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Apple’s much-heralded Vision Pro has left a segment of buyers disappointed after they discovered that the high-priced device will not play any VR porn. The Vision Pro prevents users from accessing the immersive explicit content, leading one frustrated user to dub it a “$3,500 chastity belt.” An entire Reddit thread has already sprouted on the social media site and is dedicated to trying to skirt around the Vision Pro’s X-rated guardrails, according to 404 Media. “I am sure someone will eventually come out with an app that allows that, none are available at launch, and you can’t use the native...

Table of contents 1. VR Is Cheaper Than Ever 2. Major Improvements in VR Experiences 3. VR Games Lead the Way to the Metaverse 4. VR Games Follow Monetization Trends 5. Mixed Reality Experiences 6. Standalone Headsets 7. VR Cloud Gaming 8. Better and More Engaging VR Content 9. Adventure, Shooter, and Simulation Genres Are the Most Popular 10. VR Is Extending Beyond Gaming VR Game Trends: A SummaryThe VR games market is evolving and maturing. It's predicted to almost double in size in 2024 and grow at a CAGR of 42%. (Newzoo) That's thanks to key developments in VR...

Meta researchers first revealed their Codec-Avatars four years ago in 2019. These avatars were futuristic, photorealistic and three-dimensional. In 2022, researchers improved the technology and demonstrated Meta MUGSY, which allowed users to create these lifelike avatars by simply scanning their faces on an iPhone, as opposed to earlier when creating such an avatar requires over 100 cameras. Now, in 2023, the researchers at Meta have taken the Codec avatars another step forwards. They will reportedly soon be able to learn to speak like you and even sounds like you. As per a tweet shared by AI Breakfast, the new tech...

I’d really hate to be Mark Zuckerberg right now. In October 2021 he pivoted to the metaverse, only to pivot to AI in November 2022… and in the brief amount of time he turned his back on the Metaverse, Apple completely stole whatever lead he had in the space by announcing a product so revolutionary, it’s probably going to crush his entire hardware ambitions. Right at the end of their WWDC keynote, Apple announced the Vision Pro, an entirely new revolutionary product category helmed by a Mixed Reality headset that champions what they call “spatial computing” – an upgrade from...

A 2022 study found that youth who identify as transgender are at the highest risk of “violent radicalization.” The study, titled “Meaning in Life, Future Orientation and Support for Violent Radicalization Among Canadian College Students During the COVID-19 Pandemic,” explored the extent to which different demographics were open to violent radicalization. The abstract explains, “The COVID-19 pandemic has increased levels of uncertainty and social polarization in our societies, compromising young people’s capacity to envision a positive future and maintain a meaningful sense of purpose in life.” It also goes on to say: Within a positive youth development framework, the present...

A 10-year-old boy who is charged with fatally shooting his mother for refusing to buy him a VR headset seems more preoccupied with his gadgets than the murder as he faces trial, family members say. The Milwaukee boy is charged as an adult with first-degree reckless homicide in the November 21 killing of Quiana Mann, 44, who was shot in the face in their home. The boy's aunt Rhonda Reid told WTMJ-TV on Tuesday that when she talks to him in custody, he claims not to remember the shooting and quickly shifts the conversation to his favorite topic. 'When he...

The start-up is working on a metaverse wristband to be used alongside a VR headset. The wristband aims to allow users to move around in the virtual world but feel sensations like pain and the weight of objects. It works by electrically stimulating a wearers arm muscles. A user is said to be able to feel sensations like their skin being pinched or a weight in their hands. Emi Tamaki, the CEO of H2L Technologies...told the FT: "Feeling pain enables us to turn the metaverse world into a real [world], with increased feelings of presence and immersion." Tamaki is a...

Governor Jeb Bush visit with our Optima Domi Team to share a few words in the metaverse.

The inventor of the PlayStation - one of the best and most widely known gaming consoles - doesn't think too much about VR or the metaverse.Ken Kutaragi, who is responsible for Sony's popular console, says that VR and AR "divide" the real and virtual realms, rather than unifying them, according to a new interview with Bloomberg. Kutaragi, who is now 71 years old, told Bloomberg: “Being in the real world is very important, but the metaverse is about making quasi-real in the virtual world, and I can’t see the point of doing it.”He continued: “You would rather be a polished...

