Category Archives: Virtual Reality

A user wearing haptic devices on two fingers feels both real and virtual objects in augmented reality.

Domenico Prattichizzo

By Matthew HutsonApr. 25, 2017 , 3:00 PM

Less than a year ago, augmented realitydigital effects laid on top of the real world as seen through a computer screenburst into public consciousness with the release of the mobile game Pokmon GO, in which players see magical little monsters in the real world using their smartphones. Now, a team of engineers has done them one better: With finger-worn devices, users can feel virtual objects around them while still maintaining the ability to grasp otheractualobjects. The new technology could upgrade everything from video games to ecommerce to neurosurgery.

More than 100 million people have experienced augmented reality through Pokmon GO, and tech giants including Apple, Microsoft, Google, and Facebook are investing in it. But so far, augmented reality and its sibling, the fully immersive virtual reality, have an obvious limitation: You can see and hear virtual objects, but you cant touch or feel them.

Over the years, engineers have constructed gloves with motors or electrodes designed to provide tactile, or haptic, feedback. But because most cover the fingertips, users have to remove them before they can feel a real object. Devices that leave the fingertips free dont give the fingers much feedback, or consist of ungainly exoskeletons on the backs of the hands.

So Domenico Prattichizzo, a robotics engineer at the University of Siena in Italy, and his collaborators designed two devices that enable users to feel virtual objects, which they put to the test in a paper to be published in IEEE Transactions on Haptics. One fits over the fingertip, like a chunky thimble. It has a thin plate controlled by three tiny motors that presses against the finger pad. The plate is thin enough to let users pick up real objects, but substantial enough to make them think they are touching real objectseven when none is there. The other is a ring worn high on the finger that uses tiny motors to stretch the skin under the ring. When the stretching, inches from the fingertip, combines with visual feedback, the brain essentially fools itself and transfers the sensation to the tip.

Participants tested the devices with three tasks. In the first, they held a real piece of chalk and wrote the word CIAO (goodbye) on a virtual whiteboard, which they saw througha computer screen. When the chalk touched the virtual board, it left a mark, which turned from blue to red as the subject pressed harder. Participants wore thimbles, rings, or nothing on the thumb and index finger. Compared with bare fingers, the haptic devices each reduced peoples tracing error by about 75%. Participants also reported the thimble and ring gave them better control of the chalk. In additional trials, the only device to do better was a stylus controlled by mechanical arms that cant be worn.

In the second task, people placed two virtual blocks on top of two real blocks, which they then picked up and moved. Participants were about 30% faster with the haptic devices than without. In the third task, they held a real square of cardboard and rolled a virtual ball on it toward several targets. Participants hit more targets in 45 second with haptic feedbackwhich simulated the weight of the ball rolling on the cardboardthan without it. In this final task, the thimble was slightly better than the ring.

Prattichizzos lab has led a revolution in the topic of virtual touch, says Miguel Otaduy, a computer scientist at Rey Juan Carlos University in Madrid. Hes tried Prattichizzos devices and is impressed that you can wear them and still hold real objects. That just blows your mind, he says. Samuel Schorr, a mechanical engineer at Stanford University in Palo Alto, California, who studies haptics in virtual reality, praises the work for comparing different types of devices using different types of tasks.

Otaduy notes several possible applications. In medicine, a surgeon might be able to perform remote operations beyond the simple use of a scalpel, or train for tumor screening by feeling for virtual lumps in real tissue. In telecommunications, people could share touch over the internet. Sensing could also be remote in time: You might record the visual, audio, and tactile sensations of playing with your child, for example, to play back later.

Prattichizzo hopes to add vibrations to his wearable devices to simulate texture. Hes also developing armbands to provide haptic feedback when lifting heavy virtual objects. Some of these ideas may soon come to market through his new company, WEART: My goal is that we should be able to switch from real to virtual reality in a snap.

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Finger devices let users 'touch' virtual objects - Science Magazine

Until now, the benefits and applications of virtual reality (VR) in travel have mostly been fun diversions, or a way for travelers to experience something before they decide to buy.

But one company has unveiled a technology that would allow VR to be the actual platform through which travelers book their trips.

Navitaire, a travel technology company (owned by travel tech giant Amadeus), revealed a new system that would allow travelers to discover and book real-life trips without ever leaving virtual reality, Skift reported.

When users put on the VR headset, they are greeted by a giant globe which they can spin to explore destinations around the world. Users wear electronically connected gloves to make decisions, select and grab in virtual reality. If they are curious about a destination, they can go in and explore the sites similar to many travel VR products already out there.

