Category Archives: Virtual Reality

A New Zealand-first Augmented Reality (AR) sea monster exhibition, in Dunedin, and Virtual Reality (VR) psychedelic experiences created in Queenstown are surprising and fascinating examples of how AR and VR are leading a global, Covid-accelerated, technology transformation. Bruce Munro takes a real, augmented and virtual look.

Trey Ratcliff was excited to show his friend Sam Wave what he had been working on during lockdown.

"I had just had this rather intense psychedelic experience," Ratcliff, world-renowned travel photographer and immersive mindfulness exponent, says.

"I thought, wow, thats so beautiful. How can I try to recreate that using [computer] code?"

It was the fruit of that labour, birthed at his Queenstown home during the first lockdown of the Covid-19 global pandemic, that Ratcliff shared with Arrowtown-based indie musician, Wave (AKA Sam Mehrtens).

"It was great, but it needed music. I thought, custom music from a true craftsman like Sam would be perfect," Trey recalls.

Wave was equally enthusiastic. Machine Elf was born a collaboration producing visual and audio VR creations that have been viewed by more than 300,000 people seeking calmness or escapism.

It was also during the March, 2020 lockdown that Dunedin graphic artist Max Mollison used the enforced break to continue honing his AR skills. Now, amid growing global recognition, Mollison has brought those skills to bear on a new exhibition at Otago Museum, for which he was given a wide open brief.

"The initial brief was just Make something sea monster-related, but abstract, kind of chrome-effect," Craig Scott, head of the museums exhibitions and creative services, says.

"Go nuts and make something cool," adds museum marketing manager Kate Oktay.

"And he has."

The result is a cutting-edge exhibition, accessed through smart phones, that populates the gallery space with flying sea monsters and other aquatic augmentations.

VR is an artificial, 3-D, digital environment that people can immerse themselves in, often via VR goggles.

AR overlays the real world with digital objects or information, most often viewed on smart phones (although AR glasses are increasingly available).

Highlighting this technological sea change, the 2021 Technology Investment Network (Tin) report, released last month, revealed New Zealands top 200 revenue-earning, high-tech companies recorded $10.4 billion in export revenue despite the disruption of the pandemic. This was a 14.4% increase on the previous year. It means New Zealand technology companies are now the countrys second highest offshore revenue-earning sector.

In fact, that growth appears to be largely because of, not despite, Covid.

It is difficult for most Kiwis to think about what the world was like before the Covid pandemic, but the nations digital future is no longer a conversation about what the future may hold, because it is happening now, since Covid arrived, Pham said.

The VR and AR slice of this burgeoning tech pie is growing much more quickly than the whole.

A new report by global tech market research firm IDC, released in October, predicts the augmented and virtual reality market will grow eight-fold during the next five years.

This year the global VR and AR market is worth $6.56 billion. By the start of 2026, that is expected to be $53.48 billion.

It means AR and VR is the fastest growing category among emerging smart devices, including high-tech wearables and smart home devices.

Much of the growth in virtual and augmented reality is coming from the ever-more immersive online gaming world, of which Dunedin wants to become the hub for a high-flying New Zealand game development sector. The city is already home to the government-backed New Zealand Centre of Digital Excellence (Code). Last week, Code gave nine Dunedin game development studios grants totalling $1.19 million.

But AR and VR is not only about gamers using their phones to capture digital monsters hidden in the real world or wearing goggles to do battle in a zombie-infested wild west.

Sam Wave has been living in and around Queenstown for more than a decade, since completing studies in philosophy and marketing at the University of Otago. He turns his hand to film editing and other creative income-earners while pursuing his music-making passion. It is not easy in a Covid-altered world that can suddenly cancel shows and tours. But it has allowed him to produce his second album Oasis Ballerina and create accompanying digital content in partnership with Trey Ratcliff.

Ratcliff had already pioneered High Dynamic Range (HDR) photography and established the worlds top travel photography blog StuckInCustoms by the time he moved his family from Austin, Texas to Queenstown a couple of years before Wave moved there. His photographic artwork is owned by collectors including US actor Leonardo DiCaprio and New Zealand businessman Michael Hill. A recent foray into non-fungible tokens (NFTs) a digital collision of art and cryptocurrency has earned him an astonishing $6 million in just a few months.

Fractals are infinitely complex patterns that appear the same at different scales, such as snow flakes and trees branching. Abstract fractals can be created by instructing a computer to repeatedly calculate an equation, for which it produces a visual representation.

