Anyone who follows the mainstream technical press will have noticed the recent wave of stories and editorials about the decline in interest and sales of VR hardware. This is not surprising to me, and in a “told-ya-so” way, I’ll tell you it has been my forecast for a couple of years. I believe interactive-VR (IVR) will return to its original … Read more
Heard of DeepFakes? Face and/or body swapping of celebrities. It’s the product of deep learning-driven facial image manipulation and has become a thing online. In the last year convincing fake videos known as DeepFakes have been condemned as a threat to our ability to perceive reality, and a danger to democracy. The alarm is that invented events created by manipulated … Read more
In March 2018, TECHnalysis Research conducted an online survey of 1,000 US consumers that identified themselves as gamers and who owned some type of augmented reality or virtual reality capable device. Ages of the respondents ranged from 18 to 74, with nearly 60% falling in the 18–34 range; For VR users, it was discovered that most users had tried a … Read more
This week, following on from its ‘soft launch’ of the PowerVR Series2NX inferencing accelerator architecture late last year, Imagination Technologies has delivered on its promise of real products during 2018 with two IP cores announced. Just as significantly, IMG has confirmed that they have two customers, including one in China. The AX2185 and AX2145 target high- and low-end applications, respectively, … Read more
AI is here to save the day and your lunch According to a report in Business Korea, LG Display and a team at Sogang University have jointly developed the world's first AI-based content creation technology and measurement equipment. Head mounted displays (HMDs) generally used in virtual reality (VR) offer users a high degree of immersion but can make them feel … Read more
At the ITEC 2018 military simulation event in Stuttgart, Germany, last week, JVC had a couple of prototype VR headsets, both using a single display panel, one with 2560 x 1440 resolution and the other with 3840 x 2160 and featuring a 120º field of view. The center performance of both headsets was good, but the screen door effects was less … Read more
@Xi and Meshroom-VR team up to offer turn-key VR products Generally speaking, VR has been a DIY deal. You buy an HMD from one company, a PC or its parts from another company or companies, software from still a few other companies, and maybe even controllers from yet one more company. That’s not a solution, that’s a big pile of … Read more
Back in 2013, Lionel Anton of Toulouse France and his two buddies, Stephane Portes and Robin Bourianes, introduced the world to high-resolution VR HMDs—their InfinitEye, a revolutionary 210-degree FOV VR HMD with 2560 × 800 (1280 per eye) resolution. In June 2015, Swedish game developer Starbreeze acquired InfinitEye, and the product became StarVR. iQIYI’s 4K VR HMD with 8k scalers … Read more
According to a Facebook posting by Oculus chief scientist Michael Abrash, Oculus Research will be known as Facebook Reality Labs (FRL). “While our name is new,” said Abrash, “our focus on the future hasn't changed.” Facebook is slowly, deliberately, and we think carefully subsuming Oculus, as it should. Facebook changed the Oculus leadership in late 2016 and Oculus founder and … Read more
Now that all the heavy breathing about how VR was going to take over and change the world has finally worn down, the market has pretty much done what we said it would and become an interesting niche for a few enthusiasts. Within that niche, which we estimate at about 3 million units total to date, PlayStation, owned by SONY, … Read more
At FMX, Russian systems integrator and service provider CROC demonstrated a VR experience of the State Hermitage Museum's Jupiter Hall, Russia’s largest museum. It was the only case from Russia selected by the organizers for this year's event. The project demonstrated the use of photogrammetry for digitalizing cultural heritage objects. Using photogrammetric techniques allowed CROC to create an immersive virtual … Read more
Easily enter virtual reality with no PC or wires attached. Go where no one has gone before. Go with an Oculus Go, a standalone VR headset made to fit you. Designed with breathable fabrics, adjustable straps and Oculus’ best lenses yet. Starting at $199 USD with 32 GB of storage (or $249 USD for the 64 GB model), Oculus … Read more
