12 #EmergingTechnologies aiming to transform #UX (#AI #AR #ML #bigdata #IoT) https://t.co/1DO0qwjNc0 HT @MikeQuindazzi #LTW #VivaTech pic.twitter.com/wWahBIc0qD
— Evan Kirstel (@evankirstel) June 14, 2017
From Apple itself:
- Apple Special Event. June 5, 2017 <— recording of today’s keynote address
- HomePod reinvents music in the home
San Jose, California — Apple today announced HomePod, a breakthrough wireless speaker for the home that delivers amazing audio quality and uses spatial awareness to sense its location in a room and automatically adjust the audio. Designed to work with an Apple Music subscription for access to over 40 million songs, HomePod provides deep knowledge of personal music preferences and tastes and helps users discover new music.
…
As a home assistant, HomePod is a great way to send messages, get updates on news, sports and weather, or control smart home devices by simply asking Siri to turn on the lights, close the shades or activate a scene. When away from home, HomePod is the perfect home hub, providing remote access and home automations through the Home app on iPhone or iPad.
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Apple unveils all-new App Store
- iPad Pro, in 10.5-inch and 12.9-inch models, introduces the world’s most advanced display and breakthrough performance
iOS 11, Coming This Fall, Brings New Features That Make iPad Pro Even More Powerful — including a new Files app and the ability to drag and drop text, photos and files from one app to another.
. - iOS 11 brings powerful new features to iPhone and iPad this fall
Excerpt:
Apple is introducing a new platform for developers to help them bring high-quality AR experiences to iPhone and iPad using the built-in camera, powerful processors and motion sensors in iOS devices. ARKit allows developers to tap into the latest computer vision technologies to build detailed and compelling virtual content on top of real-world scenes for interactive gaming, immersive shopping experiences, industrial design and more.
. - macOS High Sierra delivers advanced technologies for storage, video and graphics
Excerpt:
Apple today previewed macOS High Sierra, the latest version of the world’s most advanced desktop operating system, delivering new core storage, video and graphics technologies that pave the way for future innovation on the Mac. macOS High Sierra offers an all-new file system, support for High-Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) and an update to Metal, Apple’s advanced graphics technology that powers everything from machine learning to virtual reality content creation.
Also see:
The 8 biggest announcements from Apple WWDC 2017 — from theverge.copm by Natt Garun
Excerpt:
Apple introduced a new ARKit to let developers build augmented reality apps for the iPhone. The kit can help find planes, track motion, and estimate scale and ambient lighting. Popular apps like Pokémon Go will also use ARKit for improved real-time renders.
Rather than requiring external hardware like Microsoft’s HoloLens, Apple seems to be betting on ARKit to provide impressive quality imaging through a device most people already own. We’ll know more on how the quality actually compares when we get to try it out ourselves.
Everything Apple Announced Today at WWDC — from wired.com by Arielle Pardes
Excerpt:
On Monday, over 5,000 developers packed the San Jose Convention Center to listen to Tim Cook and other Apple execs share the latest innovations out of Cupertino. Over the course of two and a half hours, the company unveiled its most powerful Mac yet, a long-awaited Siri speaker, and tons of new software upgrades across all of the Apple platforms, from your iPhone to your Apple Watch. Missed the keynote speech? Here’s a recap of the nine biggest announcements from WWDC 2017.
Apple is launching an iOS ‘ARKit’ for augmented reality apps — from theverge.com by Adi Robertson
Excerpt:
Apple has announced a tool it calls ARKit, which will provide advanced augmented reality capabilities on iOS. It’s supposed to allow for “fast and stable motion tracking” that makes objects look like they’re actually being placed in real space, instead of simply hovering over it.
Apple is finally bringing virtual reality to the Mac – from businessinsider.com by Matt Weinberger
Excerpt:
Apple is finally bringing virtual reality support to its Mac laptops and desktops, bringing the company up to speed with what many see as the next phase of computing.
At Monday’s Apple WWDC event in San Jose, the company announced that with this fall’s MacOS High Sierra update, the Mac will support external graphics hardware — meaning you can plug in a box and greatly increase your machine’s graphical capabilities.
In turn, that external hardware will give the Mac the boost it needs to support virtual reality headsets, which require superior performance to create an immersive experience.
