Tag Archives: Virtual Reality

20 January 2024
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Apple’s Mixed-Reality Headset, Vision Pro

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Apple announced the Vision Pro at its Worldwide Developer Conference last year. This is the first new product category in years for the company. 

It’s a $3,500 wearable computing platform you don over your head.

The headset has been in the works for years, with Apple taking its familiar wait-and-see approach while other giant tech companies have dived headfirst into the AR/VR market. The new platform and headset have massive implications for the rest of the market; once Apple wades into a product category, it often both validates the category and obviates competitors.

The device was described by Tim Cook (CEO of Apple) as “…the first product you look through, and not at. You can see, hear, and act with digital content just like it’s in your physical space. You’re no longer limited by a display.” 

“Apple Vision Pro will introduce spatial computing” similar to the way the iPhone introduced mobile computing.“ 

“Apple Vision Pro will change the way we communicate and collaborate,” he said.

The Apple headset allows the wearer to see the real or physical world around them, unlike VR headsets that fully envelop the face and limit visibility. There’s a floating “Home View” visible as soon as the wearer straps it on. The company expects people will wear this as part of their day-to-day.

The Vision Pro operates completely independently, so you don’t need to pair it with another device. Once you’re wearing it, you’ll be interfacing with visionOS, Apple’s new spatial operating system which offers a unique software experience that somehow feels familiar. It’s kind of like iOS but suspended in midair. You can watch movies, revisit memories in the Photos app, play games, and even do some work.

This last point is the most attractive. You can connect a wireless keyboard and mouse to the Vision Pro if you want to get real work done, or you can stare at your MacBook’s screen to bring it into visionOS over Wi-Fi (powered by the laptop); here, you can add other virtual screens to supplement your work.

The headset features 4K displays, infrared cameras, and LED illuminators. The field of view isn’t limited, which means it’s likely not using the waveguide lens technology common on other augmented-reality headsets (which refract light and cast virtual objects into the wearer’s eyes.) It’s running on Apple’s M2 chip, as well as a new, mixed-reality-specific R1 chip. 

One of the notable features of the Vision Pro headset is its small dial, which lets wearers alternate between mixed-reality mode—seeing more of the real world—and virtual-reality mode, which offers more immersive face-computing. It also relies on voice input, including Siri, to open and close apps and play media. Tiny spatial audio speakers are nestled in the soft headband.

The Vision Pro is equipped with an external battery pack, similar to how other augmented-reality headsets, such as NReal’s glasses and Magic Leap’s headsets, have been designed. This sometimes makes for a clunkier experience overall, but it means the headset is lighter. 

A new technology called Eyesight is touted. When someone is nearby, they’ll suddenly appear in your view, even if you’re using the headset in a more immersive mode. There’s also the option to capture a spatial photo or video from directly within the headset, thanks to a built-in 3D camera. (The same 3D camera will capture your image and create a realistic 3D avatar of you.)

What the experience of getting to try Vision Pro last year at WWDC was like? At the start, you’re asked to scan your face twice on an iPhone, just like you would to set up Face ID.

Some of the apps are native Apple apps, such as FaceTime. You can also send emails, surf the web, and connect with external accessories for work. The official launch of Vision Pro means other app makers can start building or tweaking their apps for Apple’s latest platform. For example, Microsoft apps, such as Teams. Unity-based games will also be portable to the headset. The new platform could create new immersive experiences for Disney fans and teed off a demo of the Disney+ app being used in VR. Disney+ will be available at launch.

In conclusion, the technology is impressive. And as it progresses it will inevitably shrink so that one day, you’ll just be wearing normal-looking glasses.

Resources:

https://www.wired.com/story/apple-vision-pro-specs-price-release-date/

https://www.apple.com/apple-vision-pro/

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26 October 2022
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VR technology

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The virtual reality concept was created in the mid-1950s with a device called sensorama. Since then VR became one of the technologies with the highest potential growth. Most forecasts believe that the Metaverse by the end of the decade will be worth between 6-13 trillion dollars. No wonder tech giants are following this trend. The most interesting usage of this technology is in the Metaverse.

Sensorama

What the Metaverse is?

It is a concept developed by Neal Stephenson in his novel “Snow Crash” 1992. Matthew Ball defines it as “A massively-scaled and interoperable network of real-time-rendered 3D virtual worlds that can be experienced synchronously and persistently by an unlimited number of users with an individual sense of presence while supporting the continuity of data.” But what does it mean? It is a virtual world with the ability to link independently-operated simulations and give us cyberspace where everyone is coexisting.

How do we use VR/AR technology nowadays?

