Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Gabe Newell welcomes the crowd at The International in 2016. (GeekWire)

Valve has been teasing virtual reality games since last year, but on Friday the Bellevue-based company finally gave details about whats in store.

Dont get your hopes up: the details are still vague (theres no timeline on when to expect them), but founder Gabe Newell did confirm to Eurogamer that Valve is building three VR games. The company isnt just putting its toes in the VR pool, either; its diving right in.

When I say were building three games, were building threefull games, not experiments, Newell said at a media roundtable.

At Valves Dota 2 tournament in August, Newell said he was spending most of his time working on VR technology. Newell encouraged fans to demo some of Valves VR games at the tournament, asking them to email him with feedback.

Valves current work, however, doesnt look like its repackaging the companies existing games into VR. Speaking to the press, Newell said there was absolutely nothing compelling about running old games on a new system.

VR is not going to be a success at all if people are just taking existing content and putting it into a VR space,he said.

The three new games will be built on both Source 2 and Unity, and Newell said the company is designing the hardware at the same time that its designing software. By working on them simultaneously, Newell hopes Valve will be able to build better games. He compared the strategy to that of famous Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto.

Miyamotos Nintendo reshaped the world of gaming, and Newell believes VR will have the same influence.

It feels like weve been stuck with mouse and keyboard for a really long time and that the opportunities to build much more interesting kinds of experiences for gamers were there, we just need to sort of expand what we can do, Valves CEO said. But its not about being in hardware, its about building better games. Its about taking bigger leaps forward with the kinds of games that we can do.

Founded in 1996 by former Microsofties Newell and Mike Harrington, Valve has grown into an absolute powerhouse in the gaming industry, powered in part by it Steam gaming platform. Based in Bellevue, Valve is said to be valued at upwards of $4 billion.

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Valve is working on three new virtual reality games, 'not just experiments' - GeekWire

Hospital inpatients could soon be given a different type of prescription to manage their acute and chronic pain a healthy dose of virtual reality (VR).

Speaking at the Pacific Design and Manufacturing show, Dr. Vartan Tashjian, an internist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, and Josh Sackman, president and co-founder of AppliedVR, a Los Angeles-based VR company, talked about their research into the patient care benefits of VR. Their recent work points to the potential of using VR as a viable alternative to drug-based treatments.

A hospital room is not for comfort. They're for suffering, and patients are trapped there, Tashjian told the audience. We thought what a wonderful thing it would be to bring VR to the bedside to take our patients to fantastic destinations.

Tashjian provided some anecdotal evidence in the form of a video of a sickle cell anemia patient, hospitalized for over 100 days, seeming to forget all about his condition when exposed to a VR experience (roaming a photorealistic nature environment). I've been practicing medicine for a couple of years and there's not much that I can do that provides relief to patient that rapidly and that profoundly, Tashjian said of the video.

But Cedars-Sinai and AppliedVRhave also done research to back up these claims. In a study outlined by Tashjian, a group of patients exposed to VR showed a larger reduction in pain, and were more likely to experience a reduction in pain than a control group that was exposed to television for the same amount of time.

The researchers asked patients to report their pain on a scale of one to 10 (10 being the highest). They were then asked to put on a Samsung Gear VR headset and explore a 360-degree animated nature environment for six minutes. The control group watched a natural channel on TV for six minutes.

At the end of the study 40% of the TV group reported a reduction in pain after the experience. By contrast 65% of the VR group reported pain reduction. People watching TV had a reduction in pain, but when you compare that to VR there's no competition, Tashjian said. VR has a very unique style of decreasing someone's pain.

The VR treatment also scored a low number-needed-to-treat (or NNT) of four. The NNT measures the of the impact of a drug or therapy by estimating the number of patients that need to be treated in order for one person to be impacted. For drugs like morphine the NNT is more like 50, Tashjian said.

He added that the experience doesn't have to be limited to computer-generated environments either. Thanks to devices like the Samsung Gear 360 camera, patients can also have real environments streamed to them in VR and even speak remotely with people.

He also cautioned that VR is not a one-size-fits-all solution. VR is not for everyone. Why? Because a lot of people come into the hospital that have headaches, nasea, vomiting, seizures, trauma

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Virtual Reality Could Be Your Next Prescription - DesignNews

Virtual reality is slowly making its way into consumer homes all over the world. Whether it is through gaming or on the smartphone, it is virtually impossible to picture the future in which virtual reality will not play a significant role in moving forward. Using a smartphone, virtually everyone can experience VR wherever they go. Considering the number of mobile apps continues to grow, so will the number of users playing around with virtual reality.

