Monthly Archives: May 2017

TAMPA

Students from Berkeley Prep and Tampa Prep are getting a close-up look at ancient ruins, touring faraway places and basking in the shadow of the Eiffel Tower all without leaving their classroom.

By incorporating virtual reality technology from Google Expeditions into the curriculum the students download an app into their cell phones, which attach to virtual reality headsets their world has been expanded and they approach learning with palpable excitement.

Tampa Prep instructor Laura Pereira, who teaches Spanish and French, took her students on a tour of Guatemalan ruins and French museums. Then, using an app called CoSpaces, the students created their own archeological setting and did a Spanish narration, as if they were museum tour guides.

"You hear about something cool offered through virtual reality, but you want cool stuff that accentuates their learning,'' Pereira said. "If it makes the learning experience more profound and effective, then we're on the right track. When it becomes something they are held accountable for, where you can give an assessment, that's when it's truly transformative.

"Through this, the students are brought alive and they're hyper-focused. It's such a memorable experience and as a teacher, you want your students to remember the lesson.''

That's the idea.

"For me, it was so much better of an experience than looking at a textbook and pictures,'' said Berkeley Prep seventh-grader Josh Caron, recounting a recent unit on the Aztec, Inca and Maya civilizations in Meghan Campagna's Global Studies course. "I felt like I was there.''

Campagna, who is also Berkeley Prep's middle division Technology Integration Coordinator, said she was initially hesitant about using virtual reality in the classroom.

"But once I saw the students wanting to see the architecture and the landscape and the ruins, I got a clear picture of why this works well,'' Campagna said. "It's not just to show them pictures and add to what a book can do. It's to physically put them in a position so they can experience it like they are actually standing there.''

The future?

"There are always going to be people who think this is bling or a fad,'' Tampa Prep director of technology Chad Lewis said. "It's not that at all. It's so useful.''

"As soon as virtual reality is more approachable to the educational market, it will be everywhere,'' Campagna said.

It's already everywhere in other parts of life.

Virtual reality, which uses computer technology to generate realistic images, sounds and other sensations to simulate a physical presence in that environment, is used in medicine, military training and video gaming, along with professional and college sports.

Private schools around Hillsborough County are studying the concept or implementing virtual reality programs. There are no immediate plans to integrate a virtual reality curriculum into the Hillsborough County School District.

Give it time.

Tim Torkilsen, who is Berkeley Prep's upper school Global Studies Director and heads the school's International Education Program, needed no time at all to understand virtual reality's impact.

He remembers visiting the school's Technology Center earlier this year, where he was shown a virtual reality viewfinder. He looked at the setting and found it vaguely familiar. Then he turned around and looked up.

"I was standing underneath the Eiffel Tower,'' Torkilsen said. "My reaction was just, 'Wow!' I had been to Paris and this was like being back there.''

Torkilsen, who has been covering South Asia in his Contemporary Global Issues class, recently escorted 28 Berkeley Prep students to Nepal. He took lots of pictures, hoping to incorporate them into his teachings about the area's culture and religion.

Then he learned about a virtual reality tour of Katmandu, offered by Google Expeditions.

"It was interesting to see the difference in reaction between my flat pictures and explanations on the first day versus the second day, where the kids put on the viewfinders and they were so excited and in control,'' Torkilsen said. "They had the same reaction as I did when I looked up and saw the Eiffel Tower.

"The virtual reality was a much more effective medium when it came to learning about cultures. Right now, Google Expeditions has limited offerings, but we take trips all over the place. What if we could create our own journey to show to our kids back home? Five years down the line, I see this happening and being just invaluable.''

As for the present, students are enjoying their new view of the world, all from the confines of a classroom.

"This makes it all so real for me, seeing what things actually look like and helping me to learn how things were built,'' Berkeley Prep seventh-grader Olivia Rabinowitz said. "I could see this being used in Spanish classes to help show the culture.''

"The first time we used this, everyone got so excited,'' Berkeley Prep seventh-grader Breanna McDonough said. "We were walking around the classroom, looking at it all, sometimes bumping into tables. It was cool. It's one thing to read about it, but it's another to actually see it. It's like you are there.''

And, in turn, it is changing the classroom experience.

"What have we seen for the past 100 years? A teacher in the front of the room, pointing up at the board, lecturing and the students being implored to be quiet and stay in their row,'' Lewis said. "Now it's a whole new level of engagement. It's all very exciting.''

