WebVR
What's it All About
Sandy Ressler - NIST
Web3D 2015, Crete Greece, June 2015
Slides at: http://slides.com/sressler/webvr#/
Agenda
- VR - Hardware
- Web browser software
- Use cases
- Integration
- Authoring Tools
- Production Chain
WebVR - Simply Put
- It's about the Web
- It's about Virtual Reality (VR)
- most about integrating the two together
BFD
- What's the big fracking deal??
- The Web is the greatest information dissemination tool ever created
- VR plays to the strength of human perception
- Combining the two is natural
Virtual Reality
It's Back Baby!
In the Beginning
Jaron Lanier (circa 1990)
For the Home 1993
VR Hype
- Training
- Medicine
- Military (HMDs)
- Games
- too expensive
- actual experience did not meet hyped expectations
- just not that good
- low resolution, lag time, simulator sickness
Why The Collapse?
Now (2015) Lots of Money (Companies)
- Facebook - Oculus ($2B)
- Google - Cardboard (free-ish) and MagicLeap ($500M investment
- Microsoft - Hololens (AR)
- Apple - just bought AR Metaio (& hired Doug Bowman)
VR Hardware
VR Hardware
https://flic.kr/p/qKaEyj
Lots of Stuff Strapped on Your Head
- Display
- Input Tracker
- Headphones
THIS is a lot for your head!
Only $400,000
almost Free!
Genius of using cellphones
- HUGE audience
- Sensors work just fine for orientation
- Camera gives you AR possibilities
- "What's the best VR device" - the one you already have!
Google Cardboard is VR's Gateway Drug" - David Pierce, Wired
Input is a Bitch!
- Mouse/Keyboard (they disappear)
- Leap Motion
- Eye Tracking (FOVE)
- Haptics Suck
- interesting experiments with air pressure (Disney)
- http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/aireal/
Stereo is Hard
- Projections matter
- Eye spacing (pupil distance - IPD)
- Single view not quite right for all viewers
- Vertical field of view
- Synthetic versus image based scenes
Touch Me Touch Me
- Haptics Suck
- But good for specific applications such as Laproscopic surgery http://lsro.epfl.ch/simulators
- http://www.disneyresearch.com/project/aireal/
- interesting experiments with air pressure (Disney)
Web Browser Software
Web Browser Software
Native Support
- Firefox Nightly Builds
- ChomeVR
WebVR - Vladimir Vukicevic (Mozilla) slideset
X3DOM Support
- Oculus
- Leap
- computes the left and right eye views
Software - 360 Video Players
- eleVR
- 360Heros
- vrideo
- YouTube
Software - 360 Video Players
- math.nist.gov/~SRessler/webvr.html
- Image Based WebVR
- http://slides.com/sressler/deck-6#/
Software - CG Players
- Sketchfab
- AutoDesk 123D
- Unity
VR Hackathon's
Mike Aratow,
Damon Hernandez
Use Cases
Use Cases
http://imgsrc.hubblesite.org/hu/db/images/hs-2004-10-a-print.jpg
Games
Therapy
Metaverse
- High Fidelity
Mark Zuckerberg on Oculus Aquisition (2014)
Imagine enjoying a court side seat at a game, studying in a classroom of students and teachers all over the world or conulting with a doctor face-to-face –just by putting on goggles in your home.
This is really a new communication platform. By feeling truly present, you can share unbounded spaces and experiences with the people in your life. Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures.
These are just some of the potential uses. By working with developers and partners across the industry, together we can build many more. One day, we believe this kind of immersive, augmented reality will become a part of daily life for billions of people.
Integration
Integration
https://flic.kr/p/j7uhey
Native Browser Support
Oculus taking the Games Track - Good/Bad
- Games the leading application for $$$
- Easily explained
- Doesn't address more difficult and important applications
- therapy
- training/education
- metaverse - large scale
Authoring Tools
Authoring Tools
Traditional General Tools
Specific VR Tools
stereo IPD
spatialized audio
stitching
file management
Kolor - (just purchased by GoPro)
Production Chain
Production Chain
Ad Hoc
- specialized tools
- loose connections
- (export/import functionality)
- semantics get lost
- difficult to make change downstream
Examples
- http://math.nist.gov/~SRessler/webvr.html
- Mozvr: http://mozvr.com/
- webvr.info
The Future: Light Fields
- http://home.otoy.com/
- Individualized Stereo and parallax
- Travel
And In Conclusion...
- 3D graphics is ubiquitous and supported
- big win to leverage web development infrastructure
- tempting to create proprietary apps
- browser vendors are on-board (Chrome, Firefox)
- hardware is rapidly being created
- leverage the cell-phone
- standards will initially be de-facto (and that's ok/pragmatic)
Thanks for Listening!
WebVR What's it All About
By Sandy Ressler
WebVR What's it All About
WebVR for Web3D 2015
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