How VR Alters Everything and helps Connecting with the Customers

Understanding our customer is what we all aim for. Because of this reason, we get out of bed every day and this is what keeps us up at night. Knowing their problems are difficult: from cancer treatment to service providing for autistic children and 360-degree view for shoppers. Product development teams must empathize with the diverse users across all industry types and this difficulty must get incorporated into our software.
Innovative ways to better know our customers and sharing the knowledge across our organizations is what we must be looking forward to. Start experimenting a little bit with teams using VR to conduct customer research on location with real users.

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From the hype and games into the useful, practical and widely acceptable way, VR has moved so much.  VR has moved beyond this hype that got created.

Sensory experience, incredibly immersive that allow viewers to connect deeply with those who are being recorded. By seeing someone’s world from their perspective, enable you to empathize with their viewpoint and understand their feelings. VR can be used to appreciate difficulty level of the customer’s needs through recording them while performing the jobs and sharing 360-degree videos widely across the organizations.

You can tell what it would like to be a part of an interacting session with a patient in a doctor’s office or selling shoes in a retail store. By understanding the customers better, it will result in developing much better products than before.

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VR research is cheaper than the setup and scaling. Lean mentality team which always tries a minimal viable idea before going all in on an experiment does well. Consumer grade cameras have hit a rapid low in price and are only improving every quarter.

The equipment should be used as such to conduct the research costing less than $1000 entirely which includes two cameras with live streaming capabilities, various Google Cardboard Headsets, all the software and cords required to do the jobs. This is cheaper for technology which was literally science fiction. Most frugal budgets can also afford this setup.

Nikon recently announced that a 4k 360 VR camera costs around $500. You can use it around or by immersing it in water while capturing sharp videos backed with 360 degrees. A year ago, something like this would have cost around certain thousand dollars. Things are moving this fast in this area.

Museums Started Adopting Virtual Reality Technique

A virtual reality presentation model named theBlu has been added to the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, in between megamouth shark, bison diorama, and a bunch of excited school kids.

In general admission fees of $12, with an extra $10 fee, visitors can put on a VR headset and explore the ocean with blue whales swimming over the head or a group of silvery fish darting by. Visitors can use virtual flashlights to further explore the abyss.

Senior project manager and developer from the VR presentation model say that for the young audience, this thing is attractive. Experiment with VR technology in order to get more people in the door and interested in a wider collection is going on.

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This appeal is not restricted only to tech-savvy teens. Several older adults also come to have a look. This is the first time they were doing anything like this and they were thrilled by the idea.

This kind of exposure is something the virtual reality industry is chasing as a whole. Despite the promise made by VR as the next big thing in technology industry, it’s still to get mainstream.

Venues apart from home are a great space for the public to have their first experience in VR, according to the CEO of the company behind the Blu.

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Wevr gave a loan to the museum, the computers, and headsets. But, the company's broader vision is to make fans of this technology. At some point, perhaps, people will get inspired for buying their own headset and also to subscribe to the VR content produced by Wevr.

Some institutions are coming up with VR tours which allow users to explore the galleries in 3D and 360 degrees for the users that are already comfortable with VR. It enables them to go where people are. It’s no worry that VR will replace what is real. The more the image is digital to publish online, the great attendance it would gather. People when come to know that something exists, they want to experience it in real, original way. And that real life feeling is something VR isn’t yet able to replicate.

The experience is partial; it’s a glimpse or a hint, like seeing something which makes you want to see more. In VR tours, the sounds of museums get missed, the footsteps and whispers of echoes and conversations. 

How VR will help in Transforming Web Design

You all must be remembering all the fuss that was going about 3D a few years back and how it was promised that all TV’s would gradually be 3D and everyone will have to watch it through polarized goggles. Instead, the 3D movies become the niche and because of this, everyone thinks that VR is some trick or stunt which is not true. Everyone involved in web designing will be affected by VR in some way or other. Beneath is discussed ways in which virtual reality is changing web design:-

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• 1.      Moved to the Browser

Until very recent you need to have a headset and an application to get access to VR content online but now web browsers are working on an open standard which makes VR experience possible in the browser. Their plan is to ship to consumers this year which means that ordinary web visitors have to just click and start interacting with VR content without disturbing downloads and that is going to accelerate huge take-up.   

