Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Virtual reality and the arts arent typically two subjects that are known for going hand in hand. However, on March 2, the Dancz Center for New Music at the University of Georgias Hugh Hodgson School of Music served as an open forum for discussion about all things extended reality.

Ideas for Creative Exploration (ICE) hosted the event, which included a panel discussion between three professors at the university as well as a showcase of the some of the latest virtual reality technologies.

The panel featured Dr. Grace Ahn, an assistant advertising professor who conducts research in the universitys Virtual Environments Lab.

Ahn brought a unique perspective on the implications of virtual reality as much of her research focus is on how corporations might use virtual reality for advertising as well as how the medium may have an effect on human empathy, possibly allowing users to experience how it might feel to be in the shoes of someone like a Syrian refugee.

Also present was professor of geodesign Brian Orland. Orland, a landscape architect, discussed how he uses virtual reality in his research to create and study virtual forest environments.

Dr. Kyle Johnsen, an associate professor of engineering, rounded out the panel, representing the technological side of virtual reality research.

Together, the three panelists discussed their personal experiences with the emerging medium of virtual reality.

When asked how she first got into studying virtual reality, Dr. Ahn recalled with laughter being asked during a discussion early in her career, as a woman, why are you studying virtual reality?

My ovaries didnt make that decision, Ahn said.

She said that she saw a lot of potential in virtual reality at a time when many were skeptical about its usefulness due to its high cost and low quality.

Ahn discussed the potential issues posed by virtual reality, such as users having memories of an experience that never actually happened in real life.

Interactive experiences can change the way you experience things in the real world, Ahn said.

Orland discussed how he uses virtual reality to connect overarching views of landscape planning with the ground view in order to gain a more complete understanding of various projects.

The discussion also touched on whether virtual reality would be beneficial for education, an idea the panelists doubted due to the effects of sensory overload.

Johnsen shared his view that virtual reality will be more valuable to instructors, rather than students, to discover more effective teaching methods.

The panelists promoted increased discussions and unity among the various departments at UGA.

They discussed the benefits of teamwork between different departments and taking an interdisciplinary approach to researching virtual reality, a sentiment that was emboldened by the fact that the technological discussion took place in the school of music.

After the discussion, the audience was invited to try out different virtual reality set ups.

Participants tried out the HTC Vive by putting on a headset and using two controllers to play catch with a virtual dog.

Onlookers watched what the users experienced on a nearby computer screen. The users, totally entranced by the virtual world, had no clue what they looked like or where they were standing relative to the onlookers, causing many near collisions and quite a few laughs.

Users were also able to put on the Oculus Rift headset and take an immersive, virtual look at various sites around Washington, D.C. The participants took in 360-degree views of sharp images of the district as if they were actually there.

The panelists reflected on many issues and moral questions presented by virtual reality that havent been answered yet. However, if the delight of participants at Thursdays panel is any indication, the excitement and interest in virtual reality only continues to grow.

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Ideas for Creative Exploration hosts virtual reality panel - Red and Black

Knotts Berry Farm is getting in on the latest theme park craze: putting visitors in a virtual world created primarily by software engineers instead of carpenters and welders.

The new VR Showdown in Ghost Town, which opens next month at the Buena Park theme park, will put virtual reality headsets on up to 16 visitors at a time, letting them shoot futuristic blasters at robot creatures in a battle to save the historic ghost town.

Many new theme park attractions in Southern California rely on 3-D technology and motion simulating seats, including the new Harry Potter and the Forbidden Journey and Despicable Me: Minions Mayhem rides at Universal Studios Hollywood. (The park ditched the Harry Potter 3-D but said it wasnt because riders complained about nausea.)

But smaller regional parks are turning to virtual reality headsets to immerse visitors in a new world without the expense of building sets, erecting towers and installing hydraulic powered seats.

Six Flags Magic Mountain in Valencia began last year to strap virtual reality headsets to riders of its Revolution roller coaster to give them the sensation of flying through space as they shoot at alien aircraft. Similar virtual reality elements were added to roller coasters at nine Six Flags parks across the country.

SeaWorld Orlando also announced plans to add virtual reality goggles to its Kraken roller coaster, taking riders on an underwater adventure.

Industry experts say virtual reality headsets represent a new way for smaller theme parks to attract new guests without making a huge investment.

