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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

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 →

Google Expeditions, previously only available to select schools, is now available to the public, at no cost. “The app is available today for Android and will be available for iPhones and iPads soon,” the company announced earlier today. The app is designed to be used by both teachers and students. Teachers wouldRead More →

  On its tenth anniversary, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is adding a new element in to its conference program, a science fair. “Educators from all disciplines and levels are invited to participate,” outreach committee head Lorraine Mockford, also known as LoriVonne Lustre in-world, said in an announcement. “If you are interested in includingRead More →

In case you missed it, OSgrid has been holding weekly meetings every Saturday at Wright Plaza, after a long period in which communications between grid managers and residents were problematic. “We restarted it about three months ago,” said grid treasurer Lawrence Roberts on the Inworld Review last week. “It’s been well-attended, andRead More →

California-based 360-degree camera startup, 360fly, released a satirical ad Thursday featuring a Donald Trump look-alike, a big wall, and what many saw as insensitive stereotypes of Mexican immigrants. The ad was accepted by DIRECTV, FOX News, local FOX LA, but was rejected by NBC, Viacom, ABC LA, LACBS, LAABC, and other media houses. According 360fly,Read More →

Press release: Virtual Reality Developers Conference  Announces First Standalone Event in November 2016 Expanded focus on games, entertainment, brand experience, and innovation after sold out inaugural event at GDC SAN FRANCISCO — The Virtual Reality Developers Conference, the premier event for creators of immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences, today announcedRead More →

Trading Advantage President and CEO, Larry Levin, made the first ever live virtual reality commodity trade using Oculus Rift, a virtual reality system that completely immerses the user inside virtual worlds. As one of the premier trading organization in the nation, Trading Advantage is leading the industry with its innovativeRead More →

Press release: Greenlight VR survey reveals U.S. consumers are most interested in using virtual reality for travel, entertainment, events, home design and education. San Francisco – The latest consumer research from Greenlight VR reveals non-gaming categories, including travel, home design and virtual education, top of the list for virtual reality use cases currentlyRead More →

Amsterdam-based VR developer WeMakeVR and MDLinking.com, a Dutch startup with a secure communication platform for doctors, announced a service last week that creates picture-in-picture virtual reality videos of surgeries. “This way of capturing surgeries can help students get a much better understanding of the roles and interactions within the medical team,” Avinash Changa, CEO and founderRead More →

Unimersiv has launched a new virtual reality platform for educational experiences, joining Google Expeditions, Nearpod VR, and Fieldscapes VR. It is currently available for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, with support for other mobile-based platforms still to come. “We are planning on supporting Cardboard but definitely want to make theRead More →

Motion sickness is one of the big usability problems plaguing virtual reality today, and if you don’t want to attach electrodes to your head, there might be a simpler, easier solution — narrowing the field of view. Researchers at Columbia University discovered subtly making the image smaller during in-world motion wouldRead More →

Social virtual reality pioneer vTime added support for the Oculus Rift and added a business-focused meeting space. The app was already available for Gear VR and Android. It is a free application. Both the new consumer and developer kit 2 versions of the Oculus Rift headset are now supported, the company said in theRead More →

The Global Learning Forum is scheduled to take place this Friday, June 17, at the SOC StudioX’s in-world campus auditorium from 1 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. Central Time.  The topic is the role of cyberspace and integrated learning environments. The event is open to all hypergrid visitors. Hypergrid teleport to metaverse.austudiox.com:9000. It will featureRead More →

The Kitely Market is now delivering content to 138 different OpenSim grids and mini-grids and merchants are continuing to increase the amount of exportable content available on the platform. There are currently 7,486 product listings in Kitely Market containing 14,134 variations, of which 9,237 are sold with the Export permission.Read More →

Best Western International, Inc. recently announced it will use virtual reality to allow customers tour guest rooms, hotel lobbies and other amenities at any of their North American hotels in immersive 360-degree video before they check in. “Walking into a lobby or guest room leaves an indelible impression on what kind of experience will follow,Read More →

CAMBRIDGE — Virtual reality technology company VirZOOM Inc. announced early access product shipments globally to pre-order customers starting this month. The system includes the VirZOOM Bike Controller, the VirZOOM Arcade suite of VR exercise games downloadable from the Steam Store, a free PC game controller emulator, a free SDK forRead More →

Avi-Labs, the OpenSim hosting company that grew out of the AviWorlds grid, has added OSgrid region rentals and OAR sales to its previous set of grid hosting services and managed server rentals. OSgrid regions go for $5 per month for 15,000 prims, with no setup fee, one of the lowest prices available. Two-by-twoRead More →

Press release: Getty Images deepens its commitment to immersive content with new virtual reality business The launch of the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group brings high quality VR and 360 content to everyone, satisfying the growing appetite for immersive content Getty Images, the world leader in visual communication, has todayRead More →

Microsoft’s Windows Holographic  mixed reality operating system will be open to developers and manufacturers, the company announced last week during Computex 2016. Third parties will now be able to develop augmented and virtual reality devices, personal computers, displays and other accessories using Windows Holographic, a version of Windows 10 that can support both augmented realityRead More →

OSgrid residents who plan to exhibit at next month’s anniversary celebration can now claim their parcels on the OSG9BW, OSG9BN and OSG9BE regions, grid president Dan Banner announced today. The exhibits can be constructed off-site and brought over or built right on location, he said. There is a limit of 676Read More →

More than $3.4 million worth of virtual reality headsets were sold this year in India during the first quarter of the year, according to a report by market intelligence and advisory firm 6Wresearch. According to their report, growth was driven by advancements in computer technology and internet connectivity coupled with increasing investmentsRead More →

The Great Canadian Grid is continuing to suffer from on-going distributed denial of service attacks. DigiWorldz grid founder Terry Ford, whose company also provides hosting services, has been working on securing the Great Canadian Grid’s infrastructure since the attacks first began about a month ago. His company does not host theRead More →

Baofeng Mojing, the world’s leading virtual headset manufacturer, has released a new viewer that incorporates Leap Motion gesture control. The Baofeng Mojing 5 Plus was announced at a press conference in Beijing yesterday, along with the Baofeng Mojing 5, which does not have the Leap Motion controller. Both headsets haveRead More →

Today, Scope AR announces its augmented reality platform for repair manuals at the Augmented World Expo. WorkLink enables companies to provide interactive and augmented reality repair manuals to field technicians or other employees so that they can repair equipment, perform maintenance, or assemble machinery on the factory floors easily and quickly. WorkLink and the company’s other product, theRead More →

Press release: Voice Control, Gesture Control, and See-through Displays Are Top Electronic User Interface Innovations BOSTON, MA – With Apple, Google, and Microsoft sharpening their focus on electronic user interfaces, voice control, gesture control, and see-through displays are emerging as hot spots for innovation, as are newer form factors inRead More →