Unity wants to expand beyond gaming / Lytro's light-field camera / John Legend stars in VR project — Inside VR & AR

Unity Technologies is planning to triple its workforce in India to expand its VR and AR business beyond gaming. The company is looking at how its platform can be applied in industries like automotive, manufacturing, real estate and education. 70% of the world’s VR development is done on Unity engines. “People in automobile and manufacturing have raised a demand for interactive and immersive platforms for their customers and internal work. This high fidelity visualization cannot be achieved with 3D design tools,” Quentin Staes-Polet, Unity’s director of South Asia, Australia and New Zealand, told the Economic Times. — ECONOMIC TIMES

Lytro’s latest VR light-field camera is now production ready. The “Immerge” light-field camera shoots volumetric video and has the ability to playback scenes on VR headset with accurate stereo. Volumetric video allows viewers to have proper positional tracking inside the video, resulting in a more immersive experience. The company has shifted from producing consumer products to light-field cameras for commercial purposes, and has raised $60 million in its latest round of funding to do so. Interested producers can submit a request to shoot with the camera. — ROAD TO VR 

Singer-songwriter John Legend is the voice of a singing bird in the new VR animation project "Rainbow Crow.” The series, created by VR content startup Baobab Studios, is based on a piece of Native American folklore about self-acceptance. Legend will also serve as executive producer. “Madagascar” co-writer and director Eric Darnell writes and directs the series. "I had been to some conferences where VR technology was discussed and also had seen a powerful film about refugees. When Baobab came to me with this I thought it felt like a cool story that could do a lot of things,” Legend told the LA Times. The first chapter of the series will premiere at the Tribeca Film Festival. — LAT

Gorillaz will host a global listening party for their new album through an AR app. The app, called Gorillaz, will superimpose elements from recent music videos into user’s surroundings via the camera. The app will also serve home to a global listening party, where users can listen to the new album Humanz simultaneously. The virtual band has experimented with VR versions of their music videos. — MIXMAG

At the 2017 Mixed Reality Summit, Niantic CEO John Hanke voiced his concerns with VR. “We’re human beings and there's a lot of research out there that shows we're actually a lot happier when we get exercise, when we go outside - and outside in nature in particular. I think it's a problem for us as a society if we forgo that and spend all of time in a Ready Player One-style VR universe,” he told the crowd at the Summit. Niantic developed the AR smash hit, Pokémon Go. — GAMES INDUSTRY

What do you think about Hanke's comments? Tell us what you think! Your comments may be featured in an upcoming issue of Inside VR & AR. 

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