In the midst of the growing coronavirus pandemic, holding any sort of normal conference is entirely out of the question. But although it might seem like the entire world is grinding to a halt, life goes on and there are still some exciting announcements coming out of the tech world.

XR offers us new ways to enable collaboration, remote work, and all manner of interaction which (at least for a while) might be difficult or downright impossible in real life
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But in fact, there has never been a more opportune time to push for advancements in (and adoption of) immersive tech. As so many of us are asked to work from home or find ourselves isolated from one another, XR offers us new ways to enable collaboration, remote work, and all manner of interaction which (at least for a while) might be difficult or downright impossible in real life.

In the midst of the growing coronavirus pandemic, holding any sort of normal conference is entirely out of the question
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There has never been a more opportune time to push for advancements in (and adoption of) immersive tech
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So we’re excited to see this first all-digital Facebook: Game Developers Showcase which promises many announcements, trailers, developer interviews and more this week.

Things kicked off with a major update to the Oculus Quest system experience that makes VR more flexible, social, and easy to use. It comes with a completely redesigned universal menu, new immersive overlays, and multi-window support for 2D apps starting with Oculus Browser— these updates are launching as experimental features later this month.

The personal dashboard lets you navigate between immersive environments and 2D apps, control your device, and stay connected with people and with your system’s status while in VR
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Redesigned universal menu

The personal dashboard lets you navigate between immersive environments and 2D apps, control your device, and stay connected with people and with your system’s status while in VR. The new design organizes information more clearly to help users navigate to commonly-used system apps like Explore, Store, Browser, and TV more quickly, as well as access key settings like brightness and volume. It also brings recently and frequently used apps front and center so it’s easy to jump back into the action.

Immersive overlays

These make it possible to bring up content, like the universal menu, without leaving the app you’re in. That means it’s easier than ever to find and control system functions without returning to the home screen. This should provide more seamless access to functions like making a friend request, casting, or live streaming. This will be available in WebXR apps launched from Oculus Browser to start and will come to more apps on the Oculus Platform as developers add support, so over time, you’ll have instant access to your menu anytime and anywhere in VR.

Oculus Browser supporting multiple windows

Users can now multitask, opening, closing, and rearranging windows from a new control box above the window. Support for multiple windows will first come to Oculus Browser, with support for more 2D apps like Chats and Store coming later.

These updates continue to evolve the Quest experience and represent a step toward VR becoming the next computing platform
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Together, these updates continue to evolve the Quest experience and represent a step toward VR becoming the next computing platform. It all starts rolling out this month, users can opt-in by going to the Experimental Features section in Settings and toggling the new features on.

The VR platform of the future must enable people to multitask easily, navigate between apps seamlessly, stay connected with others, and quite simply do more. From gaming to media and entertainment, from social experiences to getting work done, VR as the next computing platform will support the full spectrum of uses that people expect from their devices, like phones and laptops, today.

New Timbaland Music Pack Announced for Beat Saber

Launching March 26^th, gamers will be able to access new music by the legendary rapper, created specifically for the game. It features hit artists like Bruno Martini, Kaydence, Common Strangers, Sid Tipton, and Timbaland himself. The pack, priced at $7.99 (or $1.99 per song) on Oculus Quest and Rift, includes the following tracks:

• Sid Tipton, Timbaland – Has A Meaning
• Kaydence, Timbaland – Dumb Thingz
• Wavezswavesz – While We’re Young
• Nash Overstreet, Karra & Common Strangers – What I Like
• Bruno Martini, Timbaland – Famous ft. Jake Davis

On launch day at midnight, these tracks will also be available on iTunes, Apple Music, and Spotify

Beat Saber has also proven a viable way for artists and entertainers to connect with their fans
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Beat Saber continues to dominate the charts and has gone Double-Platinum, selling over 2-million copies worldwide across all platforms. In addition to breaking records within the VR community, the game has also proven a viable way for artists and entertainers to connect with their fans, as the packs have sold 10 million songs through downloadable content from artists like imagine Dragons, Green Day, K/DA, and others.

Beat Saber continues to dominate the charts and has gone Double-Platinum, selling over 2-million copies worldwide across all platforms
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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 Building the VR Platform of the Future appeared first on Tech Trends.

Get stuck into our bumper Black Friday product reviews!

Oculus Quest

If there is one gadget to pick up this Black Friday it is the awesome Oculus Quest. I know this review of the Quest is very late to the party but we have taken our time and here are our thoughts. When we reviewed the Go back in June 2018 I summed by saying:

The lack of friction for the user feels so good after years of faffing and fiddling and popping phones in and out and trailing headphone cables around that it felt like real progress. The Oculus Go is not breaking any new technical ground but it cuts the cord and shows us the way forward.

This liberation from accessories and cables is still its most compelling feature and makes it truly portable just like the Go. The Quest, however, does break new ground and feels like a serious upgrade. It’s not just one simple thing, it’s a combination of advances in different areas that make this nifty stand-alone HMD our new go-to headset.

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The Oculus Quest does break new ground and feels like a serious upgrade
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The 1,440x1,600-pixel LCD is a small but pleasing update and the Quest uses fixed foveated rendering to go easy on the Snapdragon 835
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The 1,440×1,600-pixel LCD is a small but pleasing update and the Quest uses fixed foveated rendering to go easy on the Snapdragon 835 while the grainy black and white Passthrough camera is a functional, if not glamorous, feature. It does feel like you are walking through a 1990’s video game but it is a useful and practical update from Oculus.

 

I feel the real game-changer is ‘Oculus Insight’, their take on inside-out tracking. This is the introduction of two Oculus Touch hand controllers that work with the Quest’s new on-board sensors to track and map the movement of the user and the space and objects around them.

The foundation of Oculus Insight’s inside-out tracking is simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM, which uses computer vision CV algorithms to essentially fuse incoming data from multiple sensors in order to fix the position of an object within a constantly updated digital map. (Source: Facebook)

You can dive deeper into the creation of this amazing technology here on Facebook’s Tech site but suffice to say that packing an advanced SLAM sytem into the Quest where is had to run off a mobile chip and a small low-power battery was no mean feat, but boy does it work!

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The real game-changer is ‘Oculus Insight’, their take on inside-out tracking
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Overall, Oculus Insight just makes the whole proposition of playing and working in VR without, or at least with much fewer, perceptual artifacts like swimminess (the disorienting sensation you get when your physical and virtual positions and movements don’t line up) and judder (visual strobing and smearing between frames), a reality. Facebook acknowledge that there is a long way to go but this initial accomplishment is a huge part of what makes the Quest so comfortable to use for longer periods of time and makes it feel, well, just right.

Oculus Insight marks the first time that fully untethered six-degree-of-freedom (6DoF) headset and controller tracking has shipped in a consumer AR/VR device. Built from the ground up, the Insight stack leverages state-of-the-art computer vision (CV) systems and visual-inertial simultaneous localization and mapping, or SLAM. (Source: Facebook)

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The Quest features externally mounted speakers, so you can listen in VR and still interact with sounds around you
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Like the Go, the Quest features externally mounted speakers, so you can listen in VR and still interact with sounds around you, in addition to two headphone jacks, one on either side of the headset, that let the user seal themselves off completely from the real world. It might have annoyed my colleagues but I stuck to using the speakers so I could keep chatting with them while in VR.

