As early as 2016, former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima had already hinted that the company was “looking into” VR. In a later interview in 2017, that interest had been somewhat upgraded to say they were “studying” the possibility of perhaps adding a HMD accessory to the Nintendo Switch once they were convinced users could play for longer durations without experiencing issues. Yet it’s safe to say that overall Nintendo has been quite noncommittal about dipping their toes into immersive tech – at least in public.

Former Nintendo President Tatsumi Kimishima had already hinted that the company was looking into VR
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So the recent news that the videogame giant is to join a newly formed “VRM Consortium” is likely to get some fans excited. The consortium brings together several Japanese companies, which – from February this year – will coordinate activities with the aim to develop the Virtual Reality business.

Members of the consortium, which will officially launch in February 2019, include Unity Technologies Japan, several VR development companies as well as livestreaming and distribution platforms.More specifically, however, the consortium (as the name suggests) is actually championing the VRM file format and hopes to make it an industry-wide standard for 3D avatars (or 3D Humanoid Characters to be precise).

Nintendo has so far been quite noncommittal about dipping their toes into immersive tech
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Why is that a big deal? Because up until now, when creating such 3D models, the output depended on the modelling tools used, and varied greatly in terms of scale, expression, initial pose, and a range of other factors. For instance, when in first-person view, how do you obtain the coordinates for correct positioning of the body, which parts of the body should be excluded from view at which points, the list goes on. This makes it very labour-intensive for developers, limits user choice, and generally makes for poorer experiences.

The enduring popularity of platforms such as @SecondLife has taught us that people can become incredibly invested in their virtual personas
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Members of the VRM consortium, which will officially launch in February 2019, include Unity Technologies Japan
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Each company’s datasets are different and have often-complex specifications. It is also not uncommon for the full information about file formats not to be provided with the avatar, so importing and exporting can be pretty much impossible outside of a very limited ecosystem, and therein lies the problem.

Up until now, when creating 3D models the output depended on the modelling tools used, and varied in terms of scale, expression, and a range of other factors
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One of the main barriers to the mass consumer adoption of social VR is the fact that at the moment, each platform pretty much requires you to start from scratch. You have to create an avatar (often with limited options for customization) and can generally only use it within the confines of that specific world.

With VRM, however, the same data can be used across any application that supports the format, meaning that users can easily create and personalize them with a broad range of tools. They can then use that same avatar across different applications and platforms, moving seamleassly from one to the other.

This is possible because the format is platform agnostic and open source, allowing developers to integrate it in whatever product or platform they like. VRM is based on the 3D standard format glTF2.0, All data including textures and materials is compacted as one file. To import a VRM model, only one single file needs to be handled, an it carries not only metadata such as the title and the author name, but also the thumbnail and the license information, making each avatar traceable and unique, so it would be possible, for example, to send your avatar data to your friends so they can see your appearance in a shared virtual space just as you intended.

One of the main barriers to the mass consumer adoption of social VR is the fact that each platform requires you to start from scratch
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If the enduring popularity of platforms such as Second Life has taught us anything, is that people can become incredibly invested in their virtual personas, and see them as a true extension of themselves, a key part of their identity.

So the idea that your avatar would be truly “yours” to take anywhere in the virtual multiverse is a really powerful one, and something that might eventually tempt doubters into not only trying VR, but coming back repeatedly and sticking around for longer when they do.

The idea that your avatar would be truly yours to take anywhere in the virtual multiverse is a really powerful one
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For now, however, Nintendo remains ever cautious – they are joining the consortium in an “observer” capacity only – and there are no hints of an actual VR product from the company coming out in the near future, but then, you never know with these things…

This article was first published on VRScout

Nintendo Joins VRM Consortium As ‘Observer’ via @alicebonasio https://t.co/9mqNbnoHgW pic.twitter.com/SYRfpXJ7te

— VRScout (@VRScout) January 16, 2019

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our VR Consultancy service offers comprehensive support in strategic deployment of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Will Nintendo Make a Play for VR? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Marvin is the BBC’s newest foreign correspondent, and you can get inside his head.

This week the BBC released a new two-part virtual reality news documentary series called Damming the Nile, which was produced in partnership between BBC News and the newly launched BBC VR Hub headed up by Zillah Watson.

“Viewers will have enjoyed 360 news pieces from the BBC before, but never like this. The film is in full immersive VR, is stereoscopic and features fully spatialised audio. Audiences can enjoy the sheer scale and beauty of the Nile, alongside the major infrastructure projects that have shaped its past and will continue to shape its future,” Watson explains.

