Gen 12, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Samsung, che quest’anno ha lanciato sul mercato il suo visore di realtà virtuale, il Samsung Gear VR, ha presentato ieri il nuovo Milk VR, il servizio video dedicato interamente alla realtà virtuale, e più nello specifico ai possessori del suddetto visore.
Source: thelinx.net
Milk VR è un servizio che offre numerosi video in 360°, permettendo ai possessori di Gear VR di sfruttare appieno il proprio dispositivo e di vivere sempre nuove esperienze, poichè nuovi video verranno aggiunti regolarmente. Ricordiamo che Samsung Gear VR, uscito negli USA a dicembre, è utilizzabile solo in associazione con un Samsung Galaxy Note 4 o Note EDGE come display del visore, sui quali Milk VR sarà quindi disponibile come applicazione.
Per ora si tratta di una semplice prova tecnica, ma l’obiettivo di Samsung è quello di attirare l’attenzione su questa nuova tecnologia, e mostrare quindi le grandi possibilità offerte dalla realtà virtuale.
Non vi sono informazioni su quando l’azienda coreana rilascerà Milk VR al pubblico come servizio stabile, ma sicuramente si tratta di una grande opportunità per il Samsung Gear VR e per la realtà virtuale.
See on Scoop.it – augmented world
Gen 12, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
For the past six years, low-key Osterhout Design Group has been building heavy duty smart glasses for the military. But after seeing the kind attention heaped onto gadgets like Google Glass, the small San Francisco-based company is looking towards the consumer market and thinks it has something better to offer the world.
Source: www.forbes.com
For less than $1,000, ODG plans on releasing a more consumer-friendly version of its glasses in 2015. The glasses can do everything its military-grade specs can do—display high-definition video, record video, lay visuals over the real world—but will be 30 percent smaller and 20 percent lighter, and they’ll look a little less awkward. The most recent version of ODG’s smart glasses, released last year, are bulkier and more rugged to fit with military equipment specification, and cost around $5,000 a piece.
ODG’s augmented reality glasses come packed with a Qualcomm Snapdragon 805 processor; Wi-Fi, Bluetooth and a global navigation satellite system; and sensors for figuring out where you’re looking. The operating system ODG uses is a modified version of Android to make sure, for example, an Android update button doesn’t pop up while you’re driving down a freeway with the glasses on. Battery life is variable depending on how they’re being used but can range from an hour or two to nearly all day on a single charge.
The glasses can do pretty much anything a tablet can do. Watching a movie on the glasses is something akin to watching a high-def movie on a 65-inch TV from across the room. The glasses also track your head movement, so you can be placed into a 3D picture or video feed like you would with a pair of virtual reality goggles. When I tried out a pair of ODG’s glasses in its South of Market office, the virtual reality felt less disorienting than the Oculus Rift, which detached me too much from my surroundings–you can still see your surroundings on ODG’s glasses.
ODG thinks its glasses fall somewhere in between Google Glass and Oculus’ virtual reality headset. Said ODG vice president Nima Shams: “You can’t watch a movie or browse the Internet on Google Glass. Even developing for it, it’s not standard Android, you have to do pages methodology. And on the other end of the spectrum is Oculus. It’s immersive, you get lost, but you’re not able to see through and it’s not mobile. You need a hefty PC. ODG falls in the middle.”
ODG will be releasing its own developer kit for third-party players to start building applications for the glasses. Although ODG is expecting a developer community interested in augmented reality to start building software for it, ODG already has some experience in that area. One of its first apps was a piece of facial recognition software for military forces to scan a crowd and get alerts if there’s anyone they might interested in.
In the industrial and military space, the biggest competitor to ODG’s glasses so far has been Epson Moverio smart glasses. Epson’s glasses are designed for industrial usage and are certainly bulky enough to keep them from being used by most consumers–though the Japanese company claims it’s been getting some traction with everyday consumers.
Although the market for gadgets for your eyes is still clearly early, ODG thinks there’ll be plenty of opportunity with consumers that it will far exceed its current military contract business.
“The adoption of technology is faster in the consumer world,” said ODG executive vice president Pete Jameson. “When I sell a tool to an enterprise, it has to have a proven return on investment. The adoption is longer. With consumers, it’s about if this is cool. Investment decisions take 30 seconds.”
