Daily Archives: October 3, 2021

LITTLE ROCK, Ark., Oct. 1, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- With the dawn of the Metaverse now underway, Oculus's market entry over nine years ago seems like ancient history. Oculus paved the way for the Metaverse thanks to the immersive nature of the sight and sound it made possible.Facebook quickly realized the potential and snapped up the company for $2 billion.Not much has changed in augmented reality since then but now there is Scentscape to take reality to the next level.

Scentscape transforms every aspect of human activity from the passive to the active by introducing a new neuroscience-based datastream called Bio-Media, which brings mood-making or mood-appropriate bio-aromatics to the event at hand. From simply reading a book to watching a movie to enjoying dinner with friends or to a no-holds-barred gaming showdown, Hypnos Virtual's Scentscape enhances the experience.

Scentscape will come in different sizes, but the cinema model creates millions of different scents, "the full human scent genome," and is smaller than a mini-fridge. The Bio-Media is experienced as a choreographed "Scent track" that is continually changing like a cinematic musical score; it's a totally unique experience. Hypnos is perfecting an artificial intelligence component to deliver the right scents at the right times in tune with the moment such as scintillating olfaction of an ocean voyage in VR, taking in the intoxicating aroma of lush forests while watching any entry in The Lord of The Rings or the mouthwatering aromas of the Food Network or the acrid odors of the smoky and the burning during an "anything goes" gaming battle.Bio-telepresence, Virtual travel and even YouTube integration are standard features with this internet-based system and there are even plans for the International Space Station.

The medical science and the technology behind Scentscape is neuro-tech, so it's not easy reading, but it certainly is interesting. Potential investors curious to know more about the engine driving this breakthrough are invited to take a deep dive on the Hypnos Virtual website - https://www.scentscape.com

The Metaverse is widely regarded as the next big thing and the Hypnos Scentscape is perfectly positioned to capitalize. The company expects wide adoption from the top entertainment giants and household names down to consumer ownership whereby a Scentscape will be on a Best Buy or Amazon shopping list along with their new TV, computer or gaming console.

Investors are encouraged to explore investing in this innovative company on track to make its mark on the world.

The Scentscape investment offering https://bit.ly/3hXaOh8

The Hypnos Virtual corporate website - https://www.scentscape.com/

Media Contact:Howard Sherman833-276-9377[emailprotected]

SOURCE Hypnos Virtual Inc.

http://www.scentscape.com/

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Virtual Reality is Turning Ten and Overdue for an Upgrade; Tech Startup Hypnos Virtual is Raising Capital to Deliver the First Entrant to the...

NEW YORK, Sept. 30, 2021 /PRNewswire/ --2020 both accelerated and severely hampered the Virtual Reality (VR) market, and those impacts continue in 2021. Consumer interest in VR grew significantly, while the bubble created around location-based VRonce a significant portion of the total VR marketis now bursting. Interest is slowly returning for public usage in arcades and other experiences, while home use remains a stable growth area, especially in VR gaming. According to global technology intelligence firm ABI Research, steady growth in both enterprise and consumer VR segments over the next five years will lead 50.1 million VR Head-Mounted Display (HMD) shipments (a 42% CAGR) and generate more than US$56 billion in total VR market revenues by 2026.

"Virtual Reality has had many ups and downs since its unofficial revival in 2014, but as the market stabilizes, a clearer picture of valuable enterprise and consumer applications takes shape," says Eric Abbruzzese, Research Director, Augmented & Virtual Reality, at ABI Research. "For example, VR gaming is driving the consumer VR market today, with a steadily increasing number of developers releasing VR content. Enterprise VR saw increased interest with the COVID pandemic and the need for remote worker enablement, and that interest will continue and grow post-pandemic."

In terms of hardware, the standalone HMD segment continues to fuel the VR market, with strong interest from both the consumer and enterprise markets. Standalone will make up nearly 80% of total shipments in 2026, up from 44% in 2021. The Oculus Quest 2 has performed very well, and competition from players like Pico will provide choice. Enterprise-focused VR companies are shifting a significant amount of attention to standalone VR and many view it as the future of the industry. Mobile device VR in its old formthat of a cheap housing for a mobile phoneis likely over in any form outside of ultra-cheap cardboard devices. However, Qualcomm's efforts in VR viewers are expected to bring more device choice and ultimately interest into this space. Tethered devices are mostly focused on high end PC applications, but Sony has confirmed an upcoming refresh of PSVR, which will help drive consumer tethered (console) shipments going forward.

