Category Archives: Virtual Reality

DUBLIN--(BUSINESS WIRE)--The "Virtual Reality Content Creation Market by Content Type, Component, and End-use Sector: Global Opportunity Analysis and Industry Forecast, 2019-2026" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

According to this report, the virtual reality content creation market size was valued at $431.3 million in 2018, and is projected to reach $46.5 billion by 2026, growing at a CAGR of 77.10% from 2019 to 2026.

Virtual reality (VR) is a virtual environment that is created by computer-generated simulations. VR devices replicate the real-time environment into the virtual environment. For example, the driving simulators in VR headsets provide actual simulations of driving a vehicle by displaying vehicular motion and corresponding visual, motion, and audio indications to the driver. These simulations are high definition content known as VR content, which are developed with the help of software that creates three-dimensional environment or videos. Thus, the virtual reality content creation market growth is expected to rise at a significant rate in the coming years owing to proliferation of VR devices in diverse industries. The VR content is created in two different ways. First, the VR content is produced by taking 360-degree immersive videos with the help of 360-degree camera, which has high definition such as 4K resolution. Secondly, the content is produced by making a 3-dimensional (3D) animation with the help of advanced and interactive software applications.

Rise in demand for high quality content such as 4K among individuals coupled with high availability of cost efficient VR devices are major factors expected to drive the growth of the global virtual reality content creation market during the forecast period. Ongoing modernization of visual display electronics such as TV, desktops, and others are proliferating the demand for VR content owing to its ability to adapt to surrounding environments displaying systems and provide virtual simulations. Moreover, rise in sales of head mounted display (HMDs) especially in gaming and entertainment sector is another factor anticipated to propel the growth of the global virtual reality content creation market. However, concerns associated with VR content piracy is a factor that hampers the growth of the global virtual reality content creation market to a certain extent. Furthermore, rise in diversification applications of VR in various industries is an opportunistic factor for the players operating in the market, which in turn is expected to fuel the growth of the global market.

KEY BENEFITS FOR STAKEHOLDERS

Key Finding of The Virtual Reality Content Creation Market:

By content type, the videos segment dominated the virtual reality content creation market. However, the 360 degree photos segment is expected to exhibit significant growth during the forecast period in the virtual reality content creation industry.

Based on component, the software segment accounted for the highest revenue in 2018.

Depending on industry vertical, the gaming industry generated the highest revenue in 2018. However, healthcare sector is expected to witness considerable growth in the near future.

Major players operating in this market have witnessed high growth in demand for high quality virtual reality content especially due to rise in consumers demand for virtual reality applications. This study includes virtual reality content creation market analysis, trends, and future estimations to determine the imminent investment pockets.

Key Topics Covered:

Chapter 1: Introduction

1.1. Report Description

1.2. Key Benefits For Stakeholders

1.3. Key Market Segments

1.4. Key Market Players

1.5. Research Methodology

Chapter 2: Executive Summary

2.1. Key Findings

2.2. Cxo Perspective

Chapter 3: Market Overview

3.1. Market Definition And Scope

3.2. Key Forces Shaping The Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market

3.3. Value Chain Analysis

3.4. Case Studies

3.5. Impact of Government Regulations On The Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market

3.6. Market Dynamics

3.7. Industry Roadmap of Virtual Reality Content Creation Market

3.8. Patent Analysis

Chapter 4: Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market, By Content Type

4.1. Overview

4.2. Videos

4.3. 360 Degree Photos

4.4. Games

Chapter 5: Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market, By Component

5.1. Overview

5.2. Software

5.3. Services

Chapter 6: Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market, By End-User

6.1. Overview

6.2. Real Estate

6.3. Travel And Hospitality

6.4. Media And Entertainment

6.5. Healthcare

6.6. Retail

6.7. Gaming

6.8. Automotive

6.9. Others

Chapter 7: Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market, By Region

7.1. Overview

7.2. North America

7.3. Europe

7.4. Asia-Pacific

7.5. LAMEA

Chapter 8: Competitive Landscape

8.1. Market Share Analysis, 2018

8.2. Competitive Dashboard

Chapter 9: Company Profiles

9.1. 360 Labs

9.2. Blippar

9.3. Koncept Vr

9.4. Matterport, Inc.

9.5. Panedia Pty Ltd

9.6. Pixvana Inc.

9.7. Scapic

9.8. Subvrsive

9.9. Viar

9.10. Wemakevr

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/lpkb3s

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Global Virtual Reality Content Creation Market Expected to Grow with a CAGR of 77.10% Over the Forecast Period, 2019-2026 - ResearchAndMarkets.com -...

Thirty years ago, designers and scientists talked about simulations as though they faced a choice about using them. These days there is no pretense of choice. Theories are tested in simulation; the design of research laboratories takes shape around simulation and visualization technologies. This is true of all fields, but the case of nuclear weapons design is dramatic because here scientists are actually prohibited from testing weapons in the physical realm.

