Category Archives: Virtual Reality

You start by picking up the knife, or reaching for the neck of a broken-off bottle. Then comes the lunge and wrestle, the physical strain as your victim fights back, the desire to overpower him. You feel the density of his body against yours, the warmth of his blood. Now the victim is looking up at you, making eye contact in his final moments.

Science-fiction writers have fantasised about virtual reality (VR) for decades. Now it is hereand with it, perhaps, the possibility of the complete physical experience of killing someone, without harming a soul. As well as Facebooks ongoing efforts with Oculus Rift, Google recently bought the eye-tracking start-up Eyefluence to boost its progress towards creating more immersive virtual worlds. The director Alejandro G Irritu and the cinematographer Emmanuel Lubezki, both famous for Birdman (2014) and The Revenant (2015), have announced that their next project will be a short VR film.

But this new form of entertainment is dangerous. The impact of immersive virtual violence must be questioned, studied, and controlled. Before it becomes possible to realistically simulate the experience of killing someone, murder in VR should be made illegal.

This is not the argument of a killjoy. As someone who has worked in film and television for almost 20 years, I am acutely aware that the craft of filmmaking is all about maximising the impact on the audience. Directors ask actors to change the intonation of a single word while editors sweat over a film cut down to fractions of a second, all in pursuit of the right mood and atmosphere.

So I understand the appeal of VR, and its potential to make a story all the more real for the viewer. But we must examine that temptation in light of the fact that both cinema and gaming thrive on stories of conflict and resolution. Murder and violence are a mainstay of our drama, while single-person shooters are one of the most popular segments of the games industry.

Students who played violent games for just 20 minutes a day were more aggressive and less empathetic than those who didnt.The effects of all this gore are not clear-cut. Crime rates in the United States have fallen even as Hollywood films have become bloodier and violent video games have grown in popularity. Some research suggests that shooter games can be soothing, while other studies indicate they might be a causal risk factor in violent behaviour. (Perhaps, as for Frank Underwood in the Netflix series House of Cards, its possible for video games to be both those things.) Students who played violent games for just 20 minutes a day, three days in a row, were more aggressive and less empathetic than those who didnt, according to research by the psychologist Brad Bushman at Ohio State University and his team. The repeated actions, interactivity, assuming the position of the aggressor, and the lack of negative consequences for violence are all aspects of the gaming experience that amplify aggressive behaviour, according to research by the psychologists Craig Anderson at Iowa State University and Wayne Warburton at Macquarie University in Sydney. Mass shooters including Aaron Alexis, Adam Lanza, and Anders Breivik were all obsessive gamers.

The problem of what entertainment does to us isnt new. The morality of art has been a matter of debate since Plato. The philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau was skeptical of the divisive and corrupting potential of theatre, for example, with its passive audience in their solitary seats. Instead, he promoted participatory festivals that would cement community solidarity, with lively rituals to unify the jubilant crowd. But now, for the first time, technology promises to explode the boundary between the world we create through artifice and performance, and the real world as we perceive it, flickering on the wall of Platos cave. And the consequences of such immersive participation are complex, uncertain and fraught with risk.

Humans are embodied beings, which means that the way we think, feel, perceive, and behave is bound up with the fact that we exist as part of and within our bodies. By hijacking our capacity for proprioceptionthat is, our ability to discern states of the body and perceive it as our ownVR can increase our identification with the character were playing. The rubber hand illusion showed that, in the right conditions, its possible to feel like an inert prosthetic appendage is a real hand; more recently, a 2012 study found that people perceived a distorted virtual arm, stretched up to three times its ordinary length, to still be a part of their body.

Its a small step from here to truly inhabiting the body of another person in VR. But the consequences of such complete identification are unknown, as the German philosopher Thomas Metzinger has warned. There is the risk that virtual embodiment could bring on psychosis in those who are vulnerable to it, or create a sense of alienation from their real bodies when they return to them after a long absence. People in virtual environments tend to conform to the expectations of their avatar, Metzinger says. A study by Stanford researchers in 2007 dubbed this the Proteus effect: They found that people who had more attractive virtual characters were more willing to be intimate with other people, while those assigned taller avatars were more confident and aggressive in negotiations. Theres a risk that this behaviour, developed in the virtual realm, could bleed over into the real one.

