Daily Archives: May 29, 2020

It stands to reason that with lots of people staying home more than ever, virtual reality headsets like Facebooks Oculus, and Samsungs Gear are popular right now. But if new product releases and investment decisions are any indication, some think VR could grow beyond its current niche following among gamers.

Tech expert Omar Gallaga told Texas Standard host David Brown that virtual reality products have had their ups and downs over the years, with clunky products that have failed to catch fire with consumers. The current VR boomlet has a lot to do with the amount of time people have been forced to spend at home. But some investors say the technology has legs beyond the pandemic.

Theres several new headsets that have debuted, Gallaga said.

Among them is a headset from gaming company, Valve, called Index. Also, the founder of HTC is on his own now, and has announced a new headset called Mova.

What youll hear in this segment:

What could be coming in VR technology

How one new game has lifted VRs fortunes

What applications other than gaming use VR

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Why Virtual Reality Is Having A Moment. Again. - Texas Standard

HP is unveiling the HP Reverb G2 virtual reality headset with high-resolution specs the company hopes will attract new enterprise users and consumers. The company is launching the second-generation VR headset in a partnership with both Microsoft and game company Valve. The headset will debut in the fall for $600.

The resolution of the headset is 2,160-by-2,160 per eye, which should help with the visual realism of VR, said John Ludwig, lead product manager for VR at HP, in a press briefing. He said the Reverb G2, which uses lenses designed by Valve, will have 2.5-times the resolution of the Oculus Rift headset, delivering sharper images that enhance the feeling of being transported to another reality.

These are brand-new panels, not the same panels the Reverb G1 used, and they come with some amazing improvements in immersiveness, Ludwig said. The contrast and brightness are up significantly on these brand new panels. Weve also reduced the persistence of the pixels. So with the contrast and brightness boost, you get a much better visual experience. With persistence, you get a more comfortable and fluid experience.

Above: HP designed its new VR headset to be comfortable.

Image Credit: HP

HP worked with Valve and Microsoft to enable integration across the Windows Mixed Reality and SteamVR platforms. The new headset is a replacement for the HP Reverb G1, which launched in March 2019 for $600. That headset had visual flaws that made it feel like you were looking at the world through dirty goggles, but those issues arent in the new headset, Ludwig said.

The hope is the product will lure more people into the virtual world. While VR hasnt lived up to its original promise, it has been making steady gains during the pandemic.

We at HP have been learning to adapt to this new normal, said Anu Herranen, director of new product introduction at HP, in a press briefing. Now the virtual way is the only way for us all. So this new normal has really accelerated and expanded how and when we use VR at HP. There will be a huge population of people working, training, and learning from home.

Above: The HP VR headset has 2K-by-2K per eye resolution.

Image Credit: HP

VR has an opportunity because of the pandemic, as Zoom video meetings lack immersive interaction, according to HP, and physical meetings arent possible.

In April, SteamVR saw nearly 1 million additional monthly-connected headsets, tripling the previous largest monthly gain. HP believes that by 2021, 25% to 30% of the workforce will be working from home multiple days a week and searching for new ways to collaborate. HP kept features such as high-resolution LCDs in a lightweight design and a 114-degree field of view. It runs at 90 frames per second.

The new device has enhanced audio that HP says will allow the user to experience a real sense of 3D space when immersed in the VR world for example, letting gamers locate their foes with audio clues. The speakers for the device are similar to those in the Valve Index VR headset.

Above: The HP Reverb G2 VR headset has speakers similar to the Valve Index.

Image Credit: HP

Like other modern headsets, it has inside-out tracking, or four cameras on the headset itself that get rid of the need for external sensors. Windows Mixed Reality also enables 1.4 times more movement capture, maintaining six degrees of freedom without external sensors or lighthouses, Herranen said.

With better resolution, users will be able to see text and textures more clearly, providing a better experience and increased retention. The hand controllers come with new intuitive control features including an optimized button layout, application and game compatibility, and the ability to be pre-paired via Bluetooth for easy setup.

