Category Archives: Virtual Reality

Virtual reality is set for a major upgrade with the upcoming release of Cosmos, a Metaverse framework by ICICB Group. The Metaverse has evolved following the release of Cosmos by ICICB Group.

The digital and internet ages find themselves at an interesting crossroads in time currently as the emergence of blockchain technology over the past decade have given way to the rise of the Metaverse, a fully-realized digital world that exists in a different dimension than our physical reality.

Despite the misconceptions that have arisen from Facebooks transition to Meta, there is no one entity or organization that is creating or holds rights to the Metaverse, but instead, it has arisen more organically to provide an interactive framework for the yottabytes of data that exist across the internet.

As global awareness of the emerging Metaverse grows, ICICB Group is well-positioned to capture this momentum and help evolve the space as a whole thanks to the launch of the ICICB Chain, the backbone of the ICICB Metaverse, also known as Cosmos.

Cosmos offers a never-before-experienced journey through time with separate epochs that represent ancient, modern and future human life, each with its own unique set of nonfungible tokens and artifacts that will keep users enthralled with gameplay while also accumulating real-world value.

Each user in the ICICB Metaverse will become an expert time traveler, teleporting from the stone age to the world of the future on a whim and exploring the vast multitude of experiences that human life has to offer.

Extra precautions have been put in place to prevent the destruction of the timeline, however, as items from the past can be brought forward to the future while artifacts from the future are unable to make a journey backward in time for fear of creating a universe-destroying paradox.

With each epoch of time including an expansive virtual world that eclipses the size of the virtual worlds found on The Sandbox or Decentraland, Cosmos is on track to become the largest virtual ecosystem in existence across time and space.

For users who wish to focus on our present time to explore what the world has to offer, ICICB has specifically crafted its Atari 3D blockchain casino that can only be found in the modern age and provides explores with an interactive gaming playground where they can earn money and place bets through a variety of popular games and contests.

First-person shooter fans can frag to their hearts desires in the new ARES by ICICB MMORPG game, which utilizes blockchain technology to allow for the creation of game assets that can be owned in the real world and sold on the ICICB NFT marketplace.

Thanks to the underlying strength of the ICICB Chain, the worlds best blockchain network in terms of speed, cost, and security, Cosmos is destined to be a major fixture in the ongoing Metaverse revolution as the digital age continues to unfold at a quickening pace.

ICICB Group is a financial services company based out of the Middle East that has a network of hundreds of offices around the globe, providing financial and banking services to over 26 countries. As part of the groups overall mission of helping to advance the development of digital technology that can be integrated with the everyday aspects of peoples lives to increase efficiency and sustainability.

To take things to the next level, the firm is about to unveil their upcoming launch of an expanded ecosystem, ICICB Chain on 22 February 2022 that incorporates the hottest sectors of the expanding cryptoverse.

With an ecosystem that integrates a wide range of blockchain-based solutions that allow clients worldwide to play, trade, and earn in one place, the ICICB Metaverse is laying the groundwork to emerge as a popular global hub for entrance into the virtual world of the future.

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ICICB Prepares to Enter the Metaverse Arena with the Release of Cosmos, a Virtual Reality Ecosystem That Spans Across Time and Space - NewsBTC

Pokmon Go creator Niantic has partnered with Sony to collaborate in audio AR, beginning with Niantics AR mobile game Ingress.

The collaboration will pair Niantics real-world AR tech with Sonys spatial sound tech to provide an "unprecedented AR experience", with a focus on immersion.

The partnership begins with the launch of Sonys LinkBuds, a new set of hi-fidelity headphones that provide a real-world, always-on device.

"Many people play Niantics games with the sound off because you dont want to be cut off from the world around you," said Niantic director of product marketing Archit Bhargava. "But with LinkBuds we think that our users will be even more immersed in the experience while also being aware of their surroundings in the real world too."

Niantic has stated that this is just the beginning and that future collaboration with Sony will create "fun and immersive" community experiences on an even deeper level.

Niantic vice president Setsuto Murai added: "By combining Sony's audio technology with Niantic's AR technology, we believe that we can offer a new level of AR experience, beyond just what you can see. We look forward to providing a more immersive AR experience in the real world

More details surrounding the partnership are expected to be revealed later this year.

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Niantic and Sony partner for spatial audio in augmented reality - The Virtual Report

While we were hoping to bring you a fullVirtual Virtual Reality 2 review today, the game unfortunately has a range of technical issues that have prevented us from finishing it. Were going to delay our full review and recommend that anyone interested in buying the game waits to hear more about what the developers plan to do to fix things.

