Tag Archives: Google VR

Ok Google, cast your spell

Now anyone can try their hand at magic with a little help from Google and the new Warner Bros. Pictures film set in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World, “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them.” Taking place decades before Harry Potter first arrives at Hogwarts, “Fantastic Beasts” follows the adventures of magizoologist Newt Scamander in a whole new era of the wizarding world — New York in 1926.

If you want to try being a wizard, try casting spells on your Android phone: Just say “Ok Google” followed by “Lumos” or “Nox” to turn your flashlight on and off. Try “Silencio” to silence the ringer and notifications.

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You can also explore the world of “Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them” with Google Street View. Visit New York in 1926 as brought to life in the film, as well as the real locations today. Fans can visit MACUSA (Magical Congress of the USA); Steen National Bank, where Newt first meets Jacob Kowalski; the underground speakeasy The Blind Pig; and the magical apartment of Tina and Queenie Goldstein, two of the film’s key characters.

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Once you’ve mastered charms and found the lay of the land, help Newt find his escaped beasts before they come to harm in a city already on edge from dark forces. Using our new Daydream View virtual reality headset, you can wave a wand to explore the magic of Newt’s case, a treasure trove full of everything he needs to cast spells, solve puzzles and find his beasts. The experience will be available when Daydream View goes on sale in November.

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Don’t forget to share your adventures with your friends by downloading an exclusive “Fantastic Beasts” sticker pack (coming soon) in our messaging app, Google Allo. You can also watch content inspired by the wizarding world from your favorite YouTube creators starting November 1.

To start your journey and discover more magic with Newt and friends, visit g.co/fantasticbeasts. “Fantastic Beasts” is in cinemas in November.

Source: Google LatLong


The Phab 2 Pro brings over 35 new Tango apps to your phone

In June, we announced the first Tango-enabled phone with Lenovo, the Phab 2 Pro. The Phab 2 Pro utilizes Tango technology to give apps new augmented reality capabilities.

Over the last few months, we have worked closely with app developers to create a wide variety of smartphone based augmented reality apps. Our app incubator program supported a wide range of developers — from Crayola Color Blaster to Ghostly Mansions — to create new ways to do more, play more and explore more with your phone. You can experience these apps today with the Phab 2 Pro, available now on Lenovo.com.

Once you have your phone, just open the Tango app or Google Play to see all the Tango apps available for you to explore. Here are some of the experiences you can have with your Tango-enabled device:

  1. Measure anything in your home from your door frame to your desk with Measure.
  2. Visualize how furniture and appliances will look in your home with WayfairView, Lowe's Vision, Homestyler Interior Design, and iStaging.
  3. Play dominoes anywhere without having to pack up the tiles later, with Domino World.
  4. Paint and draw on all the surfaces of your home with Crayola Color Blaster.
  5. Sling projectiles to battle a terrible dragon with Slingshot Island.
  6. Play with virtual pets with Raise.
  7. Learn about things that are hard to see with Solar Simulator and Dinosaurs Among Us.
  8. Build new digital worlds with Woorld and Towers for Tango.
  9. Race on your own personal race tracks with Hot Wheel’s Track Builder, Wild Wild Race and Car Racing.
  10. Customize your videos with exciting 3D filters with Spectra.
Tango

We see the potential for Tango technologies to be in every smartphone in the future. In the same way you wouldn’t consider buying a phone today without a camera or GPS, Tango will be a ubiquitous capability to help your phone better understand space and the world around you. There will be more Tango-enabled phones coming in the new year and we can’t wait for you to explore, learn and play.

Jump: Using omnidirectional stereo for VR video

Virtual reality makes it possible for you to explore new worlds, faraway places, famous museums, or even be present in the front row of a concert or sporting event in another country. But achieving high quality, stereoscopic 360 video capture for virtual reality has required custom complex, high-end camera systems and hours of manual work in post-production.

