Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Welcome to Being There, a column on the emerging world of immersive entertainment from virtual reality and theme parks, to haunted houses and interactive theater. Written by The Verge senior reporter Bryan Bishop.

When Birdman director Alejandro Gonzlez Irritu premiered his new virtual reality installation piece Carne y Arena at the Cannes Film Festival this year, it was celebrated as a new high-water mark for the medium. Created in collaboration with Industrial Light & Magic xLab, the project drops participants inside a harrowing run across the US-Mexico border highlighting both the horrifying steps those seeking a better life for their families are willing to take, as well as the terror and inhumane treatment that can follow if theyre caught.

Its a mesmerizing, heartbreaking piece, and while the experience of Carne y Arena undeniably delivers on VRs endlessly-discussed potential as an empathy machine, its actually the physical, real-world bookends that set-up and conclude the piece that lend it context and emotional depth. Its triumph isnt one of virtual reality, expertly executed though it is that but rather of the tremendous power that different types of immersive experiences can have when theyre woven together, creating bracing new ways to make audiences think and feel.

I recently had the opportunity to experience Carne y Arena at the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, where it recently opened (its also currently showing at Fondazione Prada in Milan). Visitors go in alone, and after reading some text from Irritu about why he created the piece in the first place his intention was to allow the visitor to go through a direct experience walking in the immigrants feet, under their skin, and into their hearts my first stop was a holding room nicknamed a freezer.

A physical experience as much as a virtual one

It was a cold, sterile space, with a series of uncomfortable metal benches lined up against the walls. Scattered across the floor were battered shoes and a dusty backpack. As some text on the wall explained, the pieces of clothing had been recovered from the desert near the border between Mexico and Arizona; left behind by people that had tried to make their way to US soil, only to be snatched up by the US Border Patrol, or disappeared by the very individuals theyd paid to help them cross in the first place.

As instructed, I sat down to remove my socks and shoes, and placed them in a nearby locker. And then I waited. The room was unnervingly cold, even with the sweatshirt I was wearing, and that was precisely the point. Freezers are where Border Patrol tosses those rounded up in sweeps, leaving refugees and immigrants to shiver in the holding rooms for days at a time. As the minutes stretched on, I realized I had no idea how long I was going to be in the room, or even when the overall experience would end. I was just stuck there, cold and isolated the first time I realized Irritu had creating a physical experience as much as he had a virtual one.

Abruptly, an alarm bell sounded, red lights flashing: my cue to leave the room. And like the piece of cattle Id been made to feel like, I headed dutifully through the next door. Beyond it was a massive room, dimly lit by a glowing orange light that ran horizontally along one wall. As my eyes adjusted, I made out two people silhouetted in the darkness. I stepped towards them my feet crunching in the sand that was suddenly underfoot.

The two attendants helped me slip on a backpack and Oculus Rift headset, but it was perhaps the least technology-focused VR experience Ive ever taken part in. There were no controllers to fiddle with or visible sensors in the room, and no one asked me if Id tried other headsets before. It was simply a matter of slipping the Rift on, and being informed that Id be gently guided by a human hand if I started getting too close to a wall. Then, without fanfare, I was simply in the middle of the desert.

While the characters in Carne y Arena are computer-generated, the landscape itself was captured traditionally, and its clear almost immediately that both a world-class filmmaker and cinematographer (Irritus long-time collaborator Emmanuel Lubezki) are at work. The desert at dawn is breathtaking, even with the gritty resolution of a modern headset, and the feel of sand beneath my feet grounded me almost instantly. I watched as a group of immigrants approached, exhausted from their travels. I walked around to each of them, noting that they varied in age ranging from a young man to a grandmother. Getting too close to their faces revealed the plastic, uncanny valley issues that still afflict most CG characters in this kind of environment, but their body movements were nuanced and subtle, a step up from what Id come to expect.

My instinct was to run but Border Patrol agents had already blocked my escape

Behind me, I detected the distant beat of helicopter blades. I craned my neck and spotted the vehicle approaching in the slowly brightening sky. Before I knew it, the helicopter was upon us, wind blasting down on me (an incredibly effective bit of sensory tie-in). My instinct was to run, so I turned back around only to see a Border Patrol vehicle and officers swoop in to block my escape, guns drawn.

As a VR experience unto itself, Carne y Arena can be considered a cousin to the kind of journalistic work pioneered by Nonny de la Pea. Irritu talked to many immigrants that had made the journey across the border, and its both their individual stories and their motion-captured avatars that populate the piece. But hes clearly not just interested in a literal representation of their experiences. Over its nearly seven minute running time, Carne y Arena also delves into the dreamlike at one point, a wooden table appears in the middle of the fray, with children on either side watching a tiny boat filled with refugees overturn and sink into its surface and the abstract. Abrupt cuts and context shifts, traditionally problematic in VR, are used to great effect, putting the viewer in the same mindset of disorientation and fear that the immigrants themselves are facing as theyre zip-tied in the desert sand. And then, just as the chaos of the round-up seems to be reaching its peak, everyone is just suddenly gone.

Thats when I found myself walking alone in the desert once more. And as I crossed the terrain, I saw them: discarded shoes and a backpack, left behind by the people Id just seen swept away. Perhaps the same shoes and backpack Id encountered in the freezer minutes before.

The final part of Carne y Arenas triptych is a video installation, and it brought the entire experience home. Facing an unbroken stretch of border fence was a black wall with nine windows set at eye level. Within each a video clip was playing: a single close-up of one of the people portrayed in the VR experience, with text explaining their struggles and travails in their own words. A woman who had worked relentlessly so she could afford to bring her family over one by one, a Border Patrol officer with no respect for those who cant find empathy for people eager to start a better life; their faces simply stared at me as I read their stories. In virtual reality, Id observed their ordeals, unable to intervene. But here, their direct gaze became an emotional call to action: these were real people, and simply observing them wasnt an acceptable option.

Its tempting to discuss Carne y Arena just as a virtual reality experience. A filmmaker on the level of Alejandro Irritu getting involved in the medium is what many hope will elevate it to the point where mainstream adoption is truly within reach. But the greatest takeaway from the piece is that VR alone isnt enough not to deliver the kind of rich emotional experience Irritu was interested in delivering, at least. Carne y Arenas physical bookends arent bells and whistles; theyre part of the core conceit of the piece itself. The reveal of the discarded shoes in the VR short directly pays off the time audiences spend in the freezer; the last segment with the wall of videos takes the terror of the virtual segment, and makes it heartbreakingly personal. None of the three sections fully work without the other two, resulting in a multi-tiered experience that does more than just toy with the idea of replicating someone elses life experiences. It actually tries to convey the emotional horror of them, using a mix of physicality and artistic interpretation.

Irritu is focused on delivering the best emotional experience, not simply the best virtual one

Obviously, augmenting virtual reality with real-world, physical elements isnt new. Full-blown hybrid arcades like The Void mix the two extraordinarily well, and even smaller solutions like Nomadics modular system are incredible in the way they enhance the sense of presence while in VR. While Carne y Arenas use of sand and wind machines do give its headset portion a wonderful sense of tactile immediacy, its a very different kind of impact than actually sitting in a physical recreation of a freezer, not knowing how long youll be there, or what will happen next.

Ultimately, Irritu has built something focused on delivering the best emotional experience, not simply the best virtual one, and thats where Carne y Arenas power lies. In the rush to experiment in a burgeoning medium, VR is being used to try to replicate every environment possible, and that kind of experimentation is vital. But all too often, little thought is given to presentation, or whether a particular experience is even well-suited to VR in the first place. The entirety of Carne y Arena could have been delivered through a headset things similar to the freezer portion already exist in projects like 6x9 but that wouldnt have been the most impactful way to deliver this experience, or the most engaging one.

Recognizing that immersive entertainment can be more than just VR that it can include physical locations, art installations, and mixed reality elements is going to be vital, particularly as the industry focuses on location-based entertainment. For creators, that may very well be the meta-lesson from Irritus evocative and heartbreaking piece: expand your toolbox when possible, and use the best medium for the story you want to tell. The filmmaker himself seemed to understand that by deciding to move away from traditional cinema for this project in the first place. Given how incredibly effective Carne y Arenas mix of physical and virtual is, perhaps other creators will too.

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Alejandro Irritu's Carne y Arena proves that great virtual reality means going beyond the headset - The Verge

The turbulent world of Dunkirk is a click away.

Christopher Nolans latest epic tells the tale of the battle of Dunkirk that took place between Nazi Germany and the Allied forces during the Second World War. The nine-day battle saw the evacuation of British and Allied forces from the beaches of the namesake French town as the Nazis continued their advance on the opposing forces. In the end,338,226 men escaped.

As the film gears up to hit theaters this summer, PEOPLE brings you a virtual-reality experience connected to the movie which takes place in three settings: land, sea and air.

Watch the 360Save Every Breath: The Dunkirk VR Experience in the video above, explorable by clicking and dragging your mouse across the screen. The more you move, the more youll discover the dramatic scenes.For a fully immersive virtual-reality experience using VR goggles, download the LIFE VR app for iOS and Android or visit time.com/lifevr.

Save Every Breath: The Dunkirk VR Experience will be on display next week at the all-new VR in the Sky event taking place at the Time Inc. headquarters in New York. The first-of-its-kind 2-day event will feature presentations, experiences and more spotlighting the cutting edge of the VR industry with Dunkirk VR even making an appearance as a special installation at the top of One World Trade Center.

You can also watch the full trailer for the experience below.

The movie stars a list of heavy hitters and newcomers alike, including Tom Hardy, Cillian Murphy, Fionn Whitehead and Harry Styles in his acting debut.

To watch the full experience and explore more exclusive virtual reality content, download the LIFE VR app foriOSandAndroidor visittime.com/lifevr.

Dunkirk hits theaters July 21.

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By Land, By Sea, By Air: Go Inside the World of Christopher Nolan's Dunkirk in This Virtual-Reality Exclusive - PEOPLE.com

Another step in Brooklyns evolution as a tech powerhouse comes with the announcement that the borough will soon be home to the countrys first ever publicly funded virtual reality/augmented reality (VR/AR) facility.

