Interesting articles about VR – week #19

USens Discuss Their Solutions For Handtracking, Augmented Reality And Smart Cars In Interview

As virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) continues to develop new and exciting applications, uSens are focusing their efforts on bring the technologies to wider audiences with their product solutions. VRFocus’ Nina Salomons recently got to speak with William McCormick, US Head of Marketing Manager at uSens about their developments and how they are enabling these technologies on more devices.

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The Wacky World of VR in the 80s and 90s

While Oculus, Samsung, and Sony are busy getting all the headlines about virtual reality headsets, the old timers among us are leaning back, arms folded, saying, “Mmm hmm.”

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Check out these iOS AR apps

Whether you got a new iPhone X for Christmas or have an iPad Pro or 2017 iPad running iOS 11, you have gotta try an augmented reality app on it. AR apps enhance the real world with 3D graphics, measuring tools, games, learning and more. 
But which apps should you try? We’ve spent hours combing through the App Store for the very best AR titles and here are the ones that we think will wow you. 
We’ll add and subtract apps from this list as new ones come out.

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Intellectual Property and Copyright Issues in Social VR Spaces/Virtual Worlds

My recent interview with Ghoster got me thinking about the issue of intellectual property (IP) and copyright regarding avatars in social VR spaces/virtual worlds. VRChat is already infamous for having a multitude of avatars ripped from innumerable video games, TV shows, and movies. High Fidelity has decided to take a page from VRChat’s playbook (and, I assume, try and attract some of that VRChat crowd) by setting up a few domains where you can select from a wide variety of popular characters, owned by Disney and other companies, as your avatar: …

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Vancouver Emerging As Top Five VR and AR Hub

Over the past 40 years, the Canadian region has emerged as a dominant force in the video game, special effects, and animation industries. Known in the business as Hollywood North, the area is home to some of the largest VFX stages in North America. Among other notable studios, the location boasts gaming giant Electronic Arts Canada – the powerhouse behind the NHL, NBA, and FIFA franchises – and employs nearly 17,000 workers in the 3D industry.

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OCULUS GO REVIEW

The Oculus Go (See it on Amazon) requires nothing to function aside from your head. You don’t need to keep it attached to a powerful, expensive gaming PC. You don’t need to insert the right type of phone to power it. The Oculus Go is neither PC VR nor phone VR. It’s a standalone device and may very well be remembered as the first VR headset to bring virtual reality to the masses.

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Microsoft finally reveals how many HoloLens units have been sold

We have just passed the two year anniversary of the Microsoft HoloLens, which shipped as a developer edition in March 2016.
The headset is the highest profile mixed reality device on the market, and we regularly post about commercial applications of the device in engineering, design, medicine and construction.
From the volume of articles and the excitement of the teams implementing them, it may appear the device is a massive success, but Microsoft has always been reluctant to share how many units have actually been sold.

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The Virtual Arena: China’s VR Entertainment Revolution – Part 2

Continuing coverage of China’s largest Out-of-Home entertainment convention, reporting things in the virtual realtiy (VR) amusement and attraction at the Asia Amusement & Attractions (AAA) Expo – And in this final part of this special feature, Kevin Williams, specialist in the interactive immersive entertainment scene, concludes, by looking at emerging trends from the Chinese convention.

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Ten virtual reality games that simulate altered states

The recent resurgence of virtual reality (VR) has seen an exciting period of innovation in the format, as developers explore the fresh new possibilities that it brings. VR differs from the video games you might play on a standard television in that the head-mounted display engulfs the visual field, producing a more immersive sensory experience. In VR, not only can you see a virtual environment, but you can also turn your head to look around it. Many games use this capability to transport the player into strange virtual worlds, or see the hallucinations of a virtual avatar. 

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Review: Lenovo Mirage Solo headset with Google WorldSense tracking

Only a couple of days before Google I/O 2018, one of the biggest VR announcements from last year’s developer conference is finally coming to light. Lenovo’s Mirage headset is now on sale for $399. The standalone device is unique largely because of its inside-out tracking, a technology that has not been available on a VR headset widely sold stateside.

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