One often heard complaint about virtual reality is how users suffer from motion sickness after a while. Those who do not suffer from this problem may want to check out Hang Gliding on Android. Users will be gliding through the Alpine landscape from the point of view of a hang glider. A rather intriguing app for mobile users, although your mileage may vary. It may take a while to get used to the controls within the app, though.

As one would come to expect, Googles app for the VR industry is firing on all cylinders. Google Cardboard is available for both Android and IOSand allows users to explore Google Earth in virtual reality. In fact, the app even has its own mini app store where now VR-based features and tools are introduced nearly every week. It is well worth checking out, even by people who do not have a Google Cardboard headset.

One of the primary ways consumers will explore virtual reality on a mobile device is to consume new types of content in a different manner. VRSE also found under the Within name is a free application for both Android and iOS which allows users to watch music videos, short movies, and documentaries in virtual reality. Although it is unclear how successful such an app will be in the long run, it is worth keeping an eye on for sure.

Jaunt is very similar to VRSE / Within, albeit its available content is slightly different compared to the other app. There is a mix of entertainment videos, short films, and live music performances. One can even see an ABC news report in virtual reality, although it remains to be seen how appealing this offering is. It is a free app, though, which means it is always worth checking out.

One of the more intriguing apps to hit the Google Play Store is called Go Show. Although this app is only a facilitator to improve the way we consume content, it allows users to view 2D and 3D movies in a true theatrical setting. Simply kick back, relax, and watch the content play out on the big screen. Keep in mind your video will need to be in mp4 format, as that is the only file extension Go Show can handle right now.

Virtual reality seems to be designed to creep people out as they play a video game. Sisters fits this category quite well, as the first-person ghost story lets players explore a haunted mansion. Interacting with various objects will trigger different events, all of which build up the suspense as one immerses himself in virtual reality. It may not be the scariest game to play, but it is a great example of what VR is capable of.

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Top 6 Virtual Reality Apps for Your Smartphone - The Merkle

Sarah Shahi will star in NBCs drama pilot Reverie,Variety has learned.

Reverie is a grounded, dramatic thriller about a former detective specializing in human behavior who is brought in when the launch of an advanced virtual reality program has dangerous and unintended consequences.

Shahi will play Mara, a very intelligentcollege professor who is trained with the FBI in counter terrorism. Though shes a natural leader, her own psyche is still deeply pained and troubled by an incident in her past, leaving her to privately self medicate away her sleepless nights. Mara is intrigued when her old boss, Charlie Ventanaana (yet to be cast), brings her onto a strange project called Reverie, a fully immersive, customizable virtual reality program thats so effective that several of its users have refused to come back to reality, entering instead life-threatening comas. As Mara takes on the challenge of entering another persons consciousness to negotiate their journey back to their own reality, she discovers that she may also have found a way to her own redemption.

Reverie hails from writer Mickey Fisher, the creator of Halle Berrys former CBS series Extant. Fisher will serve as executive producer with Justin Falvey and Daryl Frank of Amblin TV, and Brooklyn Weaver. Universal Television is the studio.

Shahi has been in demand the past couple of pilot seasons and has courted a few offers this cycle. Last season, she was cast in the title role of the Nancy Drew pilotat CBS, which was intended to be a more diverse spin on the classic detective character the pilot ultimately did not go to series, causing quite a stir when it was rumored to be too female to land the greenlit atthe network.

Prior, Shahi starred on Person of Interest at CBS, USAs Fairly Legal, Showtimes The L Word and recurred on NBCs Chicago Fire. She is repped by CAA, McKeon-Myones and attorney Neil Meyer.

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Sarah Shahi to Star in NBC Virtual Reality Thriller 'Reverie' - Variety

Forbes

The Future Of Virtual Reality: Mobile VR Platforms In A Battle Forbes While everyone obsesses over whether Sony , Oculus or HTC HTCCY +% sold more virtual reality (VR) headsets last year, Google GOOGL -0.01% and Facebook FB -0.28% have been waging a silent platform war. This war of platforms ultimately comes down ... Prospects Dimming For Facebook's Oculus Rift Virtual-Reality HeadsetsInvestor's Business Daily Facebook and Oculus are working on gloves for finger tracking in virtual realityDigital Trends This tool will sharpen virtual reality Vive and Oculus headset visualsTechRadar NDTV -The Sydney Morning Herald -PCWorld -Business Insider all 148 news articles »

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The Future Of Virtual Reality: Mobile VR Platforms In A Battle - Forbes

Google's Chrome browser logo

Google says it's now time to marry two computing realms: the web and virtual reality.

