Category Archives: Virtual Reality

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The ETVR Virtual Reality 3.0 headset offers crisp details and a very comfortable fit for budget-conscious virtual reality fans.

When the cheap VR headset category started in 2014, it was an actual piece of folded cardboard with some lenses and a single button. Fast-forward to now, and you've got the ETVR Virtual Reality 3.0 headset (priced at $28.99) that improves upon just about every aspect of the concept. Instead of flimsy cardboard, you get a handsome device constructed from plastic, foam and faux leather with comfortable head straps, allowing for long viewing and playing sessions. Although we noticed a bit of light leakage, the ETVR is one of our top picks for consumers who want to experience VR without spending exorbitant amounts of money.

The ETVR Virtual Reality 3.0 headset has the slickest overall look of any of the cheap VR headsets Ive tested. While it shares the basic plastic construction found across the board in this category, the decision to go virtually all black, coupled with details such as chrome focal knobs and added head-strap components, makes for a more premium look.

The headset also has a few really clever functional additions that help elevate it over most of the other cheap VR headsets out there. The most noticeable is the padded cap on the top strap. The extra cushion alleviates some of the uncomfortable rubbing that can occur along the top of your head while allowing for a tighter fit to minimize errant headset movement.

MORE: Google Cardboard Review: Better Than Nothing

Looking inside the headset, you'll find two horizontal guides that slide into place around the outside of your phone. This not only holds the phone in place during use but also means you arent hunting around trying to center your phone for future VR sessions. Finally, this headset includes a button along the bottom right corner that makes it Google Cardboard-compatible, opening up some additional software options.

Beyond these fairly unique features, the ETVR 3.0 offers a perforated faux-leather padded face cushion and considerable venting to prevent overheating and fogging on the lenses. The focus controls are also thoughtfully placed at the temples and on top of the device for quick, easy adjustments during use.

My chief complaint about the ETVR 3.0 is that it does allow for some light to leak in at the top of the device. This is due to the front plate, which is made of a smoky translucent plastic; an opaque cover would have been better.

The ETVR can accommodate smartphones between 4.5 and 6.2 inches, including the iPhone 6 Plus. Setup is pretty straightforward; you just start the app you're planning to use before placing your phone into the headset. Next, open the headset's front cover, pop your smartphone into the waiting grip and secure the cover.

Thanks to the aforementioned padded cap on the head strap and a pliable faux-leather piece at the back of the strap, the ETVR is the most comfortable cheap headset Ive tested. Particularly for those games or VR experiences that lend themselves to quick head movement, this headset can be worn quite tightly and remain comfortable.

At 11.6 ounces, the ETVRs weight is in the middle of the pack compared with the Magiove (10.6 ounces) and the Destek (12.5 ounces). That's likely due to the extra padding, but it's a worthwhile trade-off in this case. The perforated faux-leather padding for your face is soft without being suffocating, and keeps your face cool even during longer VR sessions.

The ETVR 3.0's image clarity was excellent, retaining all of the detail on my Google Pixel's display. However, the color did seem slightly muted, while the display seemed somewhat dimmer in apps like Cedar Point VR Roller Coaster, compared with the more vibrant images on both the Magiove and Destek headsets.

MORE: Best VR Headsets

The focal- and pupil-distance controls are available on the sides and top of the device, respectively, and allow you to make quick adjustments as needed to ensure a clear picture.

The marketing materials for the headset claim a 120-degree field of view (FOV), but this simply isnt the case. The view looks virtually indistinguishable from other cheap VR headsets that claim a more plausible 83-85 degree FOV.

There is no onboard audio with the ETVR 3.0, so you are reliant on Bluetooth or wired headphones or simply the speakers in your phone. There are cutouts at each side and at the top of the front plate that will allow the sound to escape if you are using the speakers. Theres also room to run a 3.5 millimeter cord to plug in your headphones, if you choose to go that route.

Thanks to the presence of the button on the bottom right of the ETVR 3.0, this headset can use the Google Cardboard app. VR Street Jump for Cardboard is one example; its basically Cross Road in VR, and relies on the button to advance you through the game.

Otherwise, theres plenty of VR content and games available through the Google Play and Apple App Store.

Its impressive how much the ETVR Virtual Reality 3.0 gets right for such an inexpensive VR headset. You get an incredibly comfortable device, secure phone placement and added functionality through Google Cardboard support.

