Automation and AI are leading the UK into a new industrial age September 27, 2018 Last year, the government’s Made Smarter Review set out how digital technologies can transform UK manufacturing by 2030. Receiving contributions from more than 200 organisations, the review spelled out how technologies like automation, artificial intelligence (AI), virtual reality, and additive manufacturing could help Britain lead the fourth industrial revolution, raising productivity, creating new, better-paid jobs, [...]
Rollercoasters, virtual reality tours and music videos: The extreme lengths homeowners go to to sell their houses July 10, 2015 It may not be a buyer's market, but that doesn't mean trying to shift your home doesn't come with its challenges. For some, the stress of trying to entice buyers has clearly become too much – causing them to resort to extreme methods. While some have gone "back to basics", drawing attention to their [...]
Google wants volunteers to try its virtual reality camera Jump June 23, 2015 Capturing the world with 16 GoPro cameras in a 360-degree view? If you’ve been looking for that one-of-a-kind volunteering opportunity to impress your friends with, this might just be it. Google has developed a 16-camera virtual reality video capture platform called Jump – and now the tech giant is looking for volunteers to try it [...]
Oculus Rift virtual reality headset to be compatible with Xbox One games such as Halo June 11, 2015 Oculus Rift has finally arrived. Kind of. Three years since Oculus first got off the ground with a Kickstarter campaign, and just over a year since it was bought by Facebook for $2bn, the virtual reality company today debuted the consumer version of its Oculus Rift headset. Expected to be available to buy early in [...]
Google I/O 2015: From Projects Vault and Brillo to smart jeans and cardboard virtual reality, the impossibly advanced technologies unveiled in San Francisco June 3, 2015 BRILLO Essentially an operating system for the Internet of Things (IoT), Google’s Project Brillo is an adapted version of Android designed to manage a number of connected devices from a central management console. It’s Google’s attempt at standardising the way we control devices, from household appliances like Nest (which, incidentally, Google owns) to wearables [...]
Virtual reality a new tool for winning wars May 10, 2015 BAE Systems has unveiled new augmented reality technology aimed at revolutionising battle operations and capabilities. Working with the University of Birmingham, the firm has developed ways of mixing the real and virtual world. BAE Systems says this allows operators to see themselves and their surroundings, along with virtual images, video feeds, objects and avatars; bringing [...]
Apple just patented a virtual reality headset February 17, 2015 Apple has become the latest technology giant to jump on the virtual reality bandwagon, after it patented a design for a virtual reality headset that works by by plugging the iPhone into it. The tech giant is actually surprisingly late to this particular party: US Patent No 8,957,835, aka "Head-Mounted Display Apparatus for Retaining a [...]
Virtual reality headset expected to hit the shops later this year January 7, 2015 While Facebook isn’t at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) this week, the virtual reality headset startup Oculus that it acquired last year for $2bn (£1.32bn) is very much present – and its booth drew some of the longest lines of the show. Oculus remained coy at CES yesterday about the release date for its headset, [...]
Windowless cockpits and virtual reality: The flying doughnut isn’t Airbus’ wackiest patent November 17, 2014 Airbus has a long and varied history of weird and wacky patents (more on which later), but this takes the biscuit. Er, doughnut. The aircraft manufacturer has filed a patent application for flying doughnuts – because apparently, aircraft cabins shaped like the snack are excellent at containing the stresses of pressurised cabins. The [...]
IFA 2014: Samsung unveils new curved screen Galaxy Note Edge, Galaxy Note 4, Gear S smartwatch and virtual reality headset Gear VR September 3, 2014 Samsung has unveiled four new devices, including two Galaxy Notes, a smartwatch and a virtual reality headset. The Korean manufacturer has pipped rival Apple to the post with a big launch event at tech conference IFA in Berlin today. Two new “phablet” devices- larger than a smartphone, but not quite a tablet- in the Galaxy [...]