Category Archives: Virtual Reality

AN OLD roller coaster at SeaWorld Orlando has been given the ultimate makeover, turning it from a 17-year-old ride into a cutting edge virtual reality experience.

By attaching headsets and earphones to the old Kraken ride, the theme park has turned an already terrifying coaster into a heart-stopping journey to the bottom of the sea.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

Kraken Unleashed is Americas first virtual reality roller coaster, where guests are chased by hungry sea monsters while riding at 65mph for real on a leg-dangling coaster.

As riders fly along the powerful track, complete with dives, corkscrews and seven loops, an immersive VR story unfolds in perfect sync with the rides movements.

Guests can now scream their way through a fantastical voyage past gigantic underwater beasts, including the legendary Kraken sea monster.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

The virtual voyage begins in a futuristic underwater laboratory, then plunging guests into the deep sea.

At first things seem peaceful, with a pod of dolphins following you up a steep underwater canyon before it all takes a terrifying turn for the worst.

As the ride speeds up, guests encounter angry giant crabs and other massive monsters, then finally coming face to with the mystical ancient Kraken.

The ride is over in a matter of minutes but with so much happening on screen and multiple viewing angles depending on which way youre looking, most guests will want to dive right back in.

Facebook / Orlando Informer

SeaWorld expect the ride to be wildly popular, so in keeping with the high-tech theme, holidaymakers will also be able to skip the queue by waiting in line virtually with a new app.

Called Spot Saver, the mobile site will allow thrill-seekers to join a queue with a smartphones and turn up when its their turn to ride.

Brian Morrow, Vice President of Theme Park Experience and Design said:By creating a custom digital overlay and using technology to tell the story, we developed an entirely new virtual reality coaster.

The result is a seamless and completely unique expedition on a well-loved roller coaster.

If riders arent ready to brave the deep, theres also the option to enjoy the ride the old school way.

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SeaWorld's new ride combines virtual reality and a REAL roller coaster for a deep sea thriller - The Sun

A YouTube heat map of where viewers devote their attention during a virtual reality video

YouTube's revealed the secret to making an engaging virtual reality video: put the best parts right in front of the audience so they don't have to move their heads.

Google's video vault offers that advice on the basis of heat maps it's created based on analysis of where VR viewers point their heads while wearing VR goggles. There's just such a heat map at the top of this story (or here for m.reg readers) and a bigger one here.

The many heat maps YouTube has made lead it to suggest that VR video creators Focus on whats in front of you: The defining feature of a 360-degree video is that it allows you to freely look around in any direction, but surprisingly, people spent 75% of their time within the front 90 degrees of a video. So dont forget to spend significant time on whats in front of the viewer.

YouTube also advises that for many of the most popular VR videos, people viewed more of the full 360-degree space with almost 20% of views actually being behind them. Which sounds to El Reg like VR viewers are either staring straight ahead or looking over their shoulders, with very little time being devoted to sideways glances.

Google therefore offers the following sage advice for those who want to set heads swiveling: Get their attention The more engaging the full scene is, the more likely viewers will want to explore the full 360-degree view.

Which gets The Register celebrating, yet again, that it's possible to harness countless thousands of servers so they analyse countless thousands of videos and then tell us that getting people interested in movies can best be accomplished by making good movies.

What a time to be alive.

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Virtual reality audiences stare straight ahead 75% of the time - The Register

Microsoft backed away from virtual reality on the Xbox One X at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) last week. But it said that VR on the Windows PC is a good fit, and graphics chip maker Nvidia is all in favor of that idea.

VR has moved into its gap of disappointment, but there are plenty of believers who still say it will become a huge market over time. The market could reach$17.8 billion in VR hardware sales alone by 2020, according to SuperData Research.

E3 2017 had plenty of VR backers, from Bethesdas Doom and Fallout VR games to Sonys plentiful PlayStation VR titles, like Moss.More than 126 VR companies displayed products at E3 2017, compared to 54 a year earlier.

I spoke with Jason Paul, general manager for virtual reality product strategy at Nvidia, about VR at E3. He is one of the VR believers.Here is an edited transcript of our interview.

Above: Jason Paul of Nvidia

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

GamesBeat: Whats your task here at the show?

Jason Paul: Honestly, its mostly meetings with partners and developers this year. We have a couple of VR demos were showing at our booth. We have Arctic One from 4A Games, the guys who make Metro. Its a beautiful VR first-person shooter. The other one is Star Trek Bridge Crew, which released a couple of weeks ago, but theyre coming out with a patch here pretty soon that brings IBM Watson voice recognition to the game. Its a neat example of how AI and VR are coming together, using AI to recognize what people say and translating that into voice commands for the game.

