And Virtual Reality (Vr) Startups to Detect Business Opportunities Around These Technologies
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EXPLORING AND UNDERSTAND THE ECOSYSTEM OF AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) AND VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) STARTUPS TO DETECT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AROUND THESE TECHNOLOGIES Varun Rajpurohit | December 2016 | Carnegie Mellon University – Silicon Valley | 49-790 Independent Study 49-790 Independent Study Independent Study on EXPLORING AND UNDERSTAND THE ECOSYSTEM OF AUGMENTED REALITY (AR) AND VIRTUAL REALITY (VR) STARTUPS TO DETECT BUSINESS OPPORTUNITIES AROUND THESE TECHNOLOGIES Research on current technologies used for VR and AR Introduction To better understand the technologies used for Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. Currently there are three high level calcifications in this field, namely: 1. Virtual Reality: is a three-dimensional, computer generated environment which can be explored and interacted with by a person. [1] 2. Augmented Reality: is the integration of digital information with the user's environment in real time. Augmented reality uses the existing environment and overlays new information on top of it. [2] 3. Mixed Reality: Mixed reality is distinct from augmented reality because the graphics in mixed reality are integrated with the viewer's environment. A virtual ball introduced into the real world must exhibit appropriate physics. If thrown against a real cushion, it will have bounce in a way that makes sense and is different than if it had been thrown against a stone wall. [3] Stack to build these applications Screen with a Head Mounted Peripheral Smartphones Hardware Layer Camera Displays (HMD) Devices 3D Design Engines 3D content APIs Software Layer Modeling Software Life object capturing software When building applications for VR/AR the process followed is the same as above. You decide which tools and techniques to use to capture the reality, using cameras like the GoPro Odyssey or you want to model computer generated graphics. Once this is designed the content is pushed to the real-time engines to convert the content into something that can be viewed in VR/AR. This content is then coupled with the appropriate hardware component which one wants to use to showcase the data. 1 | Page By Varun Rajpurohit | Under the aegis of Professor Vivek Wadhwa 49-790 Independent Study Technologies used currently Software used based on types of Application Application Description Software Technologies being used Reality 3D viewers Having users bring digital Augment content to the real world. Wikitude Blippar e.g. Bringing actual size digital Magic Leap furniture in your house to Vuforia understand how it will look. Mataio Reality browsers Provide contextual information Awe.js with a smart layer on top of the Mixare image that you are seeing. ARBrowser by AR Lab argon.js e.g. While viewing a monument, there is an over lay of information about the same. Gaming Creating immersive gamming Unreal Engine experiences using the Unity 3D surroundings of the user. SARI AR SDK Vuforia e.g. Pokemon Go Hardware used based on types of devices Device Description Hardware Technologies being used Mobile Devices Using smartphones and tablets LG 360 VR for AR/VR Google Cardboard Samsung Gear VR PC and connected TV players Using a camera connected to a Kinect screen to give a rich experience PS Camera Head Mounted Displays Using HMD with sensors to Oculus Rift track and project an immersive HTC Vive experience for the user Microsoft Hololens Google Glass 2 | Page By Varun Rajpurohit | Under the aegis of Professor Vivek Wadhwa 49-790 Independent Study Other Technologies being used [4] Real-time engines used Modelling Software Used • Unreal Engine • Blender • Unity 3D • Sculptris • Cryengine • Sketchup Make • Lumberyard • Wings 3d • Equinox 3d • Daz studio • 3D crafter Limitations of the current technologies of VR and AR 3 | Page By Varun Rajpurohit | Under the aegis of Professor Vivek Wadhwa 49-790 Independent Study When thinking of limitations in the field of virtual reality and augmented reality we can categories the findings into three buckets namely: 1. Limitation on content capturing 2. Content rendering/Displaying of Content 3. Environmental Limitations The limitations are as follows: • The technologies used to integration AR images on reality are not as advanced yet. Most of the technologies used are projecting a 3D like image on a glass surface that interfaces the user and the real world. This technology is unable to provide appropriate depth to the user and the images projected don’t feel as immersive as they should. This is also referred to as the vergence - accommodation Conflict [5]. Although there are talks that Magic Leap has found a breakthrough in this problem, according to the analysis of the video they have generated, the resolution of their projections are not as crisp and clear as they should be. The