Monthly Archives: March 2021

Since being added in 1993, Disneys Carousel of Progress's last scene has promised a future where families gather around the voice-activated kitchen appliances and play video games together via virtual reality headsets. Now, nearly three decades later, that scene is finally being realized in houses across the globe. Virtual reality is quickly becoming a cornerstone of entertainment, both in-home and out-of-home.

Earlier this year, Universal Studios Japan debuted the first major attraction to feature augmented reality. Simultaneously, other immersive tech has become a mainstay at attractions large and small in recent years. The introduction of virtual, augmented, and other immersive technologies have been met with excitement by artists, entertainers, and storytellers who are now envisioning new ways to engage with audiences.

At a recent virtual expo, ShowUp, immersive technologies expert Leila Amirsadeghi laid out where the industry is headed. Amirsadeghi said a new chapter is beginning in the industry, one where the dominance of fantasy worlds and sci-fi-themed games is challenged by the plethora of narratives found within our actual reality.

Until now, the vast majority of immersive and extended reality technology has been relegated to video game-like experiences, mostly built around basic premises. Even as family entertainment centers (FECs) and arcades have begun adding the technology to their lineup, the experiences guests are offered still feature a heavy reliance on shooting zombies, dinosaurs, or other players. But Amirsadeghi points to more recent uses of immersive technology to evolve the technology beyond glorified laser tag.

In speaking with Orlando Weekly, Amirsadeghi expanded upon her thoughts first shared at the virtual expo and showed why its important for FECs and other venues to be more conscientious about their offerings. She pointed to different storytelling experiences, such as theatre, as a better way to understand where immersive technology is headed.

There are companies whose model is on scalable, repeatable products that land in multiple arcades and locations versus, you know, approaching it as a theatrical model. You create experiences that are then ticketed and short-lived. They're not permanent installations. They're not permanent attractions per se, they're more pop-up experiences that come through like the theatre.

Like other technologies, the pandemic may have helped us leapfrog forward in the use of immersive technologies. Amirsadeghi believes that the technology that allowed a large portion of the population to shift to at-home working via remote presence will likely stick around long after the pandemic has subsided. The use of telepresence and mixed reality technologies over this past year has provided a familiarity with what these technologies are capable of.

The familiarity with the technologies will continue to increase as adoption goes, and I think we'll see more of these used as tools, whether it's at home or it's out in other locations, explains Amirsadeghi. Entertainment, education, and all of it are going to grow. It's just going to continue to grow.

Christopher Stapleton agrees. He founded a laboratory at UCF focused on experiential media and co-founded the Virtual World Society. Recently he worked with a group of homeschoolers in the mid-Atlantic to bring an educational VR experience, Traveling While Black, to nearby family entertainment centers.

The home is getting more sophisticated, but also youve got a lot of more sophisticated technology available for these venues. But on the same token, are they meeting up with it? With Traveling While Black, what you have is a content piece that was not made for FECs. But they realize they need better content, explains Stapleton. This is where you're going to have a convergence of media and venues with creators and collaborators that can mix and match together to create all new opportunities. So, you're going to have a lot more now that you have a more bottom-up kind of entrepreneurship or social entrepreneurship along with the ability to crowdsource materials and content.

Even while traditional art museums have been resistant to change, other groups, like Meow Wolf and teamLab, have become international sensations for their showcasing of technology-forward interactive art. Meow Wolfs latest attraction, Omega Mart in Las Vegas, relies heavily on projection mapping, as do many of teamLabs displays. Like augmented reality, projection mapping allows for a manipulation of how guests perceive the physical world.

Immersive tech is very visceral and very influential, explains Amirsadeghi. In many ways, it can change a person. Because of the visceral nature, you're able to walk away with the knowledge, whether you realize it or not. The experiences integrate in the body versus being audiovisual. That gives us a platform to be able to bring people into experiences that are more than just entertainment.

