Research VR Podcast - The Science & Design of Virtual Reality

In this final episode of Research VR, Casey Sapp, the CEO of VRTUL, an high-end underwater panoramic filming company, joins Azad to talk about the difficulties of creating VR experiences deep in the ocean.

Jeff Powers, Cofounder of Occipital and Arcturus Industries joins Azad to discuss active depth cameras, Apple's LiDAR, and his vision of the future of consumer volumetric reconstructions. Topics discussed: - The market for depth cameras in 2014 for consumers, developers. - Why they focused on mobile-first with the Structure sensor. - Google's Tango project not being adopted. - Building a developer friendly ecosystem for 3rd party companies. - A general Perceptual layer in software that can take any input. - The economies of scale with new and niche hardware. - Did Tesla pick the right choice with cameras vs LIDAR? - Building the Room View 3D with Valve - Interesting applications of the Index's dual cameras. - VR eating up AR's use cases in the short term.

Petr Legkov, Krzysztof Izdebski, and Azad Balabanian, the three cofounders of the podcast come back together to discuss the last four years of VR, the podcast, and their lives. Topics discussed: - Why/how the podcast started - revisiting old arguments - retrospection on VR industry over 4 years Retrospective on: - locomotion theories - roomscale gaming not being the goal - best value VR headset - European tech glass ceiling - focusing on learning

Jessica Outlaw, a culture & behavior researcher and Rebecca Hyman, a mental health therapist to discuss human culture in-and-out of VR, VR marketing demographics, as well as representation in media. Topics discussed: - Building non-violent cultures in VR - VR's target demographics and identities - The unreleased Intel VR HMD's marketing campaign - The border between messing-around vs griefing/harassment - Reddit's subreddit self moderation framework - The basics of culture in a community

Cofounder and CEO of Sketchfab, Alban Denoyel joins Azad to talk about all things 3D on the web. Topics discussed: - Why sketchfab was created - Why the large tech companies can't compete against Sketchfab's community - The importance of having downloading/remixing functionality - Why it’s difficult to be build both a community and a store - What’s the point of 3D reality capture?

Google Earth, Hololens, and Disney VR pioneer Avi Bar-Zeev joins Azad to share his perspective of the 3D/VR industry over the last few decades and make predictions of the near future.

Jesslyn Tannady joins us to talk about CTRL-Labs's advancements in BCI's, finger tracking, and input methods for games and VR/AR. Topics discussed: - CTRL-Kit, finger tracking and intent tracking - Interesting use cases: - Controlling robots in an intuitive way with intent - Typing for VR/AR - using it as a game controller - thoughts on Neuralink

Shawn Whiting, the Community Designer at Against Gravity joins Petr and Azad to discuss the origins and the future of one of the most popular games in VR: Rec Room.

Leap Motion's open source Project North Star has been fascinating VR/AR enthusiasts for the last year, but due to the scarcity of sourcing the components, finding a fully built kit is quite rare. Noah Zerkin, based out of Shenzhen, China has been focusing on fabricating and building the necessary components to build kits. He joins the podcast to chat about the headset, its advantages, and the challenges of what goes into building one. Video podcast: https://youtu.be/G010rKFJMyY recorded in Feb 2019

The CEO and CTO of LIV, Dr. Doom and Ruu join us to talk about the past, present, and future of green screen Mixed Reality and livestreaming VR games. Topics discussed: - Origins of green screen Mixed Reality - how did it start? - How is Mixed Reality being today and by whom? - Discord and the importance of building a community for a product - GameChanger API : Adding audience interactivity into a streamer's game - Vtubers and avatar copyright laws - The state of VR streaming on Twitch

Tom Emrich, Investor from Super Ventures joins Az to talk about the prevailing trends of AR in 2019. Topics discussed: - Focals by North Smartglasses - XR vs. Spatial Computing - cultural implications of all-day AR glasses - AR Cloud is to AR as the Browser/Search Engines are for the early web - visual personifications of AI assistants in AR (Siri, Alexa) - AR for the world vs AR for your face - Facebook Portal - AR in cars (self driving or not) - Current state of AR investments - How to think about 5G from an AR perspective Sponsored by HaptX, the leading solution for Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality.

