iMyth

Tag: Virtual Reality

  • Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    Introducing Dreamscape Immersive

    I just discovered today there is a new player in town, Dreamscape Immersive. Dreamscape is a new Los Angeles-based startup for location-based virtual reality planning to open their first VR Multiplex in Los Angeles this coming September. The facility will use untehered VR headsets to allow consumers to move freely through a space and interact with real and virtual objects as well as with each other. This is very similar to the iMyth experience.

    Dreamscape has an impressive list of investors and supporters. Co-chairman Kevin Wall is an Emmy award winning producer. The company’s CEO is Bruce Vaughn, who until last year was Chief Creative Executive at Walt Disney Imagineering. Imagineering has been hinting at this new medium for the last ten years. Maybe Vaughn’s exodus signals Disney’s apathy or unwillingness to participate in this new field. Dreamscape has raised $11 million in funding in a round led by Bold Capital, with contributions from Warner Bros. 21st Century Fox, Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer (MGM), IMAX Corporation, Westfield Corporation, and Steven Spielberg. Advisors include star designer Yves Behar and legendary film music composer Hans Zimmer.

    Just as iMyth has its sights on shopping malls, the first location for a Dreamscape Multiplex will be the Westfield’s Century City Mall, which is undergoing remodeling and expansion. iMyth will need to establish its empire in central Florida.

    Dreamscape has said that its multiplex will be powered by technology from Swiss tech and arts foundation Artanim. These folks have probably been doing immersive experiences longer than anyone else. I first learned about them before Siggraph 2015.  Artanim co-founders CaeciliaCharbonnier and Sylvain Chagué will serve as co-CTOs of the company. Artanim had been a non-profit foundation in Switzerland. it will be interesting discovering their ambitions over the next few months.

    One interesting thing to note is that they will be using the Vicon tracking system mixed with the OCculus Rift. A basic installation of the Vican cameras probably starts around $160K. This is a hefty price to pay. However, the Vicon system can track multiple objects at the same time including multiple participants and props without additional cost. At this moment in time that inital tracking cost is a bit expensive. iMyth will probably stick with the Steam VR tracking system in the near future.

  • Experiences First!

    A couple of web article have come out over the last couple days which are really inspiring.

    In a few days, Activity on this web site will slow down in favor for the development of the iMyth experience. The iMyth experience is exactly just that, an immersive, theme world experience. This is not a game. This is not a story. However, this doesn’t mean that one cannot derive narrative or a competitive score while immersed in the experience. These are serendipitous bi-products which may occur but are never the primary focus.

    Evidence of this is expressed in the Upload to VR article, What the Billionaire saw in the Void. Instead of focusing on the sensational aspects of the experience, the article focus closer on the experiential side effects. There is a great quote in the article form Curtis Hickman, the lead designer for the experience, “People in The Void don’t want to rush, they want to take their time and absorb the experience,” Hickman said. “The Void is the exact opposite of where the rest of VR seems to be heading. We don’t see ourselves as making games, we see ourselves as making experiences.”

    In an entirely unrelated article, also from Upload to VR, The VR Scene Is Growing and Getting Weirder, there is a very interesting documentary about legendary film maker Phil Tippet and his experience with VR. In A nutshell, the video displayed Tippet encountering the VR media as less of a story telling devise as an experiential generator. In fact, there was a point in the interview where he found it necessary to abandon linear narrative entirely in lieu of the opportunity presented by this new media format.

  • Kiya – Legal Application for VR

    Upload VR just posted this legal application for VR, Kiya, Intense Murder-Suicide.

  • 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.

  • VR in the Court Room

    Here is an interesting new article by the Swiss Institute of Forensic Medicine proposing using VR to help settle Court Room decisions. They are looking into using VR to re-create crime scenes or scenes under legal scrutiny.

    While this direction is hardly surprising, it is not a very new concept either. Legal teams have been utilizing computer graphics as a visualization tool since the early 90’s. In fact some of my first jobs revolved around creating accident reconstruction for consulting firms. I believe this approach is effective. However, as with all media, VR needs to be authored and is subject to biased interpretation.

    I thoroughly believe that VR can make an excellent legal tool. The cost may make it prohibitive. Instead of authoring just one perspective, a full 360 degree perspective must be maintained. To complement the visual presentational elements I believe further advancements in procedural storytelling must be made. More specifically, the development of a storytelling language needs to be developed. The language provides a neutral format to which any situation may be described without biased interpretation. From that language the situation may be re-created to any media format; Video, VR, Comic Strip, Novelization, … . The interpretation to media will provide the biased interpretation. However, the language itself should be as neutral as possible.

  • Microsoft’s Holographic HoloLens Experience

    Here it is guys and galls. Microsoft, in support for their Windows 10, released information about a holographic AR headset they have been working on called, “HoloLens”. With Hololens, the user’s perspective of reality is altered and changed.

    Microsoft HoloLens

    In my prior article, Immersive Storyworld, I call for a technology which transforms an existing physical reality into a new alternative virtual storyworld. Will HoloLens be able to satisfy that need? It hard to tell, I’ll need to grab one of these, along with an Occulus Rift, and do me best to start developing a virtual reality experience. Time will tell.

  • Groovy Diagram from Oculus Explaining Why VR is Tough

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