However, once they choose their destination, users can see different airline routes and pick their airline. Once theyve selected a flight, they can compare seats on the plane in VR. Users can also choose to test out rental cars and compare size and seating through VR something useful when deciding whether or not that budget airfare is really worth it. Once theyve made all of their decisions, users can pick up a virtual credit card (linked to a real credit card) and pay for their entire trip.

The project is still in development. Even though theres currently a patent pending, dont expect to book a trip in VR anytime soon. Amadeus could continue adding new features. Eventually, the technology could link up with social media to show users where their Facebook friends have traveled. Travelers could even manage reservations and check in for flights using VR.

I see a future in which the internet will be a 3D experience, and everyone will have their own portable 3D headsets, Justin Wilde, a user experience developer at Navitaire, said in a statement. This will be a much more natural experience for us, because the world we live in has three dimensions. I think technology, and the way we design user experience online should reflect that too.

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You Could Book Your Next Vacation in Virtual Reality | Travel + ... - Travel+Leisure

Virtual reality (VR) represents the leading edge of new consumer technology. But for companies interested in VR tech, the challenge has been to create a compelling use case to catalyze rapid adoption of the devices. In Japan, the answer to this question has been to integrate October 2016 launch of its highly anticipated PlayStation VR platform.

An analysis of Q4 2016 VR headset shipment share in Japan by brand, conducted by International Data Corporation (IDC), highlights Sonys early advantage. VR headsets from the company accounted for more than 90% of all headset shipments in the country at the end of 2016.

Sony has jumped to an early lead in Japan, even though other VR devices like Facebooks Oculus and HTCs Vive made it to market earlier. But its no surprise that a Japan-based company with close links to the video game console sector would pioneer one of the first widely popular VR products.

Earlier research has underscored the importance of console-based gaming among consumers in Japan.

In a September 2016 study of video game revenues in five markets conducted by Newzoo, Japan had the highest revenues for console-based games of any country. Newzoo estimated that console video game systems, such as the Sony PlayStation, accounted for 38% of Japans video game market, or $4.70 billion.

There are plenty of predictions about how VR applications might develop in the future, including their potential application in the retail and travel sectors. But as the example of Sony in Japan illustrates, it may be the video game industry that ends up pioneering the first truly successful consumer VR device.

Jeremy Kressmann

As programmatic advertising matures, buyers and sellers no longer see it merely as a means of automating processes, but rather as an advanced method of controlling ad campaignsand better targeting the audiences that come with them. Preview Report

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Sony's PlayStation VR Boosts Virtual Reality Shipments in Japan - eMarketer

For news organizations, the promise of VR has been marred by a handful of challenges that have so far made it difficult to justify wholesale investment in the technology.

VR has emerged from its early experimentation phase and is now bedding down in news organizations as they address the challenges of content and user experience, writes Zillah Watson, the reports author, who has also headed up BBCs own VR efforts. But it is still some years from what it could become in the same way that, ten years ago, no one could have foreseen the role today of social media.

So whats holding things back? Watson, who talked to 20 sources from news organizations at different stages of investment in VR, cites a few persistent challenges:

Technical limitations are also an issue on the production side. While cheaper VR-enabed cameras have lowered the barrier to entry, VR production is still held back a lack of standards and an overabundance of walled gardens that complicate the process of developing for multiple platforms. For smaller news organizations, these factors have made investing in the tech a non-starter.

One thing many agree on, though, is that a video has to make sense for VR. Jason Farkas, CNNs president of premium content, said that 360 video in particular needs to pass what he calls the witness test: Is this a story where presence in the room, or the city, or the square helps you understand the story more deeply?

One of the most vital open questions for VR is how news organizations will make any money from it. So far, most news organizations have embraced either partnerships with tech companies orbranded content deals with advertisers to fund their VR projects but neither model feels like a viable longterm answer to the monetization question. The equation couldchange as VR wins over more consumers, however, making advertising a more compelling option.

Despite these issues, news organizations are still pushing ahead with creating VR content, in part because doing so helps brand them as innovative and forward thinking, as Watson writes.

Forward-thinking organizations want to be positioned to embrace it and dont want a repeat of how they were left behind by the Web. And to the extent that such tech experimentation is seen as important for the brands, simply doing it could be seen as a success in itself.