Contact Joey Johnston at hillsnews@tampabay.com

Virtual reality takes Berkeley Prep, Tampa Prep kids to new destinations 05/05/17 [Last modified: Friday, May 5, 2017 3:24pm] Photo reprints | Article reprints

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Virtual reality takes Berkeley Prep, Tampa Prep kids to new destinations - Tampabay.com

RALEIGH, N.C. (WNCN) This First Friday, some Raleigh residents got to experience art in a whole new way.

Google Fiber showcased the Google Arts and Culture Virtual Reality map. People were invited to tour the virtual art galleries through Googles Daydream View, a virtual reality device that connects to your smart phone. People who tried it were amazed at the detail, saying you could literally see every brush stroke.

Well you never get a chance to get that close because you get rushed off, said John Cloud. If I tried to get that close to a Van Gogh in any other gallery youd find that thered be somebody coming up to you saying you need to back up please.

Its great to see the detail, said Tawney Schwarz. You can look down and see the flooring look all the way up and see the ceiling. You get a full experience. I just tried the Smithsonian tour and it actually has someone guiding you through it.

People are invited to try out the Daydream View at the Raleigh Fiber Space through June 17.

Read more here:

Google brings virtual reality display to Raleigh - WNCN

Virtual reality (VR) is in its nascent stages, and by most measures, it's still an unproven market. Markets and Markets research estimates it could be worth $33.9 billion by 2022, but even the most visionary tech leaders like Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) CEO Mark Zuckerberg think we may still be five to 10 years away from VR truly taking off.

So what's a tech investor to do? Wait too long and you could miss out on VR's growth, but jump into the wrong company now and you could be throwing your money away. Investors looking to benefit from VR's massive potential but who don't want the volatility that could come from VR pure plays should consider Alphabet (NASDAQ:GOOG) (NASDAQ:GOOGL), Facebook, and NVIDIA (NASDAQ:NVDA). Each company is poised to gain from virtual reality's growth -- but won't leave you high and dry if VR takes a while to take off.

Image source: Getty Images.

A few years ago, Facebook became the poster child for major tech companies betting on the future of virtual reality. It happened when the company paid $2 billion for the VR company Oculus, and since then Facebook has been pretty vocal about the possibilities of the technology.

"This is a good candidate to be the next major computing platform. It's worthy of a lot of investment over a long period," Zuckerberg told Bloomberglast year.

The company showed off its new Facebook Spaces app at itsF8 developer conference last month,which allows users to interact with their friends in a virtual world using VR headsets. The app is in beta right now, but it's one of the first indications of Facebook's plans for VR software.

Last year, Zuckerberg said, "The next phase is building the next great software experiences." And with the reveal of Facebook Spaces, it's clear that the company is already stepping into the next stage of its VR plans.

Facebook's received a lot attention for its VR pursuits, but I don't think investors should underestimate Alphabet's potential to dominate.

You might know about Google's initial foray in into VR with Cardboard, which was essentially a stripped-down VR headset powered by a user's smartphone. The company upgraded that a bit when it launched its Daydream View late last year, which is higher-end version of Cardboard and comes with its own VR handheld controller.

Image source: Google.

But the company's real potential in VR comes from its software opportunities, and right now Google is pursuing two of them. The first is its Daydream VR hub that allows smartphone users to discover and download VR apps and content on their devices. It's still in its infancy, but Daydream already has more than 100 apps.

The second opportunity is an Android-based VR software platform that will come out later this year for developers. Instead of running on a smartphone, this Android-based platform will run exclusively on VR headsets. That means that Google could soon be powering VR headsets that don't require any sort of tethering to a PC or smartphone.

It's not hard to imagine the possibilities here. If Google nails VR software in the same way it did with Android, then the company could easily bring in ad and app revenue from the VR market.

And last, but certainly not least, is graphics-processor maker NVIDIA. The company is best known for its gaming graphics processing units (GPUs) and makes about 58% of its total revenue from that segment.

NVIDIA's potential in VR is huge mostly because it dominates the discrete desktop GPU space, claiming 70.5% of the market. Rival Advanced Micro Devices follows in a very distant second place with 29.5%. NVIDIA's been betting that its graphics cards will benefit from the growth of VR and already has a slew VR-ready cards on the market.

Image source: NVIDIA.

The company isn't just creating the hardware for VR, through; it's also released developer tools and apps to help VR content creators best use the company's processors when creating VR content.

