Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation – Page 5212 – What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about

December 14, 2016

Umbra Collaborating on Trimble’s Mixed–Reality Pilot Program to Optimize Complex 3D Models

Trimble, a leading provider of advanced location-based solutions, announced a collaboration today with Umbra, a graphics performance specialist. Trimble currently runs a Mixed-Reality Pilot Program, and the partnership with Umbra will explore the use and integration of the company’s 3D graphics optimization technology to process and optimize complex 3D building information models (BIM).

Umbra’s technology automatically reduces the triangle count and generates varied levels of detail of 3D content, ideal for optimizing the performance of 3D graphics applications in the Trimble Mixed-Reality Pilot Program. It chooses the right level of detail and only shows the objects that are visible to the camera at any given time, reducing demands on wearable technology employing BIM and mixed reality (MR).

Trimble Image

“Mixed reality enables professionals and their clients to interact with 3D models. Trimble customers are involved in some of the largest and most complex projects in the world and it’s important to provide a solution which will support their needs,” said Aviad Almagor, director of Trimble’s Mixed-Reality Program. “The computing power needed to visualize large and highly detailed 3D models can outpace the capabilities of mobile and wearable devices, which lack the processing power of professional high-end desktop machines. By collaborating with Umbra, we can leverage technology proven in video gaming to improve the user experience and enable visualization of large and complex Architecture, Engineering and Construction 3D models.”

“Using Umbra, Trimble pilot program users will be able to focus on what’s important about 3D and mixed reality: better communication, richer interaction and faster design review cycles,” said Otso Mäkinen, CEO of Umbra. “With Trimble’s global presence and industry knowledge, this collaboration can enable Umbra to enter new markets and accelerate the 3D revolution. We are very excited to work with Trimble as part of its Mixed-Reality Pilot Program.”

Trimble’s program provides Architecture, Engineering, Construction and Operations (AECO) companies an opportunity to experience how MR technology can transform the way they work. Pilot participants are able to explore and utilize MR in their projects to improve team communication, data interpretation and collaboration during the design development and pre-construction stages of their projects, with Trimble providing training and implementation support on Microsoft HoloLens.

Umbra’s technology has been utilised by numerous partners and developers including Unreal Engine, Unity, World of Tanks, Destiny, The Witcher 3 and many more. It’s especially useful for immersive applications such as MR and virtual reality (VR), which require significant processing power even at an entry level.

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Umbra and Trimble, reporting back with ant further announcements.

December 14, 2016

PlayStation VR: Lethal VR von Team17 für PSVR

Kürzlich erschien mit Lethal VR das erste Virtual Reality Spiel von Team17 für die HTC Vive. Nun schafft das Spiel auch den Sprung auf das PlayStation VR Headset und wird am 20. Dezember im PlayStation Store erscheinen. Zum Start wird es 20% Rabatt auf den regulären Verkaufspreis von 14,99 Euro geben.

Lethal VR von Team17

In Lethal VR durchlauft ihr eine Ausbildung als FBI-Rekrut am Schießstand. Auch wenn das Spiel zunächst sehr einfach anmutet, so konnte das Konzept uns doch einige Zeit unterhalten. Ihr schießt und werft auf diverse Zielscheiben und teilweise ist es gar nicht so einfach, die richtigen Scheiben zu treffen. Beispielsweise dürft ihr in manchen Abschnitten gewisse Ziele nur abwerfen und andere Ziele nur abschießen. Manchmal müsst ihr auch erkennen, ob die Zielscheibe einen Angreifer darstellen soll oder ob es sich um einen friedlichen Mitbürger handelt. Zudem sorgt das Spiel durch das Freischalten von neuen Waffen und Wurfgeschossen auch stets für neue Unterhaltung und die Waffen fühlten sich bei HTC Vive Version sehr gut. Wie das Spielgefühl beim PSVR Headset ausfallen wird, werden wir in wenigen Tage erfahren.

Lethal VR wird durch Team17 vertrieben und stammt von Three Fields Entertainment, einem kleinen Indie-Studio, welches von den Machern von Burnout gegründet wurde.

