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I spent the last two weeks traveling in China visiting virtual reality companies and attending the annual China Joy conference. China has a very active VR ecosystem with a lot to learn but I came away with a clear key thesis: China will be a major first market for VR. High-end VRRead More →

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China’s Alibaba online retail giant told China Daily that it is developing virtual-reality-enabled mobile payment technology, which could allow users to pay bills in a 3-D virtual world by nodding their heads or making other gestures to log in payment accounts. Read the full story here. The company. which is known as China’s Amazon,Read More →

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Kitely’s user community is celebrating History Month this August to celebrate history-inspired builds and encourage people to build more. It will also feature a number of events each week including live music and dance. Visitors can pick up landmarks and a HUD — heads-up display — at the History Month Hub eachRead More →

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If you want to share your OpenSim build online so that people can explore it with a virtual reality headset, consider Sketchfab. The platform, which has half a million registered users and nearly a million VR models, claims to be the largest 3D content sharing site on the web. For example, theRead More →

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MetaWorld, a multi-user virtual world, will add virtual reality creation tools and allow exporting of objects and launch a marketplace. The MetaWorld Pioneer Edition is currently in pre-alpha and users can pre-order it for $9.99 for early pioneer access. It will be released later this year with support for the Samsung Gear VR. Later on,Read More →

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Avi-Labs, the hosting company behind the AviWorlds grid, has been hacked, according to Josh Boam, the company’s technology manager, but grid data should be recoverable. “Everything is saved,” he said. According to Boam, company founder and owner Alex Pomposelli has been out of touch for the past few days. “IRead More →

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The smartphone is able to replace a lot of the things we use to need. Alarm clocks, GPS devices, cameras, mail delivery, televisions, radios, tape recorders, record players, calculators, guitar tuners, pedometers — the list goes on and on. The next-generation augmented and virtual reality headset, which looks like aRead More →

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While CtrlAltStudio viewer 1.2.6.43412 has provided 3D/VR access for the Oculus Rift in Second Life and OpenSim, there is another way to explore virtual worlds in VR – through VorpX. VorpX allows some applications and games not specifically designed for virtual reality headsets to work in 3D virtual reality mode. With virtual world viewersRead More →

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OSgrid celebrated its ninth birthday this weekend, but the events did not go smoothly on OpenSim’s largest and oldest grid. OSgrid has had some technical issues over the past few days, grid president Dan Banner told Hypergrid Business, starting with login in problems on Friday. Users were still able toRead More →

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Tangle Grid is hosting the Steam Expo starting from August 1 to September 25 where creators can showcase their items and visitors can see items being displayed. In addition to the exposition for creation, the grid hosts live DJing every Friday at the exposition from 10:30 a.m. to 1 p.m.Read More →

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GIBLIB, an online platform for medical lectures and surgical videos, will broadcast a live stream of a hernia operation from the Surgery Medical Center & Precision ASC. The surgery will be performed by Dr. Shirin Towfigh. Medical professionals, as well as the general public, are invited to tune in at watch.giblib.com/register on Thursday,Read More →

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As the virtual and augmented reality space heats up, so does the number of conferences. Check out the latest technologies and network with industry leaders at these coming events. Below are a number of events organized in the virtual and augmented reality industry this year, which will take place inRead More →

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New York-based Become Inc., launched a crowdfunding campaign last week for Veeso, which promises to be the world’s first virtual reality headset with built-in cameras that track facial expressions. The $70 Cardboard-compatible headset will work with both iPhones and Androids, with delivery estimated by the end of this year. ItRead More →

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Leap Motion CTO David Holz spent more than an hour and a half last Thursday night answering questions about virtual and augmented reality in front of an audience of more than 200 avatars in AltspaceVR‘s virtual environment. He said that we’re about to see transparent, sunglasses-style virtual and augmented headsetsRead More →

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Press release: More than 50 percent of consumers likely to purchase from brands that sponsor virtual reality, according to Greenlight VR Greenlight VR’s latest consumer survey reveals positive feelings for VR among users and nonusers alike, suggesting a powerful opportunity for marketers and other content creators. SAN FRANCISCO — Greenlight VR’s latestRead More →

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Canada’s Tek Gear Inc. is offering a free virtual reality headset to anyone who wants one — as long as they pick up the shipping charges. “We’ve been in the VR business for over 24 years, delivering high end immersive solutions to military, medical, industrial and research institutions worldwide,” said TonyRead More →