One drawback is that the app platform is not shared with the Go so you can’t get all the same apps, but Cnet has a good list of available games here. The Quest will be around for a while and with talk of the upcoming Oculus Link expanding its capabilities once tethered to a PC I’m sure that Oculus will be adding more ambitious apps and games as time passes and there are plenty there already to keep you busy. Having messed around with demos, video content, games and other VR whatnots I can say that the content is pretty good and will only get better.

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At the moment the Quest is our recommended go-to HMD for consumer VR media or gaming and I'm betting it will remain our favorite cable-free VR experience for a good while yet
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Battery life was about 2 hours, sometimes a little more, which I think is fine for a device like this. The speed and fluidity of the VR interface was noticeably faster and smoother than the Go and browsing for content was easy and fun. The HMD felt generally more comfortable than the Go and the included glasses spacer really helped but did allow light to leach in around my nose, nothing that caused an issue, but worth noting.

At the moment the Quest is our recommended go-to HMD for consumer VR media or gaming and I’m betting it will remain our favorite cable-free VR experience for a good while yet. With Link technology and real-time hand tracking on the way in 2020 the Quest promises to become even more compelling.

Watch out for Black Friday deals but you can pick up a basic 64GB version here for $399

Animo Activity Tracker & Behavior Monitor for Dogs by Sure Petcare

I have three very active dogs so I was very keen to try the Animo from Sure Petcare. It’s basically supposed to be a Fitbit for dogs! I don’t really care how many calories they have burned but knowing that they get a good 1 hour plus of exercise a day reassures me about their health and, to be honest, mine as I get pretty much the same exercise as they do, following them around and picking up after.

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Animo learns and interprets the unique activity and behavior patterns of your dog
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Animo learns and interprets the unique activity and behavior patterns of your dog. It’s with them 24 hours a day, giving you a greater understanding of their lives. Morning walks, sleeping under the table, barking at the postman; your dog’s days are action packed and now you get to know about it all.

I hooked up the Animos to my dogs’ collars, got the app hooked up via Bluetooth and we all went on with our daily routines. Now this is the main issue I have with tech like this. It is not designed for your daily ‘real-life’ routines and behaviour and I am sorry to say the Animo was a total disappointment. I refuse to adapt my life to the tech that is supposed to help me, other that checking the apps, considering the data they provide and maybe, just maybe changing the way I do something.

 

Animo uses an adaptive algorithm that learns, interprets and gives you facts that are specific to your dog. This changes throughout your dog’s life, so you can understand more about your pet as they get older.

The way we run our days and the way we exercise our dogs just didn’t fit the Animo way of doing things and as I say, not unreasonably, tech is supposed to work for us not the other way around, this meant that within a matter of days the app was out of synch with the collars and apart from annoying notifications on my phone that the collars had not synched with the app recently I got no valuable data out of the devices.

It is not up to me to synch a $90 device with an app so that it can tell me something! It should just work and synch when in range or whatever. We should not have to ‘help’ expensive technology help us. I was promised data on activity, calories, sleep, behaviour and rest, but the way we live resulted in little or no data of any use or interest.

 

Animo sends alerts if your dog begins to show significant changes in behavior including barking, scratching and shaking. You can also discover long term changes in your dog’s sleep, where a decrease in quality may be a sign of arthritis or other environmental factor which is disturbing your dog at night.

This was a classic example of a cunning and interesting gadget that promised a lot gave me nothing I needed because it didn’t ‘just work’. Approaching 2020 things need to start ‘just working’ for us, the days of allowances and working with new systems is gone. If it doesn’t work for you, bin it, which is what I did with the Animo. However, if you really want a lot of data on your pets, are a detail-obsessed, tech-savvy and data-hungry person with little or no work or life distractions this might work for you.

 

You can pick up an Animo here for $89.60 or here for £59.99

 

SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder from Sure Petcare

Moving swiftly on to the next Sure Petcare product we are faced with the elaborate and very very niche SureFeed Microchip Pet Feeder Connect. Now there is a clear market for this in the older and tech-savvy pet owners who dote over cats with very specific diet control challenges, are often away from home for days at a time and have the cash to invest in an expensive system like this at £169.98 or $252.79.

The one problem here is that in my experience this kind of older pet obsessed person can often be found shouting and stabbing frustrated fingers at the wrong side of an iPad or failing miserably to send an email from a smartphone rather than mastering a networked, programmable, automated pet feeder after absorbing the 28 pages of instructions the Feeder Connect comes with. Anyway…

 

It’s the ideal feeding solution for overweight cats, cats with medical conditions that require close monitoring of feeding or multi-pet homes where one pet steals another pet’s food.

Basically the Pet Hub wirelessly connects to the Feeder and is itself hardwired to your router and connects with the app on your phone allowing you to monitor the feeding activity of your cat while controlling functions of the Feeder Connect. The Hub comes in the cute shape of a cat’s head with ears that light up to indicate network activity.

 

The Microchip Pet Feeder Connect links to the Sure Petcare app via the Hub, which is connected to your home router. Each Hub can connect up to ten devices, including our connected doors.

You get extensive control over food weight and eating times and can add multiple pets if necessary. RFID pet tags control access to the food and a multitude of setting claims to fend off thieving feline siblings while a fascinating Training Mode introduces skittish pets gradually to the robotic automatic movements of the device.

 

Receive notifications and view the frequency, duration and times that your pet feeds within the app. Learn your pet’s normal pattern of feeding behaviour to notice changes which could be an indication of illness.

If you need this device it looks to me that it does an exhaustively good job but the complexity of operation might turn some off or prove frustrating there is no question that this is a solution to a specific problem.

You can get your hands on the SureFeeder and Hub here for £169.98 and here for $252.79

 

Live Planet 360 VR Video Streaming Solution

Live Planet claims to be the ‘worlds first and only plug and play VR camera’ but to be fair they are more than that. They also offer a simple and flexible distribution platform called VR Studio where you can upload, publish and share your 4K 360 VR videos. Those videos don’t even have to be from their own cameras, you can use the platform to distribute 360 content from cameras by Samsung, Insta360, and Kandao among others.

 

 

As the name suggests Live Planet focuses on filming and streaming of live 360 content and both their camera and platforms are optimised for this. From in-camera or through VR Studio you can share or live stream 4K 360 video to other platforms including YouTube and Facebook Live or in stereoscopic 360 VR video directly to HMDs from Oculus, Samsung or Google. Tech Trends spoke to Fahad Manzur, Product Manager at Live Planet to find out more.

