Virtual Reality – Startup Weekly

Walmart is bringing VR instruction to all of its U.S. training centers

Posted on October 2, 2017September 27, 2017 by definitelyray

by Lucas Matney

VR instruction will be used at each of the retailer’s 200 “Walmart Academy” training centers in the U.S. by the end of the year, helping educate the estimated 150,000 employees that will go through the program each year. Each location will have an Oculus Rift headset and gaming PC showcasing a collection of VR training content.

The virtual reality instruction Walmart will be using is entirely 360-degree video-based and will include interactive on-screen cues asking trainees to make decisions after encountering various situations. These scenarios may be related to customer service, management or seasonal situations like encountering the Black Friday rush in VR.

With Rebrand, Upskill Sees Bright Future in Wearable Devices

Posted on September 27, 2017September 27, 2017 by definitelyray

by Sam Sabin

Now called Upskill, the wearable software company is making a bet on one of its core tenets: “upskilling,” or retraining, manufacturing workers.

Upskill CEO and founder Brian Ballard joined the DC Inno team on the latest The Beat Podcastto talk about the transition from APX Labs to Upskill and where he sees the future of smart wearable devices heading (hint: not to consumers).

Ballard said he and the team had the idea to rebrand a couple of years ago, but the startup had just started gaining traction with clients and they had only been around long enough to raise its Series A round. So the idea was put on hold—until mid-January.

This billion-dollar startup wants to capture your emotions in virtual reality

Posted on September 11, 2017 by definitelyray

by Lucas Matney

Social VR has the potential to shift the bounds of human communication, it’s part of the reason why Facebook has invested billions in the technology.

One of the keys to having positive VR interactions will be having the ability to interpret the emotions of the people you’re chatting with. Today, MindMaze is showing off the MASK, a device that reads the emotions on your face while you’re in VR.

I had a chance to meet with MindMaze CEO Tej Tadi and demo the emotion-tracking product. After strapping the MASK-equipped headset on, I was able to see an onscreen avatar mimic my emotions with startling speed.

What really makes this product stand out is the genius form factor: electrodes are outfitted into the foam liner face pad that is already pressed up against your face when you’re securing your headset. These electrodes get a sense of your facial muscles and can even predict what your emotions will be milliseconds before you fully complete it.

The device senses a limited range of emotions at the moment including smiling, frowning, winking, smirking and raising your eyebrows but there’s so much you can convey in a social VR setting once you unlock body language. Once major headset manufacturers unlock eye-tracking technologies the combination will make social VR experiences that much richer.

Guest Post: Startup Simulanis uses augmented and virtual reality to skill professionals

Posted on September 4, 2017September 4, 2017 by definitelyray

The widening gap between the skills required by businesses and the know-how of a large number of engineering students got Raman Talwar started on his entrepreneurial journey.

With an aim to help bridge the skills gap, through the aid of advanced technology, this 28-year-old engineering graduate founded Simulanis in November 2013.

“The foremost inspiration to start this company was my passion for building computer-aided simulation models that mimic real-life processes, followed by the desire to solve the challenging problem of the high unskilled population in our country,” says Talwar, Founder and CEO, Simulanis.

Coresights // PlayLabs

Posted on August 28, 2017August 28, 2017 by definitelyray

Coresights provides evidence-based training to improve wellness and enhance resilience. The platform combines VR and AR technologies with clinical-grade wearables to make training engaging and capture real-time data.

Contact Information:

MIT PlayLabs

Info@playlabs.tv

Guest Post: “Now There’s a Nausea Dial for Virtual Reality”

Posted on August 28, 2017 by definitelyray

by Rachel Metz

Some people have no problem flipping and flying in virtual reality; others find this kind of activity literally sickening.

The problem stems from a disconnect between your eyes and your inner ear: what you see doesn’t always match up to what you’re feeling when you wander around a virtual environment with a headset on. It doesn’t bother everyone, but it remains one of VR’s biggest challenges to becoming a mainstream technology.

Companies and researchers have been exploring a slew of potential solutions, from beefing up the resolution of the displays in headsets to limiting your field of view when there’s a lot of motion-related activity going on in the virtual world. And a very young startup called VRemedy Labs is working on an interesting fix of its own: a sort of software-based dial that you can turn up or down to raise or decrease the excitement level—and, it hopes, the resulting nausea—within VR games.