vr

One of the remaining problems with VR, AR, and MR platforms is input. All of them use one form of stick or another, and none of them currently emulate the feel of a hand moving and grasping in the real world. Valve, however, might be coming close to a solution without having to resort to gloves or exoskeletons. The "Knuckles", Valve's nickname for the next gen Steam VR controller, does this by having nearly a dozen capacitive sensors in it.

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Google has announced plans to make VR content easier to create, and it involves VR180. This new video format, according to the company, will bring about virtual reality videos that are high-resolution and that focus 'on what's in front of you.' Joining the new format will be VR180 cameras that enable anyone to shoot their own VR videos in a way that is as simple as using a point and shoot camera.

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The Steam Summer Sale is officially underway, but the deals don't apply to just Steam games. HTC announced today that it's discounting the VIVE for the duration of the sale as well, giving you the opportunity to save a bit of money on the admittedly expensive VR headset. HTC will also toss in a Steam gift card too, so you'll be able to take full advantage of the Summer Sale.

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Imagine putting on a virtual reality headset, only for it to personally recognize you, no interaction necessary. Such functionality may be making its way to Samsung's Gear VR headset, at least according to a patent that recently surfaced. This new patent details a means by which the Gear VR headset could know who is wearing it by analyzing the pressure points on the surfaces in contact with the wearer's face and head.

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360-degree and virtual reality video may be the hottest new trend in entertainment, but it turns out most people can't really be bothered to move their head. The growth in popularity of affordable VR systems, like Samsung's Gear VR and Google's Daydream, has made viewing 360-degree content more straightforward. Meanwhile, cheaper 360-degree cameras like the Samsung Gear 360 has made producing content easier too.

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Sony Pictures and PlayStation have teamed up to create a VR 'experience' based on the hit TV show Breaking Bad, it has been announced. The project appears to be very early in development and details about it are slight. The news was made public by Sony Interactive Entertainment America President Shawn Layden in a recent interview; during it, he said, 'I don't know what it's going to be. No idea what it's going to do...'

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Apple's next hand in the future is Augmented Reality, as evidenced this morning by Craig Federighi speaking onstage at WWDC 2017. With Augmented Reality developer kit - ARKit, they call it - developers will be influencing the way the future is seen through the iPhone and iPad. With this kit, simple computations are able to be made, for starters, including allowing the iPhone to detect a flat table surface.

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Walmart has revealed the latest method it is using to train store employees: virtual reality. The big-box retailer got the idea from observing football players using VR to train, and it has since implemented the technology into 30 of its 'Walmart Academy' training centers. The idea behind the training method is to introduce future employees and managers to situations they will encounter during the course of their job, but that they would benefit from experiencing ahead of time in a safe environment.

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An establishment was formed this week called ICVR, working with Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality over USB-C. That means that the content will reach a headset - reach the eyes of the consumer - through a USB-C cord using the DisplayPort standard. Much like we saw with LG's most recent VR headset, users would be made just a little bit more free than they'd been in the past.

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The headset that's appeared today, made by HTC, won't necessarily be available to everyone in the world. In fact it's slated - for now - to be available only inside Japan. This headset was designed to fit one smartphone in the world - the HTC U11 - and will be able to roll with 6DOF (6 degrees of freedom) which is intense for a phone-based VR headset, if not entirely unique to this one.

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Where are you in the bold new world of virtual and augmented reality? I don't mean that metaphorically, either: the question of where a user in a virtual world is physically, and how they're interacting with the real world around them, is arguably the key to making the next generation of headsets. It's something not only big names like Google and Apple are working on, but VR/AR specialists like Occipital.

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In Google's brave new world of virtual reality, every comment troll's favorite place to spam their misspelled wares, YouTube, is getting a VR version. Announced at Google I/O 2017 this morning, YouTube VR will do away with text comments in favor of projecting 360-degree video directly into your headset. It's part of the software giant's attempts to drive adoption of virtual reality and augmented reality, preferably through its Daydream platform.

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