Anyone who manages to walk away from that without feeling a little bit like a Harry Potter wizard (or witch) casting a successful spell, is likely leading a fairly jaded and joyless existence. There is something fundamentally satisfying, almost primal, to the empowerment of watching the world change as you command it to.

Yet even the naysayers can probably agree that voice-based technologies driven by artificial intelligence represent a huge market opportunity. Millions of us now own some sort of room-based voice device such as Google Home or Amazon Echo and the global voice and speech recognition market size is estimated to reach USD 31.82 billion by 2025. We are now witnessing a convergence of various emerging technologies in that space – such as voice recognition, natural language processing, and machine learning-powered by 5G connectivity and the AR cloud.

Millions of us now own some sort of room-based voice device such as Google Home or Amazon Echo
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In this screenless world of spatial computing, interfaces will need to become more intuitive, efficient, and empathic
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Immersive experiences like those afforded by the HoloLens offer a tantalizing glimpse of where this is all headed: a screenless world where our natural human interactions plug into the digital realm, creating an entirely new form of hybrid reality. In fact, Gartner predicts that by 2020, 30 percent of web browsing will be done without a screen. The next technology revolution will usher in the era of spatial computing, where multisensory experiences allow us to interact with both the real and digital worlds through natural, intuitive interfaces such as haptics, limb and eye-tracking, and even elements such as taste and scent.

In this screenless world of spatial computing, interfaces will need to become more intuitive, efficient, and empathic. Let’s take a look at three ways in which voice technologies are already enabling this.

1 – Intuitive UX

Spatial audio and AI-driven voice technologies are crucial elements for creating compelling immersive experiences. As Kai Havukainen, Head of Product at Nokia Technologies explained in an interview for Scientific American, “building a dynamic soundscape is essential for virtual experiences to really engender a sense of presence.” Humans, he added, are simply hardwired to pay attention to sound and instinctively use it to map their surroundings, find points of interest and assess potential danger.

There are, however, design considerations that must be taken into account when tackling the challenges of an entirely new medium together with these fast-evolving technologies.

Tim Stutts, Interaction Design Lead at Magic Leap, highlights the sheer complexity of these UX challenges, “A level of complexity is added with voice commands, as the notion of directionality becomes abstract—the cursor for voice is effectively the underlying AI used to determine the intent of a statement, then relate it back to objects, apps and system functions.”

“For voice experiences, you need to have a natural language interface that performs well enough to understand different accents, dialects, and languages,” adds Mark Asher, director of corporate strategy at Adobe, who believes the advancement of voice technologies will serve to “bring the humanity back to computing,”

There are still many hurdles to overcome before we reach that utopian vision, however. As we move towards more pervasive and complex experiences where users have multiple applications open at the same time, they will need to circumvent problems such as unintentionally commanding a hologram when you’re actually talking to the person next to you.

Spatial audio and AI-driven voice technologies are crucial elements for creating compelling immersive experiences
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Yet looking at the exponential way AI technologies have developed over the past decade, it isn’t unreasonable to extrapolate that the next few years we will usher in real-time contextual applications that accurately identify and action commands based on accurate assessments of your surroundings (both real and virtual) your personal preferences, and even your biofeedback.

2 – Voice Biofeedback

XR technologies already deploy a multitude of sensors that enable collection of biofeedback, yet voice provides a rich vein of data which can be collected in a non-invasive way without the need for cumbersome wearables.

Apart from deliberately using commands to interact with the world around us, our voices provide the scope for AI to contextualize our XR experiences based on subconscious factors such as our mood and physical health. Cymatics – the name given to the process of visualizing soundwaves – gives us some insight into the depth and complexity of the unique patterns projected by our voice.

XR technologies already deploy a multitude of sensors that enable collection of biofeedback
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To produce speech, the brain communicates with the Vagus Nerve and sends a signal to the larynx, which vibrates out stored information through the vocal cords. Since vocalization is entirely integrated within both our central (CNS) and autonomic nervous system (ANS), there is an established correlation between voice output and the impact of stress.

Researchers have been developing methods for voice stress analysis (VSA) and computerized stress detection and body scanning devices for many years. Companies such as Insight Health Apps already leverage this rich data to feed corrective waveforms and patterns back into the body in the form of “Quantum Biofeedback”.

3 – Bridging the Uncanny Valley

When I was first invited to test social VR platform Sansar, I was shown around some of its virtual worlds by Linden Lab’s CEO Ebbe Altberg. To this day, my lasting impression of that demo was how our interaction felt very natural in spite of us being 5,000 miles and several time zones apart (I was in London and he in San Francisco) and the fact that his avatar looked nothing like his real-world persona.

Not only did Ebbe’s digital self have the face of a woman, but that face was attached to a cartoony blimp-like dinosaur bodysuit. Still, when he spoke, the avatar’s lips, teeth and facial muscles synchronized to the sounds in a way that my brain registered as true. It demonstrated one of the peculiar things about designing virtual experiences: the malleability of “reality,” and the fact we are more willing to suspend our disbelief for some aspects of it than others. Hence an avatar’s appearance doesn’t matter nearly as much as these subconscious prompts that form the core of human interaction.

