Cosma 3D has new pages about virtual reality in education and journalism.
You can find them under the themes menu.
Category Archives: Announcement
DIY VR
It has been a strange week full of ups and downs. Just one of the downs, although by no means the worst, was attending an event where I thought I was going to come back with some fantastic, juicy new tidbits to share about what’s hot in “frontier technologies” like AR/VR. Sadly, what actually happened was it became abysmally apparent how drastic the gap is between what’s already possible, as in things as basic as what I share on Cosma 3D, and what even “experts” seem to be aware of right now. There was very little overlap. Needless to say, this does not bode well for the prospects of the VR/AR industry.
On the other hand, a key new good development this week was that Mark Zuckerberg finally started to show-off why he spent that $2bn on Oculus. It was not nearly as frivolous nor clueless as some people would have you believe. Specifically, Facebook made a splash by saying that they are now going to feature 360-degree video ads on Facebook. The fact they would be doing this has been known for awhile, but now they ARE actually doing it. Here are a few articles about the move.
Facebook Unleashes VR-Style 360 Videos For Ads And iOS (Josh Constine, Tech Crunch)
See the First 360-Degree Video Ads on Facebook (Tim Peterson, Advertising Age)
AT&T, Samsung, Nestle Among Brands Test New Format
Here is an excellent video that nicely recaps where things are so far.
Facebook Brings 360-degree Videos to iPhone and Gear VR
Okay, ironically, the video says there are no ads on the Gear VR — that is true. They are only on Facebook news feeds (for now, anyway). Here is a web page about this new 360-degree ad feature: 360 Video (Facebook).
So that’s great. You can now see 360-degree ads on your Facebook news feed. I’m pretty sure most of you are NOT celebrating this latest development. Then again, look more carefully and you will notice that YOU can also create and publish your own 360-degree videos. As far as the purposes of this site go, the later is by far the more important thing, because to go along with the new ability to publish your 360-degree videos (evil ads or otherwise), Facebook just published some helpful resources about how to get started making your own 360-degree videos. Bravo!
Learning Resources: Get started with 360 Video today (Facebook)
Best Practices for Immersive Storytelling (Chris Milk and Aaron Koblin, Facebook) (pdf)
360 Video Upload Guide (Facebook) (pdf)
There you have it. It is pretty much possible to use almost any mobile phone to record and publish 360-degree photos and videos directly to both YouTube and Facebook fully tagged with searchable metadata like geo-codes, names, dates and what-not. These videos will be able to be seen on Google Cardboard and/or Gear VR. Furthermore, the process is so simple that school kids can do it (and probably have been using their phones to share Photo Spheres and related media on Google Street View for over a year or so already).
The resources Facebook posted, as well as seeing a “need” based on my unfortunate experiences at the aforementioned event, led me to finally post a long overdue page on Cosma 3D about DIY 3D/360/VR photos and videos.
Please enjoy and, by all means, share this page!
https://cosma3d.wordpress.com/diy/
Reviewers
If you download the current version of the New Computer Museum, Virtual Edition, you will quickly see that it is definitely a “draft.” There are a lot of “Under Construction” signs and only half of the galleries are there yet. The good news is that there will be a new, more robust version published in late November. In the meantime, we are looking for reviewers. If you are interested, please let us know by email at info@newcomputermuseum.org.
Workshops!
Digital Den developed and maintains Cosma 3D, an extensive catalog of the best 3D and VR content available, and we also have a collection of the latest VR headsets to view it. Now we will bring that collection and our expertise to one of your events!
You’re going to be hearing a lot about 3D and VR over the next few months. We can help you learn what it is all about, navigate the sometimes confusing and competing options, and then get you set up to hit the ground running with all of the new 3D and VR content! Here’s just a sample of what we can bring to you.
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- 3D & VR Experiences Gallery
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- Attendees tried out Digital Den’s immersive exhibit
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- View-Master VR
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- Sharing how it works
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- Gear VR Innovator Edition
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- Google Cardboard
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- Oculus Rift Development Version
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- Oculus Rift Development Kit
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- iRacing with Logitech wheel & Oculus Rift (Photo by Jeff Bail)
We can also tell you how to get set up so that you, or your students, can author your own 3D and VR media. Check out our own Cosma 3D Experience Gallery to get a better sense of all of the content, hardware and expertise that we can share with you.
Please contact us if you would like Digital Den to bring our demonstrations of our applications and exhibits to one of your upcoming events! info@digital-den.org
3D Museum!
Digital Den has developed a “virtual edition” of the New Computer Museum using Unity3D.
Welcome Area, New Computer Museum v. 1.5
Digital Den also hosted The New Computer Museum, Virtual Edition release party in Cambridge on Sunday, October 18th.
New Computer Museum Virtual Edition release party!
