Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation
What Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality developers are talking about
Headset offers near top-tier experience at cut-down price with good fit, fast chip, great controllers and large games library
Meta’s latest virtual reality headset offers almost everything that makes its top model the best on the market but at a price that is far more palatable as an entry into VR.
The Quest 3S costs £290 (€330/$300/A$500) – about 40% less than the £470 Quest 3 and cheaper than 2020’s Quest 2 that it directly replaces.
Continue reading...Research is one of 11 projects part of a £12m government plan to reduce drug overdoses with new technology
Researchers are building a virtual reality world to help people overcome their cocaine addiction by repeatedly exposing them to tempting scenarios in a safe environment.
The project draws on the experiences of drug users to create tailored 3D experiences, such as being alone in a flat or at a party with friends, where people can be immersed via a VR headset in realistic situations that trigger the urge to take drugs.
Continue reading...Mark Zuckerberg presents Orion, prototype that can project digital renderings of media, games and more onto real world
The Meta CEO, Mark Zuckerberg, presented new augmented reality glasses at the company’s annual developer conference on Wednesday, debuting a prototype of the next phase in its expansion into smart eyewear. Zuckerberg also announced that Meta AI will be able to talk in the voice of Dame Judi Dench.
The glasses, named Orion, have the ability to project digital representations of media, people, games and communications on to the real world. Meta and Zuckerberg have framed the product as a step away from desktop computers and smartphone into eyewear that can perform similar tasks.
Continue reading...Immersive training scenarios highlight experiences of minority ethnic colleagues in health service
In one scene, a black nurse called Tunde is told by his manager that personal protective equipment (PPE) was being locked away at night to prevent its theft during night shifts, during the pandemic when ethnic minorities were more likely to work these hours.
In another, an Asian female doctor called Jasmine is dismissed by an HR manager after raising a double standard regarding requests for shift changes during the pandemic over childcare, something which her white colleagues were granted.
Continue reading...… but impressive, boundary-pushing device is priced so far out of reach for most that it isn’t yet the next big thing
On a sweltering summer’s day in London, I sat working in the middle of a snow-covered Yosemite national park surrounded by an array of floating apps and browser windows. Later I stared across a windswept Oregon beach reliving a holiday from years ago, and spent an evening sitting in a speeder on Tatooine watching Rogue One in 3D, before retiring for the night with some guided meditation.
These are the sorts of immersive experiences that Apple’s latest, most expensive gadget offers by blending the real and virtual world, all controlled by your eyes and hands. The Vision Pro may resemble virtual reality headsets such as Meta’s Quest series but it is attempting to be so much more.
Continue reading...With subjects ranging from the deadly serious to the downright silly, this year’s shows include plays about addiction, politics, funk and Come Dine With Me
“To be or not to be” … that Shakespearean soliloquy inspired what sounds like an innovative production by Peruvian company Teatro La Plaza. Writer-director Chela De Ferrari’s adaptation is a free version of the text placing the stories of people with Down’s syndrome centre stage. It promises to turn the tragedy into a joyful experience too, complete with rap, performed by eight actors who have Down’s.
Lyceum, 15-17 August
In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats is set in the West Midlands and will embark on eight-city tour starting in Birmingham
You’re at a house in Coventry in 1989 placing the needle on a vinyl record. The grooves of the record suddenly swell up around you to become the lanes of a motorway, and you’re barrelling along in a red Peugeot on the hunt for a secret warehouse rave.
This is the premise of In Pursuit of Repetitive Beats, an immersive VR experience embarking on an eight-city national tour this week with the aim of taking audiences back in time to the beginning of the acid house movement.
Continue reading...The most obvious function is for watching 3D movies or TV shows, but it may wind up being most useful at work
The Vision Pro has landed in Australia five months after the US launch, retailing at $5,999. At that price, it’s perhaps no surprise that Apple staff present it on a wooden platter like we’re in a five-star restaurant.
Next, the staff at Apple’s Chadstone store in Melbourne fit the device to your head, match your glasses prescription and get it up and running.
Continue reading...Scientists have found that immersing kids in computer games can train their brains to localise sounds better
Scientists have recruited an unusual ally in their efforts to help children overcome profound deafness. They are using computer games to boost the children’s ability to localise sounds and understand speech.
The project is known as Bears – for Both Ears – and it is aimed at youngsters who have been given twin cochlea implants because they were born with little or no hearing.
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