 

“Live streaming is the main focus at Live Planet. You can shoot and control the camera through a browser or our dedicated Android and iPhone apps through the cameras built in WiFi and if you are logged into your Live Planet Studio account just connect the camera to the internet via an ethernet cable and you can start streaming right away. You can stream to your Studio account or to YouTube or Facebook and even custom RTMPs.” he explained

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The whole idea behind Live Planet is to create a great quality 360 video stream right out of the camera
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Now, I have shot and edited HD, 4K & 8K 360 video from Insta360 and GoPro cameras for distrubution on YouTube and edited still 360 files into interactive 360 experiences and was resigned to the tedium of stitching multiple numerically numbered video files from multiple different microSD cards into a final 360 video file then exporting it to Adobe for audio synch, micro-adjustments, stabilization and colour correction before sending it off to the next application for further work and frankly, life is too short. With this system all that processing is managed during the shoot via the Live Planet app and in camera during the filming, leaving you with the stream that you broadcast live or a single MP4 on a single microSD card for sharing or just backups. Yes, Live Planet really does make it that simple.

 

“The whole idea behind Live Planet is to create a great quality 360 video stream right out of the camera, you shoudn’t need to do much, or any, touch ups in post before sharing it online. We try to give content creators as simple as possible journey to shoot and share their 360 video. You can use the in app camera controls to set up the shot and adjust the colours before you start recording then the camera handles all the stitching and audio synching as it records, outputting a great quality live stream or an easy to use MP4 that just needs publishing.” continued Manzur

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The Live Planet player is a pleasant YouTube-like experience
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The camera packs a lot of clever tech into a really small package. It comes safely packed in a small pelican case along with mains power connector and an ethernet cable for firmware updates and live streaming. This basic camera package now sells for $7,995 including 50GB of storage in your VR Studio online account. The camera can also run off a portable battery leaving you free to move around and record 360 footage pretty much anywhere you like. Live streaming in 4K however, requires a hard wired ethernet connection to a router due to the bandwidth requirements. This is not a deal killer but will require some advanced planning and coordination so your event venue has ready the equipment and connection you need.

 

“Our Goal is to create the first end to end VR ‘streaming’ system. We are focused on creating a user friendly experience that removes the need for third party solutions for shooting, stitching and sharing 360 VR content. For a YouTube or Twitch influencer who has an existing live stream audience Live Planet enables them to take that live stream experience to a brand new level and stream 360 VR video to their subscribers right on the same platform.” said Manzur

Live experiences are at the heart of the Live planet ecosystem so it is no surprise that live music performances have proved incredibly popular but the Studio platform supports everyone from musicians and podcasters to travel bloggers who want to share their experienes in a fresh new format. The Live Planet player is a pleasant YouTube-like experience. Click the image below to visit the player and watch KT Tunstall and others performing.

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The launch of our VR Studio provides a place to upload, host and share your 360 content to all major VR headsets
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“We want to conect with influencers and artists who are interested in pushing the boudaries of live broadcasting to capture and hold an audiences attention in VR. The launch of our VR Studio provides a place to upload, host and share your 360 content to all major VR headsets and web platforms including publishing directly from your Studio account to YouTube. What’s exciting right now is people are innovating on all fronts in VR, the whole indusry is pushing forward really fast. Headsets have taken a giant leap forward, even in the past two years. It’s an exciting time. Manzur concluded

To sum up, the Live Planet system makes broadcasting your live event to the web in 4K 360 easier and cheaper than ever before. The company is also constantly evolving the product and I have heard that in-camera still photo capture and 6K recording are on the way soon so this is a platform that should stay relevant for a long while. It is a compelling option for venues and artists who want to ride the booming trend of 360 VR video.

 

Tom Atkinson is Reviews & Dep. Editor at Tech Trends. Follow him on Twitter @techtrends_tech

 

The post Black Friday Product Reviews appeared first on Tech Trends.

As the extended reality (XR) market matures, it appears to have reached a tipping point. Divergences in successful use cases are starting to make themselves evident, and questions have lingered around everything from consumer awareness and content availability to technology adoption, costs and ergonomics. While many of these questions are progressively being addressed and the sector is picking up momentum, VR Intelligence spoke to over 750 professionals working in and around XR to find out the state of XR today, and how the sector might evolve in the near to longer-term.

The extended reality (XR) market appears to have reached a tipping point
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The survey finds strong evidence that XR is establishing itself quickly and strongly in supporting enterprise but still struggling to gain a major foothold for consumers: almost half (49.2%) report that growth on the consumer side was weaker than expected, as opposed to just 25.7% in the VR for enterprise segment.

Attempting to chase this growth, XR technology and content providers are shifting their focus towards providing enterprise XR solutions, with 73% of these companies saying they are working on VR for enterprise functions and just under 65% doing the same for AR/MR, as opposed to less than half working on VR consumer functions and 37.4% working on AR/MR.

The survey finds strong evidence that XR is establishing itself strongly in enterprise but still struggling to gain a major foothold for consumers
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VR Intelligence spoke to over 750 professionals working in and around XR to find out the state of XR today, and how the sector might evolve in the near to longer-term
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Likewise, hardware, software and third-party content creators for extended reality (XR) are seeing much stronger enterprise growth compared to consumer sector growth over the last 12 months: almost half (49.2%) reported that growth on the consumer side was weaker than expected, as opposed to just 25.7% in the VR for enterprise segment.

One explanation of dip in XR for consumer applications may be the gaming industry; a significant source of early growth for XR, this years’ survey shows far less interest in gaming from XR technology companies: in 2018, 50% of respondents said that they intended to work within the gaming industry over the next 12 months, but this had fallen to just a third of respondents from the supply side of XR in the 2019 results. Despite this, consumer entertainment content creators in the XR space continue to find value in XR, with 75.9% of that segment reporting that VR had had a very or somewhat positive impact on their business, and 72.3% saying the same for AR/MR.

93% of enterprise users said that VR had had a positive impact on their business and 88.4% said the same for AR/MR
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Ultimately, the gains from successfully leveraging XR are real and demonstrable. 93% of enterprise users said that VR had had a positive impact on their business and 88.4% said the same for AR/MR. And in 2019, we have seen a series of high-profile announcements from the likes of Facebook, Google, Apple, Huawei and YouTube, suggesting 2020 could be a breakthrough year for consumer XR.

in 2019 we have seen a series of high-profile announcements from the likes of Facebook, Google, Apple, Huawei and YouTube, suggesting 2020 could be a breakthrough year for consumer XR
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To dissect more of these key trends and understand where the XR market is heading globally, VR Intelligence interviewed and surveyed over 750 XR professionals working at the sharp end of XR implementation, of whom 35% come from C-suite positions. Featuring real-world case studies and insights from HTC Vive, Oculus Rift, Intel, Nvidia and more, the XR Industry Insight Report takes a comprehensive dive into the XR landscape of today and seeks to distil what the future holds for this young but blossoming industry.

The XR Industry Insight Report includes:

• XR Growth Trends: In which areas is the industry seeing the greatest growth, and what is required for future growth?
• Immersive Technology for Enterprise in 2019: What has been the impact of enterprise XR and what are the challenges limiting further uptake?
• XR for Consumers: How has XR impacted B2C industries, why has consumer growth stalled and how can we increase consumer uptake?
• 2020: A Critical Year for XR: With a host of new products and services planned amid further development of AR and MR, will 2020 be the Year of XR?

