Category Archives: Virtual Reality

KODA AUTOs Technical Development department opened a new centre for the manufacture of test vehicles and prototypes at its Mlad Boleslav site. The new facility means that these special vehicles can now be built completely under one roof. The carmaker uses state-of-the-art technologies, such as robot stations and virtual reality solutions, through the entire production process.

Johannes Neft, new KODA AUTO Board Member for Technical Development since 1 January, said: The use of test cars allows us to draw conclusions about numerous technical parameters at an early stage of development and make the necessary adjustments long before serial production of a new model commences. We are now taking the next step. In future, we will build 300 test vehicles and 120 prototypes per year with maximum efficiency under one roof in our new, state-of-the-art facility at the Mlad Boleslav site. We have created the ideal conditions here to develop vehicles at the highest level and that will shape the future of our brand.

In order to monitor not only individual components but also the vehicle as a whole, classic tests remain essential, despite digital simulations and models gaining more importance in the testing phase. Due to the increasingly complex and powerful electronic architecture of modern vehicles, the focus is on functional tests of electrics, electronics and assistance systems, as well as on communication between in-car computers. KODA produced some of the test vehicles for the all-electric ENYAQ iV at the new facility.

David Vank, Head of Model and Prototype Manufacture, added: Our new facility has three floors and houses the parts warehouse, body shop, final assembly and paint shop, all within the smallest of footprints ensuring short distances. At the same time, the facilitys high degree of automation allows for more agile processes and a significant increase in production capacity for test vehicles and prototypes. Furthermore, the building features state-of-the-art virtual reality technologies as well as 168 workplaces in open-space offices and 13 meeting rooms. A large part of the complex 14,000 m is used for vehicle manufacture.

The ground floor accommodates the parts warehouse including a covered yard for unloading trucks. The car bodies are built on the second floor, while the third floor contains the final assembly and the paint shop. A freight elevator is used to transport the material between floors.

Thanks to two robot stations, the proportion of automation in the body shop has increased from 15 to 45 per cent. This doubles production capacity to ten car bodies per week while requiring 20 per cent less space. Furthermore, weight-saving designs can also be manufactured here, as KODA AUTO has expanded its body shop to include an innovation centre for testing joining techniques, such as clinching, riveting, flow drill screw (FDS) fastening, laser welding and composite construction.

Virtual reality technologies allow workstations to be preconfigured and customised, and state-of-the-art IT systems are used in logistics. Quality control will be integrated into the production process and run parallel to the respective manufacturing steps. The new facility also includes an up to 300 km/h rolling road for this purpose.

The new model and prototype production facility is also very advanced from an ecological point of view. The short distances save approximately 1,800 l of fuel per year, therefore enabling a decrease in CO2 emissions of roughly five tonnes. The entire warehousing now being incorporated into vehicle manufacture results in further savings, reducing logistics costs by more than 150,000 euros annually.

SOURCE:KODA

Here is the original post:

KODA AUTO opens new centre in Mlad Boleslav to build test vehicles and prototypes - Automotive World

Lenovo has upped the ante in the innovation game and at the CES 2021 this week, the tech giant launched the ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses, enterprise-grade augmented reality glasses that could herald the start of a new desktop revolution.

These smart glasses constitute the first iteration of the enterprise-grade head-mounted displays for PCs. Analysts say such HMDs could revolutionize the next-generation of mobile PCs in the same way that flat panels revolutionized the traditional PCs.

A lot of the leading tech players are already putting their smart money in augmented reality, particularly for enterprise applications and Lenovo is not to be left behind.

The ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses are set to arrive at some point in the middle of this year. There is no information on the pricing yet, which is expected for a device targeting the enterprise market.

The ThinkReality A3 has a 1080p resolution and is powered by Qualcomms Snapdragon XR1 chip. It also features a pair of fish-eye cameras for tracking as well as an eight-megapixel camera that captures video for remote use.

The ThinkReality A3 Smart Glass will be tethered to a PC or to a few Motorola phones via USB-C. Motorola is a Lenovo subsidiary.

The new Lenovo smart glasses have been announced on the back of the announcement of the ThinkReality A6 head-mounted display with their more traditional form factor for AR HMDs.

According to Lenovo, the ThinkReality A3 could be put into various enterprise usage scenarios including in laboratories, factory floors, in hospitality as well as in busy retail spaces. It could also be put to use in certified turnkey applications on Lenovos Think Reality platform to power remote assistance, guide workflows as well as 3D visualization. The ThinkReality A3 will enable industrial workers to have lighter, flexible and scalable smart glasses that could boost productivity and safety while cutting down on the error rates in their daily tasks.

The future of Augmented Reality is in the enterprise sphere and Lenovo has clearly gotten the memo. Lenovo has previously dabbled in AR in the consumer space with its Star Wars Jedi Challenge headset but it seems it has now pivoted strongly towards the enterprise space.

The rest is here:

Lenovo Releases ThinkReality A3 Smart Glasses for the Enterprise Market - Virtual Reality Times

After a fulfilling and action-focused ending to the second season of The Mandalorain, fans of the Star Wars brand are no doubt hungry for other experiences within the space opera universe. Few offer as thrilling a pitch as Star Wars: Tales From the Galaxys Edge.

The game stands as a showcase for the latest in virtual reality, one that has us engaging in blaster fire with pirates, seeing familiar faces and peering deeper into the mystery of the franchises Force-like powers. So yes, there are films to rewatch, games to play and plenty of books and comics to discover, but only one can drop us into a virtual Star Wars landscape to engage in game-inspired immersive theater, albeit of the digital sort.