Virtual Virtual Reality 2 is, frankly, a one-of-a-kind VR game. This unassuming cartoonish adventure actually pushes the boundaries of VR game design in very interesting ways. Unfortunately the game just isnt ready for prime time, despite releasing today.

Throughout hours of playtime I consistently ran into issues that at best detracted from the experience and at worst halted forward progress. In many cases I found thatVirtual Virtual Reality 2would get itself into a stuck state where I had to reload to my most recent save in order to reset things well enough that the game could continue.

Issues ranged from character dialog overlapping or becoming muted, important instructions being read quietly or not at all, various scripting problems where key events in the game wouldnt trigger, and several environmental glitches that blocked objectives from being completed or caused me to skip large sections of the game while missing important objectives required to continue.

On top of those issues, the game also tended to crash if the headset (Quest 2 in this case) was suspended, resetting me to a prior checkpoint each time I wanted to return to it.

This is all a shame because, just like its predecessor,Virtual Virtual Reality 2 is clearly something quite special. Its inventive design sees players (and companions) living inside of a cartoonish mech that itself exists in a much larger world. You can seamlessly switch perspectives between the tiny person in the mech and the mech itself, which shifts your scale as you watch the mechs arms become your arms.

When youre back inside the mech you can even open up a hatch on the shoulder to step outside on the balcony, revealing the giant world around you. The changes in scale are so seamless that its actually difficult to tell if theres some trickery involved, or if you really are a tiny character navigating a mech around a much larger world.

Beyond this innovative framework,Virtual Virtual Reality 2 also takes risks with VR locomotion that many developers purposefully avoid (and seemingly with quite a bit of success). Well cover that more in-depth in our full review.

Its abnormal for us (and we dont intend to make it a habit) to delay a review so that a broken game can be fixed. But we didnt want to throw out the baby with the bathwater.Virtual Virtual Reality 2 is impressively ambitious and wildly creative; its underlying design is clearly competent, even if it hasnt seen nearly enough quality assurance before launch.

Developer Tender Claws says it plans to issue a patch in two weeks to clear up some of the issues weve reported, at which point well resume our playthrough and render a final verdict.

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Virtual Virtual Reality 2 is a One-of-a-Kind VR Game Thats Not Ready for Launch - Road to VR

A shared community does not always produce a common experience. To be able to walk in anothers shoes to see the world from their perspective is not so easy to do. However, through a virtual reality or rather extended reality (XR) project, Opus College of Business students, faculty, and staff had an opportunity to consider how varying life experiences can inform perspective, especially as it relates to diversity, equity and inclusion.

The immersive virtual experience as co-sponsored by Business in a Digital World and DEI initiatives at the University of St. Thomas Opus College of Business to expose students to the systemic inequalities prevalent in Minneapolis.

Minneapolis is a great place to live, great schools, great place to raise a family, but when you start to pull back the layers when it comes to things like education, incarceration rates and wealth, we have some of the worst racial inequities in the country, said Amir Berenjian, CEO of REM5 Virtual Reality Labs.

REM5 joined with RFTP (pronounced rooftop), a Minneapolis-based nonprofit that uses storytelling to spark meaningful conversations between people with varying life experiences, to bring awareness to those racial inequities.

We built an exhibition space called One City, Two Realities that through data visualization, photographs, 360-degree photos, video and quotes tells the story about Minneapolis, Berenjian said.

The XR environment is designed like a virtual museum. Students experienced the museum and its exhibits remotely using avatars. Think of Roblox, but designed for the common good, said Berenjian, an expert in the field of virtual reality. One City, Two Realities is a completely novel approach to DEI work.

As visitors to the virtual museum and exhibits, students were able to walk around George Floyd Square, march alongside protesters, witness the toppling of the Columbus statue near the steps of the St. Paul Capitol, get an up-close look of the urban graffiti and murals sprayed across retail buildings, as well as see charts, graphs and maps about wage gaps, incarceration rates and housing deficits. The students, as their avatars, were also able to engage socially and connect emotionally with other users.

The anonymous nature of the virtual experience produced conversations that differed from their traditional in-person sessions, RFTP co-founder Tim Harris explained.

In our live sessions, there was always a hesitancy to talk, given the subject matter, Harris said. Being able to speak from behind the avatars gave people a veil. Some people enjoyed it, some people didnt like it. We provided an app that allowed people to give feedback live and anonymously. That was pretty engaging. We got a lot of data, said Harris.

RFTP co-founder Latoya Taris-James also noticed that the XR experience provided time for reflection that sparked feedback from those who might not otherwise contribute in one of their traditional sessions. A few moments of silence gave students the opportunity to actually speak up, and you could tell it was something that they had been processing throughout the session. It gave them the extra time and space to bring what they had to the table. I think it made a huge difference.

