Daily Archives: January 25, 2020

2019 was a growth year for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) known collectively as extended reality (XR). The presence of these breakthrough technologies began to be felt far away from the fields of gaming and entertainment, where they first became popular.

The 5 Biggest Virtual And Augmented Reality Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About

Virtual reality where users wear a headset and are fully immersed in computer-generated environments has been developed to meet design, marketing, education, training, and retail needs. Augmented reality where computer images are superimposed onto the user's view of the real world, through a screen or headset is a more complex challenge, as it requires the software to "see" what is in front of it. But we're getting used to seeing it used for more than adding cartoon features to selfie pictures or spotting Pokemon in the wild.

With global spending on XR technology is forecast to increase by 78.5% next year compared to this year, both technologies will be key trends to watch out for in 2020. We are likely to see a whole load of exciting new hardware offering even greater immersion and realism, as well as innovative use cases as industry gets to grips with what it can do.

Industrial use outpaces gaming and entertainment

Most people's first experiences of VR and AR today are likely to be in gaming and entertainment. That's likely to change, as research shows that the development of enterprise XR solutions is overtaking that on consumer solutions. The 2020 XR Industry Insight report collated by VR Intelligence states that 65% of the AR companies surveyed said they are working on industrial applications, while just 37% working on consumer products and software.

This shouldnt be surprising although games made the headlines in recent years thanks to Pokemon Go and Facebook's Oculus Rift, the potential to boost productivity and safety using XR makes it an attractive proposition for industry. VR can be used to simulate working in dangerous environments or with expensive, easily damaged tools and equipment, without any of the risks. AR, on the other hand, can be used to relay essential information directly to the user about whatever happens to be in front of them reducing the time spent by engineers, technicians, or maintenance staff referring to manuals and looking up information online while on the job.

XR takes off in healthcare

The potential uses for these technologies in healthcare are obvious, and over 2020 we can expect to see many of these use cases transition from trials and pilots and gradually into general use. Virtual reality has already been adopted in therapy, where it is used to treat patients with phobias and anxiety disorders. Combined with biosensors that monitor physiological reactions like heart rate and perspiration, therapists can get a better understanding of how patients react to stressful situations in a safe, virtual environment. VR is also used to help people with autism develop social and communication skills, as well as to diagnose patients with visual or cognitive impairments, by tracking their eye movement.

The adoption of AR in healthcare is forecast to grow even more quickly with the value of the market increasing by 38% annually until 2025. AR can be used by surgeons both in the theater and in training to alert them to risks or hazards while they are working. One app which has been developed uses AR to guide users towards defibrillator devices, should they need one when they are out in public. Another one helps nurses to find patients veins and avoid accidentally sticking needles where they arent wanted. As these innovations and others like them lead to improved patient outcomes and reduced cost of treatment, they are likely to become increasingly widespread throughout 2020.

Headsets get smaller, more mobile and more powerful

One of the biggest limiting factors with current XR technology is the need for encumbering headsets and display units. This is more of a problem with VR, where the powerful processing hardware needed to generate the graphics is usually contained within the headset. However, hardware devices have started to trend towards being "untethered" For example, Facebook's Oculus headset initially needed to be connected to a powerful PC, but this year became available as the self-contained Oculus Quest version.

As well as more mobile, headsets will be able to generate increasingly realistic "worlds" for the VR user to explore as the devices are fitted with more and more powerful processors. While early VR worlds were clearly computer-generated using low-resolution polygons, the vistas available to us in 2020 will move closer to reality, allowing for more immersive experiences. Possibly the most anticipated breakthrough will be Apples forthcoming 8K combined VR/AR glasses that will not be tethered to a computer or phone. The consumer tech giant is hoping that it will be the one to breakXR into the mainstream with a high-end but affordable device, in the same way it did with the iPhone.

5G opens new possibilities for VR and AR

Super-fast mobile networks will further boost the potential of XR to strengthen its presence in entertainment and make further inroads into industry during 2020.

The potential for data transfer speeds of up to 3 gigabits per second by comparison, the average home broadband delivers well under 100 megabits per second means 5G should be fast enough to stream VR and AR data from the cloud. Rather than needing to be wired up to powerful PCs, or encumbered by on-board hardware, viewing devices will upload tracking data to data centers where the heavy processing will be done. The rendered images can be delivered back to the user in real-time thanks to the speed of 5G and other advanced networks.

Streaming VR has been possible in a limited way for a few years now Facebook lets you do it with your phone, but the experience is limited due to data transfer speeds and low on-device processing power. Combining it with the cloud and 5G technology means designers of VR and AR tools will be unencumbered by the need to deliver their experiences into a low-bandwidth, low-powered environment. The result will be cheaper headsets and viewing devices and more realistic VR simulations.

More of us will learn through VR and AR

Educational experiences in VR and AR will continue to become increasingly common throughout 2020. The immersive nature of VR means that pupils can engage with learning in fun new ways, and AR brings new flexibility to on-the-job training.

