iMyth

Category: Immersive Theme-worlds

  • Potential Customers for IMyTH Engine Technologies

    Chris McCann helped out the IMyTH group today in identifying some of the major players in the VR industry. The IMyTH engine is focused on generating immersive theme worlds and the companies mentioned in his article will provide a quick starting point to identify all of the potential customers the IMyTH engine can reach to:

    Devices

    • Oculus VR — Bought by facebook for $2B
    • HTC Vive — partnered with Valve also creating the Steam VR platform.
    • Sony’s Project Morpheus — VR system by Sony, will also be connected to the PS4 VR Platform
    • Samsung’s Gear VR
    • Google Cardboard — Low end VR system using your smartphone.
    • StarVR — headset with an ultra-wide field of view
    • Visbox — Cave VR system (VR within whole room)
    • Fove — developing an eye tracking virtual reality headset — Raised an unreported amount, announced on June 25, 2015
    • Sulon Technologies– combines both VR and AR in one device- No funding reported yet, won top heads up display in CES.

    Controllers

    • Virtuix Omni — Treadmill for VR, used with Oculus — Raised $7M, announced on December 10th, 2014
    • Nod Labs — controller and tracking device for VR — $16M announced on June 17, 2015
    • virZOOM — turns a stationary bike into VR controller — Raised $1.83M announced on April 16, 2015
    • Leap Motion — motion control for VR — Raised $44M, announced on January 3, 2013.
    • Oculus Touch — Made by Oculus
    • Sixense — wireless motion tracking controller — Raised $600K on Kickstarter on October 12, 2013
    • Valve Controllers — Made by Valve for the HTC Vive
    • Cyberith — VR controller that lets you run, jump, rotate, and crouch — no funding reported yet.
    • Tactical Haptics — produces the Reactive Grip Motion Controller- no funding reported yet.
    • ControlVR — Lets you control using your hands and motion instead of keyboard — Raised $400K on Kickstarter, announced on July 5, 2014
    • Pebbles Interfaces— Develops hand-tracking technologies — Raised $11.5M, Announced on August 1st, 2013. Recently bought by Oculus.

    Cameras / 3D Mapping

    • Jaunt VR — professional grade camera system for capturing VR experiences — Raised $35M, announced on August 21st, 2014
    • Otoy — Full pipeline for creating, rendering, and streaming 3D environments. Amount raised unreported from Yuri Milner and Autodesk – advisors include Eric Schmidt, Ari Emanuel, and more
    • Structure.io — capture the 3D world via smartphone — Raised $8M, announced on October 20th, 2013
    • hover.to — create 3D models from your smartphone — Raised $12.7M announced on August 7, 2014
    • Kolor — Create 3D words from 2D images and videos — Bought by GoPro
    • VideoStitch — VideoStitch develops video stitching software to create Live Virtual Reality Video content. — Raised $2.25M seed
    • Matterport — Reconstruct real world spaces in VR — Raised $58.3M, announced on June 25, 2015
    • Panorics — develops fully immersive 360-degree video technology and products — Raised an unreported amount of funding.

    Developer Tools

    • Unity — Development platform, supporting VR development.
    • Unreal Engine — Game development platform, supporting VR.
    • WorldViz— Produces Vizard VR toolkit — Raised $3.5M announced on April 14th, 2015
    • GameWorks VR — Developer platform by NVIDIA
    • OSVR — open sourced hardware and software platform for VR
    • High Fidelity — Open sourced software for deploying VR spaces — Raised $16M announced on February 11, 2015 (founded by Philip Rosedale who started Second Life)

    Content (Producing VR experiences/games)

    • Game studios developing games for VR — Insomniac Games, Ubisoft, CCP, Gunfire games, 4A Games, Carbon Games, Climax, Harmonix, High Voltage Software, Ready at Dawn, Otherworld Interactive, and Square Enix, Thotwise
    • Here is a long list of games that or will be compatible with VR.
    • Reload Studios — is an independent game studio developing VR games — $2M on June 3, 2015
    • nDreams — Game developer specializing in VR — Raised $2.75M, announced on January 19th, 2015
    • Visionary VR — a technology and content development studio — Raised $350K announced on March 4th, 2015
    • NextVR — captures and delivers live and on-demand virtual reality experiences (concerts, movies, sports) — Raised $5M, announced on September 9th, 2014
    • The VR Company — Studio producing experiences, Steven Spielberg is an advisor — Raised $2.1M announced on May 29, 2015.
    • VRse — Producers of VR content for filmmaking
    • Livelike VR — VR production focused on live sports content — Raised $200,000 announced on January 27, 2015
    • spaceVR — Experience what space flight feels like (sounds pretty cool).
    • Felix & Paul Studios — developing VR content and content tied to Hollywood blockbusters

