标签: oculus

As you are surely aware (unless you've been living under a rock), I am enamoured with things like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (in the form of games like Obduction and headsets like the Oculus Rift ).   Well, I just received a message from my chum Rich Quinnell, who is the Editor in Chief over at IoT World. In his email, Rich said "Hi Max, I thought you might like to take a look at this Panopticam 360-degree camera ."     This little beauty -- which is the work of a company called Figure Digital -- is a spherical device adorned with 36 cameras. Using this little scamp, you could take totally immersive "surround" images that could be viewed using the Oculus Rift.   Suppose we take this one step further -- shoot an entire film using a Panopticam and then watch it using an Oculus Rift. In this case, you could be standing in the middle of the room tilting your head up and down or turning it left or right (or turning your body completely around) to see something completely different. In fact, you could watch the same film over and over again looking in different directions each time.   Actually, knowing how modern films require so much in the way of special effects and large numbers of lighting and sound technicians and so forth, I'm not sure how well this would work for something like an action movie. On the other hand, I can really envisage the most amazing educational videos taking you to places like the Great Pyramid in Egypt. And I can also envisage the most amazing computer games...   How about you? What do you think would be a good use for the Panopticam?

You may already know (unless you've been living under a rock) that I am mesmerised by things like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality (in the form of games like Obduction and headsets like the Oculus Rift ).   Well, I just received a message from my chum Rich Quinnell, who is the Editor in Chief over at IoT World. In his email, Rich said "Hi Max, I thought you might like to take a look at this Panopticam 360-degree camera ."     This little beauty -- which is the work of a company called Figure Digital -- is a spherical device adorned with 36 cameras. Using this little scamp, you could take totally immersive "surround" images that could be viewed using the Oculus Rift.   Suppose we take this one step further -- shoot an entire film using a Panopticam and then watch it using an Oculus Rift. In this case, you could be standing in the middle of the room tilting your head up and down or turning it left or right (or turning your body completely around) to see something completely different. In fact, you could watch the same film over and over again looking in different directions each time.   Actually, knowing how modern films require so much in the way of special effects and large numbers of lighting and sound technicians and so forth, I'm not sure how well this would work for something like an action movie. On the other hand, I can really envisage the most amazing educational videos taking you to places like the Great Pyramid in Egypt. And I can also envisage the most amazing computer games...   How about you? What do you think would be a good use for the Panopticam?

