Recap of VRARA Chicago Event

By Gina Joseph

We knew Chicago was already on the road to becoming a legitimate tech hub when we started InContext back in 2009. But never has it been so obvious just how innovative the city has really gotten than learning about some amazing startups at the VR/AR Association Chicago chapter launch event that took place yesterday evening.

As we previously wrote, InContext CTO Tracey Wiedmeyer was asked to head the Chicago chapter of the VR/AR Association, and represent the immersive Midwest scene. Last night we kicked off the chapter at the Aon Center, with speakers and demos from VR/AR companies DOME3DRelativity VRQuriosity, and VIATechnik. Highlights included hearing about DOME3D’s 360 video work with Warren Buffett, and learning what goes into creating live 360 VR for Lollapalooza.

The discussion also got into the ethics involving VR and what it will mean for journalism, how it will affect online viewing, and, as Relativity VR’s Tim Woensdregt put it, how VR is “the great empathy machine.” We got to learn about how architectural firms are utilizing VR, and experience what it felt like to be on top of one of the parade busses after the Blackhawks won the 2015 Stanley Cup.

The kickoff of the VRARA Chicago chapter was just the start of what will be many events to come. InContext will host a VRARA event in Minneapolis in the near future, so stay tuned for that, Minnesotans! Future Midwest VRARA events will include panelists, more demos, and of course, food and drinks to keep you energized, so be sure to stay on top of what’s coming up. In the meantime, contact us here at InContext  or on Twitter at @vrara_chicago for more information on how you can be involved in the VR/AR Association Chicago chapter. We hope to see you (virtually or IRL) very soon!

 

Torch Digital becomes a Member of the global VR/AR Association, NYC Chapter

New York  - Torch Digital is pleased to announce that it has become the newest member of the global VR/AR Association.

Both the VR/AR Association and Torch Digital are dedicated to fostering growth in the virtual reality and augmented reality industries.  As a member, Torch Digital will participate in the Association's initiatives by which Torch Digital will be connected with VR AR organizations to accelerate the market with smart growth.

In addition, Torch Digital is excited about partnering with other developers to create a bridge for their talent to our wide berth of contacts with advertising, Fortune 500 and major media companies hungry for engaging innovations in VR and AR.

“We are happy to have a VR veteran and pioneer such as Carlo Spicola, the Founder of Torch Digital,” says Kris Kolo, Global Executive Director of the VR/AR Association. He has pioneered VR as both an interface and content for some of the first Enhanced Music CDs for Skinny Puppy and the Wu-Tang Clan as early as the 90’s. He also created the first hit VR downloadable ‘app’ Hey Arnold! VR Room for Nickelodeon, which became Nick’s most downloaded digital toy in the USA and three additional markets. “We are excited to see what comes next and look forward to his(Carlo’s) growing involvement with the association,” says Kris Kolo.

“We are excited to participate in the AR/VR Association in New York and abroad” says Carlo Spicola.  “We look forward to creating VR and AR content solutions that serve our core values of using VR/AR to educate, engage and entertain the general public.”

For more information please visit torchdigital.com 

The Future Of Monetization Isn’t What It Used To Be

This is a post from VRARA SF member ADVR, authored by My Tran. It can be read in full here

It’s (thankfully) not often that a famous football player is accused of a double homicide that leads the LAPD in a slow-speed chase on national television, inadvertently scoring the Ford Bronco the most memorable unpaid visibility of all time. A lot has changed since the 90’s, and, as our world becomes increasingly digital and interconnected, the way we consume media and retain information also continues to evolve. As it stands, we’ve adjusted to the inundation of digital marketing via mental tunnel vision and by employing applications to block ads for us. Anyone who has ever searched for a product online is familiar with what can be summed up as being stalked around the web; in my particular case, because I visited jewelry designer Pamela Love’s website some time this past month, Pamela Love product ads “follow” me to any site privy to my browsing history. Whatever annoyance I felt was negligible, until I was forced to look at ads for $450 jewelry alongside an article on the humanitarian crisis in Aleppo. Pamela Love’s marketing team isn’t to blame; it’s the fault of an algorithm that doesn’t discriminate product from content. However, experiencing that cognitive dissonance means I now have a negative association with Pamela Love’s products. These digital marketing methods are very much embedded in the online ad culture and will continue to be a means of distributing sponsored content. Still, I would argue that to further perpetuate these marketing habits will only exacerbate the public’s growing distaste towards sponsored brand presence and encourage the use ad blockers.

