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expects that library of content to grow “very rapidly,” especially as the company works with YouTube creators to get more VR content up on the platform

According to Variety, these YouTube stars are even more influential among US teens than Hollywood celebrities.

The one stumbling block is that not that many people have the equipment to experience VR. Google says some 1 million folks already own the Cardboard viewer

it’s convenient that the company is launching these virtual reality features right before The New York Times ships 1.3 million Google Cardboard sets this weekend, as it debuts its new VR documentary, “The Displaced.”

Cinemas probably aren’t going to die out any time soon, but they may well host different kinds of films than laptops and phones in the near future.

Netflix’s chief content officer is open about this, saying that watching a movie online is like seeing a sports game broadcast on TV rather than being at the stadium

When you watch it, you realise that this software blurs the boundary between films and games: although, strictly speaking, you are not playing anything; you are participating in the experience.

A distinctive form of film is also emerging on phones: 360-degree movies were developed by Google

The technology gets really interesting when it comes to documentaries. Director Chris Milk has used virtual reality to make films about a refugee camp in Jordan and a mass protest in New York.

Fundamentally, this is taking out the middle man in that process, and making you feel as if you were actually there.

Call it fly-off-the-wall film-making

traditionally it is the director’s job to tell the audience what to look at, in this approach directors don’t exist, only “creators”

"We believe entertainment needs to continue to evolve with a more immersive experience,"

Movie screens will continue to morph into ever-wider configurations

That footage will be shown in a special 360-degree OmniCam theater installation planned for the FIFA World Football Museum in Zurich. Meanwhile, startup Jaunt is developing a 360-degree camera for use in virtual reality

High-tech interactivity also may play a role in the next generation of theaters.

They would include a theater where a 3D movie is projected onto a 360-degree dome-shaped screen and real-time facial replacement would be used to project audience members into the action

"You'd have a wristband that identifies who you are, and if you elect to, your body and face can be scanned, allowing the attractions to include you in them and allow you to interact with them

Schilowitz hopes to engage brands to make 270-degree short films to show before the actual movie. Think Red Bull's Red Bull's many extreme sports videos. Now picture them in an immersive experience.  The money coming from brands could help offset the costs of the Escape screen.

Schilowitz believes you could take that experience into the theater. Have two people playing a virtual reality game while strapped into Oculus Rift-type devices and people would pay to watch the game on the big screen if top- ranked players were competing.

Escape will also be used to show things like concerts which can be better experienced with a wider screen. A Lady Gaga and Tony Bennett show will debut in Escape theaters in 2015.

This is how things get interesting for the RealiSM project: the prototype works as an integrated video recording, editing, and playback system – all working hand in hand to generate what they call reality substitution. A custom-built camera rig, consisting of 18 high-definition cameras which are pointed in all directions, seamlessly shoots a 360-degree spherical imagery that is stitched together in all three dimensions of space. These 18 high-def cameras are paired with 4 omnidirectional microphones, able to pick up sound from all directions relative to the prototype. The 3D spherical video capture is then processed and is rendered by a custom-built HMD that also features a front camera to orient the user’s presence in both the virtual and outside environments.

Aside from the usage focus of the prototype in the medical field, it is also seen as a potential tool for bringing immersive, real-time teleconferencing – bridging the gap caused by time zone issues between the two ends of the communication medium; and also to enhance entertainment experiences – particularly in games – by introducing extremely immersive and true-to-life visuals and audio experiences.

Zwift’s software can then convert the signal into power data, which is calculated by considering rider weight, the virtual terrain and even drafting into account to convert the power to speed within the game.

the virtual environment is impressive as it gives off sound effects from your surroundings and from the other riders that pass or are around you, making it a supremely immersive training session

can enable augmented reality experiences where virtual objects interact with the physical environment (e.g. furniture)

can augment and distort the physical environment (e.g making a living room look like a cartoon)

“Ultimately, new technology can reveal desires that already exist on a deep level in society,” says Rafman of the works, which pull from and amplify the seductive forces of video games and cinema. “This desire to escape completely into another dimension has existed for a long time.”

