The headset, based on the Oculus Rift with a Bose sound system for support, allows users to do the typical things one would expect when shopping for a car, like comparing colours and wheel rims, as well as much more, like inspecting a projection of the interior and exterior from any angle, getting a view of what it’s like to sit inside, or experience certain demonstrations of a car’s unique features.

Audi afforded us a real experience of it’s virtual showroom to further show case the experience of interacting with a vehicle while wearing the Rift. During our session, we were able to experiment with the technology by inspecting a projection of their upcoming A1. Because the VR application presents an overlay of an object over users’ virtual reality, they can walk around and view it in real-time, too.

Audi imagines the CPL not only enhancing the car-buying experience, but also as a way to teach current and potential buyers about their new vehicles, showing them the features they might otherwise overlook. “What we’ve seen is that the CPL is not just part of the sales process, we’ve actually integrated it to become part of the holistic customer experience when they’re at the dealership” an Audi representative says.

Audi expects to roll out the CPL concept to more dealerships around South Africa within the coming years.

The Lost Botanist was one of just nine VR experiences competing at VR@Annecy, from 90 submissions from nearly 30 countries.

Ree and Rick were up against big name projects like Gymnasia, from the Emmy-winning Felix & Paul Studios; Doctor Who: The Runaway, voiced by Jodi Whittaker; Wolves In The Wall, Chapter 2, It’s All Over, based on the Neil Gaiman book; and Gloomy Eyes, narrated by Colin Farrell, which took home the Cristal.

Ree was one of two female directors in the VR category at Annecy. The Lost Botanist marked her second film in competition at Annecy, 12 years after The Blackheart Gang’s The Tale Of How kick-started her career by winning a Special Distinction Cristal in 2007.

A five-minute interactive adventure for immersive devices, The Lost Botanist is a collaboration between Rick’s Johannesburg-based emerging technology research and development house, Eden Labs, and Ree’s Cape Town-based creative studio, Tulips & Chimneys.

You are The Lost Botanist, misplaced in a world that’s forgotten all about nature. While researching the lost marvels of the natural world, you open a grimoire that transports you to The Under-Garden, the dream-like home of the spirits of all forgotten things. In each of the wondrous places you’ll visit, you must find a mythical creature to guide you further into the unknown, from The Nethermere to The Amber Vale to The Nevermist…

“I’ve always wanted to create a world that people could step into, a visual world people could be immersed in and lost in, so for me The Lost Botanist is an absolute dream come true,” says Ree, who is Africa’s most awarded animation director, having been recognised everywhere from the Clios to Clermont-Ferrand, D&AD to Mobius, The London International Awards to New York Festival, and The Loeries to The South African Film and Television Awards, among others. She’s also one of Africa’s most watched animation directors: Amumu: The Curse of the Sad Mummy, her League of Legends short film for Riot Games, has over 18m YouTube views.

Technically, Rick says The Lost Botanist stands out from most other VR experiences for three main reasons: its counterintuitive use of 2D animation in a 360 environment; its use of a 3D printed Oculus Go case shaped like an owl, that feels like an artwork in itself; and its development focus on the standalone VR headset Oculus Go, a comparatively light and low-spec platform.

Rick and Ree plan to extend The Lost Botanist with additional levels in the immersive experience; a spinoff film; an augmented reality game and a merchandise range that includes toys, adult colouring books, and puzzles. “This is just a prologue for a much bigger experience,” says Rick, who has worked with artists like William Kentridge and Mary Sibande at Eden Labs.

He believes The Lost Botanist’s timing couldn’t be better. “There’s a pure lack of VR content, so if we can get The Lost Botanist on the stores now, it will get eyeballs,” says Rick, whose first company, Breakdesign, generated over 16 million mobile game downloads. “It feels a lot like mobile games in 2007, like everything is coming full circle for me…”

Annecy International Animated Film Festival and Market ran from 10-15 June 2019 in Annecy, France. Check out the full VR line-up at https://www.annecy.org/programme:en:vr/.

The Lost Botanist continues its festival run at New Images Festival from 19-23 June 2019 in Paris, France, where it was selected from 109 applications from 21 countries. Follow https://www.instagram.com/the_lost_botanist/ for updates.

“Exponential technologies, such as artificial intelligence, virtual reality and immersive computing are transforming the way in which we work and network across all industries,” said Mic Mann, Founder of Mann Media and co-organiser of SingularityU South Africa Summit 2018. “It’s changing how we conduct business as well as the workspace. Soon there will be no need to fly across the globe for a face-to-face meeting – unless you really want to. Digital avatars, personalised exoskeletons, beam robots, holograms, and similar technologies will allow for more interactive and human-like business meetings.”