For software and content, consumer VR remains mostly focused on gaming. E3 2021 had a notable VR presence with game announcements. Education mixes consumer and enterprise and is the second largest segment by shipments and first by revenue; 11 million HMD shipments are expected in education in 2026, with US$20 billion in total market revenue. Remote worker enablement and high-quality visualization drive enterprise interest across the other verticals, including healthcare, retail, manufacturing, and others.

"VR remains a best-in-class immersive digital experience for many applications, but the market is more complex than that. COVID continues to impact public space usage, while simultaneously spurring personal home and work at home uses. Compelling and accessible hardware in the Quest 2 grows interest across these areas as well, and competition will bring greater user choice with names like Apple entering the market soon. Movement towards the metaverse, and similar ubiquitous, persistent digital platforms, enable both enterprise and consumer use cases that will work with those new hardware vendors alongside software, service, and connectivity players to build out an ecosystem that spans all application types," concludes Abbruzzese.

These findings are from ABI Research's Virtual Reality Market Data: Devices, Verticals, and Value Chainmarket data report. This report is part of the company's Augmented and Virtual Realityresearch service, which includes research, data, and ABI Insights. Market Data spreadsheets are composed of deep data, market share analysis, and highly segmented, service-specific forecasts to provide detailed insight where opportunities lie.

About ABI ResearchABI Research is a global technology intelligence firm delivering actionable research and strategic guidance to technology leaders, innovators, and decision makers around the world. Our research focuses on the transformative technologies that are dramatically reshaping industries, economies, and workforces today.

ABI Research1990

For more information about ABI Research's services, contact us at +1.516.624.2500 in the Americas, +44.203.326.0140 in Europe, +65.6592.0290 in Asia-Pacific or visit http://www.abiresearch.com.

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GlobalDeborah PetraraTel: +1.516.624.2558 [emailprotected]

SOURCE ABI Research

http://www.abiresearch.com

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Total Virtual Reality Market Revenues Will Surpass US$56 billion by 2026 - PRNewswire

The Hyattsville Police Department in Prince George's County, Md. is looking to acquire outside funding to bring an interactive way to train its officers.

HYATTSVILLE, Md. Data shows over 900 people have been shot and killed by police in the past year in the United States.

The Hyattsville Police Department in Prince George's County, Md. is hoping to acquire some outside funding to bring an innovative and interactive way to train its officers on de-escalation tactics.

Yup, it's virtual reality training. The department is still testing out the technology, but they are optimistic it would be a great addition to the police force.

As futuristic as it may sound, as a way to train officers on de-escalation tactics, members of the department gear up in virtual reality goggles and jump into a virtual universe where they are put to the test.

"This is a way for us to enhance all the classroom training, and of course, all the training the officers have in real life and that's what I'm excited about," Hyattsville Acting Police Chief Scott Dunklee said. "This is going to be something that is going to set us apart a little bit and step us up to a new level."

The virtual reality cyberspace provides immersive and interactive training experiences that not only reinforce de-escalation techniques in crisis scenarios but can also flip the role and put officers in the shoes of a person in crisis who may be living with mental health challenges such as schizophrenia or Alzheimer's, according to the department's Facebook post.

Ready for liftoff! Well, not quite, but Lt. DonBullian and Sgt. Hartnett are enjoying a trip through virtual reality...

In the various modules, there are scenarios with messages that pop up in the VR goggles that share helpful queues on handling situations that could be tense and stressful during an encounter with police.

"I think that's the key, that having all the officers go through this and they'll develop different scenarios where we can build on this year after year," said Chief Dunklee. "But seeing it from the [perspective of the] person that's having a crisis or a breakdown that's really the value added to it [virtual training]."

Axon is the virtual reality company the department plans to source the VR goggles. The company has been traveling across the country visiting several police departments to bring this new form of public safety technology. According to Axon's website, their goal is to "give law enforcement the tools they need to focus on what matters, get to the truth faster and make the world a safer place."

One of Axon's initiatives is to protect human life in policing situations.

"Officers arent trained to shoot to kill. They are trained to stop a threat. They use the tools they are given, and often have less than a second to make life-or-death decisions. Lets give them better tools and put the toughest decisions in the hands of the courts. One day the bullet will be obsolete. Were working on a device that will out-perform the handgun in every situation and let the people on either side of the weapon go home safe at the end of the day. " the company says on its website.