One such program to harness this visceral nature is Alejandro G. Irritus Carne y Arena. Guests enter through what looks to be a U.S. Border Patrol holding cell. Once theyve removed their shoes and signed a release form, theyre harnessed with a VR headset to watch an immersive short film focused on immigrants attempting to enter the U.S. through the Sonoran Desert. In one scene where immigrants, including children, encounter U.S. Border Patrol agents, special effects in the room enhance the experience's immersive nature. After the film, guests enter a final room filled with video testimonials from migrants. The film was the first virtual reality project to be included in the Official Selection at the Cannes Film Festival, and versions of it continue to tour North America and Europe.

Stapleton pointed to a study last year that found a third of museums may close due to the ongoing issues related to the pandemic.

One of the things our team has been working on is looking at this opportunity of crisis stimulates innovation. Continuing, he pointed to the ability for immersive technology as a format that can be in a museum that can ebb and flow between an individual group experience, and in an infinite story in a finite space.

In a similar vein to how entertainment and education are now intersecting, Stapleton believes family entertainment centers and cultural venues should also be viewed as adjacent, and overlapping, in their role to the communities they serve. To Stapleton, the role of immersive and extended reality technologies in education is a natural fit. The research I did at the University of Central Florida, right after I left Islands of Adventure, was this whole aspect of looking at experience, particularly looking at what is entertainment and what is education? We spent a lot of years developing an instructional strategy that looks at the basic heuristics of entertainment, the story-playing game, and the basic foundation of experiential learning. We realized that they coupled perfectly together.

Like Amirsadeghi, Stapleton points to how these immersive experiences can cause emotional triggers rarely seen in legacy technologies. The ability to fully envelop the viewer in the experience provides an opportunity for them to understand the story in ways that traditional video simply cant while being far easier to develop than the full mock-ups that some museums have turned to.

He pointed out that both cultural venues and FECs frequently target the same demographics and, to the visitor, often serve a similar role as a place for out-of-home entertainment. But he says, both industries drink their own Kool-Aid, so they have innovation blindness. They never look outside of their own box. But there are a lot of valuable lessons that can crossover. Now with [the rise in] experiential learning and technology, the world is becoming a theme park. And so, all these FECs are becoming little theme parks, but all the in-between spaces are also doing that.

With more artists and curators looking to use immersive technologies to develop to tell the stories unique to their communities, it's expected that more opportunities for collaboration, both between artists to venues and between venues themselves, will provide evermore unique experiences. Stapleton points to community-led museums and smaller towns where a museum or an FEC may offer the only out-of-home entertainment available in the area as potential leaders in this next wave of immersive storytelling.

In her presentation at the expo, Amirsadeghi showed examples of fantastical-like creatures that can be found all around us. She also pointed to the numerous stories in our communities that are yet to be formally shared. Stapleton shared the sentiment. He pointed to the recent push to better recognize Black voices and stories in American culture. There's a whole lacking of content. There's a whole lacking of opportunities. A whole lacking of facilitating these stories. We've only been telling the fairy tale of history thats from a very biased and privileged point of view. And there's all these lost stories and forgotten dreams of a culture that we have suppressed for hundreds of years that is so rich and so beautiful and so enticing. Pausing for a moment before continuing, there's huge work ahead of us.

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Virtual reality experts think attractions will move away from zombies, shooting galleries - Orlando Weekly

ByRich Shea

Sarah was 6 when her father brought her into the ER. Scared and short of breath, she had low blood pressure and a rash covering her torso. "I can't breathe," she wheezed, and her dad, verging on panic, reported that he'd rushed Sarah to the hospital after giving her "a tablet" for an ear infection.

"It was an anaphylaxis scenario, an allergic reaction to the medicine," recalls Melissa Boggan, a Doctor of Nursing Practice student at Johns Hopkins School of Nursing. "So I had to do an epi."

An "epi" is a shot of epinephrine used to counteract the swelling of airways caused by certain allergens. "When a patient reacts that way to medicine, the turnaround time before cardiac arrest could be as little as five minutes," says Kristen Brown, advanced practice simulation coordinator at the School of Nursing. "Anybody in nursing needs to know how to handle an anaphylactic reaction."

The operative word in Brown's title is "simulation." Sarah, it turns out, was not a real patient. She's an avatar in a virtual reality scenario, one of several used for training by both pre-licensure and advanced practice students at the school. "We rolled out the virtual simulation platform over the summer, during COVID, and were able to train about 400 students in a short time frame," Brown says.