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What's holding back virtual reality news? Slow tech adoption, monetization, and yes, dull content - Nieman Journalism Lab at Harvard

Inside the Magic

How 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' will be brought into virtual reality Mashable The winners of Hollywood's growing move to virtual reality will be the hardware and software companies that strike deals with major studios, like Nokia, which announced it will film Star Wars VR content. SEE ALSO: 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' teaser ... Nokia Teams Up with Disney to Provide Virtual Reality Content for Star Wars: The Last JediNasdaq Star Wars: The Last Jedi virtual reality behind-the-scenes content coming from Nokia and LucasfilmInside the Magic RUMOR: 'Mr. Robot' Creator Sam Esmail Might Pen 'Star Wars' Anthology Script - Omega UndergroundOmega Underground Twitter -Twitter all 106 news articles »

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How 'Star Wars: The Last Jedi' will be brought into virtual reality - Mashable

By Heather Kelly

SAN FRANCISCO (CNNMoney) -- What has 17 lenses, costs $18,000, and can make you feel like you're anywhere in the world? The YI Halo, a new virtual reality camera that runs on Google's Jump VR platform.

Made by Chinese camera company YI with Google, the Halo shoots 4k video simultaneously on all 17 cameras. It uses Google's Jump software to stitch the footage together into a single, immersive 360-degree VR film.

Google announced the new hardware Monday, barely a week after Facebook revealed plans for a pair of its own VR cameras: the x24 and x6.

"Cameras are hot. That's good. We planned this a while ago," Amit Singh, Google's VP of business for VR, said at a briefing with reporters in San Francisco ahead of the news release.

The YI Halo will go on sale this summer, and Google says some early partners will get rigs right away.

Why are consumer tech companies competing to make expensive hardware for a niche professional market? They really just want to sell more virtual reality headsets. But first, they need content people can actually watch on their futuristic face-mounted TVs.

The tech industry has spent the past year pushing virtual reality goggles like Facebook's Oculus Rift, the Samsung Gear VR and the Sony PlayStation VR. Google has two of its own lower-cost products, the Cardboard and the Google Daydream View.

But virtual reality experiences are in short supply, in part because of how much time and money it takes to produce quality VR movies.

Like most VR camera rigs, the YI Halo is a bunch of action cameras cobbled together into a ring with a single camera on top. It looks like an old-school slide carousel and weight about eight pounds.

Though it has dabbled in other hardware, including phones and routers, Google partnered with a camera company on the Halo instead of making its own. Google is instead focused on the underlying technology, like algorithms that can stitch footage together with minimal mistakes in hours instead of months.

One early YI Halo tester is virtual reality filmmaker Armando Kirwin of Milk VR, who said at the press briefing that Facebook's cameras aren't really direct competition. Instead, the Halo is aimed at lengthy multi-million dollar productions that use expensive special effects artists to put together the footage. As YouTube-owner Google knows well, there can be an advantage to volume over quality when it comes to content.

To get more people shooting, Google is launching a program called Jump Start. Filmmakers can apply for free cameras and use of the Jump software.

TM & 2017 Cable News Network, Inc., a Time Warner Company. All rights reserved.

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Google's new virtual reality camera has 17 lenses - NBC2 News

SpaceVR, a small spacecraft with eight cameras, will help deliver a virtual reality experience to Earth after it launches on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket in September 2017. Wochit

SpaceVR's Overview 1 virtual reality satellite.(Photo: SpaceVR)

A spacecraft outfitted with high-resolution cameras willdeliver an astronaut-like virtual reality experience to the ground after it launches to the International Space Station aboard a SpaceX rocket later this year.

The small spacecraft,named Overview 1,will capture its surroundings in low Earth orbitwith eight cameras after it launches from the Space Coastaboard a Falcon 9 rocket in September. Thefootage will be transmitted to the ground before Overview 1 meets a fiery demise upon reentry into the atmosphere.

SpaceVR, the San Francisco-based startup in charge of designing the spacecraft, willinitially distribute the footage for the HTC Vive, a virtual reality headset. Founder and CEO Ryan Holmes said the footage will eventually come to "all major platforms" that support VR video, such as YouTube and Facebook.

[SpaceX next up on Eastern Range with Falcon 9 NRO launch]

As is the case with other VR experiences, users are not always required to use aheadset they can also pan, tilt and zoom using a mouseor by moving a smartphone around the scene.

Holmes, a native of Port. St. Lucie, credits the "Overview Effect" for inspiration behind founding the company.

"The Overview Effect is when astronauts go into space and they experience feeling what it's like to live amongst an infinite universe," Holmes told FLORIDA TODAY. "We saw that as one of the best experiences one could possibly have. So we sought to allow people to experience it through virtual reality by launching the world's first virtual reality satellite."

Initiallydescribed by "Overview Effect" author Frank White, NASA's Lunar Science Institute describes thephenomenon as "an experience that transforms astronauts perspective of the planet and mankinds place upon it."