VR Intelligence interviewed and surveyed over 750 XR professionals working at the sharp end of XR implementation
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Get the XR Industry Insight Report 2019-2020 here

The XR Industry Insight Report 2019-2020 was researched and produced 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. More information can be found on the website.

You can also view the findings of the research in an infographic available here

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 Report: XR Industry Insight 2019-2020 appeared first on Tech Trends.

Software

The Comfort Factor

Don’t Forget the Accessories!

Show Me the Money

Even now in these relatively early days of the spatial computing era, there's something for everyone if you want to immerse yourself in Virtual Reality
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Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

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. You can follow @alicebonasio on Twitter, connect with her on LinkedIn or subscribe to her Inside VR/AR Newletter for all the latest curated immersive news.

The post Infographic: Valve Index vs Oculus Rift S appeared first on Tech Trends.

From environmentally friendly, bright green meal replacement drinks to accessories for your new Oculus Quest, our July 2019 reviews post has it all!

Ambronite Real Food Meal Shakes

These guys from Ambronite have some big goals!

Ambronite’s mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through a sustainable plant-based lifestyle. We are helping urban professionals to live their life to the fullest by creating delicious, plant-based foods designed for a modern lifestyle. People who dare to transform stay at the heart of our tribe who we want to serve. These are the movers and shakers — leaders, creative professionals and athletes who set new boundaries in human capability.

Ambronite's mission is to transform humans and our planet from surviving to thriving, through a sustainable plant-based lifestyle
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Launched in 2014 Finnish company Ambronite began disrupting the nutrition market and has been getting a lot of media and industry attention
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As a ‘mover and shaker’ myself I thought I had better give these meal replacements a try and do my bit to save the planet if that is possible. Launched in 2014 Finnish company Ambronite began disrupting the nutrition market and has been getting a lot of media and industry attention.

The meal replacement market is, however, still in its infancy and while legacy shake products have fallen out of fashion – nutritionally complete, natural, plant-based and sustainable alternatives are gaining traction. This summer Ambronite is releasing three new products – a bar, a balanced shake, and a green juice, the last two of which Tech Trends has dutifully quaffed. From its inception, Ambronite vowed to never use artificial or synthetic ingredients, or GMOs, unlike the vast majority of competitors.

“Our relationship with food has been dangerously distorted by corporations and many of us are living a life that is unsustainable, for the individual and the planet. Our vision is to provide access to clean, plant-based, sustainable nutrition options 24/7”. Commented co-founder Simo Suoheimo

This summer Ambronite is releasing three new products - a bar, a balanced shake, and a green juice, the last two of which Tech Trends has dutifully quaffed
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There’s a myriad of super greens already on the market but Ambronite’s research found that the majority don’t taste great and as a result consumption is low. To truly change daily nutritional habits Ambronite created a blend of greens that tastes great and contains key superfoods like cranberry, spinach, spirulina, bilberry, and sea buckthorn.

There’s a myriad of super greens already on the market but Ambronite’s research found that the majority don’t taste great and as a result consumption is low
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Juicing and hand-made smoothies are great, but when you add up finding the good stuff, shopping, spinning your blender, cleaning the machines… honestly, most people simply have more important (and fun) things to do in everyday life. With AmbroGreens, you should cover all your bases in just 1 minute every morning! And most importantly, it’s the healthy habit you can enjoy while saving your valuable time from shopping, prepping and cleaning up. Simply scoop one tablespoon of AmbroGreens and enjoy with water or add it to your favourite smoothie.

With AmbroGreens, you should cover all your bases in just 1 minute every morning! And most importantly, it's the healthy habit you can enjoy while saving your valuable time from shopping, prepping and cleaning up
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I found AmbroGreens to be really excellent. It was easy to prepare, not gummy and lumpy, very tasty and not too sweet (as these things often are). I would say it is naturally sweet tasting and a pleasant drink. I did feel that I got my greens boost every morning. Take a look at the video for a bit more info.

I found AmbroGreens to be really excellent. It was easy to prepare, not gummy and lumpy, very tasty and not too sweet
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Each meal is designed to quench hunger for four hours. I had the Ambronite shake for breakfast today and I added a bit more water than stated because it initially felt too thick
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Ambronite Balanced Meal Shake delivers a real food meal that is more affordable, gentle on the stomach and provides 20 grams of protein, plenty of fibre, and food-based vitamins and minerals. Each meal is designed to quench hunger for four hours. I had the Ambronite shake for breakfast today and I added a bit more water than stated because it initially felt too thick.

My first impression was that there was not any one outstanding taste, just a thorough blend of the ingredient tastes. Not too sweet, not too salty (even though there’s a lot of sodium and potassium in it), not too ‘berry-y’, not too ‘other’. Which on a whole made it not unpleasant, but maybe not something I would look forward to every day. It was filling, but not in a heavy way and I can say that I didn’t feel hungry until about 4 hours after I drank the shake.

It was filling, but not in a heavy way and I can say that I didn't feel hungry until about 4 hours after I drank the shake
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Truthfully, I don't know that I felt any more 'focused' than I usually do but am sure the effects would be more obvious with repeated or regular use
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As to the claims of optimized nutrition, it seems they’ve done a good job. I like that it’s high-protein without the use of soy. As to the ‘power-kick that keeps you focused’. Truthfully, I don’t know that I felt any more ‘focused’ than I usually do but am sure the effects would be more obvious with repeated or regular use.

“Most of us succumb to the stresses of modern life and compromise our nutrition as a result. We’re a solution for professionals and health-conscious consumers who demand optimal nutrition in any circumstance”. Concludes Suoheimo

Not bad all around and these were definitely the tastiest and least gunky food in a glass products we have tried here at Tech Trends so check out their products here and see if Ambronite works for you and your gut!

Book: Blockchain Babel

Igor Pejic provides a handy guide to understanding what the flip the Blockchain is about, and what it will really mean for us all. If you ever wondered how a cryptocurrency wallet worked (it functions more like a key than a wallet) or what “hashing” means (it’s where original information is transformed into a code via mathematical scrambling with one-way cryptography) this book explains all of that, alongside the basic principles and workings of the Blockchain and the cryptos that run off it. Read the full review here.

Skross – US Adapters for World Travellers

We have tested and loved the sturdy and almost endlessly flexible power adapters from Skross before so when my summer 2019 schedule shaped up to be an epic American road trip of conferences, tech company visits and tours as well as the usual tech journo shenanigans I thought I’d try out their best solutions for overseas US travellers.

With a satchel creaking under the weight of two MacBooks, five phones (yes five) and various power banks and electronic gadgets I knew I’d put the Skross products through their paces and indeed they were worked hard and even saved my bacon a couple of times.

With a satchel creaking under the weight of two MacBooks, five phones (yes five) and various power banks and electronic gadgets I knew I’d put the Skross products through their paces
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To keep my gadgets juiced up while in the US Skross kindly sent me their Combo World to US a 2 in 1 solution for the USA and Europe combined in a single adapter.

