The Ghost Howls

APRIL 5, 2021

Today in Italy it should be the day when we go pic-nicking… but given the fact that we are in lockdown, I’ll just eat a lot at home While I send you a lot of good vibes, let’s see together what have been the best pieces of AR/VR news of this week, that has been incredibly interesting! (My Microsoft signs a $22B deal with the US Army.

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Apple AR Microsoft Magic Leap 259

The Ghost Howls

SEPTEMBER 20, 2021

I think I’ll miss the joys of summer (and all the trophies that Italy has won), but at least I’ll be able to enjoy again some delicious hot chocolate Before leaving you to the news of the week, I’m happy to announce to you that I’ve been selected as a speaker for AWE US 2021 ! This one is the last AR/VR news roundup for this summer!

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AR Nigeria Apple Oculus 494

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 26, 2020

Coronavirus is back in Italy and from yesterday we’re having new restrictions like a night curfew, some kind of shops closed, etc… I hope that you and the people you love are safe. While Oculus is getting all the glory for the Quest, its competitors are not sleeping. Other relevant news.

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HTC Oculus Conference China 398

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 28, 2023

Anyway, in these two weeks, even with some difficulties, I’ve managed to work quite at the same pace that I had in Italy , and we are going full speed ahead in improving the platform (some news about it is coming very soon…). While still in Italy, I verified that Microsoft Teams, Unity, and Github were accessible from China.

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China Government Italy Google 392

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 9, 2020

As for me, I’ve been flooded by worldwide requests asking how I am here in Italy. The coronavirus outbreak is getting worse here in Northern Italy. We have more difficulties in going to Milan, that is the economical heart of Italy, and now a red zone with all its region. So, Start it is not a valid answer.

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Video Nashville Oculus Italy 200

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 19, 2021

HTC advertises it as a headset for relaxation and productivity because it wants to position it as a different product than a gaming machine like Oculus Quest 2. The first comes from the major consultancy brand Accenture, which has just announced that it is going to deploy 60,000 Oculus Quest 2 headsets for the training of new employees.

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Magic Leap HTC Training Virtual Reality 488

The Ghost Howls

JULY 27, 2020

The Oculus Quest 2 has been leaked. The famous leaker WalkingCat did it again, leaking this time a new model of the Oculus Quest , in the beginning with some renders, and then with true pictures of a pre-production device (that had been originally shared by redditor CallThePlumber). Top news of the week. Image by WalkingCat).

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Virtual Reality Eye Tracking AR Augmented Reality 376

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 1, 2024

It was also the week when I returned to Italy, and eating my mother’s pasta again made me excited, too. The past week was the week of the Meta Connect, with all its amazing announcements that made all of us excited. Next year, I should eat my mother’s pasta while watching the Meta Connect to have double excitement!

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Apple Unity Ukraine AR 293

The Ghost Howls

FEBRUARY 9, 2020

These are pretty cool, also because the Snapdragon XR 2 is much more powerful than the 835 mounted by the Oculus Quest. Considering that this number doesn’t count the Quest users connected via Oculus Link, the actual number of VR users on Steam is even higher. Still no news on Oculus For Business program and Multiplayer SDK for Quest.

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Hand tracking AR Augmented Reality Oculus 424

The Ghost Howls

MAY 11, 2020

Image by Oculus). Facebook is working on a new version of the Oculus Quest. According to a report by Bloomberg, Oculus is working on a new Oculus Quest model, and it has already done prototypes that are lighter and more powerful than the current device. Top news of the week. Mechanical IPD is confirmed.

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Magic Leap Healthcare Oculus AR 273

The Ghost Howls

APRIL 27, 2020

Another busy week has passed by, and here in Italy we just got the news that lockdown measures will start to loosen from next week, but the road to go out as we wish is still long. We’re looking for a Unity dev for a freelance gig lasting 1–2 months, ideally from Italy or a nearby country (for easier management).

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Course Magic Leap AR Oculus 263

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 2, 2020

To make you understand how these features are incredible, Qualcomm has stated that “the [XR2] reference design has 2x the CPU and GPU performance, 4x more video bandwidth, 6x higher resolution and 11x AI improvement compared to our current widely adopted XR platform [the Oculus Quest ]”. Image by Microsoft). News worth a mention.

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Hand tracking AR Oculus HTC 232

The Ghost Howls

MAY 17, 2021

Roblox CEO hints at the Oculus Quest as a future platform. And among these platforms onto which the game could be ported in the future, he has also mentioned the Oculus Quest. Some intriguing news on the Oculus Quest. More info (Intel research) More info (Animated pictures research) More info (Microsoft Design’s cube).

