By Stefano Corazza, Fellow and Head of Augmented Reality, Adobe

Immersive media is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and already changing our everyday interactions. And in the creative world, artists are starting to show us what a powerful tool augmented reality (AR) can be for storytelling. Adobe has always pushed the boundaries of innovation, collaborated with our community, and embraced new storytelling mediums to broaden creative expression. Given AR’s potential to transform experiences of the future, we decided to bring artists in to Adobe even before we had an AR product in development to help us reimagine it.

Given AR’s potential to transform experiences of the future, we decided to bring artists into Adobe even before we had an AR product in development to help us reimagine it
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Immersive media is becoming increasingly ubiquitous and already changing our everyday interactions
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There’s inherent tension between artists’ blue-sky thinking and a product team with a roadmap
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A Residency for experimentation, play, and imagining the future

Adobe’s AR Residency grew out of our collaborative community approach to product development, which prioritizes learning with our artists and designers rather than assuming what they’ll need. We created the residency as a space for curiosity, innovation, and disruption, and as an invitation to members of the creative community to show us how they work. The collaboration has been especially foundational for shaping the development of Project Aero.

“AR is unique because it’s uncharted territory,” says George Zisiadis, Adobe’s AR Residency curator. “There’s no history here. The culture and the industry are making it up as we go.”

Artists add just the right perspective for imagining where AR is headed, says David Montero, one of the lead designers for Project Aero. “To us, one of the best assets that artists provide, other than being creative for a living, is that they don’t have an agenda or a roadmap. They’re free to explore, and this is really important when you’re in the early stages, still getting an understanding of the space.”

Adobe’s AR Residency grew out of our collaborative community approach to product development
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A day in the AR Residency life

Adobe’s artists in residence are all interested in incorporating AR into their work, but they run the gamut from experienced folks who’ve been working with AR since the beginning, to enthusiastic creatives who are trying AR for the first time. Residents work remotely, but once a week they join a meeting to share a new project, and talk about their learnings, challenges, and technical requests.

“It’s an artist’s job to reflect society, so along with their creativity, they bring insights into cultural impacts that we might not see,” says Silka Miesnieks, head of emerging design for Adobe. “During our weekly meetings, we can all get out of our silos and see the whole picture of where AR is going. It’s a beautiful thing.”

The residents’ projects also give the Project Aero team the real-time feedback to investigate how artists are using the tools. “First, I work backward, analyzing the artist’s intent and the features they used,” says David. “Then I work forward. I ask, ‘If Aero offered this, how would the work change? What could this artist achieve if we had more features?’”

During our weekly meetings, we can all get out of our silos and see the whole picture of where AR is going. It’s a beautiful thing
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The discoveries, so far

Some of the discoveries from the AR Residency come from practical, ah-ha moments about the artists’ pain points when they’re creating in AR. For example, one resident told the design team that she needed to lock an axis so she could orient her work in space. Project Aero allows users to lock objects, but not specific parameters—it just wasn’t something the product team had considered.

The Residency is also revealing a lot about how the right immersive tools can push artists’ creativity. Take Marjan Moghaddam’s work – she came to the residency as an established mixed-reality artist, but her workflow was time-consuming and cumbersome.

“My process didn’t allow for a lot of spontaneity or creative play,” she explains. “I was immediately blown away by the idea of having an AR editing tool on a mobile device that I could walk around with. I loved the spontaneity. It allowed me to come up with ideas I never would have thought of before.”

We’re also seeing new possibilities for what artists will create with AR. For example, Dan Mumford, an artist who participated in the Adobe AR residency last year, usually works in 2D print design. During his residency, he took his existing style, separated his work into Photoshop layers, and created AR posters with tunnels viewers could walk through to experience the depth and atmosphere of the piece.

“One of the most enjoyable aspects of this program was being able to explore new ideas and techniques. The focus wasn’t on producing a finished piece – it was an all-out exploration, which made me realize I need to make more time to do this in my daily work,” Dan says.

