expeditions
Latest
'No Man's Sky' adds seasonal missions in its latest update
Hello Games is bringing more structure to your adventures.
Google brings AR tours to its Expeditions field trip app
Last year, Google announced that it was working on bringing AR to its Expeditions platform and since then, it has been testing AR expeditions with around one million students. Today, the company has made those AR tours available to everyone, adding around 100 of them to the Expeditions app. Now anyone can check out the planets of our solar system, Leonardo Da Vinci's inventions, the skeletal system, art and a number of other AR tours with their phone. "AR takes the abstract and makes it concrete to the students," California teacher Darin Nakakihara said in a statement. "We wouldn't be able to see a heart right on the desk, what it looks like when beating and the blood circulating."
Google Tango shows how AR can improve virtual field trips
Google didn't have a ton of new things to say about its Tango augmented reality tech during today's I/O developer keynote. Instead, the company wanted to flaunt what Tango is already good at -- namely, the type of educational Expedition experiences that were briefly shown off yesterday. Daydream's education lead Jennifer Holland said that over two million students and teachers have taken advantage of what Tango can offer in a school setting. "One of the most important things my team has learned is you need to embrace they key functions of a classroom," she said.
Google wants to share VR with one million UK school kids
As virtual reality becomes more and more popular, companies are looking at new ways to integrate it into people's everyday lives. Google, for instance, is keen to ensure that children grow up enjoying the benefits of VR, so the search giant has committed to bringing the technology to one million UK schoolchildren. Google CEO Sundar Pichai, in his first visit to Britain since becoming chief, confirmed that the company will offer VR training and resources via its Expeditions programme, allowing teachers to take their students on virtual field trips from the comfort of the classroom.
Google offers 360-degree tours of US National Parks
To celebrate the 100th anniversary of the US National Parks Service, Google has put together a collection of virtual tours combining 360-degree video, panoramic photos and expert narration. It's called "The Hidden Worlds of the National Parks" and is accessible right from the browser. You can choose from one of five different locales, including the Kenai Fjords in Alaska and Bryce Canyon in Utah, and get a guided "tour" from a local park ranger. Each one has a few virtual vistas to explore, with documentary-style voiceovers and extra media hidden behind clickable thumbnails.
Google's virtual reality field trips are available to everyone
Have you been slightly envious of kids going on Google's virtual reality field trips? Don't be. As part of a broader educational push, Google is making the necessary Expeditions app available to everyone. So long as you have an Android device (iOS is coming soon), you too can pay a VR visit to the Great Barrier Reef and other wonders of the world. You don't need Cardboard or another VR viewer to make it work, but this might give you an incentive to get one.
Google can take you on a VR trip to the Great Barrier Reef
One of Google's more exciting announcements at least year's I/O was Expeditions, a VR kit that let educators lead students on virtual field trips to far flung locales like Mars and the Great Wall of China. Now, you can add two more places to that list: The Great Barrier Reef and Buckingham Palace. The virtual Great Barrier Reef expedition was designed by none other than Sir David Attenborough and produced by Alchemy VR, while the Buckingham Palace tour was made possible thanks to the UK's Royal Collection Trust. There's even a YouTube 360 video of the Palace, so you can easily use your phone to take a private tour of the Queen's art collection.
Google offers its Cardboard-powered VR field trips to schools for free
Google detailed its Expeditions project back at I/O, and now the company is looking to get schools more involved. To do just that, Mountain View will offer schools the VR field trip kits for free. The New York Times reports that Google is handing out the Expeditions package at no cost to help push the effort ahead. Each kit contains Cardboard VR headsets and ASUS phones for the students alongside an app for teachers that controls the virtual trips. And as you might expect, they're able to pause the action to ask questions as needed. Google isn't ruling out charging for the gear at some point, though, if it's able to make the price affordable enough for educators.
Google makes its case for VR by reinventing the field trip
I was standing on the surface of Mars. The rocky terrain was red and dusty, with nothing above it except the vast expanse of space. "Now if you look over here, this is where the Spirit rover landed," said a voice. An arrow emerged, pointing to a circle hovering over a sandy spot close to me. Yeah, okay, I wasn't really on Mars; I was in the Moscone Center in San Francisco. That voice belonged to a Google engineer, who was giving a small group of I/O attendees a brief tour of Mars through "Expeditions," a piece of VR software for educators. He was holding a tablet, talking us through the different points of interests, while everyone -- including me -- held up phone-carrying Cardboard VR viewers to their faces.
Google intros new Jump VR platform and improved Cardboard
Google brought virtual reality to the masses cheaply with Cardboard, a DIY headset announced at last year's I/O conference. Now, the search giant's building upon its 1 million VR viewers with an improved Cardboard headset that fits smartphone screens up to 6 inches. It also incorporates a new top-mounted button that replaces the finicky magnetic ring so that Cardboard works with any phone. And, in what's probably the most consumer-friendly move Google's made with the new and improved Cardboard, it takes just three steps to assemble. Clay Bavor, VP of Product, told I/O attendees that they'd be receiving these new DIY VR kits immediately after the keynote. And for interested VR developers, it's important to note the Cardboard SDK now works with iOS in addition to Android.
Defiance developers answer a dozen player questions
Good news, Defiance fans: Your questions have been answered. Assuming that your questions were closely tied to the 12 questions answered here, of course. Otherwise your questions remain unanswered. But if you want to know more about expeditions or the upcoming Alcatraz hub, the answers have you covered. Whether or not you'll like the answers is another story entirely; expeditions are very much about straightforward shooting engagements with a full group using a drop-in-drop-out approach to forming a party. At this point there's no exact ETA for when the Alcatraz update will be available on the game's test server, although the developers are hopeful for "soon." The answers also discuss some long-standing issues and a few bugs as well as take on the issue of character customization, which isn't going to be expanded any time soon. Even if your question isn't among the ones answered, it still would behoove Defiance players to take a peek at what's in store for the game.
