MacGyver Is Coming to VR Escape Rooms, Complete With 3D Holograms (EXCLUSIVE)

Location-based virtual reality (VR) startup Imverse has teamed up with MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff and “Lawnmover Man” director Brett Leonard to launch a MacGyver-themed VR escape room. MacGyverWorld, which is being produced by Mark Rickard from Leonard’s Studio Lightship outlet, is expected to debut in 2020. The experience will make use of Imverse’s 3D capture technology, which scans participants before they enter MacGyverWorld. “When you look at your friends, you can see their holograms,” explained Imverse CEO and co-founder Javier Bello Ruiz in an interview with Variety this week. “In virtual reality, you need to have presence.”

FACEBOOK Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg On Oculus Quest: ‘We’ve Delivered An Experience That People Keep Using Week After Week’

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg delivered some comments about virtual reality as part of the company’s quarterly earnings report. Some comments about the Oculus Quest standalone VR headset are included in the broader update covering Facebook’s performance over the last three months. You can read the full document posted to Zuckerberg’s Facebook page. The $400 all-in-one VR console started shipping in May — just about five years after the acquisition of Oculus VR. The head-mounted display includes everything needed to have a wireless VR experience with dual hand controllers and access to some of VR’s most popular games, like Superhot and Beat Saber.

Virtual reality ‘Star Wars’ experiences move into malls as clothing stores go dark

Let’s face it. People don’t go to the local mall just to walk around with friends, buy a pretzel and maybe see a movie, like they used to. Mall owners realize they need to bring in a new wave of entertainment venues to keep luring people in. So now escape rooms, places where you can pay to throw an axe at a wall and virtual reality experiences that make you feel like you’re on the set of a “Star Wars” movie are popping up at malls across the country. Unibail-Rodamco-Westfield, which owns 32 properties in the U.S. including the Westfield World Trade Center in New York and Westfield Century City in Los Angeles, announced Thursday a deal with Utah-based virtual reality experience The Void. It said the two plan to work together to bring more than 25 VR spaces to URW’s malls in the U.S. and Europe.

Microsoft joins the XR Association, which promotes responsible AR/VR development

The XR Association, or XRA, now counts Microsoft among its membership, joining founding members Google, Facebook, Sony, HTC Vive, and Samsung. The trade association represents the shared interests of key companies enabling augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) technologies. Microsoft’s Heidi Holman, assistant general counsel, will represent the company on the group’s board. The XRA lists its purpose as promoting “responsible development and adoption of AR and VR globally with best practices, dialogue across stakeholders, and research” while serving “as a resource for researchers, policymakers, and partners across the XR industry.”

Microsoft has a wild hologram that translates HoloLens keynotes into Japanese

Microsoft has created a hologram that will transform someone into a digital speaker of another language. The software giant unveiled the technology during a keynote at the Microsoft Inspire partner conference this morning in Las Vegas. Microsoft recently scanned Julia White, a company executive for Azure, at a Mixed Reality capture studio to transform her into an exact hologram replica. The digital version appeared onstage to translate the keynote into Japanese. Microsoft has used its Azure AI technologies and neural text-to-speech to make this possible. It works by taking recordings of White’s voice, in order to create a personalized voice signature, to make it sound like she’s speaking Japanese.

Virtual reality helps Japan's elderly travel the world

CNN) — Traveling from the canals of Venice to San Francisco's Golden Gate Bridge, a group of elderly people in Japan is seeing the world -- without even leaving their seats. It's all thanks to virtual reality, as well as a team at the University of Tokyo led by Kenta Toshima. As a therapist, Toshima traveled the globe capturing 360-degree videos to show his senior patients. His aim was to help them find joy and motivation in life, using VR technology to allow those who are unable to travel satisfy their wanderlust and see the world again.

What it’s like to play virtual-reality tennis at Wimbledon

At 29 years old, I’m almost twice the tennis phenom’s age with, generously, one-gazillionth of her skill. That gap became abundantly clear when I tried my forehand at virtual-reality tennis at Wimbledon. It was a not-so-grand slam. The fun game, called Champion’s Rally, is located in the free American Express Fan Experience area and uses an Oculus-like headset that allows you to see 360 degrees of Centre Court, the most famous tennis venue in the world. Glancing around, from t

Corey Seager And A.J. Pollack Are Utilizing Virtual Reality Technology During Injury Rehab Process

When you are 61-30, as are the Los Angeles Dodgers, and have far and away the best record in the National League, it’s easy to get complacent. But the Dodgers are looking ahead for how to gain an edge in their goal of capturing the World Series title that has eluded them since 1988.  They came tantalizingly close in the last two years, but lost each time in the Fall Classic to the Houston Astros and Boston Red Sox respectively. Two players that the Dodgers would like to have on the field in October are shortstop Corey Seager and outfielder A.J. Pollack.  Both have been out for significant stretches this year; Seager, since June 11th with a hamstring injury, and Pollack has been out since April 28th due to a bacterial infection and later having elbow surgery. 

Valve Index review: $999 buys you the best VR experience yet — when it works

The Valve Index, Valve’s latest virtual reality offering, is an uneasy mixture of all the good and bad aspects of modern VR. It can be a pain to set up; getting the whole thing calibrated perfectly can take hours. And then you might have to start over when someone else wants to use the headset. Not everything works perfectly all the time, although that aspect of the system is getting better. You still need to set up the external sensors somehow, and mounting them on your wall is likely the easiest solution, although you’ll also need to plug each one into an outlet. Those wires snaking down opposite walls in your VR space aren’t the most attractive decorations. Nothing about Index is easy.

Valve released 3D models so anyone can mod the Index VR headset

Valve has released 3D files to help people build mods and accessories for its new Index virtual reality headset. The gaming company posted high- and low-resolution models — along with other documentation — on GitHub under a Creative Commons license. Anybody can download and use the files to design their own creations, but they can’t sell anything without getting clearance from Valve first. The Index headset, which started shipping last week, is a high-end VR system based on Valve’s SteamVR platform. Valve designed the Index to appeal to modders, adding a USB port for them in a small compartment called the Frunk or “front trunk.”