AR hardware startup Mira announces $10 million in financing; National Geographic launches interactive augmented reality experience

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Japanese VR game "Tokyo Chronos" sequel "Altdeus: Beyond Chronos" will be available on Oculus in the winter of 2020

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Recently, Japanese virtual reality (VR) developer MyDearest has finally released more detailed information about the sequel to Tokyo Chronos, Altdeus: Beyond Chronos. It is reported that the game will be launched on the Oculus platform in the winter of 2020 and will be compatible with Quest and Rift headsets. , Support Chinese.

"Tokyo Chronos" adapts a popular Japanese visual novel into a VR game. "Altdeus: Beyond Chronos" is making some interesting changes. First, the sequel story is set to make the player become a survivor of Tokyo in the end times 300 years after the first event. The character Chloe is a super soldier who fights to protect humans. There will be more interactivity in the sequel, where players can interact with certain UI elements.

The press release also confirmed that "Altdeus: Beyond Chronos" will be dubbed in English. There is no exact news when the game will be released, but it will first appear on Quest and Rift, and more headsets will be released.

AR hardware startup Mira announced that it has received US$10 million in financing, and its development focus will shift to the industrial sector

According to TechCrunch, AR hardware company Mira has raised approximately US$10 million in funding through several financings, and the team collectively regards it as a seed expansion round. Sequoia Capital and San Francisco-based Happiness Ventures led the investment, but the startup did not specify specific terms. So far, the team has raised nearly 13 million U.S. dollars in funding, and Mira has used this cash to refocus its business and improve hardware.

Mira once received investment from Sequoia Capital. At that time, the AR start-up company positioned its device as the AR version of Google Cardboard, allowing people to have a lightweight experience of the augmented reality world. By the end of 2018, the founders decided to shift their focus to the promotion of head-mounted display equipment in the industrial field.

"As we can see across consumer, industrial and government sectors, it is clear that today's value-driven use cases are much more mature in the industrial sector," Mira partner founder and COO Matt Stern said in an interview.

The company's Prism Pro headset does not have too much technical complexity. The device integrates a slot-type design for users to plug in an earlier iPhone and connect it to the camera, so that employees can scan items and perform mark. This type of equipment has many advantages. It is cheaper, easier to operate, and easier to integrate into the company's enterprise equipment management structure.

Compared with the experience of workers using HoloLens, the upper limit of the functions of these devices is much lower. Prism Pro does not have the so-called "real AR" function, but chooses to expand the field of view through the head-up display window. The new camera is used to scan items without generating a depth map.

The AR field is still difficult to establish a start-up company, but the founder of Mira is satisfied with the company's development prospects after refocusing on manufacturing, especially in the current competitive environment.

"I can't confirm this because I don't work for Magic Leap, but compared to companies like Magic Leap that have raised hundreds of times the funds, we can attract more customers who use this device to our platform every day," CEO Ben Taft said. "We just tried to grow the business in a conservative way and actually increased the adoption rate."

"National Geographic" magazine launched an interactive augmented reality experience, taking users to climb Mount Everest in the Instagram AR experience!

Recently, "National Geographic" magazine launched an interactive augmented reality experience, which brings Instagram users to experience immersive travel in AR-climbing Mount Everest. National Geographic has released its second augmented reality experience on Instagram. As countries around the world continue to fight the epidemic, this interactive experience allows people to enjoy travel at home. Why National Geographic magazine chose AR as the medium to experience the expedition to the highest mountain, Mount Everest. "We firmly believe that immersive storytelling is one of the best ways to engage the audience (especially our young audience) in the story. Augmented reality has been around for a long time, but until now the Spark AR platform on Instagram So that ordinary users can experience without barriers, without any other hardware or software,"

When users start to interact with AR on Instagram, the journey begins near the foot of the mountain. You can move your smartphone or swipe the screen to see a 360-degree panorama of your surroundings. Unlike some AR applications that only focus on changing the user's face, National Geographic allows you to see a healthy Everest climber. They even make it respond to your facial and head movements. To make the experience more realistic, the weather will change significantly when the user moves to another location. When users reach higher altitudes, their climbing equipment will also change. Users will also wear goggles and respirators. About 1,400 feet below the top of the mountain, you will see one of five high-altitude elephant stations installed by scientists. You will also see them collecting ice cores. After reaching the summit, users can take photos or record videos to share to the IG story. Users can also flip the camera to enjoy the panoramic view of the mountains.

"National Geographic" climbed Mount Everest in person and photographed the 360-degree panoramic environment of the highest mountain range. This is the source of the images that users see in Instagram. The expedition was detailed in the July issue of the magazine. In order to attract and inform young people, they turn it into a fully immersive AR experience. What's next for National Geographic? The Johor Bahru Everest AR experience is the second AR immersive content of National Geographic on Instagram. In April, they released the first AR experience for Earth Day. Data visualization methods were used in the first batch of AR works to emphasize how the temperature around the world will change by 2050. At the same time, they used facial filters and 360° video to create the latest adaptive and fully immersive camera. "The last concept is that we have to redouble our efforts and use AR technology to focus on the world environment around the user."