Its latest version of the Chrome browser includes a technology called WebVR, which lets programmers create websites that present the computer-generated 3D worlds of virtual reality. If you're into VR, you might appreciate the promise WebVR holds for expanding what you can do with a device like a Google Daydream View or a Facebook Oculus Rift VR headset.

That's because, in principle at least, WebVR makes it easier for developers to create a single VR experience that'll work across many VR headsets instead of having to create a separate version for each device. It's an extension of how a single website can span your laptop, Android phone or iPad tablet.

WebVR makes it "as easy to step inside Air Force One as it is to access your favorite web page," Megan Lindsay, a product manager on Google's Chrome team, said in a blog post.

WebVR without anything to look at isn't any fun, so here are some sites Google promoted for the technology: Bear 71, an interactive nature documentary; Matterport, a library of more than 300,000 celebrity homes and other sites; Within, a collection of VR movies; WebVR Lab, a collection of interactive VR worlds, and Sketchfab, an assortment of VR scenes.

Google developed WebVR along with Firefox maker Mozilla, Facebook's Oculus team, and other partners. It's early days though. Microsoft is working on WebVR support for its new Edge browser and HoloLens eyewear, but support is still spotty among makers of VR headsets like HTC's Vive and Samsung's Gear VR.

So far, Mozilla has enabled WebVR only in its nightly and developer versions of Firefox aimed at web programmers and the adventurous. But it plans to add WebVR in the mainstream version of its browser this summer, including support for Oculus Rift and HTC Vive.

Chrome supports Google's Daydream View headset, which like Gear VR uses a phone to track head motion and display imagery for each eye. But it'll be months before WebVR and Chrome work with the company's cruder Google Cardboard cousin.

Virtual reality 101: CNET tells you everything you need to know about what VR is and how it'll affect your life.

CNET Magazine: Check out a sampling of the stories you'll find in CNET's newsstand edition.

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Google wants to use Chrome to suck you into virtual reality - CNET

Thomas Becnel Staff Writer @thomasbecnel

SARASOTA Charlotte Suhler moved inside a human heart, craning her neck for a better look at the virtual reality of throbbing valves and pulsing muscles.

That was wild, she said, smoothing her hair after taking off a headset. Not scary fascinating to see whats inside you.

Ron Fowler took a virtual tour of an operating room that felt like a glimpse of the future.

It felt like I was almost in it, you know what I mean?" he said. "I was almost there. I can see how close they are.

Stacy Prouty took a swing at a tennis ball without leaving the Roskamp Exhibition Hall at the Ringling College of Art and Design.

Oh wow, she said. Im not a video gamer, but theres a very emotional reaction. It was exhilarating.

On Thursday evening, Ringling College and the Gulf Coast Community Foundation presented a technology showcase called "Seeing the Future in Virtual Reality. A few hundred guests got their first look at what everyone kept calling VR.

They struggled to describe an experience that feels less like cinema and more like role playing.

Theres no amount of explaining it to someone, said Jim McCampbell, head of the Ringling computer animation program. They have to see it.

'Blow people's minds'

Guest speakers for the showcase included Scott Ross and Brett Leonard, entertainment executives who lead a new media company in California called Virtuosity VR.

Were the Hollywood guys, Ross joked.

He was serious, though, about the idea of change coming sooner rather than later in all facets of modern life. There are applications for virtual reality in every field science and medicine, business and commerce, education and entertainment.

I guarantee this will be the future, Ross said. Its a totally new and immersive medium that will change the world. We see opportunities that will blow peoples minds.

Local speakers included Jeff Hazelton, chief technology officer for the Sharecare Reality Lab in Sarasota. He talked about using virtual reality to explore the body in medical programs such as the Dr. Oz television program.

Were reaching a lot of people, he said. There are huge opportunities in virtual reality, and its happening right here in Sarasota."