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Eye Tracking HTC China Amazon 357

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 19, 2018

And you’ve read everything in the title of this article: $800 (€879 here in Italy) for having only the new headset , the “upgrade-kit” that you can use with your existing base stations and controllers. Trust me, after you have tried the Oculus Touch , the old Vive wands feel too big and uncomfortable.

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HTC Samsung Italy Controllers 189

The Ghost Howls

MAY 22, 2020

Oculus has gained in these years always more success in the consumers’ landscape, and now with the Oculus Quest , thanks to an affordable device running great content , it is making strides in the market. Today, finally, Facebook has changed all of this and i s making Oculus For Business available to all interested companies.

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Oculus Training Virtual Reality HTC 542

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 20, 2021

The Oculus Quest 2 is selling incredibly well because it offers the right combination of affordable price, good hardware, and a good software ecosystem. Not to mention the millions spent on marketing , especially in the US (Oculus was one of the sponsors of NBA, for instance). The Quest will still be the king.

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Virtual Reality Trends China HTC 518

The Ghost Howls

JULY 7, 2019

I’m in Italy again and here in these days, it is damn hot and wet. Microsoft is shipping Azure Kinect. Microsoft is finally shipping its Azure Kinect devkits. As promised, Microsoft has released the documentation on its website. Oculus Summer Sale has arrived! Surfing is fun with the Oculus Quest!

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AR China Los Angeles HTC 162

Peter Graham

MARCH 19, 2020

Because Spatial is hardware-agnostic every colleague doesn’t need to have a Magic Leap 1, they can join a meeting from a Microsoft HoloLens, Oculus Quest, Android/iPhone mobile device or desktop (just without the fancy spatial computing). Or they can return the entire package with no further fees or obligation.

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Magic Leap Spain Italy Germany 55

The Ghost Howls

JUNE 1, 2020

They should guarantee better tracking both for the headset and the controllers; The controllers are smaller and seem a mix between the Oculus Touch and the WMR 1 controllers. HP and Microsoft have a long track in offering enterprise hardware, so this headset may battle HTC on his own land (B2B). Oculus Link 2 could be tetherless.

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Magic Leap AR China Unity 233

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 22, 2021

As a long-time AR enthusiast, and one of the first to have tried Google Glass in Italy, I have to admit that I will consider AR mainstream only when it will be on glasses that we will wear all day , when we’ll live in a completely shared mixed reality world (the AR Cloud). Didn’t work (Image by Microsoft). Sounded good.

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Augmented Reality Magic Leap AR Apple 476

The Ghost Howls

MARCH 21, 2021

The shape of the controllers is slightly different than the one of the Oculus Touch, though, and there is a ring that surrounds the wrist of the user. There is also “finger-tracking” a la Valve Index , but just for the thumb, index, and middle finger (so, it is more a la Oculus Touch). Image by Microsoft).

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Sony Controllers AR Haptic 423

The Ghost Howls

JANUARY 29, 2019

Me participating at the press conference of Rome Reborn, in Italy. The Oculus Rift shipped in spring 2016. He was very impressed and offered us direct access to executives of Oculus, who helped us in various ways to develop our VR applications. At the moment, this means solutions such as the Samsung Gear VR and the Oculus GO.

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Virtual Reality Study Education Oculus 247

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 9, 2020

Image by Microsoft). Microsoft ramps up distribution of HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure. Microsoft is working to improve the distribution of its latest devices: HoloLens 2 and Kinect For Azure. HoloLens 2 availability has been expanded to 15 new regions : Italy (YESSS!), Other relevant news. News worth a mention.

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Oculus Switzerland Italy Microsoft 461

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 16, 2019

I and my partner Gianni bought every new headset on the market : the Oculus Rift DK2, the Vive, the Rift CV1, the Gear VR, etc… We also went to almost every event we were invited to, even the smallest one (I remember once we went to a public plaza with like 7 people listening to our talk about VR…). Maquette by Microsoft).

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How To Technology Virtual Reality Examples 368

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 12, 2021

For instance, in the box I’ve found a cleaning cloth for an Oculus device… and I don’t think it actually comes with a Microsoft HoloLens! So, Microsoft has made whatever it could to make the limited FOV more acceptable and we have to appreciate that. The headset is very light and balanced (Image by Microsoft).

