Friday FOV: Un-Luckey Trolls, Debate In VR, Elsewhere, And Google VR’s SDK
The latest in virtual reality for the week ending September 23, 2016
This week in There is Only R:
It was shocking (but somehow not) to learn that Palmer Luckey — the VR wunderkind who founded Oculus Rift and sold it to Facebook at age 21 for $2 billion — is funding a pro-Trump troll network of white supremacists (see Story of the Week). Cody Brown calls on Facebook to recognize and act on their responsibility to prove that VR isn’t, as it increasingly looks, like “niche, nerdy, dystopian, male dominated activity that further isolates people from the real world.” And Elizabeth Spiers reflects on the grandiose intellectual supremacism that makes suddenly-rich young tech founders believe their drive to dominate our politics holds the “inherent moral high ground.”
Meanwhile, Cody’s weekly #learnroomscale developer challenge continues to connect the dots, exploring the potential of Tilt Brush to create 3-D characters for VR.
And Justin Johnson, the late-90s/early-00s “Internet’s first videoblogger,” talked to us about being at the forefront of 360 video with his 360Buzz studio.
Story of the Week: Virtual Reality’s Troll Man
Oculus’s Palmer Luckey was unmasked by the Daily Beast’s Gideon Resnick and Ben Resnick as Reddit’s “NimbleRichMan,” founder of Nimble America, a white supremacist pro-Trump PAC “dedicated to proving that ‘shitposting is powerful and meme magic is real.’” Luckey insisted it was all in fun, but his venture may have run afoul of IRS and campaign finance rules. Facebook had no comment.
Dev:
- Google VR has launched its much-anticipated SDK.
- NYC-based Inkhunter uses augmented reality to let you try tattoos. Sounds low-risk!
Business:
- Quartz reports China is well ahead of the US in VR adoption, thanks to widespread VR arcades.
- The Guardian (post sponsored by SAP!) looks at how augmented reality will transform workplace communication and collaboration. The Wall Street Journal agrees, examining the potential of VR to disrupt teleconferencing.
- Entrepreneur rounds up non-entertainment uses for VR, in areas like education and medicine.
Content:
- If you’ve never previously gotten sick from VR, Monday night is your big chance! A partnership between NBC and AltspaceVR will broadcast Monday night’s presidential debate, between former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and former Apprentice host Donald Trump, in virtual reality.
- If a different type of dystopia, the retro-futuristic kind, is your thing (and why not?) you’ll probably find Statik: Institute of Retention (for PlayStation VR) as compelling as the Daily Dot’s Dennis Scimeca, who spoke with Tarsier Studios’ Dave Mervik about the inspiration for the “eerie” escape challenge.
- Rock Band VR, Thumper and Headmaster were among the crop of upcoming VR releases rounded up in the New York Times by Chris Suellentrop.
- Discovery Education will host three virtual field trips next year, free to educators worldwide. Themes include ocean conservation and the US Constitution (or whatever’s left of it, depending on the election).
- Finally, husband-and-wife team Wendellen Li and Aza Raskin have launched Elsewhere, a project that “falls somewhere between VR/AR and proto-cyborg.” The creators claim it “turns any video into VR, from Netflix to YouTube to your own camera roll.”
Don’t forget to catch up with last week’s “Friday FOV: Gnomes & Goblins, Accounting, And Free Playstation VR.”
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