Already students can take a trip through time to visit the ancient Romans, or through space to experience conditions on other planets. But as the technology becomes moves away from niche and becomes part of the fabric of everyday education, were likely to see growth apart from simply providing "experiences," into solving problems with current education systems. Distance learners could be taught in VR classrooms, meaning they dont miss out on the benefits of learning in a collaborative environment, while AR training aids can ensure that access to the information needed to carry out a job is always on hand.

You might also be interested in some of the best examples of how AR is already being used in business, which I discuss in this video:

Original post:

The 5 Biggest Virtual And Augmented Reality Trends In 2020 Everyone Should Know About - Forbes

Maybe this will be the year virtual reality goes mainstream. If we say it enough times well be right eventually, yeah?

But it really does feel like 2020 might be the year. Four years into consumer virtual reality, I finally feel excited again. The hardware is great, and cheaper than ever before. The games are promising, albeit few. And theres a sense that maybe the We need software to sell hardware to make developing software worthwhile vicious cycle has finally been overcome. Maybe.

I could be wrong. I certainly hate to get excited about virtual realitys prospects in 2020, in a Fool me twice sort-of way. Ive had my heart broken by VR before. And yet

If VR does take off in 2020, much of the credit needs to go to Oculus and its Oculus Quest. And listen, I love the fidelity of Valves high-end Index headset driven by my desktop PC and its Nvidia GeForce RTX 2080 Ti. Who wouldnt? The image quality is fantastic, the tracking is pinpoint precise, the sound is phenomenal.

The Quest is none of these things. It looks okay. The tracking is easily broken. The sound is good enough.

It doesnt matter, because Oculus broke free from the tyranny of the tether. Suddenly VR isnt a $1,500 investment but a $400 one, period(at least when stock is available). No hidden costs, no Oh actually you need to upgrade your graphics card.

Even if you have a gaming PC, Oculus Quests flexibility is mighty appealing. I have plenty of space to use the Index with my desktop, but still find myself reaching for the Quest simply because its less hassle. Friends of mine have expressed an interest in Oculus Quest because their PC is confined to a small room, but they have a sizable living room that would be perfect for room-scale VR. Not to mention the fact that you can travel with Quest, or take it to a friends house to demo.

And for an extra $80, you can have a perfectly capable PC-based VR system anyway. Oculus Link, which went into beta in November, allows you to hook the Oculus Quest up to your PC with a USB-C cable. There are cheaper cables on Amazon for $20 or so, but Oculus now sells a bespoke cable for $80 thats both longer and lays flat along the side of the headset, which is a little less janky than having some random Anker cable sticking out the side at a right angle.

Its the headset that VR needed. Theres a place for Index, and its cousin the HTC Vive Pro. Hell, theres still a place for the original Vive hardware as well. Oculus Quest is a great untethered headset though and a good enough entry-level tethered headset, and its cheap as hell. No surprise people are buying it in droves.

And people are buying it. Thats, I think, the second part of this story. Its hard to get reliable sales figures, as neither Valve nor Facebook appears interested in making those numbers public.

There was a lot of encouraging news last year though. First, Mark Zuckerberg claimed during a mid-year earnings call that Were selling [Oculus Quest units] as fast as we can make them.

Soon, even that wasnt enough. The holidays were full of reports of Quest shortages...pretty much everywhere. In fact Quest is still sold out on Amazon at time of writing, or at least only available through resellers for an inflated price. Placing the order through Oculuss site, Im told it will ship by March 4.

Valves Index is hard to get, too. The first reports of Index shortages came in late November, and by early December it was gone. Valve kept orders open for a few more weeks, with shipping estimates slipping first to February, then to March. And now? Going to the Indexs Steam page, youre met with a Notify Me button. Valves effectively closed orders until it can meet the existing demand.

Even themuch-maligned Oculus Rift S headset is sold out for the moment. Thatd be my last pick for VR now that Quest does everything the Rift S does and more, but Oculus is still struggling to keep up.

Again, its hard to pin actual numbers to any of these headsets. For all we know, Valve made a dozen Index kits for the holidays, sold out, and is now trying to build a dozen more. Until we see sales figures, its hard to know otherwise.

And as a percentage of the PC audience? The numbers remain a rounding error. Looking at the Steam Hardware Survey, all the Vive and Rift and Index owners combined still make up less than 1 percent of Steam users. Hell, throw in the Windows Mixed Reality owners as well, you still only get 0.87 percent of the Steam audience owning a VR headsetor about 800,000 people, doing some back-of-napkin math.

Sure, that doesnt account for Oculus Quest owners, nor for those who own a headset but dont keep it regularly hooked up. Still, VRs a long way from mainstream.

Theres interest in the platform thoughand growing interest, if the current shortages are anything to go by. People want VR, or at least enough people to outpace whatever Valve and Oculus planned for ahead of time.

While Oculus deserves most of the credit on the hardware side of virtual reality, its safe to say Valve deserves most of the credit on the software side.

