VR/AR

Mayo Clinic and vMocion, LLC, an entertainment technology company, announced it is making available Mayo Clinic's patented Galvanic Vestibular Stimulation (GVS) technology specifically for use in VR and AR. vMocion's 3v Platform (which stands for virtual, vestibular and visual) incorporates this patented GVS technology, which adds a complete sense of 3D movement for the first time into a VR or AR environment.

Fujitsu Laboratories announced that it has developed a technology that generates synthesised 3D panoramic screens to fully understand conditions throughout a worksite for on-site maintenance, inspection and other work. Using time series images taken from a worker-side camera, when combined with augmented reality (AR) technology, remotely supporting operators can use that image to provide precise, omnidirectional instructions to field workers.

A middle-aged white man sees himself as a young black woman being taunted by a racist. An Israeli grandmother glimpses herself as a Palestinian teen. A star athlete experiences what life would be like in a wheelchair. These are not plots of dystopian movies. They are experiences that take place in VR, which technologists believe will be the next major platform for everything from gaming to social interaction and perhaps even global diplomacy.

Qualcomm announced that its subsidiary, Qualcomm Technologies, has introduced a VR software development kit (SDK). The next generation of mobile virtual reality applications is complex, with extreme power consumption constraints and challenging performance requirements that must be met in order for the VR applications to become truly immersive.

A fully immersive viewing experience for sports fans has been announced as part of a joint partnership between STATS LLC, a sports technology company and Virtually Live, a business that enables sports fans to experience live games and events through virtual reality (VR).

  Using virtual reality technology, Vertual (a University of Hull-based company) is helping to transform the quality of cancer education in Africa.

Dialog Semiconductor has introduced what it claims is the world’s lowest power and smallest 12 DOF wireless smart sensor development kit for IoT applications. The kit combines Dialog’s DA14583 SmartBond Bluetooth Smart SoC with Bosch Sensortec’s gyroscope, accelerometer, magnetometer and environmental sensors on a tiny 16x15mm PCB, supplied as a dongle in a plastic housing.

Researchers from Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (JGU) in Germany have prepared a list of ethical concerns that might arise with the use of VR by researchers and the general public. Along with this list, Dr. Michael Madary and Professor Thomas Metzinger have produced concrete recommendations for minimising the risks. According to Madary and Metzinger in their article in Frontiers in Robotics and AI, additional focused research is urgently nee...

A new system in a virtual training room is helping users practice and improve sports exercises and other motor activities: six research groups from the Cluster of Excellence Cognitive Interaction Technology (CITEC) at Bielefeld University are working on the ICSPACE project to develop this virtual coaching space. CITEC is funding this large-scale research project with 1.6 million Euro and it will run until 2017.

Leap Motion announced Orion, an entirely new software and hardware product. Orion makes it possible for VR developers and headset makers to tap into the full power of natural hand and finger input for virtual and augmented reality. Leap Motion is making a beta of the Orion software along with new demo experiences and development tools. The company plans to offer Orion software alongside its new embeddable hardware for VR & AR headset man...