In an immersive virtual environment, what will it be like to kill? Surely a terrifying, electrifying, even thrilling experience. But by embodying killers, we risk making violence more tantalizing, training ourselves in cruelty and normalising aggression. The possibility of building fantasy worlds excites me as a filmmakerbut, as a human being, I think we must be wary. We must study the psychological impacts, consider the moral and legal implications, even establish a code of conduct. Virtual reality promises to expand the range of forms we can inhabit and what we can do with those bodies. But what we physically feel shapes our minds. Until we understand the consequences of how violence in virtual reality might change us, virtual murder should be illegal.

This article was originally published at Aeon and has been republished under Creative Commons. Learn how to write for Quartz Ideas. We welcome your comments at ideas@qz.com.

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Murder in virtual reality should be illegal - Quartz

A floundering Trump administration, political warfare in the halls of Congress, a divided nation and seesawing stock markets are making your investment decisions tougher. That's why you need to focus on "momentum trends" that will continue to unfold regardless of today's financial and political chaos.

One such trend is the exponentially rising demand for Virtual/Augmented Reality (VR/AR). One of the best pure plays on VR/AR is HiMax Technologies (HIMX) .

Founded in 2001 and based in Taiwan, HiMax supplies, or is expected to supply, display circuits to three of the most-popular VR headset brands: Facebook's (FB) Oculus Rift, Microsoft's (MSFT) HoloLens, and the second generation of Alphabet's (GOOGL) Google Glass.

The projected profits in the VR/AR industry are enormous. Goldman Sachs (GS) estimates the market will reach $80 billion by 2025, with the potential for that figure to soar much higher, to more than $180 billion.

Sales of HiMax's devices should ignite once VR headsets and AR smart glasses achieve sufficient economy of scale to bring prices down to a broader segment of consumers. As the supplier of the chips that manage the displays in these devices, HiMax stands to be one of the first component suppliers to benefit from increased sales.

In an industry dotted with tiny, fly-by-night start-ups, HiMax boasts a solid balance sheet that will ensure its competitiveness even during unexpected economic shocks. The company has more than $194 million of cash on the books and its operating cash flow is a robust $84.6 million.

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This Virtual Reality Mid-Cap Stock Is Set to 'Wow' Investors - TheStreet.com

By Jake Howell | 03/28/2017 9:46pm

Rick Houser, Dan Fonseca and Ryan Cook will display a demo of the Virtual Reality simulation used in their study and discussing its impact in future police training.Photo courtesy Flickr.com

Following the developments out of Ferguson, Missouri, the issue of police brutality and alleged racial shootings have come to the forefront of national news. Incidents such as the Tamir Rice shooting of 2014, during which Tamir, a twelve-year-old boy, was shot dead by police officers in Cleveland, Ohio, after they mistook a toy gun for a real one in a city park, have caused many to ask what truly motivates police officers during such incidents.

Three University researchers have taken public questions and attempted to derive the answers of what motivates police shootings. Using electroencephalography and virtual reality technology, Rick Houser, Dan Fonseca and Ryan Cook have measured the brain activity of officers in high-threat situations. In their visit to the University, they will display a demo of the VR simulation used in their study and discussing its impact in future police training.

WHO: Rick Houser and Ryan Cook of the College of Education, and Dan Fonseca of the College of Engineering, have conducted this interdisciplinary study, and will present their findings. The event is free and open to the public.

WHAT: The event will showcase the professors research as well as the technology they have used to conduct their study.

WHEN: The presentation will take place at 1 p.m., on March 29.

WHERE: The presentation will be held in room 1022 of the North Engineering Research Center.

WHY: The researchers hope to use the understanding gained from their research to improve police training and avoid fatalities.

An officer who is able to understand the intentions of others may be more effective in making these high decisions and consequently lower the risk of shooting a community member, particularly those who are unarmed or an accidental shooting, said Houser.

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Preview: 'Don't Shoot' virtual reality demonstration - The Crimson While

Virtual Reality is about to get even bigger.

The Virtual Reality Companyannounced a new, original animated virtual-reality series on Monday called Raising a Rukus.

Raising a Rukus follows two siblings and their mischievous dog Rukus as they travel to different worlds and embark on various magical adventures together.

Weve all seen animated stories before, but for the first time, were actually immersed in this world with the characters,VRCs co-founder and chief creative officer Robert Strombergtells PEOPLE.

Each episode of the show will last 12 minutesand will feature branched narration, allowing viewers to follow the story from the perspective of the brother and sister.

