An Indianapolis charter school will be one of the first in the country to use a virtual reality program to teach science to high school students.

Hope Academy, on the citys far northeast side, is purchasing the software and curriculum from a tech-startup to supplement its traditional classroom teaching.

The software, designed by Iowa-based VitoryVR, offers middle school and high school coursework based on the NextGen Science Standards. The science curriculum currently offers 24 units, such as the solar system or Newtons Law of Gravity. In all, there are 120unique virtual experiences.

Principal Linda Gagyi says students will use the virtual reality classroom as part of their more traditional classroom learning based on Indianas academic standards.

Its amazing way to deliver standards and curriculum and the VR experience, she says.

As part of a science lesson this year, senior Sofia Merrick can travel to New Mexico to check out a massive telescope or

To get there, shell just slip on an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. She tried out the program Thursday.

It just really brings you into it. Its like you are actually seeing it. The one I was doing it was the solar system. It was like, I was like floating through the solar system, Merrick says.

Steve Grubbs, founder of VitoryVR and former Iowa state lawmaker, says the VR curriculum was created to keep students engaged and allow them to experience virtual reality fields trips related to science topics.

Indiana state lawmakers Sens. Jim Merritt (R-Indianapolis) and Brandt Hershman (R-Buck Creek), and Reps. Jeff Thompson (R-Lizton) and Woody Burton (R-Whiteland) attended the demonstration.

Later this month a handful of schools in St. Louis, Des Moines, the Quad Cities area in northwest Illinois and southeastern Iowa, and Bermuda will start using the virtual reality software too.

Hope Academy is spending around $18,000 on four virtual reality workstations and licenses.

Hope Academy is for students in grades 9-12 recovering from drug and alcohol addiction. Around 40 students are enrolled for the current school year.

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Virtual Reality Science Lessons Now At Indy Charter School | WBAA - WBAA

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The rest is here:

Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Market: North America ...

Virtual Marketing 360 is your one stop to market and promote your business in Virtual Reality. This is a HUGE marketing tool that we can help with creating content for your website, social media, marketing campaigns and/or an upcoming sales presentation. We offer the opportunity to Step Inside the picture and immerse your customers in our 3D Interactive Virtual Reality experience.

Virtual Marketing 360 wants tohelp showcase your business, facilities, venues and/or properties that will impress your customers by our insane new marketing tool. Our technology works seamless with all Social Media platforms and our clients LOVE this! Show clients and potential customers that your marketing program is more effective than the competition by working with Virtual Marketing 360!

Our virtual reality tours can show an ideal 360-degree perspective of any environment regardless of industry or application. As virtual reality becomes easier and more accessible, companies of all types are taking advantage of this technological breakthrough.

Virtual environments can transport your customers from their daily routine to digital worlds that are either real or abstract. Virtual reality tours enable interior design firms to showcase their most successful projects, tour rooms of a commercial real estate property or display panoramic views of any environment whatsoever with only a VR headset.

Public and private universities and colleges can take advantage of this technology to present various areas of interest around campus to prospective students worldwide. The hospitality business can use Virtual Reality to display their featured rooms or help with their Special Events team to sell space.

Experiences such as these completely transform how the consumer interacts with brands and how marketers will reach their audience. Its an easy 4step process that any customer can do.

STEP 1: CLICK LINK TO EXAMPLE VR TOURS ON MOBILE DEVICE

STEP 2: PRESSENTER VR

STEP 3. TURN PHONE SIDEWAYS AND PLACE INTO VR HEADSET

STEP 4: WELCOME TO VIRTUAL REALITY!!

View original post here:

Virtual Marketing 360 | Virtual Reality

PHOENIX -

Doctors at Banner University Medical Center in Phoenix want to use virtual reality headsets to ease the pain of women in labor.

"Educated moms are looking for an experience that really doesn't involve having to take medications in labor -- or epidurals -- or inhale gases, said Dr. Michael Foley. They just want to make it as natural as possible.

Foley leads the team planning a pilot program at the hospital. The videos being considered show soothing beach scenes and out-of-this-world visualizations.

What this does is facilitate your journey to that happy place, which is kind of nice, Foley said.

Its not just for fun.

Foley told ABC15 women will use the virtual reality headsets anywhere from ten to thirty minutes before childbirth. Research shows it drastically reduces the need for narcotic medications before, during and after, he said.

"The pain's there but you're distracted in a way that you don't need the medication.

Banner plans to begin the pilot program in October. They are still deciding who will be eligible to participate.

Link:

Hospital hopes to ease labor pain with virtual reality - ABC15 Arizona

ELLSWORTH, Maine (WABI) Danielle Nelson, co-owner of Rush Hour Gaming said "My husband and I opened the Escape rooms in December and then we wanted to do a gaming aspect of the business we wanted to do something new and different that people couldn't do all the time at home and so that's when we stepped into the virtual reality.

We have a variety of games we really try to be family friendly so we have some fun for all ages."

"We have Arizona Sunshine for the zombie apocalypse lovers."

"We were excited to be like the first in the state to offer this.

"The Omni Vertex is super cool and you actually can get a workout while you're playing because you get totally into it and you really feel like you're in that moment.

You want to be harnessed in and you have to wear special shoes but you're safe you're not going to fall you're not going to get hurt."

"You can also have birthday parties or corporate parties team building and things like that."

"We have two very unique escape rooms we created them ourselves and you actually have a furnished and themed decor room according to the theme that you go in and you have to see like how is this room a puzzle in order to escape the room."

"So we just thought this would be a fun way to have something new to do in the community."

See the original post here:

Maine's First Virtual Reality Arcade - WABI

Milpitas Unified School District classrooms with the aid of virtual reality technology, have become portals for students to experience the Apollo Mission to the moon alongside Neil Armstrong, to see a Tyrannosaurus Rex up close or to visit parts of the country and world they have only read about.