Bringing all the voices together

At its core, the AR Residency is about working hand-in-hand with artists to build the best tools for the people who’ll use them.

“There’s inherent tension between artists’ blue-sky thinking and a product team with a roadmap,” says George. “It’s our job to build a meaningful dialogue between the two. It’s not just about listening to users. It’s about looking to the artists as visionaries and giving them the chance to engage with their toolmakers as peers. In the end, we’re all coming out of this better than we were when we went in.”

If you’re in San Francisco, register to attend our second installment of the Festival of the Impossible, featuring immersive art installations, on September 26-29, 2019. Explore projects from our first ten AR Residents (and learn more about the AR Residency and how to apply) here, and stay tuned for updates on Project Aero here.

The post Expert View: Exploring Dreams through [AR]T appeared first on Tech Trends.

Immersive Technology turns out to be the perfect medium for ARtistic expression and exploring identity.

Growing up in an immigrant family of Chinese descent and living in Oakland, California, Estella Tse recalls that she was always navigating a conflict between her traditional heritage – which mainly told her to “follow the rules” – and her more liberal American upbringing, which encouraged individualism and freedom of expression. Art, she explains, was a form of escapism as well as a way she found to reconcile the two worlds she was caught between.

Estella Tse explores the intersection between art, technology, and impactful storytelling using immersive technologies such as VR and AR
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Tse’s professional background is as diverse as her heritage, including web design, front-end development, sociology, illustration, and visual design. Through her work, she now explores the intersection between art, technology, and impactful storytelling using immersive technologies such as VR and AR.

Tse’s professional background is as diverse as her heritage, including web design, front-end development, sociology, illustration, and visual design
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Designers can easily create immersive content that can then be brought into Xcode for further refinement and development
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She participated in Adobe’s Immersive Artist in Residency Program where she was given early access to Project Aero, Adobe’s new augmented reality (AR) authoring tool and multi-platform system that aims to provide a user-friendly and intuitive interface for artists, designers and developers to create immersive content.

With Project Aero Adobe’s aims to provide a user-friendly and intuitive interface for artists, designers and developers to create immersive content
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“AR content development today requires a combination of creativity and technical skills,” says Abhay Parasnis, Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer at Adobe. “Project Aero will deliver a system for both developers and creatives to build simple AR scenes and experiences leveraging Apple’s ARKit. Designers can easily create immersive content that can then be brought into Xcode for further refinement and development.”

AR content development today requires a combination of creativity and technical skills
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I wanted to make a piece that could really justify the use of augmented reality as an art medium
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Her work was recently showcased alongside that of 14 other artists at the Festival of the Impossible in San Francisco, where her piece – half of which existed in the physical world and half of which could only be seen in Augmented Reality – was appropriately called “two sides of the same coin,” and was developed using Project Aero.

“I wanted to make a piece that could really justify the use of augmented reality as an art medium,” she explains “As a designer who loves exploring the intersections between new technology and art, AR allows me to express myself in a brand new and exciting ways. I strive to make art that is meaningful, inspiring, and uplifting, in hopes that viewers feel less alone in their struggles, too. AR allows me to do just that.”

Creating for AR is more like creating a sculpture to be placed in a courtyard or someone's living room — I have to consider how and where my viewer will be experiencing my piece
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Blending realities to create art requires a different approach and a brand new way of thinking, yet Tse says she loves the challenge:

“It forces me to be more thoughtful in the ways I create art. Coming from traditional and digital 2D illustration background, AR is more like sculpting and environment design. Creating for AR is more like creating a sculpture to be placed in a courtyard or someone’s living room — I have to consider how and where my viewer will be experiencing my piece. Unlike virtual reality which removes you completely from the real world, augmented reality begs for interaction with the real world. How does my piece relate or conflict with the space or manner in which it’ll be viewed? I’ve had to put on my gallery show and exhibit designer hats to achieve a more holistic viewing experience.”

