Schlagwort: Vive Focus

  • REAL™ Immersive System with HTC VIVE Wins Design Award

    REAL™ Immersive System with HTC VIVE Wins Design Award

    Reading Time: 2 minutes

    There’s never a shortage of challenges facing the world and we want to be part of solutions. That’s why we are taking a moment today to congratulate our partners at Penumbra for winning the Core77 Design Award for Health & Wellness.

    As we shared in March, The REAL™ System is an immersive, wireless virtual reality system using the VIVE FOCUS headset. It’s built for brain injury rehabilitation following a stroke that provides therapy by a clinician at the patient’s bedside, in a rehab center, or a mobile health location. The systems is entirely self-contained, wireless, and portable for ease and accessibility for clinicians and patients.

    Beyond accessibility, the design is also optimized for comfort. Wireless body sensors in soft neoprene bands capture the patient’s movements during sessions and securely record data to a tablet used by the clinician. The Vive Focus headset is light and comfortable, with attachment straps designed specifically for patients with limited grip strength and mobility. All of these things help make the physical rehabilitation needed to recover from a brain injury a little easier.

    But in addition to the physical challenges faced by those who suffered a brain injury, there are also mental and emotional barriers to overcome. The loss of a fully-functioning arm, leg, or other physical ability due to brain injury can be devastating and lead to depression. Progress is slow and therapy sessions can feel monotonous, which can cause patients to become bored and frustrated – sometimes quitting the treatment altogether.

    To keep patients engaged, encouraged, and entertained, the team took elements of gaming and incorporated therapeutic motions like shoulder flexion, trunk stability, and functional reach. In the virtual environment “Happy Valley,” patients grow food for villagers, fly balloons over mountaintops, put birds in nests, build houses, and do other activities where they can see their avatar (processed by the brain as an extension of the body) being productive and helpful. Achievement awards and progressive levels make it feel even more like playing a game, with motivation and incentive to keep going.

    Please join us in congratulating the teams at Delve, Penumbra, Sixense, and HTC VIVE for designing a solution that uses VR technology to improve stroke rehabilitation.

    The Community Choice award is still open for votes through July 7 and you can cast your vote for the REAL Immersive System here.

    To learn more about the REAL Immersive System go here.

    Website: LINK

  • Introducing the VIVE Focus Plus for Premium Standalone VR Experiences

    Introducing the VIVE Focus Plus for Premium Standalone VR Experiences

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    Today, we’re excited to reveal the newest premium virtual reality standalone hardware for enterprise customers, VIVE Focus Plus. We’ve upgraded the existing six degrees of freedom (6DoF) Focus headset to incorporate dual 6DoF controllers, giving users the ability to seamlessly interact with their virtual environment with the same freedom as PC VR devices. This enhancement also makes porting existing PC VR content easier for developers while making it physically more portable and natural to use.

    “At Vive, the announcement of Vive Focus Plus furthers our commitment to rapidly iterate and refine the VR market for both businesses and consumers,” said Daniel O’Brien, General Manager Americas, HTC Vive. “This rollout of Vive Focus Plus leads the way for deeper immersion, more realistic training and simulation, and easier porting of experiences from PC to the stand-alone category.”

    Blurring the lines between reality and virtual reality, Vive Focus Plus brings users greater comfort and full enterprise support. Resting easier on consumers’ heads, Vive Focus Plus offers comfort and lays the groundwork for extended sessions in VR needed by commercial customers. The headset also ships with several professional features including Kiosk Mode, Gaze Support, and device management tools to remotely enroll, monitor, and manage multiple headsets all at once. The headset will be available for purchase starting in Q2 2019 on www.vive.com in 25 markets worldwide, supporting 19 languages. In most markets, the product will include an enterprise license for use at no additional cost.

    Powered by the VIVE WAVE Platform with content from VIVEPORT, subscribers will also have access to a growing library of titles on the newly announced Viveport Infinity offering. Viveport Infinity is the first unlimited subscription service for VR. For just one low monthly price, members can explore a wide range of games, apps, experiences, and more. In addition to Vive Focus Plus, Viveport Infinity is compatible with high-end PC-based VR systems as well as the full spectrum of WAVE supported headsets. Members will be able to use a single account across their portfolio of VR devices when the service launches on April 2nd.