Ed Dept. Names Finalists for Virtual and Augmented Reality Competition — from campustechnology.com by Sri Ravipati
Excerpt:
The finalists are:
- Case Western Reserve University, which developed “Holographic Anatomy to Transform Healthcare,” a simulation that provides an alternative to using cadavers to teach medical anatomy. Combining the Microsoft HoloLens and the VR experience, medical students can practice dissection techniques in a virtual environment.
- Embodied Labs for a series of VR patient experiences called “The Alfred Lab,” designed to teach students how to take better care of elderly populations.
- Octothorpe, the creator behind “The Irregular: Sherlock Holmes,” which challenges students to work together on chemistry and psychology problems.
- Osso VR, for its realistic, hands-on orthopaedic surgical training platform; and
- Smart Sparrow, an education company that created “LifeCraft,” which explores life on Earth through various archaeology, biology and astronomy expeditions.
109 ways companies are using virtual & augmented reality right now — from metavrse.com by Alan Smithson
Excerpt:
By 2035, Citi Financial Estimates the vCommerce industry to be worth $1.3 trillion. Yes, that is trillion with a “T”, we’re talking 4 comma club! Now that is a massive number and surely not all of this is from virtual and augmented reality… or is it. According to VR evangelist and author of the Fourth Transformation, A book about the transformative potential of VR/AR, Robert Scoble suggests ‘Users will start expecting brands to have mixed reality experiences in 2018.
Lithodomosvr.com: Archaeology Virtual Reality Content for Tourism, Education and Entertainment
An excerpt from their website:
Head mounted virtual reality devices have an enormous potential to provide non-destructive immersive experiences for visitors to archaeological sites and museums as well as for researchers and educators. By creating a model that suggests an anastylosis of a building, the user can simply put on a headset and view the streetscape and its suggested reconstruction.
VR simulations are a much cheaper and more flexible solution than on-site physical reconstruction. Of course, necessary checks and measures are important to signify what is certain and what is guesswork, and as such, Lithodomos adheres to section 2.4 of the ICOMOS Charter for the Interpretation and Presentation of Cultural Heritage Sites.
By using photogrammetry, texturing and mesh modelling, Lithodomos VR creates immersive experiences of the Greek and Roman worlds for viewing on Virtual Reality Head Mounted devices, for example: the Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard and many others. Unlike many VR content creators, our point of difference is that we specialse in VR content for the Greek and Roman worlds. Our reconstructions stem from years of research and firsthand knowledge, and they reflect the best academic practices to ensure that the end product is both as accurate as can be possible and informative for the viewer.
From DSC:
The use of virtual reality in industries such as architecture, construction, and real estate is growing. Below are some articles that speak to this trend.
In the future, it’s highly likely we’ll be able to get a nice VR-based tour of a space before building it, or renting it, or moving into it. Schools and universities will benefit from this as well, as they can use VR to refine the vision for a space with the appropriate stakeholders and donors.
Coming Soon: A Virtual Reality Revolution — from builderonline.com by Jennifer Goodman
American consumers will soon expect homes to be viewable before they are built. Are you ready?
Excerpt:
In what ways are builders using VR today?
There are two primary uses of the panoramic style VR that I mentioned above being used: 1) photography based experiences and 2) computer generated (CG) experiences. The former is getting quite a bit of traction right now through technologies like Matterport. They are what I consider a modern version of iPix, using a camera to photograph an existing environment and special software to move through the space. But it is limited to real world environments. The CG experiences don’t require the environments to be built which gives builders a huge advantage to pre-market their properties. And since it is computer generated, there is a tremendous amount of flexibility in what is presented, such as various structural options or cabinet selections. And not only homes! Developers are using the technology to market the amenities of a new master planned community.
Local builders step further into virtual reality — from richmondbizsense.com by Jonathan Spiers
Excerpt:
While 3D modeling and online virtual tours have become more commonplace in the home design industry, at least one local builder is taking the custom home building and buying process into a new dimension.
At a recent preview event for this year’s Homearama, an annual home design showcase to be held this May at Chesterfield County’s NewMarket Estates, Midlothian-based Lifestyle Home Builders let attendees virtually walk through and look around a completed version of the house it is building – while standing within the same unfinished home under construction.
