Road to VR

Independent ‘Orion’ Video Shows Massive Improvements in Leap Motion Hand Tracking

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Feb 18, 2016

This week Leap Motion released ‘Orion’ a brand new made-for-VR hand tracking engine which works with their existing devices. Time and again we’ve seen promo videos from the company showing great tracking performance but then found it to be less than ideal across the broad range of real-world conditions. Now, an independent video showing the Orion engine in action demonstrates Leap Motion’s impressive mastery of computer vision.

Robert Scoble’s Mind was Blown by the Meta AR Glasses Demo

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Feb 18, 2016

Robert Scoble is veteran tech journalist who has seen thousands of demos, but last Thursday he saw a demo of the Meta Two AR galsses and it blew his mind. So much so that he told me that his life can now be separated into the two categories of “life before the Meta demo” and “life after the Meta demo.’ Robert hinted to me that he’s going to be making some significant changes over the next couple of months to put more of his focus into covering what’s happening in AR and VR space, and he decided at the last minute to fly out to Unity’s AR/VR Vision Summit to network with attendees. So what was it about the Meta Two demo that was so mind blowing for him, even more so than his first experience with the Oculus Crescent Bay prototype? I caught up with him at the vision summit where he talked about the Meta demo where he could place TV screens around the room, talk to holograms, and use natural gestures to have interactions with virtual objects that made him feel like he was living in Tony Stark’s futuristic lab.

FOX Sports and NextVR Sign Five Year VR Broadcasting Deal

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Feb 17, 2016

NextVR has been forging ahead with their plans to make immersive, live VR broadcasting a reality. Today, the company has announced a multi-year deal with FOX Sports to bring “virtual reality coverage of the nation’s top sporting events” to VR headsets.

Meta Shows Off Their Next-gen AR Glasses on Stage at TED

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Feb 17, 2016

Meta has remained relatively silent about the future of their hardware after raising a $23 million Series A early last year. But today at TED 2016 the company showed what they’ve been doing with the cash—crafting what appears to be a vastly improved next-generation AR headset.

Steven Spielberg Tries The VOID: “Woah, that was a great adventure!”

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Feb 17, 2016

Steve Spielberg headed into The VOID’s unique brand of free-roaming, mixed-reality VR experience at TED 2016, and it seems he was pleasantly surprised.

This is Why it’s Time for VR Audio to Shine

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Feb 17, 2016

Les Borsai from Dysonics, specialists in spatial audio, ponders whether spatial, 3D audio’s time has finally come with the advent of consumer ready virtual reality and what more needs to be done to keep it evolving.

Leap Motion Launches Overhauled Hand Tracking Engine That’s Made for VR

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Feb 17, 2016

Leap Motion formed prior to the VR craze, but it turns out that their goal of allowing you to use your own hands as a way to interact with computers jived quite nicely with virtual reality. In recent years the company has made a major pivot toward VR and it culminates today with ‘Orion’, an overhauled hand tracking engine built from the ground up for VR.

MindMaze Raises $100 Million with $1B Valuation for “Neural Virtual Reality Platform”

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Feb 17, 2016

MindMaze today announced closing a $100 million seed investment led by Hinduja Group which company says values them in excess of $1 billion.

Harrison Ford Enters The VOID’s VR Experience at TED 2016

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Feb 16, 2016

harrison-ford-the-void — See Also: Steven Spielberg Tries The VOID: “Woah, that was a great adventure!”

As we reported a little while back, The VOID team scored a spot at TED 2016 this week where they demo’d a special made-for-TED. Among the exclusive clientèle to experience the free-roaming, VR attraction was one, mildly famous, Harrison Ford.

Playful’s Paul Bettner on Defining the VR Platformer with Lucky’s Tale

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Feb 16, 2016

Paul Bettner is anxiously waiting for the Oculus Rift to launch so that he can finally see how real people react to what he’s been pouring his heart into over the past three years. Playful Corp’s Lucky’s Tale is going to be bundled with every Oculus Rift, and he’s biting his nails waiting to see how it will be received. The early indications are that it’s going to be a beloved platformer game that people associate as one of their earliest VR gaming experiences, which is why a lot of people have been saying that it’s the The Super Mario Brothers of VR. It’s a surprisingly immersive, incredibly compelling, and just a super fun game to play, and helps to define the genre of a VR platformer, which is why Oculus wanted to bundle it for free to everyone who buys a Rift.

I had the chance to catch up with Paul during the Sundance Film Festival to talk about the finishing polish on Lucky’s Tale & tuning the sweet spot of VR, what they’re working on next with the $25 million dollars they’ve raised, reflections on this moment leading up to the launch of the Rift, how far they’ve come over the past 3.5 years, and how this journey of the VR revolution all started for him.

A Quick-Start Guide to Foveated Rendering

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Feb 16, 2016

Foveated Rendering is one of the most discussed topics in Virtual Reality, promising to
power the headsets of the future. Here, Tom Sengelaub of SensoMotoric Instruments
gives his insight into the tech behind SMI’s latest project.

Preview: Explore and Plunder the Deep Sea with ‘Neptune Flux’

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Feb 16, 2016

It’s only really a matter of time until humanity befalls some Malthusian calamity, bringing with it roving bands of cannibals, face-eating pathogens, etc. etc. Don’t panic! Because in Neptune Flux, a friendly dystopian corporation is recruiting submarine technicians for their deep sea base, and you’re just the type they’re looking for.

5 Ways Startups Can Survive the VR Winter

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Feb 16, 2016

If you are part of a virtual reality startup, are you ready to survive the next 18 months?

New ‘Modbox’ Video Has Portals that Will Mess with Your Mind

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Feb 15, 2016

We got our hands on Alien Trap’s HTC Vive multi-player sandbox physics title at Unity’s Vision VR/AR Summit last week and loved its playful encouragement to create and destroy. Now, this latest video shows the developer’s tests with mind-bending portals.

VR Video Transition Pioneered by News Channel is the Best We’ve Seen Yet

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Feb 15, 2016

What do you get when you cross immersive video with a TV newscast? Belgian news channel VRT Nieuws today released a 360 video that could be the answer.

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