Patent Pending Technology Leverages Crowd Sourced Data to Deliver Enhanced Online VR Viewing
PALO ALTO, Calif., Oct. 21, 2016
Jaunt Inc., the industry leader in cinematic virtual reality (VR), today announced several enhancements to provide viewers with an optimal experience when watching 360 content on the web. The company is previewing its patent-pending product, Compass, a data-driven automatic navigation for viewing VR content in a web browser. Compass leverages the aggregate of positional data available from VR headset viewing, to bring web viewers an auto guided experience based on established points of interest.
Prior to Compass, web viewers were required to manually pan right, left, up and down using the computer’s mouse or keyboard in order to see action taking place in all directions. With the Compass technology, viewers will instantly be guided through the experience based on data and insights on how and where the community of VR viewers engage with content in a VR headset. As the points of interest change throughout a VR experience, Compass instantly takes viewers there, resulting in a more natural and immersive experience.
Jaunt is previewing its Compass technology today on several popular VR experiences, and rolling it out more broadly over the coming weeks.
“Viewing videos on the Web is normally a lean-back experience – you press play and watch. When you force someone to manually interact with a video, that’s a bit unusual and can feel intrusive,” said Andrew Walkingshaw, principal software engineer at Jaunt. “With Compass, we’re giving our users a more relaxed experience, whether they choose to let Compass guide them through the whole experience, opt to pan back and forth between various areas of interest highlighted for them, or take control themselves – even there, the areas of interest Compass highlights reassures viewers they’re not missing out on anything.”
Additionally, Jaunt has enabled spatial audio for its web player. Using Google’s first-of-its-kind open source Omnitone library, Jaunt videos with ambisonic audio tracks are binaurally rendered directly on the Chrome browser. The resulting sound is positioned according to the point of view and controlled by the user.
“Audio is one of the most essential elements in the VR experience,” said Adam Somers, engineering manager at Jaunt. “Spatial audio provides users with a deeper and ultimately more authentic VR experience. We’re excited to roll out spatial audio to our web player giving users the most immersive experience possible.”
In addition to providing a superior viewing experience for consumers, Jaunt is continuously improving the data, insights and end-to-end publishing platform available to its directors and creators, continuously raising the bar for high quality VR content. Earlier this fall, Jaunt unveiled heatmaps, which share insight on where viewers are engaging with content over time. The Compass product is taking this heatmap technology one step further by leveraging the collected insights and putting them to use for content across all platforms. This continued innovation further establishes Jaunt as the leading hardware and software solution to produce and distribute the highest quality immersive cinematic VR experiences.
To experience Compass and Omnitone spatial audio capabilities on the Google Chrome browser now, visit www.jauntvr.com. The Jaunt VR App, including all content released to date, is available on iOS, Android, Gear VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and desktop browsers.
About Jaunt
Jaunt is the leading XR solutions provider, helping partners produce and distribute the full spectrum of immersive content (virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality). Through its full-service global production house, Jaunt Studios, and the Jaunt XR Platform’s state-of-the-art distribution technology, Jaunt enables companies to leverage XR to tell their stories in the emerging immersive age.
With a portfolio of over 350 groundbreaking productions, two Emmy nominations, one Emmy Award, and two Lumiere Awards, Jaunt Studios leverages creative discipline and innovative production capability to bring partners’ stories to life in XR.
To solve the challenges of distributing immersive experiences, the Jaunt XR Platform is a distribution technology upon which enterprise customers, media companies, and brands rely to share AR, VR, and MR content through their own channels.
Jaunt is a two-time selection for Fast Company’s World’s Most Innovative Companies and back-to-back selection for CNBC’s Disruptor 50 List. Headquartered in San Mateo, California, the company maintains Jaunt Studios in Los Angeles, an international headquarters in London, and a sales office in New York. In 2017, Jaunt established Shanghai-based Jaunt China, formed in partnership with Shanghai Media Group (SMG) and China Media Capital (CMC).
Jaunt’s investors include The Walt Disney Company, Evolution Media Partners, CMC, Highland Capital Partners, Redpoint Ventures, SMG, Axel Springer, ProSiebenSat.1 SE, The Madison Square Garden Company, Google Ventures, Peter Gotcher, and Sky. Experience more at www.jauntxr.com.
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