Daily Archives: June 30, 2017

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Saint Asoniaare digging a little deeper into their self-titled 2015 album, providing fans with a new visual to accompany their song Fairytale.

The video is shot in two distinct venues, weaving in a shadowy, black and white vision of the band performing on a bare stage with a virtual reality fantasy fight scene in the wilderness, featuring strong, superhero women engaged in battle.

Though the band was voted Best New Artist by Loudwires readers back in 2015and the video comes from their first album,the group is continuing work on its sophomore album, tentatively due before the end of this year. In February, the bands Adam Gontiertold a Michigan radio station that they were about halfway done, meaning the writing process is pretty much done. Right now, were just in the stages of demoing what we, as a band, believe are four or five of the best tracks that will be on the record, that we feel are the best tracks, that we are most happy with. And as well, were looking into producers and whether or not were actually going to hire a producer to produce this record.

Between myself, Mike Mushok and bassist Corey Lowery, weve all done some producing in our day, and at this point, a producer isnt one hundred percent necessary, Gontier told the station. So were kind of going through the motions of that and trying to decide what the next step is in the way of production and where were gonna go to record the record. But as for the songwriting, its pretty much done, and were having a really good time putting the finishing touches on the music weve got so far.

When asked how important it is for a rock band in 2017 to work with a producer, Gontier responded, Ive been really fortunate to work with some really great producers Howard Benson and Don Gilmore, and a whole bunch of different guys. I think as a young band, its very important, because as a young band, youre very influential and you definitely need that outside ear to help you move along and help you decide the direction of where you wanna go as a young band. In our case, just because weve done it so many times and weve made quite a few records between all of us, its one of those things that we feel pretty confident that when we finish a batch of songs, or we finish a record that between the three of us, if were happy with it, were almost positive that our fans, definitely our loyal fans as well as maybe some fans that might not have heard of us before are gonna enjoy it as well. Young bands tend to use producers, and I think for a band like us, its one of those things where we dont necessarily need one, but its always nice to have an extra set of ears around regardless.

At this point, there are no tour dates on the bands schedule as they continue to work on new music.

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Saint Asonia Take a Virtual Reality Trip With 'Fairytale' Video - Loudwire

Theres a new player on the virtual reality (VR) scene. Acute Art ismarketed directly to artists and will be available in the fall.To preview the platform, the studio invited artists Marina Abramovi, Olafur Eliasson, and Jeff Koonsto try out some new material. The making-of video discusses the potential of a viable commercial VR.

Over the decades, VR has moved from the edges to the mainstream, always greeted with skepticism and fears that its just another passing fad. But we now have consumer-grade specs like the Oculus Rift and controllers like the Touchfor games.Virtual reality in art has always been less sleek, more DIY, and with lots of stops and starts.

As Raymond Gozzi Jr. wrote about virtual realitys promise and threat back in 1995,it has caught peoples imaginations and inspired fantasies far out of proportion to what the technology can actually deliver, now or in the foreseeable future.

To the outside observer, there is only the strange spectacle of a person wearing a bulky helmet waving a gloved hand around and moving in weird, unpredictable ways. I am told that the graphics are rudimentary and the illusion is partial. There is a slight delay between your movement and the corresponding movement of the environment. The head-mounted display is bulky and heavy. And after a while, some users start to feel queasy and ill.

Gozzi feels the main potential of virtual reality is as a miniaturizing metaphor, a way to make a large and complex problem simple and digestiblethough theres a risk that making somethingtoo digestible can diminish its power and meaning.A great example is Abramovis interactive work for Acute Art, which focuses on the theme of climate change. If you choose environmentalism, Marina lives; if you choose consumption, she drowns from rising sea levels.

The virtual environment becomes an idealized stand-in for an imperfect reality.

Theres an obvious irony here; the virtual environment becomes an idealized stand-in for an imperfect (in this case, rapidly declining) reality. Any recreation of a natural landscape can be a distraction from, or a reminder of, its loss. This is encapsulated beautifully in the New Palmyra 3D scanning and printing project, where Syrian activist Bassel Khartabil created 3D models of heritage architecture under threat of destruction during war. (For his efforts, he was detained by the Syrian military in 2012 and has been missing since 2015.)