HP designed it to be more comfortable. The headset has manual adjustments for your eye settings and a facemask cushion for better comfort. You can flip the facemask 90 degrees when moving back and forth from the virtual to the real world. And the headset also has better weight distribution and comfort for extended VR sessions. It connects to a PC via a single cable.

U.S. preorders will be available today on HP.com, the SteamVR homepage, and select channel partners.

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HP Reverb G2 virtual reality headset arrives this fall for $600 - VentureBeat

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Geoffrey Curley positions his tripod in front of the historic 19th century Victorian home on the grounds of Schramsberg Vineyards.

There was not a single visitor at Schramsberg Vineyards.

No one gazed over the legions of sun-warmed vineyards or into the thick wilderness that surrounds the storied property, which had bloated with green in the late-season rain. The faint chorus of clinking glass floating through the grounds as employees manned the bottling line went unheard; the team at work inside one of the winerys historic caves went unseen, even as they engineered stacks of wine bottles so tall they reached the lace-like cob webs on dangling from the ceiling.

It all seemed a shame to Geoffrey Curley. And as it so happened, he was in a position to do something about it.

Curleys background is in theatrical design; today, though, hes in the business of creating experiences. A decade ago, he founded his own company Geoffrey M. Curley and Associates and set to work creating interactive exhibits often punctuated by 360-degree virtual experiences. The businesss portfolio is wide ranging: Curley has worked with cruise lines, museums, even film studios.

One of the groups last projects, called The Great Fermentation, was wine-centric; it aired in Chicago this past winter and featured a 360-degree virtual tour of a vineyard in Tuscany.

Geoffrey Curley eyes a 360 degree view in front of the historic barn at Schramsberg Vineyards. Curley uses an app on his phone to adjust his filming.

The Great Fermentation was a project of Curleys, something hed dreamt up after mulling over the barrier to entry into wine that exists for consumers. More than 14,000 people came through the Chicago-based experience, engaged with the virtual reality experience Curley and his team had put together and participated in wine tastings.

Most of those guests were already interested in wine, according to Curley, but often said they werent wine people that their tastes werent sophisticated, that they didnt understand much about the product.

The more we dug into that, the more we understood that wasnt true: it was, you are a wine person, you understand the wines and flavors you like. Its just that you dont know how to apply that to find more wines that you like, Curley said. If you feel insecure about that, youre probably not going to go to a vineyard (to taste wine). So we wanted to create a different entry point.

As travel came to a standstill and tasting rooms closed their doors, Curley wondered if the technology might be of use to the broader American wine industry.

We looked around to see if other wineries had been (working with 360-degree technology), and we didnt find much out there, he said.

Vineyards to home

Curleys search revealed most wineries had extensive photo, and even video, content on their websites but nothing quite like what he and his team knew they could compile. So began his latest project, dubbed Vineyards to Home.

He began trying to get in touch with boutique wineries across California, hoping to donate tours to small, family-owned wineries producing less than 5,000 cases per year. The team connected with Schramsberg before deciding theyd work principally with smaller producers, according to Director of Community Outreach and Development Gina McLeod, and decided to keep their word. (Wineries can reach out to Curley via his website.)

There had been some discussion internally a while ago about having this kind of virtual tour, where you could see the path of a visit, Schramsberg President Hugh Davies said. Maybe not surprisingly in this particular moment of a more virtual reality, when they contacted us, we kind of jumped at it.

Curley arrived at Schramsberg early in the morning on a Friday in mid-May, a Nikon DSLR slung over his shoulder and a slim tripod in hand. Screwed to the top was a slim black device, smaller and thinner than a cellphone. It had come with him from San Diego, where hed been staying through the states shelter-in-place, up through his filming at wineries in Santa Barbara, the Russian River and in Alexander Valley.

Geoffrey Curley, left, plans a shot of McEacharn Vineyard at Schramsberg Vineyards with President Hugh Davies, right, as part of the 360 degree virtual tour Curley is putting together for the winery.

Just a few days earlier, Curley had used it to capture the view from Dos Lagos Vineyards on Atlas Peak. All of the wineries Curley has so far worked with apart from Schramsberg, that is are boutique producers. Some, like Dos Lagos, make as few as 800 cases each year.