Virtual reality’s recent resurgence in prominence begins with Oculus and its visionary 23-year-old founder, Palmer Luckey. In 2012, the then-18-year-old with an affinity for retooling defunct ’90s VR headsets took a hacked-together model to Kickstarter with a funding goal of $250,000. A month later, over 10,000 individuals contributed $2.4 million to the campaign for what was at the time mainly aimed at being a gaming peripheral. Two years later, Facebook wrote a check to buy Oculus VR for $2 billion

“This is not a drill. It’s real. It’s a moment,” says Michael Naimark, Google’s first resident virtual reality artist (like Char Davies, he’s listed as a pioneer of VR on Wikipedia). “And the arts community can play a huge role in propagation.

Throughout art history, art has reflected the prevalent social relations of the time. It makes sense, then, that the most relative and innovative art forms being produced today would mirror our reality—one defined by a perceived sense of agency in a world filled with invisible algorithms and clicks baited to us by past clicks. The internet spoils us with infinite choice: opportunities to invent our personas, refashion our self-brands, optimize our lives, and enhance our experience. But with mega-corporations quietly holding the joystick, can we really self-determine our destiny?

Entire new societies have formed in cyberspace

By the mid-2050s, traditional Western news corporations no longer exist

News gathering, analysis and distribution has fragmented - shifting to millions of creative individuals, bloggers, citizen journalists and small-scale enterprises.

Traditional Western TV channels have largely disappeared

replaced by unique "personalised" web channels, covering practically any subject or combination of subjects imaginable

Debates are now occurring over "synthetic people" entering the population.

If someone came to us and said, "Would you launch a TV series in Imax day-and-date?", that's definitely something we would consider

We have over 300 theaters open; we have over 200 theaters in backlog [where a theater has been approved and the space designated, but it hasn't been built yet]. We just announced a 10‑theater deal.

Wanda, which accounts for the largest number of Imax screens in China, has its own giant-screen technology. Worried? I'm not very worried.

If the public wants an experience that's better than a standard 35mm but not as good as an Imax, there's a category they fit in.

In 2015, you announced the creation of the Imax China Film Fund to invest in Chinese tentpoles.

We can leverage those relationships, plus the Imax technology, plus the Imax release windows, and create value by investing in the right films.

We could get into original programming, but we're not going to be a small participant in a $200 million movie. Could I see there being a $10 million or $20 million film that is with an Imax filmmaker who loves Imax and plays well to the Imax audience and has the right ancillary distribution afterward? Yes. That's something we're exploring.

showcase four experience prototypes that demonstrate the novel interactive experiences that are possible with RoomAlive and discuss the design challenges of adapting any game to any room

The merging of real and projected worlds will produce a seamless experience – a complete illusion of being part of a film.

A truly dramatic change will come once scientists discover a way to manipulate senses directly through the brain. That is when cinema will quite literally start to merge and replace real life

One will be able to choose between real-life exploration or a fictional quest with chosen characters. Since memories will be recorded, one would be able to include anyone they have ever encountered, including favorite celebrities or fictional heroes.

Just as 3D films are only exciting for the first few minutes, characters, events and conflicts will continue to drive cinema of the future.

Studies consistently show users thumb through only a handful of apps on a regular basis

This is why tech bellwethers — from social media platforms such as Facebook to traditional hardware companies like Apple — are churning out news products, designed to court and engage audiences to their brand-ecosystems.

Facebook plans to announce the launch of Notify, a standalone news app, the Financial Times reports. Featured content will come from media partners including Vogue, The Washington Post and CBS.

Professional content already is splintered across content creators and technology platforms

Apple News, for iOS 9. The mobile app aggregates news from a wide range of sources into a mobile-friendly format,

Twitter Moments is a feature on Twitter that links tweets in a traditional story format, from beginning to end.

Snapchat has been partnering with publishers for Snapchat Discover. The app, widely popular with millennials, includes a "Discover" feature that showcases stories from publishers including Vice, People, CNN and National Geographic

For example, with instant articles Facebook directly hosts outside publishers' articles on its social network — and Facebook pockets the traffic

Facebook on Wednesday also said its daily video views have reached 8 billion, though some tech analsyts including Pfeiffer wonder if a single view is measured by only a few seconds on an autoplay setting.

Facebook in fact is testing its own, site-specific video hub, as Re/code has reported.

Отметим, что среди российских вещателей некоторые программы в формате 360 гарудсов планирует показывать телеканал "Авто24", а также "Россия 24".