Virtual reality

These Virtual Reality Experiences Make You Feel Like a Superhero

It’s Action Hero Week, which means we’re exploring how technology could give you superpowers. You know: exoskeletons, biohacking, cool stuff like that. Here’s a simpler idea: just strap on a virtual reality headset and feel like a hero without all the blood and sweat! Assuming you have access to a VR headset, that is. Most…

VR Soccer Is As Entertaining As Real Soccer

Soccer—or football if you’re from anywhere else but the U.S.—is the most popular sport in the world. But what if it could be better? I mean…I’m not talking so much in the sense of fast-paced athletic play than I am grown up men making idiots of themselves with VR headsets. I’d watch that. A Norwegian…

Samsung Gear VR for Galaxy S6: So Close I Can Almost Taste It

The final Oculus Rift is coming next year. But why wait? If you’ve got a shiny new Galaxy S6, you can get a glimpse of the virtual reality future today. I’m talking about the new Gear VR headset, which turns your phone into a far clearer VR viewer than any you could buy to date.…

Virtual Reality Theme Park Will Let You Step Inside A Video Game

If this bold new idea for a virtual reality theme park is real, we’ll be first in line, because this is as close as your ever going to get to a holodeck/dreamatorium. It’s like actually being inside a video game. Utah is opening up a virtual reality park that sounds bananas amazing, if they can…

Say Hello to the Final Oculus Rift—Coming 2016

Virtual reality is coming—and now, we finally know when. You will actually be able to buy a real, consumer version of the Oculus Rift in the first quarter of next year. You’re looking at it right now. Let me repeat: this is not another prototype. Shit is getting real. What do we know about the…

Microsoft HoloLens, Round 2: Why Can’t I See More Of This Amazing Shit?

Last night, I donned a Microsoft HoloLens for the second time. It was incredible. I could see objects made of light appear in the real world—and this time, I could freely walk around them without a tether. I even built my own holographic app. It felt so easy. Now let me tell you why I’m…

These 5 GIFs Are Your Best Glimpse Yet At Microsoft’s HoloLens

Microsoft won’t let us take any pictures of its amazing HoloLens headset. Damn them. Here’s the next best thing, though: five animated GIFs. If you want to know what holographic hardware looks like—inside and out—this is the best you’ll get. Here are some early prototypes: How it fits on your head: The “floating audio” speaker…

Microsoft HoloLens Hands-On: Incredible, Amazing, Prototype-y as Hell

I just put Microsoft’s new holographic glasses on my face. It’s one of the most amazing and tantalizing experiences I’ve ever had with a piece of technology. This piece was originally published on 1/21/15, but we thought you might like to know what Hololens is all about—since Microsoft just re-introduced it at theBuild dev conference.…

What It Feels Like to Shoot With the Military’s Experimental Smart Scope

You’ve probably never fired an M4 carbine. Until a couple weeks ago, I hadn’t either. But at a recent DARPA demo day, I loaded a magazine (also a first for me), snuggled up to the deadly assault rifle, and looked through one of the most technologically advanced smart scopes ever built. Then I pulled the…

Virtual Reality Can Fool People Into Feeling Invisible 

Virtual reality messes with your brain—and it gets especially weird when neuroscientists use it to scramble your illusion of self. A new VR study uses a few simple tricks, like a paintbrush, to fool the brain into thinking the body has disappeared. The study published in Scientific Reports riffs on an old trick in neuroscience:…

Holding off on a Samsung Galaxy S6orS6 Edge until you can use it as a VR headset? The new Gear VR—smaller, with a fan for ventilation—goes on sale May 8th for $200. You can preorder it here tomorrow.

Terrifying Oculus Demo Teaches You How to Survive a Water Crash Landing

When you get on a plane, the last thing you want to think about is what you’ll have to do to survive an emergency crash landing in the water. But knowing exactly how to safely evacuate a plane could one day save your life, so researches created a terrifying Oculus Rift emergency landing simulation that…

Google Has a Surprising Plan to Make Cheap VR Better

Good virtual reality is coming, but it isn’t here yet. That’s worrying. What if someone buys a cheap smartphone adapter, has a bad experience, and writes off VR as a fad? But Google, the company providing the cheapest solution of all—Cardboard—may have an answer. An answer that involves not strapping them to your head. Starting…

William Gibson After Trying VR: “They Did It”

After years of speculating about possible futures in his writing, William Gibson recently tried out one the world’s contemporary science fictions come true. At TED, he strapped on a Gear VR headset. According to the tweet documenting the moment, the 67-year-old scifi author proclaimed, “They did it!” What exactly did they do? I asked Ari…

Oculus Used These Optical Illusions to Prove Everything We Know Is Wrong

Virtual reality isn’t ready yet. Oh, it’s damn good—but it can’t quite fully convince you that you are someplace you’re not. But how sure are you of the “real world,” anyhow? Today, Oculus guru Michael Abrash used these kickass optical illusions to show how fake our reality can be. Remember The Matrix? Would you choose…

Magic Leap Claims This Kickass Reality-Bending Raygun Game Is Real

Remember Magic Leap, the elusive Google-funded company promising to make virtual objects look like they exist in the real world? The one whose technology we’ve never actually seen? The secretive startup just released this incredible video filled with robots, retro rayguns, and a holodeck-like user interface. Oh, and the company claims this is a real…

The Neuroscience of Why Virtual Reality Still Sucks

The faceputer ads say virtual reality is coming and it’s gonna work this time. But here’s some real talk: There are still many ways virtual reality cannot fool the human brain. And it has little to do with the tech itself. Instead, it’s about neuroscience and our brain’s perceptual limits. True, the past year has…

YouTube’s Ready To Blow Your Mind With 360-Degree Videos

We told you that YouTube would support 360-degree videos. Now, they’re here: as of today, Google’s streaming video service now serves up videos that let you look in any direction—not just where the camera is pointing. Needless to say, this could be a Big. Freaking. Deal. Ever wanted to see from the perspective of a…

​This Virtual Reality Snorkel Sounds Like A Great Way To Drown

I’ve used a lot of VR headsets, but the tagline of Nautilus VR’s new Kickstarter project scares the hell out of me: “Virtual Reality Underwater.” Call me crazy, but that sounds dangerous. And yes, also a little awesome. The idea has its merits: one of the biggest problems with VR is creating the tactile sensations…

Android Is Coming to Virtual Reality, WSJ Says

Well, if Google’s small cardboard-based foray into virtual reality last year wasn’t a big enough hint, a new report from the Wall Street Journal says that Google is about to get even more serious about VR—by trying to become the standard OS for headsets everywhere. The WSJ reports that two people “familiar with the situation”…