The more seamless a new VR platformthe farther away from bulky, heavy, and queasythe more it risks devaluing its source material. Why travel to visit an iceberg and see its crumbling firsthand when you can virtually interact with an immaterial glacier that will never melt?

While VR was certainly more challenging to use in the 1960-2000s, its very imperfect naturethe ad-hoc assemblages of various technologieswas often what made those projects special. In 1994, Dan OSullivan wrote in Choosing Tools for Virtual Environments, about work that was disjointed and full of seams, concluding that VR environments shouldnt strive to be perfect. A little bit of abstraction goes a long way. It commits the participants to use their own imaginations, involves them more fully in the process, and brings some of our IRL experiences into the virtual space:

Beyond producing perceptual illusions, interactive media can tap the imagination by making a partner of it. If the audience has an investment in the creation of an imaginary world, less technology is required to maintain the illusion. Less work maintaining the illusion means a greater ease of creativity. Creative work feeds back again to better capture the imagination.

From the previews, Acute Art doesnt seem quite photorealistic, and maybe thats for the best.

By: Raymond Gozzi, Jr.

ETC: A Review of General Semantics, Vol. 52, No. 4 (Winter 1995-96), pp. 456-460

Institute of General Semantics

By: Dan O'Sullivan

Leonardo, Vol. 27, No. 4 (1994), pp. 297-302

The MIT Press

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How Virtual Reality Could Change the Art World - JSTOR Daily

If youve ever put on a VR headset, you probably know what it is to be transported to a digital world beyond imagination. Now, what if you knew that out-of-this-world realm was being brought to you by laser communications from the moon?

Yes, its happening. Astrobotic Technology, which flies hardware systems into space for clients, has joined forces with ATLAS Space Operations, which provides cloud-based space access solutions, to fast-forward our lunar future by zapping one gigabit of data from the moon to Earth per second. This isnt just a mission to take sci-fi from virtual to reality. Laser communications from our satellite mean increased payload capacity that will up the game of HD video, data-intensive experiments we couldnt have dreamed of otherwise, and the ultimate VR experience from the moon.

"Laser communications have been sought after by planetary missions for years, said Astrobotic CEO John Thornton. ATLAS and Astrobotic are now making this capability a reality."

Thornton is optimistic about lunar laser communications being the next generation of VR. Lunar communications were previously isolated, so this collaboration between Astrobotic and ATLAS means that instead of launching new communication methods for every new mission, the efforts of multiple missions can now be combined. ATLAS optical communications terminal ensures communications between the moon and Earth that wont break down into radio silence by providing Astrobotic customers with solutions that are immediately available.

Astrobotic has partnered with NASA through the space agencys Lunar CATALYST initiative, whose no-funds-exchanged Space Act Agreement (SAA) partnerships with the private sector spark advances in robotic landers that touch down on the moon. These can deliver serious payloads to the lunar surface when they team up with commercial launches. The company was also selected to participate in one of NASAs no-funds partnerships that would not only shoot for the moon in terms of payloads, but also explore lander advancements and scientific possibilities for upcoming NASA missions.

We will empower a thriving human space presence that explores the world beyond Earth orbit, states Astrobotics website. Current projects in development include the Astrobotic Virtual Orbital Imager (AVOI), which turns topographical data into a mind-blowing image of the landing scene, and mission planning software that will revolutionize lunar exploration.

Want to fly a piece of your Earthly existence to the moon? Astrobiotic is accepting contributions to its MoonBox project, which will carry your personal Moon Capsule to the moon on a Moon Pod and send back Instagram-worthy shots and videos.

(via Space.com)

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Virtual reality just went lunar - SYFY WIRE (blog)

At the Mall of Americas arena-sized Smaaash amusement arcade, people wait in line to slip on headsets that resemble blacked-out ski goggles and spend a couple of minutes feeling transported. They experience the sensations of flying a jet in combat, rescuing a kitten about to fall from a skyscraper or looping in circles on a roller coaster.