It sounds pretty fascinating, the idea of virtual tours, Dos Lagos Owner Tom Dinkel said, noting that many of the winerys club members, cooped up in their homes, have expressed a desire to return to the valley once life normalizes. A virtual tour, Dinkel said, could help transport not just existing club members, but perhaps catch the eye of newcomers online.

Boutique wineries have been hit especially hard by the pandemics impact on tourism. Tasting rooms account on average of 28% of sales for small wineries; they also serve as conduits for wine club membership, which on average accounts for an additional 23% of sales. Wineries producing between 1,000 and 5,000 cases could lose as much as 48% of their revenue for the year, according to one estimate.

Once people try the wine, it speaks for itself, Dos Lagos Dinkel said. But so many people dont know who we are. So if someones searching for Napa wines and they find our virtual experience and like what they see were hoping for that kind of exposure.

Davies paused when asked if a virtual tour might help boost an already-established brand like Schramsberg.

Our most effective marketing tool for sure is a visit to the winery, no doubt about that, Davies said. I think (attracting customers cold) is harder.

But hes continued to explore ways to do so. The winery plans to link the tour on its social media platforms as well as on its website, according to Marketing and E-Commerce Manager Matt Levy, in the hopes that it will reach as many consumers as possible.

Everybody is making really good wine in Napa Valley, Levy said. What sets you apart is your story.

Schramsberg has been leaning heavier it usually does on social media to reach its consumer base, Levy said. It now regularly streams virtual tastings on Facebook and broadcasts live to its followers on Instagram. (We havent figured out how to sell wine through Instagram yet, though, Davies joked.)

Virtual tastings, as popular as theyve become, bring only the wine to the consumer not necessarily the experience tied to the wine. The virtual tour could fill that void, Davies said.

In a unique way, this may attract people, he added. But we know nothing we are going to be able to do is going to attract everyone the same way.

Scenes now seen

Filming at Schramsberg lasted six hours. Curleys device and its wide, all-seeing lenses witnessed what no visitor could. There were racks of 2019 blanc de noir, a pinkish hue illuminating cave walls, stacked as tall as a one story building; the bottling line, an endless stream of clear glass pushed along by employees; the way the American flag attached to the restored, 19th-century Victorian home on the property flapped in the wind.

Geoffrey Curley hunches to shoot men stacking wine bottles up into the walls of the historic wine caves at Schramsberg Vineyards.

He worked quickly and moved easily a testament to how much 360-degree video technology has improved over the last decade. Footage would soon be sent in for editing, and then polished and sent to the team at Schramsberg. Within a few weeks, the scenes that Curley alone had borne witness to would be up for the world to see.

Were taking that physical interaction out of these experiences, but still trying to tell those stories, generating that emotional response to the people who are creating the wines, Curley said. The work that (vintners) do, their families, the landscape thats in every bottle as much as the wine itself.

You can reach Sarah Klearman at (707) 256-2213 or sklearman@napanews.com.

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Meet the entrepreneur making tours of Napa Valley wineries a (virtual) reality - Napa Valley Register

Colin Farrell (The Lobster, Dumbo), whose eclectic acting career underscores a desire to venture off beaten paths, took time during lockdown to share with Variety his thoughts on stepping into virtual reality with Gloomy Eyes, a critically acclaimed series that world premiered at Sundance in 2019.

The three-part animated VR series, which won prizes at the SXSW and Annecy festivals, is being launched Thursday across all VR platforms, including Oculus Quest. Farrell narrated the poetic, visually-pleasing series, playing the role of a lonely zombie boy who falls in love with a young human girl. Their love transcends boundaries in a world where zombies are outlaws. Gloomy Eyes was directed by Jorge Tereso and Fernando Maldonado, the duo behind the animated short Shave It. Its produced by Atlas V and 3dar, and co-produced by Arte, RYOT, Vive Originals and Oculus with the support of the CNC, SACD, the Procirep and the region Auvergne Rhone Alpes Cinema.

What made you want to take part in Gloomy Eyes? What appealed to you?

