Oculus Rift Update: Pilot Run, Vision Correction, and Manufacturing Behind-the-scenes (on schedule!)

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Ben Lang
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oculus rift palmer luckey development kit pilot run
Palmer Luckey holds the first Oculus Rift developer kit from a successful pilot run.

Oculus Inc. just dropped a big update on the Oculus Rift VR headset. Highlights include a successful initial pilot run at the factory, ‘eyecups’ to help those with less than perfect vision, an adjustable assembly if you want to use your glasses, and lots of behind-the-scenes info from the factory floor in China. Perhaps the best news of all is that the Oculus Rift is on schedule to ship the first batch in March!

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Half Life 2 Modded for Oculus Rift Virtual Reality — Independent Head and Gun Movement [video]

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Ben Lang
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half life 2 virtual reality headtracking

half life 2 virtual realityHere’s a brief video showing the work of Nathan Andrews who is modding Half Life 2 for virtual reality and the Oculus Rift. In almost all modern first-person shooters, where you look and where you aim are one in the same. Andrews has separated the two which enables the ability to aim your gun one way while looking another. Combined with a gun-prop and VR headset, this makes for an immersive and natural playing experience.

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Oculus Rift News Bits: Late Night with Jimmy Fallon, Production Factory Photos, Johnny Chung Lee Visits, CES Awards [video]

By
Ben Lang
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oculus rift vr headset late show jimmy fallon

The Oculus Rift VR headset made a guest appearance on the Late Night Show with Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday and we’ve got the video for you. Oculus Inc. has posted a few photos of the production factory and Johnny Chung Lee visiting the offices. We also recap CES 2013 awards received by the Oculus Rift.

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Google Glass Foundry Event Locked Down with Strict NDA

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Ben Lang
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sarah price google glass
Sarah Price, Google Glass Community Advocate – photo credit: Max Braun

Google is set to hold two ‘Glass Foundry’ developer events for Google Glass at the end of January and early February. While we’ve been hoping to get fresh details out of the event, it sounds like we’ll have to rely on leaks — Google has sent a strict non-disclosure agreement (NDA) to developers who will be attending the event.

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Sony HMZ-T2 Now Shipping in Canada, May Never Reach U.S.

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Ben Lang
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0

sony hmz-t2 vr headset head mounted display

The Sony HMZ-T2 head mounted display / VR headset is now available for purchase in Canada. Back in October we caught the HMZ-T2 HMD available in a number of countries for some other outrageous prices. Sony Canada brings the price down a bit, but it’s still even more expensive than original HMZ-T1. Additionally, Sony U.S. has yet to roll out the HMZ-T2 and it’s possible that they never will.

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Former Activision Executive Laird Malamed Joins Oculus Inc.

By
Ben Lang
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Laird Malamed oculus inc bio photo
Laird Malamed

Despite all of the company’s success with the Oculus Rift at CES 2013, Oculus Inc. is still a young startup. The company has had open spots for several senior positions for a few months now (see their Careers page). The latest name to join the Oculus team is Laird Malamed who takes the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO). Malamed was formerly the Senior Vice President of publisher Activision. Here’s his official description from Oculus:

Laird is a 20-year veteran of the entertainment industry. Malamed was Sr. Vice President and head of development at Activision Blizzard overseeing software, hardware and manufacturing for products such as Guitar Hero, Call of Duty and Skylanders. Malamed earned a joint BS degree from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Aeronautical & Astronautical Engineering and Film & Media Studies. He attended the Graduate School of Cinematic Arts at USC where he is currently an adjunct professor in the Interactive Media Division.

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Innovega Demonstrates Progress on iOptik Contact Lenses for Augmented Reality [video]

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Ben Lang
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innovega ioptik augmented reality contacts

The last time we heard from Innovega was back in April. They demonstrated their iOptik contact lens which allows users to focus their view on images that are extremely close to the eye. At CES 2013 last week, Innovega showed off it’s latest prototypes of the iOptik augmented reality system which combines contact lens with a low-profile head mounted display. The setup allows the creation of an AR display system which is compact but still retains a wide field of view.