It was an interesting way of avoiding the pervasive problem known as the “uncanny valley” which describes that awkward sense of unease you feel when a character or avatar appears human-like yet “not quite there.” Speech Graphics developed the technology that creates this notoriously difficult-to-achieve illusion that an animated face is the source of the sound you hear. Their pipeline merges powerful speech analysis with procedural animation techniques. To achieve this, the algorithm replicates not only the movement of the lips, but also decodes from that speech the energy and emotion of the speaker.

“In the sound of speech there is a wealth of information about what the speaker was doing when he or she made the sound—including the movements of the mouth as it produced the sound, and the energetic state of the speaker, from which we can deduce facial expression. From syllables to scowls,” its website reads. And because it is a universal physical model, it works for any language and any type of character, from realistic humans to cartoonlike avatars.

The Future

As digital experiences move beyond the familiar constraints of screens, our modes of interaction with the digital world are also evolving. Paradoxically, that evolution is taking us back to basic and instinctual forms of natural human interaction, hence the enduring relevance of Clarke’s law. Technology will soon be sufficiently advanced so that it will become an invisible layer of our reality rather than a separate realm requiring special skills to access. And in that hybrid reality we will experience an entirely new type of magic.

In the sound of speech there is a wealth of information about what the speaker was doing when he or she made the sound
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This article was originally published on Futurithmic

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a XR 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 Unlocking the Magic of XR With Your Voice appeared first on Tech Trends.

How can we increase AR awareness & adoption and what does the future look like?
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Immersive technologies such as Augmented reality (AR) Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) which collectively come under the umbrella of – keep up with me here – Extended Reality (XR) are being used by an increasing number of companies to build consumer engagement and enhance the customer experience.

For those few who have crossed the threshold and are creating working AR projects to drive business engagement, questions still remain about overall adoption, increasing awareness and measuring ROI
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As with any novel, yet undoubtedly powerful technology, businesses are scrambling to maximize its revenue-creating potential, incentivized by the prospect of developing the much-vaunted ‘killer app’. Accordingly, many benefits of AR as a means to increase consumer engagement have become apparent in recent years; consumer marketing can be drastically enhanced, being rendered immersive, exciting and personalized, while the ability to monitor engagement data in real-time offers the possibility of refining the customer journey to increase enjoyment of an experience and maximize customer engagement with the brand.

As with any novel, yet undoubtedly powerful technology, businesses are scrambling to maximize the revenue-creating potential of XR
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Despite initial success, for those few who have crossed the threshold and are creating working AR projects to drive business engagement, questions still remain about overall adoption, increasing awareness and measuring ROI in a challenging environment where online offline commerce channels are blending into one another and customers are increasingly demanding omnichannel experiences.

VR Intelligence are hosting a live webinar, ‘AR for Consumer Engagement & Retail – From Fun Feature to Daily Essential’ on August 14
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To explore this and more, VR Intelligence are hosting a live webinar, ‘AR for Consumer Engagement & Retail – From Fun Feature to Daily Essential’, taking place Wednesday, August 14, 9:00am PT/12:00pm ET/5:00pm BST. We will be joined by Michael Haddad (Augmented Beauty US Director, L’Oréal), Jasper Krog (Senior Global Digital Innovation Manager, NIVEA), Max Andaker (Digital Innovation Manager, Nestlé Silicon Valley Innovation Outpost), Cathy Hackl (Enterprise Director, Magic Leap) and Terry Schussler, Director, Immersive Technology, Deutsche Telekom).

Register for this webinar to explore the following:

• A glance at the current state of phone-based AR content and implications for industry growth
• Why is retail a leading segment? What opportunities and challenges still exist for retailers?
• Where are consumers using AR now, and how will they look to use it going forward? What impact will 5G have?
• How are both phone-based and wearable device OEMs looking to capitalize? What tech improvements are needed for improved UX?
• How can we increase AR awareness & adoption and what does the future look like?

Those who cannot join live will be sent the recordings once the webinar has run.

This webinar is being run in association with VR Intelligence’s upcoming VRX Conference & Expo, taking place December 12-13, 2019, at the Hyatt Regency San Francisco Airport Hotel. Expecting more than 600 senior attendees from across gaming, entertainment, healthcare, retail, automotive industries and more, VRX is the world’s premier B2B immersive tech event for those wishing to use XR to boost ROI, propel their business forward and engage consumers through immersive, innovative experiences.

Tech Trends is an official media partner of VRX 2019

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business 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 Extending Retail appeared first on Tech Trends.

So many green pigs that must be got, yet so little time… Rovio and Resolution Games have brought out a fully immersive version of their popular Angry Birds franchise for the HTC VIVE and Oculus Rift. Over 50 levels of exploding birds await among exotic beaches, steep cliffs, snowy slopes and party city

“As a company we’re deeply interested in the future of gaming and in fact, investigating new tech and platforms remains one of our core strategic pillars. We’re delighted to be supporting the VR industry’s growth and introducing the beloved Angry Birds slingshot gameplay to new platforms,” says Sami Ronkainen, Creative Director, Extended Reality at Rovio Entertainment.

“The beauty of VR is that it allows players to enter and play in a 3D, fictional game universe, something people have fantasized about for decades. And, VR inherently lends itself well to strong characters, which is why the Angry Birds brand is such a great fit with its humor and strong gameplay,” said Tommy Palm, CEO of Resolution Games. “It has been incredibly fun for us to bring that to life, opening the door so players can immerse themselves in that world.”

