Join the Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality Discussion in the AR/VR Google+ Community

By
Ben Lang
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2

One of the things that makes virtual reality so alluring is the immeasurable possibilities. With minimal hardware these days you can transport yourself to a virtual world where you could literally rewrite the laws of physics if you wanted to. Virtual reality and augmented reality are going to change life as we know it. Things that are happening today are going to ripple through time and powerfully affect the future.

I love to discuss/imagine/brainstorm about VR and AR for these reasons, and there’s no better way to do that than collaboratively. While this blog is a great way to keep people abreast of the latest interesting news, there’s lot’s of fascinating discussion that happens on the sidelines that everyone can participate in. With that said, I’ve started a Google+ community for VR and AR that I encourage you all to join and jump into the conversation of the future of these amazing technologies.

Join the discussion at the Google+ Community: ‘Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality’!

Another Oculus Rift ‘Fan Ad’

By
Ben Lang
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0

Oculus Rift Fan Ad Andreas

Here’s another cool Oculus Rift ‘fan ad’ by Andreas Aronsson (click to enlarge)! A bit wide for a two-page magazine spread, but still cool ; ). What do you think?

Project Holodeck Goes to the Game: Next Exhibition in Dublin

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Ben Lang
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0

project holodeck game next dublin

Project Holodeck is an effort out of USC to create a multiplayer virtual reality gaming platform that offers full avatar embodiment and immersive first-person gameplay. Some members of the Project Holodeck team made the lengthy trek from the States to Dublin, Ireland to showcase the project at the ‘Game: Next’ exhibition, a 4-day look at experimental gaming technology and the future of gaming, at the Science Gallery

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Google Glass with Prescription Lenses Spotted in the Wild in NYC

By
Ben Lang
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1

google glass spotted in new york city

A friend spotted someone wearing a prototype Google Glass HMD in New York City and shot me this photo. You can see that the Glass unit has prescription lenses, something that hasn’t been seen in public until now. This is one of several other styles that we’ve seen, including sunglasses and no lenses.

It’s interesting to see this in NYC; Project Glass is the creation of the company’s semi-secret ‘Google X Lab’ which is likely located close to Google headquarters in California. The company does have offices nationally (including New York) and internationally, but it is unknown if the company has distributed Google Glass prototypes outside of the Google X Lab.

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Oculus Rift News Bits: Palmer Luckey Talks Oculus Rift and VR at Evolve London 2012

By
Ben Lang
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oculus rift hmd head mounted display evolve london 2012
A conference attendee tries on the Oculus Rift (photo credit)

Last week Palmer Luckey took the stage as a keynote speaker at Evolve 2012 in London. The conference is an “event exploring everything that’s cutting edge and innovative in game development – new platforms, new technologies, new business models and new markets.” Luckey, who is the founder of Oculus Inc. and inventor of the Oculus Rift HMD, had the headlining speech on virtual reality.

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A Brief History of Virtual Reality, Starring the Forte VFX1 Head Mounted Display

By
Ben Lang
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2

forte vfx1 head mounted display history of virtual reality

I just stumbled across this excellent video showing a brief history of virtual reality. The video is from the YouTube channel Silicon Classics. It focuses mainly on the Forte VFX1 head mounted display but also gives a great overview of many other products surrounding its release. Real modern footage of the Forte VFX1 in action shows just how far we’ve come since the 1990s virtual reality bubble.

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Oculus Rift Fan Ad

By
Ben Lang
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12

oculus rift hmd ad concept

Here’s something a bit different: a ‘fan ad’ I whipped up for the Oculus Rift head mounted display. This is just a concept that popped up while thinking about how Oculus Inc. might market the Oculus Rift 2.0 HMD (consumer version). What do you think?

Book of Spells Review; Harry Potter Augmented Reality Game on PS3

By
Ben Lang
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0

wonderbook book of spells dragon fire augmented reality game

Last month Sony launched Book of Spells, a Harry Potter augmented reality game that takes advantage of the PlayStation Move and new ‘Wonderbook’ peripheral. The game, which is intended for children, uses the Wonderbook as a tracking marker for the PlayStation Eye camera. The PlayStation Move is used as a wand. Together the peripherals appear to create a quite compelling augmented reality game world. But is it any fun?

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Free AR App Idea: Keyboard Trainer

By
Ben Lang
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augmented reality piano trainer ar app idea
Photo Credit

If you’ve been following along for a bit here at Road to VR, you know I’ve got a chip on my shoulder when it comes to AR. So far we’ve seen few  useful implementations of augmented reality. The technology exists to convincingly overlay virtual imagery onto our real world, but so far there’s no ‘killer app’ or usage scenario that is driving adoption of AR. So here’s a free idea for an augmented reality app: the keyboard trainer. First come, first served!

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Oculus Rift News Bits: Prototype Review and New Display Details

By
Ben Lang
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9

Time for a catch up on the latest Oculus Rift news. In this edition of ORNB we look at an Oculus Rift review of a prototype developer kit and learn details about the new 7″ display that the head mounted display is now using. Just learning about the Oculus Rift HMD? Click here to get caught up.

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Minecraft Reality AR App Let’s Players Import Creations Into the Real World

By
Ben Lang
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1

minecraft augmented reality appMinecraft Reality is an AR app created by 13th Lab in Conjunction with Minecraft developer Mojang. The app, which is currently only available for iOS devices, allows users to place Minecraft creations in the real world as augmented reality objects. Minecraft Reality uses PointCloud, a free software engine for iOS which is capable of simultaneous localization and mapping (also known as SLAM), also developed by 13th Lab.

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What is Virtual Reality?

By
Ben Lang
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what is virtual reality headset
A head mounted display developed in 1985 by Jim Humphries and Mike McGreevy at NASA’s Ames Research Center – photo credit

This sounds like a simple question, but it is one that I’ve been meaning to discuss. Without a foundation, everything we talk about on this site is more or less floating somewhere in abstract space. To ground the subject, and to truly understand it, we must ask and define: what is virtual reality?

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Google Glass New York Fashion Week Gallery

By
Ben Lang
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0

dvf palazzo 2013 collection with google glass

In the world of technology reporting, it’s rare to have a good excuse to stare at beautiful women. Let’s indulge while we have the opportunity — as I noted earlier, Google Glass walked the runway in September during New York Fashion Week at the DvF Spring 2013 collection showing. Not all of the models wore the Google glasses but I’ve compiled a gallery of photos from the show of those models that did. Here we see many colors of Google’s lightweight HMD that haven’t been previously revealed. Google has previously shown off glasses and sunglasses versions as well.

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Google Glass News Bits: Panoramic Photo Mode, Models Wear Glass on the Runway

By
Ben Lang
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0
model wearing blue google glass
Photo courtesy AP/WSJ

This one slipped under my radar but I think it’s worth a mention. Back in September, Spencer Ante of the Wall Street Journal spoke with Google co-founder Sergey Brin and got a brief exclusive preview of Google Glass (sometimes mistakenly refered to as Google Glasses!). During his time wearing the Google Glass display, Sergey showed Spencer a panoramic viewing mode — a capability not previously revealed. Glass also had a debut on the runway at New York Fashion week.

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Oculus Rift Developer Kit Delayed Until March; New Prototype Photos, Larger Screen

By
Ben Lang
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13

oculus rift prototype side

Not the best news for backers of the Oculus Rift Kickstarter this morning — Oculus Inc. has announced that shipment of the Oculus Rift developer kit has been delayed until March. The company also says that they’re moving up to a larger 7″ screen with better performance. They’ve released new photos of the latest Oculus Rift prototype and it’s definitely looking good!

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