store no 8 – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

March 25, 2018

The VR Job Hub: Early Easter Job Opportunities

With the Easter break just around the corner it is time for another opportunity to find new and exciting job this week with The VR Job Hub.

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together a number open position from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe, to help make finding the ideal job easier. Below are a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on VR, AR and MR.

Location	Company	Role	Link
Los Angeles, CA, US	Store No. 8	VR Producer	Click Here to Apply
Los Angeles, CA, US	Store No. 8	VR UI/UX Designer	Click Here to Apply
Singapore	Tectus Dreamlab Pte. Ltd.	Senior AR-VR Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Menlo Park, CA, US	Facebook	VR Product Engineer, Social VR	Click Here to Apply
Tokyo, Japan	Exiii Inc	Electrical Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Tokyo, Japan	Exiii Inc	Haptics Research Engineer	Click Here to Apply
Manchester, UK	Cherry Pop Games	Technical Artist	Click Here to Apply
Manchester, UK	Cherry Pop Games	Develop / Programmer	Click Here to Apply
Mountain View, CA, US	Google	AR and VR Writer	Click Here to Apply
San Francisco, CA, US	Google	Software Engineer, Virtual Reality	Click Here to Apply
Los Angeles, CA, US	Google	Producer, Immersive Video	Click Here to Apply
Sydney, New South Wales, Australia	Massive Interactive	Unity Developer (VR)	Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there was nothing in this week’s feature that was a good fit for you, you can always look at the previous edition of The VR Job Hub.

As always, if you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to myself at keva@vrfocus.com and also pgraham@vrfocus.com.

Check back with VRFocus next Sunday at the usual time of 3PM (GMT) for another selection of jobs from around the industry.

February 6, 2018

Walmart’s Tech Incubator Store No. 8 Acquires VR Startup Spatialand

Wal-Mart, the big-box retail giant, unveiled its Store No. 8 tech startup incubator last year with the aim of researching and investing in emergent tech like AR and VR. Now, Store No. 8 has acquired Spatialand, a startup that has created a platform and toolset for enterprise companies to create VR content.

In addition to her duties as Principal & Founder Store No. 8, Katie Finnegan will be signing on as interim CEO of Spatialand, according to a Wal-Mart blog post.

Spatialand initially worked with Store No. 8 last year to create the Wal-Mart incubator’s VR gala, Innov8, which the company says culminated in a proof of concept VR experience for how they think “millions may shop in the future.”

Finnegan says the new venture will operate in stealth with Spatialand’s Kim Cooper and Store No. 8 consultant Jeremy Welt as co-founders. The team, Finnegan says, will “develop and explore new products and uses of VR through immersive retail environments that can be incorporated by all facets of Walmart, online and offline.”

Kim Cooper is a two-time Emmy nominee and under her leadership, Spatialand’s VR platform has created projects for Oculus, Intel, Reebok and Linkin Park.

Jeremy Welt, a VR strategy and product advisor, helped launch YouTube’s first commercial deal to working on the Walt Disney Company’s acquisition of Maker Studios. He has also been a consultant for 360 video app company Splash and Mindshow, the VR movie creator tool.

The post Walmart’s Tech Incubator Store No. 8 Acquires VR Startup Spatialand appeared first on Road to VR.

October 20, 2017

Store No 8 Hosts Gala For VR In Commerce

Store No. 8 was created by commercial giant Walmart for the purposes of investing in technologies that can change commerce. The technology incubator recently hosted its first gala to bring together several companies involved in virtual reality (VR) applications in the commerce sector.

The companies who attended the gala showcased several projects that utilised VR technology. Some of the technologies that were on display included 8i X Bonobos which used VR technology to allow customers to try out virtual clothing lines, able to get a feel of the fabric and fit, or Obsess X Rebecca Minkoff, which allowed brands to create the ideal interactive virtual store which could properly reflect the identity of the company.

“Innov8 is our opportunity to support and elevate the incredible pioneers of virtual reality who share our mission to explore nascent innovations that will emerge no t in coming years but over the next decade,” said Katie Finnegan, Principal of Store No 8. “During this process, our five Innov8ers have uncovered radical new technologies, approaches and applications across the virtual retail experience, that we know will play a major role in driving commerce forward at a time when technology influences all aspects of consumers’ lives.”

