Daily Archives: February 28, 2017

New York Times

Virtual Reality New York Times A woman played a game with the PlayStation VR last year. Sony's internal goal was to sell one million of the headsets in its first six months, by mid-April. Credit Corinna Kern for The New York Times. Have you ever experience virtual reality? If so ... Sony's Virtual-Reality Headset Confronts Actual Reality of Modest SalesWall Street Journal (subscription) We just got the first real look into how well virtual reality is sellingBusiness Insider What You Should Know About Each Virtual Reality HeadsetOuter Places New York Times all 159 news articles »

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Virtual Reality - New York Times

I can count on two hands the collectors who are buying immersive media works, said Moving Image fair co-founder Edward Winkleman at a preview on Monday, kicking off Armory Arts Week in New York. But Im encouraged for the future by the number of lawyers and doctors who are buying virtual reality headsets for their kids, and might want to use them for something more than gaming!

Winkleman started the Moving Image fair seven editions ago with his partner, Murat Orozobekov, to give video works a commercial platform and a place where they could have the concentrated viewing an art fair offers. Launched in New York, the fair has since gone global, adding an Instanbul edition. Over the last two years, the founders have turned their focus strongly to virtual reality and augmented reality, which make a strong showing at this small fair, with about a third of the 28 offerings engaging these technologies.

Winkleman and new-media curator Barbara London (a longtime Museum of Modern Art staffer, whose swan song there was a 2013 sound-art exhibition) chatted before the preview about the demands of presenting, selling, and conserving art in newer mediums. Even for video art, collectors and dealers are still hashing out templates for purchasing contracts that can cover issues like optimal presentation environments and terms for possible future conservation, which can include upgrades to newer technologies. Otherwise, said London, the piece dies.

Still from Naoko Tosa, Genesis Yellow (2016), courtesy Ikkan Art Gallery, Singapore.

Those kinds of questions go into overdrive with virtual or augmented reality, in which, Winkleman pointed out, there are many moving parts, including computer coding and headsets, which, in a single piece, may come from various companies. And hardware is changing rapidly in what he described as an arms race among makers of products like the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive, both in evidence at Moving Image.

The headset-driven, immersive, VR works on offer engage a range of artistic interests. Uponentering the fair, the first you encounter is Jakob Kudsk Steensens Oculus Rift piece, Primal Tourism: Island (2017), a virtual visit to the island of Bora Bora, in which a tiny room of plywood and plastic becomes a French Polynesian paradise. Elsewhere, theres Rebecca Allens narrative study of hallucination and of the interior of a human brain, presented by Londons Gazelli Art House.

World and Place Evaporating(2016), by Christopher Manzione and Seth Cluett,impressed even tech geeks present with an eerie but subtly integrated moment in which, with the use of a camera mounted on the front of the headset, the participants own hands become visible as she wanders in a virtual forest.

All that work comes at prices that, Winkleman pointed out, are comparable to those for video works. The VR and ARworks come in editions of between three and eight, and prices range from $5,000 to $25,000. Steensens Bora Bora piece is tagged at $7,000, as is Manzione and Cluetts installation; both are in an edition of five. The priciest work in this category, at $25,000, isTamiko Thiel and Zara Houshmands Beyond Manzanar (2000), in which viewers use a joystick to explore World War II-era internment camps. It comes in an edition of three.

Installation view of Tamiko Thiel and Zara Houshmand, Beyond Manzanar (2000). Image courtesy Moving Image.

Behind the sometimes very impressive effects, some of the artists are engaging topics that stimulate artists in more traditional mediums. Steensens trip to Bora Bora, for example, partly imagines that setting (and hes imagining it too, since hes never been) in a post-ecotourism environment, after years of continuing climate change.

John Craig Freemans geolocated augmented reality piece (its based on some of the same tech that brought you Pokmon Go) overlays scenes from St. Petersburg, Russia with the topography of New York as you look at it on your phone or tablet. Freeman is exploring questions about the nature of the public sphere and public monuments in the digital era. (Its echo of suspicions that Russian intelligence helped nudge the president into the Oval Office is a nice bonus.)

For me, the most compelling piece was one without any such overt topical concerns. Brenna Murphys mesmerizing installation Lattice~Domain_Visualize (2017), on view with Portland, Oregons Upfor Gallery, places the participant in a swirling, kaleidoscopic, bright-hued tower that seems to extend nearly infinitely above and below, with a rushing soundtrack. It comes in an edition of three plus an artists proof, with a price tag of$8,500 including computer, HTC Vive, and floor prints.