In 1992, the United States instituteda ban on nuclear testing.In the years before the ban, frequent physical tests, first above ground and then underground at the Nevada Nuclear Test Site, provided weapons designers with a place to do basic research. Through tests they developed their scientific intuitions even as they reassured themselves that their weapons worked.More than this, the tests compelled a respect for the awesome power of nuclear detonations. Many testified to the transformative power of such witnessing.

In the years after the 1992 ban, newcomers to the field of nuclear weapons design would see explosions only on computer screens and in virtual reality chambers.AtLawrence LivermoreandLos Alamos National Laboratories, some of the most powerful computer systems in the world are used to simulate nuclear explosions. Until recently, these simulations took place in two dimensions; now, simulations are moving into three dimensions.In a virtual reality chamber at Los Alamos known as aCAVE(an acronym for Cave Automatic Virtual Environment), one stands "inside" a nuclear explosion wearing 3D goggles, in order to observe it, one is tempted to say, "peacefully." The CAVE simulation is there to "demo" an explosion; those who work there become accustomed to experiencing in the virtual what could never be survived in the real.

When nuclear testing moved underground, it became easier for weapons designers to distance themselves from the potential consequences of their art. Hidden, the bomb became more abstract. But even underground testing left craters and seismic convulsions. It scarred the landscape. Now, with explosions taking place on hard drives and in virtual reality chambers, how much harder will it be for weapons scientists to confront the destructive power of their work and its ethical implications?One weapons designer at Livermore laments that he has only once experienced "physical verification" after a nuclear test, he told me at aworkshop on simulation and visualization in 2003.He had "paced off the crater" produced by the blast. It changed him forever. His younger colleagues will not have that.

This senior scientist is concerned about the moral effects of moving nuclear weapons research to virtual space, but he and hiscolleagues are also troubled about the effects of virtuality on their science itself. They argue that "physical intuition is a skill you want to keep," as one told me, and worry that the enthusiastic reactions of young designers to new, flashy virtual reality demonstrations are nave. One says: "The young designers look at anything new and they say, 'This is so much better than what we had before. We can throw out everything we did before!'" Senior scientists at the national laboratories describe young designers immersed in simulation as "drunk drivers." Within simulation, the happily inebriated show less judgment but think they are doing fine. Dr. Adam Luft, a senior weapons designer at Los Alamos, shows sympathy for the young designers: The new rules compel them to fly blindly. They cannot test their weapons because they must work in the virtual and they are given computer systems whose underlying programs are hard to access. Luft himself feels confident only if he is able to access underlying code. He is frustrated by the increasingly opaque simulations of his work environment. When something goes wrong in a simulation, he wants to "dig in" and test aspects of the system against others. Only a transparent system "lets [me] wander around the guts of [a] simulation." He is wary of making any change to a weapon without personally writing its code. Luft worries that when scientists no longer understand the inner workings of their tools, they have lost the basis for trust in their scientific findings, a concern that mirrors those of MIT designers and scientists of thirty years before.

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Across professions, successful simulation gives the sense that digital objects are ready-to-hand. Some users find these interfaces satisfying. Others, like Luft, focused on transparency, are not so happy. They look askance at younger designers who are not concerned about whether they wrote or have even seen underlyingcode. One of Luft's colleagues at Los Alamos describes his "fear" of young designers: "[They are] good at using these codes, but they know the guts a lot less than they should. The older generation all did write a code from scratch. The younger generation didn't write their code. They grabbed it from somebody else and they made some modifications, but they didn't understand every piece of the code." He speaks with respect of "legacy codes," the old programs on which the new programs are built. "You can't throw away things too early," he says. "There is something you can get from [the legacy codes] that will help you understand the new codes."

* * *

At Livermore, in 2005, a legendary senior weapons designer Seymour Sack was preparing to retire. At an MIT workshop, his colleagues discussed this retirement and referred to it as "a blow." They were anxious about more than the loss of one man's ability to make individual scientific contributions. He had irreplaceable knowledge about the programming that supported current practice, one weapons designer told anthropologist Hugh Gusterson, who publisheda paperon the topic of scientific involution across generations of nuclear science.His colleagues fretted: "He has such a great memory that he hasn't written down lots of important stuff. How will people know it?"

The response to this scientist's imminent retirement was a movement to videotape him and all the other scientists who were about to leave service. This was no ordinary oral history. It was infused with anxiety. Those who know only the top layer of programs feel powerful because they can do amazing things. But they are dependent on those who can go deeper. So those who feel most powerful also feel most vulnerable.

Nuclear weapons design is divided by dramatic generational markers: Some designers grew up with routine underground testing, some glimpsed it, some have only experienced virtual explosions. Some designers were trained to program their own simulations,some simply "grab code" from other people and are unfazed by the opaque. Yet when Luft sums up attitudes toward simulation in his field, he makes it clear that the wide range of opinion does not reduce to simple generational criteria. The cultures of weapons laboratories are also in play. For example, at Livermore, older weapons scientists who were very hostile to simulation became far more positive when the laboratory adopted a new metaphor for weapons design. Livermore began to liken weapons design to bridge building. According to this way of thinking, engineers do not need to "test" a bridge before building it: One is confident in its design algorithms and how they can be represented in the virtual.

