VR systems are now designed for mobility, sports fans and interactions with real world
NEW YORK–Virtual reality could not be any more real to the three founders and product director presenting at the Hardwired NYC meetup last January 12.
Jan Goetgeluk of Virtuix Omni recounts his three-year journey from investment banking to entrepreneurship as if he just endured the same struggles as Leonardo Di Caprio in “The Revenant.”
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After three years with a total fundraising haul of $8 million from a Kickstarter campaign, Shark Tank presentation and VC funding, Goegeluk of Virtuix Omni launched his first unit last month and demonstrated its hard work in this month’s CES Show in Las Vegas.
It’s an active VR or VR that allows you to move in a treadmill–like platform, allowing for 360-degree mobility. At least that won’t make you sedentary. There’s a harness to prevent from going off the rails, so to speak but you will be walking perhaps doing a light jog. You’ll need a fun controller to play the game and aim with your head.
Available for pre-order at $699, The Virtuix Omni is reportedly compatible with leading headsets and virtual reality content.
Next presenter was LiveLike, a social sports broadcasting app for VR. Currently only being shown on Gear VR, it puts you in a luxury skybox with a giant window in front of you overlooking the stadium expected to launch this year.
Andre Lorenceau, CEO and founder, extols the social aspect of the app, as saying it’s about hanging out with friends, seeing replays, reading stats. Sports viewing is indeed a social experience, especially for fan communities. Users need to download the demo app and get their own VR suite to start interacting with each other.
LiveLike VR has worked with English soccer team Manchester City on a demonstration of its VR stadium, which plays on Samsung Gear VR. Having it on for Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Google Cardboard VR is planned.
Drone racing, anyone? Launching this coming week, Drone Racing League is clearly molding itself as the Nascar of drones. Product director Ryan Gury is inviting the best pilots, which he emphasized more than once for safety as they compete against other drone owners. A race is scheduled on January 28 live on YouTube.
One has to sign up on its site to get updates about upcoming races. Meanwhile, drone pilots are encouraged to practice everyday to become the best pilots. For precaution, pilots are advised to wear goggles. A race video showed how engaging and immersive it can be.
Another presenter, Paracosm offers advanced three-dimensional reconstruction technologies that create digital models of physical spaces. When shared with machines, these models serve as blueprints which provide robots and applications a greater sense of awareness and understanding of the physical world. These can be valuable for robotics, video game development, special effects, indoor navigation applications, and for the improvement of both virtual and augmented reality experiences.
“Paracosm wants to take the digital world beyond screens and enable machines to understand the world as we do,” said Amir Rubin, founder and CEO of Paracosm.