"Its a fun and somewhat esoteric practice," Ratcliff says.

The video fractals Ratcliff produces are then matched to music by Wave or other musicians; the music then interacting with the images, further changing colours and shapes.

"They are beautifully intertwined."

Dozens of Machine Elfs visual and audio art compositions have been uploaded to YouTube, where they have quickly gained a large and enthusiastic following. They have also been picked up by online wellness company Tripp.

The aim of the pieces is to offer escapism and visual mindfulness, Wave and Ratcliff say.

Feedback from viewers suggests the combination of visual and audio elements in an immersive VR environment helps people take a break from their over-active or anxious thoughts.

"Weve found that if you put people in these visual meditations, these visual fractals, especially with a Virtual Reality headset on, that it really relaxes the mind, almost like a forced meditation," Ratcliff says.

Max Mollison is back in Dunedin, adding an augmented layer of fantasy and facilitation to the city that gave him birth.

Raised in Dunedin, he studied fashion in Wellington after finishing his art-heavy secondary education at Kavanagh College. He then went to Orlando, Florida, to work as an intern at Walt Disney World Resort before more interning, this time for a fashion label in Sydney, Australia.

Mollison came in contact with Otago Museum in 2017, when he made a piece of clothing for a museum exhibition. He then worked for the museum for two years, mostly as a traditional media graphic artist.

He took time off last year, during which he honed AR software skills he had been developing for a couple of years.

"I really enjoyed using it as an extension of fashion design; an adornment, decoration, that people could try on and which a lot more people could access ... They could try this augmented reality look on themselves."

Mollison has an active presence on social media, showcasing the fashion, fonts and AR filters he creates. His more-than-130 posts on video-based social media platform TikTok have garnered him 13,700 followers and 166,700 likes.

Recently, pop star and trans icon Kim Petras, who attended this years MTV Video Music Awards with Paris Hilton, posted a TikTok to promote her new single using an AR filter made by Mollison.

Now back at Otago Museum, he has created Plunge a free attraction to complement the museums latest headline exhibition, Sea Monsters: Prehistoric Ocean Predators, which opened this month.

Visitors, when they enter the Plunge gallery space, scan QR codes enabling them to see a watery world populated with digital 3-D sea monsters, ancient and modern, with scales and flesh of chrome, glass and water, swimming around the transformed room or circling the heads of other patrons. Some QR codes reveal water orbs or grant the power to generate and throw AR bubbles.

A solely-AR exhibition created by a museums in-house design team is a New Zealand first, placing the province and its museum on the crest of the technology wave.

Mollison built the exhibition almost single-handedly using open source, 3-D, computer graphics software Blender and the Spark AR Studio software that works on Facebook and other Meta apps such as Instagram.

A technical difficulty was keeping the file size for each of the exhibitions 10 interactive elements within 4MB.

"Trying to get everything down into one small package is quite hard considering some of these things are quite elaborate," Mollison explains.

The museum is excited about the AR exhibition and its potential, Oktay says.

Museums worldwide are seeing declining numbers of youth and 20-somethings coming through their doors.

"What Max is doing really speaks to that generation and brings a whole fresh ... reason for them to come and engage with institutions and collections like this."

See the article here:

Other realities: The artists augmenting our world - Otago Daily Times

It became clear that things had gone terribly awry on this particular day when I saw that the most moderate option on the desk in front of me involved killing at least five million people.

I could kill up to 45 million if I chose the more comprehensive of the alternatives laid out on three pieces of paper, but it was hard to focus on the details because there were people shouting at me through my earpiece and from the screens in front of me.

I was experiencing what a US president would have to do in the event of a nuclear crisis: make a decision that would end many millions of lives and quite possibly life on the planet with incomplete information and in less than 15 minutes.

In the real world, I was in a meeting room in a Washington hotel, but with virtual reality goggles strapped on. I was sitting behind the presidents desk in the Oval Office. The television news was on and there was a report about Russian troop movements, but the volume was muted and someone was telling me the national security adviser was running late for our meeting.

I tried to shift my focus back to the news but a few seconds later a siren went off and a bald man in a uniform and dark glasses appeared from the door to my left.

Mr President, we have a national emergency, a womans voice said. Please follow the military officer right away.

The bald officer ushered me into a wood-paneled lift which had been concealed behind a wall, and we began our descent.

The VR simulation has been developed by a team from Princeton, American and Hamburg universities, based on extensive research, including interviews with former officials, into what would happen if the US was or believed itself to be under nuclear attack. They have called their project the Nuclear Biscuit, after the small card bearing the presidents launch authorization codes.

