MAD Gaze is bringing MAD Gaze Vader which is the best AR smart glasses on the market today.  These glasses blend the real world with the virtual world seamlessly.  This is what we imagined when we thought of the future.  A truly futuristic eyewear that wearers can navigate in and see the many possibilities through the touch and swipe of your hand.

Wearers will be able to make imagines larger by expanding the image they see with their fingers as well as place these virtual items to their desired location.

Key Functions

With MAD Gaze Vader you will be able to answer calls without having to pick up your smartphone.  Wearers will also be able to sync up and play virtual video games together.

Therefore, you will be able to experience augmented reality as it was meant to be experienced.  Finally, you will be able to watch movies without having a TV screen and use a computer without having a monitor or even a mouse.

MAD Gaze Vader will be the future and could replace laptops and tablet.  It is a headset that can easily be used in the workplace and at home for entertainment.  It is best for gaming, watching videos, surfing the internet, and working on your documents.

Using Wifi you will be able to receive notification from your phone and answer calls with ease.  This is great for multitasking as they can simply use their hand gestures for better interaction.

It does not matter if you are short-sighted or long-sighted, you will be able to get corrective lenses for MAD Gaze Vader from any of the local optical shops near you.

So get yourself one now at madgaze.com.

The post MAD Gaze Vader: The Best AR Smart Glasses appeared first on Startup Radar.

Visitors will be able to get the latest information on VR/AR technologies as well as keep up with the latest VR/AR trends.  Those looking for potential business partners and investments need to come to this event as well.

This is a great event for the growth of the VR/AR industry through business consultations, education, discussions, and exchange of ideas.

What you can do at the Expo

Experience VR/AR

You can try out VR experiences and games at the expo for free.  While at the same time learning about the thought process behind every stage of their development.

Networking

More networking time at interactive startup zones and pitch theatres.  There will also be networking sessions, keynote presentations, and a dinner.

Forecasting the VR/AR Market

Manufacturer demonstrations, market case studies, forecasts, projections, and in-depth debates on the VR/AR ecosystem.

Future Trends in VR/AR

Hear case studies and inspirational stories from VR/AR industry leaders.

VR/AR in Business

Learn how the enterprise market is capitalizing on these technologies for training, operations, R&D, and also as an immersive marketing tool to attract new customers.

Investment in VR/AR

Understand the commercial potential of VR/AR and explore business models that will drive VR in 2018.  Learn how your business can capitalize on this technology.

The organizers of Seoul VR/AR Expo 2018 is eSang M&C as well as CoEx.

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The challenges of virtual reality are many.  There are still big hardware advancements that need to be made in the VR industry.  There are still lags so the picture does not change as fast as your body moves.  Then there is the head tracking issue.  In real life when you move your head your picture moves and in VR this does not happen.  It can be solved by what is called inside-out tracking and many companies are working on that.

Another challenge is the eye-focusing issue, the majority of the platforms right now does not let you focus on things like you do in real life where things further away get blurred with does not happen in Virtual reality so your eyes think they are getting tricked.  Then there are cable issues and the controller’s issue.  Steve Jobs once said that the best controllers are your fingers.  Many companies are working on your body actually becoming a controller, but it is still years to come.

The last problem that is holding VR back from becoming massive is the immersion level.  So VR provides a great immersion level which is actually perfect for education but it is not socially acceptable.  Imagine there is 1.6 million crashes happening each year due to smartphones and now imagine people driving around with those boxes on…it is just not socially acceptable.  Even sitting on a bus with a VR headset is not acceptable either.  That actually makes it really great for education.  Simply because kids get distracted really easily and it is a big challenge for teachers to hold kids attention.  In VR you just immerse yourself totally in the scene and the distraction does not happen.

As investors and entrepreneurs, we should educate ourselves, talk as much as possible to teachers, students, and experts and find out what problems are out there in education and with the help of modern technology just like VR, try to solve them.

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Imagine being able to click and type on their device with their eyes without using a keyboard or mouse.  Korean Startup Visual Camp has developed an eye-tracking technology for VR/AR headsets that allows users to input signals by just using their eyes.

With Visual Camp users will be able to click using their eyes which means there will be no need to use your fingers, a mouse, or a keyboard.  This technology can be adapted to VR games, movies, sports, and even toys.  Therefore, companies can use this technology to market their products.  Users can simply glance at the product and learn about it from their specs to their price.  Furthermore, companies will also be able to access data related to where customers focus their eyes when seeing their product.

