According to a leaked blog post, Qualcomm, one of the world’s leading semiconductor companies, has today announced that their latest SoC (system on chip) is not only 30% smaller, 27% more powerful and 40% more efficient then previous designs, it’s also designed to power next generation mobile VR and AR experiences.
The first VR headset for Window’s recently announced Holographic platform is almost here, and according to a report by The Verge, it’s going to cost between $300 and $400 when it goes on sale later this year.
NOLO VR is an intriguing Lighthouse-like positional tracking system designed to bring ‘room scale’ positional tracking and motion controls to mobile VR headsets. On top of that, the company is claiming SteamVR ‘compatibility’ through remote play via Riftcat’s VRidge software, all with an expected launch price of $99.
The holidays have come and gone, but Microsoft is still offering a $100 gift card with your purchase of the HTC Vive or Oculus Rift through their store.
In July, I was invited to give a talk about virtual reality at the bi-annual Illustration Conference with indie VR developer Ashley Pinnick, who studied as an artist and illustrator. On today’s Voices of VR podcast, we talk about the process of moving from 2D illustration to 3D VR art, some potential strategies for artists to get more involved in the process of virtual reality development, and the role of artists in creating digital avatars on the safe side of the Uncanny Valley.
We check back in with Blade Runner 9732, a stunningly detailed fan developed VR recreation of Deckard’s iconic flat from the original film. The project was recently updated showing some incredible progress, but despite its near final status, there’s one snag which is holding up its completion.
Cloud compute specialists Scalable Graphics are to debut a new 1 pound wireless PC VR solution compatible with both Oculus Rift and HTC Vive VR headsets at next weeks CES convention in Las Vegas.
Nokia has launched the OZO Player SDK, a cross-platform foundation for creating applications with high fidelity VR video playback. Road to VR spoke with Nokia’s Head of VR Technologies, Tarif Sayed to learn more about the offering.
Unearthed Inc: The Lost Temple is a puzzle adventure game that puts you in the shoes of a fresh recruit to a treasure hunting company. With telekinetic powers and an obligatory wise-cracking robot sidekick named Droid, you venture deep into the Amazonian jungle in search of the fabled Dragoon Egg. What follows is a magical adventure that at times can be positively breathtaking, and at other times hopelessly exasperating.
VR exclusive online military simulator Onward has been wowing room-scale VR audiences since its inception and now lone developer Dante Buckley has been invited to continue development under gaming giant Valve’s roof, at least for a short time.
Ilium VR are working on a new VR-centric gun peripheral which plans to use Valve’s SteamVR ‘Lighthouse’ tracking to bring realistic weapon control to virtual reality games.
THX has announced the development of a new audio amplifier chip which the company claims offers “the world’s lowest levels of distortion and noise,” along with “incredibly low power consumption,” positioning the amplifier for mobile VR headsets, wireless headphones, and VR PCs.
After a recent bout of news articles detailing an experimental Alzheimer’s Disease therapy that has showed promising results in mice, the child of an afflicted father made a plea to the VR community to create a VR app which would recreate the therapy with a VR headset.
The annual Consumer Electronics Show (CES) has served as a good way-point for VR’s progress over the years. With CES 2017 kicking off next week, here we take a look back at the highlights (and low-lights) from 4 years of VR at CES to gauge how far the industry has come and look for clues as to where it goes from here.
There’s been more than 30 years of research into the medical applications of virtual reality, but it’s not until the recent consumer VR revolution that the technology has been cost-effective enough to use. The research shows that the combination of immersion with interactivity can help to reduce pain up to 70%, and in some studies do as well or better as using morphine. AppliedVR was spun out of Lieberman Research Worldwide, and so they’ve been looking at previous medical VR research, creating new VR experiences, and then doing clinical research studies to prove out the efficacy of using virtual reality to manage pain and anxiety before, during, and after hospital procedures.
I had a chance to catch up with the President of AppliedVR Josh Sackman at the Experiential Technology Conference in May 2016. We talked about how VR can improve the overall patient experience metrics, the clinical metrics that VR could impact, and how VR can create a sense of connectedness, pleasure, and empowerment in patients. We also discuss the future of integrating biometric feedback like heart rate variability as a control input for VR experiences.