• 2.      Next phase after Demo

Web VR experiments were regarding proof concept & demos until recently, but now developers have surpassed that stage and are working on real apps which can be useful for real people.  

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• 1.      Possibilities ahead

In order to get a real feel for a place, just put a headset and virtually wander around the whole hotel at your leisure. Or rather than navigating a cluttered layout on the screen of your desktop, move all the content in virtual space. If you can’t make it to the conference, the organizers would offer you a way to participate in it using 360 VR.

• 2.      Content Creation Getting Easy

The huge production of headsets has made it easier for consumers to access the VR content over the web. The growing availability of the libraries of open source has made it easier to create that content. Famous frameworks for developing VR content like PlayCanvas, A-Frame, etc means even amateur ones can use to build VR experiences in very less time.

• 3.      Billions getting Invested in VR

Venture capitalists are investing billions in VR right now, with a consortium called VR venture capital alliance declaring $10 billion value of investment in VR and augmented reality projects. The return on that capital will be out soon. It is forecasted that by 2020, VR/AR market will witness a market worth $162 billion.

THE NEXT STEP OF 360 VIRTUAL REALITY

Ever since the announcement of  360 videos on YouTube, the global tech industry was buzzing about what’s going to be the “next” move for it & now with the launch of Google’s new virtual reality application for YouTube, the tech-giant has made it clear to the world that despite all the speculations going across the globe, their belief in this amazing technology will be continuous.

Being named as YouTube VR this app is now available for free download on Google Play Stores, Appreciable that you’ll require “Daydream View” (vr headset) for a terrific experience with this app. If we speak about the VR app, not only the users would be able to watch immersive content using VR technology also they’ll be allowed to ‘step inside’ in a huge world of YouTube videos. From the hardware to software everything about this application has been crafted by Google with a clear indication that these devices are much more the sum of part for the end user.

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The users will be able to watch 360-degree videos in a 3D virtual reality format or even the regular videos with a rectangular frame in a theater mode. It basically overlays a familiar interface & feels like a floating arena of semi-transparent controls, that works well. The controllers in Daydream makes clicking and scrolling a photographic experience, But users have to struggle a bit for searching by typing, here the availability of voice search, it is like a helping hand. Another feature that grabs your attention is the ability to grab the screen and reposition it. You just need to click and drag to your desired location. As of now, YouTube VR is the most satisfying part of virtual reality that we’ve ever used.

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Like every other technology, pros & cons comes along. First, the Daydream View like other VR headsets can get a bit heavy on our head after a while and we need to  hold it with one hand or reposition every few minutes. This issue can be rectified by reclining or by lying flat on the back. Second, we need to have a strong internet connection for the 360-degree video since there’s a huge possibility of  heavily blurred or pixilated views when the video will stream & it would often pause too. Third drawbacks are the streaming and advertising concept of YouTube. However, there’s a simple solution of  downloading the videos to watch offline, allowing you to sidestep the issue.

Discussing future, it’s expected the scenario to change rapidly as YouTube get a sense of what will click slowly growing VR headset owners since YouTube as moved from rectangular to 360 stereoscopic with positional audios. With the boundaries being pushed for more immersive content, it’s definitely an exploring direction that needs to be focused.

Source Url :- http://surevin.com/blog/next-step-360-virtual-reality/

Immersive Virtual Reality Content: Too Much For Parents and Kids??

There is already quite a bit written regarding virtual reality and children but the focus is on the risk involved in children viewing VR content on the eyesight. Most VR headset manufacturers are setting age limit for the users. Samsung Gear VR headset and Oculus Rift have 13+ age requirement. HTC however has set a warning against kids using vive. This tactic is like better safe than sorry rather than searching for the VR’s impact on growing eyes.