What used to be two-dimension viewing experiences through photos or video are now fully immersive learning experiences, allowing students to literally step into events, like watching former President Barack Obama giving a speech at Yosemite National Park last summer.

Last summer, Milpitas Unified acquired $6,000 worth of virtual realty technology. The district then began what Chin Song, the districts director of technology services, calls the research and development phase of implementing virtual technology as a supplemental tool to teaching. During the last school year, the technology was taken into classrooms on an on-call basis. Song expects the number of requests to use the technology to increase with this school year, which begins Aug. 17.

Song explained that there are two versions of virtual reality being used: Oculus, a fully immersive experience which pairs a powerful computer with handheld controls; and Google Cardboard virtual reality, which requires a phone to be put into a visual unit for a partially interactive experience.

The acquisition of the units was basically on the idea that virtual reality and augmented reality will be the next phase of computingso having that immersive nature of getting information and ideas and also connecting people, Song said in an interview with the Post. He added it will also broaden how students think and view things, when they go from seeing things as two-dimensional on a page or screen to three-dimensional around them, the learning opportunities are just fantastic.

Since last summer, a few teachers have used Occulus virtual reality, while teachers at multiple sites have used the cardboard virtual reality in some way, additionally several teachers have had Google Expeditions, where entire classes are able to take a virtual field trip, Song said.

With Occulus, in which one person puts on a headset and can use different applications on a computer to immerse in different experiences, one application in particular interested the special education department in Milpitas Unified and William Burnett Elementary School student Gianna Ciardella. An application that simulates the visual and auditory experience of someone with autism.

Ciardella, who wants to be an elementary special education teacher when she grows up, teamed up with the special education and technology departments in February to introduce her classmates to what it is like for a person with autism to process incoming sensory information.

This was meant to supplement a sensory tool kit that she created as part of her class genius hour, where students create something useful. The toolkit includes a variety of items to support students with autism in the classroom with noise-cancellation headphones and a number of fidget toys, among other things.

Marissa Ciardella, program manager for student services and special education in the district and step-mother to Gianna, said it was the districts hope to bring more of these experiences districtwide in order to better understand students and their peers with disabilities. She said the use of virtual reality technology to provide experiences like the one showing just one of the experiences of someone with autism, could do wonders to help further understanding and create empathy districtwide.

Ciardella said while school districts in the past have aimed to keep students with disabilities separated from general population students, districts like Milpitas are aiming to be inclusive.

Inclusive practices are embracing community and including students with disabilities in general education classrooms, Ciardella said.

As the virtual reality technology gets better and more efficient Song said the use of virtual reality in classrooms will become wide-ranging and more prevalent.

We are still very much in the research and development stage, what value we will get out is a combination of the software that is available and how our teachers are able to tie that into their instructional practices, Song said.

Read more:

Milpitas: Virtual reality technology take students to a land far, far away - The Mercury News

DUBLIN, August 11, 2017 /PRNewswire/ --

The "Global Virtual Reality Ecosystem, 2017" report has been added to Research and Markets' offering.

A general overview of Virtual Reality is given and its relevance to business in 2017. Applications of VR in recent years which offer new opportunities and value propositions are listed for each industry, with a case study analysed. Strategies for navigating Virtual Reality as a enterprise software or IT services company are assessed and the imperative for both to invest and experiment is explained.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a set of technologies with create immersive experiences through digital simulation. VR exists on a spectrum of digital experiences from reality to full digital immersion. Breakthroughs in computing performance, hardware economies of scale and 3D expertise have enabled a resurgence of VR's promise in recent years, and 2017 could mark the beginning of VR's hockey stick growth trajectory.

Companies across vertical industries are testing and implementing different applications of VR from pure branding exercises through to training and customer service optimization. The Healthcare, Defense, Manufacturing and Automotive sectors have plenty of historical experience with simulation technologies including VR. However, the current wave of software innovation, low price point for hardware and growing developer ecosystem bring radical new possibilities at a much lower cost.

There are many unexplored opportunities in VR across training, media and simulation. Each industry may find new solutions to their own unique challenges. Experimentation is key to finding the biggest opportunities for innovation. This dynamic may be led by content and media platform producers over single-product startups, given the efficiency benefits of reused assets and optimizations for realism in VR. Facebook and Google have already made bold strides towards this future with Social VR application experimentation and YouTube experience respectively.

Key Topics Covered:

1. Executive Summary

2. Introduction to Virtual Reality

3. Virtual Reality Hardware, Development, and Distribution

4. Virtual Reality Content and Industry Applications

5. Key in Virtual Reality

6. Growth Opportunities and Companies to Action

7. The Last Word

Companies Mentioned

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/ll5j92/global_virtual

Media Contact:

Research and Markets Laura Wood, Senior Manager press@researchandmarkets.com

For E.S.T Office Hours Call +1-917-300-0470 For U.S./CAN Toll Free Call +1-800-526-8630 For GMT Office Hours Call +353-1-416-8900

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SOURCE Research and Markets

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Original post:

Global Virtual Reality Ecosystem Markets and Trends 2017 - Immersive Technologies Creating New Opportunities ... - PR Newswire UK (press release)

Image: samsung

Mobile virtual reality isn't going away any time soon, so you might as well get on board before you get left behind.

In March, the Samsung Gear VR headset received a game-changing software upgrade and a shiny new controller, allowing users to finally bring their hands into the game and have the immersive experience they deserve.

From front-row seats at your favorite concert to sailing through the middle of the ocean, the Gear VR headset lets you immerse yourself in the 360-degree environment. You can even create your own stories and share them within Samsung VR.

The software upgrade of the Gear VR Headset, which is powered by Facebook's Oculus, saw improved resolution and increased battery life, making for a more respectable gaming experience. It also introduced a serious new Oculus browser, which lets you view the web from within the VR experience, and a next-level avatar editor. (Check out Mashable's full review here).

The addition of the handheld controller improves the entire experience, as it seamlessly responds to your movement in VR. So basically, every move, every turn, even pointing and lifting, is naturally connected. The intuitive reactions make for a real and organic experience.