Image courtesy of HTC VIVE Arts

Games reach an incredibly diverse set of people across national, linguistic, and social barriers, and that goes for religion, too. Last week, we noted that Ninja was taking meals off-screen out of respect for Ramadan, and it should be little surprise to see religious groups taking up residence inside virtual spaces. One Christian pastor now holds church in VRChat, and that even includes baptisms – no matter how ridiculous a person’s avatar. Pastor D.J. Soto is the subject of a new video from YouTuber Syrmor (via Polygon), and the whole process is equal parts earnest and absurd. Soto describes his...

Through virtual reality (VR), students from the Northwest University in Xi'an, capital of China's Shaanxi Province, can "visit" archaeological sites while sitting in the classroom. Supported by a foundation, the university set up a VR teaching lab where the excavation sites can be reconstructed and the students can observe the features of various ruins and grasp the basic procedures and methods of archaeological investigation and excavation. VR technologies simulate a virtual environment that resembles reality. Wearing equipment such as helmets and glasses, users feel as if they are actually in the location that is being simulated. According to Ma Jian,...

t was only a matter of time: Adult entertainment studio Naughty America released one of the industry’s very first XXX-rated augmented reality (AR) apps for Android phones this week, which promises to put life-sized 3-D versions of adult entertainers in your living room. Or bedroom, for that matter, with Naughty America CEO Andreas Hronopoulos touting the app as a way for consumers to make their own adult videos at home. “It’s the future of making content,” he said in an interview with Variety. “People can make their own scenarios.”

At about noon on Thursday, I lowered a headset over my eyes and, for the first time in my life, stepped into Microsoft Windows. I was invited to attend an Acer event in New York where the company primarily discussed its VR and gaming ambitions. But I had one mission: to finally see what Microsoft's "mixed reality" experience is all about. What the heck is mixed reality? First, let's talk a bit about the differences between mixed reality, virtual reality and augmented reality. Virtual reality is what Oculus and Facebook are doing, allowing users to step out of this world...

Play time in VR is also going up, House adds. While many PSVR experiences are short, Resident Evil 7's support for VR throughout the entire game has doubled the average play length. In other words, it's a technology that may be hitting its stride as developers learn to craft more than tech demos and mini games. It's not certain how well that stands in comparison to PC-based VR headsets. However, SuperData Research estimates that there were 243,000 Oculus Rift units sold through the end of 2016, and 420,000 HTC Vive units. If the real figures are reasonably close, that makes...

You may have heard about the Italian Neurosurgeon, Sergio Canavero, who plans to carry out the world’s first human head transplant next year. Having secured a volunteer for the operation, the professor has just unveiled a virtual reality system that will hopefully “prepare patients for life in a new body,” an experience that could cause unexpected psychological reactions. Professor Canavero is determined to perform the operation in 2017 on wheelchair user Valery Spiridonov, who runs an educational software company in Russia and suffers from the muscle-wasting Werdnig-Hoffman disease. Assuming the complex transplant take place, Spiridonov will have his head nearly...

*********************clip The tremendous success of Pokemon Go, which is based on augmented reality, shows that the augmented reality/virtual reality era has arrived and is poised to be huge. With research firm Gartner predicting that 1.4 million virtual reality headsets will be shipped this year and 6.3 million will be shipped next year, investors should look to benefit from this trend. In 2020, 45.6 million augmented reality devices will be sold, another research firm IDC predicted.********************************************CLIP*********************************

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Open the app on your iPhone or Android, and you'll find yourself flying into the Garden of Eden on a giant fish. A unicorn, a chest-puffing bird, and a white giraffe are your first companions before you come across the divinely pink central fountain, thought to be evidence of Bosch's fascination with Tantric Buddist and Hindu philosophy. The fish takes you from location to location, so you can sit back and soak it all up. In VR, you can't help but focus on every little detail, which is one of the strengths of analyzing such a dense painting through this...

I was skiing today in the middle of nowhere in WV, the area is close to a VR training route, so it is not uncommon to see tactical fixed wing. Mid morning I heard what sounded like distant rumblings of a jet, around an hour later a F-18 flew over the ski area from the NW in a hard right turn at low altitude. This is very unusual, I can not recall anytime when there have been aircraft operating on the route on a weekend let alone a holiday weekend on a Sunday. In addition, I never saw -2. Comments...