In a 2014 interview with Art in America, Murphy expressed a hope for some kind of utopic digital commons, where we can use our connectivity to transcend our current state and bring a more advanced outlook to our place in the world. That belief in the possibilities of the new medium comes across in the exhilarating encounter withthe piece itself, in which digital means add up to an experience that can get mystical.

Moving Image New York is open through March 2 at Waterfront New York Tunnel, 269 11th Avenue, between 27th and 28th Streets, Monday-Wednesday 11 a.m. to 8 p.m., Thursday 11 a.m. to 4 p.m.

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Market for Virtual Reality Art Gets Tested at Moving Image Fair - artnet News

LONDON, United Kingdom When Apples iPhone first appeared nearly 10 years ago, few could fathom the extent to which it would transform our daily lives. Today, much like mobile before it, a rising technology platform has the potential to create what Canadian media theorist Marshall McLuhan called new patterns of human association, unleashing a tsunami of innovation.

For years, Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) a view of the real world that has been augmented by layers of computer-generated content have been the stuff of science fiction. Both still have their fair share of sceptics. Yet, driven by Moores Law and the rapid advancement of processors, screens and other commodity components coming out of the smartphone supply chain, VR and AR are finally poised for mainstream adoption with some calling them nothing less than a new medium of human experience.

Back in 2014, early VR pioneer Chris Milk explained the profound power of VR: You read a book; your brain reads letters printed in ink on paper and transforms that into a world. You watch a movie; youre seeing imagery inside of a rectangle while youre sitting inside a room, and your brain translates that into a world. And you connect to this even though you know its not real, but because youre in the habit of suspending disbelief. With virtual reality, youre essentially hacking the visual-audio system of your brain and feeding it a set of stimuli thats close enough to the stimuli it expects that it sees it as truth. Instead of suspending your disbelief, you actually have to remind yourself not to believe.

So what does this mean for fashion?

In the past decade, the fashion industry has driven growth largely by tapping emerging markets, opening hundreds of new stores, particularly in China. But as Chinese demand has cooled, many have sought new growth online, which Luca Solca, head of luxury goods at BNP Exane Paribas, has called the new China.

A number of things have changed in the luxury industry. As you know, the luxury industry was growing 8 percent before now it is growing 2 to 4 or 5 percent in the next year and its going to stay there, said Olivier Abtan, a partner at the Boston Consulting Group. Now, in this slow growing market [brands are] considering digital very seriously, he added.

For some, virtual and augmented reality technologies offer a powerful new digital growth channel. When one thinks how engaging VR could be, I imagine that this will indeed be even more important than mobile in the grand scheme of things, said Solca. However, it took 20 years for e-commerce to reach an inflection point, he cautioned. Id imagine VR would need a similar amount of time to really shape our everyday experience in the same way as our mobile phones.

But momentum in the VR/AR space is building quickly. Late last year, HTC Vive announced a venture capital alliance for virtual reality technologies; comprising 27 firms, the initiative has amassed $10 billion dollars of deployable capital. Last October, digital distribution platform Steam reported adding 1,000 new VR users daily, with over 600 VR apps already on the platform. And technology heavyweights are doubling down in virtual and augmented reality. See Facebooks Oculus Rift to Snapchats Spectacles.

In this early stage of development, accurate projections of future market size are difficult. But according to Goldman Sachs, revenue from VR- and AR-related hardware and software is expected to reach from $80 billion to $182 billion by 2025.

Virtual reality and augmented reality could certainly become a powerful channel for brand-consumer interactions, much like mobile and social are today. But current pricing ($600 for an Oculus Rift headset, $800 for an HTC Vive) will slow mainstream consumer adoption for the moment, according to Goldman Sachs.

In the meantime, there are plenty of enterprise opportunities for fashion companies. The obvious first step in the apparel industry is designing and development tools, and we are working with a lot of brands and a lot of supply chain companies behind the scene on this, said Ari Bloom, CEO of Avametric, a San Francisco-based startup working in VR/AR. You think about the ability to have a more digital experiences: the amount of time and money you can save not having to sample thousands of garments to get to three or four hundred!

Virtual simulations of store environments could also be useful to retailers. In VR, specifically, you can [test] two different environments and that is really powerful, explained Bloom. ShopperMX, a virtual reality platform developed by Chicago-based firm InContext Solutions, allows retailers to experiment with signage, product display and layout without the time and resource commitment required to build and test these elements in the physical world.