Audiences can enjoy the sheer scale and beauty of the Nile, alongside the major infrastructure projects that have shaped its past and will continue to shape its future
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This is an interesting case study for VR content because it’s a crossover of several genres, bridging news reporting, documentary filmmaking, historical narrative and adventure. Even while you’re taking in the beautiful sights and sounds as you fly above waterfalls, you’re made aware that this is where the world’s first war over water could be fought as a major new project – the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam – threatens to upset the balance of power between Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan.

This is an interesting case study for VR content because it’s a crossover of several genres, bridging news reporting, documentary filmmaking, historical narrative and adventure
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“We want to create high quality mobile VR pieces that give audiences experiences they can’t find anywhere else,” says Watson. “Damming the Nile VR does this by making you feel like you’re there, unearthing the story as you go, and getting a better understanding of the different cultures and points of view at play.”

Your guide through this complex experience is BBC Africa Correspondent Alastair Leithead. You join him and his crew as he interviews ministers and hear the perspective of locals in the street corners of Sudan and cafés of Khartoum. Viewers are able to explore the controversial dam up-close and fly in a hot air balloon to see the ancient pyramids and Egyptian temples, before finally landing back in the bustling chaos of the Cairo streets.

Your guide through this complex experience is BBC Africa Correspondent Alastair Leithead
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“As a foreign correspondent, my job is to introduce people to new and fascinating places, challenge stereotypes and explain how countries are growing and changing. Virtual reality means films like Damming the Nile VR can actually take our audiences there,” says Alastair Leithead, who in a BBC Radio 4 programme recounted how, the first time he ever tried VR, he thought to himself that “here might be the future of news. Why tell people about something when they can see and experience them for themselves?”

Viewers are able to explore the controversial dam up-close and fly in a hot air balloon to see the ancient pyramids and Egyptian temples, before finally landing back in the bustling chaos of the Cairo streets
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So when the chance came for him to film his Nile assignment in VR, he was enthusiastic about exploring the possibilities of the medium, and fascinated by the power of “Marvin” – the nickname the crew gave the 360 camera rig that captured the footage for this experience – to capture the essence of the moment in much the same way as a person would. This even went so far as ensuring that Marvin had his own seat cafés as they chatted with the locals.

Technologies come and go, but there’s something about this that does exactly what a foreign correspondent should do: Takes you to a place, helps you understand it, and shows you why you should care
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“It’s a little bit weird being Marvin, being inside his head, and even weirder with me in there, whispering about what you should be looking at,” Leithead muses, yet given the fact that he’s exploring the possibility of whether his role might become redundant, he’s very positive about the technology, and seemingly willing to welcome Marvin as a worthy colleague rather than a threat.

“Technologies come and go, but there’s something about this that does exactly what a foreign correspondent should do: Takes you to a place, helps you understand it, and shows you why you should care. Maybe the future lies with Marvin, our own Virtual Correspondent.”

Both parts of Damming the Nile can be viewed on YouTube with or without a VR headset like a Google Cardboard. As well as accessing it on the BBC VR app or the Oculus Gear VR store, viewers can also watch the documentary on the BBC’s brand new site dedicated to VR content, which also showcases previous immersive productions from the corporation such as the award-winning The Turning Forest and Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel. You can also see Himalayas: A Trek to School and Home: A VR Spacewalk before riding a supersonic car as it attempts to break the world land speed record in Bloodhound. A special 360° version of the films will be available to view to watch through the BBC News website and on Facebook. The story will aired as a news documentary on BBC TV channels, and will be available to read on the BBC News website.

Both parts of Damming the Nile can be viewed on YouTube with or without a VR headset
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Tech Trends offers comprehensive Virtual Reality Consultancy services to support businesses looking to adopt VR/AR/MR technologies into their brand and communications strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Is VR the Future of News? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Speed Kills is an epic experience that sets the bar high for cinematic VR.

Hannibal Pictures’ upcoming feature film Speed Kills will have one of the longest accompanying VR experiences ever brought to market, delivering over an hour of cinematic VR content. Produced by TopDogVR and Richard Del Castro, Guy Griffithe and Travis Cloyd, it will be cut into eight parts and delivered to VR platforms in episodic format as a free downloadable app in late 2017.

Speed Kills is John Travolta's first VR project
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The film will be cut into eight parts and delivered to VR platforms in episodic format
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Based on the book by Arthur J. Harris Speed Kills is inspired by the life of a speedboat racing champion who also created some of the most enduring boat brands in the industry, including Donzi Marine, Blue Thunder, and the legendary Cigarette. It’s currently in post production and will premiere Spring 2018.

