Category Archives: Virtual Reality

When Davis Magnet School teacher Emily Matthews found out she'd be giving a lesson about the human brain as part of the science curriculum, she figured she should make it a hands-on experience for her sixth-graders.

And it seemed a no-brainer to invite Dr. Robert Louis, program director of the Skull Base and Pituitary Tumor Program of the Hoag Neurosciences Institute, to share with Matthews' class and two others how he uses virtual reality to prepare for surgeries.

Google virtual reality headsets were placed on students' desks at the Costa Mesa school Wednesday afternoon. But before they got to see a "fly-through" of the brain, Louis began with a presentation about his profession.

The Boston native described neurosurgery as a "relatively young field" that still has way to go in advancing with technology.

Before the modern tools used now, patients would be left with dramatic skull deformations because brain surgeons would shave the scalp and then cut the skull apart to remove a tumor. Now, surgeons can discreetly remove a tumor by slicing under a person's eyebrow.

"The goal is to sneak in and sneak out and leave patients as undisturbed as possible without anyone noticing kind of like a cat burglar," Louis said.

A high-definition video showed a real-life example of a brain tumor being dragged out through a patient's nostrils, which instantly brought "ewws" and "whoas" from students and teachers.

Cutting-edge technology

Hoag, based in Newport Beach, is one of the few hospitals in Orange County to treat neurosurgery patients using the Surgical Navigation Advanced Platform, or SNAP. It fuses medical imaging with gaming technology and 3D virtual reality systems to help surgeons practice procedures before performing them on a patient.

To see inside a brain, surgeons can put on Oculus goggles equipped with motion sensors and "fly through" one of the body's largest and most complex organs.

Louis, who specializes in minimally invasive endoscopic transsphenoidal surgery, demonstrated how he would enter a brain through a patient's nose, as a student requested.

The sixth-graders crowded around Louis and shot video as he pulled himself past the brain stem and pushed toward the frontal lobes.

Before SNAP, preparing for brain surgery consisted of drinking a cup of coffee and relying on past knowledge, Louis said.

"Instead of two-dimensional models, we have virtual reality," he said. "I can see where arteries are, critical nerves are, fire pathways and visual pathways. I don't have to guess where they are based on knowledge, and now surgeries have become much safer."

It's a giant leap forward for surgeons, he added.

Inspiring a new generation

Students took their cellphones to class to use with the Google VR headset.

They placed the phones against a suction cup on the headset and then, looking through the headset's goggles, watched YouTube videos of surfers before seeing inside a human brain.

Looking through the headset was akin to peeking through a keyhole and seeing into a new world, according to Kaitlyn McGary, 11.

"It's like wanting to go somewhere, but you can't get there. But you can do it with the goggles," she said. "It was so cool."

Fellow student Grady Starn said trying on VR goggles wasn't anything new for him since he has some at home, but the experience was a "bigger step than watching a roller coaster in virtual reality video games."

Madison Stein, 11, said she was inspired to be a neurosurgeon by seeing how "technology is helping advance surgeries."

Louis said seeing students get excited about neurosurgery and virtual reality technology is the best part of sharing what he does for a living. He remembers being in sixth grade and seeing a neurosurgeon bring a cadaver's brain into the classroom to let students dissect it.

It's how his journey as a neurosurgeon began, and he said he hopes students were inspired by his presentation to do the same.

priscella.vega@latimes.com

Twitter:@VegaPriscella

Excerpt from:

Kids take a 'fly-through' of a brain surgeon's virtual reality - Los Angeles Times

As Ive been reminded many times this week, were coming up on the one-year anniversary of PC virtual reality, and both the Oculus Rift and the HTC Vive are shaking things up to celebrate. The Rift got a $200 price cut, the Vive got a brand-new financing plan.

If we chart the progression of video games from Spacewar and Zork all the way through to 2016, then the HTC Vive is the next logical step towards realism. Read PCWorld's full review

But HTC has much bigger changes on the horizon. One of my favorite aspects of the Vive has been HTCs willingness to experiment with the hardware, post release. The Rift and Oculuss optional Touch controllers have remained essentially the same since 2015.

The Vive, though? First came a new cable, which replaced the launch version's heavy tether with a slimmer 3-in-1 cable that resembled the consumer Rift. And in the future, two further additions are coming to the Vive ecosystem: the Vive Deluxe Audio Strap and the Vive Tracker.

