Q&A: Behind the scenes on Ashe ’68 VR with Eve M. Cohen

Ashe ‘68 is a multi-component documentary project celebrating the life and legacy of tennis champion and civil rights activist Arthur Ashe. The project shares his story through film, a photo exhibition, an interactive installation and a VR experience–50 years after Ashe’s historic 1968 US Open championship victory.Immersive Shooter spent some time with Eve M. Cohen, director of photography for the Ashe ‘68 VR experience to go behind the scenes on the project’s production.Ashe’ 68 debuted at the 2018 U.S. Open, premiered at the 2019 Sundance Film Festival’s New Frontiers collection, and was published by Sports Illustrated. It has also been selected for Tribeca’s Cinema 360.

Breakout VR Hit ‘Beat Saber’ Confirmed as Oculus Quest Launch Title

Beat Games is getting ready to take their massively successful block-slashing rhythm game to new heights, as Oculus today announced that Beat Saber (2018) is coming to Oculus Quest at launch.According to an Oculus blog post, the Quest version of the game will deliver the entire Beat Saber experience, including all of the songs currently available on Rift, Vive, and PSVR, as well as “maybe more to come,” an Oculus spokesperson tells us.The game originally launched into Early Access on Steam (Rift, Vive, Windows VR) and the Oculus Store (Rift) in May 2018. A few months later, the game then made its way to PSVR, quickly landing a decisive hit on the platform by becoming PSVR’s second most-downloaded VR game for the entire year; it was live on the PlayStation Store for only six weeks before vaulting past every PSVR game except the perennial favorite Job Simulator (2016), which came in at number one.

FACEBOOK CAN MAKE VR AVATARS LOOK—AND MOVE—EXACTLY LIKE YOU

"There's this big, ugly sucker at the door," the young woman says, her eyes twinkling, "and he said, 'Who do you think you are, Lena Horne?' I said no but that I knew Miss Horne like a sister."It's the beginning of a short soliloquy from Walton Jones' play The 1940's Radio Hour, and as she continues with the monologue it's easy to see that the young woman knows what she's doing. Her smile grows while she goes on to recount the doorman's change of tune—like she's letting you in on the joke. Her lips curl as she seizes on just the right words, playing with their cadence. Her expressions are so finely calibrated, her reading so assured, that with the dark background behind her, you'd think you were watching a black-box revival of the late-’70s Broadway play.

Spatiate Brings Multi-User Augmented Reality Painting to Magic Leap One

While painting in augmented reality is not a groundbreaking pursuit, the ability for Magic Leap One, iPhone and iPad, and Android users to collaborate remotely on virtual artwork would be.That is what Across Realities is aiming to do with Spatiate, an app that launched on Thursday through Magic Leap World for $9.99. And soon, the app will also be made available on iOS and Android.In its basic function of art creation, the app operates similarly to the myriad of ARKit apps, Google's cross-platform Just a Line, or the AR painting tool on Facebook.

HoloLens 2 puts the future of computing in Microsoft's hands

The new capabilities of HoloLens 2 reinforce Microsoft's leadership position in a pillar of computing's future. The company's steadfast focus on enterprise productivity, though, may leave it vulnerable as mixed reality becomes more mainstream.The lengthy incubation of HoloLens 2 left a huge window for another company to jump into the leadership role in mixed reality devices. Despite the progress of Magic Leap in that time, none did, and the HoloLens 2 has shown it was worth the wait.With the second generation of the pioneering headset, Microsoft has tackled the most glaring deficiency obvious to anyone who tried the original headset: The limited field of view. This had emerged as a particular disappointment when demos of the HoloLens make it appear as if massive holograms can be fully viewed from any angle alongside real-world objects.

Apple could launch augmented reality headset in 2020

According to a new report from Ming-Chi Kuo (via 9to5mac), a reliable analyst on all things Apple, the company has been working on an augmented reality headset and is about to launch the device. This pair of glasses could go into mass production as early as Q4 2019 and should be available at some point during the first half of 2020.It’s still unclear what you’ll be able to do with this mysterious headset. Kuo says that it’ll work more or less like an Apple  Watch. You won’t be able to use the AR headset without an iPhone as it’ll rely heavily on your iPhone.The glasses will act as a deported display to give you information right in front of your eyes. Your iPhone will do the heavy lifting when it comes to internet connectivity, location services and computing. I wouldn’t be surprised if the AR headset relies on Bluetooth to communicate with your iPhone.

Nintendo Just Announced Cardboard VR Virtual Reality Goggles for Its Switch Console

If you thought Nintendo was done pairing its cardboard Labo accessories with its hybrid Switch console, you’re in for a surprise. On Wednesday night, Nintendo announced its Nintendo Labo: VR Kit, the fourth in its Labo series of DIY Switch accessories, and the first to bring what Nintendo is calling “basic VR virtual reality technology” to the platform.While rumors of a Nintendo Switch VR development software accessory have been circulating for over a year, perceived technical limitations of the Switch made it seem more pipe dream than potential product. But by pairing a seemingly less intensive VR experience with its cardboard DIY accessories, the company may have discovered a way to circumvent the hefty processing requirements associated with today’s VR-capable machines.

Facebook is thinking about using 'cartilage conduction' technology in augmented reality headsets, for audio without headphones

Facebook is thinking about a novel approach to providing sound in augmented reality: "cartilage conduction" technology that would allow you to hear sound from a computer without having to wear headphones.Adding sound to virtual reality is pretty straightforward — the user's headset replaces the entire world with virtual imagery, so they can pop a pair of headphones or speakers on to complete the illusion. But with augmented reality, where virtual objects are overlaid via a display over the real world, it's more tricky; users might benefit from added sound, but traditional headphones could block out sound from real life entirely.

VR virtual reality May Reveal How Time is Perceived in Space

Einstein’s time-dilation hypothesis states “that time slows down the faster you travel,” according to the European Space Agency (ESA). Flying atomic clocks aboard aircraft have verified the hypothesis, and astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS) are continually studying their perception of time in space.Right now, ISS astronauts are traveling at 17,895 mph (28,800 km/h), which is so fast it’ll make them 0.007 seconds younger when they return home.  In accordance to Einstein’s prediction, astronauts on the space station say that “time seems to speed up in microgravity,” according to the ESA. How time is perceived in space is important to understand, since precision is key in many non-terrestrial experiments, so astronauts are using VR virtual reality to learn more, testing reaction times and time duration.

You will be able to experience AR with your own hands thanks to Levitate

The EU-funded Horizon 2020 plan has brought to light a great many interesting projects. The one that most attracted my attention is Levitate, an initiative that aims to make you physically touch and interact with virtual objects shown on a display or through a VR headset.