VR motion sickness survey reinforces gender gap

In spite of virtual reality's benefits and hype, one of its primary inhibitors remains the threat of motion sickness. A new survey finds it still plays a prominent role - with women more at risk than men.

The survey, put together by VR Heaven and which polled almost 300 respondents, found that more than half (57.8%) said they experienced motion sickness in VR at some time. 13.7% of those polled said they experienced it frequently, compared with 19.1% for sometimes and 24.9% for...

6 July 2020 | Ecosystems

Facebook says farewell to the Oculus Go and goes all-in on 6DOF products

Facebook has announced it is discontinuing the Oculus Go, its least expensive VR headset, to go all-in on Quest as part of the 'next chapter' of virtual reality.

An update on the Oculus blog spoke of a 'fond farewell' to Go, which will end sales this year, though the devices have been out of stock for some time. The primary reason for its demise, according to the blog, is user demand for more sophisticateed 6DOF (six degrees of freedom) products.

"Just past the one-year...

24 June 2020 | Developers

Survey: More than half of manufacturers plan to adopt real-time 3D technologies within two years

According to a new survey by Unity Technologies, 55% of manufacturing and AEC (architecture, engineering, construction) companies plan to adopt real-time 3D technologies (RT3D) in the next two years.

The report, which was put together by Forrester and explored digital experiences in the physical world, explored adoption trends when put alongside Unity's own RT3D offering.

Unity’s RT3D technology is used by more than half of the top fifty AEC companies and top ten...

7 April 2020 | Ecosystems

HTC holds Virtual VIVE Ecosystem Conference in full VR

HTC recently held its fifth annual XR industry conference in virtual reality (VR), with the company noting it could pave the way to ‘breaking through physical limitations.’

The conference, which is now renamed as the Virtual VIVE Ecosystem Conference (V²EC), is said to be the first major physical industry event that has been replaced completely by an interactive VR digital medium, which was attended by nearly 2000 registered participants from more than 55...

25 March 2020 | Ecosystems

AR market value to exceed $100bn by 2024 – through emerging interaction methods for smart glasses

The value of the augmented reality (AR) market is set to break $100 billion by 2024, according to ABI Research, as emerging interaction methods for AR smart glasses maximise and optimise user experience.

The analyst firm’s latest report, ‘User Interface and User Experience in AR Technology’, states that more intuitive and user-friendly interaction would enhance UX and drive growth of the AR smart glasses market in the coming years.

Eleftheria Kouri,...

2 March 2020 | AR

HTC reveals three new flavours of VIVE Cosmos VR headset for novice and experienced users

HTC is expanding the range of its VIVE Cosmos series of PC-tethered virtual reality products – aiming to sate the appetites of the most demanding enthusiasts, as well as entry level starters.

The VIVE Cosmos Elite, Cosmos XR and Cosmos Play family of products (above) were unveiled by the Taiwan-based manufacturer, alongside new faceplates that can expand the functionality of Cosmos.

Cosmos Elite is the highest-capability offering and ‘pairs the performance of...

21 February 2020 | Devices

NexTech to expand its AR services in learning and development industry

Vancouver-based software firm NexTech AR Solutions and Californian enterprise video solutions provider Jolokia have announced their collaboration to combine their individual expertise in their respective domains.

NexTech, which holds specialisation in web-based AR for eCommerce with technology ranging from simple 3D Images to hologram technology, will combine its skills with Jolokia’s secure, cognitive, and interactive video platform to expand its reach into the learning and...

29 January 2020 | AR

Mozilla adds new features to its Firefox Reality VR browser – from Bluetooth to bookmarks

Mozilla’s latest product launch now allows its users to sign into Firefox Reality with their Firefox Account credentials, which means that users will now be able to get the benefits of new features that includes Bluetooth keyboard support and the ability to share history, bookmarks, and tabs between devices.

Users who want to avoid bookmarking and directly send an active tab from another device to their Oculus Quest, can now do so without any hesitation. Anyone who is watching...

13 December 2019 | Applications

Raytheon and CAE examples show how VR can be utilised for aerospace training

Defence contractor Raytheon and airline simulation technology provider CAE have both made recent launches showcasing the potential of virtual reality (VR) in terms of employee training in the aerospace sector.

Raytheon has announced the launch of a VR version of its portable V-22 trainer. According to the company, the Aircraft Functional V-22 Trainer-Virtual Reality is a fully immersive system that provides hyper-realistic training across all experience levels that also includes...

5 December 2019 | Applications

How BP is using mixed reality – and HoloLens in particular – for its upstream operations

If you think of the oil and gas industry, then BP, as one of the seven ‘supermajors’, will feature prominently in many people’s thoughts. The company has many emerging technology initiatives in place, from artificial intelligence to blockchain, yet mixed reality – the co-existence of physical and digital worlds, utilising virtual (VR) and augmented reality (AR) – is among its most interesting.

For oil and gas companies – in such a particularly...

5 December 2019 | Ecosystems