The biggest part of the market uses this technology for entertainment purposes- mostly video games, but this technology has much more to offer. Surgeons are trained using simulations of complex operations and this method is more efficient than traditional one- scientists from Harvard University have done the research and the result of it showed that surgeons trained in VR technology had a 230% growth in efficiency. U.S and British militaries are using Unreal Engine for simulation training of active combat. Even cities are being designed with graphics-based computing. This technology is opening a huge amount of opportunities and I am curious about what it will look like in the next ten years.

What do you think about this piece of technology?

Sources:

  1. Top 5 Virtual Reality Trends of 2022: The Future of VR – Program-Ace

2. VR w medycynie. Nadchodzi rewolucja? (chip.pl)

3.Virtual Reality, the technology of the future – Iberdrola

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5 April 2022
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Metaverse fashion week- a potential future of fashion shows?

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Metaverse has and will in the future influence many aspects of our lives. Focusing on fashion retail and fashion shows we are beginning to witness it.

We have recently become familiar with the term metaverse – now what does it mean?

The term metaverse refers to an interactive, simulated, and virtual space. Hypothetically speaking any open-world game in which users can interact with each other and are free from themselves physically is considered a metaverse. Examples include Sandbox, Second life, AXE infinity, Decentraland, and many more.

Coming back to the fashion aspect and especially talking about the Metaverse Fashion Week that premiered on 24th to 27th March this year showcased phenomenal remakes of iconic dresses and pieces of famous brands. Hosted by Decentraland, this four-day blockchain-based experience enlisted popular brands such as Hugo, Dolce & Gabbana, and Estée Lauder.

The event was hyped but the reactions were mixed but mostly positive, participants commented about glitches such as server overload issues with black screens of code and basic graphics and even compared them to previous digital fashion shows such as Gucci Roblox Garden in 2021. Specialists in the field of digital fashion such as Kerry Murphy who created the first NFT dress ever sold said that “The future looks like the past,” and while the user experience is “from the ’90s”, development is speeding up and will be better next year. Giovanna Graziosi Casimiro, the head of MVFW also commented that as browsers become more powerful the quality will improve and meet the expectations of the fashion community.  

Max Vedel, co-founder and creative director at Swipe Back, a metaverse creative agency that has worked with Gucci, Nike, and Swarovski commented that MVFW is a start in digital fashion and has a lot of places for improvement. He also commented that “You don’t just want to recreate real life in the metaverse; you want to be pushing boundaries and going crazy with your designs, show spectacles, and the experience,”. An example of this includes cats walking instead of models on Dolce & Gabbana catwalk.

Scenes from the Decentraland’s MVfW (Photo Credit: WWD)

For me, the cherry on the top of this event was the in-avatar performance by Grimes. She was dressed in a ‘mystique’ inspired dress by AUROBOROS which is a fashion house with futuristic otherworldly designed dresses.

Grimes’s performance at MVFW

References:

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6 December 2021
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Facebook’s metaverse is insignificant

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The idea behind Facebook’s Metaverse is brilliant. It truly is. But I find it incredibly difficult to believe hordes of people would buy Facebook’s headsets with a 1080p camera and stereo mic. Personally, I wouldn’t like to meet with people wearing any data harvesters from Facebook on their bodies. By wearing Facebook’s products, you surrender your privacy. Simple as that.

I really don’t want to talk about Zuckerberg’s latest project because I only give him free publicity by doing so. But it’s essential to make my point.

Metaverse is ambitious. In fact, too ambitious. Facebook believes they can build the whole world right away, and to be fair, they are delusional. Let’s assume Metaverse exists for a second, though. The problem of this digital world is three-fold. Firstly, as a developer, you don’t know anything about writing programs that would run on Metaverse. Secondly, the programming language lacks libraries and frameworks to enable developers to create apps efficiently. Thirdly, there’s no user base with devices. Zero. Facebook sold like a dozen oculus sets, but that’s it.

In short, sure, the hype factor is here, and everyone is excited about Metaverse. But still, without any of the above three aspects, Metaverse doesn’t exist outside of Facebook’s marketing team.

On the other side of the “spectrum” are Apple, Google, and Microsoft. Apple is told to release its next “big thing” in the next year. The next big thing will be either a VR or AR headset. No matter which headset Apple will introduce, Apple’s digital world will outgrow Facebook’s Metaverse from day one.

source: The Wall Street Journal

The graph above illustrates the projection of sales of AR glasses in the upcoming three years. As you can see, it’s forecasted that Apple will sell almost five times more units than Facebook will, only in the first year. What’s more, in 2025, Facebook is predicted to be the second smallest player on the market.

The reason Apple will destroy the competition lies in the above three factors that are absolutely essential for creating the digital universe. And Apple, one year before the predicted release of AR glasses, already fulfills 3 out of 3 factors.

