengths equal, creating uniformly allocated pixels,” said Brown. “The EAC formula is mathematically precise in 2D, but only an approximation of an equal angle pixel distribution in 3D, albeit a pretty good approximation with manageable distortion.”

EAC FrameCompare_SansSerif_n9EZUWL.width-1000

As you can see from the image above, what this means is a higher quality video for consumers creating a far more engaging experience.

YouTube engineers haven’t stopped there, they’ve also developed a Projection Independent Mesh, which they hope will eventually become a widely agreed upon industry standard.

“A Projection Independent Mesh describes the projection by including a 3D mesh along with its texture mapping in the video container. The video rendering software simply renders this mesh as per the texture mapping specified and does not need to understand the details of the projection used,” said software engineer Anjali Wheeler. “Some 360-degree cameras do not capture the entire field of view. For example, they may not have a lens to capture the top and bottom or may only capture a 180-degree scene. Our proposal supports these cameras and allows replacing the uncaptured portions of the field of view by a static geometry and image.”

Android already benefits from EAC projection streamed using a projection independent mesh and the techniques will be coming soon to iOS and desktop.

To keep up to date on Google’s latest advancements in VR, keep reading VRFocus.

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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.

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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.

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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!