Category Archives: VR

Mark Zuckerberg Shares Ideas About what Smart Glasses Could Do

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Mark Zuckerberg was interviewed by The Information in a 45 minute special edition bonus episode. In it, Alex Heath and Mathew Olsen spoke with Mark Zuckerberg about the promise of augmented virtual reality.

According to CNBC, Mark Zuckerberg said that by 2030, people could use smart glasses to “teleport” to other people’s homes, and speak to them as if they’re physically present. This could allow in-person meetings to be replaced by a headset-based digital experience. Zuckerberg thinks that “teleporting” could cause a reduction in travel for business or pleasure, which could help ameliorate the effects of climate change.

“Obviously, there are still going to be cars and planes and all that. But the more we can teleport around, not only are we personally eliminating commutes and stuff that’s kind of a drag for all of us, but I think that’s better for society and for the planet overall too,” Zuckerberg said.

Zuckerberg stated that years down the road, a pair of normal-looking computer-powered glasses that can display content alongside the real world through transparent displays would be how people could “teleport”.CNBC reported that Zuckrberg’s interview comes “as the social media company plans to release a pair of smart glasses in partnership with Ray-Ban later this year.” (Those glasses would not be “full AR”).

My biggest concern is that the smart glasses would require people to log into their Facebook account in order to use them. In October of 2020, Facebook required first time Oculus users to have a Facebook account.

Facebook has Acquired Scape Technologies

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TechCrunch reported that Facebook has acquired Scape Technologies. The company was founded in 2016 and is located in Shoreditch, London. Scape Technologies is building a cloud-based Vision Engine that allows camera devices to understand their environment, using computer vision.

Rather than relying on 3D maps built and stored locally, Scape’s Vision Engine builds and references 3D maps in the cloud, allowing devices to tap into a ‘shared understanding’ of an environment.

Initially focused on augmented reality, Scape’s first product is an SDK that allows AR content to be anchored to specific locations, outside and at an unprecedented scale.

A Facebook spokesperson confirmed to both TechCrunch, and Engadget: “We acquire smaller tech companies from time to time. We don’t always discuss our plans.” As such, we are left to speculate about why Facebook wanted to acquire Scape Technologies, and what the companies will create together.

Scape Technologies describes its Vision Engine as being built from scratch to process imagery from any source, resulting in a 3D representation of the environment. After the Vision Engine has created a 3D map, their ‘Visual Positioning Service’ determines the precise position of the camera devices, in the cloud. This allows Scape Technologies to achieve higher scalability and performance than any other approach.

To me, it sounds like the Vision Engine could be used to make a virtual reality game of some kind. In 2014, Facebook acquired Oculus VR for $2 billion.

Or, maybe Vision Engine could be used for other purposes. Scape Technologies says that its visual positioning service is currently available within London, but more cities will be announced shortly. They are also working on a public API that will allow any device to determine its location, given an image as an input, regardless of what use-case or platform you are targeting.

To me, this sounds like the Vision Engine could potentially be used for surveillance or law enforcement. That makes me very uncomfortable. Again, this is all speculation, and we will have to wait and see what happens.

Oculus Quest is an All-in-One VR System

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At Oculus Connect 5, CEO Mark Zuckerberg introduced Oculus Quest. It is their first all-in-one VR gaming system. Oculus Quest is intended to be released in the Spring of 2019 for $399 USD (presuming it receives authorization from the Federal Communications Commission). Oculus Quest has a 64GB headset.

Offering six degrees of freedom and Touch controllers, Oculus Quest makes it easy to jump right into the action – with no PC, no wires, and no external sensors. We have over 50 titles lined up for launch, with even more in the works including some of your favorite Rift games like Robo Recall, The Climb, and Moss.

Oculus Quest will ship with Touch, their intuitive controllers. Bundling them means that everything developers have learned about game design for Rift applies to Oculus Quest. This gives users the best VR gaming has to offer.

Oculus Insight was also unveiled. It is breakthrough technology that powers inside-out tracking, Guardian, and Touch controller tracking. In short, it tracks your exact position in real time without any external sensors. Guardian is “to help keep you safer while in VR”.

Overall, I think this is interesting. The ability to use Oculus Quest without having to connect it to a PC makes it easier for people to get into, especially those who are currently playing video games on consoles (and who don’t want to game on a PC).

Walmart will Train Workers with Oculus Go

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As someone who has spent several years working in retail environments, I know how boring and tedious training can be. Nobody wants to sit through videos, with awkward actors, who resolve customer service situations in ways that would never work in real life. Walmart might have found a way to make training less terrible for employees.

Walmart is providing Oculus Go virtual reality headsets to all of its stores in the United States. The headsets are part of a VR-based employee training program. Employees will use the headsets to access 45 activity-based modules created by STRIVR.

Walmart will send four headsets to every Walmart supercenter and two to every Neighborhood Market and discount store. More than 17,000 Oculus Go headsets will be in stores by the end of 2018.

