Visual Positioning Service for Tango

On the 17th May 2017, at the Google I/O keynote presentation Vice President of Virtual Reality for Google, shared a number of new initiatives in virtual and augmented reality. This included new services for the Tango platform called visual positioning service, or VPS. The Tango team worked with the Google Maps team to develop the service, which allows devices to triangulate location based on observed visual features.

It is obvious that AR is most powerful when it's tightly coupled to the real world, and the more precisely, the better. With VPS, Tango devices compare feature points against previously observed points, allowing customers to find exact items in the store. In addition, the potential to use VPS to map environments for visually-impaired users seems to be great. Moreover, the app uses Tango's sensors to map a classroom and place 3D visualizations within the space for students to explore.

More information:

#https://next.reality.news/news/google-unveils-visual-positioning-service-for-tango-0177615/?utm_content=buffer74350&utm_medium=social&utm_source=facebook.com&utm_campaign=buffer%20

Eurographics 2017 Educational Panel Paper

On the 26th April 2017, I was part of a panel session for a paper I co-authored at the Education Program of the 38th Annual Conference of the European Association for Computer (Eurographics 2017). The conference took place at Lyon, France, 24-28 April 2017. The panel paper was entitled ‘The New CGEMS - Preparing the Computer Graphics Educational Materials Source to Meet the Needs of Educators’.

The aim of this panel was to provide the audience with an idea of the purpose of CGEMS – a source of educational materials for educators by educators – and to give them an opportunity to contribute their views and ideas towards shaping the new CGEMS. Towards this purpose, a number of issues to resolve were identified, which the panel forwarded to the participants of the forum for discussion.

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.

Google’s New Camera for VR Content Creation

Almost every day, it seems, a new camera for shooting virtual reality content is announced. Ranging from consumer-grade devices that cost a few hundred dollars to those meant for Hollywood filmmakers that come with five-figure price tags, the goal is the same: to ensure that there’s more and more VR content so that people buy more VR headsets. Developed by Google and made by China’s Yi, the $17,000, 17-lens Jump Halo—and its associated post-processing software and distribution system—is meant to shoot high-quality 360-degree video, stitch it together automatically, and be light enough at 7.5 pounds to take just about anywhere.

This Jump is an upward-facing lens that ensures the video it shoots captures not just 360 degrees, but also everything above the camera, and then stitches it all together seamlessly. The Jump Halo can shoot 8K by 8K stereoscopic 360 video at 30 frames per second, or 6K by 6K at 60 frames per second. It also gives filmmakers total control over parameters such as ISO, white balance, and the like. It’s optimized for Google’s VR platform, ensuring content works with Google’s stitching algorithms, which aim to remove most if not all of the telltale lines that often betray where content from one lens didn’t quite mesh with that of the next one over.

More information:

https://www.fastcompany.com/40410831/googles-new-17000-jump-camera-aims-to-democratize-vr-content-creation?platform=hootsuite

Windows 10 AR Viewer

Microsoft is planning to bring a View Mixed Reality feature to Windows 10 later this year. It's designed to let Windows 10 users augment 3D objects, created in 3D Paint, into the real world by using any laptop with a webcam.

During a demonstration at Microsoft's New York City event, it showed off how objects can be displayed on a tablet using augmented reality. This type of technology exists in many different forms, but this time it will be built directly into Windows 10.

More information:

https://www.theverge.com/2017/5/2/15515678/microsoft-windows-10-view-mixed-reality-feature

Eurographics 2017 Educational Paper

On the 26^th April 2017, I presented a paper I authored at the Education Program of the 38^th Annual Conference of the European Association for Computer (Eurographics 2017). The conference took place at Lyon, France, 24-28 April 2017. The paper was entitled ‘Using Activity Led Learning for Teaching Computer Graphics Principles Through Augmented Reality’.

The scope was to demonstrate the learning effectiveness of augmented reality and project development approaches for higher education teaching. An activity-led learning approach was applied to computer graphics students at Masaryk University for the Master’s course called ‘Augmented Reality Interfaces’. Results showed a very high pass-rate as well as increased engagement and student satisfaction

A draft version of the paper can be downloaded from here.