The light leakage and slightly muted colors are minor issues, and prevent this headset from being at the top of our list. If you're looking for a headset without either problem, I suggest the Magiove. But if comfort is at the top of your list when looking for a cheap VR headset, it's difficult to argue against the ETVR.

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ETVR Virtual Reality 3.0 Review - Tom's Guide

Qualcomm Corp. QCOM, -0.08% is doubling down on its virtual-reality efforts as it seeks to make its processors more attractive to headset manufacturers over rivals, such as Intel Corp. INTC, -0.11% The company announced Thursday a head-mounted display accelerator program designed to help original equipment manufacturers enter the virtual-reality market by subsidizing some of their engineering costs. Qualcomm said it will help to reduce the time it takes to create, develop and go to market, and estimates the program will help manufacturers get a commercial product available "within just a few months." Qualcomm's Snapdragon chips, which compete with similar chips produced by Intel, power the technology behind immersive virtual-reality experiences. Last year, the company said it was developing a standalone headset that could be easily adapted to specific manufacturers' specializations. At CES this year, Intel also showcased its own standalone virtual-reality headset called Project Alloy. Shares of Qualcomm were inactive in premarket trade. They've declined by more than 16% in the past three months, underperforming a 7.2% increase for the S&P 500 SPX, +0.02% Intel's shares are up 2.5% in the past three months.

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Qualcomm to subsidize virtual-reality costs for headset makers - MarketWatch

Forbes

Interview: IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond Talks Virtual Reality Forbes As noted last week, I was fortunate enough to be invited to IMAX's big press event concerning the launch of their new VR center in Hollywood. You got my thoughts on the individual games on Friday, but I also got the chance to sit down for a brief chat ...

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Interview: IMAX CEO Richard Gelfond Talks Virtual Reality - Forbes

SpiritualVR Panel: Right to left: Moderator Alison Raby, Digital Raign; Cheryl Fraenzl, Esalen Institute; Ashara Ekundayo, Impact Hub Oakland; Lia Oganesyan, Veer Hub; Anastasiya Sharkova, ARVR Academy; Dorote Lucci CoreReboot.

Consciousness in Virtual Reality was the topic for a recent all-female panel discussion (above) organized by SpiritualVR and hosted at UploadVR in San Francisco. Everyone had lots of interesting things to say but one thing that investor Anastasiya Sharkova said stuck with me.

She spoke about her first experience with virtual reality which was a title called: TheBlu: Encounter. Developed by Wevr in Venice, California -- here's the blurb from the website:

"Imagine what it is like coming face-to-face with an 80-foot blue whale, whose eye ball is almost the size of your entire face.

An experience which feels real, but clearly couldn't possibly be so, with a sense of uncanny scale and unexpected empathy."

Sharkova says that she knew full well that the whale wasn't real and that everything around her was computer generated and artificial yet when she looked into the whale's eye she felt a powerful emotional connection. And it began to change her behavior.

"For about two weeks I was using a lot less water. I took only short showers -- and believe me I love my morning showers," Sharkova said. "VR is such an immersive experience that it totally overwhelms your senses you become convinced something real is happening."

I've read about VR helping change people's behavior and thoughts in therapeutic contexts such as dealing with post traumatic stress syndrome. But what if it were used for commercial messages, what if the whale was AT&T or some other corporation?

After the panel I asked Sharkova what happens in the near future when the blue whale is AT&T?

She said that it is still early enough that companies in the industry will get together and they will create rules and figure out how to apply them.

Self-regulation is the only regulation that US tech firms will advocate for because government regulations and laws can constrain new markets.

However, all governments eventually regulate all new technologies of importance especially in communications -- essentially anything with a large distributed network. Electric power, railroads, radio, TV and telephone are examples.

[I'll be returning to this topic very soon. VR in Marketing -- the rising technologies of persuasion.]

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Virtual Reality used in marketing: What if the Blue whale is AT&T? - ZDNet

Typingcould be quite the ordeal when both of your hands are full and this is particularly true for virtual reality, where you constantly have to keep a tight grip of your joysticksto maintain control over the experience. But one resourceful designerhas found a handy way around this inconvenience.

Independent VR developer Jonathan Ravasz has built a nifty keyboard functionality for virtual reality experiences that lets you type without having to let go of the controllers. The PunchKeyboard is fundamentally a visualinput interface that lets you use the joysticks to type in VR.

