Moon Robot Will Broadcast In Virtual-Reality Video

Virtual Rover Andy will send 3-D video back to Earth, which will be experienced through the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset. Astrobotic A team of scientists at Carnegie Mellon have built a robot that will send video from the moon to the Earth. And the robot will be controlled by the Oculus Rift virtual reality headset, with the 3-D camera on the robot turning to match the head movements of the user. “The vision was simple — let anyone on Earth experience the Moon live through the eyes of a robot,” team leader Daniel Shafrir told BBC News. “We weren’t just going to go to the Moon. We are going to bring the Moon back.” This telepresence robot is named Andy, after Andrew Carnegie, […] Read More

Augmented Reality Visor Will Overlay Data On The Real World

Terminator Vision Orion Pictures Playing a first-person shooter like Call of Duty with a virtual reality headset like the Oculus Rift or the Sony Morpheus seems like a recipe for ultra-realistic gaming bliss – until you sprint after virtual Germans and plow right into your actual living room wall. When you wear a screen on your face, “there’s a lack of situational awareness of the actual world,” says Leap Motion co-founder Michael Buckwald, sipping a soda at a demo at the company offices in San Francisco.  “Also, every time I want to take a sip of Coke, I have to take the Oculus Rift off.” “In a first-person shooter, you need to be able to turn around quickly,” says Omar Khan, the lead Unity […] Read More

What It Feels Like to Jump Off a Virtual Cliff

Images: Project Tango When I strapped Google’s Tango gadget on my head, a device designed to virtually replicate reality, I found myself standing on a platform overlooking a chasm that felt thousands of feet deep. I took a virtual step off. Up until that point it felt real enough to generate some feelings of nausea while peering into the abyss, but with the background chatter from crowds of people milling around Google’s I/O conference, the experience of virtually diving off a cliff didn’t feel quite the way I’d expect it would in reality. Still, after messing around with one of the Tango developer units, I couldn’t help think their tagline “we like epic shit” sounded accurate. Project Tango is the brainchild of Google’s Advanced Technology and Projects division. The device […] Read More