Oculus Rift + Touch controllers drop to $399

The biggest problem of the Oculus Rift is its price, but fortunately Facebook is fixing that with a Summer campaign that offers the Rift VR heaset and Touch controllers for just $399.

Oculus Santa Cruz gets rid of wires and PCs

The Oculus can be frequentely mentioned as the reference platform for VR, but we have to keep in mind it's still a "first generation" product. The future is far better, as its own Santa Cruz VR glasses prototype reveals.

Facebook shows us the VR social network of the future

Virtual Reality has a huge potential to change lots of things in our world, including the way we can be with friends, anywhere, no matter where they may be in the real world.

Porto VR360 lets you preview Porto as if you were there (here)

If you want to have a glimpse of how a trip to Porto might be, there's a new way to do it from home, using the Porto VR360 virtual reality app.

Zuckerberg makes surprise appearance in Barcelona's MWC

The Mobile World Congress is churning along with lots of presentations and new devices (like Samsung's new Galaxy S7, LG's new G5, Huawei's MateBook, and much more) but instead of spewing just some more numbers that show how these devices are better than the ones they aim to replace, I'll instead focus on this amazing image taken during Samsung's presentation.

Oculus Rift pre-sales start today for $599

We're just a few hours away from the beginning of a new virtual reality era: the much awaited Oculus Rift is about to become available to all who want it.

YouTube now allows you to watch all videos in VR

We're fast approaching 2016, and you can bet it will be the year when we'll be seeing Virtual Reality plastered all around us, no matter where you look (and I mean in the real reality). As you'd expect, YouTube doesn't want to be left behind in this area, and it now allows you to watch all videos in VR, using an Android smartphone and a cardboard VR setup.

Magic Leap is gearing up to build millions of "magic" devices

Magic Leap hasn't announced a launch date for its mysterious magic glasses devices, but the fact that its gearing up for volume production signals that it's about to happen sooner rather than later.

The Last Starfighter will return as a TV Series with VR scenes

The Last Starfighter is one of those movies that was cherished by sci-fi fans amazed by the growing capabilities of computer generated digital effects (and for the better or worse has resisted the remake/reboot treatment). But it seems it's now about to return, as a TV series with a twist: some parts will be virtual reality.

OnePlus cardboard VR goggles are available right now

The OnePlus 2 will be unveiled in a virtual reality event and OnePlus promised some enhanced cardboard VR goggles for fans around the world to enjoy it. Well, the VR cardboard goggles are now available, but you'll have to hurry to grab one.

Recursive 3D environment in Virtual Reality

There's a lot to be done and explored in regard to Virtual Reality user interfaces, but today I bring you one that remind me of a "Inception"-like situation.

It doesn't take a genius to figure out Virtual Reality is excellent to interact with 3D elements. But today I bring you an example that, besides the usual 3D element, it also pops open a 2D desktop window where the same 3D program is running - and where you end up with a object "outside of the screen" and one in the regular screen space (although, there isn't actually a monitor and everything is done in virtual reality).

... That prompted me to thing about some developer creating a virtual reality experience where your virtual self would put some virtual virtual reality goggles, transporting you to yet another layer of virtual reality, and so on and so on... I imagine that would be truly mind bending! :)

Facebook buys Oculus VR and dives head first into Virtual Reality

Can't say I was expecting that: Facebook had bought Oculus VR, the creators of the Oculus Rift Virtual Reality headset that is making everyone believe that we're finally on the verge of achieve the virtual reality reality we've always hoped for.

It may sound a bit crazy... but once you consider the amazing potential virtual reality has, not only in gaming but in all kinds of other scenarios: health, education, work, etc. it's easy to understand why they would be interested - though for now the priority will continue to be games. If you imagine a future where a headset can transport you to a believable "reality", you'd no longer need to buy a large screen TV for your home, you  could have a screen as large as you want inside your virtual home - heck, you could even have your own private IMAX cinema, to which you could invite your friends and share a movie together, even though each one of them could be in different continents.

And what about schools and education? Being in the far reaches of the Earth wouldn't keep you from attending a class in the best Universities of any country in the world, in a way that would make you actually like you're there - instead of just watching it on a screen.

It's an amazing tech, and FB now holds a very important asset that allows them to be in the front row for this revolution. Sure, this acquisition won't be welcomed by all (Minecraft's creator has already cancelled the Oculus Rift version of his popular game because he "doesn't trust Facebook"), but... no one will be able to stop the virtual reality revolution. Just you wait and see.

Oculus Rift [First Impressions]

I usually keep most of my longer writing to my main tech blog (in portuguese), but in the case of the Oculus Rift, I think many of you might be as curious as I have been since the day I first saw it and immediately decided to back them on Kickstarter. Yes... after so many months of waiting my Oculus Rift have finally arrived!

