Seismic Games Bring Marvel Superheroes And Blockbuster Movies To New Next-Level Mobile RPG And VR

The people who helped bring you Star Wars: Battlefront and several entries in the Call of Dutyseries are making waves again. This year, Seismic Games will release the innovative mobile role playing game Marvel Strike Force and the immersive virtual reality game Blade Runner: Revelations, tied to the recent film sequel Blade Runner 2049 starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford. As gaming increasingly leans toward major IP including big box office brands, the potential for VR, AR, and other innovative technologies to change how we experience entertainment -- including cinema -- grows.

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Occipital closes $12M more as it strives to build a ‘perception engine’

Sensors are growing more and more sophisticated as we build machines that can interpret the world with more precision than we can.

Occipital is aiming to do this as effectively and cheaply as possible as it morphs its 3D scanning technology into a product that can do much, much more. The company has closed $12 million of what it plans to be a $15 million Series C. The round is being led by the Foundry Group. The company has raised about $33 million to date.

With this round, Occipital is looking to expand its tracking platform into what it calls its “Perception Engine,” which will require it making some deeper moves into machine learning, pushing into technologies that reside outside of simply defining the geometry of a space. The startup wants its tracking tech to recognize people and identify objects.

SF-based Occipital has moved around a little bit within the tracking space as it’s sought to find a worthwhile niche. The company’s $379 Structure sensor allows users to 3D scan their environment and objects using the high-frame-rate depth camera that attaches to the back of an iOS device. Occipital’s Canvas software solution allows customers to use the camera to develop more refined CAD models. The company later introduced a mixed reality dev kit that brought positional tracking to the iPhone.

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Workers Get Faster Access to Wages With These New Apps

For more workers across America, every day is payday.

Uber Technologies Inc., McDonald’s Corp. and Bloomin’ Brands Inc.’s Outback Steakhouse are among a growing group of employers giving workers near-instant access to their wages through payday apps.

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One of VR's most annoying problems could be solved soon

Trying to navigate a room while wearing a VR headset? A company named Occipital has a self-contained solution to that problem.

When wandering around with a VR headset on, I'm afraid of going too far without someone to spot me. The reason is simple: I can't really see where I'm going. Odds of tripping over a chair or a table are extremely high.

One company seems to have tried to solve that problem, and I tried out the result deep in the noisy VR/AR subsection of CES in Las Vegas.

Occipital, a company based in Boulder, Colorado, focuses on 3D scanning hardware and depth-sensing cameras: One of its Structure camera sensor arrays works with both an iPhone mixed-reality headset and an upcoming home robot. Occipital's team put an HTC Vive VR headset on me, outfitted with an in-development feature that let me see the room even with my headset on. The technology is called Occipital Tracking. Its aim is to replace external room-sensing hardware completely, like the Oculus Rift'scumbersome stands or the Vive's light-emitting Lighthouse system, in favor of all in-headset tech.

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SEISMIC GAMES PARTNERS WITH ALCON MEDIA GROUP TO CREATE ‘BLADE RUNNER: REVELATIONS’ VR GAME FOR GOOGLE DAYDREAM PLATFORM

Los Angeles, CA – January 16th, 2018 – Seismic Games today announced that it has partnered with Alcon Media Group to develop Blade Runner: Revelations, an immersive new Adventure/Thriller VR gaming experience based on the award-winning Blade Runner series.  The title follows the critically acclaimed release of Blade Runner 2049 from Oscar nominated director Dennis Villeneuve, starring Ryan Gosling and Harrison Ford.   Created in conjunction with Google, Blade Runner: Revelations is included in the soon-to-be launched Lenovo Mirage Solo headset and on Google’s Daydream platform within the first half of this year.  The official game trailer is featured in the Blu-ray edition of Blade Runner 2049 which is available for purchase in stores and online today.

Blade Runner: Revelations is an all-new interactive story and full VR game experience based on the iconic Blade Runner universe, set shortly after the original film and leading up to the narrative of Blade Runner 2049.  Players assume the role of Harper, a seasoned blade runner who unravels a twisted replicant plot that threatens the delicate balance of Los Angeles in 2023. Users will search for evidence with the help of their flying spinner, deadly blaster, and esper image reconstruction to try to solve the mystery in an enthralling VR environment. 

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