Have a VR y Merry X-Mas 2017. How Virtual Reality will connect your family this holiday season

by Zen @ ThisIsMeInVR.com

click text links for articles and videos if you are unfamiliar with the tech

This holiday season will be like no other before it. With Virtual Reality devices and 360 cameras now nearly everywhere. Someone at your family get-together will have either one, or the other. This is what you should expect to Learn, See and Do during these upcoming holidays. There are three paths available , and chances are quite high that you will experience all three. Have fun

Console /PC VR path

1. You will try out a complete VR rig, most likely room scale. (which means you can move about) It will either be Playstation VR, Oculus Rift or HTC vive. You will be guided to either sit in a swivel chair or stand in an open space. You will wear a VR headset, you may have controllers. It will be awesome.
2. You will play a few games, maybe watch a few short 360 videos and the experiences will be pleasant if you request to not try the ones with lots of fast motion and movement. (those will get a bit nauseated, so keep these to a minimum) I also recommend you ask your “VR Guide” not to frighten you in any way, or expose you to “fear based” content (as a first experience.) Don’t worry, there’s plenty of other stuff to try. try one of my 360 videos.
3. Your Mind will be BLOWN with the potential applications of this amazing technology. You will start to see how it is about to impact our society, this amazing new tool can alter and improve how people learn, how we communicate and travel over distances, or even how we surf the internet. It will affect your business, it will connect with everything. Incredible.

360 camera path

1. You will be shown a weird camera that captures in all directions. It may be a ball shaped object or have multiple cameras attached together. Like a “black hole of all light” it photographs an entire region (the size of a room ) and makes interesting 360 content. If you record 360 video (some devices also do LIVE streaming) you now have a format that you can “enter into” using Virtual Reality devices. WOW tell everyone. It’s a more passive VR experience, you cant move around too much (but there is gaze and teleporting navigation options)
2. Someone will Take a 360 photograph of the entire family, most likely with everyone all AROUND the camera. Go with it, it’l be fun. Later on, if a VR device is present. you will be able to see what that content is like. You can “enter that image”, BECOME the camera and can suddenly be with your family in VR. Once you have a VR device of your own, those first images will be treasured forever as moments in time you can “re-visit”. You will discuss the positive and negative possibilities and security risks of such a technology.
3. If 360 video recording or Live streaming is taking place then you are in for a treat. Presents are being opened , meals and conversations are being shared and those memories will be forever retrievable and viewable in VR devices. Someday your kids will “revisit” their childhood moments. With live streaming, you can be “present” with your family from anywhere in the world. Ya I know, that’s astounding!

Mobile device path

1. You will learn how to use your Own mobile device to watch 360 videos, like these two : Animal or Travel Experience (mine). Then learn how to view that content in a cardboard VR viewer or Mobile VR device. Yes, its’ true, the mobile device you carry around does both 360 capture and VR viewing.
2. You will install VR apps and probably 360 video player (YouTube) have many incredible experiences. (cardboard is a low level experience, but for 10$ its worth it) Gear VR is a good Step up. both also offers early Augmented reality abilities you can try out.

-bonus activities for non-apple users (at the moment)

1. You will probably install vTime and have a 360 or VR conversation (like a video conference call) with other People Elsewhere in the world.
2. You may also try AltSpace and interact (move about) in a Virtual Environment with family members or other people elsewhere in the world.

Unknown at the time of writing this,

1. Will Daydream VR be in the marketplace? Will it work for iPhones?
2. Will Facebook’s VR social app be released and on all platforms? Which ones?
3. Will PlayStation Pro offer improved abilities to the VR experience?
4. Will haptic feedback devices be more common by Xmas?
5. Will internet Providers be ready for the surge in use?
6. Where is all this technology headed?

Here are 10 more must-read articles about VR

Why PlayStation VR is about to blow the VR market WIDE OPEN.

If you haven’t been keeping track there’s been lots of BREAKING TECH NEWS. One of which is that PlayStation VR is here. It’s cheaper than it’s competitors and it runs on PlayStation 4 (and there are a lot of them out there) but that’s not the only reason they are going to BLOW the VR market wide open.

What they’ve done is enable their VR viewers to work on other devices. That means you can plug the VR goggles into XBox, wii, PC or dvd players and access regular content in VR. Sure there’s some glitches and tweaks required to get it right. (and cinematic mode should be a 360 video theater etc…) all of that and more is arriving daily as word spreads about GLSM and Web VR.

The key feature here is cross platform compatibility. Sony is ALREADY working on allowing PS4VR to access mobile device games. That’s right you heard me, PlayStation goggles may soon function with your mobile device. Allowing your PSVR goggles to be the device of choice to access your (mobile) VR games and apps.

Relationships are key for businesses in the VR marketplace. YouTube has the 360 video content that can really drive adoption forward, vTime , AltSpace (and soon Facebook) will have the social spaces apps, Samsung , Ricoh ,GoPro and Nikon have great capture devices that would bee a boon as additional peripherals (for live feeds). As soon as PlayStation VR has access to even some of these…. BOOM!

Black Friday and Xmas 2016 will see a huge surge in VR sales. This Xmas Holiday season You should expect to Everyone to get a chance to Experience a Virtual Reality Demo by a family member. Have a VRy Merry Xmas 2016.

Are internet providers ready for the surge that PSVR will bring? Read about it here. If you want to see where this amazing Technology is ultimately headed, Read this. If you use Facebook join this group.

Be sure to be sure to install the VRideo app on your PSVR and watch our This Is Me In VR -360 video collection.

Watch this DEMO OF SPORTS BAR VR ON PSVRPRO LIVE STREAMING

VR ; Putting doctors INTO people with micro 360 cameras.

by Zen @ ThisIsMeInVR.com

Everyone who experiences Virtual Reality sees that it is a “game changer”. They quickly understand that it will revolutionize the world in countless ways. Travel, Tele-Communication , Entertainment, Education, Therapy, Gamingand so on.

One of things I’m suddenly most excited about is the how it will be applied to the field of medicine. Doctors use VR to perform remote surgery from across the world with robotics. Med Students can study and practice procedures over and over in simulations using Virtual Reality. I’ve even written about how VR may be used for epigenetic manipulation. The future is looking bright.

What piqued my interest enough to want to write about it was that I recently had an amazing CGI Virtual Reality experience where I was in a womb with a growing baby. It was a video on VRideo (avail on GearVR, PSVR, Oculus and VIVE etc…)

It got me thinking… There’s another VR technology on the horizon, 360 photography/ videography. The act of capturing environments in full 360 pano for the purpose of viewing in Virtual Reality goggles. This offers viewers a unique glimpse into another world , as the camera position relative to ground the viewer determines the scale. ( filmed at 7 ft, you are tall, filmed at 6 inches high you are a miniature).

Technology is so amazing that placing a 360 camera (and light source) internally into a human being is now possible. Putting Doctors and FACE TO “FACE” with internal organs! This will offer doctors a whole new way to view internal workings “first hand”. (in these situations, relative scale is governed by the camera size.)

What to expect….. well , one day very soon. (hopefully after some testing and research.) You may be required to undergo a procedure where a camera is placed into you. (endoscopy) On that day, your doctor may be wearing a VR device and be describing what he sees from “inside you”. My suggestion? Ask to take a look yourself, and see yourself from the inside.

SEE MORE VR ARTICLES by ZEN