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Littlefield Grid, DigiWorldz and ZanGrid are holding big bashes to celebrate this year’s Fourth of July holiday, America’s Independence Day. Littlefield Grid party on Stonehaven Party Isle Littlefield Grid’s Fourth of July party started Thursday, with a beach barbeque, dancing, live music and DJ, food, swimming, rides, fireworks and free party favors.Read More →

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Amsterdam-based paint company AkzoNobel has opened a virtual reality customer center in Slough, U.K., where retailers can experiment with different store layouts. “The center will enable us to help customers visualize and experiment with new design options,” said Matt Pullen, managing director of AkzoNobel UK and Ireland, in a statement. TheRead More →

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Santa Clara-based EchelonVR has launched an Android application that works with Cardboard and Samsung Gear VR to help heavy equipment dealers to showcase immersive models of their products to customers before they make purchase decisions. The application, which is available as a free download for Android, is particularly useful for tradeRead More →

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Pygmal Technologies launched a beta version of SPACE, a computer user environment that aims to replace monitor screens with virtual screens. The application, now available for download for the HTC Vive and Oculus Rift, is currently free, and Pygmal CEO Xiao Jia told Hypergrid Business that the price will remain low, in order to attractRead More →

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Press release: Invrsion Presents Shelfzone, The Virtual Reality Solution For Large-Scale Retail Trade And Consumer Package Goods Italian company creates virtual reality solutions for B2B using HTC Vive technology Milan – inVRsion, the Italian start-up which develops virtual reality solutions for business, officially presents ShelfZone. This new solution, created usingRead More →

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Press release: AppliedVR Brings Therapeutic Virtual Reality Content To Cedars-Sinai Medical Center   Los Angeles – AppliedVR, an industry leader in improving the healthcare experience with scalable therapeutic virtual reality content, today announced its partnership with Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, a leader in providing high-quality healthcare, to introduce the technology in itsRead More →

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Another surgery video platform, GIBLIB, which serves medical students and doctors, has jumped on the virtual reality train. The company partnered with camera manufacturer 360fly  and live streaming service LIVIT NOW to broadcast the first-ever live hernia surgery in virtual reality. The surgeon was Dr. Shirin Towfigh, a Beverly Hills, Calif.-based hernia specialist. ThisRead More →

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Google Expeditions, previously only available to select schools, is now available to the public, at no cost. “The app is available today for Android and will be available for iPhones and iPads soon,” the company announced earlier today. The app is designed to be used by both teachers and students. Teachers wouldRead More →

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  On its tenth anniversary, Virtual Worlds Best Practices in Education is adding a new element in to its conference program, a science fair. “Educators from all disciplines and levels are invited to participate,” outreach committee head Lorraine Mockford, also known as LoriVonne Lustre in-world, said in an announcement. “If you are interested in includingRead More →

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In case you missed it, OSgrid has been holding weekly meetings every Saturday at Wright Plaza, after a long period in which communications between grid managers and residents were problematic. “We restarted it about three months ago,” said grid treasurer Lawrence Roberts on the Inworld Review last week. “It’s been well-attended, andRead More →

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California-based 360-degree camera startup, 360fly, released a satirical ad Thursday featuring a Donald Trump look-alike, a big wall, and what many saw as insensitive stereotypes of Mexican immigrants. The ad was accepted by DIRECTV, FOX News, local FOX LA, but was rejected by NBC, Viacom, ABC LA, LACBS, LAABC, and other media houses. According 360fly,Read More →

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Press release: Virtual Reality Developers Conference  Announces First Standalone Event in November 2016 Expanded focus on games, entertainment, brand experience, and innovation after sold out inaugural event at GDC SAN FRANCISCO — The Virtual Reality Developers Conference, the premier event for creators of immersive virtual and augmented reality experiences, today announcedRead More →

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Trading Advantage President and CEO, Larry Levin, made the first ever live virtual reality commodity trade using Oculus Rift, a virtual reality system that completely immerses the user inside virtual worlds. As one of the premier trading organization in the nation, Trading Advantage is leading the industry with its innovativeRead More →

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Press release: Greenlight VR survey reveals U.S. consumers are most interested in using virtual reality for travel, entertainment, events, home design and education. San Francisco – The latest consumer research from Greenlight VR reveals non-gaming categories, including travel, home design and virtual education, top of the list for virtual reality use cases currentlyRead More →

