Microsoft Archives - VR World

AMD, Augmented Reality (AR), Companies, Gaming, Hardware, Microsoft, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Stories You Might’ve Missed: Microsoft CLAW VR, AMDFLAWS and more

In the second week of March, from the 9th to the 16th, more stories broke. Microsoft, AMD and Bose were all in the news for vastly different reasons, but all of these reasons were relevant to the world of VR. Or, in Bose’s case, AR. This segment, Stories You Might’ve Missed, is for news stories that broke but weren’t given articles on our site. Let’s see what we missed. Microsoft shows off prototype CLAW VR controller One of the most interesting stories to break in March was the debut of the CLAW VR controller from Microsoft. In their blog post and YouTube video (embedded above),

Microsoft, Space and Science, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Microsoft develops ‘canetroller’ device for the visually impaired

Researchers at Microsoft have developed a device they call the “canetroller”, a haptic VR controller that works with the HTC Vive headset and tracker to help people with visual impairments navigate virtual environments. The canetroller consists of five parts: a cane controller that the user sweeps and taps as they would a regular cane, a brake mechanism to be worn around the waist, a slider placed between the controller and the break to impart the physical resistance generated by the brake, a voice coil that provides the controller with tactile feedback, and a tracker that monitors the controller’s position. The actual controller is shorter than normal

Buying Guides, Guides, Reviews, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

New to VR? A beginner’s guide

Virtual reality (VR) produces a computer-generated environment–complete with realistic sights, sounds and other sensations–which a person can explore by wearing a special kind of headset and, in some cases, using certain props. Basically every VR experience will allow the user to feel as though they are in this simulated world and look around it, while more advanced systems allow for movement and interaction. While the ability of VR to provide valuable, realistic experiences without introducing real-world risks has found many fans across various industries (from healthcare to real estate), the most popular types of virtual reality content remain video games, movies and television. For those

Microsoft, Mixed Reality (MR), News, Windows

Microsoft reportedly reorganizing mixed reality staff

Microsoft is reorganizing its Windows Mixed Reality team, including combining its Everyday Magic and Evoke Studios into a new organization, with resultant job cuts. The news was first reported earlier this week by industry analyst Brad Sams at Petri.com. According to Sams, the changes will see the team that developed Paint 3D, Remix3D, Mixed Reality Viewer, and other mixed reality apps (Everyday Magic) merged with those responsible for the Photos and Videos app. Reportedly, the new team will be headed by Chris Pratley. Pratley, who has worked for Microsoft since 1994, currently serves as the Corporate Vice President / Studio Manager responsible for Story Remix,

2018, Amazon, Augmented Reality (AR), Consumer Electronics Show (CES), Google, Internet, Microsoft, Mobile, Mobile Computing, News, Smartphones, Wearables

CES: Rokid unveils AR glasses prototype

AI and robotics firm Rokid has unveiled a prototype of its planned augmented reality product, Rokid Glass, this week at CES. The company, better known for its home assistant products (that bear similarities in looks and functionality to Amazon’s Alexa Dot and Google’s Home Mini), appears to be making its first foray into the augmented reality space. Reportedly, the glasses will operate as a standalone headset, but also provide functionality to connect to smartphones or other devices via Bluetooth or WiFi to bolster processing power and network range. The glasses run a variant of Android 6.0 — suggesting it may eventually leverage Google’s ARCore to

Gaming, Mixed Reality (MR), News, VR World, Windows

Bigscreen coming to Windows Mixed Reality

For the uninitiated, Bigscreen is a virtual desktop application for VR headsets. It originally launched for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift as a desktop environment for those headsets, and as of the turn of the New Year, Bigscreen is now available on Windows Mixed Reality headsets. Bigscreen coming to Windows MR headsets is good news for the platform. While Windows Mixed Reality does have SteamVR support, the platform still has a way to go to become a true competitor to the HTC Vive or the Oculus Rift. Bigscreen porting their application to Mixed Reality is a good sign, though, and with any luck, many other

Apple, Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Facebook, Fintech, Google, Intel, Microsoft, News, Nvidia, Virtual Reality (VR)

Investors Guide: Investing in AI and AR Stocks is the New Gold

The year is coming to an end and if you were thinking about investing in tech companies – now may be the right time. The bullish market still lasts (eighth years in a row now), and this year was pretty good for investors despite the threats of a nuclear or potential trade war and/or crypto currencies rising . Through the end of November, the S&P 500 Index gained 21%. The Dow Jones Industrial Average was up 25%, and the Nasdaq Composite surged 27%. Big technology companies in the Nasdaq 100 Index, tracked by the popular QQQ ETF, have jumped 32% since January. Take AR for