Over the past few days, it has been tried out in Washington by nuclear weapons experts and former officials (the researchers would not say whether any serving decision-makers had a go).

You walk into that simulation and come out a changed person, Richard Burt, who was the US chief negotiator in arms control negotiations with the Soviet Union, said after his turn.

Having gone through the full, terrifying, 15 minutes, I can see what he means. I emerged from the lift with my military aide into the underground situation room. Unlike the famous scene in Dr Strangelove, I was not surrounded by advisers. In the real world, it is unlikely that they would be instantly on hand when the alarm sounds.

On this occasion my national security adviser was still stuck in traffic, and the military aide is trained to say nothing. His job is to hold on to the briefcase, the nuclear football, containing the launch plans and biscuit. In the US system, the president has sole command authority. He or she can make the decision without asking for any advice.

As soon as I took a seat, a voice in my headset started to tell me the situation. Early warning sensors had detected the launch of 299 missiles in Russia which were thought, with high confidence, to be heading for the US mainland and most likely, the intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) silos in the north-west. An estimated 2 million Americans would be killed. While this was being explained, another voice this time a secret service officer was telling me helicopters were on the way to evacuate me.

I struggled to understand all the details because the siren was still going on. It took me a few minutes to remember I was the commander-in-chief and could order it to be turned off. It was silenced immediately but I could not be sure I had not missed a vital nuance.

A general from strategic command appeared on one of the screens in front of me and told me I did not have much time to make a decision and to keep an eye on the digital clock on the conference table. It said I had 12 minutes, 44 seconds left.

If you dont make a decision before the clock hits zero, we will lose our entire ICBM force, the general said, in a voice that implied I had already let the nation down.

The silent military aide opened the football and put my three options in front of me. The first was a limited counterforce strike, aimed at Russian ICBM silos and major submarine and bomber bases. That was the version that would kill five to 15 million Russians. Option 2 was a full-scale counterforce with a 10-25 million casualty estimate. Option 3 also targeted war sustaining industries, the Russian leadership and would kill 30-45 million.

In 1979, the world came within minutes of nuclear war because someone had left a training tape simulating a Russian attack in the early warning system monitors. In September 1983, Russian computers erroneously showed incoming US missiles. Armageddon was only averted because the duty officer, Lieutenant Colonel Stanislav Petrov, went against protocols and decided not to act on the alert because his gut told him it was a glitch.

In the decades since, the technology has been updated but it is theoretically possible early warning systems could be hacked just like other supposedly super-secure networks have in the past.

I asked my aides if a cyber attack was possible and was told it was impossible to know for sure. My national security adviser (who had by then overcome his problems with traffic) recalled there had been something in the daily brief about the early warning network repelling a cyber attack.

I decided to scrap all three options and ordered an attack on Russias remaining arsenal only after the first incoming missiles had landed and it was confirmed to be a real attack. In case I was dead by then, I was advised to delegate launch authority to the vice president.

What happens next was deliberately left unclear. The simulation ends with the military aide displaying the codes necessary to order the launch. The point of the exercise is to underline the mind-numbing impossibility of the choices facing the leader of a nuclear weapons state.

Moritz Ktt, senior researcher at the University of Hamburgs Institute for Peace Research and Security Policy, said the great majority of the participants in the experiment so far had selected one of the three options on the table.

Most people picked an escalatory option and only very few decided not to respond, Ktt said.

People felt they were making decisions under uncertainty, Sharon Weiner, associate professor at the School of International Service at American University, said. They wished they knew more or thought that something wasnt clear, but there was pressure to make a decision anyway.

I think some people pick an option just because they want to be over, she added.

The pressure to take one of the options presented by the Pentagon felt almost overwhelming. At one point an aide asked how I would be able to face my country if I failed to respond. The simulation raises the question of who chooses those options in the first place. In the 15 minutes available, it would be impossible to put all feasible alternatives in front of a president, so whoever whittles them down holds a huge amount of power. All we know is that it is someone from the US military. Diplomats, politicians or ethicists are not part of the process.

In the event of a nuclear alert, it would be too late for any broader reflection just a few minutes of trying to think clearly amid sirens, raised voices and a multitude of unknowns.

The tendency to take mental shortcuts is greater in high stakes situations, Weiner said. People take more risks in crises. Some of the literature says it depends on whether you feel secure personally or in your career. If you feel youre not doing well, you take unnecessary risks.