GamesBeat: Microsoft explained why they didnt talk about VR at their E3 press conference. They said that theyre going to let the Windows side focus on VR. Theyre not emphasizing on Xbox at the moment. I asked if that carries over into the future, and they said yes. It sounds like theyre going to do that much with VR with Scorpio, at least in this generation, which is an interesting shift.

Paul: Were definitely excited to see the next generation of headsets come to the Windows platform. We have a lot of partners working on holographic. Were excited to see those headsets come out and bring some new features, like inside out tracking and higher resolution displays.

GamesBeat: It seems like with the platform changing, its more suitable for the PC.

Paul: The PC has always been the leading edge platform for new technologies. Thats true with VR as well. Being able to have a very high-performance computing platform that can drive the displays, as well as the openness of the platform for content innovation and different types of headsets and input devices. Its natural that VR would start on the PC.

Above: The Nvidia GeForce GTX 1080 Ti .

Image Credit: Nvidia

GamesBeat: Does it seem like theres still as much excitement for VR right now, despite all this talk about being in a trough?

Paul: At Nvidia were very excited. Any major computing transition takes time. When we look at GPU computing and AI, weve been investing in that for 10 years. Self-driving cars, weve been investing in that for 10 years. Nvidia makes long-term investments. We dont expect major technology transitions to happen overnight. But were excited for all the momentum behind VR this year. If you look at the top publishers in the world, 10 of the top 10 have announced that theyre working on VR projects. You have great headsets already hitting the market and more headsets coming from LG and Microsofts partners. A lot is happening over the next 12 months in VR.

Our big focus at GTX was expanding our VRWorks SDK. We released a 360 video SDK, and also demod a live 360 4K stereo video stream, running on two Nvidia GPUs. We also released the VRWorks audio SDK.

GamesBeat: I think they said there are twice as many VR companies here at E3 compared to last year. 120 versus 54, something like that.

Paul: Over the last day or two weve seen some big titles for VR. Fallout 4 VR, all the Bethesda announcements. Some great high-end content coming to VR.

GamesBeat: What about the PC itself? It seems to be in a prime period right now.

Paul: You have a combination of factors. You have 4K monitors, HDR, VR, esports, and a ton of great triple-A games. All of those are converging to make the PC a great gaming platform right now.

Above: Nvidia GeForce GTX with Max-Q design.

Image Credit: Nvidia

GamesBeat: On the GeForce side you guys have more efficient laptops.

Paul: Right. At Computex we announced our Max-Q notebooks. The challenge with gaming notebooks has always been, you want the best performance, but you want it in a portable form factor. Our engineers obviously spent a lot of years examining this and finding out how to reach something optimal. With Max-Q we have some new approaches as far as how to design for that optimal point of performance in a thin, lightweight, quiet notebook. Weve introduced a number of those with our partners at Computex, and were showing them here as well MSI, Clevo, and Asus notebooks. If you compare the dimensionswe have a great slide that shows the size and weight of the prior generation compared to these. Its one-third the thickness and half the weight.

GamesBeat: It seems like that could be very appealing for the esports crowd. The performance meets their needs, and they tend to want something more portable.

Paul: Its compelling for esports. Its compelling for VR. You want to take VR around and show your friends. Its compelling for the development community. They want to be able to show off their content without lugging around big systems. Weve gotten a lot of great feedback so far.

Above: LawBreakers in action.

Image Credit: Boss Key Productions

GamesBeat: We saw some interesting announcements out of the PC gaming show yesterday. They talked about Age of Empires: Definitive Edition. LawBreakers has a launch date.

Paul: Weve been working with the LawBreakers guys on a feature we call ShadowPlay highlights. Basically, it gives the developers ways to tell GeForce Experience and ShadowPlay when to record video. If you get a kill streak or an amazing play in a game, the game will automatically record that for you, and after your sessions finished, itll show you your highlights. Thats one thing were looking forward to from those guys.

GamesBeat: How do you distinguish ShadowPlay in the market among all the different ways people can record and stream?

Paul: It comes down to GPU acceleration and quality. Because we have a built-in hardware encoder, we can capture and encode that video very quickly with very minimal performance impact on a game, and we can do it at very high quality, up to 4K at 60 frames per second. The other thing is that its just easy to use. Its built right into GeForce Experience, which many people already have on their PC. You hit alt-Z, pull up the interface, and capture.