HTC announced the Deluxe Audio Strap and the Tracker at CES, and even stuck a price on the pair earlier this week. Theyre $99 each, with the strap arriving in May and the consumer Tracker towards the end of the year.

I got my first chance to go hands-on with the pair this week at the Game Developers Conference. And while the Tracker is arguably the bigger news, at least in terms of raw potential, its the Deluxe Audio Strap Im most excited about.

Its so damn comfortable.

The Vives incredibly powerful, but its design was rudimentary even at launch. It was basically equivalent to Oculuss second dev kita bulky pair of goggles held on by a three-part elastic strap. Problem 1: Adjusting the straps is cumbersome. Problem 2: The Vive itself is heavy, so the elastic doesnt hold it as still as youd like. Problem 3: If you overtighten the straps so it moves less, it turns your face into mashed potatoes.

Compare that with the consumer version of the Oculus Rift, which uses a rigid plastic band to both offset the weight and keep the headset more stable. Andwell, HTC has borrowed that design for the Vive.

The Deluxe Audio Strap somewhat combines the more rigid designs used by the Rift and Sonys PlayStation VR. It slips onto the head like a baseball cap; the front portion folds down in front of your eyes, and thenand this is the real magicit tightens by way of a wheel in the back, like a bike helmet. No more Velcro straps.

The HTC Vive with Deluxe Audio Strap. It makes a major difference in usability.

It takes mere seconds to get the headset on and adjusted, and it stays adjusted thanks to the more rigid design. Looking down towards the ground is surprisingly difficult with the Vives current elastic bands, because the weight of the headset tends to pull it away from your eyes unless you overtighten. But with the new Strap, theres no movement at all. Its as good as Oculuss headband, or maybe even a bit better thanks to the generous padding around the sides.

And the Deluxe Audio Strap also matches Oculuss other killer feature: the built-in headphones. When Oculus first announced that the Rift would come with built-in headphones it seemed silly. Most people own better headphones than the ones the Rift is equipped with.

It soon became clear that built-in headphones remove a lot of the hassle, though. Theres less weight to deal with, less futzing around trying to figure out where you set them down, less steps between thinking about VR and being in VR.

So again, HTC borrowed an idea and the Deluxe Audio Strap draws its name from the built-in headphones. And again, the Vives seem a bit better than Oculuss solutionmore padding, a less scratchy material on the ears, and easier to move into place.

Now the downside is, of course, that the Deluxe Audio Strap is being positioned as a Deluxe item. An add-on. It doesnt annoy me as much as, say, Oculus positioning Touch as optionalthat has a direct impact on what games developers make and the health of the VR ecosystem. The Vives new strap is a somewhat superfluous item, at least as far as developers are concerned. A person with built-in headphones and a person without still have essentially the same experience.

Butand its a huge butI think the Deluxe Audio Strap will be a must-buy for most people. Even after my brief time using it at GDC, Im already dreading going back to my Vives old elastic bands and cumbersome adjustment process, plus having to grab headphones each time I use it for the next few months.

The Deluxe Audio Strap is more comfortable, more reliable, and probably what the Vive shouldve shipped with to begin with. Well have an actual review up when it releases in May, after spending a lot more time with it, but right now I think anyone who wants the best Vive experience is going to want one of these.

The Vive Trackers a bit more complicated, at least for home users.

I should say up front: Both of the Tracker demos I did during GDC were excellent. First I tried a pair of shooters brought to the show by VRsenal, and then a few rounds of boxing game Knockout League. The Vive Tracker is basically the top of one of the Vives wands, and is position-tracked by the same Lighthouse systembut it can be built into custom peripherals.

And that was the catch with these demos. VRsenal strapped me into one of MSIs backpack computers, put a Vive on my head, and then handed me a gun that wasnt real, but real-looking enough that you might not want to carry it down the street. It also was surprisingly heavy, mimicking the feel of an actual assault rifle.

Theres a Vive Tracker embedded where the rear sight would normally be though, and thus its fully position-tracked within gamesjust like a standard Vive wand. Aiming felt completely natural, and I had a great time crawling around on the floor, leaning over imaginary walls and sniping robots. You can even reload the VRsenal gun, since the battery is hidden inside the magazine. Press a button, pull it out, and youll see the MicroUSB port inside. When its done charging, you slam it back in.

Knockout Leagues Trackers were a bit more conspicuous, drilled and mounted on the back of standard boxing gloves. It worked similarly though, with my real-world boxing gloves mapping 1-to-1 with the boxing gloves I wore in virtual reality, allowing me to (poorly) bob, weave, and throw haymakers at my opponent.

