Extended Reality (XR) - Page 66

Microsoft wants to push augmented reality to the next level, and hopes it can use its HoloLens headset to win over customers. A recent US patent application indicates Microsoft could try to use HoloLens to help read and respond to wearers' stress levels, based on heart rate, pulse oximetry, sweat production, and other biometric signals.

"A person may experience stress that is related to a situation or current context," according to the Microsoft patent application. "For example, a person may have difficulty performing a task and grow frustrated as the number of unsuccessful attempts at completing the task grows."

There is concern that the biometrics feature could be more trouble than it's worth, depending how Microsoft includes it in HoloLens. However, the idea that the AR headset can identify when a person is struggling to repair their kitchen sink, and then super impose step-by-step instructions, could prove to be helpful.

Video game studios are looking for new ways to adopt virtual reality, and Ubisoft said testing is under way so the company is fully prepared for the expected VR revolution.

The company hopes VR will help bring additional players to video games, and doesn't want to be caught out by other studios.

"We believe a lot in virtual reality because we see that it is really giving a chance for gamers to be more immersed in worlds, and we are developing a certain number of games that are going to take advantage of this new possibility," said Yves Guillemot, CEO of Ubisoft, during a recent analyst call. "We are working on the different brands we have to see how we can take advantage of those new possibilities, but making sure also we don't suffer from what comes with it, which is the difficulty to play a long time with those games."

It looks like 3D printers are one step closer to widespread mainstream adoption, with 90 percent of respondents from companies saying they are "very satisfied" with their 3D printing experience, according to IDC.

Price, ease of use and service/support are critical to help drive adoption among business users, the survey found. In addition, non-users have a curiosity with 3D printing, and momentum will continue to build even further in the future.

"These printers are typically acquired for a specific creation workflow, but once in place the usage expands rapidly to other types of applications," said Keith Kmetz, VP of hardcopy peripherals solutions and services at IDC. "The early adopters who recognized the substantial cost and time-to-market benefits of 3D printing have carried the day, but it's their overall satisfaction and the ability to expand usage that will ultimately drive 3D printing to the next level."

With the Oculus Rift not shipping until the first quarter of 2016, the VR game is up in the air until HTC and Valve can get their Vive headset to the market. That is, however, unless you go for mobile VR thanks to Samsung's Gear VR headset.

The mobile giant has released its new Gear VR headset that works with the new Galaxy S6 and Galaxy S6 edge handsets, versus the old Gear VR which was locked to the Galaxy Note 4 smartphone. The new Gear VR is said to be much better than the previous iteration, with a smaller 'tunnel vision' experience in some apps courtesy of the smaller 5.1-inch display found on the new S6 handsets.

The new Gear VR can be purchased from Samsung's website, or from Best Buy starting on May 15.

Popular tequila company Patron has introduced its "Art of Patron Virtual Reality Experience," giving customers the chance to check out its Mexican distillery using VR. The tour can be viewed using an Oculus Rift or Samsung Gear VR headset, with Patron also showing the VR demo at company events and seminars.

The tequila maker recorded its agave fields and distillery using a drone equipped with seven GoPro cameras, with binaural audio recorded so clear sound accompanies the video footage. It took six months to prepare the VR experience.

"It's relatively easy to write brand education materials or shoot a video, but that doesn't always capture the full experience," said Lee Applbaum, global chief marketing officer at Patron Spirits, in a press statement. "What we've created, using the very latest VR technology, is an authentic, intimate and unprecedented look inside our private Hacienda doors, second only to visiting in person."

Microsoft has pulled the plug on the Windows Media Center for Windows 10, but has something special planned for Xbox One gamers. Console owners can view live TV through the Xbox One, and will soon have the ability to record content.

"Of course, many Media Center fans actually use the product to record and watch TV shows via Media Center PCs in the living room," said Paul Thurrott, a Microsoft blogger, in a statement to GameSpot. "Microsoft's solution for this need will apparently be the Xbox One."

The update will reportedly go live sometime later this year, as Microsoft wants to provide a variety of different streaming options for gamers. Both Microsoft and Sony want to keep users engaged with their consoles, but Microsoft hopes to have an advantage after the release of Windows 10 later this year.

Epic Games has been making waves with its new iterations of Unreal Engine, with the latest version including integrated support for Valve's SteamVR platform.

Unreal Engine 4.8 is available right now, with the team at Epic explaining: "Virtual Reality technology is evolving rapidly and becoming more powerful and immersive by the day. Even if you're starting with a simple project to learn VR or AR, build your team, your assets and your workflow around a technology that can deliver on your creative vision - now and in the future. From students just starting out and small teams of veteran developers, to world renowned VFX houses and Hollywood storytellers, you'll never outgrow Unreal Engine 4".

The team continues: "To create immersive experiences that are believable to the human mind, VR requires scenes to be complex scenes rendered at very high framerates. There are no shortcuts. Because it was designed for demanding applications such as AAA games and photoreal visualization, at its core Unreal Engine 4 meets these requirements and provides a solid foundation to build upon".