As we all know, the limelight of recent police killings has drawn more negative attention to the work that law enforcement does every day. HPD says it is proactively trying to change the stigma and educate its members on using better tactics so they won't have to result in the "use of force."

Although many sources report different variations of the number of police shootings in the U.S., according to the Washington Post, 937 people have been shot and killed at the hands of police.

"That's always the last resort. I think that even though it has gotten a lot of national attention lately it has always been our mission to save lives and we do that daily," said Chief Dunklee. "That's our goal every day when we get up for work is to settle things peacefully."

This is something Adrienne Augustus, HPD's public information officer and mental health programs manager is steadfast on implementing under her leadership.

Augustus has been very vocal about the need to shift police funding from a focus on routine law enforcement to a plan that includes funding for community support that works in collaboration with good policing.

As cool as it may sound, the department hopes to bring these progressive training opportunities to all officers very soon at their new Police and Public Safety Building set to reopen in 2022. Hyattsville's Administrator Tracey Douglas said the hope is that the building can serve as a regional training hub for multiple law enforcement jurisdictions in the area.

"We'll have a training room with a lot of scenario-based equipment and we hope to open it up to surrounding jurisdictions because it doesn't help for us to have this technology and for the Hyattsville Police Department to be trained when in many cases we work with our surrounding jurisdictions in response to incidents and issues," Douglass said.

The Hyattsville Police Department has also progressively implemented a mental health and wellness program. The initiative was started to train officers on how to compassionately respond to mental health crises and defuse situations that involve mental health patrons. Some officers in the department have already completed mental health first aid for law enforcement training.

The program offers law enforcement-focused mental health first aid training, a mental illness 101 education program, crisis intervention team training, and a required, quarterly mental wellness check-in program. It will also include PTSD and autism awareness training.

The department's mission to lead it in a progressive direction is not only to train officers on better policing tactics when addressing mental health, but the program will also plan to support first responders mental wellness.

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This Maryland police department is looking to use virtual technology to practice better policing - WUSA9.com

App developer Chris Crew says most first dates are terrible.

"People are afraid ... there's alot of rejection on both sides," he told AAP.

Still, he met his partner Aurora Townsend on Tinder about two years ago and together they are solving the problem of awkward first encounters by making an app so people can meet up in virtual reality instead.

Planet Theta is the first virtual reality program dedicated to dating, designed for Oculus and Steam VR headsets by their company, FireFlare Games, which is based not in Silicon Valley but Wyoming.

While people can find love with a headset on in apps such as VRChat, Echo VR, Facebook Venues and AltSpaceVR, these aren't specifically designed for dating, and catfishing or creating deceptive online identities is a constant issue.

"There is nothing that is well regulated and for adults only, and focused on dating ... we're the only game in town," Mr Crew said.

On Planet Theta people can meet up in virtual nightclubs, parks, beaches and cafes, and they can use the settings to choose meeting others who live in the same area or elsewhere in the world.

And, as the developers note - there is no pandemic on Planet Theta.

First dates only last for five minutes, which Mr Crew believes is extremely convenient.

"You can go on four or five first dates in the time it takes the average person to just get ready for one in-person date," he said.

Unusually for a dating app, Planet Theta will encourage its users to create avatars that resemble their real-life appearance and verify that they have done so.

"We are trying to encourage people to look like themselves ... what we don't want is people to enjoy their date looking like a model and then find out they really look like normal people," Mr Crew said.

The developers have used high-end UK designers Dashvisual to make their dating venues, with a virtual forest a particular favourite for Mr Crew.

"Some of the scenes are just breathtaking; you walk up to these massive trees and they make a tingle go up your spine," he said.

Virtual reality may not seem mainstream at the moment but in the US about 60 million people use VR at least once a month.

Mr Crew expects between two and five million people will log on to find virtual love when the app launches in 2022.

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Virtual dating soon a reality with new app - 7NEWS

Lying perfectly still for 30 minutes or more while getting a magnetic resonance imaging study (MRI) can be a challenge for anyone. For younger patients who tend to be fidgety anyway, and not always adept at following instructions it can be especially difficult, doctors say, and often requires sedation. But a new virtual reality game making its U.S. debut at Miami Cancer Institute is helping lower anxiety and reduce the need for anesthesia for pediatric brain tumor patients, which results in higher quality imaging.