Where retargeting is an example of informed but non-contextual digital marketing, ads built around a story represent the other end of the marketing spectrum. Major labels commission reputable ad agencies that know how to frame their brand in a relevant narrative. But smaller companies that don’t have that luxury still know that a strong story — a reason why for the product — resonates. In 2014, toy startup Goldieblox produced an ad that won a four-million dollar Super Bowl spot. That Goldiblox ad then went viral, resulting in sales that have increased 7000% since. People voluntarily view and share ads that embed the product inside of a quality story, and the positive emotional footprint casts the brand in a favorable light, which encourages spending. When we look towards the future, the evolution of programmatic advertising in virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) calls for us to set a precedent for advertising practices that resist problematic 2D digital marketing methods. Designing an unskippable ad in VR and AR means matching an immersive platform with narratively immersive sponsored content.

Read the rest

Apple ARKit has me Seeing AppleVision

Like Spectacles, AppleVision will enable filters, lenses and actually do much more than PokémonGo.

Apple will be able to enable new novel AR solutions for real problems that are annoying AF in real life. Picture a bespoke life experience complete with virtual assistant.

From the moment you put on your AppleVision ‘specs,’ your daily calendar renders your schedule for the day and a side bar of pending action items are aggregated from emails; which can be easily parsed and collated simply by voice command or ear end taps. Apple has you covered.

Instead of a boring commute to the office, specs offer you entertainment pulled from your Apple ecosystem with integrated third party data for more news or work options.

I can now see my work emails on the main specs display and have the market news running on the sidebar (periphery); all without even opening my laptop or looking down at my phone.

Later in my day, leaving work I can ask specs to tell me which gym is less busy for my cardio machine and buy me dinner within 10 mins. of my estimated gym completion time; no more waiting in lines for the right workout machines or getting (h)angry after -cuz I can't wait for my food. My life is good.

Once at my apartment I can ask specs to show me new movie content and sync with my TV for an 8pm start time while I take the dog for his walk.  Maybe I ask specs to route me (via fun green AR arrows and my dogs pic) to the least crowded dog park or a dog friendly bar for a pre-dinner aperitif. Now my life is even better.

Apple has a lot to offer. Just use your imagination. For now the ARKit otherwise called ‘world tracking’ actually only enables the iPhone or iPad’s camera coupled with their motion sensors to ‘pin’ objects to one point in space. Yet once you multiply this feature to a bunch of points in an environment, plus working in conjunction with finding flat surfaces, many functionalities can then be deployed.

Although it is still early, the clear win for AR and Apple is that now developers can create for the masses and scale with controlled costs. So even if Apple decides not to leverage and integrate its entire ecosystem, fun and exciting things are sure to come very soon.

Recap of VRARA Birmingham Chapter Event

By Kev Blair, VRARA Birmingham Chapter President

A great big thank you to those that made it to the VRARA Lunch event! 

Currently the association has 36 chapters that reach across the world including London. Birmingham is now the latest addition to the chapters of the VRAR association. Kevin Blair from Atmos VR is the driving force behind the creation of a Birmingham chapter which saw its launch on Monday Evening. 

The launch event featured several guest speakers in Steve Dann from the London Chapter, Immersive and multi-sensor storyteller Sarah Jones and Alan Dohalz from the Design and Media Technology Lab at Birmingham City University. 

VRARA Training Program LA Class: Building Great VR/AR Products

RSVP here

DESCRIPTION

Reserve your spot at our next class of the VRARA Training Program, taught by VR/AR Product Lead and VRARA Mentor Sami Ramly.

Building Great VR/AR Products: the Art of Product Management for Emerging Technologies


About the Class:

This class dives deep into Product best practices for anyone looking to make VR or AR and hoping to get people actually using their products - after the demo novelty has worn off. Topics to be covered include Product-Market Fit, Product Strategy, Product Development, Design, Prototyping, Monetization, Customer Development, Growth, Analytics, and more. All examples will be focused on VR/AR but some parallels will be drawn with adjacent industries. There will also be valuable learnings and applications for startups and companies in emerging technologies in general.

