Virtual & Augmented Reality and 3D News - Page 142

GDC 2014 - After months upon months of teasing the world, Sony has just taken the wraps off of its VR headset for the PlayStation 4, known as Project Morpheus.

Project Morpheus is a VR headset designed for the PlayStation 4, which comes in two pieces: a closed display, and something that resembles the PlayStation Move sensor. The unit unveiled at GDC 2014 is the development kit for Sony VR games, with Shuhei Yoshida, President of Worldwide Studios for Sony saying: "We believe Morpheus will further enhance, with integration with PlayStation Camera and PS Move." Yoshida has said that the prototype of Project Morpheus is "by no means final," so we should expect a change in the final product.

PlayStation R&D Engineer Richard Marks talked about Morpheus, saying that it needed a high-resolution, high-quality screen, great sound, and control - all of which Sony seems to have under control. SCE is working on "binaural tech" for the audio side of things, with Marks making a point of the PS4 camera being "almost custom-built for VR."

Respawn Entertainment has teased that it has been playing Titanfall with Oculus VR's virtual reality headset, the Oculus Rift. The developer's Community Manager, Abbie Heppe told Digital Spy: "We've been so busy just trying to get the game out. That is one of those things that we will evaluate post launch. We have them in the office, we've definitely played around with them, but that was more a side project for some of our coders."

Heppe continued: "After launch we will have probably a little more time when we are not totally crazy trying to get a game out. I've walked through a couple of the demos and it's pretty neat, especially with the cool stuff we have in Titanfall, there is a lot of possibilities. I'm always a little bit sceptical when it comes to stuff that's wearable because you've seen people attempt to do it in the past and it's never caught on large-scale. But it's so much fun to play with, so we'll see"

So there you have it, we could expect some virtual reality goodness in Titanfall, but I wouldn't hold your breath, it could be a while.

During South by Southwest this year, 3D printing is on full display, with industry supporters handing out 3D-printed food to event attendees. Major tradeshows and conventions, such as CES 2014 and SXSW are helping display 3D technology on a big platform, introducing a new audience to potential for the food industry.

3D printed food should give the 3D printing industry a strong boost in 2014, with a larger number of casual consumers being exposed to the technology. Chocolate maker Hershey's is expected to support 3D printing for the next few years, creating edible chocolate sweets for visitors at its factory in Hershey, Pennsylvania.

3D Systems, which partnered with Hershey's and other select companies, has the ChefJet food printer - though with a price tag still around $5,000, only a small number of bakeries and food makers will be able to afford the niche technology. During SXSW, the ChefJet is using sugar, water and alcohol to print delicious candies that taste sugary and sweet.

Augmented reality isn't a new technology, but its growing emergence has given developers and retailers an innovative manner to approach customers.

Startup companies such as Blippar, Daqri, Layar, Sayduck, and Waygo are developing niche augmented reality apps and services - and bigger companies are dumping more research funds into seeing how to integrate AR into customer offerings.

Moving forward, the regular augmented reality market is expected to grow 30 percent year-over-year during the next four years - and the mobile augmented reality will top $1 billion annually by 2015 - as consumers, developers, and companies willing to try using augmented reality.

Roberts Space Industries has just pushed out Star Citizen Patch 11.1, which has enabled support for Oculus Rift within the Hangar Module. This is quite the surprise, but something that was promised when the game hit its $12 million stretch goal.

All you'll need to do is make sure your game is up-to-date with the latest patch, and then create a file named 'user.cfg' in your Star Citizen/CitizenClient folder, and add the lines 'sys_currentHMDtype=1' and 'r_stereostrength=-8' and voila, you have virtual reality support thanks to the Oculus Rift, in Star Citizen.

There are various issues of course, as this is just early days yet:

An interesting trademark was filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office from Oculus VR, the startup behind the Oculus Rift VR headset. The trademark is for an exhibition dedicated to all things VR called RiftCon.

The company filed for the RiftCon trademark on February 14, while everyone was busy binge watching House of Cards, and includes the following description: "Organizing exhibitions for cultural, educational, or entertainment purposes; organizing exhibitions in the fields of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics and video game entertainment industries for cultural or educational purposes; entertainment services, namely, arranging and conducting of competitions to encourage use and development of interactive entertainment, virtual reality, consumer electronics, and video game entertainment software and hardware".

The idea of VR-focused exhibition is great, as the world of virtual reality hasn't even reached the consumer level yet. Oculus is on the forefront of this, but it'll be more interesting to see this RiftCon event happen as the launch platform for the consumer version of the Rift headset, and continue each year to showcase all things VR.

Technology to bring 3D printing closer to the mass market is accelerating, though most 3D printed items tend to be rather small in size. To help demonstrate the effectiveness of printing larger items, BigRep, a company founded in 2014, opens the door to printing items such as furniture. The device is launching worldwide at large trade shows, and begins shipping in two months, with a $39,000 MSRP.

The BigRep One can print full-scale objects in sizes up to 45x39x47 inches, and has the ability to print plastics, nylons, Laywood (wood fibers mixed with polymers), and Laybrick (something similar to sandstone-type of material).

"We know that the need for 3D prints has increased enormously in the creative industries among architects, artists and inventors, among others," said Lukas Oehmigen, BigRep founder, in a press statement. "We have developed printing technology that lowers costs by about 90%, opening the door to a new dimension. Clients may now affordably produce life-size, three dimensional objects."

The original Oculus Rift development kit (or DK1) is no longer being manufactured by Oculus VR, with the company out of the necessary materials to produce more Rift DK1 units, according to a post on the /r/Oculus section of Reddit.

Oculus VR is "looking for alternate sources for the needed components", but doesn't have a time frame of when additional Rift units will be made available. The company will sell out of its inventory in each region, but once this happens it will halt sales in that particular region until it can deliver new orders to consumers.

Right now, Oculus VR is only selling and shipping Rift DK1 units to the following countries:

We've heard a bit about Sony's venture into virtual reality, but nothing has entered actual reality just yet. Another tease is here, with an industry insider hinting that Sony would show off a VR headset for the PS4 at E3 2014 in June.

Ahsan Rasheed, or thuway on Twitter, posted on the social network: "Ugh I just got a bit of info I was sworn to secrecy on :-/. VR is going to be amazing. You will say KANDO". He continued: "Very interesting solutions, multiple prototypes, but the end product is Hnnnnng. Say hello to Gran Turismo 7", suggesting that Sony is indeed working on its own VR headset.

If you were excited with that news, prepare your VR underwear for the next bit: Rasheed also mentioned PS4 VR in one last final tweet, where he listed upcoming Sony projects:

Virtual reality and augmented reality hardware and software products are changing the way users interact in the living room and at the PC. The Oculus Rift, Avegant Glyph, and smart glasses might get a lot of the attention from gamers, but VR and AR create potential for so many business and enterprise apps.

Smart glasses are being used as training tools for industry decision makers trying to embrace new technologies and cut prices, as the military, medical, and biotech companies show interest in VR.

As VR hardware continues to evolve, the bundled software also provides great opportunities for consumers and business users. Sixense's MakeVR 3D modeling software, which needs a 3D multi-touch interface, pushes the boundaries of the type of software that can be developed in the future. The MakeVR Kickstarter reached $56,000 of its $250,000 goal just three days after launch.