转自新浪科技 福特利用Oculus VR虚拟现实技术设计汽车 导语：《福布斯》杂志网络版周六刊文称，福特已开始利用虚拟现实技术去进行汽车的设计及开发，而使用的设备则来自已被Facebook收购的Oculus VR。 以下为文章全文： 当3月份Facebook宣布以20亿美元收购虚拟现实头戴设备厂商Oculus VR时，Facebook创始人马克·扎克伯格(Mark Zuckerberg)曾表示，希望将虚拟现实技术应用至多个行业。随后业内人士开始探讨，企业是否能以适当的方式去利用虚拟现实技术。 美国汽车巨头福特已经给出了一个明确的答案：是的，虚拟现实技术能推动汽车设计的革命。 业内人士认为，在多个行业，虚拟现实技术都有着巨大的潜力，但企业尚不具备能力完全发挥这种潜力。利用虚拟现实技术，企业可以测试多种场景和设计，并在产品开发完成之前就进行体验。 自2000年以来，福特就开始在汽车设计过程中以多种方式利用虚拟现实技术。不过过去7年中，已有111年历史的福特开始将虚拟现实技术置于汽车开发的中心，该公司利用了Oculus Rift头盔的技术。 福特虚拟现实及先进虚拟化技术专家伊丽莎白·巴隆(Elizabeth Baron)表示：“我们寻求能被感知的汽车质量，而用户可以看到这样的质量。在汽车生产之前，我们就希望能看到汽车和设计，并进行体验。” 福特的Immersion Lab实验室实现了这一目标。在这一实验室，一些员工戴上虚拟现实头盔，并模拟观察一辆汽车，而他们的同事将可以通过大屏幕查看他们的体验。这些员工也可以模拟坐进一辆汽车，因为在佩戴虚拟现实头盔时四处走动容易使人迷失方向。 巴隆表示：“我们建造了一个大房间，可以在其中‘体验’汽车。房间中有一面巨大的投影墙，其中集成了一块15x9英尺、4K分辨率的显示屏。” 福特通常的设计会议持续半小时至几小时，30至40名来自设计及工程部门的人员将参加不同的议程。而福特位于全球各地的高管将通过视频设备参加会议。 福特使用虚拟现实技术去检查汽车的整个外观和内饰设计，并查看特定细节，例如中控台和内饰板。这一虚拟现实技术连接至福特的CAD系统。 通过虚拟现实技术，开发人员可以观察许多细节，例如灯光的位置、尺寸和亮度，以及其他设计元素的位置和形状。仅仅去年，福特就使用这一技术检查了193款虚拟汽车原型中的超过13.5万个细节。 巴隆表示：“人们对物体的感知非常微妙，因此我们在多种不同条件下以虚拟方式去查看汽车，例如模拟明亮的白天、多云天气，以及夜间，了解在这些条件下汽车看起来的外观。” 福特的技术设计流程通常从简单的草图开始，随后逐渐发展成为复杂的设计，并引入高度专业化的工程技术。在设计的任何阶段，福特都可以引入虚拟现实技术，对想法进行测试。 福特使用的技术来自Oculus VR。在Facebook收购Oculus VR之后，该公司已成为关注热点。而Facebook希望通过Oculus VR帮助企业和普通用户通信及分享体验。 巴隆认为，其他行业也可以利用虚拟现实技术带来的优势。不过她指出，虚拟现实技术的普及还有很长的路要走。“虚拟现实技术在企业中的应用规模还很小，但我很高兴能吸引其他行业，包括农业和国防工业的参与。随后，我们可以探讨如何利用这一技术，未来在何方。” 在福特，虚拟现实技术有着光明的未来。福特已在墨尔本建设了类似设施，未来还计划在德国、中国、印度和巴西建设类似的设施。 巴隆表示：“我们使用虚拟现实技术去解决难题，在设计过程启动之初就进行测试。对于推动正确的设计而言，这是一种基础功能。” 随着虚拟现实技术的继续改进，虚拟体验和真实体验之间将可以实现更好的关联，因此这一技术将有很大的发展机会。

I saw a Kickstarter project that got me drooling with desire. This is my chance to have a truly immersive experience as I meander through a strange world populated by fantastic scenery and incredible architecture. Do you remember the album covers for the band Yes that were created by the English artist, designer, architect, and publisher—Roger Dean? When I was a young lad, I used to love the strange worlds he created with their fantastic landscapes and organic structures, such as the one shown below:     I always wished I could somehow transport myself into these worlds and wander around and explore them. To some extent, this capability is provided by today's computers. Generally speaking I'm not a big player of computer games, but there are a couple that I simply could not resist— Myst and Riven . These are immersive reality games in which you move through strange worlds solving puzzles and suchlike. Myst and Riven came before the days of high-speed graphics cards and the computational capabilities to render high-quality 3D images on-the-fly. What they did was to pre-render photo-realistic still images of the various scenes, such as the one from Riven shown below. Then you clicked on different directions with your mouse to move through the landscape.   Well, the folks from Cyan who brought us Myst and Riven have a Kickstarter project running to fund the creation of a new immersive reality game called Obduction . ( Click here to visit this Kickstarter project.) From what I read and see, like the image shown below, this already has me drooling with desire.   At the time of this writing, there are still 17 days for this project to run on Kickstarter, and they've already raised $659,675 of the $1.1 million base funding requirement. Now, $1.1 million may seem like a lot of money, but if you've seen and heard the quality of the visuals and audio effects associated with the earlier games, you will appreciate just how much effort is required to get something like this off the ground. I was hooked from the get-go, but what really has me chomping at the bit is the news that if the game's creators reach $1.3 million in Kickstarter pledges they are going to include support for the Oculus Rift. (I'm currently performing my happy dance.) What do you mean What's an Oculus Rift when it's at home? It's only the coolest next-generation virtual reality headset designed for immersive gaming. ( Click here to learn more.)   Can you imagine how incredible it would be to use one of these Oculus Rift headsets to enjoy a photo-realistic 3D visualisation of the Obduction environment? All I can say is that I can barely restrain myself from squealing in anticipation!