Talking about motion sickness and risk of hitting objects in actual life when moving to a virtual one, kids face the same issues as adults face it. Recently, the creator of Mario Bros has taken quite a cautious approach in Virtual Reality related with kids saying that more R&D needs to be done to ensure that they are safe and the parents do not have to worry.

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Mental v/s Physical & Psychological impact of VR on kids

There has been enough concern related to physical impact of VR on kids. The emotional impact is more relevant to be considered upon. The Stanford University is studying about this impact of VR on kids for more than a decade. In the year 2009, it displayed the results which aimed on the memory of children and VR. A children’s’ group played with whales underwater through VR and asked about it afterwards. Around 50% of them said that they remember the incident as if it happened in reality.

During the trailers of fantastic beasts and where to find them, kids during a scary scene take off their glasses and put their fingers into their ears. They have earlier tried only child friendly games or educational ones in VR, so they understand it as fiction or had experience something like visiting natural history museum. They feel like they are visiting something they know or familiar. The movie episode would make anyone wonder that how they would react to a story told in VR.

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How different is storytelling in VR?

The difficulties of storytelling in VR are explained through creation of computer animated VR short interactive movie called Invasion in which a bunch of aliens come to invade earth. In that, rather than humans, earth has 2 citizens- 2 bunnies which contain the viewer as well. The story loose pace & composition when it becomes interactive but sound and visual clues were created to follow the path & also to inspire the viewer.

Interactivity is an added layer to the story which can turn out to be good as well as bad.

VR driven experiences are Virtual but emotions are real

A kid is alone in this VR world and taking off the headset is not the first thought which occurs through his mind. The whole immersive experience can turn quite terrific for a child. The parents say that a quick switch off of TV doesn’t work.

The VR content aimed at minors, especially young children must come with strict guidelines such that any physical risks doesn’t involve. Children’s aren’t the only ones who find these experiences of VR very immersive . Other platforms as well before VR like violence are big sellers for the games. It is now upon the owners of the platforms to decide what is good and what is bad. The application store owners also are with the duty of not only censoring but warn.

Source Url :-
http://surevin.com/blog/immersive-virtual-reality-content-much-parents-kids/

Startups will Dominate Augmented Reality and not Virtual Reality

The excitement of Pokémon Go is still on but I think that for investing, virtual reality is not a good area to invest, instead augment reality is. Considering the checkpoints in the value chain, there is a difference between the two.

Each media needs means to work, the medium, the matter, content distribution, discovery of the content and monetization. Each of these has its own theory which depends on the medium. The different theory leads to a separate propensity to be managed by a small group of companies.

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By medium, we mean the way through the content/matter is presented to the user. So, for newspaper, printing press and paper becomes the medium. Similarly, network is the medium for internet. The act of getting to the user is not what is meant here rather than the means. Record labels may have the distribution function but Amazon and iTunes are the medium for distribution.

Radio industry has radio sets as mediums, distribution through radio broadcasts, radio shows as content and branded networks to facilitate sell advertising and content discovery. The cost of economies of scale of content discovery and ad sales would mean that the radio industry got dominated by the networks who were the owner of these things and the creators of the matter were not paid very well. The radio sets were subsidized automatically in order to build the audience targeted to create the economies of scale for the networks and break even business was of radio manufacturing.

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What happened later with television matches with this model and not have been a right place to invest. The networks were created by companies which already had complementary assets and also significantly the cash and political power for them to maintain dominance. As existed earlier, those who win don’t require a financing through venture type and companies that needed financing from outside were inevitably destined to go out of business.

Movie industry has developed differently. Movie studios dominated earlier, at that time and they were primary creators of content. The theaters were the means of distribution and not of studios. This is same as record industry. But because of the disaggregated nature of monetization & distribution, movies and music can be made outside of the studio system and occasionally made money. It is arguable that outside financing is a good bet, but the odds can be worse than VC if one knew what he was doing.

There were not any bottlenecks in the value chains and because of this, internet is different. Opportunities were there in all the sectors. Company startups like Cisco and AOL made money in the same medium along with monetization and content discovery & creation which lead to early concentration at discovery of companies like Google. For the content creators, it has also leaded to quite a tough environment.