Its really amazing tech and Im fascinated by all the approaches were seeing from manufacturers. There are a few problems though.

A glove with a Vive Tracker attached.

The first, of course, is the age-old question, How many peripherals do you want in your house? Im sure many of you have (or had) a closet full of Rock Band and Guitar Hero gear, and while its great fun in the moment, eventually its just a bunch of stuff you try to store out-of-sight-out-of-mind.

Related: How much are you willing to spend on weird peripherals? The Vive Tracker will be sold to developers for $99 each. Expect peripherals to cost at least $150 to $200, and given the quality of VRsenals gun, I bet that would be even more expensive. Sure, VR is a pricey hobby and some people are no doubt willing to pony up, but its going to be hard for manufacturers to get custom peripherals into peoples homes.

Arcades? Thats the real sell here, I think. HTCs made no secret it wants to expand into arcade-type settings, giving operators a subset of software and charging a flat rate for every hour played. With the bigger spaces afforded by arcades, and the need for a unique and impressive experience, it makes more sense for business owners to buy a few position-tracked guns, some boxing gloves, or whatever else manufacturers imagine.

That audio strap, though. Its so nice, and I cant say it enough. Hopefully there arent any glaring issues with the final releaseas I said, well need to spend more time with it before rendering a verdict or giving an official recommendation. Im excited though, with my Vive experiences this week being way more comfortable over long periods of time than anything Ive done at home.

Well just have to see what developers dream up with the Tracker. There are all sorts of potential applications, and I cant wait for some random genius to generate the next big wave of VR enthusiasm with a custom-built controller.

Read more:

Hands-on: The HTC Vive's new VR accessories make virtual reality even more immersive - PCWorld

There is a movement taking place in virtual reality that's apparent when you walk the floors of GDC 2017 and speak with company executives, developers and hardware manufacturers.

What change is in the air? It's a turning away from tethered VR, a burgeoning effort to break free from the cords that bind players to PCs.

It's no secret people want wireless virtual reality; even major headset makers like Oculus know losing the tether is key to VR's long-term success.

But now that some of the shine has worn off Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, it seems everyone is looking at what's next for VR. What's next, at least as on display at this year's Game Developers Conference, is wireless.

The biggest name we saw waving the wireless flag was Qualcomm. For the chip giant, VR is meant to be a mobile experience in the truest sense of the word.

Qualcomm showed off its Snapdragon 835 VR Developer Kit headset, an all-in-one, tetherless device that also brings your hands into VR without gloves or controllers.

While not intended for consumer sale, the Snapdragon 835 headset will serve as a reference design for head-mounted display manufacturers who want to create similar wireless systems of their own.

What's more, the kit will allow developers to create more content for devices such as the Google Daydream View and Samsung Gear VR, which in turn will help foster a stronger ecosystem for mobile VR overall.

Acer's Mixed Reality Developer Edition - wire still required

This stands in contrast to Microsoft's Windows 10 mixed reality headsets, set to start shipping to developers this month. These require hooking up to a Windows 10 PC to run, however Microsoft isn't letting the wire-free revolution pass it by; its HoloLens viewer is already cordless.

And though the Oculus Rift requires a PC line, we know the Facebook-owned firm is currently working on a wireless headset codenamed Santa Cruz. Might the Rift and Touch controllers price drop Oculus announced this week be in anticipation of a cheaper mobile headset hitting the market someday soon?

To be more cynical, perhaps the lowered price is a response to less-than-encouraging Oculus Rift sales, which could be a balk against high-end, tethered VR in general. Though we don't know Rift sales numbers because none have been released, we do know 200 Oculus Rift demo stations were shut down in Best Buy stores as foot traffic sharply decreased after the holidays.

Perhaps for Oculus and others, like HTC Vive, their wireless hand will be forced whether they're ready or not.

Pico Neo CV is completely untethered and wireless. The company used a third-party pack to keep the headset charged during the show.

While some big names are wading into the wireless waters or, in the case of Qualcomm, diving in head first no more evidence was needed that VR is breaking free of wires than the stalls of smaller companies occupying the GDC show floor.

We counted at least a half dozen headsets on display from lesser-known firms, all of which were wire-free and most were all-in-one. No devices were as refined as the Rift or Vive, and the amount and quality of content available on them is questionable, but the overwhelming presence of so many wireless headsets indicates this is where the industry is headed, or at least where many would like to see it go.

