Category Archives: Virtual Reality

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Spider-Man Homecoming hits theaters in early July, and to mark the upcoming release, Sony is launching a tie-in experience for virtual reality headsets. It's coming a week ahead of the film's release date, and it's free.

Sony announced the experience with a short trailer which shows a bit of what you can expect. It looks like a series of mini-games that'll have you shooting webs, eliminating enemies, and, most importantly, swinging through the city. You can check out the video above.

Spider-Man Homecoming VR arrives on June 30, a week before the film's July 7 release. Although the game was produced by Sony Pictures Virtual Reality, it's not limited to PlayStation VR. It'll be available for all major VR systems, including the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. If you don't own a VR headset, you can still try it out at certain Cinemark theaters in the United States.

In other news, the film appears to be set for a strong opening weekend, and we recently broke down its third trailer. The PS4-exclusive Spider-Man game in development at Insomniac recently got its first gameplay reveal. You can check it out here, and you can also watch our interview with the game's creative director here. It's coming sometime in 2018.

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Free Spider-Man: Homecoming Virtual Reality "Experience" Coming Next Week - GameSpot

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NBC 7's Danielle Radin stopped by San Diego Startup Week and talked to a company taking virtual reality to a new level. (Published Wednesday, June 21, 2017)

The co-founder of San Diego Startup Week, Austin Neudecker,said Wednesday he believes San Diego could become a new leader in the world of virtual reality.

We have a tremendous engineers coming out of some of the best research institutions and companies here inSan Diego," said Neudecker.

One company, Ossic, ispaving the way, withnew types of headphones that take virtual reality sound fromtwo-dimensional, likeyou would hear from a television orvideo game,to 3-D sound.

3-D sound is kind of like how you hear in real life," said Sally Kellaway, creative director of Ossic. "When youre listening to anything in real life, you get 360 degrees: you can listen to anything at any time.

Kellaway said they do this by customizing the headsets to each person'shead and ears.

Ossic currently has a program thatdisplays musical orbs floating through the air. When you touch them with your controller in virtual reality, you can move them around, hearing the music from all sides.

Published at 6:02 PM PDT on Jun 21, 2017

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Could San Diego Be The New Hub Of Virtual Reality? - NBC 7 San Diego

Our new reality may be a virtual one. In the past few years, the technology behind virtual and augmented reality has exploded, prompting innovations in fields from gaming to real estate, theater to fine art, with companies as diverse as Samsung, Chairish, and Wayfair incorporating it in various ways. In the latest juxtaposition of VR and design, Brooklyn creative space A/D/O today announced that New Reality Co. will serve as its second artist-in-residence.

Norman restaurant in A/D/O.

Photo: Matthew Carbone

A/D/O, the Mini-backed collaborative creative space that opened last winter to much fanfare, has become a hotbed for design innovation, hosting panels and exhibitions celebrating envelope-pushing design and fostering communal creativity in its nARCHITECTS-designed space on Greenpoint's Norman Avenue (which includes a shop and a Claus Meyer and Fredrik Berselius restaurant). The appointment of New Reality Co. to succeed inaugural artist-in-residence Stephen Burks marks a look to the future.

Milica Zec (L) and Winslow Turner Porter of New Reality Co.

Photo: Maarten de Boer

Helmed by Winslow Porter and Milica Zec, New Reality Co. is a New Yorkbased creative studio that uses mixed and augmented reality to explore perception. Its vision fits neatly with the theme of A/D/O's second season, Common Sense. During their tenure in Greenpoint, Porter and Zec will be creating Breathe, a multisensory, experiential story written by Luke Davies, screenwriter behind this year's Oscar-nominated Lion. The project is the final in a trilogy whose first two parts, Giant and Tree, landed New Reality Co. on Adweeks Creative 100 list.

"Our goal is to inspire positive change through interdisciplinary and multisensory artistry," said Zec in a statement. "This residency will provide us with a vibrant and communal workspace, a home for Giant and Tree, and a network of artists and potential collaborators who understand and appreciate shared human experience." New Reality Co. plans to unveil Breathe in September of this year. We're waiting with bated breath.

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How Virtual Reality Is Redefining Storytelling at A/D/O - Architectural Digest

While there was no lightning on Thursday, thunder erupted inside the Belasco Theater as Imagine Dragons took the stage for an intimate concert with L.A. fans.

The show was first in a four-part virtual reality concert series hosted by Citi, Live Nation and NextVR, and was recorded in VR for fans to enjoy at home.

As the lights dimmed to glimmers of blues, violets and pinks, drummer Daniel Platzman, guitarist Wayne Sermon and bassist Ben McKee appeared. After several booming drum beats, lead singer Dan Reynolds finally appeared to perform the first song of the night, Thunder.

