This Week in Virtual Reality, 19 September 2016

This week’s top Virtual Reality stories: stand-up comedy, wedding planning, college football, and more!

Virtual Reality has never been bigger than it is right now, and it’s one of the most exciting new areas of technology. VR offers an incredible experience for users, and for creators, it presents an unparalleled amount of freedom to experiment with new ideas and applications. We’re seeing exciting developments in the field every day, so to help you keep pace with everything that’s going on, we’ve created This Week in Virtual Reality, a curated list of key stories in the space. New posts will be published here first, and previous posts are archived on the Udacity blog.

Whether you’re already in the field, considering a VR career, or just interested in the subject, This Week in Virtual Reality is sure to have something to inspire you!

Media

Researchers at NYU’s Media Research Lab use virtual reality to overhaul teleconferencing, allowing for more nuanced human communication to occur at a distance.

Commerce

WebVR, a lightweight JavaScript API, allows developers to build virtual reality experiences directly into web browsers, making them available to any headset or smartphone.

Sports

Fox Sports streams Saturday’s college football game between Oklahoma and Ohio State live in virtual reality, accessible via headsets as well as standard smartphones.

Industry

Apple’s Tim Cook predicts augmented reality will be more significant than virtual reality over time as Apple continues to hire engineers from other VR and AR companies.

Social

Japanese game developer Ateam develops Sugukon VR, an app that previews wedding plans in virtual reality to help couples plan their nuptials.

Comedy

Developer AltspaceVR partners with comedian Reggie Watts to test a virtual reality comedy club, connecting Watts live with hundreds of audience members from his living room.