SpaceVR will use Virtual Space Tourism to connect us to our planet and to each other, expanding the limits of human consciousness.

“Let’s launch cool s**t into space!”

As far as elevator pitches go, that’s not a bad start, but as I talked to Ryan Holmes about plans for his company’s upcoming launch later this year, things got even curiouser.

From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.' - Edgar Mitchel
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Located in the heart of San Francisco’s emerging nano-satellite industry, SpaceVR developed the world’s first virtual reality camera satellite, betting on creating a market for cinematic, live, virtual space tourism. When I met him at the Pioneers tech conference in Vienna, Austria, in May, Holmes was rocking the quasi-guru look – dressed in loose-fitting robes adorned with large fresh red roses – and he talked passionately about using virtual reality to expand people’s consciousness.

“SpaceVR aims to give everyone the opportunity to experience the truly infinite, boundless Universe through virtual reality,” he explained in quietly earnest tones, which were somewhat disconcerting to a cynical old tech journalist.

His inspiration, he told me, was a well-documented phenomenon called the Overview Effect, which is that first moment an astronaut realizes their place in an infinite universe, something they only achieve through direct observation. This in turn leads to reprioritization of protecting the earth and working together on a global scale.

It’s what prompted Neil Armstrong to say space travel made him feel “very, very small,” and is best summed up by a colorful quote from Apollo 14 astronaut Edgar Mitchel, who in a 1984 interview for People Magazine said: “From out there on the Moon, international politics look so petty. You want to grab a politician by the scruff of the neck and drag him a quarter of a million miles out and say, ‘Look at that, you son of a bitch.’”

SpaceVR initially launched as a Kickstarter in 2015 with a plan to send a 12-camera rig to the ISS that would be capable of shooting 3D, 360-degree footage. It felt well short of its ambitious $500,000 goal, although a subsequent scaled-back campaign managed to raise $100,000. It was a $1.25 million investment from China’s Shanda Group, however, that turned the project from a pipe dream to what now looks more of a viable proposition.

Located in the heart of San Francisco’s emerging nano-satellite industry, SpaceVR developed the world’s first virtual reality camera satellite
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Although Holmes wistfully admits that some of it was spent on what he describes as “his stupid mistakes,” there was enough left of their seed round investment to develop onboard software for the satellite, begin development of its content delivery and distribution channels, and invest in a worldwide satellite dish ground station communication network.

SpaceVR promises not only a whole different take on stargazing, but a truly transformative, almost spiritual experience
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This all promises not only a whole different take on stargazing, but a truly transformative, almost spiritual experience, and this most Silicon Valley of startups is now gearing up to its first pilot at –where else? – Burning Man.

The experience will last 11 minutes and 11 seconds, and will be housed on the 11^th floor of the Tree of Life art installation, currently being crowdfunded on Indiegogo.

The idea, as far as I could tell, involves people experiencing the VR footage from space while literally being immersed in flotation tanks to simulate the zero gravity feeling of actually being in orbit. They even refer to these units as “Galactic Spaceships” to be housed within Galactic Temples which Holmes plans to eventually place in all 197 countries of the world.

“People will enter the Galactic Spaceship and lay on a specially designed sound bed (8 speakers) where sound will play through their body as they experience a transcendent CGI based VR Overview Effect experience. The Tree and Galactic Spaceship are both built to house ambisonic sound experiences where one is completely surrounded by 3D audio,” explains Holmes.

It’s the sort of plot that would not be out of place in HBO’s Silicon Valley spoof, and it’s precisely the reason why so many of my colleagues in the tech industry can’t bear to watch the show. It’s just too close to home.

It's the sort of plot that would fit right into @SiliconHBO
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But while doubters may roll their eyes and dismiss the idea, there is compelling evidence and research suggesting that VR experiences can be extremely effective in engendering greater empathy towards our fellow humans and the environment. Jeremy Bailenson, a professor at Stanford University’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab has run many experiences which demonstrate that even short experiences in relatively low resolution headsets can produce a change in behavior and predisposition in people who take part, so it is not that much of a stretch to say that people might get hooked onto these meditative experiences and end up caring a lot more about the planet in the process. Neither would be a bad thing, so could warrant a pass on the new-age stuff.

In 2016 SpaceVR partnered with NanoRacks LLC – a company that runs the commercial laboratory aboard the international space station and has experience launching hundreds of payloads into space, counting the European, German and US space agencies – to overcome the remaining logistical hurdles and deploy the satellite.

Users will get a taste of the SpaceVR experience @burningman this year
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The company will take the footage from the cameras and stitch it all into a 360-degree sphere — with live-streaming being the ultimate goal
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The satellite – aptly called the Overview — was due to launch inside one of SpaceX’s Dragon cargo capsule, but was postponed due to some parts not being delivered to spec. SpaceVR is now working with their partners to rectify this and are a planning the launch for November 2018. Yet although the delay of the satellite launch means that the live SpaceVR images won’t be available to the Burning Man crowd, Holmes assures me the experience will be very similar.