If you thought the Oculus Rift was only for PCs and not consoles, then you should think again. During TechCrunch Disrupt, Oculus VR officials noted there have been discussions to one day bring VR to the Sony PlayStation 4 and Microsoft Xbox One game consoles.

"We've talked to everyone," said Nate Mitchell, VP of Oculus VR, when asked if his company has spoken with Microsoft or Sony regarding the VR headset for game consoles. "There's a lot of people right now interested in the VR space. And we've said many times that we're interested in bringing the Rift to as many consoles or platforms as possible. Ultimately, we haven't announced any sorts of partnerships to date. But it's something we're always exploring."

Microsoft is developing HoloLens and Sony has its Project Morpheus, so it's unknown how receptive either company would be to Oculus VR. However, the Oculus Rift remains the best known VR headset, so it may not be a wise decision to shut it out completely in the future.

Since the Oculus Rift hit Kickstarter the world has been wondering when the CV1 (Consumer Version 1) would be released to the public. Well, now we know: Q1 2016.

Oculus VR announced the news just now, with the hardware on the final version, as well as its price, still unknown. However, the company did say: "The Oculus Rift builds on the presence, immersion, and comfort of the Crescent Bay prototype with an improved tracking system that supports both seated and standing experiences, as well as updated ergonomics for a more natural fit, and a highly refined industrial design".

The teasing continues: "In the weeks ahead, we'll be revealing the details around hardware, software, input, and many of our unannounced made-for-VR games and experiences coming to the Rift. Next week, we'll share more of the technical specifications here on the Oculus blog".

Neurosurgeons at the University of California at Los Angeles are using virtual reality to get a unique viewpoint of patients' brains. There is long-term hope that VR will help neurosurgeons shorten surgeries, while also making them easier to conduct.

"It's just amazing to see every little opening in the skull where a nerve goes through," said Dr. Neil Martin, chairman of the UCLA's department of neurosurgery, in a statement to CBS News. "I'm virtually inside the skull of the patient walking around, floating around."

During the American Association of Neurological Surgeons Annual Scientific Meeting, Dr. Martin said he believes virtual reality can have a "tremendous impact" on neuroscience research. A custom program is being developed with Moty Avisar, CEO of Surgical Theater and creator of F-16 flight simulators for the Israeli air force - using his expertise and blending brain scans with the flight simulation software.

We've known about the GeForce GTX 980 Ti for a while now, but VideoCardz.com is reporting that the upcoming Maxwell-powered card will definitely feature 6GB of VRAM, half that of the GeForce GTX Titan X.

NVIDIA will be making the GeForce GTX 980 Ti very different from its bigger brother in the Titan X in one very big way: allowing AIBs to slap custom coolers on their GTX 980 Ti cards. This means we can expect everything from reference to watercooled and fan-cooled models, as well as heavily overclocked models, too.

VideoCardz.com has also confirmed that the GTX 980 Ti will feature the usual Maxwell display outputs: three DisplayPort, one HDMI and one DVI-I. The GTX 980 Ti will be powered by the GM200-310 GPU, but we don't know how that differs from the GM200-400 GPU, so we'll find out in the near future. NVIDIA will be using the GeForce GTX 980 Ti to battle the Fiji-based Radeon R9 390X from AMD, which should be launching in the next couple of weeks, rocking its own surprises.

We still don't know if the Oculus Rift will be launching this year, or if it does launch we could face low units, but when CV1 (Consumer Version 1) launches, we should expect something magical.

According to Sean Halloran, or @Comic_Seans on Twitter, a game and software developer at Myomo, in Cambridge, MA - the Oculus Rift CV1 will feature an integrated DAC and built-in headphone port. He noticed the details in the documentation of the Oculus Audio SDK, which has now all but confirmed the use of the integrated DAC and headphone port.

During the Build conference keynote today, Microsoft announced it has expanded a partnership with Unity Technologies to include HoloLens support for the Unity development platform. Unity is best known for its Unity game engine, and is currently used in video game titles such as Cities: Skylines and HearthStone: Heroes of Warcraft.

"Microsoft HoloLens unshackles game and app designers from traditional screens creating a freedom to completely reimagine how we view and interact with information, education, entertainment, creative tools, social networks, remote healthcare and more," said Steffen Toksvig, VP of strategic technology at Unity.

As part of the agreement, Unity tools will be included in the Unity Personal and Unity Pro packages for HoloLens.

Samsung believes there is potential for virtual reality in the workplace, and wants to explore possible opportunities. The company already has the Gear VR headset, but that product is designed for consumers - something a bit more rugged would likely be required in the enterprise world.

VR headsets could become appealing in the office because they create an immersive way to give presentations or sales pitches. However, developing and sharing content designed for VR headsets would need to be customized for every company based on their work environments.

Samsung says the automotive industry has shown the most interest in VR, but real estate agencies and other niche companies could benefit from VR. Unfortunately, it could be years of testing and development before VR begins to take off in the workplace - with more dedication needed from software developers and hardware manufacturers

We still don't know if Oculus VR will be releasing the Oculus Rift this year, but the Facebook owned VR giant has just announced it has secured two very important people to join its growing team.

