News
VIVE VR Innovators 2021 - VIVE Blog
HTV VIVE published their community curated list of global VR innovators pushing boundaries of what VR can do, and we can't find fault in the outcome of any category. There isn't much we could say that isn't already very well explained in the post, so we recommend giving this a look and hope you enjoy the amazing talents of everyone on the list.
Art Week 2021 | Decentraland
Decentraland's annual Art Week (which is longer than a week this year) takes place July 8th to 18th, debuting never before seen and cutting edge NFTs and other digital art (Ben Eine, rek0de, Katy Arrington, Hackatao, and others), concerts, showcases from popular brands, and panels with the artists discussing the future of virtual spaces, wearable fashion, and other topics important to the metaverse. Decentraland's events rarely disappoint, and we're looking forward to attending and basking in the creativity of an active virtual community.
VR Experiences | Harry Potter New York
The Harry Potter Store recently opened in New York and also announced virtual experiences will be soon be available allowing guests to further immerse themselves in the Wizarding World of Hogwarts. If you're thinking of visiting be sure to join the virtual queue before showing up.
Experiences
Baking and Savory Recipes | NESTLÉ® Very Best Baking
NESTLÉ released an AI that helps bakers get answers to why their cookies didn't turn out well that honors Ruth Graves Wakefield, inventor of the modern American chocolate chip cookie recipe. This digital human is able to respond to basic questions about the ingredients and ratios, but is also able to help modify the recipe to do things like make it gluten-free and adapt to various baking scenarios.
Haunt Portal Streaming the Top US Haunted Attraction Events
In 2020 the haunted house went virtual with the creation of Haunt Portal. Experience nearly a dozen horror venues and "haunted" houses with your friends on your phone, PC or HMU. The Oculus App Lab VR experience allows you to see some of them in VR, though you do have to pay for each experience individually.
Reading
Data Dive: Google Lens Recognizes 15 Billion Products - AR Insider
Google has a very interesting way of "burying the lead" when reporting on their services, and buried deep a recent event was the information that the company's visual search tool, Google Lens, now recognizes 15 billion products. That's an astounding accomplishment, and this article goes deeper into what that could mean for Google's future plans around AR.
One More Thing
The Book of Asmodeus by Realic Inc. & Shindig Studio LLC — Kickstarter
Augmented Reality generally puts the user in a passive relationship with the content, but what we really like about this interactive book is that it places the user directly into the story. With options of a physical copy of the book that reminds us of the Necronomicon from the Evil Dead series or PDF, we're looking forward to when this funds so we can give this a try and see how immersive this feels.
Commentary
Of all of the VR communities that have been created we've been finding Decentraland to be the one that speaks to us the most. Not just because we own a decent amount of their crypto currency, but because you can do something with it aside from waiting for the value to rise to sell it. Not only because the community owns the venues, but has the freedom to express themselves in was that encourage more people to attend events. Not just because the governance board set up community grants to help fund creative efforts, or Sotheby's opening a virtual gallery in Decentraland. There are a lot of reasons to like Decentraland, and we keep seeing more and more as the community grows. A recent reason is Art Week kicking off soon (see the link below), giving us more opportunities to see art and performances that we could never see in person.
Hopefully we'll see some of you there.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
— Other Realities Directory | Other Realities Journal | Twitter | Facebook —
Other Realities