LAS VEGAS – At last year’s Consumer Electronics Show there was a real buzz when long anticipated virtual reality headsets like Oculus Rift and HTC Vive were finally announced (and then released in March and April respectfully). At CES this year artificial intelligence (AI) has overshadowed VR, in part because running your home with voice commands is both cool and even practical, at times.
Contrast that with virtually experiencing what it’s like to jump out of plane, while sitting down (as Intel did in a demo with press), a whoa moment is not one they own. In fact, consumers still can’t experience it because most of the technology Intel showed off this week still in early development.
The problem for Intel, and others trying to sell VR, is that meeting public expectations is almost impossible. Nearly everyone has seen Star Trek’s Holodeck or something similar in movies or on TV, and we all want that experience. The reality for VR in 2017 is it still has a long way to go to satisfy those expectations. The market reality for chip companies like Intel is they need to recreate the buzz around VR and soon. Finding new markets beyond personal computers is vital for Intel, since PCs sales have stagnated for more than two years now.
So it’s no surprise that Intel went to extremes this week to recreate the VR buzz of a year ago with the media. At its press conference Intel’s CEO Brian Krzanich led 250 press in wingsuits off the ledge of a helicopter in Moab, Utah. They then hiked near a huge waterfall in rural Vietnam. Krzanich even brought them along on a low-altitude drone-flight skimming over a Nevada solar power plant and seated them courtside at the Butler vs. Villanova NCAA basketball game. And at the end he fought with them to survive a zombie apocalypse. Unfortunately I can’t tell you what the experience was like since I was one of hundreds of others who could only watch the demo on a projection screen in another room.
The demo focused on highlighting what Intel calls “merged reality” with Intel’s Project Alloy technology, using wireless headsets to mix the real world with the virtual one. Intel showcased a fully-functional Alloy headset for the first time at the show. Everything you need to create a virtual, or augmented reality experience is on the headset, so you are not tethered to a computer. It includes two RealSense cameras, a battery, vision accelerators and on-board computing all in one package.
Krzanich says you can expect Project Alloy headsets from hardware partners in late 2017 and predicts these headsets will open new worlds of opportunity for travel, work, and play.
“I believe it will radically enrich people’s enjoyment of sports and entertainment by transporting them into the middle of the action. Through the combination of advanced drones, cameras and computer technology, I believe VR has the potential to save lives during search and rescue missions or after natural disasters; and the potential to make millions of people’s workplaces safer by letting employees conduct dangerous inspections from a safe distance,” wrote Krzanich in a blog posting following the demo.
Kranich concedes though that what has been holding back VR from becoming mainstream is the lack of available content but that should change. (Ed note: This sounds ominously like what the makers of 3DTV’s used to say a few years ago…)
“We are now seeing an expansion of VR content and this content will create incredible amounts of data. For example, Intel 360 replay technology uses 38 high-definition 5k cameras to capture the action on a basketball court or playing field. This produces a massive amount of data — about 2 terabytes of data per minute,” he writes.
He says that Intel, with its combination of processing power and computer vision technology, will be at the center of building from the potential of this data. “Unlocking the data will transform industries and enhance almost every aspect of our lives – be it education, entertainment, or other experiences like travel.”
As VR evolves he believes the very definition of “reality” is also changing. “We are now developing what we call “merged reality” — in which the real world and the virtual worlds are seamlessly combined. I mean much more so than games like Pokemon Go. I mean, Intel’s Project Alloy letting headset wearers use their real hands, rather than controllers, to manipulate virtual objects.”
He acknowledges that the hype around VR has not always met expectations (plus, consumers have to wear bulky headsets), but that virtual and merged reality are a new frontier for human experiences and “this will not just be a technology tweak, but instead a leap.”
CE editor John Bugailiskis is in Las Vegas this week covering CES for Cartt.ca.