Taris-James added, Everyone has something to contribute to the work ... A lot of times we hear from people that Im just A, B or C and I shouldnt speak on this subject. We want to take the stigma away from this kind of work, that you need to have credentials, and reassign that value to personal experience.

As associate dean of undergraduate and accelerated masters programs and DEI ambassador to the Opus College of Business, Nakeisha Lewis is responsible for ensuring the authenticity of the universitys initiatives in the DEI space. While there is a risk for the university to take a chance on a new project dealing with sensitive subject matter, Lewis believes the consequences of not taking that chance are far greater.

I wholeheartedly believe that we cannot live out our mission if we dont do this type of work, said Lewis. I cannot say that we are producing principled leaders if they are not able to make the world of business more equitable.

For RFTP, the project represented an authentic institutional investment not without risk. Were direct, said Harris. The way we go about this work is different than a lot of other organizations, and our hope is to cut through the ... pageantry of DEI work and get right to the conversations, and St. Thomas was with us every step of the way. The fact that they were willing to take a chance and spend dollars and put their money where their mouth was and engage says a lot about who they hope to be as an institution.

Dr. Rama Hart is an associate professor of management at the Opus College of Business. The students in her Inclusive Leadership class were among the first to experience the new virtual spaces. The students were initially hesitant to weigh in on the subject matter, but Hart said they conveyed a profound impact in their subsequent written reflections.

It was a very meaningful experience for students and probably one of the most memorable aspects of the class, said Hart. Talking about race and racism is very difficult in any environment, but creating an environment that allows participants to experience other realities in a multidimensional format allows students to shift their perspective. I would certainly like to use the exercise again.

Students were asked to reflect on their experience in the virtual space. These reflections, in addition to their anonymous comments within the virtual environment, were aggregated and disseminated to the development team. The university used the data to better inform the focus of their DEI initiatives.

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Virtual Reality Exposes Students to Systemic Inequalities - Newsroom | University of St. Thomas - University of St. Thomas Newsroom

A man landing an upper-cut on the ceiling fan, a woman slamming into furniture, a guy smashing through a lighting fixture: gamers are learning, virtual reality headsets can often cause havoc at home.

The trend of crashing into furniture while in the metaverse provoked a 31% jump in home contents claims involving VR headsets last year, insurer Aviva said, marking a 68% overall increase since 2016.

As new games and gadgets become popular, we often see this playing through in the claims made by our customers, said Kelly Whittington, Avivas UK property claims director. In the past weve seen similar trends involving consoles with handsets, fitness games and even the likes of rogue fidget spinners.

Aviva said the average VR-related claim for accidental damage in 2021 was about 650, often from broken TVs smashed by overenthusiastic gamers.

Claims to Aviva involving virtual reality headsets can get wacky. One customer launched a controller at his TV when a zombie jumped out during the game. Multiple people reported cracking TV screens. One child smashed two designer figurines perched on the mantelpiece when his game demanded a swipe move.

All three claims were accepted and settled, an Aviva spokesperson told the Guardian.

These devices can be a great source of fun, but wed encourage people to be mindful of their surroundings and take a look at their home insurance to make sure it suits their needs, Whittington added, urging people to add accidental damage cover to their home insurance plan.

Aviva said that, with many people in the UK receiving VR headsets over Christmas, claims in 2022 are already coming in and the company expects more.

The Reddit forum VR to ER features of videos of people using VR headsets falling over, bumping into furniture or accidentally punching loved ones.

While those with damaged homes may not see the funny side, commenters are finding humour in the trend. Commenting on the upper-cut video, one person said: Looks like the guy knocked its lights out.

Another person, writing under a video of a woman body-slamming furniture, commented: Never heard a house scream like that before.

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Rising popularity of VR headsets sparks 31% rise in insurance claims - The Guardian

SAN FRANCISCO (AFP) - Depending on his mood, Mr Jeff Weiser settles down to work in a Parisian cafe, a mysterious cave or high above the Earth, thanks to the budding metaverse.

Mr Weiser lives in the midwestern United States state of Ohio but his workplace is in a faux realm accessed using virtual reality head gear.

While still the stuff of science fiction for most people, forerunners of the metaverse vision for the Internet's future are already de rigueur for handfuls of people beyond the gamer and techno-hipster crowds.

Mr Weiser, founder of a translation start-up, spends 25 to 35 hours each week working with Oculus virtual reality (VR) gear on his head in his home in the city of Cincinnati.