But there might be some fine print.

One needs access to an Oculus virtual reality headset (the Oculus Quest 2 was just released) And unlike previous Star Wars VR experiences from Lucasfilms experimental ILMxLab, Tales From the Galaxys Edge does little hand-holding. Expect in short order to juggle blasters, droid-fixing tools and then droids.

But if you take the time to acclimate yourself to the Star Wars universe, you will be enveloped in a world thats equal parts danger and wonder (I died quite a bit).

I find Tales From the Galaxys Edge compelling, not just because its an extension of Star Wars storytelling. Though not its publicly stated goal, the game to me is a welcome expansion of Disneys theme park worlds, namely its 14-acre Galaxys Edge lands that opened at Disneyland and Floridas Walt Disney World in 2019.

Tales From the Galaxys Edge lays the groundwork for a future where physical, public spaces are more overtly connected with our own virtual ones, a long-standing concept that has been moving at an accelerated pace during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Obviously, were playing a lot with virtual reality right now, mixed reality and location-based experiences. I think its all going to merge, says Jose Perez III, director of Tales From the Galaxys Edge.

While stressing that hes not talking about a potential Star Wars project, Perez imagines a future where a persona we craft for playing in a virtual space a game and a physical space a theme park becomes one and the same.

Youre going to start to find that youre going to have an avatar that means something in the virtual world that might mean something in the physical world, he says. The way that extends when I imagine something like going to the parks in the future having, when theyre ready, augmented reality glasses and seeing ships fly around and seeing porgs. Maybe well catch some of them and bring them home.

That isnt going to be an immediate post-pandemic reality, but such a world is closer than we may think. Theme parks were already heading in this direction before COVID-19. In the case of Star Wars alone, Disney is close to completing in Florida the Galactic Starcruiser, a two-night experience that will transform a hotel stay into a full, 24-7 Star Wars live action game.

The Millennium Falcon sits at the heart of the in-real-life Galaxys Edge at Disneyland.

(Allen J. Schaben / Los Angeles Times)

Disneys chief technology officer, Tilak Mandadi, spoke of such a future recently at a themed entertainment conference, where he talked up the idea of a theme park metaverse. While the word metaverse can lend itself to vague technological predictions, Mandadi envisions a future where physical and digital worlds converge, as he described in an article on LinkedIn.

Applications could vary, of course. Some may focus on the ability of guests to continue engaging with the parks via the devices in their homes (an app on a smartphone, for instance). Others will look to accessible, familiar technology such as easier-to-use augmented reality glasses to forge a deeper connection with whats in the parks. We increasingly seem to be heading toward an overlap.

Mandadi didnt give too much away in a recorded presentation as part of this years virtual expo from the International Assn. of Amusement Parks and Attractions. He did, however, tease a potential use of what appeared to be an augmented reality headset at Walt Disney Worlds Animal Kingdom park, an experience Mandadi said is being tested. It would provide closer looks at the parks wildlife, as well as the potential to offer additional insights into what the park has to offer via digital overlays. Its also easy to imagine such animal-focused educational efforts having an appeal to those who have visited the park.

More overtly playful was a preview teased by game design legend Shigeru Miyamoto of the Super Nintendo World land that is coming to Universal Studios Japan in early 2021 (a version is also coming to Universal Hollywood, but no timetable has been given). From what Universal and Nintendo have shown, Super Nintendo World wants to feel like a walk-in arcade re-imagined as an all-encompassing Super Mario Bros. environment, where interactions and games are embedded into all aspects of the design, from the attractions to walkways to a restaurant.

The way we play in Super Nintendo World will be via smartphone and a wristband that Universal will sell. Miyamoto noted that those bands will work in a similar fashion as Nintendos plastic Amiibo toys-to-life figurines, which are connected wirelessly to consoles, implying that some game-like activities will extend from the theme park to our Nintendo devices. One can even consider Nintendos Mario Kart Live: Home Circuit a theme park accessory, as it brought an augmented-reality version of the popular racing game to our homes before the Mario Kart"-themed ride in Super Nintendo World opened.

Even Meow Wolf, the Santa Fe, N.M.-born art collective whose communal, exploratory spaces take influence from the theme park world, has spoken of a near-future where an app will turn its physical exhibition spaces, as well as our homes, into a giant alternate reality story that continually feeds the Meow Wolf universe. A company rep spoke earlier this year of a post-pandemic future where its app could connect pop-up art exhibits, spontaneous underground parties, fashion shows and secret dinners, among other one-offs, to the tales embedded in the companys physical locations.

These are different from the souvenirs of yore, but it is an evolution of them, as well as a more sophisticated understanding of why we feel connected to physical spaces. Theme parks, like any vacation from daily life, offer the ability to explore an experience such as Tales From the Galaxys Edge plays into that.

C-3PO is among the familiar characters well see in Tales From the Galaxys Edge.

(ILMxLab / Disney / Oculus)

Although a trip to Galaxys Edge isnt required for enjoying the VR work, the experience will certainly be enhanced by it. I know the folks at ILMxLab will likely disagree when I say this, but Im not sure that Tales From the Galaxys Edge can be fully appreciated unless youve been to Galaxys Edge. For me, it was part game, part memento and part extension of a lived experience.

