Normally when we here at UploadVR share a YouTube video with you, it’s in 360 degrees. That’s not the case this time.
Here we have the new video for Coldplay’s latest single, Up&Up, taken from the band’s new album, A Head Full of Dreams. Why are we writing about it? Because the video takes a very creative look at how mixed reality (MR) technology could be used in the future.
It paints a bright picture; a puddle is transformed into a river with a bridge for a young girl to play with, a turtle swims in a subway, a soccer match is played out on top of a sponge that’s as green as any pitch, and a giant butterfly rests harmlessly on the side of an oil rig. Older footage is also remixed with gymnasts flipping over explosions and more.
The band also manage to work themselves into the video too, with singer Chris Martin at one point casually lying against a mountain range, while guitarist Jonny Buckland appears in the view of an airplane cockpit.
The reaction to the video has been incredibly positive, but many people probably don’t even realise that we’re not too far off of seeing these sights for real. MR tech is arguably just as exciting as VR, using see-through lenses to augment the real world with virtual 3D images, and there are some big companies working on it. Microsoft, for example, is now shipping its HoloLens MR HMD to developers, while Magic Leap continues to tease its much anticipated hardware.
Of course, there are some hurdles to overcome, the main one concerning price. HoloLens costs an amazing $3,000 in its current form, and there’s no word on how much Magic Leap might be. There are also concerns over issues such as field of view, but what we have now is a good start. We’ve seen these two use their hardware for Skype calls, 3D modelling and even videogames, but Coldplay’s latest gives a glimpse of the added beauty it might one day bring to the world at large. Here’s hoping that’s not too far off.