Specs

– Designed in Switzerland
– Suitable for equipment with earthed & unearthed plugs (2- & 3-pole)
– Input plugs: Switzerland, Italy, Brazil, UK, USA/Japan,
– Europe (Schuko & 2-pole Euro), Australia/China
– Output plugs: USA, Europe (Schuko)
– Input voltage: 100 V – 250 V
– Max. load: 15 A
– Power rating: e.g. 100 V – 1500 W / 250 V – 3750 W
– Does not convert voltage
– Adapter: 94 g
– Adapter: W 58 mm H 60 mm D 71 mm

This adapter ensures getting connected is super easy, not just in the USA but also in all other countries with Schuko standard sockets (as predominantly found in Europe). This adapter provides global travellers with a safe, reliable and easy connection in all countries with the US and Schuko standard, making it an ideal solution for business and leisure travellers or, in fact, journos like myself. It lacks a USB-B but does just about everything else.

This Skross adapter provides global travellers with a safe, reliable and easy connection in all countries with the US and Schuko standard, making it an ideal solution for business and leisure travellers or, in fact, journos
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I also tested their Skross Steel Line USB-C Cable which proved very strong and powered up everything from my MacBook Pro to three of my phones and my two power banks
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I also tested their Steel Line USB-C Cable which proved very strong (if a little inflexible, Duh… it is a Steel Line cable) and powered up everything from my MacBook Pro to three of my phones and my two power banks. I have nothing bad to say about this cable, it took everything I threw at it and laughed!

Specs

– Designed in Switzerland
– Input voltage: 5 V
– Output voltage: 5 V
– Output current: max. 3 A
– USB standard: 3.0
– Charges and synchronises all devices with USB Type-C
– Robust aluminium housing is made-to-last
– No more tangled wires
– Cable length: 1 m (3.3 ft)
– Reinforced jacket on Type-C and USB Connector

The Skross US USB-C Charger is perfect if you live in or travel to a country with the US or Japanese socket standard. The two USB ports (Type-C and Type-A) enable a traveller to charge two USB devices at the same time in over 50 countries around the world. This is very slim and probably got the most use during my trip, staying in my bag all the time due to its size while the other adapters mostly stayed in my hotel room for overnight use.

The Skross US USB-C Charger is perfect if you live in or travel to a country with the US or Japanese socket standard
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Specs

– Designed in Switzerland
– Suitable in all countries with US socket standard (more than 50 countries worldwide)
– Input: 100 V – 240 V ~ 50/60 Hz 700 mA (max.)
– Output A: DC 5 V, 2.4 A
– Output C: DC 5 V, 3 A
– Output max.: DC 5 V, 5.4 A total
– The two USB ports (Type-C and Type-A) enable to charge two USB devices at the same time
– Charges smartphones, tablets or any other USB devices in over 50 countries around the world.
– Not only for USB Type-C devices: the Type-A USB port can charge any USB device!

The World to USA USB is perfect whether you’re planning to see the sights of New York, visit Vancouver, trek in US national parks (which I did!) or experience the wonder of Niagara Falls (also did), this country adapter is the ideal charging companion with the added bonus of a USB port.

Specs

– Designed in Switzerland
– Suitable for equipment with earthed & unearthed plugs (2- & 3-pole) and USB devices
– Input plugs: Euro, Australia/China, UK, USA/Japan, Switzerland, Italy, Brazil
– Output plugs: USA
– Input voltage: 100 V – 250 V
– Max. load: 15 A
– Power rating: e.g. 100 V – 1500 W / 250 V – 3750 W
– USB output: 5 V / 2.4 A
– Does not convert voltage
– Suitable even for powerful devices such as laptops and travel hairdryers
– Applicable in many destinations: USA, Canada, Bahamas, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Mexico and many more.
– The 1 x USB port easily charges smartphone, tablet or other USB devices

It’s small and very lightweight. It is also well constructed, unlike the shoddy cheap products found on Amazon for a few bucks, only the best Swiss manufacturing here!
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The best thing about this adapter (apart from its flexibility) is its size. It’s small and very lightweight. It is also well constructed, unlike the shoddy cheap products found on Amazon for a few bucks, only the best Swiss manufacturing here! All round, the Skross products I have used here and over the last couple of years have been excellent investments. They are not cheap but boy are they reliable and well built, these adapters will last years of international travel and are well worth the outlay.

Check out the huge range of product this excellent Swiss company makes here and trust me, you won’t be disappointed.

Airfree Tulip 1000

Clean the air in your home with the Airfree Tulip 1000 silent air purifier. More and more of us are paying attention to the air we breathe, both in and out of the home. While the UK Government are letting us all down by failing to comply with EU laws on air pollution in our towns and cities, inside our own homes we can at least try to control things. Airfree sent us their elegant Tulip 1000 to test so we read the very simple instructions, chose the fuggiest room in our house and plugged it in. After a day or two, I started to wonder how I could know if it is working as the cleaning supposedly takes place on a microscopic level and apart from giving off faint heat and an array of pretty colours the Tulip 1000 is completely silent and requires no maintenance, not even the occasional replacement of parts. Read the full review here.

VR Covers for your new Oculus Quest

If your HMD is shared around with family or colleagues it’s probably worth getting some changeable and hygienic pads or covers, as no matter how much you love your nearest and dearest or your workmates nobody likes sharing grease! The guys at VR Cover have been making affordable and comfortable solutions for a variety of headsets for a while now and they have quickly produced a few products for the shiny new Oculus Quest.

The guys at VRCover.com have been making affordable and comfortable solutions for a variety of headsets for a while now and they have quickly produced a few products for the shiny new Oculus Quest
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For only $29 they offer an Oculus Quest Foam & Interface Basic Set containing two easy-clean leather-like foam pads – one more padded than the other – to ensure you get the fit you want with your Quest. Both foam paddings prevent light leakage and you can simply switch between them to find the best fit and immersion. I found the comfort version with its thicker, broader pad helped to distribute the weight of the device better.

Effective at reducing pressure and red marks on the face, these ultra-soft foam replacements will make long VR sessions much more comfortable. Cleaning the accessories is easy. Simply use a cloth or anti-bacterial wipes to remove sweat and grime and you will have a fresh and hygienic headset again in no time.

Effective at reducing pressure and red marks on the face, these ultra-soft foam replacements will make long VR sessions much more comfortable
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Get your order in now as this basic set is expected to ship at the end of August 2019 & includes:
1 x Facial Interface (black)
1 x Oculus Quest PU Leather Foam Replacement (standard)
1 x Oculus Quest PU Leather Foam Replacement (comfort)

Make your Quest basic set even more comfortable and add one of their $19 Oculus Quest Cotton VR Covers comprising two, soft, washable cotton covers in one set. Made of quick-absorbing 100% cotton, the covers wick away moisture, so your VR experience feels comfortable and your headset stays protected.

To make your Quest basic set even more comfortable, add one of their $19 Oculus Quest Cotton VR Covers comprising two, soft, washable cotton covers in one set
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Installation is straightforward, thanks to a unique hook and strap system. The in-built elastic straps and hooks fasten onto the back of the interface, assuring a secure fit even during active gaming. This set is expected to ship around the 15 July 2019 so order soon. Each set contains 2 machine-washable covers so just swap one out for the other and get a clean headset every time.

