OTOY • Making VR web browsing better: OTOY and Samsung match your environment to the site you’re visiting, allow you to customize your experience

Jointly developed web specification to allow pages to load a VR environment around the browser, supported first in Samsung Internet for Gear VR

NEW YORK, New York – August 2, 2016 – Cloud graphics company, OTOY Inc., and Samsung Electronics today unveiled a new way for brands to be a part of the VR revolution, and for people everywhere to better enjoy their browsing experiences in VR. At Samsung’s Unpacked press events around the world, the two companies revealed an improved browsing experience in Samsung Internet for Gear VR that allows web pages to specify VR environments that appear around the browser, or for users to choose their favorite VR vistas to enhance their browsing experiences.

The feature is akin to setting your wallpaper on your phone or computer, except you’re completely immersed in the scene in VR, able to look around and explore as if you’re standing in a new world. The technology makes use of high quality, 360-degree stereo cubemaps rendered in OTOY’s ORBX format, an approach that was popularized in last year’s “Render the Metaverse” contest for the Gear VR that saw the creation of hundreds of extraordinary 360-degree panoramas available in the contest’s gallery.

The ability to customize your browsing environment is available now in the Samsung Internet and ORBX Media Player applications for the Gear VR. OTOY and Samsung are also collaborating on a web specification to allow any web page to specify a virtual scene to load in VR browsers, providing new opportunities for brands to build a footprint in VR, integrating their IP into a holistic browsing experience for consumers.

“Imagine going to the website of a new film and standing in the middle of that movie’s world while you browse, going to your favorite sports site and suddenly being in the arena where the big game is happening, or visiting a news organization’s site and being transported to where the top story is being told from. Today’s announcement transforms VR browsing for both people and brands, harnessing the visual fidelity of OTOY’s VR technology and the incredible quality of the Samsung Gear VR to deliver a beautiful, customized experience, starting with the Samsung Internet application today, and expanding to all VR browsers in the near future,” said Jules Urbach, Founder and CEO, OTOY.

The new Samsung Internet application lets consumers choose from a wide range of remarkable VR scenes to customize their browsing experience, from fantastic worlds pulled from the pages of science fiction stories, to serene scenes that invoke rest and relaxation. For companies looking to extend their brands to VR browsing, OTOY and Samsung are working with select partners to develop unique branded experiences. Those experiences along with details regarding the web specification and process for all organizations looking to add this functionality to their sites will be announced in the near future.

About OTOY Inc.

OTOY Inc. is the definitive cloud graphics company, pioneering technology that is redefining content creation and delivery for media and entertainment organizations around the world. OTOY’s Academy Award®-winning technology is used by leading visual effects studios, artists, animators, designers, architects, and engineers, providing unprecedented creative freedom, new levels of realism, and new economics in content creation and distribution powered by the cloud. For more information, visit www.otoy.com.

Additional Resources:

Stay tuned to the OTOY news blog as more information will be posted here shortly leading up to the release of the browser tags and API.
Read more about Samsung Internet for Gear VR here and see early technical specs of the technology here.
See all the news from the Samsung Unpacked event here.
Read more about the “Render the Metaverse” VR scene contest here.
Browse the gallery of 360-degree VR panoramas here.
Follow OTOY on Facebook and Twitter.