Above: E3 2017

Image Credit: Dean Takahashi

GamesBeat: Streaming and influencers is exploding. Its an interesting way for everybody to get the word out and receive information now.

Paul: One of the other things we use ShadowPlay for, were using it to do live streaming as well as video capture. You can use the exact same technology to live stream out to Twitch or YouTube. Earlier this year we announced streaming to Facebook Live as well. Its an interesting phenomenon. All sorts of game content sharing is happening now. Games are obviously an art form, but capturing content in games is becoming an art form too. Thats why were investing a lot in Ansel, which youre probably familiar with.

GamesBeat: Thats the picture capture technology?

Paul: Right, our in-game photography mode. Its been doing really well. We announced another couple of game integrations here at the show. Theres about 13 titles now with Ansel support. Were getting a lot of positive feedback from the gaming community. They can capture their favorite characters and environments in new and interesting ways.

GamesBeat: Any other subjects that are on your mind right now?

Paul: Were showing some of the G-Sync 4K HDR monitors at our booth here. You may have seen those before, but were showing off more with a few partners. And the rest of the booth this year is some of the top upcoming PC games. The core of our presence is 40 Destiny 2 PCs, showing it off in 4K on GeForce GTX. We also announced a bundle this morning with Destiny 2 and our GTX 1080 and 1080 Ti. Thats coming at the end of the month.

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Nvidia keeps the faith for virtual reality on the PC - VentureBeat

Muhammad Hussain plays a virtual reality rock-climbing game in the Virtual Reality Lab, part of the iSchool at the University of Washington (Photo courtesy Vriti Wadhwa).

For people afraid of heights, leaning over a wall when rock climbing could cause feelings of terror and nausea. Being attached to ropes when climbing is not always reassuring for an acrophobe.

But perhaps experiencing similar conditions in virtual reality with two feet on the ground could help people overcome those fears.

Thats the theory of six University of Washington students, who have developed a virtual reality (VR) rock climbing game to study how users experience the fear of heights. The game has the potential to help researchers analyze how virtual reality can possibly find solutions for patients with other phobias.

This game was part of our final project for our immersive environments class at UW, said lead storyteller and designer Sanjana Galgalikar. We wanted to create something that was a challenge but also feasible as a project within the three-week span that we had to work on it.

To create the game, the team used a game-making software called Unity. Unity is a game-making application that allows for the creation of different plug-ins and functions such as graphics, sounds, and animations. Unlike other game creators, Unity makes it easy to write codes for characters, object behavior, and environment without complicated and multi-layered processes. The application is considered more progressive as it allows for games to be published on multiple platforms, whether for consoles, desktops, or mobile.

The team went through a step-by-step process to create a user flow outline and storyline for the rock climbing game, plan out the different game levels, and then apply it to the Unity software. They then self-coded the logistics of the game through C#, a multi-purpose programming language, to bring in the different elements altogether.

The element of virtual reality technology allows for a computer-generated environment that consists of 3D images, sound experiences, and sensory stimuli for users.

Most of the participants said it was really immersive, in the sense that they were actually feeling like they were climbing a mountain, said project developer and video producer Jeewon Ha.

The game incorporates three levels of rock climbing, increasing in difficulty. The first level is a simple procedure of climbing from one block to another without being stuck in one place. The second level includes different elevations and mountains to climb through, making it easier for the user to fall down. The third level involves challenging swinging techniques needed to reach to the top of the climbing wall.

The gap between level two and three was so big that barely anyone passed through level three, said Ha.

The general control system of the game was an important element needed to create a realistic setting. The interaction between the controllers and content on the screen needed to be well-coordinated.

I created the general controls in the game, said game designer Muhammad Hussain. The trigger on the handle allows you to pick up an object, or hold yourself onto the rocks of the wall.

The game even includes a teleportation feature, which allows the user to fly to different rock climbing walls in the area, simply by moving the arms in a swinging-like momentum. Once a user is no longer able to grab onto the rocks, they feel the sensation of falling down, which ends the game.

Testing out features with users has allowed the team to analyze reactions to the intense environment they created. Several participants felt frightened when they looked down from a high elevation or reacted audibly when falling down.

In our user testing, we tried to reduce as many negative user experiences as possible, Galgalikar said. We added a layer of vignette (darkening the corners of a visual element) to ease the side effects of falling down.

The team experimented with a virtual element called six degrees of freedom, which refers to stimulated capability given to the body to move in different directions. This makes the experience more realistic for users.