At Livermore, the change of metaphor made simulation seem a reasonable venue for weapons testing. And at Los Alamos, there are younger scientists who find themselves eloquent critics of immersive virtual reality displays. One says: "I was so attuned to making plots on my computer screen. I was surprised at how little new I learned from [the RAVE]." (The RAVE is the nickname for Los Alamos's virtual CAVE technology.) This designer complains about not being able to work analytically in the RAVE; others say that it gives them a feeling of disorientation that they cannot shake. In the RAVE, scientists work in a closed world with rigorous internal consistency, where it is not always easy to determine what is most relevant to the real. For some younger scientists, even those who grew up in the world of immersive video games, the RAVE seems too much its own reality.

Across fields, scientists, engineers, and designers have described the gains that simulation has offered from buildings that would never have been dared to drugs that would never have been developed. And they also describe the anxiety of reality blur, that "breakingpoint" where the observer loses a sense of moorings, bereft of real-world referents and precedents.And the very complexity of simulations can make it nearly impossible to test their veracity: "You just can't check every differential equation," says Luft. He pauses, and says again, "You just can't, there are just too many." In nuclear weapons design you can make sure that you have solved equations correctly and that your system has internal consistency. In other words, you can "verify." But he adds, "validation is the hard part. That is, are you solving therightequations?" In the end, says Luft, "Proof is not an option."

NOTE:All participants in the several studies that led to "Simulation and Its Discontents," from which this article is excerpted, are granted anonymity, usually by simply identifying them as professor or student, or as a practicing scientist, engineer, or designer. When particular individuals take ongoing roles in my narrative, I provide them with pseudonyms for clarity.

This article is adapted from Sherry Turkle's book "Simulation and Its Discontents."

* * *

Sherry Turkle is the Abby Rockefeller Mauz Professor of the Social Studies of Science and Technology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She is the author and editor of several books, including "Reclaiming Conversation," "Alone Together," "The Inner History of Devices," "Evocative Objects," and "Simulation and Its Discontents," from which this article is excerpted.

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Virtual nuclear weapons design and the blur of reality - Salon

The VR industry might be seeing a sluggish growth but there are areas of the ecosystem that are seeing some good traction. One of the best ways to see how the industry is performing is by looking at the revenues generated by the top VR titles. VR Fun investor Tipatat Chennavasin has an analysis of the Virtual Reality industry that reveals the year 2019 as a significant inflection point for the industry. According to the analysis, 106 VR titles generated more than $1 million in revenues during that year.

According to Chennavasin, we are likely going to see the first $100 million VR title this year. The analysis was published early this month and was based on the data from the major Virtual Reality storefronts including PlayStation Network, Steam, Oculus PC and Oculus Rift. The data is also based on developer insights. According to the analysis, half of the top-grossing VR titles came in the past 12 months.

The top seven titles in the analysis generated more than $10 million in revenues. The leading VR title grossed $60 million. Chennavasin expects a VR title to hit the $100 million milestone by this time next year.

According to the analyst, the number of Virtual Reality titles that gross $1 million or more is an important data point as it shows that success in the industry is repeatable and that VR is no longer just the developers domain but a platform that provides real business opportunity.

The analyst estimates that Virtual Reality game revenues hit $300 million in 2019 across various platforms. This was a major rise in revenues compared to the previous years. The surge was partly boosted by Oculus Quest as well as by considerable growth in other VR platforms.

For more data and analysis on the state of Virtual Reality from the analysts point of view, you can read his report here.

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106 VR Titles Generated More than $1 Million in Revenues in 2019 - Virtual Reality Times

How many of us have been present at the dawn (or recurring dawn) of a new technology or approach, excited by the promise it holds and certain, deep in our minds, that this device or service is special, harbouring the power to transform teaching and learning? Gazing into the crystal ball and emerging with the right answer is one of technologys most complex tricks.

History shows us that the answer is rarely no. We are all too convinced by our own enthusiasm that we assume is shared by every teacher around the globe, and so we push our chosen platforms and technologies with tweets and impassioned speeches. This Darwinian survival of the fittest is a constant and necessary process to refine and select those that can really make a difference.

In the late 1990s I was fortunate to be working alongside ICL (International Computers Limited) in Liverpool on an education initiative powered by innovation and technology. I had the chance to put on a VR headset that was so heavy it almost broke my neck, but it also blew my mind. I was in a world of giant blocks that looked like trees and rocks and a dinosaur that wouldnt look out of place in Minecraft, but with much lower resolution. Back then, it was a stunning vision of the future and much was made across the globe of the new virtual world we would all soon inhabit, not to mention the dangers that lurked therein and the certain demise of our social fabric as we retreated from actual reality (where do I sign up?). The answer to the question of whether this was a new pedagogical dawn was a resigned and forced no when we learnt of the enormous costs and technical barriers of bringing it into the classroom.