To deliver on the promise of AR requires a fundamental rethinking of what it means to create with new tools, technologies and interaction models
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There’s also an additional layer of social interactivity that AR provides, she says, which spurs people on to share the content with friends and on social media:”Even with my piece, designed to be a static gallery piece, so many people took pictures under my phoenix as shown through the iPad. People also wanted to explore and discover the piece together. I think as multi-user AR becomes more ubiquitous, we’ll be seeing very exciting art pieces that will play with multiple perceptions and interactive explorations of the art.”

“We see the potential of immersive design to enable new forms of creative expression, customer experiences, and business models that we can’t even imagine today, but to deliver on the promise of AR requires a fundamental rethinking of what it means to create with new tools, technologies and interaction models” Parasnis adds.

There's an additional layer of social interactivity that AR provides which spurs people on to share the content with friends and on social media
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Tools like Project Aero will, Tse believes, make the process of creating immersive art more accessible, and allow more creators to jump on board and define what this space might be, and that space might just turn out to be a lot more open and diverse than more established media and creative industries.

This is an exhilarating time to be an artist
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“There’s a huge thirst in the artist community for pieces with movement, depth, interactivity. From static paintings, to moving pictures and film, and now sculptures pop out of the canvas and frames — this is an exhilarating time to be an artist. Like new mediums that have come before, AR needs artists and creative energy to push the boundaries of what this technology can actually do. As a woman, as a POC, there are all sorts of opportunities I’ll be allowed in a new space that I wouldn’t have had in a more established space,” she concludes.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Artist’s AR Exhibit Shows Two Sides Of The Same Reality via @alicebonasio https://t.co/kiNELGnYvd pic.twitter.com/BKt3of2nNr

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 11, 2018

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

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 Creating Two Sides of the Same Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

After getting hands-on with Microsoft’s latest shiny thing, we definitely wants one, precious…  

Sure, upon receiving the Surface Book to test, Tech Trends put it diligently through its paces, and below you’ll find our honest impressions of what was good as well as the niggles and shortcomings that came up. But overall the greatest downside is that we’re having to return it, and – given the fact that my MacBook Pro is currently fully functional – I can’t quite justify spending the 2K to upgrade my setup just now.

My MacBook Pro is still working, so I can't quite justify the upgrade to the Surface yet
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I bought my current machine – to quote the merchant in Resident Evil – “at a very high price” about four years ago. At the time it was really the only portable laptop that could keep up with the demands of Avid & Adobe video editing and heavy Lightroom use, and apart from the tendency to overheat and melt my thighs, plus the interminable niggles with OSX updates, it did the job.

Last year Microsoft released an upgraded Surface Book with a Performance Base
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But over the years I have watched with increased interest and building excitement as Microsoft brought out products like the Surface Pro 3. The signs were definitely encouraging, but it didn’t have the grunt I needed. Then out came the first version of the Surface Book, which did pack the required grunt and frankly looked the bollox. Plus – at a time when Apple was randomly removing things like USB ports from its new MacBooks – it had all the connections I needed, plus a lovely removable touchscreen. Yet the graphics were not great and the battery looked a bit underwhelming, so I stayed put.

Then in October last year Microsoft released an upgraded Surface Book with a Performance Base featuring a new, more powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M with 2GB of VRAM and a larger battery. They had not bumped the Intel i7 up from 6th generation to 7th but that was not a deal breaker and promises of a faster internal SSD and the upcoming Windows 10 Creators Update hooked me in. Unfortunately these things do take time to arrive here in the UK, but as I unpacked it last week I couldn’t help but think it had been worth the wait.

Featuring a new, more powerful Nvidia GeForce GTX 965M with 2GB of VRAM and a larger battery
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Now, this won’t be a hugely technical review, there are plenty of those out there if that’s your thing, but more of a candid test drive from someone who’s used to demanding quite a bit from their kit with a photo & video intensive workflow.