Melissa Boggan

Nursing student

The platform is VR software designed by Oxford Medical Simulation, a Boston-based company vetted by Brown and her team during a search for VR technology, a growing trend in nurse training, prior to the pandemic. The spread of coronavirus "put steam behind moving the project forward," says Nancy Sullivan, clinical simulation director at the school. The software provides two forms of VRon-screen, conducted via computer at home, and "immersive," which, with the use of an Oculus headset, provides a video gamelike experience.

"I first used the on-screen version last semester," recalls Kristin White, a pre-licensure student who graduates from the MSN: Entry into Nursing Practice program in May. "It was an asthma patient. We practiced at home and had to score 80% on different tasks. Then we got to do it with the headset on campus, which was great, almost like real life."

The VR program is part of simulation training, which includes manikins and live actors and complements clinical visits with hospital patients, which have been curtailed during the pandemic. And while the manikins, hooked up to medical equipment, are incredibly lifelike, they're also expensive and take up a lot of space.

Built into the VR scenarios, however, is artificial intelligence, which enables the avatarsstand-ins for patients, for exampleto alter their behavior. "Depending on when you do something, the physiological response of the patient changes," Brown explains. "When I put the oxygen on, or how much oxygen I give, changes the scenario. It adjusts to the learner."

Image credit: Will Kirk / Johns Hopkins University

Whether on-screen or via Oculus, each scenario places the student in an ER setting with a nursing assistant who introduces a patient facing a particular dilemma. Ray, for instance, a 42-year-old who's had a kidney transplant, is complaining of severe chest pain. Deepak, 64, has been vomiting blood. Boris, 40, is suffering from tremors and appears to be suicidal.

The student has 20 minutes, tracked by a digital clock, to diagnose and treat the illness by running through a series of tasks. Using a mouse or Oculus controllers (one for each hand), the student hovers over the patient's head and body to ask questions and perform exams, respectively, and has 360-degree access to medical equipment, a phone to call doctors, and a cabinet of drugs to prescribe.

Once a scenario's completed, the student is presented with a checklist of analyticswhat was done correctly and incorrectlyaccompanied by a percentage score. Students scoring 80 and above go to the school's brand-new Virtual Reality Lab, where COVID-19 safety protocols enable them to use the Oculus for the fully immersive experience.

"It's amazing," Boggan says. "You feel like you're in a whole other world."

Even better, for Brown and Sullivan, is the debrief that takes place after the Oculus sessions. A handful of students gather, at a safe distance, with the instructor to review each other's performances. "They do the talking," Sullivan says. "The instructor asks questions, and students discuss while we guide them. So they come out of the room with answers."

They then repeat the scenarios while improving their performance and reducing the emotional stressors that can derail ER procedures. "And they don't run the risk of hurting anyone," Brown says. "They learn critical thinking skills while being exposed to high-risk situations not seen very often. It's great preparation."

It's also the subject of a study Brown and Sullivan are conducting to determine how VR compares with other simulation methods and clinical practice. Early results show that "users rate it very high in terms of usability and the scenario debriefing," Brown says. "And when comparing it to traditional sim and clinical, they either rated it 'similar' or 'higher.'"

This relatively "new tool in the sim toolbox," as Sullivan puts it, could benefit the nursing profession in many ways. "It has implications on enrollment and increased delivery of online programs, allowing nurses to remain in the workforce while advancing education," Brown says. "More education rooted in experiential learning will produce a better-prepared workforce improving patient care."

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School of Nursing introduces a new, cost-effective form of training: Virtual reality - The Hub at Johns Hopkins

Facebook has nearly 10,000 employees in its division working on augmented reality and virtual reality devices, according to a report in The Information based on internal organizational data. The number means the Reality Labs division accounts for almost a fifth of the people working at Facebook worldwide.

This suggests that Facebook has been significantly accelerating its VR and AR efforts. As UploadVR noted in 2017, the Oculus VR division accounted for over a thousand employees at a time when Facebooks headcount was 18,770 overall, indicating a percentage somewhere north of five percent.

Since then, Facebook has shifted its VR focus away from Oculus Rift-style tethered headsets by releasing the Oculus Quest and Quest 2, which are standalone wireless devices that dont require a PC. The $299 Quest 2 was preordered five times as much as its predecessor, with developers seeing a boost in sales of their existing titles.

