Category: Katy Perry

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Sandbox VR Raises $11M Investment from Will Smith, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry & More

Sandbox VR, the location-based VR attraction, announced an additional $11 million in funding from some of the biggest household names in entertainment and investment.

Sandbox VR says in a press statement that their latest investment brings their total funds to $83 million, including the Series A round earlier this year that netted the company $68 million from Andreessen Horowitz, Alibaba, Floodgate Ventures, Stanford University, Triplepoint Capital, and CRCM.

The most recent funding round was led by David Sacks of Craft Ventures and the Andreessen Horowitz Cultural Leadership Fund, with additional investors including Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry, Orlando Bloom, Will Smith, Honda Keisuke, Dreamers Fund, Michael Ovitz, and Kevin Durant & Rich Kleiman of Thirty Five Ventures.

“We believe that VR is finally ready to take off as a mass-market phenomenon in malls, where it can be optimized for a social experience,” said David Sacks, co-founder and general partner at Craft Ventures. “We chose the Sandbox team because of their background in game design; their VR experiences have a level of interactivity — with both the VR world and other players — that we couldn’t find elsewhere. We believe that Sandbox VR is poised to become the first VR experience for millions of consumers around the world.”

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The company currently runs centers in Los Angeles, San Francisco, Vancouver, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Macau, and Singapore. Locations in Austin, Chicago, Dallas, New York, and San Diego are marked as “coming soon” on the company’s website.

The company says a total of 16 total locations are however planned to open by the end of 2020.

The post Sandbox VR Raises $11M Investment from Will Smith, Justin Timberlake, Katy Perry & More appeared first on Road to VR.

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Steven Klein Creates Katy Perry AR Experience for W Magazine

As augmented reality (AR) grows in public perception, the number of companies and brands taking advantage of it to reach its audience also grows. Director and photographer Steven Klein has teamed up with W Magazine for just this, using AR technology to create an interactive AR experience featuring singer Katy Perry.

By using the W Magazine app, downloadable for free from the Apple App Store or the Google Play Store, users can get access to a range of exclusive AR content by scanning the cover and pages of W Magazine’s September issue. The AR experience begins with a scan of the cover, which offers a video and audio message from Katy Parry, filmed by Klein in his own unique style to delivery a declaration of freedom.

Other aspects of the cover and the pages with can also be scanned to unlock other exclusive content, areas that can be activated this way are marked with a ‘W’ logo and will reveal various bits of AR content, such as a 360-degree view of the set where the Katy Perry ‘freedom’ monologue was filmed. The AR experience was created in collaboration with renown effects studio The Mill.

“We perceive magazines as flat planes of expression. Photographic and print materials as static, firmly held in place by the laws of time and space. But now, through new technology, we have broken those laws and can render a picture as a living entity, as in the case of my W magazine cover story with musical artist Katy Perry,” said image-maker Steven Klein. “Like Alice looking through the looking glass, you are invited, through the use of an app, to step into the wonderland we have created with the technical assistance of The Mill.”

“With this collaboration with W magazine, we wanted to push the boundaries of what’s possible in print, while unlocking a new kind of viewing experience through augmented reality,” said Angus Kneale, The Mill’s chief creative officer. “This is an incredibly exciting time to be at the forefront of emerging technology and digital storytelling, and we’re looking forward to further exploring how it can complement and expand the print medium.”

VRFocus will continue to report on new and innovative uses for AR technology.