In my case, I froze in the last few minutes of the countdown, unable to think of anything else to do. I should have tried calling Vladimir Putin perhaps, but it turns out the simulation would have told me he was not available.

Shockingly, the researchers found no evidence that any US president except Jimmy Carter, had taken part in realistic drills to practise potentially world-ending decisions. Other presidents occasionally participated in table-top exercises with aides to discuss options but more often sent surrogates in their place.

In January, the research team will take their experiment to Capitol Hill, with the aim of provoking some contemplation about the realities underlying US nuclear planning.

Hopefully members of Congress will come to experience this and at least see the consequences of the choices theyve made about nuclear weapons issues, Weiner said. They will see everybody in that virtual room is trying to do their job, but its an impossible job.

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15 minutes to save the world: a terrifying VR journey into the nuclear bunker - The Guardian

SOUTH BEND All things gaming are being offered this weekend as the first-ever convention featuring the BendixEsports Arena and LAN center.

The gathering called Pwr Up South Bend involves appearances by gaming personalities and developers, merchants with "gadgets" for video game playing, virtual reality (VR) areas and retro and current cutting-edge gaming for both amateurs and pros.

This evolution of having an esports arena insideCentury Center for such a convention is whatboth Century Center leaders and the local founder of a gaming organization had expected having the ability to draw ingamingenthusiasts fromMichiana andbeyond.

Brian Exner, founder of Power Up GG, says his vision of the convention bringing game developers, players, enthusiasts and merchants together was augmented by the creation of the Century Center gaming facilities.

Exner, who took up video gaming after college and participated in online competition in such games as Rocket League, said it was the tournaments where the people gathered where he said he enjoyed the camaraderie. He said he had vowed to try and bring that feeling to gaming in South Bend with this convention.

"This is a gathering to celebrate the Bendix Arena, but video gaming is so much more than just esports," Exner said. "You build relationships, you learn ways to solve problems, and it also has shown to improve cognitive ability," Exner said prior to the start of the gathering. "My hope for this (convention) is that it shines a light on this community."

Related: South Bend rewired: Bendix Esports Arena draws tournaments and picks up Xfinity as sponsor

For Katrinna Simbaku and Jeriah Richardson, taking part in a South Bend-based gaming convention was enticing.

Both came to the Century Center Friday night from Berrien Springs. They have attended gaming conventions in Atlanta, Grand Rapids and other places, but both said they were happy to hear about one in South Bend and were taking part Friday night in the LAN center.

Just acouple of years after it was first conceived, the new esports arena and LAN center insideCentury Centeris showing its ability to draw ingamingenthusiasts from Michiana andbeyond.

Already serving as the home of esports teams from Bethel University and South Bend Lions FC, the formerBendix Theateralready has hosted several esports tournaments, including one that drew16teams from12differentcolleges anduniversitiesin the Midwesta couple of weeks ago.

The Century Center board's decision to invest $1.5 million into the Bendix Esports Arena "has exceeded expectations," according to Jeff Jarnecke,Century Center'sexecutive director of the citys venues.

Jarnecke said the re-imagining of the Bendix Theater space foresports tourism is only enhanced with such a convention where people come to South Bend for more than just playing the sport.

For example, the Friday night developers' showcase highlighted people designing and creating video games.

Alan Gabbard and Joseph Duke spoke about their creation and development of "Shrine's Legacy," a Super-Nintendo-style action-adventure role-playing game for Windows PC they created and received funding earlier this year through Kickstarter.

Both game designers spoke of the dialogue, planning, graphics and storylines they have worked on, yet both are intent on finishing the game that currently has a demo version for people to try.

"This is just us, trying to make this overly ambitious project," Gabbard said.

Speaking at the duo's first convention about the game, Duke encouraged others to explore video game development. "Do make games," he told the audience. "It's fun and worth it. And it's cool."

The weekend conference continues at noon Sunday at Century Center with a variety of activities. Several well-known speakers will discuss how to make mods and will talk on the history of virtual reality.

Also featured is an invitation-only Super Smash Bros. Ultimate tournament and open game play in a retro area, VR and in the LAN center.

For information on registration and the convention, go tohttps://pwrupsb.com.

Email South Bend Tribunereporter Greg Swiercz at gswiercz@gannett.com.

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Gamers descend on South Bend for inaugural convention at Century Center - South Bend Tribune

Meta founder and Chief Executive Officer Mark Zuckerberg on Wednesday announced the expansion of his companys collaboration with the Central Board of Secondary Education (CBSE) in India, under which it will train 10 lakh teachers and more than a crore students in virtual and augmented reality over the next three years.