As the company's first spacecraft, Overview 1's flight and the resulting footage is intended to be a technical demonstration of its capabilities. The company benefitted from a investment push in April 2016 and secured $1.25 million for the project.

SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket lifts off from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A on Thursday, March 30, 2017.(Photo: SpaceX)

The tentative September launch will be SpaceX's thirteenth launch under theCommercial Resupply Services contract, known as CRS-13. Like previous launches, the company's Dragon spacecraftwill deliver equipment, supplies and science experiments to the crew of the ISS.

SpaceVR signed the launch agreement with NanoRacks, which will use itsCubeSat Deployer to release Overview 1 to low Earth orbit after Dragon arrives at the ISS. The loaf-of-bread-sized spacecraft was built by Pumpkin, which is also based in San Francisco.

SpaceX, meanwhile, is targeting Sunday for the launch of a classified intelligence satellite for the National Reconnaissance Office. It's the first such mission by SpaceX for the NRO, which will take flight on a Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center's pad 39A during a two-hour window that opens at 7 a.m. A first stage landing is expected at Cape Canaveral Air Force Station's Landing Zone 1 shortly after liftoff.

Contact Emre Kelly at aekelly@floridatoday.com or 321-242-3715. Follow him on Twitter and Facebook at @EmreKelly.

An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Tuesday, April 18, 2017 with a Cygnus spacecraft for the International Space Station.

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In a historic first for the company and the industry, SpaceX launched and landed a "flight proven," or refurbished, Falcon 9 rocket from Kennedy Space Center.

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A Delta IV rocket carrying the military's WGS-9 satellite blasted off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station on Saturday, March 18, 2017.

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SpaceX's Falcon 9 rocket blasts off from Kennedy Space Center with the EchoStar 23 communications satellite on Thursday, March 16, 2017.

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A SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket successfully blasted off from Kennedy Space Center's historic pad 39A on Sunday, Feb. 19, 2017. The first stage returned for a successful landing in Cape Canaveral Air Force Station.

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An Atlas V rocket blasts off from Cape Canaveral Air Force Station with the SBIRS missile detection satellite on Friday, Jan. 20, 2017.

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Atlas V rocket blasts off on mission with Cygnus spacecraft

SpaceX launches, lands 'flight proven' Falcon 9

Delta IV rocket launches from Cape Canaveral

SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket launches from Kennedy Space Center

Falcon 9 blasts off from KSC, lands at Cape

Atlas V rocket blasts off with missile detection satellite

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SpaceX to launch virtual reality spacecraft on later ISS mission - Florida Today

AMDs 2017 Product Roadmap Threatens Intel, Nvidia PART 1 OF 17

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) has generated some talk with its new product launches, strong growth in its stock price, and a comeback in the high-end chip market. This turnaround happened under the leadership of AMDs president and chief executive officer, Lisa Su.

Advanced Micro Devices is the only company that offers both CPUs (central processing units) and GPUs (graphics processing units) and that has both ARM and x86 CPU architecture. This broad portfolio was once its disadvantage.

AMDs rivals Intel (INTC) in the CPU market and Nvidia (NVDA) in the GPU market have strong cash reserves to develop advanced products in their respective markets. However, AMDs limited cash was scattered across a broad portfolio. Advanced Micro Devices is turning this disadvantage to an advantage by tapping high-growth markets and developing integrated solutions.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is focusing on the fast-growing markets of gaming, data center, and virtual reality. These three markets present a $53 billion opportunity for AMD.

Within the gaming market, Advanced Micro Devices is looking to offer its Vega GPUs to gaming enthusiasts and its Polaris GPUs to mainstream gamers. AMD would also power Microsofts (MSFT) new Xbox Scorpio and Sonys new PlayStation 4.5 gaming consoles with its APUs (application processing units). With the advent of VR (virtual reality) in gaming, AMD looks to develop advanced VR headsets.

After seeing the success of Nvidias GPUs in the data center market, Advanced Micro Devices also entered in this space by supplying GPUs to Alibaba (BABA) and Googles (GOOG) hyperscale data centers. AMD is also looking to compete with Intel in the server space with its Naples CPU.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is looking to bring VR closer to reality, which would require high-end graphics, memory, and high processing power. So, the company is developing the Raven Ridge APU that would combine the Ryzen CPU and the Vega GPU. AMDrecently acquired wireless VR chip manufacturer Nitero to get rid of the wires attached to the VR headset.With all these efforts, AMD aims to become a leader in the VR space.