Designed to optimise hygiene and comfort, these VR Covers are perfect whether you are sharing headsets or flying solo. Check out more of their products here.

Tech Energi USB Charger and LED USB Cables

Each USB port intelligently identifies your device to deliver the fastest possible charge at maximum speed (up to 3.1A) or will share the charge when 3 devices are connected simultaneously
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Tom Atkinson is Reviews & Dep. Editor at Tech Trends.

The post July 2019 Product Reviews 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.

The latest forecast from technology analyst firm CCS Insight highlights some of the challenges facing makers of head-worn virtual and augmented reality devices. Despite early enthusiasm and a continued expectation of significant long-term potential for the technology, there is much work yet to be done on improving user experience, developing software platforms and – above all – making attractive content for those platforms available to consumers.

“We continue to believe that content is the key to unlocking adoption of VR. Although some games companies and adult content creators have embraced VR technology, much more needs to happen to persuade consumers that VR devices are a must-have item,” says Ben Wood, CCS Insight’s chief of research.

This sober yet positive message is the main conclusion of the company’s recently published global market report for VR and AR devices. In it, the research firm forecasts 8 million virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) headsets and glasses will be sold in 2018, down from 10 million in 2017, but growing to 14 million in 2019 and eventually to 52 million in 2022.

Smartphone VR headsets sales have collapsed, but standalone devices like the Oculus Go hold great promise
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The market for VR has gone through several phases, according to Wood. “The first wave of consumers used basic cardboard viewers, which helped them understand the potential of the media, but the limited experience meant most people quickly lost interest. We don’t even include such devices in our forecast anymore”. He continues, “Attention then turned to smartphone-based devices such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Zeiss One Plus VR. These have played an important role in raising the awareness of the technology over the past three years, but interest in these devices has now waned”.

Accordingly, the firm’s forecast shows a dramatic drop in sales of smartphone VR devices, from nearly 8 million units in 2017 to fewer than 3 million this year. This decline has occurred despite heavy price cuts and extensive promotions over the past 12 months.

“We believe the device market has now shifted away from the early wave of cheaper, less-functional cardboard and plastic smartphone VR viewers. We expect the next wave of adoption to come from dedicated devices that offer a more compelling, wire-free experience,” Wood concludes.

CCS Insight believes the advent of standalone VR headsets – which overcome the awkwardness of being attached to a PC, smartphone or games console – will help to reinvigorate this product category both for consumers and businesses. Its forecast shows demand in that category growing over 16 times between 2018 and 2022, when 29 million standalone VR headsets are expected to be sold.

CCS Insight expects the market will return to growth in 2019, reaching 14 million devices
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The company believes devices such as Facebook’s Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, which are being offered at retail prices of $200 and $400 respectively, are good examples of the future of VR. Wood also notes that the Chinese market is looking particularly promising and Facebook’s partnership with Xiaomi has helped those headsets make a strong start there.

There is still, however, a role to be played in this market by tethered devices like the Sony PlayStation VR, HTC Vive or Oculus Rift, as currently they still offer a higher quality experience than standalone devices are able to deliver. Accordingly, CCS Insight forecasts that 5 million tethered VR headsets will be sold in 2019, growing to 18 million in 2022.

52 million VR and AR devices will be sold in 2022 with a market value of $8.5 billion
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Sony, which CCS Insight considers as the most successful manufacturer of tethered VR headsets to date, looks set to continue with its strategy of offering its VR headset as an accessory to the large number of PlayStation owners as these devices are best suited to meet the needs of the most dedicated gamers, who want a best-in-class experience.

The report also assesses the market for AR smart glasses, which have so far seen significantly slower adoption compared to VR. The main use for AR devices continues to be in business operations such as customer service, logistics, remote servicing, design and other related applications, and interest remains high in those categories. Although businesses have taken a cautious approach to AR devices, initially focusing on pilot deployments, but CCS Insight believes there are signals of growth as the chart below demonstrates.

The company believes devices such as Facebook's Oculus Go and Oculus Quest, which are being offered at retail prices of $200 and $400 respectively, are good examples of the future of VR
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“We are seeing a rising number of companies committing to deployments of tens or hundreds of augmented reality glasses as they start to see the clear benefits of head-worn technology in the workplace,” explains Wood, although he cautions that this market growth will take time, with cumulative global sales not expected to top 1 million units before 2021.

When thinking about AR glasses for consumers, Wood notes that these devices continue to be “more common in science fiction than in real life” with little evidence of a product with mass-market appeal any time soon. Nevertheless, CCS Insight’s long-range forecast does include a scenario of accelerated adoption if a major consumer brand like Apple decides to enter the market.

Yet in Tech Trends’ humble view, with Magic Leap finally entering the arena this year and a new version of the HoloLens expected to be unveiled by Microsoft next year, it could be that this tipping point might arrive even sooner, and perhaps even driven (perish the thought!) by players other than Apple. Watch this space…

We are seeing a rising number of companies committing to deployments of tens or hundreds of augmented reality glasses as they start to see the clear benefits of head-worn technology in the workplace
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For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies our Consultancy service offers support in strategic leveraging VR/AR/MR/XR

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 Report: VR Device Market Outlook appeared first on Tech Trends.

This year’s Raindance Film Festival in London showcased an amazing selection of immersive stories. Here’s what got Tech Trends really excited:

Raindance is a very well-established and well-respected independent film festival, but it isn’t a particularly flashy one. Yet that lack of over-the-top glamour actually suits it very well. There’s a certain tongue-in-cheek, down-to-earth British vibe here (right down to its playfully deprecating name) that makes it feel really accessible, so that people can feel comfortable coming in and discovering content they wouldn’t have come across otherwise.

Raindance is a very well-established and well-respected independent film festival, but it isn’t a particularly flashy one
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And that’s also one of the reasons why VR pieces suit it so well. The festival does a great job of making this all about the stories, and the technology takes a back seat. Just like people in a movie theater aren’t constantly marveling at how a projector works, punters who actually paid to experience the whopping 9 hours of VR content at the festival were after new stories and new experiences. And they got those in spades.

The other reason why this year’s festival has been such a success on the VR front is down to the tireless work of its curator Mária Rakušanová, who has managed to scale this year’s VR showcase in a really impressive way. Whereas last year’s setup still felt a bit like a tag-on, the 2018 edition received well over 500 submissions from all over the world, from which they shortlisted 33. In the space of a year, Rakušanová also found that the quality bar had been considerably raised across the board, which was reflected in the fact that the Raindance Gallery of Immersive Stories and Interactive Worlds was entirely sold out over the 3 days when it was open.

Just like people in a movie theater aren’t constantly marveling at how a projector works, punters who actually paid to experience the whopping 9 hours of VR content at the festival were after new stories
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Below are some of the highlights from the Gallery, including various VR category winners for the Raindance awards (3 new categories were also introduced for the first time this year) some of which we’ve previously covered, such as the BBC project Nothing To Be Written which won Best UK experience and 7 Miracles which bagged the Spirit of Raindance: VR Film Of The Festival gong.