It will be good to see what the appetite in the market is for a popular franchise in this new medium
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What is interesting is that the companies have clearly invested quite a lot in making this a premium game, and also priced it accordingly. In a landscape where so much immersive content is still subsidised and offered for free, Angry Birds VR: Isle of Pigs will set you back $14.99 on the Oculus Store , Steam and Viveport (further platforms as well as new levels of gameplay should be added in the coming months according to Resolution Games).

The beauty of VR is that it allows players to enter and play in a 3D, fictional game universe, something people have fantasized about for decades
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It will be good to see what the appetite in the market is for a popular franchise in this new medium, but it does seem a particularly well-suited IP for a test case, as the short, casual and intuitive nature of the game lends itself well to VR in its current form. However, I’m a bit spoiled, having recently had a demo of the Magic Leap version of Angry Birds, and I have to say that you really haven’t experienced an exploding bird until they’ve slingshot across your office in full holographic Mixed Reality glory. I can’t help to think that is what the future of entertainment looks like.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Angry Birds VR Now Available On Oculus Rift & HTC Vive via @alicebonasio https://t.co/8rgWpKe3vI pic.twitter.com/AB2V4Bldbj

— VRScout (@VRScout) February 11, 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 Angry Birding in VR appeared first on Tech Trends.

Object Theory are pretty much the oldest Mixed Reality company around, having launched in June 2015, before the HoloLens had even started shipping. In many ways they’re your typical tech company – my demos are delivered in the familiar blueprint of a trendy open-plan office with exposed brick walls, which sits above a sushi restaurant – but it’s got a different vibe from a lot of similar start-ups.

It was really interesting to see Microsoft pivot towards enterprise with the HoloLens and I think it was absolutely the right move for them to make
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For starters, they’re based in Oregon as opposed to Silicon Valley. And while Portland is by no means a backwater, it’s still not a major tech or immersive content hub like LA or San Francisco either. For another, its founders Raven Zachary and Michael Hoffman (who left Microsoft to start the company) operate a very profitable business (employing about a dozen people between full timers and contractors) with no investment capital. In spite of the fact we’re joking around and playing Angry Birds on Magic Leap, the whole thing feels very grown up, in the sense that these guys are in this for the long haul, and so, they reckon, is the business of making Mixed Reality.

You haven’t really experienced how much fun @AngryBirds is until you tried it in #mixedreality. Thanks @ObjectTheory for letting me play with your @magicleap! pic.twitter.com/UMhQbxgH1g

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) February 2, 2019

A key enabler for Object Theory’s success has been Microsoft’s strategy for marketing, supporting, and developing Mixed Reality content for the HoloLens, which is why Zachary and Hoffman are enthusiastic in their praise for the company, and in particular of the leadership of CEO Satya Nadella. By pivoting towards the enterprise market early on, Microsoft managed to create strong and sustained demand for Mixed Reality tools among companies looking to solve real business needs. That, in turn, allowed their partner developers to secure key contracts as they figured their way around the new technology.

“It’s curious how the HoloLens originated with the Xbox team (its inventor Alex Kipman was also responsible for the Kinect) so there was this idea that it would be mainly a consumer product,” recalls Hoffman. “It was really interesting to see them pivot in that way and go mainstream towards enterprise and I think it was absolutely the right move for them to make.”

The other significant pivot Microsoft made in recent years, adds Zachary, was to move away from being hardware-centered to focusing on the cloud, marketing Azure’s ability to enable what they call ‘The Intelligent Edge’: “Microsoft is the only one of the large players that has actively decided to be a multi-platform company. They are actively embracing everything that’s relevant out there, and that makes sense, because they’re making cloud consumption more valuable if it works with everything that’s out there. Because of that we hope – and it would make sense – if they adopt an OEM for their Mixed Reality technology. Microsoft has this great patent portfolio and it would be great to take that amazing secret sauce of the HoloLens and license it out to their existing OEM partners like Dell or Samsung.”

Object Theory are the oldest Mixed Reality company around, having launched in June 2015, before the HoloLens had even started shipping
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Since the launch of Magic Leap One earlier this year, Object Theory has also started exploring the possibilities that the other platform brings, such as better eye tracking and support for finer and more nuanced gestural controls as well as the much-talked-about additional field of view:

“People tend to focus on the extra field of view, but part of it is just an illusion, because they just don’t let you see what is not there, it’s really a trick because the edges of your vision are restricted by the design of the Magic Leap One HMD,” explains Hoffman. “With that restriction, you never get that cognitive dissonance of having an open FOV and a restrained one at the same time, which is what you get with the HoloLens. But that said, everyone says that after a day or so of using the HoloLens your brain adapts to it and you just don’t notice it any more, so for me this is really not a major issue.”

They muse that Magic Leap probably waited too long to launch, so that by the time they did, people were both less awed by the technology, and had unrealistic expectations fuelled by the company’s infamous cinematic concept videos.

“We in the industry knew that’s what we were going to get, but consumers felt let down because they didn’t realize the whale jumping in the school auditorium was a concept video, so for us the troll throwing a boulder was fine, but consumers – who weren’t going to buy the device anyway – felt let down,” says Zachary.

If we do get a sneak peek at the HoloLens 2.0 in Barcelona on the 24^th, it will be over three years after it was first launched, so developers like Object Theory are keen to see an acceleration of that innovation cycle. Zachary and Hoffman believe that bringing competition is one way to achieve this, and that, in a way is where the real value of having Magic Leap enter the arena lies.