StoryUp XR CEO and Chief Storyteller Sarah Hill and Chief Science Officer Dr Jeff Tarrant join us to talk about Healium, an immersive biofeedback system to regulate anxiety. Topics discussed: - VR+EEG's - Measuring states of consciousness - stress management in the workplace Sponsored by HaptX, the leading solution for Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality.

CEO of vrgineers, Marek Polčák joins Petr to discuss their latest VR HMD, the XTAL high resolution, enterprise targeted headset. Topics discussed: - creating custom lenses for ideal optics - limits of display port for high resolution and high refresh rate video transfer - measuring Cognitive Load

David Dicko, Co-Founder and CEO of Skylights joins us to talk about VR as an in-flight entertainment (IFE) option for premium international flights. We talk about the current solutions to IFE, the hardware challenges, as well as the business of a being a B2B2C company. Topics discussed: - Challenges of cutting weight and building HMD hardware - How airlines make decisions about in-flight entertainment - 90/10 passive vs active IFE media consumption by passengers - Current IFE solutions and their costs Sponsored by HaptX, the leading solution for Haptic Feedback in Virtual Reality.

Ben Lang, Co-Founder and executive editor of Road to VR joins us to talk about the early days of the VR industry, the founding of his publication, the what's right around the corner in the industry. Topics discussed: - Oculus Quest's target audience and place in current HMD landscape - Minimum spec requirements for PC VR gen 2.0 - Is "perfect Virtual Reality" the bar we need to reach? - Will Valve ever enter the all-in-one VR space? - Magic Leap's target audience

Paul Reynolds, CEO and Co-Founder of Torch 3D, joins us to talk about their design tool called Torch, built to bridge the knowledge gap for designers with web/mobile backgrounds, and letting them dive into the world of Spatial Computing Topics discussed: - Current state of iterative design (or lack their of) in VR/AR - AR input methods, which to focus on right now, and what to plan for - The importance of posting examples and use cases of what can be done with AR

Jake Rubin, the CEO and cofounder of HaptX joins us to talk about the benefits and challenges of Haptic Feedback in VR. Topics discussed: - What are the different modalities of touch? - What are the different ways of visual stimulus can trick your brain into feeling something different? - Surviving in today's VR market and industry - Using VR to control 100's of robots - How far are we from full body VR suits?

Az and Petr go deep into discussing the Magic Leap One's display technology, what we were expecting, what was being worked on, and what was finally delivered. Topics discussed: - What is vergence, accomodation, lightfield displays? - How does Magic Leap's display work? - Why is the near clipping plane at 37 cm?

Firefighter training in VR using Photogrammetry with Alex Harvey, Creative Director of Rivr. Topics: - Cheaper, repeatable, and more robust training scanrios for firefighting in VR - Animating scanned Firefighters using Mocap - AR headsets for live firefighting situations

Lee Vermeulen, creator of ModBox VR joins Petr and Az to talk about prototyping AR using VR today. Topics discussed: - What does VR/AR enable in an IOT equipped house? ie, controlling lights from within VR. - Mixed Reality Meshing using Stereolabs Zed cam - IRL Monitors interacting with spatial computing apps - Photogrammetry scanning using Arkit

Jessica Zeta and David Farrell from Oculus Medium join us to talk about their latest Medium 2.0 update. Topics discussed: - Creating a multi-hour comfortable creative tool - fitting into professional pipelines and workflows - How the new Move Tool works

Alexander Porter joins us to talk about DepthKit, a Volumetric Video Capture tools and Scatter, the company he cofounded. Topics discussed: - Starting from building an open sourced volumetric video creation tool - Creating mobile Volcap tools for non engineers with small budgets - How do IR Depth Cams work? Key takeaways: - The need for Volumetric live action capture is on the rise (because of new display tech; ie VR, AR, holographic displays) - New Depth cameras are on the rise once again - Big need for software that lets filmmakers use these sensors to make film and art without having a CS degree