Game Changer in the Eye Tracking Industry

Visual Camp is going to change the world of business as we know it.  In addition, it is going to change the way we shop and experience the world around us.  Imagine walking around the city and having access to all the information through eye tracking.  Eye tracking measures the user’s eye position and movement.  However, speed and precision also matter.  Therefore tracking the eye quickly and precisely is the key issue Visual Camp solves.  They offer highly accurate gaze detection and a recision rate of less than 1 degree!

Visual Camp offers their own VR device using a 3-D printer that already has the eye-tracking software built in it.  Currently, they are focusing on mobile VR devices and eye tracking technologies for smartphones.  VR/AR hardware companies will be able to license this technology.  They are very interested in the benefits Visual Camp will have for advertisers.

Visual Camp is one of the hottest startups in Korea.  They already got funding from Koisra Seed Partners, SK Telecom, and the Korean government.  In addition, Visual Camp beat out 400 other companies and won free office space at Google’s Seoul Campus one of the top co-working spaces in Korea.  They have been endorsed by established institutions such as the ICT, Ministry of Science, and Future Planning (MSIP, Korea), Ministry of Trade, Industry and Energy (MOTIE, Korea), Electronics and Telecommunications Research Institute (ETRI, Korea), Creative Economy Town Korea (CET, Korea), and SKTelecom (SKT, Korea) one of top telecommunications company in Korea.

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What if your PC/laptop had no mouse or trackpad? You’d find it a pain, wouldn’t you?

Navigating VR worlds has a similar problem, but you (your whole body) are the navigation tool for VR; you are the “mouse roller-ball”.  Whereas a roller-ball on a Formica table or leg of jeans (mouse specifications – Steve Jobs) is great for computer mice.  It’s a different proposition for real presence VR.

Designing a human interface device for VR navigation requires inputs from physiology, psychology, neuroscience, physics, material science plus a whole bunch of other disciplines.  So that a mouse for VR worlds complements the strengths and abilities of people, and reduces the effects of human and technology limitations.

We walk to explore our world

Why not just go with the flow and enjoy seated VR? – because that’s not life as we know it.  It’s not great VR.

Yes, we fly and drive to explore our world.  But mostly we walk and we know our position within space and directions from one place to another by walking. Architects and clients walk around buildings.  Saboteurs stealthily walk around starships and enemy buildings. We know the size and relative positions of where we live because we navigate by walking. These are normal expectations (predictions) of real life.  To replicate these we need something that allows us to walk comfortably and safely, blindfolded, without fear of collision, in open worlds.

It’s natural to think that to feel we are walking in VR.  We actually need to lift and place our feet forward, one after the other, ‘step-and-place’ ….just as in real life.  This “intuition” seems reasonable because our whole life’s experience of walking, from toddler ‘til now, has been that ‘step-and-place’, equals walking.

However realistically navigating VR worlds by walking is really difficult.  Attempts over the past 30 years to achieve ‘step-and-place’ walking in VR.  Even military and NASA budgets failed to deliver a practical solution.  So where’s the problem?

It turns out our intuition is wrong!

We don’t carry memories of how we move our legs when we walk

That’s crucial if you’re looking to design a practical VR treadmill.

Understanding how the Brain Functions When Walking

It’s not just true for walking but running, climbing stairs, holding onto things.  Many everyday actions are subconscious and often fully autonomous.  Done without a moment’s conscious thought.  Guided by a desire to do something.  Crossing a room, climbing stairs, catching the bus, and even driving home! In all of these everyday activities, the control of leg movement is done subconsciously.

Understanding that we don’t carry memories of how we walk is a first critical step.  However equally important is realizing the brain receives sensory data (cues) to keep the process running smoothly. It turns out these brain “cues” are critical feedback signals, necessary for our brains to accept the instruction to walk has taken place and the action is proceeding to plan. And so, the walking process is pushed to the subconscious.  With the sensory feedback cues being crucial for our sense of wellbeing in real life just as they are in VR.

Think about it now – you probably walked to where you’re reading this – now think hard: How did you move your legs to get to this place?  – There is no memory!

Understanding the Brain

Walking, climbing stairs, holding objects, plus lots of other similar actions are subconsciously governed by at least the following parts of the brain; the motor cortex (priming of muscles), basal ganglia (repetitive action) and cerebellum (coordination). The basal ganglia have the particular capacity to quickly remember and issue repeat motor cortex commands required for walking, climbing stairs, etc.  Some rhythmic motions of walking are governed by neurons in the spinal cord which may be regulated by the cortex via the cerebellum to increase or decrease pace and gait. But crucially, nothing gets stored in memory!