The city recently announced the selection of New York University Tandon School of Engineering (formerly Polytechnic University) to develop and operate a hub for VR/AR at the Brooklyn Navy Yard, with a workforce development center at CUNY Lehman College in the Bronx. It is expected to open late in 2017.

VR and AR are hot and getting hotter. The city says the new lab will directly create more than 500 jobs over the next 10 years, and further position New York City as a global leader in the VR/AR industry.

Virtual reality is a computer-generated, three-dimensional environment that can be entered into by a person using technology such as special goggles or headsets and gloves. For example, a person might learn to skydive with a few stomach-lurching virtual jumps before attempting the real thing, or play a superhero battling aliens while immersed in a VR universe.

Augmented reality superimposes computer-generated images viewed with special headsets, smart glasses or a cellphone on top of the real world. For example, Facebook recently previewed an augmented reality social world where you can interact with your friends as if they are in the same room as you, no matter where they actually are. Or, a shopper might use AR to preview how a piece of furniture will look in their living room before they buy it. Soldiers can wear AR headsets showing data such as enemy location.

During a demonstration of the technology on June 27, Deputy Mayor Alicia Glen tried out NYU Tandons virtual reality app to take a virtual trip to Mars.

Augmented and virtual reality represents a huge new industry, and we want New York City to be second to none, Mayor Bill de Blasio said in a release. De Blasio said the plan was part of his strategy, called New York Works, to spur 100,000 good-paying city jobs in 10 years.

The lab received an initial $6 million investment by the NYC Economic Development Corporation (NYCEDC) and the Mayors Office of Media and Entertainment (MOME). It will boost research, talent development and workforce development initiatives, the city says.

The lab will also help to fuel the citys emerging VR/AR sector with early-stage capital, and allow investors, researchers and organizations to collaborate.

The world of VR/AR is growing at breakneck speed and the implications for businesses across New York City are incredibly exciting, Media and Entertainment Commissioner Julie Menin said in a statement. This new facility will ensure that were doing our part to spur innovation, create talent pipelines, and make New York City the home of these emerging industries.

The lab will further strengthen the Brooklyn Navy Yard's thriving media sector, anchored by Steiner Studios, and create high-quality, middle-class job opportunities for New Yorkers," said David Ehrenberg, president and CEO of the Brooklyn Navy Yard Development Corporation.

According to a 2016 report by Citigroup, the global VR/AR market could grow to $2.16 trillion by 2035 as different industries and applications make use of the technology.

Hundreds of startups and tech companies have set up shop in Brooklyn. The Tech Triangle made up of Downtown Brooklyn, DUMBO, and the Brooklyn Navy Yard is now home to more than 1,350 innovation companies 22 percent more than three years ago, according to the Tech Triangle consortium.

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Brooklyn's role as tech powerhouse surges with coming of virtual reality lab - Brooklyn Daily Eagle

July 7, 2017

For the first time, visitors to Edinburgh will be able to explore the streets, marketplaces and churches as they may have been in the 16th century thanks to academics at the University of St Andrews. The virtual reality app, released this Friday, will add a new dimension for visitors, especially for those visiting the Fringe Festival over the summer.

As well as sweeping panoramas of the city, Edinburgh castle and its surrounding landscape, the mobile app enables exploration of the Netherbow Port, the West Bow, the Grassmarket, Cowgate, Trinity College, Holyrood Palace and St Giles' Kirk.

"It is striking how the cityscape is both familiar and different from the city today. Instead of the new town there stands a great loch yet the castle stands guard over the city much as it does now," says Sarah Kennedy, Smart History's Digital Designer.

Created by the University of St Andrews's spinout company Smart History, Virtual Time Binoculars: Edinburgh 1544 provides a unique window into the capital around the time of the birth of Mary Queen of Scots. Visitors will experience the digital reconstruction through a virtual reality app that hosts a range of virtual reality headset usage, as well as a web resource.

The Edinburgh reconstructions are just the beginning for Smart History. "We intend for it to be the first of many Virtual Time Binocular apps with depictions of St Andrews and Perth already in the pipeline. We have had interest from across Europe and Latin America, so we expect our Virtual Time travel platform to go global," says Dr Alan Miller, Director of Smart History.

On Friday 7 July, Smart History and Museums and Galleries Edinburgh will host a discovery evening at the Museum of Edinburgh where visitors can explore the brand new digital reconstruction of sixteenth-century Edinburgh. Visitors and residents of Edinburgh will for the first time be able to compare the modern city with the capital of James V and Mary Queen of Scots. The new reconstruction is the first to be created of the period, and is based on a drawing from 1544, the oldest relatively realistic depiction of the capital.

At the evening launch attendees will be able to walk through the streets of Edinburgh featuring the entire city held within the video game engine it was built in.

"Ever since we showed the preview video of our digital reconstruction of 1544 Edinburgh, people have been asking when the complete app will be available. We are very pleased to finally release it to the public," says Dr Elizabeth Rhodes, Smart History's Historian.

Using their mobile phones and VR headsets, users will become virtual time-travellers as they are immersed in historic scenes, stereoscopic video and 360 degree images. Visitors to the city will explore today's St Giles' Kirk and the Grassmarket as they learn more about their 16th century equivalents in parallel.