I'm used to pushing these machines with intensive video and photo workflow
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First impression was that it’s definitely fast! It is fleet of foot and start ups and shut downs are just a joy to behold. The i7 eats through day-to-day tasks and the SSD (tested with Blackmagic Disk Speed Test) reads and writes at over 1GB/s.

Start ups and shut downs are just a joy to behold
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The first thing I tested was what I had been waiting most keenly for, the touch screen in laptop mode. I know other machines got here first but on a true power laptop this was my first experience and oh boy it is liberating; pinching, swiping and scrolling on my work laptop just as I would on my phone felt so good I found myself grinning at that lovely high-res screen. And on that beauty:

It’s a 13.5 “PixelSense display with a resolution of 3000 x 2000 (267 PPI) and an slightly unusual aspect ratio of 3:2. It is gorgeous with solid blacks, great detail and a very impressive maximum brightness of 355 lux and outstanding contrast level of 1,440:1, these are all vitally important for anyone like me who deals in imagery.

The Surface lets you interact with the machine in any way that makes sense to you
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My wife always comments on how filthy my MacBook screen always looks because I’m always touching it as I point out things, etc. It’s the intuitive way in which visual and creative professionals work, so not having the touchscreen functionality always felt like something of a handicap with Macs. The surface just feels like what it has meant to be all along, allowing you to interact with the machine in whatever way makes sense for you at the time – be it keyboard, trackpad, pen, or even those filthy fingers.

The screen has great detail and very impressive maximum brightness and outstanding contrast
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Being used to the very solid aluminium hunk that is my MacBook Pro, the magnesium Surface Book felt light and I didn’t mind the unusual-looking hinge as its unique design enables the tablet mode, more on that later. A minor gripe would be the keyboard which is a bit “clicky clacky” and the keys feel a bit light for my taste, as I prefer them firmer, but the travel on them is nice.

The surface book has an SDXC reader and two fast USB 3 ports meaning I can edit video and photos stored on external SSD drives and enjoy the speeds they offer. In another win over Apple the power connection is magnetic! Why Apple removed the legendary MagSafe connection on their newest laptops is a mystery and will result in thousands more smashed laptops as people and pets trip over trailing cables (with 3 boisterous Staffies with very active whipping tails in the house, I can tell you that’s a very real problem). Admittedly the Microsoft solution is not as elegant but it is reversible and does the job well. After my minor complaint about the keyboard I have nothing but praise for the trackpad. I barely noticed the difference between my Mac and the Surface Book and that is a big compliment. The trackpad is precise, tactile and lovely to use, plus performs a host of common multi-finger functions and is a good size too.

As a laptop the Surface Book’s only oddity is that the hinge is a bit wobbly and getting the screen at the right angle and balancing it on your lap takes some getting used to. Remember that the CPU and a second battery live in the tablet section, so the screen is heavier that on most laptops and the hinge has to be stronger to account for that. The annoyance this creates, however, is soon outweighed by the possibility of taking that wonderful screen off and having a HUGE tablet on your hands! Simply push and hold the tablet release button and a second later there is a satisfying click and the screen pulls easily off. Wow it is light! Much lighter than you expect and also big, very big, but in a GOOD way.

The tablet is comfortable to hold and the screen looks even more impressive when off the base
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The tablet is comfortable to hold and the screen looks even more impressive when off the base. It does get warm as you browse the web and noticeably so when watching videos but never hot, and the tablet sports a very quiet fan and ventilation holes all around the edge so it cools back down quickly.

I did run into a few software glitches in Tablet mode
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I did run into a few software glitches in Tablet mode, while browsing the web in Chrome the screen froze for 40 seconds or so before suddenly working again and twice I tried to open Windows 10 settings and this would not work at all, a quick restart fixed it but this did happen a couple of times within an hour of use. These issues were not a huge problem though, and I am sure future Windows 10 updates will continue to improve on the software functions when using the Tablet.