It feels almost unfair to write that, because Oculus has put a lot more money into VRs software ecosystem since 2016, funded a lot of studios both internal and external, and put out a lot of good-to-great games. Lone Echo, Wilsons Heart, Stormland, Asgards WrathOculus has had a hand in a staggering percentage of the VR games worth mentioning since the Rifts consumer launch.

And theyll continue to do so in 2020. In September we finally got a look at Respawns long-awaited partnership with Oculus, and its Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond. Thats a huge series to see resurrected on VR, whether or not I came away impressed by our initial demo. Ready at Dawns Lone Echo II is planned for 2020 as well, and given the original is one of Oculuss (and VRs) strongest titles, Im hoping the sequel can set the bar even higher.

If theres a forthcoming game fueling a rush on VR headsets though, its undoubtedly Half-Life: Alyx. Announced in November and set for a March release, its the first Half-Life in over a decadeand its a VR exclusive.

Note that its not an Index exclusive. Sure, Index owners get the game for free and the Index controllers will have some additional functionality, but Valves been very clear that you can play Half-Life: Alyx on a Rift, Rift S, Quest, Vive, HP Reverb, or whatever the hell you have lying around.

This is Valves big first-party VR push though. And its the closest weve got to a system seller. I dont think thats a controversial statementand I say that as someone who absolutely loves Google Earth VR and Tilt Brush, Job Simulator and Vacation Simulator, Lone Echo, Asgards Wrath, Audioshield and Pistol Whip and Beat Saber, Robo Recall, Moss, and too many more to mention.

Point being, Ive played a lot of VR games over the years, and had favorites come and go. I keep a mental shortlist of games for new owners to buy, games that are great to show off to first-timers, and so forth. I imagine every VR headset owner has a similar list.

But noneno matter the qualityhave done so much with so little as Half-Life: Alyx. With one trailer, Valve upended the entire idea of what a major VR title might mean. I dont know if it will be good, or even interesting. Nor do I know whether it will outsell Beat Saber, the success of which made arcade/session-style games de rigueur for the last year or two, at the expense of more ambitious (and risky) narrative-heavy experiences.

Still, theres a feeling I think that in Half-Life: Alyx, virtual reality finally has its showcase experience. This is Valves chance, and by extension everyones chance, to prove the platforms usefulness. Thats a lot of weight to put on one game, but its almost certainly whats fueling recent sales, and if in the future VR is as common as WASD controls and physics engines, I expect March of 2020 will be seen as a major inflection point.

Or maybe Half-Life: Alyx will come and go and VR will continue on as it has, slow and steady. Theres that possibility as well. I remember the heady days before the consumer launch of virtual reality, following each new development and thinking Wow, VR is going to change everything. Four years later, it hasnt. Not even close.

Maybe VRs moment is 2020. Maybe its 2021. Maybe its 2031. If nothing else, Im confident VR isnt disappearing anytime soon, even if Slow but constant growth isnt nearly as compelling a story as One day, everything changed.

Read more:

Will virtual reality finally break out in 2020? - PCWorld

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Virtual reality is becoming more widespread in gaming, shopping, research, education and training, but is not a perfect match to the real world. Discrepancies create usability problems with accessing virtual tools, or getting distracted, confused, lost or cybersick. Jiayan Zhao, a doctoral student in the Department of Geography in the College of Earth and Mineral Sciences and a developer at the Center for Immersive Experiences, is conducting experiments to reduce usability problems and improve the users virtual experience.

From the perspective of spatial cognition, the virtual environment can largely simulate the actual environment, but some users experienced serious motion sickness something we dont want to have happen and they could not finish the experiment or their data could not be used, Zhao said. There are huge individual differences in virtual experiences. Some people may already have had experience with VR, so they performed well, but for those who never used VR before, they had challenges in performing the tasks.

New VR users tend to be very excited about everything, and that distracts them from performing the tasks, Zhao said. The novelty effect can be distracting to the learning goal, he said.

Other problems in creating effective virtual environments include usability of tools, spatial awareness, scale and locomotion.

For example, with a workbench for data analysis, the user is interacting with tools, using a hand to push a button or using the tip of the pen, and in some cases, they simply dont understand how to do that, Zhao said. Age or kinesthetic awareness could be factors, so the tools need to be as simple as possible.

Spatial awareness is another usability problem.

In the virtual environment, the way one moves about and sees objects is very different from the real environment, Zhao said. In reality, we perceive our surroundings primarily from an egocentric perspective, using our body as a reference, he said. But virtual environments offer different perspectives: top-down like a map, a high perspective like a tower or hilltop and multiple ground-level perspectives, even transparency. Which is best?

Scale is another problem in the virtual environment because it is much larger than the physical space that can be incorporated into immersive virtual reality (iVR) systems.

That brings up problems with wayfinding and moving around, Zhao said.

Zhao is now applying in an immersive virtual environment what he learned about wayfinding for his masters degree, using mobile phones and navigation applications. He did that work at SUNY Albany with his adviser and Penn State geography alumnus Rui Li.