Floor-standing VR leads to a new upgrade of the three-gigabit innovative application experience in telecom business hall

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“Floor VR is to help telecom operators' business halls to upgrade from a simple business handling scenario to a product experience scenario. By changing users' perceptions of the business hall's image, the business hall is built into three gigabit (Gigabit 5G+Gigabit broadband+ Gigabit WiFi) is the most concentrated and convenient user experience place for application experience, which will drive China Telecom's three Gigabit and smart home services."

Affected by the epidemic this year, the number of telecommunications users who go to business halls for consultation and handling services has declined, and the three-gigabit business of the business hall has been greatly affected. Therefore, major business halls are actively looking for new application scenarios to attract more users to the store. Come in.

China Telecom has made a lot of explorations for the upgrading and transformation of physical stores. The trend of traditional business halls from store-type to technology-based and experience-based stores is becoming more and more obvious. Cloud VR, smart terminal experience, immersive experience, smart home, and full It is imperative to upgrade the innovative and interactive 5G business halls integrating house intelligence and cloud gaming. Relying on the technical advantages of the "three gigabit" network with large bandwidth, low latency, and high reliability, Tianyi Cloud VR launched a 5G+VR innovative application experience for telecom business halls-floor-standing VR.

In the final analysis, floor-to-ceiling VR is an immersive hardware interactive device. It is probably the most eye-catching VR peripherals. Tanks, cars, airplanes, bicycles, and skateboards all look very cool and attract people around you. Stop, watch, experience.

We know that the enemy of VR experience is dizziness. Many people feel nauseous after a few minutes of experience, and they may decide not to play again. The occurrence of vertigo is a phenomenon caused by a combination of many factors. Early VR helmets caused vertigo due to insufficient frame numbers or insufficient gyroscope refresh rate, etc., which have basically been solved. But when playing with VR peripherals, many people find that they are still dizzy, which is usually not a problem with the headset. From the perspective of low-level control, there are two main reasons for it: The first is: when the picture has begun to change, the information given by the picture is transmitted to the vehicle (floor-mounted VR), which is delayed; The second is: If the information has been transmitted to the vehicle, the control mechanism of the vehicle needs to move the entire mechanical structure. If there is a delay, it will also produce a feeling of dizziness.

Simply put, when your brain receives the motion picture from the VR device from the visual system, the brain will direct the body to move in coordination with the received picture. In fact, the body does not move. From the cerebellum It will send erroneous signals to keep the body functioning normally. When the brain receives erroneous signals and cannot process it properly, other organs in the human body will become disordered and cause dizziness. Therefore, when doing VR peripherals, data transmission needs to be fast enough, precise motion control technology needs to be adopted, and mechanical response needs to be fast enough to better avoid dizziness.

And Tianyi Cloud VR customized hardware, with 4K/2K resolution and 72 refresh rate, the helmet with a delay of less than 16ms, plus the use of precise motion control technology, efficient platform response speed, and sensitive sensors, make floor-standing VR peripherals Give users a better immersive experience.

After solving the dizziness problem, we must give users a better experience content. The introduced floor-to-ceiling VR content is the best high-quality VR content suitable for offline user experience stores that has been tested by the market for more than three years. It has very high interactivity, fun, drainage, high definition and no dizziness. It can stimulate the user's impulse and sense of expectation in business management. In addition, all types of VR devices add at least 5 free content every quarter, regardless of content category, and continuous content updates can increase user stickiness and avoid user loss.

Tianyi Cloud VR system and cloud VR background management make the VR experience content seamlessly connect with the dynamic experience platform. It can be worn and used, one-stop self-service content selection, no need for shop assistants to debug, and the operation is very simple. At the same time, content updates, statistics, management, and payment functions of offline stores are adjusted through the cloud.

Floor-standing VR is a sub-industry with a complex industry chain. Its participants mainly include operators, VR hardware manufacturers, VR content system teams, VR peripheral accessories manufacturers, and VR system integrators. Currently, floor-standing VR has not yet formed a standard, and floor-standing VR also needs a large and strong manufacturer to lead the industry in formulating standards. In fact, with the help of China Telecom, Tianyi Cloud VR naturally has a huge platform advantage. Through the Tianyi Cloud VR system platform, it aggregates mainstream domestic helmet manufacturers and mainstream peripheral accessories suppliers and excellent content production teams, and at the same time uses the telecom 5G business hall as Line whereabouts, so that with the support of hardware, content, technology, and venue, Tianyi Cloud VR can lead the industry and develop a complete standard system.

As of press time, Anhui Telecom has officially launched floor-to-ceiling VR in 20 5G business halls in 16 cities, and has launched 5G cloud VR experience activities through a combined online and offline marketing model. As soon as the event was launched, it was immediately sought after by users, and they dragged their families to the business hall to experience. According to the feedback from the store staff, on June 1st Children's Day, in some stores, there were more than 200 users who only experienced users on that day, and the enthusiasm of users to experience the store was extremely high. At present, massive VR games and 4K/8K ultra-high-definition VR videos are available in the telecom business hall. Users can experience immersive games and enjoy them; they can also watch the giant pandas in Chengdu Panda Base from thousands of miles away.

In the future, in addition to motion control, games, and video, to truly immerse users in the VR experience, special effects such as wind, rain, and temperature changes will also need to be created. These special effects will be combined with the motion control platform and game scenes. For example, when riding a bicycle, there will be wind blowing, and the faster you ride, the greater the wind, and there should be more riding resistance when going uphill.