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Oculus Media Landscape
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Oculus ordered to pay $500 million in ZeniMax lawsuit
Feb 1, 2017 | The Verge
By Adi Robertson
Oculus has been ordered to pay half a billion dollars in a lawsuit with games company ZeniMax. According to Polygon, a jury awarded the sum after determining that Oculus executives violated a ZeniMax non-disclosure agreement in the early days of building the Oculus Rift VR headset. But it also decided that Oculus wasn’t guilty of misappropriating trade secrets, another of ZeniMax’s charges. -
Facebook’s Bizarre VR App Is Exactly Why Zuck Bought Oculus
Apr 18, 2017 | Wired
By Peter Rubin
“WHERE DO YOU want to hang out?” Max asked me. “Do you like pandas?” Do I like pandas? This is like asking if someone likes tacos, or sunshine, or the sound a puppy makes when it curls up on your lap. I looked at him a little more closely to see if he was joking, but he just stood there, smiling a cartoon smile through his cartoon beard. “Let’s go see some pandas!” I said. -
Mark Zuckerberg, in Suit, Testifies in Oculus Intellectual Property Trial
Jan 17, 2017 | New York Times
By Nick Wingfield and Mike Isaac
A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook and one of tech’s shrewdest seers, made a huge bet on a new technology, virtual reality, buying Oculus VR, one of the most prominent start-ups in the industry, for more than $2 billion. -
Oculus Rift and Touch are now $200 cheaper
Mar 1, 2017 | The Verge
By Adi Robertson
Oculus is cutting the price of its Rift headset and Touch motion controllers by $100 each, dropping the cost of a complete system to $598. The change was announced today at GDC, alongside a slate of new games that will be released throughout the year. It makes the Oculus Rift significantly cheaper than its main competitor, the HTC Vive, and only $100 more than the current “budget” headset, the PlayStation VR. There’s no retroactive discount for recent Rift or Touch buyers, but people who purchased Touch at full price in the last 30 days will get a $50 Oculus Store credit. -
Hugo Barra joins Facebook to lead its VR efforts, including Oculus
Jan 25, 2017 | Tech Crunch
By Darrell Etherington
Hugo Barra, who previously held a positions as a key VP for Android at Google, and led Xiaomi’s international efforts in a VP role at the Chinese company, is now joining Facebook. Barra announced his departure from Xiaomi on January 22, after a three-and-a-half year stint at the company. Barra will lead all of Facebook’s VR efforts, including Oculus, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who shared the news on his FB profile. -
Zuckerberg shows off Oculus gloves for typing in VR
Feb 9, 2017 | TechCrunch
By Josh Constine
Oculus wants to one day let you fingerpaint, act like a super hero, and even type in virtual reality. Oculus already has its Touch controllers that are great for wielding virtual guns or picking up digital objects, but today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed a new prototype for VR gloves in photos from his tour of the Redmond, Washington Oculus Research. -
Acer, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung, Sony Get Matching Global Virtual Reality Association Jackets
Dec 8, 2016 | Forbes
By Curtis Silver
Acer Starbreeze, Google, HTC Vive, Facebook's Oculus, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment have less than ceremoniously announced they have built a fort in the backyard and will be trading Magic cards and reading dirty magazines. The six companies have formed a VR collective of sorts, calling it the Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA). The purpose of this club is vague at best, but is to "promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally". This doesn't necessarily mean they'll all play nice. -
Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe
Dec 28, 2016 | Tech Crunch
By Josh Constine
The direction you look could one day control your VR or mobile experience thanks to Facebook and Oculus’ latest buy, The Eye Tribe. Oculus confirms to me that this is an official acquisition. -
What Does Virtual Reality Do to Your Body and Mind?
Jan 3, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Jack Nicas and Deepa Seetharaman
Software worker Erin Bell inched across a wooden plank suspended over a deep, rusted pit. When a Stanford University researcher asked her to step off, she wouldn’t do it. -
Virtual reality: Are health risks being ignored?
Feb 8, 2016 | CNBC
By Doug Magyari
Virtual reality and augmented reality are gaining momentum as promising new technologies. The Samsung Gear VR headset unit sold out in many places over the holidays, and Facebook's Oculus Rift headset was flooded with pre-orders this month. -
The dangers of virtual reality
Mar 29, 2016 | CNet
By Scott Stein
You set up a room with an advanced VR kit, and wire it to your PC. It all seems fine. Anything to be worried about? -
Are Virtual Reality Headsets Safe for Children?
Oct 4, 2016 | Scientific American
By Edd Gent
A lack of data and guidelines is leaving consumers in the dark about virtual reality's potential negative side effects for kids -
Are VR headsets safe for kids? We read the studies & guidelines so you don't have to
Jan 9, 2017 | Wareable
By Sam Loveridge
No doubt many a home saw a VR headset stuffed under their Christmas tree in December, especially as we saw the three major players launch their first consumer headsets last year – the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. But are they really the best family gift? All VR headset makers advise against letting anyone under the age of 13 go anywhere near virtual reality because of their delicate, developing eyesight. -
Are Virtual Reality Headsets Safe for Eyes?
Feb 28, 2017 | American Academy of Ophthalmology
By Reena Mukamal
Virtual reality (VR) technology can transport us to sci-fi battlefields, underwater, outer space and beyond. With a host of new games, apps and headsets offering an engaging three-dimensional (3D) experience for users, it’s not surprising that many families are embracing VR technology. But what impact does VR gear have on the eyes? While the technology is relatively new and no long-term studies have been done, there are a few things we do know.
General Oculus Coverage
Virtual Reality Safety
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Oculus ordered to pay $500 million in ZeniMax lawsuit
Feb 1, 2017 | The Verge
By Adi Robertson
Oculus has been ordered to pay half a billion dollars in a lawsuit with games company ZeniMax. According to Polygon, a jury awarded the sum after determining that Oculus executives violated a ZeniMax non-disclosure agreement in the early days of building the Oculus Rift VR headset. But it also decided that Oculus wasn’t guilty of misappropriating trade secrets, another of ZeniMax’s charges. Polygon writes that the $500 million award is composed of $200 million for NDA violation, plus $50 million for copyright infringement, a $50 million award against both Oculus and co-founder Palmer Luckey for false designation, and $150 million against former CEO Brendan Iribe for false designation. The overall award is less than the $4 billion that ZeniMax asked for, but it’s a substantial judgment against Oculus, and one that the company plans to appeal.
The lawsuit, which was filed in 2014, alleged that Oculus improperly used code from ZeniMax in order to build its Rift VR headset. ZeniMax is the parent company of id Software, whose co-founder John Carmack is currently CTO of Oculus. Luckey corresponded with Carmack — who was still at id — while developing the Rift headset prototype, and Oculus used id game Doom 3 to sell early backers on the headset.
But the complaint argued that Carmack did more than offer basic support. It alleged that software he developed at ZeniMax was key to making the Rift work, and that Oculus dodged attempts to establish a licensing deal. The complaint charged Oculus with violating the non-disclosure agreement that co-founders signed when dealing with ZeniMax, violating copyright by using ZeniMax games and code, and establishing false designation by confusing the public into believing that ZeniMax products were actually from Oculus.
For its part, Oculus claimed the suit was merely an attempt to profit off Oculus’ success, since it was filed shortly after the company’s multi-billion-dollar acquisition by Facebook. One of the trial’s central questions was whether Luckey had the technical expertise to make the Rift work without ZeniMax’s code. The complaint argued that he had created a barely functioning prototype that Carmack greatly refined — among other things, it said the Rift’s software development kit was adapted from ZeniMax technology. Oculus, meanwhile, defended Luckey’s reputation as a young genius with great technical aptitude.
In a statement, an Oculus spokesperson characterized the judgment as a limited victory. “The heart of this case was about whether Oculus stole ZeniMax's trade secrets, and the jury found decisively in our favor,” they said. “We're obviously disappointed by a few other aspects of today's verdict, but we are undeterred. Oculus products are built with Oculus technology. Our commitment to the long-term success of VR remains the same, and the entire team will continue the work they've done since day one — developing VR technology that will transform the way people interact and communicate. We look forward to filing our appeal and eventually putting this litigation behind us.”
ZeniMax, meanwhile, celebrated the decision. “Technology is the foundation of our business and we consider the theft of our intellectual property to be a serious matter. We appreciate the jury’s finding against the defendants, and the award of half a billion dollars in damages for those serious violations,” said CEO Robert Altman. But global communications director Tracey Thompson said that this wasn’t the end of the matter. “We will consider what further steps we need to take to ensure there will be no ongoing use of our misappropriated technology, including by seeking an injunction to restrain Oculus and Facebook from their ongoing use of computer code that the jury found infringed ZeniMax’s copyrights,” she said.
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Facebook’s Bizarre VR App Is Exactly Why Zuck Bought Oculus
Apr 18, 2017 | Wired
By Peter Rubin
“WHERE DO YOU want to hang out?” Max asked me. “Do you like pandas?” Do I like pandas? This is like asking if someone likes tacos, or sunshine, or the sound a puppy makes when it curls up on your lap. I looked at him a little more closely to see if he was joking, but he just stood there, smiling a cartoon smile through his cartoon beard. “Let’s go see some pandas!” I said.
“WHERE DO YOU want to hang out?” Max asked me. “Do you like pandas?” Do I like pandas? This is like asking if someone likes tacos, or sunshine, or the sound a puppy makes when it curls up on your lap. I looked at him a little more closely to see if he was joking, but he just stood there, smiling a cartoon smile through his cartoon beard. “Let’s go see some pandas!” I said.
“Great!” Max held out his cartoon hand. Down the hall, the real Max—an employee at Facebook—was holding an Oculus Touch controller, but here in virtual reality his hand contained what looked like a glass sphere. He placed it on the table in front of us, and it immediately expanded outward, rushing past us, until we stood within it. “Look behind you,” he said; when I saw the panda standing on a wooden platform, I couldn’t help but laugh. The sphere we’d been pulled into was a 360-degree video of a Chinese nature reserve.
So much for FarmVille.
When Facebook bought Oculus in 2014, the obvious question—besides “Seriously? Two billion dollars?”—was what Facebook was planning to do with a virtual reality company. CEO Mark Zuckerberg said at the time that VR would be “the most social platform ever,” but what would that mean? People joked about giant newsfeeds towering over your head in VR, or Facebook ads popping up in the middle of a videogame you were playing. No one joked about pandas. But that was before Facebook Spaces. The VR app, which I tried last week at Facebook’s campus and is now available in beta, does much more than just let Facebook friends hang out in VR. By leveraging Facebook’s ubiquity in day-to-day life, Spaces promises to make virtual reality more personal, and more relatable, than it’s ever been.Social VR—With Actual Friends
Virtual reality has made huge strides over the past five years, but for something that so invites interaction with other people, it’s still a starkly individual experience. If you want to experience VR with a friend, you can invite them over to use your headset, or you can…well, that’s really it. (Mobile headsets are more portable, but they also notably lack crucial ingredients of “presence,” the sensation of physically being inside a virtual space.) Even then, you’re stuck watching them have fun, or they you; you can’t both be in VR at the same time, unless you have multiple computer/headset setups. The only way to be in VR with other people is via a multiplayer experience.
Dedicated social VR apps have been popping up for a few years to address that issue. However, they all work on the same principle: either you convince your one friend who has a headset to log in at the same time, or you hang out in VR with strangers—an endeavor which, in these early-adopter days, can feel like firing up Tinder in the Mos Eisley cantina. Chat-room anonymity is a hallowed internet tradition, but when you’re sitting around a VR campfire, surrounded by avatars that may or may not look anything like their owners’ IRL selves (and as a rule you can bet on “not”), it can also be unsettling.
When you launch Spaces from within your Oculus Rift headset, though, it logs into your Facebook account. The same one that you, along with nearly 2 billion other people on the planet, use on a regular basis. The same one you’ve already populated with all the information that Spaces now can serve back to you—like, for instance, a selection of your photos that you can use to create an avatar.
Or all your other Facebook friends who have a Rift and Oculus Touch controllers. Or any 360-degree content in your timeline that you can now launch around yourself. Or even just your regular old 2-D photos that you can flip through in the solitude of your own private Idaho. Like, literally, your own private Idaho. (Assuming you have a 360-degree photo of Idaho.)
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Mark Zuckerberg, in Suit, Testifies in Oculus Intellectual Property Trial
Jan 17, 2017 | New York Times
By Nick Wingfield and Mike Isaac
A few years ago, Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive of Facebook and one of tech’s shrewdest seers, made a huge bet on a new technology, virtual reality, buying Oculus VR, one of the most prominent start-ups in the industry, for more than $2 billion.
His dream of bringing virtual reality to the masses still has not come true.
That frank assessment came from Mr. Zuckerberg on Tuesday in a federal courtroom of all places, where Facebook is tangling with a games publisher that has accused Oculus of stealing technology that went into the creation of the Oculus virtual reality headset. The trial offered a window into how Mr. Zuckerberg views the progress of one of his biggest bets, and a glimpse of Facebook’s approach to making deals in Silicon Valley.
“I don’t think that good virtual reality is fully there yet,” said Mr. Zuckerberg, who wore a suit and tie while testifying, instead of his regular uniform, a T-shirt and jeans. “It’s going to take five or 10 more years of development before we get to where we all want to go.”
Mr. Zuckerberg spoke during a court appearance, in which he was questioned about the Oculus deal. He denied accusations that Oculus had taken technology it did not own, and said he had never before testified in a courtroom.
The dispute started more than two and a half years ago when ZeniMax Media sued Oculus just months after Facebook announced that it would acquire the start-up. ZeniMax accused Oculus of stealing important elements of the technology that went into the creation of the headset, eventually including Facebook among the parties it was suing.
While fights over ownership of prominent technologies are common, this one defied some predictions by reaching a jury trial, which started in a federal court here in early January.
“We are highly confident that Oculus products are built on Oculus technology,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “The idea that Oculus products are based on someone else’s technology is just wrong.”
Facebook could face as much as $2 billion in damages if it loses the suit. While there is still excitement throughout the technology industry over virtual reality, most headsets, including those from Oculus, are not selling in big numbers because of high prices and limited content for them.
Oculus has had other issues. In December, a co-founder of Oculus, Brendan Iribe, stepped down as chief executive, assuming leadership of an Oculus group focused on virtual reality on personal computers. In a blog post, Mr. Iribe said Facebook would look for a new leader for its virtual reality arm.
On Tuesday, a lawyer representing Oculus and Facebook asked Mr. Zuckerberg whether he had realized his goal of creating a new computing platform. “These things end up being more complex than you think up front,” he replied. “If anything, we may have to invest even more money to get to the goals we had than we had thought up front.”
Mr. Zuckerberg added that Facebook probably will have to invest more than $3 billion in the next decade to reach its goal of providing hundreds of millions of people with a good virtual reality experience.
Later, a Facebook spokeswoman said that nothing had changed about the company’s commitment to virtual reality. “As we’ve said for years, VR is the next computing platform, and Facebook’s Oculus team is leading the way,” said the spokeswoman, Tera Randall.
The core of ZeniMax’s case is that one of its former employees, John Carmack, shared ZeniMax virtual reality technology with Palmer Luckey, a founder of Oculus, during the company’s early days, technology for which ZeniMax was never compensated. Mr. Carmack, a game industry stalwart behind games like Doom, later joined Oculus.
A lawyer for ZeniMax used some of his time questioning Mr. Zuckerberg to bolster the company’s argument that Facebook rushed through its review of Oculus when buying it, overlooking details about its dispute with ZeniMax.
In response to questioning from the lawyer for Facebook, Mr. Zuckerberg said that the company spends weeks, months or even years thinking about the issues that lead it to make acquisitions. He said Facebook — which has also acquired Instagram and WhatsApp — believes that negotiating deals quickly is important in an environment where it is often competing with companies like Google, Apple and Twitter.
“Being able to move quickly not only increases our chance of getting the deal done, but it keeps us from having to pay a lot more as the deal process drives out,” Mr. Zuckerberg said.
For companies that waffle about selling out to Facebook, the social network is willing to deploy fear as a tactic. “If you’re trying to help convince people that they want to join you, helping them understand all the pain they would have to go through is a valuable tactic,” he said. “But I think that’s a little less of what I tend to focus on.”
Mr. Zuckerberg said that Mr. Iribe was originally asking for $4 billion for Oculus. He settled for $2 billion, though Facebook also agreed to $700 million more in compensation to retain important Oculus team members and $300 million in pay for hitting certain milestones. Facebook’s code name for the Oculus deal was Inception.
Mr. Zuckerberg has faced legal challenges before. In 2006, he was deposed in a lawsuit filed by former classmates at Harvard, in which the plaintiffs claimed that he knowingly stole intellectual property to create his social network. That deposition, however, was taken behind closed doors. Mr. Zuckerberg settled the suit for a reported $65 million.
Unlike Facebook, ZeniMax is not household name, but many of the games it publishes, including Fallout and Elder Scrolls, have a passionate following. It also has a board of directors stacked with famous names, including the Hall of Fame baseball player Cal Ripken Jr., the director Jerry Bruckheimer, CBS chief Leslie Moonves, and Donald J. Trump’s brother Robert.
A lawyer for ZeniMax asked Mr. Zuckerberg about his reaction to ZeniMax’s lawsuit, which was filed not long after Facebook publicly announced its intention to buy Oculus.
“It is pretty common when you announce a big deal or do something that all kinds of people just kind of come out of the woodwork and claim that they just own some portion of the deal,” Mr. Zuckerberg said. “Like most people in the court, I’ve never even heard of ZeniMax before.”
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Oculus Rift and Touch are now $200 cheaper
Mar 1, 2017 | The Verge
By Adi Robertson
Oculus is cutting the price of its Rift headset and Touch motion controllers by $100 each, dropping the cost of a complete system to $598. The change was announced today at GDC, alongside a slate of new games that will be released throughout the year. It makes the Oculus Rift significantly cheaper than its main competitor, the HTC Vive, and only $100 more than the current “budget” headset, the PlayStation VR. There’s no retroactive discount for recent Rift or Touch buyers, but people who purchased Touch at full price in the last 30 days will get a $50 Oculus Store credit.
At launch, the Oculus Rift headset alone cost $599, and Touch — a technically optional but very important component — cost $199. The setup also required a gaming PC that cost $1,000 or more. Last year, though, the Rift started officially supporting cheaper PCs, including a $499 Oculus-certified Cyberpower machine. Combined with the price drop, Oculus head of desktop VR (and former CEO) Brendan Iribe boasts that the whole package now costs a little over $1,000. That’s still a lot of money, but it’s getting closer to the amount people might spend on a gaming console and flatscreen TV.
There are still other barriers to adoption, though. One is the Rift’s tracking system, which involves multiple USB cameras set up around a dedicated VR room. “At this point we are looking at the future, next-gen versions of VR being a lot more wireless-oriented. We’re very excited about the future of wireless tracking,” says Iribe. “A large part will be inside-out so you don’t have any sensors anywhere.” An all-in-one prototype called Santa Cruz appeared at last year’s Oculus Connect event, but Iribe says it’s not yet ready for commercial production. When it is, its release will be coordinated by Oculus’ lower-end mobile division, headed by Jon Thomason.
For now, Iribe says that the most robust Rift tracking setup, which includes three cameras, has been “more popular than we initially expected.” (Third cameras, which are sold separately, are dropping from $79 to $59 in price.) He also says that Oculus is putting a major focus on bundling the Rift with Touch. “We suspect the majority of people getting in now are getting in on Rift plus Touch,” he says.
While it might be celebrating a variety of upcoming games at GDC, Oculus is recovering from its share of bad press. Publisher ZeniMax recently won $500 million in a lawsuit against the company, which it claimed stole ZeniMax code to develop the Rift, and it’s now facing an injunction to stop selling Rift headsets. (Iribe declined to comment on the litigation.) Oculus’ once-ubiquitous founder Palmer Luckey has also withdrawn from the public eye since a news report revealed a controversial political donation last year. Iribe confirmed that Luckey was “still working in an active capacity” on Iribe’s high-end VR team, but declined to talk about his current role at the company.
One of the things we’ve seen most recently from Oculus’ experimental labs is a glove controller prototype, which Iribe says was created in order to test how precise individual finger tracking could get. From there, Oculus can figure out what control systems could deliver similar results as commercial products. “[When] you start getting into gloves, you start getting into size, and fits — there are a lot of challenges there,” he says. “In the future, we’re trying to pioneer natural hand gestures without gloves.”
In general, that team is currently working on next-generation high-end virtual reality, but it’s apparently still in the early process of development. “Everything we’re doing is still research-oriented,” says Iribe. “The future of VR, the [generation] of VR that we call second-gen, is going to be a very big leap from where we are today.” So potential Rift buyers will get “at least the next two years” before their headset is superseded by something new. “I think you’ll see even beyond that, a lot of people will be using this first [generation],” he says.
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Hugo Barra joins Facebook to lead its VR efforts, including Oculus
Jan 25, 2017 | Tech Crunch
By Darrell Etherington
Hugo Barra, who previously held a positions as a key VP for Android at Google, and led Xiaomi’s international efforts in a VP role at the Chinese company, is now joining Facebook. Barra announced his departure from Xiaomi on January 22, after a three-and-a-half year stint at the company. Barra will lead all of Facebook’s VR efforts, including Oculus, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg, who shared the news on his FB profile.
Barra fills a gap left behind when Oculus CEO Brendan Iribe stepped down from the top stop at the Facebook-owned virtual reality company, moving instead into a role leading Oculus’ PC-focused VR efforts.
In his announcement of the news, Zuckerberg noted that he’s known Barra since the ex-Android exec helped develop the world-leading mobile OS, and that Barra believes, along with Zuckberberg himself, that VR and AR are going to be the next big computing platform after mobile. Facebook will spend over $3 billion over the next decade to help spread VR to the masses, Zuckerberg revealed in testimony in an ongoing lawsuit against Oculus by ZeniMax, the former employer of Oculus CTO John Carmack.
Barra helped Xiaomi introduce its own Mi VR headset, and speaking to Bloomberg last year, he had plenty of praise for Google’s Daydream VR platform. He also talked about it as a tech that will likely come to fruition more in 2017, which makes it apt that he’s joining Facebook this year to help that company further its VR efforts.
When he posted about his departure from Xiaomi, Barra noted that he was going to be headed back to Silicon Valley, and it looks like he’ll be very close to his old stomping grounds indeed.
Barra himself added that he “can’t wait to get started” in the new role:
“It’s been a dream of mine to work in virtual reality even back when AR/VR were just figments of science fiction; now we’re taking selfies in virtual worlds :) I learned from Xiaomi CEO Lei Jun that there’s no greater calling in our industry than taking breakthrough tech and making it available to the greatest number of people,” he said.
Ibe himself even got in on the comments.
“I’m thrilled to join forces and look forward to learning from you Hugo. The best team in the world just got even better!” he said.
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Zuckerberg shows off Oculus gloves for typing in VR
Feb 9, 2017 | TechCrunch
By Josh Constine
Oculus wants to one day let you fingerpaint, act like a super hero, and even type in virtual reality. Oculus already has its Touch controllers that are great for wielding virtual guns or picking up digital objects, but today Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg revealed a new prototype for VR gloves in photos from his tour of the Redmond, Washington Oculus Research.
Zuckerberg writes, “We’re working on new ways to bring your hands in virtual and augmented reality. Wearing these gloves, you can draw, type on a virtual keyboard, and even shoot webs like Spider-Man. That’s what I’m doing here.”
We’ve requested more details about the prototype from Oculus. It looks like the gloves have a slim form-factor. Notably, the rig appears to employ OptiTrack Prime 17W cameras to sense the gloves’ position, rather than an Oculus-built sensor system. This could allow Oculus to more rapidly test the gloves at a lower cost than if it tried to build the cameras too.
Oculus previously acquired hand-tracking startup Pebbles Interfaces, which was developing technology that could aid in the creation of VR gloves.
Plenty of other VR hardware companies have worked on haptic and trackable gloves. Dexta Robotics’ Dexmo gloves look like mechanical exoskeletons that fit over your hands. Manus is building a sleeker, bike-glove style accessory, though demos last year required HTV Vive controllers to be strapped to your arms above them. Neurodigital’s Gloveone and Noitom’s Hi5 are two other versions in development.
But with today’s news, Oculus seems interested in breaking into the nascent market, or at the very least learning how to develop VR software that takes advantage of your unencumbered hands.
Opening up the ability to type in VR could expand the medium from its current center of gaming and entertainment into more business and enterprise use cases. Sources tell me some engineers at Facebook are experimenting with coding in VR, because it offers them essentially infinite screen space, rather than having to juggle windows on one or several monitors.
This new opportunity outside of consumer sales could be important, as tethered VR rigs fail to attract the mainstream market. Business Insider yesterday reported Oculus will close 200 of its 500 demo stations inside Best Buy stores, after some stations went days without use.
Gloves could help Oculus realize the dream of true presence in VR, where there’s nothing to remind you that you aren’t actually in a fantasy world.
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Acer, Google, HTC, Oculus, Samsung, Sony Get Matching Global Virtual Reality Association Jackets
Dec 8, 2016 | Forbes
By Curtis Silver
Acer Starbreeze, Google, HTC Vive, Facebook's Oculus, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment have less than ceremoniously announced they have built a fort in the backyard and will be trading Magic cards and reading dirty magazines. The six companies have formed a VR collective of sorts, calling it the Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA). The purpose of this club is vague at best, but is to "promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally". This doesn't necessarily mean they'll all play nice.
While the GVRA seeks to "share best practices, conduct research, and bring the international VR community together as tech progresses," it should be noted that the devices these companies make are not totally compatible with each other. Oculus games don't play on the Vive or Playstation VR. Sony certainly doesn't adapt to any other standards. If you were optimistic that this partnership would standardize the technology involved, then you've suffered a head injury while walking around with an Oculus on your head.
The GVRA FAQ is full of helpful buzzwords that don't really go further than a few hundred words to say sharing best practices and fostering growth in the VR sector around the world. The message here is clear in statements from the companies themselves, VR is going to take over the world and this round-table of technology giants is going to make sure that it is done with some sort of collaborative fluidity.
Curtis Silver ,
CONTRIBUTOR
Writing on Consumer Tech & Social Media with a satirical, cynical edge
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Image: GVRA
Acer Starbreeze, Google, HTC Vive, Facebook's Oculus, Samsung and Sony Interactive Entertainment have less than ceremoniously announced they have built a fort in the backyard and will be trading Magic cards and reading dirty magazines. The six companies have formed a VR collective of sorts, calling it the Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA). The purpose of this club is vague at best, but is to "promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally". This doesn't necessarily mean they'll all play nice.
While the GVRA seeks to "share best practices, conduct research, and bring the international VR community together as tech progresses," it should be noted that the devices these companies make are not totally compatible with each other. Oculus games don't play on the Vive or Playstation VR. Sony certainly doesn't adapt to any other standards. If you were optimistic that this partnership would standardize the technology involved, then you've suffered a head injury while walking around with an Oculus on your head.
The GVRA FAQ is full of helpful buzzwords that don't really go further than a few hundred words to say sharing best practices and fostering growth in the VR sector around the world. The message here is clear in statements from the companies themselves, VR is going to take over the world and this round-table of technology giants is going to make sure that it is done with some sort of collaborative fluidity.ADVERTISING
"The rapid growth of the virtual reality industry presents many challenges as well as opportunities," said Tae-Yong Kim, Vice President, Mobile Communications Business at Samsung Electronics in a statement. "It is important that we set a clear precedent for best practices and create a solid foundation from which we can build meaningful progress. Samsung is pleased to join the GVRA and to work with other industry leaders to promote responsible development and adoption of VR globally."
There's that best practices bit again. Best practices are all well and good, but sometimes tend to collectively fight against true disruption. Whatever comes next in VR, if not from one of these companies, might be fought staunchly by this collective. So it should be noted that Valve and its OpenVR Steam platform is not part of this club at this time.
Virtual Reality has been an industry led by start-ups, which were quickly swallowed whole by the big dogs on the playground. The big dogs are making it clear that they are at the top of the food chain now and will be leading innovation and application of VR around the world. Or at least, try to. Start-ups will still have the opportunity to disrupt as they always have, they'll just have to make a virtual tribute to the GVRA council first.
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Oculus acquires eye-tracking startup The Eye Tribe
Dec 28, 2016 | Tech Crunch
By Josh Constine
The direction you look could one day control your VR or mobile experience thanks to Facebook and Oculus’ latest buy, The Eye Tribe. Oculus confirms to me that this is an official acquisition.
The startup has developed a $99 eye tracking device developer kits for computers, and software that can bring gaze-based interfaces to smartphones and potentially virtual reality headsets.
The Eye Tribe has also developed foveated rendering technology, that lets VR systems save computational power by only generating perfect graphics where you’re looking. Essentially it creates a focal point that moves with your eyes. This could allow Oculus’ forthcoming “Santa Cruz” wireless standalone headset to display more complex scenes at higher frame rates despite its mobile form factor limiting its rendering power.
A whole class of headsets are starting to use eye-tracking to for foveated rendering, as well as letting you teleport around a location, or show the movement of your eyes on an avatar to make it more life-like.
Other examples of what the tech could do include auto-scrolling of text while reading or sheet music while playing an instrument, and the ability to pause or control a video player with your eyes while your hands are occupied. Car interfaces could benefit from the technology. It could also provide gaze analytics to inform app developers and advertisers what people look at most.
The Eye Tribe had raised around $3 million from investors including Startup Bootcamp, and taken a $2.3 million grant from The Danish National Advanced Technology Foundation. The Eye Tribe competed in TechCrunch’s CES Hardware Battlefield in early 2014 when it first began shipping its dev kit. Lately it’s been working to get more developers on its SDK, building applications that benefit from eye tracking. Google recently bought an eye-tracking startup too called Eyefluence.
The startup’s site put up a notice that it was changing directions earlier this month, and tech pundit Robert Scoble shared a rumor that they’d been acquired by Facebook. The Di Digital publication reported that the Danish business register lists Facebook became the 100% shareholder of The Eye Tribe on December 15th, and TechCrunch has now confirmed that information here.
Though Oculus confirms the deal, it did not share details such as the price, exactly who from the Eye Tribe team will be joining Oculus, or what will happen to Eye Tribe’s existing users.
The Eye Tribe was developed out of research by the founders at IT University Of Copenhagen back in 2009. The company says the ITU Gaze Tracker they helped create has become the most popular open source eye tracking software. By 2013 the full-fledged startup had shown the ability to build its technology into an Android tablet device. This year The Eye Tribe unveiled a $199 pro version of its tracking device that it says can be as much as 10X cheaper than comparable models.
In the meantime, an eye-tracking VR headset startup called Fove has raised $11 million, while SensoMotoric Instruments has brought eye-tracking to avatars in Altspace’s social VR construct.
It’s unclear exactly what Oculus will do with the technology, though it has potential applications for identity verification for security, immersive games, and a wide range of applications that let you navigate by looking rather than using your fingers.
Perhaps Facebook could one day allow you to Like a post just by looking at the Like button, or roll your eyes in Oculus VR to communicate that you’re annoyed.
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What Does Virtual Reality Do to Your Body and Mind?
Jan 3, 2016 | Wall Street Journal
By Jack Nicas and Deepa Seetharaman
Software worker Erin Bell inched across a wooden plank suspended over a deep, rusted pit. When a Stanford University researcher asked her to step off, she wouldn’t do it.
In reality Ms. Bell was walking on a carpet with a virtual-reality headset strapped to her face. “I knew I was in a virtual environment,” she said later, “but I was still afraid.”
The psychological impact of lifelike virtual experiences is just one of the challenges for virtual reality, a technology that might finally have its commercial moment in 2016—after decades of hype.
Samsung Electronics Co. and Google parent Alphabet Inc. recently have released virtual-reality headsets that use smartphones as the screen. And, in coming months, Sony Corp. ,HTC Corp. and Facebook Inc.’s Oculus unit plan to release higher-end headsets that promise to immerse users in experiences that seem to be all around them.
Meanwhile, tech companies and media titans such as Walt Disney Co. and 21st Century Fox are developing content for the headsets, including interactive short films, courtside views of pro-basketball games and popular videogames such as “Minecraft.” The technology also is expected to be one of the main draws this week at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.
Beyond the common issues facing new technologies, such as whether consumers will pony up hundreds of dollars for another device, virtual reality is grappling with questions about how it affects a user’s body and mind.
The experience can cause nausea, eyestrain and headaches. Headset makers don’t recommend their devices for children. Samsung and Oculus urge adults to take at least 10-minute breaks every half-hour, and they warn against driving, riding a bike or operating machinery if the user feels odd after a session.
Apart from the physical effects, Stanford University professor Jeremy Bailenson says his 15 years of research consistently have shown virtual reality can change how a user thinks and behaves, in part because it is so realistic.
“We shouldn’t fathom this as a media experience; we should fathom it as an experience,” said Prof. Bailenson, who also co-founded Strivr Labs Inc., which helps football players relive practice in virtual reality.
The psychological unknowns are prompting some backers to suggest setting standards for content. “We have to be very careful,” said Alex Schwartz, chief executive of maker Owlchemy Labs. “Scares in VR are borderline immoral.”
Facebook and Samsung declined to comment on questions around virtual reality’s potential psychological effects. Said Richard Marks, a Sony lead virtual-reality engineer, “Just like any medium, [virtual reality] can have good effects and negative effects. I think people can get just as immersed in a book.”
HTC said that content makers have “a responsibility…to create experiences that are immersive and hitting their intended mark,” and that it aims for “experiences that are fun, educational, and inspiring.”
Still, investors and analysts say virtual reality has enormous potential beyond entertainment. It can allow students to visit historical places or practice surgery; prospective tenants can walk through apartments without visiting them; and people can meet face-to-face in virtual rooms.
“Over the short term, there are challenges. But over the long term, we think it’s going to change every industry on the planet,” said Macquarie Capital analyst Ben Schachter.
Boosters have long pitched virtual reality as the next medium after print, radio and television, but engineers struggled with the technology. Nintendo Co.’s Virtual Boy headset in 1995 was one of the company’s biggest flops.
More recently, advances in screens, computer chips and sensors have made virtual reality possible—and commercially viable.
In 2011, 18-year-old Palmer Luckey built a headset in his parents’ Long Beach, Calif., garage that made virtual reality possible with a relatively small and inexpensive device. In 2014, Facebook bought his company, Oculus VR, for $2 billion.
Facebook Chief Technology Officer Michael Schroepfer said virtual reality is now “the project I personally spend the most time on.”
The Oculus deal ignited a flurry of activity and investment in virtual reality and augmented reality, which displays digital objects in users’ view of the real world. There were 91 investments totaling $1.1 billion in those fields in the roughly 18 months after Facebook bought Oculus, compared with 50 investments of $316 million in the previous period, according to venture-data firm CB Insights.
The largest recipient of funding is Florida-based Magic Leap Inc., which is working on augmented-reality glasses.
Many consumers will be introduced to virtual reality via smartphone-based headsets, such as the Samsung and Google devices. The New York Times teamed with Google to send Google’s $20 cardboard headsets to more than one million subscribers in November. Later that month, Samsung’s $100 Gear VR quickly sold out on Amazon and Best Buy .
More advanced—and costly—headsets are coming. The headsets from Oculus and HTC plug into high-end computers, while Sony’s device connects to its PlayStation 4 game system. They use external cameras to track a user’s motion. Oculus has said its headset and the computer needed to run it will cost about $1,500, while Sony officials have said the roughly 30 million PlayStation 4 users can buy its headset for several hundred dollars.
Scientists believe the technology can cause nausea when users move their heads and the virtual images don’t keep up. Virtual experiences with a lot of movement, such as roller coasters and racing games, also can be unsettling because a user’s eyes suggest the body is moving while the inner ear disagrees. Of course, some of the concerns might prove to be overblown, much like early worries that microwaves could cause cancer or TV hurts eyesight.
To reduce motion sickness, headset makers say, they are improving motion tracking and showing more frames per second, while content makers are having users “teleport” to different places in virtual worlds, rather than run or fly there. But some experiences may never be comfortable.
“There’s going to be a lot of content that you’re only going to want to watch on a [two-dimensional] screen,” says Oculus Chief Executive Brendan Iribe. “You’re not going to want to be necessarily in a car chase in VR. That’s going to be too much motion.”
Content makers say virtual reality also might be too overwhelming for prolonged use. Disney’s Lucasfilm, which makes the “Star Wars” movies, said it is experimenting with 5- to 10-minute videos for virtual reality.
“We do have to have ethics conversations,” but “the technology will be successful no matter what,” said Mike Rothenberg, head of Rothenberg Ventures, which has invested in more than 30 virtual-reality startups. “Every technology has downsides; the only question is how do we handle it as a society.”
Corrections & Amplifications
In an earlier version of this article, the last name of Facebook Chief Technology Officer Michael Schroepfer was misspelled.
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Virtual reality: Are health risks being ignored?
Feb 8, 2016 | CNBC
By Doug Magyari
Virtual reality and augmented reality are gaining momentum as promising new technologies. The Samsung Gear VR headset unit sold out in many places over the holidays, and Facebook's Oculus Rift headset was flooded with pre-orders this month.
Despite growing proclamations that 2016 will be "The Year of VR," there has been a troubling lack of focus on the health and safety risks associated with strapping a large plastic brick over your eyes. If not properly addressed, this oversight could well come back to haunt the fledgling industry.
Properly done, headsets for virtual reality and augmented reality have the potential to transform our society and expand the field of human knowledge by changing how we learn, work, play and entertain ourselves. This breakthrough might even extend long-term human memory by creating new neural pathways and connections in the brain.
Virtual reality involves complete immersion in a fully imagined environment (think of a 360-degree video game). Augmented reality involves a see-through headset that allows users to simultaneously interact with their actual physical environment in the real world (think of product diagrams for repair technicians).
Such profound advances come with equally serious threats to our physical and emotional well-being. Consider that large percentages of people experience stress or anxiety after wearing a full occlusion headset for more than a few minutes. Other negative physical side effects can include severe eyestrain, nausea and motion sickness. Recent studies of lab rats at the UCLA Keck Center for Neurophysics have revealed negative side effects including "cybersickness" and abnormal patterns of activity in rat brains, including 60 percent of neurons that simply shut down in virtual reality environments.
People who are strapped into a fully occluded device cannot see anything around them, creating obvious physical dangers. In addition, their eyes must strain to focus on a pixelated screen that uses a single refractive optic element that inadequately addresses the optic issues with near-to-eye devices, and many headsets quickly become uncomfortable after a few minutes.
o, rather than creating a massive market opportunity, current headset makers may actually be laying the groundwork for a crippling consumer backlash. VR makers should take note of the recent problems when 16 hoverboards caught fire in 12 states, launching a federal investigation and causing Amazon.com to halt sales of the popular self-balancing scooter toys over the holiday season.
I began conducting field research into head-mounted displays (HMDs) for the U.S. military more than a decade ago. Since then, I've worked with many industrial and commercial clients, so I'm quite familiar with the technical and physical barriers facing the VR/AR industry.
For the technology to become woven into everyday life, people will need to feel safe and comfortable wearing HMDs for extended periods of time. Getting it right will require several key technical design elements.
Maintaining a large field of view (FoV): Humans have a stereoscopic field of view of 200 degrees, involving 140 degrees of binocular vision for depth perception, and 60 degrees for peripheral vision. Visual perception research shows that restricting this FoV decreases the user's sense of presence. At 35 degrees FoV (where many headsets are today), the user has the experience of merely "watching" the content. But at 60 degrees FoV or more, most users feel completely immersed in the displayed content and it becomes experiential. This is where the magic really starts to happen, when you can feel fully immersed in what you're watching. Having a large FoV is crucial to making VR seem experiential, and that's why more people are getting so excited emotionally.
Combining AR/VR capabilities: Headsets should automatically control the levels of translucency to the real world. This is the only way to allow for immersive VR applications and still mitigate motion sickness, by allowing users to anchor themselves to the real world. Humans have different levels of comfort staying connected to the real world, so it is necessary to have adjustability. For AR applications, varying the see-through capability is also needed to see the real world while viewing overlaid virtual images.
Delivering lightweight comfort: Any head-worn device such as headsets, headphones or sunglasses should weigh less than 4 ounces, or they will become uncomfortable after wearing them for short periods of time.
Providing natural eye optics: VR/AR headsets should mimic how human vision really works, to provide the most comfortable viewing experience for both 2D and 3D content. In physiological terms, headset makers need to solve this tension known as the "accommodation/convergence conflict," and eliminate eye strain.
Enabling a natural user interface: New formats for user controls can enable a more organic experience. For instance, a wrist-based interface allows users to control the device with human gestures such as rubbing their fingers together, waving their hands or rotating their wrists.
Allowing for customization: All people are unique, and so are their eyes. HMDs should be adjustable to match each user's personal comfort level. Some adaptable features include inter-pupillary distance; independent eye focus; and variable transmission lenses for AR and VR functionality.
Our society is on the verge of a major breakthrough due to widespread adoption of virtual reality and augmented reality. But to progress beyond the current hype, the goal of this new communication tool should be immersion – the ability to connect to the human brain at a deeply emotional level.
Success will require hardware developers to focus on the human-machine interface, and how humans actually sense and process information, and to provide a comfortable viewing experience. If most early adopters of VR/AR have a harmful or negative experience, the industry could be setting itself up for a major setback that will be hard to recover from. Proper standards and procedures must be established now for both hardware and software manufacturers, before it is too late.
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The dangers of virtual reality
Mar 29, 2016 | CNet
By Scott Stein
You set up a room with an advanced VR kit, and wire it to your PC. It all seems fine. Anything to be worried about?
Actually, I worry a lot.
Virtual reality is amazing, but it isn't safe. It isn't easy. And with the complicated hardware being released now, it could end up being a nightmare in the wrong hands.
Yes, it sounds like I'm panicking. But I've noticed a lot of things that already concern me. In prepared demo rooms, where extensive steps are taken to be safe -- and there's almost always a staffer standing right behind me making sure I don't slip or trip -- they still happen.
Virtual reality isn't necessarily a cobra ready to strike your loved one. But as Oculus Rift and many more headsets make their way out to the public, there could be some big problems. After hours in and out of mobile VR, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR, these are the things that worry me most.
]It can make you sick
VR-induced nausea is a very real thing. I used to feel dizzy and sick every time I tried early VR hardware, and those moments have diminished greatly. But they still happen, even to me...and I consider myself a seasoned VR veteran.
It's hard to predict when it'll happen. For different people, it happens with different games and experiences. I find slow-moving games where I have to use a physical controller (like an Xbox One controller) to move around, in addition to turning my head, are the ones that make me want to throw up. Oculus has a few like this: Adr1ft, Dreadhalls, and The Vanishing of Ethan Carter. I wasn't bothered by faster-moving racing games, but I know others that were.
Virtual reality safety manuals recommend taking breaks frequently. You can also adjust the fit of the headset, which isn't always easy -- tightening or loosening straps, plus fixing focal distance or even eye distance -- takes a lot of time to fiddle with.
Some game developers have slowly tweaked the design of some games to be less nausea-inducing -- for instance, having a cockpit around you seems to help. Maybe that's why I got nauseous in games where I was wandering freely in first-person, helmetless.
VR can have neurological effects because of its eerily realistic simulated motion. "Simulator sickness" is a condition suffered in flight simulations, and "virtual reality sickness," a close cousin, has been around since the early days of VR. While lag times and app design have reduced it tremendously, it still exists at times, and I don't know anyone who hasn't had at least a few issues with fatigue, nausea or wooziness over time. Maybe it's something to get used to. Maybe the hardware still needs to improve. Maybe human beings will always need to take breaks when using VR.You can't see anything around you, including your TV or your family
Motion-sensing VR systems like the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR involve standing, ducking, swinging your arms, and even briefly walking -- all with a headset on your head that blocks vision and sound.
HTC Vive has a passthrough camera that can see around you, and its sensors can tell you when you're approaching a wall, but the camera features aren't always on. I've seen several people at CNET nearly smash their Vive motion controllers into a TV with camera sensing turned off, not even realizing it was there. And to others, it's already happened. It would be an awful real-world injury. Or what about a wall where you didn't draw the boundary properly, and suddenly punched your hand into very real bricks?
Who knows if you also might swing a controller unknowingly into someone else's face? I've seen people get hit by standing in someone's "VR zone." I hit myself in the face (luckily, the helmet protected me) with a motion controller, forgetting my own body's relation to itself.
What about small pets or children? What about families playing together? You shouldn't keep VR anywhere near them. Oculus warns to keep the Rift "out of reach from children and pets," and to "move objects or people out of your Rift space." I wouldn't trust my ability to play VR games in a crowded room unless I was sitting down. Am I recommending your own private VR room? Yeah, I am, if you're planning on moving around and you have any kids. Seriously, I can't even keep an eye on where the coffee table is. There's no way any toddler should be within 20 yards of someone who's illuded by VR.
I'm a dad of two kids, ages seven and three. I don't trust myself to not trip over something.Tripping over wires
The latest round of advanced VR systems have another new drawback: cables. The Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR coming later this year all are tethered by thick bunches of wires leading back to your PC or game system. The Vive and Rift have long extension cords, and these cables are plugged into a special breakout box where the cords can break away in case they're pulled too hard.
But, after using these systems in self-contained demos and in-work settings, I've gotten tangled. Full-room VR like the Vive means walking around with a long cable trailing behind me and across the floor, unseen by me. The cable sometimes snakes around my legs or under my feet.
I once had an Oculus Rift demo where I was sitting down, and the attendant caught the wire running to my head, yanking my helmet sharply to the side. Sean Hollister suffered worse during a Star Wars demo on Vive, and ended up literally falling on his ass.
The moment lots of wires run between you and something across the room, and you can't see anything, complications are bound to occur.Having a screen inches from your eyes all the time
My local optometrist, when I explained VR to her as I was getting an eye exam, instinctively said "that's not good." Healthcare professionals don't tend to like the idea of suspending a display an inch or so from your face for hours and hours. I haven't seen many studies of what VR might do as far as causing eye fatigue, but my eyes need a break at least every half an hour. And, again, I consider myself VR-acclimated.Home tips (or, Why I'm worried)
Best advice? Take a little time to read the included safety manuals if it's your first time using VR. Set up your home playing space safely, and keep it away from big common areas or little kids or pets. And I'd still recommend playing alone. And seated -- or at least standing still. Maybe with someone watching you the first few times, just in case.
I have no idea what will happen once more people use VR, but dumb accidents routinely happen over far less. I don't want people vomiting, having seizures, stepping on their pets, maiming their children, or smashing their hands through plate glass. Cover up your eyes and ears and start wandering around, and all bets are off in the real world. If you're an early adopter, take the full-motion VR hardware seriously.
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Are Virtual Reality Headsets Safe for Children?
Oct 4, 2016 | Scientific American
By Edd Gent
Virtual-reality headsets are likely to be at the top of many kids' wish lists this holiday season, but with many VR devices coming with age restrictions, is the technology safe for youngsters?
The Oculus Rift and Samsung's Gear VR headsets are recommended for ages 13+, while Sony's recommendation for its PlayStation VR is ages 12 and up. HTC's Vive is not designed for children, according to the company, and HTC said young children shouldn't be allowed to use the headset at all. And Google said its relatively low-tech Cardboard headset should be used by kids only under adult supervision.
Companies have offered little explanation for these age recommendations. So what does the science say? According to Marientina Gotsis, director of the Creative Media & Behavioral Health Center at the University of Southern California School of Cinematic Arts, not a lot. [Photos: Virtual Reality Puts Adults in a Child's World]
"We do not have enough data on the safety of current VR technology for children," she told Live Science. "So, the sparsity of research data and what we know about neuroplasticity [the brain's ability to reorganize itself] and children does not make me comfortable to recommend what is available now as is."BRAIN DEVELOPMENT
In a 2014 study in rats, researchers at the University of California found that the neurons in a brain region associated with spatial learning behaved completely differently in virtual environments compared to in real ones, with more than half of the neurons shutting down while in VR. What this means for humans is unclear, but the scientists said it highlighted the need for more research on the long-term effects of VR.
Gotsis said VR could have an even bigger impact on the developing brains of children. Her center uses entertainment technology, including VR, for mental and behavioral health research. She has worked on VR applications for children, but only in highly controlled situations.
"The brain is very plastic in young ages, and prolonged exposure with improperly fitted devices could incur damage," she said. "Children also may not understand how to communicate eyestrain and may lack reflexes to remove the devices if they find them uncomfortable."
Still, this does not necessarily mean that VR is unsafe for children and never can be, she said, adding that VR's safety varies according to the device, type of content and time spent using it, as well as on the individual child using it. [11 Facts Every Parent Should Know About Their Baby's Brain]VR AND VISION
One of the biggest concerns is the impact VR tech could have on kids' eyes. Parents have long told children that staring at a screen will make their eyes go square, but the American Academy of Ophthalmology says there is no evidence that long exposure to screens can cause permanent damage.
But another issue with VR is the so-called vergence-accommodation conflict. When you view the world normally, your eye first points the eyeballs—vergence—and then focuses the lenses—accommodation—on an object, and then these two processes are coupled to create a coherent picture.
Modern VR headsets achieve the illusion of depth by presenting each eye with a slightly different image on a flat screen. This means that, no matter how far away an object appears, the eyes remain focused on a fixed point, but they converge on something in the virtual distance.
"Some scientists believe this is the reason some people experience symptoms when viewing 3D stimuli—TV and cinema, as well as headsets," said Peter Howarth, an optometrist and senior lecturer in visual ergonomics at Loughborough University in the United Kingdom.
However, Howarth said there is good evidence to suggest that only those with already weak eye movement and control are likely to experience adverse effects such as headaches and eyestrain. For children, these symptoms are good indicators that these kids need to get their eyes checked, so VR headsets may actually help catch existing problems, he added.
Howarth said that, as far as he knows, no academic studies have been done to investigate the effects of VR on children's eyes, though it's possible that VR headset manufacturers have done research in this area. "My guess is that they're simply covering their backs so that if a child develops a squint, they will not be held responsible," he told Live Science.LACK OF RESEARCH
Michael Madary, a postdoctoral research assistant at the University of Mainz in Germany, who in February co-authored the first code of ethics on the use of VR, said the dearth of research on VR's effects on children is unlikely to improve.
"For obvious ethical reasons, it's very difficult to do research using children as subjects," he told Live Science. Madary studies the ethics of emerging technologies, incorporating results from psychology and neuroscience, and he thinks the biggest concern with VR is its effect onchildren's psychological development.
"Children, at a young age, have difficulty distinguishing reality from fiction or fantasy," Madary said. "You could imagine putting them in VR—that inability to distinguish could be exaggerated."
For instance, content that could be traumatic when seen in the cinema is likely to have an even bigger impact in VR. And the negative effects of advertising and unsavory role models on TV could be exacerbated considerably by VR, Madary added.
"In VR, you have an entire environment designed by someone who may want to manipulate you, whether it's for advertising, for political reasons, for religious reasons," he said. "If you have a child spending a long time immersed in a VR environment where manipulation is going on, it could be seen as a threat to their autonomy and what kind of adult they become."
And though VR holds great potential, including for educational and therapeutic uses, Madary said manufacturers need to team up with scientists to investigate the long-term implications of the technology. Until then, he recommends erring on the side of caution.
"I suspect that if parents are doing a good job as parents, that's pretty much the most important factor," he said. "It's just exercising extreme caution and knowing that the experiments have not been done, so you're experimenting on your kids."
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Are VR headsets safe for kids? We read the studies & guidelines so you don't have to
Jan 9, 2017 | Wareable
By Sam Loveridge
No doubt many a home saw a VR headset stuffed under their Christmas tree in December, especially as we saw the three major players launch their first consumer headsets last year – the PlayStation VR, HTC Vive and Oculus Rift. But are they really the best family gift? All VR headset makers advise against letting anyone under the age of 13 go anywhere near virtual reality because of their delicate, developing eyesight.
Then again, as it was proven the whole "sitting too close to the TV" thing was just parents being over-zealous, are these VR safety guidelines merely the manufacturers covering their backs, or is there a real health risk for younger VR users?
What do tech companies say about children using VR headsets?
Potentially the most popular virtual reality headset for the everyday household is the PlayStation VR, or PSVR, but sadly Sony is actually the strictest with its age restrictions. "The VR headset is not for use by children under age 12," reads its safety guidelines for PSVR.
For those with impressive gaming PC rigs, the options are the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, neither of which are recommended for use by children at all. The Oculus Rift is only for use by those aged 13 and up, mirroring what its parent company Facebook says about restrictions on its own social media service, for some reason. The same goes for the Oculus powered Samsung Gear VR headset, which apparently isn't designed for anyone under 13.
HTC's guidelines for the Vive simply says that "the product was not designed to be used by children", citing potential harm to themselves or damage to the product as the reason. Oh, and also potential choking hazards, whatever they may be on the giant headset and its sizeable controllers. It also adds that older children wishing to use the headset should be monitored and "avoid prolonged use of the product".
In fact, the only virtual reality headset that is actually suitable for children under the age of 12 is the Google Cardboard – the most affordable of the VR headsets and powered by both Android and iOS smartphones. "Cardboard is not for use by children without adult supervision," says Google on the topic, with the added advice to "take frequent breaks" and exit the VR headset if the user has any "discomfort, eye strain or disorientation."
Google in particular is really pushing to get its Cardboard VR viewers into schools, getting kids involved with its Expeditions software that lets little explorers go on a journey to places like the coral reef, the surface of Mars and more. But there are also places that are using virtual reality in therapeutic ways, helping those with PTSD or depression, curing flying fears or even as an aid for autistic children.What are the potential risks for children using VR?
What's interesting is that despite all those safety warnings, none of the manufacturers really outline why kids shouldn't use their virtual reality headsets.
The problem is, the technology is so new that no long-term studies have been carried out as yet to assess what potential damage could be done to any users. However, many studies have started to look at the connection between using virtual reality headsets (and other devices like smartphones) and potential eye damage, particularly the rise in myopia, or nearsightedness.
For those blessed with 20/20 vision, nearsightedness is where close objects appear clear but anything far away will be blurry. According to a US study, nearsightedness for those aged 12 to 54 rose dramatically between 1971 and 2004. That's because we now spend more time doing work that requires spending hours and hours staring at screens when using a computer, reading or playing videogames.
You can see the potential connection between myopia and virtual reality headset use as you're staring at two screens just two inches from your eyes, but actually your eyes are having to do something a lot more complicated.
Using a smartphone forces your eyes to focus on a close object, but with VR headsets you're simultaneously focusing on the screen close to the eye, but also on the simulated image on the screen that's set up to look far away. Because of that, the initial suggestions are that VR headsets aren't actually as bad for your vision, specifically, as using a smartphone or computer.
However, another potential issue for using VR headsets is what's called "vergence-accommodation conflict". It's a fancy, complicated-sounding thing, but what it actually has to do with is the way your eyes focus, and it's pretty much an issue that's exclusive to using VR.
What happens is that when you look at an object, your eyes naturally converge on it if it's close, or diverge if it's further away – that's the vergence part. Then your eyes focus on the object, which is the accommodation bit.
"The visual system has developed a circuit where the two responses talk to each other," said Martin Banks, professor of optometry, vision science, psychology, and neuroscience at the University of California, Berkeley at the SIGGRAPH conference back in 2015. "That makes perfect sense in the natural environment. They're both trying to get to the same distance, so why wouldn't they talk to one another?"
However, when you're wearing a VR headset the 3D images they create are slightly offset to create depth. The more offset they are, the closer the object appears. But in order to see them, your eyes are both accommodating to the screen and converging to a contrasting difference. Your eyes are more than capable of doing this, but they won't be happy about it for long, meaning some serious eye strain could be on the cards.
"Everything I have seen suggests it is all short-term and you readjust after you take that headset off," said Professor Banks, who published a paper on the issue back in 2008 with some colleagues. "But I think it would be unwise for us to say there is no problem."Do the same risks apply to adult users?
These issues aren't isolated to children – adults will suffer from similar discomfort from prolonged use of VR headsets – but it's more important for children to be aware of them. That's because kids' eyesight is still developing and their vision can change – and be damaged – a lot faster than those who have already reached adolescence and adulthood.
There's also the design of the VR headsets themselves, particularly the more expensive options like the PSVR, Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, which have been specifically created for adult-sized heads and the lenses positioned accordingly.
Many of the experts believe that the manufacturers are being overly cautious to avoid complications further down the line. "I have seen some where they're really just pretty ridiculous," said Professor Banks. "One company offers a warning to pregnant women considering using a VR headset. Why would that be? They are just being really, really cautious."Are experts looking into the effects of VR on children?
There are plenty of studies being carried out on the effect of VR both on children and adults, and working out which of its myriad potential uses will be the best to focus on going forward.
"We haven't really yet got to the stage where people have been using virtual reality for prolonged periods of time – over, for example, periods of weeks or months – to identify with any clear certainty any long-term effects of virtual reality," explained Sarah Sharples, professor of human factors at the University of Nottingham, who claimed at SIGGRAPH that more research is definitely needed.
She was very wary of linking any side effects users have from using VR headsets – including nausea, eye fatigue, headaches and more – with potential problems, as there isn't enough evidence as yet: "The key point is, there are effects but are they detrimental?"
Stanford University has set up a special lab that's looking into the psychological effects of virtual reality on children, especially when it comes to make believe and adjusting between the real and virtual worlds.
They've been studying the effect of virtual reality on children for over a decade, and although they've published several papers, including one looking at the false memories children make when discovering virtual reality experiences, none have outlined any lasting issues when using virtual reality as yet.What can parents do to make things safer?
The most important thing for parents to do if they want to allow their child to experience VR is make sure they're always supervised, and limit sessions to half-hour bursts to reduce the risk of eye strain or fatigue.
It's also worth considering which headset is right for your child depending on their age and situation. Google Cardboard is easy to use and light, but has to be held by the user. The Samsung Gear VR and Daydream View are both still fairly light, but are strapped to the user's head for security.
Headsets like the Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR tend to be seated experiences, but far more intense and expensive, so will need parents to assist with the fitting and security of the headset.
The HTC Vive is a room-scale VR experience that allows you to wander around in the virtual space. This will need significant monitoring as there could be potential hazards around your child as they explore and interact with the controllers, and they may get tangled in the wires or damage the PC or headset if over-excited.
You should also make sure that what the child is playing is appropriate for their age. Some of the experiences available contain bad language, violence or even the potential for virtual abuse, so make sure you've tested the content before you let your child play through them.
"Absolutely, there are potentially negative effects of using VR," added Sharples. "The most important thing that we should do is just to be cautious and sensible. But we shouldn't let that stop us from taking advantage of the massive potential this technology offers as well."
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Are Virtual Reality Headsets Safe for Eyes?
Feb 28, 2017 | American Academy of Ophthalmology
By Reena Mukamal
Virtual reality (VR) technology can transport us to sci-fi battlefields, underwater, outer space and beyond. With a host of new games, apps and headsets offering an engaging three-dimensional (3D) experience for users, it’s not surprising that many families are embracing VR technology. But what impact does VR gear have on the eyes? While the technology is relatively new and no long-term studies have been done, there are a few things we do know.Immersive, 3D images
VR headsets create a life-size, 3D virtual environment without the boundaries of a screen. They mimic the way our eyes already work by showing each eye a slightly different image, so we perceive depth. VR headsets use either two feeds sent to one display or two LCD displays, one for each eye. They also have lenses which are placed between your eyes and the pixels. The lenses focus and reshape the picture for each eye and create a stereoscopic 3D image. VR headsets provide an increased field of view (width of the picture) to create a sense of immersion. Additionally, the headsets make use of “head tracking”—shifting the picture in front of you as you look up, down and side to side.Why do manufacturers set age limits?
Most VR headset manufacturers say the device is not suitable for children under age 12 or 13. Although there are no long-term studies, ophthalmologists agree there is no reason to be concerned that VR headsets will damage eye development, health or function. “Age limitations for VR technology might make sense for content, but as far as we know this technology poses no threat to the eyes,” said Stephen Lipsky, MD, a pediatric ophthalmologist who practices in Georgia.Eye Strain and Fatigue
Staring at a VR headset screen—or any digital device—for a prolonged period may cause eye strain or fatigue. That’s because you tend blink less when using a digital screen device than you normally do. This can cause the front surface of your eye to dry out and feel fatigued. Dizziness and Motion Sickness
Viewing an image involving motion gives the brain the same visual signals it receives during actual physical motion. That’s why use of VR headsets can lead to dizziness. If you’re susceptible to motion sickness on a rollercoaster or boat, you’ll likely be susceptible to virtual motion sickness as well.What if You Have an Eye Condition?
Individuals who have amblyopia (an imbalance in visual strength between the two eyes), strabismus (misaligned eyes), or other conditions that inhibit focusing, depth perception or normal 3D vision may not experience the 3D effects of VR headsets. That does not mean that vision disorders can be caused by VR headsets. However, children or adults who have these disorders may be more likely to experience headaches and/or eye fatigue when using VR gear. If you wear glasses to correct a refractive error or eye disorder, you should keep your glasses on while using a VR headset.
General Oculus Coverage
Virtual Reality Safety
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