Tech Trends puts Blackmagic’s most compact plug-and-play control panel through its paces. 

The DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel is incredibly small but professional. It fits perfectly next to a keyboard for simultaneous editing and color grading, and is great for use with a laptop for on location grading! 

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: Blackmagic DaVinci Resolve Micro Panel appeared first on Tech Trends.

Professional gaming has always been a serious pursuit that attracted dedicated players and a large audience, and with immersive technologies becoming more pervasive, the esports crowd is increasingly embracing VR.

“For the first time in generations, we’re witnessing the birth of a new major sport, and it’s happening with unprecedented speed,” says ESPN The Magazine, Senior Editor, Megan Greenwall.

This trend is in large part spurred by hardware manufacturers, who recognize that without “sticky” content that keeps punters coming back and hooks them for longer, they are unlikely to reach consumer adoption critical mass anytime soon.

VR esports are the latest rage, especially for location-based entertainment
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“VR esports are the latest rage, especially for location-based entertainment. The Omni motion platform adds the physical engagement of walking and running to the gaming experience and that physical element combined with multiplayer gameplay and competition results in high repeat play. We’re not a stand-in-place VR attraction that players try just once. Our core players come back every week,” says Jan Goetgeluk, founder and CEO of Virtuix.

Virtuix is a Texas-based start-up founded in 2013 best known for developing the Omni VR treadmill. They raised over $20M and have shipped more than 3,000 Omni systems to 500+ commercial entertainment venues around the world. Recently, HTC and HP announced a partnership with the company, putting down a $50,000 Prize pool for ESPORTS tournaments in 2019.

VR hardware manufacturers recognize that without 'sticky' content that keeps punters coming back and hooks them for longer, they are unlikely to reach consumer adoption critical mass anytime soon
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Esports is a cloud-based competitive gaming platform that offers weekly and monthly prize contests where players at participating venues in 45 countries compete for the top spot on global leaderboards and earn cash prizes. As part of that, Omniverse tournaments are four-day contests each month that feature two-player teams battling in one of several games, with the top 10 teams winning a combination of cash and prizes such as VIVE systems. Virtuix has held several esports events so far, including a tournament at CES in Las Vegas and, in conjunction with Huawei, a tournament in Shenzhen, China, that reached 11 million viewers.

During 2018 there were over 2.6 billion hours of esports content consumed globally across a multitude of online platforms
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“Virtuix has built a competitive gaming experience that requires both videogaming skills and physical fitness. Such active esports offer a unique way for entertainment venues to reach a new audience of gamers and build a community of frequent players,” says Joanna Popper, Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment at HP

The first Omniverse global competition of 2019 will be held on January 24-27, features two-player teams battling for the highest score in the popular first-person shooter game Omni Arena. Interested players can find more information and sign up here.

And the move towards investing in esports as a way to advance broader VR adoption is far from restricted to commercial players. UK Research and Innovation (UKRI), the UK Government’s non-departmental public body for innovation and research, recently awarded £4m to the Weavr Consortium which will fund a project exploring a cross-reality, data driven personalised viewing experience for esports.

Esports is competitive video gaming at a professional level which has a current global audience of around 380 million people
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“Esports is competitive video gaming at a professional level which has a current global audience of around 380 million people. The esports audience is the ‘audience of the future’ here and now with 80% of the demographic being made up of 18-35 year olds,” explains Margot James MP, Minister for Digital and the Creative Industries. “During 2018 there were over 2.6 billion hours of esports content consumed globally across a multitude of online platforms including; Twitch, Youtube, Mixer, Facebook, Twitter etc. As well as a wide variety of consumption points such as live audience, VR and traditional single screen content.”

The consortium – which consists of ESL UK (the largest esports company in the world), York University, dock10 and Cybula – promises to transform the experiences of millions of fans not only in esports, but in traditional sports broadcast and live entertainment more broadly.

The consortium – which consists of ESL UK, York University, dock10 and Cybula – promises to transform the experiences of millions of fans not only in esports, but in traditional sports broadcast
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ESL will be focusing on the overall project management, utilisation of their esports events for proof of concept and the user experience feedback for those tests. University of York will be bringing their expertise in machine learning, UX design, Human Computer Interaction & research into the convergent space between games, interactive media & TV to help sculpt the overall framework. dock10

will leverage their production facilities to test the framework during ESL’s live esports events. Focal Point VR will contribute their live 8k 360° video capture hardware & software with immersive content studio REWIND helping to create the VR & XR apps & environments for the viewer experience. Cybula’s performance computing clusters will be utilised for big data analysis & delivery.

“At the forefront of an emerging and rapidly growing esports industry, we’re in a unique position to have insight in the live viewing habits and interactivity of young, tech savvy and early adopting audiences” said James Dean, MD ESL UK. “Weavr will create cross-reality viewing experiences allowing fans to immerse themselves in high fidelity statistics, visualisations and data-driven stories that give them deeper insights into live matches, enabling viewers to switch seamlessly between virtual and physical viewing, as well as utilise second screens to watch immersive esports content on the move.”

This Article was originally published on VRScout

Esports Continues Its Push Towards VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/frhFsgDrJe pic.twitter.com/5b7T3hxy2c

— VRScout (@VRScout) January 23, 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 Esports Pushing VR Adoption appeared first on Tech Trends.

How immersive technologies like Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality bring real-world benefits to us all.

Companies big and small are using Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality solutions to solve pain points, save money, connect people and make workflows more collaborative
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I love VR and I love gaming, but I have now got to the point where the mention of the two things in the same sentence – specially when people seem to imply they’re the same thing – makes me roll my eyes and sigh.