Meta will provide a curriculum on digital safety and online well-being, virtual reality (VR), and augmented reality (AR) as part of this partnership. These courses will be available online on CBSEs website.

Speaking at the Fuel for India 2021 event, Zuckerberg said that partnership with CBSE was an opportunity to invest in the entrepreneurial spirit and bring some of these tools around the metaverse and training to the education system in the country.

We are investing in other growing areas like education and commerce through Unacademy and Meesho, which are important use cases as we think about the future that we are building. We want to continue to partner in all of these areas as we accelerate the development of the fundamental technologies, the social platforms, and creative tools that are going to be necessary to bring the metaverse to life, Zuckerberg said.

The event was also attended by minister of state (MoS) for Electronics and Information Technology Rajeev Chandrasekhar, Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, its India managing director Ajit Mohan, Marne Levine, the Chief Business Officer at Meta, and Akash and Isha Ambani, Directors of Jio Platforms, among others.

In a fireside chat with Mohan, Chandrasekhar said that the government wants to ensure that the internet remained open, safe, and trusted.

We would like the internet to be a force of good and to deliver access, equity and opportunity. But we would also be very careful about ensuring that the internet remains free and open in terms of competitive pressures..it is not dominated by some big corporate, the minister said.

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Meta, CBSE expand partnership to train 10 million students in virtual, augmented reality - The Indian Express

This article was originally published here

Medicine (Baltimore). 2021 Dec 17;100(50):e27844. doi: 10.1097/MD.0000000000027844.

ABSTRACT

INTRODUCTION: Due to the current COVID-19 pandemic, surgical training has become increasingly challenging due to required social distancing. Therefore, the use of virtual reality (VR)-simulation could be a helpful tool for imparting surgical skills, especially in minimally invasive environments. Visual spatial ability (VSA) might influence the learning curve for laparoscopic surgical skills. However, little is known about the influence of VSA for surgical novices on VR-simulator training regarding the complexity of different tasks over a long-term training period. Our study evaluated prior VSA and VSA development in surgical trainees during VR-simulator training, and its influence on surgical performance in simulator training.

METHODS: In our single-center prospective two-arm randomized trial, VSA was measured with a tube figure test before curriculum training. After 1:1 randomization, the training group (TG) participated in the entire curriculum training consisting of 48 different VR-simulator tasks with varying difficulty over a continuous nine-day training session. The control group (CG) performed two of these tasks on day 1 and 9. Correlation and regression analyses were used to assess the influence of VSA on VR-related surgical skills and to measure procedural abilities.

RESULTS: Sixty students (33 women) were included. Significant improvements in the TG in surgical performance and faster completion times were observed from days 1 to 9 for the scope orientation 30 right-handed (SOR), and cholecystectomy dissection tasks after the structured 9-day training program. After training, the TG with pre-existing low VSA scores achieved performance levels similar to those with pre-existing high VSA scores for the two VR simulator tasks. Significant correlations between VSA and surgical performance on complex laparoscopic camera navigation SOR tasks were found before training.

CONCLUSIONS: Our study revealed that that all trainees improved their surgical skills irrespective of previous VSA during structured VR simulator training. An increase in VSA resulted in improvements in surgical performance and training progress, which was more distinct in complex simulator tasks. Further, we demonstrated a positive relationship between VSA and surgical performance of the TG, especially at the beginning of training. Our results identified pre-existing levels of VSA as a predictor of surgical performance.

PMID:34918632 | DOI:10.1097/MD.0000000000027844

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The role of virtual reality simulation in surgical training in the light of COVID-19 pandemic: Visual spatial ability as a predictor for improved...

The Facebook/Meta transformation has us all scrambling to understand the "metaverse," and how it might include/involve/affect vehicles. Well, this WayRay Holograktor concept car is pitched as the first car designed for the metaverse; more specifically, to allow occupants to experience the metaverse in motion without wearing clumsy goggles. Behold the augmented reality car, its interior reimagined as a giant Oculus headset. And lest you fret about distraction, everybody onboard can be a passenger, thanks to another novel concept: 5G remote driving.

The Augmented-Reality CarGreenhouse as VR Headset

The key party trick Swiss supplier WayRay is presenting here is its Deep Reality Display technology. Think of it as a head-up display on mega-steroids. DRD is comprised of four main elements: There's a compact laser unit capable of sending red, green, and blue light beams into a picture-generating unit (PGU) that incorporates a new type of optical transmitting system capable of projecting an image four times the size of today's biggest HUD images25 degrees wide by 8 degrees high, as measured from the viewer's eye.

