iMareCulture 24M Project Meeting

Between the 6th to the 7th of November 2018 the 24 month (annual) meeting of iMareCulture EU project took place at the Istituto Superiore per la Conservazione ed il Restauro in Rome, Italy.

During the meeting important issues regarding the progress of the project where discussed including (but not limited) to: virtual reality serious games, underwater augmented reality and storytelling.

More information:

https://imareculture.weebly.com/

VS-Games 2018 Lab Visits

On Friday 7^th of September 2018, I have visited the 'Media Education and Educational Technology Lab' and 'Human-Computer-Interaction & Games Engineering' at Würzburg Universty Campus after the closing session of the 10^th International Conference on Virtual Worlds and Games for Serious Applications (VS-Games 2018).

A number of interactive demonstrations were presented to the participants of VS-Games 2018. In particular members of both research groups presented: immersive virtual reality systems, molecular visualization, photogrammetric capturing techniques, animation of virtual agents and educational augmented reality applications.

More information:

https://vsgames.org/2018/lab-tours/

Hydrus VR Deep Underwater Camera

Marine Imaging Technologies has announced a new camera system that’s capable of capturing incredible 360-degree video at underwater depths with almost no light. Dubbed Hydrus VR, it’s not meant for underwater photography hobbyists, but instead for professional VR experiences and documentary filmmakers. The Hydrus VR is a 10-camera array that captures 360-degree video in 8K, 4K, or stereoscopic 4K, at depths up to 300 meters (984 feet), with light as minimal as 0.004 lux. Eight of the cameras are arranged horizontally in a circle, with the remaining two capturing vertical. Each of the cameras are Sony’s new UMC-S3CA with ultra-sensitive sensors and custom SLR Magic E-Mount lenses, allowing video to be recorded at up to ISO 409,600.

It’s expected that the Hydrus VR will be used to capture rare sightings of fish and explore remote caves, so it features enough battery life and storage capacity for up to two hours of continuous recording. This can be expanded to eight hours with a subsea control module, however. With a weight of 75 pounds in salt water, the array can also be attached to mechanical arms or underwater robotic vehicles, making it easy for humans to keep their distance when needed. The system creates its videos by stitching together the output from each of the cameras, overlapping 60% of the images so that seams are invisible to the eye. Check out the panoramic demo video recorded in the Cayman Islands to get an idea of the Hydrus VR’s performance.

More information:

https://www.slashgear.com/hydrus-vr-camera-system-captures-360-8k-video-deep-underwater-05540143/

Photogrammetry in Unity

Photogrammetry is the process of using multiple photos of the real-world objects to author game-ready assets. It’s best suited to objects that are time-consuming to produce in 3D sculpting software. Photogrammetry allows you to get a qualitative result, but requires a very high texture resolution to conserve details. This is unpractical for game authoring due to memory budget, and it doesn’t allow you to add any variation to the object.

Unity 2018.1 beta introduced a preview of Scriptable Render Pipeline. Two built-in render pipelines will be released with Unity 2018.1: the Lightweight (LW) Render Pipeline and High-Definition (HD) Render Pipeline. HD Pipeline provides a shader dedicated to photogrammetry material authoring name: LayeredLit. At the start, the photogrammetry process can seem to be hard to manage, but the result is worth it.

More information:

https://blogs.unity3d.com/2018/03/12/photogrammetry-in-unity-making-real-world-objects-into-digital-assets/

VR Volumetric Photogrammetry

For consumers, VR generally means strapping on a head-mounted display (HMD), stepping into a new world and enjoying the experience. The enveloping nature of VR allows people to explore environments in 360 degrees, but for most, how these immersive worlds are created is a mystery. Though VR is still in its infancy, traditional methods of capturing and transforming footage have emerged. Typically, to shoot 360-degree VR content, a camera-person employs several cameras rigged in a spherical formation to capture the scene. Each camera is mounted at a specific angle so the camera’s field of view will overlap portions of the surrounding cameras’ field of view. With the overlap, editors should be able to get more seamless footage, without any gaps. Alternatively, professional 360-degree cameras can be purchased, but more or less look and function the same as hand-rigged apparatuses. Once filming is completed, editors stitch together the footage, creating a unified, continuous experience.

In addition to camera formation, camera placement also plays a major role in the end result of a particular piece of immersive content. Depending on what the content creator wants the consumer to experience, camera placement will vary. Though the creative direction will ultimately determine placement, it is important to note that even with several rigs placed throughout a set, this method creates a more static outcome. Volumetric photogrammetry could possibly hold the key to the future of VR. Unlike the method mentioned above, there are no takes or shots in volumetric VR that are later edited in post-production. This allows for a much more fluid experience, as the consumer frames the scene and chooses his or her own perspective. Using the volumetric capture method, footage of a real person is recorded from various viewpoints, after which software analyzes, compresses and recreates all the viewpoints of a fully volumetric 3D human. With volumetric VR explained, photogrammetry’s defining characteristic is the principle of triangulation.

More information:

https://techcrunch.com/2018/01/17/volumetric-photogrammetry-big-words-bigger-impact-on-vr/