After reports that Facebook is scaling back its retail presence for Oculus Rift VR headsets, some analysts are saying prospects for the product are dimming. (Tinxi/Shutterstock)

Following reports thatFacebook (FB) is scaling back its retail presence for Oculus Rift virtual-reality headsets, some analysts are saying prospects for the VR product are diminishing.

Business Insider reported Wednesday that Facebook is closing about 200 of its 500 Oculus virtual-reality demo stations at Best Buy (BBY) stores in the U.S. It said the in-store pop-ups are being closed for poor performance. Some of the pop-ups often would go days without giving a single demonstration, BI said.

"VR seems only to be popular at trade shows." Edison Investment Research analyst Richard Windsor said in a research report. "After a very disappointing 2016, virtual reality looks set to have another disappointing year in 2017 while its proponents work out how to fix the issues that keep it from being a success."

VR headsets aren't cheap, and Facebook's $600 Oculus Rift requires a high-performance PC to run. Compelling content also has been lacking, Windsor said. Plus, some people experience nausea when watching VR videos.

IBD'S TAKE: Facebook is one of the FANG group of closely watched internet stocks, along with Amazon, Netflix and Google-parent Alphabet. Facebook stock has an IBD Composite Rating of 91, meaning it has outperformed 91% of stocks in key metrics over the past 12 months. But it ranks No. 5 out of 54 stocks in IBD's Internet-Content industry group. To see which companies lead the group, visit the IBD Stock Checkup.

"Investor optimism on Facebook's Oculus is totally misplaced," Global Equities Research analyst Trip Chowdhry said in a research note. "Oculus is DOD (dead on departure). (The VR) market does not exist."

"Facebook has been blowing a lot of hot air into Oculus," Chowdhry said.

Facebook bought Oculus in March 2014 for $2 billion and an additional $1 billion in later payouts. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg recently said he plans to spend billions more on developing and marketing virtual reality over the next decade, adding that Oculus "won't be profitable for a while."

Zuckerberg has described virtual reality as the next technology platform for his company's online social network.

Oculus competes with low-cost smartphone-based headsets such as Samsung's Gear VR and video console systems like Sony's (SNE) PlayStation VR.

Twitter is doubling down on its efforts to halt abusive posts. (Denys Prykhodov/Shutterstock)

4:15 PM ET Twitter, struggling to expand amid competition from Facebook, Snapchat and others, forecast 2017 earnings less than half expectations.

4:15 PM ET Twitter, struggling to expand amid competition from Facebook, Snapchat and...

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Prospects Dimming For Facebook's Oculus Rift Virtual-Reality Headsets - Investor's Business Daily

PEOPLE.com

WATCH: YouTube Stars Create Amazing La La Land-Inspired Virtual-Reality Music Video PEOPLE.com YouTube star Sam Tsui and singer-songwriter Megan Nicole teamed up for an amazing La La Landinspired music video, complete with virtual-reality technology. In the clip above, watch as a young valet (Tsui) and a waitress (Nicole) exercise their pipes ... and more »

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WATCH: YouTube Stars Create Amazing La La Land-Inspired Virtual-Reality Music Video - PEOPLE.com

VR technology development is thriving and is attracting a lot of interest from both manufacturers and users alike. We're only at the beginning of the VR era and things are still a little complicated, but the future still looks very promising.The Japanese are taking it to the next levelas they are hopingto add a whole new dimension to the technology: smell.

We recently saw that some people have hadsomedifficulties acceptingVR: itcan cause headaches and nausea, few people are interested in it due tothe small number of apps, but the main problem is obviously theprice. It will take time for VR to become more accessible,and thats not necessarilya bad thing as by that time the technologywill be far more superior to what we have at the moment.

Some developers are alreadyon the lookoutfor solutions to these problems, whileothers are venturing even further again. A Japanese company is currently trying to make virtual reality even more realistic by adding another sense to accompany hearing and sight: smell. The VAQSO VR is a small device made up of cartridges, each of which contain a specific smell. Depending on your preferred VR adventures, the device will release certain smells to pull you even further into the game. The technology obviously isn't perfect, as it is still in the development stages, but it does have potential.

AsCNEThas recently pointed out, smell is already associated with VR in many specific situations.We're hopingthat we'll see something a little more interesting than just sex and pets in this respect (Oh, and please refrain from writing you'd need to test both at the same time in the comments).

Sight and sound are the primarysenses usedin any video game experience, and there's every chance that smell will also be used too one day. That just leaves touch and taste to be implemented to achieve a rounded VR experience. Theoretically, touch would beeasy to integrateas you already touch the controller to interact with the game. That said, if we want a FPS game whereyou can fire a gun, you'll need more than just a controller. Hereyou'd need a number of other accessories and different kinds of controllers, the number ofwhich would most likelyincrease over time.

Being able to taste test a meal before eating it is an interesting idea.

What do you think?

Taste is much more complex as this wouldinvolvea direct interaction inside the body - meaning you would have to putsomething in your mouth. Other than using an external accessory that is optimized for this purpose (which isnt very practical), I cant think of any other strategies. With that said, I cant imagine how taste would be useful in games or sightseeing tours. Perhaps it could be used by confectionery businesses or other catering companies to showcase their products? This is purespeculation, of course.

How do you envisage the future of VR? Do you think the technology will one day have a full sensory experience for its users? Let us know in the comments below.

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Virtual reality: prepare for the revolution - AndroidPIT

Forbes

8 Real Success Tips From Women Building The Future With Virtual Reality Forbes This is a first! Eight inspirational 30-second clips on leadership by women, recorded in virtual reality. Technology artist Drue Kataoka created a parallel universe in VR where women from across the country came together to say Yes! Now Is The Time to ...

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8 Real Success Tips From Women Building The Future With Virtual Reality - Forbes

Over the last several years, the Sundance Film Festival has been an early adopter, and key champion, of bringing virtual-reality content into the world of film. What had once been primarily a gaming movement has evolved into a cinema fixture. Sundance and its New Frontier program are big reasons why.

This year that movement turned up a few notches. The Sundance that ended recently was the first in which VR occupied its own physical space an intimate venue away from the Main Street tumult called the VR Palace. It was, coincidentally, also the first festival in which much of the content can now be viewed broadly, thanks to the release of dedicated headsets such as the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR in the last year.

Maybe most importantly, it was the first year veteran creators truly began to push boundaries. Nearly every one of the modern VR pioneers Chris Milk, the directing tandem known as Felix & Paul, Oculus' in-house filmmakers brought new content to show off, along with worthy lesser-knowns. Much of it 16 pure VR pieces at the Palace and about a dozen more with VR components at the mainline New Frontier exhibition was impressive and instructive. (Many are also available for these new platforms, or can be viewed at an upcoming film festival/tech show.)

Virtual realityis still a ways off from mass consumer adoption. But one of its biggest hurdles not enough interesting content is firmly a thing of the past.

Here are seven new pieces that both showcase the range of what the medium can do at present and hint at where it could be going.

"Dear Angelica" (lead artist: Saschka Unseld)

Story Studio, the cinematic-content division of VR headset player Oculus, has been breaking ground from the beginning. The animation pioneer(it's made up of many Pixar alums)had one of the first narrative films in VR, a distant-planet story called "Lost," several years back. It won the first Emmy for an original VR piece with Henry last year. And now it has its most ambitious effort,and arguably the most moving tale yet created for VR.

Directed by Story Studio chief Unseld with the help of artists Wesley Allsbrook and Angela Petrella, Angelica tells hauntingly of a young woman grieving the loss of her actress mother. She describes how she now watches her moms movies to bring her memory back, then feels the sense of emptiness when the images flicker off. The story is a potent one, about love and loss, parent and child.

But its the way content merges with form that makes "Angelica" so notable. Using an illustration tool called Quill designed for this film (Oculus will now make it available for other creators), "Angelica" tells its story with swirling colors and vivid dimensionality. There's the opportunity to quite literally walk in and around images as they move slowly enough to allow you to inhabit the world. Unlike many VR pieces, you're not just inside the film, youre crawling around in a character's mind. Also present is a dizzyingly beautiful sense of scale; shapes slowly enlarge and diminish as the story unfolds.

In "Angelica's" most powerful moment, an astronaut is seen floating away, capturing the majesty of life and the melancholy of passing into death. Aesthetics and emotions two staples of cinema that have yet to become part of VR are key here. Memories dont have linearity; theyre moments frozen in time, said Unseld, one of the more philosophically inclined of the cinematic VR movement. We all have them in our lives. And the way we experience VR is not the way we experience the world; its more the way we think, our memories. Thats what we wanted to capture.

"Out of Exile: Daniel's Story" (lead artist: Nonny de la Pea)

Albert Maysles liked to talk about documentary as primarily an empathy tool. Virtual reality takes that idea and ups the ante. And few can throw down with empathy like De la Pea.

Known as the godmother of VR, De la Pea helped create the medium, inventing headset tech at a USC lab. (She now runs her own show over in Santa Monica.) The early days were MacGyver-ish it wasn't that many years ago when she had to rig up sensors and run alongside the user to allow the kind of free-range movement that is now becoming de rigueur.

One element that's constant, though: De la Pea's interest in the medium as a way for ordinary people to understand conflict points. While past pieces have dealt with outbursts of physical violence the Syrian Civil War, a confrontation on the Mexican-U.S. border the creator has, with her new piece, shifted her focus.