The brother and sister get separated and go on a short journey with their own set of obstacles and problems they have to solve, says Stromberg. It really adds a unique element. Were still telling the same story, but it presents the opportunity for even more detail. What they go through individually means something when they come back together.

Co-founder and CEO Guy Primus adds that when creatingRaising a Rukus, one ofVRCs main focus was making it a universally relatable story.

We want to tell stories that are universally relatable and cross cultural boundaries. We know how to make Hollywood films, but whats really important to us is that the story plays just as well in China as it does here in the United States, he says.

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And they certainly had a powerful team behind them to make sure their goals were met.Steven Spielberg, who sits on the board of advisors for the VRC, worked as a creative consultant on the project.

As were writing the story, he would add his opinions and point us in the right direction, says Primus. We showed him each cut of the show and he gave really great feedback. He connected us with peoplewho he thought would help enhance the project.

He added his fingerprint of what makes Spielberg, Spielberg and what makes things magical, adds Stromberg.

Raising a Rukuswill premiere in theaters in Canada this spring, and get wider distribution across North America later this summer.

It will be distributed to audiences around the world over the course of the next several months, says Primus, adding that you dont necessarily need VR goggles to view the series. We are taking this out to theaters to give even more people access to Raising a Rukus.

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The Virtual Reality Company Explores Magical New Worlds with VR Animated Series Raising a Rukus - PEOPLE.com

Forbes

How Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize The Real Estate Industry Forbes Real estate is an industry that normally moves with the times and adopts technology that can assist in its continued success. However, there seems to be a slight lack of faith in a new technology that presents itself to the industry: virtual reality ...

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How Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize The Real Estate Industry - Forbes

Virtual reality: Coming to a theater near you sort of.

The home entertainment division of Time Warner Inc.s TWX, +0.36% Warner Bros. film studio said on Tuesday its reached a co-financing and production agreement with IMAX Corp. IMAX, +0.07% to develop and release three interactive VR experiences based on upcoming films: Justice League, Aquaman and a third that has yet to be announced.

The companies plan to launch an experience a year, beginning with Justice League in late 2017. All the VR experiences will have an exclusive window in IMAX VR centres before being available on other in-home and mobile VR platforms.

Also see: Virtual reality opens the world to aging seniors

A key component of our vision for VR is to help usher in the first wave of high-end blockbuster-based content, IMAX Chief Executive Richard Gelfond said in a statement. This type of premium content will introduce audiences to virtual reality in stand-alone and multiplex-based IMAX VR centres as well as other platforms.

The Enhance Games suit allows people to experience and play videogames with their entire body. The prototype was launched at "The Wow Factory", an innovation lab organized by Sony at SXSW.

The Warner Bros. and IMAX partnership comes as studios and cinemas find themselves asking how can they improve and innovate the moviegoing experience to continue to compete for audiences time, attention and dollars. Theater admissions were down last year compared with 2015, and though the box office saw a record year in revenue for the second year in a row, admissions havent been able to reach record levels set in 2002, according to data from the National Association of Theatre Owners.

IMAXs VR Centres are facilities designed specifically for VR experiences, with room-tracking technology allowing participants to explore a virtual space. This isnt your friends living room, reads the companys website.

Check out: Steven Spielberg-backed startup is creating VR experiences to get people into malls

With its flagship pilot location in Los Angeles, IMAX is planning to open at least five others across New York City, California, the U.K. and Shanghai in the next few months. There would be a testing period for customer experience and pricing. The company said in its L.A. center, which opened in January, is off to a strong start and if the other locations are successful the plan is to roll the VR Centre concept out globally to select multiplexes and commercial locations, such as shopping centers and tourist locations.

IMAX shares have gained 13% in the trailing 12-month period, while shares of Time Warner are up 34%. By comparison, the S&P 500 index SPX, +0.08% is up 15%, the Dow Jones Industrial Average DJIA, -0.20% is up 17% and the Nasdaq Composite Index COMP, +0.22% is up more than 22% during the same period.

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Warner Bros., IMAX to create virtual reality experiences for 'Justice League,' 'Aquaman' - MarketWatch

NASA recently teamed with Oculus on Mission:ISS, a consumer education VR experience aboard the ISS. However, the training SIM NASA is developing with Unreal Engine is different altogether, and they appear to be using both the Oculus Rift and HTC's Vive headsets.