Three new VR award categories were introduced
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Raindance Festival this year received well over 500 submissions from all over the world, from which they shortlisted 33
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Transference, which was co-directed by Elijah Wood and produced by his company SpectreVision, was the winner of Best Interactive Narrative Experience award. It’s a psychological thriller placing you face-to-face with a fractured family as you delve into their minds. As you navigate a home filled with secrets you need to collect evidence of the family’s history in order to find out how you can help repair their lives.

Transference, co-directed by Elijah Wood and produced by his company SpectreVision, won Best Interactive Narrative Experience award
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The Apple is a Chinese, Japanese and Korean co-production which won Best Multi-Person Experience award at Raindance
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The Apple is a Chinese, Japanese and Korean co-production which won Best Multi-Person Experience award at Raindance . This is a room-scale (50m2) multi-person VR experience for up to 4 people. You don a Vive Pro headset, equipped with leap-motion sensors for hand tracking, and are also able to communicate with your partner via voice. Together you journey through various stages of life entering new fantasy worlds. Here and there you’re guided by a cute cat that appears out of nowhere and disappears when you jointly arrive to a new destination. Each life stage is represented by distinctive styles of movement that are a metaphor for the human journey from beginning to end.

“The experience has references to Adam and Eve in the Garden of Eden, Newton and Gravity (you move up and down various platforms to enter new worlds), and the lead character, The Philosopher, resembles Steve Jobs,” explains Rakušanová, who said it was one of their most popular experiences. “Audience members intuitively held hands during the entire experience, and freely walked around the space.”

My Africa allows you to become an elephant keeper and care for Dudu, an orphaned baby elephant, nursing her back to health.
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My Africa is a project by Conservation International to educate audiences about Reteti, a community run Elephant Sanctuary in Kenya, working to save elephants, reknitting an ancient coexistence between people and wildlife. The VR experience consists of two elements. The first is a 360 film, shot by British cinematographer Chris Campkin, who literally had to battle lions running off with his camera rig during the shoot, as this video shows. The room-scale interactive VR experience created Elliott Round, on the other hand, allows you to become an elephant keeper and care for Dudu, an orphaned baby elephant, nursing her back to health. Dudu was created from thousands of photographs and detailed CGI to look incredibly real. Rakušanová says the experience proved extremely popular with kids and adults alike at the festival, and rates it as the most engaging VR for Social Impact experience she’s seen in 2018.

Madrid Noir (winner of Discovery Award: Best Debut Experience that recognises first-time VR creators) A beautifully animated, fun and playful VR short in which you encounter Manolo, a detective from Madrid, who falls in love with Paquita, an almost painfully cute pug puppy that Rakušanová swears behaves more like a pug than real-life pugs (I have a feeling that she might have a thing for pugs, but then that’s hardly unusual, hence the popularity of the experience).

Madrid Noir is a beautifully animated and playful VR short where you encounter Manolo, a detective from Madrid, who falls in love with a pugpy
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Hotel Zentai This is another piece that explores what can be done with longer-form VR content. Clocking in at 40 minutes long, this 360 film is a surprising mix of comedy and sensuality. For those not familiar with it, Zentai is the practice of having sex without actually having sex – by wearing full body suits while rubbing and hugging one another. The film takes place in the eponymous hotel based in Santiago De Chile, and through music and dance tells four intertwining stories: a mother and daughter recognise each other in a ritual, a man can’t decide what to wear, a coach loses his authority, and two lovers never see each other’s faces. Ambitious and intriguing, this really shows how VR enables people to tell different stories in a different way. Well worth checking out.

VR enables people to tell different stories in a different way
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Inside Tumumaque is A room-scale animated VR documentary featuring Tumucumaque, the largest rainforest preserve in north-eastern Brazil You switch between a third-person POV and first-person through the eyes of five different animals: a poison dart frog, a black caiman, an eagle, a tarantula, and a vampire bat. When you’re embodying each animal, their perceptions are interpreted as sensory experiences using a huge range of tools such as ultraviolet colour spectra, movements in super-slow motion, visualizations of echo sounder tracking and colour night-vision as well as spatial 3D sound. There has clearly been a huge amount of work and care poured into this, and Rakušanová tells me that the team at the Interactive Media Foundation meticulously recreated over 2000 plants in CG, developing the models, textures and animations of plants in collaboration with scientists from the Berlin Museum of Natural History. The binaural sound design incorporates original sounds which were recorded on site and atmospheric acoustics developed with original animal voices to create an authentic spatial sound impression of the Amazon region.

You switch between a third-person POV and first-person through the eyes of five different animals
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Best Documentary Experience 
went to Grenfell, Our Home combines witness testimonials from the London Grenfell Tower fire (filmed in 360) with computer-generated animation to offer a view not only of how the fire affected the lives of those survivors, but also of the vibrant community that existed there before the tragedy, something that can now only be experienced through this type of virtual reconstruction. It opens up some interesting possibilities around the power of VR pieces to help address trauma and repair communities.

Awake: Episode One also won a Special Jury Mention for Best Interactive Narrative Experience, telling the story of Harry, a prisoner in his own house and lost in his mind, obsessed with discovering the truth behind a recurring dream of his departed wife.

The Evolution of Testicles won the Best Social Impact Experience category at Raindance this year
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We’ve won for a film about men checking their balls!
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But if there were a prize for best-named experience, surely it would have to go to the piece named The Evolution of Testicles which in fact won the Best Social Impact Experience category. Produced for the Male Cancer Awareness Campaign, this is part of the Oculus VR for Good Creators Lab, where filmmakers are paired with nonprofits to make great VR in the name of social good. As the name suggests, the experience aims to raise awareness about testicular cancer, but does so through the medium of laughter, brilliantly delivered by one of my favorite comedians, Chris O’Dowd, who can pretty much make any topic sound hilarious. O’Dowd commented after the win that the social impact of the medium was very important, but also marveled at the fact that, in his words, “we’ve won for a film about men checking their balls!”

It’s a brave and exciting new world for VR content. Can’t wait for next year.

This article was originally published on VRScout

The Best VR Experiences From Raindance Film Festival 2018 via @alicebonasio https://t.co/dwjztwiiw7 pic.twitter.com/NHpXGL3lg0

— VRScout (@VRScout) October 24, 2018

Want to leverage Augmented, Virtual and Mixed Reality to take your brand to the next level? Tech Trends offers comprehensive Immersive Technologies Consultancy to help you get there.

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 Upgrading VR Storytelling appeared first on Tech Trends.

A new game lets you dive deep into the infamous ship’s history.

The golden rule for creating compelling VR content is that you should allow people to experience something that would be either impossible or too dangerous, expensive and/or difficult to do in real life. And by offering up the double-whammy of traveling back to 1912 to watch the RMS Titanic sinking into the cold dark waters of the Atlantic, then letting you explore the wreck which now lies 12,500 feet below the surface, Titanic VR certainly ticks those boxes in spades.