But over the next decade, it is ultimately consumer adoption of VR/AR that will drive the most opportunity for fashion companies and already some brands are dipping their toes in the space. In October 2015, Tommy Hilfiger became the first major fashion retailer to deploy virtual reality headsets in its stores, inviting shoppers to immerse themselves in a 360-degree experience of the labels Autumn/Winter fashion show. This year, American accessible luxury brand Coach is following suite, installing VR headsets in stores in 10 malls across the US to provide consumers with full access to its latest runway show.

Gap, too, is experimenting. Last month, the retailer unveiled an augmented reality dressing room that allows consumers to try its ranges digitally. The experience, built with Bloom and Avametric in collaboration with Google, has its drawbacks. For a start, it only works with Google Tango smartphones, which have yet to be widely adopted by the market. But the specific limitations of the Gap experience aside, AR has lower barriers to adoption than VR, which is costly and comes with a steep learning curve for consumers. And in recent cycles, AR applications mostly geared towards trying on clothes have spread relatively quickly as fashion brands and retailers jump on the bandwagon.

Unsurprisingly, beauty brands have been early to AR. Within the last year, Sephora, Charlotte Tilbury and Rimmel have all launched AR applications that allow users to try on products via a filter on their phones.

But do these applications offer real value? Or are they just marketing gimmicks?

The number one difficulty has been that there are a lot of false prophets at this stage, said Tom Adeyoola, chief executive of London-based virtual fitting room company Metail, whose augmented reality try-before-you-buy solution aims to drive concrete business results. According to research conducted by Metail in conjuction with Tufts University and the Kellogg School of Management, the companys AR application can boost sales by 22 percent.

Its bigger potential lies in the power of data collection, however, illustrating how consumer-facing VR and AR applications can drive back-end benefits. Our big partner in India is using data that is coming through to re-cut their clothes to match the fact that India is not a one-size demographic people are taller in the North and shorter in the South. They are starting to rethink and recut clothes, said Adeyoola. For another retailer, for example, we saw that only 20 percent of their customers matched the clothes that were cut. By resourcing the garments, they could do a better job of matching that demographic.

For the moment theres little doubt that VR and AR remain in their infancy. And much like e-commerce 10 years ago, when fashion and luxury brands were reluctant to sell online, there are those who doubt the potential of these new technologies. But if the consumers are there, they have no choice, says Abten. If consumers complete their transition into VR/AR channels, brands even the luxury ones will have no choice but to embrace.

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Virtual Reality: Growth Engine for Fashion? - The Business of Fashion

The city plans to create the nations first publicly funded virtual reality lab. View Full Caption

ra2studio/Shutterstock

This hub is gettingcloser to reality.

The citys Economic Development Corporation and the Mayors Office of Media and Entertainment are planning to create the nations first publicly-funded virtual reality and augmented reality lab, announcing Monday a request for proposals for a space that will include $6 million in public and private funding.

The city is looking for bidders who will be able to provide space for VR and AR entrepreneurs with affordable, shared access to tools and technologies and gather academic, start-upand business communities to increase the talent pipeline and funding opportunities, as DNAinfo previously reported.

Proposals are due April 7.

VR and AR are fast-growing sectors in the media and entertainment space, and with this new facility we are positioning New York City to be a primary hub for new and growing VR/AR companies, MOME Commissioner Julie Menin said.

EDC President James Patchett said the lab would spur innovation.

By investing in growing companies with emerging technologies, we can create good-paying, 21st century jobs for New Yorkers, he said.

Theres been a recent uptick in virtual and augmented reality offerings across the city, from Samsungs flagship store in the Meatpacking District and the virtual reality arcade in the World Trade Center Oculus to the pop-up vr bar in Park Slope, occupying a small Union Street storefront for the winter months in a space normally run by the Peoples Pops in warmer weather.

There's also a virtual reality training lab coming to The Bronx's CUNY on the Concourse, a branch of Lehman College , which will offer an 11-month program starting in April to teach students about topics including 3D graphics, web design and animation.

The VR/AR industry has seen more than $50 million worth of investment and 125 percent increase in job demand over the past year, according to city officials. But the industry is still fragmented and funding still a challenge, they say, without a central hub to anchor it.

The focus on virtual and augmented reality is part of the de Blasio administrations pledge to foster 100,000 good jobs over the next 10 years in industries like tech, life sciences and high-end manufacturing.

Earlier this month, the administration released plans for a Union Square Tech Hub thats projected to create 600 jobs and includes awork and event space called Civic Hall for community organizations, tech companies, government agencies and entrepreneurs.