(Watch now: Dr. Matthew Hall at Miami Cancer Institute discusses benefits of the MRI Stillness Game, which helps young cancer patients stay perfectly still during what can be a loud and, for some, scary procedure. Video by Anthony Vivian.)

Anyone whos had an MRI knows what its like to be strapped on the table, rolled inside the tube and subjected to that loud thumping sound for half an hour, says Matthew D. Hall, M.D., MBA, lead pediatric radiation oncologist at Miami Cancer Institute, which is part of Baptist Health South Florida. Imagine what its like if youre a young child, in there all by yourself.

The MRI Stillness Game, a virtual reality game developed by healthcare technology manufacturer Reimagine Well and tested by Miami Cancer Institute, prepares kids for their brain MRI, easing anxiety and improving care, says Dr. Hall.

The virtual reality game helps train children to stay still and better cope with the often stress-provoking noises and claustrophobic feeling some get during an MRI, Dr. Hall says. The result is a reduction in the number of children who must be anesthetized for the study; a better, clearer image that leads to the highest-quality care; a shorter study time; and a happier patient.

If a child moves during the MRI, it can create a fuzzy image and make it more difficult to interpret, Dr. Hall notes. To plan and deliver the sharp-shooting radiation treatment our patients receive, we need clear images. Were excited that this technology will make this possible and make our patients more comfortable.

Miami Cancer Institute is the first cancer center in the nation to offer the Reimagine Well MRI Stillness Game as an option for pediatric patients. According to Dr. Hall, brain tumor patients typically require a number of MRI studies throughout their treatment and for several years during follow-up. Dr. Hall says that up to 50 percent of pediatric patients at Miami Cancer Institute require anesthesia for MRIs due to anxiety or discomfort.

Children use the simulation program during a pre-study visit, Dr. Hall explains. A specially trained child life specialist helps them don a virtual reality headset and positions them on the table as if they were having the MRI. The patient is first led through a virtual tour of the MRI suite and then the game begins.

The headset can measure tiny movements of the head, according to Dr. Hall; the longer the child remains still, the more immersive of an experience they can enjoy, as a black and white image turns into full and vibrant color. During three successive levels each more challenging than the last the child experiences a rainforest, a hot air balloon festival and a coral reef environment. The entire game takes about 20 minutes, according to Dr. Hall.

Kids receive immediate feedback, starting with the color changes, Dr. Hall says. Then, as they demonstrate they can lay still, the loud noises of the MRI machine decrease and are replaced by the more natural sounds for the image theyre viewing. With this biofeedback, they learn to drown out the noise. Children also see their stillness score increase as they improve, he adds.

For five-year-old Ayan Radu, the game not only helped him feel better about his scheduled MRI at Miami Cancer Institute, it was also fun and surprising. He saw an ocean in front of him, says his mother, Anca Radu. He was very interested to play the game. When he was inside, he was quite calm and very curious about what was happening there.

While there are a few cancer treatment facilities in the country using similar technology for children undergoing radiation therapy, Miami Cancer Institute, with its specialized pediatric team that works closely with young patients, doesnt see a need for virtual reality in that area. When it comes to MRIs, however, even many adults have difficulty remaining motionless, notes Dr. Hall, who says the Institute may eventually offer this program to adult patients as well.

Miami Cancer Institute is also collecting data to measure the effectiveness of the simulation. It will analyze the information to see if there is a correlation between lower game scores and the need for anesthesia or a longer amount of time in the MRI machine. Were hoping it will become a predictive measure to help guide us so that we can better forecast which children might need more support in getting through an MRI study, Dr. Hall says.

Tags: biofeedback, Matthew D. Hall M.D., Miami Cancer Institute, MRI Stillness Game, pediatric cancer

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Miami Cancer Institute First to Use New Virtual Reality Game that Keeps Kids Calm and Still During Brain MRIs - Baptist Health South Florida

Akihiko Hoshide, an astronaut with the Japanese space agency JAXA, spacewalks outside the International Space Station on Sept. 12, 2021. The spacewalk was captured in virtual reality by Felix and Paul studios for an upcoming episode of their multiplatform series, Space Explorers: The ISS Experience.

NASA/NASA

Communing with the infinite while floating high above the Earth is an experience that, so far, has been known to only a handful.

Now, a Montreal production company aims to share that experience with audiences around the world, following the first ever recording of a spacewalk in the medium of virtual reality.