People tend to focus on the extra field of view for Magic Leap, but part of it is an illusion, because they just don’t let you see what is not there, it’s restricted by the design of the HMD
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Although they haven’t deployed on Magic Leap yet, they’re hopeful that because every platform out there is investing in enabling Unity compatibility which enables them to develop cross-platform more easily. The challenge going forward, they anticipate, is that major tech companies are very used to owning their developer ecosystems outright,

“The challenge for Microsoft, Apple and Google is that they’re used to owning their developer ecosystems outright,” says Zachary, “so this is the sort of abstraction that I’m not particularly sure Apple and Google will buy into – but Microsoft might because they care about the cloud more than control over the developer ecosystem. I think ultimately for us, when an enterprise customer asks us if we can deploy on Magic Leap – which hasn’t happened so far – we’re ready and open to having that conversation. We’ve been saying all along we want more players, more competition. The more success we have in making this solve real challenges or even desires such as entertainment, the more it becomes meaningful, the pie gets bigger and there’s more opportunities for companies like us.”

The main question they’re asking themselves now is whether CIOs at Fortune 100 companies will want to invest in a start-up’s hardware solution or whether they’re by default going to go with a major player such as Apple or Microsoft.

“I don’t know the answer to that, we’re still leading with the HoloLens, it’s still our platform of choice, but we don’t know where that market is, Zachary says, but Hoffman goes a bit further, outlining how Microsoft’s targeting of enterprise proved to be a genius move in rallying developers like them to the platform in spite of its relatively small install base.”

The main question they’re asking themselves now is whether CIOs at Fortune 100 companies will want to invest in a start-up’s hardware solution
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“No matter how much money the investment in Magic Leap sounds, it’s still small compared to a company like Microsoft. They are a start-up,” says Hoffman, “And if I’m an enterprise I definitely want to take the Microsoft solution because even if they’re not perfect, they’ve been solving my business needs for a very long time,” he says, adding that while Microsoft might not be perfect, they’ve become very good at providing the services their enterprise customers want, and it was unlikely those customers would look elsewhere for them. In other words, Microsoft really isn’t going anywhere, where even a very well-funded start-up like Magic Leap could eventually run out of money and disappear without a trace. Given how risk-adverse large corporations tend to be, it’s clear what an advantage Microsoft has here in continuing to develop that market.

Even after three years, a lot of the R&D behind the HoloLens still stands up well, such as the fact that the HMD allows users to wear their prescription glasses is a huge plus (Magic Leap’s design requires you to order and purchase a special insert for around $200) as is heat dissipation; “Magic Leap makes me sweat within minutes of putting it on,” Zachary says. Another feature where the HoloLens technology scores highly with the developer community is spatial audio, which is something that Microsoft invested heavily in getting just right.

“What I love about the spatial audio feature as a developer is that you literally just have to push a button and it works. The Algorithms fill in all the blanks for you,” Zachary enthuses. “The sense of presence with Prism (the Mixed Reality collaboration and productivity platform that Object Theory developed for the HoloLens) because of the spatial audio is amazing. I want to talk to the silly cartoon avatar because the sound makes it really feel like that person is in the room with me, it’s unbelievable.”

“So overall – and we asked a lot of other people about this too – the sense is that Magic Leap outperforms the HoloLens in a couple of areas, and does worse in others, but there isn’t this sense that the needle has been moved dramatically,” Hoffman adds. “We’re very curious to see how they position Mixed Reality in 2019 and to what extent HoloLens will be a core or ancillary part of that story, and whether we’re going to see OEM devices. The more partners out there building devices, the more this market is going to move forward. We were a bit early, but we’re true believers.”

This article was originally published on UploadVR

Between Magic Leap and HoloLens, which is going to win over developers?https://t.co/X6QOjv8BGe pic.twitter.com/R5EyHZQLby

— UploadVR (@UploadVR) February 20, 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 Developing the Future of Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

As with all immersive hardware and platforms, the success (or otherwise) of Magic Leap will hinge on whether it can attract creative developers to make awesome content to bring its technology to life.

The idea of seeing something come into your environment, that alone has a magical quality to it
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That’s why it’s so exciting to see people like veteran VR Storyteller Robin Hunicke getting on board.

“What struck me about it was that this was not so much an entertainment technology, but a future technology, and from that moment I was pretty much hooked,” says Hunicke, who’s the CEO and Co-Founder of Funomena. The Independent game studio just launched its first title for the Magic Leap One Creator Edition, called Luna: Moondust Garden.

The success (or otherwise) of Magic Leap will hinge on whether it can attract creative developers to make awesome content to bring its technology to life
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This is an extension of the IGF-finalist VR fairytale Luna, which was launched back in 2017 for PC and VR, and was Funomena’s first commercial release. It uses Magic Leap’s scene room scanning scene reconstruction technology, together with spatial audio (music plays an important part in building this storyscape) to create an experience that feels very intimate and full of wonder.

“With Luna we wanted to take those same sort of concepts – building, constructing, playing with space and causing your friends to emerge and building a little narrative that was specific to the Magic Leap,” Hunicke explains.

Your task is primarily to go around collecting magic moondust, which you can sprinkle on plants and flowers to get them to grow and transform beautifully in front of your eyes. Rather simple, really, but you’re given extra motivation by a very sweet storyline, whereby an owl and a bird cannot get their friend the fox to come out and play with them, as the poor creature is feeling rather down in the dumps (we’ve all had days like that).

