Monthly Archives: February 2017

A virtual reconstruction of a dwelling at Skara Brae, a pre-historic Scottish village. Soluis/Heritage

Seeing opportunities to educate and attract new visitors, museums are getting in on the VR game, too. The British Museum in London, for instance, partnered with

Another VR exhibit in Beijing's Forbidden City takes visitors through reconstructions of the porcelain factories during the Ming and Qing dynasties. To transport visitors into a more recent past, the Royal Canadian Regiment Museum in Ottawa partnered with VR company SimWave to make a rumbling rig that recreates being down in the trenches at the Vimy Ridge battle during World War I.

Some see the most promise in experiences that go beyond the visuals.

"For my money, the most useful stuff is not the VR, at least not yet, but the augmented reality," says Shawn Graham, a digital archaeologist at Carleton University in Ottawa.

Augmented reality (AR) and other forms of mixed reality use VR elements overlaid on the real world think Pokmon Go and Google Glass.

"If you have an AR headset and you're out in the field, you can see what's going on around you but then have an overlay," Eve says of elements sights, sounds, and smells. "It adds so much more to that experience."

Simulations that can fool your other senses like 3-D audio to trick your ears or gloves to mimic touch make for a more effective immersive experience, as sight is just one way we perceive reality.

Eve, however, notes that AR technology isn't quite ready to be a massive hit. He's waiting to see what companies like the Florida-based AR outfit Magic Leap come up with in the next few years.

But whatever form the VR and AR experience takes, the story is key.

"I think we make a mistake if we imagine that augmented realities or virtual realities are something brand new in the world," Graham says.

He recalled being a graduate student in the U.K. and taking a field trip to Avebury, a cousin of Stonehenge, with one of his professors. "He was standing there in the middle of this stone circle, and he was telling us this story of coming into this sacred space and he was pointing to the horizon, drawing our attention to different burial mounds, and he was enabling us to see the past in a way we couldn't see before coming in fresh as students."

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Virtual Reality Is Bringing These Lost Worlds Back to Life - NBCNews.com

With headsets like the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR finally shipping out to customers, 2016 was supposed to be the year virtual reality finally went mainstream. But things havent exactly worked out that way, and in 2017, all eyes are now on location-based VR. Whether in movie theaters or custom arcades, VR installations are seen as an opportunity to will a functioning VR ecosystem into existence. Customers can try experiences in paid, bite-sized doses without investing in expensive hardware, and content creators can take advantage of that larger reach to monetize titles and encourage further development. One of the entities moving most aggressively in that direction is IMAX.

The company best known for bringing larger-than-large cinematic imagery into movie theaters soft-opened the IMAX VR Experience Centre in Los Angeles on January 6th. Its the first of six pilot locations the company plans to roll out, with IMAX targeting China, the UK, New York City, and a second location in California by the end of the year. But each of those new installations will be tied to cineplex chains, setting up either in a revamped movie theater or in a venues lobby. The flagship LA center is a standalone location made up of 14 VR pods equipped with a combination of HTC Vive and StarVR headsets, and a selection of titles ranging from Star Wars: Trials on Tatooine to John Wick Chronicles. Its not a perfect setup by any means, but for audiences that have never had the opportunity to try room-scale VR, IMAX may have created the best introductory experience yet.

While IMAX hosted a day for press to see the facility earlier this week, I also explored the location as a paying customer to get a sense of what the real consumer experience is like. The Experience Centre is across the street from an outdoor shopping complex called The Grove for those not familiar with LA geography, its a major shopping destination with a suite of restaurants and a movie theater, making it easier for IMAX to attract what a representative described as a four-quadrant audience. Thats a film-industry term describing something that appeals to men and women, and both younger and older audiences. Its essentially the broadest possible audience you can hope for, and advertising has been popping up around Los Angeles for the last few weeks to draw that audience in.

The VR pods are futuristic, 12-by-12 cubicles

Stepping inside the center, the location calls to mind a sweeping, vaguely futuristic movie theater lobby. Curved white walls set off video screen posters for various titles, and another large display near the ticket counter shows what time slots are available for different experiences. IMAX breaks tickets up into two categories. There are featured titles, like Trials on Tatooine, Raw Data, and Eagle Flight Multiplayer, with tickets ranging from $7 to $10, and a $25 VR Sampler, which gives players around 30 minutes to try out an assortment of Steam titles. The featured titles each run about 1015 minutes in length, and after purchasing tickets, guests walk to a staging area where video screens give the uninitiated a brief overview of what to expect when trying VR hardware.

The pods themselves are 12-foot-by-12-foot cubicles, designed with the same austere, futuristic aesthetic as the lobby. Theres an emphasis on keeping the look clean throughout the facility the computers are hidden above the pods on a catwalk, with headset cables wrangled overhead via a pulley system. IMAX equips the pods with Subpac rumble backpacks as part of the standard equipment, which I found distracting more often than not, but its definitely a way the company is trying to differentiate itself from home VR. A single monitor shows the point of view of the player in case friends want to watch, and the spaces are simple enough that they can be easily reconfigured for room-scale movement, sitting players, or experiences that use other props or setups.