Its something that has absolutely never been done before, said Flix Lajeunesse, co-founder and creative director of Felix and Paul studios, which developed the project in partnership with TIME Studios and NASA.

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The spacewalk is something that Ive dreamt about for years and we have worked for every week heading to that moment, he said.

The company, which specializes in creating virtual-reality experiences with cinematic flair, got its long-awaited chance in mid-September when astronauts Thomas Pesquet and Akihiko Hoshide ventured outside the International Space Station for about seven hours to install supports and other equipment in preparation for a new solar array.

Space Explorers: The ISS Experience is different from earlier space documentaries about life aboard the station in that virtual reality allows audience members to look around in any direction.

Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios/Courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios

The footage will be used in the fourth and final instalment of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience, a virtual-reality journey to space that has already garnered a Primetime Emmy Award for its first two episodes.

From the outset, the production was developed to reach audiences through a variety of platforms for 360-degree viewing, including 5G-enabled smart phones and tablets. A domed theatre version of the experience for group audiences opened this week at the Rio Tinto Alcan Montreal Planetarium. Those who desire a more immersive experience can now see the first two episodes in VR form by using a headset available through the gaming and entertainment company Oculus. Scenes from the VR series are also on offer as part of The Infinite, an interactive exhibition developed by Montreals Phi Studio, whose works focus on the intersection of art and technology. The exhibition, which runs until Nov. 7, has attracted 40,000 visitors since it opened in July.

This is probably as close as youll ever be to going to the space station, said Myriam Achard, PHIs chief of new media partnerships. She said that the final part of the VR experience includes an opportunity to gaze down at the Earth from space as though from the cupola the space stations main viewing area.

It is a very powerful moment, she said, adding that some visitors have been brought to tears by the experience.

The company made its initial pitch to NASA in 2016 and gradually built confidence in its ability to tackle the project.

Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios/Courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios

At a time when billionaires are able to head off on private extraterrestrial sojourns that almost no one else could dream of, Lajeunesse said his project was developed with a very different purpose in mind: making it easier for audiences to become eyewitnesses rather than distant spectators to humanitys greatest adventure.

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The concept was always to create a bridge, through technology and through media, to allow people to experience a glimpse of what it feels like [to be on the space station]. That remains the whole point, he said.

There were plenty of challenges on the way to the launch pad.

The company made its initial pitch to NASA in 2016 and gradually built confidence in its ability to tackle the project while filming astronauts in training at the Johnson Space Center in Houston and at the Russian Space Agencys training site near Moscow. The company also filmed at the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan, which, until recently, was the departure point for all astronauts heading to the space station.

To take the next step following crews into orbit the Montreal company needed to adapt its equipment to meet the strict specifications required by NASA and to enable filming in the vacuum of space. Since the filmmakers could not be on hand to man the equipment themselves, astronauts also had to be enlisted and trained as VR camera operators aboard the station.

We were willing to undertake those efforts because we know how valuable this production is, said Jessica Meir, a U.S. astronaut who was involved in filming for the project during a seven-month stint on the station starting two years ago. Its really such a unique platform.

She added that, after watching the results, she found the experience so immersive that it could be used in training to help acclimatize astronauts to the three-dimensional environment of the station, a place with no up or down in the conventional sense, before journeying there.

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The feeling was echoed by Canadian astronaut David St. Jacques, who contributed to the filming during his 204 days on the station in 2018-19, the longest Canadian space mission to date.

The crucial spacewalk shoot for Space Explorers: The ISS Experience was planned for early this year but technical problems intervened and for a time it was not clear if or when another chance might arise.

Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios/Courtesy of Felix & Paul Studios and TIME Studios

What makes Space Explorers: The ISS Experience different from earlier space documentaries about life aboard the station is that virtual reality allows audience members to look around in any direction they choose, rather than be led by a directors selection of shots. St. Jacques said that viewers may be surprised not just by the exotic nature of the location but by the sense of intimacy that the experience achieves by putting the audience in proximity with crew members during daily activities, such as sharing a meal.

Theres no backstage. Everythings on stage, he said. This is one of the most candid things thats ever been filmed in space.

For the final instalments, the storyline takes viewers outside of the space station with cameras mounted on the Canadarm, and for the climax of the series by following astronauts during a spacewalk. These scenes required extensive planning, not only because of the limited time frame in which they could be gathered, but because of the lighting challenges presented by a constantly shifting sun as the space station circles the globe once every 90 minutes.

