An [International] Update!

March has been filled with all sorts of madness for me – after a crazy fun week at GDC, I’ve been spending a lot of time working on a few of my side projects (some are starting to share up into actual experiences, I’m happy to say!) and writing conference proposals. But the most exciting news of the month: I have officially been accepted as a speaker at JSConf Budapest this May, where I’ll be talking about WebVR and JavaScript’s role in virtual & augmented reality!

My excitement level:

Is 2015 the year of Virtual Reality? Experts suggest that VR will be a 5.2B industry within the next 2 years – but right now, the majority of VR development tools require heavy game engines and specialized desktops.

In this talk, we’ll discuss the emerging support from the VR and web communities for WebVR, a new API emerging to support writing VR-enabled websites using HTML, CSS, and JavaScript. We’ll be taking a look at existing applications for virtual reality on the web, the benefits of WebVR, and how to get started with the available tools and libraries for browser-based virtual reality written in JavaScript.

If you are interested in attending JSConf Budapest, you can buy tickets here! When work has you traveling to amazing new places, talking about the things that you love – that’s the best place to be.

Fove Eye Tracking VR Headset – Hands On!

This week at GDC, virtual reality was on the forefront of everyone’s minds as SVVR and SFVR veterans took to the Expo floor and companies large and small began showcasing their forays into the VR and AR space. The promising demos of the week, though, weren’t limited to HTC and Valve with their Vive headset, despite many claims that it’s the ‘Oculus Killer’ we’ve all been waiting for – for me, the most impressive demo was Fove, a hardware headset that has managed to capture everything that we know about gaze-tracking input for virtual worlds in a sleek, Oculus-styled headset.

Fove Headset, fove-inc.com

Proof of Concept: TedVR

As part of my explorations on VR trends, I put together a proof of concept for viewing Ted Talks in VR and how current web experiences will transfer into the new medium that virtual reality brings. I’ve affectionately been referring to the project as Ted Extended, but as a full disclaimer, this is a project I’ve done unaffiliated from Ted.

Experiments in WebVR – Part 2

Back in January, I wrote about my first attempt at using the new WebVR “standards” (I’ll get more into this later) to make a mini JavaScript application that uses Three.js and a Three VR Renderer from wwwtyro. In this post, I’ll walk through the steps that I followed to get a demo up and running using Tyro’s instructions – if you’ve got Firefox Nightly or a vr-enabled build of Chromium installed on your desktop, you can check out the demo at http://webvrdemo.azurewebsites.net, but most browsers will render a blank page until I get some better browser detection going.

Poor quality is from gif conversion, not the actual rendering

Explorations in Potential Virtual Reality Trends

We are finally ready for virtual reality. The smartphone industry and availability of the internet has provided the world with pocket computers and has created an “always on, always connected” mentality that will bridge the gap between physical and virtual environments. Virtual reality is coming (arguably, to some circles, is already here) – but it’s the kind of technology that many people haven’t been able to try using, and as such, there’s a clean slate when it comes to creating new experiences for people to share socially in virtual spaces. People have different ideas about how they’d like to use virtual reality and how it could improve their current experiences. If we look at 2014 mobile application usage trends, social sharing is king: users like applications that enable them to connect with other people.

Experiments in WebVR – Part 1

Last week on Twitter, I mentioned that I would be working on a virtual reality project for a team hackathon at work – the goal of the two day event was to just have fun, learn some new things, and take time to work on projects outside of our day-to-day jobs. Although the hackathon itself turned out to be small and few people actually participated, I got down and dirty with WebVR and got to try out some really interesting things that I had wanted to get proof-of-concepts for.

Hackathon desk – a bit messier than normal, but worth it!

Announcing Windows Holographic and Microsoft HoloLens

Today at the Windows 10 Preview event, Microsoft officially announced their stake in the VR/AR game with Windows Holographic and Microsoft HoloLens – we are officially living in the future.

Source: Microsoft

Today’s Windows 10 event generated a lot of buzz for the HoloLens and Windows Holographic, with a live demo of an app called HoloStudio showing a drone being decorated to showcase how you can use the HoloLens to build things on the PC and see how they look in 3D. While we’re still waiting on most of the details, tech specs, and availability, word on the street is that they’ll likely be opening up a developer program sometime early this year.

What we do know already is that Minecraft is going to be a key app for demonstrating the headset’s capability, and that there will be a lot of potential for Microsoft’s “Universal” apps to run seamlessly with the HoloLens.

Source: Business Insider

Another important demonstration from the Windows 10 event also adds to the hype and excitement about Windows Holographic and HoloLens: Cortana, Microsoft’s personal assistant AI, is coming to Windows 10, which leads me to believe that the voice control on HoloLens will be pretty fantastic. I’ve used all 3 personal assistants and Cortana takes the cake over Siri and Google Now, and the limited nature of current VR/AR input devices means that a solid voice navigation system could very well be in the works.

Wired got a first look and hands-on with the HoloLens, and you can follow the new product’s official Twitter account @hololens. Stay tuned as more information comes in, and I’ll be doing my best to see about getting a demo myself!

Happy New Year!

2014 is officially behind us, and what a year it’s been!

It was a year of learning how to use OS X after years of being Windows-only, and dabbling in iOS application development.

I attended my first-ever “Unconference” and met some great people at the Bay Area She’s Geeky conference – and I’ll be headed back in a few short weeks for She’s Geeky 2015!

Virtual Reality began to take the scene when Facebook bought Oculus, and I dove into it myself with SVVR meetups and began learning Unity development.

My first anniversary with Microsoft was this summer, and I’m now well into year two!

Youth Engagement in Virtual Reality with the Oculus Rift

Yesterday, I had the privilege to participate in a hack/code-a-thon at a local middle school as part of the Hour of Code initiative and thought that I’d share my love for Virtual Reality by bringing my Oculus Rift with me and doing demos during lunchtime. Although I suspected that a number of the kids would find the tech interesting, I was blown away with the overwhelmingly positive response that the kids had to virtual environments and how engaged they were with the Rift.

Good News, Everyone! Conference Sessions, Tutorials, and a VLOG !

I have some good news today! No, my Oculus DK2 isn’t here (yet),  but there’s still a lot going on and I’m so excited to share!