    Social network / Content platforms

    • Littlstar — aggregates virtual reality content — Raised $120K announced on July 9, 2015
    • Wear VR — content platform and app store for VR experiences — Raised $1.5M announced on April 8, 2015
    • AltspaceVR — Experience things on the web (shows, concerts, movies) in VR with other people — Raised $5.2M announced on September 14th, 2014
    • Vrideo — Youtube like network for VR experiences — Raised seed round, unreported.
    • EmergentVR — User generated content of VR — Raised unreported amount on January 21, 2015

    Education

    • Woofbert — providing art-education through VR — $2.78M on June 1st, 2015
    • zspace — VR for STEM education — Raised $26.6M announced on March 19th, 2015
    • Discovr — exploring ancient worlds through VR — No funding reported
    • drashvr — Produces educational VR apps — No funding reported

    Medical

    • Psious — uses virtual environments to treat anxiety disorders — No reported funding
    • Deepstream VR— using VR games for rehabilitation and treating pain — No reported funding
    • MindMaze — developing VR experiences for medical recovery (ex. post-stroke) — Raised $8.5 announced on March 4, 2015
    • Vivid Vision — designing games to correct amblyopia (lazy eye) as well as strabismus (crossed eye) in virtual reality — Raised $50K, announced on January 21, 2014

    Business / Enterprise tools

    • insiteVR — Designer tools within VR — Raised $120,000 from YCombinator, announced on March 15th, 2015
    • IrisVR — 3D modeling tools within VR — Raised $2.53M, announced on July 8, 2015
    • SDK Lab — Create VR experiences for employee training (mining, drilling, etc) — No reported funding.
    • Inreal Technologies — VR tools for architects — Raised seed round, unreported.
    • Autodesk — Also experimenting with VR tools and experiences for manufacturing, real estate, etc.

    There are a couple of industries which are not accounted for  in the Theme Park and Military simulation Industries. These are two areas which being in central Florida can help out significantly.customers

  • The Coming Cyberbard

    I recently copied an excerpt written by Janet M. Murray from her book Hamlet on the Holodeck. The article is called The Coming Cyberbard.

    This is the follow up portion to the text I referenced, The Shaping Role of the Human Storyteller. In this excerpt, Murray describes a possible model upon which such an immersive theme-world experience might be implemented. The concept is based on Minsky’s theory of Frames. There will be more to come on the implementation of frames to come. Upon the implementation of this model onto an immersive theme-world engine, a solid structure to generate infinite possible theme-worlds is provided.

    I am currently looking into this model not only as a foundation for Grammar Based Universes but as an authoring platforms for rewarding, narrative experiences.

  • The Shaping Role of the Human Storyteller

    I recently copied an excerpt written by Janet M. Murray from her book Hamlet on the Holodeck. The article is called The shaping Role of the Human Storyteller.

    Murray does an excellent job in describing what an immersive, interactive experience might look and feel but within the context of a specific story-world. What really is attention getting is that she departs from the experience as being game-like and focuses on components such as “moral physics” as being the glue which holds the world together and the interactor, (the participant), t o the immersive experience.

    I strongly encourage the audience to read the article to understand the difference between thematic immersive experiences, interactive stories and games. The IMyTH experience is designed to be a prototype very similar of Murray’s mechanic.

  • BI Virtual Reality Forecast

    The buzz around VR and related technology keeps on exploding.

    BIVRForcast

    In this article written by Business INsider, the expected VR market is expected to explode with VR shipments will create a $2.8 billion hardware market by 2020, up from an estimated $37 million market this year.

    I have yet to pony up the $400 to by the report. The future definitely looks very optimistic.