Luna is a little different because you’re kind of put in a different world it’s not your living room, it’s sort of this ether
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So what you do is build a happy world around the sad little thing, by planting beautiful flowers and trees, and filling it with colours, music and sensory delights until you’re finally rewarded with the sight of this extremely cute fox frolicking around like a puppy. I challenge you not to laugh out-loud at that point.

“Luna is a little different because you’re kind of put in a different world it’s not your living room, it’s sort of this ether. With magic leap you’re still in your world, but your toys are coming alive, and that’s really incredible,” muses Funomena’s Art Director Glenn Hernandez.

Magic Leap were very enabling partners, who encouraged them to bring their existing ideas on board
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Just the idea of seeing something come into your environment, that alone has a magical quality to it,” adds Senior Producer Eddy Ortega. “So instead of worrying about “how can we make this feel magical” what we kind of learned is that we can focus on the feeling that we’re trying to create,” he says, adding that Magic Leap were very enabling partners, who encouraged them to bring their existing ideas on board and gave them the freedom to do so on their terms.

“They were kind of like, just have fun with it, see what you can do, and if it doesn’t work, then we figure out how to execute our ideas a little bit better,” agrees 3D artist Meghan Auer.

Tadhg Kelly, Senior Account Manager, developer relations at Magic Leap, says they were keen to work with Funomena because of their track record of making experimental apps that really try and push the boundaries the platforms they worked with. “All the sort of things that a new device can maybe do, they’re the kind of studio that really wants to try and push it and make it do that.”

If you fancy trying it out, Luna: Moondust Garden is now available for download in Magic Leap World for $4.99 USD

This article originally appeared on VRScout

Magic Leap’s Latest Experience Is An Interactive Fairy Tale via @alicebonasio https://t.co/PfODg0GTmj pic.twitter.com/IqzUD3RURd

— VRScout (@VRScout) December 19, 2018

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 Growing a Mixed Reality Magic Garden appeared first on Tech Trends.

Magic Leap finally materializes into a product some of us can actually buy, yet the real test will be whether developers take the bait.

There are plenty of players like Microsoft HoloLens and DAQRI which consistently deliver not only cool demos, but real use-cases for holographic Mixed Reality
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With a final fanfare of unnecessary theatrics, it seems like people will now be able to get their hands on this elusive Augmented Reality headset, so developers can start making their own reality with Magic Leap One Creator Edition.

I first heard about this ridiculously well-funded start-up (investment clocked so far exceeds $2.3 Billion)  some eons ago in Tech Terms. It seemed an exciting proposition back then, sold mainly off the back of some very cool concept videos cooked up by New Zealand-based special effects company WETA (you know, the one from all the Lord of the Rings films). But things have since soured considerably, and I became quite fed up with it all, specially as there were plenty of other players like Microsoft HoloLens and DAQRI which were consistently delivering not only cool demos, but real use-cases for holographic Mixed Reality.

There’s only so much “we know something you don’t know” you can take before it starts to become annoying, but Magic Leap simply would not take a hint. And although Wired reports that Magic Leap’s CEO and Founder Rony Abovitz now recognizes that they were arrogant, I’m yet to see a significant change in attitude.

Although Magic Leap’s CEO and Founder Rony Abovitz now recognizes that they were arrogant, I’m yet to see a significant change in attitude
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What we have seen is that – based on the documentation and photos released – the headset has to be tethered to what looks like a Diskman (kids, you’ll laugh, but back in the olden 90s we used to play these things called CDs…) and the FOV (Field of View) is only slightly larger than that of the HoloLens. Considering how much flack Microsoft gets for its FOV, it seems unfair to cut Magic Leap any slack on that.

If Magic leap truly wants to turn a corner and get some goodwill behind its product, It’s not just about offering journalists demos without ridiculous restrictions, but about embracing openness and collaboration. The proof of that pudding will be in how they foster their community of developers and creators, something that Microsoft has done very well with the HoloLens.

The Magic Leap headset has to be tethered to what looks like a Diskman and the FOV is only slightly larger than that of the HoloLens
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The New York Times announced today that its immersive journalism will be available on Magic Leap One Creator Edition
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That process starts in earnest today, as Magic Leap One Creator Edition becomes available to interested developers, as long as they live in one of the pre-selected cities to which they deliver and have (at least) $2,295. Once again, a transparent list of these cities is not provided, you have to type in your postcode and see if you qualify – I typed in my Idaho one and was not at all surprised to get a “computer says no” response.

If Magic leap truly wants to turn a corner and get some goodwill behind its product, It’s not just about offering journalists demos without ridiculous restrictions, but about embracing openness and collaboration
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Of course, all that said, should I finally receive an invitation to “join the magicverse” (i.e. get a hands-on demo of the device and some real content as opposed to polished concept videos, selected renders or descriptions by other journalists who had so many restrictions placed on their reporting as to make their articles sound like hollow promo pieces) I’ll take it, even if those glasses are sure to make me look like a Minion.

Because if there’s one thing that reporting on immersive tech has taught me is that there really is no substitute for experiencing it first-hand. And you’ll forgive a multitude of sins if things actually manage to blow your mind. We shall see.