We provide an executive command “I need a drink” our brain’s motor cortex, cerebellum, basal ganglia, spinal cord plus a few other bits do what’s necessary to take us to the kitchen. Even stepping over the dog is done subconsciously!

This is complex stuff and there are many brilliant people who have worked extensively in deciphering the brain’s interactions and inter-dependencies often using practical assessment of a person’s actions and limitations. Because of the amazing complexity of the brain and its critical function for life and consciousness, the majority of understanding and knowledge has come from a comparison of injured and uninjured brains in living people. From this research, increasingly detailed maps of function and process are being built.

The Solution

In 2001 Julian Williams, in the first place without too much thought as to the impact on the realism of walking, thought reciprocating or sliding of feet in a dish would be a visually realistic compromise of walking –  great for knee-upward television shots. Contestants on a dish could be directed by an audience through a maze – the audience seeing a plan view but the contestant seeing only their local VR scene. The dish and sliding feet would look like walking and keep the contestant in place.

With more thought and experimentation Williams discovered an amazing realism to walking in this fashion and with the prescience of a time-traveler, he predicted the coming of consumer head-mounted display, the motivation for exercise in virtual worlds and the almost limitless potential applications of both. He applied for a US patent in 2003.  It was granted in 2008.

Considerable further research and development led to an understanding of the crucial bits of data (brain cues) necessary for leg movement to become subconscious (autonomous) and for us to subsequently think we must have been walking, running, etc. and these cues are:

• We must be weight bearing on our legs
• Legs must move in simple back and forth motion
• Our vision must match how our body feels and how our brain predicts from the motion we’ve initiated
• Direction is self-determined and unhindered

Of amazing importance considering the 100’s of millions of dollars thrown at VR treadmills over the past 30 years:

There is no need for feet to lift and be placed forward to be accepted as walking. 

In spite of this, several VR treadmills launched in the last 5 years rely on step-and-place as an equivalence of walking. Unfortunately as previously discovered by the military and NASA there is considerable user effort and cost to deliver on the physics for this mode of movement.

For the Wizdish team delivering a working ergonomically designed VR treadmill using slide-walking has also proven to have special challenges that have gradually been solved over the past eight years.

Despite consumer VR headsets appearing in mid-2016, at least 50,000 people in 30 countries have experienced ROVR VR. The number of users continues to grow as misconceptions and bad-intuitions are overcome by businesses searching for a practical solution to full physicality, real presence VR.

Words of Frederick Brooks Jr

In 1992 Frederick Brooks Jr (Fred Brooks) founder of the Computer Science faculty at the University of North Carolina, in his final report of “The (VR) Walkthrough Project” to the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) says ….

“For a dynamic Walkthrough experience, the illusion of motion is crucial. Good motion with almost any polygonal image that has perspective and obscuration will be perceived as a walkthrough of some validity. Poor motion is an illusion killer, no matter how rich the visual image.”

Fred Brooks’ statement, restated hundreds of times by other researchers over the past 30 years, is indisputable and is a salutary note to VR content developers and publishers, headset manufacturers, providers of entertainment, education, healthcare, training and the rest – physicality is essential for compelling real presence VR.

During 2017 there was a gradual acceptance of Fred Brook’s statement and that’s great news for consumers and VR market growth.

For the Players – The findings presented here offer a future full of wonder for VR enthusiasts.  Because there’s a solution that transforms VR into real presence amazing experiences.

For Story-tellers and Content Developers – Because what we see now matches what we feel.  There are no software constraints.  Open worlds are possible and with no breaks in presence.  You can walk forever. Every imaginative idea is open for exploration.

The very real possibility of public demands for VR game sequels is opened.

Contact us at: [email protected]

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Gravity Sketch allows people to just go in and create.  Before, people were constricted by the complex software and tools.  Gravity Sketch brings a bit of craft into the digital tools.  You can just go into the virtual environment, think about something and give it a go.  It is very easy.  Also, it is very immediate.

We always compare it to LEGO.  With LEGO you have these building blocks that you can just put together and create something really basic.  Same with Gravity Sketch where you can understand it easily, but it also depends on how deep you go in regards to how complex your creation is going to be.

Fully Immersive Technology

Gravity Sketch is intuitive as well.  It is fully immersive, so it works with virtual reality and augmented reality.  Why did do we make such a big emphasis on these technologies?  It is just because it is allowing people to create in space.  You don’t need to have a 3D idea and deconstruct it and put it into different instructions in the computer and then put it in a 2D screen.  Right now you can just be sketching in the real 3D environment.  So it makes it really easy for people to understand what they are doing.

