New World Notes

Top 12 AR, VR & Avatar-Based AI Projects & Innovations of 2018 Featured in New World Notes

Watch An AI-Controlled Avatar "Learn" How To Dribble In Real Time - Huge Implications For Games, AR/VR, And Real Life Robotics

• HoleLenz Turns HoloLens Into A Literal (Virtual) Portal Into Other Worlds
• We Heard You Like AR & VR, So We Put AR In Your VR
• Project H.E.A.R.T: A Virtual Reality War Game Where Soldier Morale Is Controlled By The Player’s Real Emotions
• VR Pioneer Helping Advise $10 Million ANA Avatar XPRIZE, The Contest To Merge Robotics With VR/AR-Driven Human Expertise

IOS' ARKit Enables Reflection Of Real Objects On Virtual Surfaces

Many more beyond the break!

Instagram Game by an Augmented Reality Expert: Guess If an Image Posted to Her Stories is Real or AR UPDATE: Answer Revealed!

Here's a fun, weekly mini-game on the Instagram of Dr. Helen Papagiannis, an influential author and speaker on the topic of Augmented Reality. As suggested by the screengrab here, you have to guess whether the image posted every week to her Stories is a real photo or an Augmented Reality screenshot. After 24 hours, she reveals which category it actually is; good chance you'll guess wrong.

"My game Real or AR was inspired by just how good Augmented Reality is getting and the double takes I found myself making, as well as the influence AR and the digital was having on the real physical world," she tells me. "The game became a way to share my research and love for AR — as well as art — with a larger audience in a fun game. It’s been awesome to watch the game grow and to play it with people around the globe both on Instagram and on stage in my keynotes."

As with the real or virtual human web quiz I posted awhile back, aggregate answers to previous Real or AR games from Dr. Papagiannis have been wildly off base. 77% of people guessed that this image was AR (but it's real), and while many thought this image of a mesh building was AR, it's made out of actual wire mesh.

I'll update this post when Helen reveals this photo's ontological substrate! I'm personally guessing Real, but a high tech Evil Deceiver may be flimflamming me.

Update, 12/19: Answer is now available below - it may surprise you!

With Slow Sales, VR Headset Market Still Not Having Meaningful "Rebound"

IDC, an analyst firm which was once so bullish about virtual reality, the company predicted (as recently as 2016) that VR headset adoption rates would be as fast the iPhone -- yes, seriously -- is now touting a "rebound" of sales:

The VR headset market returned to growth in 3Q18 after four consecutive quarters of decline and now makes up 97% of the combined [AR/VR] market. Global shipments for VR headsets reached 1.9 million units in the quarter, up 8.2% from 3Q17, as extensive discounts on existing products and interest in new ones led to shipment gains in both the consumer and commercial markets. "The VR market is finally starting to come into its own," said Jitesh Ubrani senior research analyst for IDC Mobile Device Trackers. "On the consumer front, the combination of lower prices and increased content is beginning to resonate with users. Meanwhile, commercial adoption is also on the rise for a range of use cases, including training, design, and showcasing."

If there's commercial adoption, why are there so few palpable VR hits besides Beat Saber (still a modest hit at best, in terms of the overall market) while even the once-viral VRChat has seen a usage decline? But the real problem with this analysis is that "shipments " are not the same as sales or usage  -- and more key, 8.2% growth in shipments isn't much of a "rebound" when you compare the growth to other competing platforms. For instance:

Watch: Augmented Reality App Created for Virtual Reality Headset

Last week we were speculating on Philip Rosedale's comment that VR is preferable to AR, since after all, you can use the video camera capabilities of many virtual reality headsets to create an augmented reality experience within VR. And then a guy named TonyVT Skarredghost came by to comment that he'd done exactly that: 

I already do AR with the Focus. (At the link you can also find an opensource plugin for that that I made for Unity) and also mixed reality.  And I can guarantee you that is pretty awesome. And it has the potential of showing a modified view of the world... so not only virtual objects added to the world.

Read about it on his blog post cleverly entitled, "How to create an Augmented Reality app for the Vive Focus in Unity". Tony gets pretty deep into the technical weeds of making AR possible on a VR platform. For instance, it involves hacking the Vive Focus' camera streams:

Philip Rosedale: Why Virtual Reality Offers a Better Consumer Experience Over AR Devices Like HoloLens & Magic Leap

Interesting NWN comment from Second Life/High Fidelity founder Philip Rosedale, responding to Magic Leap's just announced, no frillys avatar chat app:

It seems possible that VR headsets like the Quest or Focus, with pass-through video capabilities and wide field of view at a consumer price point ($400) will provide a better experience than can be delivered with AR. You can't see a person's eyes when they are wearing the HoloLens or Magic Leap, so why not just wear a VR headset?