The headset is compatible with Galaxy devices, from the Note5 to the S8+, so you just have to place your device into the headset and youre ready to start exploring. Mashable's Editor-at-Large and chief technology expert, Lance Ulanoff, stated in his review: "If you own a modern Samsung Galaxy phone, this is the VR gear for you."

The future is now and it's time you caught up. Buy the Samsung headset and controller here for $112.84.

View original post here:

Transport yourself into the world of virtual reality with the Samsung Gear VR headset - Mashable

smithsonian.com August 10, 2017

This November, Tate Modern is unveilingthe U.K.s most comprehensive AmedeoModiglianiretrospective.But the show, simply titledModigliani,is more than a survey of the artists work: Its also an immersive experience complemented by the museum'sfirst foray into virtual reality.

The retrospective, whichruns from November 23 to April 2, 2018, includes almost 100 works by the modernist artist.According to Maev Kennedy ofThe Guardian, the Tate exhibition reflects Modigliani's lasting influence through a selection of the artist'screations, including 10of the nudes displayed at his1917 show, portraits of friends, like Mexican muralistDiego Riveraas well assome lesser-known sculptures. While much of the VR aspect of the exhibitremains under wraps for now,Jonathan Vanian ofFortunereports that the museum has partnered with VR companyHTC Vive to create a digital world reminiscent of early 20th-century Paris.

A native Italian, in his early 20s, Modigliani moved to Paris in 1906 and soon ingrained himself in the citys thriving art world. Working alongside such figures as Pablo Picasso, Juan Gris and Constantin Brancusi, he developed a distinctive style: Subjects portrayed with a semblance of realism, but with elongated faces and necks, as well as piercing, almond-shaped eyes.

"His art managed to bridge the stylistic chasm between classical Italian painting and avant-garde Modernism," wroteDoug Stewart forSmithsonian magazine in 2005.

Commercially unsuccessful during his lifetimehe had one solo show in 1917, but police shut it down after seeing the artists frank depictions of nude, unshaven womenModigliani struggled financially to pay the bills and would often exchange a sketch for a meal or a drink. Plagued by alcoholism, ill health and self-destructive behavior, hedied at the age of 35 oftubercularmeningitis. At the time, his lover and frequent muse, Jeanne Hbuterne, was pregnant with the couples second child. The day after his death, she threw herself out of a fifth-floor window.

According to a press release, the exhibition will pay special attention toHbuterne and the other women who proved influential to Modigliani, especially theEnglish poet Beatrice Hastings.

As for the VR experience, the press release states that it will be integrated in "right in the heart of the exhibition" and "will bring visitors closer into the artists world, enriching their understanding of his life and art."

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Follow this link:

Tate Modern's Modigliani Exhibition Ventures Into Virtual Reality - Smithsonian

Any medium is an advertising medium, so the industry is now waking up to the prospect of advertising in virtual reality.

A growing number of experimental technologies are trying to place advertising in VR, a technology that still lags behindaugmented reality (think Pokmon Go) and mixed reality (a 3D version of AR).

Unity, a VR development company, announced last month it would launch Virtual Room, an ad network of sorts that lets brands to place ads across VR apps. The company worked with Lionsgate to use the platform for the upcoming movie Jigsaw, so people will see ads in an immersive VR experience.

Thats a step ahead ofbrands current forays in VR, which have mostlybeen standalone experiences and not ads. For example, USA Networkcreated a VR experience that let fans of its show, Mr. Robot, venture deeper into the dystopian world the showinhabits. Korean company Innisfree let people take a VR bicycle ride through Jeju Island, which is known for its natural wonders. Samsung, in a bid to increase attention for its VR products, created Bedtime VR Stories that let parents and kids go on far-flung adventures right from their bedrooms.

Another big player in the VR ad bonanza will, of course, be Google. In late June, it announced it was working on native, mobile VR ad formats at Area 120, its workshop for new, experimental ideas.

The first experimental idea is a cube that VR users will see. When a user taps it or looks at it for slightly too long, it will open a video player the user can watch.

Google is asking VR developers to apply to Google if theyre interested in testing the format.

VR ad formats should be easy for developers to implement, native to VR, flexible enough to customize and useful and non-intrusive for users, developers Aayush Upadhyay and Neel Rao wrote in a blog post about the cube.

But like most things in advertising, the hype is so far unfounded.

A Forrester Research report found that 42 percent of adults in the U.S. have never heard ofVR headsets. A report by Yes Lifecycle Marketing found just 8 percent of marketers are using VR in ads, with 35 percent saying they have no intentions to use it. Widespread adoption is years off. According to Deutsche Bank, there will be 154 million mobile VR usersby 2020. By then, hardwarewill have improved and gaming and entertainment companies will have increased their use ofthe technology, with othersfollowing suit, according to Forrester analyst Samantha Merlivat.

A lot of it is just about how slow the consumer adoption rate is, said Joe Croson, director of interactive production at BBDO, which last year debuted a traveling VR experience for AT&T and Toms that let people take a virtual shoe-giving trip to Colombia. Because so few people ownheadsets, he sees the most promise in brands have to put their ads in an installation where people can experience it.

Cost is another hurdle. While brands would love immersive, entertaining ad formats that people actually want to watch, VR ads can be pricey. Time and money is spent at just the concept stage, even beforeresearch and development and production costs come in.

In a Forrester report,Ogilvy innovation director Dayon Daumont said for a high-quality VR experience, brands need to spend $500,000 just for content creation. Meanwhile, the reportestimated the cost to createa 360-degree video, which is considered VR-light, runs between $10,000 and $100,000.

Jourdain May, senior content producer at The Program in Portland, Oregon, said brands can cut costs can be cut by doing 360-degree video, which doesnt require a headset as VR does. Focusing on things like spatial sound design, branded interactive menu selections and noise-canceling headphones can make the video feel more like reality youre there in the scene,May said. Cameras with multiple lenses will do the 360 stitching internally and spit out an image that can be posted directly to social media, May added.