Today, most of what Facebook does iswere building on top of other peoples platforms, CEO Mark Zuckerberg told The Information in an interview this week on Facebooks VR and AR ambitions. I think it really makes sense for us to invest deeply to help shape what I think is going to be the next major computing platform, this combination of augmented and virtual reality, to make sure that it develops in this way that is fundamentally about people being present with each other and coming together.

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Almost a fifth of Facebook employees are now working on VR and AR - The Verge

Like many airlines, KLM had to cut spending because of the pandemics effect on travel. But the Dutch carrier has stood apart by preserving much of its spending on virtual reality (VR) and other emerging technologies that executives believe will help the business work smarter.

Virtual reality has already permanently changed the way we train workers, said Werner Soeteman, manager of the VR Centre Of Excellence at KLM IT. In every environment thats difficult to simulate or with every material that is expensive or risky to use, we expect to experiment with using VR instead.

In November, KLM began pilot training using virtual reality applications built in-house for pilots flying new Embraer 175 and 190 aircraft for its KLM Cityhopper subsidiary.

KLM Cityhopper used to do cockpit training with a paperboard mock-up, but it has now replaced that with virtual reality, which strives to improve pilot results by enabling more frequent practice. The airline developed the application between April and October of last year in response to the pandemic crunch on resources.

Some backstory: KLM created a team a few years ago to focus on emerging technologies.

Today seven KLM employees today work full-time on using new technologies to enhance training and operations. The team, led by Soeteman, especially focuses on extended reality a term that refers to virtual reality, augmented reality, and other tech that simulates experiences.

Adopting virtual reality has required KLM to vault a few hurdles. Clunky hardware has checkmated virtual reality usage by companies for years. According to feedback KLM has gotten from its workers, people find headsets from Facebook, Sony, HTC, and others uncomfortable to wear after more than an hour.

KLM trialed virtual reality training for the ground crews that operate the jetway bridges that connect the airport to a plane for passenger boarding.

In theory, the virtual reality training would spare KLM from renting a bridge and an airplane and risk damaging either piece of equipment. In practice, virtual reality wasnt yet good enough to simulate the feeling of toggling a bridge in the wind or other conditions. So the airline hasnt replaced virtual reality training with training using actual equipment.

But despite some setbacks, KLM sees promise. Last month, the brand put together a highlight reel of the companys experiments with extended reality.

Some experts expect quicker adoption of augmented reality, which superimposes digital content over real life, as being virtual realitys less intense cousin.

The most straightforward example of augmented reality is a heads-up display on eyewear to help workers see critical information. At Beijings Daxing International Airport, China Eastern Airlines has outfitted some employees with headsets whose cameras scan loyalty program members faces for instant recognition. The devices then display relevant details on an eyeglass-like screen for the worker to provide more personalized service.

KLM has experimented with augmented reality, too, using Microsoft HoloLens.

The carrier is experimenting with training maintenance engineers. Its testing on how to train engineers on the various components of an engine.

Augmented reality makes the training easier and cheaper because you dont need to to to dismantle an original motor engine, Soeteman said.

Another technique KLM has used for worker trainings is panoramic photo and video. When the company first had workers training to use the Boeing 787 Dreamliner, KLMs IT team created 360-degree wraparound imagery of the 787s various models using tech from vendor Matterport.

The normal training is when a new aircraft type arrives at the airport. But KLM was able to do the training up front. That move saved it money by making it possible to get that new plane type into production faster.

The managers of the cleaning crews found they made zero mistakes when they first boarded and cleaned actual new plane, Soeteman said.

For now, KLM is the leader in virtual reality and extended experimentation in travel.

The investments have been costly, and the carrier is working on commercializing some of its applications to recoup costs. KLM is exploring how it could license its intellectual property. Other parts of Air France-KLM Group and some regional universities have expressed interest.

Todays equipment doesnt always live up to its promise.

Other companies stand to enjoy the broader tech trend, too.