The typical audience includes (but is not restricted to) professionals who identify as makers, creatives, builders, creators and anyone involved in the product development process (entrepreneurs, executives, engineers, designers, product managers, developers, producers, directors, etc). If you're a marketer, evangelist, sales wizard or promoter of a VR/AR product, you will find it useful to learn what makes competing products great, good or bad, why your product with high traction could suffer in retention, and why the VR/AR product cemetery is full of has-beens and could-haves.

About Sami Ramly

Sami is a VR/AR Mentor & Faculty at VRARA, a member of the select Product Leaders group at Product That Counts in Silicon Valley, as well as a Mentor at Stanford, UCLA, USC, SIGGRAPH, LIFE, LebNet and others. He has spoken about VR & AR at CES, Digital Hollywood, Plug & Play, Hero City, UC Berkeley, UCLA Anderson, Otis, and many VRARA events. Sami is currently the VR Product Management Lead at Wevr where he heads the Product efforts for Transport, the native network for VR creatives and their audience. He also sits on the Executive Board of Predictera and the Advisory Board of Rabbit Hole VR, Stanford's VR/AR maker community, featured in Business Insider as a place where “the next big thing in VR could come.”

VRARA Singapore Partners with XR Alliance & Samsung for VR for Healthcare

RSVP for the event here

The XR Alliance is a global alliance for tech professionals in VR/AR/XR. Its force is in alliance-building and VR/AR/XR for Good. @xrforce

"Collaborative learning in VR Healthcare"

Medical VR applications, such as augmented vision surgery, remote treatment and distance diagnosis, are becoming increasingly common worldwide. In Singapore, new techniques are being pioneered that go further to help provide non-invasive and completely safe outcomes without using established trial-practice-and-error approaches.

Infocomm Media Development Authority (IMDA) has teamed up with Side Effects Asia Pacific to work on VR technology systems for advanced healthcare and medical training.

The new systems will enable trainees to experience realistic 3D medical emergency scenarios, allowing digital feedback and overlay information to be integrated with existing medical images. In other words, trainees will be able to experience and practice fully immersive, on-the-spot decision-making scenarios during the resuscitation of critically ill or severely injured virtual patients.

In this upcoming session, TK Ng, CEO of Side Effects Asia Pacific, will share more about their insights and experiences developing cutting edge healthcare and medical VR simulations with the new Gear VR Controller as a key interaction device. He will also give strategic tips and advice on how to deliver and scale cutting-edge medical simulations to the entire healthcare and medical industry in the most cost-effective and practical way.

Surprise and Delight: Successful AR Monetization via Snapchat

For gen Z and at least half of Millennials, Snapchat is their social media channel of choice. And, they are very loyal to Snapchat. With that said, across the board today’s user/audience expects contextually relevant, visually engaging, ad content in order to connect with a brand or business.

So what does that mean and how is Snapchat killing it?

That means that ads need to have a simple and clear message with a call to action that penetrates. Snapchat ads let the creative do the talking while the user feels like they are being entertained by an experience unique for them but also to share with all their friends.

So why does this matter for VR/AR?

So far, Snapchat is the only social media channel to use AR in their ad monetization scheme; allowing brands or businesses to sponsor a lens or geofilter. Successful campaigns by default all have an interactive element via the lens/geofilter and personalization via the user generated content/pic. However, each AR element clearly adds value for both the brands and the user. It’s a perfect mashup of surprise and delight.

Show me the numbers

According to eMarketer, Snapchat will generate $935.46 million in ad revenue this year and capture 2% of the social network ad dollars.

So how does Snap measure success?

Snapchat measures performance a bit differently from the other guys as well. For example, ‘viewability, provides metrics for how much attention your ad has received,’ as stated on their site. Reach is pretty standard but ‘resonance’ gages thought and feeling about your ad. While ‘reaction’ tracks in-store lift in sales. Last but not least is ‘verification,’ which provides third party data to keep things transparent.

The takeaway

AR presents a fundamental shift in the future of doing business, period. The now approx 35-40% of users just on Snapchat alone will grow. The interactive ‘fun/play’ element of AR will soon evolve into ever more sophisticated functionalities that both provide a service and engage the user in a unique and positive way. Picture AR integrated into much more of our daily journey, from picking up your local coffee to getting on your next flight. Plus the Spectales; AR will make it into this form factor, i.e., glasses. Brands that want to survive will rid themselves of customer pain-points via AR solutions aimed for maximum customer satisfaction. Everybody else will either adapt or be rendered obsolete. The future is now (i.e., "adapt or die").