But that was the 20th century. Fast forward to the 21st century and thanks to Moores Law, the technology required is exponentially more powerful and affordable. We have the ability to trick our minds via our physical senses, convincing ourselves that something is happening when its most definitely not: that the object appearing through the lens of the tablet is really there, or that your body is in motion when you are stationary; that the thing you can hear behind you really is breathing down your neck. Thrills and gimmicks can have a place in the classroom, but they have a fleeting and elusive impact, hard to grab hold of and utilise for learning as it rapidly dissipates. Careful planning is required to unashamedly manipulate the receiving brains into contextualising the power of immersion.

In Discovery Educations immersive studio, we have long held two basic questions in mind: the first is So what?. We must have a compelling, learning outcome-based reason to go to the effort and expense of crafting immersion. Conversely, teachers must have a compelling reason to use them.

You might also like: Industry must get hands-on to plug the tech skills gap

As we graduate from virtual reality rollercoasters and 3D augmented reality planets hovering over a page, we start to appreciate the power true immersion can have. If we promise to take pupils on an impossible field trip to the lunar surface in the footsteps of the Apollo programme, its got to deliver on many fronts 2D, 360-degree photographs will only get you so far and will leave a moderate impression. But if you recreate the lunar surface accurately in 3D, overlay the actual audio from mission control in gorgeous 3D ambisonic sound and then let users walk, explore and interact. Interesting things start to happen. Feed in the narrative of the bold, vast, audacious and beautiful ambition to go to the moon alongside the magnificent desolation of the lunar surface, as described by Buzz Aldrin. Put a child (or adult) in the virtual seat of the lunar rover from Apollo 15 and observe their absolute belief that they are driving it in the foothills of the lunar Apennine mountain range 250,000 miles away. The wonder and emotional response is real and a precursor to what follows.

Using well designed and integrated augmented reality (AR) has an equally powerful immersive effect. Immersion occurs when a persons senses are displaced, even overwhelmed, by something completely out of the ordinary appearing, almost magically in front of their eyes. As the science fiction writer and futurist Arthur C. Clarke famously exclaimed, any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. Using AR to replace the surface of a desk with a mountain range, or the sports hall with the surface of Mars, creates powerful moments of magic. In the ever-skilled hands of a teacher, our second guiding question, What next? comes into play. Whether using augmented or virtual technology, we are enhancing reality and amplifying the learning experience.

Any teacher will tell you that when pupils lean into a concept or experience, an opportunity arises to capitilise and exploit the immersive effect. Immersion embeds knowledge, sometimes indelibly. When a child sees an abstract fossil transform, seemingly in real life in front of them, into a living creature from our prehistoric past, they remember the moment and in doing so, file away the knowledge surrounding it; the name, the science, the period. It can even spark a love of learning based on that topic.

We cant use these techniques every day and they must be carefully deployed. When we use them effectively, pupils emerge from these atmospheric, inspiring experiences ready to write, paint, create and talk about what they have just lived. They are ready to learn. They have been there, seen something different and they have a perspective to share with the world. Let them loose and express it any way they can.

Explore Discovery Educations immersive learning experiences at: discoveryeducation.co.uk/immersive-experiences

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Immersive learning: the power of enhanced reality - Education Technology

Tucked away in an office on a quiet Los Angeles street, past hallways chockablock with miniature props and movie posters, is a cavernous motion-capture studio. And in that studio is the National Mall in Washington, D.C., in 1963, on the day Martin Luther King Jr. delivered his I Have a Dream speech.

Or rather, it was inside that room that the visual-effects studio Digital Domain captured the expressions, movements and spirit of King, so that he could appear digitally in The March, a virtual reality experience that TIME has produced in partnership with the civil rights leaders estate. The experience, which is executiveproduced and narrated by actor Viola Davis, draws on more than a decade of research in machine learning and human anatomy to create a visually striking re-creation of the countrys National Mall circa 1963and of King himself.

When work on the project began more than three years ago, a big question needed answering. Was the existing technology capable of accomplishing the projects goalsnot just creating a stunningly realistic digital human, but doing so in a way that met the standards demanded by the subject matter? And Alton Glass, who co-created The March with TIMEs Mia Tramz, points out that another goal was just as key: the creation of what Glass calls a prosthetic memorysomething people can use to see a famous historic moment through a different perspective, to surround themselves with those who were willing to make sacrifices in the past for the sake of a more inclusive future. When you watch these stories, theyre more powerful, says Glass, because youre actually experiencing them instead of reading about them.

Back in the late 90s, when Digital Domain used motion-capture footage of stunt performers falling onto airbags to create Titanics harrowing scene of passengers jumping from the doomed ship, digitizing those stunts required covering each actors body with colorful tape and other markers for reference. To animate faces, an actors would be covered with anywhere from a dozen to hundreds of marker dots, used to map their features to a digital one. On the double, those points would be moved manually, frame by frame, to create expressions. That arduous task was essential to avoid falling into the so-called uncanny valley, a term referring to digital or robotic humans that look just wrong enough to be unsettling. The work has gotten easier over the yearsthe company turned to automation for help making the Avengers baddie Thanosbut remains far from simple.

Step Into History: Learn how to experience the 1963 March on Washington in virtual reality

Calling on the artists behind a fantastical being like Thanos might seem like an unusual choice for a project that needed to be closely matched to real history, but similar know-how is needed, says Peter Martin, CEO of the virtual- and experience-focused creative agency V.A.L.I.S. studio, which partnered with TIME and Digital Domain.