VR is making it possible for business professionals to be transported to Hong Kong, San Francisco and London all in a day’s work. VR enhances networking experiences and makes this possible in a manner that is much more engaging than traditional e-conferencing, such as Google Hangouts and Skype, and at a cost that is exponentially less than what it would be in the real world. Today, with VR-enabled technologies and laser-accurate scaled floorplans, SingularityU South Africa was able to bring this event to life in a way that few other events and conferences have done before. Media entered the VR booth that was set up and donned virtual reality headsets to ask questions in the digital space.

“I’m delighted to be virtually joining today’s press conference in Johannesburg on behalf of SingularityU South Africa,” said Rob Nail, CEO and Associate Founder of Singularity University. “There is no better demonstration of SU’s mission than to use exponential thinking and technologies, such as AR and VR, to discuss in real-time and ‘in-person’ how we can #futureproofAfrica and bring opportunity to everyone. It is only when we engage a global community focused on solving humanity’s greatest challenges with these and other accelerating technologies that we can have the greatest positive impact on our future.”

The conference line-up included local and international Singularity University speakers, who focused on reimagining exponential leadership and disruptive thinking. “The press conference provided African futurists insights into how Silicon Valley conducts business meetings and also allowed them to interact with global innovators about how to resolve various challenges facing the continent,” said Mann.

The impressive line-up of speakers included SingularityU global leadership and SingularityU South Africa 2018 partners:

• Rob Nail – Singularity University CEO
• Oren Berkovich – co-founder and CEO of SingularityU Canada
• Kris Østergaard – co-founder and Chief Learning and Innovation Officer of SingularityU Nordi
• Ricardo Marvão – co-founder and managing director of SingularityU Portugal
• Belinda Carreira – Standard Bank Executive Head Interactive Marketing
• Valter Adão – Deloitte, Head of Innovation
• Simon Carpenter – SAP Chief Technology Officer
• Herman Singh – MTN Executive Innovation Strategy
• David Rozzio – HP Managing Director
• Benjamin Marais – Liberty Chief Technology Officer

Join us, these partners as well as other speakers at the 2018 SingularityU South Africa Summit on 15 and 16 October where African and global innovators will enable delegates and their organisations to keep pace with advances in science and exponential technologies. To learn more about the SingularityU South Africa Summit and view the full programme, visit: https://singularityusouthafricasummit.org/. Should be quite a cool futuristic experience, we hope to see you there!

LaLiga this week provided a behind-the-scenes look at the technology behind Spain’s world-famous football competition. Cutting-edge broadcasting and data-collection systems make LaLiga one of the best-televised sporting spectacles in the world and are harnessed to ensure the competition’s clubs have the most advanced tactical and strategic information. The demonstration was staged in collaboration with Grupo Mediapro, LaLiga’s production partner.

RCD Espanyol’s Stadium was the setting for LaLiga’s first-ever Innovation Showcase. This took place against the backdrop of the Mobile World Congress – one of the most important technology events on the planet, which brings more than 100,000 experts to Barcelona every year – and lifted the curtain to offer an insight into the technology behind the best football league in the world.

As LaLiga’s Chief Communications Officer, Joris Evers, explained: “The aim is for fans not just to watch matches, but to be immersed in an exclusive audiovisual experience. Additionally, LaLiga is unique in providing all its clubs with valuable tools to assist coaching staff and make our teams even better.”

4K HDR

The visual experience on offer to fans of Spanish football has taken on a different dimension thanks to the 4K HDR broadcasts that LaLiga serves up for the two headline games of every matchday. A total of 20 HDR cameras are used for this purpose, although substantially more are incorporated for special occasions like El Clasico, major derbies and key matches in the latter stages of the season, when cameras mounted on helicopters and cranes are among the additions.

With HDR broadcasts, viewers at home can feel like they are even closer to the action than the crowd at the stadium. The images are so real that it is as if the events were unfolding in their very own living room. LaLiga is one of the few sports competitions in the world to be broadcast in HDR and the number of people who can feast their eyes on this quality is growing constantly due to sales of HDR televisions and the expansion of OTT services and satellite technology.