Content is definitely king

Ultimately, no matter how dorky a HMD looks, if the experience is cool enough we’ll put up with it, at least for a while. So it’s imperative for Magic Leap to not only attract the best creative talent – i.e. developers – but to support them in producing a broad range of awesome content.

It’s a huge challenge for the company, given the fact that Magic Leap One is quite expensive, and not widely available, at least not yet. Also, it is unclear what the company’s strategy for content actually is. Whereas the HoloLens was crystal clear about its focus on building industry/corporate partnerships, Magic Leap seems to be primarily focusing on the gaming market.

The problem with that is that while we all love games, if you’re marketing this as a consumer entertainment device, the current price tag is much too steep, by a very long way. For industry clients such as Mercedes Benz, however, the devices are great value for money in the context of making their training and quality control procedures much more efficient.

Ultimately, no matter how dorky a HMD looks, if the experience is cool enough we’ll put up with it, at least for a while
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While we all love games, if you’re marketing a device such as Magic Leap One as a consumer entertainment device, the current price tag is much too steep, by a very long way
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High-level partnerships with publishers might be one way for Magic Leap to start building that content pool while reaching out to a wider audience, and they seem to have got off to a promising start on that front with The New York Times announcing today that its immersive journalism will be available on Magic Leap One Creator Edition. They are so far the only publisher with an experience available on the platform.

“The Times’s first offering for Magic Leap One is a Mixed Reality version of its immersive report inviting readers to explore the damage caused by the Fuego volcano eruption in the Guatemalan village of San Miguel Los Lotes. Through MR and accessible via Helio, Magic Leap’s web browser for 3D and spatial web experiences, The Times is able to transport a life-sized piece of the scene to readers, conveying the scale of this natural disaster in a visceral way,” its statement read.

High-level partnerships with publishers might be one way for Magic Leap to start building that content pool while reaching out to a wider audience
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Readers can experience an augmented reality version of this feature in the “Immersive (AR/VR)” section of the NYTimes app on newer iPhones and iPads and on Android phones. The Times’s collaboration with Magic Leap marks the next step in its continued exploration of immersive journalism, and innovation in visual storytelling which included NYT VR, VR documentary “The Displaced” and the distribution of more than one million Google Cardboard headsets to Times subscribers.

“As we continue to integrate new forms of storytelling, like mixed reality, into our news report, we are able to bring Times journalism to readers in a way that makes it more immediate than ever before,” says Steve Duenes, assistant managing editor at the NYT.

A version of this article was originally published on The Next Web

Magic Leap is finally out, but do we even care? https://t.co/aiv2CkWnPc

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) August 8, 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 Leaping Into the AR Magicverse? appeared first on Tech Trends.

On-site workers can now safely wear the HoloLens to project Mixed Reality visualizations onto real-world environments.

Industrial collaboration tools are one of the fastest-developing areas for the Microsoft HoloLens, with many companies such as Object Theory looking for ways to diversify and broaden the market for Mixed Reality. On the other hand, selling this technology as an everyday working tool in places like construction sites, offshore facilities and mining projects means making it robust enough to be used as such, which means it has to comply with very specific and stringent safety and environmental standards.

Industrial collaboration tools are one of the fastest-developing areas for the Microsoft HoloLens
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Which is how Microsoft finds itself in the somewhat unlikely position of endorsing a hard hat. They have been working with Trimble to come up with a design – complete with MSA V-Gard hard hat, suspension system and quick-release accessory clips – which allows workers to wear the HoloLens comfortably without voiding the warranty of the $3000 device.

Microsoft finds itself in the somewhat unlikely position of endorsing a hard hat
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It also meets basic impact protection requirements of ANSI Z87.1, CSA Z94.3 and EN 166 (the most common protective glass certification standards) and IP50 rated testing, meaning the device will be able to perform as dust protected. And while that might not sound like the sexiest list of features, it seems to have got this construction crew excited enough:

As they point out in the video, these workers already routinely use technology such as tablets to access plans and data on site, but going from 2D to 3D at scale brings that to a whole new level. “Superimposing the digital model on the physical environment provides a clear understanding of the relations between the 3D design model and the actual work on a jobsite,” explained Olivier Pellegrin, BIM manager, GA Smart Building.

The application they are using is called Trimble Connect. It turns data into 3D holograms, which are then mapped out to scale onto the real-world environment. It gives workers an instant sense of where and how various elements will fit in best, and exposes mistakes early on in the process.

Trimble Connect turns data into 3D holograms, which are then mapped out to scale onto the real-world environment
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It does that by combining multiple models – structural, mechanical, electrical – and aligning each one precisely on a 1:1 scale onto the job site structures. This means workers can review and make changes to the models in context with the physical environment they’ll be applied to. It can be used not only to plan work more efficiently, but to train workers and compare plans against tasks completed. Other features enable users to view and capture data with onsite measuring tools, make annotations, and assign tasks.

Features enable users to view and capture data with onsite measuring tools, make annotations, and assign tasks
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With Trimble Connect users will be able to visualize and share holographic data to collaborate in projects and manage quality control and progress monitoring
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Trimble – a California-based company that specializes in advanced location-based technology – was one of the first HoloLens partners that Microsoft onboarded back in 2015. Later that year, Trimble company launched its Mixed Reality program and released the first commercially available enterprise-level product for the device – called SketchUp Viewer – in partnership with multinational engineering firm AECOM.

