Friday FOV: Virtual Smells, Dri-VR Ed, Environmental Literacy, And Volumetric VR
VR news for the week ending January 20, 2017
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This week in There Is Only R, the Obama era comes to an end and virtual reality is looking especially appealing to some of us. Here’s some of the rest of the week’s VR news:
Story of the Week:
More evidence that adult entertainment will drive technological advances in VR: CamSoda is introducing a “gas mask” incorporating smell into VR porn. Purchasers of the “OhRoma” VR are supplied with the mask along with two fitted canisters. Bluetooth is then used to pair the mask with the OhRoma app on the user’s smartphone. Users can watch a cam performer in virtual reality, and experience the odors they’ve chosen from their own personal “scent profile.” Those scents include everything from perfume odors to ocean smells to (very intimate) body odor.
Tech
- Scan yourself into VR games and movies: Last week, in a series of blog posts, the VR company 8i announced the appointment of Steve Raymond as CEO. The company plans to continue their focus on developing volumetric video. Volumetric VR provides an ultimate feeling of reality: HMD-wearing users can not only view scenes with 3-D humans, as well as walk around the scenes and view the characters from any angle. Currently, 3-D scanning capable of creating volumetric models requires expensive hardware and cameras. But 8i’s handheld volumetric 3D scanners will enable VR users to scan themselves into VR, removing a major barriers to entry and encouraging VR developers to accelerate the evolution of volumetric VR.
- Samsung Austria and their national motor vehicle association (ÖAMTC) are collaborating on a program to provide new drivers with virtual reality driving lessons. According to Gregor Almássy, Samsung Austria’s Senior Director of Corporate Marketing & Customer Service, the program will allow student drivers to experience situations they would not typically encounter.
Business
- This week, while testifying in a federal lawsuit on the origins of Facebook-owned VR company Oculus, Mark Zuckerberg said he plans to invest more than $3 billion in VR technology in the next ten years. The Facebook CEO, testifying in a $2 billion intellectual property lawsuit brought by ZeniMax Media, told the court that he wants to take VR outside of gaming and make it available to everyone.
- Digital Trend’s recent interview with NFL’s Director of Media Strategy William Deng explained why NFL fans won’t be able to watch a live NFL game in VR this year. The obstacle of having to film from the sidelines and end zones prevents VR cameras from capturing footage for fans to effortlessly follow. The NFL will continue to experiment with VR.
Content
- As 2016 is announced as the hottest year on record, America inaugurates a president who calls climate change a “Chinese hoax.” Sir David Attenborough, who recently produced a Great Barrier Reef diving VR experience, believes VR can be an antidote to environmental illiteracy. “Many environmental issues are complex and difficult to explain fully. Phenomena such as climate change, ocean acidification, extinction and glacier erosion are especially challenging to illustrate… virtual reality solves many of these problems.”
- Cinematic virtual reality startup Jaunt is making a big push into pioneering scripted VR content. At the Sundance Film Festival, the company unveilled its 2017 production slate that will feature five scripted, original, multi-episode series, including an adaptation of 1992 sci-fi cult classic The Lawnmower Man.
Don’t forget to catch up with last week’s “Friday FOV: How Bad Was 2016 For VR? Plus: Self-Tracking HMDs”
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