Der Beitrag PlayStation VR: Lethal VR von Team17 für PSVR zuerst gesehen auf VR∙Nerds. VR·Nerds am Werk!

December 14, 2016

Raw Data Developer Survios Raises $50 million in Funding This Year

Survios’ Raw Data has been one of the major virtual reality (VR) hits on Steam for HTC Vive since its launch during the summer. This week the Los-Angeles-based developer has announced that through two rounds of funding this year its secured $50 million USD, with the latest round including entertainment company Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM).

Back in 2014 Survios raised $4 million in an early round from a range of investment companies led by Shasta Ventures, helping support its first efforts in VR such as Zombies on the Holodeck! This helped Survios build towards Raw Data which it debuted during the Virtual Reality Los Angeles (VRLA) Winter Expo in January. The first financing round that was held this year featured Shasta Ventures again, alongside Danhua Capital, Shanda Holdings, Felicis Ventures, Dentsu Ventures and Lux Capital who led the round. The most recent investment round with MGM has meant that it’s chairman and CEO Gary Barber now joins Survios’ board.

Raw Data (3)

James Iliff, co-founder and chief creative officer at Survios spoke with GamesBeat about the investment, saying: “We want to build amazing VR content for the widest possible audience. We want to make the VR market succeed. It’s still early, and we want to make it happen.”

“MGM has incredible creative properties and access to a lot of intellectual property that could help us,” he added.

While the investment means Survios is looking to the future and diversifying its content lineup, how about Raw Data? Iliff addresses any concerns fans may have in a blog posting: “We are going to complete Raw Data as we originally set out to do, delivering more missions, heroes, items, and abilities; further polishing the gameplay; and adding in lots of story-driven elements so that the finished product is not only super fun to play, but also has the depth and fullness you crave. We also have a few unannounced surprises in store for you along the way.”

VRFocus will continue its coverage of Survios and Raw Data, reporting back with any further updates.

December 14, 2016

STRIVR Labs Raises $5 Million And Adds Enterprise VR Training

It turns out a lot of the same things football players need to practice to perform better on the field, also applies to enterprise – at least in virtual reality. And so startup STRIVR Labs has launched into a new enterprise VR training business, while still remaining in the sports VR training game.

The company has completed a $5 million Series A investment round led by Signia Venture Partners with participation from BMW i Ventures, AdvancIt Capital and Presence Capital to help expand its reach.

Derek Belch, co-founder and CEO of STRIVR, told UploadVR the company plans to use the funds to expand its offering to corporations and other entities that can benefit from the same type of experiential learning.

STRIVR is already working with a handful of Fortune 500 companies on comprehensive training programs utilizing VR. United Rental is one of the first companies to jump into this VR training initiative.

“We’re not leaving sports, but making a pivot to put significant emphasis on VR as a performance learning tool outside of sports,” Belch said. “There’s a bigger opportunity with enterprise than with sports.”

STRIVR’s enterprise-focused product is a performance training platform that uses VR and AR to help educate and train in areas like sales, operations, customer service, safety, and human resources. It is an end-to-end platform, from content capture to reporting/assessment, and the content is viewed with regular VR headsets like Oculus and Samsung Gear VR. A less-immersive lite version is also available on mobile and tablet. STRIVR uses data and assessment tools to assess learner performance, enabling organizations to make data-driven decisions about individual preparedness for critical situations.

“This training content works effectively if done the right way,” Belch said. “We’re taking the model of what we’ve done with football and basketball players and applying that to corporations as they train employees. There’s never enough time to get employees quality reps. And experience matters. Reading or watching video in 2D isn’t as strong as doing it – even if you’re doing it in VR.”

More than 25 professional and collegiate sports teams use STRIVR to enhance off-the-field preparation including the Dallas Cowboys, Arizona Cardinals, Minnesota Vikings, Clemson University, Stanford University, the Washington Wizards, Detroit Pistons, and Washington Capitals.

“Last year we had 20,000 plays filmed and 45,000 play views,” Belch said. We passed that this year in October, so the usage is up and the data collection is strong. Next year is a critical year because people will look at this and see us adding teams.”