Part of it is due to the fact I’m yet to get really hooked into a VR game. Most of them just make me feel queasy, so I’m limited to short experiences that showcase the potential of the medium, for sure, but in no way prompt me to sell my console and screen setup just yet.

I’m yet to get hooked into a VR game. Most of them make me feel queasy
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What I have seen, however, are plenty of solid examples of how immersive technology is being applied in industry sectors as diverse as education, retail, filmmaking, or medicine, with significant and measureable ROI.

There’s a wealth of evidence out there about how adding immersive tech to a company’s existing workflow can instantly boost efficiency and collaboration. One of my favourite examples of that is how global construction giant Trimble uses Mixed Reality to help its architects and other professionals on the ground to visualize plans and spot problems at concept stage, when they are infinitely easier and cheaper to address than after building work takes place.

There’s a wealth of evidence on how adding immersive tech to a company’s workflow can instantly boost efficiency and collaboration
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I have seen plenty of solid examples of how immersive technology is being applied in industry sectors as diverse as education, retail, filmmaking, or medicine, with significant and measureable ROI
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Another more recent example of that I came across was PIXO VR partnering with HP to provide virtual reality training to enterprise, and interestingly the company was keen to highlight the fact that they provided “AAA-game quality VR training experiences and behavior-changing narratives.”

Headsets like The HoloLens or Daqri will never sell as many units as the Xbox 360, but that doesn’t mean they’re not game-changing technology adding real value to businesses
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These are important cases to highlight not only because they are interesting (at least to enthusiasts of the technology such as myself) but also because if we attempt to measure the success or otherwise of VR/AR/MR by the yardstick of gaming, we’re likely to get it wrong. Headsets like The HoloLens or Daqri will never sell as many units as the Xbox 360, but that doesn’t mean they’re not game-changing technology adding real value to businesses.

So, while I do enjoy gaming as much as the next gal, what’s most exciting to me is seeing how companies big and small are using Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality solutions to solve pain points, save money, connect people, make workflows more collaborative, and generally make our real world a better – and more efficient – place.

This post originally appeared on The Next Web

How VR is more than a game https://t.co/bji6fXdDEc

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) August 27, 2018

For companies looking to leverage Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR Tech Trends offers a comprehensive range of Virtual Reality Consultancy Services.

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 Moving Beyond VR Games appeared first on Tech Trends.

The global immersive industry is set to hit $162bn by 2020. 

A report by research firm CCS Insight forecasts that 16 million Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) devices will be shipped in 2017, which translates into a year-on-year growth of 47 percent. The market value of devices sold into the channel is currently estimated to be $1.6 billion but is expected to grow nearly tenfold to $11.9 Billion and 99 Million Devices sold in 2021.

Smartphone-based VR and AR devices are expected to account for the majority of those sales (13 million units) due to their lower cost and wider availability, with the remaining 3 million distributed among the three major players currently dominating the dedicated VR space, namely Facebook (Oculus), HTC (Vive) and Sony (PlayStation VR).

Yet CCS Insight analyst George Jijiashvili notes that although the expected growth is encouraging, there have been snags along the way, and all three manufacturers have opted to cut down their prices in order to boost sales and gain greater market share.

In the upcoming fourth quarter, however, the firm expects to see the impact of the new Microsoft-powered Windows Mixed Reality headsets to be felt. The HMDs which will start becoming available this month and are being manufactured in partnership with Acer, Asus, Dell, HP, Lenovo and Samsung should not only provide a boost to the end of year sales in 2017 but also lay the foundation for strong growth in 2018.

VR shows more potential in the Chinese market since its forecast in 2016
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According to the forecast, VR is showing considerably more potential in the Chinese market since its forecast update in 2016. This is a result of growing interest in the technology from large Chinese companies such as Alibaba, which has offered shopping by VR, and Tencent, which is expected to launch its own VR headset.

CCS Insights are also optimistic about the potential of Augmented Reality
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CCS Insights are also optimistic about the potential of Augmented Reality, boosted by commitment to the technology on iPhones through its ARKit platform and the advent of Google’s ARCore to Android smartphones.

The new Microsoft-powered Windows Mixed Reality headsets are expected to have an impact
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Digital Catapult announced a new Immersive Lab in Brighton
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This continued optimism in the growth of the immersive industry sector is also reflected in the expansion of creative and networking spaces designed to foster entrepreneurship initiatives in the area.

Digital Catapult, for example, recently announced that it was opening a brand new Immersive Lab in Brighton to further support what it describes as the UK’s “burgeoning immersive community” following the successful launch of its London Lab which hosted over 80 events, meet-ups and demos and welcomed over 1100 attendees through its doors since opening earlier this year.

The lab will be a meet-up point for companies to collaborate
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The move is part of efforts to propel the UK to take a “bigger slice of this pie” in a market still dominated by the US, which holds 75% market share in comparison to the UK’s 5% as highlighted in Sir Peter Bazalgette’ review recently.

“The immersive labs are part of Digital Catapult’s wider strategy to develop the best ecosystem for AR, VR and MR developers to create and experiment with the next generation of immersive content. The lab will be available to businesses of any size, alongside researchers and investors, to demonstrate, innovate, test and experience the latest immersive technology and content.”

Brighton is one of the biggest immersive hubs due to its strong background in gaming, film and software and hardware development, with many companies already working in these fields according to Phil Jones, Lead at Digital Catapult in Brighton.