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Content creation will dominate Virtual Reality’s value chain similarly like movies and computer gaming. The cost of creating Virtual Reality Content is going to be high so the content development is going to economically dominate distribution and discovery. High cost of content development would mean less popular content discovered through typical marketing and PR; word of mouth.

VR headsets need to be cheap because the reimbursing the content cost will require large audience. They can be subsidized initially but eventually the content developers will need them for high margin and low amount hardware. Scarce and expensive content will bend towards lowest common denominator in order to manage risks through portfolio approach like console computer games. This means that few large companies will dominate virtual reality especially those which enter from adjacent industries.

Augmented Reality is altogether different. Because uses of AR are different and content development will be less expensive due to the fact that it won’t be fully immersive environment so no single part of the value chain will dominate.

Augmented Reality is expected to be more similar to internet and its evolution. Content can be out there and get popular and fade but there won’t be any winner takes all in AR content. Because content is less expensive to make, content tool companies will be required. Because this will further lead to different types of content, hardware makers will do it well. It will be according to worker needs and specified & cheaper content will address more specific problems, so for customers, AR will be more valuable than VR. This will allow both hardware and content makers to have higher margins.

VC investments in virtual reality will end up doing bad as startups will outnumber incumbents. The AR market is wide open, on the contrary.

Source Url :-

http://surevin.com/blog/startups-will-dominate-augmented-reality-not-virtual-reality/

Hindrances keeping Virtual Reality from being Mainstream

Virtual Reality is something which you need to remember and not like anything that’s come before it.

Comparisons have been made as the moving parts of virtual reality have come together into a churning monster with failed technology trends of the past.

• Too expensive
• Going to be like 3D TV.
• Not good enough
• Not ready for it.

 

Although all these criticisms have tangential reality, it’s becoming harder to make comparisons between virtual reality and “what came before”. The realistic way to show it off is to share the experience and feel with people to get them immersed fully into what it offers. You just can’t know how good it is until you have strapped on a goofy looking pair of goggles. The goggles are looking a lot sleek and the first release of VR has begun landing in homes of the customer. It hasn’t been the smoothest but based on PR snippets and responses to the frustrated ones, the struggles to fulfill orders have been due to major demand. 

 

VR Is Exceeding Expectations, Already

The time has come to start taking the technology more seriously. While skeptics will continue straining for those old contrasts with past failures regarding tech, some of the big names in innovation in the same area (with financial and intellectual resources) continue to remind us that it will be one of the biggest breakouts in decades.

Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s CEO, demonstrates the Oculus Rift headset. In September 2015, facebook bought it for 2 billion for vote of confidence over VR’s future.

How we interact with every piece of current technology, VR holds the potential to change it, from mobile apps to gaming systems to virtual conferencing. Even though there is a huge amount of financial backing to the development and exploration of VR’s capability, it still exists as a niche gamer technology to a lot of public. It will be good to see VR pull away from dependence of gaming industry. More than this, VR as it exists for consumers today will mesmerize as quickly as it reminds everyone of what needs to be changed before it stands in the chance of becoming mainstream.

 

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 Price

As it stands currently, VR is boutique technology. The price point places it in the field of early investors and even amongst those, people with money to afford everything required in a VR setup. Currently available headsets to customers are Oculus Rift and HTC Vive. Further considering the already steep entry cost is a technical hurdle you’ll need to overcome in order to run VR software on your home PC. For a using VR technology that has yet to prove its worth, that’s a big shopping list.

Style

Time for an inevitable fact: a brick which is covered in sleek, black, matte finish will still remain a brick. It hangs off in front of your face and irrespective of how comfortable it manages to be, it’s still a brick hanging off the front of your face. If you want your VR experience to extend beyond your PC, it’s not slouch when it comes to setup either but you are going to need several feet of free real estate in your entertainment space.

 

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Comfort

Happily, early reviews from Oculus and Vive owners have overall spoken for the surprising comfort of each headset. They might attract fingerprint or can still look splashy but apart from a few exceptions, they seem easy secure and not heavy as you may expect. Many users claims to have ‘VR legs” under them after a short time spent with headsets on. A few still complain of the spatial discomfort that comes from spending prolonged amount of time existing in a virtual world.

