Category: Jump

Posted on

JUMP Opens Pre-sales for Tickets to Its Virtual Skydiving Attraction

JUMP, the destination-based entertainment company, exited stealth late last year and teased a unique attraction that would combine real-world wing suits, wind effects, body harnesses and VR headsets for a fully immersive skydiving experience. The company is now taking pre-orders for tickets to its debut locations, which for now are in Utah and New Jersey. 

JUMP was largely a mystery when James Jensen, co-founder of the now defunct mixed reality attraction The Void, revealed the essence of his next project: simulate a way for people to have the potentially life-threatening experience of wing suit skydiving, but in a safe and controlled environment.

Jensen left his position as The Void’s Chief Visionary Officer in 2018—well before it experienced cash flow issues due to the COVID-19 pandemic, which eventually saw its closure and subsequent liquidation.

With things looking up for out-of-home attractions now though, the company has opened preorder ticket sales for its mutli-sensory experience, and has also revealed debut locations situated in Salt Lake City, Utah and at American Dream, located in East Rutherford, New Jersey. Locations are tentatively said to start operations sometime in November 2021. With Jensen’s experience in out-of-home entertainment, we expect to see that number go up before then.

Billed as a “hyper-reality experience,” JUMP is a mix of a suspension and wind system that allows people to experience the thrill of jumping off cliffs and skyscrapers, albeit without the danger (or time investment) involved. We still haven’t seen it in action, although it certainly sounds like a very Void-esque mix of sensory elements.

The company is offering four pass tiers to the public, which can be redeemed at any of its planned or future locations. According to the company’s website, they’ve already pre-sold over $190,000 worth of passes.

Check out the four JUMP pass tiers below:

  • Duo – $99: includes 2 transferable passes, one limited-edition JUMP t-shirt, 100 JUMP upgrade credits, and an exclusive wing suit skin
  • Squad – $299: includes 6 transferrable passes, 4 limited-edition JUMP t-shirts, 250 JUMP upgrade credits, and an exclusive wing suit skin
  • Captain – $999: includes 20 transferable passes, 6 limited-edition JUMP t-shirts, 600 JUMP upgrade credits, and an exclusive wing suit skin, limited JUMP bomber jacket
  • Lifetime (limited quantity) – $11,999: include one lifetime pass (includes 3 guests) 4 limited-edition JUMP t-shirts; 1000 JUMP upgrade credits; an exclusive wing suit skin; limited bomber jacket; pre-opening launch event

“JUMP is everything that location-based hyperreality should be,” said Jensen. “We’ve envisioned an experience that transcends what’s possible for people to experience in real life. Mustering the courage to JUMP off a mountaintop and fly close to the ground has the possibility to transform people. People who have experience the demo are truly blown away.”

The post JUMP Opens Pre-sales for Tickets to Its Virtual Skydiving Attraction appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

The Void Co-founder Unveils VR Skydiving Attraction ‘JUMP’, Locations Coming 2021

James Jensen, co-founder and creator of VR attraction The Void, recently unveiled his next VR startup which aims to bring the thrills of wingsuit skydiving to people particularly averse to jumping out of a perfectly good airplane.

The company, called JUMP, exited its two-year stint in stealth mode this past weekend. According to Jensen’s LinkedIn page, he’s been working as CEO of Jump since March 2018, or just a few months before he left his position as Chief Visionary Officer at The Void.

Not much is known about Jump yet, however the company’s website LimitlessFlight.com maintains users will be able suit up into a certified wingsuit and don a VR headset for some lifelike thrills. Promo material appears to show a tethered VR headset integrated into a masked skydiving helmet. Locations hosting Jump’s wingsuit experience are said to arrive sometime in 2021.

However vague, here’s how Jump describes the experience:

Imagine being able to perform one of the world’s most dangerous and technically difficult stunts with little to no training, no parachuting experience, no cost for equipment and setup, and no risk of death trying to pull it off. What would you do (and how much would it cost) for such an experience?
‍
Would you dedicate years of your life, spend thousands of dollars, and practice life-threatening jumps time and time again just to risk dying in the end? Any way you look at it, this would be an unattainable experience for 99.9% of people on this planet … until now.

Jump has attracted expertise across both real-life skydiving and immersive design. Academy Award-winning designer John Gaeta has signed onto the project as an advisor; Gaeta is best known for pioneering ‘Bullet Time’ for The Matrix films, his work on volumetric capture methods, and for co-founding Lucasfilms’ immersive skunkworks ILMxLAB.

Professional skydiver Marshall Miller, who is also the co-founder and managing director at GoPro’s jump team ‘Bomb Squad’, is also listed among the company’s team.

Image courtesy Jump

It’s unclear what sort of setup we can expect from Jump, however the company has also attracted Head Rigger for Cirque du Soleil Jim Shumway, who is also ETCP Certified in arena and theater rigging.

SEE ALSO
HP Reverb G2 Will Begin Shipping in November, New Orders in December

It’s possible Jump users will suit-up and be suspended via some sort of tether while experiencing their virtual flight, possibly with the same cadre of added multi-sensory effects that users can experience at The Void, which includes wind, sound, and heat to enhance the VR experience. Further speculation: such a single-serving experience could be deployed as a pop-up installation instead of a brick-and-mortar affair, something that potential investors may see as a boon in wooing the paying public back to out-of-home VR after a lengthy global lockdown.

We’re hoping to learn more about Jump in the coming months, as the company is well positioned to be one of the first location-based entertainment startups to emerge during what we hope to be the year of recovery for the industry.