In "Exile," she tells the real-life story of Daniel Ashley Pierce, who faced verbal and physical abuse from his family after he came out to them. Using audio from Pierce himself, it drops you into the living room during the confrontational moment, your head whipsawing between Daniel's heartfelt announcement and his relatives' unsympathetic reaction. Deceptively simple in concept, it puts you inside conflicts still sadly ongoing for many Americans.

"Documentary is about explosiveness abroad but also at home, and VR is a great way to show that," De la Pea said. Then, noting the timing on which she was giving the interview the same morning as the presidential inauguration she added, "Yes, now more than ever."

"Life of Us" (lead artists: Chris Milk, Aaron Koblin, with music by Pharrell Williams)

You could use all the words in the world to describe this gleeful riff on evolution and still feel as inadequate as a Homini seeking a second stick for a fire.

Chris Milk helped kick off the VR-indie film crossover years ago with such early pieces as "Evolution of Verse," "Clouds Over Sidra" and a nifty Beck concert he filmed by rigging his own cameras. These days he oversees Here Be Dragons, a VR production company, and Within, the distribution side of the business. None of that insider-speak will prepare you for this goofy-but-heady experience in which you and a partner in adjacent rooms basically go from early forms of life to futuristic robots.

There isn't a ton of narrative, more of a chronology, as the seven-minute piece allows you to begin moving first as simple organisms, then to more ape-like beings, then birds, then humans, then whatever comes next, as the experience has you crawling, scampering, running and flying alongside a partner. You can communicate with said partner: they're in an adjacent room but you hear them and they you, in voices that take in the qualities of the creature you're inhabiting at that moment in evolutionary times.

Sound trippy? Well, sound is also trippy--since shouts open up certain experiences, there are noises and screams and squeals. And that was just those coming from this reporter.

Technologically speaking, "Life of Us" shows what's possible in a sweeping, and tandem, VR experience. More conceptually? The idea is to use the medium to give you a playful, macro view of where we're headed as a species. Or as the creators put it in their mission statement: "This shared VR journey tells the complete story of the evolution of life on Earth."

"Heroes" (lead artist: Melissa Painter)

One of the essential questions in the VR movement is how it will fit with so-called AR. Augmented reality is a kind of hybrid VR it uses glasses to allow the sight of computer-generated images but still affords you the ability to see the real world simultaneously.

That complementary dynamic is manifest in "Heroes" a new piece by Painter, an "innovation strategist" (drop that job title at a cocktail party) at the design studio MAP.

Working with Laura Gorenstein Miller's Los Angeles-based Helios Dance Theater and shooting in spaces around the city, Painter has created a new take on live performance. A more traditional VR piece allows you to watch a pair of particularly acrobatic dancers from a multiplicity of angles, including a swimming pool and a theater stage.

The AR component, meanwhile, pushes boundaries. The tech is still being ironed out, but the possibilities are intriguing: "Heroes" has you entering a room and conjuring up those same young dancers from the VR pieces, this time as holograms with the help of a variety of voice commands. You can multiply them as they're spinning all around you. At one point you can even shrink the kids and have them dance in your hand.

But the point here is more than just giving you that Rick Moranis feeling. The idea of a dance performance that can happen in a room only for you, and customized to your (sometimes surreal) specifications, prompts conceptual questions: about the relationship between performer and audience, between disembodied VR consumer and the qualities of physical performance.

"Dance and sports, as two forms that have never let go of the idea of extreme human physical/athletic potential, have a lot to teach us in this moment about the importance of being embodied," Painter said, "They can help remind us how to design technological experiences and entertainment experiences that dont divorce us from our minds or our bodies."

"Tree" (lead artists: Milica Zec, Winslow Porter) and Mindshow (lead artists: the Mindshow staff)

On the surface these two wouldnt seem to have much in common. The first is an environmentally themed piece about the importance of trees. The latter is a storytelling tool that allows everyday people to become VR directors by creating characters and reaction shots.

But both underscore a key point: The virtue of VR is its ability to make the viewer a story driver. Thats often spoken of in more incidental terms, like where the viewer looks. But these pieces show that a viewer's actions can also change what theyre experiencing.

In Mindshow, the tool allows you the ability to select reactions and then embed them into a story line; one demo has you alternately playing a captain and an alien in their first encounter; how you choose behaviors for each one informs how the scene plays out.

"Tree, from the duo that offered the powerful war experience "Giant, tracks you as you move from a seed under the ground to a towering sentry of the rainforest, and eventually become a logging casualty. Notably, your movement changes the story: hold out your arms, for instance, and birds will land on them. How much you want to interact will change what you feel, said Zec.

Many consumers are still getting used to just wearing VR headsets. But both "Tree" and "Mindshow" demonstrate that there's room in the medium for viewers to do a lot more than adjust the focus.

"Miyubi" (lead artist: Felix & Paul)

What's that old line, the more rules you have the less you follow? For years VR was thought of as a medium of "couldnts:" You couldn't tell linear stories, you couldn't do comedy, you couldn't put people under the headset for more than 15 minutes.

Flix Lajeunesse and Paul Raphal, the Montreal-based duo who go by the collective name Felix & Paul and who created some of the first VR pieces for Hollywood movies ("Jurassic World" and "Wild") are here to flout all of that.

For their new piece, they partnered with Funny or Die and its editor in chief Owen Burke for a 40-minute dramatic comedy featurette that is one of the most traditional stories told in VR, and certainly one of the longest. A child in early 1980s suburbia receives a toy robot; overjoyed, he begins bringing him everywhere to class, to his room, to family dinners. The robot obliges by performing tricks that are pretty nifty circa the first Reagan administration. Oh, and did we mention you're seeing the world through his eyes?

Were just starting to figure out how to suspend disbelief in VR, which is something weve known in cinema for a long time, said Raphael. And one way to do that is to give you a sense of presence, to make you feel like youre a part of whats happening.

Miyubi is a story of obsolescence and childhood, boosted by a very clever meta in-joke that we are experiencing a story of a doomed cutting-edge technology through a device that will no doubt one day be viewed the same way.

But back to the present. Were they worried about the length, traditional narrative and all the other non-VR forms theyre trying in VR?

I think we would do two hours if the story demanded it,Lajeunesse said. When you shatter a barrier and cross frontiers you say youre now in this new land. Lets see what we can find in it.

steve.zeitchik@latimes.com

Twitter: @ZeitchikLAT

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In the burgeoning world of virtual reality, storytelling is both cutting-edge and old-fashioned - Los Angeles Times

What comes to mind when you hear or see the term virtual reality? Another niche gimmick to boost sales of home entertainment equipment, like the now-defunct 3D TV? Or maybe it excitedly recalls Star Trek's famous holodeck, the leisure space on the starship Enterprise where crew members escape in a room that instantly re-creates any person and place they wish?

Today's virtual reality isn't quite that slick yet, but the technology was intriguing enough for Minneapolis college student Jacob McDonald to head down to VR Junkies, a virtual reality arcade just outside the Twin Cities on a Wednesday evening.

Some buddies of mine had tried in-store demonstrations at Best Buy and they said it was awesome, McDonald said.

Jonathan Krone of Dallas drives a race car while playing "Vir Zoom" at VR Junkies in West Valley City, Utah, on Feb. 3, 2017. | Laura Seitz, Deseret News

Like a lot of people who are new to the latest VR craze, McDonald wasnt sure what to expect when he put on a headset at the arcade. I didnt think it would be that different from a video game.

Now, McDonald says, he understands the hype. An avid video gamer, he lived a sci-fi fans fantasy through Lightblade, a game at VR Junkies closely resembling a light saber fight from Star Wars.

I didnt expect it to feel so real. That was the main thing that surprised me, McDonald said.

His reaction is not unique and partly explains why last year was dubbed the year of virtual reality, prompting projections that the industry would top $22.8 billion by 2019. The Wall Street Journal reported that investors have so far put about $10 billion into the developing technology.

While its mostly being used for gaming at the moment, scientists and professionals from a variety of industries see VR as having potential to revolutionize life as Americans know it: VR has proven its potential for treating drug addictions, PTSD, autism symptoms, as well as revolutionizing surgical techniques and training and space exploration.

But the wealth of possibility brings with it concerns for some experts questioning when is the technology safe for children, whether or not VR may be addictive, and how some VR content may affect viewers of any age.

For parents looking to catch up on what VR is and what it may mean for their families, the Deseret News spoke to experts to answer some questions surrounding a technology that immerses its users in a graphically generated environment.

What exactly is VR?

Virtual reality came to the mainstream in 2016, but the technology is hardly new. According to the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaigns National Center for Supercomputing Applications, VR was first developed in the 1950s by electrical engineer Douglas Engelbart. A former radar technician in the U.S. Navy, Engelbart wanted to make interacting with a computer possible without learning complex programming languages. For that, he knew computers needed a way to project graphically represent data onto a screen so anyone could understand it.

With the Cold War in full swing, the military began using Engelbarts ideas to make radar systems work faster and develop realistic simulators to train pilots and tank drivers. The U.S. Army still uses cutting-edge VR today to train soldiers for combat.

In the 1990s, video game companies Sega and Nintendo each developed VR headsets, but both efforts failed due to glitches and graphics that limited games to a black and red color scheme.

