VR headset future

VR’s future depends on you buying a dorky headset

Oculus, the VR company that Mark Zuckerberg bought for more than $2 billion, has a problem: It’s struggling to convince people to buy its gear.

https://www.cnet.com/news/vr-virtual-reality-future-depends-on-you-buying-a-dorky-headset-oculus-zuckerberg-playstation-vive/

Oculus Connect, starting Wednesday in San Jose, California. Facebook’s Oculus VR division promises discussions on how health care, movies and video games are adapting to this still nascent technology. One panel will explore how the disability community can benefit from VR gear and presentations.

Facebook chief competitors, Sony and HTC, followed suit. The PlayStation VR dropped to $400 from $500, and the Vive dropped to $599 from $799 all in the past three months.

Survios made Raw Data more widely available for Oculus, Vive and PlayStation VR. Survios is also looking beyond VR for customers, redesigning Raw Data to work in arcades as well.

Over the summer, Apple and Google announced new technologies called ARKit and ARCore, respectively, that are designed to help iPhones and iPads or any device powered by Google’s Android software marry computer-generated images with the real world.

A $2.99 app, Star Guide AR, highlights stars and constellations in the sky once you point your phone at them. Another, Ikea Place, previews furniture in your home with a tap. Walk around your living room and you can see the furniture you placed while looking through the screen on your phone. So far, both are available only for the iPhone.

App developers I spoke with say they’re excited by augmented reality and believe it may help spur people to buy VR systems as well.

Microsoft’s focusing on both AR and VR. In an October update to its Windows 10 software for PCs, the company is partnering with device makers like Lenovo, Dell, HP, Acer and Samsung to create headsets based on its designs. They’ll sell for as little as $300 each when they begin hitting store shelves Oct. 17.

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more on virtual reality in this IMS blog
https://blog.stcloudstate.edu/ims?s=virtual+reality

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