“The opening of the Immersive Lab here is part of the wider strategy to bring these organisations together and encourage their collaboration to accelerate the immersive industry’s growth both regionally and nationally,” he explains.

The lab will be a meet-up point for companies of all sizes and individuals to collaborate and exchange ideas and expertise. Digital Catapult is developing a network of hubs nationwide to create the best environment for the immersive community to collaborate. In each lab, the gaming, filmmakers and software developers will have access to the latest equipment for testing, unlocking new types of content and business opportunities. The labs are meant to be a place to showcase emerging content, meet potential investors, collaborate with researchers and trial new proof of concepts.

The UK already has a rich heritage in sectors where immersive technologies are likely to have the largest and most immediate impact; the creative industries manufacturing and health. So, establishing immersive labs in key regions across the country like this one in Brighton will further benefit the development of the industry,” says Aurelian Simon, Head of Immersive at Digital Catapult, adding that the UK already has a significant presence in the global fast-growing immersive market – currently valued at $5.4 billion – and is home to the largest number of up and coming VR companies in Europe.

As the CCS Insight report emphasized, content is key in achieving and maintaining steady market growth in the immersive space, and companies like Digital Catapult are crucial in fostering this broader ecosystem:

“The growing availability of 360-degree material is underlined by Facebook’s recent revelation that it now hosts 70 million 360-degree photos and 1 million 360-degree videos, and that the videos have generated 580 million views,” says Jijiashvil. But other materials including sports, film, TV and pornography, are now playing a bigger role in that growth.

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 and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Report: Augmented and Virtual Reality Market Growth appeared first on Tech Trends.

Tech Trends catches up with the creative minds making the immersive storytelling experiences of the future.

Since Technicolor opened the Technicolor Experience Centre (TEC) in Culver City, California a year ago, their subsidiary companies – including The Mill, MPC, and Mr. X – have worked on dozens of high profile Virtual and Augmented Reality projects that VR fans around the world will be familiar with, such as  Nike’s Turkey 360 (The Mill), 20th Century Fox’s The Martian(MPC), Warner Bros.’ Suicide Squad (MPC), MGM-Paramount’s Ben-Hur (Mr. X) and the fantastic Alien: Covenant In Utero, try it out below in 360. The creators enlisted the award-winning artists and creative technologists at Technicolor’s VFX studio MPC and the TEC, which provided the motion capture for the project. Collaborating with Twentieth Century Fox, FoxNext VR Studio, RSA VR, and Mach1 plus technology partners AMD RADEON and DELL, the team created what may be a first: a frightening immersive journey designed to scare viewers into their seats before the movie even opened!

It's been over a year now since Technicolor opened its Experience Centre for immersive technologies in LA
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“The Technicolor Experience Center creates a vibrant ecosystem that enables our teams, partners and customers to advance the state-of-the-art in this new form of storytelling,” Tim Sarnoff, Technicolor Deputy CEO and President of Production Services told us.

TEC‘s ambitions are much bigger than promotional work for brands or the film industry, however. The center was tasked with developing high-concept content, platforms and technology for immersive media such as Virtual and Augmented Reality. To meet those goals, Technicolor’s Research and Innovation labs are developing a range of technologies, including formats and tools that are being applied to enhance the creation and distribution of immersive content which are set to drive the future direction of the industry.

The Technicolor Experience Center aims to advance the state-of-the-art in this new medium
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We particularly enjoyed the creepy IT experience on Littlstar
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Tech Trends spoke to Tony Mugavero, the CEO of the TEC’s official distribution partner Littlstar to find out a bit more about their partnership with Technicolor and the challenges of distributing VR to a broader audience. You can check out Littlstar’s apps which are available for a variety of VR platforms such as Playstation VR, Google Daydream, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and the Gear VR offering content across across Music, Film, Sports, News, Gaming and more. We particularly enjoyed the IT: Float VR experience, “We all float down here Georgie,” is all I’m going to say….  I started by asking Tony about the much anticipated mass consumer adoption of VR, and the role mobile has to play in that equation.

We absolutely are on the brink of mass adoption in VR and AR. In order to push that further, the new computing paradigms need to work across all industries and not just entertainment. When people are using these technologies at home and work, and for entertainment as well as productivity, the shift will be complete. The transition is happening now, and the change is rapid (and exciting!).

Mass adoption is happening now, and the change is rapid
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People have enjoyed content on Littlstar tens of millions of times. We have close to 1000 hours of content across thousands of titles, and some of our VR users are having sessions up to 45 minutes long. Our numbers are growing, and we’re seeing hardware sales grow as well as the introduction of big AR investment by Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Technicolor helps creators monetise their content
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Content is being produced at a much higher rate now as well at the big studios, networks, publisher, and labels, and many of these groups have internal teams with separate P&L’s to run immersive initiatives. There is a ton of development that is happening and under the hood we see no signs of cooling. The opposite, in fact.

Marcie Jastrow, Technicolor’s Senior VP of Immersive Media and Head of the Technicolor Experience Center adds that mobile devices are also going to be hugely important in driving this mass adoption.

“Mobile devices are going to be hugely important because what you create for mobile is not always going to translate on to an Oculus, or on to a Vive,” Jastrow explains. “You need to start like we do today with a master, and that is where the sweet spot for Technicolor will be: helping creators monetise by getting their content out to the masses via every headset, with the best image quality possible.”