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Amsterdam-based VR developer WeMakeVR and MDLinking.com, a Dutch startup with a secure communication platform for doctors, announced a service last week that creates picture-in-picture virtual reality videos of surgeries. “This way of capturing surgeries can help students get a much better understanding of the roles and interactions within the medical team,” Avinash Changa, CEO and founderRead More →

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Unimersiv has launched a new virtual reality platform for educational experiences, joining Google Expeditions, Nearpod VR, and Fieldscapes VR. It is currently available for the Oculus Rift and Samsung Gear VR, with support for other mobile-based platforms still to come. “We are planning on supporting Cardboard but definitely want to make theRead More →

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Motion sickness is one of the big usability problems plaguing virtual reality today, and if you don’t want to attach electrodes to your head, there might be a simpler, easier solution — narrowing the field of view. Researchers at Columbia University discovered subtly making the image smaller during in-world motion wouldRead More →

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Social virtual reality pioneer vTime added support for the Oculus Rift and added a business-focused meeting space. The app was already available for Gear VR and Android. It is a free application. Both the new consumer and developer kit 2 versions of the Oculus Rift headset are now supported, the company said in theRead More →

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The Global Learning Forum is scheduled to take place this Friday, June 17, at the SOC StudioX’s in-world campus auditorium from 1 p.m. to 4.30 p.m. Central Time.  The topic is the role of cyberspace and integrated learning environments. The event is open to all hypergrid visitors. Hypergrid teleport to metaverse.austudiox.com:9000. It will featureRead More →

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The Kitely Market is now delivering content to 138 different OpenSim grids and mini-grids and merchants are continuing to increase the amount of exportable content available on the platform. There are currently 7,486 product listings in Kitely Market containing 14,134 variations, of which 9,237 are sold with the Export permission.Read More →

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Best Western International, Inc. recently announced it will use virtual reality to allow customers tour guest rooms, hotel lobbies and other amenities at any of their North American hotels in immersive 360-degree video before they check in. “Walking into a lobby or guest room leaves an indelible impression on what kind of experience will follow,Read More →

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CAMBRIDGE — Virtual reality technology company VirZOOM Inc. announced early access product shipments globally to pre-order customers starting this month. The system includes the VirZOOM Bike Controller, the VirZOOM Arcade suite of VR exercise games downloadable from the Steam Store, a free PC game controller emulator, a free SDK forRead More →

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Avi-Labs, the OpenSim hosting company that grew out of the AviWorlds grid, has added OSgrid region rentals and OAR sales to its previous set of grid hosting services and managed server rentals. OSgrid regions go for $5 per month for 15,000 prims, with no setup fee, one of the lowest prices available. Two-by-twoRead More →

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Press release: Getty Images deepens its commitment to immersive content with new virtual reality business The launch of the Getty Images Virtual Reality Group brings high quality VR and 360 content to everyone, satisfying the growing appetite for immersive content Getty Images, the world leader in visual communication, has todayRead More →

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Microsoft’s Windows Holographic  mixed reality operating system will be open to developers and manufacturers, the company announced last week during Computex 2016. Third parties will now be able to develop augmented and virtual reality devices, personal computers, displays and other accessories using Windows Holographic, a version of Windows 10 that can support both augmented realityRead More →

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OSgrid residents who plan to exhibit at next month’s anniversary celebration can now claim their parcels on the OSG9BW, OSG9BN and OSG9BE regions, grid president Dan Banner announced today. The exhibits can be constructed off-site and brought over or built right on location, he said. There is a limit of 676Read More →

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More than $3.4 million worth of virtual reality headsets were sold this year in India during the first quarter of the year, according to a report by market intelligence and advisory firm 6Wresearch. According to their report, growth was driven by advancements in computer technology and internet connectivity coupled with increasing investmentsRead More →

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The Great Canadian Grid is continuing to suffer from on-going distributed denial of service attacks. DigiWorldz grid founder Terry Ford, whose company also provides hosting services, has been working on securing the Great Canadian Grid’s infrastructure since the attacks first began about a month ago. His company does not host theRead More →

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Baofeng Mojing, the world’s leading virtual headset manufacturer, has released a new viewer that incorporates Leap Motion gesture control. The Baofeng Mojing 5 Plus was announced at a press conference in Beijing yesterday, along with the Baofeng Mojing 5, which does not have the Leap Motion controller. Both headsets haveRead More →

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Today, Scope AR announces its augmented reality platform for repair manuals at the Augmented World Expo. WorkLink enables companies to provide interactive and augmented reality repair manuals to field technicians or other employees so that they can repair equipment, perform maintenance, or assemble machinery on the factory floors easily and quickly. WorkLink and the company’s other product, theRead More →