When inside Galaxys Edge at Disneyland, we look up at the petrified trees that make up the lands spires and wonder whats beyond them or above them sure, Toontown, Tom Sawyer Island, offices or a parking garage, if you want to play the role of a skeptic. The design of Disneylands Galaxys Edge, however, should weaken that cynic view, as its a full-scale platform designed to feel like a lived-in place.

Thus, the parts of Tales From the Galaxys Edge that worked best for me were those that allowed me to see beyond what we see in the park, whether its a look into the past of the planet or the forests that the park can only hint at. These were the moments that drove home the idea that Disneylands Galaxys Edge is home to a number of stories yet to unfold. Standing atop a cliff and looking down at Black Spire Outpost made me feel that the place I had visited was real in the same way, say, that Seattle is real.

Think of how we experience a kick of recognition when we play a game or see a movie set in a locale weve visited. Our brains know the difference between Chicago and the Chicago of The Dark Knight, but theres a more complex psychological equation at work when were playing in a pure fantasy space. Inside the Oculus Quest 2, I felt akin to a tourist, only I was seeing a part of Galaxys Edge previously off-limits. Everything was new to me. All I wanted was to wander around and linger. It was certainly the best Disney theme park experience Ive had in the last nine months of 2020.

Unknown still is what a post-vaccine world will look like. But I like to think that this year, weve gained a deeper appreciation for the places we miss and a broader understanding that the ability to connect with them at home is powerful. Its also important to note that all the projects referenced here, including Tales From the Galaxys Edge, were in development long before the pandemic arrived.

These fantasy worlds are not a replacement for the real one. But pre-pandemic, mid-pandemic or post-pandemic, the entertainment that asks us to rethink the places weve been to and how we play when we visit them serves as a reminder to look for the extraordinary in the everyday.

More here:

'Star Wars' VR game gets us closer to theme park 'metaverse' - Los Angeles Times

Virtual reality (VR) is a representation of an artificial environment using cameras, sensors, and software. This technology has been gaining significant traction in recent times driven by its affordability and wide-scale availability.

Technology players such as Facebooks FB Oculus, HTC, Sony SNE, Apple AAPL, Unity Software U and Lenovo are making every effort to rapidly penetrate into the growing VR market, which makes them attractive for investors.

Per an IDC report, global spending on AR/VR is expected to grow from over $12 billion in 2020 to $72.8 billion in 2024. Moreover, global spending on AR/VR products and services is expected to witness a CAGR of 54% for the 2020-2024 time-frame.

Moreover, the number of VR/AR devices shipped worldwide is expected to increase to 68.6 million units in 2023. Moreover, AR and VR headsets are projected to have massive sales of over 30 million units annually by the end of 2023 per a Statista report.

Markedly, 52.1 million people in the United States are expected to use VR technology at least once per month in 2020, per an eMarketer report. Faster and more advanced cellular networks, including 5G, are poised to improve VR experiences and create a larger potential market for cloud-based streaming applications.

VR headset manufacturers like HTCs Vive and Vive Pro, Microsofts MSFT Windows Mixed Reality and Sonys PlayStation VR provide competitive pricing and features, which is expected to intensify competition.

VR gaming and VR video make up the largest consumer use cases for VR technology, with $20.8 billion expected to be spent in 2023 on these areas alone.

VR games can be played on standalone systems that can power the virtual reality headsets. Advanced immersive experience and availability of multiple gaming content have fueled the adoption of VR in the gaming industry.

Facebook is investing heavily to develop VR content ecosystem. In September, Facebook rebranded its AR and VR efforts as Facebook Reality Labs. Facebook said it will be spending over $3 billion in the next 10 years on VR.

Launch of VR headset, Rift and Oculus Quest, its first all-in-one headset with no wires and full freedom of movement are a step forward in that direction. On Oct 13, Facebook released Oculus Quest 2, its next-generation VR device, starting at $299, which is expected to boost revenues in the near term.

Additionally, acquisitions have played an important role in deciding this Zacks Rank #3 (Hold) companys growth trajectory in the VR gaming space. After acquiring Beat Games (developer of popular VR rhythm game Beat Saber) last year, it bought VR studio Sanzaru Games, developer of Asgards Wrath, followed by the buyout of Ready at Dawn Studios, developer of Lone Echo games.

Moreover, Facebook Horizon is expected to pose competition for Microsofts Minecraft and Second Life.

Meanwhile, Sony is a market leader in VR thanks to the integration of its headset with the Sony PlayStation gaming platform, making it a smooth transition from traditional controller-based gameplay to VR. At CES 2020, SNE revealed it had sold over 5 million PlayStation VR headsets since launch.

Moreover, this Zacks Rank #3 company launched its next-generation gaming console, PlayStation 5 (PS5). With a powerful 8-core AMD Zen 2 processor, 10.3 teraflops of graphics power, gorgeous 4K visuals and an immersive end-user experience. Having an extensive catalog of VR ready games has helped the adoption of the platform.

Meanwhile, Apples acquisition of NextVR in April is expected to significantly ramp up its AR/VR efforts. NextVR provides live VR video contents, courtesy of its partnerships with NBA, Wimbledon, Fox Sports et al.

This Zacks Rank #3 company is reportedly planning to release a combined AR/VR headset by 2021 or 2022, followed by a pair of AR glasses in 2022 or 2023. These are focused on gaming, video watching and virtual meetings. The company is also working on a common operating system (apparently called rOS) for AR and VR.

Unity is the most widely used VR development platform for building VR games, applications, and immersive experiences for contemporary VR devices. Notably, over 91% of Microsofts HoloLens experiences are made with Unity.