In 2015, we introduced Jump, Google’s platform for VR video capture to empower a wide range of creators to create great VR videos. Today, we’re publishing "Jump: Virtual Reality Video", a research paper (with many authors!) that shares what we've learned. We’ll present it at SIGGRAPH Asia in December as well.

With Jump, we built an omnidirectional stereo (ODS) video system. ODS provides a seamless projection that is both panoramic (360) and stereoscopic (3D), allowing the viewer to look in any direction. ODS can be stored in the same format as traditional video, making it ideal for post-production, streaming, and playback on mobile devices. Although the ODS projection model has been around for some time, producing VR video using ODS presents a number of challenges.

First, ODS was not originally designed for VR. Playback in a head-mounted display (HMD) introduces distortions, which can make it hard for our brains to fuse the images seen in the left and right eyes. We carefully analyzed these distortions to determine practical limits on distance and viewing angle and to ensure comfortable playback in HMDs.

There was also no practical system for producing ODS video. To develop the Jump camera rig, we analyzed design space parameters such as the number of cameras needed, field of view, and rig sizes to create a “sweet spot” design that can be built with off-the-shelf cameras (it’s a sweet 16). These efforts are the basis for GoPro Odyssey, the first Jump rig.

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The GoPro Odyssey

Lastly, producing seamless stitches from multiple cameras is very challenging. We developed an algorithm that automatically stitches seamless high-quality ODS video by performing view interpolation based on a new approach for temporally coherent optical flow. This algorithm is the core of Jump Assembler, which has processed millions of frames of professionally produced VR video.

Here are a few animations that show how Jump Assembler works:

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The ODS projection generates a virtual mosaic that approximates our view as we turn our head in any direction, providing a 360-degree VR video experience.
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Parts of the ODS projection are captured by the cameras in the Jump rig. The parts in between the rig cameras must be synthesized using a technique called view interpolation.

At the core of our view interpolation algorithm is a new temporally coherent optical flow algorithm. Optical flow computes how the images on the left transform into the images on the right, allowing us to produce any viewpoint in between.

For more information on Jump, visit https://vr.google.com/jump/. To read our SIGGRAPH Asia 2016 technical paper about the development of Jump, visit https://research.google.com/pubs/pub45617.html

Celebrating National Coming Out Day with Google Expeditions

LGBTQ history has yet to find a place in many school curriculums, but technology and new tools like virtual reality can open pedagogical doors to cast light on what has been for too long taboo. I’m the Arts/Technology Department Chair and Performing Arts teacher at Broome Street Academy in New York City, where we seek to empower youth to realize and achieve their academic goals as well as reaffirm their identities — especially for LGBTQ students who may struggle outside the classroom.

Recently, we created a lesson for Google Expeditions advancing LGBTQ rights that explores the history, events and places celebrating National Coming Out Day on October 11th. The Expedition, which our students tried for the first time last week, lets you explore landmarks like the Stonewall Inn, which shaped the LGBTQ movement. It’s based on a lesson plan that sheds light on the challenges the LGBTQ community has faced and helps spark meaningful dialogue.

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In addition to this Expedition, Google Arts & Culture is commemorating National Coming Out Day with an exhibit in partnership with the Archive of American Television, who gathered stories from notable LGBTQ figures about their coming out experiences and how they’ve personally combatted homophobia. From Sheila Kuehl to Alan Ball, this exhibit gives students an opportunity to hear first-hand from well-known LGBTQ figures. You can also explore other online exhibits about LGBTQ history on Google Arts & Culture: Learn about LGBTQ Human and Civil Rights with the U.S. National Archives and about the early years of NYC’s Pride March with the LGBT Community Center in New York.   

To create a more tolerant society, it's important for us to understand the past. Hawa Diallo, a Broome Street Academy sophomore, said it best: “Knowing LGBTQ history is important so that we won’t be judgmental and accept people for who they are.” Another sophomore, Roneisha Pickens, said to me: “We are all equal and people should be treated equally. We all have the right to be who we want.” Through Google Expeditions, we can provide our students with an outlet for these important conversations to come out of the closet and into the light.

Source: Education