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City Seeks Space For Its Virtual Reality Hub - DNAinfo

The 2017 NFL Draft is just a few months away, which means were getting close to discovering the next elite rookies and the cities in which theyll play. With the Senior Bowl behind us and the Scouting Combine up this week, the draft class is beginning to take shape.

One of the biggest prospects set to take the field in Indianapolis at the Combine is Alabama defensive lineman Jonathan Allen a unanimous All-American and winner of the Lombardi Award, which is given to the college football player who best demonstrates outstanding performance and skill in their position. It was the latest award on a long list of accolades for Allen, who also won the Bronko Nagurski Trophy, the Chuck Bednarik Award and the Ted Hendricks Award.

In his four years at Alabama, Allen racked up 152 tackles. He made a living in the backfields of every team he faced, recording a whopping 44.5 tackles for loss and 28 sacks 22.5 of which came in his final two seasons in Tuscaloosa.

Most people are familiar with his stellar play on the field which has made him a projected top-five pick but his interests off the field are lesser known.

Allen is a big-time gamer and has a huge passion for all things technology.

It started in high school, my freshman year. My dad was a big computer guy. So, at the time, I hadnt really gotten into it yet, but he was just showing me and I started to play some of the difficult games, Allen said in an interview with FOXSports.com last week. It grew in my freshman year of college when I got my first computer and my love for computer games just built up from there.

Allen, who stands at 6-foot-3, 291 pounds, doesnt look like atypical gamer. Hes not exactlya big nerd a phrase used by teammate Dalvin Tomlinson this season.

Allen isa physical specimen who became a human highlight reel this season after he Superman sacked Texas A&M quarterback Trevor Knight. His athleticism has been on display for the past few years at Alabama, and it certainly will be in Indianapolis at the Combine.

But outside of being a workout monster, Allen remains active in the next wave of video games: virtual reality.

Recently, the virtual reality thing came out so Ive been really interested in that, he said. Its still fairly new, so there arent a lot of games out for it yet. I have it for the PS4 and computer. I have cameras set up for the computer I mapped out the room so its fun, I really enjoy it.

PlayStation VR has taken off in terms of popularity sinceit was released to the public back in October. Like most virtual reality units, its still in its infancy. Games are being developed and produced at increasingly rapid rates, though VR is still not at the forefront of video game sales.

Allen mostly plays first-person shooters on his PlayStation VR, but the computer offers a slightly wider array of options with more to come in the near future.

Its still a pretty new thing, but Im expecting within the next couple of years thered be some more games to come out, he said.

Many hardcore gamers believe computers are best suited to handle the requirements of playing high-end games, typically boasting better processors and video cards than consoles like the Xbox One and PlayStation 4. Allen has a PS4 for more mainstream games like Battlefield, but his computer allows him to play Total War and use three monitors in addition to the virtual reality cameras.

Its also portable, which lets him take it on the go when hes training outside his home in Alabama.

I have a triple monitor so I have three monitors all connected playing as one, he said. Then I have the cameras mounted on the walls to track your movements for the VR. So its a pretty cool setup.

Its at my house here in Alabama. But I bought my computer, so thats with me here in Florida right now.

Allen spent his time leading up to the Combine training in Orlando, Fla., with Tom Shaw a coach who spent time with the likes of quarterbacks Tom Brady, Peyton Manning, Jevon Kearse and Simeon Rice, among many others.

While Allen has focused all of his attention on gearing up for the NFL Draft and getting his body in shape for the grind of an NFL offseason, he does believe he has a future in technology particularly with a focus on video games.

Its definitely something Im interested in, he said. After football, Im not really sure which path Im going to take. I feel like its such a wide-open field, and there are so many different angles I can approach it from. So Im not really sure, Ill have to do some more research, but its definitely something I could see myself getting into later down the line.

The unanimous All-American obviously has his entire NFL career ahead of him one that figures to be lengthy with many Pro Bowl appearances but developing video games and exploring the future of virtual reality is a passion Allen will always have.

Thats something Id definitely be interested in developing games, testing games, he added. Its all just a part of it. Anything I can get my hands on, Im definitely cool with. Then from there it can just grow and build. So Im interested in any way I can get involved because thats where my hearts at. I love it.

Allen currently projects to be one of the very top prospects in the2017 draft, with many mock drafts linking him to the Chicago Bearsat No. 3. Making it to the NFL is obviously a dream of Allens, and hes ready to make it happen:

This is what Ive been preparing for my whole life. Im excited. Im ready.

Soobum Im-USA TODAY Sports | Soobum Im

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Top NFL Draft prospect Jonathan Allen has a passion for virtual reality gaming - FOXSports.com