The information on Walmart’s website states that every associate – including those on the floor who interact with customers the most – will have access to the same training that their managers and department managers do at the Academies.

One good thing about using a VR-based training is that employees can make mistakes in a virtual environment. I think that would be much less intimidating than having to make mistakes on the sales floor, with irate customers, while all of your coworkers watch you struggle.

Training videos make employees passively absorb information in a way that doesn’t match what happens on the sales floor. The Oculus Go VR activities are interactive, and can be done over and over again. That’s a much more interesting way to learn new skills and to perfect them.

Hospital VR Experience for Children at Wearable Technology Show

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It’s stressful enough as an adult to go into hospital for an operation or procedure. Much as you know it’s for your own good and the doctors are there for your benefit, hospitals are still unfamiliar territory for most people and there are machines which you’re not quite to sure what they do and whether the beeping noise is normal.

Imagine how much worse it is for children when they go into hospital: they’re already unwell and in pain, and now have to cope with strangers and scary machines. It’s all very intimidating – the child will be afraid and uncooperative.

To help with this, the team at JSC have developed a game-based VR experience for children where the child is taken through a medical procedure with the help of a friendly in-game character. The child gets a 1st person view, interacting with the characters and exploring the hospital in a fun way. The child sees it as a game and enjoys the experience, instead of being afraid.

When it comes to the real thing, the VR pre-experience increases the success of the procedure, reduces the child’s stress and anxiety, and increases the active participation of the child. Currently the medical procedures include injections, blood-taking, x-ray, anaesthesia and surgery.

JSC is a South Korean company and the interview at the Wearable Technology Show took place with the assistance of a translator. I spoke with SeHwan Lee, JSC’s Chief Business Development Officer, but it’s the translator’s voice in the interview.

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OnePlus Loop VR Review

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OnePlus LogoOnePlus is launching the next model in its wildly successful line of smartphones on 14 June and its going to do the launch in VR, basing the event on an orbiting spacestation called The Loop. Although the fourth phone from the Chinese outfit, it’s going to be the OnePlus 3 following on from the 1, 2 and X. I’ve personally bought the 1 and 2 after falling out with the Nexus 5.

To support the VR launch of the 3, OnePlus gave away 30,000 Loop VR headsets with purchasers paying only for the postage. Of course there was a massive rush, but I managed to snag one and it arrived today. It’s been developed in partnership with AntVR, who launched a VR system through Kickstarter in later 2014.

Here are a few snaps.

Loop VR in box

OnePlus Loop VR in box

OnePlus Loop VR Front

OnePlus Loop VR Lenses

OnePlus Loop VR Side

OnePlus Loop VR

OnePlus Loop VR

OnePlus Loop VR

I don’t have much experience with VR headsets but build quality is on the solid plastic side of things. The elastic headbands are adjustable and the lenses can be adjusted to three positions. I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s comfortable to wear but it’s probably what you’d expect from lump of plastic strapped to your face.

The smartphone slides in the front for the screen….and this is where it all came to a stop. How are you supposed to control the smartphone when it’s in headset? You can’t tap on anything as the phone’s on your head. Do you need a Bluetooth mouse or similar? The links to an AntVR app don’t seem to work and the OnePlus Loop VR is counting down to 14 June. I kind of assumed that Google Cardboard apps would work as common denominator on Android but no, that doesn’t seem to work either – I can’t seem to select any menu options.

Massively disappointed. All very much reminds me of 3D TVs….

I hope things improve once the OnePlus Loop VR app comes to life on 14 June but if any GNC readers want to educate me on the ways of VR headsets, please fill me in through the comments.

VRGO Moves in VR at Gadget Show Live

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VRGO logoAR and VR are lining up to be the next big thing and the headset space is filling out with plenty of competitors from Oculus Rift to Google Cardboard. Less obvious in the space are the motion controllers and other gadgets helping to make VR an immersive experience. Into this category falls the VRGO Chair, a hands-free motion controller that takes advantage of what we humans often do all too well – sitting down. Joe from VRGO gave me a demo of the VRGO Chair.

Originally a Kickstarter campaign, the VRGO was successfully funded back in December 2015, and won the second prize in the British Inventors’ Project at Gadget Show Live. Looking not too dissimilar to a flat-topped Weeble, the idea is that the VR player sits on the VRGO and controls their movement in the VR world by tilting or rotating the VRGO. It’s pretty cool and totally intuitive after only a few seconds.

VRGO Chair

The VRGO chair uses low latency Bluetooth to communicate with VR headsets, PCs, tablets and smartphones. The VRGO can mimic both analogue (joypad) and digital (keyboard) controllers, and simplistically the further you tilt, the faster you move. Sitting on the chair leaves the player’s hands free for other controllers.

The VRGO will be delivered to Kickstarter backers within the next month or so before going on sale at around GB£250. A lower cost version is in the works, aiming for a price of about £100.

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