This will be John Travolta’s VR debut, alongside a cast that also includes Katheryn Winnick (Vikings), Tom Sizemore (Saving Private Ryan) and Kellan Lutz (Twilight).

When I direct VR I’m also directing our crews and solving these issues on the fly
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Director Travis Cloyd hopes this will set the bar for celebrity-driven cinematic virtual reality:

“How often can you stand next to a legend going 60 mph in a speedboat? Thanks to VR, this is finally a possibility, and we are excited to be crafting compelling, action-packed content for this medium.

Lutz, who plays Robbie Reemer, a speedboat racing, drug-running kingpin, described the filming process as “remarkable.” In one scene, you watch Lutz sling drug deals out at sea and get chased by the DEA while trying to offload his haul. With the use of VR drones and VR cameras strapped to speed boats racing on the open water.

“It’s definitely different than filming a standard format feature; less time, smaller crew, and really innovative technology,” he says.

Cinematographer Andrzej Sekula, who was the DP in Pulp Fiction, says he found building and plotting out the camera direction for a full 360 stage very interesting:

“This was my first time working with virtual reality and I can see why this will be a key part of the future of film,” He says, “I was fascinated by the cameras and shots. My career is built on building a shot and framing it, but they’ve taken that out the window. William Shakespeare once said, ‘Pleasure and action make the hours seem short,’ and it was truly a pleasure discussing and plotting shots with the VR team.”

Director Travis Cloyd hopes this will set the bar for celebrity-driven cinematic VR
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“We put together our own layout and script based on the feature film production,” explains Cloyd. “After reviewing the film’s script, we picked certain scenes we felt would lend themselves best to showcasing the story in 360. Sometimes we filmed while the crew was filming, other times we had our own standalone setup. In post production, we masked the crews.”

We reviewed the script to pick the scenes we felt would best lend themselves to VR
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Every single episode we created had countless crew removal and VFX work
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“People have no idea how hard it is to cut out crews and everything behind the frame of a standard 2D shot when your shooting 360 alongside a major production. There was a massive amount of clean-up issues when shooting within the standard production. Every single episode we created had countless crew removal and VFX work. Not to mention all the audio passes and color correction work that goes into 360. When we look into our head set display our POV is roughly 40-60 degrees of the entire 360 degree shot. So much of the overall spectrum has to go through this very long and intensive post process. 60+ minutes of VR is a lot of content. You will see an amazing experience with a combination of natural 360 shots and others where we had to repaint the entire backgrounds anywhere the rest of the crew was standing. It’s a ton of work, but in the final product you won’t know the difference”

Cloyd believes that shooting VR during the course of feature film production will eventually become the norm, but currently there are still major challenges to overcome and it is not the main priority, as it can’t be allowed to affect the bottom dollar or production schedule.

“To minimize interference with the production workflow, we worked around them and did not delay or affect their schedule in any way. We have to have a lot of production etiquette and can never allow the blame of missing feature shots to fall into the lap of the VR team. When I direct VR I’m not necessarily directing actors, but I’m also directing our crews and solving these issues on the fly. We need to stay on our toes and watch the A cam and B cam monitors to know where we can fit in and how close we can get to the actors without being in main production shots. These are spontaneous decisions and require us to block with production and have an open dialogue with the feature director, cinematographers and camera operators. In many cases we are the ultimate C cam team. Except maybe we have C cam, D cam and E cam’s out there. When the system is done right it’s very rewarding and the content is amazing.”

Ultimately, Cloyd concludes, working around the 360 spectrum is an incredibly complex dialogue with lots of moving parts, and the secret is to make all that work without anybody knowing they are there. “Like VR ghosts.”

This article was originally published on VRScout

Behind The Scenes with ‘Speed Kills’, John Travolta’s VR Debut via @alicebonasio https://t.co/zcXHb2cbjY pic.twitter.com/F2ibsbLEni

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 9, 2017

Tech Trends offers comprehensive Virtual Reality Consultancy services to support businesses looking to adopt VR/AR/MR technologies into their brand and communications strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Checking Out John Travolta’s Virtual Reality Debut appeared first on Tech Trends.

The Royal British Legion continues to embrace VR technology to bring history to life.

As we enter Remembrance weekend, it is interesting to see how one of Britain’s most beloved charities is using immersive technologies to share the experiences of soldiers who fought in the Great Wars to the next generations, and to help their memories live on.

Tech Trends previously reported on the story of how VR reunited a World War II veteran with the village he helped save, but the Royal British Legion has continued to explore the possibilities of this tech since.

The Legion recently launched Virtual Reality content to mark the 100^th anniversary of the WW1 Battle of Passchendaele – also known as the Third Battle of Ypres.