Overcoming the limit of mobile phone screens for visualizing spatial information was the key to support spatial learning in our project, Li said.

A mobile screen is very small, and the number of landmarks you can view is very limited, Zhao said.

To address this problem, Zhao created an algorithm to show distant landmarks.

If you are in Paris, for example, the location of the Eiffel Tower is important as an anchor for your mental map, Zhao said. Even though it may be far off, I projected it to the edge of the screen to indicate what direction it is.

Li and Zhao adapted visual variables from cartographic design.

Jiayan successfully implemented four prototypes with size, saturation, fuzziness and transparency, respectively, to visualize those distant objects and created the visualization based on ordinal and ratio levels of measurement for us to assess their efficiency, Li said.

At that time, Zhao said he did not know how to program. When I was an undergraduate student in geosciences, I analyzed rock samples and didnt learn anything about computers or technology, Zhao said. But then I started to use them and taught myself. He said the important lesson for him was, do not constrain yourself, and be brave about different possibilities in your life.

Since coming to Penn State, Zhao has applied his experiences and his thinking about spatial cognition to virtual environments.

A virtual environment is powerful, he said. It combines the power of the actual environment with the digital medium. It can trigger emotions in users that may lead to better learning and improve access to science for underrepresented communities.

Zhao said his goal is to make a contribution to the science of virtual reality and increase public engagement in science.

I want to be a professor. I really enjoy doing research, Zhao said.

Originally posted here:

In virtual reality, real problems remain to be resolved - Penn State News

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x 20){ if(fullDuration > 1 && ((fullDuration - fullCurrent) > 1) && !$('.vjs-loading-spinner').hasClass('badspinner')){ console.log("hiding spinner"); $('.vjs-loading-spinner').addClass('badspinner'); } } var duration_time = Math.floor(this.duration()); //this is a hack because the end video event is not firing... var current_time = Math.floor(this.currentTime()); if ( current_time > 0 && ( fullCurrent >= (fullDuration - 10) )){ var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ if('desktop' == "iphone" && playerState.AD_ERROR){ console.log("skipped timeupdate end"); }else{ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } } } if(!playerState.START_SENT){ WVM.sendbeacon('start', true, playerState.VIDEO_ID, playerState.VIDEO_TITLE); playerState.START_SENT = true; } var currentTime, duration, percent, percentPlayed, _i; currentTime = Math.round(this.currentTime()); duration = Math.round(this.duration()); percentPlayed = Math.round(currentTime / duration * 100); for (percent = _i = 0; _i = percent && __indexOf.call(playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'], percent) 0) { playerState['PERCENTS_TRACKED'].push(percent); } } } }); //player.off('ended'); player.on('ended', function(){ console.log("ended"); playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; WVM.sendbeacon("complete", true, playerState.VIDEO_ID, playerState.VIDEO_TITLE); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }else{ console.log("Playlist complete (no more videos)"); } }); //player.off('adserror'); player.on('adserror', function(e){ //$('#ima-ad-container').remove(); WVM.lastAdRequest = new Date().getTime() / 1000; console.log(e); console.log("ads error"); var errMessage = e['data']['AdError']['l']; playerState.AD_IS_PLAYING = false; playerState.IS_PLAYING = false; // && errMessage == 'The VAST response document is empty.' if(!playerState.AD_ERROR){ var dTime = new Date().getTime(); WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = WVM.getFirstPrerollUrl(); console.log("calling backup ad tag url: " + WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl); WVM.activePlayer.ima.changeAdTag(WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl + "?" + dTime); WVM.activePlayer.ima.requestAds(); //WVM.activePlayer.src({ // src: masterSrc, // type: 'video/mp4' //}); //WVM.firstPrerollTagUrl = ""; } playerState.AD_ERROR = true; }); //player.off('error'); player.on('error', function(event) { if (player.error().code === 4) { player.error(null); // clear out the old error player.options().sources.shift(); // drop the highest precedence source console.log("now doing src"); console.log(player.options().sources[0]); player.src(player.options().sources[0]); // retry return; } }); //player.off('volumechange'); player.on('volumechange', function(event) { console.log(event); var theHeight = $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .vjs-volume-level').css('height'); var cssVolume = 0; if(theHeight){ cssVolume = parseInt(theHeight.replace('%', '')); } var theVolume = player.volume(); if(theVolume > 0.0 || cssVolume > 0){ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'none'); }else{ $('#media-container-' + playerState.ORIGINAL_ID + ' .mute-overlay').css('display', 'block'); } }); WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); setInterval(function(){ WVM.reinitRawEvents(playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); }, 2000); } if(!WVM.rawCompleteEvent){ WVM.rawCompleteEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state113908']; console.log("firing raw event due to all other events failing"); var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); //if(playerSettings.autoplay_next && newMediaId){ if(newMediaId){ WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } }; } if(!WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent){ WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent = function(e){ var playerState = WVM['player_state113908']; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + playerState['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); var fullCurrent = rawVideoElem.currentTime * 1000; var fullDuration = rawVideoElem.duration * 1000; var current_time = Math.floor(rawVideoElem.currentTime); console.log("raw timeupdate: " + fullCurrent + " out of " + fullDuration); if ( current_time > 0 && ( fullCurrent >= (fullDuration - 50) )){ var currId = playerState.VIDEO_ID; var newMediaId = WVM.getNextPlaylistIndex(currId); if(newMediaId){ console.log("loading new video from rawtimeupdate"); WVM.load_video(newMediaId, true, playerState.ORIGINAL_ID); } } if(!$('.vjs-loading-spinner').hasClass('badspinner')){ $('.vjs-loading-spinner').addClass('badspinner') } }; } WVM.reinitRawEvents = function(playerId){ var playerState = WVM['player_state' + playerId]; var rawVideoElem = document.getElementById('html5-video-' + WVM['player_state' + playerId]['ORIGINAL_ID'] + '_html5_api'); //COMPLETE EENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawCompleteEvent, false); //TIME UPDATE EVENT if( WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT){ rawVideoElem.removeEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); } rawVideoElem.addEventListener('ended', WVM.rawTimeupdateEvent, false); WVM['player_state' + playerId].COMPLETE_EVENT = true; WVM['player_state' + playerId].TIMEUPDATE_EVENT = true; };