Of course, the barrier to create these headsets is lower than those running on PC, and the experiences won't compare to headsets hooked up to powerful GPUs. That's one of the biggest trade-offs: freedom of movement or insanely good graphics? Take your pick.

It's the early days for wireless VR, and tethered systems have the benefit of being on the market for longer and offering undeniably great experiences. With new devices like the LG SteamVR headset poking their head out, it's unlikely tethered virtual reality is over yet.

Still, it's impossible to ignore the groundswell of wireless headsets. There's no doubt the tethered players have taken notice, too.

More:

Cutting the cord: Wireless virtual reality dominates at GDC 2017 - TechRadar

Forbes

The Hype Around Virtual Reality Is Fading Forbes Technology shows thrive on hype, and for a while it was the virtual reality headsets from hardware makers like Oculus and HTC that grabbed headlines at the world's biggest shows for technology enthusiasts. But at this year's Mobile World Congress, now ...

Excerpt from:

The Hype Around Virtual Reality Is Fading - Forbes

Photo: Kai Wiechmann/Getty Images

As virtual-reality headsets make their way into the mainstream, a new wave of VR pornography allows viewers to embody porn stars while they have sex with one another. But making this porn presents new challenges starting with the fact that few male performers can maintain erections through stupendously difficult VR-porn shoots.

For this weeks Sex Lives podcast, I watched VR porn for the first time and was, well, horrified. But Vocativ staff writer Tracy Clark-Flory has a more optimistic view. Shes been hanging out on VR-porn sets, and testing VR porn, webcams, and interactive experiences for years. As she tells it, one of the biggest surprise of VR porn is that viewers dont actually want the horrifying stuff they want to be cuddled. Listen to Tracy explain the paradoxes of virtual boners, or read a few tales from the wild world of virtual porn, below.

This is a partial transcript of New York Magazines Sex Lives, edited for clarity and length. To respond with a voice message, call 646-494-3590.

Youve written that the demands of performing with this technology are having some crazy effects on whos able to perform, and the way they perform?

A major issue for people who have ventured into this new territory is theyre finding that tried-and-true male performers who have been in the industry for decades who can literally perform under the craziest circumstances, like, standing in a pool of cold water, perched on a rock in the middle of a baking desert, no problem! but you put a VR camera rig in front of their face, and you tell them that they cant make eye contact with their co-star, and that they cant kiss their co-star, and that they cant touch their co-star with their hands, and they cant maintain an erection. Understandably, because youre totally taken out of the experience and you sort of become this sexual object that someone [else] is performing on. So directors are finding that guys who had been reliable in other situations are no longer reliable. Theres only a handful of guys who are actually able to reliably do this kind of shoot.

Its the ultimate objectification, except the point of the objectification is that they arent an object, right? They become an invisible body, for anyone to project onto.

Its a weird turning of the tables for men in the industry, because theyre used to being the actor. And the women in porn not always, but often are used to being a little bit more passive.

What is it doing, do you think, to the story lines or the type of fantasies that we get from porn?

Everything that Ive heard from directors who are doing VR is that male viewers, in particular, really want more of a girlfriend experience with VR. So they want it to be very intimate. They want eye contact. They want close faces whispering sweet nothings. They want, even, cuddling. I was on a set recently where at the end of the shoot, the director had the woman cuddle up on the guy just lay her head on his chest for a minute and just cuddle.

And gaze up into his eyes? Or the cameras eyes, I guess?

Yeah, exactly, gaze into the cameras eyes. Ive heard porn performers, especially porn performers who are doing like webcamming, and that suddenly their fans are going, Wow, youre a real person. It changes their perspective entirely.

As youve been watching this industry take shape over the years, how has it changed? Have there have been interesting trials and errors or surprises?

In terms of VR, its so new that youre still seeing a lot of trial and error right now. Like, one example, on a shoot I was on, a female performer, without prompting by the director, decided that she was going to experiment with trying to French kiss the camera. So she went up really close to the camera and French kissed the air. And it looked like very bizarre and required a lot of commitment on her part, to really do it. And afterwards she asked the director, Was that weird? Did that work? And the director is like, I think maybe? But so much of it is waiting to see how viewers actually react.

I watched VR porn from a female perspective recently, and there was a blow-job scene. So like, the female performer was performing a blow job, but its so incredibly disorienting for the viewer, because all youre really seeing is the male torso thrusting. And that didnt work.