Around six years ago, Apple introduced its new programming language – check. In 2017, they released ARKit – a set of APIs, libraries, and frameworks for working with AR objects and AR realties – check. And lastly, Apple has been building a user base since the day iPhone launched (now standing at whopping 900 million active iPhones) – check. And a great majority of the active iPhones can run AR apps.

That gives Apple essentially all there is to dominate the AR market overnight by simply pushing a software update. What’s more, the developer base already knows the process of developing AR apps for iOS.

Now let’s talk about another critical aspect – computing power. To run AR programs, you need enormous computing power. The hardware must run tens of billions of operations every second, fit in a small box, and be highly energy-efficient (meaning how many operations you can make out of a battery charge). And wow, what a surprise! For more than ten years, Apple has been developing precisely these kinds of chips. The ones that are both extremely energy efficient and have unmatched performance. This fact already creates a tremendously significant competitive advantage over Facebook.

Another significant aspect of AR is the number of use cases. With Facebook’s oculus, you can play games, call friends and watch some videos on youtube. I’d say that’s pretty limited. Thus, to survive, Metaverse will need to extend capabilities that will take time to develop. Apple will offer many more, besides the above use cases, such as maps, music, tv, podcasts, and fitness services from the launch day. So, the services that Apple offers are much more wide-ranging than Facebook’s offering.

Closing Thoughts

This relatively long analysis was supposed to show you why Facebook’s Metaverse has no significant future and how their competition will relegate them to the background in the upcoming years. Facebook’s failure will lie in almost every area of creating the digital world, starting with the user base with digital-world-running capabilities, going through chip performance, and ending on limited use cases.

Of course, the subject of the digital world becomes much more complex when we start discussing the effects of living on the internet on the human psyche. For now, though, I wanted to focus only on the technological aspects of this matter.

Sources

  1. https://apple.news/AtYXmEPvoR-qtFfTxGb9v0g
  2. https://www.aboveavalon.com/notes/2019/5/30/apples-billion-users
  3. https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-10-29/meta-needs-to-change-more-than-just-its-name
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1 December 2021
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The Power of VR

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https://www.trustedreviews.com/wp-content/uploads/sites/54/2020/09/Oculsu-Quest-2-e1599493662386.png

What is VR?
VR, a common abbreviation of the words Virtual Reality, is a technology used to methaphorically transport its user into a different, virtual world. The most common ways of achieving said task are through the use of goggles, helmets, or glasses that use LED displays and lenses to show 3d imagery right in front of the user’s eyes, in real-time.
Some of the more well-known companies that focus their efforts on the development of VR are:

  • Oculus by Facebook
  • HTC
  • Valve


VR in entertainment
It wouldn’t be fair to talk about VR without mentioning what is its birthplace and most popular spot, the entertainment industry. The first Virtual Reality headsets have been created with the projection of visual entertainment in mind and to this day, it is their most common use.

Some people consider this type of content a niche, requiring specialized (and not cheap) equipment in a form of a headset, usually in addition to an already expensive computer capable of handling the calculations needed to run Virtual Reality.

However, the VR market seems to be doing just fine and is steadily growing, its size sitting currently at 4,8 billion USD$, 1,4 billion of which is from video games alone. With 6 million headsets sold in the last 12 months, the amount of people in possession of the technology capable of running the complicated software is increasing. It wouldn’t be a far cry to say that it may soon start to rival the sales produced by more mainstream products, like Play-station, which sold 12 million units this year.

VR in Training

The other interesting use for VR is practise. For example, when pilots train to “earn their wings”, they are often put in front of a flight simulator. This expensive piece of equipment is used to get the user familiar with the complicated art of flying a plane. However, the cost of this training could be greatly reduced if one would emoply VR. The large, expensive displays could be replaced by a single head-set that would provide immersive 360 degrees of visuals while also allowing the instructors to monitor what exactly the trainee is focusing on during the flight.

However, Aviation isn’t the only field in which Virtual reality is used to train rookies. Recently, a german company by the name of Refence adapted the technology to fulfill the needs of law enforcement. Using a large, empty room, tracking cameras and virtual markers, they are able to put people into an infinite ammount of difficult scenarios which would be impossible to recreate without said technology. Bank robberies, hostage situations and other dangerous situation can all be accuratly depicted and used to get the police force used to dealing with such high-risk factors.
Additionally, the virtual set-up allows for perfect tracking of each of the moves that officers make, where their weapon was pointing and recreation of the entire action, making learning from ones mistakes much much easier.

Conclusion

VR is a piece of technology that is still in its infantile age, yet it is able provide us with so much. One can only imagine where it will take us in the following years and to assume that it’s going to slightly grow is a huge understatement. Anyone who has even the slightest interest in technology shouldn’t turn the blind eye to this piece of hardware, which one day will change the world.