Earlier this week, Facebook Reality Labs published a post on the future of augmented reality that covered broad trends. Skift has covered how the pandemic may revive the fortunes of virtual reality and 360-Degree travel content in a few niches. Last summer, Google acquired a smart glasses startup, North, showing ongoing interest in the category, as The Information noted.

Many companies are coming to grips with the potential for extended reality. Consumer applications take up most of the sales of virtual reality hardware and software today. But enterprise software is beginning to take more share in the market. Subscribers to Skift Research can read our Emerging Tech in Travel report.

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Photo Credit: A virtual reality, or VR, simulation of a jet bridge connecting to a KLM Cityhopper plane at Schiphol Airport in Amsterdam. KLM, the Dutch airline, has been spending on virtual reality (VR) technologies for worker training that's more cost-effective. KLM

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KLM Is Ramping Up Virtual Reality to Train Workers Since Pandemics Start - Skift

According to new data, Facebook currently has more than 10,000 employees working on virtual or augmented reality-related projects.

The new study came fromThe Information and was based on Facebooks internal organizational data, which has now revealed that the tech giants Reality Labs division now accounts for nearly 20 percent of all of its employees across the globe. The number is staggering when compared to similar data recorded back in 2017, when only roughly 1,000 employees were within the Oculus branch, equating to less than five percent Facebooks headcount.

Today, most of what Facebook does iswere building on top of other peoples platforms, the companys CEO Mark Zuckerberg explained to The Information during a recent interview regarding its efforts in VR and AR. I think it really makes sense for us to invest deeply to help shape what I think is going to be the next major computing platform, this combination of augmented and virtual reality, to make sure that it develops in this way that is fundamentally about people being present with each other and coming together.

In other tech-related news, Bitcoin has broke through $60,000 USD for the very first time.

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Nearly 20% of Facebook's Employees are Working on Virtual and Augmented Reality - HYPEBEAST

The Museum of Other Realities (MOR),theimmersive multiplayer art museum for virtual reality, is temporarily open to the public for free in celebration of select British XR artists, who are presenting their works via a special showcase called The Immersive Arcade.

The Immersive Arcade: The Showcaseis being hosted onMOR,which is free to download on Steam from now until March 26th.

To visit the showcase, which is the first of multiple volumes, youll also need to download The Immersive Arcade DLC, which is also free on Steam.

Once youve downloaded both items, you simply need to pop on your SteamVR-compatible headset andhead to The Immersive Arcade showcase on your righthand side. MOR is exclusively available to VR headset users, and there is no 2D option like with other social VR platforms.

The showcase, which was built in partnership with Kaleidoscope and Digital Catapult, features four installations:

These are only the tip of the iceberg in terms of the amount of art installations available on the platform at any given time. In addition to a mind-boggling amount of interactive art, the platform also hosts regular in-game events such as a talk by Drew Skillman and Patrick Hackett ofSkillman & Hackett,the original studiobehind Tilt Brush.

The Museum of Other Realities typically costs $20, so its a great opportunity to get in and get social with fellow art lovers. The app is also available on Rift through the Oculus Storeand SteamVR headsets through Viveport.

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The Museum of Other Realities Free to Visit for The Next 2 Weeks - Road to VR

Virtual reality is soon coming to the casinos market. But how is the introduction of this technology going to change the industry, if at all? Well, there are many ways to approach and look at the idea. Truth be told, you will probably be thrilled to find out more about it. All aspects of the gaming experience will change, too. Playing roulette, for example, would now feel as if you are in actual land-based property and not constrained to your home. There are more benefits down the pipeline we are going to take a proper look at right now.

1. More Immersive Experience

The evident upside of VR in online casinos is the added realism, or shall we say the immersive level of the experience? Either way, we would be right, and virtual reality will shake up many things on the virtual casino floor.

For starters, you will be given the fantastic opportunity to enjoy one of the most rewarding experiences at an online casino when playing your favourite games whether this is slots or roulette.

And it would all come thanks to the fact that there is virtual reality. VR will also become more accessible in the years to come, meaning that the technology is ready to spearhead and spark a mini-revolution in the segment.

2. New Social Experiences

Developing your account and profile will not just be a matter of winning or losing money, acquiring VIP status and more. No, it'd be about the impression you make on your fellow virtual avatars.

