In a unique marketing move, Paramount and IMAX are partnering up to offer a sneak peek at Christopher Nolan’s much-anticipated sci-fi epic “Interstellar” with a traveling exhibit powered by Oculus Rift. With the help of Oculus Rift virtual reality headsets, participants will be able to experience zero gravity in the film’s featured spacecraft. With the maturation of virtual reality technology, we expect more marketing efforts to deploy it to offer a refreshingly immersive experience.
Tag: Virtual Reality
New Developments in VR
Oculus announced earlier this week that an updated Oculus Share marketplace, coming later this fall, will allow developers to distribute their virtual reality (VR) apps, as well as let users browse the platform to download VR games and entertainment experiences without taking off the headset. By doing so, Oculus is aiming to build an ecosystem to support its mobile and PC-based VR headsets.
Moreover, the Facebook-owned company also announced a new prototype for its VR headset, named Crescent Bay. With new 360-degree tracking, integrated headphones, and lightened weight, the new prototype marks another step towards the consumer version of its VR headset. With indie challengers like Totem claiming to offer better VR experiences, Oculus is doing all it can to stay ahead.
Four Tech Trends Spotted At Samsung’s IFA Event
Earlier today at the IFA trade show in Berlin, Samsung announced four new products coming this fall. Besides Galaxy Note 4, the expected update of its popular “phablet” series, the South Korean tech giant also unveiled Galaxy Note Edge, the new Gear S smartwatch, and the Gear VR, a virtual reality headset. Throughout the event, four major industry trends stood out with each of Samsung’s new offerings:
The screens are getting bigger
With Apple rumored to introduce iPhones with bigger screens next week, it came as no surprise that Samsung doubled down its “phablet” offering with Note 4 and Note Edge, along with a smartwatch that features a 2-inch screen. But the screens aren’t just getting bigger; they are also getting curvy. The futuristic Galaxy Note Edge features a display that curves around one side of the phone and a special OS that makes good use of the warped screen. Plus, the new Gear S also has a curved screen that fits on your wrist naturally
The smartwatch is coming into its own
Having released five smartwatches since the initial introduction of its Samsung Gear last year, Samsung stepped up its wearable game by introducing a vastly improved Gear S. Thanks to its nano-SIM card support, the Gear S can make calls, receive emails and texts, and generally operate semi-independently. It does not completely operate as a standalone, but it does point to a future where smartwatches might become less of an accessory and more of an independently functional device.
Tech continues to collaborate with fashion brands
The trend of consumer tech teaming up with fashion brands continues as Samsung collaborates with Swarovski to offer crystal-studded phone cases for Note 4 and similarly bedazzled straps for Gear S. The collaboration follows a successful partnership between the two brands at the recent NY Fashion Week. This trend will most certainly continue, as such integration helps normalizing the otherwise “geeky” new tech products in a way that is mutually beneficial for both industries.
Virtual reality is on the rise
Samsung is pushing in on the virtual reality trend with a headset. Built in partnership with Oculus, the Samsung Gear VR allows users to wirelessly mount the new Galaxy Note 4 in front of their eyes and use the device for gaming and watching movies. Samsung is also teaming up with major media companies to produce entertainment content specifically made for immersive virtual reality experiences.
Oculus Gains Leap Motion Support
Leap Motion, a company that specializes in gesture-detecting sensors, announced that it would offer a mount for some VR headsets, including both developer versions of the Oculus. This is a small step for Oculus as it adds yet another auxiliary support, but it also might just be a giant leap for virtual reality as it points to a controller-free user experience, which would of great help in refining and mainstreaming the virtual reality technology.
Samsung Teaming Up With Oculus For VR Headset
A report surfaced from CNET claims that Samsung is collaborating with Facebook-owned Oculus on a virtual reality headset powered by mobile devices. Last we heard, Samsung appeared to have a prototype design for its Gear VR ready, so this collaboration comes as a slight surprise. But taking a closer look, this could easily be a win-win situation for both companies, with Samsung offering access to a mass consumer base and Oculus providing the VR technology. Clearly Samsung wants to realize mobile VR fast and well, and teaming up with Oculus seems like just the right way to do it.
Samsung’s Virtual Reality Headset Revealed
Even though you will have to wait for the IFA 2014 later this year for an official unveiling, a leaked image (via SamMobile) of “Gear VR”, Samsung’s virtual reality headset has already surfaced on the Internet. As a result of the collaboration between Samsung and Oculus VR, Gear VR is still just a peripheral device, unlike Google Glass, that needs to be used in conjunction with your Samsung smartphone. But it certainly helps to expand the realm of wearable tech and contributes to Samsung’s market advantage with its early entry into the world of consumer VR.
Google Cardboard Mobile Virtual Reality
With a plethora of smart devices, we often ignore the power of our phones. Google proved this point, releasing Cardboard, an easily assembled Virtual Reality headset constructed from…cardboard and an Android device. The result is an immersive VR experience through a number of different applications like Earth and YouTube within the Cardboard app.
Steam releases SteamVR
On the heels of Oculus’s critically acclaimed new VR headset at CES, Steam announced a new VR gaming experience that’s designed specifically to take advantage of the rift. At present, the steam platform has 14 games available with VR support in Big Picture + VR mode, which is found in the beta. It remains unclear whether Steam is going to debut its own VR headset, but right now Steam and Oculus are almost joined at the hip, with many of Oculus’s main testers working within the steam system, so it seems like their best option is to work with the Oculus, something they’ve just made much easier.
The Virtual Reality Wars Are Officially Here
The Avegant Glyph was introduced to the world today, and it means that the war for virtual reality supremacy is officially here. By now most people are at least tangentially familiar with the Oculus Rift, the headset that immerses users into the gaming experience with their dual screen. But it’s not quite ready for prime-time, and now Avegant is looking to beat them to the mainstream punch with their Glyph. Part headphone, part Rift, and part Google Glass, the idea is that the visual interface resides in the top portion of a traditional headphone, and would flip down over the users’ eyes. It also features a new display system: Virtual Retinal Display, which offers an advantage over Oculus and Glass insofar as the device actually projects light into users’ eyes, effectively tricking the body into actually seeing the image as opposed to looking at a screen – this also means that there no headaches or fatigued eyes. As well, the Glyph works with existing content out of the box; there’s no need to hack around gaming parameters to make it work. How comfortable people will be using this in public, though (see the awkwardness of wearing Google Glass in public as a reference point here) will, to a large extent, determine how successful the device will be.
Stanford Research Shows Virtual Reality Can Change Behavior
According to new research from Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, virtual reality appears to be able to change the way people act and make decisions. For instance, in one experiment subjects chopped down virtual trees from a forest; the subjects used 20% less paper immediately thereafter. And a new, even more intriguing experiment lets participants experience a simulation of life as a cow in a meat factory. Subjects in this experiment felt real sadness as they were lead to the slaughterhouses at the end of the experiment, but whether or not they ate less meat remains to be seen. Though the study poses interesting questions as a thought experiment, it has vast implications for brands and advertisers on the ground. Although Augmented Reality (i.e. Google Glass) is more readily available as a reality-shifting technology, virtual reality systems such as the Oculus Rift are catching on in the gaming world, and other, more full-body virtual reality platforms are in development. This means that brands will, in the future, have the opportunity to reach customers on a much more primitive, visceral level; they might even – with the right design – be able to shape consumer habit. Though this is a long way off, it’s nonetheless important to know that the research shows it’s not only possible, but probable.
