Ski jump in the Beach and Diving in the desert? : Sports and VR

The entire world is talking about one thing these days. That is the 31st Rio 2016 Summer Olympics. Athletes from all over the world are doing their best for their country. It would be glad to hear if all the athletes would be able to enjoy the true meaning of the Olympic, regardless of its performance.

In Rio, not only the fever of cheering but also the interest towards VR experience is getting hotter. According to the articles, the IOC members also had fun with the VR. 

Firstly, Samsung electronics, the Worldwide Olympic Partner in the Wireless Communications Equipment category is running a Galaxy studio where people can experience Kayak (One type of the Olympic game) in VR by sitting in the 4D seat.

<Credit: Samsung electronics>

Rio is one of the three grand harbors which have both natural and artificial beauty. It was also registered in UNESCO in 2012. Rio, the second largest city next to Sao Paulo, has a tropical climate. 

Is it possible to enjoy winter sport in the vacationland that has tropical climate? VR made it possible. The locals and travelers are able to experience winter sports from the PyeongChang Winter Games booth which was built to promote 2018 Pyeongchang Olympics in Copacabana beach. KT, the official partner of 2018 PyeongChang Olympics, showed off various experiences that will work with 5G and one of it is Ski Jump experience. 

People get on the machine and adjust their feet in the skis which are on top on the machine and put on the VR HMD. Then what they see through the VR HMD is the Ski Jump scene and during the play the machine moves and also snows flutters to them. VR with 4D effect make people think as if they were really ski jumping in the snow. 

<Credit: KT>

Few years before, Samsung Gear VR made a Skin scuba store in the middle of the desert village named Alice Springs which is in center of Australia. They let the visitors experience swimming in the sea by just wearing Gear VR HMD. When they wear Gear VR and headphone they heard the sound of sea and watched the view of inside the ocean. In the beginning it is really peaceful, however, when the background music slightly changes a shark appears and begin to swim around you and then… suddenly you are inside the shark. 

Through this event, it seemed possible to make people think as if they were really in the sea by using VR HMD and headphone only. This can be the most attractive part of VR: Making Impossible things possible.  (영상링크: http://bit.ly/2bmCqJ1)

  

<Credit: Samsung electronics >

Not only Olympics but also Sport live streaming is receiving attention. We might be able to enjoy football or Golf play in VR live stream soon.

We can actually play sports in VR. “Golf VR” which is an android application which you can download in Google play. This is a golf game that you can enjoy with cheap Google cardboard. It provides a realistic bird call sound or sound effect heard when you hit the golf ball. You can choose holes and clubs and hit the ball by only using the magnet of Google Cardboard.

There are also more realistic and expensive golf game you can enjoy. Golf game using HTC Vive can be played by using its controllers and it let you able to swing.

<Golf-VR / Credit: Google image>

Lastly, isn’t it boring to run in the same running machine or rowing machine every day? If it is possible to be in different places when you do same exercise, don’t you think it would be fun?

Holodia Fitness of Holodia, a software company in France, and HTC Vive made our daily exercise more fun. If you put the VR device when you exercise in the running machine or rowing machine you become able to exercise in various places such as jungle, Siberia, famous cities or deep forest. 

Yet it is on presale which means that we are not sure if Holodia Fitness can provide a real HD scenes so that we can think as if we were actually there, but when this technology are generalized, then our daily life will be filled with more pleasure. 

   

<Credit: Holodia>

It would be great if we can enjoy various sports without interrupted by environment. Also, there will be a day when everybody can enjoy all kinds of sports without the limit of the weather or physical problems soon.

Watch on WAVRP: 

http://wavrp.com/

WAVRP is a curation service which introduces a selected VR video everyday!

(2016. 8. 14) “Circle of Life” 360° Experience | THE LION KING on Broadway

2016. 8. 14. “Circle of Life” 360° Experience | THE LION KING on Broadway

What would it be like if you can
enjoy the famous Broadway musical
at home?

Beloved Broadway musical “Lion King”!
If you are with the actors on the stage
it would be more impressive.

Experience deeper immersion and reality
through this VR video.

Channel : WIRED

Watch on WAVRP: 

http://wavrp.com/

WAVRP is a curation service which introduces a selected VR video everyday!

All about Oculus

<Credit: Oculus Rift>

Oculus received about $2.8 billion from 9,522 people by uploading their project in the Kickstarter in 2012. Then two years after in 2014, they were acquired by Facebook in $2 billion.

The history of Oculus is not that long. Oculus has begun from a boy who loved game and had passion for it. Palmer Luckey, the founder of Oculus, begun to collect VR devices from the age of 15. At that time he was a representative of ModRetro which was a community assembling vintage game console and a student attending local junior college. He might be the one who has collected the most various VR HMDs.

<Palmer Luckey/ Credit: Techcrunch>

However, he was not able to find a perfect HMD that he was looking for, so he began to make his own VR HMD. If he was alone, however, Oculus might not have been born.
One of the most important person for Palmer Luckey was John Carmack, the genius programmer, who played an important role for Oculus.  John Carmack is the co-founder of id Software and made Doom, Wolfenstein 3D and Quake.

John Carmack became interested in VR when he begin to make FPS game named Rage. He tried all kinds of HMD but none of them satisfied him because of its slow reaction speed or high price. This brought John Carmack to Palmer Luckey.

< Credit : Oculus VR Korea>

John Carmack applied his Doom3 into Palmer’s VR HMD and revealed it in E3 id Software Booth for the first time in 2012. After that, Palmer Luckey established Oculus VR.

This Oculus VR was acquired by Facebook and it gained more recognition. The effort of wo people who loved game and tried to make a better VR HMD made us possible to enjoy VR in better quality and price.
Oculus DK 1

<Oculus DK1/ Credit: Oculus>

The first software development came out after they were funded by Kickstarter named Oculus DK1. This device was not perfect. It was better than the first product which they opened in E3 but tracking service was not available and there were still a screen door effect. However, this first kit was enough to show off the possibility of Oculus and it was much better than any existed HMD at that time.

Oculus DK 2

<Oculus DK2 / Credit: Oculus>

The second SDK was released one week before Oculus was acquired by Facebook. They supplemented many defects from DK1 and it included an external camera for tracking system. DK2 is the newest SDK. Oculus VR didn’t released DK3 but it opened Oculus Rift Crescent Bay. Oculus Rift Crescent Bay is known as the prototype that is most similar to that for consumer.

<Oculus Rift Crescent bay / Credit: Oculus >

Then on January 2016, Oculus VR begin a presale of Oculus Rift. Oculus Rift is the first consumer version HMD. It took almost 4 years after Oculus was founded. However, South Korea was not included in the list of markets where the Oculus Rift will initially ship. When somebody asked Palmer Luckey about this his simple answer was an issue “ government regulation”.

Many people were surprised because South Korea was the first branch in foreign country except America. That Oculus Korea released Gear VR with Samsung on November 2015 and as their third model was released in half price than the previous devices it is considered as a product that popularized VR HMD. Also it was sold out in presale period so it proved that consumers were thirsty for VR devices.

<Credit: Oculus>

There was a rumor that Oculus Korea is going to withdraw from Korea. However, it was not true. According to Newspim the person from Facebook Korea said about reducing the personnel that “It is not true that we Oculus is withdraing from Korea market because of the contract end and we will focus more in market extension.” So anybody who was concerned about withdrawal of Oculus doesn’t need to.  

Nevertheless, one thing still remains. Which government regulation made Oculus to except Korea from the list? Specialist in this field assumed that the reason can be “radio wave certification problem.” 

However, you don’t need to worry because according to the National Radio Research Agency, Oculus have already received three type of wave certification of specific low power radio wireless machine. This included not only headset but also location movement tracking sensor and remote control. Therefore we can expect to see Oculus Rift in Korea soon.

Watch on WAVRP: 

http://wavrp.com/

WAVRP is a curation service which introduces a selected VR video everyday!

(2016. 8. 11) Virtual 360˚ tour of the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Game

2016. 8. 11. Virtual 360˚ tour of the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Game

Today’s WAVRP is about 2016 Honda NHL All-Star Game. You can experience compilation piece from the 2016 Honda NHL All-Star weekend. This video is awesome because it also takes you to the private place where you could not enter such as player’s locker room. You can only experience it in this 360  tour video!

Channel :NHL 

Watch on WAVRP: 

http://wavrp.com/

WAVRP is a curation service which introduces a selected VR video everyday!