Disney Reinvents Coloring Books - http://clapway.com/2015/10/12/disney-reinvents-coloring-books/

When one thinks of coloring, they might think of it as a basic children’s activity with crayons and a coloring book. One might also associate it with adults, using mandala coloring sheets as a therapeutic relaxation technique.

Coloring has now become more than that.

The world of technology is taking over everywhere, and coloring is no exception. However, it is no secret that the digital age is upon us. With all of the adults keeping one hand on their smartphones at all times, and children’s eyes constantly glued to the screens of TVs and tablets, it can be difficult for the simple life of coloring to merge with the digital one. Disney’s Research and Development team sees that, and is trying to create an experience that will do just that. No longer will it be just putting a crayon to your favorite coloring page; Disney’s Research and Development team has created technology that will create an augmented reality while you are coloring.

What exactly do they mean by this?

Well, now whatever you color in a coloring book will now be able to be 3-dimensional on a tablet through an app that Disney created. This Disney R&D team stationed in Zurich presented this new augmented reality technology at the International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality in September of 2015. While it is not perfectly honed for distribution or ready for the public eye, they actually showcased how it worked at this conference.

How was this accomplished?

One could say that this is achieved through a little bit of Disney magic. The truth about augmented reality is something that has been worked on by just Disney, but Disney was the first one to innovate the coloring book with this clever new use of this emerging technology. of In particular, Disney’s team created a specific algorithm called the outlier rejection algorithm that helps find the form and color in the 2d work into 3d animation on the tablet. This means that if the app sees that the person colored the bottom of the character blue, then the front and back of the character will be blue during their 3 dimensional animated state. Perhaps this new technology will inspire a future generation of animators and developers, so simple things will be able to continue colliding with technology to make a whole new world of creativity.

Virtual Reality’s Become Really Popular. Clapway Trends Reviews the SVR Glass Headset!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTCwx6CgWBI

Disney Reinvents Coloring Books

Can Nokia Make a Comeback with Its VR Camera the Nokia OZO? - http://clapway.com/2015/08/02/can-nokia-make-a-comeback-with-its-vr-camera-ozo345/

There was a time and place when Nokia reigned over the mobile phone market with complete authority. Over time, Nokia experienced a slow fade in popularity, and by the time iOS and Android were fiercely competing for market share, Nokia was largely irrelevant. Now the company is hoping to jump back into the spotlight by being one among the first manufacturers to embrace the upcoming wave of virtual reality (VR) devices with a brand new VR camera the company calls OZO.

Nokia OZO is One of the Very First VR Cameras

Nokia OZO is a spherical camera equipped with eight lenses and eight microphones, allowing it to capture stereoscopic 3D video in 360-degree panoramas. The idea is that users who purchase VR headsets (targeted for sale at the end of 2015) will be able to watch video that puts the user right in the middle of the action. They’ll have a 360-degree panoramic viewing experience and have the ability to hear sound dynamically move around them as if they were there.

Nokia OZO Isn’t for Consumers

There was no mention of a price point for the camera, and that’s largely because the Nokia OZO isn’t meant for the mass market. Instead, Nokia hopes that it will be a pioneer in VR filmmaking. As such, it’s aiming for professional filmmakers rather than early VR adopters hoping to make quick, sharable content.

Re-purposing Nokia’s Camera Technologies

Prior to Microsoft buying Nokia’s Devices & Services division, the company made some pretty impressive advances in portable camera technology for its Lumia line of smartphones. Nokia’s previous experiences have lead it to partnering up with VR production company Jaunt Studios.

“Our mission has always been to provide filmmakers with tools and techniques that fuel their creative process, unlocking the true potential of their vision,” said Cliff Plumer, president of Jaunt Studios.

Nokia OZO isn’t the first VR camera to be released, but Nokia is hoping its ease of use and quick processing times will help give it the advantage it needs to become the gold standard in the market.

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The Nokia OZO could be used with virtual reality headsets like the SnailVR Glass Headset

Can Nokia Make a Comeback with Its VR Camera the Nokia OZO?

What"s next in the world of #virtualreality #tech? - http://clapway.com/2015/07/18/grandfather-of-virtual-reality-embarks-on-new-adventure-233/

Human interface technology pioneer Dr. Tom Furness recently joined Envelop VR, an enterprise software company leader in the field of virtual reality, as its Senior Scientific Advisor.