Connecting People from All Around the World

It is real-time creation.  What are you thinking? The kinds of strokes you make?  What you see is what you get.  How you move is how you create.  Also, you can have different people from different parts of the world creating in the same virtual environment which is really amazing.  We have people in the car industry who are working in China, U.S., and London, and they are creating the same car all at once.  It also integrates with CAD, we really don’t want it to be a tool that doesn’t communicate with the other tools that people use in their regular workflow.

It is also multiplatform, why is this really important?  Because virtual reality and augmented reality are still not there yet in terms they are not available in every office.  VR/AR is not there yet so we need to create something that will allow people to basically move from their computer to virtual reality and then go back.  Gravity Sketch makes this possible and truly gives the craft into the digital tools.

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Just to give you an idea of when the consumer market started, that was really only June/July of 2016.  From 2009 to now we at WizDish did in-house development and a lot of academic reading.  So what our product now consists of is a walking/running simulation platform that allows you to move around freely.  We also supply a containment frame because when you are in the VR world, you are completely blind to the real world.

Introducing the ROVR

When you have this level of real presence, which is what ROVR VR is really about.  You really have no idea where you are.  Your brain accepts what you see to be real because you have no other guide to reality.  Apart from the world that is being presented to your vision.  Our Bluetooth motion controller enables you to do all this even with mobile phones. The ROVR kit is designed to be the mouse for the VR world. So, just as you would expect your PC mouse to plug into any computer, the ROVR is also intended for any virtual headset.

We can ship ROVRs anywhere in the world and it only weighs 26 kg.

So why does VR need physicality?  Yes, we drive and yes we fly, but predominantly from toddler to where you are now, you’ve explored the world by walking.  Therefore it is a very important and necessary component of VR for you to be physical in it.

What is Simulation Sickness?

So if you happen to be seated playing a game in VR and your character is running away from some overgrown bug in Fallout 4.  Then there is going to be a problem because what you see is a mismatch with what you are feeling.  The effect of the mismatch is called simulation sickness.

For many people, if they start to feel simulation sickness the only thing that will reset them is to go to sleep, otherwise, they could be ill for six to seven hours at a time, though it might have only taken 10-15 minutes to get to that state.  This is a major problem for VR and unfortunately, game content presently being developed is being produced to avoid simulation sickness.

So what they do is they move everybody very slowly.  They don’t have anything close to you, so you don’t have any sense of velocity in that environment.  They won’t allow fast accelerations and if you want to walk for more than 3-4 meters, you have to teleport.  All of these things destroy presence.  You no longer feel as though you are in the world, but rather you feel as if you are watching it.  You are no longer a player, you are an observer.  It may be a great IMAX experience but not VR.

Some key examples

In fact, research shows 80% of people will feel ill if what you see does not match with what you feel.  It has always been known that if you are driving a car, then you can simulate that by having a vibrating chair and force feedback on a steering wheel.  You can do the same thing for a plane, you don’t actually need real undercarriage to be deployed on a plane, to know that it has gone down.  You just need a “clunk”, the right sounds and then your cabin vibrates a little bit.  So you don’t need a complete airplane to do that.  You can learn to land successfully on a Himalayan runway by simulating all of that and get a very good experience.  Pilots can get 75% of their training just through simulation if you supply the right brain cues.

So here’s the problem there is no mediating object (car or plane) when you are walking around – YOU are the OBJECT that is moving, so you need to provide the right brain cues through the actions you make. The neuroscience community would suggest that perhaps 95 – 98% of the things we do in life are sub-conscious.  Many have no idea what they have done – you can drive home and wonder how you got there and that is because it was all done by autonomous, sub-conscious processing.

What is the Solution for walking in VR?

So what we need to replicate is what the brain is expecting to experience and if this is good enough it will be accepted and then we will push the action to the sub-conscious.  What that means is that merely sliding your feet back and forth in a reciprocating fashion is sufficient.  You just need to move your legs backward and forward while also weight bearing and the world does need to move as you would expect.  If those are all true, then your brain will accept this as walking.

This is great news for storytellers and developers because now there are no proximity restraints.  There are no limits on acceleration, you can run down corridors, you can turn quickly – you can do all those things.  Also, there are no space limits – you can run forever, you are not confined to a room three meters by five meters.  There is no need for teleportation.  Everything works just as you expect, VR games are compelling and people want more.  This means there will be potential for people to ask developers for VR sequels.

VR has been out for quite a long time and there have been a bunch of VR games out there but none of them are TRUE requests for sequels, it just isn’t compelling enough and not the ultimate goal of where  VR needs to be.