Re-creating the 1963 March on Washington would still stretch the bounds of that experience. For one thing, virtual reality raises its own obstacles. High-end VR headsets that fit over your face achieve their graphical quality via a wired connection to a pricey gaming computer. The March is presented in a museum with high-powered computers, but a wireless option is needed to allow users to more easily move around in that space. It took Digital Domains technology director Lance Van Nostrand months to create a system that would solve for wirelessness without compromising quality.

Motion capture actors perform for the virtual-reality experience The March on a soundstage at the Digital Domain studios in Los Angeles.

Dustin Bath

Considering the difficulties of traveling back in time to August 1963, Digital Domain sent a crew to the National Mall and used photogrammetrya method of extracting measurements and other data from photographsto digitally map the site of the march. Hours of research went into transforming that data into a vision of the mall from five decades ago, checking the period accuracy of every building, bus or streetlight set to be digitized. Activists who participated in the real march were consulted, as were historians, to help re-create the feeling of being there, and archived audio recordings from that day fleshed out the virtual environment.

And then there was the I Have a Dream speech. Generally, to control digital doppelgngers, an actor dons a motion-capture suit along with a head-mounted camera pointed at the face. Where hundreds of dots were once necessary to chart facial movements, todays real-time face tracking uses computer vision to map a persons facein this case, that of motivational speaker Stephon Ferguson, who regularly performs orations of Kings speeches. The digital re-creation of the civil rights leader requires of its audience the same thing Fergusons rendition does: a suspension of disbelief and an understanding that, while you may not be seeing the person whose words youre hearing, this is perhaps the closest youll ever get to the feeling of listening to King speak to you.

Even so, it took seven animators nearly three months to perfect Kings movements during the segment of his speech that is included in the experience, working with character modelers to capture his likeness as well as his mannerisms, including his facial tics and saccadesunconscious, involuntary eye movements.

You cannot have a rubbery Dr. King delivering this speech as though he was in Call of Duty, says The Marchs lead producer, Ari Palitz of V.A.L.I.S. It needed to look like Dr. King.

Digital life after death has raised ethical questions before, especially when figures have been used in ways that seemed out of keeping with their real inspirations. King isnt the first person to be digitally reanimated, and he wont be the last, so these questions will only become more common, says Jeremy Bailenson, founder of Stanfords Virtual Human Interaction Lab. What to do with ones digital footprint over time has got to be a part of the conversation about ones estate, he says. It is your estate; it is your digital legacy.

So for The March, though some creative license was takenthe timeline of the day is compressed, for exampleevery gesture King made had to be based on the truth. Only then would the result be, in its own way, true.

In Los Angeles last December, I put on the headset to see a partially completed version of the entire experience, including a one-on-one with the virtual King, represented as a solitary figure on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial. I gazed at his face in motion, and noticed a mole on his left cheek. It was inconspicuous, the black pinpoint accenting his face. I stepped forward.

When I approached the podium, I was met with a surpriseDr. King looking right at me. His eyes were piercing, his face a mixture of confidence, austerity and half a million polygons optimized for viewing in a VR headset. He appeared frozen in time, and I found myself without words. Meeting his gaze was more challenging than Id assumed it would be.

It was then I realized how my view of him had been, for my whole life, flattened. Id experienced his presence in two dimensions, on grainy film or via big-budget reenactments. How striking to see him, arms outstretched, voice booming in my ears, in three dimensions, all in living color. This is awesome, I eked out. He didnt hear me.

This image is created from a historically precise 3-D rendering of Martin Luther King Jr. from The March, a virtual reality experience

Portrait for TIME by Hank Willis Thomas and Digital Domain

This article is part of a special project about equality in America today. Read more about The March, TIMEs virtual reality re-creation of the 1963 March on Washington and sign up for TIMEs history newsletter for updates.

Thank you! For your security, we've sent a confirmation email to the address you entered. Click the link to confirm your subscription and begin receiving our newsletters. If you don't get the confirmation within 10 minutes, please check your spam folder.

Write to Patrick Lucas Austin at patrick.austin@time.com.

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How TIME Re-created the 1963 March on Washington in Virtual Reality - TIME

Max Maccarone and Oli Garner, content editors at training portalfindcourses.co.uk, discuss the uses of virtual reality when training medical professionals.

Technological innovation has quickly emerged as one of the most important and pressing topics for organisations of all sectors. While there are plenty of movements calling for the use of innovative technologies in training across industries in the UK, many healthcare professionals may be flying blind when it comes to VRs potential to innovate the medical training landscape.

The drive to integrate technology and training, however, is continuously growing. The2019 L&D Report from findcourses.com finds that companies with revenue growth are more than twice as likely to use innovative technologies like game-based learning and augmented reality in their L&D offering. More companies and institutions than ever appear to be ready to call upon innovative technologies like virtual reality to enhance the impact of their L&D programs and affect their employees innovative potential from the ground up.