Rust Bucket ride

Teddy Mundy offered people an airship ride through a virtual experience called Rust Bucket.

His senior project puts people at the controls of an airship they must pilot through a swamp. The best part is watching newcomers enter a virtual world for the first time.

Its really fun just seeing how people react and move, Mundy said. Until they take off the headset thats one of my favorite things and theyre like, Whoa!

Dale Strohl was one of the Ringling guests who took a Rust Bucket ride. He wasnt disappointed.

You could actually pilot the ship, he marveled. At first, I thought Id have problems with the controls, but I didnt. It felt like I was there.

Strohl cant wait to see what Hollywood will do with this dramatic new medium.

Its already a thing, he said. But its going to be a helluva thing.

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Ringling showcase offers glimpse of virtual reality in Sarasota - Sarasota Herald-Tribune

Updated February 10, 2017 13:28:49

The technological world may be on the cusp of a revolution, the extent of which is predicted to mimic the take-up of the smartphone in the late 2000s, but some experts have urged caution as its addictive qualities and long-term effects remain unknown.

Virtual Reality, or VR, has finally become commercially accessible a full-immersion kit with motion controllers is less than $1,000 putting hardware and software tools in the hands of gamers and independent game developers for the first time.

But it is the appeal of this technology across the broader population rather than just the gaming community that has people like Microsoft multimedia and interaction researcher Mar Gonzalez Franco excited.

"We [the general public] will buy VR devices in shopping malls the way we buy smartphones today," she said.

"I think it will be adopted pretty fast."

Applications outside gaming will include social media, virtual lives, movies, news, virtual conference hook-ups, live music experiences and, of course, pornography.

Late last year, Ms Gonzalez Franco reportedly predicted future VR units would be akin to experiencing powerful hallucinations once they started including other senses, such as touch.

This reporter recently had his first experience with a game called First Contact, and could not help but notice a mild sensation of deflation with the real world on exit a sensation that lasted about an hour.

In the narcotics world this sensation is called the come down and can lead to repeat usage and, on occasion, addiction or dependency.

Federation University Australia clinical psychology senior lecturer Vasileios Stavropoulos said research on addictive internet behaviour was largely inconsistent until 2015 when the American Psychiatric Association introduced the concept of internet gaming disorder.

Dr Stavropoulos said newly diagnosed cases "appear to have been increasing worldwide" and with the advance of VR technology that "definitely" had addictive potential, "we should be cautious".

"We're not only talking about virtual reality, we're also talking about virtual personality," he said.

"Scientifically, it's what we call the compensatory internet use hypothesis, which basically suggests that those who are not fulfilled here in this world, tend to escape in another world where they might feel more fulfilled."

He said it was the fact people could experience themselves differently online, build their ideal selves through an avatar and emotionally connect with a virtual world that might offer a better reality than reality, that would attract addiction.

Ms Gonzalez Franco said that "unlike drugs or alcohol, VR doesn't alter our higher cognitive functions".

She said it would allow people to "relate to distant life perspectives", such as experiencing a different socioeconomic status in a virtual Second Life-like world, or a different racial status or gender the fodder of several science fiction films.

"VR experiences will be more meaningful than any other previous medium of experiencing content," Ms Gonzalez Franco said.

A virtual world launched in 2003 called Second Life allowed users to create virtual representations of themselves that interacted with other users, participating in group activities, trade and building an economy it even had its own currency interchangeable with real-world currency.

University of South Australia School of Information Technology and Mathematical Sciences Professor Bruce Thomas said it was this social aspect, rather than gaming, that primarily drove Facebook to buy VR developer Oculus Rift.

He said VR would give rise to positive applications, such as allowing isolated people like the elderly to participate in communal dining with others online.

"And wouldn't it be great if you could share a meal with your family in some place you holidayed 30 years ago," Professor Thomas said.

He said online gambling would cause more harm than VR and said the same people who were addicted to online gaming would be addicted to VR.

"I don't think there's anything inherent about VR that makes it more addictive," he said.

"People are already spending a lot of time in front of a computer."

Professor Thomas said there had been no studies on the long-term effects of using VR, but he had some concern about the conflict it created with eye vergence-accommodation.

The human eye has two mechanisms, vergence movement the simultaneous movement of both eyes in opposite directions, and accommodation the lenses of an eye changing shape to focus on things at distance and up close.