Mary Lou Jepsen, who is "one of the top display innovators in the world" has joined the Oculus team along with Anna Sweet from Valve. Jepsen has been honored as "one of the 100 most influential people in the world in Time Magazine, is the Pixel Qi founder, as well as as co-founder and former chief technology officer of non-profit One Laptop Per Child" reports Polygon. Before she joined the Oculus team, she was the heads of the display division of Google X, one of the most secretive parts of Google.

Under her new position at Oculus, Jepsen will be "developing displays that will make it possible to push the boundaries of virtual reality technology". In a statement, Jepsen said: "Virtual reality has been seen as a niche product for the wealthy. Like One Laptop Per Child's vision of computers for the poorest children, we imagine VR as an enabling technology, a platform for mass adoption, for women and men, adults and children, rich and poor, everywhere".

Often referred to as the 'most intelligent man on Earth', Professor Stephen Hawking has told audiences in Australia that the future of humankind is grim if we don't master interplanetary travel by the end of the millennium.

From his office in Cambridge, Hawking appeared via hologram to sold-out crowds at Sydney's Opera House, telling crowds that he didn't "think we will survive another 1,000 years without escaping beyond our fragile planet... We must continue to go into space for the future of humanity". Hawking's comments echo many other respected scientists who urge authorities to prepare for the need to leave our big blue planet - a topic at the heart of the 2014 feature film 'Interstellar'.

In a lighter topic, Hawking also fielded a question on the "cosmological effect of Zayn leaving One Direction and consequently breaking the hearts of millions of teenage girls across the world", to which he replied "Finally, a question about something important" before delivering a response outlining the theory of an alternate universe where the boy band member stayed.

The week is starting off quite well, with two rumors about AMD's upcoming video cards. The first was that the Radeon R9 390X should feature 8GB of HBM thanks to a "Dual Link Interposer" slapping two 4GB HBM stacks together, but the second rumor has us excited.

Reports have surfaced on the dual GPU from AMD, the Radeon R9 395X2. The Radeon R9 395X2 will most likely be unveiled later on in the year at its own event, but it is currently known as the "Fiji VR". An interesting name, but AMD has really doubled down on its VR investment, something we saw at the AMD event Down Under last month.

But the Radeon R9 395X2 is going to be quite the beast, with up to 16GB of stacked HBM, and its huge 4096-bit wide memory bus. We should expect up to 17 TFlops of performance, and two Fiji VR GPUs to drive its price up to around $1499. The big note to this is the Fiji VR codename, which should gel well with Liquid VR. This is something AMD was very open with last month, and something I think we're going to see much more of going into the second half of 2015, and even more so as we move into the New Year.

We're four months into 2015, and we still don't know when the Oculus Rift is coming out. But during Facebook's recent earnings call, where we found out 1.44 billion people use the social network each month, the company said: "We have not announced any specific plans for shipment volumes in 2015 related to Oculus". The last time we had a play with the Oculus Rift, was the Crescent Bay prototype at CES 2015 earlier this year.

The statement came from Facebook CFO David Wehner, who added: "Oculus is very much in the development stage, so it's very early to be talking about large shipment volumes".

With competition heating up in the VR space thanks to the likes of Sony and its Project Morpheus headset, but more so with HTC and Valve with their Vive headset, Oculus VR might not have the dominance in the VR industry that most thought they did previously. Things could change very quickly, and I think they will, which is why I'm hoping is the reason behind Oculus VR being so quiet about it all.

AVADirect has been on top of custom PCs for a while, but with the Omni VR desktop announced last month, the custom PC maker is adding to that with the new Sixense VR desktop.

The new Sixense VR desktop is a custom PC that has seen the company partner up with Sixense, so that their PC is ready for the STEM system when it launches. We had a play with Sixense's STEM system back at CES 2015 and thought it was revolutionary, but now AVADirect has taken it a step further with a custom PC ready for the STEM.

AVADirect has deployed an EVGA GeForce GTX 980 SuperClocked VGA card, with the option to upgrade to the GeForce GTX Titan X to handle everything you throw at it. This has ensured gamers that they can run games at 1080p at 75FPS minimum. The stock system rocks a Core i5-4460, 8GB of RAM, a 1TB mechanical HDD, and Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit. The AVA Sixense VR Ultimate Desktop cranks it up to the Core i7-4790 processor, 16GB of RAM, a 500GB 850 EVO SSD from Samsung, and Windows 7 Professional. Both systems are housed in EVGA's Hadron Air Black Mini Tower, with a Sixense etched side panel.

Exclusive: We are knee deep in our benchmarking of Grand Theft Auto V, where we've benchmarked it on various VGA cards at 1920x1080 (1080p), 2560x1440 (1440p), 3840x2160 (4K) and even 6480x3840 (triple 4K).

During our testing, we were pushing our VRAM usage up to around 7GB or so, but it was when we had our triple Acer XB280HK monitors in NVIDIA's 4K Surround that we saw something that had our jaws drop: 14GB of VRAM was being used. Yes, Grand Theft Auto V at maxed settings at 6480x3840 with anti-aliasing enabled has the game using 14GB of VRAM, and beyond.