Today, computer graphics have improved dramatically, which makes the experience far more realistic and immersive. Thats part of the reason some think the excitement around VR is different this time around the high-resolution graphics and the support of Silicon Valley make VR much more likely to revolutionize many industries beyond gaming.

In medicine, doctors and scientists at universities across the country are developing a potpourri of VR therapies to help people with pain management, therapy to treat debilitating phobias and phantom limb pain. Researchers in California and the United Kingdom have also explored VRs capability to assess brain damage and aid in rehabilitation.

For now, VR is mostly dominated by gaming, with a variety of apps, along with console platforms like Playstation, offering a roster of VR games. But the headsets can also view content like YouTube videos, as well.

Associated Press business writer Ryan Nakashima prepares to ride The New Revolution, a virtual reality roller coaster at Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia, Calif., on June 27, 2016. | Christine Armario, Associated Press

Current VR is basically divided into two camps: Passive and interactive. Some VR experiences, like movies and YouTube videos, are considered passive, where the user sits back and observes a 360-degree view. Other VR options require additional equipment (usually hand controls and sensors) to allow users to interact with their surroundings created by the program.

Apps like VRSE allow users to watch movies, documentaries and news programs that have been shot and designed for VR headsets to reduce eyestrain, and musicians like Jack White and Paul McCartney have released VR productions of concerts and songs that put fans on stage with the performers.

What researchers dont know

Theres no definitive evidence yet that VR harms children or impacts their development, but researchers say theres a lot they don't know, yet. This is likely why VR headset manufacturers, like Sony and Oculus, have implemented a self-imposed age restriction, usually 12 or 13 years old.

It is early days and we really are trying to be conscious of health and safety, Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe said at the 2015 Code Conference. He added that 13 made sense, because thats the legal threshold for when many children are allowed to adopt other forms of technology, like social media, into their daily lives.

According to the Advisory Group of Computer Graphics in the United Kingdom, VR can cause significant eyestrain and visual stress at any age as it employs stereoscopic 3D graphics, which gives the user the illusion of depth and dimension. However, these images can be difficult for the brain and eyes to process, and can result in vergence-accommodation conflict, or when the eyes cannot align their focus on an object.

But beyond physical considerations, some researchers are still figuring out how VR impacts developing minds and cognition.

Jeremy Bailenson and his team at Stanford Universitys Virtual Human Interaction Lab are studying the potential impacts of VR on childrens lives.

There isn't much published research in this area, but what we do know from our preliminary research is that children respond to the world and the characters in a similar manner to the real world, as if they are real, he said.

In a 2009 study Bailenson conducted, elementary school age children were given VR helmets and their digital doppelgangers swam with orcas. A week later, the children had incorporated the experience as memory, certain that they remembered it happening in the real world, not virtual reality.

Bailenson said that while research dating back as far as the 1990s has consistently found that children around age 5 are able to distinguish fantasy from reality in television, immersive VR may make it more challenging for children to distinguish fiction from reality. VR creates the illusion of being surrounded by the content, which can blur the lines between real life and the virtual world.

There may be serious implications for how VR impacts childrens memory and their perception of real life, he said, but more research is needed before any conclusions are drawn.

VR and digital addiction

Much has been written by psychologists and doctors about internet addiction and how reward-based media like video games and the nearly ubiquitous access to online pornography can become full-blown addictions for people prone to dependencies.

But internet addiction experts aren't sure yet if or how VR will play into the equation, partially because so little research has been done on it.

"VR is a question for us because it's not just interactive, but immersive, so it has the potential to be even more seductive for people who are prone to addiction," said Michael Rich, a Harvard University pediatrician and founder of the Center on Media and Child Health in Boston. "But I don't know that it will push a bunch more people into internet addiction. If they're susceptible, there are just too many other ways to be exposed."

While theres no scientific evidence that VR itself is addictive, some experts theorize that VRs immersive qualities may amplify digital experiences that some experts consider addictive, such as gaming or online pornography.

"If anything, it's a more intense 'high,' if you will, rather than something that will recruit more people into this problem," Rich said. "I don't think this is going to push more people over that edge into internet addiction."

Theoretically, VR may deepen the confusion between fantasy and reality that can, in some teens and adults, lead to digital addiction.

It's the longing for an alternative reality where reward systems are both short and long term, rewarding the brain and giving a sense of accomplishment, which triggers all kinds of happy emotions and reactions. The player is able to be 'their best self,' or a version of themselves they're not able to be in real life, said Melissa Meyer, a Ph.D. candidate at the University of Cape Town's Center of Criminology and a video game and VR enthusiast. VR simply allows the sensation of immersing in one's virtual fantasy world to be stronger.

Meyer cited PokemonGo as an example in an article for Huffington Post.

(PokemonGo) enhances reality rather than replacing it with a completely fabricated environment, Meyer wrote. These people will begin to blur the boundaries between real, augmented and virtual reality. Their real world life may suffer as a result.

The suspension of reality may seem absurd for anyone whos seen clunky early demonstrations of some VR experiences. But not all VR experiences are equal, and VRs immersive qualities can aid in the suspension of disbelief. Some test users have reported that the situations become highly realistic very quickly.

VR is more than just another iteration. It doesnt just change the frame. VR erases it. It allows us to exist inside the environment, Wireds Peter Rubin wrote. With VR, youre not watching a scene anymore. Youre inhabiting it.

Hacking risks

Some VR systems, like the HTC Vive and Oculus sets, are equipped with sensors that detect motion, which translates into the VR experience. While that sounds complicated, the sensors are essentially just cameras that constantly take pictures to make the experience as lifelike as possible.

Recently, Vice Medias technology website Motherboard and a researcher from the University of California, Davis, discovered that its relatively easy to pull images from Oculus sensors. Perhaps this wouldnt be of significant concern to the average gamer or VR user, except that Oculus is owned by Facebook, a company with a track record of taking ownership of photos shared on its site and be used elsewhere and of conducting social experiments on unknowing users.

For some time now, Facebook has been developing facial recognition and artificial intelligence features for its site to change how users search and use photos on the site and, potentially, from other applications it owns, like Instagram or Oculus.

That could be good or bad, depending on how and if the photos are collected and used in the future perhaps as targeting data for advertising, or simply making it impossible for anyone to disappear in a crowd. If the idea of that makes you nervous, a piece of tape over the VR motion sensor when it's not in use should do the trick.

For its part, Oculus has responded to customer privacy concerns in the past year, saying that it does not sell user data or share it with Facebook.

Online privacy may or may not be a primary concern for individual VR users a 2016 Pew Research Center survey found that the number of Americans who considered NSA surveillance acceptable or unacceptable were evenly split but its important for parents to understand the risk if they are concerned about one of the world's biggest companies having access to candid pictures of their children and families.

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What parents need to know about virtual reality - Deseret News

Hockey fans are about to get an up-close look at Saturday night hockey.

On Wednesday, Sportsnet announced the launch of 360 Virtual Reality, in partnership with Molson Canadian.

Beginning on Feb. 18, fans can immerse themselves in NHL action via 360 VR, giving them a unique front-row experience in select Canadian arenas over the course of six marquee Saturday night matchups.

Sportsnet is ready to bring hockey fans closer to NHL action with ground-breaking virtual reality technology, in partnership with Molson Canadian. The experience begins Feb. 18.

This will be the first time 360 VR will be used in an NHL broadcast.

We are continually pushing innovation at Sportsnet to give sports fans the best and most immersive experience, Rob Corte, vice president of production at Sportsnet, said in a press release. Together with Molson, we are at the forefront of another first for hockey fans, and are excited to bring them this unique viewing experience.

Fans can watch games live in 360 VR on Sportsnet.ca and using the Sportsnet app by using special virtual reality viewfinders, which are available exclusively in select cases of Molson Canadian across Canada.

Molson Canadian is known for bringing epic hockey experiences to the people who love our beer, and we understand that hockey fans across the country may never a get a chance to sit front row during a Saturday night game. So now we are bringing the front row to you, live during some key hockey match-ups as we enter the playoff stretch of this season, Duncan Fraser, marketing manager at Molson Canadian, said via the release.

Three different 360 VR cameras will be used during each game to give viewers a fully immersive in-game experience, from enjoying live hockey action to taking in the arena's lively atmosphere. Fans can also access behind-the-scenes footage from select NHL clubs and watch on-demand highlights, which are also available in 360 VR.

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Sportsnet to launch 360 Virtual Reality for six NHL games - Sportsnet.ca

Tim Baxter, president of Samsung Electronics America, announced at theCES 2017 technology show in Las Vegas lastmonth that the company topped five million sales of its $100 Samsung Gear virtual reality (VR) headsets since launching them 13 months ago.

Also at CES, Intel CEO Brian Krzanich held his companys press conference in virtual reality with 260 media wearing Oculus Rift headsets.

VR is moving into the mainstream consumer mindset in 2017, and travel brandsare leveraging that to engage themin new ways using 3D immersive technology. Brands are also discovering the power of VR to drive higher conversion rates.

Virtual reality is changing the game for a variety of industries including health care, agriculture, manufacturing, and business, said Gary Shapiro, president and CEO of the Consumer Technology Association, which producesCES, in a Reddit chat. Doctors are using VR to enhance traditional therapies, architects use VR to design stronger buildings, and travel agencies are using it to simplify vacation planning.