Participants were invited to wear virtual reality (VR) headsets for a full immersion, 360-degree experience, or they could navigate the finished product via a virtual tour on a computer screen. LifeStyle is using the technology, which it adapted from building information modeling (BIM) and off-the-shelf software, to allow homebuyers a chance to see their custom home before it is built and make any changes prior to construction starting.
How Virtual Reality Could Revolutionize The Real Estate Industry — from forbes.com by Azad Abbasi
Excerpt:
Consider the top two hurdles of the average real estate agent:
- Agents have to manage the time it takes to go from one visit to the other, dealing with traffic among other elements out of their control.
- The most commonly heard phrase in real estate is, “It doesn’t look like the pictures.”
Virtual reality can help immediately resolve both of these issues. It offers the possibility to virtually visit a lot more homes in a lot less time. This will naturally increase sales efficiency, as well as allow the ability to see more potential buyers.
Here are three different options you can explore using virtual reality to heighten real estate experiences:
From DSC:
After reviewing the article and video (below), it will be interesting to see how machine-to-machine (M2M) communications will be used in combination with augmented reality — and perhaps with virtual reality and mixed reality as well. That is, get to within a certain range of an object, and something automatically happens on your mobile device or your head mounted device. Perhaps that’s the sort of thing Apple is building into their next smart phone. It would sure open up some interesting learning and entertainment-related experiences — as such new affordances could help foster anticipation and curiosity, while grabbing someone’s attention.
This type of thing could easily become a piece of the future of art and creativity.
Mini-Mirages Emerge in an Augmented Reality Art Exhibition — from creators.vice.com by Nathaniel Ainley
Adrien M and Claire B’s latest series of installations basically looks like Harry Potter magic come to life.
Excerpt:
Even in its early beta stages, the new live exhibition from digital artists Adrien M and Claire B will have you rubbing your eyes in disbelief. Throughout their Mirages & Miracles display, the artist duo uses wondrous applications of augmented reality to create an orchestra of new installations, both small and large. Much like their live dance performance work at BAM, the new bundle merges the digital with the material, blurring the lines between what is real and what is fake. The multi-pronged ensemble uses augmented drawings, holographic illusions, virtual-reality headsets, and large-scale projections to create a number of unbelievable scenarios “that take root in both the mirage and the miracle,” according to the duo.
Mirages & miracles, premier aperçu… from Adrien M & Claire B on Vimeo.
Adobe unveils new Microsoft HoloLens and Amazon Alexa integrations — from geekwire.com by Nat Levy
Introducing the AR Landscape — from medium.com by Super Ventures
Mapping out the augmented reality ecosystem
Alibaba leads $18M investment in car navigation augmented reality outfit WayRay — from siliconangle.com by Kyt Dotson
Excerpt:
WayRay boasts the 2015 launch of Navion, what it calls the “first ever holographic navigator” for cars that uses AR technology to project a Global Positioning System, or GPS, info overlay onto the car’s windshield.
Just like a video game, users of the GPS need only follow green arrows projected as if onto the road in front of the car providing visual directions. More importantly, because the system displays on the windscreen, it does not require a cumbersome headset or eyewear worn by the driver. It integrates directly into the dashboard of the car.
The system also recognizes simple voice and gesture commands from the driver — eschewing turning of knobs or pressing buttons. The objective of the system is to allow the driver to spend more time paying attention to the road, with hands on the wheel. Many modern-day onboard GPS systems also recognize voice commands but require the driver to glance over at a screen.
Viro Media Is A Tool For Creating Simple Mobile VR Apps For Businesses — from uploadvr.com by Charles Singletary
Excerpt:
Viro Media is supplying a platform of their own and their hope is to be the simplest experience where companies can code once and have their content available on multiple mobile platforms. We chatted with Viro Media CEO Danny Moon about the tool and what creators can expect to accomplish with it.
Listen to these podcasts to dive into virtual reality — from haptic.al by Deniz Ergürel
We curated some great episodes with our friends at RadioPublic
Excerpt:
Virtual reality can transport us to new places, where we can experience new worlds and people, like no other. It is a whole new medium poised to change the future of gaming, education, health care and enterprise. Today we are starting a new series to help you discover what this new technology promises. With the help of our friends at RadioPublic, we are curating a quick library of podcasts related to virtual reality technology.