You can’t try out the tablet without using the Surface Pen, a simple tube of matt silver metal with a flat magnetic side so you can secure it to the Tablet on any side surface. I have used a lot of tablets and pens and this one is functional, i.e. does exactly what it says on the tin. The Surface Pen has 1024 levels of pressure sensitivity and an eraser on the other end, so handwritten notes on your screen are just like pen on paper, and writing is really comfortable. Writing and drawing in Paint 3D is great fun and the ink pen is particularly satisfying to use, creating lovely elegant lines. The quality of the screen really comes across when drawing and painting, the colours are bright and rich and the six million pixels mean the lines and shapes look truly fluid.

Writing and drawing in Paint 3D is great fun and the ink pen is particularly satisfying
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I honestly love the Tablet and just reading the newspapers is such a pleasure as the text looks so crisp and clear. You do however notice the lower powered GPU when in Tablet mode and scrolling web pages could be a little smoother and switching apps is also a little slow but this is nothing unusual on other tablets. Fitting the Tablet back onto the base is a sinch, just line it up and it gently clicks back with a faint magnetic thunk and once it is back on the connection is so strong I had no fears about the base dropping off when picking up the whole thing by the screen, it is very secure.

Fitting the Tablet back onto the base is a sinch, just line it up and it gently clicks back
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OK now onto performance. As a video producer and photographer I need a light, portable machine with a great screen, good battery, lots of processing power, fast USB ports and an SDXC reader.  I installed Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve 14, Adobe CC and a range of apps including Premier Pro, After Effects and Lightroom, loaded up some HD and 4K video as well as 40GB of RAW photos and went to work. I won’t go into too much detail but summing up my experience I have to say I am impressed. The Surface Book performed at least as well as my MacBook Pro in HD & 4K video editing and playback and was very capable of building and rendering out video graphics and tiles in After Effects.

The Surface Book performed at least as well as my MacBook Pro in HD & 4K video editing
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It did struggle when grading 4K video in DaVinci Resolve but that is no surprise, as even my workstation PC finds this a challenge. What was very pleasing was editing photos in Lightroom, although not a huge improvement, working with a large catalogue of high res photos was quicker than on my Mac. The super-fast SSD and a newer generation processor no doubt helped out here, making browsing the catalogue quick and pleasurable. Again the screen made a huge difference here, the colours really pop and the incredible contrast it offers makes manipulating images a real joy. I have inserted a gallery below with a few examples of images from my recent trip to Cannes Film Festival and edited on the Surface Book in Lightroom.

The super-fast SSD and newer generation processor made for quick browsing
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Sound is the next thing I looked at and the Surface Book had its work cut out here as Macs famously deliver great sound, at least through headphones. Either side of the detachable screen are two forward-facing speakers that look tiny but don’t sound it. They pump out a very loud and impressive sound, easily enough to fill a room with good bass and mids. Did I mention it was loud? Playing the trailer for Thor: Ragnarok I was blown away and had to quickly turn the audio down to 60% to avoid disturbing the neighbours, which was unexpected. You could easily sit a group of people around the laptop and share a pretty good movie experience. I next connected up my Skullcandy Crusher Bluetooth headphones and ran the same trailer. As you would expect the audio was much better through cans with a really well-balanced sound that I could listen to for quite a while without getting bored, all round a good performance!

To sum up, I think Microsoft have finally produced a contender in the power laptop category, but really they have done much more than that. The combination of the detachable and impressive tablet screen, a capable pen tool, and all the standard connections that Apple have tossed aside means they’ve built a very compelling package for creative professionals.

When you look at the direct competition from Apple the benefits of the Surface Book over the 2017 MacBook Pros become very obvious. The version I tested directly compares to the 13inch MacBook Pro with an Intel i7, 500GB and 16GB RAM and Touch Bar which retails at £2399 but has no Tablet mode or Pen support, both of which are key for the modern creative and design professionals Macs are marketed at. When you consider the Surface Book costs exactly the same (RRP: $2,799 / £2,399), I think I have just seen the future.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

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The post Product Review: Microsoft Surface Book appeared first on Tech Trends.

