GOOGLE, FROM PAGE 1:
CoMpany outlines operating systeM
efforts, demonstrated a video of a courtyard at the University of Washington. The video felt like an immersive version of the company’s Street View mapping product, which displays streetlevel views of city streets and historical sites.
Over time, the company is hoping this real-life version of virtual reality will grow into a vast collection of videos and experiences similar to how YouTube videos are shared now.
Google also said Thursday it had formed a partnership with GoPro to develop a version of its virtual reality recorder that anybody could buy. The companies did not list a price for the recorder, but given that it has 16 cameras that retail for $400 each, it is likely to be expensive.
Where any of this goes is anyone’s guess. One might imagine videos from the front row of a concert or a television channel filming breaking news in 3-D. At the same time, one might remember that Google has a history of announcing new products and initiatives that flop, such as Google Glass.
And virtual reality has for decades been the next big thing that never actually happened.
Now companies such as Facebook,SonyandMicrosoftareplacing big bets on both virtual reality, a computer-generated version of the world, as well as augmented reality, or AR, in which real-world experiences are enhanced with computer-generated images.
Analysts expect the first applications will be in video games. But in time, they say, virtual reality experiences could feature in a range of things such as business meetings and doctor’s appointments.
Mark Zuckerberg, Facebook’s chief executive, has on several occasions said he believed virtual reality could be the next computing platform. That belief is enough to drive significant investment.
“The shift from desktop to mobile caught so many off guard and so dramatically impacted the competitive landscape, every tech and media company is going to have to be prepared for just the possibility that VR/AR will becomethenextplatform,” wrote Ben Schachter, an analyst with Macquarie Securities.
At its conference, Google also announced Google Photos, a photo app that comes with free, unlimited storage of the uncountable numbers of photos that people amass on their devices. There were new search features that allow people to do things such as use their thumb to search for a restaurant in their text messages, instead of opening a new application.
In addition, the company outlined a new operating system, Brillo, that is based on Android and will allow household devices such as refrigerators and thermostats to talk to one another and their owner’s phone.
Beyond the virtual reality videos it plans on putting on YouTube, Google is using its Cardboard device in its growing education efforts.
Over the past year, the company has been running a trial called Expeditions in about 100 classrooms, in which teachers can use the viewers to take their students on a tour of world sites.
Last year, Google invested $542 million in Magic Leap, a Florida company that is developingaugmentedrealitytechnology that creates imaginative images such as an elephant that can fit in one’s hand.
And Bavor said the company had made “a significant investment” in virtual reality that goes well beyond the efforts presented at I/O.
He would not say how much money or how many full-time employees are dedicated to these efforts, but virtual reality has grown to occupy a small building on Google’s sprawling Mountain View campus.
“The upshot is we are making a big investment in VR and this whole space well beyond Cardboard,” Bavor said. “This reality-capture system and amazing software that powers it, that has been a yearlong investment and is just one of the many things we have brewing.”