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Google Glass Developer Update: Devs Invited to ‘Glass Foundry’ Event

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Ben Lang
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Google Glass Pre-order Token. Photo courtesy Techno Buffalo.
Google Glass Pre-order Token – photo courtesy Techno Buffalo

Google has sent out invites to a developer-focused event for Google Glass, the company’s upcoming wearable head mounted display. They’re calling it ‘Glass Foundry’ and it will be a two day ‘hackathon’ held in two locations: San Francisco and New York City. The invite is supposedly going out to those who pre-ordered the $1500 Google Glass ‘Explorer Edition’ at last year’s Google I/O conference. High profile developers are likely on the invite list as well. At the event developers will have access to Google Glass prototypes and begin learning how to build applications for the device.

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Ibex Virtual Reality Desktop Environment News: Mac Beta, Windows Version Possible

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Ben Lang
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Looking into Ibex through an HMD: display output is warped to correct for the Oculus Rift's high-FoV lenses
Looking into Ibex through an HMD: output is warped to correct for the Oculus Rift’s high-FoV lenses

Ibex is virtual reality desktop environment (let’s call it a VRDE) which allows you to float desktops of arbitrary number and dimensions around you in a virtual space. Combined with a head mounted display, Ibex creates a 360 degree virtual world where you can do your computing. The sole developer behind the project, Hesham Wahba, continues to work on the Ibex VRDE in preparation for the Oculus Rift VR headset / head mounted display. Wahba has now launched a beta of Ibex for Mac which users can test even without an HMD.

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Valve Ports Team Fortress 2 for VR Headsets, Likely Oculus Rift, More Details at GDC 2013

By
Ben Lang
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Team Fortress 2 now supports the Oculus Rift

tf2 team fortress 2 oculus rift virtual reality

Valve, the famous developer who has demonstrated a particular interest in virtual reality, has ported the ever-popular Team Fortress 2 for use with VR headsets. This confirmation comes from the Game Developers Conference (GDC) website which has announced two keynotes to be given by Valve employees; one of which will talk explicitly about a “virtual reality version of TF2.”

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Oculus Rift CES 2013 Interview with Palmer Luckey

By
Ben Lang
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palmer luckey ces 2013 interview

Here’s another interview from CES 2013 with details on the Oculus Rift head mounted display / VR headset. Again, we’ve heard most of it already, but if you’re like me you’re soaking up every scrap of info you can. In this interview Palmer Luckey, the creator of the Oculus Rift, talks to his long-time virtual friend Neil Schneider for the first time in person.

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Update, Video Removed: See the Behind-closed-doors Oculus Rift CES 2013 Press Presentation [video]

By
Ben Lang
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The Oculus Rift developer kit - image courtesy Tested.com
The Rift developer kit – image courtesy Tested.com

Update (1/14/13, 1:15pm): The video has been removed from YouTube by the user. It is not clear why; Oculus may have asked them to. I’ll see if I can track down another video.

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Last week Oculus Inc. demoed their Oculus Rift head mounted display (HMD) / VR headset alongside thousands of other companies present at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas. The annual show is one of the largest technology conferences in the world. As I pointed out a few days ago, the press raved about it at the show. Now you can take a reporter’s-side seat and see the behind-closed-doors Oculus Rift press demo as it was given at CES 2013.

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Sony Ad Campaign Uses CAVEs to Promote the PlayStation Store

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Ben Lang
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sony cave great films fill rooms

A Cave Automatic Virtual Environment (CAVE) is a virtual reality system that immerses the user in a virtual space using a small room with blank walls, projectors, and head tracking. Recently we talked about what it looks like to be inside of a CAVE and saw one used in a music video. The director of said music video pointed me to a series of videos, which are worth watching, wherein Sony uses a CAVE to create cool live virtual imagery.

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Xsens Demonstrates Camera-less Full Body Motion Tracking at CES 2013

By
Ben Lang
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xsens mtx full body motion tracking capture

At CES 2013, Xsens is demonstrating a camera-less full body motion tracking system which could be used for virtual reality gaming and other applications. The company, which provides professional motion capture systems for film and industrial uses, is now hoping to provide affordable full body motion capture for consumer experiences.

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Oculus Rift HMD at CES 2013 Roundup — Praise and More Praise

By
Ben Lang
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oculus rift prototype

Oculus Inc is that CES 2013 this year and the Oculus Rift is getting plenty of attention. The company isn’t making any new announcements, though they are giving demos of the VR headset to press at CES. In this post I’ll be pointing you’ll find fresh interviews and hands-on demos that are coming out of CES 2013 this week.

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