The setup uses "cutting edge graphics and physics simulations to increase the sense of presence," says NASA Software Engineer Matthew Noyes. "The more realistic the training feels, the faster you can respond in real-world, critical situations, which could save your mission or even your life." As Ars Technica noted after trying it out earlier this month, the VR is realistic enough that it can even simulate blooming. When you look up at the digital "sky," your pupils must dilate before you can see any stars, the same thing astronauts experience in space.

NASA ISS astronauts that have tried the sim say it closely matches what it feels like to handle objects in zero G. The training includes simulated maintenance, letting you use the Vive's control wand to grab tools and other objects aboard the ISS. To make the mixed-reality simulation of gravity even more immersive, it also works with an "active response gravity offload system", basically a crane that flies astronauts around to simulate zero, lunar or Mars gravity.

While this is still an (incomplete) NASA simulation, Noyes told Ars that the sim team was also working on a public release, though no dates have been discussed. The idea would be to create both a public outreach product alongside an actual SIM -- something that might both inspire an train young wannabe astronauts.

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NASA trains astronauts with zero-G virtual reality - Engadget

Books come to life when combined with virtual reality (ABC7)

Steve Buckley believes the way we read a story to a child is about to change forever.

AR (augmented reality) and VR (virtual reality) are mega-trending technologies, Buckley says. "They are going to impact our everyday lives.

Buckley, a Rockville native, was a defense contractor in his previous life dealing in the world of augmented reality and virtual reality devices for the military. As he traveled around the country and world on planes, he began writing children's stories.

So Buckley changed careers and wrote close to 100 children's books. Then one day, a light went off in his brain as he watched a very young child with a smart phone.

You have strollers with two or three-year-olds being handed very powerful device,s but all they are doing is playing with them, Buckley told 7 ON YOUR SIDE. "93 percent of all apps have no educational value.

Buckley decided to walk everyone up to the horizon of a new frontier in education. He married his two passions, partnered with a British tech company and together they created books that read themselves, and with one look through the lens of a smart device or a virtual reality headset, the pages come to life.

You bring in the world of these virtual reality headsets and layering in of augmented reality functions of the next generation of smart phones and tablets you see what's coming. It's going to be a mainstream thing where you put on a set of glasses and it's got this little attachment, says Buckley.

You and your child can now go on an adventure deep inside the pages of a book.

Buckley has published four virtual reality capable books with two more to be released in April by his publishing company Bangarang Books.

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Books come to life when combined with virtual reality - WJLA

Forbes

A Virtual Reality Application That Will Go Mainstream First -- Likely ... Forbes The application of Virtual Reality in our daily lives is going to change the face of our world much like the smart phone did. and more »

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A Virtual Reality Application That Will Go Mainstream First -- Likely ... - Forbes

Correction: Landis Architects/Builders was misidentified in an earlier version of this story.

By Deborah K. Dietsch By Deborah K. Dietsch March 24

After their dishwasher broke, homeowners Tim and Gina Seigne decided to go big and renovate the entire kitchen of their 1970s house in Oakton, Va. They worked with Moss Building and Design in Chantilly, Va., to come up with a plan for the space and agreed to tear down a wall between the kitchen and entrance hallway to open up the view.

But there were a few things that I didnt have a feel for, says Tim Seigne, a software development manager. I wondered how much space we would have between the countertops and dining table, and what it would look like when we took away the wall.

So the design-build firm invited Seigne to try out its new Moss 360 technology in a corner of its office. The homeowner put on a headset with built-in goggles to experience a full-scale, 3-D model of the kitchen design. With the aid of a wand, he walked through the simulated environment, from the front door and into the kitchen, up to the sink and stove, and entered the dining and family rooms.

I was amazed at how real it felt, Seigne says. It convinced me that the sightlines and how things will look were the way we wanted them.

[Virtually changing how buyers shop for new homes]

Welcome to virtual reality, the newest tool being used by design-build firms to sell homeowners on renovations. The immersive technology is a step up from two-dimensional floor plans and 3-D computer models in allowing viewers to experience the full depth of spatial relationships and feel like they are inside the rooms of a house. Builders say VR helps homeowners to better understand the dimensions of a space, the impact of light at different times of day and views from one room to the next, so they can make design decisions more quickly.