Skycam

The choice of venue, the RCDE Stadium, made it possible to see the Skycam – an aerial camera located 21 metres above the pitch and providing unique overhead footage – in operation. Courtesy of this technology, LaLiga fans around the world can enjoy spectacular bird’s-eye views of the action and the stadium. The lofty vantage point, coupled with the camera’s ability to spin and travel at great speed, means it offers a special perspective of the pitch.

These cameras are compact, high-definition models with a 4/3, 14x zoom wide-angle lens, whose footage is transmitted from the pitch to a mobile unit via fibre-optic cables. They can cover an area of almost 7,000 m2. During the pre-match build-up and post-match aftermath, as well as at half-time, the three technicians operating the Skycam position it at a height of 3-10 metres in order to treat viewers to even more detailed shots.

Intel True View

Intel True View has now been in use for several years, with its 360° replay technology enabling every piece of play to be reproduced in 3D and offering TV viewers from all corners of the globe a unique perspective of the action from every angle.

The 2D videos from each of the 38 cameras in place at the stadiums are processed through a series of powerful Intel servers, allowing for replays to be viewed from any position or angle. This technology is in use on a regular basis, with the system having been installed permanently at the Camp Nou (FC Barcelona), the Santiago Bernabeu (Real Madrid), the Wanda Metropolitano (Atletico de Madrid) and the Ramon Sanchez-Pizjuan (Sevilla Football Club).

In addition, thanks to innovative software, viewers are now also able to enjoy the incredible “Be The Player” feature, which premiered in LaLiga in during this season’s first El Clasico clash between FC Barcelona and Real Madrid in December. Be The Player puts the viewer in the middle of the action, capturing events from the perspective of the player in a particular piece of play and offering spectators the same view as the player immediately before the action is played out.

Another powerful new feature is the Laser Wall, a virtual wall that is overlaid on the pitch, giving viewers a clearer picture when determining offside positions.

Live 3D graphics

LaLiga is also the only national competition to offer viewers Live 3D graphics during its live broadcasts. These serve to complement the match data made available to the spectator and represent a unique and novel visual support.

This technology also enables tactical and positional changes to be displayed and tactical analysis of the play to be illustrated during action replays.

Virtual reality

LaLiga has dramatically improved its broadcast quality over the past seasons. Lots of work is also being done thinking about the future. Mediapro research and develop teams, alongside LaLiga, is experimenting with virtual reality (VR) technology. To obtain real source materials to serve this new production tool, last December’s El Clasico encounter was filmed with a set of two 360º cameras and four 180º cameras, which allowed for the production of a range of audiovisual content in 3D and 2D.

At the LaLiga Innovation Showcase event, attendees were given a taste of this viewing experience through the use of Samsung Gear glasses, which offered users a sneak peek of the first features of the virtual reality app that is under development:

• Images of the game (El Clasico) filmed using 180º and 360º multi-camera technology
• 3D highlights and replays
• Mediacoach statistics (in augmented reality)

Mediacoach

In addition to offering spectators an excellent viewing experience through the use of the latest broadcasting innovations, LaLiga also employs groundbreaking technology to provide its clubs with valuable training tools.

In this regard, through Mediacoach, a suite of cutting-edge match-analysis tools and services developed by Mediapro, LaLiga provides every club’s coaching staff with the data to carry out in-depth analysis of the various facets of the game. Moreover, since the start of the current campaign, the use of Mediacoach has also enhanced LaLiga television broadcasts and content on the various digital platforms.

No other football league boasts a proprietary platform as advanced as this tool.

Over the next 4 weeks of March, 15 MINI dealerships in SA are handing out real, working virtual reality headsets upon request. In fact, you just have to walk into your nearest dealership, ask one of the friendly salespersons to show the brand new Clubman and somer during the presentation request a pair of the VR goggles. Feast your eyes on the magical black box, fold it a bit, slip in the goggles and your phone to get something exactly similar to Google Cardboard. The best part is, it will only cost you nothing, and that includes a tour of the Clubman inside the dealer. It most likely won’t be as good as more expensive VR devices, but it is an affordable introduction to the world of virtual reality. I got mine already

According to a presser released by the company earlier today, they came up with the promo specifically for the new Convertible, meant to encourage drivers to experience the brand new vehicle. MINI even developed two six-minute short themed films “Real Memories” and “Backwater”, these flicks will also be available shortly for Samsung Gear VR and Oculus Rift virtual-reality viewers.The presser went further to conclude that MINI will only be giving away 140 000 VR Cardboard Viewers in all.