Furness, also known as the “grandfather of virtual reality,” received the first-ever lifetime achievement award for his 50-year service to this futuristic industry last month, at the Augmented World Expo in Santa Clara, California. “The power of virtual worlds is not in the achievement of technological capabilities, but in the creative possibilities of the human imagination that transform the limits of reality,” Dr. Furness recently said.

Virtual reality for beginners

The promise of virtual reality has always been colossal. According to an in-depth report published by The Verge, “born of technology, virtual reality at its core is an organic experience.” In a man meets machine scenario, “what happens is strictly within the mind,” the authors of the study said.

The modern concept on virtual reality, born in the fifties, was initially pursued by the military that has used the technology for war simulation for years. A small crew of inventors, revisited the “utopian ideals of a VR universe,” in the late ’80s and early ’90s, The Verge reported.

Making virtual reality an empowering tool for mankind

Furness’ work is credited as some of the earliest in developing virtual and augmented reality. Furness is now exploring the next generation of augmenting human potential with profound and ubiquitous virtual world experiences. Much of the product technology that is now being popularised ranging from Oculus Rift, Magic Leap, Google Glass, and Microsoft HoloLens is based, in part, by early inventions and demonstrations that Furness and his protégés created over the decades.

“His research and development of new interfaces have laid the foundations for virtual reality as we know it today,” Envelop VR said. Bob Berry, Envelop VR’s co-founder and CEO added that having access to Furness’ mindshare “is an added bonus” for his team moving forward in the universe of virtual reality.

The future of VR

Furness said that he has chosen to work with Envelop VR because the company is developing the most essential component for the future of the VR industry.” Founded in 2014, Envelop VR is creating productivity and enterprise software that enables businesses and consumers to create, work and play in an immersive, 3D environment.

What’s your opinion on the technology of virtual reality? Share your views in the comments section below.

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Grandfather of Virtual Reality Embarks on New Adventure

The future of movies. - http://clapway.com/2015/07/01/jaunt-neo-virtual-reality-cameras-pave-the-way-for-virtual-reality-film-making-234/

These days it seems as though the movie theater experience is focused more on making the experience more and more immersive with every film. 3D has made a comeback since the 80s and it looks like it’s here to stay, and some theater companies offer you the chance to move and vibrate as if you were in the actual film. However involved 3D and moving movie theater seats make the viewer feel, there is nothing quite as immersive as virtual reality. That’s why Jaunt Studios is developing the technology to create flawless virtual reality film making with what has been dubbed the Jaunt “Neo”.

Who exactly is Jaunt to take on such an ambitious project?

Jaunt is a team of visionary engineers and business people with one goal in mind: to transport the viewer entirely to another plane for a short time through fully immersive virtual reality film making techniques.

According to Jaunt’s webpage, “The idea for Jaunt originated in early 2013 when one of our founders returned from an amazing experience at Zion National Park. What if he could go back there for a brief jaunt, at any time, from any place? The emerging consumer VR industry provides the mechanism to travel to virtual worlds. We aim to put realism back into the virtual reality experience, lending an uncanny sense of presence never before possible with any other technology.”

The idea for the Jaunt NEO was essentially born out of the idea of never truly having to be more than a virtual reality headset away from anywhere you can imagine.

E3 the electronic gaming conference showed that the demand for virtual is going to be very real in the next couple of years, and while the Jaunt NEO likely won’t be available to consumers right away because they aren’t going to be produced in large quantities, their team is going to revolutionize the way we watch movies.

What makes the Jaunt NEO’s virtual reality design so innovative?

NEO was built from the ground up after years of extensive research by a team of brilliant minds. Says Arthur Van Hoff the co-founder of Jaunt, “With NEO we have overcome many of the technical hurdles of producing high quality cinematic VR experiences. NEO is the culmination of several years of research, its image quality and ease-of-use will allow creatives to focus on producing awesome content without the complexity of cameras built from off-the-shelf components not designed for VR.”

Using its 360 degree camera design, and advanced rendering software to create flawless video content, every part on the Jaunt NEO has been carefully chosen to be the best. Jaunt promises to change the way we view video content forever with the Jaunt NEO camera systems.

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What is reality lately? MUSIO can be your virtually real friend:

Jaunt NEO Virtual Reality Cameras Pave the Way for Reality Film-Making

Tactile holograms. How unreal is that? - http://clapway.com/2015/06/29/japan-scientists-have-created-a-holographic-image-that-can-be-touched-234/

Scientists have taken a technology which once was only dreamed about in science fiction, and taken it further than anyone could ever have imagined. Experts in Japan have created 3D holographic technology that not only projects an image, it allows a viewer to interact with what is projected before them.