  • Artanim VR at Siggraph

    There is a non-profit research oriented group in Switzerland called Artanim. I have never heard of them before but they recently submitted a project to Siggraph and been accepted as a finalist. Their project is really inspiring.


    This is exactly what an Immersive Theme-world could look and behave like. The first adventures would be primitive for sure. There would be immediate dialogue with characters. However, it is the beginning.

    I have read the white-page description of the story. It is a rough description of their technology and an overall description of what VR is what applications it has.

    This is very exciting development. Researchers and others are doing what what IMyTH is expecting to do. There will be a lot of competition for sure. While this is very similar what they are doing in SLC and The Void, this is some of the first footage I have actually seen using this technology in this way.

  • Chris Crawford Inspiring the future of Interactive Storytelling

    In an interview posted by Rock, Paper, Shotgun, Chris Crawford admits his visions for an full interactive storytelling experience is still off in the future.

    Crawford believes the foundation for interactive storytelling lies with language and social intelligence. These are very hard beasts to tame. I personally believe these elements are a huge component to the overall experience. However they are not everything and they are really hard to deal with. I applaud Chris Crawford trying to get “Siboot” off the ground. He is trying to inspire a new wave of ideology and sway the technology to tame issues such as character-driven stories. If he, and others, can demonstrate there is a commercially viable application to develop this tech, then we will see a landslide of attention and these beasts will soon be tamed.

    Chris Crawford has inspired me. While I myself am focusing on the more presentational aspects of the interactive narrative experience, it is my hope we can attract enough attention to motivate other innovators to help conquer these phenomenal barriers and create a truly enriching and rewarding interactive experience.

  • The Void To build 230 VR Theme-Parks

    I just encountered an article from Road to VR article about The Void intending to build 230 Theme-park locations in the next five years.

    I have to admit that these plans are indeed ambitious and I have seen the opportunity for myself. I am looking forward to see how the SLC proto-type works out. I really want this to work and I hope for these guys to succeed. Maybe I am too green and too inexperienced of a business person but I just can’t help being overwhelmed by the magnitude of these plans without  any demonstration of commercial viability or data/technology infrastructure.

    I feel the plans I have for IMyTH will need to grow grass roots and feel its way out in to the public its own time and method. For the sake of the industry I certainly hope they are right on target. There is a lot of capitol being thrown at this endeavor.

  • How Disney Designs VR Experiences for Themeparks

    This is really cool and I’m glad Gamasutra was able to push this content online.

    This is a lecture given by Bei Yang, one of the executives in Imagineering. I had an opportunity to attend this lecture at GDC last March is it was very interesting. Disney seems to be very aware of the current VR rush but is approaching it with a very controlled and and somewhat pragmatic attitude. While they are working on their own VR type applications and attractions they seems to be aware of the recent evolution.

    IMHO, I think Disney is really one of the Illuminati of this whole VR/AR explosion. They seem to be letting everyone go a little crazy and do all the R&D necessary to make this a solid and commercially viable platform. They are sitting by and watching. In the meanwhile, they seems to be creating the infrastructure for something much larger and grander. Things like the hand bands that track the users’ locations and activities seems to support a much larger, immersive experience. What this vision is I am not sure. However, I have been tracking it for many years and the bread crumbs left by the Imagineers only tease at what technology is yet to come.

  • Economic Evidence For Immersive Experiences

    I have been tracking this wave for the last ten years and its finally starting to hit!

    Experience based entertainment is going through an upswing especially with the Millenials.

    I am participating with that with the creation of IMyTH.

    The evidence for the demand for such experiences is captured in this Financial Post article. I was not able to copy the video blog but it does a good job at capturing the essence of what I’m capitalizing on. This may be a good representation of what’s going on in Canada. The good `Ole USA can’t be far behind.

     

  • Hyde Horror Maze

    When it rains it pours. I also encountered an article today on Kataku about the Hyde Horror Maze.

    Not entirely dissimilar to The Void or the IMyTH experience, these folks wish to create an interactive maze where the players must navigate through a real maze in order to “survive” the experience. The maze is evidently sentient and monitors and controls the players progress through the maze in order to ensure a challenging and horrifying experience. I know they are on to a good thing. Let’s hope they can raise their money and display the commercial viability of the interactive narrative experience.