Among the Zacks Rank #3 companys recent VR standouts is Coco VR, Pixar's first foray into standalone VR filmmaking, made in collaboration with Magnopus. Popular VR games made with Unity include Twisted Realms by Aldin Dynamics and Hidden Temple VR Adventure by HandyGames.

Story continues

The potential to boost productivity and safety encourages adoption of VR technology beyond gaming. Remote learning and training with VR have become essential use cases due to the coronavirus pandemic to minimize the risk of exposure.

Facebook has been testing various VR alternatives for working from home in replacement of the physical office, and Infinite Office is the next major step. Facebook's Infinite Office VR experience is a virtual office space, which will enable users to conduct meetings, work on several surfaces, collaborate on projects, and more, all within a digital environment.

With more businesses considering the benefits of allowing their staff to log in remotely, this could become a key use case that helps boost the use of VR at home.

A number of market players consider that the spread of COVID-19 is expected to increase the demand for their VR/AR head-mounted display (HMDs) devices in the healthcare sector.

VR has already been adopted in therapy, where it is used to treat patients with phobias and anxiety disorders. The adoption of VR in healthcare is forecast to grow more quickly with the value of the market estimated at $336.9 million in 2020 increasing at an average CAGR of 30.7% to reach $2.2 billion by 2024 per a ScienceSoft report.

Unlike other headset developers, Microsoft is focused on the corporate marketplace instead of retail. This Zacks Rank #2 (Buy) companys Hololens 2 is a mixed reality headset geared exclusively toward enterprise customers, offering holographic interfaces designed to assist with a wide range of procedures, from industrial automation and workforce training to advanced surgery. You can see the complete list of todays Zacks #1 Rank (Strong Buy) stocks here.

In addition to the stocks discussed above, would you like to know about our 10 top tickers for the entirety of 2021?

These 10 are painstakingly hand-picked from over 4,000 companies covered by the Zacks Rank. They are our primary picks to buy and hold.

Start Your Access to the New Zacks Top 10 Stocks >>

Want the latest recommendations from Zacks Investment Research? Today, you can download 7 Best Stocks for the Next 30 Days. Click to get this free reportSony Corporation (SNE) : Free Stock Analysis ReportMicrosoft Corporation (MSFT) : Free Stock Analysis ReportApple Inc. (AAPL) : Free Stock Analysis ReportFacebook, Inc. (FB) : Free Stock Analysis ReportUnity Software Inc. (U) : Free Stock Analysis ReportTo read this article on Zacks.com click here.Zacks Investment Research

More here:

5 Stocks to Ride the Virtual Reality Wave in 2021 & Beyond - Yahoo Finance

Switching Identities

Social psychological researchers have long known that de-emphasizing a stereotyped identity can help protect people from stereotype threat, but what about switching identities altogether?

More than a decade ago researchers at Stanford identified the Proteus effect, named after the Greek god who could transform into animals or even water. The research demonstrated that a virtual reality user behaves differently in that environment based on their avatar.

The user knows that other people in the virtual environment ascribe certain characteristics to the users avatar, and the users behavior is affected by those perceptions, or stereotypes.

Pecks and Goods results, published in 2018 in a special edition of IEEE Transactions on Visualization and Computer Graphics with follow-on work published in 2020 in the proceedings of the ACM Computer-Human Interactions Conference, first affirmed that the harmful effect of stereotype threat could be found in a virtual environment.

They showed that womens performance on a visuospatial test suffered when they were placed in a female avatar and told that men and women score differently on the test, compared to when women in female avatars were told there were no gender differences in test scores.

However, when the women were placed in a male avatar and reminded of a gender difference, their performance did not suffer.

It wasnt just women participants who were affected.

Everybody who was in a female avatar under stereotype threat, Good said, had lower math confidence than if they were not under threat.

That means that men who were put in female avatars showed poorer performance on the visuospatial test when they were told there were gender differences on the test. In other words, just like the Proteus effect, when men were put in female avatars, they took on behaviors consistent with stereotypes of women.

Ultimately, the gendered avatar switch worked. It was capable of buffering against stereotypes, but people cant walk around in VR headsets all the time.

Peck and Good argue that there are promising and realistic future implications of their work. For example, they are interested in understanding whether VR technology can be utilized in real classroom settings (both in person and remote classrooms) to address real experiences of stereotype threat.

The pandemic has expanded the use of virtual tools, including virtual environments and virtual identities. We have all played around with changing our virtual background in Zoom, and lots of virtual educational institutions use avatars as stand-ins for live teachers. Our familiarity with virtual tools, developed out of a tragic global necessity, has paved the way for use of the kinds of technology that Peck and Good are researching.

Read more from the original source:

Virtual Reality Holds Promise in Combatting 'Stereotype Threat' - Davidson News

As virtual reality becomes more prevalent in K12 educational spaces, developers continue to create content that enables students to partake in a host of realistic and fantastical simulations. Students can visit new places, create 3D artwork and conduct science experiments in ways that might not otherwise be possible. We have seen classroom applications of VR that fully utilize the technology to engage students in rich and novel immersive learning experiences. We have also seen VR used to accomplish learning goals that may have been better approached using traditional methods or analog media. This raises the question, how can we use VR to engage and add unique value to student learning? There are many myths about VR that are often used to justify its utility as an educational technology. Here we address three common fallacies.

We have learned from our conversations with students and teachers that without the proper instruction and reflection around these virtual trips, students miss out on the physical and social context of the field trip destination.

