At the 2016 Intel Developer Forum (IDF), Brian Krzanich, Intel CEO, said their were four themes to the event. The first was redefining the experience of computing. The second was building a world of visual intelligence. The third was a cloud designed for innovation. The last was empowering the next generation of innovators. He said that nothing has redefined computing as much as VR since the introduction of the personal computer.
He introduced Project Alloy, an all-in-one VR headset that is wireless and self-contained with compute and sensors included in the headset. Intel will open source Alloy hardware and software as well as the RealSense API in the second half of 2017. According to Terry Myerson, EVP of the Windows and Devices Group (WDG) at Microsoft, the Hololens is built on Intel’s Cherry Trail processors and will be standard in all Win 10 PCs, with a release spec on Windows 10 and head mounted devices (HMD), by December 2016. Microsoft’s unreal Engine for Content Creation is a 10-core Broadwell-E system that can render twice as fast as a 4-core processor.
Intel’s 360 Replay allows viewing the last game of the NBA finals from any angle. This technology stitches together an array of HD cameras to get a model of the entire volume of the stadium. This is being installed in a number of stadiums across the US. Intel is also putting together a VR-oriented studio in LA called VXL Labs for video production.
Intel and Microsoft join many other technology companies creating a new VR ecosystem. With the rise of VR, and IoT technologies in and around the home, data movement within and outside the home will increase. It was estimated that the average internet user will be responsible for about 1.5 GB of internet traffic per day and generate about 7.5 GB of data per day by 2020. Autonomous vehicles and smart cities with sensors and embedded machine learning will further increase the demand for digital bandwidth and storage for consumer and industrial applications.
Virtual Reality will have a significant impact on digital storage requirements for movies and other video content in the next few years. According to the 2016 Digital Storage in Media and Entertainment Report from Coughlin Associates (www.tomcoughlin/techpapers) in 2016 21% of high-end movie content will be 3D or VR based. 5% of mid-range and 2% of low-end movies will be 3D or VR based in 2016. We expect this to rise to 27% of high end, 30% of mid-range and 20% of low-end movies to use multiple cameras for video capture by 2021.
Broadcast and Episodic TV content is expected to move to multiple camera VR project as well, although not at the rate of movies. Video games, sporting events and music and other short form videos will probably be the biggest near term drivers of multi-camera VR projects. Altogether, multiple camera video projects will be a significant driver of storage capacity and bandwidth in the next decade. Total estimated media and entertainment captured and created content by 2021 is about 230 Exabytes.
Higher bandwidth and processing requirements as well as greater memory and storage capacity will be needed to process the wave of VR, IoT and smart everything applications that are driving tomorrow’s brave new world. Virtual reality and other means to model and represent the real and imagined world will give people vast new powers to entertain, understand and protect the world around them.
