The theme of this year’s MWC in Barcelona may have been sustainability, but it was definitely unofficially 5G. All over the mammoth conference space, there was excited talk of how the emergence of 5G networks would affect everything from IoT to smart glasses.

In a panel on the future of immersive experiences on Monday, HTC Vive’s president of Viveport Rikard Steiber said that 5G will really enable the integration of AI into a range of services. With the spread of intelligent computers, Steiber...

Its safe to say the BBC’s Blue Planet II series was a landmark TV event. The spectacular nature series was the most watched programme of 2017 in UK, and its currently stunning audiences around the world.

The series not only highlights the very cutting-edge of camera technology and filming techniques, it has also sparked interest in the state of the world’s oceans and the teeming variety of wildlife that lives there.

BBC Worldwide and Google have teamed up to give viewers itching for more immersion...

Virtual reality (VR) technology offers new opportunities for clinical research, assessment, and intervention. Since the mid-1990s, VR-based testing, training, teaching, and treatment approaches have been developed by clinicians and researchers that would be difficult, if not impossible, to deliver using traditional methods.

During this time, a large and ever maturing scientific literature has evolved regarding the outcomes and effects from the use of what we now refer to as Clinical VR. This term subsumes VR...

VR startup RiftCat has developed technology that allows VR headsets the capability to run PC VR games. The VRidge emulator works by making a user’s computer recognise their phone as a HTC Vive headset.

The system works through connecting two apps, one on the user mobile and one on the desktop. When the two apps connect, the user’s mobile VR headset can be used to play whatever games are on the desktop.

The two apps can be connected through a USB or over a wifi connection, meaning that the...

Australian company Thred Ltd will be trailing its flagship AR app, Sweep, at the University of Sydney and UNSW.

The company is one of the first to create a successful combination of location-based messaging and AR experiences. The Sweep app is a geo-locked chat app that allows users in the same area to chat to each other, such as asking people in a bar for drink recommendations or asking to be notified when happy hour is ending.

Users will then be able to access exclusive, location based AR content. The aim...

Already one of the main selling points of Google’s Daydream VR platform, Google has now YouTube VR available to HTC Vive users.

Steam users can now download YouTube VR right now. The company has also released a trailer for the release.   

Users will be able to browse and watch content from every channel or creator in VR, without being limited to 180 or 360 videos. The experience is similar to that of VR theatres, where users are presented with a floating screen insider of...

Vivie Studios, the content development arm of HTC Vive, has partnered with Immersion to launch interior design app, TrueScale.

The app is able to simultaneously create 2D floor plans, 3D mockups and room-scale VR environments. Users can design their apartments or offices and then experience and explore their design in VR to make sure that it is exactly what they are looking for before committing to actually creating it.

Interestingly, the app makes use of US-based ecommerce site Wayfair’s 3D model API,...

Adobe has announced Project SonicScape, a prototype tool that allows VR/AR editors and developers to better edit sound within 3D environments.

Demoed at the company’s Adobe Max conference, the tool allows developers and editors to visualise ambisonic audio within a spherical VR video using coloured bubbles. This way of visualising sound data in this way makes it easy to align sound with specific parts of the video.

An Adobe spokesperson told TechCrunch:

“Project SonicScape takes the...

For those that are in charge of designing spaces that are going to be used for commercial and public activities, VR looks set to greatly enhance the design process. Utilising the technology, designers and retailers can tailor their designs by virtually walking through them, changing colour schemes and materials as they go.

Now, Yulio technologies, has given architects, designers and retailers another VR tool to help them optimise their designs for the people that are actually going to use the spaces they...

You can now browse the web in VR using Google Chrome.

The release of Chrome 61 means that Daydream VR users can browse websites using their headsets and experience VR through WebVR. The new chrome is the latest stable build of the company’s Google browser.

Chrome team member François Beaufort announced the news in a post on Google+:

“…this allows users to view and interact with any website in VR, follow links between pages, and move between 2D and immersive viewing for sites that support WebVR. “Users...