The 360 videos invite viewers to travel back to 1917
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Created in partnership with historian Dan Snow, the 360 videos invite viewers to travel back to 1917 and live life on the frontline through first-hand audio accounts, diary excerpts, archive film and photos.

“The Battle of Passchendaele was a hugely significant battle which has become infamous for the number of casualties and the sheer scale of the mud, which was even worse than the Somme,” says Snow.

Fought between July and November 1917, Passchendaele remains one of the most notorious battles of the First World War. In three-and-a-half months of fighting, an advance of less than five miles saw an estimated 550,000 Allied and German troops killed, wounded or lost.

Passchendaele is one of the most notorious battles of the First World War
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Around 90,000 British and Commonwealth soldiers were missing; 50,000 buried without being identified, and 42,000 never recovered from the Belgian fields of Flanders that turned into an ocean of mud.

“Along with our welfare and support work, remembrance is at the heart of what the charity does,” explains Bob Gamble, Head of Engagement at The Royal British Legion. “The Royal British Legion is the national custodian of Remembrance, safeguarding the memory of those who fought and died in conflict.

The Royal British Legion is the national custodian of Remembrance
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From life on the front line to nurses battling to treat the flood of casualties, users can experience the realities of the battle through unique and immersive 360/ VR videos, going back to 1917 to see first-hand what life was like on the frontline and at home.

VR is particularly suited to such high-impact content
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The unique immersive properties of VR – such as the ability of the medium to engender empathy, are particularly suited for this type high-impact content, as it is often difficult for people to grasp the enormity of the experience. This is why we’ve increasingly seen Hollywood experimenting with VR as a storytelling mechanism in that context too, such as the companion VR Dunkirk experience we previewed earlier this year.

It is particularly difficult for people to grasp the enormity of the experience
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You can support the Poppy appeal by donating online here

#PoppyAppeal

To find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers bespoke Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post How Virtual Reality Can Help Us Not to Forget appeared first on Tech Trends.

As Jaunt scoops up an Emmy award for its latest VR experience, the company announces new content for Windows Mixed Reality Headsets.

Jaunt is one of those companies that tend to fly under the radar. Although you might not immediately recognize their name, however, chances are that if you’re a VR fan you’ve experienced some of their content, whether it was hanging out with Paul McCartney or touring the Amazon Rainforest in Under the Canopy.

Jaunt has become a leading provider of VR hardware and software
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Jaunt has become a leading provider of software and integrated hardware to the industry since they were founded in 2013, yet their main drive is pushing the boundaries of VR as a creative storytelling medium. Earlier this month, for example, Jaunt Studios premiered Free The Night – its first six degrees of freedom (6DOF) original interactive experience – at The Future of Storytelling Summit (FoST) in New York.

Produced in partnership with Microsoft exclusively for the launch of its new Windows Mixed Reality headsets, the film was created and directed by Nicole McDonald, an award-winning interactive filmmaker who has previously worked on projects with the likes of Cirque Du Soleil, NASA, and John Legend. She was inspired by her own childhood experience of gazing at the night sky with her father.

The experience allows viewers to interact with the night sky
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The experience allows viewers to interact with the night sky, picking and placing lights out of a city skyline. As they move the lights around, these extinguish and re-ignite, and once a composition is complete, slight touches or swipes which will trigger real-time physical reactions such as stars swooping, dancing, and travelling all around them.

The preview was timed to coincide with the launch of their redesigned Jaunt VR App for the Windows Mixed Reality Platform, which will work with the headsets being released this month. It features a more intuitive user interface, voice navigation, and content adaptive streaming which ensures the optimal image quality relative to available bandwidth, and expands on Jaunt’s distribution capabilities. The full Free the Night experience will debut on Windows Mixed Reality in late November, and they promise to continue to regularly debut new immersive content for the platform.

Collisions won an Emmy Award for Outstanding New Approaches
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This comes as one of the company’s flagship cinematic VR projects, Collisions, was awarded an Emmy Award for the Outstanding New Approaches: Documentary category. In this experience, the viewer stands alongside Nyarri Morgan, an elder of the Martu tribe in the remote Western Australian Pilbara desert, living as hundreds of generations before them have, with no exposure to the Western world.

Nyarri’s first contact with Western culture came in the 1950’s via a dramatic collision between his traditional world view and the cutting edge of Western science and technology, when he witnessed the testing of an atomic bomb, without any context to prepare him for the experience. The film uses VR’s power for engendering empathy to focus on the need to consider future generations, as we dive head-long into the fourth industrial revolution.