Its a very cheap way to add a new attraction or extend an older attraction, said Martin Lewison, a theme park expert and business management professor at Farmingdale State College in New York.

A major benefit of using virtual reality headsets is that the experience can be changed or overhauled simply by writing new software for the headsets.

At Six Flags over Georgia, the park added virtual reality headsets last year for riders of a roller coaster called Dare Devil Dive. But the park announced last week that it is instead adding the virtual reality headsets for riders of a 100-story drop tower ride, dubbed Drop of Doom VR. The new ride lets parkgoers on the tower ride shoot at giant, mutant spiders.

Another advantage to the virtual reality headsets is that the world seen by parkgoers is interactive, so the experience is never the same twice.

At Knotts Berry Farm, the new attraction lets visitors score points by destroying the bad robots and completing objectives, said Ivan Blaustein, director of product integration at VR Studios, the company that created the headsets and software for the theme park.

One of the drawbacks of using virtual reality headsets, said Lewison, is that each headset needs to be cleaned after every use, which can reduce the number of people who can ride the attraction per day.

Knotts Berry will be charging an introductory price of $6 to try the new attraction, on top of the regular park admission price.

Dont expect to see virtual reality headsets used at major theme parks like Disneyland or Universal Studios Hollywood, Lewison said.

When visitors pay ticket prices of at least $99 to enter Disneyland or Universal Studios, he said they expect to see expensive animatronics and movie-quality sets that create an immersive world.

Theme park purists dont like it, Lewison said. Theyd much rather go on a $250-million ride at Disneyland than throw a mask strapped to a Samsung smartphone over my eyes.

hugo.martin@latimes.com

To read more about the travel and tourism industries, follow @hugomartin on Twitter.

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Knott's Berry Farm plugs into virtual reality, the new park thrill on the cheap - Los Angeles Times

Facebook has devoted major resources and billions of dollars to virtual reality, but there has been a pretty clear line between what happens in the main Facebook app and what happens on the Oculus Rift and Gear VR.

Today, Facebook is intertwining the real and virtual worlds of Facebook a bit by launching its first dedicated app, Facebook 360. The app will serve as a hub for the 360 video and photo content posted to the site. Facebook boasts that there have ben more than one million 360 videos posted to the site alongside more than 25 million 360 photos to date. At launch, the Facebook 360 appwill be available only for the Gear VR mobile headset. Users can download the app in the Oculus Store.

At launch, Facebook 360 will feature four main feeds, delivering content into users eyeballs from closer than ever. The Explore tab will give users a birds-eye look at the 360 content that is popular across Facebook from a variety of media companies and creators; meanwhile, the Following tab will let you dial into the content being produced by your friends. Saved gives you an opportunity to experience 360 content you may have seen on the web in a more immersive in-headset experience, while Timeline lets you check out your own 360 photos and videos all in one place.

The app will allow users to post reactions to content, while also being able to save and share360 photos and videos. Facebook said in a blog post that more social features are on the way for the companys first official app.

The wall of separation between Facebook and Oculus is a pretty murky one. With this latest addition, Facebook is asserting its video strength over the Oculus Video app, which has previously been the go-to spot for Gear VR users to engage with videos from Facebook.

In January, Facebook named Xiaomis Hugo Barra as its VP of VR. The appointment was a surprising end to a leadership shakeup at Oculus that began when CEO Brendan Iribe announced suddenly that he would be stepping down as the companys chief executiveand would be leading Oculuss PC VR division instead.

While Facebook continues to work on its own suite of social VR features, its clear that the company has a grand vision in mind for bringing its nearly 2 billion users into the world of VR, and this app may be one of their earliest steps in doing so.

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Facebook debuts its first dedicated virtual reality app, Facebook 360 - TechCrunch

BENGALURU: Emerging technologies like virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and real-time language translation are going to play a significant role in shaping the way people collaborate in future, says Jeffrey Rodman, cofounder of Polycom, one of Silicon Valley's earliest video and content collaboration companies.

Considered as one of the pivotal figures in shaping the now known Silicon Valley, Rodman has spent close to three decades founding and building Polycom. The 26-year-old company makes speakers and video conferencing systems to collaborate with colleagues at workstations and other larger informal settings.

Enter your office conference room and the probability that you wouldn't come across the sound station speaker is very slim.

The triangular device - which now comes in several sophisticated models - was pioneered by Polycom's design team during their early days in the 90s.