I was initially shown the artwork and I just thought it was a stunning visual world that the two guys had created, and the story had a simplicity to it; a sweetness that was impossible to deny. I have never done anything that was VR before, so I was interested in the technology. It was a pretty easy decision to be a part of it.

How different was it for you to work on a virtual experience compared to your usual work?

I had done voice work for an animated film called Epic years ago and it wasnt completely dissimilar from that. My involvement all took place in a sound booth. It was nothing like what I am used to doing, which of course involves being on a set; its more physical, with costumes and makeup and that kind of total design of a character. But at the end of the day, I suppose fundamentally if you are an element involved in bringing to life a story which is all I feel I ever am as an actor well, then, fundamentally it was the same thing because I was using my imagination and my voice to be a spoke in this wheel. I felt totally trusting of what they were willing into being. I was both very curious and blown away by the beauty of what they created.

What do you think about virtual reality as a storytelling medium? Do you think this new medium will have a future for the next generations ?

As a fan, not even as someone who was a part of bringing this film to life, Id say yes. I dont even know if it is called a film or a story or what have you. This is not something that Ive had any ambition to be involved in per se or something Ive pursued, but through good fortune it came to me. As a fan of storytelling whether it is literature, fine art, music, theater or film, I think it is astonishing what they were able to do. I was so blown away and moved because essentially the same rules (that) apply to literature, film and stage, apply to this, which is that you have to care about the characters you are observing or you have to be drawn through some invocation of empathy into the narrative. I was really moved by the story; it is very simple but also incredibly moving and magical in many ways.

Would you bring VR into your home?

Sure, I dont see why not. There are so many forms of entertainment that are available right now. As a dad I wrestle with trying to get the kids off the iPad or having a certain allotment of television time. So, I am not sure how much I need to bring another form of entertainment or escapism into the house (laughing). I did get the opportunity to have the guys come by my home when my youngest son, who is 10, was with me. He got the opportunity to see Gloomy Eyes from start to finish and he was totally blown away. It was actually really beautiful to watch him with the headset on because with the shapes his mouth was making, I could literally see how awed he was by what he was experiencing while he was experiencing it the sheer wonder. So yes, I would recommend it. It is fun for kids and fun for the whole family. Its not really age specific; I feel that Gloomy Eyes plays for adults as well as it plays for children.

How was working with Fernando Maldonado and Jorge Tereso? How did they direct you?

They were cool to work with; it was so easy, it was really laid back. They are incredibly passionate creators the two of them. They love what they do. They were incredibly generous in articulating the genesis of this story and also the backstory of my character, the Grace Digger, and we discussed themes such as loneliness and isolation, regret and sadness, hope and young love, and all of these grand events that we deal with in our everyday lives as human beings.

Would you consider participating in another virtual reality project again?

Absolutely. If it was with these guys without a shadow of a doubt. If it was anybody else, I am open to doing anything as an actor. I enjoy my job so any kind of storytelling I am innately interested in; I always have been. But if it was with these guys, particularly, yes, in a second, I would love to do something else with them. I really felt like I snuck in the back door on this one and had to do very little to be a part of something very beautiful and quite profound.

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Colin Farrell Talks Tackling First Virtual Reality Project With Gloomy Eyes (EXCLUSIVE) - Variety

May 27, 2020 Varjo, a provider of industrial-grade VR/XR headsets, has today announced a commercial partnership with MeetinVR, creators of enterprise virtual collaboration software. Through the partnership, MeetinVR will release a dedicated version of its application that supports all headsets in Varjos product portfolio (the VR-2, VR-2 Pro and XR-1 Developer Edition), which will allow enterprise users to experience the level of immersion and visual fidelity provided by Varjos headsets whilst collaborating in virtual reality.

Varjo and MeetinVR have also introduced a new bundle offer where new buyers of any Varjo headset will receive six months of MeetinVR for free for five users.

Remote working is now becoming our new normal and the need to be able to virtually collaborate with colleagues, customers and partners around the world is business critical, said Urho Konttori, co-founder and Chief Product Officer at Varjo. As enterprises adapt to a new work environment, were excited to partner with leading industry players, such as MeetinVR, to help build the future of virtual and mixed reality collaboration.