    NEW INNOVATIVE CONTROLLERS

    Vive Focus Plus offers two ultrasonic 6DoF controllers featuring an analog trigger that gives users the ability to control objects or interactions with pressure-sensitive input, making experiences truly immersive. Additionally, with the aid of the WAVE platform and SDK tools, porting from PC-based VR to Vive Focus Plus will be relatively easy for developers.

    Companies across the globe such as SimforHealth and Immersive Factory are already implementing Vive Focus Plus for medical training and safety simulation purposes. This all-in-one solution is powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 Mobile VR Platform enabling the business markets to collaborate and engage in new and effective ways.

    “In our dedication to occupational health and safety, we easily ported our entire Hazard Spotting range from the Vive Pro to Vive Focus Plus to facilitate our large corporation deployments,” said Olivier Pierre, COO and Founder, Immersive Factory. “Vive Focus Plus will perfectly immerse our clients in realistic environments enabling full movement, which supports memorization of process and procedures, and improves behavior by creating consequences to their actions. Having a professional standalone headset is very important for us to widely integrate and deploy virtual reality for workforce training at large groups, with plants all other the world, who previously saw the equipment as a barrier.”

    “With HTC’s Vive Focus Plus providing a high-end processor and 3K AMOLED display, we are able to create realistic and immersive 3D environments for our medical and nursing simulators, providing better training outcomes for HCPs without wires or connected computers, “said Olivier Gardinetti, CTO, SimforHealth. “Moreover, the 6DOF controllers have improved the way to perform specific medical interactions that were not possible with the regular 3DOF controllers. Now, Simforhealth’s simulators have a better, more comfortable user experience.”

    VIVE AT MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS

    Vive will be showcasing the newest standalone headset, Vive Focus Plus and the new Vive Pro Eye, at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, Spain, next week. The company will be spotlighting innovative partner experiences like construction safety and hazard training, medical simulation for nurses and their own multi-user collaboration tool, Vive Sync, in addition to groundbreaking demos on the future of VR and 5G.

    Website: LINK

  • HTC Vive launches full suite of premium VR offerings for businesses of all sizes

    HTC Vive launches full suite of premium VR offerings for businesses of all sizes

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    Today at a press event in San Francisco, HTC Vive announced a premium virtual reality experience for the enterprise market, including a new platform, new hardware, and new software available specifically for commercial use. This launch reinforces Vive’s increased commitment to bringing best-in-class design and software expertise—paired with the world’s best VR hardware—to businesses of all sizes. With this complete solution powered by Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 Mobile VR Platform the enterprise market can now create, collaborate, and engage in new and effective ways with employees and customers alike. Companies across the globe such as SimForHealth, and the Volkswagen Group are already implementing Vive for training, simulation, and product design purposes.

    Today, Vive is launching a portfolio of premium products in Western markets, including VIVE FOCUS™, a new standalone HMD for enterprise; VIVE WAVE™ VR SDK, the quintessential open VR platform for developers to create content for standalone devices; and VIVE Sync, a new enterprise collaboration tool.

    Vive Focus: The Most Powerful Standalone VR Experience

    Through Vive Focus, Vive offers the most complete and powerful standalone VR experience available for businesses on the market today. With this launch, Vive Focus will be available in 37 markets worldwide. Vive Focus is powered by the Vive Wave platform and content from VIVEPORT™, this innovative standalone headset is ideal for businesses that want a truly mobile VR experience. It offers a stunning combination of power and portability and the highest resolution graphics available on a standalone headset, with absolutely no PC needed.

    With Vive Focus, no external base stations or sensors are needed—enterprises can utilize instant standalone VR with dual 3K AMOLED screens, interactive tracking, and Snapdragon 835 Mobile VR Platform. With high-resolution 2880 x 1600 graphics on par with tethered, professional-grade VR system like the Vive Pro, Vive Focus features innovative world-scale tracking and a 110° field of view. Users will enjoy a freeing, intuitive experience with no wires to pull them back to reality, built-in speakers, and up to three hours of active use on a single charge.

