'Sleepy Hollow' for Oculus wins first virtual reality Emmy
Virtual reality has officially become mainstream, as an Emmy has been awarded to a work created for a VR headset (the Oculus Rift DK2) for the first time. The Sleepy Hollow Virtual Reality Experience (below), co-produced by Fox and Toronto-based Secret Location, won in the "Interactive Media, User Experience and Visual Design" category. It debuted at Comic-Con, and gave thousands of Oculus Rift users the unique gift of seeing what it would be like to have their heads cut off and held aloft by the Headless Horseman. You can view it yourself on Oculus Share if you have a Rift DK2.
Another Emmy was handed to the team behind the AMEX Unstaged: Taylor Swift Experience app, a 360-degree video based on the singer's Blank Space music video, which has been viewed over a billion times. The experience lets users look around the entire scene, follow Swift and look for hidden clues. However, it was designed for a smartphone or tablet and not a headset, so falls outside what most folks would call virtual reality. Nevertheless, Swift was clearly well pleased, and the awards will no doubt motivate producers and artists to create similar side projects and keep the VR snowball rolling.
[Thanks, Felipe!]