For example, the Las Vegas Convention & Visitors Authority (LVCVA) reports that its Vegas VR app, showing experiential videos ranging from helicopter rides over the Strip to bartenders mixing drinks, has been downloaded over 19,000 times since March 2016, and the videos have been viewed more than 17 million times.

We were relying on Instagram, Facebook, and Snapchat to tell our story, but we felt that VR and 360 video really helped us improve our connection with consumers, and move them down the path toward conversion, saidNick Mattera, senior director, digital engagement at LVCVA. Were also looking to partners to help us on the conversion side, and really begin to quantify how Vegas VR can not only get people excited about Las Vegas, but ultimately book.

The meetings and events industry is now moving in on the action. This month, the Freeman event company, which handles logistics and production duties for CES, among other large shows, announced a new slate of virtual reality products and services. Coinciding with that, Freeman published a white paper on VR event applications.

The new products include a VR Product Explorer for event planners to create immersive simulations of products too bulky for trade shows; a VR Design Explorer that provides a virtual walk-through of meeting and exhibition spaces; and VR Live Streaming where anyone with a VR headset can view live events from anywhere simultaneously within a 3D environment.

VR is a platform for dynamic and highly engaging storytelling, so theres a whole new class of interactions in the experience design process that are far more powerful than any videos you can create, saidWilson Tang, VP, digital experience for Freeman. When you put the headset on, theres a dramatic increase in the level of empathy and connection because you feel like youre actually in that space.

Demetrius Wren, a Freeman digital experience designer, also emphasizes the capacity for VR to drive higher conversion rates. Wren, who previously worked with the United Nations, supplied Skift the following UN data:

During the Third International Humanitarian Pledging Conference for Syria in 2015, the Clouds Over Sidra VR film was shown to top donors. Commitments were originally projected at $2.2 billion but the conference ended up raising $3.8 billion, which was $1.2 billion more than the previous year.

UNICEF is now pilot testing Clouds Over Sidra with face-to-face fundraisers on the streets of 40 countries to measure the effectiveness of VR as a fundraising tool. According to Wren, one in six people viewing the experience have made donations to UNICEF, twice the normal rate of giving.

Furthermore, as described in this Venture Beat story from August 2016: Emeryville, Calif.-based Immersv has a platform that tracks whether someone is viewing a particular ad embedded within a virtual reality experience. It found that click-through rates, or more correctly gaze-through rates, are nearly 30 percent on Immersvs platform, compared to industry averages of 1 percent for mobile and 0.4 percent for desktop, according to theInnovid 2016 Global Video Benchmarks. And Immersv said that VR drives12 new installs for every 1,000 video ad views, compared to 0.5 for mobile and 0.2 for desktop. Video completion rates on Immersv videos are over 80 percent.

The Gear technology holds a Samsung phone in place for users to watch web- and app-based VR videos, as does the Google Daydream for Android phones and Zeiss VR One goggles for iPhones.

For serious tech users who want the most immersive 3D digital experience possible, a mobile phone VR platform is not true VR. They instead gravitate toward headsets such as the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, whichhave a cable tethered to a powerful computerand wireless handheld devices. They provide a much higher resolution experience, and they also allow users to manipulate their movement and objects within the VR environment. Lenovo and Intel announced at CES that theyre bringing similar new headsetsto market as well.

Following CES 2017, however, more than a few reviewers panned the level of innovation across allVR platformsat the show, with media like CNET decrying: Virtually Boring: VR Really Disappoints at CES This Year. The Wall Street Journal posted, CES For Marketers: Alexa Wows, Virtual Reality Underwhelms.

I felt there wasnt a ton of new with VR at CES this year, but there was a bigimprovement on the old in terms of quality, contends Mattera. Thats what the VR world needs because its moving so quickly to make it a thing. For the key players, this isnt a novelty anymore. Its a functional experience, and consumer demand is driving all of the investment in VR.

Tapping intothat demand at CES, multiple pop-upVR experiences around Las Vegas showcased the abilities of VR as both a sales conversion engine and community engagement vehicle.

In the lobby at MGM Grand Las Vegas Hotel & Casino, there was a VR installation for anyone to watch a video of the KA Cirque du Soleil show, with the view placed in the middle of the fight scene atop the slanting platform. After watching the scene in VR, it sold this writeron attending the show, which hasnt ever happened while watching other Cirque promos instandard video.

There is another CES VR pop-up experience still operating at the Alto Bar in Caesars Palace Las Vegas throughFebruary 28. Branded as the Oculus Virtual Reality Lounge, the space has multiple Oculus Rift setups with full-time Oculus staff helping people learn about the technology. The value here is the chance for anyone to experience the more immersive Oculus VR environment, compared to the phone-centric VR platformslike Samsung Gear.

The more we see the goliaths like Oculus investing in VR content, the barrier will break down more quickly in the consumer space, saidMattera. That includes the meetings and events industry where plannerscan hold an event in a virtual world with people manipulating the environment around them. Shows like CES are helping everyone in Las Vegas stay ahead of that innovation.

The UploadVRmedia group held a VR-themed party on the top floors of The Palms Casino Las Vegas during CES, with almost a dozen differentVR experiences placed around the various rooms. The event was packed with patrons paying $50 to attend, but the delivery was a little confused and random without a lot of people stewarding the crowds around each installation. A few people also learned that drinking and VR do not mix.

However, the UploadVR event showed that, during a conference filled with free parties at top-tier hotel nightclubs, people are willing to pay for VR-themed experiences embedded into a sales and marketing environment.

Virtual reality content developers such as XplorItare working increasinglywith tourism bureaus, which Skift profiled followingthe launch of Los Angeles Tourisms new Meet L.A. VR platform for meeting planners. The portal provides a good example of howplanners can engage attendees in more immersive ways using VR.

Our Meet L.A. VR experience for meeting planners is basically Google Street View on steroids, and were averaging over 10 minutes per view, which is almost unheard of, saidGreg Murtha, president of XplorIt. VR allows what we call self-select discovery because its interactive, non-linear experiential media. Meaning, the user is empowered.

Meanwhile,South by Southwest (SXSW) in Austin announced yesterday that itscreating a dedicated track for VR content at its annual Film Festival this year. There will be 38 projects showcasinghow different industries are usingVR storytelling.

This year we have expanded our virtual reality programming, launching the Virtual Cinema and elevating the medium to its own category in the SXSW Film Festival, saidBlake Kammerdiener, VR programmer at SXSW. We not only put an emphasis on storytelling and ingenuity, but also showcase how other industries are embracing VR with projects from the health, fashion, music industries, and more.

The major event tech players are also increasingly promoting VR to their audiences. The latest atEvent Manager Blog explains: How 360 Live Video is Paving the Way for Virtual Reality at Events.

While we wait for full VR capability for live events, live 360-degree video is the perfect immersive experience 101 every event planner should evaluate for their event, suggests Julius Solaris, founder of Event Manager Blog.

As expected, venue owners are launching permanentVR-themed event spaces.For example, the newmk2 VR facility openedinside one of Paris largest cinema complexes, located in the citys burgeoning tech district. Bookable event venues for up to 200 people include theLe Perchoir mk2 terrace bar.

We are bringing VR to a multiplex-like environment with the opening of the first-ever entertainment venue fully dedicated to upscale VR experiences, saidElisha Karmitz, general director of mk2. mk2 VRs concept offers consumers a lively, culture-filled facility focused on VR and good times.

Back at CES 2017, the Samsung Galaxy Studio virtual theme park was the highlight of VR experiences at the show. Thousandsof people duringthe 4-day event lined to strap into several different installations with moveable seats. Participants were flipped upside down and jerked sideways while wearing VR headsets placing them inside virtual environments ranging from airplane stunts to luge racing.

Thats really pushing the boundaries ofexperiential marketing today,Shapiro said. It doesnt get muchbetter than that.

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Travel Brands and Meeting Planners Are Using Virtual Reality to Drive Conversion - Skift

JOHN WALL LOOKS down to discover that the nice, safe carpeted floor beneath him has disappeared. Impossibly, he is suddenly swaying on a wooden plank, the width of a diving board, 30 feet above a rusty pit. His heart races. Just the slightest wobble could be fatal.

Safety is merely 8 feet in front of him, a distance the stressed Wall chooses to cover on tiptoes. He's about halfway there when someone nearby gives him an instruction: "Turn and step off the plank." Wall shakes his head. He won't do it.

After telling himself over and over that this can't possibly be real, he finally turns to his right, steps off the plank and plunges into the abyss below.

Then Wall peels the black virtual reality headset off of his face, relieved to rejoin the safety of the physical world as we know it.

Welcome to the bleeding edge of the NBA's 30-team wrestling match to find a competitive edge, where a hot new frontier is the use of virtual reality to get into the heads of NBA players as never before.

A Stanford study found that sawing down a virtual tree can cause people to use 20 percent less paper in real life. Another study found that football players improved decision-making by as much as 30 percent and sliced almost a full second off their decision time after they used virtual reality to simulate defensive coverages.

Can it apply to basketball? The Wizards intend to be at the forefront of finding out.

"I really thought I was gonna die," says Wall, who was coaxed into trying virtual reality largely after hearing that Tony Romo, of Wall's beloved Dallas Cowboys, is a fan. "This, is going to be great for the NBA."