Run an early-stage company? We're inviting 250 to exhibit at TNW Conference and pitch on stage!

While visually it resembles a typewriter, the app has been enhanced with autocomplete and next-word prediction functionalities to further simplify the typing process. The predictive feature currently sources data from Reddit conversations, but Ravasz assures it can be easily filled up with custom dictionaries too.

Heres a little video demo that will give you a better idea how the PunchKeyboard works:

In case you want to learn more about the PunchKeyboard, Ravasz has documented the approach and the motivation behind the app in a detailed blog post here. But to give you some more context, it was created in Unity and written in C#.

The project was inspired by Googlesown interpretation of the VR keyboard:

Ravasz has also included an executable demo file you can find in this GitHub repository, where you can also take a peek at the code behind the PunchKeyboard. The coolest thing about the app is that it is completely open source, which means you can make changes to it as much as you want.

As thisRedditorexplains, the PunchKeyboard might not be readily available to use in already released games, but developers can easily integrate the tool if they opt to do so.

Check out the PunchKeyboard here.

PunchKeyboard on GitHub

Read next: This extension randomizes your Reactions to hide your true emotions from Facebook

Shh. Here's some distraction

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This drum-like keyboard lets you type in virtual reality like a boss - TNW

Lithodomos VR creates immersive virtual recreations of iconic ruins.

Have you ever stood in front of historic ruinsthe Parthenon, say, or one of Britains many ancient castlesand closed your eyes, imagining what the scene before you would have looked like centuries ago?

Thanks to virtual reality, seeing ruins as they looked in their heyday is becoming possible. It may even be a game changer for the ways we visit ancient cities like Jerusalem or Paris.

When I catch up with Australian archaeologist Simon Young, hes in Rome.

Its low season at the moment in Italy, but there are still hundreds and thousands of people wandering in the streets and looking at ruins, he says.

Young would like to show those people what Rome looked like nearly 2,000 years ago by fitting them with virtual reality headsets. His company, Lithodomos VR, creates immersive virtual recreations of iconic ruins. The recreations can be used on site with a smartphone headset, or from home or school using a commercial VR system like Oculus Rift.

Its 360-degree 3D virtual reality, Young says. It really helps you to place yourself back in time.

Today, Romes Temple of Venus and Rome lies split in half, most of its columns gone, ravaged by centuries of fire, earthquakes and pillaging. But put on a virtual reality headset with Lithodomos app, and suddenly its a June afternoon in the 1stcentury AD. The temple before you is whole again, its vanished columns standing tall, its faade all shining white marble, the intricate relief sculptures of its pediment cast in shadow by the summer sun.

The app maps your physical location onto the temple, allowing you to look around from various angles. It might be raining outside, or nighttime. But in the VR world, the sky is a hazy blue, the perimeter of the temple lined with trees.

In addition to the Temple of Venus and Rome, Lithodomos has a recreation of the Arnes de Lutce, a Roman amphitheater and stage from the beginning of the 2nd century AD, now just fragments tucked away behind apartment buildings in Pariss Latin Quarter. Its also recreated the Odeon of Agrippa, a concert hall in the center of the Athenian agora, and parts of ancient Jerusalem. The scenes are available on two Lithodomos apps released in December and January. Young plans to work on scenes from Delphi, Spain and the UK in the near future.

Young sees his software being used by tour groups who would provide their guests with headsets, or by individuals using cheap, portable viewers likeGoogle Cardboard. He also hopes to partner with museums and universities to create other historical VR experiences, such as allowing museum-goers to view artifacts up close and in 360 degrees.

Lithodomos is not the only company working on historical VR.Singapore-based Hiverlabhas ambitions to digitize heritage sites across the world. So far theyve created a VR tour of a medieval Armenian church in Cypress, which lets users wander the structure as it is today, as well see what it might have looked like centuries ago. The freeTimelooper applets viewers experience various historical momentsGeorge Washingtons second inaugural address, the construction of the Empire State Building, the Great Fire of London.

In the past several months, Young says, several tour operators in Rome have begun offering VR-enhanced tours. The day before, hed been to the Domus Aurea, the Golden House built by Nero in the 1stcentury AD. The sites superintendent had installed an Oculus Rift experience, and visitors were busy checking it out.