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Several grids did not report numbers this month, resulting in a drop in active users of 3,209. Avination was down this month, as were Virtual Dream, My Virtual Community, and Cyberface. Some grids, such as Activity Ds stopped providing active user numbers. In addition, eight of the top ten most popular grids lost activeRead More →

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Artificial intelligence could help make gesture recognition systems more effective, according to researchers at Purdue University. The system they created, Deep Hand, requires less processing power than other approaches, they said in a paper released this spring. It can allows users to perform a range of tasks such as picking items, driving virtualRead More →

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The number of non-exportable items on the Kitely Market dropped this week, while exportable products continue to rise, according to statistics released today by Kitely. The difference between the two was the second highest in history. The first, in November of 2014, came after Kitely significantly improved market functionality andRead More →

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There are many reasons why virtual reality is starting to be used at trade shows, including the fact that VR experiences are both memorable and impactful. At the Society for Mining, Metallurgy & Exploration annual conference, in Arizona this past February, we showcased heavy equipment in virtual reality. The attendees got to lookRead More →

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Virtual environments can let people step back in time, by visiting the recreation of a place or event. Tell people about your favorite historical destinations in the survey below. Each submission gives you another chance to win a virtual reality headset for your smartphone. Did you miss a chance to winRead More →

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Last week, Linden Lab said that it was no longer working on its Oculus Rift viewer for Second Life, dashing OpenSim user hopes that eventually their viewer would be open sourced and be a usable virtual reality access option for their grids. However, CtrlAltStudio’s David Rowe says that he is updatingRead More →

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On Friday, Virtuix, the maker of the Omni virtual reality treadmill, announced a joint venture with Hero Entertainment, a billion-dollar Chinese game publisher and developer of Crisis Action, the most popular mobile first-person shooter game in China with more than 400 million players. Hero will convert Crisis Action to VR gameplayRead More →

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More than 40 percent of people under 35 have a “keen interest” in virtual reality, according to a report released by GlobalWebIndex on Friday. Interest decreases by age, but even with people aged 55 to 64, 20 percent said they were interested in virtual reality, demonstrating the potential size of the market.Read More →

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Two virtual reality arcades, Immersion Arcade and IVirtex opened in June in Illinois, offering players the chance to play games on the HTC Vive headsets. Immersion Arcade costs $10 for 15 minutes, and up to $60 for two hours, and currently offers 19 different game titles, from Zombie game to Job Simulator. InRead More →

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UK-based eeGeo Ltd, an 3D mapping software company, has opened its platform to developers to help them create map-based virtual and augmented reality applications. “There’s a meaningful link between a true 3D environment and inducing presence,” eeGeo CEO Ian Hetherington told Hypergrid Business. “If you can induce presence, people will spendRead More →

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OSgrid was down on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday of this week when the grid was no longer able to access its asset services, but other grids probably don’t need to worry about the same thing happening to them. “It was an issue with the cluster and was not related to OpenSim,”Read More →

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The$200 Insta360 Nano VR camera, which will be available for purchase on July 30, clips to your iPhone and uses two fish-eye lenses to take 360-degree photos or videos. You can see some videos that have been taken with the camera here. It works with the iPhone 6, iPhone 6 plus, iPhone 6s and iPhone 6s plusRead More →

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Part of the reason the HTC Vive gets such great reviews — and costs so much — is that it does positional tracking. When you walk around wearing the headset, you walk around inside the virtual environment as well. Mobile-based headsets, on the other hand, require you to move usingRead More →

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When you have a product that weighs several tons, you’re going to think twice before bringing it with you to a conference or trade show. And you’re certainly not going to bring more than one. Traditionally, heavy equipment manufacturers relied on photographs and 3D models to demonstrate their equipment toRead More →

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Two new virtual reality applications for medical patients can help them relax in waiting rooms and get information about their medical devices. Zocdoc, Inc., a site that helps patients find doctors, has placed headsets in a few of doctors’ offices in New York City so that they can watch relaxing 360-degreeRead More →

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Scroll to the bottom of this article for the infographic. Virtual reality is a rapidly evolving market, which provides unlimited opportunities, and attracts a lot of newcomers. While the fastest growth in the industry is fed by the demand for video games and entertainment, the second biggest share belongs to healthcareRead More →

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UK-based education company Macunx VR has passed its Kickstarter goal of $4,308 — or £3,000 — with two weeks of its campaign still to go. The company plans to build a virtual reality Unity-based platform that will allow users to create and share virtual memory palaces. A memory palace is essentially a mental library forRead More →