"[The triangular sketch] was only another small thing, but it was so powerful, it became the symbol of the company for a while," recounts Rod man in a Medium post.

Rodman believes technologies like VR, which are `massive and clunky' right now, will go through incre mental changes and easy to wear.

BENEFITS GALORE "At some point, they may represent a real benefit for Polycom or its users," he said, adding, "Also, we will come to a place where we are going to have biological implants. The things will happen."

He also said in most of these technologies, Polycom would be more o a user than a developer helping the company provide innovative ways for collaboration in the future. Rodman and Brian L Hinman co founded Poly com in 1990 and since have grown the startup into a billion-dollar company over the past two-and-a-half decades.

In July 2016, the company was acquired by Siris Capital Group for a grand sum of $2 billion.

When asked to compare Silicon Valley with the Indian startup ecosystem, Rodman said: "India has a deep skill set born out of working with American companies and participating in a pretty substantial slice of innovation and product development. With this kind of skill sets and resources, it's only natural that India is moving off to form more startups of their own."

He said startups should not be distracted by million-dollar investments and should take small steps to achieve big goals.

"There is something very tempting about saying let's start a business and get rich. One of the mistakes people and companies make is to go into something without a complete vision or a plan... Without having a view of where you are headed to, you are likely to be deluded," Rodman said.

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'Virtual reality, augmented reality will shape the way people collaborate in future' - Economic Times

It's not often you find an artist whose oeuvre of work is so intuitive and atmospheric that it has the ability to ease you into a fantasy world of their own careful creation however, this is something Hot Sugar (aka Nick Koenig) is particularly adept at doing.

That said, his production work is (counterintuitively) never just about sound. Instead, it's an all-encompassing visceral experience that has a strange way of eliciting a nostalgic longing for situations you've actually never encountered. So it only feels right that Koenig's latest dive into the deepest corners of his listeners' psyches is The Melody of Dust, a 13-track album that serves as the gateway to a much larger, more complex world brought to life via virtual reality.

As such, the word "album" in this case feels limiting, especially since The Melody of Dust breaks new ground as the first musical release whose true contents are exclusive to VR. In reality (or at least the supercomputer-generated one Koenig has created), the full album is 87 tracks, all of which are meant to seamlessly blend together based on your actions within the virtual reality world.

But how exactly does one decide to make an album of this scope? Let alone execute it? In Koenig's case, what started as an idea for a movie was put aside after the Viacom rep he was pitching to introduced him to the company's brand new VR division, Viacom NEXT. "I realized there were so many other dynamic points to VR," Koenig said. "The sensory control being the most important one. So I came up with an idea for VR based on that sort of thing."

What resulted a year-and-a-half later was The Melody of Dust, an immersive, interactive experience that invites the viewer to create their own Hot Sugar track by throwing objects think roses, switchblades, etc. scattered around a room straight out of one of his videos into a tornado. Within this scenario, you are given the ability to trigger one of the aforementioned 87 songs via different combinations of objects thrown into the vortex (in our premiere's case, it's a dove, medusa bust and nail polish).

It's a process that's reflective of his theory of associative music, "a modernized branch of musique concrete" that champions the idea that any object in the universe is an instrument whether you know how to play it or not ("it makes a sound and therefore you can turn it into music"). But it is also a unique way of connecting with listeners who are able to participate by providing the elements in the creation of these compositions.

"In a way, they can hear the origins of the song in the objects that they picked up, so it kind of communicates that message even more," Koenig explained. "When you shake the dove, you hear the sound of a dove. Then you throw it into the tornado, that melody has the voice of that dove hitting different notes. That was the original idea, to romanticize what I'm trying to do with music by turning it into a fantasy game."

That said, accessibility is still an issue seeing as how there are only about 100,000 of these VR units currently in existence but it's one that's Koenig feels is worth it in favor of creating "something new that hopefully will stand the test of time". Or at least something that will eventually reveal itself as the ultimate participatory experience once commercial VR technology makes it to the masses.

And while Koenig says there are tentative plans for some sort of set-up at future shows, the only public showing currently on the books is at SXSW. That said, if you're not one of the lucky few able to catch the whole set-up IRL, you can still listen to the haunting, hazy-hued dream that is "The Life of a Goldfish" below, exclusive to PAPER.

The Melody of Dust is out on March 31st via Steam, Spotify and vinyl.