STANDING IN BURNT-GREEN khakis and a gray half-zip sweater just outside the Washington Wizards' locker room, majority owner Ted Leonsis shakes the hand of 76-year-old former coach and player Kevin Loughery, dressed in a pressed navy suit for Bullets Night at the Verizon Center, a salute to the team's past. Leonsis can't stop talking about the future, specifically the virtual reality company he invested in two years ago, STRIVR, which originated in the halls of Stanford University with a bent toward the sports world.

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"We should get him in virtual reality," Leonsis jokes of the white-haired Loughery, who seems to have only a vague understanding of what the heck Leonsis is talking about.

Loughery offers a conciliatory chuckle and, before long, heads for his seat. Leonsis presses on, explaining that his Wizards may have won just two of their first 10 games, but they won't lose this race: "It obviously hasn't shown in our record, but we want to be on the ground floor of this."

Leonsis brings up the Socratic method and other traditional avenues of idea creation and cognitive learning. He explains that virtual reality is just another tool to deposit information into the brain.

Wall can tell you: The difference with VR is that it is immersive. Coaches will tell you it's like pulling teeth to keep the attention of a roster for an entire film session. What if they could go over plays, study shooting drills and hammer out defensive rotations without players' thoughts wandering to Instagram feeds?

An early benefit has come from players noticing things they used to miss on laptops -- especially hitches in their shot mechanics.

"I really saw a difference in my jump shot and free throws," says 20-year-old wing Kelly Oubre, who grew up playing "Call of Duty" and is used to wearing a headset. "I could see my mechanics, what I needed to do right." Oubre's true shooting percentage is up this year, from 50.7 to 53.4.

ACCEPTANCE, OF COURSE, is the challenge. Deploying virtual reality means developing new habits, and in that department the Wizards are at something of a disadvantage. The NFL's Dallas Cowboys and New England Patriots have VR labs built into their facilities. The Wizards, meanwhile, have just one headset to share, and it's not for everyone.

"It can really screw your mind up. I started bending down, trying not to fall and stuff. I was in the room, trying to figure out, like, 'What is going on?'"

Marcin Gortat

When Marcin Gortat -- a 32-year-old 7-footer with a giant goblin tattoo on his left arm -- tried what's commonly referred to as "the plank," he went into a panic, getting on all fours to grab the board.

"It can really screw your mind up," Gortat says. "I started bending down, trying not to fall and stuff. I was in the room, trying to figure out, like, 'What is going on?'"

Gortat is still trying to decide whether he hates virtual reality or loves it.

"Oh man, it's amazing," Gortat says. "I think it can be successful, but for me, as a 10-year veteran, it's not going to change anything right now. It's the new tool of the century."

Wall isn't one of the team's heavy users, but he sees the benefit. "Oh, it's helpful now," Wall says. "I could see a lot of NBA teams starting to use it. I think it's helping so many different ways -- ballhandling, shooting, moving."

WIZARDS HEAD COACH Scott Brooks is a big believer in the power of visualization and VR. Brooks says he stood 4-foot-11 when he joined the East Union High School basketball team in Manteca, California. Not ideal for someone who had NBA dreams. Though he grew a foot by the time he graduated from high school, Brooks never topped the 6-foot mark.

Still, he could shoot with the best of 'em. By his senior year at UC-Irvine, Brooks shot 42 percent from beyond the arc and 85 percent from the charity stripe. Brooks owes much of his shooting success to a homework assignment given to him by Bill Stricker, his high school coach.

The task? Train his brain every night before bed. Don't count sheep. Count swishes.

"Visualizing is so huge," Brooks says. "My high school coach taught me that a long time ago. I used to visualize making free throws every night."

At first, young Scott was skeptical of the concept of mental imagery. Really, this was going to be the trick? But then the coach told him a story, a tale that Brooks loves to retell to this day.

It's about a prisoner of war in Vietnam who was locked in solitary confinement for years. To pass the time, he came up with the idea of playing a round of golf every day in his mind. He had never swung a golf club in his life, but he knew it was something that could keep his mind busy for four or five hours at a time. One day, he got rescued and decided to go play his first real round of golf.

"And he shot 2 over," Brooks says.

Really?

"Yes," Brooks says, with his eyes stretching from ear to ear. "My high school coach told me this 30 years ago, and I've heard that story so many times."

A quick internet search reveals that the tale first appeared in a book in 1975 and later popped up in "A 2nd Helping of Chicken Soup for the Soul." It's one of the most retold inspirational stories out there.

The only thing? Alas, in virtual reality, it's hard to know what's real. After a long dig into the story's origins, Snopes.com concludes the following about a man coincidentally named James Nesmeth (not James Naismith):

"Although many current versions of this legend identify one 'Major James Nesmeth' as the Vietnam POW whose playing golf in his mind translated to his becoming a far improved linkster once he was back home, we have been unable to verify that anyone of that name served in Vietnam, was held as a POW, was released from captivity, or achieved notable results on the links after returning to the U.S."

Brooks went on to play 10 years in the NBA, and he currently ranks top-100 in career free throw percentage, making 85 percent (564-of-664) in the pros. In this case, maybe visualizing the truth is more important than the actual truth.

THE COACHING STAFF of the Wizards works with the team's analytics gurus, Brett Greenberg and Ben Eidelberg, to figure out the most impactful experiences that can help players improve their games.

They have been focusing most of their attention on Ian Mahinmi, who has been wearing the headset so much he's worried he might short-circuit it.

"I don't want to sweat all over it!" he shouts, holding the VR headset in the air inside the Wizards' practice gym.

Mahinmi was the poster boy of last summer's free-agency bonanza before Miami's modestly toothed reserve, Tyler Johnson, stole that label. After eight seasons in the NBA, and only one as a full-time starter, Mahinmi received a four-year, $64 million contract from Washington to fill a bench role. Combine Mahinmi's age (he just turned 30) with the fact that he's fresh off of a monster deal, it doesn't seem that he would be the most likely candidate to be a VR guinea pig.

It turns out that a knee injury and a free throw affliction made him a perfect test case. Mahinmi's career free throw percentage is just under 60 percent, including a recent season in which he shot just 30.4 percent.

"It's more like building muscle memory, but for your brain. Kind of like, OK, if you see it, your brain is going to register it. And then, when you shoot live, you're going to think about it and see yourself shooting and making. You know you can do it."

Ian Mahinmi

Two weeks ahead of the 2016-17 season, Mahinmi underwent surgery to repair a partially torn meniscus in his left knee.

Over the next several weeks, the Wizards put together a rehab program with two key objectives: minimize excessive time on his feet and, secondly, get him to work on his free throws so they can remove him from the Hack-a-Shaq list.

To build up his confidence as a shooter, the Wizards used a 360-degree camera to film him making free throws. Then they played the makes on repeat so he could watch himself making free throws over and over in the first-person perspective. Before his daily shooting drills, he put on the VR headset and underwent a session to prime his brain with success -- his own success. Seeing is believing.

"It's more like building muscle memory, but for your brain," Mahinmi says. "Kind of like, OK, if you see it, your brain is going to register it. And then, when you shoot live, you're going to think about it and see yourself shooting and making. You know you can do it."

Hours after finishing his morning workout, Mahinmi is back on the floor, this time on the game court just before tipoff. As rainbow-clad analyst Walt Frazier does a pregame MSG hit a few feet away, Mahinmi walks to the basket stanchion and puts on the headset so he can watch himself make free throws. Next to Mahinmi stands Eidelberg, who is watching Mahinmi's perspective on a MacBook Pro. That way, Eidelberg and Wizards assistant coach David Adkins can see exactly what Mahinmi is focusing on. It's at this moment that a handful of nearby fans take out their phones to snap a photo of this bizarre scene.

"What are you seeing, Ian?" shouts Adkins. "See your hands? Keep them up. Keep the follow-through up."

Mahinmi is talking his way through it. Make after make. After eight minutes in VR, Mahinmi takes off the goggles and walks to the free throw line. He starts shooting free throws. Swish.

Adkins walks over with a grin and relays Mahinmi's success rate.

Sixty-five out of 70.

"There's a bunch of stuff I didn't realize I was doing," Mahinmi says. "My hands, sometimes after I make a few of them, they drop. My body is shifting sometimes. There's a bunch of stuff that I notice now that I didn't before."

After a series of light jumpers, Adkins tells Mahinmi that he's good, the workout is done. Time for regular treatment on his real knee.

LIKE MANY HYPED tech revolutions, the VR bonanza hasn't taken off yet. While the short term has seen intriguing signs in beleaguered Detroit Pistons big man Andre Drummond (sporting a career-high 43.8 percent from the free throw line this season after incorporating virtual reality into his training), the long term is riddled with potential.

Consider that STRIVR is developing a "hangover experience" to demonstrate to NBA players what it's like to play basketball with slower reaction times as a result of a long night of drinking and a lack of sleep. There is talk of creating experiences that allow injured players to feel as if they're on the court while their teammates sweat out road games.

What is the value of helping people feel closer together and more empathetic? Jeremy Bailenson, founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, created "the plank" and other scenarios not just for basketball players but for all people. He's a co-founder of STRIVR and works with companies such as Google, Facebook and Samsung. He says the most interesting development in VR may be diversity training to reduce bias.