I then asked Tony about what they brought to the table in the context of this TEC partnership:

Littlstar sits at the intersection of consumers, creators, and hardware companies. We need to have the highest quality output for everyone involved, and Technicolor couldn’t be a better partner to learn, collaborate, and grow the space with. With our platform, Littlstar sees nearly all aspects of what works and what doesn’t in terms of content. We’re able to cross reference all creators and see how consumers engage with the content as well. We also run up against hardware limitations while pushing the boundaries of distribution. We are able to provide a strong cross section of information, and working with Technicolor on solving these challenges means accelerated adoption and development all around.

We need to have the highest quality output for everyone involved
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So what will we see in the next ten years and what hurdles lie ahead for these new mediums?

VR and AR will co-exist and be used successfully for different reasons. We need continued content development, business use cases, and hardware investment. Devices need to get smaller and more powerful to handle the amount of data and processing required to run immersive initiatives. We need improved network infrastructure to stream 8k or 16k content and better compression for things like volumetric capture. TVs and computer monitors will continue to be replaced, and we’ll see smartphones taking a hit as wearables get better.

VR Devices need to handle larger amounts of data and processing
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Picking up on Tony’s comment that Littlstar is seeing users enjoy VR sessions of around 45 minutes I asked about the possible uptake for longer-format scripted narrative experiences.

Yes, this is already happening. Groups like Felix & Paul just released a 40 minute experience, and we’re regularly seeing content length increase. Dancing with the Stars and Conan O’Brien just released 1 hour long pieces of content.

Technicolor are also aware of the potential for longer format immersive experiences but Jastrow explained some of the challenges involved.

“Depending upon what it is that you are trying to accomplish, the workflows will be completely different. You can think the experience you’ve written on the page is going to translate beautifully into an interactive experience, but when you start working, you might find out that the technology is just not there yet,” she says. “I think the biggest challenge is going to be learning who the new storytellers will be,” she says. “What is often written out for creative is not something that can translate into immersive experiences. If it is a passive, narrative experience where there is no interactivity, content can be created in one way. Where there is interactivity, or where you may be tethered to a headset with controllers and interacting; that needs to be created another way.”

We can put processes in place that will help move immersive experiences
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But Technicolor are committed to continued investment in evolving the processes and developing the workflows needed to advance those possibilities.

“Narrative VR is probably going to play out like post production, but things like images and camera maturity, and techniques like stitching all need to evolve in order for images to be better and workflows to be faster. In the passive, narrative type of VR, we think we can get there pretty quickly by putting processes, standards, workflows and storytelling in place that will help move those immersive experiences along.”

The future looks exciting indeed for storytellers looking to engage their audiences with immersive technologies and the HP Mars Home Planet project is a great example of how Technicolor and partners are innovating and promoting VR content creation, more from Tech Trends on this soon!

HP Inc, NVIDIA, Technicolor, Autodesk, Fusion, Launch Forth, Unreal Engine and VIVE have launched HP Mars Home Planet—a global project using virtual reality to simulate what a human population of one million could look like on Mars. The unique exploration project – uniting engineers, architects, designers, artists, and students from around the globe – is a perfect example of the creative and technological collaborative opportunities presented by immersive media. There are currently 25K people involved in the project’s community. The Technicolor Experience Center is managing the community of collaborators and providing guidance and expertise in the development of the final virtual reality experience.

Technicolor are committed to invest in immersive technologies
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Tech Trends Virtual Reality Consultancy Services offer support for companies looking to get a foothold in the growing Mixed Reality spectrum and enhance their brand strategy with these exciting new technologies. 

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 A Technicolor Treat appeared first on Tech Trends.

From your very own Einstein to an awesome Virtual Reality HMD, and some solar panels to keep them powered up on the go. Tech Trends has your back in the gear department. 

Professor Einstein

I bring out the magic and fun of astronomy, physics, biology, geology and much more. Want to know the weather in Capetown? What is a quark? The exploits of Isaac Newton? Just say “Hey Professor…?” and ask away.

RRP $249

Penclic K2 Wireless Keyboard

Swedish company Penclic have a mission to reduce your RSI and we have tested several of their products here on Tech Trends and can vouch for their effectiveness. Today we are testing their latest version of their wireless keyboard the K2 which retails for €69 or £62. This new version has a slightly nicer feel to the keys but is still not as nice to use as the fractionally more expensive, minimalist KB3 Bluetooth keyboard they make. Overall the K2 is a comfortable keyboard to use and the small size and low profile do keep my arms relaxed when typing and my only mild frustration is that the wi-fi only works within a radius of about a meter from the computer, probably not an issue for most users but something to bear in mind.

RRP: €69.99

BioLite SolarPanel 10+

Fans of hiking, kayaking, camping and outdoor pursuits in general still need their mobile devices and when they’re miles from the nearest power socket and need their GPS to get them home, they often let them down at the worst possible time.

Enter the BioLite SolarPanel 10+ a super thin and lightweight smart power device. The two High-efficiency monocrystaline solar panels will suck 10 watts of power from the sun and fill up the built in 3000 mAh rechargeable battery for charging all your essential devices, tablets and phones. BioLite’s Optimal Sun System includes a built in sundial for aligning the panels to the sun’s rays and a 360 degree kickstand to simplify positioning on uneven terrain. When you are done, simply fold the 10+ up and pop it in your rucksack or you can charge on the move by hanging it from you backpack and keep going. Oh and it’s splash proof, so go ahead and jump in those puddles!

