005 — Reality Check
A newsletter about the next wave of interaction design for spatial computing.
Engineering MetaHumans, Superpowers, and Realism
In his book, Homo Deus, Yuval Noah Harari points out our tendency to upgrade our human abilities, and become somewhat “superhuman” as we continue to develop technologies that give us access to our past, the ability to see through walls, and even “create new life.” As XR creators, designers, engineers and aficionados the satisfaction that comes from building something that looks and feels real is empowering.
Unreal Engine introduced a tool that lets you do just that, create a highly realistic looking human. The MetaHuman creator lets you design and export a rigged character, ready to animate in less than an hour!
Heat vision-like superpowers can be yours thanks to the Flir One, a thermal camera attachment compatible with iOS and Android.
Google’s latest experiment attempts to replicate synesthesia using Kandinsky’s paintings. The Arts & Culture project pays tribute to the artist’s ability to associate colours with sound, by training a neural network on new musical scores to try to interpret what he might have heard while painting masterpiece Yellow-Red-Blue.
8th Wall introduces Realtime Reflections which enables us to create more realistic looking surfaces like glass, and other reflective materials, further immersing users into more realistic AR experiences.
Sundance & Home Ent[AR]tainment
Live events and festivals are reaching the masses with a little help from AR/VR, social media and video calling. This year’s Sundance Film Festival was unstoppable welcoming 40K virtual attendees! Its New Frontier films section showcased some of the most interesting pieces from a film shot entirely on a Zoom call, to an augmented reality animated series, to a film delivered on Instagram.
Apple launches an AR app paired with “For All Mankind” an Apple TV original series, which takes a user through a “time capsule” providing a backstory between season 1 and 2.
The Smithsonian Channel and Warsaw-based studio Immersion, release Mission to Mars AR, just before the landing of the Perseverance rover on Mars this week. The app takes the user through seven experiences exploring Martian geography. The app will be
Events & Workshops Happening This Week
The Polys WebXR Awards celebrate talent in immersive web XR on Saturday, February 20, 2021, from 7:30 PM to 11:00 PM (CET). RSVP Here
Virtual Studio: Augmented Poetry is a workshop which users Spark AR Studio to generate your own poetry and experiment with augmented reality. Friday, February 26, 2021, at 12:00 PM (CT)
University of Malta, Department for Digital Arts hosts Research Seminar: Immersive Reality Technologies to discuss design considerations in VR and VR Distraction Therapy, and using MR technology to explore human perception of faces with an application in forensic face learning and recognition. Wednesday, 24 February, 2021, at 12:15 (CET).
Pick of the week!
Scientists from University of Pennsylvania make plastic trays hover using only light.
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