I dont even enjoy that in reality-reality, when its a male torso coming at you? Why would I want to replicate that in virtual reality? Although I guess one womans nightmare is another womans turn-on, if I have learned anything from doing this job.

[Laughs] Right.

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2017, New York Media LLC.

Original post:

Virtual-Reality Porn Is Killing Boners - New York Magazine

We're live at the Game Developers Conference all week, with news, interviews and livestreams direct from San Francisco.

The key to virtual reality succeeding commercially on a global scale may lie in the hands of a team of volunteers working to create a royalty-free standard.

But the clock is ticking.

Were trying to do this as fast as we can, said Nick Whiting, who is the chair on the working group trying to come up with a solution. VR headsets are already out there and have been out there for a year. We want to do something as soon as possible, this isnt a long-term project.

The Khronos VR initiative is the latest effort by the Khronos Group, an American nonprofit that focuses on creating open standards for technology. The group, which was founded in 2000 by a collection of powerful tech companies, previously helped to create or oversee a variety of royalty-free, open-standard application programming interfaces (APIs) such as OpenGL, Vulkan and WebGL.

The group held a gathering at the 2017 Game Developers Conference this week to discuss virtual reality and its OpenXR initiative, which aims to create open standards for VR, augmented reality and mixed reality.

A key issue, though, is that there are already multiple standards being used that are tied to developing for headsets from Sony, Microsoft, HTC and Valve, and Oculus.

Whiting said that the key is that all of the systems already require a relatively similar deep tech stack to work, and that the OpenXR working group hopes to create a royalty-free, open API that will be common to all the headsets.

A bunch of us on the software and hardware side realized there is a lot of common group and that people are reinventing the wheel, Whiting said. There is this gigantic web of dependencies. So we decided it would be a good idea to create a single API.

Those involved, like Oculus, Valve, Google, Nvidia, AMD, Unity, Epic and Samsung, agree that the API shouldnt be owned by a single company. Two notable companies not listed as members are Microsoft, which recently floated its own API, and Sony. Weve reached out to both for comment.

The group of those involved seem to realize that the market is so relatively small right now that they need to come together to ensure that it is as easy as possible for a developer to create VR experiences across all existing platforms.

The big concern we see at Epic is that the VR market is a little nascent, said Whiting, who is also the technical director of AR and VR at Epic Games. Its not necessarily large enough numbers to support a big game team.

Were hoping through standardization that might change.

The group announced the Khronos VR initiatives name last week, along with a call for standardization.

VR and AR have experienced a boom of interest recently, and with that, a flood of hardware and software companies have begun spinning up efforts in the field, Khronos said in a news release. While variety is great, the growing number of devices, each with their own incompatible APIs is increasing fragmentation.

The key issue now, Whiting said, is timing.

The group has to move fast, but before it can create the API, it needs to make sure everyone can agree on what common bits of the software should be included.

Once it rolls out, Whiting believes it will be a large component of virtual realitys commercial success.

Coming from Epic, the biggest thing I see is developers trying to decide which device or market they should target, he said. They have a game or an experience to make but dont know where to bring it.

Were trying to make the market more viable by combining all of these smaller markets.

Link:

Virtual reality's success could ride on a new initiative discussed at GDC - Polygon

Nvidia at the Game Developers Conference this week announced a new frame capture analysis tool for virtual reality. Dubbed FCAT VR, the utility is designed to help VR developers, reviewers and enthusiasts analyze the quality and performance of a virtual reality experience.

Traditional benchmark utilities arent all that practical when it comes to virtual reality. Zvi Greenstein, general manager of Nvidias GeForce team who also leads business development for VR at the company, notes in a recent blog post that traditional measurement tools like FRAPS only measure whats happening on the desktop monitor instead of whats happening on the VR headset.

In other words, they focus squarely on frame rate and dont take other important metrics into account like latency, stutter and hitching all of which can have a big impact on the virtual reality experience. If stutter and latency fall below a certain threshold, for example, they can cause motion sickness not fun.

FCAT VR, which supports the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, is said to provide a comprehensive performance measurement for frame time and stutter on the headset without requiring special external capture equipment.

The tool captures four key performance metrics:

Nvidias new utility should be available to download by mid-March.