RRP: $129.95

DigiBit

A Kickstarter funded, funky new wearable motion capture device, DigiBit gives you responsive in-game control for VR and non VR environments on iOS and Android (Marshmallow and above) devices. Control your in-game movements and actions with smart sensors that attach to the hands or feet for a gaming experience like never before!

These elegant little wearables are the creation of DigiBit Founder, Colt Correa and his family. This is one of those great stories of an engineer who, when disappointed by commercial products, knew he could do better, and with the help of a Kickstarter campaign plans to deliver an affordable product even the big games and console manufacturers would be proud of. DigiBit is an open platform and includes an open source Air Hockey game, a free Unity3D plugin and an open Bluetooth API. The patent-pending wearable motion and communication technology captures your body movement for responsive in-game control in VR and non-VR environments.

Read Tech Trends full review here

RRP: $79 (Super Early Bird Pledge)

TouchPoints

TouchPoints Basic are another crowdfunding success story. Founded in 2015 by Neuropsychologist Dr. Amy Serin and executive child advocate Vicki Mayo, these cunning little gadgets are a non-invasive, wearable devices that use patent-pending neuroscience to relieve stress in as little as 30 seconds.

Using quantitative electroencephalogram data, existing neuroscience research and archival data, Dr Amy Serin determined the device produced significant and quantifiable brain changes after just seconds of use. TouchPoints use Bi-Lateral Alternating Stimulation Tactile (BLAST) stimulation to give the user a gentle vibration that affects the brain and alters the body’s fight, flight or freeze response.

Read Tech Trends full review here.

RRP: $119

Avid Media Composer First

Media Composer First is a very limited version of the full programme, currently MC 8.5, but it aims to give you the basic cutting experience, plus some key functionalities of its big brother. We consume most of our video content via the web these days and Avid gets this, offering very basic options for exporting your finished video via Quicktime in the web friendly H.264 or their propriety DNxHD codec or even better, publish directly to YouTube or Vimeo. Yes you can edit 4k video in First but only downscaled to HD, output is also limited to HD but again this is still the most web friendly format and to make your 4k files work for you Avid retain the awesome FrameFlex from the pro version.

Read all the details and specs in the full review here.

RRP: $FREE

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 July 2017 Tech Trends Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

This new crowdfunded HMD (Head Mounted Display) and wearable motion controllers make for an elegant and affordable Virtual Reality solution

Crowdfunding your product is fast becoming the norm in cutting edge sectors such as VR, robotics and health tech. In fact, Tech Trends reviewed crowdfunded products in all three of those sectors just this month. Right now I am looking at a funky new wearable motion capture device from DigiBit that gives you responsive in-game control for both VR and non-VR environments and works on iOS and Android (Marshmallow and above) devices.

Control your in-game movements and actions with smart sensors that attach to the hands or feet for a gaming experience like never before!

These elegant little wearables are the creation of DigiBit Founder, Colt Correa and his family. This is one of those great stories of an engineer who, when disappointed by commercial products, knew he could do better, and with the help of a Kickstarter campaign plans to deliver an affordable product even the big games and console manufacturers would be proud of. DigiBit is an open platform and includes an open source Air Hockey game, a free Unity3D plugin and an open Bluetooth API.

DigiBit is an open platform that includes a free Unity3D plugin and open Bluetooth API
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The patent pending wearable motion and communication technology captures your body movement for responsive in-game control in VR and non-VR environments.

What’s unique about it?

• WEARABLE: Pocket sized system that is a great accessory to your existing smart devices like iPhones, Android phones and tablets
• HANDS and FEET: Only portable game system that enables games to use both feet and both hands as input. Existing systems require the player to hold the motion sensor, but with DigiBit the motion sensor holds on to you so you can use your arms and legs in a natural way while playing
• ACTIVE and SOCIAL: Focus on physically active and face-to-face social game play.
• FREE GAMES: Games from DigiBit are free and can be downloaded from the Google Play or Apple Stores
• CHILD SECURITY: Free parent app enables you to track how far away your child is. Alarm sounds on your phone if the child wanders away too far. Built in compass shows you the direction of the child. Great security feature for such things as days out at theme parks.
• BATTERY LIFE: Over 16 hours on a single charge
• LOW COST: Cost of the entire DigiBit system with the games is less than that of 2 games with most other systems
• DEVELOPER FRIENDLY: Open Source, Open Interfaces and a Unity3D API lets mobile game developers add body motion to existing or new games

DigiBit is the only portable game system enabling hand and foot inputs
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Unity3D API lets developers easily add body motion features to their games
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With a Master of Science in Electrical Engineering and more than 22 years of experience working in software and hardware development for the automotive industry, and with 5 U.S. patents to his name, Colt knows what he is doing. After an initial manufacturing run of 50 units this campaign will raise money to enhance the games they have as well as develop new ones, plus create an open API so programmers around the world can develop their own games for the DigiBit ecosystem.

DigiBit focuses on physically active and face-to-face social game play
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Kickstarter backers will benefit from such perks as free games and power-ups, FOREVER
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Early Kickstarter backers will get some great perks including free downloads of all DigiBit games now and in the future, ad-free games and free in-app purchases and power ups, all in perpetuity!

Our backers will decide what games comes next. With every system, you get a vote on what is going to be our next game. Have a new game idea? Let’s us know!

The DigiBits are well designed, small, light and in trendy white. They come with sturdy straps for attaching them to your wrists or feet and the headset is a revelation for those out there who are sick of removing their phone’s case to be able to fit it into different VR goggles.

A simple elastic and velcro strap secures your phone to the headset
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A simple elastic and velcro strap secures your phone to the headset offering a truly one size fits all wearable, it is also very comfortable and adjustable for those who wear glasses.

