VRScout

JUNE 5, 2017

Apple’s new iMacs are now powerful enough to support VR. Apple unveiled macOS High Sierra during WWDC. The successor to macOS Sierra promises a slew of new features and most notably among them—support for virtual reality. Apple Embracing Virtual Reality. Apple’s senior vice president of software engineering Craig Federighi took the stage and confirmed that “Valve is bringing SteamVR to Mac.” SteamVR will also be joined on Mac systems by the Unreal and Unity video game engines, all ty

Apple 373

Apple Unreal HTC Unity 373

Road to VR

JUNE 5, 2017

At Apple’s World Wide Developer Conference today, the company made a major shift in their embrace of virtual reality with several new VR announcements during the event’s opening keynote. Though well loved, Apple’s computer lineup got somewhat left in the dust at the launch of the Rift and Vive, both of which had hardware requirements that exceeded what Apple had on offer.

Virtual Reality 278

Virtual Reality Apple Unreal Unity 278

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 8, 2017

Fully functioning hand-tracking might be a ways off from becoming the standard form of VR input, but Leap Motion is making a big step toward that future today, taking its Interaction development engine to 1.0 and introducing some major new features. The Interaction Engine has been available in early Beta since last year, but this full release focuses on what could be a major application for hand-tracking going forward — interfaces.

Leap Motion 248

Leap Motion Controllers Hand tracking Wearables 248

Cats and VR

JUNE 8, 2017

River Ecosystem, a consulting firm that provides services to frontier technology startups and hosts the annual River Accelerator program, today announced veteran Bay Area entrepreneur Jimmy Ku, and Techstars and River Accelerator alumnus Nick Canafax, as partners. Ku brings over a decade of entrepreneurial experience and networking expertise to River Ecosystem.

Fove 189

Fove Machine Learning Technology Conference 189

Speaker: Chris Paxton McMillin, President of D3 Training Solutions

To avoid awkward and sometimes disastrous learning content, instructional designers must use authentic translation in the right context to get optimal results. For example, even a simple phrase like “got milk” translates to “are you lactating” in Mexico. Can you imagine what a straight translation might do to your course? With over 317 million people in the US and over 6.7 billion potential customers in the world, personalizing training seems logical.

Mexico

VRScout

JUNE 7, 2017

The pioneering company continues its crusade of spreading VR by donating 100 headsets for educational purposes. Oculus has always been a major supporter of the virtual reality community. The company is responsible for some of the industry’s most influential initiatives such as their VR For Good program, as well as teaming up with other manufacturers to establish VR industry standards and supporting VR art incubators.

California 314

California Oculus Education Virtual Reality 314

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 6, 2017

Valve’s Lighthouse tracking system for SteamVR headsets remains arguably the best in the industry, and it’s set for a big upgrade this November. The company this week issued a tracking technology update over on Steam where it revealed some surprising new plans for what it called SteamVR Tracking 2.0. Crucially, the post confirms Valve will have the new base stations available in “production quantities” in November of this year.

HTC 215

HTC Virtual World Industry Technology 215

Cats and VR

JUNE 6, 2017

Emily Olman is the founder of Hopscotch Interactive, a marketing and media services company for promoting extraordinary spaces. They create custom marketing solutions with Matterport 3D Photography, 360°, and VR. Hopscotch Interactive was recently nominated as Matterport Service Partner of the Year from over 1000 MSP's for the inaugural "Matty Awards".

San Francisco 178

San Francisco Oakland AR Augmented Reality 178

VRScout

JUNE 6, 2017

A new Ironman-like heads-up display could revolutionize modern warfare. When it comes to surviving a firefight information is everything. That’s exactly why the United States military invests so much time and resources into equipping soldiers with state-of-the-art technology designed to keep them informed and updated when deployed in dangerous scenarios.

AR 302

AR Augmented Reality United States Groups 302

Road to VR

JUNE 5, 2017

Apple has finally made a commitment to VR, announcing on stage today at Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) 2017 that not only will they offer an external GPU developer kit for MacBooks capable of meeting the graphical demands of VR, but that both the new 27-inch iMac and the iMac Pro will be VR-ready out of the box. Senior VP of software engineering Craig Federighi announced today to the WWDC crowd that Metal 2, the company’s updated hardware-accelerated graphics API, will be launching

Apple 251

Apple Unreal HTC Hardware 251

Advertisement

With a rapidly changing economy, Avangrid Renewables looked to virtual reality to develop a standardized form of immersive training in order to onboard and upskill technicians faster than ever before.