The "Walk a Mile in Digital Shoes experience" is one in which the subjects see an avatar version of themselves in a virtual mirror, and then the avatar changes between races, ages and genders to feel what it's like to be the target of racist, sexist or ageist remarks. Consider an older white male who swaps bodies with a young African-American man. (Roger Goodell tried out the empathy training at Stanford last summer).

Bailenson says that within four minutes of being in someone else's avatar, the brain undergoes a "body transfer" in which it fully believes it is that person. Once racial discrimination is inflicted to your avatar, you feel that it's happening to you. Studies show that the empathy felt in that experience can last long after you take the goggles off.

"This is what virtual reality is all about," Bailenson says. "Changing human behavior for the better."

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John Wall: 'I really thought I was gonna die' - ESPN.co.uk

The innovation feats of Dunedin company Animation Research Ltd (ARL) are to be exhibited at Auckland's Museum of Transport and Technology.

ARL's virtual reality technology, which has won the company a Sports Emmy and propelled it to the forefront of events streaming, including the America's Cup and US Open, would be used to tell the story of Maori history and culture.

ARL chief executive Ian Taylor said the exhibition, which opens today, would include innovators from various fields across New Zealand, signalling a move towards promoting the technological aspect of the museum.

It was appropriate for the company to use its innovative technology, viewed through virtual reality goggles, to tell the story of early Maori because they were true innovators, Mr Taylor said.

''They were really industrious. They were great astronomers, using the stars to sail by.''

A team of five people had worked for the past three months writing software for the exhibition.

Museum chief executive Michael Frawley hoped the exhibition would inspire the next generation to ''step into the shoes'' of people like Mr Taylor.

margot.taylor@odt.co.nz

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Virtual reality to recount Maori life - Otago Daily Times

Europes booming virtual reality ecosystem now consists of nearly 300companies, according to the first European Virtual Reality landscape released by The Venture Reality Fund and Frances LucidWeb.

Silicon Valley-based venture firm The Venture Reality Fund tracks investments in the augmented reality and VR markets, but most of the action in the past has focused on U.S. companies. But now the VR Fund has created its first graphic showing the regions growth in the VR ecosystem, its increased investment, and its growing international impact.

The European VR landscape is based on extensive research and information gatheredduring meetings and calls with regional VR ambassadors across Europe. Close to 300 VRstartups were identified and reviewed, of which 116 were selected to be part of the firstrelease of the VR Landscape Europe.

We chose to partner with LucidWeb as they have a strong database of top VR startups inEurope and valuable familiarity with the European ecosystem, says Tipatat Chennavasin, cofounder and general partner at The Venture Reality Fund, in a statement. These landscapes are a visualrepresentation of our commitment to education and growth of the industry.

The research shows that games are the most competitive space, with well-fundedcompanies including CCP Games (Iceland), nDreams (United Kingdom), ResolutionGames (Sweden), and Solfar Studios (Iceland).

And user input technology focused on interactions in VR by brain (BCI), body, eye, feet, and hand has many premium players, such as the Swiss-based company MindMazethat raised $100 million, the largest amount raised in one round by any European VRcompany.

Companies are also creating 360-degree VR capture hardware and software, with two French companies,VideoStitch and Giroptic, at the forefront.

Beyond games, the enterprise is gaining traction, with real estate VR generating significant additionalrevenue for online agencies across Europe. SwedensDiakrit and Dutch-basedTheConstruct are two companies leading the charge.

French companiesHomido andMindMaze and Swedish-based Starbreeze arethe most advanced hardware companies developing a mobile Head Mounted Display(HMD) or tethered HMD.

Companies in VR post-production are developing 3D tools, and leadingAmerican software companies have acquired several of these startups over the past two years: Googleacquired Irish Thrive Audio, Facebook acquired Scotland-based Two Big Ears, andSnapchat acquired London-based Seen/Obvious Engineering.

Health care and fitness companies are utilizing VR for medical training, mentaltreatments (anxiety, Aspergers syndrome), and physical rehabilitation. Spain-based Psious and Amsterdam-based MDlinking are two companies to watch in thiscategory.

More than half of the companies included in the landscape are based in the U.K., France, Germany, and Sweden. Overall, France is taking the lead in VR in continental Europe.

The VR industry is booming and not just in the U.S. or Asia. The old continent has known aslower start, but definitely got up to speed during the past two years, says Leen Segers, cofounder and CEO at LucidWeb, in a statement. The VR gaming segment remains the most competitivespace but is surely challenged by a large number of companies focusing on user input or 3Dtools. We feel very excited for the future as we see local and international investors areclearly investing in these segments, too.

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Europe's virtual reality sector has grown to nearly 300 companies - VentureBeat

Forbes

Adobe's Path To Entering The Virtual Reality Story Forbes Until recently, the pioneers of Virtual Reality storytelling, especially live action, were using the digital equivalent of baling wire and duct tape to tell their stories. For the Video Team, it was hearing multiple times that video creators were using ...

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Adobe's Path To Entering The Virtual Reality Story - Forbes

Witness the sights and sounds of an electric collegiate environment as the University of Florida Gators face the University of Tennessee Volunteers. All 360 of it. The prototype for virtual reality in swimming coverage.Current Photo via Phlex Swim Channel

Courtesy of Ryan Rosenbaum / Phlex Swim Channel

Witness the sights and sounds of an electric collegiate environment as the University of Florida Gators face the University of Tennessee Volunteers. All 360 of it. The prototype for virtual reality in swimming coverage.

Virtual reality is an innovative technology that has taken hold of the imaginations of many in the past year. We see it in various big company marketing tactics, or even in your living room with capabilities from a Playstation 4. Whats unfortunate, is that the swimming world has yet to adopt this incredible technology. So we did.

Our very first prototype of a 360 Swimming experience. The collegiate dual meet matchup of UF vs Tennessee in the OConnell center. Experience the races from the stands, above the pool, and even next to the blocks as Caeleb Dressel takes his mark. Let us know if you think this type of content works in the sport with a comment below.

Swimming needs more entertainment. Were here to provide just that. Phlex is a tech startup created by four swimmers with vastly different perspectives on the sport; An Olympian, swim coach, triathlete, and Open Water Swimmer. Weve created the Phlex Swim Youtube Channel to bring more entertaining content to the sport of swimming while keeping it informative as well. Each week we will be posting new videos every Tuesday and Friday at 2PM EST. Stay tuned to the channel for weekly stroke technique/drills, gear reviews, diet advice, and overall business talk in the swimming world.

Dont forget to subscribe! New videos every week.

Subscribe Here! https://www.youtube.com/c/PhlexSwim

Follow us on: Facebook https://www.facebook.com/phlexswim/ Twitter https://twitter.com/phlexswim Instagram https://www.instagram.com/phlexswim/

Music by Andrew Applepie

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Swimming video is courtesy of Phlex Swim Channel, a SwimSwam partner.

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Virtual Reality Experience College Swim Meet - SwimSwam

The Amazon rainforest is just a few clicks away with this new canopy-diving, sloth-dodging, immersive 360-degree virtual reality (VR) video.

Under the Canopy is a new project from nonprofit group Conservation International, bringing the latest filming and VR technology to one of nature's greatest endeavors. Along with providing a beautiful and entertaining experience, they also hope to raise aware of whats at stake from the perils of deforestation in the Amazon.

Why is this important? Well, for starters, the area holds 40 percent of the carbon stocks of tropical forests globally. It provides 20 percent of the worlds breathable oxygen, 20 percent of the worlds fresh water, and holds more species of plants and animals than anywhere else on the planet. Additionally, its home to a number of indigenous peoples, each with a rich history and culture.

The 11-minute long video is best seen through a VR headset, however, it still makes for great viewing on any screen. Simply by clicking around the screen, you can look around the scenes while the story plays out. Theres also a handful of bonusbehind-the-scenes videos explaining some of the impressive techniques they used to capture this footage.

It begins as you descend down a 60-meters-high (200 feet) Ceiba tree to a panoramic view of the great forest around Suriname, and in Ecuadors Yasun National Park. Once you hit the ground, youre introduced to Kamanja Panashekung, a native of the forest who acts as your personal guide through the gorgeous ecosystem and its potentially dark future.

Under the Canopy gives those who may never visit the Amazon rainforest an opportunity to rappel down a 200-foot tree, see its wildlife up close, and understand what is at risk. Sustaining the Amazon is not an option, it is a necessity, said Dr. M. Sanjayan, Conservation International executive vice president and senior scientist.

Turn down the lights, hit the fullscreen button, and enjoy.

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Explore The Amazon With This Stunning 360 Virtual Reality Video - IFLScience

New York Times

Virtual Reality Has Arrived in the Art World. Now What? New York Times The accelerating development of virtual reality technology which lets you escape into another world through a blackout headset is finally rumbling the art world, always more skeptical than cinema and television about new technologies. A new ...

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Virtual Reality Has Arrived in the Art World. Now What? - New York Times

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Hertfordshire based organisations, Tribemix and Quantum Care, have developed a series of virtual reality experiences that take people living with dementia in care out of the residential homes and away to a range of relaxing places. The immersive 3D scenes include the beach, a forest or even to watch dolphins playing around a coral reef.

The project has already gained industry recognition as Tribemix and Quantum Care have been nominated for an Outstanding Innovation Award in Dementia Care at the National Dementia Care Awards.

