JET BI provides turn-key AR/VR/MR solutions to fit your business needs. We help corporate visionaries to promote advanced technologies and set the enterprises at a new level of efficiency. That’s why we are constantly exploring the industry and share the most recent examples of how immersive technologies are changing the present agenda and influence the future. We can't but mention the introduction of Oculus Quest 2 at the Facebook Connect event that is radically changing the VR industry. The company manages to deliver a lighter, more powerful HMD with a better display. Get more information on Elon Musk’s startup Neuralink, a digital link between brains and computers, that is going to revolutionize the way we communicate, restore our memories, perceive the world, so many tech gurus see this as a new step forward for virtual reality. Plus, we analyze established brands and the way they explore immersive technologies. Get the most recent examples of how Skoda, Japan’s First Airlines, Lenovo, Amazon are penetrating virtual reality. Dive in.
Oculus Quest 2
The biggest VR/AR event joining the entire community at Facebook Connect took place a few days ago. The social media giant continues to grow the VR community by improving the Quest platform with excellent hardware, software, and content. Mark Zuckerberg introduced a new Oculus Quest 2, a new milestone in VR that is more powerful with the Qualcomm XR2 processor, with a better display of 50% more pixels than in the previous Quest generation and lighter. Touch controllers are more ergonomic with optimized haptics. The hardware is going to assist in expanding digital social presence in life and in different workplaces. The major benefit VR users are going to enjoy while entertaining and working in VR is the shared sense of space. Remote workers will get the opportunity to work from anywhere without the feeling of separation from the work environment. So, Oculus Quest 2 provides the possibility to design the work station with infinite screen space and the ability to teleport around meetings and teams. Pre-order is available now, while shipping is scheduled on October, 13.
Neuralink brain implant can simulate an alternate reality and opens a lot of opportunities for VR
Elon Musk is in space exploration, renewable energy, electric vehicle manufacturing. This time his catchy, edgy, and disruptive startup Neuralink is going to change the field of brain-computer interfaces (BCIs) and make neural implants usage common.
Neuralink is a device surgically implanted into the skull that digitally connects brains and computers. Micron-scale threads are inserted into the brain, penetrating its outer space and detecting an electrical impulse from the nerve cells that shows the brain is at work. In the long run, these threads have to communicate back, with computer-generated signals of their own.
Neuralink is a medical startup focusing on helping people with spinal cord injuries or congenital defects. But Musk’s vision is more disruptive as it intends to better interpret human intent, and let users control the digital world with thought alone. Other options of this technology include conceptual telepathy, where two people can communicate electronically by thinking at each other instead of speaking or writing; backup and restore memories with the possibility to download then in a new body or into a robot body. These intentions awe the public while setting a number of concerns. What is crucial is that Neuralink is designed to be a consumer-grade product while at the same time is going to normalize intrusive brain implants.
Merging Oculus accounts into Facebook accounts
If you buy a new Oculus in October 2020, you have to sign in to your headset with a Facebook account. If you’ve already had an Oculus account, you can use it until the end of 2022, after which you’ll be required to use a Facebook account. The social networking company states it is focused on assisting VR users to find their friends in immersive environments, analyze how they use their HMDs, and suggest related to the applications and games of your used products. All VR information from the device assists in enhancing the VR experience while guaranteeing safety and consistency. So, the existing Oculus Code of Conduct will be shifted to the Facebook Community Standards as it allows holding people accountable for their actions in VR and create a more attractive environment across Facebook platforms.
Indulge your traveling itch
We used to travel a lot, visit other countries and dive into different cultures before the COVID-19 pandemic. We’re not that mobile anymore. In this case, the virtual reality technology, coupled with an elaborate business idea comes to those who want to indulge their traveling itch. Japan’s First Airlines allows you to get the remote traveling experience with the first-class treatment while taking a virtual trip to another part of the world without leaving the country you’re now in. All you have to do is to visit their first virtual aviation facility and immerse yourself in the atmosphere of flight travel. Boarding passes, the settings looking like the inside of a plane, flight attendants with the safety procedures demonstrations, four-course meal of your destination country replicate the experience of a real commercial flight. VR plays an essential role in creating a feeling of visiting a country. During the flight, you are encouraged to take a VR tour around various destinations and cultures. The advanced technology brings a sense of accomplishment to the whole experience. No wonder Japan’s First Airlines reports a 50% increase in ticket sales of this service.
Skoda Auto Time Machine
Many real-life brands choose to be present in immersive environments. Skoda automobile manufacturer introduces its futuristic electromobile Vision iV as a final destination of a VR game on the major milestones of the major automotive industry progress. You start the immersive experience with an old school veteran Laurin Klement Voiturette made in 1905 that leads you through a playful driving adventure. The most stunning idea is that VR users do not only play and compete with each other via the global leaderboard but process a story! 3D file of a steering wheel allows printing it, then the user has to click Oculus controllers into it, and race with the custom-designed accessory for this game.
AR View from Amazon
Virtual staging services are not a novelty. Services like Rooomy allow visualizing, designing, and shopping for the perfect room applying immersive technologies. This time Amazon connects the home essentials category with its consumers’ smartphones. The result is you can preview products in your room virtually and stay confident that it fits your style and environment. The AR users are welcomed to choose from thousands of techniques to create their home designs. The product is sized and rendered to scale. So if you select a sofa, you’ll see how big it is to place it in your home and how it works.
Video content and disinformation. You can encounter fakes everywhere, the Internet, VR
Microsoft has already started a war with deepfakes, digitally altered videos in which the face of an individual is replaced with that of another. The company has developed a tool to help to decipher what is true and accurate in the content that we consume from the Internet in real-time. Digital manipulations are hard to distinguish from real life, but the scan for minor invisible imperfections, including subtle fading and grey-scale elements, detect crafted videos. Deepfake technology helps audiences to rely on trusted news sources and stay vigilant with what they get from the Internet.
No more new Oculuses for Germany for a while
Facebook temporarily stops sales of Oculus products due to pending discussions with German regulators to ensure they comply with the local laws. Existing account holders in this country may continue to use their hardware. German distributors may sell the rest of Oculus inventory, but the new deliveries of the headsets are not expected, and newly imported HMDS might not work correctly. The main reason for this halt is Germany insists on a ‘no coupling’ policy. The situation, when a new Oculus user is soon required to connect with a Facebook account, contradicts the ‘no coupling’ principle.
Lenovo VR Classroom 2 updates in August 2020
Lenovo upgrades its VR education platform designed for middle schools and high schools connecting Lenovo VR Classroom 2 hardware with Think Reality, an AR/VR enterprise software platform. Distance learning software becomes essential in a post-COVID-19 world. Immersive education allows engaging students into subjects and scenarios that are beyond paper or screens.
Lenovo VR Classroom 2 is a combination of hardware, content, device management, and support. With this solution, it is possible to unite students and teachers as well as each other. As the immersive education platform deals with children, the updates concern cybersecurity and enhance student safety. The company designs the hardware with a focus on its weight and the possibility of easy-to-clean. HMDs are light and composed of sanitizable parts.
Lenovo equips its hardware with pre-installed apps:
Veative Limited with science, mathematics, and tour modules;
Victar VR is the VR Careers Training and Apprenticeship robot enhancing careers guidance programs;
Wild Immersion videos with VR tours to animals' natural habitat.
More and more companies are using VR in their corporate training as the immersive technology has already proved better results in measurably higher retention rates and performance gains compared to the traditional one. Educational VR is another step in further penetration of virtual reality technologies into our lives with the focus on the young generation and promoting to work with 3D data more efficiently.