VR Investor and developer Tipatat Chennavasin joins us to talk about how far we've come over the past 2.5 years of consumer VR. Topics discussed: - Jumping from development to venture capital - Which businesses _need_ VC investment, and which don't - How media hype overvalued VR companies Key takeaways: - Right now is the BEST time to be investing and developing in VR, with no real AAA competition, no overinflated hype, with a growing and hungry for content userbase. - Plenty of business models than don't need venture capital to be successful - You're better off prototyping AR apps in VR than on mobile AR today

Nanome CEO joins Az and Petr to talk about Chemistry and Math education and drug designs in VR. Topics discussed: - 3d Math visualizations in VR - 3d Chemistry education in VR - Protein designs on the blockchain recorded: July 2018

Wrap-up for all the new hardware and films shown at SIGGRAPH. Topics discussed: - Valve's Knuckles 2.0 controllers impressions - Star VR One Impressions - Extra wide FOV - MPC's Virtual Production System for VFX Films - Best VR Films: Arden's Wake & Tales of Wedding Rings

Lucas Rizzotto joins us to talk about "Where Thoughts Go: Prologue" as an anonymous way of sharing and listening to people's intimate thoughts and emotions in VR. Topics discussed: - BoostVC and why living with other founders is helpful for young startups - Social Networks with or without like/comment response systems - Why anonymity is important - How to handle bad behavior, trolls, and 4chan raids

Analyst Anshel Sag joins Az to talk about the derivative nature of tech industries, what technologies VR/AR share with other sub-industries, and what innovations will prove to be important moving forward. Topics Discussed: - VR being derivative of Phones, Drones - 60ghz wifi routers of the future

Deb Mayers, a Researcher and Graduate student of Ancient Cultures and Computer Science joins us to talk about History, technology, and VR. Topics Discussed: - Documentation vs Preservation of History - Technology's role in the interpretation of History - Cultures as dynamic entities Apologies for the audio quality for this episode. Sometimes impossible for windows to pick the right mic to record from.

Designer/Developer Zach Kinstner joins the podcast to talk about designing his VR music creation tool, Exa: Infinite Instrument. Topics: - designing Hover UI for hands with Leap Motion - building better musical instruments in VR - buttons that can be pushed from behind (for keyboards and such)

Clorama Dorvilias, CEO and Cofounder of Debias joins the podcast to talk about her unconscious bias educational tool for teachers. Topics discussed: - Implicit Association Test - Biases in Education - Research around lowering Implicit Bias Scores recorded: May 2018

OTOY's Head of Blockchain Kalin Stoyanchev joins the podcast to talk about how they plan to crowdsource people's dormant GPU's, and use them to complete rendering jobs (in exchange for some crypto). Is this the only VR + Crypto idea that actually makes sense? Topics discussed: - Crowdsourced rendering - Is decentralization that important? - How does OTOY's current centralized rendering system work? recorded: May 2018

Colin Northway and Robin Stethem talk about their unreleased VR Art Gallery called the Museum of Other Realities. Topics discussed: - removing "elitism” from Art & museums - Art pieces turning into hangout spots - Architecture generated out of noise - Digital art’s scarcity/value problem - Using Etherium as a way to tie value to digital art recorded: May 2018

Stefano Baldassi, the Senior Dir. of Analytics & Neuroscience at Meta joins Az and Petr to talk about how his background in Perception, sports, and Neuroscience research guides his department's decisions in building an optimal fitting and functioning Augmented Reality headset.

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've probably heard of Beat Saber launching on Steam and Oculus Home. Lead developer Jan “Split” Ilavsky joins Az and Petr to discuss theories as to WHY Beat Saber feels so good, and what were the factors that have made it so successful.

Nick Lievendag from 3D Scan Expert joins Az and Petr to talk about all things Photogrammetry, 3D Scanning, and the future of 3D reality capture.

Aldis Sipolins, Head of Virtual Reality & Game Design at IBM joins Az and Petr to talk about Neuroscience, Brain training games, biofeedback, the potential of eye tracking and BCI's.

Teslasuit CEO Dimitri Mikhalchuk joins Petr to talk about the science behind how their Full Body Haptic VR suit works. Thank you Philip Wogart from the VRARA Hamburg Chapter for making this episode happen!