With the global release of the app on 7 July, Smart History will be in the Scottish capital at the Museum of Edinburgh for city tours and demonstrations from 10am to 4pm both Saturday and Sunday. Expertly guided virtual tours of the Royal Mile will allow virtual time travellers to compare Edinburgh's past to its present.

"In some ways time binoculars offer better Virtual Time travel than even the Holodeck on the Starship Enterprise. While the holodeck is incredibly realistic, it only exists in one place in time and space. Virtual Time Binoculars is a holodeck you can take anywhere with you," says Catherine Anne Cassidy, Head of Smart History's Digital Curation.

The app, which is Google Daydream enabled, allows users to view the reconstructions either in full screen mode or through more immersive virtual reality mode. Hotspots highlight the scenes with more facts and historical images for users to learn about the location.

The digital reconstruction is inspired by a drawing created by the English military engineer Richard Lee, who accompanied the Earl of Hertford's May 1544 expedition. Lee's drawing (now held by the British Library) is one of the oldest surviving depictions of Edinburgh, and became the defining English impression of Scotland's capital.

The interdisciplinary team of St Andrews researchers supplemented the information from Lee's plan with archaeological evidence, sixteenth-century written sources, and information about the geography of the modern city, to create an updated reconstruction of Edinburgh.

"The Virtual Time Binoculars project is ground breaking for digital reconstruction because it uses technology already in people's pockets. We have developed a software framework which will enable us to continue to send people back in time," says Dr Iain Oliver, Head of Systems for Smart History.

Explore further: New technology reveals 16th century Edinburgh

More information: Link to app: play.google.com/store/apps/det ory.edinburgh1544vtb

Google parent Alphabet is spinning off a little-known unit working on geothermal power called Dandelion, which will begin offering residential energy services.

Elon Musk's Tesla will build what the maverick entrepreneur claims is the world's largest lithium ion battery within 100 days, making good on a Twitter promise to ease South Australia's energy woes.

Qualcomm on Thursday escalated its legal battle with Apple, filing a patent infringement lawsuit and requesting a ban on the importation of some iPhones, claiming unlawful and unfair use of the chipmaker's technology.

France will end sales of petrol and diesel vehicles by 2040 as part of an ambitious plan to meet its targets under the Paris climate accord, new Ecology Minister Nicolas Hulot announced Thursday.

Japanese designer Yuima Nakazato claimed Wednesday that he has cracked a digital technique which could revolutionise fashion with mass made-to-measure clothes.

Volvo plans to build only electric and hybrid vehicles starting in 2019, making it the first major automaker to abandon cars and SUVs powered solely by the internal combustion engine.

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Virtual reality opens doors to Edinburgh's historic past - Phys.org - Phys.Org

Wayne Hsiung, a founder of Direct Action Everywhere, which also fights for animal welfare, called the technology a game changer for animal advocates.

The meat industry always complains that were using selective footage, narrow vantage points and editing to make things seem worse, he said. But with VR, youre seeing exactly what we saw and hearing exactly what we heard.

In one sign of how quickly the technology is being adopted among animal advocacy groups, Direct Action also released a virtual-reality video on Thursday. It takes viewers into barns at Circle Four Farms in Milford, Utah, one of the largest pig production operations in the United States. The film shows sows with bloody and mangled teats; pregnant sows gnawing on the bars of the narrow stalls they live in until they give birth; and piglets clambering over and nibbling dead siblings.

In a portion of the film Mr. Hsiung narrates, dead piglets are piled up behind a sow who is wedged into a crate so tightly that she cannot move away from the mess. But a viewer can turn away from her to see, and hear, sows in similar straits all around her.

Circle Four is owned by Smithfield Foods, which was bought in 2013 by Shuanghui International, one of Chinas largest meat processors. Keira Lombardo, a Smithfield spokeswoman, said the video had blatant inaccuracies, such as its assertions that the animals shown in it are being starved.

This video, which appears to be highly edited and even staged, is an attempt to leverage a new technology to manufacture an animal care issue where one does not exist, she wrote in an email on Wednesday.

She said that after Smithfield was contacted last week by The New York Times, the company had outside auditors Barry N. Pittman, Utahs state veterinarian, and Jennifer Woods, a veterinarian and livestock handling expert conduct an investigation at Circle Four, which found no animal mistreatment. Rather, she said, the videos creators, who claim to be animal care advocates, risked the life of the animal they stole and the lives of the animals living on our farms. (In fact, Direct Action took two piglets from the farm, to rescue them, and Smithfield says it will alert the authorities in Utah on Thursday about trespassing on its property and other alleged infractions by Direct Action.)

Other animal rights organizations are moving to adopt virtual-reality technology. At its Animal Care Expo in May, the Humane Society of the United States introduced its first 3D video showing conditions at a dog-meat plant in South Korea. Its powerful, more powerful than conventional video, said Paul Shapiro, the societys vice president for policy.

It is not easy, however, to sneak the bulky equipment needed to make a high-quality VR video into an industrial barn or meat plant. Animal Equality had to stitch its first iAnimal video together using film shot on several cameras.