Thats why 360 ads are slightly ahead of the market. Many companies now create sponsor ads. One is VirtualSky, which makes five- to 10-second 360-degree experiences that play when someone is in the middle of VR content. The company also makes longer ads up to 30 seconds long. Viewability is not an issue, companies say, since the advertising literally surrounds viewers. VirtualSky recently worked with Posts Fruity Pebbles cereal for a 30-second pre-roll spot that sprays viewers with water and hits them with dodge balls. Other brands such asBMW and AT&T have all used 360-degree film, which is supported on YouTube and Facebook.

For Croson, the ideal approach now isto make experiential VR ads like BBDO did with AT&T, which can be watched usingGoogles inexpensiveVR headset, Cardboard,then shoot 360-degree videos for Facebook or YouTube, which dont require any headset. Platform developers need to provide more of the technology and adoption needs to get there, he said. Gaming is driving forward a lot of this interest, but were a waysbehind. And so people find that a 360-degree video is a more effective way, or mixed reality.

What may drive intent for brands to create VR ads will be the technology itself catching up.

Weve seen the most success with 360-video and VR-type work when the client finds the right opportunity to use immersive experience, said May. If its not something that would be best communicated through an immersive experience, then stick to traditional mediums.

Read more:

Virtual reality ads are still more hype than reality - Digiday

This study aims to analyse Virtual Reality (VR) and its applications across vertical industries 2017.

Research Scope: The research scope of the study includes the following: Technology Trends (which includes smartphone, tethered and all-in-one headsets, tracking technology and platforms) Industry Trends (which includes consolidation, expansion away from gaming and partnerships) Innovative start-ups and vendors in VR The applications of VR in industries and case studies

A general overview of Virtual Reality is given and its relevance to business in 2017. Applications of VR in recent years which offer new opportunities and value propositions are listed for each industry, with a case study analysed. Strategies for navigating Virtual Reality as a enterprise software or IT services company are assessed and the imperative for both to invest and experiment is explained.

Virtual Reality (VR) is a set of technologies with create immersive experiences through digital simulation. VR exists on a spectrum of digital experiences from reality to full digital immersion. Breakthroughs in computing performance, hardware economies of scale and 3D expertise have enabled a resurgence of VR's promise in recent years, and 2017 could mark the beginning of VR's hockey stick growth trajectory.

Companies across vertical industries are testing and implementing different applications of VR from pure branding exercises through to training and customer service optimization. The Healthcare, Defense, Manufacturing and Automotive sectors have plenty of historical experience with simulation technologies including VR. However, the current wave of software innovation, low price point for hardware and growing developer ecosystem bring radical new possibilities at a much lower cost.

There are many unexplored opportunities in VR across training, media and simulation. Each industry may find new solutions to their own unique challenges. Experimentation is key to finding the biggest opportunities for innovation. This dynamic may be led by content and media platform producers over single-product startups, given the efficiency benefits of reused assets and optimizations for realism in VR. Facebook and Google have already made bold strides towards this future with Social VR application experimentation and YouTube experience respectively.

Key Questions this Study Will Answer: The following are some of the key questions that this study will provide answers to: What is virtual reality and why is it relevant to the enterprise? What are the key applications of VR for each industry sector? Who are the key providers of VR platforms for consumers? What best practices can be determined from successful strategies using VR in industries?

Read the full report: http://www.reportlinker.com/p05057863/Global-Virtual-Reality-Ecosystem.html

About Reportlinker ReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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Global Virtual Reality Ecosystem, 2017 - PR Newswire (press release)

Virtual reality arcade coming to Summit County

Amani Abraham, WKYC 6:15 PM. EDT August 09, 2017

CUYAHOGA FALLS - A new virtual reality arcade is set to open this week in Summit County, but this arcade is more than just about having fun.

"I realized there was a need in the community for something more," said Myers.

The duo has taken their passion for VR and transformed it into a brick-and-mortar business.

"From nine to four were a creation studio," said Bill Myers. "In the evenings, we open up as a virtual reality arcade."

The team will spend the first portion of the day developing program for local businesses. Take for instance a plumbing company:

"We would build a virtual reality solution for them, so they can put on a headset, and using hand controllers, theyre able to replicate the real world with the tools and piping they may need to fix things."

New Territory's mission is to create a space that encourages using the virtual world in everyday life.

"That's why it was so important for my wife and I to create a space where people can come at all hours of the day, learn about this technology, build with it, grow their businesses, grow personally, learn how to develop and be able to have fun all at the same time."

New Territory VR Arcade is scheduled to open on Friday.

2017 WKYC-TV

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Virtual reality arcade, creation studio to open this week - WKYC-TV

In Brief Startup Neurable just unveiled the first virtual reality game that users can control with their minds. The game is just one example of the rapidly growing field of tech based on brain-computer interfaces, or BCIs. Telekinetic Powers

Part of the appeal of virtual reality (VR) is the ability to control the digital world using only your hands and simple movements. Startup company Neurable, in collaboration with the Madrid-based company Estudiofuture, is eliminating controllers and hand movements altogether with their first game:Awakening, which aims to show what its like to have telekinetic abilities.

Neurable Vice President Michael Thompson announced the game last week ahead of its appearance at the computer graphics conference SIGGRAPH. The game, set to be released in VR arcades in 2018, has a story similar to that of the Netflix series Stranger Things:You are a child held prisoner in a government science laboratory. You discover that experiments have endowed you with telekinetic powers. You must use those powers to escape your cell, defeat the robotic prison guards, and free yourself from the lab.

Speaking with IEEE Spectrum, Neurable CEO Ramses Alcaide explained that his companys headset strap, attached to a modified HTC Vive headset, uses several electrodes positioned in specific areas that detect brain signals known as event-related potentials. These small electric changes in the brain are tied to movements, sensory experiences, or thoughts as they happen.

