This week our Spanish version of Life in Gawair launched with El Pais and was a great success. In the multi-media experience you will meet different characters from Gawair, Dhaka, Bangladesh via 360 video, comics and text. You will learn about their lives, their experience as climate refugees as well as working inside a garment factory. Special emphasis on education was given … Read More
January VR/AR News #3: the VR White House, New Tech Projects and Empathy in Gaming
For Salon, Games for Change president Susanna Pollack discussed the power that VR games can have on encouraging compassion. “VR in itself, I think whether it’s a game or a story telling experience is a great opportunity for teaching empathy,” said Pollack. “We’re talking about the first-person and the role-playing opportunity to actually be immersed in an environment that you … Read More
January VR/AR News #2: AR/VR market growth, social connection and how museums might change
Google is partnering with museums to enhance visitors’ experiences with its augmented reality platform Tango. Starting with the Detroit Institute of Arts, Google is using the Tango-enabled Lenovo Phab 2 Pro, which is geared towards AR, to bring history to life. “Advanced sensors not usually seen in a phone are used to map depth and scale, which allows digital overlays to be … Read More
January VR/AR News #1: Predictions for 2017
Happy new year to you all – for our first post of the New Year, we are sharing some predictions for VR and AR in 2017. With the success of Pokémon Go, 2016 proved to be the year of AR. This will continue to be true in 2017, as Snapchat just brought Cimagine Media, which uses AR to sell products. … Read More
December VR/AR News #4: AR audio, post-VR sadness and music in VR
Around the world, more and more developer spaces are being devoted to VR and AR startups “to share resources, experiment, and network.” These include the Upload Collective in San Francisco and the Realities Centre, which opened earlier this month in London. Game designer Jack de Quidt talks with Jason Rubin, the head of content at Oculus, about how the technology company can embrace … Read More
December VR/AR News #3: new Samsung hardware, virtual world building and our bodies in VR
Samsung announced it is working on a successor to the Gear VR headset and a mixed reality device that The Verge compares to the Microsoft HoloLens or Magic Leap. Google has partnered with British startup Improbable, which according to Wired, “offers a new way of building virtual worlds, including not just immersive games à la Second Life or World of Warcraft, but … Read More
December VR/AR News #2: Oculus Touch, Vive Studios and VR trends in 2017
Storyboard VR is a new product from Artefact that according to Wired, makes creating VR experiences easier and accessible to a larger audience. “It doesn’t require any developer skills. The real pain point in the whole VR workflow is getting content positioned, spatialized, and sized correctly around you in multiple frames,” Paul Hoover, head of user experience design at Artefact, told … Read More
December VR/AR News #1: Gender and tech, murder in VR and dinosaurs
Craig Newmark, the founder of craigslist, highlights five women in VR as part of the Women Startup Challenge, which is “showcasing and funding innovative, women-led startups focusing on Artificial Intelligence (AI), Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) that are solving problems for people, businesses and the planet.” Newmark’s picks include Liv Erickson, a VR developer at Microsoft who was part … Read More
November VR/AR News #4: Project Alloy, social VR and the making of Pokemon Go
For fun: In an animated video, John Hanke, the CEO of Niantic, explores how the company made Pokemon Go and the future of AR. This holiday season could be what introduces virtual reality to a mainstream audience. According to The Washington Post, “Research firm IDC estimates that consumers — particularly gamers — will snap up 9.6 million virtual reality headsets by … Read More
November VR/AR News #3: NASA, chord-free headsets and a new way to experience Google Earth
For fun: Google Earth in VR. Listen to the product manager and engineering lead talk about the project. Apple is finally getting on the bandwagon and inserting augmented reality technology into the iPhone camera app, a source told Business Insider. According to Business Insider, “The effort, which involves teams from several acquired startups, reflects Apple’s near-term desire to put augmented reality technology … Read More