In our work with VR, we have frequently seen educators use 360-degree videos for virtual field trips. Educators may use phone-based headsets, such as Google Cardboard, or more advanced headsets that plug into computers. However, students report that watching a 360-degree video doesnt necessarily immerse them in a different place and culture. In our research, students often questioned why they were asked to put on a VR headset when a projector or desktop screen could have been used instead.

We asked middle and high school students whether they felt as if they gained a better understanding of the people and places they encountered on their virtual field trips, and their responses were mixed. Some students reported that VR gave them an opportunity to develop a firsthand perspective, while others reported that VR was not a good substitute for actually visiting a new place and interacting with real people.

All technological tools used in classrooms should enhance, engage, and extend learning, author Liz Kolb, lecturer and research associate at the University of Michigan, writes inLearning First, Technology Second: The Educators Guide to Designing Authentic Lessons.

If we are simply importing a quiz into a virtual environment for no pedagogical reason beyond increasing engagement, we must pause and reflect on whether that will genuinely enhance or extend student learning. A worksheet is still a worksheet, even when it is placed into a virtual environment.

Its a challenge for teachers to develop and integrate assessments that are sensitive to the learning outcomes they hope VR activities will facilitate. A recent study from foundry10 indicates that teachers struggled to gather specific evidence demonstrating what students learned after engaging in VR experiences. Many falsely perceived high engagement with VR as an indicator that students had greater understanding of the subject or concept. To create real value for student learning with VR, educators will need to be vigilant when assessing whether the technology is deepening understanding of a topic or just making it more fun.

MORE ON EDTECH:How virtual reality can help students meet learning goals.

There actually are many hurdles that educators face when implementing VR in the classroom. Technical troubleshooting is only one of those.

In a 2018 study, we interviewed 17 teachers who used VR in their classrooms three times over the course of the school year. Our interviews focused on understanding the teachers approaches to implementation, the uses of VR in their classes and their perceptions of VRs value as a classroom technology. Throughout the school year, we heard teachers attitudes toward VR consistently shift from enthusiasm to frustration, and we decided to look deeper into this pattern.

While new and exciting, VR presented many implementation hurdles that exceeded the typical technological challenges of integrating a new tool. The challenges are summarized inthis infographic. Teachers needed administrator approval, IT support and parent buy-in to get VR to work for their students. They also needed physical classroom infrastructure to support VRs electrical requirements, sufficient time to find relevant VR content for instruction, and alternative learning plans for students who could not or did not want to use VR.

Resolving the monumental logistical challenges of implementing VR for instruction can dominate the conversation. Then assessing the actual value the technology brings to students and their learning outcomes becomes an afterthought. For this reason, its important to consider the entire ecological context of the school as you work to build VR into your teaching practice.

Our research and work with VR in the classroom have led us to ask VR content developers and educators, Did you really need virtual reality for that? As educators and researchers, we are both cautiously optimistic about the technologys potential to strengthen classroom learning and skeptical of existing claims of how exactly this is achieved.

READ MORE:VR gives students new ways to learn.

Continue reading here:

Gauging the Reality of Emerging Tech in Classrooms - EdTech Magazine: Focus on K-12

As demand for virtual reality and augmented reality continues to grow, people are increasingly using it to learn about racism or hear more stories from people of color.

Read more: What is augmented reality?

In some cases, developers are using the technology to recreate historic events and instances of racism in the hope it will make people address their own misconceptions, Axios reported. In other cases, projects led by people of color are creating highly inventive experiences that entertain as much as they educate.

Demand for virtual reality is set to boom over the coming years. Shipments of VR headsets are expected to grow 48% annually over the next four years, according to estimates from the International Data Corporation.

The technology is allowing developers to create interactive documentaries, likened to "living museums."

As part of this, people are using the technology to encourage empathy with marginalized groups. VR simulations show people what it's like to be homeless, pregnant, in a wheelchair, autistic, or a different race, according to Erick Jose Ramirez, associate professor in the Department of Philosophy at Santa Clara University.

"The idea is that technology might help us better understand what it's like to be someone on the receiving end of racist violence [which] can help us understand the roots of our own racism and then combat it," Ramirez wrote.

Read more: Google employees sent a letter demanding leadership changes and a stronger commitment to 'academic integrity,' as tensions over AI ethicist's exit continue to rise

Studies have previously suggested that adopting a different race during a VR experience can affect people's unconscious behaviors during gameplay.

"I Am A Man," made by independent VR developer Derek Ham, takes users back to the key events of the US civil rights movement leading up to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., including the 1968 Memphis Sanitation Worker's Strike.

It combines historical film and photographs with voice narrations from actual civil rights participants, and worked alongside the Civil Rights Museum in Memphis to ensure its accuracy.

I Am A Man VR Experience from on Vimeo.

"The vision is to give people an experience of history in a way that provides a more personal understanding of the struggles of these marginalized people," Ham said on the website.

"The VR experience allows one to literally walk in the shoes of people who fought for freedom and equality during the civil rights era. Most importantly, this project gives users a deeper awareness of their struggle."

The project, which has won awards, including at the Cleveland and Nashville film festivals, can be downloaded from the Oculus Storebut is also available for web, mobile, and screen immersive viewing.

But not all these VR projects focus on historical events. Some, such as "1,000 Cut Journey," look at the everyday life of Black people to show how they face racism on a daily basis.

