Interesting articles about VR – week #27

Editorial: Google’s Long-Term Strategy Could Dominate VR/AR

Confidence is a prerequisite to enjoy VR’s magic. There are so many things that can go wrong wearing a VR headset and most of us know this before the goggles come down over our eyes. “Discomfort” doesn’t quite encapsulate the risk of wearing something that blocks your view of the real world. Just trying to lean on something that isn’t really there is potentially deadly. Headset manufacturers must overcome this problem to give people confidence to move freely.

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Product Test: The Insta360 is Hot, But is it Hot Enough to Make Us Care About 360° Video?

I was holding in my hands the Insta360, the hot new 360-degree camera that everyone was talking about, and of the two filmmakers who happened to be around while I was opening its shipping package, one was more impressed that it had been shipped over in a box that originally held an instant pot. The other bystander, an avowed 360 fan, was excited to play with it. We then tried to find a time in the next two weeks to get together and test it, and we couldn’t.

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Capturing depth: structured light, time of flight, and the future of 3D imaging

In a recent article, I looked at the demise of Lytro, maker of the first consumer “light field” camera, and what it meant for the future of this technology in mobile devices. As intriguing as some of its results might be, light field imaging isn’t the only option for capturing depth information and producing 3D images with mobile devices. One of the more interesting possibilities – one you might already be using – is the concept of “structured light,” a term that covers several related methods for adding depth information to otherwise ordinary “2D” photography.

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Why the Virtual-Reality Hype is About to Come Crashing Down

Makers of virtual-reality headsets think 2016 will be the year of VR. The experience “is radically different than any computing experience you’ve had before,” says Marc Metis, a vice president at HTC Corp. 2498 -4.17% , maker of the Vive headset.

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15+ Best RPG Games for Virtual Reality in 2018

The time has come. We’ve discussed all kinds of genres and shades of games here at the site, but it’s time to talk about one of the really big ones. A genre that’s going to help determine whether or not we really kick off well as an industry. It’s time to map out the landscape of role playing games in virtual reality, and what titles we believe, deserves the title as an awesome VR RPG worth checking out. Buckle up, folks.

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The Virtual Arena: The New Drive For Out-Of-Home VR (Part 1)

What a difference a month makes! We enter June to a cacophony of announcements regarding major LB-VR projects and new hardware using powerful Intellectual Properties (IP), deployment aimed squarely at virtual reality (VR) and the digital out-of-home entertianment (DOE) scene. Industry specialist, Kevin Williams continues his retrospective of developments in this emerging market.

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HOW TO MAKE A MIXED REALITY VIDEO FROM UNITY AND STEAMVR

X Reality (XR or Cross Reality) can be used as an umbrella term for virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), and augmented reality (AR). XR incorporates a wide range of tools (both hardware and software) that enable content creation for VR, MR, AR, and cinematic reality (CR) by bringing either digital objects into a physical world or bringing physical objects into a digital world. The term XRis flexible, that is why it features “X” which represents a variable that isn’t fully specified and means that an open ecosystem will continue to extend.

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Google Launches Its AR Measuring App, Measure

Want to measure how Apple and Google are doing in the AR race? Well you could look to both company’s actual measuring apps, both called Measure.

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VR PILOT TRAINING NOW COMES WITH A SENSE OF TOUCH

Aviation simulators—the most valuable training tool pilots have—have to get things right. The instrument panel. The wind and the rain. The response of the aircraft when you flip a switch or pull on the yoke. It all must be as high fidelity, as true to life, as possible. Otherwise, pilots risk uncertainty or disorientation when transferring their simulated experience to the real world.

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World Cup soccer in 3D on your coffee table

What if any flat surface in your home could become a holographic playing field hosting your favorite team? 
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