Tag: virtual reality

VR game to be created by IBM’s Watson

| February 29, 2016

The supercomputer is going to be converting an anime from a book series into a huge multiplayer online game.

The Japanese division at IBM has now turned its attention to creating a VR game out of an anime called “Sword Art Online: The Beginning” with the assistance of its Watson artificial intelligence supercomputer.

The project is meant to turn the book series into a virtual reality multiplayer game available online.

The team at IBM is using Watson’s cognitive computing, in conjunction with the cloud service from SoftLayer, as a part of a partnership with Namco Bandai. They intend to be able to test the new VR game in Tokyo, in March. In order to be able to play the virtual reality game, players will need to wear VR headsets so they will be capable of viewing the world in the role of their 3D avatar. In this way, the player doesn’t use a controller in order to participate in the game. They actually become the controller.

The VR game will support the HTC Vive, while it also looks as though Occulus Rift and SlashGear will be supported.

Aside from some introductory basics, there hasn’t been much in terms of details that have been revealed, so far. Moreover, at the time of the writing of this article, IBM hadn’t provided an immediate response to comment requests.

The anime, in question, Sword Art Online, was first launched in 2012 and was based on a 2009 light series of Japanese novels. The story includes a considerable focus on virtual reality and opens up a tremendous opportunity for multiplayer role-playing games (RPGs).

The series that will become a VR game first ran in 2012 in Tokyo, but it has since streamed on Hulu and Crunchyroll. In 2013, it arrived in North America, where it is also now available on Netflix. At the Mobile World Congress (MWC), IBM announced that it would be bringing the IBM Cloud together with the Apple Swift runtime package. The goal result is to have a enterprise app development based on cloud tech, that would function with Swift. The MobileFirst platform can also be leveraged by customers, meaning it’s possible for them to use hybrid app versions for managing mobile from one platform.

Virtual reality may play an important role in medicine

| February 22, 2016

New technology is already allowing doctors to see – and even feel – the body through a whole new experience.

The medical imaging industry is now undergoing an entirely new level of potential as virtual reality expands well beyond games and takes its first steps into hospitals as well as medical schools.

This VR technology based experience allows doctors to gain a whole new concept of a patient’s body.

The purpose is to allow doctors to use virtual reality in combination with other more traditional medical tech, such as magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and ultrasounds, so they can see those images in a three dimensional view, but also interact with those images as though they were really there. By using these viewer devices, in addition to other hardware such as styluses, the doctor will be able to see the image, move it with his or her hand, and even feel resistance through the hardware, as though they were touching the actual organ or other body part that has been scanned.

This virtual reality experience would allow a doctor to look right inside a patient’s brain without cutting into it.

Virtual Reality Technology - MedicineThe majority of today’s medical imaging equipment is already capable of producing high quality 3D images. However, surgeons must view those images in a 2D experience as the only place they can display it is on a traditional screen. Even with multiple images, viewed as a series of snapshots of a body part, they are required to create a mental image of the reconstructed body part in their heads.

The investment into 3D imaging has been put off, until now, because many doctors don’t feel that viewing a three dimensional image would provide enough benefit to be worth the expense. Hospitals would be required to demonstrate the ability of the tech to improve the care received by the patient, and then be reimbursed for that tech investment.

That said, with the latest virtual reality technologies, that situation could easily change. This tech can draw data and imagery from several sources in order to create a complete 3D view, with the potential to considerably improve the outcomes of patients.