VR will spawn a new generation of players who are not there just for the photorealistic game graphics but rather for the opportunity to chat with other people and exchange banter as well as a few stories of their own gaming exploits. All of that put together makes for a very entertaining experience.

3. Fresh Meaning to Promotions

Yes, promotions are fun, but what if you were getting them in virtual reality. Indeed, the promos you get in virtual reality would not be quite the same ones you use in a traditional casino, or would they?

The fact is that promos are bound to change, and this is all for the best. Instead of having to pant under the weight of demanding wagering requirements, you will find more promos that are akin to the traditional bonuses you get in casinos where you are granted chips and asked to play for free and enjoy yourself.

The VR experiences will vary for sure, and the more VR becomes the norm, the more casino operators will come with unique ways of demonstrating how much more fun it can be.

4. Next-Generation Gaming

Naturally, casinos are all about gaming, and as such, there is one elementary truth gaming will be the foremost driver of innovation. Thanks to new VR gaming options, people would be able to explore all sorts of immersive experience and view gaming in a different light.

For starters, slots can be experienced in VR. There are already working games like that. NetEnt, for example, is working on various VR titles that make it so much more fun to play and enjoy the realistic graphics and great gameplay depth.

NetEnt is still not debuting VR games en masse, but it's only a matter of time. Players can expect a mini-revolution of such games heading for online casinos, and there is a whole avenue of opportunities to explore.

We are not too far from the time when personal skill and agility might also determine the outcome of such games and make for fun experiences! VR is a king or going to be king in the foreseeable future of iGaming.

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VR Will Change Casinos: Here Is What You Need to Know - Critical Blast

People in aged care have little chance to get out and see the wider world, but with virtual reality (VR) they can experience the pleasures of travel, exploring and enjoying nature and the built environment all over the world.

Virtual reality provides a simulated experience that can be similar to or completely different from the real world. Participants wear a lightweight helmet which provides the wearer with 360 views of ever changing scenes. Wearers become immersed in the experience and can easily believe they are in the place or situation where the program was made.

Increasingly people only enter residential aged care at the later stages of their lives when they are frail or suffering from dementia. Providing entertainment, socialisation and appropriate therapy can be a major problem.

Technology for Ageing & Disability (TADWA) is a Bassendean-based not-for-profit enterprise working to improve the lives of disabled and elderly people of Western Australian since 1984. It has signed up a partnership with MyndVR, the premier provider of virtual reality (VR) solutions for senior living communities in the United States to provide a similar service to aged care homes all around Australia.

TADWA will be implementing MyndVRs state-of-the-art VR platform in their mission to help older people, people with disabilities, and their carers do what is important to them.

VR allows occupational therapists and technicians to utilise customised headsets, care tablets, and MyndVRs expansive content library powered by Littlstar, a global content network dedicated to virtual reality.

Mike Hamilton, TADWA manager sales and partnerships, said VR is a game changer. Modern hardware with lightweight helmets are easy for people to use in residential aged care.

Modern virtual reality doesnt need a large computer and wiring. Just a tablet computer and headset controlled by WiFi and Bluetooth. Each tablet controls up to five masks simultaneously.

Steve Pretzel, CEO of TADWA, said VR would be used for recreation by people who can no longer get out and experience things.

At TADWA, our focus is on significantly improving the quality of life of our clients, their caregivers, and families through compassion, technological excellence, and innovation.

Age and disability should not define a persons future or detract from leading a meaningful life. When physical mobility is limited, virtual reality can provide a sense of exploration, adventure, and fun.

The MyndVR system provides great content as well as great control functionality. With the benefits of VR becoming better understood, we see a huge opportunity for families and particularly residential care facilities to reduce the impacts of isolation and improve the quality of life for residents.

It might be something on seniors bucket list that they will never be realistically able to do. VR gives the next best possible experience to actually being there.

But VR is not just for entertainment.

VR also provides a more realistic aid to socialising with friends and family members than applications such as Facetime and Zoom. It makes users feel part of the family. It is almost as good as being there.

There are exercise modules that help participants retain their mobility and strength.

VR can also provide distraction to help alleviate anxiety and confusion for people with dementia.

It will take users back to family events, seashore, forest or wilderness environments and help them escape the noise and activity of aged care homes.