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Google, Hardware, Microsoft, Military, News, VR World, Wearables

Apple Manufacturer Quanta Partners With Lumus For AR Displays

Quanta Computer Inc. is a manufacturing partner for Apple and many other hardware manufacturers in the PC/smartphone space. They’re one of the most important companies that consumers have never heard of. Recently, they reached out to Lumus, an Israel-based business that designs displays for AR glasses and headsets. If you recall Google’s “Glass” project from a few years back (which included very limited shipments of Google Glasses), Lumus works on similar hardware and has been doing so for quite a while. In 2008, they sold the PD-18, one of the first AR glasses of its kind, and just a few years later they started producing hardware

Augmented Reality (AR), Dell, HP, HTC, News, Oculus, Sony, Virtual Reality (VR)

Global quarterly VR headset shipments achieve new record

Uptake of virtual reality hardware continues its upward trend, according to the latest numbers from independent market analysis firm, Canalys. In a report issued Monday, the company indicated that total global shipments of VR headsets set a new milestone, exceeding one million units during the just completed 3rd quarter. Meanwhile, Sony, Oculus, and HTC continue to dominate the VR hardware marketplace, with an 86% combined market share. One driver of headset acquisitions was a temporary-turned-permanent price cut by Oculus in Q3, who matched Playstation’s VR headset price point at $399. This precedes the upcoming release of Oculus’ $199 Go standalone headset, expected next year. “VR

Gaming, Hardware, Microsoft, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Windows

SteamVR Preview Coming To Windows Mixed Reality, Requires Higher Specs

SteamVR is essentially an extension of Steam, allowing a virtual hub for playing and purchasing VR applications. Since its release with the HTC Vive (and eventual compatibility with the Oculus Rift), SteamVR has been a favorite among VR enthusiasts everywhere. With the debut of Windows Mixed Reality headsets on PC, many were left wondering if Mixed Reality headsets could support the same software, and it looks like the answer to that question is a resounding yes. SteamVR is coming to Windows Mixed Reality headsets in an official preview state on November 15th, 2017. Full, official compatibility is somewhere further down the line, likely depending on the

Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Microsoft, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables, Windows

Microsoft Presenting Easy-To-Use Virtual Reality Experience

Microsoft is trying to nudge laptop and deskbound computers to interact with the three-dimensional world. The company on Tuesday started rolling out its latest bundle of updates to the Windows 10 operating system with features clustered around a bet that people will use their PCs to experience 3-D virtual worlds. Dubbed the Fall Creators Update, the package will make its way in waves to the more than 500 million Windows 10 users starting this week. Business users have the ability to delay updates. This technology “will forever unleash the creativity of people and organizations around the planet,” Alex Kipman, a Microsoft technical fellow working on Windows

Apple, Augmented Reality (AR), Business, Companies, Google, HTC, Microsoft, News, VR World

Digital marketing will grow to more than $162 billion

According to an International Data Corporation report, the digital reality market will grow from $5.2 billion last year to more than $162 billion in 2020. Corporate CEOs in any field would be hard-pressed to find a multibillion-dollar industry with an anticipated compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 181.3% over the 2015–2020 forecast period in any sector other than digital reality. Also, established by HTC earlier this year, the Virtual Reality Venture Capital Alliance, or VRVCA, is an organisation comprising of VR-invested firms and companies who believe VR is the next big medium. With HTC at the forefront, the VRVCA has set aside US$12 billion to grow VR, with investments

Business, Companies, Microsoft, News

Microsoft aquires AltspaceVR

AltspaceVR, the virtual reality social network that hosts events like stand-up comedy or presidential debate-watching parties, is now part of Microsoft. After a sudden shutdown due to a drop in funding in July, Microsoft obviously has now come to the rescue. The Altspace team joined the software giant a few days ago, and is now being tasked with “building the world’s preeminent mixed reality community,” according to Microsoft’s mixed reality lead Alex Kipman, who called Altspace “a pioneer in social mixed reality” Tuesday. As of July, the startup detailed that it had just 35,000 monthly active users. Following the shutdown announcement, the startup let go a significant number of

Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality (AR), Auto, Business, Companies, Hardware, Microsoft, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Wearables

Microsoft HoloLens optimizes Ford designs

Ford has started equipping its designers with Microsoft’s HoloLens, the augmented reality technology Microsoft is rolling out for commercial and industrial applications. While the companies are purchasing $5,000 HoloLens Commercial Suite headsets, the components themselves are subject to change for specific customers. We’ve heard stories of customers that bought HoloLens Commercial Suite and received (now cancelled) 2nd generation. Then again, all of this is a warm-up for the 3rd generation HoloLens, planned for a commercial market launch as early as next year. This is not new in the world of car industry since HoloLens headset has been slowly pivoting towards commercial markets over the past year. NASA, Volvo, Lowe’s, Audi, and