There will be a lengthier and more detailed review later on, but for now I just wanted to share how it feels do be inside a virtual world with the Oculus Rift. Keep in mind I didn't even took the time to properly calibrate everything, I just plugged it in and jumped right in into the Tuscanny demo they provide (also played a little Team Fortress 2 since then. :)

The Oculus Rift really are in a class of their own - no other VR goggles I've tried before comes close. While other VR googles felt like you were just peeping through a couple of camera viewfinders, with the Oculus Rift you actually feel like you're in there! It really is a dream come true, and just like you would "think" virtual reality is/should be.

The response time to our movements has no perceptible lag - in great part due to the motion sensor being developed in-house specifically for the VR task at hand - and... it's simply amazing. For the first time, VR can be all it can be!

Unfortunately, there are also some disappointments... While I always complained about how old VR Googles had little resolution (back in the day you'd be lucky to get VGA 640x480 resolution), I was hoping the Rift's 1280x800 screen (split in half for each eye) would make that a non-issue. But unfortunately it doesn't. While those older goggles had lower resolution, you often had a display for each eye, and it occupied a lot less of your visual field. With the Rift, each eye's 640x800 view is spread a much wider field of view - like we want - but in the process it makes you see much bigger pixels than what I was anticipating.

Even tough it's the best you can have right now, the Rift is a "pixel fest" where you can easily see individual pixels (and even subpixels if you're picky about it - like I am). That really annoyed me a bit for a while... until you forget about it and once again feel like you're in different world! :) I can't tell you enough just how strange - in the good sense - it is to climb up to a second floor and look down!

For a mass market version, I think they really need to use higher resolution screens (it won't be difficult, as we know have 5" Full HD screen). The issue is... I think that even a FullHD panel may not be enough - if I had to make a guess, I would say the Rift would need at least four times the actual resolution/PPI in order for "regular people" to use it and be happy with it. With the trend in displays going precisely into high-ppi screens, I hope that can be put to good use into making a suitable display for the Rift v2.

Well... I'm already saying more than I wanted to - or I'll have nothing left to write about in the final review. So... that's it for now! :)

Vuzix STAR 1200

I must admit that, ever since I can remember, I've always wanted to be able to wear some kind of digital glasses that could superimpose any kind of digital information over the real world around us. Virtual Reality glasses were one such option, but until now it seemed there was always something wrong with them: too bulky, too expensive, not enough resolution...

But, maybe we're coming to a turning point and fulfilling that dream with these Vuzix STAR 1200.

Unlike other "virtual reality" glasses, these Vuzix show the digital image over the real workd image - without cheating through the use of digital cameras to capture your surroundings and feeding it back to its tiny screens.

I supposed these will still lack a wide area view, but... I'm hoping this means we're one step closer to those ideal digital glasses I've always dreamed about.

Augmented Hyper Reality

After the Augmented Reality craze, can you imagine what may come next? Check out this amazing concept of Augmented Hyper Reality!


Augmented (hyper)Reality: Domestic Robocop from Keiichi Matsuda on Vimeo.

Omni-Directional Treadmill

While we can't get an actual Holodeck, we have to try and solve some of the smaller steps first. And by that I mean: walking.

If you want to walk around a virtual landscape, you better have some sort of device that keeps you inside a constrained area in the more natural way possible.

Check this amazing omni-directional treadmill:

HTC Magic Virtual Reality Goggles

A piece of cardboard, one HTC Magic, and the result is: probably the first virtual reality goggles anyone can afford. :)

Watch it in action:

Virtusphere Virtual Reality

Ready to have some giant spheres in your living room?

This Virtusphere seems to be a very effective way to create a 360º walking/running environment perfect for virtual reality interaction.

Watch the video...

StarCAVE - one step closer to the Holodeck

Slowly but steadily we get closer to the famous Holodeck from Star Trek.

Sure, we still have a very long way to go... but these VR rooms are becoming more impressive than ever.

At the UC San Diego, a team of researchers has built a 3rd generation VR room called StarCAVE.

With over 68 million pixels processed in real time (and in 3D) you can imagine what kind of hardware is involved:

• 34 latest generation graphic chips from NVIDIA
• 34 High-definition 2K projectors (2048x1536) - 2 for each screen, to create the 3D effect
  
• Each pair of projectors is connected to a high-end computer with a quad-core CPU running Linux, dual graphic cards, and dual network cards for gigabit Ethernet or 10GigE networking.

The end result is something never seen before in a VR room of this kind.
But things won't stop here and the team is already planning on the upgrading the current projectors to 4K resolution. These will allow the StarCAVE to have 20/20 visual quality... meaning... it will be as real as your eyes can see.

[University of California]

Sekai Camera for iPhone

Augmented reality from TonchiDot, Sekai Camera for iPhone as presented on Techcrunch 50.

What if reality was used as a canvas for social networking and... everything else?

Check this video: