mixed reality

It seems that the dust around VR has settled down. CES 2018 was almost eerily silent about the nascent technology. Except, perhaps, for a few peeks here and there, including ASUS’ first foray into the field. The latest and so far last major PC OEM to join Microsoft’s brand of artificial reality, ASUS showed off its Windows Mixed Reality headset at CES last month. Now that device is finally available for purchase. Sadly, it’s on the pricier side, even with a design that beats out the competition.

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When the modern VR and AR hype exploded, one of the loudest voices to be heard was Magic Leap’s. The young company was already talking and boasting even before Microsoft could get its HoloLens out of the would work, but it has, so far, been unable to actually put out a publicly available developer kit, much less a retail product. It has also been involved in some rather ugly controversies that have seemingly died down by now. Gearing up for its promised 2018 release, Magic Leap is once again talking. But this time, it’s getting the NBA and basketball legend Shaquille O’Neal to help.

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HP kicked off the work week by making a bunch of new announcements, indicating that it's about to hit the world of VR hard. Today the company unveiled its new HP Windows Mixed Reality Headset - Professional Edition. Though it could do with a somewhat shorter name, those who are looking for a high-end VR headset might want to give this one a look.

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Researchers have invented a way to print objects with light into thin air at the Dan Smalley Lab at Brigham Young University. These objects are better than those that've come before them. They do not require that the holographic images they create be stuck to one dimension. Instead, they use nearly invisible particles in the air to create objects that can be viewed from any angle. This is Star Wars made real.

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If you expected virtual, augmented, and mixed reality to be the centerpiece of CES 2018 a few weeks ago, you might have been sorely disappointed. Is the honeymoon finally over? Perhaps not. But there is a growing trend of making the technology more accessible to more people, in terms of design and, more importantly, price. As if to counter the arrival of cheaper and standalone headsets, Microsoft and its OEM partners have seemingly all decided to cut the prices of their virtual mixed reality gear by nearly half. Well, at least almost all of them.

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From Google Glass to Snap Spectacles to HoloLens to HTC Vive, there is no shortage of headsets that advertise the future of computing. They are all, however, inaccessible because of two factors: price and form. Nevermind being bulky and heavy, some people wouldn’t be caught dead wearing such atrocious-looking “wearables”. China-based robotics and AI company Rokid, however, has come to CES 2018 bearing a solution. It is simply called Rokid Glass, a simple name that belies its big ambition: to offer a consumer-friendly AR eyewear at long last.

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Joining ASUS's slew of new gaming products is its Windows Mixed Reality Headset, the company's headset for immersing users into various virtual worlds. The headset was announced amongst ASUS's CES 2018 wares, joining the mass of gaming laptops and other products. With the ASUS Windows Mixed Reality Headset comes a unique, angular 3D pattern and the promise of very simple setup.

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Magic Leap is a company that's made a head-mounted virtual retinal display, or an augmented reality headset. A pair of goggles that allow users to see images transposed on top of the rest of the world. This company has been in business since its founding in 2010 by Roy Abovitz and has not yet released any products for sale. It might seem that it's not that kind of company - but it really is.

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$1.9 billion dollars and six years in, Magic Leap has revealed its first product, and yet we still have more questions than we do answers. The Magic Leap One: Creator Edition has arguably been one of the most hotly-anticipated - and certainly controversial - wearables in the new age of mixed and augmented reality. Problem is, just like the virtual graphics it promises to overlay atop our vision, we're still not quite sure what we're looking at.

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It's been a long road to the reveal of Magic Leap's first actual product, but the day has finally arrived. Today the company revealed the Magic Leap One, a new augmented reality system that first and foremost wants to move away from the bulky headsets that currently dominate VR. While details are still fairly slim, we're learning about some of Magic Leap One's marquee features today, including when the company plans to begin shipping it.

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Thanksgiving isn't just about turkey, it's about escaping your relatives so you can hide in the bathroom and try to score a deal on a Surface Pro or an Xbox One S. Microsoft's Black Friday 2017 deals kick off from November 23, and they span gaming, through Windows Mixed Reality, and all the way to smart speakers. Read on for the highlights.

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Thanks to the wonders of the Internet, even single-player or solo games need no longer be a solitary activity. From leaderboards to gameplay footage to live streaming, gaming today has become more social than ever before. When Microsoft acquired Beam, which it has renamed into Mixer, it wanted to introduce a new type of social gaming activity: interactive broadcasting. Now Microsoft is bringing Mixer to Minecraft in order to add a whole new element and challenge to the sandbox game: your viewers.

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