Get your Copy of this Market Report: Global AR and VR Analysis and Forecasts, 2016-2022

For a 40% discount, contact us

Download a Sample from this report here 

This report will help you getting answers to following questions in this market:

  • What are the prevailing components, and device types in AR and VR?
  • What are the different application areas of AR and VR technologies?
  • What are the different factors driving the market forward in the forecast period?
  • What are the factors restraining the growth of global AR and VR market?
  • Who are the major participants in the global AR and VR market?
  • What kind of new strategies are being adopted by the existing market players to make a stronger mark in the industry?
  • Which region will lead the global AR and VR market by the end of forecast period?

VR/AR Association Aims to Grow VR Licensing

By Mark Caplan, VRARA Content Licensing Committee Co-Chair  (Original article here

Mark Caplan of BD Labs, who also co-chairs a committee for the association, will moderate a panel discussion on digital entertainment at Licensing Expo. 

As VR and AR technologies continue to offer licensors another avenue to build their brands and offer consumers a new way to experience the world, the VRAR Association has revealed that is well positioned to help the licensing community accelerate its growth within the sector.

The VRAR Association is an international organization that is designed to foster collaboration between companies and people in the VR and AR ecosystem. For the licensing community, the association will aim to assist content owners and other members of the sector in accelerating their growth, knowledge and connections in the VR, AR and mixed reality space.

The organization has also developed a number of committees to help in its endeavors, including one on content that is co-chaired by Mark Caplan of BD Labs.

Additionally, Caplan will moderate the panel discussion, “The Changing Landscape of Digital Entertainment,” at Licensing Expo on May 24 at 2:15 p.m. He will be joined by panelists Travis Rutherford of Evolution, John Sutyak of DDM, Javon Franklin of 71 Studios, Clint Waasted of Zynga and Arthur Madrid of PixOwl.

Additional details regarding the panel discussion can be found here.

Check out the May issue of License Global to learn more about recent trends in the VR sector.

VR/AR Will Be All About Storytelling: Join Us at Narrative Summit 3 (SF)

VRARA Members, contact us for discount code to attend.

One common thread in several technologies -- especially VR -- is transforming how stories are told. This is the evolution of narratives, and the subject of the Digital Narrative Alliance (DNA) Narrative Summit 3: Stories that Change.

Taking place June 20 in San Francisco it will feature a full day of sessions and networking on the evolution of storytelling. The VR/AR Association is an event partner and will join the discussion about how this evolution of storytelling is impacted by immersive technologies.

VRARA Members, contact us for a discount code to attend 


More from the event organizers:

If you are a journalist, marketer, executive, policymaker, filmmaker, academic, or a citizen with a cause, you know the path to awareness and relevance has been transformed radically by digital media. Perhaps you’d like to understand how to invest in this white water world. The Digital Narrative Alliance team is working hard to create an event that will help you understand the new challenge of storytelling in accelerated times.

At the second Narrative Summit, we explored the distinction between narrative, which encompasses the values, assumptions, and aspirations the audience brings to their experience, and story, the account of events we typically think of when referring to stories and narratives. Understanding that distinction provides storytellers, leaders, marketers, and filmmakers to contrast the expected and unexpected to develop entertaining and surprising stories. 

Narrative Summit 3: Stories That Change takes the next step in our exploration and lays the foundation for dynamic cross-media storytelling that can established shared expectations, develop feedback loops and audience participation in shaping a narrative, as well as open the door to public modeling of future products, services, policy, and decision-making. Here’s the key: the Gutenberg-era concept of a definitive version of a document or story has passed its expiry date and opened the way to non-linear stories with many different outcomes. We have experienced this as a decline in confidence in authority and institutions traditionally associated with authority, and it has stressed the media environment to its breaking point. With a new understanding of narrative, story, and feedback or remixing, creative leaders can redefine the relationship with the audience to co-design the future. It’s the essence of next-generation engagement within organizations, with customers, stakeholders, and citizens.