Heavy drum beats, electrifying guitar melodies and roaring applause filled the venue as the indie rock band played popular songs throughout its discography. Following Gold, Reynolds took a quick break from the music to share an appreciation story about Sermon, whose birthday was on the same night.

He was born to be a musician, Reynolds said before resuming with a lively performance of the bands all-time hit Its Time.

With fan favorites such as Its Time, Amsterdam, and Hear Me, fans throughout the venue chanted and sang along to every chorus with Imagine Dragons.

A spectrum of colors filled the stage for each song, seemingly resonating with Imagine Dragons concept for its upcoming album Evolve. While the band didnt perform its newest song Walking the Wire which was released the same day it did play two other songs from the highly anticipated project: Whatever It Takes and Believer.

Slowing down the pace of the night halfway through the set, Reynolds sang part of Bleeding Out as an interlude before leading fans to an emotional rendition of Demons.

The band continued to fluctuate between electrifying and emotional songs, keeping fans engaged while also giving them small breaks in between Platzmans thunderous drumbeats and Reynolds habit of belting out every final chorus.

In the final four songs of the night, Imagine Dragons kept fans on their toes by tricking them into thinking the show was over. Perhaps an intentional move to surprise and excite the audience, the trick caused some members in the audience to exit the venue prematurely before the set even ended.

Reynolds thanked fans for their commitment and loyalty over the past eight years and spoke about the bands upcoming album.

[Going back home] gave me perspective to look back on everything thats happened, Reynolds said. Im overwhelmed with appreciation.

Fans cheered and sang along to the upbeat tune I Bet My Life before the entire band left the stage for a couple minutes. Then, Platzman returned to deliver a deafening, yet impressive solo as a prelude to On Top of the World.

What could have been a positive ending to the show ended up becoming the build-up to a dramatic, jolting finish to Imagine Dragons concert. Multi-colored lights flashed across the stage as the band passionately carried through a captivating performance of Believer, the lead single off Evolve.

After a moment of darkness, the show finally came to an end with what was arguably the best performance of the night. A stream of green lights permeated across the stage as Imagine Dragons delivered an extra rock-and-roll rendition of Radioactive. The band rocked the night away with a two-minute instrumental segment that pulsated throughout the venue even after the lights dimmed.

While the show only lasted about 90 minutes, Imagine Dragons filled the time with a well-balanced setlist that captivated fans and casual listeners. Reynolds, McKee, Sermon and Platzman all had their own shining moments something often rare among bands with only one leading vocalist. Moments like Reynolds banging on Platzmans cymbals or Sermon and Platzman strumming melodies together made the bands chemistry come to life on stage.

Though it would have perhaps been a more strategic move to preview some of their upcoming songs, Imagine Dragons nonetheless owned the night with passionate deliveries and great fan interaction.

Link:

Imagine Dragons bring hits to life in Virtual Reality concert - Daily Trojan Online

Wall Street Journal (subscription)

What Virtual Reality Needs to Get Real Wall Street Journal (subscription) The hit mobile game Pokmon Go will reach its first birthday next month having defied the odds. It has stayed popular enough past its fad-like initial launch to build a strong business that generated revenue about $1.3 billion to date, according to ...

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What Virtual Reality Needs to Get Real - Wall Street Journal (subscription)

An Australian health insurance agency, Medibank, has helped collaborate with a virtual reality studio, LiminalVR, to produce a virtual reality app called Joy. Designed to be used for patients admitted to the hospital, Joy offers an immersive auditory and visual experience. The goal of Joy is to reportedly help alleviate inpatient loneliness and boredom, through storytelling in virtual reality.

After patients place the virtual reality headset on (the mobile VR Google Daydream system is used), they are whisked into a virtual outdoors environment. Joy features computer-generated characters relaxing around a campfire and allows the user to interact with each one through the use of a VR controller. The characters share stories with the patient, and are geared towards bed-bound patients. There isnt any walking around or room scale tracking utilized, its purely head-tracking through Google Daydream.

Virtual reality for loneliness isnt a new idea. Its been used predominantly to help address elder loneliness, in the outpatient and assisted living environments. However, Joy is the first virtual reality app that Ive heard of produced through a health insurance company. Medibank covers roughly 3.8 million individuals, and is the largest provider in Austraila. An inpatient study using Joy is reportedly being carried out at Brunswick Private Hospital in Melbourne, and, pending results of the study, may be rolled out to other area hospitals.

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Australian insurer tackles inpatient loneliness with Joy virtual reality app - iMedicalApps

Forbes

360-Virtual Reality: The Ultimate Storytelling Platform Forbes The art of marketing is essentially the art of storytelling. The basic goal of marketing, its raison d'tre, is to tell a story that will create an emotion in order to influence an action. I strongly believe as many around the world do that virtual ...