Together, these components consume just 3 liters of spacedown from the 20 liters required by those biggest, brightest HUDs. When this laser light hits a special diffractive Holographic Optical Elementa photopolymer layer laminated into the windshield and side glassa holographic image is selectively reflected into the viewer's eyes. And unlike with systems that rely on reflecting a fraction of the generated light back to the viewer's eyes, these holographic images are not constrained to a fixed distance in front of the viewer. They can appear at any distance, they're not washed out by sunlight, and they appear much brighter (its luminance measures 12,000 candelas per square meter). The laminated material covers the entire glass, so the images can be projected anywhere, and the scrap rate in manufacturing is expected to be considerably less than with wedge films.

The fourth element is WayRay's AR Rendering Engine, which processes data from sensors, cameras, and map info to precisely overlay the holographic imagery onto and around the actual scenery that's visible out the windows.

Four laser/PGU units are required to render a 180-degree field of viewtwo fit in the dash and two for the side windows are located in the ceiling (this explains the appendage on the roof, which WayRay calls "the Shrimp"). The rendering engine continuously adjusts brightness to suit ambient light conditions. Power consumption is less than 50 watts. And while this 180-degree view system would obviously cost way more than a typical HUD, the price of a smaller display covering only the driver's field of view is expected to fall to near parity with today's systems.

5G Remote Driving Leverages Autonomy Sensor Suite

One of WayRay's big ideas is to pitch the Holograktor as a ride-hailing vehicle in which rides are subsidized by holographic advertising pitched at the passengers. This could be done to some extent with a live driver in the left front seat, but the experience could be more immersive (distracting) and "meta" if nobody onboard had to worry about driving. The idea here is to leverage the full suite of autonomy sensors and send that data to a remote driver via a robust, low latency 5G or satellite internet communications link. Such a driver would likely be sitting in a gaming-style cockpit (perhaps anywhere in the world) with 180-degree screens depicting the Holograktor's immediate surroundings. The car would largely drive itself, but with the remote driver constantly monitoring conditions and always ready to make a judgment call in one of those "edge cases" that are proving so difficult to program computers to handle.

The Four-Door Three-Seat Hatchback

The WayRay Holograktor's interior and exterior design were penned by Sasha Selipanov, whose design credits include work on the Lamborghini Huracn, the Genesis Essentia concept, the Bugatti Chiron, and the Koenigsegg Gemera. For this project, Selipanov and WayRay founder Vitaly Ponomarev aimed for "Russian constructivism form language," with triangular forms evocative of prisms. "It is a light-ray aesthetic that comes with the triangularity and the prism-like effect, which is just perfectly appropriate for a car built to highlight holography," adds Selipanov.

While the general hatchback shape is vaguely reminiscent of a Hyundai Ioniq 5, its proportions are unique. It's the length of a Mercedes-Benz GLA-Class SUV, but it's as wide as a Chrysler Pacifica minivan. This allows the front seats to be separated by almost 20 inches to afford the central rear "throne" occupant an unobstructed view of the virtual metaverse being holographically rendered out the windshield.

Note that the front doors open up and forward, butterfly style, while the rear-hinged rear doors open back and down, taking part of the roof with them to make it easier to walk in to that central rear seat. Another reason for the single rear seat is data suggesting 80 percent of Uber rides carry one person only.

Few mechanical details of the Holograktor have been shared, except that a single electric motor will propel it from 0 to 62 mph in 3.9 seconds, and its battery will provide 375 miles of range. There are no firm numbers yet for power, torque, or battery capacity.

What's Next for Holograktor?

Having made its debut at the IAA auto show in Munich in September, WayRay is now using the Holograktor concept to showcase its Deep Reality Display technology to prospective automakers, but founder Ponomarev notes that the car has been engineered and designed to be production feasible. We're not holding our breath for that happening, but we wouldn't be surprised to find virtual Holograktors for sale in the metaverse. Start saving your Bitcoin and Ethereum.

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WayRay Holograktor Concept First Look: Augmented Reality Car for the Metaverse - Motor Trend

Facebook on Thursday announced that it is opening up Horizon World, its virtual reality world of avatars, to anyone 18 and older in the U.S. and Canada.

Courtesy of Meta

Facebook on Thursday announced that it is opening up Horizon Worlds, its virtual reality world of avatars, to anyone 18 and older in the U.S. and Canada.