We used motion capture, face-scanning technology and professional voice actors to immerse users in the story
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The game took over 8,800 working hours to create and boasts the largest animated virtual cast of characters ever based on real people inside a single VR experience
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The game was produced by Immersive VR Education (IVRE) a VR/AR developing studio based in Ireland which previously released the award-winning Apollo 11 VR moon landing experience 2016 and more recently completed a VR experience commissioned by the BBC commemorating the 100^th anniversary of the RAF 1943: Berlin Blitz

We wanted to create an accurate portrayal of events, so it is not only educational, but also emotional and very engaging
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Immersive VR Education was founded by husband-wife team – David (CEO) and Sandra (COO) Whelan in 2014, where they proceeded to create a virtual learning platform called ENGAGE for universities and corporate educators. Since then, they have grown their team from 4 people to 34 and worked with clients such as the Royal College of Surgeons in Ireland, the BBC and Oxford University.

“We wanted to create an accurate portrayal of events, so it is not only educational, but also emotional and very engaging,” says David Whelan, CEO of VR Education. “To achieve that we used motion capture, face-scanning technology and professional voice actors to immerse users in the story and to enable them to relate to the people involved.”

The story of the unsinkable ship and its 1,503 doomed passengers and crew is told from a first-person perspective of one of the survivors, and the animation sequences – which show people being loaded onto the lifeboats and then the ship itself sinking from the POV of one of the lifeboats, were created using eye-witness accounts.

The story of the unsinkable ship and its 1,503 doomed passengers and crew is told from a first-person perspective of one of the survivors
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This is an unusually long VR experience, featuring six hours of gameplay
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This is an unusually long VR experience, featuring six hours of educational gameplay. The project has been in the works for two years now, and is the culmination of a long process that involved raising almost $70,000 through a Kickstarter campaign last year. Overall, the game took over 8,800 working hours to create and boasts the largest animated virtual cast of characters ever based on real people inside a single VR experience

“We wanted to create an authentic experience for users around a topic and setting in history that has long captivated people’s imagination. While the technology is advanced, what we are really doing is bringing learning back to basics,” adds David Whelan. “As children we learn to navigate the world through immersive experiences – think of learning a language or learning to cycle, or as we grow older going travelling and backpacking – the sights and sounds that often go unnoticed by our attention, are all taken in peripherally and form a whole context for our physical and mental learning. Learning through VR/AR is similar, in that it’s an absorbing, sensory experience. Aside from being great fun, this project is a fantastic way to illustrate the effectiveness and potential of VR/AR technology for educational purposes.”

The second part of the experience then gets you to explore the wreck using a submersible and ROV to solve various quests if you choose “mission mode.” These include rescuing a lost ROV, creating a photo mosaic, placing research equipment, or cleaning and preserving recovered artefacts. Otherwise you can just look around the ship in all its detail at leisure.

The golden rule for creating compelling VR content is that you should allow people to experience something that would be either impossible or too dangerous, expensive and/or difficult to do in real life
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Titanic VR is currently available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality as well as on a desktop PC version
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There is a lot of attention to detail in evidence here, and this comes through as a labour of love, down to the fact that the team made sure to include a poignant tribute to Lead Environment Artist Tony Meredith who recently passed away:

“Tony was a much loved and now much missed member of the team, whose final creative and powerful artistry on Titanic VR will continue to serve as testament to a truly gifted master of VR art production.”

While such experiences are effective showcases for the potential of VR Education, they are only the start of the company’s much more ambitious plans to “revolutionise education globally” (Their parent company VR Education Holdings plc was recently floated on the London Stock Exchange and is now a publicly listed company on the AIM market ) as Chief Operating Officer Sandra Whelan explains:

“We are dedicated to advancing how educational and enterprise training content is shared and consumed on a world-wide basis”.

Titanic VR is currently available for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and Windows Mixed Reality as well as on a desktop PC version. There are also plans to release it on PlayStationVR next month.

There is a lot of attention to detail in evidence here, and this comes through as a labour of love
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While such experiences are effective showcases for the potential of VR Education, they are only the start of the company’s much more ambitious plans to revolutionise education globally
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This article was originally published on VRScout

Exploring The RMS Titanic In VR via @alicebonasio https://t.co/MGRYxg4dyd pic.twitter.com/A1TPrvmJNk

— VRScout (@VRScout) August 23, 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 Exploring the Titanic in Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

With the Virtual Reality boom we’re seeing more courses popping up to train people hoping to get a job in the industry, but is it worth it? 

Recently, Google, Apple and IBM became the latest companies to join a trend of no longer requiring a university degree from prospective candidates.

This is pretty huge. After all we’re talking companies that receive thousands of CVs every day, and they can afford to be very picky. So it’s not a matter of cutting corners in order to fill vacancies, but a recognition that the way in which we’re acquiring, maintaining and developing our skills has dramatically changed.

There is no greater spark to creativity than rallying a diverse group of intelligent people around an exciting new medium
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Photos by Ana Escobar

Having invested many years of my life in both undergraduate and graduate education, I find myself conflicted about it. I would not have done without the experiences and knowledge that going to university afforded me, but I always worked alongside my studies, so it’s often hard to unpick how the skillsets and knowledge base I have today came to be formed exactly. And that is only going to become even more difficult for future generations as online and virtual learning, self-directed and lifelong, becomes the norm.

Which is why it’s somewhat ironic to see more and more universities offering VR degrees to teach future generations how to build those very same virtual learning environments. One recent one I came across is the MA Virtual Reality from London College of Communication, UAL which claims to be one of the first of its kind in Europe. They’re set to follow up with a BA (Hons) Virtual Reality next year

The features offered include dedicated Virtual Reality classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software to enable students to bring their projects to life by filming, sculpting, and animating in VR
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Those professionals might build virtual environments to facilitate creative interactions without the need for anybody to physically attend university
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The features offered include dedicated Virtual Reality classrooms equipped with state-of-the-art hardware and software to enable students to bring their projects to life by filming, sculpting, and animating in VR. And while it could be argued that the cost of buying a Rift or VIVE headset is significantly lower than that of a degree, the added facilities such as motion capture suits, infinity cove green screen, and software licenses does add up to a more attractive-sounding package.

However, the focus of this degree is quite rightly on developing creative and storytelling skills. This is very much what is needed in the realm of VR content production – engaging, emotionally compelling experiences – and this is arguably where the university model still has a very relevant role to play.

The focus of this VR degree is quite rightly on developing creative and storytelling skills
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In my case, for example, I’ve always been quite effective at directing and managing my own learning, but found that during the course of my MA at Warwick University the project work and the relationships I built with my colleagues and tutors helped to spark ideas that I would not have had if my interaction had been limited to absorbing information via books or a computer screen.

There is no greater spark to creativity, it turns out, than bringing a very diverse group of intelligent people together and rallying them around an exciting new medium. If universities can provide that , they might very well graduate some amazing VR professionals in the next few years. The irony is then that those professionals might very well build such amazing virtual environments and experiences as to facilitate that sort of interaction without the need for anybody to physically attend university. Enter the world of Ready Player One.

This article originally appeared in The Next Web

Should you study VR at university? https://t.co/DjYoxkggxh

— TNW Contributors (@TNWcontributors) August 23, 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 Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasioon Twitter.

The post Going to Virtual Reality University appeared first on Tech Trends.