    The Vive Focus can be paired with the Vive Enterprise Advantage professional services program, which offers two tiers (Advantage or Advantage+) of commercial licensing, dedicated support, and service utilities for Vive enterprise hardware. Each program offers purchase protection with tailored hardware warranties, limited downtime, dedicated support and advanced device management utilities such as a Kiosk mode and a batch configuration feature.

    VIVE WAVE: The Most Innovative Platform for Superior Standalone VR

    The new Vive Wave VR SDK offers an open interface, enabling interoperability between numerous mobile VR headsets and accessories, with Viveport as the universal distribution and storefront for all Vive Wave devices. This allows VR content developers to more efficiently develop, port and publish content while offering a much broader reach of potential customers across multiple VR headsets. Meanwhile, hardware partners are able to focus on true device innovation versus fundamental VR optimization, with access to much needed quality VR content through the Viveport platform.

    Vive Wave is a clear step forward in bringing together the highly fragmented mobile VR market and enables developers to create content for a common platform and storefront across multiple hardware vendors. Today, there are over 150 applications available, with more in development, and the platform is currently deployed on five stand-alone devices worldwide. Since launch, 15 total hardware partners have announced their support for Vive Wave and are planning the integration of Wave into their products.

    Shadow Creator joins the Vive Wave Platform

    Today, the Vive Wave platform is also welcoming Shadow Creator as the newest hardware partner to adopt the platform. Shadow Creator builds Shadow VR, an all-in-one VR HMD that supports 6DoF controllers, has innovative functionality and capabilities, and exceptional performance. The device will launch on November 11 worldwide.

    “Partnering with Vive and Wave benefits us two-fold,” said Jinxin Hu, COO of Shadow Creator. “It allows us to achieve more profit models through the open platform and also helps us connect with more global users, thus enhancing our company’s international reputation and brand influence.”

    Shadow VR all-in-one HMD is equipped with a Snapdragon 835 Mobile VR Platform and Fresnel ultra-thin optical lens, using a self-developed holographic 3D UI Blue Cat and 6 degrees of freedom (DoF) capabilities. A 2K (2560×1440) HD display brings users a clearer and more realistic picture experience and the stereo dual-speaker sound effect makes the experience more immersive. Shadow VR is equipped with self-developed 6DoF controllers, which uses a nine-axis high-precision gyroscope, ray tracing, and a button layout compatible with most VR controllers today.

    Vive Helps Enterprise Partners Work More Efficiently

    Today, Vive also introduced VIVE Sync, a new virtual reality collaboration and meeting application specifically for enterprise that is part of the Vive Enterprise suite of services. Vive Sync is an intuitive collaboration tool where internal teams can meet in a virtual shared space, improving communication and productivity amongst organizations.

    Additionally, at a media event in San Francisco today, Vive showcased Vive Sync, as well as a number of partners utilizing Vive Focus to demonstrate enterprise efforts:

    • Immersive Factory is a French start-up specializing in the design of virtual reality training who provide companies with a different way of addressing safety, health, and environmental issues with their teams.
    • Innoactive is a Munich-based start-up that develops virtual, augmented, and mixed reality enterprise software. The company serves clients in the automotive, retail, aerospace, pharmaceutical, and financial sectors. Innoactive’s software solutions streamline the content production and roll-out of VR collaborative planning, simulation, and training applications.
    • Modal is inspired by co-founder Nolan Bushnell’s success with Atari and Chuck E. Cheese’s, bringing social, fun, and active free-roam location-based VR entertainment to a mass audience.
    • Primitive is an Immersive Development Environment, a three-dimensional programming world where software developers can explore, interact, and debug their code in unlimited virtual space.
    • Qualcomm Technologies: A demonstrative experience for medical practitioners as a way to reinvent health care education and training, the Think F.A.S.T. demo immerses users in a medical VR environment where they can receive hands-on instructional content that simulates a real-world comprehensive stroke examination designed to assist in diagnosing strokes faster and in turn, reducing the long-term impact of the disease.
    • SimForHealth offers an immersive, interactive and collaborative approach to the training of health professionals, in line with the principle.

