Road to VR

On the Hunt for VR’s Killer App with Vive’s China President, Alvin Wang Graylin

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Mar 13, 2017

Everyone in the VR industry can envision a world in the next 10 years that’s radically changed by virtual reality. From healthcare, education, social, training, cinema, gaming, and more, VR has a lot of Killer Use-cases. But it seems most of the industry is in agreement that the Killer App—a single, platform-defining piece of software that compels buyers—has not yet arrived. Vive’s Alvin Wang Graylin weighs in on how we might come to find it.

Google Patent Shows Smartphone Packaging that Doubles as a VR Headset

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 13, 2017

A recently published Google’s patent application describes an ‘Integrated mobile device packaging and virtual reality headset’. The concept is to provide a ‘relatively low cost’ VR headset solution by shipping the smartphone in packaging that doubles as a VR viewer.

The Guru 360° is a Clever Portable Stabiliser for 360° Cameras

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 13, 2017

The Guru 360° is the first 3-axis gimbal designed specifically for 360-degree cameras. Adding to the flexibility of the MOZA interchangeable gimbal system, the unit works with all lightweight 360-degree cameras with minimal obstruction to the field of view.

CNN Launches New Immersive Journalism Initiative, CNNVR

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 13, 2017

CNN has officially launched CNNVR, a new immersive journalism unit and virtual reality platform with CNN Digital. Capturing major news events in 360 video, the global team will produce weekly virtual reality experiences and live streams.

Google Job Listings Point to New “Mass Production” AR/VR Hardware in the Pipeline

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Mar 12, 2017

google-hq — Photo courtesy Google

Google launched the Daydream View headset late last year, the company’s first virtual reality hardware product. As a smartphone clip-in headset, the View is a relatively simple device which leaves the bulk of the work up to the host smartphone. A slew of recent job postings however suggest significant new AR/VR hardware in the works from Google.

Tobii Recommends Explicit Consent for Recording Eye Tracking Data

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Mar 11, 2017

The eye tracking company Tobii had some VR demos that they were showing on the GDC Expo Hall floor as well as within Valve’s booth. They were primarily focusing on the new user interaction paradigms that are made available by using eye gazing to select specific objects, direct action, but also locomotion determined by eye gaze. I had a chance to catch up with Johan Hellqvist, VP products and integrations at Tobii, where we discussed some of the eye tracking applications being demoed. We also had a deeper discussion about what type of eye tracking data should be recorded and the consent that application developers should secure before capturing and storing it.

‘Obduction’ Adds Motion Control, Coming to Vive and Oculus Touch This Month

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 11, 2017

Cyan’s spiritual successor to Myst is launching with all-new motion control support on March 22nd for HTC Vive and Oculus Touch. The game originally released on Steam in August 2016, receiving initial VR support for the Rift in October.

Leap Motion’s New 180-degree Hand-tracking Comes to Qualcomm’s Latest VRDK Headset

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Mar 11, 2017

Qualcomm has debuted an updated version of their VR Headset Reference Design now with Leap Motion’s new 180-degree hand-tracking to bring gesture control to mobile VR headsets. The new headset and Leap Motion tracking module was shown off during last week’s GDC 2017.

Deepening Social Presence with SMI Eye Tracking

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Mar 10, 2017

At GDC this year, SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) showed a couple of new eye tracking demos at Valve’s booth. They added eye tracking to avatars in the social VR experiences of Pluto VR and Rec Room, which provided an amazing boost to the social presence within these experience.

‘Waltz of the Wizard’ ‘Ghostline’ Analytics Reveal Some Surprising Player Behaviour

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 9, 2017

Aldin Dynamics has released a detailed breakdown of user data gathered during over 300,000 sessions of Waltz of the Wizard gameplay. Launched in May 2016, the motion-controlled VR game was developed with the insights gained from using Aldin’s own data visualisation tool Ghostline.

‘AirMech: Command’ Gets Major Oculus Touch Update, Launches on Steam VR

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 9, 2017

VR motion control comes to AirMech: Command, and the game has been released on Steam with support for multiple VR headsets and controllers through OpenVR. The game originally appeared as a launch title for the Oculus Rift in March 2016.

‘Bigscreen’ Social Computing Space Metrics Show Big Value for VR Power Users

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Mar 9, 2017

Bigscreen VR announced that they raised $3 million dollars for their “social utility” VR application. Bigscreen gives you access to your computer screen in VR, which is a deceptively simple idea but one that is unlocking new ways of working on your computer and enabling collaborative social environments that range from virtual 2D video game LAN parties to productive work meetings.

SteamVR Gets Beta Development Build with Support for Linux

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 9, 2017

steamvr-linux — Photo courtesy Phoronix

The beta channels for the Steam client and SteamVR now support Linux. As a development build, the selection of Linux-supported SteamVR games is very limited, but Valve says the build aims to let developers begin making VR content that supports the open source operating system.

Students Hack Positional Tracking onto Gear VR with SteamVR Tracking

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Dominic Brennan

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Mar 8, 2017

In a reverse engineering exercise, two students at Utah State University have hacked positional tracking onto a Gear VR headset using SteamVR Tracking technology. Mobile VR solutions like Samsung’s Gear VR currently employ rotational tracking only.

‘Neurospeculative Afrofeminism’: Using VR to Build the Future You Want to Live Into

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Mar 8, 2017

Hyphen Labs is a immersive design collective made up of women of color, and they were showing a sci-fi VR experience at Sundance this year called Neurospeculative Afrofeminism. Their VR experience features black women as some of the pioneers of brain optimization, and you get to experience a futuristic neurocosmotology lab where you can receive transcranial stimulation. As you get this neuroplasticity treatment, you’re transported into a magical world that features speculative products that feature women of color as the center of the design narrative.

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