Virtual reality has been used in phobia-related research before. Dr. Hunter Hoffman, Director of the Virtual Reality Research Center at the Human Photonics Lab at the University of Washington has done extensive research on how virtual reality can treat pain and phobia.

Most people avoid the thing theyre afraid of, Hoffman said. The nice thing about virtual reality is that people are more willing to go closer to their fears.

In his research, Hoffman used virtual reality to study people with arachnophobia, fear of spiders. His work allowed him to see how the virtual world could help people confront their fears.

The ability to customize the experience for each individual patient is what makes the process a lot more effective, Hoffman said. In theory, virtual reality makes it a lot easier to change the program accordingly.

Hoffman isnt the only scientist studying VR as a treatment for phobias. Virtually Better is a company that sells virtual reality-related research to psychologists for further analysis or use in studies.

Therapists use experiences like this to help with phobia of heights, water, and other exposure therapies, Hussain said. When you think of immersive experiences, you think of virtual reality. It kind of speaks for itself.

The team of students has already presented their work at the AT&T VR Hackathon in Bellevue,Wash. and now hopes to take their game to even more competitions and hackathons down the line.

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Students create game to help acrophobes confront their fear of heights in virtual reality - GeekWire

Quartz

A Florida university is making Quidditch a (virtual) reality Quartz I hold in my hands what looks and feels like a wand from a Harry Potter film. But this isn't one of the cheap replicas you can buy in a souvenir shop. It was 3D-printed right here, in the high-tech workshop where I'm standing. And once I put on a ...

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A Florida university is making Quidditch a (virtual) reality - Quartz

LOS ANGELES | The Rev. Kelvin Sauls believes health and faith are two sides of the same coin.

He brings yoga and Zumba classes to his church in South L.A. because he knows African-Americans are particularly vulnerable to diabetes and heart disease.

"We can't save people's souls in the sanctuary and kill their bodies in the fellowship hall," Sauls likes to say.

Now he's collaborating with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center to try to reduce high blood pressure in the community. The project has enrolled many of his congregants at Holman United Methodist Church and uses everything in the public health toolbox, including weekly dinners and classes, fitness trackers, nurse check-ins and even virtual reality.

African-Americans suffer from high rates of hypertension, which makes them much more likely to have strokes or heart attacks.

But when they're diagnosed with the condition, the doctor leaves the room and the patient is left wondering what to do next, said Dr. Bernice Coleman, a nurse scientist who heads the project for Cedars-Sinai. She wanted to find a way to help without focusing on cutting calories or losing weight.

"Everyone's been on a diet," Coleman said. "The thing in the middle that nobody understands is salt."

On a recent Monday evening, people started filtering into the church for dinner _ curried cabbage, salad with mushrooms, and for dessert, sliced watermelon. Coleman took the stage to teach the group about genetics and the importance of recording family medical history to know your risk factors.

"What happened to Grandma? What happened to Grandpa?" Coleman asked. They began filling out family trees.

Each week consists of dinner and a class. They've learned about recommended salt intake and diabetes, and taken cooking and tai chi classes. Everyone enrolled was given a blood pressure cuff and a Fitbit fitness tracker to monitor their steps.

Sharon Jackson, 62, joined the program because she has high blood pressure. She wants to get off the medicine that controls her levels.

About 1 in 3 adults in the United States has high blood pressure, which contributes to 1,000 deaths a day nationwide.

Jackson now checks her Fitbit to make sure she's getting enough exercise, and measures her blood pressure at home every morning and evening. It's already coming down, she said.

When someone has high blood pressure, the blood in their arteries _ the tubes that carry blood from the heart to other parts of the body _ pushes too hard against the arteries' walls. Eating salt can worsen the problem because it makes the body retain water.

Jackson said she's now cautious and seeks out nutrition information when she goes to her favorite restaurants. "They put salt in everything!" she said.

Thresa Thomas and Princess Benson, also enrolled in the program, recently went grocery shopping together and stayed away from salty foods.

Popcorn? "I said, 'Heck no,'" Thomas said.

Across the country, doctors are using virtual reality to practice surgeries, teach families about complicated medical treatments and distract patients from unpleasant or painful procedures.

At Cedars-Sinai, Dr. Brennan Spiegel has been fitting patients with virtual reality goggles for two years.

"We've been focused on the in-patient side, using virtual reality to transport patients outside the four walls of the hospital ... to fantastical destinations where they can relax or de-stress," Spiegel said.