Belch said STRIVR is looking at some individual sports where they can use visualization and put the player in the experience.

“We’ve met with U.S. Tennis Association and we’re looking at a few things,” Belch said. “The challenge is the speed of the ball and the ergonomics of what you do in real life versus VR.”

STRIVR has done a few PGA Tour 360 video fan experience deals, but nothing on the training side yet.

“I’m an avid golfer and we’re testing a few things internally, but it’s hard to do something that’s additive beyond hitting balls,” Belch said. “We’re so close, yet so far away with some of these sports. The hardware will get better in next 12 to 16 months.”

STRIVR is focusing on the future of its business, and that happens to be business.

“Today sports is the focus, but in the next year or two we’re going to predominantly focus on enterprise,” Belch said. “We’re not putting sports on the backburner. We’ll double down in sports because anything we do there can be applied to enterprise. We’ve seen with sports teams encouraging results and we feel this can be a major benefit for corporations to improve the training experience. Hopefully enterprise will be the bulk of our business down the line.”

Belch said current enterprise projects, some of which will be officially announced in early 2017, use mixed reality with CG and 360 video.

“We’re doing some training all with 360 video things and we’re experimenting with some interesting ways to make 360 video interactive with light fields,” Belch said. “We’re currently using data tracking, reporting and analytics to figure out best practices on how someone can come in on a Monday and two weeks later on a Friday have what they need to be prepared.”

STRIVR is currently working with HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR across all of its business. Belch said the company is looking at Google Daydream very closely and believes the controller will open up a unique way to select things in training.

“Once the lightbulb comes on or someone is willing to take a chance and go all-in, we’ll see an uptick in customers,” Belch said.

Tagged with: football, Stanford, STRIVR

December 14, 2016

VR Sports Training Company STRIVR Labs Scores $5 Million Investment

STRIVR Labs, a company focused on using VR for sports training, plans to use a new $5 million investment to expand the scope of its “experiential learning” platform.

According to a press release from the company, Strivr’s $5 million Series A investment was led by Signia Venture Partners with participation from BMW i Ventures, and AdvancIt Capital.

Strivr was co-founded by former Stanford Cardinal kicker Derek Belch and Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human interaction Lab. The company now counts 25 professional and collegiate teams among clientele making use of its VR sports training technology. The platform has been used by players to review more than 50,000 different plays and scenarios for thousands of collective hours, according to Strivr.

‘EVE Online’’s creators don’t know how going free-to-play will change the game

‘EVE Online’ is drawing in more players with its free-to-play expansion, and that could have larger effects on the long-running sci-fi MMO strategy game.

The post ‘EVE Online’’s creators don’t know how going free-to-play will change the game appeared first on Digital Trends.

December 14, 2016

Ultrahaptics Brings A Sensation Of Touch To Virtual Reality

A UK-based company, Bristol took the initiative and developed a touchable technology that makes the users “feel in mid-air” and this will be further used to imply in the field of Virtual Reality. This technology is termed as “Ultrahaptics” which empowers the users to get a sensation of touch in the mid-air in a VR platform.

The co-founder of Ultrahaptics, Tom Carter told IBTimes UK that it is not possible to have a complete immersion without having the physical feedback. This means that if the “touch” factor is not present, it will break down the VR experience and they are working on it.

A “touch” demo of Ultrahaptics had been undertaken at VRX virtual reality conference last week. In this demo, it was indicated that it used ultrasound technology to give a feel of the things in VR using one’s own fingers. This technology of touch and feel in mid-air has been demoed in VR to show that one can hold a virtual ball in mid-air with their own fingers and get a feel of sensation or touching something.

Bristol intends to bring “haptics” technology in the field of VR to make it more immersive. VR gives you a feeling of being at a place/location which creates an illusion and it will break as soon as you try to touch something. With high-quality haptics, it is predicted that VR will become more immersive and is expected to generate a revenue of around $14 billion by 2020, as reported by a market researcher.