GOSHEN, Ind.It was a moment at the Elkhart County Fair last summer that virtual reality enthusiast Damon Miles says will stay with them.

A lady came in with her mom. Her mom had just had a stroke a week prior to it. She rolled her up in a wheelchair and was asking if she could experience VR, Miles said. We put her in the headset and we asked her what she wanted to do and she said she wanted to go to the beach.

With just a touch of uncertainty about how it would go, Miles hooked her up to a virtual reality experience that transported her to a sandy beach.

She went from very subdued, kind of not there, and discombobulated to moving her hands around and excited and looking around. What really got me about that was her daughter started to cry because that was the most active she had been since she got out of the hospital, Miles said.

Miles and his wife, Crystal, werent even originally supposed to be set up at the fair but a last minute cancellation allowed the duo to bring the unique experience to fair-goers.

From relationships and contacts they made at the fair six months ago, the Miles were able to set up shop in the old Bag Factory in Goshen on N. Chicago Avenue.

Being able to go to the highest mountain peaks or go into space yet make it feel like its actually happening to you, thats virtually reality, Miles said.

They currently operate a small space on the second floor that can be used by appointment. The two also hit the road, regularly making house and business calls with their canopy and headsets for everything from birthday parties to corporate events.

Starting in March, NextReality VR Studios will open up its multi-thousand square foot gaming arena and space on the ground floor of the old Bag Factory.

We want to bring a bit of that gaming community here to Goshen and Elkhart, Miles said. We want to expand this into a place where people hangout and not just do VR but do video games, we want to do console and arcade gaming. We want to do board games and card games. We want it to kind of like a family center.

Miles, who has a background in civil engineering, said the business will incorporate e-sports as well but virtual reality will be the core of the business, offering experiences from floating through the human body's bloodstream in a capsule to exploring outer-space.

While the expansion will create a meeting spot for gamers, the Miles will still head out into the community to bring virtual reality to those who might not be able to access the old Bag Factory.

Ive always thought of virtual reality as a tool, Miles said, adding that the experience with the woman at the fair really opened their eyes to the ways in which virtual reality can serve others.

The Miles recently worked with a community services program that supports people with Alzheimers and dementia to assist with their care.

It [virtual reality] helps with recalling memories, it helps with realization, and to just give them something that they usually dont get in assisted living, Miles said.

NextReality VR worked with four patients who started off a bit afraid of the idea of entering a virtual world.

They ended up excited to head into the next environment, Miles said. It felt like we were actually doing something.

Miles said that the company will also serve people experience homelessness along with low income students.

When we found out kids werent going on field trips because they couldnt afford them, we thought, well, we could bring the field trips like museums, to them, Miles said.

NextReality VR opened its current studio three months ago and by March, they hope to be welcoming the community into their new digs downstairs, as they work to transport Michiana to far away, and sometimes made-up, worlds.

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Virtual reality arcade and gaming arena coming to Goshen - ABC 57 News

A group of teachers hold their phone in front of their faces. Using the camera theyre looking at the classroom theyre standing in...when suddenly a zombie appears. It warns they need to reach a safe house or theyll be eaten alive.

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With that they face a series of locked doors. To open them and escape the undeads grasp, they needto answer a series of vocabulary questions. Wait, what?

This is an augmented reality game about zombies, yes. But its also a language arts lesson for middle school students.

This session was part of the STEAMing It Up conference at Northern Illinois University.

If you dont know what Augmented (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR) means or what the difference is, heres a breakdown: Virtual Reality is when you put on a headset or glasses that drops you into a new 3-dimensional world.

Augmented reality is when a device or app alters your perception of your world. Think of the popular mobile game Pokmon GO. The pocket monsters you want to capture pop up on your phone screen, scampering across your yard or wherever your phone camera is pointed.