As for the experience playing the games themselves thats just playing the games themselves. A staff member walks each player through the basics as they put on the gear, and when IMAXs setup worked best, it just got out of the way and let me fall into the experience. The cabling system was a bit problematic from time to time if I stretched the wrong way, Id feel the tension of the cable on the headset but it was largely unobtrusive. One of the pods I tried did seem to have a calibration problem, with the Vive warning me I was about to hit a wall only after Id bumped into it, but that seemed to be a one-off aberration.

Twelve of the 14 pods were running HTC Vive headsets, but tucked in the rear of the gaming floor where an IMAX representative said it will keep its more mature content were two pods for John Wick Chronicles. The title puts the player in the role of John Wick, picking off bad guys from a rooftop before taking down a helicopter, and I found it to be a great bit of arcade-style fun when I tried it on the HTC Vive earlier this year. But IMAX was offering it with Starbreeze and Acers new high-end StarVR headset. Intended for theme parks and installations, the headset features a 210-degree field of view that fills your peripheral vision when compared to the 110-degree visuals of the Vive or Oculus Rift. (IMAX was also using a custom gun-prop controller for the game.) But while the expanded field of view was certainly a notable improvement, the StarVR otherwise offered a blurry image that had my stomach churning by the end.

The StarVR headset has a wider field of view and very blurry imagery

IMAX chief business development officer Rob Lister acknowledges that the headset has some problems at the moment, calling it very much a work in development still, though the company sees potential in the wider field of view and increased resolution. These are still prototypes, and it's going to be a while before that's productized, so that's going to take a bit of time. That theme runs throughout many of the choices made at the center: its an opportunity for IMAX to see what works and what doesnt, and tweak it all based on audience feedback. When it comes to programing content, IMAX seems to be moving quickly. Last week, as a paying customer, I tried an escape room experience that was perhaps one of the most disorienting VR titles Ive ever tried. This week, it had been pulled from the featured lineup.

Assuming the headset improves, the StarVR could let IMAX differentiate its centers from what consumers can already get at home, but at the moment, its an odd misstep in a smooth experience.

In the long run, IMAX knows the success of its centers will come down to the games and experiences players can have, and its already looking ahead on that side. Last year, Google announced it was working with the company on a cinema-quality VR camera for its Jump platform, and IMAX has started a $50 million fund for the production of VR experiences. We're in conversations about slate deals with some of the studios where we would be doing three, four, even five pieces of content, Lister says, where each one of those pieces would be a companion to a big movie coming out. Where you have the $200 million [movie] marketing campaign that you could leverage off of.

Combining movies and VR could be IMAXs secret weapon

That film-plus-VR strategy isnt new, but IMAX could place itself in a particularly unique position to capitalize. While the Los Angeles-based flagship location is a standalone entity, the rest of IMAXs VR centers this year are based in movie theaters themselves, and the companys longstanding relationships with theater chains provide an opportunity for it to rapidly expand its VR footprint, should customers respond. Standalone locations, the benefit is you get to try out lots of different stuff, and the revenue is all yours. But there's a lot of operating expense involved, Lister says. I think it's much easier for us to roll out this is hypothetical a 150-location deal with one of our big exhibition partners, than it is to find two big retail locations."

The company will take its first swing at combining film and VR this March, with a companion piece for the science fiction thriller Life. Produced by Skydance Interactive, Life VR will be the first title in an ongoing collaboration between the two companies. Skydances first original gaming title, Archangel which puts players in control of a giant mech as it battles hostile forces will hit IMAX centers in July. Ubisoft is another featured partner, with Eagle Flight and Rabbids VR-Ride already in rotation in the Los Angeles location, and the multi-player Star Trek: Bridge Crew coming later this year.

That latter game is the exact kind of title that could really show off the potential of IMAXs VR Experience Centre. A truly co-op VR game has a different kind of energy that might justify a special trip to a VR arcade. But even here at the beginning, IMAX is clearly doing something right: crafting an entertainment experience that any novice can walk right into and enjoy, by removing as much of the mess and hassle of modern-day VR as possible.

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IMAX's first virtual reality arcade is here and it is beautiful - The Verge

VR1 is the first virtual reality arcade of its kind in the Treasure Valley and all of Idaho, offering a brand new VR gaming environment. (KBOI Photo)

News anchors Brent Hunsaker and Natalie Hurst couldn't resist the the offer - putt putt golf and skiing - without all the hassle of driving to two different resorts at distant locations.

Instead, the two news anchors went to downtown Eagle and visited VR1.

VR1 is the first virtual reality arcade of its kind in the Treasure Valley and all of Idaho, offering a brand new VR gaming environment.

The state of the art technology allows the user to experience first-hand the sights, sensations and sounds of a VR setting of their choice.

Every movement the player makes in real time is transformed into a virtual 3D world.

