Ago 5, 2014 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
When Google Glass went on sale for the first time to early adopters in the UK for around £1000 last month, a big question mark still hung over its mass market appeal. Though Google hasn’t released any initial sales figures yet and it’s still technically in beta, it’s fair to say that it has yet to win over the hearts and minds of the average Brit in the street to a product that many have labelled as conspicuous, geeky, and worst of all, intrusive.
Source: www.information-age.com
But one area where Google Glass is making tracks beyond just its novelty value is in hands-on industries such as construction, manufacturing, energy, healthcare and law enforcement. For the kinds of situations where workers in dirty, dangerous environments need constant access to data, maps and schematics, combining augmented reality and wearable technologies is a hugely practical idea.
Software startup Wearble Intelligence, for instance, is working with companies such as global gas giant Schlumberger piloting the use of Google Glass for engineers out in the field working on extremely complicated workflows.
The ability to have hands-free access to complex procedural checklists, context-aware schematics and live mentoring while out fixing gas pipelines is driving a quiet revolution in efficiency for Sclumberger and others in similar industries- and they certainly don’t care if the glasses make them look geeky.
Other makers of augmented reality smart glasses such as Epson have seen less of the media spotlight than Google, but have driven after the enterprise audience with a bit more focus.
The Moverio BT-200 may be one to watch out for in the industry space in the years to come – overlooking the clunky name, it costs half as much as the Glass, it features 360-degree panoramic views, and Epson is working with developers to create a greater variety of business-focused on-the-job apps for things like augmented reality training and secure integration with IT infrastructure.
The glasses are packed with sensing technology, including a front-facing camera, gyroscope, GPS system, compass, and accelerometer, allowing the device to accurately understand a user’s movements and the world around them.
One early customer is budget airline EasyJet, who is experimenting with the Moverio BT-200 to relay contextual information to and from its pilots and field engineers and its Operations Control Centre in real time, to streamline servicing and repairs and eliminate delays.
Ian Davies, head of engineering and maintenance at EasyJet, explains how it’s all going to work.
‘When things do go wrong we need to get them fixed as quick as we can, and we think using these tools we can easily halve the time to deal with a defect,’ says Davies. ‘I have about fifty engineers monitoring everything going on the aircraft every day but the most modern tool we’ve got to do that is a telephone and it comes down to snapshots and bits of conversations. So effectively we are solving problems semi-blind. We needed to be able to get eyes on the problem.’
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Ago 5, 2014 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
A new optical gadget that uses holographic technology looks set to transform wearable, augmented-reality displays.
Source: physicsworld.com
That is the claim of engineers in the UK, who have developed a device that could be incorporated into a variety of existing technologies and allows users to overlay full-colour, 3D, high-definition images onto their normal line of sight, so that it interacts with their surroundings. This, the researchers say, sets it apart from similar augmented-reality (AR) technologies such as Google Glass and virtual-reality devices such as Oculus Rift.
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Ago 4, 2014 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Hyderabad: Have you ever wondered about how well you could have scored in physics, geography or mathematics, if your school had the ability to create visuals to explain the concepts? While e-learning solutions offered some heady way in this, teaching based on augmented reality is all set to change the way children are taught in classrooms.
Source: www.deccanchronicle.com
“In a classroom, each student has a different level of comprehension. While some easily visualise what a teacher is teaching and hence have a greater ability to recall, others who can’t make themselves a part of learning experience lose out in the understanding the basic concepts of subjects,” said Neeraj Jawalkar, the CEO of Hyderabad-based Smartur’s Augmented Reality Digital Classroom Solution. “A student could understand better about say how an earthquake occurs if we show him how giant tetonic plates shift. Similarly, he can be taught about angina if we show him how heart beat pumps the blood. Chemistry could be taught better if we can show change in atomic composition of different elements result in different compounds,” Mr Jawalkar explained. The augmented reality is yet another form of 3D technology that superimposes virtual objects upon the real world. Though this technology has been widely used by high technology sectors such avionics and automobile designing, etc, its application in education, however, has been rather new. In their famous book ‘Strategies That Work’ on methods to improve comprehension of students, Stephanie Harvey and Anne Goudvis claim that students, who visualise as they read or listen, can create personal link between themselves and the topic and recall what they have read or heard for longer periods of time. Virtual objects superimposed in the real classroom excel at conveying spatial, temporal and contextual concepts, especially where the real objects are too expensive, dangerous or fragile. Virtual objects can also be highly interactive letting users erupt a volcano or build a human heart.