    For more on Vive for enterprise, please visit: https://enterprise.vive.com.

    Website: LINK

  • 8 Reasons Why Modal Uses VIVE Focus

    8 Reasons Why Modal Uses VIVE Focus

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    By Jason Crawford, Founder & CEO of Modal Systems, Inc.

    There is a rising tide of virtual reality in location-based entertainment (LBE). It’s a much needed reset for the industry and Modal hopes to see this market grow. Competition will come later. For now, location-based virtual reality (LBVR) companies need to build this new market together. Thus, I’d like to share some insights on why Modal uses the VIVE Focus as our choice HMD for LBVR.

    First, A Little Backstory

    In 2014, Modal’s first LBVR system prototype consisted of backpack PC computers, optical tracking, and Oculus DK1s, etc. Technically, it worked. However, when Nolan Bushnell (Founder of Atari & Chuck E. Cheese’s) got involved with the company, he began laying out the practical realities of location-based entertainment—rules that have governed the industry for over a hundred years. It became clear that an LBVR system must be, above all else, affordable, portable, simple, and reliable—all while also providing high hourly throughput. All of this meant we needed to rethink our system design.

    In refining our approach, we found the ideal VR headset for Modal simply did not exist. So, like any group of well-meaning wackos, we started designing our own . (Not recommended). In late 2017, Modal was preparing to put a rather pricey standalone headset into production when HTC made its VIVE Focus announcement. We were surprised to see HTC VIVE had addressed many of the same design issues we ourselves found important for LBVR. I paused our own hardware plans and reached out to HTC VIVE for a chat. It turned out to be one of the best phone calls I’ve ever made.

    9 Reasons Why Modal Uses VIVE Focus:

    1. Accessibility

    For all of us in the XR bubble, it’s hard to believe that 99% of the world has still not experienced VR. With the exception of kids, the average person passing by a VR installation finds the controls and equipment intimidating or “too much”. A single wireless standalone headset, like the VIVE Focus reduces their fear factor, especially if they see others having fun. If XR is to transcend its current user base, accessibility, in all forms, is a critical component to getting us there.

    1. Enterprise-Centric

    Unlike taking a standalone consumer HMD—which needs to be brute-forced into doing what you need for commercial location-based use—the VIVE Focus program is already geared towards the enterprise market. This means critical firmware features such as “kiosk mode” within the enterprise ROM are ready to go from day one. Huge time saver.

    HTC VIVE also has an enterprise warranty program that’s known to come in handy when, say, hundreds of people are using your equipment on a daily basis.

    1. Form Factor

    The VIVE Focus is certainly comfortable, light, and well-balanced, but our favorite design feature is actually the headset’s cooling system—one that’s very similar to Modal’s own design.

    Avoiding HMD overheat with standalone HMDs is a huge issue for location-based operations, especially when operating outdoors in the sun. Obviously there are limits here, but Modal has run the VIVE Focus in several high-heat conditions and we have yet to see any “must cool down” pop-ups we experienced with other standalone HMDs. Cleverly, the fan also ventilates the facial area when the headset is on, helping keep a user’s face cool while minimizing lens fogging.

    1. Portability

    The VIVE Focus is obviously self-contained and wireless, making it ideal for temporary installations for corporate events, fairs, trade shows, experiential marketing pop-ups, etc. For instance, a bare minimum Modal system sets up and breaks down in less than an hour, and can even fit in the trunk of a car. Sans lighting conditions, the VIVE Focus allows the Modal system to operate outdoors and the inside-out tracking conveniently does not conflict with other on-site VR installations using laser and/or infrared tracking.

    1. Extensibility

    The VIVE Focus has a USB-C port and screw-mount system conveniently located on the top of the visor, which has allowed Modal to fuse X & Y positional tracking with the VIVE Focus’ 6DoF, easily covering up to a 900,000 sq. ft. area with no drift. We’re looking forward to seeing more VIVE Focus accessories from other companies to extend the VIVE Focus in novel and compelling ways.