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360-Virtual Reality: The Ultimate Storytelling Platform - Forbes

Maine educators got to demo some groundbreaking virtual reality technology at the State Library in Augusta Monday.

As this technology advances, and becomes less expensive and more commonplace, schools across the country are expected to be implementing these exciting education tools.

The Department of Educations Virtual Reality expo brought educators from across the state to discuss how theyre using virtual technology in their curriculum.

The idea is to be able to create an environment where learners at all levels can use gestures and natural movements of their hands to make and explore mathematical figures, said Justin Dimmel, Assistant Professor of Mathematics Education & Instructional Technology at the University of Maine.

The University of Maines Immersive Mathematics in Rendered Environments lab showed off their new Hand Waver program.

Developed by students and recent graduates, it utilizes virtual reality to create learning experiences for those studying math and science.

We are 1 of 4 medical schools in the world who are using this technology, said Marilyn Gugliucci, Professor & Director of Geriatrics Education & Research for the University of New England.

The University of New England is beta testing an exciting geriatrics program called We Are Alfred.

They become 74-year-old Alfred, an African American male. He has macular degeneration and hearing loss, said Gugliucci.

It gives students the opportunity to experience what life is like for someone suffering from those conditions.

A few years back, my dad was diagnosed with macular degeneration, so sitting there for seven minutes allowed me a seven minute walk in his shoes, said Jaimie Pelletier, a Fort Kent Instructor.

They just get this sense of WOW. I had no idea, and now I know what some of my patients may experience, said Gugliucci.

Its just now sinking in that my dad is going through some of these same conditions and I had no idea. It really hits home, said Pelletier.

Educators say these state-of-the-art education tools are not only providing students and teachers with challenges and experiences that were not possible before the advent of the technology, but also present endless possibilities for the future.

Link:

Maine Teachers Demo Groundbreaking Virtual Reality Education Technology - WABI

An attendee wears a virtual reality headset while playing the Bethesda Softworks "The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim" video game during the Electronic Entertainment Expo in Los Angeles. ( Troy Harvey / Bloomberg )

By Hayley TsukayamaThe Washington Post

Mon., June 19, 2017

LOS ANGELESAt the Electronic Entertainment Expo, all seemed right for virtual reality. Players were waiting in snaking lines some for up to seven hours for a chance to step into fantasy worlds. Crowds watched as players wearing VR headsets over their eyes reached out to pick up objects or shoot enemies that only they could see.

More than 125 VR exhibitors were at E3 this year, up 130 per cent from last year. Yet adoption of VR among consumers hasnt really taken off in the three years since it created a buzz in the wider world. An estimated 6.3 million headsets have sold worldwide indicating that, even among the worlds 2.6 billion gamers, few have picked one up.

Experts point to several reasons behind the slow adoption the technology can cause motion sickness and it is costly. Its also been hard getting people to try it, developers said. And showing virtual reality experiences on flat screens doesnt give people a good enough taste of how different the experience really is.

How do you advertise a colour TV on black-and-white televisions? It requires people walking down to main street and seeing it for themselves, said Steve Bowler, president and co-founder at VR game developer CloudGate Studio.

What virtual reality needs, experts say, is a killer app. And firms are pushing to find it, building up their own platforms and funding developers to bring games to their own headsets exclusively. But this kind of fragmentation has resulted in a confusing market and fewer games for players, thus giving them fewer reasons to spend their dollars on this young trend.

Mike Fischer, chair and co-founder of VR game developer CloudGate Studio, told a panel last year that platform fragmentation keeps me up at night after so many new companies jumped into the VR market although he says that things have improved a little since then.

Devoting extra resources to creating games for different devices can be particularly difficult for smaller studios, whose creativity drive much of the virtual reality market. In fact, some developers, such as Jeff Pobst from Hidden Path Entertainment, say they rely on funding from platforms such as Oculus to get their games made at all.

These exclusive deals between developers and VR companies make it hard for consumers to know which expensive headset will get the game that they want to play leading them to put off their decision, analysts said.

A monopoly, while simple for consumers, wouldnt be perfect either, experts said. Competition is important and different headsets characteristics inspire different types of games. HTCs technology is designed for larger, room-sized experiences that often require gamers to stand. Sonys experiences are largely seated. Oculus provides a mix of the two.

Even big players in the virtual reality market acknowledge that locking any game to a single device could be problematic.

We actually think that content in the VR space makes a lot of space for developers and publishers to look at the market from a platform agnostic standpoint, said Joel Breton, vice-president of Global VR Content for HTC. While HTC helps developers create games for its own platform, Breton said it doesnt hold them to any sort of exclusivity deal.

More companies are also beginning to work on cross-platform solutions.