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The third hypergrid Treasure Hunt officially began on Friday, with 14 grids participating. It will run through August 6, so there’s plenty of time for both hunters and grids to jump in. Prizes include $25 cash, Linden dollars, and Bluetooth MP3 speakers, Holland Woodenshoes key chain, and a HipHop Band T-shirt. For moreRead More →

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The final round of PlayStation VR headset pre-orders went live on Thursday, but sold out in minutes, a Gamestop representative told IGN. According to Sony, there won’t be any more pre-orders. The headset will be officially released on October 13. The headset itself is priced at $400, significantly less than the $600 Oculus RiftRead More →

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Philip Rosedale’s virtual world startup High Fidelity has announced the launch of its Marketplace this week. Registered users can now upload new content again. The Marketplace has also been redesigned, with a new submission flow, hosting for all associated assets, and ability to like items, the company said. However, thereRead More →

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Littlefield Grid, DigiWorldz and ZanGrid are holding big bashes to celebrate this year’s Fourth of July holiday, America’s Independence Day. Littlefield Grid party on Stonehaven Party Isle Littlefield Grid’s Fourth of July party started Thursday, with a beach barbeque, dancing, live music and DJ, food, swimming, rides, fireworks and free party favors.Read More →

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HTC plans to set up more than 10,000 “experience sites” in mainland China by the end of the year, the China Daily newspaper reported today. The company is partnering with Suning Commerce Group and Gome Electrical Appliances Holding Ltd, two of the biggest electronic offline retailers in China, Alvin Graylin, head of HTC’sRead More →

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Amsterdam-based paint company AkzoNobel has opened a virtual reality customer center in Slough, U.K., where retailers can experiment with different store layouts. “The center will enable us to help customers visualize and experiment with new design options,” said Matt Pullen, managing director of AkzoNobel UK and Ireland, in a statement. TheRead More →

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Virtual reality companies won’t see any significant revenues until 2019, when high-end devices become more affordable and business use of the technology becomes more popular, a panel of analysts predicted at the VRX Europe 2016 event held in London earlier this spring. Games will lead the way in virtual reality monetization, according toRead More →

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Press release: THE VOID Launches Ghostbusters: Dimension, an Immersive Hyper-Reality Experience Powered by Unity Technologies 3D engine at Madame Tussauds New York New York City, NY & San Francisco, CA—Unity, the largest global development platform for creating 2D, 3D, VR and AR games and experiences, today announced a new andRead More →

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Santa Clara-based EchelonVR has launched an Android application that works with Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR to help heavy equipment dealers to showcase immersive models of their products to customers before they make purchase decisions. The application, which is available as a free download for Android, is particularly useful for tradeRead More →

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No one can deny the global popularity of sports. Whatever nation you find yourself in is guaranteed to have teams competing in some sport and fans who will consistently tune in to watch them. Virtual reality has been making a lot of waves with all the recent developments it’s seen,Read More →

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Pygmal Technologies launched a beta version of SPACE, a computer user environment that aims to replace monitor screens with virtual screens. The application, now available for download for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, is currently free, and Pygmal CEO Xiao Jia told Hypergrid Business that the price will remain low, in order to attractRead More →

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Press release: Invrsion Presents Shelfzone, The Virtual Reality Solution For Large-Scale Retail Trade And Consumer Package Goods Italian company creates virtual reality solutions for B2B using HTC Vive technology Milan – inVRsion, the Italian start-up which develops virtual reality solutions for business, officially presents ShelfZone. This new solution, created usingRead More →

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Virtual reality is now a global phenomena and devices are slowly becoming available to more retail shops — including here, in Nairobi, Kenya, where I am based. This Saturday, I walked over to my local mall, the Thika Road Mall on the Thika Super Highway, where I got to try out theRead More →

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Press release: AppliedVR Brings Therapeutic Virtual Reality Content To Cedars-Sinai Medical Center   Los Angeles – AppliedVR, an industry leader in improving the healthcare experience with scalable therapeutic virtual reality content, today announced its partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a leader in providing high-quality healthcare, to introduce the technology in itsRead More →

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Another surgery video platform, GIBLIB, which serves medical students and doctors, has jumped on the virtual reality train. The company partnered with camera manufacturer 360fly  and live streaming service LIVIT NOW to broadcast the first-ever live hernia surgery in virtual reality. The surgeon was Dr. Shirin Towfigh, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hernia specialist. ThisRead More →