In the VR developed by Stanford and Columbia Universities, an assistant professor at Columbia's School of Social Work, users witness the discrimination experienced by a Black male during both his childhood and adult life in the classroom, the workplace, and by police. This is all condensed into 12 minutes.

And "Traveling While Black," produced by Academy Award winner Roger Ross Williams and Emmy Award-winning Felix & Paul Studios, takes users to Ben's Chili Bowl, a diner in Washington DC that was used by many Black people as a space safe during the Jim Crow laws.

During the experience, users converse with diners who discuss their experiences of restricted movement and race relations as a Black person in the US. The experience aims to confront the way people both understand and talk about race.

"If you're not African American, you get to go into a space and be part of a conversation that you probably normally would not be privy to," Williams told The Guardian. "If you are Black, you get to delve deep into that inner trauma that we all carry with us in America as Black people.

"I think that's really powerful in the way that 2D storytelling can't provide."

These VR projects aren't just for personal use. Some are being launched on a corporate scale, too, as an innovative way to provide workplace equality, diversity, and inclusion training.

Vantage Point, for example, uses VR to teach both Fortune 500 companies and schools about racial discrimination and gender inequality. Vantage Point works alongside companies in the US, UK, Ireland, and France. During the pandemic, it has been shipping headsets to clients.

PwC and tech startup Talespin have launched similar VR implicit bias training, which immerses participants in scenarios where they learn to make inclusive hiring decisions and point out instances of discrimination.

Training programs like these could become more common in the future.

US companies spend $8 billion annually on diversity and inclusion initiatives, yet research shows that they're actually more segregated now than they were 40 years ago.

VR could be an option for companies to ramp up their implicit bias training and a PwC study found that it's actually more cost-effective that classroom-based training. Participants learn quicker and stay more focused, too.

Kilito Chan/Getty Images

In the UK, immersive technology is also being used to highlight the experiences of people from all backgrounds and ensure their voices are being heard.

One timely example of this is The CreativeXR program, which is run by Digital Catapult and Arts Council England, and features a varied range of VR and AR-based stories, many of which have been created by people of color.

Blood Speaks: Maya The Birth of a Superhero, Munkination, SONG, and A Place to Be are among these inventive offerings. Some can be accessed using VR headsets such as Oculus Quest; others via a mobile phone.

In Blood Speaks, an ordinary 21st-century girl transforms into a superhero whose powers derive from the process of menstruation. The unflinching story is moving and thought-provoking in equal measure.

The project, which was developed specifically for Oculus Quest using Quill and Unity, is inspired by the stories of women in Nepal who are forced into exile because their menstrual blood is considered impure, according to creator Poulomi Basu.

In a statement, Basu said: "The first phase has seen massive impact and helped activate policy change in Nepal. With a little brown girl magic, we are looking to forge new audiences through this female-led narrative that features voices that reconfigure audience perceptions of BAME [black and minority ethnic] characters and, through their interaction with Maya, we want to inspire our audience to find the magic within themselves."

Musical projects lend themselves particularly well to immersive mediums as Munkination a hip-hop opera with a futuristic story about climate change at its heart demonstrates.

Its creator, HAM The Illustrator, said in a statement: "I created this experience because I want to engage my community. There aren't many stories by and for people like me, and I want to tell a story that puts us at the forefront; our heritage, our perspective, and that history of living in equilibrium with nature, because we don't have much time left, and we all need to be involved."

Equally, SONG, an immersive 360 performance based on the K-Pop phenomenon, also uses music to tell a powerful story. The action takes place inside a "planetarium" installation and features simultaneous live streams in VR and 2D environments.

According to creator Sammy Lee, the project emerged out of a deep commitment to the future of the performing arts, driven by the energy of pop music as military technology.

A scene from A Place to Be. The Independent Film Trust

Finally, A Place to Be, by The Independent Film Trust, explores the black British experience beyond the constraints of the present day. The 360 VR experience is set in a south London shebeen and uncovers the untold histories of Black Britons. Set in 1981, days before the Brixton uprising, the experience transports viewers to one of the unlicensed clubs that offered a safe space to the African-Caribbean community away from systemic racism.

Fans of immersive technology should expect to see many more similar inventive AR and VR experiences from a range of providers in 2021, as demand for diversity and culture-based projects continues to align with the need for creative ways to stay connected.

See original here:

Virtual reality is offering timely perspectives on race, diversity and culture. Here's how - Business Insider - Business Insider

A new study published in Scientific Reports offers insight into how the perception of ones body influences ones sense of gender identity. An experiment involving the illusion of owning an opposite-sex body led people to embrace a more equal identification with both genders.

While it appears that the way a person perceives their body is linked to their gender identity, it has yet to be established exactly how the two are connected. Study authors Pawel Tacikowski and colleagues describe gender identity as a collection of thoughts and feelings about ones own gender, which may or may not correspond to the sex assigned at birth. They explain that while past research viewed gender identity as consisting of two exclusive categories of male and female, the current theories see it as a spectrum of associations with both genders.

The researchers wanted to explore whether a full body ownership illusion an experience that simulates owning a different body than ones own would influence an individuals gender identity. Three studies explored this idea.

An initial experiment had subjects participate in four conditions. During each condition, subjects wore a head-mounted display which played a video from the first-person perspective of another persons body either a male or a female.

In two experimental conditions, the participants watched the strangers body being stroked with an object while simultaneous touches were being administered to the same body part on their own bodies. In these conditions, the touch experiences were in sync, causing the illusion that the strangers body was their own (synchronous conditions). In two control conditions, the participants received touches that were out of sync with the video, breaking the illusion (asynchronous conditions). Before and after each condition, the subjects completed ratings of how masculine and feminine they felt.