But the bigger challenge is distribution. The technology needed to watch the videos is not widespread, so when Animal Equality started an outreach program on American college campuses last year, it had to supply headsets.

So far, the videos have made it to 117 campuses, including Oxford, Yale and the University of California at Berkeley. Animal Equality is working to develop a mobile app that will deliver as close to a virtual-reality experience as possible.

Mr. Valle noted that The Times had distributed more than one million cardboard virtual-reality headsets and said that he expected the technology to continue to spread. Sure, this is a new technology, he said, but its being used more and more.

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Animal Welfare Groups Have a New Tool: Virtual Reality - The New ... - New York Times

Centre Daily Times

Virtual reality app highlights Penn State campus landmarks Centre Daily Times The Penn State University Park campus is ornamented by senior class gifts that date back to the late 1800s and a team of Penn State researchers has developed a mobile virtual reality app that highlights some of the more popular landmarks. Through the ...

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Virtual reality app highlights Penn State campus landmarks - Centre Daily Times

Volkswagen is buckling down on virtual reality technology.

The German auto giant said Wednesday that it built a virtual reality app that acts as a sort of digital meeting room where team members can interact with one another and discuss auto designs, among other things.

The new VR app contains all of the companys previous VR apps like its virtual reality car showrooms into one hub. Employees who work across Volkswagons various brands like Audi and Skoda Auto will be able to access the app and work together on different projects.

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Going forward, we can be virtual participants in workshops taking place at other sites or we can access virtual support from experts at another brand if we are working on an optimization, said Volkswagen ( vlkay ) group logistics member Mathias Synowski in a statement. That will make our daily teamwork much easier and save a great deal of time."

Volkswagen said that it would be using a version of the HTC Vive virtual reality headset for businesses as part of its rollout of the new app.

HTC debuted its HTC Vive Business Edition last June. The headset costs $1,200 and comes with a 12-month warranty, customer support, and other features intended to make it more attractive to business clients.

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Volkswagen Debuts Virtual Reality App for Training, Collaboration ... - Fortune

NEWTON, Kan. (AP) - A Newton couple is bringing Silicon Valley to their Kansas-based lab - better known as their basement.

Corey and Michele Janssens, founders of ViewVerge, are enhancing the way people see media through a 2D to 3D converter and a 3D to 3D enhancer for augmented and virtual reality (ARVR), The Wichita Eagle (http://bit.ly/2sNxVyt ) reported.

Our goal was to basically re-create a biological version of 3D - a more natural 3D - because of ARVR, Corey Janssens said. We perceive in 3D, so it just seemed kind of natural: Why have a 3D device and watch 2D content?

The couple has struggled to attract investors who want to invest outside of Silicon Valley, but said they have no plans to leave the state.

What were doing is a Silicon Valley venture in Kansas, Michele Janssens said. I knew that would be a challenge, and it is just as big a challenge as we thought it would be.

But there are good things happening in Kansas. And everyone tells us there is a push right now to venture more into tech and bring jobs and money to the Wichita area.

While the Jansssenses have sought and attracted mentors nationwide in 3D technology, marketing and branding, they said success will occur when they have licensing and investors to help make ViewVerge technology readily available through mobile applications, or for 2D to 3D conversion in the medical and military fields.

Corey Janssens, a former Army unmanned aerial vehicle pilot and self-taught theoretical physicist and engineer, and Michele Janssens, a speech therapist, have what they call a marriage of science and communication.

An interesting fact that is a very integral part of who we are as a couple and hopefully as a vital company: Corey is autistic, I am a speech therapist, and were married, Michele Janssens said. He is passionate about building things and physics and the science, and I am passionate about communication.

Its really kind of a unique marriage.

Corey Janssens said he has had many jobs in his life that led him to developing this software.

It was when he spent five years as part of and then leading a confidential Microsoft think-tank that Bill Gates called him a modern-day Isaac Newton, according to a ViewVerge media release.

That interaction and exposure led him to apply to get one of the first rounds of developer HoloLens they released, Michele Janssens said. We waited about 10 years to do something like this.

The couple received their Microsoft Hololens - the first self-contained holographic computer - in May 2016.

When we got that Hololens, he knew this was it, Michele Janssens said.

It took just three to four months for Corey Janssens to develop the foundation for the software, and after continual improvements they think they have the answer to natural, human-like 3D media.

I dont believe youre going to have much 2D media in the future, he said. It just makes more sense to have graphics that are put in the format of the way we naturally see things.

If you build a system that is converting 2D to 3D, in a sense that is what the human brain does. We dont actually see 3D, you infer distance from having two eyes.

So by mimicking the biological system well enough with some added algorithms, you have an early computer vision system that is much more human.

The 3D software currently available has been gimmicky, Michele Janssens said, and that is not their goal.

When (people) hear 3D, they think stuff popping out in the face, and thats not actually what 3D is, Michelle Janssens said.

Our goals are to make it natural and comfortable, just like when youre looking around.

___

Information from: The Wichita (Kan.) Eagle, http://www.kansas.com

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Newton couple creating virtual reality software in basement - Washington Times

Kirsty Wigglesworth/Associated Press

From sipping champagne in a virtual luxury box at the Camp Nou to sitting pitchside at Old Trafford from a hotel in Melbourne, Australia, the way we consume football is beingreimagined by broadcasters and technology companies.

