News
About Netflix - Meet Netflix's First-Ever Anime Ambassador: VTuber N-ko Mei Kurono
Netflix rapidly grew their anime collection due to customer requests, and it comes to no surprise to us that they have further embraced the genre and fanbase by creating their own virtual ambassador. N-ko (pronounced e-nu-ko) Mei Kurono lives on the Netflix Anime YouTube channel introducing shows and being an ambassador to the Netflix anime community.
Video game industry wins first Oscar with documentary short Colette - The Verge
Last Sunday "Colette", a documentary film featured in Medal of Honor: Above and Beyond, was the winner for best documentary short at the 93rd Academy Awards. This is a first for the gaming industry and a well deserved award for this very powerful and well done documentary. Watch the full documentary on YouTube, but be mindful that some of the topics and imagery may be distressing.
60,000+ Facebook Employees Can Expense An Oculus Quest 2
This week Facebook announced that all employees can get reimbursed for the purchase of an Oculus Quest 2 as a health expense , according to a tweet by The Information reporter Alex Heath. We're hoping this expands to more companies and insurers since anyone who's played Beat Saber on expert can attest to how much of a cardio workout they've gotten. With the release of even more pure fitness experiences like Supernatural and FitXR we'd like to see subscriptions to these treated the same as a gym membership.
Experiences
Real VR Fishing
Whether you enjoy real life fishing or not, this is a prime example of a VR experience that draws in both lovers and haters of an activity to enjoy an experience. Last year's Together Edition update allowed you to enjoy a fishing experience with others, and the Spring Edition update adds new features and updates that makes this an even better experience. Including faster access to screenshots to capture the right moment when you're reeling in your latest catch. Available now on the Oculus and Steam stores.
Business
Resonai: Discover new realities. Vera for AR + 3D visual search.
Vera is an impressive looking enterprise-grade platform that transforms commercial buildings into digital twins. Pairing this digital twin of your location with AI and computer vision and your company's business data sets allows an impressive amount of data to be overlaid with AR. Things like self-guided tours, navigation with chevrons and distance information, and a contactless experience with pricing and description for items within your space are achieved without low maintenance. What this company offers sets the groundwork for pushing in-person experiences to the next level, solving dozens of issues teams have providing accurate data to power any AR experience.
Research
Virtual memory palaces: immersion aids recall
Fans of the BBC Sherlock series will recall that a memory palace (or method of loci) is a strategy used to increase data retention and recall by pairing physical spaces and sensory experience with information. This research paper investigates the use of virtual memory palaces as a way of increasing immersion and memory recall, and finds an increase compared to screen only experiences. This is an important paper, providing data that both virtual learning and working within VR may provide increased productivity and retention above just working on a computer screen.
One More Thing
Turn Your Quest Into NIGHT VISION Goggles! - YouTube
This is an experimental use of the Oculus Quest that lets you use a glitch in the pass-through IR mode to see in the dark. With the help of some extra IR lights to add additional infrared light outside this YouTuber is able to walk outside down his street safely. Thankfully this also makes it impossible to see into the windows of other houses with their lights on.
Commentary
In case you haven’t been paying too much attention to the companies behind the two largest VR headsets in the U.S. you may have missed the news that sales and support for VR is very high. Facebook reports that the Quest continues to sell “beyond our expectations” and HTC is releasing a new headset this year with more details during next week’s ViveCon 2021 taking place in ENGAGE (featured in issue 17 of the newsletter).
All of this is great news for the makers of the headsets so many of us have been using to have experiences at home. Support for the industry has hit record heights, and has past the tipping point where major industries now see it as a viable way forward. Both for their future product research and for enabling connected experiences that would not be possible using only screens and mobile devices.
If you're reading this, you are a part of the force pushing us into a better future. Thanks for that.
Are you planning on attending ViveCon? We'd love to hear about it on Twitter, where you can also find more events and timely information that doesn't make the weekly newsletter. We are constantly adding new entries into the Other Realities Directory if you're casually looking for more VR content to explore. And if you have any suggestions for the directory feel free to send them our way.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
Other Realities