Sources:
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality/history.html
https://www.statista.com/topics/2532/virtual-reality-vr/
https://www.geospatialworld.net/blogs/why-and-how-virtual-reality-is-growing/
https://www.vrs.org.uk/virtual-reality-applications/engineering.html#:~:text=Virtual%20reality%20engineering%20includes%20the,or%20potential%20risks%20before%20implementation.
https://screenrant.com/ps5-first-sales-year-short-ps4/#:~:text=Sony%20reported%20that%20it%20sold,life%20cycle%20(via%20Engadget).
https://www.refense.com/


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22 October 2017
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Augmented Reality – new gateway for E-commerce

Reading Time: 3 minutesMany were exposed to augmented reality in 2016 with hit game Pokemon GO, which placed gaming animations within in the real world scenario through a smart camera lens. Augmented reality isn’t just for gaming. Over in the next few years, you will see it expand into other industries like healthcare, books, and of course augmented reality e-commerce.

With the launch of iPhone X and ARkit, Now apple can be involved in the world of augmented reality. Google has similarly been experimenting with smartphone AR  since it showed off Project TAngo in 2014.  After three years company has some great technology but very little in the way of actual users.Google is signaling a reactionary shift in its strategy by releasing a developer preview of ARCore. Google’s ARCore is the answer to   Apple’s ARKit.

So what does it mean? ARCore and ARKit are the ways independent programmers and companies can create an augmented reality for your smartphone. They are not “the apps,” but they are how one would “create the apps.”

Both Apple and Google are making AR central to their mobile experience. That means companies creating new digital customer experiences can start thinking about how to harness AR for e-commerce purposes. Brands can extend the interactive and transnational experience to customers wherever they are as long as they have a mobile device in hand.

Augmented reality eCommerce can personalize the shopping experience for your customers. AR is arranged in such a way that it will increase sales by allowing customers to try before buying and, in turn, reduce returns by removing the initial guesswork. Customers want to know what they’re purchasing and AR is helping customers become more confident in their buying decisions while providing quantifiable differences for online merchants.

Overtime there will be tools that will change fashion industry . Which will allow customers to see what clothes look like on them or that show the actual size of the furniture in your space. Instead of an online store showing models wearing clothing, Customers may even able too see themselves in all of the outfits to know which will look on them and this will bring out huge revolution in online retail industry.

 

So to sum up AR has the potential to deliver these personalizes services to masses. it will change the perspective of online stores that we see today by giving a personalized shopping experience , guided by a knowledgeable curator who knows an individual shoppers style ,sizes and preferences which paves way to a new world of eCommerce

Sources :

Augmented Reality for Ecommerce

https://www.oberlo.com/blog/best-augmented-reality-ecommerceexamples

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11 November 2015
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Virtual reality taught the user to hit

Reading Time: < 1 minuteResearchers have developed a device for transmitting the physical sensation of colliding with an object in the virtual reality.

Wearable bracelet consists of a motherboard Arduino, which is connected to the Bluetooth-module, solenoid, 3D-printing area, simulating the desired surface, batteries and electrodes.

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15 October 2015
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One more use of Virtual Reality

Reading Time: 2 minutesVideo games fans cannot wait until virtual reality becomes widely available and the tech companies have made a point of honor of making their dreams come true. What seemed, until recently, to be possible only in science fiction stories is expected to become a reality by the end of the year. Oculus Rift, vrAse, PlayStation VR, VR Samsung or HTC Vive are already present on market or will enter it any moment to make playing even more attractive.

One more use of HTC Vive was discovered by one of the Valve Corporation employees, who is working with HTC on a virtual reality headset. This time he decided to play a game called LIFE and using goggles to proposed to his girlfriend in a test room in the Valve headquarters. Kelly Tortoorice, the future bride, posted on her Facebook:

So there I was, typical day… on a sunken ship deck; fixing robots; painting three-dimensional fire; walking through the Alps; and then suddenly, a virtual engagement ring started floating my way.

 

vr marriage

Then she took headset off and saw her boyfriend on the knees with a real ring. The fiancée seemed to be positively surprised. Apparently she did not consider the idea of her boyfriend insufficiently romantic, because she said YES.

What will come next? A pair of VR goggles for everyone instead of wedding invitations? The honeymoon without leaving home? What about the wedding night…?

It would be much easier to create your dream wedding in a virtual reality, but still I’m for the traditional one. On the other hand every girl wants to hear: ‘You are so special that I decided to be the first man on Earth to propose a marriage in the Virtual Reality.’

But unfortunately guys, this pick-up line is already taken.

 

Sources: http://arstechnica.com/gaming/2015/10/valve-employee-uses-virtual-reality-to-propose-real-life-marriage/

ww.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10153670151235561&set=a.452950420560.229937.636360560&type=3

 

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