Group items tagged

"It's easy to see how something like the Oculus Rift could transform the news-reading experience - not just for traditional news-gathering organizations like The Des Moines Register, but also for just about any Silicon Valley tech company that produces a newsfeed. The very way we think about 'news' could change."

Pacheco has visions of how the Oculus could be used in the future. Maps could be interactive and 3D, said Pacheco. Pacheco also said natural disaster stories would be perfect for the Oculus Rift, especially when it comes to flooding. He envisions a project where "you can dial in a city, go to one of the coastal areas of that city, and see what the water level is like now and see what it's like in 10, 20, 30 years." "That would be pretty powerful, because instead of reading about the possible effects of climate change, you're going to be in it," he said.

"Dan Pacheco, chair of journalism innovation at Syracuse University, presented a session showing off the virtual reality display in the Midway. Gannett is using Oculus Rift head-mounted devices for experiments in explanatory journalism. The devices - which cover the top of one's head and face - don't make viewers seasick these days, and the visual experience is stunning."

The Des Moines Register's Harvest of Change, which was the first project to incorporate virtual reality in a commercial news setting, has won a prestigious Edward R. Murrow award. This emerged from Professor Dan Pacheco working as an innovator in residence at Gannett Digital, where he brought an Oculus Rift and knowledge of how to create VR experiences in Unity.

'For a couple of days in journalism circles, "Harvest of Change" was the hot trending topic. Never before had you been able to virtually step inside a story and be enveloped by 360-degree video and hyper-realistic 3D renderings of a landscape you could move inside of. And while the full effect was achieved through the Oculus headset, there were also 2D versions made for desktop computers, which let more people experience the story. You can find it at desmoinesregister.com/pages/interactives/harvest-of-change. The seeds of this "harvest" were planted when Dan Pacheco, chair of journalism innovation at the S.I. Newhouse School at Syracuse University, met with Mitch Gelman, vice president of product at Gannett Digital. '

Creating Your First VR Experience Practical tips for getting started in VR using freely available software and 3D assets. Prof. Dan Pacheco will draw upon material from his Virtual Reality Storytelling class at the S.I. Newhouse School to provide practical steps for creating interactive scenes in Unity3D that can be exported for web and the Oculus Rift. This will include demos and a deep-dive into Harvest of Change, the virtual reality journalism project he managed for The Des Moines Register and Gannett Digital, and some of the final projects from students in VR Storytelling. In addition, he will bring a 360° GoPro camera rig and stitching software to demonstrate how 360° videos can be produced and loaded onto the Samsung GearVR and into Unity3D VR environments.

"Dan Pacheco, the journalism innovation chair at S.I. Newhouse School of Public Communications, came on board this summer as Gannett Digital's innovator in residence to work on the project. There is huge potential for virtual reality experiences even outside journalism, he says. "When the next great Lexus car comes out or some kind of hybrid or even Tesla, these brands can begin to stop telling people about how cool their cars are. They're going to say, 'Jump inside. Take it for a virtual test drive.' People will do that," Pacheco said."