“Collisions is a story for this moment and it needed these technologies to deliver it,” said the film’s director Lynette Wallworth, who said that VR allowed the impact of Nyarri’s story to be felt in a way that other forms could not have allowed, and also proved quite prescient in its timing: “As the world watches a newly emerging nuclear standoff, Nyarri’s powerful first hand account, translated into our most contemporary of mediums, is a story that has waited over 50 years to be told..”

Collisions is a story of the moment and needed VR to deliver it
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“It was exciting to leverage VR to realise Lynette’s vision,” added Producer Nicole Newnham. “It enabled the viewer to viscerally experience Nyarri’s homeland, and to witness the atomic test from his point of view. It’s incredibly emotional. The possibilities for storytelling in this medium are profound.”

Collisions premiered jointly at Sundance Film Festival and at the Davos World Economic Forum, the first VR work to be presented there. It has since gone on to provoke meaningful change on a global level forcing leaders to reconsider the effect of policies on the environment and health of the earth. Screenings have been held for decision makers at the Trimble Forum for Disarmament, Washington, the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty meetings in Vienna, the Climate Action Summit Washington and the UN General Assembly meetings in New York.

Viewers of the film included representatives of some of the world’s major nuclear powers, industry leaders, celebrities and heads of state such as the President of Argentina and the King of Belgium. Hans Blix, who viewed the work in Vienna, commented that the world needed immersive works like Collisions to illustrate the truly corrosive power of nuclear weapons as they remain for most people “…an abstract concept.”

Viewers represented some of the world’s major nuclear powers
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Which makes the fact that industry players like Jaunt are committed to enabling immersive cinematic experiences – and on a broader range of devices – all the more welcome. In this day and age, having more experiences that engender empathy towards others is probably no bad thing.

Jaunt Launches New App and Content for Windows ‘Mixed Reality’ Platform #VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/6QZuQsyg2A pic.twitter.com/JUkngz2waz

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 29, 2017

This article was originally published on VRScout

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Creating New Mixed Reality Experiences appeared first on Tech Trends.

Getty Images and Jaunt partner up to create a cinematic Virtual Reality database of 360 degree images and video

According to a recent report by PwC, Virtual Reality will soon become the fastest growing area in the UK Media and Entertainment sector, with a predicted growth of 76% year on year. If those forecasts prove true, the VR content industry will be worth a staggering £801 million in just four year’s time.

Whether you’re a cheerleader or a stone-cold sceptic, the point is that VR is here to stay. And while we can argue about such things as hardware, field of view, mass consumer adoption rates and even what we should call various flavours of virtual experience, one thing is certain: Content –good content – will be the key ingredient in that mix.

Content is going to be the key ingredient in the VR Mix
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Which is why Tech Trends has been following Jaunt closely for a while now, including their recent amazing America’s Cup 360 experience. They are not only a leading producer and publisher of fully immersive cinematic Virtual Reality content, but they also make awesome hardware, software and applications to enable cinematic VR, and have been a leading voice in creating industry standards to empower creators of such immersive experiences.

Jaunt has the largest library of cinematic VR content in the industry
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Jaunt also has the largest library of high quality cinematic VR content in the industry with a team of highly-skilled producers filming travels and experiences, and it is now partnering up with Getty images, one of the world’s largest and most used sources of visual content, which already boasts over 200 million assets including photos, videos, and music used widely by photographers and videographers worldwide.

“Today’s partnership with Jaunt takes us into the next frontier of immersive experiences and we look forward to working with them to provide our customers with a level of VR content not yet seen in this space,” says Anthony Holland Parkin, Head of VR, Getty Images. “By including compelling VR content as part of our core offering, we are facilitating the growth of – and driving demand for – this exciting new medium that is revolutionizing the way we experience the world around us.”

This exclusive global distribution partnership is set to transform Getty’s database of imagery and content and enable it to provide premium cinema-grade VR video to content creators. The move will see customers gaining access to Jaunt’s immersive 360° stereo video experiences through Getty Images’ websites alongside its existing collection of over 25,000 360 photographs. Getty is betting on VR content to enhance its brand and business model, and this new content will be available to brands and agencies to utilise via a multitude of channels including apps, mobile phone handsets and now this new image library.  The new partnership symbolises their confidence in this pioneering technology industry, underlining their belief that VR content is going to enter the mainstream and be a key part of consumption for consumers.

“We are thrilled to be working with Getty Images to bring our high quality 360 and cinematic said “Just as meaningful as producing premium VR experiences is to Jaunt, it’s equally important to help facilitate others to create quality 360 and VR content.  We aim to do all we can for the growth of this powerful emerging medium, and this is but another step in that direction,” says Mitzi Reaugh, Global Head of Strategy & Content Licensing at Jaunt. VR footage to the wider creative community.”