Though Neurables technology might be exciting for gamers, such brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) are being researched for much more widespread applications: from neuroscience research to mind-controlled web development, to brainwave-based marketing and tracking brain activity the way many track their steps. The technology is also being developed to help those with locked-in syndrome unable to move or talk communicate with the outside world.

Some researchers have expressed skepticism that this technology can ever be commercially viable; Jack Gallant, head of UC Berkeleys Neuroscience Lab, told theGuardianitwas conceptually trivial but just about impossible to do due to the difficulty of decoding brain signals through the thick human skull. But Alcaide seems to think the ease with which people have usedAwakeningbodes well for the techs future.

A lot of people come in highly skeptical, because BCI has been a disappointment so many times before, Alcaide told IEEE. But as soon as they grab an object, theres a smile that comes over their faces. You can see the satisfaction that it really works.

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The First Mind-Controlled Virtual Reality Game Has Arrived - Futurism

Modern typography marches in lockstep with technology, as it has since the written letters infancy hundreds of years ago. In the 21st century, the newest frontiers for typography are the worlds of virtual, mixed, and augmented reality.

These brave new design environments put fresh demands on type designers as well as graphic designers, and raise a thorny yet fascinating tangle of questions about legibility, letterform design, and typeface selection.

For a user, the spatial aspect and immediacy of being surrounded by type within a VR environment requires a different way of thinking about both typography and the information it conveys.

VR, AR and MR now mean designers must consider such variables as motion, volume, UI/UX, and sound to get the most benefit out of the full, immersive experience they provide. Because VR is a closed digital experience replacing the sensations of the haptic world, and AR or MR superimposes digital information onto the real environment, the typographic considerations of each have some key differences.

VR can be entirely its own fantasy land, while MR means the type has to play nice with all the available sensory input.

Jay Iorio, director of innovation at the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE), says: In AR, imagine you have email coming in, somebody at a remote location who wants to conference with you as a hologram on the street, plus a constantly updating news feed, all of it integrated in real-time through artificial intelligence.

"So what is type in that scenario? Is it a crawl, a bunch of floating texts? Pop-ups? It comes down to an issue of interface design for a relentless stream of content. Whats the mechanism to manage and interact with all that? None of this has been decided yet.

Joshua To, design director at Google, says: Many of the basic rules around typographic contrast and readability for print or 2D screens change in VR. When type becomes even a little bit more volumetric, the way people perceive it and interact with it changes. The type needs to be rooted in something real, otherwise it gets a little uncanny for the user.

Sigmund Freud defined the uncanny as that species of the frightening that goes back to what was once well known and had long been familiar, which explains why its potentially disturbing to experience the passive and flat alphabets, words, sentences, and texts we know and love joining us in the 3D world and taking on a suddenly active, volumetric role.

The biomechanical aspects of how we read in a VR environment are of key importance to designers as well.

Dan Rhatigan, senior type manager at Adobe, says: Our binocular vision means that our eyes are meant to work in tandem, but in VR each eye gets its own direct input.

Many users of VR find themselves nauseous as their brains struggle to adjust and process the flood of information coming in via a previously unknown delivery system.

VR introduces many factors and variables that can interfere with the reading process, says Jaime Van Wart, a recent graduate of the MFA Program in graphic design at the California Institute of the Arts.

Paragraphs of text might function adequately as texture in a VR environment, but to really render the text readable, the amount of movement needs to be controlled to a point where the VR itself might not add anything to the experience.

In VR, type becomes physical, elastic, monumental, dimensional, confrontational and distorted. Sharleen Chen, another alumnus of the CalArts MFA design programme, says: Designing for VR is designing for a 360 globe with you at the centre. How do you warp type around a concave surface without distorting it? Or do you decide to embrace the distortion and just say: "This is how it works here, that's all."

As the technology for content delivery improves, type will evolve too. Web type initially primitive and not graphically pleasing, by and large became sophisticated and far more artfully nuanced as type designers addressed the requirements of letterform creation for screens, and as screens gained in sharpness and pixel resolution.

A book is a framing device for a narrative; a painting in a museum has a frame around it; a piece of music has its own structure and framework. VR is the first design environment to dispense with the frame, because the user is an integral part of the experience. Across a range of design contexts, text is still how our civilization gets passed down images are powerful but imprecise, too open to individual interpretation and manipulation.

Type cleanly conveys the best of our ideas, literature, science, art, poetry. What if VR becomes a way to reintroduce the culture to text and the depth of thought that goes with it? Apart from the satisfaction of overcoming the formidable typographic challenges presented by this recent format, the social goal is one well worth pursuing. Text is what keeps us together

This article was originally published in The Recorder Issue 5. Angela Riechers is a writer specialising in typography, design, media and visual culture. Follow her on Twitter @AngelaRiechers

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Typography in virtual reality: the new frontier - The Drum

Like Westfield, Visa is also experimenting with the technology. It has developed a prototype stadium preview that people could visit in advance of an event at a physical location. At the conference Bill Gajda, Global Head of Innovation and strategic partnerships at Visa, says: You can get a 360 view, choose a seat, check the sight lines and even order and pay for food.

So what will that payment experience look like? In a WorldPay prototype, it is almost exactly like the real world. The user picks a virtual card and taps it on a virtual card machine. He or she can even tap in a PIN (though the numbers hover in space).

This might seem unimaginative, but according to Nick Telford-Reed, Director of Innovation at WorldPay, familiarity counts. VR is a completely new frontier for payments, so we have to ease people into it. But Im sure clever designers will come up with better prompts.

Beyond transactional experiences, VR has the potential to alter the way businesses interact with their clients. Many of our clients are often travelling and have busy schedules, but hugely value the face-to-face relationship with their Coutts advisors explains Robert Hemphill, Head of Innovation, Coutts; imagine if we could emulate that very same experience, wherever our clients happen to be in the world.

