Friday FOV: Westworld Recaps, Magic Leap Reveal, And…Conferences!
The latest in virtual reality for the week ending November 4, 2016
To get this newsletter regularly, you should follow There Is Only R on Medium.
This week in There Is Only R: Our Westworld obsession continues! If you’re up to date on the show, see our recap of Episode 5, by Elizabeth Spiers (who’s swapping weeks with Steve Bryant). This week, Dolores breaks free of her constraints, but her character may be starting to unravel.
If you’re behind on the show, you can follow along as you catch up with:
- Episode 1, in which Elizabeth examines the show’s AI underpinnings
- Episode 2, in which Steve compares Westworld to the pattern-recognition puzzle known as a Bongard Problem
- Episode 3, which raises questions of consciousness and suffering in AI
- Episode 4, on the show’s smoking fetish and humor.
- Also, see Steve’s insightful essay this week on Westworld’s use of color.
Here’s some of the rest of the week’s VR news:
Story of the Week: A Look Inside Magic Leap
Forbes is the latest outlet to get a behind-the-scenes look at Magic Leap, now that the mysterious but lavishly-funded AR company is “coming out of the shadows,” anticipating a launch within the next 18 months that “could usher in a new era of computing, a next-generation interface we’ll use for decades to come” — killing the market for flat-panel displays and smartphones.
“Magic Leap is positioned to profit from every interaction: not just from the hardware and software it will sell but also, one imagines, from the torrent of data it could collect, analyze–and resell,” writes David Ewalt, who was treated to a demo of a “virtual interactive human,” which he calls “life-size and surprisingly realistic.”
The company — which will have to fend off competition from Microsoft’s HoloLens and initiatives from Google, Apple, and startups like Meta — is moving to a new campus. Founder Rony Abovitz, who likes being a safe distance from Silicon Valley, will only say that the launch will come “soon-ish” and that the price point will make it “not a luxury product.”
(See also our interview with Kevin Kelly, who profiled Magic Leap and Rony Abovitz for Wired in April.)
Tech
- Designers of VR game QuiVr have designed a forcefield to thwart gropers, after a woman reported being virtually fondled by an anonymous player. “Virtual perv attacks could become a bigger problem as VR becomes more popular,” The Sun (UK) writes.
- Jaunt is previewing its new patented product Compass for web-based 360 video viewing, promising a more immersive experience by guiding the user to points of interest.
- Unity held its Unite 2016 conference in LA, unveiling upgrades like a new player to demo seamless 360 video, as well as a new version of EditorVR.
Business
- Ad Age’s David Berkowitz visits China’s VR/AR/MR industry and gets the feeling they may be way ahead of us.
- #VRDays, Europe’s biggest VR conference, kicks off. Follow that hashtag!
- Intel is acquiring livestreaming startup Voke, aiming to serve a growing demand for realtime 360/3-D video for events like sports and fashion shows.
Content
- The NFL’s first VR series will be produced exclusively for Google, VRScout reports. The 9-part show, for YouTube and Daydream, will offer an inside look at NFL life.
- Upload calls Call of Duty: Jackal Assault VR a “missed opportunity,” mainly because it doesn’t really relate to Call of Duty.
- A family in a hospital waiting room distracts mom with a virtual roller-coaster ride while dad is having a double-organ transplant. Watch!
- And finally, you’ll just have to click through for this sweet animated graphic by Vincent McCurley that demonstrates the distinction between 360 video and VR:
Don’t forget to catch up with last week’s special “Halloween FOV: A Roundup Of HMD Thrills And Roomscale Chills.”
Follow Us on Medium | Follow Us on Twitter | Like Us on Facebook