A VR application called Immersed lets him sync screens such as his computer and smartphone to his virtual world, shutting out distractions around him at home.

Along with "increased focus", the ergonomics are "perfect", Mr Weiser said.

Display screens hover where they are easily seen and can be changed to any size.

Mr Weiser taps on his keyboard without seeing it, and appears from the outside to be speaking to himself.

But in his virtual world, he interacts with avatars of colleagues as far away as Argentina and Ireland.

The pandemic boosted use of telework technologies that make it possible for colleagues to collaborate as teams despite being in different locations.

The Holy Grail is to replicate the kind of personal contact possible in offices.

Mr Florent Crivello co-founded Teamflow, a start-up that tailors software for workers to collaborate virtually from their computers.

"We are building the metaverse for work," Mr Crivello said, adding that VR headsets are not quite ready for "prime time".

"All of our collaboration tools are still on desktop; we want to meet people where they are."

Teamflow virtual offices look like on-screen game boards with meeting rooms, sofas and more.

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Teleworking gets a boost with use of virtual reality gear - The Straits Times

On Feb 11, 2022

Researchers at Rutgers University-New Brunswick have published Face-Mic, the first work examining how voice command features on virtual reality headsets could lead to major privacy leakages, known as eavesdropping attacks.

The research shows that hackers could use popular virtual reality (AR/VR) headsets with built in motion sensors to record subtle, speech-associated facial dynamics to steal sensitive information communicated via voice-command, including credit card data and passwords.

Common AR/VR systems on the market include the popular brands Oculus Quest 2, HTC Vive Pro, and PlayStation VR.

Led by Yingying Jennifer Chen, associate director of WINLAB and graduate director of Electrical and Computer Engineering at Rutgers University-New Brunswick, the study will be presented at the annual International Conference on Mobile Computing and Networking in March. Other research collaborators include Nitesh Saxena of Texas A&M University and Jian Liu at University of Tennessee at Knoxville.

To demonstrate the existence of security vulnerabilities, Chen and her fellow WINLAB researchers developed an eavesdropping attack targeting AR/VR headsets, known as Face-Mic.

Face-Mic is the first work that infers private and sensitive information by leveraging the facial dynamics associated with live human speech while using face-mounted AR/VR devices, said Chen. Our research demonstrates that Face-Mic can derive the headset wearers sensitive information with four mainstream AR/VR headsets, including the most popular ones: Oculus Quest and HTC Vive Pro.

The researchers studied three types of vibrations captured by AR/VR headsets motion sensors, including speech-associated facial movements, bone-borne vibrations and airborne vibrations. Chen noted that bone-borne vibrations in particular are richly encoded with detailed gender, identity and speech information.

By analyzing the facial dynamics captured with the motion sensors, we found that both cardboard headsets and high-end headsets suffer security vulnerabilities, revealing a users sensitive speech and speaker information without permission, Chen said.

Although vendors usually have policies regarding utilizing the voice access function in headset microphones, Chens research found that built-in motion sensors, such as an accelerometer and gyroscope within a VR headset, do not require any permission to access. This security vulnerability can be exploited by malicious actors intent on committing eavesdropping attacks.

Eavesdropping attackers can also derive simple speech content, including digits and words, to infer sensitive information, such as credit card numbers, Social Security numbers, phone numbers, PIN numbers, transactions, birth dates and passwords. Exposing such information could lead to identity theft, credit card fraud and confidential and health care information leakage.

Chen said once a user has been identified by a hacker, an eavesdropping attack can lead to further exposure of users sensitive information and lifestyle, such as AR/VR travel histories, game/video preferences and shopping preferences. Such tracking compromises users privacy and can be lucrative for advertising companies.

Oculus Quest, for example, supports voice dictation for entering web addresses, controlling the headset and exploring commercial products. Rutgers Face-Mic research shows that hackers may leverage these zero-permission sensors to capture sensitive information, leading to severe privacy leakages.

Chen said she hopes these findings will raise awareness in the general public about AR/VR security vulnerabilities and encourage manufacturers to develop safer models.

Given our findings, manufacturers of VR headsets should consider additional security measures, such as adding ductile materials in the foam replacement cover and the headband, which may attenuate the speech-associated facial vibrations that would be captured by the built-in accelerometer/gyroscope, she said.

Chen and her WINLAB colleagues are now examining how facial vibration information can authenticate users and improve security, and how AR/VR headsets can capture a users breathing and heart rate to measure well-being and mood states unobtrusively. To learn more about ongoing studies at WINLAB, click here.

To access more business news, visitNJB News Now.