One woman swore, she was so amazed by the experience, Young says.

But as an archeologist, Young worries that some companies offering ancient world VR experiences arent serious enough about accuracy.

Some game developer in Silicon Valley who has no idea thinks, oh, a column would look great there, he says. The real danger is that, because VR is such a powerful medium, if someone visits the Colosseum, they walk away with the idea that this is what it was like.

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See the Ancient World Through Virtual Reality - Smithsonian

Five Considerations For Entertainment Marketers To Use Virtual Reality Forbes Over the past year, global search interest in virtual reality has quadrupled. The VR hype is here but how do we convert interest into action? Recent developments in technology, changes in viewing behavior, and solutions in mobile have pushed open the ...

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Five Considerations For Entertainment Marketers To Use Virtual Reality - Forbes

A new virtual reality device aims to help architects and designers create buildings and spaces which are better suited to meet the needs of people with dementia.

The Virtual Reality Empathy Platform (VR-EP) works by understanding how dementia can affect a persons vision.

The invention is a market first for architectural design. It can be used in the design of new buildings such as care homes, hospitals or sheltered housing, and also has the potential to assess existing buildings and environments.

There are currently more than 800,000 people in the UK living with dementia, a figure that is expected to rise to 1.7 million by 2051. Some estimates suggest that dementia costs the UK economy 26.3bn per year.

The VR-EP aims to help healthcare providers save expensive adaptive costs by designing buildings and spaces with the person living with dementia in mind.

People living with dementia can see things very differently, with objects often appearing dimmer and less colourful.

The new device helps designers to see things through the eyes of a fictional person living with dementia, and to create homely and familiar environments that could reduce accidents, lessen anxiety and help those living with dementia live more independent lives.

The idea is the brainchild of David Burgher, director at Scottish Borders-based Aitken Turnbull Architects, who has developed the product in partnership with Glasgow CGI company Wireframe Immersive and experts at the Dementia Centre, HammondCare.

The Dementia Centre is recognised as a world leader in dementia support, care and design. Wireframe Immersive has developed the virtual environment and will supply the software and hardware.

David Burgher said: At Aitken Turnbull we have many years of experience in designing buildings for the elderly and for people living with dementia and have gained valuable insight into the condition.

''The introduction of this unique VR-EP technology takes this insight to the another level - giving building designers first-hand experience of how dementia affects vision so that we can design spaces that are far better suited to people living with the condition.''

VR-EP comprises a laptop with high performance graphic and memory capability, Virtual Reality goggles, a games controller, camera and bespoke software programming.

Professor Mary Marshall, senior consultant at the HammondCare Dementia Centres UK team said: One of the biggest challenges for researchers, trainers and consultants in dementia design is how you convey the experience of the environment for people living with dementia.

''This device has the potential to be immensely beneficial for researchers, commissioners, architects and interior designers, and many other professionals in this field, and the Dementia Centre, HammondCare are delighted to be part of it.

The VR-EP device was developed with 50,000 of funding from Scottish Enterprise and is projected to generate ten times that amount of sales by year three of trading.

Aitken Turnbull Architects and Wireframe Immersive are currently carrying out a scoping exercise with interest from Scottish Development International (SDI) to export this virtual reality device to Europe, China and the US.

David McHoul, Innovation Specialist at Scottish Enterprise said: This project is another great example of Scotlands strengths in innovation.''

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Virtual reality device helps home designers understand effects of dementia - Scottish Daily Record

The Verge

Samsung's latest C-Lab projects embrace augmented and virtual reality TechCrunch Samsung created C-Lab (that's Creative Lab) half a decade ago as an attempt to incubate employee creativity within the larger confines of its corporate culture. Among the decided benefits of its place as a giant among consumer electronics companies is ... Samsung's incubator lab is getting seriously into virtual and augmented realityThe Verge all 32 news articles »

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Samsung's latest C-Lab projects embrace augmented and virtual reality - TechCrunch

NEWS10 ABC

New virtual reality lounge opening in the Capital Region NEWS10 ABC CLIFTON PARK, N.Y. (NEWS10) For millions around the world gaming is a way of life, and a virtual reality lounge in Clifton Park is bringing that experience to a level of immersion never seen before. Toxic VR, a virtual reality lounge opening right ...

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New virtual reality lounge opening in the Capital Region - NEWS10 ABC