AMD is targetingall its research and development efforts on the above three markets. In this series, well look at the companys end markets and its efforts in each of these markets.

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AMD Investors Eye Virtual Reality, Gaming Capabilities - Market Realist

A year ago, Kristina Jenkins considered herself a total novice when it came to virtual reality.

Thats changed since the summer, when Visit Philadelphia, the tourism marketing agency where shes digital content director, began the process for launching its own virtual reality platform.

Once considered inaccessible to the masses, virtual reality is now everywhere,including youriPhone;360-degree cameras are now fairly affordable, too. (Were setting aside the debate about whether systems like Google Cardboard have all the qualities that make up pure virtual reality, like full-motion tracking.)

And for place-based nonprofits in particular, tech like this can be extremely beneficial, saidJenkins, who will be speaking at our augmented and virtual reality bootcamp,Tech in the Commons, this Friday, as part of Philly Tech Week Presented by Comcast. Its hard to break through the noise online and I think content like this can help destinations do that and reach new audiences with a compelling, immersive viewing experience that really isnt like anything else.

Virtual view of the Schuylkill River. (Screenshot via visitphilly.com/virtual-tour)

(If you need a primer on these subjects, try our reading list here.)

According to Jenkins, who managed the virtual reality project for Visit Philly, the 20-year-old organization has always been ahead of the curve in the destination marketing world when it comes to using new technologies, such as implementingsocial media into its marketing strategy beforeit became the essential tool it is today.

But this brandof tech struck Jenkins as especiallyappropriate for Visit Phillys mission: Potential visitorsget an immersive view into a citys best features, thus (hopefully) improving their impression of the city and encouraging them to check it out in person.

It was really important for us to engage online visitors with a small snippet of what they could experience in Philadelphia, she said.

Virtual view of Pats King of Steaks. (Screenshot via visitphilly.com/virtual-tour)

Development of the virtual reality project started last summer. Visit Philly picked virtual reality marketing agency YouVisit as a partner because of its previous destination marketing work with cities such as Houston and Antigua, Guatemala. YouVisit alsohad its own hostingplatform with options for photo and video as well as virtual reality, so Visit Philly didnt need to do much of its own web development, Jenkins said.

After a fewdays of filming local landmarks in October and severalweeks of beta testingon Visit Phillys website, the project officially launched in March. Jenkins couldnt share numbers but said shes seen some pretty solid use of the platform: Website visitors whoengage with the toolhave almost doubled their time on the site.

Here are Jenkins tips for nonprofits looking to take on a similar project:

This Fridays Tech in the Commons event is sold out, but you can still sign up for the final three bootcamps, which will teach place-based nonprofits best practices for employingdata visualization, live video and social communicationsin their digital engagement strategies.

Julie Zeglen is Editor of Generocity. Previous to joining the Technically Media team, she served as managing editor of Star Community Newsweekly, a hyperlocal newspaper focused on Philadelphias River Wards. The Temple alumna lives in West Philly.

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A peek into Visit Philly's new virtual reality platform - Generocity

by Elizabeth Tyree & Priscilla Kaiser

Emma Elliott created her own virtual reality complete with sound effects (Photo: Priscilla Kaiser)

LYNCHBURG, Va. (WSET) -- It's one thing to learn how to master a virtual reality game and another to build one, but that's the project one senior at Lynchburg College decided to take on as her final project.

Emma Elliott created her own virtual reality complete with sound effects.

"I told the game to do that. I wrote the code to do that," she said. "Most of it I was learning on my own, it was kind of uncharted territory," Elliott said.

As a senior at Lynchburg College she decided to create the virtual reality video game for her final computer science project.

Elliott said she used software to help her create the space station scene she had hoped for that she calls "Puzzles in Space."

"You have to explore the maze to find three different buttons and that opens the door to get out and go to the next level," she said.

Elliott's professor, Doctor Joe Meehean said she's the one who took the project to the next level.

"Every computer science student does a year-long project, but not every student puts in the time and dedication that Emma does," said Dr. Meehean.

And, it took her every bit of time to master the program and bring her vision to reality.

"I'm a bit surprised, I think we're a both bit surprised at how well it had turned out," Dr. Meehean said. "She got an A, yeah, she got an A."

Also interested in the arts, especially theater, Elliott believes those skills has helped set her game apart.

"I find video games as well as virtual reality just another platform to tell a story on," she said.

Elliott says she plans to look for jobs in Engineering or Gaming when she graduates next month, and she said she wasn't sure she'd enjoy coding and building a game as much as she did.

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Lynchburg College senior creates virtual reality game - WSET