The results of Adobe’s 2016 Digital Marketing Survey give insights into how data is being used to create targeted online experiences

Tech Trends was recently invited to the Adobe customer experience conference. At the rather swanky event at the Ham Yard Hotel in Soho, they announced the results of a 2016 survey conducted among 735 digital marketers from the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, France and Germany.

Adobe's survey provided insight into digital marketing strategies
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The survey provided insight into the priorities, strategies, and future direction of digital marketing in a variety of sectors such as media and entertainment, retail and commerce, travel and hospitality, among others, and uncovered some interesting trends:

Almost 90 percent of survey respondents rank creating a connected experience and campaign orchestration as a top priority. And 88 percent say they’re focusing on having the right tools to help them meet customers where they are at any given moment.

It is a fascinating report that shows how big businesses are mobilising resources like never before to stay as close as possible to the bleeding edge of technology. Although acknowledging that many businesses have so far lagged behind in terms of leveraging technology, they are now rapidly adopting the use of AI, machine learning, predictive data analytics and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) tools.

Leading companies are realizing the importance of using algorithmic attribution based on advanced statistics and machine learning to measure the precise impact of each marketing touch point along a customer’s path to conversion—from display ads, to social media, blog posts and videos.

Companies are now tapping into the potential of big data to not only personalize their offering, but to understand and predict their customers’ next moves so they can reach them at the right time, with the right message.

The data that makes up your online presence improves our interactions with the world and others but it also changes how companies, brands and businesses perceive us, and has evolved the relationship between brands and consumers beyond recognition. In our recent article about analysing your quantified self we in fact discussed how the increasing quantity of personal data we produce will effectively produce a digital version of ourselves.

Data has changed the relationship between brands and consumers
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What emerges from the report is that the biggest brands out there are pouring money into staying a step ahead of the competition by not only meeting, but anticipating consumer needs through analysing our online behaviour. The graph below quantifies this and shows that the 10 most valuable data sources for marketers include our online activity on desktop, mobile, social media and search engines.

This data is used in two ways; to draw a complete picture of the consumer, and to design predictive marketing personalized to match each person’s profile.

Data by itself isn’t all that powerful. The key is to combine data from multiple sources so you can determine the complete sequence of events that leads a customer to buy products—not just the first or last click.

This of course raises questions and presents challenges around privacy and use of personal data; Does having that much information about consumers give companies an unfair advantage? While on the one hand consumers should retain freedom of choice, on the other these technologies do offer us better, faster, easier services much more suited to our individual needs. The trick is in finding the right balance.

The most successful companies are tending towards using a single platform such as Adobe’s Marketing Cloud – which incorporates services like Adobe Analytics, Adobe Target, Adobe Social, Adobe Experience Manager and Adobe Audience Manager, as well as real-time dashboards and a collaborative interface – to integrate all of the processes, technologies, and tools necessary combining advanced analytics, personalization, and campaign management.

Services like this enable marketers to combine data, insights, and digital content to deliver the ideal brand experience to customers, and it gives companies everything they need to get deep insight into your purchasing habits and build personalized and unified customer experiences.

The key benefit of these platforms is unifying content and UX across desktop and mobile
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The key benefit that these platforms bring is in unifying content and UX across desktop and mobile. Consumers want – and demand – a seamless user experience, so that whatever platform they choose to access a service from, they can access the same content and services.

Companies are taking a holistic approach with a common digital foundation and centralized marketing platform that gives them the data, agility, and the resources they need to create and deliver relevant and personalized content across all their channels and touch points.

As companies become even more digitally advanced they are studying the consumer’s digital self – i.e. their behaviours, spending habits, preferences, opinions, passions, locations and interactions – to better target and predict their future tastes and behaviour, and this trend will only become more pronounced in future as mobile technologies continue to advance.

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post Digital Marketing is all About UXperience 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.