Gadgets for your eyes for both augmented reality and virtual reality have been getting a lot of attention the past year. Google Glass and the Oculus Rift have been on the forefront of all of this. Google Glass garnered plenty of attention, but as a consumer item, it’s fallen flat as worries about privacy and surreptitious surveillance prevailed. Facebook bought Oculus for $2 billion on the pretense that virtual reality is the next big platform after mobile. Then there’s the stealth startup Magic Leap, which received $542 million from Google and Qualcomm, and looks like it includes some sort of headworn device for augmented reality.
Still, it’s hard to imagine people casually wearing these computers attached to your head around in the world. Google Glass and other augmented reality glasses seem more destined for enterprise at this point. Big companies like Boeing have already begun adopting this technology for their workforce. There’s plenty of ways this technology could used for building or fixing complex machinery. Manuals can be pulled up in front of your eyes without you having to look away and use your hands. ODG has started selling its glasses into these kinds of industrial settings recently.
“Today, we’re very focused, and have been focused, on government applications and are now expanding into enterprise and industry,” said Jameson. “This is a tool that helps change workflows and keep people safe.”
Since its founding in 1999, ODG hasn’t been a very public-facing company. ODG is primarily a technology incubation company that has managed to get by with no external funding. Up to this point, the company has relied almost entirely on military contracts, building everything from augmented reality glasses to high-tech scuba gear—the kind of gadgetry you might find in a James Bond flick.
And Microsoft paid up to $150 million for some of ODG’s wearable computing patents, TechCrunch reported earlier this year. Its eponymous founder, Ralph Osterhout, has founded 14 other companies and has even built equipment that’s appeared in at least two James Bond films.
See on Scoop.it – augmented world
Gen 12, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
OTTAWA—While some Canadians unwrapped new video game systems over the holidays, the Canadian Armed Forces looked to develop their own. The Forces are planning to buy a motion-capture suit that would “dramatically upgrade” their virtual reality training programs.
Source: www.thestar.com
They plan to use the suit, complete with 19 separate sensors, to make their virtual training more realistic, modelling complex and detailed environments in what’s called a Corner Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (Corner CAVE) system.
“The Corner CAVE is a cutting-edge system designed to create virtual 3D reproductions of anything that can be modelled in 3D, such as mechanical sub-components of an engine, a complex weapon system, or a piece of terrain,” according to an advertisement for the new suit.
“The incorporation of this upgraded capability would greatly increase the scope of projects that could be encompassed under the Corner CAVE system.”
The system projects the virtual environment onto two or three walls to provide an encompassing environment for training. In the military context, the Corner CAVE can be used for everything from small arms training to realistic lessons on repairing equipment in the field, from interacting with local populations to treating soldiers dealing with post-traumatic stress.
It’s not clear how much the motion-capture suit will cost. Estimates from lower-end suits are in the hundreds of dollars, with higher-end equipment costing significantly more.
The Forces have requested bids from suppliers by Jan. 12. The Forces says it needs the suit to further develop its Corner CAVE training programs.
The current motion-capture system at CFB Gagetown in Oromocto, N.B., can capture movements only in an eight-foot by eight-foot area. Because it’s a camera-based system, it is difficult to accurately map interactions with equipment. Props used in the system also block the camera’s line of sight between the cameras and the motion-capture sensors.
The system also requires six hours to set up and calibrate.
The Forces are increasingly turning to virtual reality, including video games, to help train their personnel for real-life missions. The Canadian Press reported in December 2003 that some in the Forces were skeptical of the turn to the virtual, calling it a cost-cutting tool that can’t replace physical drills.
But Maj. Sam Pollock said the virtual training is not meant to replace those drills, but to augment them and speed soldiers’ training.
“In my opinion, (with) current technologies . . . there’s always going to be a compromise with simulations. You’re never going to be able to perfectly replicate the real, actual, live sort of field environment,” said Pollock in an interview earlier this month.
“But, on the other hand, you can optimize that time you spend in the field by using simulations in advance, going through your basic weapons handling drills without actually being in a live-fire (environment). Where you’ve got a very low-stress environment, and you can actually then go on to the live-firing portion and be much more effective.”
