Schlagwort: VIVE Sync

  • Transforming Remote Learning with VR

    Transforming Remote Learning with VR

    Reading Time: 5 minutes

    The COVID-19 pandemic spurred a nationwide shift in academics, forcing educators to move instruction online. The rapid shift to remote learning has pushed educators to adapt their practices and incorporate new technology to meet the challenges of remaining connected and engaged with students while not in-person.

    VIVE Sync, the VR collaboration and remote meeting app, is one tool schools today are using to enhance the remote learning experience. Educators at the University of Louisville, DePaul University and the University of Arizona share the unique ways they use VIVE Sync to adapt their approach to teaching and transform remote learning.

    University of Louisville

    As an advocate for VR in education for over six years, Shannon Putman, a PhD candidate and graduate assistant at the University of Louisville, was responsible for creating the first VR elementary classroom in Kentucky in 2017. Before schools closed, Putman played an instrumental role in convincing the Jefferson County Public School District to allocate budget to implement the technology in elementary and high schools and secured over 500 headsets to be distributed to students.

    Through Putman’s influence, her colleague, Dr. John Finch, was inspired to teach his pre-professional education course at the University of Louisville in VR as the campus went remote during the Spring semester.

    Dr. Finch used VIVE Sync as a supplement to video conferencing , allowing his university students to meet in a shared space and gain experience leading and instructing the other students as if they were teaching an in-person elementary class. Leveraging the platform, the students were able to transform ordinary lessons into memorable experiences, such as bringing a 3D lion cub into the virtual classroom during a lesson on the five senses.

    Putman said, “Classroom engagement and immersion in VR is unmatched, and the benefit of holding these classes in VR is twofold: students are not only learning about the subject being taught, but are also learning about the technology through hands-on experience.”

    Putman is also working on a new project centered around connecting Louisville’s black student population with local black professionals and leaders in the community to inspire students to explore careers they never would have considered before. Through captured video and an integrated VR component, the goal is to immerse students in the professional lives of these community leaders and experience a day in their shoes.

    DePaul University

    Prior to the onset of COVID-19, Associate Professor Bree McEwan, along with her colleague Professor Paul Booth, was building an innovation lab on the DePaul University campus centered on VR. As COVID-19 became a global pandemic, McEwan shifted her strategy and used budget from the internal grant she received for the lab to purchase VIVE Focus Plus headsets for students in her First-Year Honors Discover Chicago, Augmented Chicago course. DePaul’s discover classes are designed as a unique way for the students to get to know DePaul, connect with each other. This particular section also focuses on learning about how communication processes and technological affordances influence our relationships and society.

    At the start of winter quarter, the class, which focuses on AR and VR experiences, was and continues to be held via the VIVE Sync platform. McEwan is able to conduct class in a similar way to how it would be in person – from uploading and displaying PDFs to using the screen as a lesson board, she’s able to encourage social interaction among her students, another important element of her course. McEwan added, “Given the focus area of my course, I’m thrilled to be using VIVE Sync and know my students will benefit from learning about VR while using the technology during class.”

    McEwan will be collecting feedback from her students at the end of her course and is also looking to teach a graduate seminar using VIVE Sync.

    Boston, Massachusetts

    VR continues to solidify its role in medical training, which is even more important now for medical students, residents, and fellows in training as work hours and hands-on experiences are restricted. With most surgical training courses going virtual this year due to COVID-19, one group of academic physicians pushed the limits of the latest technology. The Boston-based International Bootcamp on Endoscopic and Exoscopic Ear Surgery was held for Otolaryngologists (Ear, Nose, and Throat doctors). The event was hosted by course directors Dr. Michael Cohen, Dr. Daniel Lee, and Dr. Alicia Quesnel. Dr. Samuel Barber, a resident physician at the University of Arizona College of Medicine’s Department of Otolaryngology, collaborated with the course directors to develop a special VR segment of the course for live streamed endoscopic surgical dissection sessions. Participants gathered together in an immersive environment where they could interact, all while watching the same live surgical instruction video on a massive virtual display.

    With VIVE Sync’s 3D asset support, Dr. Barber and his team developed large 3D models of middle ear anatomy, allowing participants to point out critical structures during the lesson, as well as better understand the relationships between anatomic structures in the ear, which otherwise are difficult to comprehend from traditional textbooks and 2D videos. Dr. Barber mentioned, “The 3D model feature within Sync is what sets it apart from other VR platforms. For medical and surgical instruction, the ability for students to visualize and pinpoint the detailed structures within the ear is incredibly helpful and more useful than referencing from textbooks and other materials.”

    The surgical course was held on November 14, and Dr. Barber already anticipates that adjunct lessons conducted in VR will likely continue post-COVID in medical education due to its numerous benefits for both students and practicing physicians.

    We look forward to seeing how our education partners continue to leverage VIVE Sync and integrate VR as part of their ongoing coursework to enhance remote learning. For more information on VIVE Sync, please visit: https://sync.vive.com/login

    Website: LINK

  • VIVE Sync Feature Updates: June 2020

    VIVE Sync Feature Updates: June 2020

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Months into working remotely and feeling the effects of “Zoom fatigue”, we are all trying to find new ways to connect with coworkers and partners. What is the best way to continue to foster workplace community, culture and collaboration remotely? At VIVE, we’ve been using our own internal tool, VIVE Sync, to reestablish our relationships now that we don’t see our teammates every day.

    And we aren’t the only ones using the remote workforce collaboration app. Since launching Vive Sync in open beta at the end of April, there have been over 1,400 meetings held in Sync. We’ve solicited feedback from these early advocates and are building our future roadmap with your needs in mind.

    Today we’re sharing the first major updates to Vive Sync driven by feedback from the community.

    Major Updates:

    Non-VR PC Participation

    Sometimes, you can’t take a meeting in headset. With this new feature, meeting members are now able to attend and participate in sessions even without a VR device. Non-VR participants can communicate via voice, take screenshots, and record all from their PC.

    Want to know who is joining via PC? A display board will be added to meeting rooms to show the names of non-VR participants in the session to keep everyone aware of all attendees. By adding the non-VR PC viewing feature, Sync meetings are now accessible to more participants and removes any friction when members can’t easily get into VR.

    *Please note that a VR compatible computer is still required to join a Sync meeting as a non-VR PC viewer.

    Casual Outfits

    To better reflect the way you dress at the office, we’ve introduced new casual outfit options for your customizable avatar. Choose from new jeans and tops to express your personal style.

    Optimized Speed

    We added a network speed check, just to make sure you’re setup for optimal performance. We also reduced loading times to get you into meetings faster!

    Desktop Login

     You can now login to a meeting through your desktop, eliminating the need to memorize meeting IDs and passwords while trying to enter a meeting with your headset on.

    Additional Updates:
    • Left-hand support for all meeting tools

    • Improved voice-to-text performance on PC

    • Improved avatar rotation when using joystick controllers

    • Automatically show a person’s name card for 10 seconds when they enter the meeting room

    Stay tuned for more feature updates as we continue to improve VIVE Sync based on your feedback. If you have any feedback on tools or features that would make your team more productive, please reach out to us at sync_support@htc.com.

    Vive Sync currently supports all VIVE headsets and is available to download at https://enterprise.vive.com/us/solutions/vive-sync/.

    Website: LINK

  • Welcome to the Vive Sync Open Beta

    Welcome to the Vive Sync Open Beta

    Reading Time: 4 minutes

    By David Sapienza, AVP of Content & Production at HTC VIVE

    It’s hard enough to achieve team cohesion when everyone works in the same office, but as a global company where teams are spread throughout the globe, it can be very challenging to maintain unity.   A few years back we realized we needed a tool to drive collaboration and easily share our development work across time zones in order to create a true team culture.

    [youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TnNC1rm5N6Y?feature=oembed&wmode=opaque&w=730&h=411]

    In order to have a successful, cross-functional team, you need to have a clear vision with constant communication and ultimately, trust.  Trust that your team members are listening to all voices and that everyone is working toward the same goal.

    As AVP of Content Development & Production at Vive, I oversee the development for numerous XR projects across multiple teams. One day we may be working with a new unreleased SDK, while the next we are creating visuals for the Cosmos opening movie sequence. It’s a fast-paced environment and the work is diverse.

    This is where Vive Sync started.

    Even before the current pandemic, we realized the future is rapidly becoming more global and more remote. Although there are benefits, we know from our development teams that remote work comes with isolation, a decrease in team chemistry and communication breakdowns. Tone in email is often misinterpreted, video calls can be draining, and even exacerbate the feeling that you are not with your team members.

    So we asked ourselves, can VR help build team relations? What would a productive meeting space look like in VR? How do we build something that’s focused on building a team culture, and what would it need to accomplish so that productivity isn’t lost in a headset?

    Increasing immersion with avatars

    If our goal is to drive team connectivity, then our virtual representations must capture our identifying features (we were also careful not to wade too far into the “uncanny valley”), including facial features, voice, and body mannerisms.

    To create your own Vive Sync avatar, you start with a selfie and customize from there.  We want our avatars to be recognizable but still represent a digital space so hairstyles, facial features, body types, and clothing options are all customizable and we will continue to add more customization options over time.