The deal follows Getty’s partnership with Google, which saw the company supplying hi-res VR content from current events around the world for Google Expeditions. The company also has relationships with other big players in that space such as Oculus Rift, 360Cities.net, AirPano, Laduma and Yellowbird.

“In 2017 scepticism around VR has finally taken a backseat. What has become clear to brands and the public alike is that VR is here to stay. Undoubtedly, it has the potential to transform the way the public consumes and engages with brands. At Getty Images we are embedding VR content technologies into the core of our business and ensuring that, as use of VR continues to grow, its users are further enhancing their experience with access to the world’s best content,” concludes Parkin.

This post was originally published on VRScout

Getty Images and Jaunt Offer 360 Content for Creatives via @alicebonasio https://t.co/RnnWuAuQpr pic.twitter.com/AAgBVESByE

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 3, 2017

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Immersive Experiences For the Creative Community appeared first on Tech Trends.

Calling all conscious content makers who want to make the real world a better place through Virtual Reality

VRTogether is a recently launched non-profit initiative hoping to make a difference by bringing together a community of people to leverage Virtual Reality technology to effect change. Rather than financing projects, the platform encourages people to connect and engage with each other around VR projects that aim for the greater good.

VRTogether wants to bring producers of immersive content together for good causes
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Organisations and individuals looking for production studios, research partners, ideas or advice will be able to post their work and those with the expertise needed can offer help. By working together, these important projects can become a reality.

“The infrastructure has been built, now it needs to be populated,” explains VRTogether Founder Daryl Atkins from creative agency REWIND. “We’re asking people to invest a little time to create content which has the power to make a difference. Virtual Reality technology provides a compelling new way of telling stories and engaging people. The stories that need telling the most are often the most difficult to get off the ground, and we felt that amongst the day-to-day commercial projects that helped create the industry, we had a social responsibility to give something back to the wider community.”

The platform launched with a project from Whales.org to create an immersive experience showing the reality for whales and dolphins held in captivity to inspire positive action.

One of the first projects on the platform is a partnership with Whale and Dolphin Conservation
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“By using virtual reality, we can create an experience that enables people to see life from a whale or dolphin’s eyes, and can educate them about the sad contrast between life in a concrete tank and life in the ocean. VR is a great tool to get the public involved with the issue and brings us a step closer to stopping whale and dolphin captivity for good. By signing up to VRTogether you can help us to make a real change through technology,” says Chris Butler-Stroud, Chief Executive at Whale and Dolphin Conservation (WDC).

Virtual reality can change what a person sees, how they think, what they feel and even how someone behaves, in part because we believe it to be ‘reality’. This is why VR has already been used to treat conditions including autism, PTSD, depression, anxiety and even promote recovery in paraplegics and even tackle phobias.

“The way VR Together is wedding the inspired community of conscious VR makers together is unparalleled,” believes Catherine Day, Head of AR/VR at Missing Pieces and board advisor to VRTogether. “We all recognize VR has the potential to do what many hoped the first film camera would do – make it impossible to turn a blind eye to suffering, injustice, and ignorance.  There’s no way to turn a blind eye in VR, and because it is consumed digitally, and mostly via mobile, we can immediately take action before the transient moment of inspiration to do so has expired. Cause-based VR was the first genre to prove the power of the medium to the masses, the first to win awards, and if we continue to believe in one another’s dreams and help each other to realize them… pro-social and environmental VR will continue to sustain and advance immersive storytelling.”

VRTogether’s Board of Advisors also includes the “Godmother of VR” Nonny de la Peña, CEO of the Emblematic Group which has produced many experiences exploring the power of VR to create empathy as well as the Director of VR and New Media at the Raindance Film Festival Mária Rakušanová. Find out more about it at vrtogether.org

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post VR For the Greater Good appeared first on Tech Trends.

From hypnotic fairy tales to a harrowing look at a history, the BBC’s VR experiences are pushing immersive content production to the next level

The BBC is keen to explore VR storytelling in all its forms
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There is no doubt that the BBC is keen on exploring Virtual Reality in all its creative forms, from Radio Drama to sharing the harrowing journey of refugees, we’ve seen some interesting examples of this emerging already. Now the corporation is also making widely available two highly acclaimed experiences which were produced in collaboration with virtual reality production studio, VRTOV.