The post The Void Co-founder Unveils VR Skydiving Attraction ‘JUMP’, Locations Coming 2021 appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Google to Shutter Jump VR Video Service in June

Google seems to be taking somewhat of a step back from VR, as Variety reports the company will be shutting down its Jump program for good next month.

Google posted an updated Jump FAQ recently regarding the shutdown of the VR video service, outlining that Jump will officially go offline on June 28th, 2019.

The ability to upload video will be suspended on June 26th; the 27th is the cutoff date to back up whatever files you may have uploaded via the service. Any later than that, and all Jump-related files will be deleted from Google’s Cloud Services for good.

In an all too brief statement, Google says the shutdown is due to “the emergence of a number of alternative solutions for creators,” which they maintain saw usage of Jump Assembler decline.

Photo by Road to VR

In Jump’s wake, the company suggests that VR filmmakers make use of third-party stitching software such as Mistika VR and the Nuke Cara VR plugin. Both are said to work with either of the platform’s officially supported rigs, the GoPro Odyssey and YI HALO, the latter of which cost a cool $17,000.

Google first introduced Jump back in 2015 as camera platform that essentially followed Cardboard’s path of providing an open design for all to use. Besides establishing build guidelines for makers and manufacturers alike, Google also provided Cloud Service storage and Jump ‘Assembler’, which was tasked with stitching the camera’s multiple video feeds into a contiguous 360 scene.

SEE ALSO
Facebook Has Four Separate Social VR Apps and None of Them Are on Quest

Where Google is headed next with VR, we’re not sure. It seems over the past few months that the company has taken a noticeable step back from VR. Google’s first big pullback came via a shutdown of its internal VR film studio Spotlight Stories in March. At this year’s I/O developer conference early this month, Google’s VR platform Daydream wasn’t even mentioned; the company’s upcoming smartphone Pixel 3a won’t support Daydream either.

Some of this may rest on the shoulders of a less than stellar launch last year of the only standalone VR headset to use the Daydream platform, Lenovo Mirage Solo. It was by all accounts a pioneering initiative to bring 6DOF headtracking to the masses, although its launch was marred by a lack of ready-made 6DOF content, a lack of 6DOF controllers, and a $400 price tag that wasn’t positioned well against the $200 Oculus Go at the time. It also seemed stifled from the beginning, as HTC, a previous hardware partner pledging Vive Focus to the platform, decided to pull support and launch their headset in China under the Viveport mobile store.

Whatever the case may be, we’ll have all eyes on Google’s VR division in the coming months to see if this is a full-blown pull back, or a strategic retreat.

The post Google to Shutter Jump VR Video Service in June appeared first on Road to VR.

Posted on

Google Upgrade JUMP Camera into YI HALO

Tech giant Google launched the JUMP programme back in 2015, its aim being to give average consumers the tools for making high-quality virtual reality (VR) films that were usually the domain of well-funded Hollywood film-makers. Google have now announced a new version of the key hardware.

The new camera weighs less than eight pounds, lighter than the original JUMP camera and has 100 minutes of internal battery and is controlled by an Android app that acts as a remote control. The unit has no less than 17 4K cameras to capture scenes as immersively as possible.

Derin Turner, Production Director at VR Playhouse, noted “This camera and Jump ranks as one of the best and easiest pieces of equipment and platform to use on the market.”

Production is handled using the Jump Assembler, which stitches together the footage in a few hours, almost entirely free of artefacts by utilising Google’s computer vision algorithms and using the processing power possessed by Google’s data centres to speed up the rendering process.

Google are also launched an initiative called Jump Start, which allows certain eligible filmmakers and creators free access to a Jump Camera and Jump Assembler to make a VR film. Applications are already open, and film-makers can apply through the Jump Start website until the 22nd May 2017.

A short video detailing the capabilities of the YI HALO camera is available to view below.

YI HALO will be available for sale sometime in summer 2017, though some units are already being made available to certain creators selected by Google. A price point has not yet been confirmed.

VRFocus will bring you further news on YI HALO and other 360-degree hardware products as it becomes available.

Posted on

Google Has A New VR Camera And A ‘Roadmap’ For Answering Facebook

Google Has A New VR Camera And Is Giving It Away for Free To Creators

Google’s JUMP team is announcing a new, virtual reality camera today that is smaller and lighter than its predecessors. The new unit is being positioned as an affordable, portable, easy to use system that will allow creators to make high quality 360 videos more easily.

This new camera was built in partnership with YI technologies. It is known as the YI Halo and Google is referring to it as the “next generation” for its JUMP platform.

The Halo combines 17 4k YI Action cameras into a ring. One of these is called the “Up” camera and faces the sky in the center of the circle of cameras to capture what’s above the viewer. The entire rig weighs less than eight pounds.

In addition to the hardware, the Halo will also be able to take advantage of Google’s cloud stitching technology.

The meticulous process of interweaving the feeds of so many high-end cameras is time consuming and third-party stitching companies can charge thousands of dollars per minute for completed footage. According to Google, however, the JUMP Assembler, can complete the stitching automatically using massive server farms and deliver “seamless, artifact-free stitches,” to creators in just a few hours.

Google is also announcing Jump Start — a program that will provide qualified creators with free units to use on their 360 projects.

According to Google:

“To get Jump cameras into the hands of more filmmakers than ever before, today we’re also announcing May 22nd to x24 and x6 VR cameras are capable of creating three dimensional footage that a user can actually walk around in and explore with six degrees of freedom.

When asked if Google would be making an effort to match this sort of technology, a spokesperson responded that the JUMP team “has a roadmap” for new products, but won’t be making any announcements until they have something finalized.

Tagged with: