DECK 7 - General Data Protection Regulations (GDPR)

Article | March 13, 2020

First, let’s state the obvious: the augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and mixed reality (MR) industry—often referred to as “XR” or extended reality—has been on a tear since long before the spread of the coronavirus, hitting new high notes in late 2019 and early 2020. The installed base of ARCore-compatible Android devices, for example, grew from 250 million devices in December 2018 to 400 million in May 2019. Meanwhile, 2017 heralded the Cambrian explosion of the AR world, with the introduction of easy-to-use software development kits from both Apple (called ARKit) and Google (called ARCore).

Article | March 13, 2020

We’ve already seen a boom in smart speakers. This and the unleashing of sound experiences from any sort of tether are fuelling the audio revolution. Streaming services like Spotify and Apple Music mean sound is no longer dependent on a carrier medium or dedicated device. Instead, listening has become mobile and on-demand. Like an invisible companion, sound accompanies us wherever we go, without interruption. In the future, I believe that the distance between listener and sound will shrink even more. How so?

Article | March 13, 2020

Do you get headaches or feel nauseous while using VR headsets? About 20% of people do. Even if VR headsets don’t cause you physical discomfort, you might feel that your virtual worlds seem flat..That’s because they are flat. VR headsets using close-to-eye displays rely on lenses. While a lot of cool technology goes into them, they really work a lot like television or computer screens. Advancements like eye-tracking and autofocus try to fix these problems. But, they’ll never work. At least not according to Doug Magyari. Magyari and Immy, his company based in Troy, Michigan, believe that they have the solution: VR headsets that don’t use lenses.

Article | March 13, 2020

It's been nearly four years since HTC and Facebook's Oculus launched this generation of virtual reality (VR) with the Vive and Rift headsets, respectively. They were supposed to be revolutionary products that would open up a new world of innovation that would disrupt nearly every aspect of our lives. Instead of being in every home, as hoped, VR is still a novelty with only a few million headsets in the market. HTC and Oculus are actually trailing Sony's (NYSE:SNE) PSVR, which recently surpassed 5 million headsets sold since launch. And the number of headsets being used on a regular basis is well short of that number. So why hasn't VR taken off, and can HTC and Oculus fix what's ailing the industry?