The Melody of DustVR experience is on Tuesday, March 14 from 11am-6pm at the JM Marriott Salon 5 in Austin, Texas.

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Hot Sugar's Romantic Dream World Is Now Available Via Virtual Reality - Papermag

Neurospeculative Afrofeminism, a VR project incubated by NEW INC (all images courtesy NEW INC)

Near the beginning of the second annual Versions conference on creative practice and virtual reality, writer and lawyer Tim Wu posed one of the most sneakily salient points of the day. Discussing virtual realitys place among mass media like film and broadcast radio, Wu suggested that its possible VR is just not destined to be mass technology.

As unassuming as Wus words may seem, they actually issue a resounding challenge to a technology that is presumed to become not only a radical new medium for creative expression, but also a revolutionary computing platform with major repercussions for fields like healthcare, product design, video games, journalism, sports and live event spectatorship, social media, marketing, and more.

While new media are actually still new exciting, uncertain, rapidly changing, and overflowing with speculation and cash it can be easy to forecast their success as imminent or inevitable. Boosterism and hype, however, often tend to skirt the very instabilities, shortcomings, and dead ends that need to be looked straight in the eye if this media is to become anything more than an ephemeral novelty.

Consistent with Wus healthy skepticism, this years Versions titled Facing Reality mostly encouraged a more sober, productive, and critical probing of the cultural landscape of virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality (although VR predominated in volume in both the discussion and sidebar exhibition). Held at the New Museum, co-presented by NEW INC and Kill Screen, and hosted by Julia Kaganskiy and Jamin Warren, this years conference gathered a slew of rich panels and events, assembling artists, organizers, academics, designers, and writers such as Jon Rafman, Opeyemi Olukemi, Cory Doctorow, Nick Montfort, Claire Evans, and more.

As VR becomes more familiar, both culturally and technically, the level of discourse turns more sensible and specific. At the same time, as earlier practical challenges are overcome, aspirational goal-posts can be moved further into the distance: so, there was less talk about the travails of nausea-inducing VR, but more about widening the scope of possible experiences in VR, and the range of people who can access them.

Topics of access and accessibility were front and center at this years Versions. More than addressing the obstacles inhibiting mainstream adoption of VR, Versions plunged into issues of exclusivity and the barriers to entry for creative professionals and marginalized communities. And indeed, whenever yet another article giddily announces the arrival of VR, one would do well to ask: for whom?

The days first panel, Who Owns the Future? (perhaps named after Jaron Laniers book of the same name), opened with a flurry of questions in this vein: Where are we in VRs development as a viable commercial medium? How do we make it truly democratic? How do we make it truly global? The moderator additionally let slip, How far behind are we in a no child left behind sense? Though certainly well-intentioned, these latter, bigger questions demonstrated that, when talking about VR, there can be a fine line between ethical inquiry and techno-utopian solutionism or the paper-thin addressing of real, material inequality with often vague or trivial fixes (making VR more democratic and global sounds more like corporate PR copy than actually achievable outcomes).

Where more ambitious, faintly TED-talk style questions felt a little hollow, more modest and precise ones rang far truer, if still difficult to answer, like, How do we incentivize equity of access without capital reassurance? Speaking in a later panel on agency and storytelling, Nancy Bennett, head of VR at Two Bit Circus, suggested that design and specifically user experience (UX) design could be a powerful tool for fostering inclusion in VR. And certainly, theres plenty in this area for a more socially engaged design practice to draw from. For example, Paul Dourishs writings on social computing and ethnography in design, which, instead of relying on more decontextualized cognitive data derived in laboratory-like settings, aim to account for the living social context of diverse, and often excluded, subjects. Or, more recently, Kat Holmess inclusive design, which designates disability and diversity as the very starting points for design practice, rather than an asterisked afterthought. Per Holmes: Designing for inclusion starts by recognizing exclusion.

From a more cultural standpoint, scholar and writer Judith Donath intimated that new conceptions of authorship can motivate more enthusiastic and plural participation in VR. Authoring, she said, is too often seen as the domain of experts. Donath emphasizes different standards for creation things you can author while walking down the street, using even rudimentary assets like sound and text (rather than advanced 3D modeling, etc.). Following this line of thinking, meaning-making in VR can begin to take on more folkloristic and amateur proportions, yielding a sensorium of everyday sensation collections of sounds and stories all mapped out in three-dimensional, navigable space.

