Machine learning and augmented reality provider Phiar has announced a seed funding round of $3 million to develop a computer vision and deep learning navigation app for smartphones, to be launched in app stores in mid-2019. Unlike traditional GPS apps, the Phiar app displays the driver’s real-world surroundings augmented with an easy to follow painted path.

The seed round, co-led by the Venture Reality Fund and Norwest...

Google has announced that Chrome, the world’s most popular browser used by 44.5% of users, is now available on its VR (virtual reality) Daydream headsets.

Announced on its blog yesterday, the search and tech giant said users of Google Daydream View and Lenovo Mirage Solo with Daydream can now launch Chrome directly from their homepage and interact with any webpage while in VR.

Google promises that “all the features you...

Aeronautics and space manufacturer Airbus yesterday released five new multi-user VR (virtual reality) experiences at Farnborough International Airshow (FIA) in the UK.

Known for producing the world’s largest passenger aircraft, the A380, Airbus teamed up with immersive technology specialist Render to show off its expansive and diverse range of projects through VR, including future aircraft concepts, drone-based deliveries, and even a virtual spacewalk mission.

The five new VR experiences focus on a...

Opening its World Wide Developer Conference (WWDC) this week, Apple announced a string of updates to its AR (augmented reality) framework ARKit - a key development in a field the tech company is pitching its long-term success on.  

The update comes after Apple announced that 13 million apps had been downloaded using the framework since its debut in September 2017, with some 47% of that figure driven by a surge in the popularity of

Building games for VR is hard. As well as making sure your game is fun and interesting, you've also got to ensure that your users don't puke after they put a VR headset on. Valve can't do too much about these three issues, but they can help solve another bugbear: control schemes.

VR gamers have a wide range of input options, from traditional console gamepads and racing wheels to VR-specific controllers made by giants like Oculus or hand-assembled by enthusiasts. Even if a developer supports the...

Google has extended the VR support of its Chrome browser to include Oculus hardware. The Windows version (66.03.3359.117) of Chrome will now work natively with both Oculus Rift headsets and Touch controllers.

The news was not publicly announced by either company and was discovered by a Reddit user on the Oculus subreddit. The discovery of the browser flag was later confirmed by a second user who wrote:

“Just tried...

VR has gained so much traction in the last couple of years that its futuristic, sci-fi sheen has been diminished in the eyes of a lot of consumers. Most people now expect that they will be interacting with the technology in some form within the next decade.

The area of haptic feedback, having the ability to touch and feel virtual objects, is still likely to elicit shocked gasps from consumers. Unsurprisingly, there are currently a wealth of companies racing to trying to create the killer piece of haptic...

The following article is authored by Avery Gilbert, with contributions from Jacki Morie and Saskia Wilson-Brown

Dogs are renowned for their keen sense of smell, but the human nose is no slouch. It’s capable of distinguishing more than 1 trillion different scents, according to Rockefeller University scientists.

In fact, although that’s far more than the 10,000 that decades-old research indicated, the Rockefeller University study concludes...

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...

Eliminating motion sickness and nausea is one of the holy grails of VR development, and Austin-based MONKEYmedia believe that they might have done it.

The small tech firm has announced the launch of its body-based navigation solution, called BodyNav. The system could be a game-changer due to one important factor: it eliminates the need for a handheld game controller.

One of the main causes of VR-induced motion sickness is a disconnect between what the user is seeing and the physical experience they are having...