Spatial
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After Math: Free games and expensive mistakes
As if the COVID-19 crisis wasn’t bad enough on its own, the economic downturn that it’s brought along for the ride has hit many of us where it hurts the most: our pocketbooks. If you haven’t yet gotten around to playing the blockbuster open-world crime spree simulator, Grand Theft Auto V, what have you been doing for the past seven years?
Spatial goes free, aiming to become the Zoom of virtual collaboration
Spatial is making its virtual collaboration platform free, and opening up access to web, iPhone, Android and Oculus Quest users.
Spatial's collaborative AR platform is basically FaceTime in 3D
One of the many potential use cases for augmented reality headsets like Magic Leap and Microsoft's HoloLens is collaboration in the workplace. Instead of using something like Skype or Slack to have your remote meetings, you could strap on a headset and chat with co-workers in a "face-to-face" setting. One company exploring this idea is Spatial, which created an office collaboration platform that not only lets you chat with colleagues but also manipulate virtual objects in 3D space.
Skywalker Sound and the challenges of making audio for VR films
Lauded Mexican filmmaker Alejandro González Iñárritu, best known for his work on movies such as Birdman and The Revenant, last year nabbed a "special" Oscar award for his VR exhibition Carne y Arena. The virtual reality project, dubbed Flesh and Sand in English, takes viewers into a world where they can experience what it's like to be an immigrant trying to cross a border. As much as visuals were important to tell this story, one of Iñárritu's focus was to also to create the most immersive sounds -- which can be complicated when going from traditional film to a completely new medium like VR.
YouTube now streams 360-degree live video
You no longer have to watch canned footage if you want to enjoy YouTube's support for 360-degree video. YouTube is rolling out live 360-degree streaming, giving you a chance to watch that concert, surgery or special event as if you were there. It'll get its first big use with "select" performances at Coachella this coming weekend, but we'd expect it to take off anywhere that VR-like video works.
Topcon's IP-S2 Lite creates panoramic maps in 3D, spots every bump in the road (video)
You'd need only a smartphone app to pinpoint every pothole on your block, but to map out more severe structural damage, you'd probably need more sophisticated equipment -- which is where Topcon's IP-S2 Lite comes in. Unveiled at last week's 3D & Virtual Reality Expo in Tokyo, this road condition evaluation system is comprised of a 360-degree camera, GPS and an inclinometer. After using its camera to capture images at 16 frames per second, the IP-S2 analyzes the properties of every shot and uses this information to create 3D video footage. The contraption can also measure the height, distance and surface area of any given frame, allowing engineers to insert computer-generated images into the video (as pictured above) and to construct more accurate maps of disaster-stricken regions. In the wake of this year's devastating earthquake, for example, Japan's Geospatial Information Authority used this technology to map coastal areas of the Miyagi Prefecture, giving officials and rescue workers a better idea of the damage inflicted upon the region. You can find out more about the IP-S2 in the video after the break. [Thanks, Don]
A perfect fit for the DS
This new training game for the DS fills a void that others haven't: spatial training. Space/Figure Hirameki Training is a collection of training tasks for kids that teaches spatial skills by requiring players to match shapes in a variety of situations. The examples in this set of screens include laying out a room in 2D based on a 3D image, and correctly identifying a cross-section of a cake.We appreciate it when a developer gives their training game a look that diverges from the usual clinical Brain Age style. Most DS training games are designed for adults, and have to have 'adult' style. Appropriately for children's software, Hirameki Training is bright, colorful, and cute.
Study: Women's spatial abilities increase with video games
Research done at the University of Toronto found women who played video games reduced the inherent difference between the sexes when it comes to spatial skills. Spacial skills are things like reading a map, driving a car and putting stuff together. Researcher Jing Feng says their original experiment showed that "women do not do as well on spatial tasks"; however, their second experiment found that video games improved both sexes when it came to spatial skills, and that women caught up to men in tests -- five months later the experiments yielded the same result.There's no real explanation why there would be such a dramatic change after only 10 hours of video game playing or why it would last for months. One could complain about how it's ridiculous that this research is done and yada, yada, yada. But, if having the important women in our life play some video games hardwires them to read a map better, we'll take it -- we hate pulling over and asking for directions.[Via GamePolitics]
Buffalo's Wiimote knockoff: the BOMU-W24A/BL spatial mouse
If Buffalo's disco mouse is just a tad too psychedelic for your tastes, and you've got a hankering for some Wiimote action just a few days early, the company's BOMU-W24A/BL "spatial mouse" should tide you over. Aside from sporting the usual assortment of mouse buttons and a scroll wheel, this critter boasts an internal gyro sensor that allows the cursor to move with the flick (or twist) of your wrist. In case all that twirling gets a bit tiresome, it also packs a standard optical sensor for "normal use," and offers six programmable buttons all around the enclosure. After a hard day's night of pointing it up, this wild child fits snuggly into the USB charging cradle, and can be picked up later this month for over half the price of a Wii itself, or ¥19,780 ($168).[Via Akihabara News]
