The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 31, 2018

One of the best moments ever at View Conference 2018 , has been when I was able to interview John Gaeta. If you don’t know who John Gaeta is… well, he is the inventor of the bullet-time of the movie The Matrix. Now, this genius that has revolutionized cinema has landed in the mixed reality ecosystem , to try to improve it as well. He has joined Rony Abovitz at Magic Leap and now he’s there, trying to build the MagicVerse as the SVP of Creative Strategy of the Florida company.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

Bell Helicopter challenged its Innovation Team to accelerate its aircraft design process. Turning to VR as a key improvement to their design pipeline, the team created the FCX-001, the company’s first “concept aircraft,” in just six months. Typically it takes five to seven years to design a helicopter, according to a case study published by Bell and HTC.

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Tech Trends VR

OCTOBER 30, 2018

This year’s Raindance Film Festival in London showcased an amazing selection of immersive stories. Here’s what got Tech Trends really excited: Raindance is a very well-established and well-respected independent film festival, but it isn’t a particularly flashy one. Yet that lack of over-the-top glamour actually suits it very well. There’s a certain tongue-in-cheek, down-to-earth British vibe here (right down to its playfully deprecating name) that makes it feel really accessible, so that people

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VRScout

OCTOBER 31, 2018

Disney Research Hub debuts a practical new method for overlaying watertight digital costumes onto standard RGB images. In a short video posted to the official Disney Research Hub YouTube channel earlier yesterday morning, Disney Research introduced AR Costumes, a new method of AR capture that automatically overlays a “watertight” digital costume onto a subject’s body from just a standard RGB image.

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Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

Mexico

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 29, 2018

When NVIDIA announced the RTX 2080 graphics cards , I was there. I watched Jensen Huang announcing the new graphics cards with amazing features like real-time raytracing and variable rate shading. Of course, after the announcement, a lot of questions started coming to my mind , especially regarding the use of these new graphics cards with regard to VR and AR.

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Tech Trends VR

OCTOBER 28, 2018

Tech Trends went to Sweden to see how Tetra Pak is moving into Industry 4.0 by using technologies such as Mixed Reality. Tetra Pak is one of the largest companies that most people never heard of. Chances are, however, that you’ve used one of their products very recently, as the Swedish company supplies food processing and packaging solutions to manufacturers in more than 175 countries.

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VRScout

OCTOBER 30, 2018

Fully immersive experiences without the need of a VR headset. Are we there yet? There are many tantalizing possibilities surrounding current VR and AR technology. Unfortunately, due to the expensive hardware and sometimes complicated setup required to engage in AAA experiences, these captivating digital adventures are often out of reach to the average consumer.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 2, 2018

There are days when I’m really happy to be a blogger. The day when I interviewed Donald Greenberg is one of these days. Donald Greenberg is one of the fathers of the CGI. Have you ever heard the names “radiosity” or “ray-tracing” (yes, that thing of the RTX ON / RTX OFF memes)? They are basically the algorithms that let you render a correct lighting in your virtual scenes and that are implemented in all rendering engines.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 28, 2018

During Melbourne Games Week this week, Valve revealed a fresh set of official figures about it’s user population on Steam. Mashing up the figures with Valve’s monthly Steam Survey data gives us fresh insight into the number of VR headsets currently in use on on the platform. A tweet from Melbourne Games Week , spotted by Gamasutra , shows Valve’s Sean Jenkin and Kristian Miller at a podium giving a presentation during the event, with a slide showing fresh Steam user stats which

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With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

Virtual Reality

Next Reality AR

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

While many retailers have introduced try-before-you-buy features in their apps, Walmart has gone in another direction by bringing shoppers an augmented reality tool to help them compare products they want to buy. Available exclusively for iOS (app versions 18.20 and ARKit-compatible devices running at least iOS 11.3), shoppers can access the new tool through the existing barcode scanner by tapping the 3D cube icon.

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VRScout

OCTOBER 29, 2018

A new experience produced by the BBC examines the personal repercussions of brain trauma from different perspectives. Is Anna OK? is a poignant VR experience based on a true story. Anna and Lauren are identical twins. For two decades these young women were as emotionally and psychologically close as two people can get. But, in one fateful moment, their relationship is thrown upside-down.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

When I went to China , one of the companies that I wanted to visit was PanguVR , but unluckily its CEO was not available at that time because of some business stuff he had to do. PanguVR works with two amazing technologies like virtual reality and artificial intelligence , so I was really interested in talking with him. We agreed that we would have met virtually so that I could discover more about his company anyway.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 31, 2018

It’s that time of the year again, when you bring out the big bag of candy, put on your spookiest outfit, and turn off the lights and pretend no one’s home. It’s Halloween! And to celebrate, we rounded up five of our favorite VR games which span a number of horror sub-genres: Resident Evil 7 biohazard (PSVR). If you own a PSVR, you might look no further than Capcom’s Resident Evil 7 biohazard (2017) , one of the best VR adaptations on the PlayStation Store currently.