No longer used exclusively to train in the military, aviation, and heavy industry sectors, companies are finding exciting new applications for virtual reality at a rapid pace. As the technology develops further, the limits of your own imagination become the only constraint.

Move forward with VR

As we settle into the new decade, the growing importance of technology for the healthcare industry in the UK cant be overstated. Its predicted that the UK digital healthcare market will reach $28.3 billion by 2025. The UK governments Long Term Plan in conjunction with the Accelerated Access Collaborative cements digital healthcare not as a trend, but as a new reality for medical training.

Director of employee experience at Bonobos Tiffany Poppa finds that when it comes to training: Focussing on strengths creates trust; it creates a safe space to try something and possibly fail, have a conversation about it, and move forward.

Technology is here to stay and clearing the innovation pathway for Virtual Reality has already begun. Training in healthcare requires giving medical professionals the tools they need to minimise potential risk factors in practice. With so much at stake, VR has the potential to give practising healthcare professionals the ability to feel safe in the training room in a realistic environment as possible.

A growing innovation

Innovations by companies like FundamentalVR illustrate the global and growing excitement surrounding VR in healthcare. The companys Fundamental Surgery Education platform recently finished a funding round with a post-money valuation of 11.3 million.

Tern CEO Al Sisto, one of Fundamental VRs main investors explained that:Changing the approach to learning and deploying new procedures and products in the world of healthcare is of critical importance for everyones future and FundamentalVR is leading the way.

Utilising VR as a training solution

By harnessing the technology of VR, medical trainers have an opportunity to complement existing training by allowing employees to do something thats relatively rare when it comes traditional learning avenues in the medical profession. VR essentially offers medical professionals the opportunity to rehearse and tailor new skills and knowledge in an extremely realistic environment without the associated risks.

According to Danny Belch, the chief strategy officer at STRIVR, VRs ability to allow employees to practice their learning in a safe environment is what makes it such a rich complement to D&I training.

Belch said: With VR, because of the on-demand nature, a real-life experience can be fired up with a click of a button.

You can now practice these situations. You can get a legitimate lifelike scenario with full end-to-end practice. Its not role play. Its alone and the stakes are free. You have this beautifully free space to practice, to stumble on your words.

The interactive nature of VR training transforms skills development into an impactful, risk-free training experience. In short, VR technology enhances conventional medical training because it provides an experiential mode of learning that simulates real-life medical practice, creating a safer environment for trainees to take lessons learned in training into their careers.

Room for growth

The possibilities are truly endless. Better understanding and willingness to implement this technology leads to faster, more sustainable business growth and room for future innovation. Regulatory bodies are already beginning to incorporate VR into legislation and risk-mitigation initiatives.

Embracing the innovations coming out of med-tech will continue to be a crucial ingredient for success, and VR offers an effective and increasingly accessible medium for achieving this. With every step taken to implement the latter, businesses amplify the potential benefits they stand to gain from developing a medical training program for trainees of any and all level.

Because of its versatility and proven effectiveness, virtual reality will continue to have a presence in the realm of professional training in general. Its accessibility to such a wide variety of healthcare professionals indicates that the applications for VR in the medical field can help training for every level, position and learning style in the field.

As VR technology continues to develop, learn how to effectively train employees to find opportunities to bring your new VR knowledge to your organisation yourself. Furthermore, through the normalisation of VR in the healthcare industry innovative companies will have an increased ability to illustrate VRs limitless potential to medical trainees across the healthcare sector.

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Virtual Reality: A new reality for learning and development training - Med-Tech Innovation

At Penn State, professor Alexander Klippel and instructional designer Amy Kuntz collaborated to build an entry-level course that aims to prepare students for their mixed-reality futures. The course, Immersive Technologies: Transforming Society Through Digital Innovation, or GEOG 107N, is open to students of all majors at the university.

Theres a universal need across the academic spectrum for understanding this technology and what it means for researchers to have this potential now available, says Klippel. We are able to teach people to create immersive experiences immersive content outside of a computer science department.

Penn State boasts several VR-equipped spaces, including the IMEX Lab, where students use VR headsets in the Pinwheel Theater while safely seated in swivel chairs, and the Dreamery, where headsets are tethered to computer units.

The universitys VR inventory also includes headsets with inside-out tracking, in which the camera is placed on the headset rather than on a fixed point in the environment to provide greater mobility. That means users can also work with VR environments outside the lab setting.

In designing the GEOG 107N course, Kuntz was careful to define clear goals and objectives that would serve to guide instructors integration of mixed reality technologies.

Good teaching is good teaching, whether youre using technology or not, she says. When were integrating these leading-edge technologies, we make sure there is real alignment to the objectives, to the course content, to the learning activities and to the assessment of the students.

Hoover agrees, seeing an incredible diversity ahead.

I think theres an application for almost every class, says Hoover, citing use cases for mass communications and exploratory writing. It definitely opens your eyes and enhances the learning experience.

With universities just beginning to explore VRs potential, Craig and Georgieva are excited to see what the future holds. While science and medical departments, in particular, have been early adopters, they are especially interested in use cases beyond those fields.