On the one hand, that new post-authoritative world has torn down the one-off presentation of a story, the organizational missions, and public debate, as we now widely acknowledge the presence of “spin” or inconsistent information has changed the nature of media. But on the other, stories can now be seen as steps on a path the author and audience take together, building a relationship through the interactions now possible between the creator and user of each tale. Seeing in terms of narrative, we can then understand how different interpretations of facts are modulated by life experience, previous communications – in the form of conversation, brand promises, political commitments, and so forth – and the context of the rapidly accelerating economy.

It’s time to start using stories to change our future. At Narrative Summit 3: Stories That Change, we’ll discuss how game design is similar to modern theater, the evolution of storytelling as a tool for social trust-building, cross-cultural storytelling, as well as the value of improvisational skills in management and society. Join acclaimed director Louie Psihoyos, whose films The Cove and Racing Extinction are environmental landmarks, as well as An Inconvenient Truth producer and Bourne Ultimatum screenwriter Scott Z. Burns, who will talk with former Obama economic development advisor and producer Barry Johnson about telling the stories of all peoples, especially minorities and other marginalized groups, in two upcoming films. Architect and author Ann Pendleton-Jullian will discuss Pragmatic Imagination, her new collaboration with Silicon Valley pioneer John Seely Brown. AKQA founder and Stanford DCI Fellow Tom Bedecarre will close the day with a speaker roundtable that is sure to rock your mind.

Seating is limited – register today to participate in this important day of speakers, discussion, and networking.


Learn more about the VR/AR Association, San Francisco Chapter here


VRARA Digital Health Committee Industry Survey Results

The VRARA Digital Health Committee conducted an initial industry survey for companies making VR/AR products in healthcare among healthcare providers. The goal was to understand current state of VR/AR healthcare market and identify challenges to adopting VR/AR healthcare solutions. The results are shown below. For a detailed slide presentation of the survey and Committee's work, including action steps, contact us. 

Those in the VR/AR community are looking forward to the day that VR/AR becomes mainstream. Currently the technology is starting to be used in the Enterprise settings, but the healthcare industry has many of its own unique challenges. Achieving mainstream adoption in healthcare will require overcoming several hurdles. Each needs to be understood in detail if we hope to increase the rate of progress. Thus, The VRARA Digital Health Committee is dedicated to understanding the challenges around bringing VRAR to healthcare so that the solutions can be seen.
— Brandon Birckhead, Immergence Tech

Thank you to all who answered the survey and to the Committee participants, and special thanks to Brandon Birckhead of ImmergenceTech, George of Mativision, Paula of Amalgamated Vision, Dom of Corporation Pop, Ali of Cinglevue, Henry of Corvecto and Amy of endeavorVR for making this Publication possible. Graphics made by Ada Chiu. 

Recap of the VRARA NYC Chapter & NYTV People Event "Future of VR/AR" at The Mill, NYC

By Julian Locke, NYTV People

The VR/AR Association partnered with The Mill and NYTV People for a panel and networking event called the Future of VR/AR. Panel members included Boo Wong, Group Director of Emerging Technology at The Mill, Cindy Mallory, Business Analyst for DreamSail Games, Michael Owen from Media Combo, Amy Peck, Founder Endeavor VR and Moderator Chris Pfaff, CEO, Chris Pfaff Tech/ Media LLC.

It wouldn’t be a VR event without VR! Boo Wong and The Mill let people experience some of their latest cool projects.

It wouldn’t be a VR event without VR! Boo Wong and The Mill let people experience some of their latest cool projects.

VR Changed My Life – the usual panel introductions were turned upside down when Cindy Mallory told the incredible story of how a chance encounter with VR on a date had such a profound impact on her she ditched her career as a Biochemist at Rutgers University and joined DreamSail Games. Now instead of studying the isolation and purification of the Celb2-MBP from Ecoli PMAL Vector she focuses on the analytics management for virtual reality development game creation with emergent technology!

The Realities of VR - Michael

Owen discussed the challenges of producing cinematic VR in uncontrollable environments where none of the production team can be physically present “You leave your camera in a busy market place and it’s gone!”

Those VR Headsets will soon be $10 on Ebay! Amy Peck spoke about how the technology is moving in the direction of an immersive experience that will be shared with friends in a virtual world. Rather than the solitary experience we mainly have today.