Some people have trouble understanding floor plans and two-dimensional drawings, and virtual reality is helpful in allowing them see and experience a space, says Bill Millholland, executive vice president of Case Design/Remodeling in Bethesda. It helps them to be more confident and make better decisions about every detail. Since last summer, Case has been experimenting with a virtual-reality system called Oculus Rift, primarily for kitchen and bathroom projects.

Each design-build firm uses a different type of virtual reality, combining viewing hardware and 3-D modeling software to create the lifelike images. Headsets incorporate stereoscopic lenses and tracking mechanisms corresponding to the viewers motions to create the illusion of moving around a space.

No rendering can do what virtual reality can, says Moss Chief Operating Officer Paul DesRoches. It puts the homeowner in the design, allowing them to understand all the spatial relationships between walls, ceilings, floors, openings, furniture, lighting to ensure that the space meets their functional and aesthetic needs, all before construction begins. Were fanatical about the customer experience and try to present the most accurate information possible. Virtual reality helps us do that and reduce risks for the homeowner.

[The Washington Posts Virtual Reality Room]

DesRoches and his team started researching the technology in 2014 and experimented with Lowes Holoroom, a 3-D visualization tool, before investing six figures on its own software and hardware. In 2016, the firm hired virtual-reality whiz Tyler Tappan, who has applied cutting-edge tools to about two dozen projects and wowed homeowners such as the Seignes with walk-through designs.

In every case, our Moss 360 has garnered some change in design, whether it be the height of a countertop, the placement of a window or the size of an entire room, says Tappan, who showed off the technologies at the Capital Remodel and Garden Show in January. From the demonstrations at that event, Tappan says, he booked 10 appointments with clients interested in the service.

At Moss, project designs are presented through virtual and augmented reality. The firm uses HTC Vive technology, a sophisticated system of headset and wand. Sensors in the devices allow users to move within an area of about 15 by 15 feet and track their position as they look around the virtual environment. The handheld wand is used to point to the area where users want to stand and allows them to change the view to any location within the virtual environment.

Augmented technology superimposes holographic images onto real settings similar to the Pokmon Go craze. It requires homeowners to wear the Microsoft HoloLens, a device resembling ski goggles that transfers pictures of house plans and room settings onto the floor and walls. The wearer can walk around the virtual models and view layouts from different angles to better understand the design and quickly decide on what they want or dont want.

Landis Architects/Builders in the District is another local design-build firm using virtual reality to help homeowners envision renovations. Our goal is to reduce the gap between homeowner expectations and the ultimate space we create, says co-owner Ethan Landis. We want our clients to have a great experience from beginning to end, and using this technology can achieve that while managing costs, because there are fewer surprises and changes along the way.

Since last June, Landis has been presenting projects through Google Cardboard, a folded paper holder fitted with lenses and a smartphone to create the virtual-reality experience. While not as sophisticated as VR systems requiring computer-connected headsets, Google Cardboard is inexpensive and portable so designs can be viewed on the project site.

Capitol Hill homeowners Chris Ernesto, a building contractor, and Marianne Huber, a medical device marketer, reviewed the details of their renovation through the Landis cardboard viewer, while standing in their 1895 rowhouse. In addition to splitting one large bathroom into two, they are adding a rooftop deck with views of the Capitol dome and Union Station.

Virtual reality allowed us to visualize the spaces much more clearly, Ernesto says. Blueprints and plans are helpful, but VR has given us a much more real sense of what were trying to achieve.

After viewing the renovation scheme through the Google Box, the homeowners changed the bathroom designs to become more minimalist. The 3-D model made them realize that there was not enough space for all the fixtures originally envisioned, and they switched the tile patterns from bright colors to neutrals.

The VR models allowed us to see mirror and lighting reflections, which gave us a better sense of the overall look, Ernesto says.

Most design-build firms do not charge extra for virtual-reality models but treat them as part of the design process and overall project costs. VR can also help builders in the field spot mistakes and solve construction challenges, saving money on fixes before the renovation is completed.

Tim Seigne says the virtual-reality experience bolstered his confidence in Mosss proposed kitchen design before agreeing to pay the firm more than $70,000 to build it.

When you consider the amount of money you are going to spend, VR is a valuable tool because you can make changes during the design process, Seigne says. This tool is especially helpful for people who dont have strong spatial visualization skills. Its definitely the future of design.

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Design firms turn to virtual reality to assist homeowners - Washington Post