NVIDIA's advantage in the space is that it's the go-to GPU maker for high-end graphics cards. Jon Peddie Research said last year that, "In the PC market, NVIDIA has a substantial market share in enthusiast graphics boards, the type needed for Oculus and HTC VR experiences."

That should bode well for NVIDIA as it takes on the high-end VR market, but the company's VR-ready graphics cards for notebooks should also help NVIDIA tackle the more entry-level VR space as well.

It's worth noting here that NVIDIA is looking fairly expensive for new investors right now. The company's forward P/E ratio hovers above 30, compared to the tech average of about 25.But for current NVIDIA investors, the company's place in the GPU space means it's a VR bet you likely won't have to babysit anytime soon.

Suzanne Frey, an executive at Alphabet, is a member of The Motley Fool's board of directors. Chris Neiger has no position in any stocks mentioned. The Motley Fool owns shares of and recommends Alphabet (A shares), Alphabet (C shares), Facebook, and Nvidia. The Motley Fool has a disclosure policy.

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3 Virtual Reality Stocks You Don't Have to Babysit -- The Motley Fool - Motley Fool

Partner, Collective Growth; Managing Director, Strat Americas

Sitting in a plush, darkened studio lot theater last week in Hollywood at yet another forum heralding the dawn of the VR ecosystem, one cant help note how much interest is building in virtual reality, and how many more parties are coming to the VR dancehall.

Eighteen months ago, I was part of a private forum of fifty invitees to the same studio, all there to make our pitch in the new VR landscapeand presumably help shed some light forward for the studio, too. Only then we were in a smaller sound stage, albeit one with a famous pedigree. (Star Trek was shot there). There was a good group of potential VR content prospects, toothree different 3D Audio technologies, many individual film producers, a few writers, even folks who work in far-flung fields like theme parks. Major VR players like Oculus and Magic Leap sent their strategists, but they didnt dominate the day.

Last week, the group was much larger and more diverseattendees spanned Amazon Studios to real estate professionals, reporters, and venture capitalists. Lunch lines were a lot longer, and many traditional media veterans showed up, toofrom TV to Music, all there to get a sense of whats cooking in this new space. Even a studio chief and studio owner wandered through, eyeballing demo booths with apparent curiosity.

The events central theme was VR contentthat corner of the virtual, augmented, and mixed reality world where media content meets platforms and audiences. And it seems to be building with an intensity and focus that is undeniably bigger and more forceful than ever. VR is clearly not a content business yet, but that hasnt deterred Hollywood.

Even at this stage, a few things seem clear:

That day may be years off. But in the interim, a lot of parties are circling in wait for the day VR content becomes a business.

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The Virtual Reality Content Business That Isn't - Huffington post (press release) (blog)

NeuroSpeculative AfroFeminism is an art installation and virtual reality experience recently featured at the Tribeca Film Festival. The project, which seeks to put women of color in the virtual reality space, was created by Hyphen-Labs, a collective of women from diverse backgrounds.

We worked with character modelers, animators and developers to create an empowering experience that puts black women and their narratives at the center of the piece, says co-creator and artist Carmen Aguilar Y Wedge.

The installation is composed of two parts: prototypes of physical products of the future and an immersive VR experience. The invented products focus on security, protection and visibility of black womens bodiesfrom earrings that record harassment to an anti-surveillance scarf that blocks facial-recognition software.

By visiting a VR salon known as a neurocosmetology lab, visitors enter a world where black women discuss politics, arts and sciencea hair salon with a futuristic twist. One of the products featured is based on real technology known as transcranial stimulation, in which a cap is placed on your head to strengthen focus and thought. However, it needs to be close to the skull, so its built for people with little to no hair. Hyphen-Labs pioneered a brain-optimizing technique that uses extensions known as Octavia Electrodes, which are named after legendary sci-fi writer Octavia Butler.

If I were to make something and reimagine it in a way that fits into black rituals, how would we do this? asks project co-creator Ashley Baccus-Clark, who is a molecular biologist. Thinking back to the civil rights era and before that, the salon was a place of political activation, community building, creative endeavors, and we really wanted to mirror that but also think about why science and technology is leaving us out of that space.

For more information about NSAF, visit nsaf.space or follow Hyphen-Labs on Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.