Hal Brynteson is an undergraduate researcher at NIU who helped present on AR.

It's sometimes difficult to think of uses technology besides like, Oh, that's cool, said Brynteson. Especially in education, what are students actually gaining from seeing the ocean in a VR headset? What can we measure? What can we create thats new with these experiences?

That question is the crux of this conference.

Stacie ODaniell teaches business education and technology at Genoa-Kingston High School. This is her first year in the classroom after years as an education administrator in the private sector.

ODaniell knows she has catching up to do, especially when it comes to new tech.

And she hopes conferences like this one can help her learn more to keep up with their students.

ODaniell attended another AR/VR workshop in the fall.

I took it back to my students and they taught me. They like to research whats out there, and they brought those applications back to me. And that's how we move forward with it. So it really was a student-led project, said ODaniell.

She started integrating the AR/VR lessons with her schools computer club first.

They really like the science ones where they can look at the human body and focus in on different parts and see how what each part does and how it relates to another part that's been a big hit, she said.

Just being introduced to the concepts and platforms is useful, especially as AR/VR becomes more mainstream.

While Genoa-Kingston students explore that, surgeons at Stanford University Medical Center use 3-D models in VR to simulate surgeries. They use images from their actual patient to map their strategy before they break any skin.

The education system has to change, and we have to meet these kids where they're at, said ODaniell. For example, the AR/VR, kids are learning through this and we're meeting them where their skill sets are, instead of trying to put them in our box.

But collaboration isnt limited to conferences, its also online. Hal Brynteson says Metaverse, the augmented reality app the teachers used, is a great example.

Another reason we chose Metaverse is it already has an existing online teacher community. So, you can look up and browse through different games, said Brynteson.

Matthew Swed is an undergraduate researcher studying applied mathematics at NIU. In another session, he gave educators the basics of Unity. Its a software engine used to build video games.

I just want to kind of go through it a bit, so that you're not completely overwhelmed.

Swed built a makeshift catapult in the softwares 3-D space. Then he dropped a weight on it and launches a ball across the screen.

You could go in and have the kids see what happens if you made the weight to be like 75, instead of 50, or you could go to the ammo and you could change the weight of the ammo and see how that affects the path of it or you could change the weight of the catapult even.

The software gives the tools to learn how to build video games with little to no prior coding experience.

Kids physics class could create simulations? asks one of the teachers. Oh, yeah. But you can also do better than this, said Swed.

Luckily, like Metaverse, theres an online ecosystem in place to help you learn. Students and teachers can find step-by-step tutorials, quick recipes for simple games.

As a high school student, if you had handed me this software, a bunch of videos and said, this is how video games are made. I wouldn't have even needed a classroom setting, I would have just taken it on my own initiative and taking time to learn all of this stuff.

Stacie ODaniell hopes to inspire that kind of curiosity when she takes the tools back to her classroom for the next generation of programmers, engineers and artists.

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Zombies, Catapults And Simulated Surgery: Virtual Reality & High Tech Education Is Going Mainstream - WNIJ and WNIU

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GREENSBORO, N.C. -- Virtual reality goggles are normally used for video games. At UNC Greensboro, researchers are using the goggles to immerse people in a game, and although participating and studying the results can be fun, its being done to prevent -- or help people recover from -- serious injuries.

Were trying to figure out how we may be able to use virtual reality for physical therapy, said Christopher Rhea, associate professor of kinesiology for UNCG.

Rhea says as humans walk, we swing our feet within an inch of the ground. Therefore, were walking a fine line between staying upright and taking a tumble.

Every time you take a step, youre within an inch of falling, he said.

By using virtual reality, theyre provided with a flexible platform to they can study how people walk around the world. They can also study how they can put someone in a virtual reality environment to help retrain people on how to walk and balance once injury, aging or disease set in.

There is that delicate balance between, how do you energetically and efficiently walk throughout the environment without the potential of falling, Rhea said.

Through the program, they can build any virtual environment they want, while letting people practice in a safe space.

Its a visually challenging task that looks realistic, and you ultimately get the desired biomechanical movement of motor behavior movement, but theres no physical consequence, he said.

The team puts sensors on a participants shoes, before putting the virtual reality mask over their eyes. Inside the goggles, a pair of shoes appear in place of the participants, and the task is to avoid yellow objects along a path in the virtual reality room, as well as step on the blue objects.

The participant first has to step over what appears to be a series of raised bricks, before turning left and having to walk between poles, then turning right to walk heel-to-toe over a balance beam before stepping on a set of blue dots back to where the person began.

Its awkward at first. See the above video for proof.

Weve already started working with older adult populations that have already fallen once, Rhea said.

He adds that the greatest risk factor for a fall is a previous fall.

The team is also working with people in separate age ranges. Rhea says hes been doing the research for about 10 years.

We dont really care that someone gets better at the video game, what we care about is can we use the video game to train how you walk and then that transfers to the real world, he said.

Their hope is to identify populations that have trouble walking over things. In addition, they want to learn what type of training they can provide to minimize the risk of falls.