Stereoscopic VR creates a conflict for this mechanism, because everything is focused at a certain distance despite a stereo image going into both eyes to give a depth cue.

"In the late 90s we [UniSA] had a monocular display one of the first head-mount displays," Professor Thomas said.

"Somebody [who tried VR] played for a Norwood baseball team. We made sure he didn't drive right away, like they told us to, but when he went to practise that night, he just couldn't hit a baseball all night.

"It wasn't a permanent effect and it's not proving anything, but there's something going on."

Ms Gonzalez Franco pointed to the side effects that some people experienced from VR as being a detractor from its addictive qualities.

She said that unlike those addicted to TV and other mediums, VR was self-experiential and people "will get physically tired, in the same way that going for a walk gets you tired".

"And I think this is something very good about VR, so people will reduce their exposures and spend more time in reality," she said.

This factor is certainly true of other users of VR, who told the ABC that after about an hour of immersion it was common to feel tired from exertion.

Topics: computers-and-technology, internet-technology, science-and-technology, health, adelaide-5000, sa, australia

First posted February 10, 2017 06:54:46

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Virtual Reality addiction threat prompts cautious approach as VR nears 'smartphone-like' take-off - ABC Online

NEW YORK In a lot of ways, professional soccer is as healthy as its ever been. Record revenues are hauled in seemingly every year. Broadcast rights have skyrocketed from the Premier League to Major League Soccer to the Chinese Super League and seemingly every place in between. Companies are falling over themselves to sign even richer sponsorship deals. And, thanks to UEFAs initiatives, net debt in Europes 20 biggest leagues has been cut down by a third since 2009.

But somewhere way out on the horizon looms a potential problem: disengaged viewing.

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Soccer is aging well much better than some other sports. You can watch a game in less than two hours, the action is continuous and its easily repackaged for mobile viewing. Its more captivating than a lot of traditional American sports fortodays children. Yet even soccer has to reckon with modernity. Pay close attention, and youll see that very few people actually watch an entire game undistracted. And the younger the viewer, the less attention is paid.

Kids worldwide remain very much interested insoccer, but they often see games in quick glances away from their smartphones. They consume the sport mostly through highlights, in video games and on social media. Its a cultural experience as much as a sporting one. And that will eventually become problematic for advertisers and, consequently, rights holders.

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So whats the answer? Probably virtual reality.

Not just VR in its own right which can place you in any stadium in the world, and hypothetically anywhere within that stadium but VR integrated with all the peripheral media now pulling attention away from the sport itself.

Because were so ADD about things, even if you put somebody in the first row [through VR], after five or 10 minutes, people are like I need to do something else. I need to check my phone. I need to check the weather. Whatever, says Andr Lorenceau, founder and CEO of LiveLike VR. People in general are that way because of the rise of smartphones. So a VR experience that puts you in the middle of sports needs to not separate you from your phone, or separate you from your friends or the rest of the world. You have to be able to be engaged constantly.

LiveLike is one of the companies trying to fill this emerging need, pulling the various distractions into VR broadcasts of live sports games. It says its the first platform that allows you, through increasingly affordable VR goggles some models of which just fit around your phone to watch live sports with friends who are anywhere in the world. You can watch from a virtual suite up by the halfway line or wherever else in the stadium a camera has been set up.

LiveLike broadcasted the MLS Cup Final live in December and showed20 highlights of the SuperBowl on Sunday. It also did the Mexico-Venezuela game at last summers Copa America Centenario as well as several college football games, all in conjunction with Fox Sports. It has broadcast several Premier League games for Manchester City that werent made available to the public, as a proof of concept for the club.

Once youre inside the broadcasters app, you have access to replays from all the angles, instant stats, heat maps, lineups, player information, DVR capability and even a shop for game-related merchandise. LiveLike, which doesnt have its own rights or streams, serves as a facilitator for broadcast companies, turning their games into VR on their behalf by equipping existing 4K with fish-eye lenses.

But the upside is much broader. With the right partnerships down the line, its quite possible that social media feeds, messenger apps and even games could all be pulled into the VR broadcast. The possibilities are fairly endless.

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In future features that were working on, theres like borderline no limit to where we can go there, Lorenceau says. Theres no limits to us integrating social media feeds, communication with the outside world in multiple ways, alternative content outside of the soccer we can have games playing while having interviews with people, 360-degree videos of fans. Because we deal in the virtual world, its kind of limitless what you can have in your virtual suite. You dont need atoms.

