SONICAM 3D VR Camera

The VR camera called SONICAM enables users to capture both 2D and 3D videos and images in full 360 degrees. It’s a professional, spherical VR camera with 9 fish-eye cameras, 64 microphones, 4K HD resolution, and 360 degrees field of view. The combination of these features in one single device means that users can film any scenes vividly without any blind spots or image distortion. A wide range of events and occasions can be captured such as news coverage, live streaming of sports, broadcasting concerts, producing microfilm for wedding ceremonies, and just capturing normal everyday life. The camera supports H.265/H.264 encoding for both real-time messaging protocol and real-time streaming protocol live streaming broadcast. SONICAM designers have developed 3D spatial sound technology so that sound is mapped in full 360 degrees to the corresponding video. It records sound from any direction and naturally captures the viewer’s attention to specific areas of the video. Moreover, the array of beamforming microphones automatically reduces ambient noise for a more immersive VR experience. This technique is also compacted in the spherical VR camera and users can select different time intervals for a customized time-lapse footage.

Users can perform real-time stitching to produce professional level panoramic videos and images. This is done by combining SONICAM’s very own algorithm and using an FPGA (Field-programmable gate array). Recorded footages and captured images are also available for instant preview while shooting, so the camera controller can immediately judge if the materials are usable or relevant for their project. SONICAM is a photographer’s dream camera as it also contains ISO, white balance, shutter, a professional Gamma setting, sharpness, saturation, contrast, and much more. RAW image format is available for post-production so users can edit them with their own artistic touch. SONICAM is equipped with many other smart features like Wi-Fi, GPS, accelerometer, and it links through a smartphone app where users can easily control the captured images and footages. The app is available both on iOS and Android, which enables remote shooting and controlling of the device. On the actual VR camera, there are only three physical buttons which make it so easy to adapt to its functionalities. All images and footages that you capture are stored in the 128GB SD card included inside the VR camera.

More information:

http://www.techwire.co.ke/2017/06/03/meet-sonicam-worlds-first-affordable-3d-virtual-reality-camera/

Gatwick Aiport Enables AR Wayfinding

Gatwick has installed 2,000 indoor navigation beacons, which it says will enable augmented reality wayfinding at the airport. The London airport says that the beacons provide an indoor navigation system which is much more reliable than GPS, enabling third parties, airlines and the airport itself to develop augmented reality wayfinding tools within their apps. Gatwick said that the new navigation technology is currently being integrated into some of the airport’s apps, and it is in discussions with airlines for them to do the same.

Examples of how the technology could be used include sending out reminders to late running passengers, or finding out their location in order to make an informed decision on whether to wait or offload their luggage so the aircraft can take off on time. The airport stressed that airlines would need the consent of the passenger to do this, adding that 'No personal data will be collected by Gatwick although generic information on people densities in different beacon zones may help to improve airport operations.

More information:

https://www.vrroom.buzz/vr-news/products/gatwick-enables-augmented-reality-wayfinding?platform=hootsuite

Microsoft Reveals AR Spectacle Glasses

When Google introduced the Google Glass, one of the major objections was their appearance. Though technology has moved on, the aesthetics of augmented reality (AR) headwear is still a problem for many people. Microsoft is seeking to tackle this problem with its new prototype AR glasses. Unveiled with surprisingly little fanfare was a prototype of a new design of AR glasses that look much like an ordinary pair of black, thick-framed eye glasses.

The prototype design is based on a technique called digital holography which is used in the prototype. The device may never be mass-produced as it is still an early prototype, and is lacking in several advanced features that are starting to become standard among AR and virtual reality (VR) devices, such as head tracking. Even so, the work on this prototype could form the basis of some new development in the field of wearable AR technology.

More information:

https://www.vrfocus.com/2017/05/microsoft-reveals-ar-glasses-that-look-like-regular-spectacles/?platform=hootsuite

Microsoft Shows How AR & VR Could Revolutionize Work

Microsoft owns the enterprise computing space. Windows-powered PCs run a huge portion of the global workforce. A few day ago, the company demonstrated how its Windows Mixed Reality initiative could potentially be used in that massive market. During the keynote address of its annual Build conference, Microsoft invited members of the Cirque du Soleil team up on stage. The members each donned a Microsoft HoloLens augmented reality headset and started showing the crowd how these products can be used in enterprise collaboration.

Together, the team appeared to devise and design a new stage layout for an upcoming production by summoning, altering and positioning simple assets from a menu. These objects could be moved freely by any of the members and all of them could see what was happening to their holographic layout in real time. All of this represents an impressive use case for how these headsets, both AR and VR, could be used in Microsoft’s all-important enterprise market.

More information:

https://uploadvr.com/microsoft-vr-ar-work-revolutionize/?platform=hootsuite

Quantum Test Could Reveal Limits of our Mind

The boundary between mind and matter could be tested using a new twist on a well-known experiment in quantum physics. Over the past two decades, a type of experiment known as a Bell test has confirmed the weirdness of quantum mechanics – specifically the 'spooky action at a distance' that so bothered Einstein. Now, a theorist proposes a Bell test experiment using something unprecedented: human consciousness. If such an experiment showed deviations from quantum mechanics, it could provide the first hints that our minds are potentially immaterial. Spooky action at a distance was Einstein’s phrase for a quantum effect called entanglement. If two particles are entangled, then measuring the state of one particle seems to instantly influence the state of the other, even if they are light years apart. But any signal passing between them would have to travel faster than the speed of light, breaking the cosmic speed limit. To Einstein, this implied that quantum theory was incomplete, and that there was a deeper theory that could explain the particles’ behaviour without resorting to weird instantaneous influence.

Nowadays, researchers proposed an experiment in which A and B are set 100 kilometres apart. At each end, about 100 humans are hooked up to EEG headsets that can read their brain activity. These signals are then used to switch the settings on the measuring device at each location. The idea is to perform an extremely large number of measurements at A and B and extract the small fraction in which the EEG signals caused changes to the settings at A and B after the particles departed their original position but before they arrived and were measured. If the amount of correlation between these measurements doesn’t tally with previous Bell tests, it implies a violation of quantum theory, hinting that the measurements at A and B are being controlled by processes outside the purview of standard physics. Such a finding would stir up debate about the existence of free will. It could be that even if physics dictated the material world, the human mind not being made of that same matter would mean that we could overcome physics with free will.

More information:

https://www.newscientist.com/article/2131874-a-classic-quantum-test-could-reveal-the-limits-of-the-human-mind/