Horizon Worlds launched in beta last year to select Oculus VR users, who answered invitations to join the virtual world. With the announcement on Thursday, users will no longer need to be invited.

The broader launch of Horizon Worlds is an important step for Facebook, which officially changed its name to Meta in October. The company adopted the new moniker, based on the sci-fi term metaverse, to describe its vision for working and playing in a virtual world.

In Horizon Worlds, users of Facebook's Oculus virtual reality headsets can create a legless avatar to wander in the animated virtual world. There, they can play games and interact with other users' avatars.

Facebook acquired Oculus for $2 billion in 2014, and has since struggled to get market traction beyond a niche audience. But the company has made building technologies, products and services for the metaverse a central focus.

In July, Facebook, run by CEO Mark Zuckerberg,announcedthe formation of a team that would work on the metaverse. Two months later, Andrew "Boz" Bosworth, who is currently head of the hardware division, was elevated to therole of chief technology officer, starting in 2022. And in itsthird-quarter earnings results in October, the company announced it will break out the Reality Labs hardware division into its own reporting segment in the fourth quarter.

Also in October, Facebook said it will spend about $10 billion over the next year developing technologies to build the metaverse.

"Our hope is that within the next decade, the metaverse will reach a billion people, host hundreds of billions of dollars of digital commerce, and support jobs for millions of creators and developers," Zuckerberg wrote in October.

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Facebook takes a step toward building the metaverse, opens virtual world app to everyone in U.S. - CNBC

Pune, India, Dec. 10, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- The global virtual reality market size is expected to reach USD 84.09 billion by 2028, exhibiting a CAGR of 44.8% during the forecast period. The technological innovations in 5G technology and adoption of immersive technologies can have a tremendous impact on the market growth in the forthcoming years, states Fortune Business Insights, Virtual Reality (VR) Market, 2021-2028. The market size stood at USD 4.42 billion in 2020.

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Key Companies Operating in the Virtual Reality Market:

Report Scope & Segmentation

COVID-19 Impact:

Businesses such as automotive, manufacturing, aerospace and defense, education, and others are using technology to meet business needs during the global pandemic. The virtual simulators assist in the design and planning of the product from a distance. VR is gaining popularity in the education sector as a result of the epidemic. Virtual technology is being used by people all over the world to better their health and well-being, entertainment, live events, virtual conferences, and meetings, especially during the pandemic. For example, in April 2020, rapper Travis Scott joined the virtual reality platform and received over 12 million views on his Fortnite video game.

Click here to get the short-term and long-term impact of COVID-19 on this Market.

Please visit: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/industry-reports/virtual-reality-market-101378

Market Segments:

Based on components, the market is classified into hardware, software, and content. The hardware segment is expected to dominate the global market share during the forecast period. Based on device type, the market is divided into Head-Mounted Display (HMD), VR simulator, VR glasses, treadmills & haptic gloves, and others.

Based on industries, the market is segmented into gaming, entertainment, automotive, retail, healthcare, education, aerospace & defense, manufacturing, and others.

Geographically, the market is classified into five major regions: North America, Europe, Asia Pacific, the Middle East & Africa, and Latin America.

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What does the Report Include?The market report includes a detailed assessment of various growth drivers and restraints, opportunities, and challenges that the market will face during the projected horizon. Additionally, the report provides comprehensive research into the regional developments of the market, affecting its growth during the forecast period. It includes information sourced from the advice of expert professionals from the industry by our research analysts using several methodologies. The competitive landscape offers further detailed insights into strategies such as product launches, partnerships, mergers and acquisitions, and collaborations adopted by the companies to maintain the market stronghold between 2021 and 2028.

Driving Factor:

Rising Application of VR in Automotive Industry to Boost Market

Virtual training solutions are being heavily invested in by industries such as automotive, education, healthcare, aerospace & military, and others. For example, the virtual training module in the automobile sector provides workstation training for new joiners to minimize accidents. According to a 2015 Ford analysis, virtual training sessions decreased employee injuries and accidents by 70 percent. Moreover, virtual training solutions are being used across the healthcare business. Healthcare practitioners might benefit from training to improve their operation precision and eliminate errors. These factors together will create lucrative business opportunities for the market.