Blockchain, Breaking, Business, Fintech, Microsoft, News, Technology Security, VR World

Big Business Moves into Blockchain: Acord, EY, Microsoft, Maersk

ACORD Solutions Group, accounting giant EY, technology giant Microsoft and the Maersk, the world’s largest shipping company have combined to launch the world’s first marine insurance blockchain platform. EY said that the distributed ledger will be used to capture information about shipments, risk and liability, and to help firms comply with insurance regulations. It will also ensure transparency across an interconnected network of clients, brokers, insurers and other third parties. “The reason we chose marine (insurance) as the starting point for this sort of market is mainly because of its complete inefficiency,” Shaun Crawford, global insurance leader at EY, told for CNBC. He added that

3D, Audio/Video, Breaking, Business, Entertainment, Event, Exclusive, Gaming, Graphics, Hardware, HTC, Microsoft, News, Oculus, Operating Systems, Software Programs, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World, Windows

Microsoft Prepares VR Partnerships for Windows 10 Holographic Edition

Last winter Microsoft announced that the company started working together with its PC hardware partners to develop headsets that support a mixed mode, between virtual and augmented reality. These headsets run a new version of Microsoft’s software called Windows Mixed Reality, a version of Windows that natively supports both augmented (AR) and virtual reality (VR) experiences. At the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, or IFA, the biggest annual consumer electronics trade fair in Europe which started last week, this software giant took the center stage. They said that they will include their “Windows Mixed Reality” in the upcoming Windows 10 Fall Creators Update (available from Oct 17).

AMD, Breaking, CPU, Enterprise, Hardware, Intel, Microsoft, News, Nvidia, Operating Systems, VR World, Windows

Microsoft Launches Windows 10 Pro for Workstations

Microsoft demonstrated today that the company is keeping its flagship product in touch with the advances in computer hardware. The company announced new version of Windows 10 Pro, named Windows 10 Pro for Workstations. This OS is slated to arrive with the Fall edition of Windows Creators Update. With AMD and Intel releasing 32- and 28-core processors, reporting as much as 128 cores/threads in a 2P (dual socket) configuration, the question how will Microsoft follow the breakneck pace of CPU and GPU wars. New Windows 10 Pro represents a highly tuned version of operating system, focusing on reducing system latency and increasing responsiveness as much

Augmented Reality (AR), Breaking, Education, Event, Hardware, Microsoft, News, Virtual Reality (VR), VR World

Is Microsoft Surface Laptop a Disappointment?

During its newly established EDU event, Microsoft announced Windows 10 S (S for Student, not for Superman), a new Surface laptop and several partner PCs. The goal of new EDU strategy is to win back schools across the country. Years ago, Microsoft dominated schools with affordable Windows PCs, taking a back seat when Apple rebuilt itself with the iMac and then MacBook. Just as Apple started to run out of steam, Google came to the front with its cloud-driven Chromebooks. Now when the things are changed Microsoft wants to take back the throne, and once again have a prime place in the classroom, where it

Analysis, Android, Apple, Back to School, Business, Companies, Exclusive, iOS, Microsoft, Operating Systems, Opinion, OSx, Software Programs, Windows, Windows Phone

Will “Windows as a Service” Model be successful for Microsoft?

Ever since Microsoft came out with the Windows 10, Redmond has been positioning this Operating System (OS) as the final direct release, with all the future versions being built off this foundation. Microsoft is trying to capture back market share which PCs have lost to mobile computing. Microsoft allowed for program compatibility and ecosystem support blunders with Windows 7 Mobile, Windows 8 Mobile, Windows 8 x86, and Windows 8 ARM (RT). The company let its Windows ecosystem to become fragmented, removed backwards compatibility, and many of its consumer developers moved away from Microsoft to focus on iOS and Android OS created by Apple and Google

Breaking, Business, Cloud Computing, News, startups, Virtual Reality (VR)

Can Pixvana FOVAS Technology Resolve Resolution Issues in VR?

Virtual Reality. Reality, immersion, virtual space in which you can walk around. On the level of awareness, what does it means to look real? VR is hope of more intense experience. The ‘wow’ sense of presence. The question really is… is VR finally ready to make a big impact on the world? Resolution and data bandwidth requirements represent one of key obstacles that break the illusion of immersion in VR content. With the new generation of immersive content, the industry needs to solve this new and harder engineering challenges. Pixvana is startup company focused on developing a cloud-based video-processing at the speed of delivery over