VR

Nothing breaks the immersion of VR like putting your hand through a wall. Haptics can give som sense of touch, but a new study has a clever alternative – robots that move physical furniture around, so there’s a real chair or wall waiting for you.

Robots are an increasingly common sight in stores, and now they’re getting a bit more hands-on. Japanese company Telexistence has begun trials in convenience stores of a robot shelf-stacker that can be controlled by a human via VR.

Capturing the complexities of the human hand is very tricky. Now engineers have developed a new wearable system that uses thermal sensors to accurately predict hand positions, with potential applications in VR, robotics and translating sign language.

The Cinera Edge is a light personal cinema headset that packs a 5K(ish)-resolution display and Dolby Surround Sound. It uses two OLED displays measuring just 0.83 inches with 2560 x 1440 pixels each, creating the equivalent of almost an IMAX screen.

If virtual reality headgear is going to start gaining more mass appeal, making these wearables as light and as unobtrusive as possible is really going to help – and Facebook just unveiled some VR specs which look similar to a regular pair of glasses.

Haptic feedback is becoming a bigger part of entertainment. Now, a German startup is launching the Feelbelt, which adds the element of touch to games, music, movies, and basically any other device that outputs sound.

For the next nine days, anyone with an Oculus Go or Oculus Quest can access a 15-film lineup of immersive 3D films from around the globe, free of charge, curated and presented by the Tribeca Film Festival. Cinema360 will run from April 17 to 26.

The Oculus Quest is a stunning piece of technology, an all-in-one, totally self-contained VR setup that drags virtual reality out of the lofty realms of nerd-dom and makes the incredible experience of VR something the unwashed masses can enjoy.

Middlesex University London is putting student nurses, pediatric postgrads and midwifery students to work in virtual environments to deal with scenarios faced in real-world settings.

Home VR is going to hit the mainstream big time this decade, and it'll be devices like this that get it over the line. Panasonic has demonstrated a set of lightweight, compact, ultra high-def VR goggles that actually look good.

A study is suggesting VR may inhibit effective formation of visual memories, and in some contexts could result in poor educational results. The study hypothesizes the enhanced cognitive demands of VR potentially disrupt visual memory formation.

This year is shaping up to be an absolute monster for games. We’re in for some new franchises, new entries in long-dormant series, remakes of classics, and to cap it off, brand new consoles for Christmas. Here are our most anticipated games of 2020.