Designers Martin Schubert and Barrett Fox join the Podcast to talk about their biweekly Design Sprints at Leap Motion, working on one of the most important aspects of VR and AR. Apologies in advance for the non-ideal audio quality for this episode.

Creating beautiful, human-like animations in 2D apps has always had a STEEP learning curve. Today, we talk to NVRMIND's cofounders Milan and Dario about AnimVR: a tool to create animations completely with your hands.

Patreon: ResearchVR Podcast + Everyday a Scan](https://www.patreon.com/wizardofaz)

Filmmaker Asad J Malik, Founder of 1RIC join Az and Petr to talk about his latest film, Terminal 3, debuting at the 2018 Tribeca Film Festival. He goes into depth talking about "Context being key" for AR storytelling, VR films in film festivals, and simulation/simulacra theories.

Az and Petr discuss the new VR and AR hardware they saw at GDC and IEEE VR, including Varjo, Magic Leap, ODG AR glasses, Beat Saber, and Electronauts!

UploadVR Editor Ian Hamilton joins Az and Petr to talk about early VR stories, shares his impressions of the all-in-one headsets like Oculus Santa Cruz, and discusses the new Magic Leap investment and the potential issues they're facing. Our main topic of the week was Stanford professor Jeremy Bailenson's article about the potential of VR being used by perpetrators of mass shootings.

Az talks to the expert Audio Engineers and Researchers Sally Kellaway and Kaushik Sunder on what the benefits of 3D audio are, where they make the most impact in VR/AR, and what improvements need to be made in the industry moving forward.

Behavioral Scientist Jessica Outlaw is an outspoken Social Scientist in the field of VR User Experience Design. She recently published an Inductive Qualitative study with Beth Duckles, PhD about the experiences of "Millennial, tech-savvy women" in Social VR applications (Altspace, High Fidelity, Facebook Spaces, etc). In this episode, we talk embodied cognition, implicit biases, gender differences in social behavior and navigation in an unfamiliar environment, as well as the questions the paper raises up about inclusivity and approachability in design.

HOT NEWS OFF THE PRESS. EXTRA EXTRA Az talks about his impressions of the Vive Pro, looking at high resolution photogrammetry with supersampling. Petr shares his thoughts on the Meta 2 devkit as an enterprise developer, and the need to have to sell his colleagues on the idea of AR.

Az is joined by Vasanth Mohan and Hassan Karaouni, founders of the popular educational Youtube channel, FusedVR. We discuss the Logitech VR keyboard, OpenXR initiatives, problems with WebVR, as well as learning how to be a VR developer! Recorded: Nov, 2017

Az and Petr are joined by Amy Lynn and Andrew Abedian from Survios to talk about their upcoming new game: Sprint Vector, a game ALL about running in VR. a Movement and locomotion have always been a big topic of debate in VR, especially since many people are prone to motion sickness when the visuals don't match the state of their bodies, so in this episode, we dive into HOW Survios has managed to achieve what was once thought to be sacrilege: SPRINTING IN VR.

DISCORD CHANNEL: https://discord.gg/keQgUq Short update from Petr and Az talking about 2018 plans

Az is joined this week with cofounders Craig Douglass and Tom Buchanan to talk about the challenges behind simulating the high amount of degrees of freedom of hands, simulating the sense of touch, and creating finger push-back haptics. Contact CI: https://contactci.co/ Craig Douglass: https://twitter.com/C_F_Douglass Tom Buchanan: https://twitter.com/tfbuchanan4?lang=en

Petr and Az are joined by CEO and Cofounder of SculptrVR Nathan Rowe to talk at length about their BIGGEST update: 'Smooth' sculpting. We talk about the Oculus Santa Cruz II, Valve endorsing low-persistence LCD displays, the Acer MR Headset Review, and Adobe Premiere Pro's latest VR editing update. As for the main story, Nathan explains SculptrVR insane performances challenges of creating a world building tool with ability to scale the world by 10,000x! Download SculptrVR on Steam: http://store.steampowered.com/app/418520/SculptrVR/