Virtual Reality

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 5, 2017

Apple is finally getting serious about VR on its Mac platform, announcing that it is working with Valve to bring SteamVR to Mac. Apple’s executives hinted that more announcements would be coming related to VR during its developer conference, including VR workflows so creators can make VR content with the Mac. There are a lot of VR developers out there who had moved to Microsoft-powered machines to dive deep into VR development, and today’s announcements should provide major incentive

Apple 215

Apple Unity Conference Microsoft 215

Cats and VR

JUNE 5, 2017

In 2014, identifying the huge potential in VR, Mike Rothenberg decided to build the world's first startup accelerator focused on VR companies, and named it The River Accelerator Program. The program founded by Mike Rothenberg has evolved to now be part of a bigger vision called River Ecosystem. Oh and yes it is THAT Mike Rothenberg, the one who earlier this year was described by many a media outlet as a VR Great Gatsby, a person with a Wolf of Wall Street personality, a man steering his VC fund

Jordan 134

Jordan AR Filming HTC 134

VRScout

JUNE 9, 2017

Combining three discrete technologies, researchers at UC San Diego have created a glove that simulates real-life force in virtual worlds. Researchers at University of California-San Diego have designed a new lightweight glove that can replicate the feeling of touch, using it to play piano. (Just don’t expect the technology to transform you into an overnight Liberace).

San Diego 268

San Diego Leap Motion California Virtual World 268

Road to VR

JUNE 9, 2017

Apple’s broad embrace of VR this week shows that the company has had virtual reality support on its roadmap for quite some time. During a session at WWDC , Apple and Valve confirmed they’ve been working together for nearly a year to bring SteamVR and OpenVR to MacOS. Though you might think that porting SteamVR and OpenVR to MacOS would be relatively straightforward—given that Steam for regular desktop gaming has been on the OS since 2010.

Apple 249

Apple Latency Oculus Conference 249

Speaker: Nik Gowing, Brenda Laurel, Sheridan Tatsuno, Archie Kasnet, and Bruce Armstrong Taylor

With 191 country signatories to the Paris Climate Agreement now hard at work in the race to zero carbon by 2050, much of the heavy lifting in ecosystem sustainability falls on the shoulders of the world's densely populated urban centers. This conversation considers how today's AI-enabled simulation media, such as AR/VR, can be effectively applied to accelerate learning, understanding, training, and solutions-modeling to sustainability planning and design.

Simulation

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 7, 2017

VR is not dead. VR is not dying. VR is very much alive according to IDC’s numbers. Apple’s WWDC 2017 keynote made that abundantly clear with their announcement of support for external Metal graphics, HTC Vive, SteamVR and Metal VR. The VR market is only starting and now that all the biggest players in the tech space are engaged including Apple we can consider it a complete market.

Data 212

Data HTC Samsung Sony 212

Cats and VR

JUNE 6, 2017

Beast is a VR platform that brings digital pets to virtual "life" through artificial intelligence and personalities. It is also the winner of the very first CatsAndVR Best Of Cute award which goes to the cutest thing I saw at a particular conference. Seriously Beast Pets are basically smart pets for VR. The dragons are basically flying puppy-kittens that actually interact like I would expect out of Cat Dragons.

Conference 117

Conference Gaming 117

VRScout

JUNE 4, 2017

Walmart Academies have begun using various VR retail scenarios to educate new employees. Working in retail is anything but easy. Especially if you’re employed at one of the most popular multinational retailing corporations in the world. Walmart staff have their work cut out for them, one of the many reasons why the retail giant began opening its many ‘Walmart Academies’ to train its future staff on the details of their expected duties in a comfortable and cost-efficient manner.

Training 250

Training Simulation Retail Oklahoma 250

Road to VR

JUNE 5, 2017

Apple’s annual Worldwide Developer Conference (WWDC) is here, and today’s keynote saw a number of VR-specific announcements including Apple’s first VR-ready computers to go along with the launch of the company’s newest macOS High Sierra. While the company is finally going ‘VR-native’ for desktop, Apple is also zeroing in on augmented reality for iOS 11 with the entrance of their newly revealed app developer kit ‘ARKit’ Possibly taking a swipe at F

Augmented Reality 232

Augmented Reality Apple AR Unreal 232

Speaker: Richard Goring, Director at BrightCarbon

Remote meetings are here to stay - and many are BORING. If you are trying to engage your learners (or any audience), compelling content is critical. But trying to create stimulating content with the same tools you’ve always had is hard, right? Thankfully, wrong! Terrific tools in PowerPoint along with visual assets help you create the kind of dynamic content you need to capture your remote audience’s attention, with functions that allow for interactive sequences and navigation.