In the demo given at VRX, it was shown that you can feel the vibrations of the things that are in mid-air over your fingers. Carter had further said that the pad in the entrance of the PC consisted of dozens of small audio systems that emit ultrasound waves. These waves go a few ft high in the air. When you put your hand in the area right above the audio system, you get a feeling as if you are touching something and this sensation stops when you pull your hand out.The sound of the audio system is enough to give a feel of the vibrations of the things that are in mid-air and the amount of these vibrations may be compared to different frequencies to create different sensations.

During the demo at VRX, the company/corporate confirmed that you can get a feeling of passing your hand through a barrier and can also take up some balls and push them out of a dish which will give you inconsiderable sensations.

Earlier, the corporate raised a fund of $872000 and last year it raised another $12.5 million from investors including IP Group in the UK, and Woodford Funding Administration. Back in 2014, Ultrahaptics generated a revenue of $60000 which increased to $500,000 in 2015. It is expected to generate an income of $2.5 million this year, mentioned Cliffe ( who is the CEO of Ultrahaptics) earlier.

It is noted that Leap Motion, that allows you to use your hands in VR, was also a part of the demo. The Leap Motion camera shows the exact location of your fingers that helps the Ultrahaptics to give sensations to that exact location.

This technology is expected to be used extensively in the video game industry to make the games more immersive for the players.

Also, the company plans to use this technology in hospital elevators in place of buttons where lots of germs are present as they are touched by the users constantly. To avoid the spread of germs, this technology will be used to push the buttons in mid-air. This technology can also be used in ATM machines, where it will prevent the people from identifying your pin code since you will be typing it in the mid-air.

The post Ultrahaptics Brings A Sensation Of Touch To Virtual Reality appeared first on Infinityleap - Technology stops for no one..

December 14, 2016

Wevr Launches Premium Subscription Tier with Psychedelic Experience Old Friend

Back in April, virtual reality (VR) content creator and distributor Wevr launched Transport, a free early access app for Samsung Gear VR that acts as an immersive network collating weird and wonderful experiences. Today Wevr Transport takes the next step on its journey to becoming a premium VR content platform by introducing a yearly subscription. There’s also the debut release of Old Friend to mark the occasion.

Old Friend originally premiered at Tribeca Film Festival this year winning several “best-of” awards in the process, before being showcased at the Kaleidoscope Film Festival. In the VR experience viewers will lose themselves in a vibrant psychedelic dance party brimming with joyful insanity and elegant dance routines. The animated VR music video experience was created by filmmaker Tyler Hurd for the song “Old Friend” by Future Islands.

OldFriend_ScreenShots5

Hurd’s previous VR offerings include BUTTS: The VR Experience, again a visually surreal yet thought provoking title. This tells the story of a blue man, who is happy in his strange way of bouncing around. While doing this he comes across a sad orange man. He is lonely and depressed, however the blue man takes it upon himself to make him feel better.

For the launch of Wevr Transport’s premium tier there will be four experiences available, Old Friend, Finding Your True Self (by Deepak Chopra), theBlu: Season 1 (Whale Encounter, Reef Migration, Luminous Abyss) and Waves (premiered at Sundance Film Festival 2016). The premium tier will have an annual subscription rate of $20 USD for HTC Vive users, while Gear VR owners have to pay $8. With it Wevr wants to embrace and nurture VR creatives, helping establish a sustainable business model for that community to continue to evolve and flourish for years to come.

Old Friend will also be available through Steam / Viveport / and Oculus Store for $2.99 on from 22nd December 2016. For all the latest Wevr updates, keep reading VRFocus.

December 14, 2016

Wevr Adds $20 Annual Pass To Premium VR Content On Its Transport Service

Wevr is following in the footsteps of traditional media companies like HBO, Netflix and Hulu. The virtual reality startup is launching a $20 annual subscription premium channel on its Transport service, offering early VR users unlimited access to exclusive content like Deepak Chopra’s Finding Your True Self, Tyler Hurd’s Tribeca Film Festival VR hit, Old Friend, Reggie Watts’ Waves and theBlu Season 1.