Varjo states that delivering a solution that provides photorealistic 3D quality is essential to creating a true sense of immersion and presence while working together in VR and XR environments. Pairing the human-eye resolution found in Varjos devices with MeetinVRs enterprise-grade software will allow companies to collaborate around key use cases, including the remote sales of high value products such as medical machinery or new vehicles, the launch of new products, and the delivery of remote training to distributed teams.

Varjos photorealistic resolution gives users the ability to see reflections and shadows of their 3D models, as well as read text, all of which create a realistic experience for collaboration amongst meeting participants, commented Cristian Emanuel Anton, CEO of MeetinVR. With this partnership, users dont have to abide by the rules of physics anymore. They are able to merge real and virtual elements seamlessly in our collaborative platform. This sets a new benchmark for remote presence and interaction for professionals.

One of Varjos enterprise customers, Volvo Cars, sees the benefit of enhanced virtual collaboration and is already using mixed reality to transform its workflows:

The high quality and fidelity of what Varjos headsets offer, together with the effective collaboration tools from MeetinVR, bring remote collaboration to the next level, said Timmy Ghiurau, Lead Virtual Experiences at Volvo Cars. From UX evaluation, to hosting virtual workshops to ideating around our products, being able to do so in a realistic virtual environment will make our processes more efficient and collaborative, especially in the current context.

Christian Braun, VP of Visualisation at Volvo Cars, added: VR collaboration is the future, and for that we need the highest possible quality. Varjo is the only headset you can use for automotive design processes and reviewing your designs in detail. We are excited about using Varjos revolutionary technology to collaborate on photorealistic virtual models with our colleagues across continents.

Enterprise users interested in exploring immersive collaboration can view the Varjo and MeetinVR mixed reality solution demo video (above), or can learn more about the joint solution here.

After three years in private Beta with numerous Fortune500 companies as customers, MeetinVR has today launched its open Beta for trial at http://www.meetinvr.com.

Image / video credit: Varjo / Vimeo

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he covers news articles on both the AR and VR industries. He also has an interest in human augmentation technology as a whole, and does not just limit his learning specifically to the visual experience side of things.

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Varjo partners with MeetinVR to deliver photorealistic collaboration in Virtual Reality - Auganix

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

Come Over Gaming announce today thatthefirst-person psychological horror game in virtual reality,DreamBack VR, will be released on June 10th for $24.99/24.99on Steam VR, with a launch discount of a10% off. To mark this announcement, Come Over also releases today a new trailer of the game.

In DreamBack VR, you get into the skin of a normal man, mentally and spiritually scarred after a traumatizing experience in an abandonedVictorian mansion. After being called to repair a broken electrical line, you had to spend the night in the eerie Rickfford Mansion. What happened there changed and damaged you forever -- even though you lost yourmemories of that fateful night, the nightmares and hallucinations you have suffered since then convinced you to face your own demons by reviving the night that changed your life through hypnosis. But there are some memories that are best left unearthed...

DreamBack VR's review keysare now available. Are you prepared to survive your own memories?

ABOUT DREAMBACK VR

DreamBack VR is a virtual reality, first-person psychological horror game where you explore the eerie Rickfford Mansion, trying to unravel its mysteries and survive the experience with your sanity intact. Months ago, you were called to repair a downed electrical line in an old abandoned Victorian estate. What happened that night left you in shock and after some time trying to flee from your own self, from the glimpses of memories that torment you in the night, you decide to bring back that accursed night through hypnosis and face your terrors But now you are not sure if you can survive your own memories.

KEY FEATURES

CONTACT

You can contact us at [emailprotected]

ABOUT COME OVER GAMING

Come Over Gaming is a small indie studio located at Hondarribia (Basque Country, Spain) funded in 2014. Its first video game,Dreamback VR, is their attempt at developing a game that sets the tone through the narrative in virtual reality. Dreamback VR will be released late Q2 2020 on Steam VR.