Psychologists using virtual reality to help treat PTSD in veterans — from kxan.com by Amanda Brandeis
Excerpt:
AUSTIN (KXAN) — Virtual reality is no longer reserved for entertainment and gamers, its helping solve real-world problems. Some of the latest advancements are being demonstrated at South by Southwest.
Dr. Skip Rizzo directs the Medical Virtual Reality Lab at the University of Southern California’s Institute for Creative Technologies. He’s helping veterans who suffer from post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). He’s up teamed with Dell to develop and spread the technology to more people.
NVIDIA Jetson Enables Artec 3D, Live Planet to Create VR Content in Real Time — from blogs.nvidia.com
While VR revolutionizes fields across everyday life — entertainment, medicine, architecture, education and product design — creating VR content remains among its biggest challenges.
Excerpt:
At NVIDIA Jetson TX2 launch [on March 7, 2017], in San Francisco, [NVIDIA] showed how the platform not only accelerates AI computing, graphics and computer vision, but also powers the workflows used to create VR content. Artec 3D debuted at the event the first handheld scanner offering real-time 3D capture, fusion, modeling and visualization on its own display or streamed to phones and tablets.
Project Empathy
A collection of virtual reality experiences that help us see the world through the eyes of another
Excerpt:
Benefit Studio’s virtual reality series, Project Empathy is a collection of thoughtful, evocative and surprising experiences by some of the finest creators in entertainment, technology and journalism.
Each film is designed to create empathy through a first-person experience–from being a child inside the U.S. prison system to being a widow cast away from society in India. Individually, each of the films in this series presents its filmmaker’s unique vision, portraying an intimate experience through the eyes of someone whose story has been lost or overlooked and yet is integral to the larger story of our global society. Collectively, these creatively distinct films weave together a colorful tapestry of what it means to be human today.
Work in a high-risk industry? Virtual reality may soon become part of routine training — from ibtimes.cok.uk by Owen Hughes
Immersive training videos could be used to train workers in construction, mining and nuclear power.
At Syracuse University, more students are getting ahold of virtual reality — from dailyorange.com by Haley Kim
As Instructors Experiment With VR, a Shift From ‘Looking’ to ‘Interacting’ — from edsurge.com by Marguerite McNeal
Excerpt:
Most introductory geology professors teach students about earthquakes by assigning readings and showing diagrams of tectonic plates and fault lines to the class. But Paul Low is not most instructors.
“You guys can go wherever you like,” he tells a group of learners. “I’m going to go over to the epicenter and fly through and just kind of get a feel.”
Low is leading a virtual tour of the Earth’s bowels, directly beneath New Zealand’s south island, where a 7.8 magnitude earthquake struck last November. Outfitted with headsets and hand controllers, the students are “flying” around the seismic hotbed and navigating through layers of the Earth’s surface.
Low, who taught undergraduate geology and environmental sciences and is now a research associate at Washington and Lee University, is among a small group of profs-turned-technologists who are experimenting with virtual reality’s applications in higher education.
These University Courses Are Teaching Students the Skills to Work in VR — from uploadvr.com
Excerpt:
“As virtual reality moves more towards the mainstream through the development of new, more affordable consumer technologies, a way needs to be found for students to translate what they learn in academic situations into careers within the industry,” says Frankie Cavanagh, a lecturer at Northumbria University. He founded a company called Somniator last year with the aim not only of developing VR games, but to provide a bridge between higher education and the technology sector. Over 70 students from Newcastle University, Northumbria University and Gateshead College in the UK have been placed so far through the program, working on real games as part of their degrees and getting paid for additional work commissioned.
Working with VR already translates into an extraordinarily diverse range of possible career paths, and those options are only going to become even broader as the industry matures in the next few years.
Scope AR Brings Live, Interactive AR Video Support to Caterpillar Customers — from augmented.reality.news by Tommy Palladino
Excerpt:
Customer service just got a lot more interesting. Construction equipment manufacturer Caterpillar just announced official availability of what they’re calling the CAT LIVESHARE solution to customer support, which builds augmented reality capabilities into the platform. They’ve partnered with Scope AR, a company who develops technical support and training documentation tools using augmented reality. The CAT LIVESHARE support system uses Scope AR’s Remote AR software as the backbone.
New virtual reality tool helps architects create dementia-friendly environments — from dezzen.com by Jessica Mairs
Visual showing appearance of a room without and with the Virtual Reality Empathy Platform headset