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Regional Insights:

Rising Investments Mixed Reality Training Sessions to Propel Market in North America

The VR market share is likely to be dominated by North America. The region's market expansion is being fueled by the presence of major players in the country. Various start-ups are also making inroads into the US market, offering industry-specific solutions. For example, Sixense Enterprises Inc., a California-based small business, unveiled a virtual reality-based physical rehabilitation system in October 2020. The United States government is also investing in virtual technology, which is expected to enhance the sector. The US government and army, for example, have committed $11 billion in virtual, augmented, and mixed reality training sessions for government workers. Europe is expected to experience a rapid growth rate during the forecast period. The growth is attributed to the rising adoption of virtual solutions in the automotive industry.

Competitive Landscape:

Key Players Focus on Advanced Virtual Solutions to Consolidate PositionHTC Corporation, Oculus VR, Sony Corporation, and Lenovo Group are all heavily investing in developing innovative head-mounted devices. To grow their consumer base, the players are making smart acquisitions and collaborations. In addition, prominent firms are providing industry-specific materials and tools to broaden their commercial horizons. For instance, in March 2021, a Taiwanese consumer electronics company headquartered in Xindian District, New Taipei City, Taiwan, announced the release of VIVE Facial Tracker and VIVE Tracker (3.0) to improve their virtual reality ecosystem with advanced innovation.

Key Development:

May 2020: Apple Inc. acquired NextVR, a VR startup. The NestVR has extended its expertise in recording live events through virtual reality headsets.

Major Table of Contents:

TOC Continued!

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Read Press Release: https://www.fortunebusinessinsights.com/press-release/virtual-reality-market-9265

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Virtual Reality (VR) Market to Exhibit a CAGR of 44.8% by 2028 - GlobeNewswire

On top of The Matrix Resurrections bringing the sci-fi series back to life later this month, Epic Games, the makers of Fortnite, released The Matrix Awakens video game experience, which uses the new Unreal 5 Engine to blur the lines of reality and digital simulation, just like the movies. While promoting The Matrix Awakens, Keanu Reeves and Carrie-Anne Moss sat down with The Verge and, during that sitdown, Reeves proceeded to reveal that hes put a lot of thought into the idea of virtual reality sex. Like a lot.

The topic came up after Reeves was informed that gamers were modding Cyberpunk 2077 so that they could have sex with Reeves character, which The Matrix star was very into. Unfortunately, he was also informed that CD ProjektRed banned the sex mod, which bummed Keanu out. But not too much, because he soon launched into his thoughts on how virtual reality and the metaverse could allow people to have sex with celebrities. Via Kotaku:

So you could not even have to be there and people could have digital sex with your digital avatarwhats it called right now, For Members Only? You could do a whole thing, explained Reeves, gushing in a way that makes it seem like hes been thinking about this for some time. Oh my god then you get the suit thats probably made in Sweden or some German thing, oh my god then youve got the VR thing. Then theyve got the data on you with your like, arousal metrics

For the record, that was Keanu Reeves revealing hes spent a lot of time pondering arousal metrics. However, at the end of the day, Reeves says VR will never match actual sex. You hold that real thing and youre like, oh man Im so glad we have reality, Reeves said, concluding his seminar on virtual boning.

(Via The Verge, Kotaku)

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Keanu Reeves Has A Lot Of Thoughts About Virtual Reality Sex - UPROXX

08 December 2021

GE Hitachi Nuclear Energy (GEH) is using immersive virtual reality to help nuclear power plant operators train personnel for outage, operations and maintenance work ahead of the spring 2022 outage season. The Nuclear Virtual Reality Solution (VRS) at the company's Wilmington, North Carolina, headquarters is also being used to provide plant-specific technical training.

The solution helps plant personnel train for operational scenarios encountered during maintenance and refuelling outages including vessel disassembly and reassembly, fuel movement and inspections, the company said.

"The Nuclear Virtual Reality Solution is a powerful tool for collaboration and advanced plant outage training," said John Mackleer, GEH senior vice president, Field Services. Virtual reality immersive rooms enable personnel to gain realistic, practical experience including training for scenarios that cannot be recreated in physical mock-ups or during plant power run cycles, he added.

The Nuclear VRS can replicate the layout of different plants, including boiling water reactors and pressurised water reactors, and fuel movement technologies. The technology also provides an immersive and interactive look at GEH's BWRX-300 small modular reactor, which has recently been chosen by Ontario Power Generation for deployment at its Darlington site in Canada.

"GEH is working to deploy a VR immersive room at its Canadian SMR headquarters in Ontario to enable stakeholders and others to see this technology up close through walkable simulations of plant design including the refuel floor and drywell," the company said.

Researched and written by World Nuclear News

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Virtual reality used to train nuclear staff : Corporate - World Nuclear News