Whether it was the first appearance in Jules Verne’s “The Carpathian Castle”, later in George Lucas’ “Star Wars”, or even James Cameron’s “Avatar”, Holographic images have always captivated daydreamers and scientists alike.

Engineering behind holograms that react to physical touch

Researchers from various universities in Japan have used what they describe as a safer alternative laser called a “femtosecond” to facilitate this invention. Femtosecond lasers use pulses of light that are emitted at a rate so fast that they are not harmful, it would otherwise burn skin with human contact if not for its special design, “a high-intensity laser excites a physical matter to emit light at an arbitrary 3D position. Popular applications can then be explored especially since plasma induced by a femtosecond laser is safer than that generated by a nanosecond laser.”

The femtosecond laser sounds rather miraculous, but it is has been applied for years in other facets of the modern world. The femtosecond laser uses ultra-short pulses of electromagnetic light and has been used for applications in the study of chemistry, medical imaging technology, and has been used in cataract eye surgery since 2001.

So they’ve built a hologram that users can touch, now what?

Development doesn’t stop for the researchers at just creating the holographic technology. In their publication describing the details of their research, they discuss future practical applications of their advanced piece of engineering, “We envision a laser-induced plasma technology in general applications for public use, If laser-induced plasma aerial images were made available, many useful applications such as augmented reality (AR), aerial user interfaces, volumetric images could be produced. This would be a highly effective display for the expression of three-dimensional information.”

Research has led the team to believe that the public will benefit tremendously from the future 3D representations rendered using the laser imaging technology. Holographic images have been around for years now in the real world, but now science has taken a step beyond what imagination thought possible and created holograms that can be touched by human hands.

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The future of A.I. is in MUSIO:

Japan: Scientists Have Created a Holographic Image that Can Be Touched

"Magic Leap" Takes a Giant Step and Begins to Offer Development Kits - http://clapway.com/2015/06/03/magic-leap-takes-a-giant-step-and-begins-to-offer-development-kits123/

Imagine for a moment glancing at the world around you, and seeing virtual images projected onto what already exists in front of your eyes. Imagine a completely interactive virtual world interspersed over your day to day life. This is a notion that belongs to the future, but the future is right now. The augmented reality platform known as “Magic Leap” announced Tuesday that they will be assembling a development kit, so that developers interested in pushing the development of their product can do so before it hits the market for consumers.

 

The magic behind the scenes of Magic Leap

Augmented reality is not a relatively new concept, nor is it a widely accepted one. Google Glass is an example of an augmented reality platform that never got to market before consumers became weary of being saturated with its premise. Essentially the user places the device (a pair of glasses) over their eyes, and the world around them becomes “augmented” with digital displays and overlaid graphics. This differs from Virtual reality such as the Oculus Rift platform which is completely immersive. Users can play games, view graphics, and interact with a separate virtual world around them without ever sequestering themselves from the real world. Magic Leap explains the idea behind Magic Leap and how it functions, “With our founding principles our team dug deep into the physics of the visual world, and dug deep into the physics and processes of our visual and sensory perception. We created something new. We call it a Dynamic Digitized Lightfield Signal™ (you can call it a Digital Lightfield™). It is biomimetic, meaning it respects how we function naturally as humans (we are humans after all, not machines). Magic Leap wants to move away from the rift created between human and the outside world due to technology, and hopes to enhance the experience of the world which already exists around us every day.

 

Why release something that isn’t ready for consumers?

In order to ensure that this augmented reality platform is the best possible product for consumers before it goes to market, the company has decided it would be best to release it through what is known as a development kit. This way there are already developers working with the product and creating usable mediums with which consumers will interact, and build the best possible community ahead of any potential release date. It’s not uncommon for a company like this to release a development kit ahead of the release date. Virtual Reality platform Oculus Rift released a similar development kit ahead of their release to market. Although the product will now be in the hands of developers, Magic Leap has nothing to worry about financially. They have already received more than 540 million dollars in funding from companies like Google, Kleiner Perkins, Qualcomm, and Andreessen Horowitz. The Magic Leap is large step forward in the way that we compute the company states, “It’s an idea based in the belief that people should not have to choose between technology or safety, technology or privacy, the virtual world or the real world.

Magic Leap wants to bring the elements of humanity into computing, and save us from the rift technology is creating in everyday life, but the first in doing so is putting the tools in the hands of developers who will determine just how far it will go.

"Magic Leap" Takes a Giant Step and Begins to Offer Development Kits