The project began when Tribemix Managing Director, Alex Smale, wanted to help his elderly neighbours to get outside after becoming isolated due to disability, Our nearby residents, Stan and Dulcie, are 99 and 94 years old respectively. Over the past two years, we watched them go from active people walking into town to do their shopping, to losing their confidence and never leaving the house. When we began developing in VR for our commercial clients early this year, I thought Wouldnt it be great if we could take Stan and Dulcie to the beach?. So I created a virtual reality experience to do just that. This led to a conversation with a friend at Quantum Care. They were fortunately very forward thinking, and understood what we were trying to do. The results have been amazing and its the most rewarding thing Ive ever been fortunate enough to do..

Tribemix is now working with Quantum Care to roll the project out across their care home group. They are also working on developing the technology into training to allow carers and relatives to understand what it feels like to live with dementia.

For more information, please contact Tribemix at info@tribemix.com or call 01462 623929

Website: http://www.tribemix.co.uk Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/tribemixsocial Twitter: https://twitter.com/tribemix Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/tribemix_so... Snapchat: https://www.snapchat.com/add/tribemix

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Tribemix Virtual Reality for Dementia Care - YouTube

A virtual reality headset provides immersive virtual reality for the wearer. VR headsets are widely used with computer games but they are also used in other applications, including simulators and trainers. They comprise a stereoscopic head-mounted display (providing separate images for each eye), stereo sound, and head motion tracking sensors[1] (which may include gyroscopes, accelerometers, structured light systems,[2] etc.). Some VR headsets also have eye tracking sensors[3] and gaming controllers.

An early VR headset, the Forte VFX1, was announced at CES in 1994. The VFX-1 has stereoscopic displays, 3-axis head-tracking, and stereo headphones.[4] Sony, another pioneer, released the Glasstron in 1997, which has an optional positional sensor, allowing the wearer to view the surroundings, with the perspective moving as his head moves, giving a deep sense of immersion. These VR headsets gave MechWarrior 2 players a new visual perspective of seeing the battlefield from inside the cockpit of their craft. However, these early headsets failed commercially due to their limited technology[5][6] and were described by John Carmack as like "looking through toilet paper tubes".[7]

In 2012, a crowdfunding campaign began for a VR headset known as Oculus Rift; the project was led by several prominent video game developers, including John Carmack[5] who later became the company's CTO.[8] In March 2014, the project's parent company Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook for US$2 billion.[9] The final consumer-oriented release of Oculus Rift began shipping on 28 March 2016.[10]

In March 2014, Sony demonstrated a prototype headset for PlayStation 4,[11] which was later named PlayStation VR.[12] In 2014, Valve Corporation demonstrated some headset prototypes,[13] which lead to a partnership with HTC to produce the Vive, which focuses on "room scale" VR environments that users can naturally navigate within and interact with.[14] The Vive was released in April 2016[15] and PlayStation VR in October 2016.[16]

Virtual reality headsets and viewers have also been designed for smartphones. Unlike headsets with integrated displays, these units are essentially enclosures which a smartphone can be inserted into. VR content is viewed from the screen of the device itself through lenses acting as a stereoscope, rather than using dedicated internal displays. Google released a series of specifications and associated DIY kits for virtual reality viewers known as Google Cardboard; these viewers are capable of being constructed using low-cost materials, such as cardboard (hence the naming). Samsung Electronics parterned with Oculus VR to co-develop the Samsung Gear VR (which is only compatible with recent Samsung Galaxy devices), while LG Electronics developed a headset with dedicated displays for its LG G5 smartphone known as LG 360 VR.[17][18][19][20][21]Mi VR Play is said to be the most affordable VR headset till 2016.

Virtual reality headsets have significantly higher requirements for latencythe time it takes from a change in input to have a visual effectthan ordinary video games.[22] If the system is too sluggish to react to head movement, then it can cause the user to experience virtual reality sickness, a kind of motion sickness.[23] According to a Valve engineer, the ideal latency would be 7-15 milliseconds.[24] A major component of this latency is the refresh rate of the display,[23] which has driven the adoption of displays with a refresh rate from 90Hz (Oculus Rift and HTC Vive) to 120Hz (PlayStation VR).[25]

The graphics processing unit (GPU) also needs to be more powerful to render frames more frequently. Oculus cited the limited processing power of Xbox One and PlayStation 4 as the reason why they are targeting the PC gaming market with their first devices.[26]

A common way to reduce the perceived latency[27] or compensate for a lower frame rate,[28] is to take an (older) rendered frame and morph it according to the most recent head tracking data just before presenting the image on the screens. This is called asynchronous reprojection[29] or "asynchronous time warp" in Oculus jargon.[30]

PlayStation VR synthesizes "in-between frames" in such manner, so games that render at 60 fps natively result in 120 updates per second.[25][28] SteamVR (HTC Vive) will also use "interleaved reprojection" for games that cannot keep up with its 90Hz refresh rate, dropping down to 45 fps.[31]

The simplest technique is applying only projective transformation to the images for each eye (simulating rotation of the eye). The downsides are that this approach cannot take into account the translation (changes in position) of the head. And the rotation can only happen around the axis of the eyeball, instead of the neck, which is the true axis for head rotation. When applied multiple times to a single frame, this causes "positional judder", because position is not updated with every frame.[27][32][33]

A more complex technique is positional time warp, which uses pixel depth information from the Z-buffer to morph the scene into a different perspective. This produces other artifacts because it has no information about faces that are hidden due to occlusion[32] and cannot compensate for position-dependent effects like reflections and specular lighting. While it gets rid of the positional judder, judder still presents itself in animations, as timewarped frames are effectively frozen.[33] Support for positional time warp was added to the Oculus SDK in May 2015.[34]

Because virtual reality headsets stretch a single display across a wide field of view (up to 110 for some devices according to manufacturers), the magnification factor makes flaws in display technology much more apparent. One issue is the so-called screen-door effect, where the gaps between rows and columns of pixels become visible, kind of like looking through a screen door.[35] This was especially noticeable in earlier prototypes and development kits,[6] which had lower resolutions than the retail versions.

The lenses of the headset are responsible for mapping the up-close display to a wide field of view,[36][37] while also providing a more comfortable distant point of focus. One challenge with this is providing consistency of focus: because eyes are free to turn within the headset, it's important to avoid having to refocus to prevent eye strain.[38]

The lenses introduce distortion and chromatic aberration, which are corrected in software.[36]

Virtual reality headsets are being currently used as means to train medical students for surgery. It allows them to perform essential procedures in a virtual, controlled environment. Students perform surgeries on virtual patients, which allows them to acquire the skills needed to perform surgeries on real patients.[39] It also allows the students to revisit the surgeries from the perspective of the lead surgeon.[40]

Traditionally, students had to participate in surgeries and often they would miss essential parts. Now, with the use of VR headsets, students can watch surgical procedures from the perspective of the lead surgeon without missing essential parts. Students can also pause, rewind, and fast forward surgeries.[40]

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Virtual reality headset - Wikipedia

Definition: Virtual reality has been notoriously difficult to define over the years. Many people take "virtual" to mean fake or unreal, and "reality" to refer to the real world. This results in an oxymoron. The actual definition of virtual, however, is "to have the effect of being such without actually being such". The definition of "reality" is "the property of being real", and one of the definitions of "real" is "to have concrete existence". Using these definitions "virtual reality" means "to have the effect of concrete existence without actually having concrete existence", which is exactly the effect achieved in a good virtual reality system. There is no requirement that the virtual environment match the real world. Inspired by these considerations, for the virtual windtunnel we adapt the following definition: Virtual reality is the use of computer technology to create the effect of an interactive three-dimensional world in which the objects have a sense of spatial presence. In this definition, "spatial presence" means that the objects in the environment effectively have a location in three-dimensional space relative to and independent of your position. Note that this is an effect, not an illusion. The basic idea is to present the correct cues to your perceptual and cognitive system so that your brain interprets those cues as objects "out there" in the three-dimensional world. These cues have been surprisingly simple to provide using computer graphics: simply render a three-dimensional object (in stereo) from a point of view which matches the positions of your eyes as you move about. If the objects in the environment interact with you then the effect of spatial presence is greatly heightened. Note also that we do not require that the virtual reality experience be "immersive". While for some applications the sense of immersion is highly desirable, we do not feel that it is required for virtual reality. The main point of virtual reality, and the primary difference between conventional three-dimensional computer graphics and virtual reality is that in virtual reality you are working with Things as opposed to Pictures of Things. Requirements: The primary requirement of virtual reality is that the scene be re-rendered from your current point of view as you move about. The frame rate at which the scene must be re-rendered depends on the application. For applications like the virtual windtunnel, it turns out that a minimum frame rate of 10 frames per second is enough to support the sense of spatial presence. While motion at this frame rate is clearly discontinuous, if properly done our cognitive systems will interpret the resulting images as three-dimensional objects "out there".

The other requirement is that interactive objects in the environment continuously respond to your commands after only a small delay. Just how long a delay can be tolerated depends on the application, but for applications like the virtual windtunnel delays of up to about a tenth of a second can be allowed. Longer delays result in a significantly degraded ability to control objects in the virtual environment.

We summarize the Virtual Reality Performance Requirements:

For more information on VR see the papers found on Steve Bryson's home page.

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Virtual Reality

Welcome to the official site for the VRTO Meetup Virtual Reality, Toronto.

