News
The world’s first hologram zoo opens and it could be the future of how we see animals // Wired
Axiom Holographics is doing something that PETA will surely love, allowing zoo visitors a human-animal interaction without needing to keep an actual animal in captivity. The pilot has launched in Australia and is already a success. Hopefully we'll see a few more of these experiences rolling out globally, and perhaps with animals that have gone extinct or that we could never approach in real life.
The last phase of the Lynx-R1 production has started // Lynx
We haven't mentioned the Lynx R1 since issue 48 in 2021 because there wasn't much to say, but as of this month it looks like this new mixed reality headset is close to full production. In a world where your competition now includes Apple it will be very interesting where this will fit within a market slowly getting more competitors.
Experiences
Career Women // Tokyo Origami
This eight part VR miniseries is a collection of shorts puts a spotlight on the changing perceptions around culture, counter-culture, religion, and all other facets of life within Tokyo. We recommend starting with episode 1, which is probably our favorite among a series of pretty interesting stories.
Event
FIVARS - Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories - FilmFreeway
The Festival of International Virtual & Augmented Reality Stories is already well known to artists and immersive content creators (also to fans of Voices of VR podcast), and they have extended the submission deadline until next September 7th to be in the next festival set to take place September 15 – 25. If you're a AR/VR creator or know someone working in this space doing amazing work you should seriously consider entering.
Research
A Study to Assess the Feasibility of Utilising Virtual Reality for the Treatment of Accommodative and Vergence Infacility // BIOJ
Researchers at the University of KwaZulu-Natal explored VR as a therapy for patients suffering from ocular disorders. Participants in the experimental group who engaged in 25 minutes of VR gaming exhibited notable improvements compared to a control group. This hint at the potential of VR as an alternative therapeutic tool for certain vision issues. Hopefully a larger trial will happen in the future to confirm and expand on the study's results.
Gear
Revopoint Inspire 3D Scanner // Kickstarter
We love the Revopoint POP2 we backed a few years ago, and are pretty stoked to see an advanced iteration of this hand-held 3D scanner as a new campaign. We'll have to dive a bit deeper into the specs before we make a decision but if you're looking for a portable handheld 3D scanner this could be your entry model scanner at an affordable price.
Learning
Lessons From Theatre That Can Transform XR Experiences // YouTube
This Game Designer Conference (GDC) 2021 session does an amazing service to everyone by sharing how developers and anyone interested in interactive experiences can learn better storytelling by looking to theater for inspiration. But the value in looking to theater doesn't stop there. We won't spoil it for you but there are a few other benefits to learn from this alternative creative process..
Inspiration
Using my monitor as a digital whiteboard // Twitter
Drawing on a whiteboard is useful, but being able to mark up what you see on your screen is possibly better. Not needing to rely on controllers in favor of a more natural movement really shows some thought in how to approach this problem. We hope this gets more work to go beyond a fun demo and makes its way into a productivity applications soon.
Interactive and Immersive Submissions // The Peabody Awards
Back in issue 70 we highlighted the new immersive and interactive categories within the Peabody Awards, and it's now that time of year for nominations to be considered. If you are a content creator in the immersive space this could be your chance to be one of the early winners in this category.
One More Thing
Photorealistic 3D Map Tiles API // Google Developers
This is an amazing evolution of Google Maps, empowering AR/VR teams to use real world locations for the settings of their projects. Using reasonably high fidelity meshes from real world digital twins of cities you can place the user nearly anyplace in the globe. This is a game changer that we can see bringing more experiences heightened realism and empowering more personal, grounded storytelling without the need to spend thousands of dollars making your own replica environments.
Commentary
Though VR got most of the press for a while AR has been steadily making its way into our daily lives. To the point that it is widely accepted that a person may pull out a smart phone at the bus stop and wave it around to see a virtual layer atop the real world. In marketing it's almost expected that there will be a consideration for a Snapchat Lens, 8th Wall experience, or some other way of bringing the customer closer to the brand by bringing the brand closer to the customer.
This week we're elated in sharing a few AR advances that we found, as well as an update on a new AR/XR headset that has been in the works for years finally starting production later this year. We're not sure if we're ordering it yet, but it does look promising.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
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