Plus, virtual reality is such an immersive sensory experience that it prevents the brain from processing outside signals and can actually reduce the amount of pain patients feel, he said. Many studies have confirmed that virtual reality games can ease a patient's pain.

The project at Holman United Methodist Church gave Spiegel an opportunity to see how virtual reality might work in healthcare outside the hospital.

He designed a virtual reality smartphone app, which participants can use by clipping an eyeglasses-like device onto their smartphones.

When they launch the app, it appears they're in the middle of the kitchen, with different foods sitting on a counter: black beans, salmon, gumbo, lasagna, fruit smoothies. Each dish's sodium content pops up above it.

Look down, and they're transported to a 3-D rendering of the inside of a human body, where they can see how a pumping heart deteriorates with years of high blood pressure.

"You're sitting there, all of a sudden in your own chest, watching your heart beat," Spiegel said. "The whole idea is to just hijack the brain into rethinking the role of food, and in this case salt and health, and we're testing this now to see how people experience it and if it's helpful to them."

Spiegel said he was surprised by how much some people struggled to use the app or even just their smartphones.

"It was amazing how difficult it was," he said. "We have to really think about, if we're going to scale these technologies, what it actually takes to do it."

The app also offers a way to alleviate stress, which can contribute to high blood pressure. In the app, users can sit on a virtual beach at sunrise and listen to chirping birds and the sound of the ocean while Sauls, the church pastor, recites a calming meditation.

"I want to get the real one," said Jackson, 62. Her son has virtual reality goggles, and she wants more apps that can help her relax.

Benson, 51, said the app revealed the sodium in raw chicken and shellfish.

"You wouldn't ever think of it, that foods already have salt," she said.

Recently, Benson noticed that a packet of noodles her son was about to prepare for his child had 1,200 milligrams of sodium. She warned him against cooking them.

African-Americans tend to develop high blood pressure more often and younger than other groups. One out of three African-Americans in L.A. County said they'd been diagnosed with high blood pressure, compared with 1 out of 4 whites and 1 out of 5 Latinos and Asians, according to the most recent county health survey in 2015.

And that is those who know. Many people with hypertension aren't diagnosed because the condition doesn't always have symptoms it's often called the "silent killer."

Dr. Paul Simon, chief science officer at the L.A. County Department of Public Health, said it's an important but difficult problem to address because it's affected by what people eat at home and in restaurants, how much they exercise and their stress levels, which are in turn influenced by their lifestyles and where they live.

"Even if you have the best intentions, it's very difficult, for example, if you want to be physically active, but where in your neighborhood is there a park?" he said. "If you want to eat more healthfully, there may not be a lot of food options in your neighborhood that are more affordable."

Juanita Cannon, 71, loves Southern cooking. But now when she cooks, she pours a little salt into her hand and sprinkles it over the pan, instead of shaking it in directly, she said.

Because the program has her paying attention to exercise and eating, she's also started doing water aerobics. She set an hourly alarm on her phone to remind her to stand up usually from quilting, her favorite hobby now that she's retired and walk around a bit.

"I've even lost 10 pounds, which I've been trying to do for 50 years," she said, laughing.

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Can virtual reality reduce high blood pressure at a church in South LA? - Rapid City Journal

3-D Wall of Virtual Reality Inside Science News Service (Inside Science) -- In the world of virtual reality, putting on a pair of goggles transports users to anywhere on earth and beyond, all without leaving home. Users become immersed in a digital landscape that would normally be beyond their reach. VR has ... and more »

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3-D Wall of Virtual Reality - Inside Science News Service

LOS ANGELES At 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 percent from last year. Yet adoption of VR among consumers hasnt really taken off in the three years since it captured 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 color 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, chairman 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 spokeswoman 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.

The more content out there across different platforms and price points, the more likely consumers are to try VR, and the more likely they are to become true believers in the medium, Rubinsaid.

Correction: A previous version of this story misattributed the last quote from Jason Rubin. This version has been corrected.

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Why is virtual reality taking so long to take off? - Washington Post

SeaWorld Orlando didnt build a new roller coaster this year, but it felt like it to Alex Moreno.

Ive been on Kraken tons and tons of times, and that didnt feel like Kraken, he said Friday. Its better much better.

Moreno and friend Chloe Spencer of Orlando were among the first to ride the rebooted coaster rechristened Kraken Unleashed with its new virtual-reality component in place.