Were really going to see a profound impact when we start to integrate it into the humanities and social sciences, says Craig. There will be new ways to bring experience into the learning environment, and thats a significant shift in the paradigm.

When Digital Bodies first began presenting on VR at conferences in 2013, educators most common reaction was that the technology was compelling, but its application was way off in the future. Craig and Georgieva routinely countered that assumption, telling their colleagues that the future was coming faster than they thought.

Today, institutions like CSU, ULM and Penn State are proving them right.

With XR, were learning how to collaborate and connect with others in ways that will fundamentally transform our human experience, Georgieva says.

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Virtual Reality Advances Bring New Possibilities to Higher Education - EdTech Magazine: Focus on Higher Education

Tucked away in the National Museum of African American Culture and Historys collections is a white metal pinback button from the August 28, 1963, March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom. At its center, an illustration of the United States Capitol hovers over blue text declaring, I was there.

Protestors attending the march sported this and other 25-cent buttons to raise awareness of racial inequality experienced by African Americans, as well as Congress longstanding failure to pass civil rights legislation.

[The buttons] were a way of putting on your own body your thoughts, your values, says William Pretzer, the museums senior curator for history. But in order for somebody else to know those values, they had to be up close to you physically. And sometimes you want to bring people up close to those objects.

Thanks to The March, an upcoming virtual reality exhibit centered on the 1963 protest, these buttons are set to take on a whole new meaning. Debuting February 28 at the DuSable Museum of African American History, a Smithsonian affiliate in Chicago, the interactive experience brings an array of close-up details to life, giving museumgoers the opportunity to join the narrative and say, I was there, too.

Created in collaboration with Time Studios, the ten-minute VR exhibit recreates Martin Luther King Jr.s iconic I Have a Dream speech. The March, which marks the first-ever virtual reality depiction of King, also allows visitors to walk alongside a crowd of more than 250,000 peaceful protestors gathered in the nations capital to hear the civil rights activist speak.

The goal with this project is to take an event in our history that is so famous and so often misunderstood, and put you in the middle of it, says Mia Tramz, co-creator of The March and Times editorial director of immersive experiences, to have you understand not just what it was, but the power of nonviolent protest and our right to assemble as Americans to make change in our country.

The March features around 25 to 30 minutes of education, immersive realism and reflection. First, visitors enter a sound bath spatial audio experience where they hear from the likes of Rosa Parks attorney Fred Gray; Freedom Rider Henry Hank James Thomas; and Reverend Gwendolyn Cook Webb, a participant in the Birmingham Childrens Crusade. Then, they are transported to the heart of the 1963 march, becoming a member of the crowd fighting for racial equality and a witness to one of the greatest speeches in United States history. Viola Davis, actress and executive producer of The March, serves as participants narrator, guiding them through the VR exhibit.

After exiting the virtual world, visitors can reflect on their experience by speaking with Joyce Ladner, an organizer and activist who attended the March on Washington, via an artificial intelligence interview portal. In total, says Tramz, Ladner recorded around eight hours worth of dialogue.

More than 200 people from seven different companies collaborated to virtually render the events of 1963, according to Tramz. Digital Domain, a visual effects and production company known for its work on The Curious Case of Benjamin Button, Titanic and the Marvel Cinematic Universe, built the groundbreaking digital recreation of King and the surrounding scene. Using a custom-built wireless headset that renders King in real time, visitors will be able to walk around the famous activist and observe him up close as he gives his speech.

Animators spent nearly three months perfecting Kings likeness and mannerisms, reports Patrick Lucas Austin for Time.

You cannot have a rubbery Dr. King delivering this speech as though he was in Call of Duty, lead producer Ari Palitz tells Time. It needed to look like Dr. King.

Because the bulk of the virtual reality exhibit is centered on the crowds marching down Constitution Avenue and the National Mall, the team opted to individualize each scene. Rather than replicating a set of moments, says Tramz, Digital Domain scanned unique performances of 80 actors in hopes of achieving a sense of realism and historical accuracy.

One of these actors, 8-year-old LaVell Thompson, brought a personal connection to the project. His great-grandfather, 90-year-old Reverend Jeffrey Joseph, attended the 1963 march and stood about 50 feet from King during his speech. To pay tribute to this multigenerational experience, says Alton Glass, co-creator of The March and founder of GRX Immersive Labs, specialists captured footage of Thompson and Joseph walking down Constitution Avenue together.

Says Glass, [The exhibit] gives you an opportunity to bridge the gap between the youth and older people who have experienced the civil rights movement, and to have a deeper conversation about these experiences.

What makes The March truly groundbreaking is its array of authentic details. Time Studios pulled data from original photographs and drew on vintage clothing from the time period to create actors costumes. These detailed outfits, including dresses, suits and police uniforms, were then scanned into the game engine to simulate the attendees Sundays best, according to Glass.

Another crucial element of the exhibit is its audio components. The March will showcase a rare recording of Kings speech from the Motown Museums Detroit archives; the audio, taken from one of the master tapes recorded directly at the podium, is much clearer than the scratchy footage heard by the majority of the crowd. When participants are standing in the crowd, says Tramz, theyll hear the real voices of the men and women who attended the march, as captured in reporter Walter Nixons previously unreleased tapes.