If I'm reading this right, Phillip is arguing that you can use the Quest and Focus' video capabilities to create augmented reality-type experiences within VR. (Whereas you wouldn't be able to do virtual reality-type experiences from within most augmented reality HMDs.) Which is a very valid point. I'm also intrigued by his acknowledgement that lack of eye contact is a problem for both AR and VR:

Magic Leap Launches Avatar Chat With AR Chatroom & Media Sharing, Cartoonish, Low-Detail Avatars

Continuing in its now familiar "Where's the fricking whale we were promised?" theme, Magic Leap just announced Avatar Chat with media and browser sharing features in (what looks to be) a small, augmented reality chatroom setting. If you were hoping to see vivid recreations of your friends as full featured 3D avatars displayed right in front of you, seeming to be sitting on your couch or resting against a wall or whatever, this is not for you: The avatars are extremely low-detailed, disembodied heads.

In fairness, the limited graphics seems to be by design -- probably because this is meant to be a light application for content sharing. Still, the lack of "Wow" factor continues to be a frustration for Magic Leap:

Watch: Dazzling Demo of Fluid Physics in Augmented Reality

Remember those great scenes in James Cameron's The Abyss where water seems to float in the air and change to the character's touch? Developer Lee Vermeulen has basically done that in augmented reality with fluid physics -- watch above. He's using a ZedMini with an HTC-Vive set-up. This feature is for a platform he's building for Modbox, his ambitious AR development platform:

Watch: MICA, Magic Leap's Eerily Human AI Avatar Who Looks You in the Eye

Word on the street is this is the most impressive tech unveiled at this week's Magic Leap conference. Say hello to MICA -- because she'll soon say "hello" back, while looking you in the eye:

Mica was sitting at the table in the same room. She smiled at me and look at me. I was struck that she wasn’t just looking at me. She was looking in my eyes. She tilted her head from side to side... When I noticed how attentive she was, I moved my head forward and looked in her eyes. She did the same and looked at me. I moved my head back and she moved her head back too. She was mimicking some of the movements that she saw me make. She didn’t talk, but that is coming in the future.

UploadVR's Ian Hamilton was staggered on an ontological level:

I need to process some thoughts. The Mica AI left me in a deeply introspective mode. I didn’t want to think of it as “she” but I couldn’t control my reaction. They Ex Machina’d me a little bit. https://t.co/gHZyzIAXKi

— Ian Hamilton (@hmltn) October 11, 2018

Full keynote below, beginning with inspiring words from company CMO Brenda Freeman and acclaimed designer Robin Hunicke, an apparent (and admirable) attempt to make a clean break from the startup's history with internal sexism, followed by a fireside featuring Neal Stephenson and John Gaeta (the Matrix effects guy), with Andy Serkis and others soon after:

Despite Slow Sales, Apple Continues Pushing AR-Based Games for iPhone

Augmented Reality was a featured part of Apple's new product announcements today, so let's watch these crazy kids play AR Galaga:

This AR adaptation of Galaga comes from Directive Games. When you look at your iPhone screen, you can see a bunch of alien-bug spaceships that you have to shoot down. You’re not only trying to survive, but you’re also trying to beat the other players. It was a pretty cool demo, with a lot of blasting onscreen and loud sounds.

More games are coming later this year, and who can blame Apple for trying? Challenge is, despite the huge exception of Pokémon GO, AR games for iOS aren't exactly flying off the shelf:

Let's Compare & Contrast What Magic Leap Once Promised With What Magic Leap is Actually Offering With Its Launch This Year

Back in olden times (by which I mean 2015), this video sure excited everyone in AR and VR:

Three years, 2.3 billion dollars in funding, major distribution partnerships with AT&T and other big companies later, here's what Magic Leap just showed in advance of its announced launch this year:

(Advance to 11:30 for the actual product demo)

Maybe it's just me, but I'm somewhat detecting a fairly large gap between hype and reality? Which might not be fair to point out. Except for, you know, that $2.3 billion dollars and that launch this year. I mean, it would really be unfair to bring up that old whale in the gym video. To actually be fair, I'll say the AR technology seems to be a bit better than what we might get playing Pokémon GO, and Pokémon GO is still massive. So maybe there's still hope?

What the hell, here's the whale video: