Road to VR

APRIL 13, 2017

VR First , the global initiative to seed academic institutions with VR/AR hardware and software, today announced that it’s nearly doubling the number of its VR labs in universities and science parks across the globe by the end of 2017. image courtesy VR First. image courtesy VR First.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 25, 2021

He wants that people start trusting Facebook , following a route similar to the one followed by Microsoft, that went from a company that no one trusted security-wise (Windows Me was a virus disguised as an operating system) to a company that is considered good in making software (Windows 10 and Azure are very good solutions).

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The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 13, 2023

I’m back in Italy! Just the time to eat some homemade pasta and I got a cold, which mixed with the jet lag of the trip from China, means that I’m truly having some great days But nothing can stop me from writing the roundup of the best AR/VR news of the week for you, my lovely readers! A Kickstarter about this system is coming soon.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

2021 is going to be an interesting year for AR. This won’t be the year of AR : exactly as I said for virtual reality, let’s not hype the technology and think that this is the year when mainstream adoption of wearable AR glasses is going to happen. Can this count as AR having become mainstream?

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 13, 2021

Probably I should tell you that I was busy with VR projects, but the truth is that I have been celebrating a lot lately, especially the recent victory of Italy in the Euro 2020 soccer championship. Ok, enough with football… let’s get back to AR and VR…. AR users to reach 800M by the end of the year. Top news of the week.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 10, 2023

Top news of the week (Image by Google) Samsung XR headset may have been delayed The new rumor in town is that Samsung has delayed its upcoming headset that it is building in partnership with Google and Qualcomm. It’s been another interesting week in immersive realities, so let’s see what happened in our field in the past few days!

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 31, 2021

Here in Italy we were not used to celebrating it when I was a kid, but children now have fun dressing up and asking for some sweeties from their neighbors. Apart from this, we had a few important announcements, like for instance: GTA San Andreas coming to Quest 2 Project Cambria : a hybrid AR/VR headset arriving next year.

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XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

AUGUST 2, 2023

Augmented Reality (AR) technology is set to become one of the fastest-growing and most promising technologies among extended reality. According to reports, the AR market is set to reach $88.4 XR Today spoke to David Goldman, Vice-President of Marketing, Lumus to explore the augmented reality (AR) smart glasses industry.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

If you will be in Italy, please come visiting me! Here you are the Eventbrite page ) I can’t wait to see who will win the VR Awards tomorrow ! There’s a lot to say about me, but I think you are more interested in the weekly roundup of news, so…. Image by Google). Google completely opensources Cardboard.

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 10, 2022

Among other things, I have written a fantastic post about the VR concerts worth millions of dollars that Pico is doing in China ; I have been interviewed in a podcast by Moonbase ; and this Saturday I will be close to Turin (Italy) speaking at a science and technology festival about my work in immersive concerts. Kura is still alive.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

It is amazing how Sony has decided to offer high-quality controllers to its users, and it is also great that it is following current VR standards so that to not disrupt the software that is already on the market. Facebook reveals its work on the UX of AR of the future. Other relevant news. Image by Facebook Reality Labs).

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 13, 2020

On the other side, this is massive for Apple, that mixing the data of Apple Maps together with all these point clouds detected by the rear cameras when in use, will be able to create an AR Cloud ecosystem probably even before Facebook, Microsoft, and Google. Let’s see if Facebook will be a worthier opponent than Google.

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The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 27, 2023

Italy won the Tennis Davis Cup, and that was pretty cool to see (the match between Sinner and Djokovic was just incredible). This may be one of the potential names for either the upcoming mixed reality headset that Samsung is developing with Google or the name of future AR glasses. Will we meet there?

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 19, 2021

Magic Leap is back: CEO Peggy Johnson has just unveiled in a post on the company blog the Magic Leap 2 , the new version of the AR glasses from the company in Florida. Johnson also claims that ML2 will have the biggest FOV in the AR market (with the exception of RealMax, of course), with double of the field of view area of Magic Leap 1.

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XR Today - Augmented Reality tag

JANUARY 3, 2023

The augmented reality (AR) headset manufacturer gained $450 million from the Saudi Arabian Public Investment Fund (PIF). Additionally, significant technology and extended reality (XR) firms like Google and AT&T have provided Magic Leap funding since the company’s debut in 2010.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 14, 2020

You never know when you won’t be able to go to the office anymore: usually, here the restrictions are being released during the evening for the morning after. So, keep a VR (and/or) AR headset at home so that you can keep working on XR software even during the lockdown. Well, mobile AR can be of great help in this sense.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 13, 2021

It comes out from the passion of someone that has just discovered how immersive realities are beautiful, or maybe from the mind of a student that has just finished the university and wants to find a dream job in AR or VR. I chose the specialization in multimedia and software applications. From it, ARKit has born, I guess.

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The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2020

The fixed values may give problems to people with a value that is exactly in the middle between two of the allowed ones: for instance, the reviewer of Ars Technica found the Quest 2 barely usable until he moved the lenses in a position between two measures that was actually not allowed by the system but that was perfect for his eyes.

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The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

2020 has been a good year for the sales of VR devices : Half-Life Alyx and the launch of the Quest 2 have created a big spike in the sales of VR hardware and software. I expect all these trends to continue in 2021, for a year that will see the growth of the technology on all its sides (software and hardware).

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Coronavirus is back in Italy and from yesterday we’re having new restrictions like a night curfew, some kind of shops closed, etc… I hope that you and the people you love are safe. While HTC is struggling on the hardware side, I think that it is moving very well to create a good software ecosystem, at least in China.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 24, 2020

Someone invokes saviors like Google and Amazon, but even if they managed to succeed, they are other data-harvesting companies , so in any case, we are f**ked. All Apple software, SDKs, APIs, and developer tools ?—?Pre-release Image by Snap, from AR Post). Snapchat adds full body AR effects. This is huge.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 18, 2022

Anyway, today should be a vacation in Italy, but here I am writing this roundup for you, so if you want to show your appreciation, don’t forget to make a donation on Patreon ! In a piece of separate news, Pico’s parent company Bytedance has also announced the public beta of Effect House, the AR filters editor for TikTok.

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The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 11, 2018

Maybe reading these lines you have in your head the same thought that came into mine when going to Lenqiy website: “But… ahem… Space Draw is a clone of Google Tilt Brush and Space Block is a clone of Google Blocks… ehm… why have you developed them??” I asked him about the competition.

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The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

This roundup of the most important AR/VR news of the past week comes out with a little delay since I’ve been very busy with my development job, and I’ve also a damn cold that doesn’t make me feel very well (but it’s no coronavirus, don’t worry :D). iPhone 12 may feature a special connection for AR glasses. Sorry for that!

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 23, 2018

The other problem is what kind of lessons can be done this way : for instance for geography, this software can be great, because can teleport the students everywhere, while for chemistry it is far less interesting, since it can’t work as a lab, allowing all the chemical interactions among elements.

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The Ghost Howls

APRIL 25, 2022

Today is a bit of a special day for this newsletter because this article you are reading is the 250th roundup about XR news I’ve written! If you make the calculation, it means that it is almost 5 years that every damn weekend I collect the best news of the week in AR and VR (and the “mmmmmmmetaverse”) and I organize them for you!

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The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 16, 2022

Meta has not explained why it was removed: some people suspect it was because it could have been used “to see through some clothes”, but I don’t know if the truth is actually some software/hardware incompatibility. Quest Pro specifications (Road To VR) Quest Pro won’t ship with a depth sensor (Upload VR).

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The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 26, 2018

The Chinese VR ecosystem is very active and it is evolving pretty fast: this summer I have been in China and I met some cool startups that are working on software (e.g. We all know that China is a country that is betting big on Virtual Reality. Langzou VR in education, VR Waibao in collaboration tools) and other on hardware (e.g.

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XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

Most people know VR and AR as if kind of something in the last five years. We’ve just done one in Bologna in Italy. I don’t know if you realize, 82 percent of universities have tried VR and AR. It seems like more of a non-starting issues with all of 3D, not just VR and AR, but even just putting something.

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XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

Most people know VR and AR as if kind of something in the last five years. We’ve just done one in Bologna in Italy. I don’t know if you realize, 82 percent of universities have tried VR and AR. It seems like more of a non-starting issues with all of 3D, not just VR and AR, but even just putting something.

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XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

Most people know VR and AR as if kind of something in the last five years. We've just done one in Bologna in Italy. I don't know if you realize, 82 percent of universities have tried VR and AR. It seems like more of a non-starting issues with all of 3D, not just VR and AR, but even just putting something. Alan: It's true.

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The Ghost Howls

MAY 25, 2018

This is also an answer to Lenovo Mirage Solo, that lets you directly install apps from Google Play. This resembles a lot a feature that Google was researching and that was shown by Road To VR… so it seems that sooner or later all 3 DOF controllers will become 6 DOF ones. AR/MR mode. Other news.

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The Ghost Howls

JULY 26, 2018

This surprised me because, in Italy, the most important people of an IT startup must speak English, because they needs this language to connect with abroad customers and partners. My envy intensified. The style of this office is just beautiful. The other thing that I soon noticed was that Mr.Yue was not fluent in English.

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