News
LARVOL CEO Launches One Year in the Metaverse | Business Wire
Hearing about the future of VR without capitalizing on it will put most companies in a vulnerable position very soon. LARVOL, a provider of data and intelligence solutions for the pharmaceutical and biotech industry, announced that for one year they will be experimenting with their entire business exclusively within AR and VR. This is a transition we fully support. Moving the entire company into the Metaverse is a very bold move, and we'll be on the lookout for any updates to share on how this goes for them.
Space Pirate Arena Coming to Oculus Quest, Requires a Huge Playspace
If you’ve read our second journal entry on HMU enhancements you’ll know that one of the things we feel is missing in VR are more experiences that you share with others in the same room. With the upcoming release of Space Pirate Arena (pseudo-sequel to Space Pirate Trainer) we will see one of the first games for home VR that allows multiple players within the same play area and requires 33 feet (10 meters by 10 meters) of play space. This is not the first game to require a lot of space, but the first to come to the Oculus Quest.
Experiences
Accused #2
The story of apartheid in South Africa and its downfall doesn't always include the efforts of all its leaders and influences, so when we saw this experience placing the user in the shoes of Walter Sisulu we felt it was worth checking out. We were not disappointed. This animated documentary places you in the court room in the shoes of Sisulu as he fights for his life against a court and system intent on his downfall.
Experience Life In Tokyo from Eight Unique Perspectives in ‘Tokyo Origami,’ Available Now on the Oculus Quest Platform | Oculus
Cosm Studios released the next 4 videos of their eight-part miniseries on Tokyo, Japan. These slice of life vignettes are fun and depict life in Tokyo beyond what the world saw during the Olympic Games. With travel still restricted in the world this is a fun VR excursion to take a look into another culture via Oculus TV.
Reading
7 Myths and Misconceptions About VR Training - AIXR
Misinformation doesn't just effect politics. Anyone working with cutting edge technology has to counter myths and misunderstandings regarding what is and isn't possible or safe. This article gives seven myths regarding VR training and counters them with responses that may help convert skeptical HR departments into considering it for their company.
Health
VCU researchers are using VR ‘games’ as exercise therapy for individuals with Parkinson’s - VCU News - Virginia Commonwealth University
For some conditions physical therapy is the best remedy to help a person restore control of their body. The immersive VR games being created and tested in Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU) Motor Control Lab use the benefits of VR and applies that to therapies to help those with Parkinson's Disease and other conditions effecting motor control. Since this approach emerged from previous clinical trials involving pain relief and VR we may see American Medical Association (AMA) approved VR experiences as therapeutics in a few years.
Inspiration
Created a Passthrough Arm Scroll UI with Quest 2, MRTK & low-budget Haptics wristband 🤯 : OculusQuest
The Passthrough API has only been officially supported a few weeks and it's inspiring to see the demos and experiments being created. We found this post from Reddit user Simon993 (Simon Frübis if you want to connect on LinkedIn) really shows some of the potential for what future user interfaces could enable users to experience. Simon has also started a YouTube channel, and we're looking forward to seeing what other cool XR projects else he create.
One More Thing
AXIS: Use Your Body As A Game Controller by Refract Technologies — Kickstarter
Even though we've never tried these motion trackers we're excited by what they could deliver. Choices for motion tracking are still limited so the AXIS is coming along at a very good time to create a product that could shake things up. The tagline "Built by gamers and tested by professional athletes" isn't just marketing speak (check out this video of virtual Taekwondo), and they are working with other organizations to help make virtual events (eSports) an Olympic event in 2028.
Commentary
In last issue we featured an article describing some of the some of the not-so-great funding models, and wanted to share a few content creators that we follow that are doing a great job turning their VR performances into NFTs. Using cryptocurrencies and art is another way of funding future work and creating something of value, and is much better than speculation over virtual land:
That's kind of an aside, since this issue doesn't really focus on NFTs or performance art. This week we actually had too many links to share, and took a little extra time pairing things down to the ones we felt were most important. Curation is possibly the most difficult aspect of putting together this weekly newsletter. That is, unless you all want 30 links every week with much less context. Probably not. But let us know if you prefer more links on Twitter.
This week we feel the common thread in all of the links is that we are living in a time of an early Metaverse. Everything shown exists demonstrating things that would have been almost unheard of even 5 years ago, but are just a normal part of evolving the technology to better adapt into daily real world usage. From a company committing to working fully in VR (the first news item this week) to VR in physical therapy (health item of the week) it is amazing that we've reached the point where the technology is more advanced than what we have created with it.
What a time to be alive!
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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