Samsung Gear VR the winner of VR wars?

It appears that in the increasingly competitive VR market the Samsung Gear VR (based on Oculus Rift technology but adapted for Samsung phones which power it) did very, very well compared to other devices last year (2016).

According to this article here in MCV, which presents work from SuperData, the device shipped more units last year, substantially too, compared to the other usual suspects (please read the full article for numbers involved). 

I have personally really rated the Gear VR device and perhaps this piece of information does show the way forward for virtual reality in 2017 (and even past that) with all the characteristics attached to this specific piece of hardware such as, most notably, considerable cost-efficiency.

UE4 version 4.16 now out

As of last week the new version of Unreal Engine 4 is out, version 4.16.

For a full list of updates, enhancements etc. please see the official Epic Games site here.

I'll single out just two here; support for the Nintendo Switch console and volumetric fog, both very welcome indeed. Worth installing/updating as soon as possible if you use the engine for projects and experimenting with.

ICTR 2018 IPC

I will be on the IPC for a conference which is in a similar area to ENTER (see blog post below), running for the first time in March next year (in Finland). This is ICTR 2018 (standing for International Conference on Tourism Research).

For more details, deadlines etc. for this ACPI organised conference see here.

PATTERNS 2018 IPC

Another conference I have been invited for in terms of its IPC is PATTERNS 2018. 

Taking place in Barcelona, Spain in February next year this is the tenth outing of the event. Its full name is Pervasive Patterns and Applications.

More on its official site here.

Reviewer for ACE 2017

As with several previous years I have been invited to review for the annual ACE 2017 conference (Advances in Computer Entertainment).

This year the 14th version of this conference takes place not very far from Bournemouth, it is in fact to be in London this December. 

More on the official conference site here.

ENTER 2018 IPC

Another IPC I have been invited to sit on recently is the one for the ENTER 2018 conference.

This year the conference takes place in Sweden in January 2018. More information on this can be found here.

ARTECH 2017 IPC

I have recently been invited to assist in the International Program Committee for the ARTECH 2017 conference.

This takes place in China this September. More information on the conference itself (it is its 8th outing) can be found on its official website here.

IFESS 2017 abstract accepted

An abstract, which will be presented as a poster, titled "Combining Functional Electrical Stimulation with Interactive Games to Improve Upper Limb Function in People with Chronic Stroke" (for which I am the co-author for) has now been accepted for the IFESS 2017 conference (which stands for International Functional Electrical Stimulation Society).

More on the conference itself, which takes place in London this July, here.

Edutainment 2017 short paper accepted

A short paper I am the co-author on has been accepted for publication for the Edutainment 2017 conference taking place here at Bournemouth University this summer.

This short paper is titled "An Investigation into Usability and First Time User Experiences within a Mobile Gaming Context". The conference's website can be found here.

SIGGRAPH 2017 poster accepted

A poster paper I am the co-author on has been accepted for SIGGRAPH 2017 which takes place this summer in Los Angeles, USA.

The poster paper is titled "Procedural Feature Generation for Volumetric Terrains". More on the SIGGRAPH event itself here on the official website of this seminal conference.