Microsoft’s HoloLens strategy has been to focus on enabling Industry 4.0 efficiencies and capturing the lion’s share of the enterprise market
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With Trimble Connect – which is available now on the Microsoft Windows App Store with a free trial option – users will be able to not only use the functionality in training scenarios, but also visualize and share holographic data to collaborate in projects and manage tasks such as quality control and progress monitoring.

“We are expanding the opportunities for implementation of Mixed Reality in a broad range of industries,” says Aviad Almagor, director of Trimble’s Mixed-Reality Program. “With the rise in acceptance for mixed-reality solutions in business, the need for 3D visualization outside the office is driving this next wave of innovation.”

The Hard Hat Solution, which is expected to be released later in the first quarter of 2018, will – excuse the pun – build upon what has been Microsoft’s HoloLens strategy from the very start, which has been to focus on enabling Industry 4.0 efficiencies and capturing the lion’s share of the enterprise market.

Which is not to say that they are ignoring the average user, however, as the new wave of Windows Mixed Reality headsets proves. These HMDs incorporate many of the features the company developed for the HoloLens, such as inside-out tracking capabilities, which make them a lot more comfortable to wear and brings the tech a step closer to looking like a viable consumer proposition. It does mean, however, that Microsoft can afford to play the long game as far as mass-market adoption goes, and that’s a pretty nice place for it to be, specially as we start to anticipate what the next generation of the HoloLens will look like, and how it will compare with other newcomers in that space like Magic Leap.

This article was originally published on VRScout

This is what a #MixedReality hard hat looks like https://t.co/CaF1rE6SwQ

— Alex Kipman (@akipman) January 31, 2018

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

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

The post #BuildTheFuture > Constructing the Future With Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

Magic Leap has been the poster child for Mixed Reality ever since they unveiled their first impressive demo footage, but questions are now being asked about whether they can really deliver the mind-blowing type of experience promised by those early videos.

This article for UploadVR sets out what we know so far about the notoriously secretive start-up and talks to other key players in the Augmented/Mixed Reality space.

With a thriving #MR ecosystem emerging, is Magic Leap's walled garden approach still a good strategy?
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With the HoloLens producing impressive early results and a thriving ecosystem starting to develop around MR technology, can the “Walled Garden” approach favoured by Magic Leap still prove an effective strategy? It’s difficult to say at this point, but we’d certainly like to have a chance to ask them!

Over the past three years Magic Leap have been one of the darlings of Augmented/Mixed reality. The Florida start-up was valued at $4.5 billion and  attracted nearly $1.4 billion in funding from investors such as Google, Andreessen Horowitz and Alibaba. And with the Augmented and Virtual Reality market projected to reach $162 billion by 2020, some would call that a fair price.

Their concept video was viewed over 3.5 million times on YouTube, and showed employees of the company blasting aliens in an augmented reality first person shooter. Although it did not explicitly claim that this was actual gameplay footage, the description told viewers that “This is a game we’re playing around the office right now.” The Weta Workshop logo was always prominent throughout, but it could have been assumed that this was because the New Zealand visual effects company – best known for their work in Peter Jackson’s Lord of the Rings and Hobbit trilogies – had made the graphics for the game itself. The video, it turns out, was produced using special effects. More recent videos from Magic Leap do clarify that you’re looking at the actual tech, but those videos show holograms that are  – perhaps unsurprisingly  – fuzzier and less impressive than the earlier one.

The Information reported that Magic Leap was facing serious hurdles in getting its patented fiber optic scanning display to work on a small enough scale to use on a wearable device
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The very few hands-on demos that Magic Leap granted journalists relied on an almost comically large device –apparently referred to as “the Beast” within the company – which was roughly the size of a refrigerator and had to be lugged around in a cart. Later demos were delivered on a helmet-like HMD, although Kevin Kelly did report a rather more positive experience in a prominent Wired article published earlier this year. However, former employees of the company are now saying that the technology described in those early demonstrations that got everyone so excited won’t actually feature in the commercial release.

The Information reported that Magic Leap was facing serious hurdles in getting its patented fiber optic scanning display to work on a small enough scale to use on a wearable device, and that it’s now using another type of technology to try and fit this into a glasses-size prototype. They declined to give further details of what that technology was, but previously they had talked about  using silicon photonics in its hardware. The fact remains, however, that in spite of being in development for years and receiving such huge volumes of investment, there is still no window for release and Magic Leap’s ambitions of building a product “far superior” to that of its rivals is looking less likely today, in spite of their CEO’s Twitter claims which suggest the company is moving “full steam ahead.”

Microsoft has made a very substantial strategic investment in getting their AR technology to this stage, and it seems to be paying off so far
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Rony Abovitz also went on to publish a short blog post giving what he describes as a “glimpse behind the scenes at Magic Leap.” It says they have now completed a PEQ (Product Equivalent) build of their target form factor, and are about to start a bigger run to exercise supply chain and manufacturing/quality operations. What it doesn’t go into, however, are any details regarding the performance of those devices, and whether they will be able to eventually deliver the experience promised by those early demos. Then, this week, Magic Leap’s head of public relations unexpectedly announced he was leaving the company.

So in the absence of more detail from the notoriously secretive start-up, I talked to a range of emerging companies and key players in the AR/MR space to explore their technologies and gauge whether they thought the negativity around Magic Leap was actually justified. The general feeling I came away with is that they want that early promise to materialize into something amazing, but have some serious reservations about their ability to deliver.