Listen closely, and you may even hear cicadas hissinga specific detail brought to light by the new project.

As technology continues to evolve and push boundaries, museums are often among the first on the front lines. For Sara Snyder, chief of external affairs and digital strategies at the Smithsonian American Art Museum and Renwick Gallery, virtual reality has become an important tool for building the most memorable user experiences.

When youre in a virtual reality world you get to break the rules of time and space, says Snyder. For storytellers, this is an incredible platform that they have at their disposal now to be able to create experiences for visitors and for users.

Attracting the next generation of learners will push museums in new directions, according to Pretzer.

[A]s audience experiences change over time, he says, their expectations of a museum experience change over time.

Through virtual reality, the education industry faces a promising disruption: Younger audiences now have the opportunity to feel a deeper level of emotion and empathy than that sparked by distant words in a textbook.

I do think you will see a flowering of museum virtual reality projects in the future, says Snyder. In the beginning, its still very expensive to produce the 3-D world in a way that is realistic. But in the future, those costs will also go down and you'll see an increase and a flourishing in creativity in that space.

To Tramz, The March paves the way for a broader understanding of how to give meaning to historical movementsand their momentsthat become difficult to grasp as time passes.

Our hope is, as creators of this project, that you walk out of this experience, not only understanding the march and the civil rights movement in a different way, she says, but really understanding the shoulders that we stand on today, the work that was done that led to where were at currently.

The March is on view at the DuSable Museum of African American History in Chicago from February 28 to November 2020.

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This Virtual Reality Exhibit Brings Martin Luther King Jr.'s 'I Have a Dream' Speech to Life - Smithsonian.com

The first Witcher game wasn't the greatest title in the series, but it certainly put a spotlight on Geralt of Rivia. While the game hasn't aged amazingly well, perhaps a new perspective is needed to re-spark people's interest.

That's where modder Patryk Loan has come in by announcing that he plans to re-create the entire first Witcher game in virtual reality. The new project's goal is to take the entire game developed by CD Projekt Red and allow players to experience it from the first-person perspective in virtual reality.

Loan, is currently re-building the game in Unreal Engine 4 and plans to have it compatible with a range of different virtual reality headsets. At the moment it supports, Oculus, HTC, and WMR. For players that want to jump into the action now, the game only lets you explore Kaer Morhen, but Loan is working on new maps and even adding a "fully playable plot, like a Prologue".

* Prices last scanned on 2/19/2020 at 10:25 pm CST - prices may not be accurate, click for latest

ABOUT THE AUTHOR - Jak Connor

Jaks love for technology and more specifically PC gaming began at 10 years old, it was the day his dad showed him how to play Age of Empires on a old Compaq PC. Ever since that day, Jak fell in love with games and the progression of the technology industry in all its forms. Instead of the typical FPS PC gamer, Jak enjoys the likes of a solid MMO, RPG, or a single-player linear story. More importantly, though, he holds a very special spot in his heart for RTS games.

Originally posted here:

The Witcher is being re-created in Virtual Reality, playable right now - TweakTown

The UK's Department for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport (DCMS, aka the Ministry of Fun) has barred Huawei gear from rural 5G trials.

The department is funding nine pilots to the tune of 35m which aim to spread the benefits of 5G to rural communities. These range from a virtual-reality Robin Hood (and his Merrie Men) for visitors to Sherwood Forest to remote monitoring of woodland and livestock, and technology to reduce water pollution.

But the DCMS said today: "None of the winning projects, or future projects from 5G Create, will use equipment from high risk vendors." 5G Create is a competition running till the end of June to find 5G applications to support TV and film production, gaming and other creative industries.

This seems to be at odds with advice from GCHQ's National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC), which calls for networks that rely on Huawei and other high-risk vendors (HRVs) to take a more measured approach. Current guidance is that less than 35 per cent of network access capacity, measured by traffic volume, should come from a HRV. Operators have three years to reach this target.

NCSC notes that use of HRV kit must balance two risks: the security risk of HRVs versus the need for diversity of supply.

GCHQ's cyber arm also recommended not using an HRV for any sensitive network or systems involved in critical infrastructure or to use more than one HRV on any network. It further called on telcos to include a minimum of two vendors on 4G and legacy networks probably of more interest to most people trying to use their mobile phone in rural areas.

Other projects announced today include money to upgrade coastal rescue services in Dorset, mobile health and social care applications in Worcestershire, and research by Ford to improve welding processes used in electric car production.

The Multi Operator Neutral Host Consortium, run by Telet, has bagged 2.3m. It uses low-power small cell technology to create shared networks in areas not considered financially viable by mobile operators. It uses unused spectrum accessed by Ofcom's Local Access licensing. Networks can be used by mobile providers as well as any other users like emergency services or utilities.

We've asked DCMS to explain how a virtual-reality Robin Hood represents a core network function and will update if we hear back from them.

Sponsored: Detecting cyber attacks as a small to medium business

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No Huawei gear in vital 5G project to bring virtual-reality Robin Hood to Sherwood Forest - The Register