Get active with the ability to turn static mobile games into full-body experiences! DigiBits can be worn anywhere and played anywhere, unlike traditional consoles.

To test it out I charged up the DigiBits, strapped them to my wrists and launched FunnyWings, a flying game where you chase after an evil witch, collect stars and dodge deadly red balloons. The game asks permission to turn on your Bluetooth and effortlessly pairs with the DigiBits. You are instructed to tap your chest with your right hand which tells the game which side is your right and off you go.

The gameplay of my demo was fun and intuitive. I found myself laughing
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There is a little demo on how to move and fly then you clap your hands to start the game. Gameplay is really good and the movements to control your flight are very instinctive. I found myself laughing, flailing around and definitely burning more calories than playing on my PS4. Interestingly I experienced no loss of balance or nausea during game play, so maybe moving my body and head as I played countered the unpleasant feelings I have often experienced in VR when sitting down.

I experienced no nausea or dizziness while playing the game
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DigiBit is the only portable game system that enables games to use both feet and both hands as input. Existing systems require the player to hold the motion sensor, with DigiBit the motion sensor holds on to you so you can use your arms and legs in a natural way while playing.

For the second test game I moved the straps to my feet and loaded up Dash, an endless runner based in a high school corridor. Jumping is the name of the game here. Jump side to side to weave around obstacles and jump straight up to get over objects or up onto tables. Dodge the occasional pesky banana skin by raising your right or left leg to hop past it and always stay ahead of the big bully! This was great fun and I was quickly out of breath. It was much more physically taxing than FunnyWings and I can see it being a big hit with the kids.

I definitely burned more calories than when playing on the PS4
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I enjoyed the Digibit system and was much more immersed in the games
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I really enjoyed the Digibit system and was so much more involved in the games’ action than when using VR more passively. The product is well made, easy to use and looks as good as anything made by the big games companies, so I think it is a winner. Colt and his family hope to raise $2,500 to make the Digibit system better and more affordable, and to make more games like these for it, so if you are interested in getting your hands on a Digibit and helping them out take a look at the Kickstarter page here.

For help getting your own VR/AR/MR project off the ground, get in touch about our Virtual Reality Consultancy services

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 Product Review: DigiBit appeared first on Tech Trends.

HP announces their revolutionary new HP Z VR Backpack, the world’s first professional wearable VR PC. Crafted to bring the full potential of VR to-life, it is the world’s most secure and manageable wearable VR PC ever created.

HP see the potential for VR to revolutionise sectors such as industrial and military training, medical and healthcare practice, product design, architecture and to take consumer engagement to the next level. The HP Z VR Backpack is designed to help companies make the first step into using VR and give them an easy to use, end-to-end VR solution with the capabilities to easily build those immersive capabilities into their business.

HP see the potential for VR to revolutionise sectors such as industrial and military training
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Announced alongside this new technology is HP’s partnership with HTC, makers of the VIVE HMD. The new “Business Edition” VIVE will come with built-in headphones and 1 year of commercial support, and will be offered bundled with this new HP backpack.

“Virtual reality is changing the way people learn, communicate and create,” said Xavier Garcia, vice president and general manager, Z Workstations, HP Inc. “HP is uniting the right innovation and the right partners to position our customers with commercial VR solutions that matter. With our long history of insights-based innovation, and new solutions like the HP Z VR Backpack, we are empowering VR experiences our customers can use today to reinvent the future.”

This new externally untethered VR Backpack is light with an ergonomic design and hot swappable batteries to provide unrestricted freedom within any immersive experience. It packs serious high-end processing power with the latest Intel® Core i7 vPro processor and chipset, providing the power to process applications at incredible speeds.

This untethered VR Backpack is light with an ergonomic design
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It is also the first wearable VR PC in the market to use the NVIDIA® Quadro® P5200. The 16GB of video memory will provide a huge frame buffer to avoid stuttering and dropped frames that break the sense of immersion. The Quadro GPUs also ensure immersion is smooth and responsive with low latency and high frame rates which – when paired with the HTC VIVE –  should give a spectacular ride! Neither the CPU nor GPU are throttled so there is plenty of power on tap whenever you need it.

Some possible use cases include:

• Businesses can use VR to deliver safe and effective simulated training in dangerous environments,  medical training or for heavy/large equipment operations, avoiding costly mistakes
• In architectural building development, virtual walkthroughs at scale for client reviews can help quickly close the deal.
• In product development, executive agreement and sign off for new styling can be done in virtual showrooms.
• New location-based entertainment centres featuring exhilarating virtual reality experiences are now a step closer

To help market this new VR solution HP are opening thirteen immersion centres later this year in Palo Alto, Houston, Boise, Fort Collins, Stockholm, London, Paris, Barcelona, Boeblingen, Beijing, Sydney, Tokyo and Singapore. The centres have been designed so customers can have an immersive experience using HP VR technology and receive consulting on how to best deploy VR devices within their business to streamline workflows.