As clubs look for new ways to build and engage their audiences, bold technical thinkers are plotting a virtual-reality revolution. Forget 3D television, which failed to take off and was hugely expensive; VR is the next frontier of football entertainment. Some have already arrived.

In August last year, Bayern Munich's opening Bundesliga game of the season against Werder Bremen was shown live in VR, the first time such an experiment had taken place, while Fox Sports used virtual reality images To enhance their broadcast of an Eredivisie match between PSV Eindhoven and Feyenoord in February of this year.

This is next-generation VR we're talking about. From the Oculus Rift to the Google Daydream, Samsung Gear or HTC Vive, new technologies are poised to transform football viewing as you know it.

But will virtual reality live up to its hype, or are those staking millions on it destined for an expensive reality check?

Miheer Walavalkar sits quietly in a Soho coffee shop. He takes hissmartphone and slides it into a basic VR headset. While the rest of the world sips on lattes and flat whites, I am ushered into the world of virtual reality.

Walavalkar, born in India but residing in the U.S., is one of the brains behind LiveLike, whose introduction into the marketplace was one of the stories of sports VR last year. The company has raised $5 million in funding thanks to former NBA commissioner David Stern and a group of venture firms led by Evolution Media Partners and Elysian Park Venturescreated by the owners of the Los Angeles Dodgers baseball team.

LiveLike are powering a new app for Fox Sports, called Fox Sports VR, which has already been busy impressing customers, notably showing a college football game between Oklahoma and Ohio State in virtual reality. They also have a partnership to create VR content with Manchester Cityand this week the company will team up with Fox to show the CONCACAF Gold Cup in VR. Bruce Arena's United States versus Panama on July 8 in virtual reality in LiveLike's "virtual suite".

The company has tested its VR capabilities with the Premier League and at the biggest club game in the world, El Clasico, which was watched in VR by an estimated 37,000 peopleon less than a week's notice behind a paywall.

Headset on, I'm reclining on a virtual sofa with a Premier League game happening in front of me. Sergio Aguero is nearly on my lap and David Silva is just further afield. Tilting the head one way changes the camera angle and allows the viewer to move behind the goal. Tilting it the other way allows them to watch from the stands.

There's a stats table you can flick through with just the smallest head movement, giving you the latest possession numbers, passing percentages and everything you could want as a football fan.Replays are freely availableyou just need to move your head slightly to initiate them. You can watch the same incident from three or four different angles.

It's intuitive, easy to use and, after the first five minutes, it's easy to forget that you are sat in a busy London coffee shop with a headset on.Occasionally, when the ball is swept away to the far side of the pitch, it is difficult to see the action, but a quick glance up a the large virtual screen keeps you abreast of what is happening.

For Walavalkar, who grew up watching the Premier League from India, the opportunity to share the beautiful game with millions back home remains a huge driving force.

"For us, live sports is the mecca," Walavalkar tells Bleacher Report."We have done a few live events that have gone really well and got good feedback. It's all about the user experience and social featuresthe ability to teleport the user into an experience.

"We've been able to integrate statistics and replays, while making it a much more social experience. We want fans to feel like they're right in the heart of what's happening."

For LiveLike, the U.S. and Asia are two of the biggest target markets. As noted, the app has already won deals with Fox and Manchester City, but competition is fierce. Anyone who stands still for more than a minute faces being left behind.

Let's take a look at the VR sport market as it affects the major players.

The TV Companies

Few know the potential for success in weaving together television and VR like Fox Sports' Mike Davies, senior vice president of field and technical operations.Davies is the go-to man when it comes to combining live broadcast and the virtual-reality aspect of the channel's coverageand it's paying off handsomely.

Showing Bayern Munich's league opener in VR was just the start for football. "We worked really closely with theBundesliga on this, and they were great partners," Davies tells Bleacher Report. "We tried two big different things, as NextVR has a lot of experience with live soccer.

"One of things we took was to add specialty commentators to the VR broadcast so we didn't take commentary from the linear broadcast. That helped the viewer feel like they had someone co-piloting with them in the experience.The other thing we tried was showing replays at half-time in VR. I think that one of the big things we've been looking at with LiveLikeis having the ability to go back and re-experience instances in VR."

Outside of football, Fox has trialled VR at the U.S. Open golf tournament, the French Open tennis tournament, Daytona 500 and a number of other events, including Monster Trucks.

"I've been playing around with VR for the past few years and actively involved in public-facing events," Davies said."It has been a very quick evolution. With the advent of products that make live VR possible, utilising cell phones, Google cardboard, it has been very quickly attainable technology in terms of being something everyone can consume, at least in theory."

The Bayern Munich VR broadcast went down well with fans and organisers alike, but the nature of football and its suitability for such coverage did raise some questions.

The length of the field was a challenge, with NextVR having to employ more cameras to cover the area. There were also resolution problems to consider, particularly when the ball was on the far side of the pitch.

"When the play was happening close to you, it was dynamiteit was like they were on your lap," Davies notes. "But when it was somewhat further away, because of the resolutions of the phone, it was very difficult to see the ball. I think that large playing field will require more resolution for people to see that."