Another advantage, Pollock says, is that by simulating repairs on an engine or the handling of complex weapon systems, the actual engines and weapon systems can be deployed in the field if need be.
The development of virtual training took off within the Forces around 2007, according to Pollock, when the army realized they needed to quickly address a “shortfall in certain training capacities” in the military.
The army now has more than 230 simulators in 125 locations, with seven primary sites. It’s not only the military looking to advance this type of technology, however. Pollock said the video game industry is actually outspending the Canadian Armed Forces on these technologies.
Something to think about next time you’re playing Call of Duty.
See on Scoop.it – augmented world
Gen 12, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
A small robot floated in my vision and asked a simple question: Where would I like to go?
His name was Sparky, and he was developed especially for the Epson Moverio BT-200 augmented reality glasses I was wearing by a team of students at Carnegie Mellon’s Entertainment Technology Center. He quickly provided me details about a coffee shop down the block. If I’d stood up, he could have led me all the way there with turn-by-turn directions.
Source: gigaom.com
It’s a futuristic version of augmented reality, one where your headset interacts with the real world as it changes around you and (supposedly) improves your productivity and well-being through information and companionship. Researchers are certainly working toward that goal. But, for today, we have the BT-200s.
They are are the subtlest, most polished AR option yet, but they still look straight out of a bad 1980s movie. If you think Google Glass makes people look like a dork, keep away from augmented reality.
The entire industry is in a sort of stepping-stone phase right now. It’s evident in every piece of the BT-200s’ design, from its handheld trackpad to its icon- and cursor-based menu. It feels very familiar, but at the expense of totally diving into the future of augmented reality.
Like most of the rest of the augmented reality industry, Epson is focused on the enterprise. The BT-200 was designed for people who need to call up information in the field; places where a laptop or tablet would be too cumbersome or fragile to take along.
The glasses feel relatively light and comfortable. Without any kind of fine tuning for my vision, I quickly felt my eyes grow strained each time I wore them.
No one can provide true augmented reality at the moment, which would be capable of placing virtual images anywhere in your field of view. Instead, Epson hovers a rectangular screen over your vision. From 10 feet away, it was almost exactly the same size as my 42-inch television.
Booting up the glasses brings you to a menu filled with icons. You drag your finger over the handheld trackpad to move a cursor, and a tap generates a click. The trackpad was responsive, and I didn’t have any problem scrolling and clicking. I actually preferred it to the less-than-mature hand tracking other augmented reality companies are using.
Current apps range from virtual reality games where you shoot robots to guides for putting together Legos. A big test in the augmented reality world right now is the lag in an image. If a virtual version of a clock I am fixing is plastered over the real clock, does it stay in place on top of the real clock when I quickly move my head? Epson’s glasses had a slight lag before the virtual image popped back into place.
Augmented reality is not ready for consumers yet. But for enterprise and industrial applications, the BT-200 is a solid choice. Its screen looks nice, it pulls up information in a timely manner and in your free time you have your pick of killer robot games.
See on Scoop.it – augmented world
Gen 12, 2015 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Dopo il lancio dei servizi Milk Video e Milk Music durante il corso di quest’anno, Samsung continua ad investire nel suo indossabile per la realtà virtuale presentando anche Milk VR, un canale completamente dedicato a video e contenuti multimediali da visualizzare indossando il visore Samsung Gear VR.
Source: samsung.hdblog.it
Milk VR si focalizzerà su un’offerta di video in grado di coinvolgere l’utente attraverso un’esperienza a 360°, proponendo contenuti sempre nuovi ed aggiornati con cadenza regolare.
Per il momento il servizio è stato avviato in una sorta di prova tecnica, non sarà dunque disponibile per tutti ma al contrario cercherà di attrarre artisti in erba e registi che potranno utilizzare Milk VR come un’opportunità per portare il loro lavoro nel campo della realtà virtuale, aiutando così la società ad aumentare la quantità di contenuti disponibili.
Al momento non c’è ancora una data di rilascio definitiva per la versione completa e stabile del canale.
See on Scoop.it – augmented world