Donaths points runs parallel with Versions overall interest in how we can explore and embrace new and different paradigms for cultural forms in VR. In pursuit of this, Versions later panels were a refreshing push toward the more experimental and eclectic. As the introduction for the panel Sensing Stories reads, Sound designers, cooks, dancers, and masseuses know as much about taking us on a journey as anyone and yet we rarely consult their expertise when designing for VR and AR, much to our detriment.

In Sensing Stories, Robin McNicholas, creative director of Marshmallow Laser Feast, suggested that VRs specificity hasnt been properly reckoned with. For crafting engaging experiences, you dont need much at all you just need a little nudge for the imagination to fill in the gaps One of the problems of VR is the use of restraint and respecting the audiences intelligence.

Renowned VR maven Brenda Laurel broached the concept of emergent gameplay as a way of respecting audience intelligence and creating riper conditions for freedom, experimentation, and surprise. Emergent VR experiences would resemble expansive sandboxes in which the storytelling is more ambient than actively (or intrusively) exposited.

Speaking of ambient solutions, Chandler Burr, the former New York Times scent critic, convincingly argued for the importance of scent to our perception of space, asserting that VR (or MR, mixed reality) should consider incorporating smell design just like it does sound design, plopping scent-tracks on top of soundtracks.

Whereas Burr talked about deploying scent to manipulate our perception of space, magician Marco Tempest talked about how illusionism can be used to manipulate and deceive perception more generally. Tempests experiments in fusing virtual reality technologies with magic are not only an ironic, ingenious twist on Arthur C. Clarkes dictum that any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic. They also hearken back to the very origins of cinema, which was significantly propelled by illusionists like Georges Mlisand scientists like tienne-Jules Marey. In many ways, its precisely this union of science and magic that needs to be bottled and tirelessly cultivated if VR is to win the favor of mass audiences. And it returns to the kind of future of VR that the Versions conference is trying to help steward: one in which new directions are explored to the fullest and most experimental degree while a dedicated ethical commitment is maintained in full view.

The second annual Versions conference, Facing Reality, took place at the New Museum Theater (235 Bowery, Lower East Side, Manhattan) on Saturday, February 25.

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A More Accessible and Eclectic Future for Virtual Reality - Hyperallergic

CNN has been experimenting with virtual reality for years, producing more than 50 news stories in 360-degree video. It also teamed up with VR broadcaster NextVR to live stream the full Democratic presidential debate in 2015. In a Q&A on the Time Warner blog, CNN Vice President of Premium Content Video Jason Farkas said virtual reality provides an opportunity for journalists to transport their audience and leave a lasting impression.

"I believe VR is the most powerful tool we have to accomplish that goal," he said at the time. "The whole experience feels like time-travel: you put on a headset, and suddenly you are somewhere else, feeling remarkably close to the story. You are in the story - or at least your senses tell you that you are. The viewer walks away feeling the emotional impact much more viscerally, and memorably."

Other outlets have integrated virtual reality into their newsrooms as well. Huffington Post started offering VR videos last year on the web and its mobile apps. Months later, The New York Times began creating its own daily VR content in a feature called The Daily 360. In its so-called 2020 report, the Times said it's making progress in using a richer mix of journalistic forms, including VR, but it thinks it can do better.

CNNVR's first story is about the running of the bulls in Pamplona, Spain. During the 5:29 minute video, viewers can rotate the camera 360 degrees to look anywhere they like. They can get a better view of the crowds in a bullfighting arena, for example, or check out a matador's swanky office. CNNVR's videos are available on PC (Chrome or Firefox), the CNN app on iOS and Android, Samsung GearVR, Oculus Rift and Google Daydream.

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CNN launches a virtual reality news unit - Engadget

GETTY/POR

The company makes versatile camera and lens control products for the film and broadcast industries, some of which were integral to the making of blockbuster Gravity and it saw revenues rise 70 per cent to 2.3 million last year as it exported to 40 countries.

Much of that rise was down to the success of StarTracker, its system now adopted by broadcasters internationally.

Based on camera tracking, which combines real and computer-generated images so they have same perspective in real time, StarTracker can be used in studios or attached to virtual reality (VR) headsets. Think TV presenters walking round voting maps on election night.

Users have unlimited freedom of movement with the power to interact with moving objects or navigate static obstacles like walls.

