Friday FOV: Prescription VR, Rick and Morty & Virtual Test Drives
A compendium of the latest in virtual reality for the week ending July 22, 2016.
On Monday, The Insurrection launched There Is Only R, our new virtual reality publication where we’ll be exploring VR experiences and development from the perspectives of content creators, developers, and users themselves as presented through original profiles and features as well as opinion, columns, and analysis. This week we welcomed readers with “Optimism for Sale: Creative Control and The Reality of Augmented Reality,” an interview between Founder Elizabeth Spiers and filmmaker Ben Dickinson, and “Dreaming in Pixels,” an essay by Zimbabwean entrepreneur Itai Kaitano.
Today, we introduce Friday FOV (Field of View), a compendium of the latest in virtual reality. Here are the most interesting stories from this past week.
Story of the Week:
Prescription VR
There was a lot of discussion about surprising new research demonstrating VR’s potential as a medical tool. Studies indicated that virtual reality might help treat a variety of illnesses, including chronic pain, PTSD, and anxiety—with effects comparable to traditional medications. Read more from the MIT Technology Review, Smithsonian, The Times, and ABC.
VR Content:
- The Vive now has its most fully-fledged FPS to date in Raw Data, and gamers are loving it.
- One of the most popular film franchises in the world gets ready to make the entry into VR, with its most iconic character at the center.
- Nerdy interests are cross-pollinating, as Rick and Morty enters VR with help from Owlchemy Labs, creators of Job Simulator:
- Here’s Hyper-Reality, a well-executed, slightly dread-inducing short film envisioning a world where AR is deeply embedded into everyday life:
Hardware:
- Headsets: Google is still planning to create a mixed reality headset, although it still seems like the main focus is Daydream, their mobile VR platform. Meanwhile, Samsung is rumored to be working on a headset that does not require a phone.
- The first haptic glove has entered full production, and is taking orders for its developers kit.
- NVidia is working with SMI to make sure that we are ready for eye-tracking HMDs.
Business:
- Magic Leap still has the biggest piece of the VC pie, but more and more big name firms are dipping their toes into the VR/AR/MR sector, with $2 billion of VC invested in the past year.
- Companies like Toyota and Mitsubishi are turning to VR to give potential buyers a test test drive.
- Airbus has quietly been using VR to design and demo its cabins since 1997, and is still very excited about the progress the technology has made.
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