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New technology could revolutionise the way we do our shopping and banking, but does the reality live up to the hype? - Coutts

You may need extra controllers to complete your experience and play some of the more advanced titles that are available. The Samsung Gear VR and GoogleDaydreamnow come with small point-and-click controllers for navigating through apps and playing games.

With the PSVR, you can play using your Dualshock PS4 controller, or you can splash out and pick up the VR Aim Controller, which can be used with games like Farpoint, although right now not much else. The controller can be bought for 145.99.

For the Oculus Rift, you can buy Oculus Touch Controllers. Rather than using a handset, these operate in a more similar to real life hand movements,giving the feeling that the virtual hands are actually your own. Oculus Rift Touch Controllers are 130.

You can get a budget Google Cardboard virtual reality headset - or a very similar device on Amazon - for just 15. Google and Samsung's mobile headsets aremore advanced, rounded and comfortable and also cost less than 100.

For a more powerful virtual reality set up, the PlayStation VR and Oculus Rift both cost several hundred pounds, while you will probably want to look into picking up a few extras such as handsets.

The HTC Vive is the most expensive on this list, coming in at more than 750 - and you will need a powerful PC set up to play the headset as well.

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The best virtual reality headsets you can buy in 2017 - The Telegraph - Telegraph.co.uk

Tyson Helton, USCs quarterbacks coach, stood in a film room Monday holding a strange, round gadget that looked like a smaller version of Luke Skywalkers pilot helmet.

Helton said he was going to use it to read minds.

"Before you put this on, Helton said, I can turn this thing anywhere and see where you're looking.

To demonstrate, he rotated the helmet from left to right. On a television monitor next to him, a view of USCs practice field panned in sync, left to right.

The helmet is USCs latest edge: a virtual-reality set that allows quarterbacks to enter each others eyes and take repetitions virtually, and for coaches to follow along, seeing exactly what the quarterback sees.

At each practice this season, a student trails the quarterbacks holding a long boom topped with cameras pointing forward and back. The student holds the boom a few feet above the quarterbacks head. Within an hour after practice, the quarterbacks can don the headset (or watch on an iPad), cue up each play and look around in 360 degrees as if they were back out on the field.

The Trojans have joined a growing number of teams chasing a technological advantage. Stanford, with the company STRIVR, pioneered virtual-reality film study three seasons ago. XOS Digital, USCs vendor for all video, said it counted 25 virtual-reality clients in college and professional football and basketball.

Zach Helfand

The beach city boys used to throw on USC jerseys and run plays in the driveway, all thinking theyd one day make like Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush.

The beach city boys used to throw on USC jerseys and run plays in the driveway, all thinking theyd one day make like Matt Leinart or Reggie Bush. (Zach Helfand)

On Monday, USC provided a glimpse at how its quarterbacks use the system to steal precious practice hours on the virtual field.

Inside the helmet, a glance down revealed the top of a helmet shining in the sun.

"All right now this is on Sam, OK? Helton said.

Quarterback Sam Darnolds hands were outstretched for the snap. Straight ahead were USCs linemen. Through headphones, coaches barked instructions. It was like stepping into Darnolds head or that of some organism floating right above him.

Look to your left, Helton said. A turn of the head showed Deontay Burnett in the slot. Cornerback Ajene Harris lined up opposite Burnett, mirroring him a bad sign for that route.

So right now Sam should say, 'No, I don't have it,' Helton said.

The clip rolled forward. The ball was snapped. Darnold tried Burnett anyway. Harris jumped the pass and nearly intercepted it.

What was he thinking, Helton wanted to know. After practice, Helton ran the play back. He could follow Darnolds head, look at what Darnold looked at: namely, Burnett and Burnett only.

Sam being Sam, he thinks he can fit everything in there, Helton said.

In the film room, Darnold knew his error immediately.

Unlike basketball or baseball players, football players earn only marginal gains training on the field alone. The best learning comes in full team drills. But that takes time and people and carries an injury risk.

So Stanford coach David Shaw, an early investor in STRIVR, which was founded by a former Stanford player and graduate assistant named Derek Belch, started his quarterbacks on virtual reality in 2014 to trick their minds into thinking they were seeing real action.

In the middle of a game, the plays about to start, and he says, Ive been here before. I know whats going to happen. Ive seen this before, Shaw said of his quarterbacks at last years Pac-12 media days. Boom. Change the protection. Touchdown pass.

Bill McCarthy, the football product manager for XOS, said teams have experimented with deploying cameras at different positions such as linebackers or even the personal protector on punt drills.

USC coach Clay Helton said the running backs have found the training particularly useful. Last week, he was excited about experimenting with the linebackers.

"We tried it, said Eric Espinoza, USCs director of football video operations. It just didn't give the look that he wanted, and where we were going to place [the cameraman], the defensive coaches were worried about safeties coming up from behind and hitting him.

Espinoza and another video staffer, Daniel Dmytrisin, crunch all of USCs practice video. Coaches and players hoard, consume and obsess film as if it were legal tender. Film shows which player can win a starting job. It shows which opponent has a tell. It shows what opposing teams will do to break opponents down.

USC records from towers high above its end zones, zoomed out to fit all 22 players. Tyson Helton said he still uses this tape 80% of the time. But it leaves important gaps.

A lot of times when you coach in the film room and you're looking at the video from the angle up top, Helton said, it doesn't tell the true story of what [the quarterback] saw.

For players, standard game film is like a good textbook. Its the foundation. But sometimes what they need is a lab. This is especially true for backups.

"Sam uses it some, but because he's getting a lot of reps and he's a little more experienced player, he already knows what he's done wrong, Helton said. But the beauty of it is the young players, the young quarterbacks, because it allows them to get the closest thing to a live rep as possible."

Jack Sears, USCs freshman quarterback, uses the system more than anyone.