Take a VR beach scenario for instance, with StarTracker you can walk across the sand, check out the waves, then on a whim turn to the right and find a cocktail waiting for you on a caf table. The only downside is you cannot actually drink it, but thats VR for you, for the moment at least.

Mo-Syss smart know-how has however made huge strides, devising reflective 'star' stickers attached to the ceiling above, that monitor accurate position, rotation and lens data in real time.

Its scaleable technology that utterly disrupts says Mo-Sys founder and chief executive Michael Geissler.

StarTrackers development has been pioneered by former University College London post-graduate student and now Mo-Sys business partner Martin Parsley.

What began as a project between the company and UCL has evolved into ground-breaking technology that enables a robust and reliable way to walk around a virtual environment, explains Geissler.

Current VR technology is designed for single users in a confined space, mostly for gaming. The next generation is for multi-users unconfined and the applications are almost limitless, from commercial to consumer retail.

Defence simulation, enabling personnel on the ground gauge territory risks, has huge potential.

PR

But theme parks and training generally are also among the most obvious, and Geissler sees a role too for StarTracker in the medical sector.

This would involve preparing patients to help them deal with difficult tests, for example children having scans, being able to give them some idea of what happens can ease stress, he says or clinical teams planning a big operation, anyone coping with a complex physical layout.

Another sector is ship-building, what we do relates directly to submarines, one of the biggest challenges when considering confined space navigation.

Architects too could benefit from trialling landscapes and functions, he explains. We certainly see a role for our technology which brings to life the plans of construction companies and designers of hotels and leisure centres. It could help them avoid very expensive mistakes.

SONY

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Driveclub VR on the PlayStation VR demo disc

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Geisslers multi-disciplinary skills as a model-maker proved a perfect grounding to become an entrepreneur, providing an income while he explored camera tracking concepts back as early as 1997.

South London-based Mo-Sys then went on to develop robotic camera systems employed on movies like Slum Dog Millionaire and tracking solutions where there is no studio present.

For the Red Bull Air Race the camera accuracy was calculated to a 1/10000 of a degree but with no mechanical reference to go by, while on top of a swaying 150 foot boom lift, so not a bad result, he adds.

Although making in the UK was previously more expensive than the Far East and Europe, according to Geissler now it is the same, so our decision that it was better to make high value products at home was the right one.

Support has come from various innovation grants including the Royal Academy of Engineering Pathways to Growth scheme last year.

This was a game changer, says Geissler. Fast growth can be difficult. We now employ 25, taking on 11 more staff in the last three months. But Academy support included a mentor and has made growing more exciting and mind-opening not something scary.

For engineers the temptation is always to focus on the technology, but its taught us to nourish other aspects such as administration.

Were in a new, bigger unit, making StarTracker to order and with the Academys expertise we have halved lead times to just four weeks.

GETTY

Mo-Sys is also a member of the Academys new Enterprise Hub in its refurbished Taylor Centre at its headquarters in central London.

Designed to promote engineering entrepreneurship, the centre aims to make more of its international programmes and talent by linking innovators and opportunities.

Our business is virtual reality, yet when you are a small company you can sometimes feel a bit isolated, theres a need for human interaction, says Geissler. But with the Hub you can always be in contact with like minds.

http://www.mo-sys.com, facilities at the Taylor Centre can also be hired by engineering businesses and investors who are not Hub members. Enquiries should be directed to enterprisehub@raeng.org.uk or 0207 7660625. More information about the Taylor Centre can be found on the Enterprise Hubs website.

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VIRTUAL REALITY breaks new ground with STARTRACKER from inventor Mo-Sys - Express.co.uk

Anastasiya Sharkova talks about her VR experience at a SpiritualVR event.

What if we had a "Dream Marketing Machine" a way to easily and reliably churn out emotionally passionate customers for any brand? Like Apple's fanboys but much quicker and for a lot less money.

At a recent event hosted by SpiritualVR panelist on-boarding Sharkova said she was deeply moved by her first experience with virtual reality (VR) a title called theBlu:Encounter in which you go eye to eye with a blue whale.

She said the experience is so powerful and so overwhelming it bypassed all reason and logic. She knew it was all computer generated yet when she looked into eye of the blue whale she immediately felt a deep emphatic connection that lasted for days.

And she noticed a curious effect: she used a lot less water for the next two weeks.

