Extended Reality (XR) - Page 72

The future of entertainment isn't just sitting in front of your TV watching a flat image, but it is going to be a world that wraps around you in virtual reality. This is where Jaunt steps in, a cinematic VR technology company, which just took in a new round of funding.

Jaunt received $27.8 million of new funding, which will help it pump more money into its omnidirectional camera shooting 360-degree experiences, perfect for VR technologies like the Oculus Rift. Jaunt had its funding come in from many different companies, who hope to see the company lead the future of cinematic VR.

Jaunt's technology was recently spotted at the premiere of Guardians of the Galaxy, where it was shooting 360-degree footage which can be played back through the Oculus Rift. Jens Christensen, CEO of Jaunt, says: "The enthusiasm we have seen for our technology has been tremendous and we are working tirelessly to make VR experiences available to mass audiences".

While 3D printing is evolving and maturing at a rapid rate, it's mainly businesses that are utilizing the breakthroughs, with consumer 3D printing at least five years away, according to research firm Gartner. The short term outlook indicates business and medical practices, interested in embracing 3D for functional purposes, will benefit from using 3D technology.

Trying to embrace 3D printing is still a relatively expensive endeavor at the moment, and end users might be interested in following the market - but aren't in a big hurry to invest in 3D printers and filaments to make their own 3D-printed creations. Over the next two to five years, there will be an increase in enterprise 3D printing, as 3D print creation software, scanners and printing services rise in the near future.

"Consumer 3D printing is around five to 10 years away from mainstream adoption," said Pete Basiliere, Gartner Research VP, in a statement. "Today, approximately 40 manufacturers sell the 3D printers most commonly used in businesses, and over 200 startups worldwide are developing and selling consumer-oriented 3D printers, priced from just a few hundred dollars. However, even this price is too high for mainstream consumers at this time, despite broad awareness of the technology and considerable media interest."

Palmer Luckey, the 21-year-old founder of one of the most exciting companies in the world, Oculus VR, has high hopes for the future of technology. With Oculus VR shipping its Development Kit 2, or DK2, Rift headset to consumers and developers over the last month, Palmer has had some interesting things to say in a recent interview with Kotaku UK.

Palmer said: "We see one in every home. [But], just at launch we need to be realistic. The people who are going to be buying this initially are going to be gamers, probably hardcore gamers, and they're going to be the ones with PCs most capable of running it". Palmer wants to see VR become something that expands past just pure gaming, with the Rift and VR in general becoming something for everyone. He continued: "As time goes on it'll become more and more mainstream, but at launch we're going to be targeting that core. Basically let's target it to the people whom we know are going to be buying and then let's go for the people who are going to take some convincing".

After testing out the Rift DK2 myself, I'd have to agree - I think VR will take off like smartphones did, selling tens of millions within the next five years. One in every home is a big statement, but there's a TV in most homes, isn't there? The Oculus Rift is cheaper than a cheap TV, so that statement, while it might sound prosperous to most, could happen - especially with the financial backing of Facebook.

Oculus VR had a strong presence at Gamescom in Cologne, Germany this year - but they walked away with a massive win from the gaming event. With over 140 submissions for the awards at Gamescom 2014, 54 of them made it to the group of nominees, Oculus VR was one of these.

Oculus took out the Best Hardware of Gamescom with its Oculus Rift DK2 unit, with four other devices against it: the Cyberith Virtualizer, Sony's VR headset Project Morpheus, Nintendo's Amiibo, and NVIDIA's latest Shield Tablet and Shield Wireless Controller. We've only just received our Oculus Rift DK2 and we are in love with it, so it comes as no surprise for Oculus to be awarded Best Hardware of a gaming show like Gamescom.

iFixit have given the new Oculus Rift DK2 unit its teardown treatment, revealing what makes the DK2 provide one of the best VR experiences known to mankind. Inside of the DK2, iFixit found that Oculus VR is using not just the Galaxy Note 3 panel, but Oculus VR has either sourced them directly from Samsung, or is buying up Note 3s as it still has the Samsung branding on it - inside of the DK2 itself.

The screen itself is Samsung's 5.7-inch Super AMOLED display with a resolution of 1920x1080, or 960x1080 per eye. Oculus VR have overclocked this panel up to 75Hz, from the default 60Hz on the Note 3. Remember that Oculus VR has a partnership with Samsung, which would explain the use of the Note 3 panels inside of the DK2.