images are blurry. [6] Figure 1: Magic Leap Resolution Analysis [2] • Effective and real-time 3D mapping of the surrounding is not as accurate as it can be, currently the technologies produce a 5frame per second rendering. This does not create a very accurate image of the surrounding that is desired for a better Augmented Reality experience. • All the Head mounted displays, except Microsoft’s HoloLens, are all tethered i.e. connected to an external device whose processing power they use. This limits the freedom of movement for the user. • Head mounted displays primarily, VR headsets cause users to feel nausea in general referred to as Virtual reality sickness [7]. This limits the adoption of such devices. • When interacting with the virtual world through VR or AR, virtual worlds have not yet been able to create a reality like feeling among users interacting with it. User can’t feel the texture of the surface in the virtual world. • VR and AR both require a lot of data communication back and forth to work effectively. This will create an additional burden on the internet infrastructure. The current infrastructure cannot support the applications of AR and VR [8]. Hence, the internet infrastructure will be a limitation. • Privacy concern of the people, majorly due to the amount of personal information that AR and VR will have access to is also a limitation to its adoption. Limitations regarding GPRS, information overload 4 | Page By Varun Rajpurohit | Under the aegis of Professor Vivek Wadhwa 49-790 Independent Study and privacy. With privacy, there is a danger of someone having access to sensitive or private information about another person and without their consent. • When interacting with a virtual object overlaid in the real world, we have not yet reached a point where the physics of the real world would apply to the virtual object. Making it hard to have an interactive mixed reality experience. • VR and AR need a lot of commuting power to work on and hence require an independent high end system running the VR or AR application. This is a limitation for the technology currently. We need to think of a way to make this fit in the head mounted displays and bring the cost down. The independent system for processing increases the cost of a VR or AR experience. • The head mounted displays, despite no processing power are very bulky and cannot be worn for longer periods of time without a neck sprain. • The VR and AR devices are a priced high currently which act as a hindrance to the adoption of the technology. • The real-time processing of the VR and AR applications are not robust yet. There is a general lag in the interactions. • Quality of display required to achieve realism is a 4K display for each eye and it has not yet been possible technologically to do the same. List of Startups in the VR and AR space Sr. Name About Application AR/VR URL Location No. Area 1 DeepStream Virtual Reality for healthcare and VR pain relief Health Care VR http://ww Seattle, VR w.deepstr WA, eamvr.co USA m/ 2 Fove A virtual reality headset with built-in eye tracking and VR Headset VR https://w Japan use that for interacting | To empower the game creator ww.getfov and user to express themselves naturally and easily in a e.com/ virtual world. 3 Triggar A 360-degree camera to capture content and they Camera VR/AR http://trig Australi create mobile apps for AR/VR gar.com.a a u/ 4 Reload An independent game development studio Games VR http://ww Los Studios w.roqovan Angeles, .com/ CA, USA 5 Emergent Building a platform where everyone can craft & share Social VR VR http://ww San VR their VR experiences w.emerge Francisc ntvr.com/ o, CA 6 Psious Immersion therapy for curing fears Health Care VR https://w Spain ww.psious. com/ 5 | Page By Varun Rajpurohit | Under the aegis of Professor Vivek Wadhwa 49-790 Independent Study 7 SDK Lab Africa's leader in Augmented Reality, Eye/Facial VR/AR http://sdkl South tracking, Facial Recognition and Virtual Reality. ab.com/ Africa 8 Emblematic Journalism that combines traditional reporting with Journalism VR https://em Santa Group emerging virtual reality technology to put the audience blematicgr Monica, inside the story. oup.squar CA, USA espace.co m/ 9 Innerspace The pioneering studio is dedicated to producing high VR http://ww Paris, VR quality interactive content exclusively for VR. w.innerspa France cevr.com/ #home2 10 Solirax A virtual reality software company. They work to Entertainmen VR http://solir Czech enable a desirable future with state of the art t ax.com/ Republic entertainment, educational and professional immersive experiences at your fingertips. 11 Thotwise Game Studio Games VR http://tot San Studios wisestudio Francisc s.com/ o, CA 12 Discovr Labs Interactive Learning Education VR http://disc Toronto, ovrlearnin ON g.com/ 13 Magic Leap Magic Leap is a proprietary wearable technology that Headsets AR http://mag Florida, enables users to interact with digital devices in a icleap.com USA completely visually cinematic way.