This scares me. What if the Blue Whale represents a brand such as Big Blue -- IBM and I'm suddenly emotionally bonding with a commercial organization and I can't control it?

We know that VR can affect behavior because it is already used in therapeutic applications treating post traumatic stress disorders.

Its widespread use in marketing is inevitable and when combined with AI, biometric sensors and personalization -- it will become extraordinary in its effectiveness. A Dream Marketing Machine.

Dream or nightmare?

It's a dream for marketers because all they talk about is creating compelling and emotionally authentic media content. I recently spoke with Yuval Boger, CEO of open-source VR tech design company Sensics.

"We are still in early stages and the headsets and equipment needs to improve and cost less but we are seeing a lot of interest in marketing applications. There are some excellent opportunities to create powerful branded VR experiences."

- But would you willingly agree to a VR experience that you knew was designed to persuade you and manipulate your emotions for commercial gain? And then continue to influence your behavior long after the event?

- Would you allow the Disney whale to try to emotionally bond with your child?

- What if your new job required a swim with the company culture whale as part of HR's on-boarding?

- What if your government insists you swim with its patriotic whale?

Don't get hung up on these balaenopteran examples. The creature will be chosen and shaped just for you -- for maximum effect.

Total sphere of control...

Marketing is mostly confined to the periphery of our daily experience such as with online ads, billboards, etc.

VR gives creators control over the entire 360 degree sphere of the user experience -- every pixel every sound and every aspect of the narrative. Marketers have never ever had so much control.

Mass media critic Marshall McLuhan in the 1960s was alarmed by tiny TV screens.

- I wouldn't let my children into any marketing VR experience;

- I wouldn't use it;

- and I'd be mistrustful of hiring someone who had VR training at a competitor. Joseph Stalin got his US atomic bomb secrets because of spies motivated by an emotional connection to the Soviet Union and not because of money.

VR for social uses?

How about using VR for positive purposes? Using less water, getting fitter, eating better because of crafted VR experiences that work to change our behavior?

What if socially responsible VR experiences are sponsored by brands? Would that be OK? Would we trust them?

Question the future...

Society gains nothing by allowing its people to be ensnared by emotional bonds to abstract entities.

If our technologies of persuasion become too good at what they do -- and they will eventually reach that point -- then they become too good to use.

The question is: Who has the right to access our emotions? The government? Hollywood? Or anyone at anytime and in any way?

As our technologies of persuasion become more advanced the answer has to be: No one.

Until we understand that answer -- and make it work -- the world of marketing will rush into VR faster than Elon Musk in a Hyperloop pod.

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Technologies of persuasion: Virtual Reality and the Dream Marketing Machine - ZDNet

The home improvement giant is launching a virtual reality experience in one of its stores to give customers hands-on practice with a home improvement project. Lowe's may eventually create more VR tutorials and roll them out to more locations.

Initially, customers at a Massachusetts store will get a lesson in how to tile a bathroom. A customer will put on a VR headset, be placed in a virtual room, and use an HTC Vive hand controller to simulate mixing mortar and placing tile. Eventually, a broader range of tutorials may be offered in all Lowe's stores.

In a trial run, Lowe's found that customers had a 36% better recall of how to complete the project when compared with people who watched a YouTube how-to video.

Kyle Nel, the director of Lowe's Innovation Labs, told CNNTech about the advantages of VR as a teaching medium. He pointed to the tactile, immersive nature of virtual reality as allowing for better learning.

Related: Super Bowl 51 was the first available in virtual reality

Nel noted the limitations of offering in-store clinics taught by an employee. Such classes have to be given at set times, which may be inconvenient for customers. The virtual reality experience is available anytime the store is open.

"Virtual reality just happens to be the best way to give people what they want, when they want it," Nel said. "This is meant to be available to the entire country and Canada, not just those on the bleeding, cutting edge of tech."

The VR experience also lends itself to improvement. Lowe's (LOW) will monitor customers and see where they may be getting stuck. Improvements in the teaching process can be made. If Lowe's scales the experience to all of its stores, updates to the teaching process could be made overnight.

Lowe's trends team has found that millennials are forgoing DIY projects because they lack home improvement confidence and the free time for a project. For Lowe's, virtual reality might be a way to reverse that trend.

CNNMoney (Washington) First published March 7, 2017: 9:07 AM ET

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Lowe's turns to virtual reality for home improvement - Mar. 7, 2017 - CNNMoney