Building Awareness in Early Adopters & Taking Next Steps

Like the early days in mobile, success and growth are linked inextricably to building awareness. Currently the market is entering its second year of market knowledge and adoption; but it is really the first year of rolling up the sleeves, for knocking on doors. Both content creators and technology enablers must appeal to the early adopters for both business and word of mouth cache. Being the first still has its benefits. Companies both large and small that buy and use VR/AR content are seen as leaders and will be seen as the one to compete. For the industry as a whole, this free advertising is crucial in exponential organic growth.

So what does this look like in the field? For me, this means I explain the value and benefits the industry provides to companies interested in the VRARA. For content creators and VR/AR tech providers this means leveraging your network and explaining how you can work with the small business owner or increase monetization to large brands. In short, good old fashioned business development. Opportunity is out there in so many ways. Simply, I find just keep talking about what you do and how someone can get started to have it too. It works wonders.

The next step is taking action. That is the case with the VRARA Industry Committees . Representatives from companies are collaborating on similar needs and challenges, and working together to set best practices and guidelines for different verticals. Come join us, and you won't feel alone in this VR AR journey that we are all pursuing. 

VRARA Member PTC's Vuforia Takes Top Spot in AR Platforms Competitive Assessment

Original article here

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz., May 9, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ABI Research ranks PTC's Vuforia platform as the leader among 19 augmented reality platform competitors, with Re'Flekt and Ubimax securing first and second runners-up positions. Recently acquired by PTC, Vuforia's expansive platform offering and demanding market share now combines augmented reality (AR), IoT, and enterprise expertise. This positions Vuforia as the leader in AR platforms, especially when considering the dominant enterprise focus in the market.

"Vuforia's story has several facets that are responsible for its favorable position: ample market experience, a complete portfolio, and a competitive enterprise supplement through PTC," says Eric Abbruzzese, Senior Analyst at ABI Research. "The importance of a strong enterprise play cannot be understated. While the consumer market may be the key to eventual AR ubiquity, the enterprise market is this industry's foundation."

ABI Research's competitive assessment broke competitors into three groups to better reflect the nature of the platforms: software development kit (SDK)-focused, application-focused, and usage-focused. While Vuforia, Re'Flekt, and Ubimax take the top three spots among all companies, each group has its own, distinct winners.

Vuforia, Wikitude, and ARToolKit are top suppliers in the SDK-focused group mainly due to strong machine vision and cloud device support. Aurasma (by HP), Augment, and Blippar score highest in the application-focused group thanks to strong customer footprint, fair pricing, and good developer accessibility. Re'Flekt, Ubimax, and Upskill Skylight are the main three in the usage-focused group due to their strong device support, IoT synergy, and smart glasses support.

"The transition from mobile-first augmented reality to glasses-first augmented reality will create the largest shift among platform players in the future," concludes Abbruzzese. "Mobile device support is a differentiator currently, but platforms with strong smart glasses support, IoT synergy, and integration-ready accessibility position these platforms favorably for the upcoming market transitions."

These findings are from ABI Research's Augmented Reality Platforms competitive assessment. The full report details the complete list of companies and scores, along with detailed scoring reasoning, category definitions, and market positioning insight.

SF Chapter Event: UX and Design Underpin Good VR

Among the individual disciplines that drive VR innovation, UX and design are foundational. This was the central takeaway of VRARA SF's latest chapter event, co-produced by ARVR MunchnLearn

And through discussions of UX tactics such as ray casting, locomotion and teleportation, a theme emerged: The industry needs collaboration and strength in numbers. 

In other words, in these early days of experimentation for the best (and least nausea-inducing) user experiences, developers should work together and share best practices. 

"Experiment, and don't be afraid to break things," said Digital Myths Studio's Rafael Brown. "And when you find things that work, share it back with the rest of us."  

The packed house at San Francisco State University's downtown campus also heard from Oculus' Brian Sharp and Unity's Dylan Urquidi, through the eventful 2.5 hour program. 

SF Chapter Presidents Mike Boland and Emily Olman kicked off the program with insights on the VR industry, and of course updates on the chapter and its members. 

You can see that opening presentation below, and stay tuned for more videos. Special thanks to all the speakers and to our event partners, especially ARVR MunchnLearn


Learn more about the VR/AR Association, San Francisco Chapter here