HP are opening thirteen immersion centres all over the world to showcase their latest VR tech
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In designing the backpack HP have addressed some major pain points their research identified:

• No trailing cables helps preserve immersion, improves freedom of movement and is safer for users and bystanders
• Hot swap batteries help retain immersion for long periods
• Lightweight at just over 10lbs
• Designed for comfort with the workstation kept off your back and air flow directed to the sides
• Durable enough for military training
• Designed as a single, unified VR solution that is a delivery rig and a true VR workstation for content creation and testing, enabling companies to design, test and develop content on the same equipment that will deliver the experience to their customers

Creators can quickly transition back and forth between design and testing
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Its docking solution lets digital creators quickly transition back and forth between high-powered desktop for content design and wearable VR PC to test out their creations. The docking station can drive two 4K Z or DreamColor displays (sold separately) and the HTC Vive Business Edition HMD (sold separately) is also part of the HP VR portfolio. The Backpack will be available in September starting at $3,299 USD. The datasheet is available here.

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support your brand strategy.

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 Product Review: HP Z VR Backpack & VR Workstation appeared first on Tech Trends.

We bring you a selection of the interesting products that have caught our eye this month, from haptic Bluetooth earphones to giant screens and coffee-making gadgets.

HP Sprocket Portable Bluetooth Smartphone Printer

As part of our invitation-only jaunt to the Cannes Film Festival this month we also got to try out this nifty printer from HP. It quickly churns out fun pocket-size photos that can be stuck around your room, office, or person. Read the full review in all its glory here.

RRP: $129.99

Varidesk Dual Monitor Arm

This month I added these nifty monitor arms to my Varidesk setup, which give a bit more flexibility when adjusting the height of my display in relation to where I’m sitting (or standing as the case may be). These feature fully articulating 360-degrees screen rotation for maximum ergonomic comfort, and come in both single and dual monitor options. As you may have guessed, however, these are specifically designed to work with the various models of the Varidesk so probably not the best choice if you’ve got a regular desk. Similarly, these days most monitors come with fittings that will allow for wall or arm mounting, but one of mine was a bit older, so I needed to purchase some brace-like adaptors that kind of spoiled the sleek look. If your monitor is compatible, however, installation is pretty straightforward, and each arm holds up to 19.8 lbs (8.98 kg) in weight which covers most size monitors. The advice is to double check your specs and the back of your monitors before ordering.

RRP: $239

Skullcandy Crusher Wireless Haptic Earphones

Our self-confessed sound geek and chief technical reviewer Tom Atkinson had a blast – literally – testing out these vibrating headphones, specially with loud films and VR content. Take a quick read of how he got on here.

RRP: $199.99

iXCC 5200mAh Portable Power Bank

You can really never have too many power banks as far as I’m concerned, and this sleek little one is classy looking (I liked the metallic pink colour) and packs a healthy charging punch while being small and lightweight. It’s also at a good price point, specially if you take advantage of the exclusive offer for Tech Trends readers to get it at 20% off using code iXCCBLON

RRP: $15.49

RCA Cable 3.5mm, iXCC 3.5mm Audio Cable to 2RCA,  Stereo Splitter Y Cable with Dual Shielded and Gold-Plated Connector

This set of audio cables is perfect for connecting your smartphone or tablet to your home stereo system enabling you to stream music into your living room from your mobile device. Build quality is very high with gold-plated connections and a tough but flexible rubber coating. We tested it by streaming music from various services such as Spotify and Google music and these cables really highlighted the difference in quality from those services. It was somewhat surprising that a dedicated music streaming service like Spotify sounded so disappointingly flat while relative newcomers to that space Google Music provided bright and lively sounds. It goes to show how it’s worth investing a relatively small amount in peripherals such as these to enhance your listening experience.

RRP: $8.00

Exclusive offer for Tech Trends Readers: Get 20% off until 30^th June 2017 with promo code iXCCZXCV

Sony VPL-VZ1000ES Ultra Short Throw Projector

From bit sounds to big pictures, while in London Tom also got to try the new top-of-the-range Sony Home Cinema setup. Click here to read the verdict.

RRP: $25,000

Pour Over Coffee Kettle with Build-in Thermometer

Former BBC journalist Phil Williams used to drink instant coffee, until a hike in Colombia changed his life by introducing his taste buds to the real deal. He founded Coffee Gator to help equip people like himself to create that nirvana-like experience at home. Being Brazilian, the love of good, ridiculously strong coffee is in my DNA, so I tend to own a large array of home brewing apparatus, but I was won over not only by Phil’s hilarious promo video (see below) but by the fact that it’s by far the cleanest and easiest to use gadget of the lot. As any barista will tell you, temperature is key for making the perfect brew, so this baby just tells you when the water reaches that temperature. The small spout also stops you from pouring the water over your coffee grounds too quickly. Simples.

And to keep my perfect brew hot for up to 12 hours (fat chance of it lasting that long) I used this beautiful Corkcicle stainless steel bottle. You’d easily spend as much over a month of buying weak lattes at your local coffee shop (or I would, anyway, just through adding extra shots so I can actually taste the coffee). And yes, I considered making some sort of #Covfefe joke here, but frankly I’m too depressed by the whole damn thing. If we’re all going to die we might as well drink good coffee while we can though.

RRP: $51 (Kettle) and $38 (Corkcicle)

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

 

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 May 2017 Tech Trends Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

The question of how Virtual Reality will transform creative industries such as Film is a big one, but Cannes certainly seemed like an appropriate place to tackle it.

We'll soon move beyond current limitations of AR AND VR into Blended and Mixed Reality Experiences
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So in between attending red carpet screenings, gawking at mega yachts and indulging in some celebrity spotting (Nicole Kidman, Colin Farrell and Mads Mikkelsen all in one day!) I attended a series of talks and panels hosted by HP, most of which revolved around the interplay between technology and creativity, with VR being a hot topic.

