Snapchat to introduce “3D” feature (but is it 3D?)

As part of another movie promotion:

Screen Gems is partnering with Snapchat again on a 3D lens for its upcoming fifthquel Underworld: Blood Wars.

Source: ‘Underworld: Blood Wars’ Tie-In: Screen Gems & Snapchat Reteam | Deadline

From the various news reports, it sounds like its a 360 degree view. As you rotate your phone about, you see the full 360 degree panorama (or may be sphere). It does not sound like it is 3D at all.

PEOPLE Magazine’s Nov 30th issue includes a cardboard VR viewer

The free cardboard viewer is part of a movie promotion.

Pick up a copy of PEOPLE’s special issue, Star Wars: The Secrets of Rogue One, on newsstands Nov. 30. Inside the issue, you’ll find PEOPLE’s virtual-reality viewer, with instructions included.

Source: Rogue One: How to Assemble Your PEOPLE VR Viewer

4K/3D/120 fps theater experience, plus IMAX working on VR headsets for theaters

Source: Getting Real: Virtual Reality experiences eye the movie theatre environment | Film Journal International

Director Ang Lee is experimenting, and presenting, a 3D 4K 120 fps motion picture, but that version only shows in 5 cities, globally.

Elsewhere, IMAX is working on “theater-based VR”. The latter may begin with short (less than 15 minute) VR experiences in “IMAX VR Centres” located within theater complexes as a separate VR area – but initially as a marketing and technology experiment.

The article notes that for now, a lot of “gee whiz, I’ve got to see this VR thing” is driving interest. But eventually, VR-based content needs to deliver compelling content in the form of stories.

#AR Augmented Reality tech improved learning outcomes in educational setting

The results showed that AR-technology experience was beneficial especially for the pupils, who otherwise belong to the lowest achieving school success group. They were reaching up the gap with other students while learning science. On the other hand, the students with the high-performance school success gained more challenge and quality for the learning outcomes. Augmented Reality (AR) differs from Virtual reality (VR): VR is totally virtual and illusion, but AR creates mixed reality by adding visual elements into real, physical environment around us. This research group from the University of Helsinki has been doing research related to informal learning and Augmented Reality for more than a decade now. Now, only after the Pokémon phenomenon this AR-technolgoy has become known by wider audiences. However, many experts don’t consider the Pokémon technology as AR-solution, but as the recent Scientific American calls it as “location-based entertainment.”

Source: Augmented reality advances learning especially in informal science education context — ScienceDaily

Could the “Hawthorne Effect” been at work here? In other words, did the act of participating in the experiment influence the children? The press release does not say if this was considered in the experiment.