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Rutgers Researchers Discover Security Vulnerabilities in Virtual Reality Headsets - njbmagazine.com

Sharon Weiner and Moritz Ktt try on the VR headsets for The Nuclear Biscuit, a virtual reality experience they created that allows players to wargame a missile attack from the point of view of the US president. Photo used with permission from Sharon Weiner.

Mr. President, we have a national emergency. Please follow the military officer right away, a voice says as an alarm blares. Evacuated to a secure facility, the president is greeted with a digital clock counting down from 15 minutes. Mr. President, this is Strategic Command. If you dont make a decision before the time on that clock hits zero, we will lose our entire ICBM force. The president is then presented with three recommended attack options, the least of which predicts five million to 15 million casualties. If an immediate decision isnt made, the voice becomes adamant: Mr. President, I need your guidance!

So begins The Nuclear Biscuit, a virtual reality (VR) experience that allows players to wargame a missile attack from the point of view of the US president. This research tool, which also serves as an educational game, is named for the actual nuclear biscuita card containing nuclear launch codes that the president is supposed to carry at all times. That card offers the US president sole authority over more than 40 percent of the worlds nuclear warheads. Such power has the potential to trigger a civilization-ending nuclear attack.

The simulation is the brainchild of Sharon Weiner of American University and Moritz Ktt of the Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy at the University of Hamburg. The research duo recruited students at Princeton University (where Weiner and Ktt met and conceived the project) and Washington DC-based policy professionals for their study, which seeks to better understand decision making amidst the pressure and uncertainty of a nuclear crisis. Over the past two years, world leaders, policymakers, and citizens in the United States and Europe have also had the opportunity to try the simulation.

I was virtually paralyzed by the end, Robert Meyers, a citizen who experienced the VR experience at the February 2020 Munich Security Conference, said. The experience was so real that it was chilling. Two years later, Meyers continues to second-guess the choice he made in the simulation. I didnt ask the questions that I should have.

The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists caught up with The Nuclear Biscuits co-creators to talk about technical challenges involved in producing their nuclear-themed VR, Easter eggs they embedded in the simulation, and the ways in which players surprised them. What follows is an edited and condensed transcript of that conversation.

What motivated this work?

Sharon Weiner: In my first VR experience, I was a bunny running from aliens. I was immersed in the experience. I immediately thought about foreign policy decision making and about how people make irrational choices and use shortcuts in a crisis situation. I thought that if we could immerse people in a virtual situation to practice [nuclear] deterrence, wed start to understand the degree to which they conform to the expectations of deterrence, which assumes rational decision making. That became an idea about using VR for this purpose. I didnt know anything about VR, but Moritz knew a whole lot. Plus, hes that rare combination of political scientist and physicist. So, we started a conversation.

Moritz Ktt: Id been working on using technical means to help nonproliferation arms control and disarmament. This can be verification technology but also virtual reality technology. Im interested in understanding how new technology can help solve this problem. For The Nuclear Biscuit, the first thing we did was download an Oval Office demo so we could walk around in the Oval Office in VR, which in itself is pretty amazing.

Many people associate VR with play. Is there any risk with people thinking nuclear decision making is a game?

Sharon Weiner: When we use this for generating experimental data, we exclude people with significant VR experience, not just because they might think its a game, but because its unclear how immersed they are.

Games are about storytelling, right? In our case, the story was provided by US decisions about structuring nuclear strategy. In putting that story into the virtual experience, we tried to be true to the options that story presents or precludes.

The goal is to get [participants] to engage with the story as it exists, given [nuclear] strategy and force structure. We want them to come to their own conclusions about their willingness to accept the assumptions of deterrence.

Weve not yet analyzed the data from our experiments, but I think its fair to say most people came away skeptical [about US nuclear strategy]. They wanted to know whether [the particular game they played] was a nuclear accident or a real attack. The answer is, its both, and its neither. Most people find that answer really unsatisfying.

Is there a correct action or set of actions for players in the scenario youve created?

Sharon Weiner: The right thing depends upon the values that a person brings to the experience. If you are US Strategic Command, the right thing is probably using your intercontinental ballistic missiles (ICBMs) before theyre destroyed. If you are Eamon Javers with CNBC, the right thing is protecting people and not acting immorally.

But one person gets to make that decision. And in reality, that one person gets 15 minutes or less to decide which of those values they want to maximize.

How do you decide how to end something when you can never resolve the issues in the time you have? The president only knows if the attack was real once the weapons land.

Moritz Ktt: Thats true for the real case as well. The president in a bunker never sees anything. The president doesnt have a window. The president only relies on information given by third parties and technology. We know of many incidents from the past where this has failed already. We leave this open because the president would never really know for sure.

