360 rumors

At WWDC 2017, Apple demonstrated augmented reality on the upcoming iOS 11 using existing iOS hardware. UPDATE :  Apple has announced 360 video editing in Final Cut Pro; Apple will support Steam VR and HTC Vive; Apple has announced Metal API for VR. 1. AUGMENTED REALITY At WWDC 2017, Apple announced several things including a new iPad Pro variant.  For readers of this site, the highlight was Apple's demonstration of augmented reality on an iPad and an iPhone on the new iOS 11.  Your iPhone or iPad would be like a 'window' that shows AR objects, similar to how Pokemon Go is played for example, except now your iPad or iPhone will be able to estimate the three dimensional surfaces within its view and place AR objects on it more realistically.  For Pokemon Go for example, Pikachu would not just be floating in space, but would appear to be standing on a sidewalk that you are pointing at.  A missed Pokeball would seem to hit the ground and roll off, following its conto...

I just posted an article on Immersive Shooter , one of the best resources for immersive journalists and professionals who produce 360 video and VR content.   If you haven't yet, you should check out Immersive Shooter.  Here are some of the stories that were posted this week: - Robert Hernandez gives his top recommendations for 360 cameras for professionals and for consumers . - Samsung Gear VR can now stream to Chromecast, not just Facebook .  This allows VR to be more social and lets your friends and family get an idea of what you're seeing in Gear VR. - Aryzon is an affordable Cardboard-inspired viewer for AR .   You can still sign up for their Kickstarter here , which has already blown past its funding goal. These and more stories are on Immersive Shooter!  You can understand why I think anyone interested in 360 cameras should bookmark their page, and why we've teamed up !

Last week, I posted about Occipital Bridge, a VR and AR headset for the iPhone .  I got to try it at CES 2017.  Here are my impressions. Mobile VR headsets today are limited to tracking your head movement (rotational tracking).  Desktop VR headsets are able to track your forward, upward, or sideward movement (positional tracking) but they need external devices to track the headset's position. Occipital Bridge is a headset for the iPhone that uses Occipital's Structure depth-sensing camera as an inside-out tracking device, enabling positional tracking with 6 degrees of freedom, without any external devices. Moreover, Occipital Bridge uses the iPhone's camera plus an ultrawide converter and data from the Structure sensor to provide a 3D view of the viewer's surroundings.  This makes it possible to use as an AR device (strictly speaking, a mixed reality device). The Occipital Bridge was available for demo at CES.  Their appointment times filled up quickly but I was...

Asus Zenfone AR is the first smartphone with support for both VR with Google Daydream and AR with Google Tango. Unfortunately, the Zenfone AR does not combine its AR and VR functions to provide positional tracking in the same way as VR headsets with inside-out tracking such as the Occipital Bridge .  Instead it can switch to either Google Daydream or Google Tango to provide VR (with rotational tracking) or AR as needed. The Zenfone AR uses the Qualcomm Snapdragon 821 processor rather than the newly-announced Snapdragon 835 which was designed for cutting-edge VR and AR features. The Zenfone AR is schedule for release in Q2 of 2017.  Pricing has not yet been announced.

Qualcomm's new Snapdragon 835 mobile processor has many features such as a better battery life, and better support for dual camera phones.  However, its most impressive feature is its support for VR and AR. The Snapdragon 835 has several features for VR and AR: - 25% faster graphics rendering - support for foveated rendering - support for 360 audio - positional tracking with 6 degrees of freedom - 20% less latency than its predecessor - support for Google Tango AR. You might be wondering how a processor can add positional tracking.  In the case of the Snapdragon 835, it is through visual inertial odometry (VIO).  The processor takes information from inertial sensors and from a camera to determine its position in 3D space without an external sensor. The Snapdragon 835 will be demo'd at CES 2017 .  If I'm able to get a demo, I will post about how well it actually works in comparison to desktop VR (the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or Playstation VR).

Occpital Bridge is a mobile VR headset for the iPhone with untethered roomscale positional tracking. Desktop VR systems have thus far been only for Windows (and Linux if you include OSVR).   However, Occipital is making a VR headset that can be used with an iPhone.  It's called Bridge, and it even has positional tracking with 6 degrees of freedom, just like the HTC Vive , Oculus Rift and Playstation VR .  Bridge also features a motion controller with rotational tracking (similar to the controller for Google Daydream ). Moreover, the headset has important features that are not present in the Vive, Rift and PSVR: First, the headset is untethered and has no external sensors.  This makes it possible to do VR without wires, without a PC, and theoretically without limits (world scale VR).  Second, the headset can do both VR as well as augmented reality (AR) or mixed reality.  Third, whereas the Vive and Rift warn users when they are approaching the boundary of t...