Essentially, you could do all the things you now do on two or three screens within your goggles, especially once the technology for text input improves probably through hand controllers.

LiveLike was founded just two years ago and won the inaugural NFL Tech Crunch for sports tech startups a year ago attended by former Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and Jon Bon Jovi, for some reason in the viewing experience category.

Its founder Lorenceau is only 27. The charismatic French son of a psychiatrist and a business consultant, who relocated to the U.S. when he was a teenager, has an energy like a bouncy ball stuck inside one of those machines that shakes paint cans. And if speech and stream of consciousness were subject to the speed limits, Lorenceau would have lost his license a long time ago.

Im glad I could meet you, I almost died this weekend, he says quickly and casually at LiveLikes shared workspace in the Financial District of Manhattan. I was in Breckenridge in Colorado and had a minor pulmonary edema. I legitimately almost died. I was skiing too high up. Im actually not fully, fully recovered. I had to take a bunch of Advil before you showed up. But this is what you do, startup stuff.

After graduating from the University of Texas, Lorenceau was already working in VR when he spotted a gap in the user experience of live sports. Most companies focused on the technology, resolution and compression.

Nobody was working on harnessing the big interactivity, the big social capabilities of virtual reality on the software side, he says. So we decided to build a prototype. We showed it to a broadcaster. They thought it was great. So we said, OK, lets try it.

Now, LiveLike has 32 employees in offices in New York, Paris and India, has raised $6 million in two rounds of investment and counts the mighty Creative Artists Agency and former NBA Commissioner David Stern Hes been super helpful, Lorenceau says among its investors.

They work furiously on the future.

Give me 1,000 people and Id know what each one of them would be doing, Lorenceau says. Right now, we have nine hundred things were doing and the problem isnt what can we do but what do we prioritize for? Were talking to clients in every market [around the world] freaking everywhere. 2017 is probably going to be a very big year for live sports in VR.

There is so much capability left to build. Its hardly inconceivable to watch games from the spider cam suspended above the field at major games with a 360-degree view. If or once the technology comes along where cameras get small enough to attach to a player and stable enough not tomake you feel sick watching it, you could hypothetically watch the game from the perspective of any player on the field. Or the referee. Or the assistant-referee who keeps on waving that offside flag. Or the goalpost. Or the manager. Or, well, you get the idea.

For advertisers, VR offers the chance to put themselves squarely inside the user experience, rather than being relegated to background noise or something to be fast-forwarded through. In the suite, a soda can be put unobtrusively on the coffee table in front of you. During the MLS Cup Final, an Audi was parked in the back of the suite. During one college football broadcast, an X-wing Starfighter flew over the stadium to promote an upcoming Star Wars movie.

Down on the field, the user can already watch the game, moving through the stadium to find the best vantage points with friends. And, in the future, he could interact with his companions or anyone else; make a GIF of a nice play and post it on, say, Twitter; re-enact the penalty shootout in a video game; and shop for the away teams new alternative jerseys.

All within the goggles. All without ever losing sight of the game.

Leander Schaerlaeckens is a soccer columnist for Yahoo Sports. Follow him on Twitter @LeanderAlphabet.

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Virtual reality is the future of soccer broadcasting and it's already here - Yahoo Sports

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Even when shes not posing as a fertility goddess in front of half the flowers in Manhattan, being Beyonc is probably pretty fun. She works hard, for sure, but shes also obscenely rich and world famous. So we probably shouldnt be too surprised that Queen Bey was less than impressed by the Magic Leap, the VR headset thats being hailed as the second coming of augmented reality. According to an article in Business Insider, the company is relying on celebrity endorsements to build buzz for the product, regularly clearing out its Florida offices so VIPs can give the new technology a whirl. But it doesnt always work out as planned:

Some who saw the device, like Steven Spielberg, were pitched to make content for it. But others, like Beyoncwho received a personalized mermaid Magic Leap demo, which the team created on short notice, and was bored by itwere more of a reflection of Abovitzs desire to connect with celebrities than anything directly related to the companys business, former employees said.

Maybe Beyonc found the Magic Leap boring because shes already a mermaid in real life. Or maybe shes simply more of a Sega Genesis fan. Beyonc appreciates the classics.

[via New York Magazine]

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Virtual reality is boring compared to Beyonc's actual reality - A.V. Club (blog)