More here:

Nvidia's new FCAT VR tool will help quantify virtual reality performance - TechSpot

Atlanta Business Chronicle

Atlanta looks to become Virtual Reality hub Atlanta Business Chronicle ... of Trick 3D, whose tool Floorplan Revolution helps developers take more. Joann Vitelli. A group of companies, academic institutions and government agencies have united in an effort to make Atlanta the hub of the burgeoning virtual reality industry. and more »

Read more:

Atlanta looks to become Virtual Reality hub - Atlanta Business Chronicle

Chinese twins wear VR headsets as they ride in a roller coaster simulator at the Wantong VR Park on Nov. 27 in Beijing.

Kevin Frayer/Getty Images

This question originally appeared on Quora, the place to gain and share knowledge, empowering people to learn from others and better understand the world. You can follow Quora on Twitter, Facebook, and Google Plus.

Answer by Kynan Eng, research group leader, neuroscience of VR and applications to rehabilitation:

I think that most of the first uses of augmented realityand virtual realityeye-tracking will be to improve general AR/VR headset comfort and usability. Why? As a direct input device, eye-tracking is actually fairly frustrating and useless. However, as a general contextual signal indicating possible user intent or attentional focus, it is quite useful. Many use cases for eye-tracking will work in the background, and will probably include the following:

Graphics rendering resource allocation: If a person is looking somewhere, more graphics rendering resources can be allocated in that general direction. This can provide better quality output for a given amount of rendering power.

Data prefetch: Some VR data operations require time to complete, e.g. looking up something in an online database. If a person glances in a particular direction, data fetching can begin in the background even before the person selects an item to interact with. This improves the perceived responsiveness of the VR environment, which can be especially useful e.g. over mobile data networks.

Multimodal smart 3-D object selection: In VR, pointing at a small object in a cluttered environment can be quite difficult. Eye-tracking can be used to help disambiguate the object that the user intends to select by combining the information with the controller input.

Automatic headset calibration: A headset that knows where the users eyes are can better adjust its own image output parameters for optimal user comfort.

Balance manipulation: The vestibulo-ocular reflex is a well-known automatic effect linking eye movements to changes in the vestibular system. Knowing eye movements as well as those of the headset (via accelerometers) allow deductions about the likely state of the users vestibular system, and thus enables systematic manipulations to heighten changes in balance or possibly to reduce the effects of motion sickness during VR use.

What all of these use cases have in common is that, when working well, you dont notice that they are doing anything. In fact, I would go as far as to guess that some of these eye tracking use cases are essential for enabling truly useable VR/AR for mass-market applications.

See the original post:

Which New Areas of Virtual Reality Will Use Eye-Tracking? - Slate Magazine (blog)

The startup virtual reality production and training company EON Sports VR announced Wednesday it has expanded its baseball category overseas to the Yokohama DeNA Baystars, a member of the Japanese Central League.

The organization will begin incorporating EON Sports interactive software and baseball virtual reality simulator into its training for this season. It is the first Japanese professional baseball team to leverage EON Sportstraining technology and also the companys first international sports client.

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EON Sports is excited to announce our partnership with the Baystars, Dan ODowd, theex-Colorado Rockies general manager and current EON Sports managing partner,said in a statement. They are joining the growing number of professional baseball teams that are using our technology to enhance and change the way players are prepared and developed within the game of baseball. They are one of the most respected franchises in all of baseball, and we are thrilled to work with them on this next generation of player development.

Added Baystars outfielder Takayuki Kajitani after utilizing the technology: I actually was able to experience the atmosphere in the iCube, standing in the batters box. I felt it was very realistic of what I would see in the game. Im going to take advantage of the iCube to experience the pitching of pitchers who Ive never played against, and will be able to experience it before an actual match.

Last summer, EON Sports VR started working with the Tampa Bay Rays, and other MLB teams use it as well.

EON Sports W.I.N. Series gives players the ability to experience the training system technology with headsets like the HTC Vive, Oculus Rift or smartphone-based displays.

Additionally, users can take advantage of the EON iCube, a multi-projector system that provides players an experience similar to that of facing an actual pitcher. Through data compiled via a ball tracking system, EON is able to reproduce not only the ball flight but the throwing motion as well. With now a dedicated training room that includes a full iCube, Baystars batters can select various kinds of pitches to generate a life-like experience.

Beyond baseball, where MLB clubs and their minor league affiliates have integrated the iCube, EON Sports VR has also partnered with college athletics programs like Penn State and the University of Miami (Fla.) to launch exclusive virtual reality channels, which provides fans with behind-the-scenes content, interviews and practice highlights.

Link:

EON Sports VR Partners With Japan's Yokohama DeNA Baystars For Virtual Reality Training - SportTechie