Did your nuclear theme present unique technical challenges?

Moritz Ktt: We tried to come up with new ideas to make the experience more immersive. In some of the videos, a virtual chair is replicated in the physical world. People can walk up to the chair, grab it, and then see it moving in VR. That is usually the moment people say, Yeah, this is something serious. Then they sit down at the Resolute desk in the Oval Office.

Sharon Weiner: The development of VR technology isnt at the point yet where some AI listens to the decisions youre making and calls up one of several hundred responses. But, Holosphere, the company we worked with for the VR part of the project, developed a unique mechanism. We listen to what the person says, and we have a tablet of responses. We trained each other to come up with similar responses to similar [scenarios] as dictated by nuclear strategy.

When participants take part in the simulation, what do they look like from the outside?

Moritz Ktt: In the beginning, people sometimes give the impression that they still know theyre in a hotel conference room or the basement of Princeton University. But as soon as the alarm starts and they sit down to make decisions, people seem to really think, Now its a crisis. We have to make a decision.

People start tapping fingers on the table, or they move one foot. They repeat whats said to them, like numbers or important details of the brief.

Sharon Weiner: Theres an option in which the Secret Service tries to evacuate them. Some people get up to try and leave. A general then says, Wait, please give me guidance for what to do. People will have animated arguments with this general, who of course doesnt exist. They say, No, Ive decided to go! They gesture wildly and sometimes swear.

This is anecdotal, but [the people who try to leave] seem to be people who are less inclined to launch. As soon as they get up, the military officer says, Were anticipating you being out of contact. Can you at least give us some guidance for how to behave until we can talk to you again?

People say, No, Im not going to do that! Why should I do that!? Weve had people bang the table. People fidget and engage in repetitive motions. Afterward, they dont remember what they did.

Have you been participants, or do you know too much to be fooled?

Sharon Weiner: We built it from the ground up, so we know every conceivable part of it, including the Easter eggs embedded in it that few would notice but are there just for fun.

Easter eggs?

Moritz Ktt: Bruce Blair, a former Air Force officer, who was also a missileer helped us with the script. He unfortunately passed away last year, but if you turn right in the [simulated] Oval Office, you can see him.

Sharon Weiner: Also, at the end of a newscast [in the simulation], we threw in the names of people, like a high school student who helped [on the project].

In the experience, the playerthe simulated presidentis presented with three options: low-, medium-, and high-level retaliatory responses. Is one of these options more popular than the others?

Sharon Weiner: There are actually an infinite number of options. Participants are told repeatedly and at specific times that the military wants to help them build their own option. We havent yet analyzed the data, but based on general observations, most people never build their own option. Most people do launch. There seems to be a general tendency towards [the low- or medium-level retaliatory] options. Very few people decide not to launch. Is that fair Moritz?

Moritz Ktt: Yes. The difficult part is that, initially, this experiment was only a research project [with the goal of publishing] an academic paper. But, very quickly, it turned out to be an educational toolsomething to show people without any research questions. By now, about half of our participants are policymakers.

Its kind of unfair for us to talk too much about what theyve done. But we also shouldnt wait to use this as an educational tool, because the longer we wait, the more dangerous [the world] gets.

Youve offered the simulation in the United States and Europe. What differences have you observed in these two settings?

Moritz Ktt: People outside of the US appear to be less immersed, perhaps because they know they could never become US president. As soon as you start thinking, I couldnt be in this position, you are not mentally in the position.

Europeans appear to ask questions about whether the British, the French, or the Germans have seen the attack, and they ask what theyre doing. Until the end of the 15 minutes, we tell them that were trying to get [allied countries] on the phone but that its very hard to reach them.

Is there anything that surprised you in this research?

Sharon Weiner: Many assume that missile defense will save them from an incoming Russian ICBM attack. When theyre told that the missile defense system provides little to no protection, they dont believe it. So many insisted that we had to add another person saying the same thing. That surprised me. I thought people close to nuclear policy would be aware that the missile defense system is not going to help.

Moritz Ktt: I was surprised that, so far, no one has ever asked for their family. We recorded answers [for questions related to family]. Sharon is one of the voices. But it doesnt occur to people in this situation to ask, Where are my kids? or Wheres my partner?

Sharon Weiner: After the experience is over, the presidential emergency operations center goes away and we put on the screen, Thanks for participating, the experience is over. I was surprised that people would still be immersed in the experience.

Originally, I had to tap people on the shoulder to tell them the experience was over. But this scared the bejesus out of them because they were still immersed in the experience. So, we tried to make it more obvious that the experience was over. We go up to them and say, THE EXPERIENCE IS OVER NOW! WERE GOING TO TAKE OFF THE HEADSET! But even when we cut off everything and tell them, theyre still in it.