Davies says he's keen on weaving in augmented reality elementshighlighting the ball or tracking player movements: "The way we're working around that is with additional cameras, tracking data and augmented reality to help you feel like you are part of the game.

"We can also integrate the linear broadcast into the VR with a Jumbotron,so if there is something that is particularly hard to see, then you can look at the screenjust as you would in the stadium."

The Clubs

For clubs like Bayern, with one of the largest and most engaged fanbases in football, the move into VR was a no-brainer. Stefan Mennerich, who heads up Bayern's digital media department, has been working on VR and 360-degree coverage with big success.

Mennerich sees VR as another avenue to bring fans together, particularly those who cannot get to matches at the Allianz Arena or live thousands of miles away in the U.S. or China, the two big target markets for the club.

In 2015, Mennerich began to see the benefits of VR after spending time at Facebook HQ and sampling the Oculus Rift, which is one of the market leaders in headsets.

"I thought that we would have to offer something like this because football lives off the possibility of fans taking part, and so I thought we have to do it,"Mennerich tells Bleacher Report. "I think VR is a very good way to let the fans take part in the event and emotions.

"I spoke to [NBA teams] the Orlando Magic and Golden State Warriors, and what they are doing is very forward-thinking, and we want to establish the same experience for our fans. But I can't say what financial effect it will have in the future. It is the same as with social media was in the beginning. You do it because it's fun, it has good content and the aim is to reach the fans."

Mennerich says the Bayern VR broadcast received encouraging feedback, though they may have been aided somewhat by the fact Bayern cantered to a 6-0 victory. While he remains cautious over the long-term viability of VR, he is optimistic for now.

"I think the first thing we have to do before making a decision is to wait until there is a big-enough audience to enjoy the content because not everyone has VR glasses or headsets," he says. "After that, once we bring in good content, we have to think about how we can monetize it."

The Experts

If Bayern need advice on monetizing VR, Brad Allen would be a good man to consult.

Spend five minutes talking to Allen, executive chairman of NextVR, and his passion for VR and sport is obvious. NextVRis one of the major players when it comes to live VR broadcastthere aren'tmany sports it hasn't shown in VR; they produced a highlights package on each game of the recent NBA Finals between Cleveland Cavaliers and Golden State Warriors, while those without headsets could view highlights via the company's app. For Allen, this is one of the most exciting times in the business.

He believes VR will provide the perfect complementary form of coverage to live television and that the experience can be a highly engaged, social one.

"What you might see in the future is the chance to build your own luxury box outfitted with your team's gear, and you could invite all your friends," he says. "You look over there, and there are all your friends, avatars of them, or maybe they want to look like someone else, but you are all sitting there in the luxury box even though you are all sitting at home in your VR glasses."

Allen sees an e-commerce aspect coming into play, with the virtual suite offering up a chance to buy team merchandise, such as shirts and personalisation options. He accepts the world has changed dramatically in recent years and believes VR is a great way to bring new fans into the game.

"You have an aging population in some places and where maybe the millennials don't care as much because the amount of entertainment on offer is unprecedented, especially with esports and video games," he says."How do you bring those fans along?

"You can do it with new technology that is unique and different and appealing to them. That's why everyone is interested in this and connecting directly with their fans to give them an experience like nothing before."

Allen likens the scene to that of when cell phones first entered the market with the big, brick-like models. The emergence of Google's Daydream, the Samsung Gear and Facebook's constant investment means the importance of VR is not being lost on anybody. The technology is only going to get better.

"Goggles will move to glassesLG has already brought out its first version," Allen says. "I think they weigh 120 grams. They are tethered to your mobile device, but soon that will be Bluetooth, and all the power will be through the mobile device, and eventually the glasses will turn into something like Oakley wrap around glasses.

"They will have little ear buds that will come down so you get your audio, and eventually we'll have contact lenses. That will be bizarre because you are not going to know whether that person is watching something or talking to you.We've got the biggest companies in the world when you consider Google'sDaydream. They're probably going to be the biggest mobile winner in the space."

Allen talks of "a hundred companies in China" that are making headsets and believes it is only a matter of time before Apple enters the VR space.

But for all the technology and millions being spent, can VR ever compete with the real thingbeing at the game? How can it match the noise, the smells, the anticipation, the palpitations and the authentic matchday experience?

Can VR truly generate the stadium buzz so many football fans live for?

Perhaps not. But for those who live thousands of miles away from the stadium, it could be the ticket they have been waiting forbeing able to watch Manchester United from Macau, Bayern from Brisbane or Tottenham from Tahiti.

"I don't think anything can beat being there in person just because of the energy," Allen says."Youre high-fiving somebody next to you whom you didn'teven know because the team you're both fans of scored a goal. It really won't ever replace that.But what do you do about the 300 million fans who will never be able to get to the stadium? This is the closest thing they'll ever get to being there.

"We have a big strategy around Asia and China in particular; they are huge sports fans over there. People wake up at 3 a.m. to watch Premier League games because they are passionate fans like we all are."

Allen says a combination of geography and the difficulty of getting tickets to major games has driven demand for a more immersive TV viewing experience. "This is their answer. It's the virtual ticket to being there."