“Virtual reality is rapidly transforming the way companies connect and engage with their customers and employees,” said Marc Carrel-Billiard, senior managing director of Accenture Labs and head of Accenture Extended Reality. “Accenture is committed to investing in and developing this powerful technology given the tremendous potential we believe it has to drive new innovations and deliver real business value.”

VRFocus will continue to bring you news on new developments in the VR industry.

August 19, 2017

Finalists Announced For Innov8: V-Commerce Competition

You may recall a story we covered on VRFocus back in July, where Store No.8 and Thrive Global came together to launch a new competition which focused on virtual reality (VR), not for games, but as a tool to aid commercial endeavours. The contest was called the Innov8: V-Commerce Competition and it had some potentially invaluable rewards, on a business level, should you have been chosen as a winner. Not just development capital in oprder to facilitate the development of your idea, but mentorship and the chance to work with big names in the retail sector who could potentially be your busiess partners.

Submissions ended at the beginning of the month and earlier this week the ‘Innov8tors’ selected were announced. There are five finalists in total, all of whom five finalists that will present their ideas
at Innov8’s exhibition on October 18th 2017.

You can find a little bit more about all five below:

Fyusion

Based in San Francisco, Fyusion is “on a mission to fundamentally change the definition of photography” as they explain on their website.

“The company’s breakthrough technology generates deeply immersive “surround view” images that fuse the capabilities of a traditional photo, a panorama, motion capture and 3D to create a more complete, captivating photography experience.”

8i

Based both in Culver City, California and Wellington, New Zealand, 8i‘s technology is implimented to transpose recordings of humans into immersive reality spaces.

“8i provides the easiest way to create, mix and experience human holograms that look real and feel as if they were in the same room. Our proprietary technology transforms video from an array of cameras into a photo-realistic 3D hologram of a human that can be viewed from any angle, on any device for virtual, augmented or mixed reality.”

Nurulize

A VR software developer from Los Angeles who already this year took GTC’s Grand Prize at VR Content Showcase, Nurulize work on Atom View which they describe as “a cutting edge tool for raw volumetric data processing, color management, and delivery. Built from the ground up for VR, Atom View helps you integrate the highest quality volumetric data on the planet with traditional workflows for game or film.”

Specular Theory

Based in Venice Beach, California Specular Theory create VR films and have had selections at both Sundance and Tribeca since their foundation. The company “creates and distributes cutting-edge, premium, and authentic experiences for virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed-reality and location-based entertainment (LBVRE).”

Obsess

New York based Obsess provide three types of 360 degree experiences giving different levels of immersion and retail options. You can find an example of one of their campaigns here: https://360experience.verabradley.com/

VRFocus will bring you news on the event in October and any updates in the meantime as we get them.

March 22, 2017

Walmart Focuses On Future of VR/AR at New Silicon Valley Tech Incubator

Wal-Mart Stores Inc, the big-box retail giant, is focusing on the future of VR and AR, along with other emergent technologies, with its newly unveiled tech startup incubator.

According to a Bloomberg Technology report, Wal-Mart is creating the incubator to “identify changes that will reshape the retail experience, including virtual reality, autonomous vehicle and drone delivery and personalized shopping.”

The incubator is simply called “Store No. 8,” a name that Bloomberg says is in reference to a previous Wal-Mart location where the company experimented with new store layouts. Wal-Mart CEO Marc Lore announced the incubator on Monday at ShopTalk, an eCommerce and retail conference in its second year.

According to Wal-Mart, Store No. 8 is focusing on robotics, virtual and augmented reality, machine learning and artificial intelligence, and will be partnering with startups, venture capitalists and academics.

Like many in-house incubators, the goal is to produce new and innovative technologies internally, one that in Wal-Mart’s case will likely focus on the future of its numerous retail locations that, thanks to the power of everything listed above, may change drastically in the years to come.

The post Walmart Focuses On Future of VR/AR at New Silicon Valley Tech Incubator appeared first on Road to VR.