Not far away, the malls Best Buy carries a range of consumer-level virtual reality equipment. Salespeople explain how VR works, how it feels and how you might make it a part of your home entertainment collection.

For years VR has been hyped as the next revolution in computing technology. Facebook, Google, Samsung and other technology giants are investing heavily in its future. But theres one big obstacle still in the way: It makes large portions of the population especially women and children sick.

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What's the future of virtual reality? Minnesota researchers may hold the answer - Minneapolis Star Tribune

June 30, 2017 by Charles Anzalone This camera is used to create virtual reality scenarios for the student teacher training program. Credit: Meredith Forrest Kulwicki

Two University at Buffalo education researchers have teamed up to create an interactive classroom environment in which state-of-the-art virtual reality simulates difficult student behavior, a training method its designers compare to a "flight simulator for teachers."

The new program, already earning endorsements from teachers and administrators in an inner-city Buffalo school, ties into State University of New York Chancellor Nancy L. Zimpher's call for innovative teaching experiences and "immersive" clinical experiences and teacher preparation.

Zimpher recently told The Buffalo News that SUNY teaching programs should be offering on-campus laboratories where students can simulate being in a classroom. The UB virtual reality classroom project directly aligns with this initiative.

A collaboration of the Neurocognition Science Laboratory and the Teacher Education Institute in the UB Graduate School of Education, the virtual reality classroom is meant to supplement existing clinical opportunities, according to Richard Lamb, GSE associate professor and director of the Neurocognition Science Laboratory.

"This is meant as a training simulator for pre-service and in-service teachers to garner experience in dealing with situations such as difficult student behaviors, teaching methods, classroom management in general and other activities as needed," Lamb says. "So when the teaching student steps into the classroom, they have some idea of what to do."

The training simulator Lamb compared to a teacher flight simulator uses an emerging computer technology known as virtual reality. Becoming more popular and accessible commercially, virtual reality immerses the subject in what Lamb calls "three-dimensional environments in such a way where that environment is continuous around them." An important characteristic of the best virtual reality environments is a convincing and powerful representation of the imaginary setting.

"It's not meant to fully replace clinical opportunities for teaching students," says Lamb, who is co-principal investigator of the project with Elisabeth Etopio, director of UB's Teacher Education Institute and interim assistant dean for teacher education. "The virtual reality-based simulated classroom is a tool that provides students repeated practice in an environmentwithout consequence to actual studentswhere they can target skills needed for successful teaching in the classroom."

The virtual reality teaching environment created by Lamb and Etopio differs from other teaching simulation platforms in that actual footage of student behaviors occurring within real classrooms will be used, enhancing the authenticity, fluidity and "immersiveness" of the experience. The program is partially funded by a $20,000 grant from the SUNY Innovative Instruction Technology Grant program, a SUNY-wide grant competition that funds campus innovations and initiatives in instructional technology and supports academic excellence and student success.

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The team partnered with Crosswater Digital Media to film seventh- and eighth-grade students at Enterprise Charter School using 360-degree cameras to create scenarios for pre-service teachers in handling classroom management. Armin St. George, vice chairman of Crosswater Digital Media, calls this teaching strategy the "next best way to teach." St. George has used similar techniques for medical students when teaching anatomy. A virtual reality cadaver gives the medical students the experience of working on the human body without a real body.

Like medical students, future teachers can use virtual reality exercises "to actually put themselves in an environment to experience what they are going to see in a school before they actually get to a school," St. George says.

Although still only a few months old, the simulated classroom environment created by Lamb and Etopio has earned high praise from teachers and administrators in Buffalo's Enterprise Charter School, which has used it to train in-service teachers in classroom management and to assist teachers with dealing with behavior management in the classroom.

Rebekah Lamb, a seventh- and eighth-grade social studies teacher at Enterprise, says having this virtual reality tool to supplement her pre-service training while she was in school would have been a valuable way to give education students a more authentic experience of what they will encounter in a real-life classroom.