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VIRTUAL REALITY FIRST-PERSON HORROR GAME DREAMBACK VR, TO BE RELEASED ON JUNE 10 - Gamasutra

MBClife/YouTube

Death is universal, but approaches to it may vary. Recently, for example, the coronavirus pandemic has led to a rise in Zoom funerals and accelerated the embrace of virtual interactions and spaces. These changes raise some other possibilities. What if, for example, you could reunite with your deceased daughter in virtual reality?

This idea may not appeal to everyone; many of the people to whom I described this scenario reacted with aversion. But Jang Ji-sung, who lost her daughter to blood cancer in 2016, welcomed the opportunity to see her daughter againeven if it was just in VR. Jang may not have been the first mother to lose a child, but she is perhaps the first who got to meet her deceased daughter as a VR simulacrum, one that took almost a year to create. Their reunion forms the narrative climax in the South Korean TV documentary Meeting You, which aired in February. A clip from the documentary has more than 20 million views on YouTube.

Meeting You was produced by one of South Koreas largest broadcasters, Munhwa Broadcasting Corp, which worked with six different studios to create the VR experience. It introduces Jang Ji-sung, whose daughter Nayeon was just 7 when she died, and Nayeons surviving family: a father, an older brother, an older sister, and a younger sister. The hourlong special aired in February and can be viewed online(unfortunately, only in Korean).

VR technology is still too young (or, at least, too undeveloped) for it to have developed an independent grammar as an art form. But as film scholar Tom Gunning writes, in the 19th century, inventions such as the photograph and motion picture were all greeted as technological responses to the ultimate limit to human life, mortality. They claimed to preserve human traits (expression, movement, voice) after the subject had died and were promoted as an objective form of memory and mans triumph over death.

But it is difficult to square our present-day appreciation of cinema as an art form with our suspicion of virtual reality and its frequently uncanny reproductions. This is particularly pronounced when the reality being reproduced is an avatar of a real person, and more so when the person reproduced is a deceased beloved, much in the way that a Zoom funeral feels more like a travesty while a Zoom job interview is just mildly annoying and sometimes even more convenient, depending on the circumstances.

Technological resurrection as a response to human mortality is a familiar trope in fiction. But tellingly, it is almost always in a dystopian context. Greg Daniels satirical sci-fi comedy Upload, which recently debuted on Amazon, is premised on a future in which humans can have their consciousness uploaded into a virtual afterlife and continue to communicate with the living. Upload joins a populous landscape of similar stories, featuring high-tech and often expensive solutions to death. Another sort of parable re-creates, rather than preserving, the consciousness of the deceased. In the Be Right Back episode of Black Mirror, for instance, a grieving widow takes advantage of a service that uses her deceased husbands social media profiles and online footprints to create an A.I. version of her husband, animated in the body of an android clone of her husband.

Nonfiction projects exist too, albeit in a more contemplative vein. James Vlahos 2017 project Dadbot features his attempt to re-create the essence of his dying fathers personality in chatbot form. The indie game That Dragon, Cancer was designed by a father as a way to process the gradual death of his son, diagnosed with a rare cancer.

But unlike the text-based Dadbot and the stylized game universe of That Dragon, Cancer, the VR daughter in Meeting You is deliberately realistic. This is perhaps one source of the clips popularityits appeal as a novel spectacleas well as a cause of the audiences potential discomfort. My initial reaction to the project was certainly one of unease, particularly once I saw the jerky, puppetlike movements of VR Nayeon: Perhaps these particular puppeteers were acting with the best of intentions, I thought, but ultimately VR Nayeon was wholly controlled by a team of adults. These adults had designed VR Nayeon to act innocent and charming, but I felt manipulated rather than charmed.

In the climactic VR experience that received so much attention in South Korea, the mother, Jang, is shown surrounded by green screens and decked out in her VR accoutrements. The documentary toggles between this studio view and what Jang sees in her headset, and a composite version where Jang interacts with her VR daughter. From the two-dimensional perspective of the documentary audience, Nayeon looks like a computer graphic, if an eerily realistic one. A sobbing Jang attempts to touch her, unsuccessfully. Nayeon says things like Mom, am I cute?