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Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

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Next Reality AR

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

One of the funniest scenes from the teaser trailer for the Wreck-It Ralph sequel is the basis for the new pre-show augmented reality experience via the Noovie ARCade app. Arriving in theaters on Nov. 21, Ralph Breaks the Internet finds the titular character expanding his digital travels beyond arcade games and onto the world wide web. Eventually, he finds his way into a children's mobile game called Pancake Milkshake Café, where hilarity ensues.

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VRScout

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

A two year renovation has transformed The Crossroads lobby into an interactive digital experience powered by Unreal Engine. A Silicon Valley office building located in San Mateo, CA, called The Crossroads, recently completed a major structural overhaul that transformed its standard lobby from a drab entrance with muted colors and old dusty photos, into a state-of-the-art welcome area that uses the power of Unreal Engine, along with 86” high-definition 4K vertical LCD displays, to create an inter

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 30, 2018

The news of the day is that finally we do know something about the upcoming Vive Focus 6 DOF Controllers dev-kit specifications. If you don’t know what I’m talking about: well, the Vive Focus is the standalone headset produced by HTC. It features 6 DOF tracking, but the associated controller is only one and has only 3DOF rotational tracking.

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Road to VR

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

Oculus co-founder and Facebook’s head of PC VR Brendan Iribe is leaving the company amidst a TechCrunch report that Facebook cancelled its second iteration of Rift. Now, a new report maintains the company is heading in a different direction with a much less ambitious upgrade to Rift than the recent ‘Half Dome’ prototype would suggest.

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Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

How To

Next Reality AR

OCTOBER 29, 2018

In the latest example of non-tech companies taking on augmented reality marketing, online travel site Travelocity has added an AR version of its Roaming Gnome mascot to its mobile app. Available for iOS and Android, the feature, enabled by ARKit and ARCore, respectively, gives users the ability to dress up their vacation photos the famous Roaming Gnome often seen in the company's commercials.

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VRScout

NOVEMBER 1, 2018

Facebook has supposedly abandoned their plans for a next-gen Rift headset in favor of minor hardware updates. According to a new report by TechCrunch , Facebook has abandoned their plans for a next-gen Oculus Rift headset in favor of minor hardware updates to the original model. Currently referred to as ‘Rift S,’ this new iteration would feature several significant hardware updates to the popular PC VR headset, but not enough to warrant the title, ‘Oculus Rift 2.’.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 27, 2018

Do you know Google Spotlight Stories? If not, well, you should. It is a small R&D lab on creative projects hosted by Google that is focused on creating original VR storytelling experiences. At View Conference 2018 , I’ve heard the talk of Jan Pinkava, that is the director of Google Spotlight Stories’s experiences (apart from being the co-director of Ratatouille and a winner of an Oscar prize), that has detailed the creative process behind their work.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Blade and Sorcery is a medieval fantasy sandbox from indie developer WarpFrog which is aiming to bring realism to VR combat. Including a physics-driven interaction and combat system, players can expect to master melee, ranged, and magic-based combat against plenty of squishy, and stab-friendly NPCs. Blade and Sorcery is slated to launch on Steam Early Access sometime in December, targeting Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Windows VR headsets.

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Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

Technology

Next Reality AR

OCTOBER 29, 2018

Our national month-long celebration of all things creepy and crawly comes to a climax on Wednesday with Halloween and will end with Día de Muertos on Friday, so now is the ideal time for the The New York Times to publish a mildly chilling augmented reality story for children. In a special Halloween edition of The New York Times, readers are led to the "Monsters That Live On You" feature, which presents a series of real life parasites and pests that are scarier up-close than anything that Stephen

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VRScout

OCTOBER 27, 2018

The Shenzhen location allows visitors the opportunity to experience VR and purchase the latest Vive products. . It’s no secret that China loves VR. Whether it be the countries ambitious program to integrate VR education into all Chinese schools, or, more recently, the Jiangxi Province’s massive investment $460M in support for the AR/VR sector, its clear the booming nation sees both short, and long-term potential for virtual and augmented reality.

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Cats and VR

OCTOBER 31, 2018

Happy Halloween Cats And VR Fans and to celebrate we are giving away a PSVR copy of one of the scariest VR games of the year. All you have to do is follow @CatsAndVR & @MastiffGames on Twitter. Make sure you comment on this page what your twitter handle is for a chance to win. Interesting about Home Sweet Home is that it comes from a company who specializes primarily in high-end video production for commercials and advertising.

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Road to VR

OCTOBER 29, 2018

HTC earlier this month revealed a 6DOF controller dev kit for the Vive Focus standalone headset. New details have emerged about the device this week. When HTC revealed the Vive Focus 6DOF controller dev kit earlier this month , the company wasn’t ready to share details. This week at XRDC in San Francisco, the company spoke more about the dev kit and noted that between the Vive Focus and other Vive Wave powered headsets, consumers are likely to see a number of different 6DOF controller trac

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Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly

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