Excerpts: “In contrast, inside-out tracking places the sensors within the headset itself, removing the need for external tracking sensors. It relies on the headset to interpret depth and acceleration cues from the real-world environment in order to coordinate the user’s movement in VR” (p. 32).

“Eye tracking has the potential to make a user’s experience in VR much more intuitive. Most of the current generation of headsets (outside of entries such as the FOVE) determine only where the user’s head is turned, not necessarily where the user is actually looking” (p. 44).

“In order to place the robot behind the table leg, the simulation software has to understand the 3D space and not just see a collection of pixels. It needs to view the scene and be able to calculate what should be in the foreground, what should be in the background, and where the digital hologram should fit into all this. It needs to understand what “under the table” means and know which parts of the table are farther forward in space than others. That is not easy to achieve” (p.73).

“A number of mid-tier headsets appear to be fine with only allowing 3DoF. That choice does make those mid-tier headsets that offer full 6DoF, such as the Santa Cruz, stand out from the crowd” (p. 93).

“Most headsets appear to be unconcerned with improving on around a 110-degree range, far lower than our ability to perceive 200 degrees. This likely points to FOV being a prohibitively expensive problem to solve” (p. 93).

“Tools are emerging to assist in creating rapid virtual environmental prototypes. Tools such as StoryBoard VR, Sketchbox, and Moment were all designed with VR and AR in mind, taking advantage of the strengths and working around the weaknesses of both” (p. 166).

“The Blender community is large and diverse, and there are many tutorials available for learning Blender — from the Blender site itself, to YouTube, to Blender For Dummies (Wiley). For those just starting out in 3D modeling, Blender is a great way to test the waters and start your journey” (p. 171).

“You need to understand things such as polygon counts, 3D file types, and texturing to ensure that the assets you’re downloading will work for your application” (p. 174).

“Unity and Unreal Engine are two of the most popular game engines available to the general public. They’ve been used to create everything from simple mobile games, to desktop software, to extremely high-end gaming titles and everything in between” (p. 185).

“Many development environments offer the ability to export to mobile AR devices, but you can also develop mobile AR applications directly using the SDKs created for developing Apple and Android mobile applications” (p. 189).

“Most of these VR experiences for the web are powered by WebVR. WebVR is a JavaScript application programming interface (API) that enables you to create immersive 3D experiences within your browser” (p. 190).

“Web applications such as Amazon Sumerian and PlayCanvas contain many of the same features that game engines such as Unity or Unreal offer, but with a focus on creating online experiences” (p.194).

“You may create VR content with a specific application or method of distribution in mind. Or you may want to create and share simple content, such as 360-degree photos or videos, without developing an application to do so. Distributing 360-degree video content has become much easier, with platforms such as YouTube, Vimeo, and Facebook enabling 360-degree video on their respective platforms” (p. 199).

“Tilt Brush at its core, isn’t a 3D modeling tool like Google Blocks. It’s distinctly a drawing and painting application. However, instead of drawing in two dimensions, as most drawing programs allow, Tilt Brush permits users to draw in all three dimensions, providing your drawings with width, height, and depth” (p. 204).

“AR/MR is not just headsets, glasses, and mobile devices. AR is anything that augments a user’s reality with digital information on top of real-world environments” (p.241).

“Perinno-Uno is a remote collaboration platform with AR capabilities. It’s built on top of two application: Uno, a browser-based app that allows communication via WebRTC, and Perinno, an AP application currently available for the Microsoft HoloLens” (p. 247).

“OpenXR is a group of VR/AR/MR/XR experts and companies aiming to seeing a set of standards for VR and AR. These standards should make it simpler to create and develop VR and AR hardware and software that works across multiple devices” (p. 260).

“Hyperspace is focused on build large-scale XR experiences where users can move around a physical set built specifically for the VR experience the player is being shown in the headset. The VR headset provides the visuals, and the physical environment provides the rest. Touch, sound, smell, and elemental effects such as wind, heat, and cold are all carefully manufactured to align with the VR visuals” (p. 263).

“Expanding the timeline out for far-future predictions, it’s easy to imagine a form factor that merges both VR and AR into a single device. Such a device could turn fully opaque and closed off to display VR experiences or turn transparent with overlays to allow AR experiences. It would be small enough to be portable, yet powerful enough to deliver an amazing graphic experience. That device is just a pipe dream for now, but so were immersive consumer VR headsets only five years ago. And look where we are today” (p. 264).

“I think the AR transition will happen first. I think cellphones are going away, and it will make the transition to AR easier. What we use cellphones for currently will be incorporated into AR devices. And looking at a 2D screen is going to be so yesterday. The generation of children growing up now is going to be laughing at us and our primitive cellphone technology” (p. 272).

“AR just adds additional complexity. If a device can pull off a convincing AR experience (that is, truly make it feel like 3D holograms inhabit your physical world), that same device is likely powerful enough to pull off a convincing VR experience” (p. 273).

Mealy, Paul. (2018). Virtual & Augmented Reality for Dummies. Hoboken, New Jersey: John Wiley & Sons, Inc.