Perhaps once the novelty of VR wears off, its pretenses to realism will no longer be met withsuspicion.

At one point, VR Nayeon has her mother touch her hand, and they float into the sky to a twilight-toned afterlife. There is a flying unicorn and the backdrop is purple. Jang and VR Nayeon sit at a table set with a birthday cake and foods that Nayeon loved, we are toldbirthday seaweed soup and a plate of honey rice cakes. This brief act ends with VR Nayeon falling asleep after telling her mother that shes no longer in pain. I love you, Mom, she says. The purple sky gives way, and were back in the studio as an emotive song plays in the background.

The exchanges between Jang and her daughter are not truly interactive but follow a script. She was quite different from my Nayeon, said Jang in the documentary. At certain moments, when she was far away, I felt a hint of my daughter. When she was running, or sitting. In part, this detachment has to do with the fact that the real Nayeon would have been 10 but was depicted as 7, the age at which she died. None of this diminishes the quality of Jangs emotions, howevernot even Jangs own recognition that VR Nayeon is not her daughter. Her anguish feels real.

To better understand how all these and other considerationscorny lines and emotional resonance, narrative choices and ethical quandarieshad been put together, I conducted an email interview with the director and producer of the documentary, Jong-woo Kim. We emailed in Korean, and I translated Kims comments into English.

According to Kim, the structured rather than interactive nature of the VR experience was due to budgetary and technical constraints. But there are microinteractions, said Kim. For example, extending a hand or patting the VR Nayeons hair might engender a reaction where she extends a hand in turn, or tilts her head, and her facial expression changes. Together, all of this contributed to a more immersive experience. But the immersiveness was not just a technical project. While multiple VR studios collaborated on creating a realistic voice and gestures for VR Nayeon, much of the research came in the form of meetings and interviews with the mother, aimed at understanding what she wanted. The idea to have them float into the sky was inspired by interviews with the family, said Kim. They told us that they would sometimes have conversations with Nayeon while facing the sky.

Ahead of the VR experience, the documentary also features interviews with Jang Ji-sung, in which she reminisces about her daughter or talks about her children. These interviews are interspersed with slice-of-life vignettes of the family in the present day. The family history is further explored in the sequel to Meeting You, released March 12, in which it is suggested that Nayeons mother harbored various regrets about her inadequacies during the last days of her daughters life.

But from the perspective of a viewer, perhaps the most remarkable aspect of the follow-up is the seemingly fictionalized voice-over (provided by an adult woman), speaking from what seems to be the perspective of the youngest daughter. According to Kim, this creative decision was inspired by the desire to provide a sense of gentle closure, and to do so, he decided to try to think about death from the perspective of a young child. Kim did not consider the written narration to be a pure invention and said, We based it on interviews and clips of the youngest daughterNayeons sister.

These production details suggest less an independently realistic VR creationa clone capable of rebelling, in the way of the common science fiction tropethan one whose significance is based on the narrative history of the family, and subject to the manipulation of the documentary producers.

The documentary depicts these manipulations as a success, and the family as happy. Nayeons mother has told us that she thinks of the production and the VR experience as a wonderful dream, said Kim. But despite the uplifting ending, a nonfiction project like Meeting You presents certain ethical considerations, which dont quite have the same weight in fictional speculative exercises like Upload. In this particular instance, the postmortem, three-dimensional representation of a child unable to give consent leads to questions about the ethical ambiguities of resurrecting a person as an avatar after they have died, or the ambiguities surrounding the collection and processing of the personal data needed to re-create a person as VR persona. Jong-woo Kim did not see the issue of consent or representation as unique to his project: Many of the images we see online are probably there without consent, said Kim, adding that he considered the family had given consent by proxy.

The family was selected because it had demonstrated a clear desire for this VR reunification. But given the unprecedented and simultaneously public nature of this VR experience, there were a lot of unknowns about how the experience might affect Nayeons parents and siblings.