    1. Android Stack & VIVE Wave SDK

    Modal was born out of a mobile game development studio, so our internal game development team has a lot of experience getting the most out of mobile processing and working with the Android stack. We also like the fact mobile game developers can create multiplayer free-roam XR titles for the Modal system with minimal resources—especially if they have existing titles that make sense for location-based games and experiences. The Wave SDK is easy to use for both Unity and Unreal and the VIVE Focus has proved to be very stable.

    1. Affordability

    It seems like a year of innovation in XR technology equals two years of innovation for other gaming platforms. Because the hardware and software capabilities move at such a rapid pace, making large investments in high-cost tracking, processing, etc. can leave location-based vendors and operators with expensive technical debt issues. Practical ROI and hardware upgrades are critical for location-based installations. For Modal, the affordability of the VIVE Focus has helped manage that aspect of our business. 

    1. The People Behind It

    Last, but not least is the intangible benefit of working with h the HTC VIVE team. They truly understand location-based entertainment and share the same passion for making it successful.

    Last Word

    The LBVR industry needs more great developers and thinkers to help push the market forward with amazing content. The VIVE Focus combined with the Modal system provides a relatively low-risk way to get into it. Feel free to reach out to me if your company is considering LBVR. I’m always ready to chat with those who want to shape the future of fun!

    About the Author

    Jason Crawford is Chief Immersionist and Founder of Modal Systems, Inc., which he started with Nolan Bushnell (founder of Atari and Chuck E Cheese’s). Modal offers accessible and affordable free-roam virtual reality solutions for location-based entertainment.

    Twitter: @modalvr  Instagram: @modalvr  Facebook: @modalsystems

    LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/jasoncrawford/

    Website: LINK

  • Vive Announces Vive Wave Open Platform and Vive Focus, Its Standalone VR device For China

    Vive Announces Vive Wave Open Platform and Vive Focus, Its Standalone VR device For China

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    Today, at our Vive Developers Conference (VDC) in Beijing, we announced the VIVE WAVE VR Open Platform.  With it, we are taking another huge step in driving the most vibrant ecosystem for VR forward. Vive Wave will open up the path to easy mobile VR content development and device optimization for third-party partners. So far, twelve hardware partners in China, including  360QIKU, Baofengmojing, Coocaa, EmdoorVR, Idealens, iQIYI, Juhaokan, Nubia, Pico, Pimax, Quanta and Thundercomm, announced their support for Vive Wave and integrating the VIVEPORT™ VR content platform into their future products.

    Vive Wave is a clear step forward in bringing together the highly fragmented mobile VR market that has cropped up in China the last several years. It enables developers to create content for a common platform and storefront across multiple hardware vendors. Over 35 Chinese and global content developers have already built VR content optimized for Vive Wave, with 14 showing live demos during VDC.

    We also announced VIVE FOCUS, our first standalone VR Headset for the China market.  Vive Focus is also based on the Vive Wave VR open platform.

    Vive Focus offers enhanced comfort for extended use, easy on-off capabilities, and is the first commercial standalone device to deliver inside-out 6-degree-of-freedom tracking (6DoF) which Vive calls “world-scale”. Without the need to be attached to a PC or a phone, Vive Focus provides unlimited freedom of mobility while reducing the total cost for users to own a premium VR device in China. Its high-resolution AMOLED screen delivers the best possible VR experience, with low latency and unmatched clarity. The Vive Focus is powered by the advanced features of the Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ 835 VR Platform and utilizes the Vive Wave VR open platform, including the rich library of VR content available on the Viveport.

    Also at VDC, Viveport also announced a global strategic partnership with Unity Technologies to enable the one-click publishing of VR content onto Viveport for PC VR, Standalone VR, and mobile VR developers. Unity will integrate Viveport into its content platform and provide a more intuitive way for developers to utilize the new Vive Wave VR SDK. Unity will also integrate Viveport’s in-app payment and VR advertisement functions into its development system, with an initial focus on the China market, opening up even more revenue opportunities for its VR developer community.  For the remainder of 2017, Viveport is giving back 100% of all profit earned on its platform back to the developer community.

    For more information on VDC, check out our press release here.

    Website: LINK