BBC Taster has just launched a new Virtual Reality app
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One of these newly available experiences is The Turning Forest, which was produced by BBC Research & Development and features an award-winning spatial soundtrack that uses dynamic binaural audio to provide a greater sense of immersion for viewers as they explore the 360 degree world. The sound was adapted from an original soundtrack commissioned for S3A: Future Spatial Audio for an Immersive Listener Experience at home, funded by the Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council (EPSRC).Originally only available as a launch title for Google Daydream and showcased at the Raindance Film Festival, it has now become available for Samsung Gear on the Oculus Store. The new Gear VR version will enable viewers to trigger interactions by gaze, such as making music with the monster’s teeth, as well as the birds, fish, and icicles and other items that feature in the fantasy world.

“It was designed from the sound up, using state-of-the-art spatial audio to transport people into this entrancing realm,” explains The BBC’s head of Commissioning for Virtual Reality Zillah Watson.

Another newly launched experience is Easter Rising: Voice Of A Rebel, which was produced by BBC Learning and previewed by Tech Trends last year at the newly launched National Theatre’s Immersive Storytelling Studio. 

Taking viewers back to the streets of 1916 Dublin, the film depicts the memories of 19 year-old Willie McNeive, a rebel who took part in the Easter Rising against the British. Watson says that the film shows how technology can be used to give audiences a greater sense of presence, enabling them to better understand a range of issues like important current affairs, news, science and history.

BBC Taster VR will be a showcase for new commissions
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As part of its ongoing remit to put the BBC’s early and experimental ideas in the hands of audiences, BBC Taster has also launched a new virtual reality app, which is now available for free on Android and iOS.

“BBC Taster VR will be a fantastic showcase for some brilliant new commissions, as well as some new takes on some of the best BBC Taster VR experiences to date. It gives audiences cutting-edge mobile VR experiences from the BBC,” says Andy Conroy, Controller of BBC Research & Development.

The app will feature a range of content designed to push the limits of virtual reality on mobile devices, including animated VR, interactive 360° videos, dynamic binaural audio and branching narratives, which let users decide where to take the story. It was developed using technology from EEVO, and alongside user feedback, the app provides analytics and VR heat maps to show where users are looking while they’re in virtual reality. This will help BBC developers and editorial teams learn more from their content, helping them to refine storytelling techniques in this emerging medium.

One of the first pieces of VR to be published in the app is a trailer for upcoming BBC Three feature-length documentary One Deadly Weekend in America. The VR trailer is a virtual experience about gun crime, immersing you into an American street scene where clips from the documentary play around you.

The app analytics and VR heat maps show where users are looking
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The One Deadly Weekend VR trailer was developed by BBC Three in collaboration with virtual reality studio Parable VR. It was commissioned by BBC Three controller Damian Kavanagh, who will be taking on an additional role as editorial lead for BBC Taster.

Kavanagh says that in his new role he will use new technologies such as VR explore a new ways to tell stories that will engage with audiences.

“This new VR trailer is a fantastic first step. Using virtual reality it literally puts the audience in the shoes of the victims of gun crime. It’s the first time the BBC has ever used VR in this way, and offers a whole new way to engage an audience.”

Other content featured in the app includes new interactive 360° video from Planet Earth II, which enables viewers to choose their path through the story. The app will be regularly updated with new VR experiences so we can probably expect to see a lot more innovative immersive content coming through in the coming weeks and months.

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post BBC Bringing Audiences More Virtual Reality Experiences appeared first on Tech Trends.

VR comes to the rescue for those, like myself, who couldn’t make it to New York to experience the Presidential Pop-up Twitter library 

As the Daily Show’s Host Trevor Noah said, we live in extraordinary times, but even by today’s crazy standards, the installation that materialised in the heart of Manhattan last weekend was something else. Here we had a sitting US President’s social media diarrhoea, prominently displayed for all to see.

The President's social media diarrhoea was prominently displayed for our enjoyment
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As someone who has argued for the growing importance of Twitter this struck a chord, and was gutted to be stuck on the other side of the Atlantic for the short-lived event. So I was delighted when I found out there was a 3D tour for those who couldn’t be there in person.

The Daily Show has kindly made the pop-up exhibition into a 3D tour also available in VR
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Powered by Matterport, users have the option to either navigate around a 3D tour – which works on normal desktop and mobile devices – or if you’ve got a Google Cardboard or Samsung Gear VR headset handy, you can go for the 360 VR option, which I did.