The crucial shoot was planned for early this year but technical problems intervened and for a time it was not clear if or when another chance might arise. By the time the opportunity arose again in September it was with a different crew. Fortunately for the filmmakers, the spacewalkers were assigned a task similar to what the production company had originally planned for.

We were lucky because a lot of the work that we had prepared for the first attempt in terms of camera choreography and in terms of calculating where to be at what moment in time a lot of that could be applied to the new filming opportunity, Lajeunesse said.

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But Lajeunesse said that it was equally important to acquire shots that are not just technically spectacular but that serve the underlying themes of Space Explorers: The ISS Experience. These include an examination of human adaptation and advancement, and the unity that emerges within a group of individuals from many places and cultures and who must learn to co-exist in a high risk environment in order to achieve a common goal.

During the spacewalk Lajeunesse and his team were able to download low resolution stills of the unfolding footage, which provided a sense of what they were capturing. But he said he was still astonished when the VR footage began arriving during the following days.

Its mind blowing, he said when describing the fully immersive view of the station, the crew and the planet all at once in a VR environment. It almost feels like something that evolution did not prepare us to look at.

In the coming weeks the footage will be used to complete the series and augment The Infinite, when the exhibition begins travelling internationally later this year.

But Lajeunesse said he isnt ready to come back to Earth any time soon. As NASA and its international partners, including Canada, move toward a joint effort to bring humans to the moon, he said that the potential for virtual reality to document years of lunar exploration is too great not to pursue.

We want to be part of that, he said. Were not astronauts but were filmmakers. We develop the tech that enables us to tell those stories and we have a lot of work to do.

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Montreal virtual reality studio puts audiences into orbit with Space Explorers: The ISS Experience - The Globe and Mail

Resident Evil 4 is set to arrive on Oculus Quest 2 on October 21 and users will need close to 12Gb of storage to successfully install it.

Resident Evil 4 will reportedly take up approximately 7.8GB of storage on Quest 2 headset once it is successfully installed but players will need around 11.51GB of available space in order to download and install the app according to its listing on Oculus store.

This is much less than the Medal of Honor: Above And Beyond set to release later in the year and which will require a record 40 to 45Gb of space. This much space will barely fit the entry level Quest 2 headset which has 64GB of space. The Oculus Quest system software takes up about 11.3GB of space. This leaves roughly 52.7Gb of usable space on the original headset for use in both games and other content. It will be tricky fitting in Medal of Honor and Resident Evil 4 on the same 64Gb headset and these two are Facebooks biggest releases this year so many players will be eager to try them out.

Facebook is now selling the 128Gb and the 256GB models of the Oculus Quest 2 headsets. They retail at $299 and $399 respectively. Later in the month, Facebook is set to host the Facebook Connect event which will lay out the tech giants next steps for AR and VR. It isnt clear yet what this will be about. In the previous Facebook connect events, the company had announced key details of its standalone Virtual Reality headsets. It is also possible that we might see major new game announcements for the Quest platform at the event this year. However, the company has been categorical that its high-end in-development Quest Pro headset will not be launching this year.

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Resident Evil 4 Will Need 12GB of Storage to Install Successfully - Virtual Reality Times

Mixed reality company Unreal has finally unveiled its new cheaper and lighter augmented reality glasses which are iOS-compatible. They are known as Nreal Air and are set to ship in December 2021 across China, Japan and South Korea. Nreal didnt reveal the price but stated that the smart glasses will cost a fraction of the price of the Nreal Light glasses which began selling last year for $600.

According to the China-based mixed reality company, the new Nreal Air mixed reality glasses share some core similarities with the Nreal Light glasses that the company launched in 2020. However, Nreals latest augmented reality glasses have been designed to look as normal sunglasses as much as possible. The company has pitched them as the perfect devices for projecting virtual big-screen displays in front of the wearers eyes. They are therefore designed for binge watching TVs, just like the Nreal Light smart glasses.

Both the Nreal Air and Nreal Light smart glasses leverage microOLED displays for their augmented reality optics. Finally, both mixed reality glasses are powered by a smartphone to which they are tethered via a cable. Both of these glasses are aiming at the consumer market rather than researchers, businesses and the military like other mixed reality hardware.