How To

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 9, 2017

While my first experience with VR was in the mid-’90s with the VFX-1, my introduction to the latest round of VR devices was at E3 2012 when John Carmack showed Doom 3 in VR at the Bethesda booth on a newly-announced but not-yet-released HMD called the Oculus Rift, which was little more than a motion-tracking display duct-taped to an elastic ski goggle strap.

Conference 198

Conference Gaming Virtual Reality Immersion 198

Cats and VR

JUNE 8, 2017

Dean Takahashi pretty much said during his panel at the last GamesBeat summit that you are 100% better off skipping a day or two of of work in order to go to one of the events he puts together. He is absolutely right! These events have less of the super networking vibes of the W hotel during GDC and is more of a Socratic critical thinking forum to snap you out of your tech daze.

Holography 114

Holography America Industry Groups 114

VRScout

JUNE 8, 2017

Cannes NEXT, now in its second year, displayed a variety of cutting-edge immersive content. Last month, Cannes NEXT brought classic filmgoers and distributors into contact with the best in 360° and roomscale VR. Even the Duke of Luxembourg himself descended the stairs of the Palais des Festivals for his first VR experience: Arden’s Wake. From nearly fifty experiences, here were the standout pieces that illuminate the future of storytelling in VR.

Trends 225

Trends San Francisco Luxembourg Samsung 225

Road to VR

JUNE 4, 2017

Having recently departed Oculus after founding the company in 2012, Palmer Luckey has assured the world that he’s still very interested in virtual reality and has hinted at some of the things he’s pursuing for future projects. Taking a cue from Sword Art Online , an anime where players get trapped in a virtual reality game, Luckey says he’s interested in the idea of a virtual game with serious real life consequences.

Oculus 231

Oculus Gaming Virtual Reality Machine Learning 231

Speaker: Treion Muller, Chief Strategy Officer at ELB Learning

Since when has learning and development (L&D) become such a negative experience with its intended learners? Could it be because learners have been conditioned by very poor learning experiences over the past two decades, combined with the kinks of technological innovation? Or is it because learning has typically been designed as a one-size-fits-all solution, despite the fact that humans are not clones?

Technology

UploadVR Between Realities podcast

JUNE 7, 2017

A 4Chan user is claiming to know details about Bethesda’s upcoming press conference including the announcement of a brand new IP and a Skyrim VR adaptation. The poster, going by the moniker “Bethesda Leaks” alleges that the studio will be unveiling a brand new game called Starfield during their E3 press conference next week, but it doesn’t sound like that title will have VR support.

Conference 198

Conference Gaming Immersion 198

Cats and VR

JUNE 7, 2017

“Without libraries what have we? We have no past and no future.” —Ray Bradbury Access to information and knowledge opens the doors to new possibilities and let us experience worlds that would otherwise be beyond reach. Through a new partnership with the California State Library, Oculus is giving access to VR to people that may never have the chance.

California 105

California Oculus Education Google 105

VRScout

JUNE 7, 2017

A new study finds that creating out-of-body sensations in VR can help change your attitude towards death. Death can be an extremely difficult concept for some to accept. Despite actually knowing very little about it, many individuals find themselves terrified by the idea of reaching the inevitable end we all share. Personally, I’m more concerned with other, more daunting issues such as sharks or maintaining a constant supply of Oreos.

Study 205

Study Virtual Reality Simulation Groups 205

Road to VR

JUNE 6, 2017

Apple this week showed it’s getting serious about the VR medium with platform-spanning VR announcements this week crossing both hardware and software. With SteamVR and the Vive on their way to Mac, eyes turn to Oculus, but the company isn’t ready to commit to MacOS. The “Pause” Once upon a time, back in the days of the DK1 and DK2 development kits, Rift support for MacOS (then called OS X) was alive and well.

Oculus 227

Oculus Apple Hardware AR 227

Speaker: Micah Eppler, Account Executive for Rehearsal of eLearning Brothers

Did you know that companies such as Paychex, 3M, and Honeywell are getting better results by incorporating video-based practice and coaching within their L&D strategy? From sales pitches to soft skills, learners are becoming top performers by applying and validating knowledge transfer using the unique benefits of video. Whether used as a stand-alone application or integrated with a learning platform, video-based practice and coaching platforms give learners the ultimate opportunity to repeatedly

Video