*All quotes and information obtained firsthand unless otherwise indicated.

Originally posted here:

EPL 2030: Sergio Aguero in Your Lounge - Future of Football and Virtual Reality - Bleacher Report

Imagine living in a city where every inch of public space is a portal into a different world. Instead of a local park, you have a role-playing arena where citizens dress up as survivalists on the hunt for island boar. The town hall doubles as an e-sports gaming arena where people take video-game classes instead of summer school. A gamer would die happy in the real world if they could wake up here in this virtual one.

But you dont have to imagine: Its called Taihu Mermaid Small Town.

Located on the outskirts of Shanghai, local governors in the Jiangsu province of WuXi are planning to build a literal virtual reality Westworld . Taihu will have five live-action role-play zones, a 48,000 square meter (517,000 square foot) stage area, a 71,200 sq m commercial plaza, and a digital-industry park for engineers, scientists, and R&D labs. Two more towns, Dong Hu and Beido Bay VR Village, have started similar projects, offering entrepreneurs incentives like rent-free offices, apartments, and startup capital. Taihu will cost upward of $20 billion yuan (USD$3 billion), and is part of a broader trend to take development outside of the already vibrant economic zones of Shenzhen and Shanghai and spread it further west.

In this way, China is future-proofing the country by dedicating entire towns to different emerging technologiesa move thats part marketing, part politics. New technologies such as artificial intelligence and virtual reality are developing by leaps and bounds said president Xi Jinping his 2016 B20 Summit keynote, and will be key to developing an innovative world society. Keeping to his word, Xi has increased funding opportunities in these areas, even surpassing the United States on funding AI research. If China can successfully corner the market on defining technologies of our time, it can get a leg up on the rest of the world.

That sprint has already begun. Facebooks $3 billion acquisition of Oculus VR in 2014 set off a virtual international space race, with the US and China taking the early lead. Chinas new VR towns signal their commitment to charging ahead, but the question is if they pull it off. For example, the technology needed for the arena-sized location-based gaming they promise at Taihu is not ready yet. And as one major hardware change can lead to an entire shift in the industry, its difficult to commit to multimillion-dollar infrastructure projects.

Its not just money they need to make it work: Its people, too. Large projects like these need storytelling soft skills and a cocktail of interdisciplinary talent to brainstorm what these towns would look like. A fully-functioning city will need an army of artists, researchers, designers, architects, writers, and a host of other specialties that probably havent been invented yet. Disney imagineers alone come from 140 different disciplines. Leading new location-based gaming companies like THE VOID, Spaces, and Nomadic have DreamWorks, Pixar, Google, and Industrial Light & Magic executives helming them.

And then theres the hardware. Although some of these VR towns have already launched, none have officially partnered with any leading headset manufacturers; HTC Vive is focusing on broader national objectives while the Facebook-owned Oculus Rift is banned in China. According to the Chinas president of HTC Vive, Alvin Graylin Wang, HTC has partnered with Chinas National Tourism Board to promote VR in China, but have no connections to these individual city-level projects. Thats because Wang is skeptical they will work: The people who are involved in it are not necessarily VR experts and are using it to sell more real estate or get more business interest, Wang says. But if you havent thought about how it flows into your daily lives, then it is probably not going to solve the issues.

The reality of these towns is currently far removed from what they promise. Right now, most of these towns are just empty rooms with headsets sprinkled around. Its a lot more buzz than it is real right now, he says. Trying to make every part of your life dedicated to VR technology is, again, a little too early. Maybe in 10 years or so it will make a little more sense.

Chinas VR cities arent the first industry-specific towns of their kind. Similar projects have been conducted with drone cities, and they are also shifting further and further into high-tech research and development with Lingang New City, a $5.6 billion, 133 sq km satellite city near Shanghai.

Wade Shepard, author of Ghost Cities of China, has been researching Chinas development models for the past decade. He has noticed a new pattern where the government invests in basic infrastructure then invites in niche markets that specialize in developing one kind of industry. A lot of these are the local governments pet projects, and they want them to get attention, so they build them to be different, to be extreme, Shepard says.

This often means that local governments have to promise a lot up front to get the ball rolling, and then hope they attract the right people along the way. For example, this model was used to develop the Chinese Medical City, 30 sq km north of the Yangtze River between Shanghai and Nanjing. The area was considered a backwater in 2005, but thanks to policies that allow CMC-based pharmaceutical companies to leapfrog multiple bureaucratic levels, they were able to get their drugs directly in front of the CFDA, Chinas drug regulation body.

State-level projects are not really allowed to fail, Shepard says. These new areas kind of become self-fulfilling prophecies. Developers and investors know that the projects will be successful because the central government wont allow them to fail, so they invest and ultimately make them successful. Ten years later, this ghost city is slowly filling up with business.

Its still too early to know if Taihu Mermaid Small Town will gain the traction it needs to survive. But if they can introduce policies that attract and retain technical and creative talent, China can strengthen its foothold over an increasingly virtual world.

They have a master plan, Shepard says. Whether it works or not is kind of a big question.

Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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Looking for Westworld? Head east - Quartz