After someone participates, they always want to talk about what theyve just gone through. We are the first people they see so we let them lead the conversation.

Whats next after this?

Moritz Ktt: First, we want to rest from being confined in basements playing nuclear wars all the time! This is not some something that is necessarily pleasant. But then we want to analyze the data.

In the long run, we would ideally make this available to a wider audience, but we dont know yet how, when, and where this would work out. People ask if they can download this on Steam, which is a common platform for computer games. We say no because so far, its just a research tool.

Sharon Weiner: Weve been discussing how to make this available as an educational tool for teachers that want to talk about these issues. Students nuclear strategy literacy, at least in the US, is quite poor. In a perfect world, wed reach out to all of them. But there are equity issues. Not every high school can give a virtual reality headset to every student. What are the tradeoffs between trying to make this experience accessible to more people? Were having those conversations.

[In our simulation,] we controlled for the pressure of time. There are other variations wed like to control. Given current events, Id really love to have two peopleone is Russia, and one is the UStest the notion of escalate to deescalate. How quickly would the situation escalate?

The former head of Strategic Command has said that every time they play these war games, they always end in thermonuclear war. But the presumption about escalate to deescalate is that the US can control the use of low-yield nuclear weapons in an otherwise conventional conflict. We actually have a means to test how realistic that assumption is. I would love to do that.

What do you want players to take away from the experience?

Moritz Ktt: We want them to learn about how nuclear deterrence plays out. Were grateful that people showed up in large numbers for the experiment. We also wanted to educate people on current US nuclear strategy, its potential consequences, and the size of the decision the single person in this roomthe US presidentwould have to make and the circumstances in which this would occur.

Sharon Weiner: These are choices that [US policymakers] made about nuclear strategy infrastructure, but theyre choices. It invites people to say, I just experienced the choices weve made. Think about other choices we could make instead.

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A VR journey into the nuclear bunker offers chilling lessons on US nuclear policy - Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists

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Dublin, Feb. 15, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The "Augmented and Mixed Reality Market by Technology, Infrastructure, Devices, Solutions, Apps and Services in Industry Verticals 2022 - 2027" report has been added to ResearchAndMarkets.com's offering.

This mixed reality market report assesses AR, MR, and other immersive technology components, the AR/MR ecosystem, and competitive landscape.

The report evaluates market opportunities for hardware, software, and services. Analysis takes into consideration market drivers and constraints such as potential regulatory implications. The report provides detailed qualitative and quantitative analysis including forecasts for AR/MR by major hardware components, software, services, semiconductor components, and more.

Assisted or augmented reality (AR) represents a live (direct or indirect) view of a physical, real-world environment in which certain elements are augmented by computer-generated sensory input. In addition to a visual overlay, AR may also provide audio and tactile inputs to the user, and rely upon presence and positioning technologies to present location-specific sensory inputs and information to the user. In this manner, AR is part of the Mixed Reality market and represents a blending of information technology and media within a real-world environment for the benefit of the consumer, business, and industrial users.

The term mixed reality (MR) pertains to a form of hybrid reality in which physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real-time. With MR, either virtual objects are digitally mixed into reality or real-world objects are merged into virtual worlds. The latter case is sometimes referred to as augmented virtuality (AV), and is one step closer to virtual reality (VR), as real-world objects in a virtual world take on a sense of permanency with real objects, appearing to actually exist within the virtual world.

Adding to this sense of permanency, real-world objects in a virtual world may be digitally controlled. Conversely, MR may also support the manipulation of virtual objects permanently placed in the real-world. In either scenario, MR will be an important aspect of teleoperation and telerobotics.

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The primary goal of AR is to enrich the user's perception of the real-world, providing information and insights that otherwise would not be obtainable. AR use cases have grown substantially across many industry verticals within the last two years, providing significant market momentum, and indicating great promise to transform communications, content, and commerce across a wide range of sectors. The goals of MR are broad, yet directionally focused on a true merging of real and virtual worlds, which the publisher believes will be a major catalyst for wide-spread acceptance and usage of VR across all major industry sectors.

The growing demand of the augmented reality market in the entertainment, retail, and defense sector is encouraging manufacturers to expand their business. Both traditional advertisers and digital media companies need to get ready for increased altered reality. Advertisers are looking at using augmented reality as part of a marketing drive in order to attract new customers as well as retentive existing ones.

The AR smart glasses market is picking up pace as it inches away from being a niche product to becoming an industrial and enterprise problem solver. Mass consumer adoption is elusive, if not years away, but the market is building its ecosystem, refining hardware, and taking a more realistic approach for the long-run ramp-up of smart AR glasses.