Riders have the option of wearing a headset that presents a movie to makes it look like theyre going underwater and encountering sea life, both real and mythological. In reality, theyre on the same rail thats been in place since the ride opened 17 years ago.

When you first go into the water its so crazy, Moreno said.

Friday also marked the debut of SeaWorlds Spot Saver system, which allows visitors in the park to reserve ride times on the new coaster. A Spot Saver kiosk was set up near the Kraken Unleashed entrance, and the service could also be accessed by mobile devices aimed at spotsaver.com.

By noon, all reservation slots had been taken. The park closes at 7 p.m.

Spot Saver was established, in part, because the turnaround time between rides has increased. Theres a learning curve for folks donning the virtual-reality headsets for the first time, plus the equipment is cleaned between rides.

Rudi Stern, who lives near Munich, Germany, said he liked the ride but was frustrated by the wait time in the station.

It was a great ride, but it all took too long, he said. When we put on the glasses and then the riding time and the waiting time and the time when you are sitting, it was about 7 minutes, which is very long.

But, once they got rolling, he said the virtual-reality aspect was a winner and superior to stationary simulators.

Its not like the virtual reality where you only sit, Stern said.

The rides film is synchronized with the movement of the coaster, which still goes 65 mph and turns upside-down seven times, said Brian Morrow, vice president of theme-park experience design.

We take advantage of the real inversions, but sometimes we disguise them as other maneuvers, which makes it really unusual, Morrow said. So you cant count the seven inversions anymore.

All the in-your-face movement didnt make Regina Johnston queasy, she said. She usually avoids coasters but wanted to check out the VR on Kraken, she said.

I think it makes it easier, said Johnston, who lives near Dallas. When Im on a regular coaster, I want to shut my eyes or hold my breath. This one, I could keep my eyes open.

dbevil@orlandosentinel.com or 407-420-5477

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Virtual reality run: SeaWorld unleashes Kraken roller-coaster revamp today - Orlando Sentinel (blog)

As virtual reality and artificial intelligence make their way into the travel industry, consumers may not be fully on board.

Most adults prefer traditional traveling over VR experiences and more than half say tour guides and hotel staff could not be replaced by AI, according to a new study.

The study was conducted by European touring company Italy4Real and comprised a global survey of 1,000 adults.

While virtual reality can be beneficial for viewing remote destinations, it doesnt appear to be a direct threat to actually travelling.

More than three quarters (81%) of adults said VR cant replace travel and almost all (92%) said they would not consider visiting a destination in virtual reality to equate having been to that destination.

The majority (90%) said VR lacks the sensory experiences of traveling. More than three quarters (77%) cited local food and almost as many (69%) said meeting new people, according to the study. Other potential downsides of VR cited include smells, sounds and general atmosphere.

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However, VR could be an advantageous alternative to travel in certain cases.

More than three quarters (77%) said VR travel could be beneficial if the user is incapable of physically traveling. Another advantage of VR cited is the ability to go wherever you want, whenever you want without the associated costs.

On the artificial intelligence side of travel, sentiments seem to be somewhat split.

More than half (52%) said AI can replace human travel agents while almost three quarters (67%) said tour guides or hotel staff could be replaced by AI, according to the study.

The general thought appears to be that AI can fulfill operational roles, but roles requiring personalized interactions are more suited for humans.

However, one of the focuses within the AI space has been developing systems that can engage with customers in real-time on an individual level. While the capabilities may be there, the perception appears to need some time.

Artificial intelligence has already made its way into the planning and booking segment of travel.

For example, Boston-based travel company Lola manages travel booking using a combination of AI and human interaction. The startup, launched last year by the co-founder of Kayak, uses AI to carry out operational and repetitive tasks and human employees to leverage the AIs results in interacting with customers.

JetBlue also plans to integrate AI in a similar capacity within its online trip planning portal.

The airlines JetBlue Vacations arm just launched a service that can create personalized hour-by-hour vacation itineraries for travelers.

When you hear artificial intelligence, its easy to envision a far-off future seen in the movies, Umang Gupta, president of JetBlue Vacations, said in a statement. But AI is ready to change how we now plan travel.

The activities are suggested based on the travelers stated preferences on sixteen categories, including budget and are pulled from a database of more than 150 destinations that is curated by local area experts. JetBlue Vacations partnered with Utrip to integrate its AI destination discovery and planning platform on the back-end.

Our partnership with Utrip demonstrates that we can transform the vacation experience using both technology and a human touch, Gupta stated.

Excerpt from:

Virtual Reality Not Seen As Substitute For Travel - MediaPost Communications