When it does go into orbit, the Overview satellite will use 4K sensors to capture high resolution 360-degree video of earth from space and the content will be viewable on any virtual reality device, ranging from smartphones to Oculus Rift to extreme resolution devices such as the StarVR.

The video below demonstrates the quality at which the satellite will be able to eventually record the images from space:

The company will take the footage from the cameras and stitch it all into a 360-degree sphere — with live-streaming being the ultimate goal. The idea is to sell subscriptions to that footage, which will “immerse someone in space as if they were floating outside,” according to Holmes.

This article was originally published on Forbes

The Startup That Wants to Use Virtual Reality To Make The World A Better Place (From Space)https://t.co/hV4Bnt7zdj

— Forbes Tech News (@ForbesTech) June 6, 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 Making the World a Better Place with Virtual Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

After an epic month, Tech Trends will be in Vienna for this years’ Pioneers conference.

Founded in 2009 the Pioneers conference has become a highlight of the European tech start-up calendar. It takes place every year in the 500-year-old Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna and brings together a community of 2,500 founders, investors, executives and public sector representatives from over 100 nations.

Founded in 2009, the Pioneers conference has become a highlight of the European tech calendar
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Pioneers takes place in the 500-year-old Hofburg Imperial Palace in Vienna and brings together a community of 2,500 founders, investors, executives and public sector representatives from over 100 nations
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This year’s theme is Blurred Frontiers and the announced speaker line-up so far includes Amazon Vice President & CTO Werner Vogels, Lighting Labs Co- Founder and CEO Elizabeth Stark and Lilium Co-Founder and Head of Calculation & Design Patrick Nathen.

Pioneers establishes and facilitates direct, meaningful business relationships between startups, corporate executives, and investors to foster growth and innovation. It is the ultimate One-Stop-Hub for global tech innovators to access high- value, curated and qualified data of early and Series A European startups.

Stay tuned for the latest news by following @techtrends_tech and tweet us with the #pioneers hashtag
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Tech Trends at Pioneers

Undoubtedly one of the headline acts on the first day of Pioneers’18 will be geneticist Josef Penninger, who will dissect some of the life sciences’ extreme potential in a keynote entitled: The Age of Impact: Why Curiosity Leads The Way. This renowned researcher, who is founding director of the Institute of Molecular Biotechnology of the Austrian Academy of Sciences in Vienna, will be discussing how humans can be made stronger from the inside out.

 

And with Penninger moving to Vancouver later in the year to take over the leadership of the Life Sciences Institute at the University of British Columbia, it could be one of the last few chances to see him speak in his native Europe.

 

Penninger will not be the only game-changing life sciences hero on the Arena Stage at the Hofburg. The second afternoon will see Olivier Oullier, President of pioneering EEG company Emotiv, showcase the fascinating concept of a ‘wearable for your brain’ in his keynote talk. He’ll dive into how neurofeedback will empower individuals to understand their own brain and accelerate brain research globally.

 

We’ll continue to delve into the grey zone between the life sciences and artificial intelligence as Insilico Medicine CEO Dr Alex Zhavoronkov showcases how Artificial Intelligence can contribute to humans living not only longer, but more healthily so. Insilico is a leader in the next-generation AI and blockchain technologies for drug discovery, biomarker development and aging research.

 

Moderating this session with Dr Zhavoronkov on the second afternoon of Pioneers’18 will be Danny Crichton, the Editorial Manager at TechCrunch. And it will be a busy day for him, because he’ll also be chairing our Found in Translation discussion, which will unpack how Artificial Intelligence can break down international language barriers with real-time translation. The stars here will be Waverly Labs CEO Andrew Ochoa and Unbabel CEO Vasco Pedro, whom Pioneers’17 visitors will remember from his Arena Stage appearance last year.

 

The session will examine just how far translation technology has moved on with the help of AI in the last 12 months, specifically exploring Unbabel’s automated video subtitling service and the Waverly Labs translation earbuds.

 

Crichton will also have a role to play on day one, as one of a four-strong panel judging a selection of three startups in our Pitch the Media session on the Amplify Stage. This takes the form of a panel discussion and interactive workshop, in which the startups try to convince the media to cover their stories – and then learn how to do it better!

 

The other members of this session’s jury will be TechTrends Deputy Editor Tom Atkinson, Startup Europe Research Director Natalie Novick, and Heatmap’s Alice Bonasio, who in addition to Editing Tech Trends and contributing to the likes of Wired and Ars Technica is also the author of VRgins: Love, Sex and Relationships in the Virtual Age.

Tech Trends is an official media partners of Pioneers Festival 2018
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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 Tech Trends at #pioneers 2018 appeared first on Tech Trends.