It’s all about the FOV

One of those companies is Oxford-based WaveOptics, which has been working on precisely the problem that has apparently plagued Magic Leap’s development – the quality and scalability of the display technology.

“There’s been a lot of hype around AR, with many companies discussing the future and potential applications of the technology, without focusing on how it can be deployed now,” explains CEO Sumanta Talukdar. He is confident, however, that his company is in a position to solve that problem for the entire industry.

Rather than relying on scanning and projection, their waveguide hologram technology works with photonic crystals that manipulate and map out light at a nano-scale. That makes for more stable, sharper and brighter holograms, but crucially also enables a lightweight and ergonomic design as it does not require cumbersome prisms, mirrors or scarce materials. Instead it collimates small and large output processing for more power-efficiency.

Their headset (nicknamed “the Ghost”) also has no ambitions to be a consumer device. Rather, it is meant to enable developers to build and test on top of their technology. It took 10 months to develop, and performed impressively when I tested it. The holograms retained their sharpness and bright colors even when I moved my head quickly or faced the window, projecting them against natural light (they were much fainter, but still visible). Crucially, however, the display was fully transparent, and the field of view was significantly wider than what you get with HoloLens.

In contrast to Magic Leap, WaveOptics has chosen to bootstrap their R&D
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In contrast to Magic Leap, WaveOptics has chosen to bootstrap their R&D, quietly developing this technology for the past three years by drawing on their team’s combined decades of expertise. CTO David Grey, for example, has been working on optical design, imaging and illumination for the past 25 years, and was head of optics for BAE Systems. They now claim to have several major partners lining up to incorporate this technology in their own products, and are planning to move their operations to the US as they close their first investment round. When I asked them about their thoughts on HoloLens, they said that their product was in no way competing with it or any other hardware, but rather could be integrated into such devices agnostically to improve FOV, much in the same way as ARM processors power mobile phones of all brands.

Some insight from the North

I was visiting Microsoft’s Vancouver office shortly after hearing those recent Magic Leap reports. The city is a thriving hub for AR development, supported by a strong creative and technical talent base that has its roots in the gaming industry. My Canadian hosts politely declined to comment on the Magic Leap news. My demo afterward included a last-minute addition: RoboRaid. Which just so happens to be a first-person shooter where you blast away at Augmented Reality aliens (much like the special effects-driven video from Magic Leap).

The truth is that Microsoft has made a very substantial strategic investment in getting their AR technology to this stage, and it seems to be paying off so far. Apart from the acknowledged limitation of the HoloLens’ narrow FOV – the experience works well, on every level. The hardware is comfortable and relatively light considering it is a completely untethered device, and the holograms it produces are sharp, responsive and complex. I certainly had a blast.

But as fun as shooting at those aliens proved to be, it wasn’t’ the main reason why I found myself in Vancouver. I was tempted over by something MUCH bigger. A short drive from Microsoft took me to the rather impressive base of one of Microsoft’s first and largest HoloLens partners, Finger Food Studios. This is a gigantic 25,000 ft² space which comfortably houses a full-size (real) truck as well as its full-size holographic counterpart, a whole bunch of desks, some shipping containers, and what is currently the world’s biggest hologram.

A 25,000 ft² Vancouver warehouse houses the world’s biggest hologram
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Only time will truly tell whether Magic Leap has been overhyped
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Their founder and CEO, Ryan Peterson, tells me that this space – which they call The Holodeck – is the largest dedicated Holographic design and development studio in the world. His company employs over 100 people and is growing at an astronomical rate. Unlike Magic Leap, however, their operations are entirely self-funded by work with clients such as truck manufacturer Paccar, which are already using those holographic tools to dramatically improve the efficiency of its design processes. As far as Peterson is concerned, there is certainly nothing intangible about AR. It is already a thriving industry, which will drive the transformation of every other industry on the planet.

No start-up is an island

Only time will truly tell whether Magic Leap has been overhyped, but last week’s news shouldn’t dampen the excitement around AR/MR. Over the past few months I’ve met many companies that are already developing and transparently demonstrating some truly amazing applications of these technologies.

From Zappar’s $30 dollar cardboard device to WaveOptics impressive FOV display to Finger Food’s mind-blowing giant truck hologram, there’s plentiful evidence that AR has a bright future. But what all these companies – and Microsoft, for that matter – have in common is a belief that this future is not something that they can build by themselves. All of them share an almost evangelical belief that the key to success lies in building a collaborative ecosystem capable of solving the massive challenges of scaling up the technology over the next few years, and that means being open. Not once in any of those meetings was I ever asked to sign a non-disclosure agreement. It’s a sharp contrast to Magic Leap, and perhaps an illustration of the challenges facing the company. Being so secretive means the startup isn’t part of the broader AR community, and must solve its problems independently. I would not count them out of the game, but it would be a nice change to see them join the conversation around AR more transparently, rather than guarding its secrets so jealously, almost like Smaug and his Arkenstone.

The future of mixed reality is much bigger than Magic Leap. via @alicebonasio #MR #MixedReality https://t.co/2DOyuCsVb1 pic.twitter.com/FAp0zWIPKD

— Upload (@UploadVR) December 16, 2016

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.

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 Collaboration is the Key to Unlocking Mixed Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.