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Ago 4, 2014 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Technology sector fueled by evolving social media landscape, company announces significant acuisition: Next Galaxy Corp. (OTC: WILS), Facebook Ink. (NASDAQ: FB), Microsoft Corporation (NASDAQ: MSFT), Sony Corporation (NYSE: SNE) and LinkedIn Corporation (NYSE: LNKD)
Next Galaxy Corp. (OTCQB: WILS), a leading technology and content solutions company developing dynamic, innovative experiences for consumers, is pleased to announce that it has entered into an agreement with EON Reality to create CEEK – a fully immersive and interactive social virtual reality platform (http://www.ceek.com/) that simulates the communal experience of being at a movie, music concert, sports game, museum, business conference or meeting, spectator event or travel destination.
Source: online.wsj.com
The CEEK platform is being developed for the Facebook (NASDAQ: FB) owned Oculus Rift with support for other head mounted displays such as the ZEISS Cinemizer and Sony’s (NYSE: SNE) Project Morpheus.
EON Reality, the world’s leading provider of Virtual Reality software, systems and applications, will provide software and turnkey VR development to be integrated into the CEEK platform in order to enable a fully interactive Social Virtual Reality experience for CEEK users. The relationship with EON Reality provides deep access to the framework in order to create custom features that extend the functionality of the core EON Reality software.EON Reality will also offer CEEK operational oversight, ongoing support and updates, as well as EON’s SDK and EON’s communication suites that enable communication between virtual environments.
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Ago 4, 2014 | News on Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality
Realtà aumentata a Macerata, che trasforma la città in un museo a cielo aperto attraverso un percorso espositivo in cinque tappe. Riflettono le stagioni della struttura teatrale Sferisterio, ma anche della città e delle persone che la abitano queste scansioni culturali arricchite da quel pizzico di tecnologia portatile che aggiunge informazioni a valore aggiunto.
Source: thebizloft.com
Lo Sferisterio giunge alla sua 50° stagione lirica e ricorda la sua storia con un percorso espositivo dal titolo Sferisterio 50 / Esercizi di memoria: Macerata, l’opera, l’estate.
Percorsi in realtà aumentata con una guida d’eccezione
Grazie al progetto Macerata Digitale, a cura del Comune di Macerata, e al lavoro di The Round di cui sono stata coordinatore, il percorso espositivo passa dalla realtà aumentata per uno storytelling di ultima generazione. In ciascuna delle cinque sedi, utilizzando il proprio smartphone o tablet (grazie alla app Junaio e al canale Sferisterio 50), il visitatore potrà godere di contenuti multimedialiextra tra cui animazioni e video con una guida d’eccezione: il direttore artistico Francesco Micheli:
“La tecnologia è uno strumento essenziale per la comunicazione – ha recentemente dichiarato Micheli – ma anche per la conservazione della memoria e per la creatività. Per quanto riguarda la conservazione del nostro patrimonio passato, in occasione della 50° edizione abbiamo creato un percorso espositivo attraverso la città: non solo molti dei materiali esposti sono interviste ai protagonisti (artisti, ma anche comparse, maschere, spettatori) che resteranno disponibili sul web, ma il percorso stesso è arricchito da un progetto di realtà aumentata per cui gli spettatori presenti sui luoghi della mostra potranno fruire di contenuti aggiuntivi sui loro telefoni o tablet”.
Le cinque tappe del percorso sono:
L’esordio: presenta l’Aida del ’21 alla galleria Galeotti attraverso le immagini dello studio BalelliIl racconto: cataloga minuziosamente alla biblioteca Mozzi Borgetti tutte le produzioni avvenute allo Sferisterio a partire dalla ripresa del ’67, con un corredo di videoI costumi: offre una retrospettiva al Lauro Rossi sugli abiti di scena che rimpiccioliscono mano mano che si torna indietro nel tempoLa scena: propone un’esplosione di elementi scenografici ricostruiti al San PaoloLe persone: ricostruisce a Palazzo Buonaccorsi la memoria collettiva degli abitanti di Macerata attraverso un progetto social.
Queste cinque sezioni creano un asse ideale che dalle origini in piazza Vittorio Veneto si snoda fino al presente a Palazzo Buonaccorsi con un messaggio semplice e chiarissimo: la memoria dello Sferisterio attraversa la città. La mostra inaugurata il 17 luglio 2014 dal soprano Raina Kabaivanska, protagonista di alcune delle più importanti pagine della storia dello Sferisterio, rimane aperto fino al 15 agosto (dal martedì alla domenica, ore 10-13 e 16-19, ingresso gratuito).
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