Side rant: If we’re ever going to get consumers to embrace VR experiences en masse, they still have a long way to go to make the flow intuitive and easy. I do this a lot, and still had to spend about 15 minutes fiddling with downloading the app, then enabling Google VR services. My Samsung phone then didn’t remember my Oculus account, and when I finally opened the Matterport app, it didn’t take me straight to the experience, but rather a home page where you couldn’t search their library for content. I got there eventually, but can see how most people would just give up. But back to the experience:

Many interesting projects have already started cropping up around the popular culture phenomenon that these tweets represent, yet I somehow found the effect of this exhibition to be particularly shocking. Maybe it was the fact that it was housed just across the road from one of Trump’s towers, or perhaps it was the sheer quantity of – excuse the language – crap on display. Even in this heavily curated and pared down collection, I still found many tweets I’d never seen before, each more bewildering than the last. It was one heck of a rabbit hole.

Got to love the #MAGA-NETIC Wall
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The Comedy Central team also did a really good job of breaking up the exhibition with some interactive fun stuff, such as a wall (something we all know the President is fond of) with giant magnets where you could play around with popular buzzwords tweeted by Trump, appropriately named the #MAGA-NETIC Wall.

You can now experience what it's like to be Commander-in-Tweet
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By far my favourite, however, was the tiny desk which allowed you to become the “Commander-in-Tweet.” Basically you’re presented with a short video where one of your aides gives you a piece of news, and you (as the President) are tasked with crafting an appropriate response – on Twitter of course.

It's one heck of a rabbit hole, even if you're used to Trump's tweets
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It’s multiple choice, and I rather liked how my pseudo-presidential tweet turned out. Why not have a go and share your own? It’s as good a thing to do over the weekend as shouting at the TV that the world is a bloody insane place and can we PLEASE  just wake up now? #SAD

You can access the Donald Trump Presidential Twitter Library 3D and 360 VR tour here

From the Trump Nickname Collection. The Donald J. Trump Presidential Twitter Library. Take the 3D virtual tour: https://t.co/36RjBeNgnS pic.twitter.com/csh1iAotfI

— The Daily Show (@TheDailyShow) June 22, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored specifically to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Taking a Virtual Tour of Donald Trump’s Twitter Library appeared first on Tech Trends.

The National Association of Broadcasters’ Show (NAB) was packed with announcements around VR, AR and MR this year as major industry players brought out the big guns in a bid to stake their claim in this booming market.

One notable example of this is Nokia, which wants to establish itself as the go-to platform for professional content producers in that space by setting a new standard for the creation, delivery and experience of immersive content:

“We believe in the power of virtual reality to transform the human experience. Together, these announcements advance our commitment to empower storytellers to create immersive experiences, enable partners to deliver them efficiently, and ensure audiences can play back experiences in the highest quality possible in ways that transform and awe,” a company spokesperson told Tech Trends.

Some of the key initiatives the company unveiled at NAB 2017 included a high profile partnership with Disney and Lucasfilm to let fans “feel the force of VR like never before.”

NAB was packed with announcements around VR, AR and MR this year
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Image Courtesy of Nokia ©Lucasfilm and Disney

The company announced a multi- year agreement to support the creation of VR experiences to complement Disney’s theatrical film releases. The first one of these will bring VR storytelling Star Wars: The Last Jedi

“We’re thrilled that Star Wars fans around the world will soon be transported into the incredible worlds depicted in the story, to truly feel the power of The Force together.”

Nokia believes that such compelling content is fundamental to driving adoption of virtual and mixed reality, yet creators often face the choice between the ability to develop and distribute that content and delivering high quality. They believe their new OZO Reality Platform solves these issues by enabling professionals to blend VR and mixed reality through easy capture and export of depth maps, allowing for CGI elements to be seamlessly integrated in post-production.

Nokia announced high-profile VR and MR partnerships with Disney and Adobe
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Nokia wants to enable creators to easily produce high-quality VR content
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It delivers this content over real-world networks, and its SDK and OZO Audio technology enables viewers to experience high resolution 360-degree spatial audio and visual while reducing the load on viewers’ Internet connection without VR equipment.

“Together, the Platform offers the complete pipeline across creation, distribution and experience for powerful virtual and mixed reality storytelling,” they claim

They are also keen to democratise the process of VR and MR content creation by making it easier and more accessible. This took shape in the announcement of a collaboration with Adobe, which promises to “take the complexity out of editing 360 VR immersive content.”

At NAB, they previewed technology that showed the possibilities that come with exporting stitched media and orientation metadata directly into Adobe® Premiere® Pro CC for editing and post-production work.

Nokia says its seamless process and comprehensive-yet-simple workflow was a big hit with the NAB crowd
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For help getting your own VR/AR/MR project off the ground, get in touch about our Virtual Reality Consultancy services 

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post #NABShow 2017: Nokia Brings VR Storytelling to Star Wars appeared first on Tech Trends.