You can download the application from the New Computer Museum website and visit the museum from the comfort of your own computer. The goal of the “Virtual Edition” of the New Computer Museum is twofold. It demonstrates the vision of what the “real life” museum would look like, and it also stands on its own as a valuable and entertaining educational experience. Check it out!
New Computer Museum, Virtual Edition: http://newcomputermuseum.org/
Release!
NEW Computer Museum VR Ed. Release!
Sunday, October 18, 2015
1:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Champions
50 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
The “virtual edition” of the NEW Computer Museum will be published on Sunday, October 18th. Come see a demo and provide feedback for future releases of both the virtual and “potential” real life editions. RSVP at the New Computer Museum Meetup
Welcome Area, New Computer Museum v. 1.5
The goal of the “Virtual Reality Edition” of the New Computer Museum is twofold. It demonstrates the vision of what the “real” New Computer Museum has the potential to become, and it also stands on its own as a valuable educational experience for use in classrooms. You can see more screen shots of the virtual exhibits on the New Computer Museum home page.
New demo!
New Computer Museum, VR Edition Preview
Flea@MIT, Sunday, July 19, 2015 · 9:00 am – 11 am
Come see a new demo of a “Virtual Reality (VR) Edition” of a New Computer Museum that Digital Den is making! The application is being built in Unity 5.1 and will be available for WebGL, Google Cardboard, Samsung GearVR and Oculus Rift later this summer.
The version that will be available on July 19th is actually just an early draft, so it will only include a small subset of the full version. However, there was an earlier “rapid prototype” of the full version built in SecondLife — here are a few images from that prototype to give you some sense of what the full version will be like when it is released.
The full version will demonstrate the vision of what a “real” New Computer Museum has the potential to become in the near future. It will also stand on its own as a valuable and entertaining educational experience for use in classrooms. In addition, the VR Edition of the New Computer Museum will be an exploration of how the newest wave of virtual reality products can be used in the context of museums and art galleries. Of course, it will also be an excellent demonstration of Digital Den’s expertise and skill in VR production.
Please stop by, say hi, take a look, and share your feedback!
Holodeck?
Digital Den hosted Which way to the holodeck? on Friday, August 22 at the Microsoft NERD Center in Cambridge. Around twenty attendees got to have fun chatting with each other and playing with some geeky toys like the Oculus Rift. The evening included a presentation by Mary Hopper in which she gave her entertaining take on the current state of Virtual Reality. The talk concluded with an announcement that Digital Den is evolving away from an initial focus or research and event hosting and moving towards more of a focus on development of original software (i.e. doing the “D” in R & D :-) )
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- Welcome!
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- Take on “Cardboard”
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- Mary’s DIY Viewer
Spring!
It’s finally almost spring and time to return to celebrating computer history in the Boston/Cambridge area — please join us for one of these events on March 14th!
New Computer Museum Sampler, Afternoon Introduction & Playtime
Friday, March 14, 2014, 12:00 PM to 2:00 PM
Microsoft NERD Center 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Come see and hear about a sample of the New Computer Museum’s exhibits! The afternoon session will feature a short introduction starting at noon and then playtime with Digital Den’s collection of cool interfaces (Power Glove, Kinect, Oculus etc.), fun games (NES, Wii, xBox etc.) and educational software (Logo, Oregon Trail etc.). This session is ideal for students and newcomers who have never seen the collections. Lite lunch will be available.
New Computer Museum Sampler, Evening Update & Social
Friday, March 14, 2014, 6:00 PM to 8:00 PM
Microsoft NERD Center 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Come see and hear about the New Computer Museum’s exhibits, progress and plans! The evening session will start with a brief presentation followed by playtime with a sample of collections provided by a variety of exhibitors. This session is for dedicated supporters and stakeholders as well as newcomers and students. Lite snacks will be available.
Watch for more spring events to be posted soon!
Please join the New Computer Museum Meetup & RSVP… more …
NEW Meetup!
Happy NEW Year!
I hope this finds everyone having had a wonderful holiday break, a great Happy New Year and very good luck weathering the recent New England Weather.
Please join us for our first Meetup of 2014!
Computer Museums: here & there, now & then…
Sunday, January 19, 2014, 12:00 PM to 1:00 PM
Microsoft NERD Center – Adams Room (1st Floor)
One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Come test drive our newest meeting location (it’s warm and has great views!), see the results of the year long survey of computer museums and vintage collections, and then recess for conversation and adult beverages across the street at Champions.
IMPORTANT NOTES:
You MUST sign-in with government issued photo ID!
Space is limited to 15. Be sure to join & RSVP ASAP!
Champions at Marriott, Cambridge – 1 PM…
We will recess to Champions at the Marriott in Kendall Sq. for beer and conversation sponsored by Adam Rosen of The Vintage Mac Museum. GO PATS — 3 PM :-)
Digital Den 
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