Transport is currently available on HTC Vive and Samsung Gear VR. The beta is running on Oculus Rift and Google Daydream. Anthony Batt, co-founder of Wevr, told UploadVR his team is working on a PlayStation VR version and all platforms will be supported by early 2017.

Batt said Transport was created because it’s critical in an early market to create a direct relationship with an audience.

“Consumers now understand the idea that subscribing to HBO, Netflix and Hulu funds superior content,” Batt said. “We think it’s a great model and believe it will work for the VR industry at large. The opportunity of making and programming brave VR and establishing serious connection between the audience and creators is our path forward. We think it is a win-win for everyone if we prevail.”

Batt said Wevr was influenced by the record label Sub Pop’s subscription service, “singles club,” where fans paid a very reasonable fee and trusted that the releases they sent you would be of a certain quality. That’s exactly what Wevr wants to do with VR.

“We want to establish a symbiotic relationship between this emerging audience and the creators,” Batt said. “We value these works and believe in their worth. By making Transport a subscriber product, we are trying to make it extremely convenient for an audience to find the very best experiences.”

Hurd told UploadVR Rene Pinnell at Kaleidoscope showed Wevr an early version of Old Friend, an interactive VR music video.

“I had decided I was making Old Friend and they were excited to get me whatever I needed to keep it moving and gave me the creative freedom to be as weird and crazy as I want, which for any artist is a huge priority,” Hurd said. “Transport has been a place for a really wide variety of unique content, which I appreciate a lot, it’s great to see a company making all these cool risky VR projects happen and getting them out into the world.”

Hurd said listening to the “Future Islands” song in his regular rotation inspired the visuals, and the people in his life that he’s shared many late night dance parties with inspired the specific dance moves.

“The song for me brings this kind of uninhibited excitement, the kind that makes you dance in a way that is certainly not cool at all, but is extremely fun and makes people laugh,” Hurd said. “My aim was to recreate this ‘stupid joy’ or ‘nonsensical joy’ for the participant, by completely surrounding them in a world where only that feeling exists, no matter what they choose to look at or do with their hands.”

Batt said since the company’s desire is to continue to fund creative VR artists so they can make great work and, most, if not all, of the revenue from the new subscription service will be shared with the artists to make new VR projects.

“Our focus right now is primarily the VR creative community,” Batt added. “We want to win their support so that we can build an audience together. We are confident that the consumer will grow as VR projects get better and better and become more viral. The challenge is to get more creatives making VR projects that will inspire consumers to spend more time with VR. We believe a narrow focus on winning these VR creators in a meaningful way will make a positive impact for the industry in a much broader way.”

Batt said the plan is to add new content for subscribers. In the future, he’s open to adopting a monthly subscription option, but there’s enough content today for an annualized model.

Chopra told UploadVR the Finding Your True Self program he’s created with Wevr will continue. He expects to have another VR program available within six months and he’ll start working on that in the next six to eight weeks.

“What I learned from this first program was that we underestimated the power of the (VR) technology,” Chopra said. “We could have done more things. And we will do more things next time to create an even richer multi-sensory experience.”

Chopra said Finding Your True Self was designed to give users a deeper understanding of the nature of experience, as well as the nature of their own self.

“We are trying to replicate in the 16 or 18 minutes that we have, the Buddha’s journey to Nirvana, toward enlightenment, toward understanding,” Chopra said.

Wevr continues to develop Gnomes and Goblins with Jon Favreau. Batt said the full experience will be completed by this time next year.

“We don’t know how that all turns out now,” Batt said. “It might be available on Transport or it might be stand-alone product.”

There will be plenty of other content available in between. And ultimately, the goal is to one day become the Netflix of VR.

“We’d love to see us get to that point, but it might be 10 years out,” Batt said. “We don’t know.”

Tagged with: subscription service, theBlu, transport, WEVR

December 14, 2016

17-year EA exclusive ends, Porsches now free to drive in other games

Porsches are likely to show up in much more than just EA Games titles in the future, as the 17-year-long exclusivity contract held with the company has ended. This means we could see Porsches in everything from Project Cars 2, to Forza Motorsport 7.

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