The illusion was successful subjects reported a greater sense of ownership of the strangers bodies during the conditions when the touches on the video were in line with the tactile experiences they received. Interestingly, when experiencing the synchronous conditions during the opposite sex illusion, subjects reported feeling more like the opposite gender than at baseline. Specifically, females reported feeling less feminine than at baseline, and males reported feeling less masculine than at baseline.

A second study extended these findings by showing that such an illusion can also change implicit attitudes about ones gender identity. This time, the Implicit Association Test (IAT) was used to measure the participants gender identity. The researchers found that during illusory ownership of the opposite-sex body, subjects demonstrated a greater balance of implicit associations with both genders.

A final experiment further showed that the opposite-sex body illusion can influence subjects explicit gender-related beliefs about their own personality. Participants were asked to rate how much they identified with a series of traits that were either stereotypically feminine or masculine. In general, females tended to choose traits that were stereotypically feminine and men tended to choose stereotypically masculine traits. However, during the illusory conditions, participants rated both masculine and feminine traits similarly high.

Tacikowski and colleagues discuss several possible explanations for this effect, saying that the illusion of owning an opposite-sex body may have increased a cognitive conflict within the existing beliefs about oneself at the implicit level, leading subjects to adjust their self-beliefs in order to resolve the conflict.

The authors express that their findings offer new insight into the fluidity of gender identity, showing that the relationship between ones body perception and sense of gender is dynamic, robust, and direct. The findings also spark further questions. Future studies should address the important question of how transgender people, with and without gender dysphoria, update their sense of own gender during the body-sex-change illusion and whether the illusion could partly alleviate distress by reducing the incongruence between the body and subjective gender, the authors say.

The study, Fluidity of gender identity induced by illusory bodysex change, was authored by Pawel Tacikowski, Jens Fust, and H. Henrik Ehrsson.

(Image by dlohner from Pixabay)

Visit link:

Experiencing the illusion of having an opposite-sex body in virtual reality can shift aspects of gender id ... - PsyPost

A new project will use virtual reality technology to help engage youth learning about Nisga'a culture and language.

The project called Raising Nisga'a Language, Sovereignty, and Land-based Education Through Traditional Carving Knowledge is a multi-year, three-part undertaking that involves the development of language learning through virtual reality, the carving of new house totem poles, and repatriation of an original house totem pole from a museum in Edinburgh, Scotland.

Amy Parent,a Nisga'a researcher and assistant professor in the Department of Educational Studies in the Faculty of Education at the University of British Columbia. The project is a collaboration between Parent, traditional knowledge holders and hereditary chiefs of the Nisga'a Nation and is funded bythe Social Sciences Humanities Research Council'sNew Frontiers in ResearchFund.

"I think the language revitalization component is really important for us to continue trying to spark the interest and the commitment of our future generations of youth to learn their language and to engage in that," said Parent.

"I see VR as one tool that can hopefully spark their imagination and their drive to either continue their language or begin learning that one or the other."

Parent said that no one in the Nisga'a Nation has yet used virtual reality to facilitate traditional language learning. That portion of the project will feature interviews with Nisga'a speakers and land-based walking tours.

Wal-aks (Keane Tait)teachesNisga'a language and cultureat Nisga'a Elementary Secondary School in Gitlaxt'aamiks, B.C., 775 kilometres northwest of Vancouver.

Wal-aks,aknowledge holder fluent in the Nisga'a language who isadvising on the language portion of the project, said usingvirtual reality would enhance the learning experience.

"I think that using those instruments would really contribute to being able to learn a lot more about our culture and our language when we're able to see it," Wal-aks said.

Nisga'a Elder Jerry Adams, who is one of the key advisors of the project,said the virtual reality componentis important for urban Nisga'a youth because they wouldn't have to leave where they live to visit the Nass Valley.

"I never thought that this would happen at all, because in our day, the thing was that our language was dying and it'll be gone in 20 years, 30 years, 40 years," said Adams.

In his own journey to learn the language, Adams said he's also been learning more about his own identity.

"In my day when I was a young person, we were afraid to speak our language," he said.

"If we had an Indian accent, people laughed at us. We were not encouraged to learn the language."

But now seeing the language and culture coming back through initiatives like this one he said is encouraging.

"It makes my heart just feel really good that it is coming back and we're not losing who we are as Nisga'a."

Sim'oogit (Chief) Duu,from Laxgaltsap, B.C.,isa key advisor on the project regarding the cultural and historical significance of totem poles. He said that each family has a totem pole of their own and they are the only ones that can tell the story on it.

"And what they have on there are stories of significance to their own families," he said.

The project will work on repatriating the Niis Joohl Pole, which was taken from the Nisga'a Nation in 1929 by ethnographer Marius Barbeau and sold to the National Museum of Scotland in Edinburgh.

He said that in the last 150 years, only two new poles have been raised in the community after hundreds were stolen.

Successfully rebuilding the connection to language and culture, he said, will take an approach that comes from many directions.

Duu attended residential school in Edmonton and became a journeyman tradesman after, spending time away from his community.

While away from the Nisga'a Nation, Duu did not speak the language but once he returned home to become involved in community leadership, heregained his fluency by relearning Nisga'a culture and protocols.

"We're really excited about this project because we feel that it is a real good strategy to utilize modern technology as much as possible," said Duu.

