virtual reality tagged posts

New Chip-based Beam Steering – Device Lays Groundwork for Smaller, Cheaper Lidar

Caption: The new OPA that replaces the multiple emitters of traditional OPAs with a slab grating to create a single emitter. This design enables a wide field of view without sacrificing beam quality.
Image Credit: Hao Hu, Technical University of Denmark

Technology could benefit lidar applications from autonomous driving to virtual reality. Researchers have developed a new chip-based beam steering technology that provides a promising route to small, cost-effective and high-performance lidar (or light detection and ranging) systems. Lidar, which uses laser pulses to acquire 3D information about a scene or object, is used in a wide range of applications such as autonomous driving, free-space optical communications, 3D holography, biomedical sensing and virtual reality.

“Optical beam ste...

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Researchers Invent Breakthrough Millimeter-wave Circulator IC

Chip microphotograph of the 25GHz fully-integrated non-reciprocal passive magnetic-free 45nm SOI CMOS circulator based on spatio-temporal conductivity modulation. —Photo credit: Tolga Dinc/Columbia Engineering

Chip microphotograph of the 25GHz fully-integrated non-reciprocal passive magnetic-free 45nm SOI CMOS circulator based on spatio-temporal conductivity modulation. —Photo credit: Tolga Dinc/Columbia Engineering

First circulator on a silicon chip at mm-wave frequencies (near and above 30GHz) that enables nonreciprocal transmission of waves: device could enable two-way radios and transform 5g networks, self-driving cars, automotive radar and virtual reality. Most devices are reciprocal: signals travel in the same manner in forward and reverse directions. Nonreciprocal devices, such as circulators, on the other hand, allow forward and reverse signals to traverse different paths and therefore be separated.

Traditionally, nonreciprocal devices have been built from special magnetic materials t...

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Believe the Hype? How Virtual Reality could change your Life

VR is the buzz industry at Asia's largest tech fair, Computex, being held in Taiwan's capital Taipei this week. The island is ho

VR is the buzz industry at Asia’s largest tech fair, Computex, being held in Taiwan’s capital Taipei this week. The island is hoping to become a development hub for virtual reality technology

Reducing errors in surgery, bringing school books to life, enabling us to browse shops from the comfort of home—virtual reality is not just about gaming, it will change our lives, according to some tech leaders. “VR” is the buzz industry at Asia’s largest tech fair, Computex, being held in Taiwan’s capital Taipei this week.

“We know that gaming will be the first wave of revenue and gamers the first wave of consumers, but our vision is larger than gaming,” said Raymond Pao, VP of VR New Technology at Taiwanese smartphone maker HTC, which recently released its first VR headset: Vive...

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HoloLens development edition is coming in 2016

HoloLens development edition is coming in 2016

Microsoft is focusing on developers, not the general public, for the latest in HoloLens events and announcements. The good news for the public is that, in doing so, the conversation is shedding light on what is behind HoloLens and what to expect once availability happens.

You’re looking at sessions of mixed reality, not virtual reality. Do not expect to be mentally transported into another world; you remain in a familiar place where virtual characters may join your space. This is an augmented reality headset; some watchers call it an “untethered wearable.” HoloLens works all on its own: all the hardware necessary to run any program is inside the headset. Microsoft’s definition of its HoloLens: The first holographic computer running Windows 10...

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