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AR Microsoft Hand tracking Eye Tracking 545

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 16, 2020

HP has fixed many of the visual problems of the headse t, and Microsoft has just released a patch on Windows 10 that aims at solving many visual issues of all WMR headsets (like Chromatic aberration). But honestly, I expected a bit more … it’s a bit weird that Microsoft hasn’t solved its biggest pain point yet. Other relevant news.

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Virtual Reality Haptic Oculus Japan 357

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 16, 2022

This is ridiculous, not only because the Pro costs a lot of money, but also because it is sold as a “work device” I don’t know how things work where Zuck lives, but here in Italy, a typical workday is 8 hours, not 2. Adobe to bring its apps on Quest Pro (Upload VR) All work-related updates of Meta Connect (Oculus blog).

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Microsoft Eye Tracking Controllers Video 435

The Ghost Howls

MAY 20, 2021

Italy, Canada, and China together to create an amazing video about these VR glasses! The kit is composed by: An inside-out tracking add-on , that you attach to your glasses so that that they can track themselves (positional tracking) and the controllers; Two controllers that are very similar to the Oculus Touch.

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China Controllers Video Course 511

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 30, 2022

It is also promoting the metaverse everywhere, also on mainstream media: yesterday a friend of mine who doesn’t work in tech told me to have seen a TV spot here in Italy about the metaverse. Meta has done great hardware like Quest 2 and has done a lot (truly A LOT) to accelerate the consumer adoption of XR.

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Magic Leap Apple Microsoft Technology 545

The Ghost Howls

OCTOBER 27, 2019

I’m back in Italy, and finally, I can eat again some good pasta… even if I will miss ?? Image by Oculus). Oculus Quest may have sold only 400,000 units. Image by Microsoft). for breakfast a lot! If you were wondering, my journey to China has gone pretty well and many people liked HitMotion at WCVRI. Other relevant news.

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Magic Leap AR Samsung Oculus 169

The Ghost Howls

NOVEMBER 10, 2019

If you will be in Italy, please come visiting me! Microsoft ships HoloLens 2, nReal gets ready to do the same with its glasses. After a long wait, finally Microsoft is shipping its HoloLens 2 headset. There will be also an associated Oculus Quest game, but it won’t be actually revealed until 2020. The hype is rising….

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Augmented Reality Google Machine Learning AR 163

The Ghost Howls

AUGUST 2, 2021

If I had known people could like it, I would have not made it in 5 minutes with Microsoft Word, lol. What a fun thing, this is the power of the intern… no, sorry, of the metaverse. (And if you were wondering, yes, I’m very happy about the two amazing gold medals that Italy won yesterday at the Olympics!). News worth a mention.

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Groups Japan Machine Learning Canada 385

XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

But what was it like kind of going through these growing pains of going from a million dollar simulator — millions of dollars simulator — to now we can buy an Oculus Quest for 500 bucks? So this was before Oculus. We’ve just done one in Bologna in Italy. So is, I think, Microsoft with Hololens.

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AR Machine Learning Government Virtual Reality 78

XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

But what was it like kind of going through these growing pains of going from a million dollar simulator — millions of dollars simulator — to now we can buy an Oculus Quest for 500 bucks? So this was before Oculus. We’ve just done one in Bologna in Italy. So is, I think, Microsoft with Hololens.

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AR Machine Learning Government Virtual Reality 78

XR for Business Podcast

JANUARY 20, 2020

But what was it like kind of going through these growing pains of going from a million dollar simulator -- millions of dollars simulator -- to now we can buy an Oculus Quest for 500 bucks? So this was before Oculus. We've just done one in Bologna in Italy. So is, I think, Microsoft with Hololens. I'll give you an example.

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AR Machine Learning Government Virtual Reality 60

The Ghost Howls

JULY 28, 2019

and this is good from one side, but stressful on others… much thanks to air conditioning to make me survive in that oven that is Italy in these days!). Oculus Quest and controllers (Image by Oculus). Oculus is updating its Rift S and Quest offering. It’s cool to see that Oculus is continuously making its devices better….

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Magic Leap Oculus Controllers Amazon 161

The Ghost Howls

DECEMBER 8, 2021

Today is a special day in Italy when families prepare the Christmas Tree, so I decided to publish a very special post that is a big gift to the whole XR community. Even the big players like Sony, Apple, and Microsoft have substantially reduced their production estimates for 2022, whilst processor manufacturers talk of delays into 2024.

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Controllers Haptic Hardware Simulation 493