Developer tools such as Unity and Unreal are streamlining the process for developers who want to port their games between headsets. Ubisoft, one of the worlds largest game publishers, has committed to releasing virtual reality games that work the major three high-end headsets, allowing people who own different headsets to play with each other. Sony spokesperson Jennifer Hallett said the PlayStation VR has several titles that also work on other platforms, including Ubisofts Star Trek: Bridge Crew and Eve:Valkyrie which started as an Oculus-exclusive title.

The VR companies are also trying to do more to work together. Jason Rubin, vice-president of content at Oculus, said in an email interview that he doesnt think that there is harmful fragmentation in the market for consumers or developers. But his firm tries to work with competitors to push the whole industry forward, he added.

But other major publishers seem to be waiting to see how the market plays out before revealing their plans for virtual reality.

We believe VR will be a major opportunity, but widespread adoption will take time, said Electronic Arts in an emailed statement.

For consumers eager to try virtual reality, however, that may mean waiting at least another development cycle to let the market fill out.

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Why is virtual reality taking so long to take off? - Toronto Star

An eye-opening look at the dangers of technology: Jessica De Gouw in OtherLife.

It is not uncommon for films about drug users to contain closeup shots of pupils dilating. This is hardly surprising given closeups of eyes have long been fashionable in cinema; the famous opening of Luis Buuels 1929 classic Un Chien Andalou comes to mind. And after a hit of the good stuff, eyeballs look fabulous on screen, as films like Requiem for a Dream remind us.

Australian writer/director Ben C Lucass sophomore feature, OtherLife, joins the crazy-eyed canon in its opening moments, peppered with near full-screen vision of a narcotic-infused peeper.

Except the drug in question in this low-budget Perth-shot sci-fi movie is arguably not a drug at all. Its inventor Ren (Jessica de Gouw) insists not entirely successfully, especially after an overdose that it is instead biological software.

Once consumed, OtherLife transports users brains into VR-esque settings where they experience all the senses they use in reality. Also, importantly, their grasp of time is expanded, meaning seconds or minutes in real life are experienced as days, months or years inside the users modified mind.

Based in a not-too-distant future, Ren and her business partner Sam (TJ Power) pitch their product as a recreational experience the kind advertised with footage of sun-kissed beaches or majestic snow-tipped mountains.

We never have enough free time, Sam says, reciting a spiel to a bunch of suits in a meeting room. And when we do it feels wasted. He floats the idea of not just buying more time but putting it to all sorts of festive uses: sailing the Caribbean before work, for example, or snowboarding the Alps over lunch.

The technology has its sceptics, and Ren is cautioned about opening Pandoras box. In the lead-up to launch she concedes OtherLife has a glitch (cause of the aforementioned overdose) but downplays it as just bad code. A stern-but-fair university professor (Tiriel Mora) reminds her that the mind is more than a collection of binary switches.

Another cynic opines: A facsimile of an experience youve never had just feels isolating.

This illuminates a theme core to the film, and presumably the book on which it is based, Kelley Eskridges Solitaire: that technology is constructing increasingly lonely worlds for humans to inhabit.

Lucas also philosophised about technology (particularly the use of social media) in his visually striking 2010 debut Wasted on the Young. In a highly memorable scene, the life-or-death fate of one character, a nasty private-school boy, is crowdsourced to fellow smartphone-wielding teenagers as if they were voting in a reality TV competition.

As OtherLife progresses and the pacing warms up, you can sense the shit about to hit a virtually rendered, glitch-prone fan particularly when the government muscles in and proposes alternative applications for the technology. It suggests it could be used as, of all things, a solution to prison overcrowding or, hard time without the time.

The near-future setting, combined with Helen OLoans resourceful, interior-heavy production design, protect the film from extending its sci-fi inclinations beyond the point that can be reasonably achieved within its modest budget. The atmosphere is big but the settings are contained, like Shane Abbess Infini.

And like last years horror indie Observance (another innovative Australian genre film, constructed on an even smaller budget), OtherLifes score and sound design is so striking it is practically a character in the film. All credit to Jed Palmer, who also worked on 2014s delightful The Infinite Man.

Credit also, of course, to Ben C Lucas. With virtual reality devices finally in our lounge rooms and festivals, the film is well timed but I found the excitement of its premise waned a little as the plot progressed. Particularly in the second half, which is partly hinged on finding new applications for already used settings, and has a whiff of Inception-lite about it.

But the tonal consistency with which Lucas brings his ambitious project together will undoubtedly make him an appealing proposition for Hollywood, as it did with Wasted on the Young.

The director is helped along by a darkly charismatic leading performance from Jessica De Gouw who, with her piercing gaze and slightly gothic look and swagger, is a great solidifying force for the cast. Is it her eyes we see in extreme closeup at the start of the film? A question, perhaps, for the director.

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OtherLife review virtual reality goes bad in ambitious Australian sci-fi thriller - The Guardian