36.072635-79.791975

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UNCG team using virtual reality to study and improve how humans walk - WGHP FOX 8 Greensboro

Ai Weiweis first virtual reality video, which you can see here, is called Omni. It fuses together two films the artist has made focusing on the migrant crisis, immersing viewers in the upheaval of displacement and exile for both animals and humans.

The first part of Omni focuses on the elephants of Myanmar. Once, they worked with their trainers, mahouts, dragging logs from the jungle. Now the government has placed severe restrictions on their jobs and the animals are redundant. Lost and confused by the destruction of their natural environment, the elephants attempt to return to the wild, sometimes coming across the refugees whose camps have been erected on their long-lost migratory routes.

I relate to the elephants, Ai says. There are lot of small ones who have lost their parents. Elephants are like humans. Without parents they cannot survive. They have to stay with them until they are seven years old.

The second part of Omni drops the viewer into the centre of a migrant camp known as Coxs Bazaar, in Bangladesh just over the border from the refugees home in Myanmars Rakhine state, where they have fled persecution, ethnic cleansing and a military crackdown. The work provides a migrants-eye view of daily activities, such as queuing for supplies, and takes the viewer through the camp, from its tents to its markets and playgrounds.

As well as the harshness of life in the camp, it shows solidarity, sharing and teaching. I feel a lot of positive things about humanity even in the worst conditions, Ai said. I dont want to show that there is just sadness. Happiness and sadness always coexist. Thats a reason to protect that happiness.

Omni was produced with Acute Art, who work with artists to make virtual and augmented reality videos. On 30 January, Ai Weiwei will show the project to an audience at a Guardian event at Conway Hall, London.

Viewers on mobile should have the YouTube app already pre-installed. You must click on the title in the embedded video, and will then be taken to the video in-app where you can actually experience the video in 360 degrees.

More here:

Experience Ai Weiwei's first virtual reality artwork, Omni - The Guardian

Newly Launched Cross-Platform Content Management System (CMS) for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Projected as a Game Changer for Future of Content

While Virtual Reality a fully simulated experience and Augmented Reality the art of overlaying simulation onto a real-world environment are becoming increasingly utilized within the business and school setting, these technologies are still very much in their early days, and many apps that are being developed are designed exclusively for a single platform or a single usage. This introduces a problem for businesses and schools that want to engage with audiences who are using the ever-growing selection of AR and VR devices available on the market.

With revolutionary technologies such as Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality becoming more widely adopted by the education and business communities across the world, the need for dedicated content management systems to facilitate content creation for AR and VR is more urgent than ever. And while many have introduced systems for either ARor VR devices, the experienced team behind Fectar Studio has become one of the first in the world to launch a full, cross-platform solution along with the accompanying app.

Trialed in the Netherlands throughout 2019, the innovative no-coding cross-platform publishing solution has been readily adopted by schools, universities and business users, with hundreds signing up in just three months.

Now available to educational institutions and other organizations worldwide, the cloud-based Fectar Studio platform enables content creators to publish interactive AR and VR presentations to Android and iOS smartphones and tablets, as well as to VR devices including Oculus GO, and Oculus Quest.

Eugne Kuipers, CEO and Founder of Fectar says, AR and VR just got easy. Within just a few weeks of our initial launch in 2019, the level of interest and adoption was astounding. Schools and business users alike have been quick to embrace the incredible potential of augmented and virtual reality and deploy Fectar Studio and our app to create and view beautiful and engaging presentations using AR and VR.

There are plans to introduce compatibility with more devices such as the HTC Vive within the coming months.

Fectar Studio also differentiates itself from other content management systems through improved features and functionality. While the recent trend has been for CMS tools to offer content only, Fectar Studio provides users with more options, such as the addition of buttons, hyperlinks, questions, navigation, audio, and more to create engaging interactive 3D AR/VR content. It also allows users to track how their creations are being used with easy to access statistical data.

Eugne added, Weve already witnessed fantastic results, especially in the education field. A number of our users reported double-digit increases in revenue and reductions in training costs while simultaneously reaching a whole new level of customer and student engagement. We really are at the start of a new era of content creation, and were confident this is a true game-changer for the industry.

A further obstacle that has shown to be standing in the way of AR and VR content success is the need for businesses and educational content creators/publishers to utilize an in-house or outsourced development team to change their content. Fectar directly addresses this concern with a CMS, Fectar Studio, which can be managed without any technical skills. Designed by a team of multiple award-winning developers, creatives, and serial entrepreneurs, the simple system can be used easily by anyone.

Fectar Studio is already being widely adopted within the B2B marketing and sales, education, media and design, manufacturing, retail, and real estate sectors, with many other industries showing interest in the unique CMS and app. The Fectar team is currently offering free weekly online courses for content creators across all industries, providing them with the knowledge they need to get started with the CMS.

Founded in 2018 by entrepreneurs Eugne Kuipers, Rens Lensvelt and Dennis de Laat, Fectars CMS is dedicated to implementing augmented reality built with Microsoft technologies.