Founder Brendan Smythe says the immersive experience has endless adventures to explore in genres such as sports, art, battle and building - to name a few.

The games are interactive and allow users the option to playing with, or against, real people and friends.

Anchor Natalie Hurst tried the skiing segment, and lasted approximately four minutes before "crashing" into a tree.

Anchor Brent Hunsaker explored the world of putt-putt golf extensively, by taking at least 20 strokes (if not more?!) on the first hole of the VR game.

Smythe said folks are invited to play with friends and family, while seeing their movements play out on the five station monitors.

"We just opened up the doors and everybody is excited about it," Smythe said. "They question a little bit and say, 'now what is it?' And then when they find out what this is they just want to come try it."

VR1 is located at 1225 W. Winding Creek Drive in Eagle, Suite 110.

It's open every day of the week, except Mondays.

Hours: Tuesday-Thursday 3 to 10 pm; Friday-Saturday noon to 11 p.m.; Sunday noon to 7 p.m.

Pricing: Sunday-Thursday is $15 for 25 minutes or $25 for 55 minutes.

Friday and Saturday is $20 for 25 minutes and $30 for 55 minutes.

For more information, call (208) 941-5958 or send an email to: vr1arcade@gmail.com.

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VR1: Idaho's first virtual reality arcade opens in Eagle - KBOI-TV

In Brief

Realistic visuals and audio are essential to shaping an immersive virtual reality (VR) experience. But these researchers from the National University of Singapore believe VR shouldnt just cater to sight and sound. For the ultimate VR experience, other senses should come into play as well.

Last year, Nimesha Ranasinghe and his team demonstrated how electrodes can be used to add a sense of taste to VR. Their latest accessory, Ambiotherm, adds another element of realism to the experience: atmosphere.

The add-on contains two features. One is a a wind module attached to the bottom of the headset that uses two fans to simulate wind blowing in the wearers face. The other is a temperature module that attaches to the back of the wearers neck to simulate heat. Various experiments show that gradual application of each module can mimic how the whole body would actually feel if, for example, the wearer was walking through a desert under the scorching sun or skiing down a mountain slope.

Previous attempts to recreate environmental conditions required fans and heat lamps, so being able to scale this down to something compact is a significant achievement. Next up for the team? Amping up the VR experience via smell and vibrations, as well as learning how human emotion can be augmented and applied to multi-sensory VR.

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Now You Can Feel Wind and Temperature While in Virtual Reality - Futurism

If the reality of a relatively lacklustre air show and plane display had seen disappointment among the swelling crowds at Aero India here, it was the virtual world that came to their rescue.

While there is little doubt that air shows and display of planes were toned down compared with the last edition, the exhibition halls used cutting-edge technology to bring visitors one step closer to the cherished metal birds.

The use of virtual reality (VR), 360 degree immersible software, simulators, and mock-up displays was omnipresent in the exhibits, allowing visitors to get into the cockpits of the indigenous fighter Tejas, Lockheed Martins F-16, the civilian aircraft Saras, and the Swedish fighter Gripen.

The most popular simulator as seen with the lengthy queues was that of the virtual experiences set up for the light combat aircraft, Tejas, which had also dominated the displays and air shows.

Learning about design

Aeronautical Development Agency (ADA) allowed visitors to try on immersive virtual reality through head mounts where visitors can see in 360 degrees how the LCA is designed in the computer (a rough 3D sketch of the major mechanical components) and also how the finished product looks. This is a good way to show visitors how the planning occurs before even a prototype is made. Through motion tracking and haptic force feedback system (which simulates a mechanics hand), we can even test if replacing a nut or bolt will become difficult, said Shiek Nagur from the ADA.

Swedish defence company Saab, which manufactures the fighter jet Gripen, allows visitors to get into the cockpit through their VR headset.

Nearby, a cockpit mock-up of Tejas allows visitors to sit on the pilots seat and attempt to take off and fly in the virtual world. Similarly, Lockheed Martin provided a few visitors the opportunity to take F-16, a single-engine supersonic multi-role fighter aircraft, for a spin through their cockpit simulator; while HAL too has put up the simulator for the advanced Hawk, allowing those privy to experience what it is like being a Surya Kiran trainer.

For pilots, the simulator for Saras, which will be revived after nearly a decade by the National Aerospace Laboratories, provides an opportunity to fly out of HAL Airport, circle around the airport and return.

Shooting and gliding

Apart from the flights, VR headsets are being used by HAL to allow visitors to experience skydiving and paragliding. The skydiving simulators sees visitors strapped to a rotating device, with the headset projecting an experience similar to that of a free fall. Similarly, for paragliding, the visitor is strapped to a moving bed, VR headset projects the view of gliding through snow-capped valleys, and fans simulate winds.

Swedish company Saab has set up a virtual shooting zone the ground combat indoor trainer where various rifles and guns can be used in a simulated combat. Similarly, an immersive experience was set up by BEL, where a darkroom provides an opportunity to test their night-vision goggles.

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When reality disappoints, virtual reality takes over - The Hindu