"Jack's a gym rat, Helton said. Jack lives at the office. I mean, literally you have to kick him out, like, Jack go home, man.' Because he enjoys the process. He enjoys it. Right now he doesn't know anything, and he knows he doesn't know anything. So he's trying like hell to get caught up."

Helton cued up a play from a recent practice. The play gave Sears an easy read to either side.

You'll watch Jack's eyes right here, Helton said. Watch him. He goes left with his eyes. He goes right with his eyes. And then back late. You kind of see his head moving a little bit.

With the camera angled down from a few feet over Sears head, its clear that both options are open, but his helmet swivels as if he were shaking off a 3-2 curveball. Sears hesitation let a blitzing linebacker through, so he took off and ran.

To correct these misreads, Sears spends about 20 hours a week watching film on his own, a majority of it in virtual reality.

It is a powerful advantage. The NCAA allows coaches to spend 20 hours a week with players on football-related activities. But Darnold alone takes about half of the repetitions during practice. During the season, his workload bumps to about 75% of repetitions.

As Helton left the film room Monday, Sears walked in, holding a skateboard.

We were just talking about you, Helton said.

See more here:

USC gets inside Sam Darnold's head with virtual reality film study - Los Angeles Times

Watching a 2017 Ford Mustang Shelby GT350 doing what it was made to do is already a treat to the eyes and ears, but Future Motoring just released a video that makes it a whole new kind of experience. The guys over there mounted a 360-degree camera to the back of a slightly modified Shelby to take us for a virtual reality ride.

The video is set in a rural area on country roads where the GT350 shines. This is a great demonstration of the straight-line performance this Shelby is capable of (not that thats the only thing its good at) Granted, the setting doesnt show us much more than road, trees, and sky, but its still a cool thing to watch. Its especially cool if you have a VR headset. If you dont, you can still drag the view around on YouTube.

As for the car itself, its no ordinary GT350. This mean blue Mustang has been equipped with Ford Performance intake and exhaust making the 5.2-liter flat plane crank Voodoo V-8 under the hood breathe better and sound even more amazing than it does in stock form.

This isnt the first time weve gotten a Mustang VR experience. Back in February, Ford Performance released a video called ReRendezvous which was a 360-degree virtual reality ride through Paris from the point of view of a 2016 Mustang. This GT350 video is a bit lower budget, but it gives us a much more satisfying sound.

Excerpt from:

Take a Virtual Reality Ride Along in a Shelby GT350 - The Drive

It might be considered a platitude, but people are always looking for new ways to break away from the monotonous beat of everyday normalcy either temporarily or permanently. According to a 2013 report on drug abuse by the United States government, 9.4 percent (around 24.6 million people) of individuals age 12 or old noted that they had recreationally used a drug within the past month. This tendency to seek life-changing experiences is true whether it concerns things like the countercultural movements of the 1970s which infamously involved controversial music and use of illicit drugs or the technological experiences today.

Most people are fascinated with those experiences that allow them to escape crushing boredom and constancy of regular life. Thats why the prospect of virtual realities and the possibilities of automation afforded by artificial intelligence are so exciting. Here are some of the biggest changes related to these two fields that are quickly arriving with the technological advents of modern society.

In order to understand the importance of the changes that are currently taking place in the field of AI, a brief description of historical approaches to the problem of replicating intelligence is helpful. Lets illustrate these approaches by taking a look at how chess engines function. With regard to chess engines, the goal is clearly defined and the problem is how can we code a machine to make accurate decisions that will lead to a winning outcome despite the difficulty of running large sequence searches through possible move sequences.

In the past, engineers solved this issue through cruder methods that involved the use of decision trees and using certain mathematical methods to guide the chess engines choice and calculation of the best possible move sequences. The issue with this method and the challenge that impacts most AI development efforts is that there needs to be significant amounts of training material in order for the engine to develop sufficient resolution and accuracy in making its choices.

Another limitation that is implicit in these older methods in artificial intelligence is that the methods themselves are static there is no way for the methods to refine themselves without the help of human ingenuity. The concept of machine learning is part of the set of revolutionary methods in artificial intelligence that is addressing this limitation and attempting to surpass it.

So, where does virtual reality come into all of this? Well, to start off virtual reality is similar to artificial intelligence in the sense that the field is still in its development stages. However, virtual reality is in an even earlier stage of nascency.

With the introduction of the popular Oculus Rift to the market, the general population has gotten its first preliminary taste and involvement in virtual reality. Yet, it is apparent the methods for providing a truly fulfilling virtual reality experience are still very rough around the edges with the introduction of hamstrung attempts like Samsungs Gear VR, which is really just you attaching your phones display to your face.

Further along the path of VR development lies the innovative company Guru which aims to advance the integration of VR for exhibits and museums. A key belief of Guru is that the right technology can enhance static works of art, , and Gurus augmented reality platform seeks to bring static art like paintings of historical figures and locations to life. You will feel as if you have been literally transported into a painting as Gurus digitization software intelligently animates the canvas.

What makes Guru possible derives from its blending of the concepts of artificial intelligence and virtual reality. Artificial intelligence is used by Guru to identify major themes in a painting and distinguish between buildings, people, and objects in order to bring them to life. Meanwhile, the design of the platform exists as virtual reality, allowing visitors to easily and intuitively access it.

Recently, the allure and wonder of the culture and history associated with famous artistic works has been lost to the massive leaps in technology. The expectations of the general population have gradually increased with the subtle introduction of these technologies which have become commonplace in the lives of many people. Mythology flourished during the time of the ancient Greeks because of the uncertainty associated with the unexplored areas of nature there could always be the stray nymph running around in a vast forest. But with the certainty provided with technology advancement, that feeling of wonder at the unknown has become rarer over time. Guru allows museums to take that same leap forward in order to connect with their visitors in a manner befitting these technological advents. It amazes and stuns visitors to see this blend of technology and human ingenuity in the palms of their hands. Guru restores to art what technology has replaced our imagination.

