• Tag Archives ar

  • Building a machine for fun in VR

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I have a few VR blog topics in mind, but am lacking any clear thought train on it, so we are going to just jump around a bit and blurt them out… ADD? Me?

    This video is newish and interesting in that it (tries to) give both the view of a person sitting on a couch looking at someone using VR and the view of the person in VR (but the angle for them looks off to me).
    It’s only 23 seconds, so its not too much to check out;

    The point I want to make is that things are really hotting up in this space. Late last month both big contenders for our money were released, Facebook with their Oculus and HTC with the Vibe. They are both a fist full of money, so are not on my list, nor on Terrys… Let me explain that one for just a sec….

    Terry is what we would call ‘the target audience’ for one of these. Last semester he got a job teaching programming, so has some expendable income. His goal for said money. VR/AR. That is what he was saving for. The Oculus was announced, he could afford it, but did not go for it. Why? Because Facebook.
    They seem to be locking down the system and keeping true to a proprietary protocol for their system. Terry is not interested in that approach. It has to work with all games, or its a no show.
    HTC was making all the right noises, open, developer friendly and a really nice system using a front facing camera…. The big day came and the price was announced. Some 300 bucks more than the Oculus. That killed it dead for him.
    So, we have 20 something, ‘hard core’ gamer, working and saving hard to get into the space, and they each killed it for him.

    Me? It is a solution looking for a problem. I will keep messing about with my frankenstein (future blog post) mashup and see what I can see… In VR of course….


    📂This entry was posted in Computers 📎and tagged

  • AR is still young

    Posted on by beno Comment

    I need to blog about this (yeah yeah and part 2 of the Canyon… I have not forgotten).
    VR vs AR.
    I have been tinkering a teeny tiny bit with VR the past week, enough to know that I am not really a fan (just yet).
    On the other hand, everything I read about AR gets me all sorts of giddy excited.

    VR, or virtual reality is movies or computer generated 3D content that is able to be controlled by the user (mostly head tracking – so as you look around, you can really look around the view).
    Think of the old Viewmaster slide wheels you used to have (or your kids).
    That cartoon 3D view has grown up.

    AR or augmented reality is a bit similar, but has the cartoon (or computer) generated content overlaid with reality, the room you are in for example.

    This is about AR.

    http://www.engadget.com/2015/12/17/microsoft-hololens-is-for-developers-not-the-public/

    It is a long write up, I want to block quote a lot of it because it is the first article I have read that fits with what I have been thinking for a while.
    Computer gamers are all over VR, Terry is saving like crazy for his head set, but devs are more for AR.
    It is going too far, but roughly thinking (mine), VR is for computer games, AR is for work.

    Microsoft seems to be looking to the latter.

    HoloLens, the augmented reality headset Microsoft’s been touting as a future pillar of its Windows business, isn’t “fun” to use. At least, it wasn’t for me during my whirlwind round of developer-focused demos at Microsoft’s flagship store in New York. That’s to say, any and all comparisons to emerging virtual reality tech and related gaming or entertainment applications should be excised from the conversation for now. It’s not “immersive” as one Microsoft rep stressed to me, clearly keen to avoid the confused commingling of AR and VR buzzwords. It’s “complementary.”

    That is where I am going to leave it since it is very young and not many of my readers will be all that interested in something that is both expensive and rare.

    I will blog about my adventures in AR which is a lot more affordable and approachable at the moment.


    📂This entry was posted in Computers 📎and tagged