“Believe me, when we are looking at VR today we are looking at the punch cards of our generation. We are operating in DOS 3.0,” said Shane Wall, HP’s Chief Technology Officer and head of HP Labs, which also happens to be the world’s longest standing corporate research labs.

Yes, he concedes, there are limitations with both AR and VR technologies – Virtual Reality can feel isolating as it shuts out the outside world and there are issues with display and field of view with Augmented Reality, but those are the limitations of today, and we will move beyond that, perhaps much more quickly than we might think.

“These are the pieces that will create the clay with which we’ll build the experiences of tomorrow, experiences we can’t yet imagine today.”

HP has been the technology partner for the Cannes Film Festival for the past 14 years, but you can trace back the company’s filmic pedigree as far back as 1937, when Bill Hewlett and Dave Packard worked with the Walt Disney company to provide them with audio oscillators that were later used in the first screenings of Fantasia, showcasing some seriously ground-breaking sound design technology for the time.

And that model of co-creating products with large-scale creative partners is one they carry on to this day according to Kate Swanborg from DreamWorks, which has been an end-to-end HP studio for more than 15 years. In an industry where even the most minute variations in colour standards are deemed unacceptable (you better believe there’s such a think as “Shrek green”) the studio found it increasingly difficult to get displays that were affordable at scale, yet maintained that all-important colour accuracy. HP worked with DreamWorks to co-develop the product they needed, and the resulting DreamColor display went on to become such an industry benchmark that it was awarded a Scientific and Engineering Oscar in 2015.

HP has been the technology partner for the Cannes Film Festival for the past 14 years, but you can trace back the company’s filmic pedigree as far back as 1937
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“It gives our artists a spectrum that matches their creative palette,” Swanborg continues, explaining the fundamental role that technology plays in the studio’s creative workflow.

“We’re a bunch of artists, but the reality for filmmakers, specially those who work in animation, is that behind the scenes and under the hood, what we make is data,” she says, revealing that DreamWorks generates around half a billion digital files every month.

“People often express surprise at the fact we don’t use ‘creative computers’ at which point I always respectfully point out that computers aren’t creative, people are, and what our people need is the very best technology to enable their creativity,” she concludes.

And that relationship between technology and creativity is something that will become more ingrained as a new generation of digital natives joins the workforce. Companies like Microsoft – with whom HP also partners – have also put the focus firmly on creativity-enabling with its Fall Creators Update recently announced at the Microsoft Build conference in Seattle.

SVP Immersive Media at Technicolor Marcie Jastrow, says VR is a perfect example of technology and art coming together. In her talk she highlighted six key factors she believed would converge to make VR into the mass-market entertainment experiences of the future. These included not only creating high-quality native content, but ensuring that this content had a strong storytelling backbone, was disruptive, had “episodic cadence,” (what is known in tech talk as “stickiness”) and provides a user experience that is both intuitive and comfortable.

VR is a perfect example of technology and art coming together
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She further stressed that developing the immersive media such as VR to its full potential would require a lot of collaboration and was not something that any one company could achieve on its own.

And the fruit that such collaborations bear was on display there in the form of the Tree experience, created by New Reality Company in partnership with the Rainforest Alliance. HP provided filmmakers Milica Zec and Winslow Porter with z640 workstations that allowed them to play the experience consistently at film festivals around the world after premiering at Sundance earlier this year.

As I experience life through the eyes of a tree – from a seedling to towering hundreds of feet above the canopy of the Peruvian rainforest– I also smell the damp earth and feel the heat as I meet my end in a forest fire
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The experience uses haptic devices to send subtle – and not so subtle – rumblings and vibrations through my feet as I stand on a mat, and via the small backpack I’m wearing. As I experience life through the eyes of a tree – from a seedling to towering hundreds of feet above the canopy of the Peruvian rainforest– I also smell the damp earth and feel the heat as I meet my end in a forest fire. Many people cry at that point, and I admit to feeling quite emotional myself.

It’s all part of what HP calls “Blended Reality” (which sounds akin to Microsoft’s Mixed Reality concept) and it is indeed a very powerful tool in creating a sense of connection and empathy with nature, something that has also been explored by researchers at Stanford University.

The true gift of VR is that ability to connect with your audience
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Wall believes that the way Tree brings in all the different senses lays the groundwork for something quite profound in the industry: “It’s the first visualization I see of activities we’ve had at HP labs for a while, which is how you move from the headset into creating total body, fully sensory immersive experiences.”

“That is the true gift of VR, that ability to immediately connect with your audience,” agrees Zec. Yet Porter stresses that in order to deliver that they first had to overcome some basic technical challenges. “As soon as we got the experience into the headset we noticed we were dropping at below 45 frames a second and immediately everyone got nauseated.”

Being particularly prone to VR simulator sickness myself I could see how that could derail the whole experience, but with the HP workstations and Quadro P6000 graphics cards they were able to speed up the frame rate to average over 90, which indeed felt much more comfortable.

At this stage it very much feels like you’re building the bridge and going over it at full speed at the same time
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The speed at which the technology is advancing is dizzying according to Porter. “At this stage it very much feels like you’re building the bridge and going over it at full speed at the same time.”

“The changes we’re going to see over the next ten or twenty years will be profound,” agrees Wall. “The phone of tomorrow, that little glass slab upon which we stare on average 137 times a day in 30 years will not be 30 times more powerful, it will be a billion times more powerful. And when you have that power kind of processing capability, your ability to create experiences that truly amaze will become the center of what film is,” he concludes.

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 Blending Realities to Reinvent Filmmaking appeared first on Tech Trends.