The limitless possibilities of VR

VR needs physicality.  If you don’t have physicality, a vibrating chair, some force feedback on the wheel, and an ability to walk around in the environment you are actually experiencing visually then it is not going to feel real.  That is the problem for VR at present, but all you need to do is provide the right brain cues.  If you do that, then VR content has no limits, you can do whatever the storyteller wants you to do.  You can walk on other planets.  Even walk the whole length of the Great Wall of China or climb down into the Grand Canyon.  You can even do this in real time.  You make memories by doing rather than watching.  This is known as kinesthetic memory and it helps you deliver a real solid memory.  VR with physicality becomes compelling.  People want more and that is great news for developers and it’s great for the manufacturers, which include us.

The post ROVR: Being Physical in the VR World appeared first on Startup Radar.

If we think back to a decade ago, nobody would think the three things I would take with me when I go out of my home would be…

1) My Phone

2) Keys

3) Wallet

However, now we can almost get rid of the wallet.  In reality, now the phone is all you need.  Our future generation will have everything on demand.  There will be no waiting, you just demand and you will get it right away. Whether it be your favorite cartoon show or face time with your best friend.

Investing in VR

When we talk about investing not just in VR but in general, the team is the most important thing we look for.  The key thing is that if you are doing some kind of application.  Or you are passionate about some technology and you have to have some expertise in that industry.  For example, if you are developing games you should be a gamer.  Because you will know why people will be addicted to certain games.  So if you are doing AR applications in the food industry or a car industry you have to know and pinpoint how your technology can solve the problem.  So when we talk to the teams they are not just passionate about one certain technology.  But know how they are going to solve a problem and take their company to the next level in 4-5 years.

As technology evolves so will your team. So by the end, if you don’t know what you exactly want to solve, you will usually become one of the startups that might end up failing.

The Challenges with AR/VR Technology Today

The challenges with AR/VR is that while everyone is fine with wearing glasses, no one really wants to wear goggles, even at home.  However what we can see now with smart glasses coming out is that it can solve the Google problem.  Because now you can still feel the virtual reality experiences without the hardware aspect. However, that might take some time before hardware companies can ship those products to every consumer.  Virtual reality does a great job of stimulating experiences or feelings which is why so many startups are focusing on gaming but if you think about the broader industries and form more content for industries other than gaming you will see the whole ecosystem become more complete and people will be able to adopt VR technologies more easily.

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Hands-on experience is the best tool for learning that is out there.  Virtually reality is pretty much all about hands-on experiences.  You can immerse yourself and do things with your own hands that you have never done before.  Just by putting the headset on.  In order to learn anything, you have to study the basic concepts first.

Virtual reality actually comes out to be a great solution for that.  But how do you actually visualize something as small as an atom or a molecule?  This is exactly the problem we are trying to solve.  So the past few years we talked a lot with teachers and students and found out that the problems they are dealing with are visualizing the hard concepts of chemistry.  For those students who are more on the visual side, it is really hard to understand what is going on because teachers are really limited to their tools to explain things.

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The future of AR/VR is bright.  We have a new culture where kids grow up in the age of the internet.  Technology now is much more accepted than 20 years ago.  This could be the main reason why the adoption of AR/VR is a lot higher now with this new generation.   People are now used to living in this kind of digital virtual world, we have people living at home experiencing life through YouTube.  That was something that didn’t happen before.  People are already living in a virtual world, they are just not immersed in that virtual world.  How many hours does an average kid play a video game?  How many hours are they on YouTube?  8 hours a day?  They have already accepted living in a virtual environment.

The Problem with VR Games

Games today are made for $50 million dollars plus.  Then when they look to make a VR game, in order for them to actually give them the same quality game/experience, it will cost them more by default.  So that means you need to get for that entire amount which is insane because you just don’t have enough users even if you sell each VR game for double the price.

Hyper-Reality

However let’s be real, the world does want a hyper-reality.  If you look at the majority of people and how they live, most are just at home using the internet.  For them, the applications of VR are huge.  Of course, the question is how do you get some sort of resource out of them.  This could be a kind of virtually working from home in a hyper-reality.  You can see this now with YouTubers who are working at home and making their videos from home for other people who are also at home.

What hit the startups hard in 2015/2016 in the VR space was that Facebook moved way too slow.  A lot of startups were expecting, for example, the headsets to arrive faster, the adoption to be higher, but Facebook postponed a lot of these things.  There were a lot of startups like my startup Altergaze that were relying on Facebook for the launch of their games, apps, hardware, enhancement, whatever else they were building to actually have some kind of market. Hopefully, in 2018 we will really see the potential in VR.

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