The feature set in the Nreal Air is, however, different from that in their Nreal Light predecessor. Like the Microsoft HoloLens and Magic Leap hardware, the original Nreal Light mixed reality glasses were capable of mapping the physical space around the wearer by leveraging a set of outward-facing cameras. The new Nreal Air mixed reality glasses do not have the outward-facing cameras feature. While the Air can display both video and phone apps, they are incapable of seeing whats around the wearer and, as a result, they do not have spatial awareness or hand tracking options like their Nreal Light predecessor. Users will be able to control the Nreal Air sunglasses via a smartphone app. This option is also available in the Nreal Light mixed reality glasses.

The Nreal Air smart glasses have the form factor advantage. They are considerably lighter than the Nreal Light sunglasses and weigh just 77 grams. Nreal Light weighs 106 grams.

Besides, the form factor has improved considerably. The Nreal Air mixed reality glasses look like ordinary sunglasses and do not have the bug-eyed look seen in the Light glasses. When seen through the product renders, the Air looks more like the Facebook Ray-Ban Stories without the front-facing cameras. The Facebook Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses have the front-facing cameras but do not have the display and weigh just 50 grams.

The Nreal Air smart glasses allow the wearer to tilt its lenses at three angles. This makes it possible for users to more easily get clearer images.

When the Nreal Light mixed reality glasses launched, they featured support for specific 5G Android phones. The Nreal Air, on the other hand, will be tethered to iPhones, iPads along with most Android devices.

The Nreal Air mixed reality glasses also have a higher screen refresh rate of 90Hz. The pixel density has also increased to 49 PPD. According to Nreal, these glasses will have a field of view of 46 degrees. The Nreal Light have a FOV of 52 degrees. The Airs view is equivalent to that of a 130-inch screen from 3 meters away or a 201-inch screen from 6 meters away.

Through the Airs viewing party option, the screen can be transformed into a shared virtual theater where they can all watch the same media with other viewers who have Nreal glasses.

Nreal is planning on expanding the rollout of the Air glasses in 2022. Although the company is yet to announce any plans to launch in the US market, its sights are set in that market.

The company will also be selling the Nreal Air mixed reality glasses in partnership with leading phone carriers. So far, the company has partnered with Koreas LG Uplus, Germanys Deutsche Telekom, and Japans KDDI.

An Nreal spokesperson stated that the company had built the Air mixed reality glasses upon the realization that most of its users were primarily using the smart glasses either to watch streaming videos (and browse the web to a lesser extent) or to build apps for the platform.

78% of users in Korea used the glasses to watch streaming content. Nreal is responding to consumer demand for lighter and longer lasting AR glasses exclusively for streaming media and working from home, according to the companys founder Chi Xu. Nreal says that the absence of cameras in the Air is good for social acceptability as it will reassure bystanders that the glasses are not an infringement on their privacy.

Nreal is one of the handful of companies currently building consumer glasses. Its experience with the product so far might be a hint at what consumers are looking for when it comes to augmented reality headsets. While the company has been busy launching smart glasses over the past two years, it is yet to make a serious play for true mixed reality experiences that combine real and virtual worlds. Companies like Facebook, Microsoft and Magic Leap have been seriously emphasizing such mixed reality use-cases. Nreal, on the other hand, is taking the simpler approach by going for what people already love: binge watching videos.

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Nreal Unveils its New and Cheaper AR Glasses - Virtual Reality Times

The room is dark. On its floor sits a solitary soccer ball.

Suddenly, a glowing halo envelopes the ball. No matter where its kicked, the halo follows like sorcery. And then the walls light up, becoming giant screens. Thats when I realize this is no ordinary room. Its a giant video game.

[Image: DreamCube]Imagine Guitar Hero. . . but instead of riffing chords, you kick the soccer balland you can kick it as hard as you like, right into the wall of pixels.

The demo Im watching is but one of many possible apps built for DreamCube, an enticing new technology and brand thats already signed deals with the NBA as well as with the Manchester United soccer club. Its not sci-fi; its a real product. A total of 16 DreamCubes are already set up at Manchester United fan centers across China.

[Image: DreamCube]The DreamCube is basically a 256-square-foot virtual reality room. Its something of an oversize interactive cubicle: You step inside, and youre in VRno headset required.

Its powered by a complex set of motion-tracking cameras and projection mapping hardware. Instead of placing you into a VR headset, this system can move pixels around the DreamCube at 240 frames per second (which is four to eight times the visual smoothness offered by modern-day video game consoles).