Video Producer // TheRoot

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Watch: Black Women Dive Headfirst Into the Future With Virtual Reality Project - The Root

VR and three-dimension technologies are shaping industries that stand to benefit from immersive and interactive custom-built environments

As the next best thing after teleportation, virtual reality manifests as a potent tool for acquainting physically distant individuals with new settings. Poised to disrupt the travel industry, real estate, employee training, surgery, military, and any business that stands to benefit from beaming people half way across the world, instantaneously and with zero personal or financial commitment, the advent of spatial interfaces will completely reimagine the ways we interact with our devices.

In support of the technologys tremendous capabilities, Texas A&M University has recently launched a new VR-enabled virtual tour powered by location-based software company concept3D Inc.s Xplorer Virtual Tour via its CampusBird platform. With the intent of making its campus more accessible for prospective students to visitspecifically east coasters and those unable to make the trip down to The Lone Star Statethe platform is a testament to VRs capabilities in creating experiences that are not only immersive but convince us to take action. PSFK got a chance to sit down with CEO of concept3D Inc. Gordon Boyes, alongside Texas A&M Senior Graphic Designer Michael Green to discuss how interactive maps and virtual tours will transform academic institutions, as well as convention centers, healthcare, resorts and hotels, retirement communities, commercial real estate and beyond.

Fundamentally what we do is we catalog content in a 3D world on our platform. We have a content management system that stores our [captures and renderings] in latitude, longitude and elevation. It could be as simple as an aerial view of a map, to fully three-dimensional environments with real-time data feeds opens Boyes in our discussion. Anything in the world u can imagine that belongs in a physical space we manage on our system and present it back in a way that drives user engagement and allows people to experience something in a familiar way, like a map, but in a much more immersive style. They can get to know an experience or an institution without ever stepping foot in it.

Boyes goes on to explain that while virtual reality enables a sense of embeddedness, the respective CampusBird and atlas3D platforms further support mobile and large monitor consumption in an effort to offer a truly democratized experience. Whether its high school seniors on their college search or current students looking into their study abroad options, the ability to explore a campus without having to travel to it empowers individuals to make a more informed decision.

At Texas A&M, I wanted to push this idea of 360 videos and images. We have a great visitor experience and we realized we didnt want to just limit it to people on campus physically. So we started thinking, how can we emulate this experience digitally? says Green. This technology allows access to something thats otherwise exclusive; imagine putting on a headset and going woah, this school has a nuclear reactor! It all really boils down to this: the more you can visualize yourself in a college campus, the more likely youll go to that college.

As an increasingly digital industry, education continues to reform with the introduction of technical advancements such as e-learning, apps, various web-based administration portals, the actual content being taught, and now, virtual tours. And while academics are concept3Ds primary audience, Boyes explains that the vertical isnt the only one to benefit from this tech.

Theres an enormous potential for this technology in event planningspecifically when you want to feel out high levels of detail in indoor spaces. Well actually use an engineers drawn out floor plan to ensure accuracy in our renderings. Or, if you want to see the exterior world, we can get stunning 3D views of places just by working with clients and using satellite images. Sure, theres other interactive map products out there, but the ability to represent any source in a beautiful and navigable way is what sets us apart adds Boyes.

On its website, concept3D promises to turn event coordination into an art form by getting granular with your strategy and planning every break, booth, concession and so forth for a custom tailored experience. Traffic heat maps further offer insights into where and why crowds gather, so event and urban planners alike can coordinate the best strategies to implement.

During our conversation, Boyes made the distinction between viewing a spreadsheet of repair data for the internal components of an airplane, versus actually being able to pick at pieces and dissect the information in a visual and interactive manner. The latter option illustrates Boyes take on concept3Ds workas Green pointed out, its one thing to hear about a nuclear reactor, and another thing to see it (especially when in the comfort of your own living room).

Already, concept3Ds platforms are deep-reaching: you know them as some of Disneys maps, Google, or perhaps various universities across the U.S. And while the company has left its mark on thousands of brands, theres no shortage of businesses that could benefit from using map technology to interpret behavior, build smarter infrastructures, develop wayfinding maps and build platforms of their own. The future for many niches outside of the campus touring will inevitably follow suit: a diverse collection of telepresence solutions will seep into our daily lives, enabling us to visit relatives, live out that nightmare of attending class in our underwear, find our next home or travel the world on the worlds smallest budget.

concept3D

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Virtual Reality Could Be The Next Frontier In College Campus Tours - PSFK (subscription)