Weekly Mashup 116: VR and CES

What Does Virtual Reality Do to Your Body and Mind?
Wall Street Journal

"Beyond the common issues facing new technologies, such as whether consumers will pony up hundreds of dollars for another device, virtual reality is grappling with questions about how it affects a user’s body and mind. The experience can cause nausea, eyestrain and headaches. Headset makers don’t recommend their devices for children. Samsung and Oculus urge adults to take at least 10-minute breaks every half-hour, and they warn against driving, riding a bike or operating machinery if the user feels odd after a session." Read More

CES 2016 Will Be All About Virtual Reality Everything
Breitbart

"The mega wave engulfing CES 2016 will be virtual reality, led by the Oculus Rift from Facebook. With a 360-degree 3D optical headset featuring OLED panel displaying 1080×1200 per eye resolution and a 90 Hz refresh rate, the product will have wide compatibility with devices running Windows and on an Intel i5 or higher processor." Read More

These Spherical Microphone Arrays Make Holographic Images of Sound
Gizmodo

"Imagine attending a live concert where the musicians aren’t even in the performance space. Instead, they’re 500 miles away, playing their hearts out, while a holographic sound image of the music is mapped and then recreated in the performance space for your listening pleasure. It sounds like science fiction, but it’s not, thanks to technology being developed by Austrian acousticians." Read More

Watch an Unbelievable Augmented Reality Fight Scene Play Out On a Desk
VentureBeat

"Epic Games — the studio responsible for the Unreal Engine game-making tools — has released a video of how its technology can power incredible demonstrations of augmented-reality. The company published a fight scene that has three digital character duking it out in real time on a physical desk. This is mixing the actual world with video game characters, and these two realms are interacting with one another." Read More