VRTO is an event producer and productivity-oriented think tank, meetup and discovery group for innovators, developers, inventors, storytellers, content producers, entrepreneurs, hackers, modders, programmers, pioneers, ontologists and adventurers in virtual, augmented and blended reality technologies, content and their development.

Peddling wonder to the optimistically dispossessed.

VRTO Meetups include practical, actionable, explorational, philosophical and technical discussions as well as content demos about contemporary virtual and augmented reality, opportunities and threats, blue sky and resource swapping.

Created in April of 2015 by founder Keram Malicki-Sanchez, the meetup has quickly grown into a variety of initiatives, community outreach, networks, festivals and conferences including the FIVARS VR/AR International Stories festival and competition and the VRTO Virtual & Augmented Reality World Conference & Expo.

VRTO puts on public-facing events in undercovered areas of the market; in 2015 this included:

Toronto is a powerhouse for independent games development, technology and filmmaking and arts and culture. This meetup is targeted towards drawing the brightest and best, the curious and motivated, the adventurous and courageous together with the aim of pushing this paradigm-shifting new medium towards its best and upper limits.

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Virtual Reality Toronto - VRTO - Virtual Reality, Toronto

After years of teases, tantalizing promises, and Kickstarter campaigns, virtual reality finally became actual reality in 2016, with VRs mere existence thrusting the entire PC industry into glorious, wonderful turmoil. Despite being around for just a handful of months, virtual reality has already inspired totally new genres of computers, wormed its way deep into Windows, and sent the price of graphics cards plummeting.

Not too shabby for VRs first real year on the streets, though the implementations could still use some fine-tuning. Lets look back at howthis wild new frontier blossomed in 2016.

From the very start of 2016 it was clear that the dawn of proper PC-powered VR had arrived. You could see evidence of this fact all overCES 2016 in January, where EVGA introduced a specialized graphics card designed to fit VR headset ergonomics; Nvidia rolled out a VR certification program;and seemingly every booth boasted some sort of virtual-reality hook, from VR treadmills toVR pornandVR Everest climbs(the latter two being mind-blowing in their own ways).

The PC world was ready. But virtual reality itself wasnt, at least until the Oculus Rifts big consumer launch later that spring.

The Oculus Rift.

Well, big in theory. While PCWorld praisedthe Oculus Rift in its reviewvirtual reality was here, and it was magical!the launch was far from perfect. The rumbling began in the run-up to the headsets release, with Rifts $600 launch price far exceeding the $250 to $500 range that Oculus higher-ups had teased repeatedly. Once it actually launched, the headset was plagued by hardware shortages and significant shipment delays, which didnt go over well at all.

But the biggest problem for the Rift was that even at launch its days already felt numberednot a vibe you want from $600 hardware. The Rift was designed primarily as a seated VR experience, with a controller in your hands. By the time it launched on March 28, enthusiasts and industry press had already spent time playing with the SteamVR-powered HTC Vive, which used made-for-VR controllers and dedicated tracking stations to enable room-scale VR experiences that let you wander around and actually touch things. After trying Vive, going back to the Rifts sedentary experience felt far less satisfying.

The HTC Vive.

And the HTC/Valve duo didnt waste any time capitalizing on its advantage. The HTC Vive launched on April 5, roughly a week after the Oculus Rift, and immediately seized the crown as PCWorlds preferred VR solution.

Despite that, we recommendpassing on the Rift and the Vive, and for very good reason. While VR can be nothing short of awe-inspiring, these first-gen products also have some obvious flaws.

Man, virtual-reality headsets are expensive.

Oculus Rift with its Touch controllers.

Thats to be expected with bleeding-edge hardware, but $600 for the Oculus Rift or $800 for the HTC Vive puts them firmly in the one percent category. The recent release of Oculuss $200 Touch controllers drove the cost of a full Rift setup to the Vives level, or even more if you want kinda-sorta room-scale experiences and need an extra sensor. VR experiences tend to be high-priced and relatively short-lived compared to traditional PC games. This is not a cheap hobby.

That priciness was exacerbated by the need to connect these headsets to a pretty powerful PCthat cost of which was roughly $1,000 to $1,500 at the time of the headsets' launch. Fortunately, while the Vive and Rift themselves have stayed at the same lofty prices, the cost of a computer to run them absolutely plunged as the year carried on.

The plunge began with the launch of AMDs Radeon RX 480, which revolutionized whats possible with a $200 graphics card. Before its release, VR-capable graphics cards cost nearly twice that amount. (Nvidia quickly followed suit with the $250 GeForce GTX 1060.) Jumping forward two full technological generations paid major dividends for graphics cards.

The AMD Radeon RX 480.

Software tricks helped democratize VR just as much. At the Oculus Connect conference in October, the company revealed a new feature dubbed Asynchronous Spacewarp that used technical tricks to drive the barrier to entry for Rift VR way, way downall the way to an AMD AM4 or Intel Core i3-6100 processor, and a GeForce GTX 960 graphics card. In March, a Rift-ready PC cost at least $1,000; after Oculus Connect, Rift-ready PCs started at $500, and as I write this theres a Best Buy promotion offering a full PC and the Rift itself for $999.

Hot damn, prices plunged fast. And another pesky PC VR problem is already in everybodys sights.

The HTC Vive and Oculus Rift both drive very high-fidelity gaming experiences, and headsets need to be physically tethered to your PC in order to work. That kind of sucks. Its all too easy to trip over the thick cables while youre wandering around the room ensconced in a virtual world, or to twist and turn so much that the cord eventually jerks your head back.

HPs Omen X VR PC.

That (sometimes literal) headache inspired the birth of a whole new class of gaming PCsones that you wear on your back. Youre still wired up, sure, but those wires travel with you instead of getting tangled between your feet. Zotac, MSI, Alienware, and HP have all revealed backpack PCs of various designs, though none have actually hit the street yet.

The standalone Oculus Santa Cruz prototype.

As nifty as they are, however, backpack PCs feel like a stopgap solutiona fix to a problem that will disappear when more robust wireless display technologies or more potent mobile graphics arrive. And you can already see that wireless future on the horizon, with Oculus testing a fully self-contained mobile Rift prototype pictured above and HTC backing a $220 add-on kit that makes the Vive wireless.

While powerful PC-based VR experiences may be tethered, the more modest world of phone-driven mobile VR has already left cords far behind.

Googles Daydream View.

Samsungs Gear VR headset (which only works with Samsung Galaxy phones) blazed the Android VR trail, while Googles low-cost Cardboard brought it to the masses. In late 2016 Google stomped into the Gear VRs turf with Daydream VR, an Android-centric initiative that brings premium mobile VR to the entire ecosystem rather than Samsungs phones alone.

Daydream centers on a trio of pillars: powerful phones, Daydream VR headsets, and Android Nougats new VR features. While Googles own Daydream View headset and Pixel phone kicked off the program, Daydream isnt its alone. HTC, LG, Xiaomi, Huawei, ZTE, Asus, Alcatel, Lenovo, and yes, even Samsung have pledged to create Daydream mobile devices.

A Microsoft rendering shows simulated HoloLens apps.

Microsofts HoloLens is kind of a mix of PC and mobile VR, while also a different beast entirely. Its a portable, fully self-contained system that doesnt need to connect to a PC, but HoloLens utilizes augmented reality, not virtual reality. Virtual reality plops you in fully realized virtual worlds; augmented reality, as the name implies, augments the real world with overlaid objects, such as a Minecraft world sprouting from your coffee table or a Skype video chat appearing on your wall.

Microsoft still hasnt revealed details about when (or if) HoloLens will be available to consumer users, or how much it would cost, but deep-pocketed developers and enterprise users can already pick up the headset for a cool $3,000.

Pricey HoloLens headset arent Microsofts only foray into VR. The massive Windows 10 Creators Update next spring will bake augmented reality features much, much more deeply into the flagship PC operating system, and itll be accompanied by an army of new Windows 10 VR headsets at launchheadsets that will start at just $300 and run on surprisingly modest PCs. Meanwhile, Intel and Microsofts Project Evo partnership aims to change how computers think, see, and hear, with a specific goal of driving mixed reality forward.

Players enjoy a VR experience at HTCs Viveland arcade in Taiwan.

If 2016 was birth of a virtual-reality revolution, look for 2017 to be a year of VR refinement. Witness the new, Oculus Touch-esque Vive controllers that Valve already began to tease, and bookmark the holiday 2017 launch of Microsofts powerful Xbox Scorpio consolewhich could very possibly leverage the Windows 10 Creators Update to run the Oculus Rift or Windows 10 VR headsets as a counter to Sonys surprisingly okay PlayStation VR.

Next year, VR games should only get better as developers gain more experience... if they can navigate the complicated world of consumer expectationsand discover what people really want from the medium, that is. The cost of VR-capable PCs will only keep going down. Expect augmented reality to continue making inroads in car tech. The Vive and Rift may even get price cuts! Heck, with enough advances, 2017 may be the year PCWorld officially recommends you buy a VR headset.

Or it could all come crashing down like previous virtual-reality attempts. (Remember Sega VR?) Living on the bleeding edge may be expensive and exciting, but its not always a sure betthough with so many of techs biggest names spending billions on virtual reality, its hard to imagine this latest push fizzling completely. Time will tell.

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Virtual reality, one year out: What went right, what didn't ...