Considering the rumors of the Note 4 sporting a 5.7-inch 2560x1440 panel, this is what I think we'll find in the CV1 (the retail release) of the Oculus Rift. The rest of the iFixit teardown on the Oculus Rift DK2 unit is an interesting watch, and if you don't have time for the video, there's a slew of pictures you can flick through here.

A man has survived being shot thanks to having his 6.3-inch Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 smartphone in his shirt pocket, stopping the bullet from piercing him and possibly killing him.

The man ended up in a street altercation with another man after he armed man dropped his wallet, the victim picked up the wallet for the man, joking about using it to buy a beer. The armed man pulled out his gun, and fired it into his chest, but thankfully his Samsung Galaxy Mega 6.3 blocked the bullet. You can see in the shot above that the phone is done for, but the owner survived.

Now we just need Samsung to build a Galaxy jacket, made from the same materials that stopped this bullet. For someone like myself, who keeps their phone in their jeans or trouser pocket, I would've had this bullet shot into me. Luckily this man, out of all the clothes he owns, wore this top with the pocket on that day.

VR is really picking up steam, and with this, NVIDIA is putting some effort into the R&D of high-resolution screens for VR devices. The company is researching cascaded displays, using low-res displays, but many of them, to provide a high-res image.

NVIDIA has used two normal 7-inch 1280x800 panels (which is identical to the one used in the Rift DK1 unit), layering one of these panels on another, which allows one pixel on the top layer to lie above the quarters of four different pixels on the layer beneath it. A single backlight is used to illuminate both layers of the "Cascaded Display".

The company has also created some software which allows for the pixels on the front LCD to turn on and off, which allows just a particular quarter of the lower pixels to be shown. On its second pass, the front panel will change the displayed pixels, while the rear panel changes its colors. This allows for the quarter pixels to be displayed, which provides us with a higher resolution image.

For those of you with an Oculus Rift, you might want to grab the just-released Oculus SDK version 0.4.0 beta. The new Rift SDK includes some great new features, starting with DK2 support obviously.

The new SDK includes an Oculus Runtime that is installed separately from the SDK itself. The runtime package includes the Oculus Config Utility, service and drivers. We also have the star of the show, an Oculus Display Driver under Windows, something that routes the rendering output directly to the Rift headset, offering up an option to mirror this display output in a window.

There's also a new Health and Safety Warning screen that will display in front of you once an application starts up. You can grab the new Oculus SDK 0.4.0 beta package from the Oculus VR developer website, which requires a login.

Samsung's venture into virtual reality has becoming slightly more real today, with a tease of its new Gear VR software platform. Sam Mobile is behind the latest leaked screenshots, showing off Gear VR Manager, Samsung's software that is required with its Gear VR hardware.

The Gear VR Manager includes some core apps like VR Panorama, VR Cinema and an early version of the HMT Manager. Once you've got it all paired and setup, there's a tutorial that will show you how you can slide your Galaxy smartphone into the VR headset, connecting it with Gear VR using a USB 3.0 connection. Sam Mobile has confirmed that there is a touchpad and back button being built into the Gear VR headset itself.

How will you be able to control Gear VR? Thanks to Samsung's S Voice, you'll be able to speak voice commands into Gear VR. The rumors are that Samsung will launch Gear VR sometime this year, most likely alongside the launch of its upcoming Galaxy Note 4 smartphone.

Even though Facebook has spent $2 billion so far on its acquisition of Oculus VR, the money won't stop flowing. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg has said during the week: "We've mostly been a company that has played on top of the different mobile foundations other people have built".

He continued talking about his social network, explaining: "One of the things I care really deeply about on a 10-year arc for the company is having a different relation to what the next set of computing platforms are. We can help define what the next generation of computing is going to be". When pressed about Oculus VR, Zuckerberg said: "We're really excited to welcome that team. They're extremely talented and have pulled off something that people have been talking about for a really long time and now is possible thanks to the technology that team has developed".

When it comes to the future of computing, Zuckerberg said to investors: "Expect us to continue investing heavily, and our costs will increase. There are huge opportunities to build the next generation of computing platforms". Oculus VR and virtual reality itself isn't Facebook's only interest, with Zuckerberg telling investors that augmented reality, vision technology and AI are things that the social network is looking into. Zuckerberg added that whether they pay off in a "five or 10-year time frame" or even "further out than that".

After what has felt like years of teasing, Cyberith has finally placed its immersive VR gaming device on Kickstarter, known as the Virtualizer. The Virtualizer is a locomotion device for virtual reality gaming that allows gamers to move freely within the VR world.