To prepare Jang Ji-sung for the potentially traumatic physical and mental effects of the VR experience, Kim explained that the producers met with the family therapist. They proceeded with the understanding that the experience would be a unique, momentous event, preparing to the best of their ability through long interviews with Jang and her family. We were careful to focus on their goals as much as possible. We did not try to analyze or heal anyone at any point. We stuck to our original focus of helping Jang Ji-sungs wish to see her daughter again come true. But within these self-imposed guidelines we did avoid going in a direction that would force the mother to relive her trauma. Rather, we tried to focus on the positive memories, said Kim.

VR has been used to help treat soldiers with PTSD. There is also research that supports the idea that storytelling can offset VR motion sickness and also that VR helps relieve pain during childbirth, suggesting that virtual reality can act as both a receptacle for stories and as a storytelling tool in and of itself. In Meeting You, the storytelling aspect of VR is strong. In this sense, the doll-like VR Nayeon does not come across so much as a perversion of a technophobic nightmare (e.g., like the eerily realistic android in Black Mirrors Be Right Back) but more like an artistic tribute.

There is a strong resemblance between the promises of resurrection via VR and the rhetoric that heralded the invention of other once-new technologies like the moving picture. Perhaps once the novelty of VR wears off, its pretenses to realism will no longer be met with suspicion. Meeting You, whatever its inadequacies, does present a compelling case for VR as a creative medium (much like writing or painting) for processing death rather than a creepy technophilic panacea that denies death, with all the interpretative complications that a creative medium entails.

Future Tense is a partnership of Slate, New America, and Arizona State University that examines emerging technologies, public policy, and society.

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The uncanniness of watching a grieving mother and her dead daughter meet in virtual reality. - Slate

Hospitals are giving virtual reality (VR) glasses to patients undergoing operations to help them relax and to reduce pain and stress.

Rouen and Strasbourg are two of the hospitals to have taken up the technology, which was launched by French start-up HypnoVR last year.The glasses can be used before, during and after surgery. Benefits include allowing doctors to use local ...

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Virtual reality glasses being used in French hospitals - The Connexion

In Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality News

May 27, 2020 Taqtile, a provider of the enterprise software platform, Manifest, for frontline worker enablement, has today announced a strategic partnership with 3D Media, a technology development firm specializing in virtual and augmented reality solutions for the enterprise. 3D Media will now be able to provide its customers Taqtiles Manifest AR solution.

Our partnership with 3D Media plays an integral role in Taqtiles efforts to ensure enterprises have the technology they need to make all frontline workers experts, said Dirck Schou, CEO of Taqtile. Todays workforce benefits from the advanced training and job skill technology available to them including AR/VR solutions, and those from 3D Media, capable of bringing any age group up to speed quickly and efficiently. This, combined with the ease of use tools such as Manifest, enable all frontline workers an easy-to-use, effective way to train for new jobs, tasks, and protocols.

According to Taqtile, the two companies partnered because of their expertise in developing virtual and augmented solutions for industrial and government enterprises, specializing in the oil and gas, power generation and petro-chemical industries. In such industries where risk and retention are common daily workplace issues, the ability to quickly onboard and keep current employees up to speed on all necessary protocols and guidelines is vital.

3D Medias team develops exact replicas of working facilities that seamlessly integrate into Taqtiles Manifest platform. Manifest is an end-to-end solution delivering digital transformation and productivity to frontline workers through embracing spatial computing to enable knowledge capture, knowledge distribution, and knowledge management within an organization.

We at 3D Media strive to bridge the gap between the information technology processes and the capability for the human mind to interpret the data, said Daryl Roy, CEO and Founder of 3D Media. Taqtile fits into our companys mission by providing additional capabilities to optimize and ease the training process through knowledge capture, distribution, and management. This further enables all facilities training frontline workers to save money, mitigate risk, and keep themselves safe.

Image credit: 3D Media

About the author

Sam Sprigg

Sam is the Founder and Managing Editor of Auganix. With a background in research and report writing, he covers news articles on both the AR and VR industries. He also has an interest in human augmentation technology as a whole, and does not just limit his learning specifically to the visual experience side of things.

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Taqtile and 3D Media partner to optimize Augmented and Virtual Reality solutions for enterprise - Auganix