Select Report Findings:

Hardware is the largest market segment with HUD the largest component

The overall market is anticipated to grow at a CAGR of 62.7% and reach $502 billion

Consumer electronics is the largest industry vertical whereas the military segment is expected to have the highest growth potential

Latin America is expected to have the highest growth with a CAGR of 69.0%. Brazil and Argentina are the major countries within the region

China, India, and Japan are leading countries in Asia Pac while South Africa, UAE, and South Africa are the major countries in the MEA region

North America is the largest region, followed by Europe. USA is the largest country in North America, while Germany, France, UK are in Europe

Market Dynamics

Market Drivers

Increasing Demand of AR Devices in Healthcare

Growing Demand of AR Devices in Retail & E-Commerce

Increasing Application of AR in the Gaming Industry

Challenges

Augmented Reality Ecosystem

AR Hardware vs. Software

Mobile AR vs. Dedicated Hardware

Marker Based Reality vs. Marker Less Reality

Mixed Reality and Reconfigurable Workforce

AR Application Landscape

Regulatory Landscape

Competitive Landscape

Augmented and Mixed Reality Market Drivers and Opportunities

Consumer Awareness and Acceptance

Compelling Applications

Business-to-Business Apps and Services

Teleoperation and Tele-robotics

Conclusions and Recommendations

Advertisers and Media Companies

Artificial Intelligence Providers

Automotive Companies

Broadband Infrastructure Providers

Communication Service Providers

Computing Companies

Data Analytics Providers

Equipment Providers

IoT Suppliers and Service Providers

Semiconductor Companies

Smart City Systems Integrators

Social Media Companies

Software Developers

Company Analysis

For more information about this report visit https://www.researchandmarkets.com/r/wc65hg

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Global Augmented and Mixed Reality Market Report 2022-2027: Assessment of AR, MR, and Other Immersive Technology Components, the AR/MR Ecosystem, and...

New York, Feb. 14, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Global Consumer Virtual Reality Market 2022-2026" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p06229632/?utm_source=GNW 80% during the forecast period. Our report on the consumer virtual reality market provides a holistic analysis, market size and forecast, trends, growth drivers, and challenges, as well as vendor analysis covering around 25 vendors.The report offers an up-to-date analysis regarding the current global market scenario, latest trends and drivers, and the overall market environment. The market is driven by the increasing demand for VR technology and the growing adoption of a head-mounted display (HMD) in the gaming sector. In addition, increasing demand for VR technology is anticipated to boost the growth of the market as well.The consumer virtual reality market analysis includes the component segment and geographic landscape.

The consumer virtual reality market is segmented as below:By Component Hardware Software

By Geographical Landscape APAC North America Europe MEA South America

This study identifies the rising product launchesas one of the prime reasons driving the consumer virtual reality market growth during the next few years.

The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters. Our report on consumer virtual reality market covers the following areas: Consumer virtual reality market sizing Consumer virtual reality market forecast Consumer virtual reality market industry analysis

This robust vendor analysis is designed to help clients improve their market position, and in line with this, this report provides a detailed analysis of several leading consumer virtual reality market vendors that include Alphabet Inc., Bitmovin Inc., Firsthand Technology Inc., HTC Corp., Manus Machinae BV, Microsoft Corp., NVIDIA Corp., Sony Group Corp., Ultraleap Ltd., and Unity Technologies Inc. Also, the consumer virtual reality market analysis report includes information on upcoming trends and challenges that will influence market growth. This is to help companies strategize and leverage all forthcoming growth opportunities.The study was conducted using an objective combination of primary and secondary information including inputs from key participants in the industry. The report contains a comprehensive market and vendor landscape in addition to an analysis of the key vendors.

The analyst presents a detailed picture of the market by the way of study, synthesis, and summation of data from multiple sources by an analysis of key parameters such as profit, pricing, competition, and promotions. It presents various market facets by identifying the key industry influencers. The data presented is comprehensive, reliable, and a result of extensive research - both primary and secondary. Technavios market research reports provide a complete competitive landscape and an in-depth vendor selection methodology and analysis using qualitative and quantitative research to forecast the accurate market growth.Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p06229632/?utm_source=GNW

About ReportlinkerReportLinker is an award-winning market research solution. Reportlinker finds and organizes the latest industry data so you get all the market research you need - instantly, in one place.

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The Global Consumer Virtual Reality Market is expected to grow by $ 52.77 bn during 2022-2026, progressing at a CAGR of 60.80% during the forecast...