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Press release: Voice Control, Gesture Control, and See-through Displays Are Top Electronic User Interface Innovations BOSTON, MA – With Apple, Google, and Microsoft sharpening their focus on electronic user interfaces, voice control, gesture control, and see-through displays are emerging as hot spots for innovation, as are newer form factors inRead More →

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The second OpenSim Treasure Hunt concluded on May 25 with 122 participating regions, up from just 86 in the first hunt. The number of participating grids increased as well, from 22 to 26, Tangle Grid co-founder and hunt organizer Leslie Kling told Hypergrid Business. There were also many returning participants, sheRead More →

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AvayaLive Engage, one of the three major enterprise-focused virtual environment platforms, is shutting down the company announced. Avaya is no longer accepting new customers, and service for existing customers will end when their current contracts expire. The platform is shutting down because the browser are no longer supporting the requiredRead More →

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OSgrid will hold its birthday celebration and fundraiser on July 30 and 31, the grid’s board told residents at a membership meeting last Sunday. OSgrid, which is turning nine this year, is the largest and oldest virtual world running on the OpenSim platform. The birthday celebration will also include music and other events, withRead More →

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Just a week after Google unveiled its new virtual reality platform, Daydream, the first compatible headset has hit the market. Mumbai-based ConvergeVR Tech Labs Pvt. Ltd.’s headset is now available for order as a developer’s kit preview edition. The ConvergeVR DK3 headset costs 2,099 Rupees, or about US$31, plus delivery fees. The company willRead More →

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Since it first launched in early 2011, Kitely has been the only major grid not to publish its stats, instead providing them by email to Hypergrid Business on request. That changed today, as the grid began publishing its land area and total registered users on its login page. This isRead More →

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China-based smartphone manufacturer OnePlus gave away 30,000 free OnePlus Loop VR headsets today, manufactured in partnership with AntVR. The Cardboard-compatible headset is reminiscent of the Gear VR in its design, and is a significant upgrade from last year’s giveway, which was a Cardboard-compatible headset made of actual cardboard. Like lastRead More →

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A Brazilian team has launched a new grid and OpenSim hosting company, offering local payment and support options. OpenSim Brasil offers hosting for full grids, starting at 230 Reals, or about US$64, with a 100 Real setup fee, for an eight-region grid. The AllCity grid, currently has 25 regions andRead More →

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Delightex, a Munich based firm that builds virtual reality platforms, released the CoSpaces app this week, which allows users to explore and share virtual reality spaces with other users on iOS and Android devices and Google Cardboard-compatible headsets. This is in addition to the company’s web-based application that allows users to create virtualRead More →

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Pornhub’s March launch of a channel dedicated to virtual reality content put a big stamp of approval on the technology, since it’s the most popular site for adult content on the Web. But there only had a handful of content providers to start with. That’s changing quickly. Last month, PornqueenVR launched withRead More →

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Google Expeditions, the virtual reality version of the 1990’s TV series The Magic Schoolbus, has reached over one million students, Google announced today. Google Expeditions was launched last spring, and is now in eleven countries. There are more than 200 virtual trips available to such destinations as Buckingham Palace and the Great Barrier Reef. TheRead More →

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EBay has launched the world’s first virtual reality store, in partnership with Australian retailer Myer. It works with all Google Cardboard devices, and the company is also giving away Shopticals, a branded headset made out of Cardboard. You can download the app for iPhones and for Android devices — but onlyRead More →

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A startup that allows a smartphone’s own camera to be used to track hand gestures has received a $20 million investment. Chinese technology conglomerate Kuang-Chi will invest in Israel-based provider of software-based machine vision and gesture recognition technology eyeSight Technologies, the company said in a statement. Currently, gesture controllers are only available for high-end,Read More →

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In a survey of more than 2,000 tech-savvy US consumers conducted late last month, 40 percent said that they planned to buy virtual reality headsets in the next two years — but that price was an issue. In addition, 61 percent of the respondents, who were mostly young and male,Read More →

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Google announced a new operating system for virtual reality that will run on new, compatible Android phones, the company announced at its annual developers conference today. The platform is called Daydream and seems to include some of the features of the Samsung Gear VR platform, including a virtual environment thatRead More →

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The crowdfunding campaign for a Virtual Lisbon grid is up and running again, asking OpenSim users to contribute just $1 each to the project. The founder, Carlos Loff is an experienced virtual worlds builder and community manager, and has been active in Second Life since 2007. This is his fourth tryRead More →