"When you do student teaching, you have the student teacher and the classroom teacher," she says. "Normally, the classroom teacher will take control of the classroom and won't give it fully to the student teacher.

"So this helps it so the student teacher has the full role of classroom management without the classroom teacher interfering," she says. "Students who want to be teachers get a look inside the classroom without actually having to step inside the classroom."

Lamb's supervising administrators at Enterprise Charter couldn't agree more.

"Young teachers need to step back and understand that children's behaviors are a socioemotional response, not to be taken personally," says Julie Schwab, superintendent of Enterprise Charter. "The behavior could be related to an event that happened the prior night, or on the school bus.

"Virtual reality is a tool that can expose new teachers to some of these behaviors and give them practice responding in real time and honing the explicit language needed to gain understanding of what caused this child to be where they are at this time."

Michael Radosta, director of learning technology at Enterprise Charter School, notes that in a real classroom, teachers have to get their students to value what they are saying.

"This is a skill often lacking in new teachers," Radosta says. "So direct practice using responsive language within virtual reality environments has enormous potential."

The fact that the seventh- and eighth-grade students at Enterprise Charter School had so much fun playing the part of unruly students while filming the pre-service video was a bonus, according to the school's teachers and administrators. The four students who simulated disruptive students for filming the virtual reality program were chosen by Rebekah Lamb the same morning Crosswater Digital recorded their role-playing behavior on camera. And for these students, the bad behavior went against their nature, Lamb says.

"These are students who generally do what they are supposed to," she says.

The potential and promise of this method of simulating classroom situations for prospective teachers are profound, the educators say.

"Early virtual exposure with targeted practice of management skills could help young teachers pause, avoid potentially harmful responses with real children, and provide confidence in responding to students in sensitive and beneficial ways," Schwab says.

Explore further: A virtual reality classroom simulator for teachers in training

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Archaeologists from the universities of Leicester and Southampton have found a striking and apparently unique square monument beneath the world-famous Avebury stone circle in Wiltshire.

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Virtual reality simulates classroom environment for aspiring teachers - Phys.Org

June 29, 2017 At FutureLeap's booth, a young model kneels on a fluffy carpet as she tosses balloons in the air, blows bubbles and flirts with a man wearing VR headgear who is sitting some two metres (6.5 feet) away

It is Saturday night and you want to have a date with someone special, but you're too tired to get off the sofa.

Japanese firm FutureLeap claims it has just the thing for in-the-mood couch potatoes with a virtual reality system so realistic you'd swear that cyber date just whispered sweet nothings in your ear.

The company showed off its high-tech romance gear at the three-day Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality exhibition in Tokyo.

At FutureLeap's booth, a young model kneels on a fluffy carpet as she tosses balloons in the air, blows bubbles and flirts with a man wearing VR headgear who is sitting some two metres (6.5 feet) away.

He reaches out to touch her shoulder and gets nothing but air. When she whispers into the device though, he can feel the sensation of her breath on his ear.

Most virtual reality romance games feature an animated companion rather than a real person, said company employee Tomoyuki Takahashi.

But in this case, "you feel the real sensation as if you were together alone with a woman who is just your type," he said.

"This type of realistic sensation will become the main trend in virtual reality technology."

Other companies have even moved away from offerings that require a VR headset.

LiveCartoon CEO Shohei Tsuji, covered head to toe in motion sensors, demonstrated the company's newest product by showing off his best dance moves while a pretty female anime character mimicked his steps on screen.

The system, Tsuji said, could be used by retailers who want to interact with customers by having the cutesy character engage passersby while the person who controls the character remains out of sight.

"With this system you can have animated characters talking directly to customers," he said.

Explore further: Snapchat leads augmented reality gains: researchers

2017 AFP

Augmented reality is seeing strong gains among Americans thanks to social networks like Snapchat, Instagram and Facebook, a market research firm said Monday.

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True romance in the air at Tokyo virtual reality show - Phys.Org