[Image: DreamCube]It all adds up to a modular, virtual reality box that can be dropped into almost any environment thats in need of a little interactive entertainment, ranging from giant arenas to small bars. But perhaps the most important aspect of the DreamCube is that its only three-sided. The back wall is intentionally left open so that players can watch one another and swap in and out to take turns for a social experience.

Its kind of like a mixture of Topgolf, bowling, and karaoke, says Jake Barton, a co-owner of DreamCube who developed the technology at his firm Local Projects in conjunction with Harves Global Entertainment and the MTM collective. Were also using a lot of VR conventions, but in a way thats communal but not isolating. Its a big investment into physical space, and a [mixed reality] platform that doesnt involve cutting your senses off.

To be fair, many of the core ideas in the DreamCube have been lurking on the fringes of virtual reality R&D for nearly 30 years. In 1992, researchers at the University of Illinois developed the CAVE (which stands for cave automatic immersive environment), ostensibly a bespoke DreamCube with a similar setup of three glowing walls and an interactive floor. In the mid-aughts, Microsoft created a system called Kinect, which could track human bodies in 3D space. Then in 2014, Microsoft Research built the IllumiRoom atop some of that Kinect hardware. The IllumiRoom used projectors to transform any space into a giant, interactive screen.

These approaches were mostly abandoned. Aside from a few companies that are building giant, interactive entertainment spaceslike Illuminariumpersonal electronics have become the name of the game for interactive realities. Today, the HTC Vive and Facebooks Oculus Quest present a world of VR you wear in a headset, and Microsofts HoloLens is a set of glasses that can put holograms into your own environment.

Something was lost in this translation. Early digital reality experiments like the CAVE imagined your physical space as the anchor. Our physical environments are comfortable and social by nature, whereas headsets are essentially the opposite. And even while these headsets are technical marvels, receiving decent adoption from an enthusiast crowd, Barton still wonders if our physical environments are the key to VR.

Theres no such thing as a VR blockbuster, Barton points out. If the pandemic cant create that for VR, what the heck is going to? Theres clearly something [bad] about being alone and isolated. Even [sitting] alone in a room, your senses are occluded [by a headset].

[Image: DreamCube]Barton understands the importance of immersive space more than most people. At Local Projects (which was Fast Companys 2021 Design Company of the Year), Barton has spearheaded projects like the 9/11 Memorial and Museum, which mixed physical artifacts from 9/11 with all sorts of sounds and visualizations to contextualize the tragedy. More recently, Local Projects led the development of Planet Word, a museum full of magical opportunities, such as the ability to place a paper book onto a table only to have it come to life and tell its own story.

The DreamCube is a way to scale the bespoke interactive experiences that Local Projects developed largely for museums into a mass-produced, self-contained pod that can be dropped almost anywhere. The design of the cube itself is an important point. The technology is all squeezed into the ceiling, while the walls are just ordinary walls. Its a stark contrast to large-scale spaces like the $30 million Illuminarium, which require a massive retail footprint. Meanwhile, a DreamCube can fit inside most standard buildings (and its actually designed to squeeze perfectly into Chinas modern building code).

For now, DreamCube has signed two powerhouse franchises in sportsthe NBA and Manchester United. The Manchester United experience includes the aforementioned Guitar Hero soccer game. The NBA experience is yet to be revealed. While the company has a footprint already in China, its eyeing the U.S., Europe, the Middle East, and Africa for expansion.

The immediate [potential] is fan activations and short-term experiences, says Francis Person, CEO of DreamCube Innovations. But this also goes to trends weve seen accelerated by COVID. . . . Theres a need for malls and arenas to have properties that are communal, where people go out to shop and spend time.

So in the short term, DreamCube will entice partners in live entertainment, like sports and music, filling unused corners of stadiums with another draw aside from the main event itself. And in places like China, DreamCube will be a way for fans who live abroad to get a small taste of their favorite sports. But longer term, Barton and Person imagine that DreamCube could scale, getting more and more apps (created in-house or licensed by third parties). While its high-tech, the actual social experience of DreamCube would feel a lot like karaoke or bowling does today. People could watch one another play, then step up and take their turn.

In any neighborhood suburb, you could throw this in [a bar]. On an NFL Sunday, you could track players, you could have a matrix with different games going on, Person says. You could imagine this tied to fantasy sports . . . [but] you could be watching Jay-Z live in Brooklyn, too! Theres infinite capabilities.

Link:

See the DreamCube, the immersive spectacle that's like walking into a video game - Fast Company