    In addition to the look of your avatar, what is equally important is to ensure that your avatar’s face and body move realistically. In Vive Sync when you talk, your mouth and eyes move naturally and mimic real-world facial movements. For folks with Vive Pro Eye and its integrated Tobii eye-tracking technology, your avatars will track your eye movement as well. Furthermore, we have developed our own robust full-body IK tracking system so you can be expressive through natural body language movements. All of this is aimed to deliver clearer communication and to build stronger relationships with your team.

    Staying productive in VR

    Productivity is key. Meetings are costly.

    If we were going to build a meeting app, then we needed to make sure a meeting in VR was effective, so integration with existing business tools was critical. Just being present in VR is great, but to be productive you need access to your files.  In Vive Sync you can synchronize files with OneDrive so that PowerPoints, PDFs, marketing videos, or 3D models can be synced and published easily to your virtual meeting space.

    Another required feature of a meeting app is the ability to take notes, record the outcome, and to capture the outstanding questions. Early on in development, we ensured that users were able to use voice recognition to record their notes, annotate with our 3D pen, and take screenshots.

    Since we allow users to link to a cloud drive, all of those notes and screenshots are instantly sent back to the cloud drive folder, so when a user is finished with a VR meeting all of their materials are already accessible on their PC.

    When importing a 3D model into Sync you can move, rotate, and even scale it as large as your environment to review critical details of a design review or add some showmanship to your presentation. At this time we support FBX and OBJ files, as well as Unity Asset Bundles.

    Free for businesses through 2020

    Given the global pandemic, we view Vive Sync as a way to help businesses benefit from the tools that have made our teams so productive, engaged, and feel connected. So, throughout this open beta period, starting today, we’ll allow businesses of all sizes to use Vive Sync for free. As of today, the platform can support up to 30 meeting participants per session.

    What is next for Vive Sync?

    We’re just getting started with Vive Sync and we know there are additional features that we plan to implement quickly. Currently, our roadmap consists of extending hardware compatibility to non-Vive headsets, implementing host controls, and the ability to record full meetings sessions.

    Your feedback will be critical throughout this period and we encourage you to help guide our feature roadmap for Sync. Comments or feedback can be sent to: sync_support@htc.com.

    Sign up for the Vive Sync Open Beta: https://enterprise.vive.com/us/solutions/vive-sync/ 

    Website: LINK

  •  VIVE Sync announced to mainstream enterprise VR collaboration

     VIVE Sync announced to mainstream enterprise VR collaboration

    Reading Time: 3 minutes

    Developed By Internal 2 Bears Studio, VIVE Sync is to Pilot in December

    At a press event in San Francisco yesterday, HTC VIVE announced VIVE Sync, a virtual reality (VR) collaboration and meeting application built specifically for the enterprise. The easy to access and secure Vive Sync has been built for the entire Vive ecosystem, compatible with the Vive, Vive Pro and Vive Focus. By developing this enterprise collaboration tool, HTC Vive is continuing its commitment to bringing premium VR hardware and software solutions to businesses of all sizes. 2 Bears Studio, HTC Vive’s internal development team, will begin selecting pilot partners to integrate Vive Sync into their businesses in December.

    Vive Sync is an intuitive VR collaboration tool where internal teams can meet in a virtual shared space, improving communication and productivity amongst organizations. Supporting up to 20 employees simultaneously, teams separated across the globe can meet to share materials, hold discussions, and make real-time collaborative decisions. With dynamic and customizable avatars, individuals will be able to have immersive and realistic interactions with their colleagues no matter where they are in the world. Through Vive Sync, participants are able to easily share materials directly from their server such as standalone videos, presentations, and 2D & 3D assets. In addition, Vive Sync’s 3D drawing capabilities allows users to mark-up and interact with these materials while the ability to easily take screenshots, video recordings and voice to text support promotes continued collaboration outside of the virtual meeting space.

    “With our offices located halfway across the world from each other, we built Vive Sync as an internal solution to the many pain points of remote work and collaboration,” said David Sapienza, Executive Director of 2 Bears Studio. “What was most important to us and what separates Vive Sync from other solutions is the persistent emphasis on security and ease of use throughout the application.”

    Vive Sync integrates seamlessly into a company’s own infrastructure, ensuring a custom and secure platform. With organizations able to exercise full control over their security, employees can share confidential and sensitive materials freely with their colleagues. In addition, setting up secure meetings in Vive Sync is a simple and intuitive process. Through Outlook Office 365 integration, users can easily set up meetings in Vive Sync through their email while the QR code system capitalizes on the Vive’s front cameras to allow for a simple way to join meeting locations.  

    2 Bears Studio will begin accepting partners into its pilot program next month. Additional information on pricing will be released at a later date. For more on Vive for enterprise, please visit: https://enterprise.vive.com.

    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