BBC Taster has announced the release of a free mobile VR app for Android and iOS.

The content on the BBC Taster VR app is currently made up of a trailer from the broadcasting company’s online channel, BBC Three, as well as 360 videos from its David Attenborough-led global blockbuster Planet Earth II.

The app aims to put the BBC’s early and experimental ideas regrading immersive content in the hands of its audiences.

The content set to feature on the app will include animations, VR, interactive 360...

New and exciting VR experiences are sprouting up all over the world. Most of the time, however, it can be near impossible to keep up unless you have insider knowledge or very cool friends.

VRNISH, the world’s first VR directory looks to solve this problem. Imagine touching down in a new city, opening up the app and being presented by a map showing you all of the potential VR-related fun you could have.

VRLINES, the company behind the app, hopes it will contribute to VR’s emergence into the mass...

When virtual reality (VR) content is experienced using a VR headset the outcome is a virtual world. In that world, the possibilities are limited only by the imagination. This approach has given education an opportunity to leapfrog existing teaching practice by providing educationally beneficial immersive experiences.

The first among these is that VR allows students to be absolutely captivated by the teaching. All teachers want their students to fully concentrate on their lesson. But teachers know that...

Most people may think of gaming when they think of VR, but it is in the realm of training and education that has the potential to propel the technology into mainstream acceptance.

Aceable, a mobile education company, has released a driver education app that utilises 360 videos for students to practice real-life driving situations. The app focuses on teens and situations that they may not be prepared for, such as being distracted by text messages and checking blind spots. The use of VR allows aspiring drivers...

Despite a crisis which saw over 20 staff members quit a couple of months ago, Eurovision fans should breathe a sigh of relief: the show will go on.

While die-hard fans will be travelling to the Ukraine this year, most of Eurovision’s 180 million viewers will be tuning in to watch it in their own homes.

The rise of services from the likes of Netflix, Amazon Prime and broadcasters’ own catch-up streams has led to the stark rise in on-demand and even ‘binge’ watching.

We can effectively...

VR has the potential to change the way people collaborate, present information and host conference calls.

Although new technology can open a vast amount of possibilities to improve the workplace, we still have a long way to go to understand the full potential of VR.  

Here are just some of the ways it can be implemented within the enterprise.

Collaborative environments

If the success of VoIP and other internet-based audio- and video conferencing solutions is anything to go by, then the next advancement...

The potential for VR to transform education has been espoused since the technology’s infancy. HTC Vive have made a move into the sector by releasing a multi-user Group Edition bundle for the Chinese market.  

Announced at the Vive Ecosystem Conference in Shenzhen, the Group Edition bundle includes 10 Business Edition headsets and two base stations. The offering is being priced at 49,999 yaun (roughly $7,260) and will be available for shipping in May.

This is around a 40% saving when compared to the...

A new VR app is allowing people to see the world through the eyes of people with a rare eye condition.

Funded by Sheffield Hospitals Charity, it is hoped that the Nystagmus Oscillopsia Sim VR app will change the way that people care for those with Nystagmus.

Nystagmus is a condition that causes the sufferer to have constant and uncontrollable eye movement. This can obviously cause considerable disruption to the way a person goes about their daily lives. While the majority of sufferers learn to adapt, a...

For an artist or developer to achieve any sense of realism, you need a renderer (the function that creates the visuals) that can simulate the light interactions happening in the scene: that means light reflections, light absorptions, refraction, etc. Those require a full knowledge of the scene when processing each individual pixel, which is not something that the most common rendering technique, know as a real-time rasterised renderer, really supports.

For example, the data available when rendering a pixel in...

Sweden-based audio technology company Dirac Research has raised 44 MSEK ($4,865,000 USD) from current and new investors, as part of an investment round to accelerate expansion into new markets such as VR and AR. The received capital will help strengthen the Swedish firm to further develop their management and engineering teams and position itself as the global leader in mobile audio optimisation technology.

The investor list includes John Wattin, IT industry executive and Executive Chairman of and investor in...