"All of these different approaches that are happening now will come together to achieve the same goal that we all had in mind."

The project, which should be rolling out in three phases, has been delayed by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Parent said the first phase is to start carving a new house totem pole in June 2021. She said that, depending on public health restrictions, she would also like to begin filming the virtual reality piece, then start the work on repatriating the pole from the Edinburgh museum.

Here is the original post:

Project to use virtual reality technology to teach Nisga'a culture and language - CBC.ca

Augmented & Virtual Reality Market Research Report by Technology (Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality), by Product (Hardware and Software), by Industry, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19

New York, Dec. 24, 2020 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Reportlinker.com announces the release of the report "Augmented & Virtual Reality Market Research Report by Technology, by Product, by Industry, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative Impact of COVID-19" - https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913294/?utm_source=GNW

The Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market is expected to grow from USD 14,632.96 Million in 2019 to USD 37,295.38 Million by the end of 2025 at a Compound Annual Growth Rate (CAGR) of 16.87%.

Market Segmentation & Coverage:This research report categorizes the Augmented & Virtual Reality to forecast the revenues and analyze the trends in each of the following sub-markets:

Based on Technology, the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market studied across Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality. The Augmented Reality further studied across Marker-Based Augmented Reality and Markerless Augmented Reality. The Virtual Reality further studied across Nonimmersive Technology and Semi-Immersive & Fully Immersive Technology.

Based on Product, the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market studied across Hardware and Software. The Hardware further studied across Cameras, Displays & Projectors, Position Trackers, Semiconductor Component, and Sensors. The Software further studied across 3D Modeling, AR Remote Collaboration, Documentation, Navigation, VR Content Creation, Visualization, and Workflow Optimization.

Based on Industry, the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market studied across Aerospace & Defense, Agriculture, Automotive, Construction, Education, Energy, Government & Public Safety, Healthcare & Life Sciences, IT & Telecom, Retail & Consumer, Transportation & Logistics, Travel & Tourism, and Media & Entertainment.

Based on End User, the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market studied across Commercial, Individual, and Industrial.

Based on Geography, the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market studied across Americas, Asia-Pacific, and Europe, Middle East & Africa. The Americas region surveyed across Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Mexico, and United States. The Asia-Pacific region surveyed across Australia, China, India, Indonesia, Japan, Malaysia, Philippines, South Korea, and Thailand. The Europe, Middle East & Africa region surveyed across France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Qatar, Russia, Saudi Arabia, South Africa, Spain, United Arab Emirates, and United Kingdom.

Company Usability Profiles:The report deeply explores the recent significant developments by the leading vendors and innovation profiles in the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market including Apple Inc., Capermint Technologies Pvt Ltd, Facebook Technologies, LLC, Google Inc., Infinity Augmented Reality, Inglobe Technologies, Marxent Labs, Microsoft Corporation, Samsung Electronics, Sixense Entertainment, Sony Corporation, and Technostacks Infotech Pvt.Ltd.

FPNV Positioning Matrix:The FPNV Positioning Matrix evaluates and categorizes the vendors in the Augmented & Virtual Reality Market on the basis of Business Strategy (Business Growth, Industry Coverage, Financial Viability, and Channel Support) and Product Satisfaction (Value for Money, Ease of Use, Product Features, and Customer Support) that aids businesses in better decision making and understanding the competitive landscape.

Competitive Strategic Window:The Competitive Strategic Window analyses the competitive landscape in terms of markets, applications, and geographies. The Competitive Strategic Window helps the vendor define an alignment or fit between their capabilities and opportunities for future growth prospects. During a forecast period, it defines the optimal or favorable fit for the vendors to adopt successive merger and acquisition strategies, geography expansion, research & development, and new product introduction strategies to execute further business expansion and growth.

Cumulative Impact of COVID-19:COVID-19 is an incomparable global public health emergency that has affected almost every industry, so for and, the long-term effects projected to impact the industry growth during the forecast period. Our ongoing research amplifies our research framework to ensure the inclusion of underlaying COVID-19 issues and potential paths forward. The report is delivering insights on COVID-19 considering the changes in consumer behavior and demand, purchasing patterns, re-routing of the supply chain, dynamics of current market forces, and the significant interventions of governments. The updated study provides insights, analysis, estimations, and forecast, considering the COVID-19 impact on the market.

The report provides insights on the following pointers:1. Market Penetration: Provides comprehensive information on the market offered by the key players2. Market Development: Provides in-depth information about lucrative emerging markets and analyzes the markets3. Market Diversification: Provides detailed information about new product launches, untapped geographies, recent developments, and investments4. Competitive Assessment & Intelligence: Provides an exhaustive assessment of market shares, strategies, products, and manufacturing capabilities of the leading players5. Product Development & Innovation: Provides intelligent insights on future technologies, R&D activities, and new product developments

The report answers questions such as:1. What is the market size and forecast of the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?2. What are the inhibiting factors and impact of COVID-19 shaping the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market during the forecast period?3. Which are the products/segments/applications/areas to invest in over the forecast period in the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?4. What is the competitive strategic window for opportunities in the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?5. What are the technology trends and regulatory frameworks in the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?6. What are the modes and strategic moves considered suitable for entering the Global Augmented & Virtual Reality Market?Read the full report: https://www.reportlinker.com/p05913294/?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.

__________________________

Story continues

Go here to read the rest:

Augmented & Virtual Reality Market Research Report by Technology, by Product, by Industry, by End User - Global Forecast to 2025 - Cumulative...