The Virtualizer has been in development for two years now over at Cyberith, but now it is on Kickstarter. The cheapest way to get your hands, or body into the Virtualizer is to pledge $599. For $599, you get the Virtualizer without the sensors, which is a kit that is "specifically targeted at developers and researchers who want to track movement with/via different sensor solutions like optical tracking or the PrioVR Suit from YEI Technology".

For $699, you're getting the real deal: the Virtualizer. This is the early bird special, with the first 150 backers receiving their Virtualizer for a special price. On top of this, these 150 backers will have their name registered in Cyberith's hall of fame as VR pioneers. The Virtualizer has a current ETA of March 2015, but this could charge for various reasons.

During the Commonwealth Games that take place between 24th July and the 3rd of August, BBC Research and Development will be conducting a few trials and public demonstrations. These experiments will see a number of industry partners working together to help create the future of BBC R&D's vision of the future of TV. These broadcasting milestones include:

The biggest part here is that we're going to be seeing the first live VR broadcast done, which will use a combination of 360-degree video with 3D audio. The BBC R&D team will be getting a hand from UCL, where they will create "the most immersive live virtual reality broadcast to date". The demonstration will involve "a panoramic, 360 degree video camera, and a 3D audio microphone will be placed into the SSE Hydro Stadium in Glasgow, streaming the live feeds to an Oculus Rift virtual reality headset in the Glasgow Science Centre". They continue, by teasing that "This provides the viewer with the sensation of being transported inside the stadium and being part of the crowd. This work forms part of ongoing projects to explore the creative and editorial potential of new consumer audio-visual technology".

I think this is going to be a very important step forward for VR, and more specifically the Oculus Rift which is being used in this massive trial. The future of VR is well and truly bright, and I can't wait to see what we have come out of this new research in the future of entertainment, sports and media.

When Facebook announced it was acquiring Oculus VR back in March, it had the entire world up in arms - myself included. Time has passed, and those worries have all but died down, with the news that the acquisition is now final, with an update issued by both of the companies.

Facebook and Oculus VR said in a joint statement: "We're looking forward to an exciting future together, building the next computing platform and reimagining the way people communicate". Back in March, Facebook said it was going to acquire Oculus VR for $2 billion, in a deal that would include $400 million in cash, and 23.1 million shares in Facebook valued at $1.6 billion.

At the time, Mark Zuckerberg, the founder and CEO of Facebook said: "Mobile is the platform of today, and now we're also getting ready for the platforms of tomorrow. Oculus has the chance to create the most social platform ever, and change the way we work, play and communicate". In April, the Federal Trade Commission approved the deal. Right now, people are waiting for their Development Kit 2 (DK2) units to arrive, sporting a 1080p low-persistence screen, and much more.

Oculus VR were meant to begin shipping off the first batches of its new Development Kit 2 headset, but no one has received notification of their shipping details on the second Rift unit just yet - myself included.

I had e-mailed Oculus VR around 20 hours ago now, asking for an official comment, but was told there was no official comment. Hours later, a post by cybereality appeared on the Oculus VR forums, saying: "We've decided to hold the initial shipment of DK2s until the middle of next week so that we have an additional week to polish and QA the new Oculus SDK. We've been working on this update for over a year, with a focus on making the Rift easier to use and develop for. There are multiple major improvements including overhauled device and display handling, and we want to make sure the new SDK ready for integration by thousands of developers when DK2s start arriving at doorsteps".

I think this is fair enough, but it would've been nice to have Oculus VR say something at the beginning of the week. Surely they would've known the new SDK wouldn't be ready, but it's only a few days. Cybereality added: "Sorry to make everyone wait another week. We wouldn't delay if it wasn't important. The good news is that this only affects the very first group that would have received their units, and this doesn't change the total number of units that will ship in July. Again, we'll keep everyone posted. Thanks for bearing with us!

First we had Respawn Entertainment, founded by the co-founders of Infinity Ward, and now ex developers from the studio have formed Reload Studios, a new studio that is focusing on a VR-based first-person studio.

Reload Studios is based in Los Angeles, and was co-founded by James Chung and Taehoon Oh. There are currently 12 developers working on game development for virtual reality, mobile and home console platforms. Former Call of Duty: Modern Warfare Series Producer, Pete Blumel, Infinity Ward developer Hougant Chen and Disney Animator, Nik Ranieri join the two co-founders at the VR-focused studio.

Chung said in a press release: "When I first saw what the latest round of VR devices could do, I realized these were not just peripherals but brand new platforms that could transform the way we experience, interact with and create media. It was the perfect time to follow my passion and bring together the most talented people I know under one roof to form a development culture that promotes creativity and collaboration". Right now, Reload Studios is working on a VR-enabled first-person shooter that will hit mobile and next-gen systems, something that we should see next year.

A US-based Oculus Rift DK2 pre-order customer had attempted to sell his Rift DK2 unit (once he received it) on eBay for $5,000 - but once the VR community saw what was going on, they contacted Oculus VR which swiftly cancelled this order.

This person claims to have made his pre-order on the morning that Oculus VR announced the Rift DK2 unit, and is based in Laguna Beach. He went to eBay to sell his pre-order for some $5,000 - but was shut down within hours. 'cyberreality' on the Oculus VR forums, who is the Community Manager for the Facebook-owned VR start up, said posted in the Oculus VR forums: "Don't worry guys. We found him and cancelled his order".

The forum exploded with praise from future Rift DK2 owners with posts such as "This was literally the highlight of my afternoon" from 'racerx2', and "AWESOME!! Thank you!" from the thread starter, 'kingzope'.

Oculus VR is going full steam ahead as it gets closer to the release (which still hasn't got an ETA) of the consumer edition of the Rift. The VR startup has announced that it is hosting its first developer conference, Oculus Connect, in September.

Oculus Connect is a two-day conference for developers and creators that has the goal of creating some of the "best virtual reality experiences available". Oculus VR explains: "In the last two years, we've seen more virtual reality content built than in the last two decades, and that's a direct result of incredible work by the community. With virtual reality's momentum at an all-time high, this is a unique moment for the developer community to come together to take the virtual reality to the next level".

The two-day conference happens on September 19-20 at the Loews Hollywood Hotel in LA. There are going to be four big speakers at the event, with Oculus VR founder Palmer Luckey, id Software founder and now CTO of Oculus VR John Carmack, Oculus VR's CEO Brendan Iribe and Chief Scientist, ex-Valve employee Michael Abrash.

Oculus VR promised that it would begin shipping its Rift Developer Kit 2 units in July, something that it has started to do. The Facebook-owned VR startup has said that "The first batch of official DK2s have left the manufacturing facility and are making their way to our distribution centers now".

This news comes from "cyberality" on Reddit. Oculus VR says that it should see half the units through distribution centers and on their way to eager Rift DK2 owners before the month wraps up. As soon as the shipment has been processed by the distribution center, DK2 owners will receive their tracking numbers.

Something more interesting, is the amount of DK2 units that Oculus VR had pre-orders on. There were over 45,000 DK2 pre-orders, which is a massive number. With this many pre-orders, manufacturing can't quite keep up, so some people wont' get their DK2 units until August. Oculus VR has told its team in China to ramp up production at its factory, something nit will continue to do until every DK2 has their headset. I've pre-ordered one myself, and was one of the first, so you can expect an unboxing video and articles written up on it as soon as it hits my doorstep.

After nine years, Hewlett-Packard is planning to re-introduce VoodooPC as a gaming notebook lineup as early as this year. Sources have posted two photographs of a HP gaming notebook.

HP acquired PC maker VoodooPC in 2006, however the company did not continue with its brand name since and the brand name was withdrawn from the market. Now, HP may bring back 'VoodooPC' or 'Voodoo DNA' brands for high-performance notebooks.

It's surprising to see HP is planning to tap into the high-end gaming notebook market. As of now, it seems that HP has made plans to introduce one gaming notebook model as of now. Whether this move will be beneficial for HP or not is something that time will tell. In any case, it's always good to see more choice for high-end gaming notebooks, provided they are priced in a way to compete with other brands, especially with ASUS, GIGABYTE and MSI.

Some cinemas in the United Kingdom have announced a blanket ban on Google Glass just days after the smart specs arrived in the country.

The Cinema Exhibitors Association, or CEA, represents 90 percent of all the UK's cinemas, and has just announced it will request customers do not wear Google Glass at all. "Customers will be requested not to wear these into cinema auditoriums, whether the film is playing or not," spokesperson Phil Clapp said in an interview with the Independent. Vue, one of the biggest chains in Britain, said that moviegoers will be asked to take off Glass once the lights dim.

But, the Press Association reports, a Google spokesperson believes the ban is down to a lack of understanding about Glass. "We recommend any cinemas concerned about Glass to treat the device as they treat similar devices like mobile phones: simply ask wearers to turn it off before the film starts," a spokesGoogle said. "Broadly speaking, we also think it's best to have direct and first hand experience with Glass before creating policies around it."