We plan to start with easy modules and move on to harder applications, he said.

Mr Hamilton said we want to continue maximise interaction between residents themselves and their families, to revitalise them through remembered family connections and filter out any inappropriate content which might be disturbing to them.

MyndVR initially produced content for Americans but now meets the content needs of a world-wide audience. It produces five or six new programs every month with content depending the feedback they receive.

TADWA also plans to produce local content, for example visits to Fremantle markets or Perth beaches.

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Virtual reality brings new experiences to people in residential aged care - Have a Go News

The Artist Collective of Westport has unveiled its first and very amazing 3D Virtual Reality Gallery and Members Show. This is unlike any other virtual reality art gallery offered by other galleries. It's totally immersive and an exciting way to view art!

No masks or safe distancing required. Open 24/7 with artwork for sale by 87 Collective members. Once the show is concluded it will exist and be viewable from anywhere in the world in perpetuity in the Collective's gallery archive.

To experience this groundbreaking exhibit visit http://www.ArtistsCollectiveofWestport.org and click on "Virtual Exhibit". View on a desktop computer for the best experience.

The Collective commissioned artist/musician Trace Burroughs to develop it after he won the first prize in the Cultural Alliance of Fairfield County Innovation Challenge last July 20.

If you would like a quote on your own 3D VR gallery contact Trace Burroughs at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

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The Artist Collective of Westport amazing 3D Virtual Reality gallery - HamletHub

While a lot of experts are predicting for Extended Reality to be the future, the XR headsets, on the other hand, have experienced a considerable decline of 9% (on a year over year basis) in terms of shipments during the year 2020.

These stats have been provided in the latest research coming from Counterpoints Global XR Model Tracker and according to it, this decline was, fortunately, less than the expectations - only because of how the Oculus Quest 2s performance in the market has been a saving grace this holiday season.

Users are now absolutely loving the improvement in specs including more memory, larger battery, higher resolution, and a much better refresh rate. But more importantly, they have loved the device more because of the affordable price tag. Moreover, one can also say that the pandemic played a bigger role as well since the lockdown forced people to look for more forms of entertainment throughout the year.

Precisely, Oculus managed to dominate the XR market with a 53% share in 2020. Not to forget that the gear was already leading from the front with 44% in 2019 as well.

Diving further deep into the market dynamics, Research Director Peter Richardson told that Virtual Reality (VR) headsets comprised 90% of the total XR shipments that took place in the entire year. The adoption of VR is on the rise as the key players of the industry continue to bring advancements in design, specifications, and features while keeping the limitations of cost in mind. This eventually is also backed by the growth of good quality content on these platforms.

So, previously while the users of VR were limited to enjoy gaming only, the pandemic also became a good enough reason for enterprise users (especially in China) to start with the form factor for education or training.

As the infographic shows (featured below), Oculus remained the biggest XR brand throughout 2020. It is followed by Sony at the second spot that took advantage of its strong PlayStation user base that is still enjoying the five-year-old PlayStation VR. HTC, DPVR, and Pico were third, fourth, and fifth respectively.

Oculus stood out in the list of top five XR devices too as three of the most loved headsets belonged to the company. But with that being said, it is expected that we will see strong competition in the upcoming years.

Right now the segment doesnt really witness a lot of new launches when compared to other categories. The reason behind it is very obvious as such innovation still requires improvements in form-factor, display, power, sensor perspective, and also supply chain. But with Apple and Sony (PSVR 2) making their entry, the future does seem to be very bright!

Apart from that, Microsoft and Varjo are also aiming for a wider enterprise-level approach in order to be on top in this segment. Hence, if these companies get successful with their aims, we will see use cases for XR on a bigger scale including field force support, product design and development, construction and fabrication, manufacturing, logistics, education and training, media, healthcare, and many more.

Another way can be to divide the XRs consumer use into VR and AR. By doing so, the VR devices can be dedicated to the strongest use case of gaming, whereas, AR can then be confined to smartphone displays via applications.

All in all, XR will continue to grow double-digits in the next five years.

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Facebook's Oculus Dominates The Extended Reality (XR) Market With More Than 50 Percent Share - Digital Information World