Seeing the potential to incorporate more platforms, the teams first app, SpotOn.io, was launched in August 2019, offering quality augmented and virtual reality experiences for each user.

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Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality Projected as a 'Game-Changer' for Future of Content - MarTech Series

[This unedited press release is made available courtesy of Gamasutra and its partnership with notable game PR-related resource GamesPress.]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/593060 Request Keys here: [emailprotected]

[Bonn, Germany] January 23rd, 2020 - Brainseed Factory is excited as they are all geared up for the launch of their virtual reality puzzler Squishies.

Roll Them Home

Squishies is a head-scratching, single player, puzzle focused VR platformer where you guide cute and courageous creatures through hazardous and challenging mazes.

Use unique motion controls to push and pull the Squishies through their adventures in a colorful universe full of strange flora and fauna. Keep those little rascals safe while they climb, jump, fly and teleport-by-fish through 100 levels in five alien worlds.

Level Editor

Squishies really comes into its own with its innovative, fully featured community creation tools. The same tools that we have used to build the game have been made available to everyone, enabling you to create levels of your own. These levels can be shared with your friends and the rest of the world via integrated cross-platform sharing!

Were super happy to finally bring our beloved Squishies to PC players! And the best thing is that community levels can be shared between PCVR & PSVR players! - Bilal Chbib, Game Producer & Founder of Brainseed Factory

Solve puzzles and save the Squishies or be creative and build your own levels - then share them with the community!

Development

Squishies released back in November 2018 as a PlayStationVR game. To bring the game to Steam VR and Oculus Rift gamers the studio decided to partner up with Massive Miniteam, an indie game studio based in Cologne, Germany.

Before Massive Miniteam, our founders created the prototype for Squishies while working at Brainseed Factory and weve always felt a strong connection to this title that's why we're overjoyed about this opportunity to rejoin the game and its community! We cant wait to see players all over the world roll the little critters around and build their own levels for us to try! - Milan Pingel, creative producer and co-founder of Massive Miniteam

Due to popular demand all level editor features are unlocked from the get go with the launch of the Steam edition. Along with this, the developers put in a great deal of effort to make sure that the game performance and graphics could witness improvements too.

The Oculus Store release is underway and will be announced soon.

About Brainseed Factory

Founded back in 2013 and based in Bonn (Germany) Brainseed Factory is renowned for their unique and popular debut title Typoman, a wordy puzzle platformer which is now available on all major gaming platforms worldwide.

About Massive Miniteam

Massive Miniteam is a small, award winning Indie Game Studio in Cologne. The company was founded in 2017 and is currently prepping their first own release: Their Arcade Action Platformer Spitlings is coming to Stadia, PC and all major consoles in 2020. Before Massive Miniteam, the four founders created the prototype for Squishies while working at Brainseed Factory - you could say they have a thing for games with cute and weird creatures.

Contact Information Brainseed Factory Email: [emailprotected] Website: http://www.brainseed-factory.com

Massive Miniteam Website: http://www.massiveminiteam.com

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Virtual Reality Puzzler Squishies heading to Steam on January 24 th - Gamasutra

My eyes were opened literally.

At Christmas, my nephew received a wireless virtual reality set called Oculus. I tried it. My mind went boom and was instantly filled with possibilities especially when my mother tried it on and her jaw dropped. Her words, My god, so much space, made me think.

In my business of downsizing families, especially seniors, I often move them from a spacious multi-room family home with many memories, to a few manageable rooms where for the most part they dont stray too far save for meals and light social activities. But where is the exploration of life and travel? Life is experience.

At one point my nephew tapped into the Wi-Fi and YouTube to access 3-D virtual reality videos of various locations around the planet. I called out, CN Tower! He voice commanded it to send him there; it did. Suddenly, he looked straight up in his VR world and gasped. Wow, this thing is massive!

So my connecting the two made me ask, what if? What if someone set up regular visits to local seniors residences and plunked an adventurous, but physically restricted senior in a chair and supplied them with VR technology? Seniors could be treated to the experience of sitting on a calm beach for an hour with waves rolling in, the breeze simulated by a small fan Id position nearby maybe the odd flick of water to make it feel like sea spray, and a tub of warm sand to wiggle their toes in.

When combined with head phones for sound, these 360 degree VR vistas could make a senior's day.

Why not? Talk about therapy. Heck, if someone funded me Id set it up in a heartbeat. With what is already available: walkabouts in Paris, museums, a spacewalk and an ocean cruise the world can be their oyster again, at least for a little while. Think of the kick; the social potential for experiencing life again.

Forget fighting off Zombies. Give me flying a glider or bicycling in the Tour de France or walking with elephants on an African plain or perched atop a mountain with unimaginable views all around.

Come on mom, let me sit you down. Hold your breath. This one will make you say, Wow again.

Try it. Itll bring a little therapy to your favourite senior.

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Opinion | Let's free seniors with the wonders of virtual reality - InsideHalton.com