Second concern is a bit predictable. While Vive and Oculus are adjustable enough to fit any size of the head, those who are burdened with spectacles are sporting all variety of sizes and shapes of lenses. Some say that VR headsets are outright painful to wear while some worry that their glasses are going to scratch the expensive lenses inside of the headset itself.

Accessibility

Let’s consider Virtual Reality on a larger scale. If this technology is meant to take off more than gamers, even if it doesn’t happen for five to ten years- serious efforts is going to be made to entice public perception.

While it isn’t a particularly flattering comparison, it’s an apt one. VR has proven its capability. Now, it needs to prove that it deserves place in the average household, and not just the boutique gaming den.

Source Url :-

http://surevin.com/blog/hindrances-keeping-virtual-reality-from-being-mainstream/

Pokémon GO, An Augmented Reality Game Surmounting Social Media Mixed With HoloLens

Augmented Reality is not a new concept and many were still not familiar with it, not until Pokémon GO. As the game is demonstrated, Augmented Reality has a lot of potencies. Apart from gaming, Microsoft’s HoloLens are other technologies which are state of the art of AR.

 

 How AR Operates?

Specifically aiming at Smartphones, for example, Augmented Reality operates by use of an application that searches for marker usually a one with black n white barcode. Once the marker is identified, a 3D object is imposed onto it. The user can walk around the marker and can view 3D objects from every angle with the help of the phone’s camera in order to track the relative position of the device. This requires a lot of horsepowers as the phone tracks the markers position so that the 3D object look clear and right.

 

In the field of AR, games such as Pokémon GO work differently. Pokémon GO shows a 3D object above the camera view along with some tricks rather than using a real time holder with an object placed on its top. This way the game doesn’t have the ability to walk anywhere around the Pokémon unlike with the android authority logo. One can freely walk and it can still appear which doesn’t involve any tracking of distance as long as you are going the right direction. As it doesn’t require physical objects to be placed in the real world, this may end up being a common way AR is used in mobiles.

Smartphones right now are capable only of basic augmented reality function with the help of devices like Microsoft HoloLens known as Heads-up Displays (HUDs). AR has a great potential and scopes the way devices are being used. It’s peak time for other technologies related to AR now that it is used by Pokémon GO.

 

The game has finally been launched and will let iOS and android users can catch a virtual Pokémon in the real environment. It is available in some countries only for now but it will get launched in others as well for free.

Augmented Reality game imbibes the data from your Smartphone’s GPS and camera so as to project Pokémon within your area with inducing you to get to find it. Interaction among the players should also be there and you can also combat with them. A portable device which vibrates and helps you make alert of any sign of Pokémon when you are unaware is also available named Pokémon GO Plus. It will get launched soon.

 

Today when AR and VR devices are too familiar and mundane, Pokémon GO is still within the boundaries of mobile devices. A Dutch company has created a video in which they have plugged in Pokémon GO into Microsoft HoloLens. Rather than flickering on a mobile device screen, users can use their gestures to play it. In the video, a tap is enough to toss a Pokeball and carry out actions. They can also experience Pokémon interacting with the environment like climbing a leg. However HoloLens is not a unit which is standalone, the game is still restricted to mobile phones.

The Data collected by Similar Web shows that Pokémon GO’s android application is trending to overtake twitter in the terms of the number of daily users. This fad has become more social with the rise of web gaming which requires players to get out and play interact with fellow gamers as well.

  

 

This data is based only on android users. The game application is popular on iOS equally. However, there are other sites which need to make room for it apart from twitter. The average usage time of the app was 43 minutes and 23 seconds 15 days ago which is higher than Instagram, Whatsapp, messenger and Snapchat.

 

The data is promising for the future of AR and gaming. Even as it is new, Pokémon GO is a strong contender in social media as well as a strong indicator of more augmented reality to come.

Source Url :-

http://surevin.com/blog/pokemon-go-augmented-reality-game-surmounting-social-media-mixed-hololens/