This Week in Virtual Reality, 3 October 2016
This week’s top Virtual Reality stories: $500 million in investment in virtual reality startups, war criminal trials in VR, a Rock Band VR tease, and more!
Virtual Reality is one of the most exciting new areas of technology, and for good reason. VR offers amazing experiences for users and creators both, and growth in the space is incredible. New products, new technologies, new experiences, and best of all, new jobs! Did you know that Virtual reality job openings are up 800% year-over-year? It’s true!
With so much going on in this fast-moving field, it can be hard to keep up. That’s why we created “This Week in Virtual Reality.” Each week we publish a curated list of Virtual Reality stories as a resource to help you keep pace. New posts will be published here first, and previous posts are archived on the Udacity blog. So whether you’re currently enrolled in our VR Developer Nanodegree program, already working in the field, or just pursuing a burgeoning interest in the subject, there will always be something here to inspire you!
Healthcare
HTC’s Vive headset allows a legally blind man in England to see clearly for the first time by placing visual stimuli very close to his eyes and letting depth emerge from the setup.
Business
Venture capitalists invest $500 million in virtual reality startups in Q3 of 2016, bringing the total for the past 12 months to $2.3 billion invested in the emerging industry.
Media
Bellevue-based startup Limitless releases a new toolkit for creating virtual reality avatar animations in real-time, aiming to make VR characters more personal and engaging.
Law & Order
Germany uses virtual reality to resolve the last remaining trials of Nazi war criminals, recreating concentration camps to explore the plausibility of defendants’ deniability.
Commerce
HTC launches Viveport, the app store for its Vive headset. The store debuts with several $1 titles, including The Music Room Mini and Stonehenge VR.
Games
Harmonix, creators of the popular Rock Band series of video games, tease their upcoming Rock Band VR, promising to immerse players more fully in the virtual experience.