Moving away from immersive virtual reality experiences, there are arguably virtual realities that involve the inverse the projection of the virtual into the real. Gatebox and its virtual assistant that can engage you in conversation and control the settings of your home to an extent, based on your preferences, is a good demonstration of pioneering for this specific field. One day, the machine learning methods of artificial intelligence may even be incorporated into the conversational abilities of these assistants to give them an increasingly human-like presence.

Artificial intelligence has experienced a paradigm shift in recent times. This is because the older models of decision making that involve brute force methods or decision-making trees are transitioning over to models that involve the use of neural networks instead. Artificial intelligence methods that incorporate neural networks lead to more precise decision making because they have a number of variable sensors that all go into making a decision much like how a certain proportion of neurons fire in the human brain in response to a situation. This has allowed some programs to perform more complex tasks like the precise identification of human faces.

Another relevant aspect of this shift is how artificial intelligence derives from the application of machine learning. Before, games such chess with relatively fewer calculations required were easily conquered after some decades by chess engines. However, games involving more practice and intuition such as Go have long eluded mastery by machines until Googles DeepMind AI AlphaGo was introduced.

In a surprising turnaround, Googles AI was able to beat one of the leading Go champions, Lee Sedol 4-1 in an exhibition of five games, showing the proficiency and capabilities of these new machine learning methods. Interestingly, Google has also employed these machine learning methods to work with other applications such as in the regulation of its cooling systems to be more efficient.

This post is part of our contributor series. The views expressed are the author's own and not necessarily shared by TNW.

Read next: Apple iPhone 8 image leaks ahead of launch

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How virtual reality and artificial intelligence are changing life experiences - TNW

On Fridays, Nick Loizides shows up for a meeting. He and 30 or so people gather to report bugs on the software theyre beta-testing, get developer updates, and check each others work. Most of them have never met in person and are located around the world. But in these meetings, they talk face-to-face, make eye contact, and watch each others lips move in real time.

As a 3D artist, Loizides is one of the early-invite users for Sansar, a virtual reality world by Linden Lab, the makers of massive-multiplayer social game Second Life. They hold these meetings in virtual reality, where they can travel to the worlds of the testers creationsbeaches, outer space, elaborate rooms. Its as close to teleportation as one can get.

Sixty-three million VR headsets shipped in 2016 (compared to 1.5 billion smartphones), with a lot of that interest around porn and gaming. Companies investing in the technology, like Linden Lab, not surprisingly, swear its coming to your work meetings sooner than later.

Anyone whos ever been in a painfully slow or disjointed Skype call, yelling into the ether, Unmute your mic! knows that the technologyand the user experienceis sorely in need of an update. But will VR solve those frustrations, or just move them to a new, pricier, face-sweatier format?

It gets as close as we can right now to really replicating a face-to-face type of meeting, says Eric Boyd, a professor of marketing at James Madison University. Boyd is guest-editing an upcoming issue of the Journal of Business Research that will focus on virtual reality. You and I, were having this telephone conversation, but the only information were really getting is what each of us is saying. Were missing the body language.

Video calls add a layer of intimacy with facial expressions, but reading someones mood from the neck up on a computer screen isnt always enough. Are they sitting with arms and legs crossed, or are they leaning in, open and receptive? It takes less mental effort when you dont have to interpret and infer information, Boyd said.

Voice and eye-tracking technology give the sense of eye contact and facial expressions.

In addition to adding interactivity and informationVR could especially benefit architects walking through virtual floor-plan renderings with clientsit adds an interpersonal connection that video or phone cant: The freedom of living behind an avatar.

In the virtual world you learn about someone from the inside out because you dont see the person, you see their avatar, whether its a likeness of that person or whatever they want it to be, Loizides said. But theyre much more open to being open. Youre so open because youre protected and safe behind the computer. Youre not actually with that person with your guard up. You can really be free to express anything.

Believers see VR as inevitably world-altering as the smartphone. The first response from many corporations and VR companies I asked about the long-coming VR revolutions first words to me were, Its happening. Its what Bjorn Laurin, VP of product at Linden Lab told me: He predicts virtual-meeting ubiquity for the general publicfor it to become as commonplace as owning an iPhonewithin five to 10 years.

We are still not at the point where people want to hang out in headsets for a long period of time, says Derek Belch, founder and CEO at STRIVR. STRIVR is in the VR game, but not for meetings. Theyre developing training content, for which theres proven benefit over just watching or reading onboarding material. A 30-minute meeting in VR? Not happening anytime soon, Belch said, citing the hardware and comfort of headsets as reasons. Headsets currently weigh about a pound, which sounds light until you have it strapped to your face for an hour.

If the comfort level of the headsets improves to the point where people want to wear them for an entire meeting, then I dont think any of the other factors will be issues.

Boyd also points to the many unknowns in long-duration VR immersion and comfort: Many people experience dizziness or motion sickness even in a tame virtual setting, and its still not clear what the effects of putting a screen an inch from your eyeballs for an hour at a time will do to youophthalmologists say it poses no threat to your eyes, but it can still cause eye fatigue and strain, in the same way staring at any screen might.

The other factor that will determine how widespread the adoption of VR meetings will be is where the trends in remote work go. Some companies are moving away from remote work altogether, in an effort to keep the company culture alive. IBM, one of the pioneers for remote work, recently gave its scattered workforce an ultimatum: Come back to the office or quit. If people decide they still want employees in the office, its going to work against VR to some extent I think, said Boyd. Is this five years or 50 years down the road? A lot of it has to do with business practices and what businesses feel comfortable doing, and not necessarily what technology can do for them.

Five years is optimistic, Boyd said. I think were probably looking more toward eight to 10 years before we really start to see a supply of technology that can support it and people are seeing the benefits and how it can be easily incorporated in their day-to-day life.

Freelance tech, science and culture writer. Find Sam on the Internet: @samleecole.

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Will Virtual Reality Solve Your Conference Call Nightmares? - Fast Company