Category: Virtual Reality (General)

The Coronavirus Pandemic Continues to Impact Supplies of Virtual Reality Headsets

If you are looking for my blogposts about SARS-CoV-2 and COVID-19, please click here. 

The virtual reality news website UploadVR has reported:

Valve warned us that supplies for its Index VR headset would be limited when it went back up on sale this week. And it wasn’t kidding.

Within less than an hour of going back online, the full Index kit is backed up to shipping after eight weeks. In fact, people on Twitter report that that was the case around 30 minutes in to them going back on sale. Some users also had trouble completing their orders, which may have lost them an early unit. The headset on its own ships between eight to ten weeks and Index controllers are scheduled between three to five weeks. Base stations by themselves are totally sold out, too.

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Meanwhile, Facebook’s Oculus Quest and Oculus Rift S also remain heavily backordered. In quite an unprecedented situation for VR, it’s now practically impossible to buy an Oculus or Valve VR headset through an official online retailer…

Basically, if you are waiting to purchase an Oculus Quest, Oculus Rift S, or Valve Index, you’re going to be waiting for several more months. The only VR headset that has not been impacted by the coronavirus pandemic is the HTC Vive, which is manufactured in Taiwan. In fact, this global public health crisis might actually lead to more business for HTC.

HTC Vive Logo

Registration Has Opened for HTC’s Virtual Vive Ecosystem Conference (V²EC) March 19th

Just a reminder that online registration has opened for HTC’s Virtual Vive Ecosystem Conference (V²EC), which will be held on the ENGAGE social VR platform on Thursday, March 19th, starting at 1:30 a.m. GMT. The conference will be bilingual (English/Chinese) and registration is free.

Here is the link to the online registration for the conference. Follow the hashtag #V2EC2020 on Twitter for more information.

HTC Is Holding Its Annual Vive Ecosystem Conference March 19th on the ENGAGE Social VR Platform

Image Credit: HTC

Both the VRScout and Road to VR news websites are reporting that VR headset maker HTC will be holding its Vive Ecosystem Conference (VEC) on virtual reality instead of an in-person event, as a response to the global coronavirus pandemic.

According to today’s VR Scout report by Bobby Carlton:

Just recently, the Educators in VR International Summit showcased how VR could be used to bring people together for a week-long educational event. The event had an incredible turnout and showcased VR’s ability to connect people from all over the world for education and collaborative opportunities.

Alvin Wang, President of HTC China, was one of the presenters during the summit; after which he walked away seeing the advantages of virtual conferences. In a recent Tweet, Wang announced that HTC will be hosting the world’s first fully virtual industry conference on March 19th through the platform Engage.

Those attending V2EC2020 will enjoy a 6DOF VR experience accessible via WebVR, tablet, or smartphone. Like a real-world conference, HTC will have a line-up of speakers, team-building experiences, and amazing networking opportunities with zero carbon, zero travel, and zero risk of Coronavirus.

In an interview with VRScout, Wang said, “The CoronaVirus has dramatically impacted the people and business in China for the last two months and is forcing the country and now, the rest of the world to rethink how we live our lives and conduct business.” Wang continues, “Essentially all physical events and travel in the country have been canceled since January, so doing a fully VR event makes perfect sense.”

The Road to VR reports:

The so called Virtual Vive Ecosystem Conference (stylized as V²EC) is slated to take place on March 19th in ENGAGE, the education & training-focused social VR platform created by Immersive VR Education, the same minds behind VR experiences Apollo 11 VR and Titanic VR.

The news was announced by HTC Vive China President Alvin Wang Graylin in a tweet, stating that virtual attendees can follow along either via 6DOF VR headset or livestream via monitor.

Online registration for the V²EC conference opens on March 10th via the ENGAGE website. Neither website reported whether there was a registration fee, however.

IEEE VR 2020 Conference: The Real-World Event in Atlanta Will Be Replaced By a 100% Virtual Event Because of the SARS-CoV-2 / COVID-19 Pandemic

Dozens of real-world conferences and events are being postponed or cancelled because of the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic, but the upcoming IEEE VR 2020 virtual reality conference, which was to have taken place March 22nd to 26th in Atlanta, Georgia, has done something unprecedented.

The announcement on the official conference website says:

VR 2020 – Venue Change due to COVID-19 Concerns

VR 2020 will now be an online event

Out of an abundance of caution surrounding COVID-19, the decision has been made to convert the in-person component of VR 2020 into an all-digital conference experience – VR 2020 will now be an online event. Therefore, VR 2020 will no longer take place in Atlanta, Georgia and will instead take place virtually. The conference dates remain the same – 22-26 March 2020.

We are excited to support many more attendees now that the conference is being held online, which will be provided free of charge for non-authors. More details will be available soon for online registration.

Please see my previous blogpost for information on how to register to attend this conference, for free.

A survey for those who have already registered for the in-person conference states:

IEEE VR 2020 is moving to be exclusively online, and to a very different financial model to support the publication, presentation, and sharing of your research in light of the venue cancellation. The general chairs and steering committee have chosen to use a simplified model of a flat-fee per published contribution ($450). This is to support maximum attendance at the online event, allowing non-author registration to remain free of charge.

The purpose of this form is to let us know how you want to allocate your registration payments to your associated published research contributions (e.g. poster, paper, demo abstract), and to determine any refund that you are due. Note that refunds are not guaranteed until all fees are fully covered for your contributions. Each published contribution requires a fee of $450. Please work with any of your coauthors to determine who is going to pay these fees.

By the way, the organizers are actively looking for volunteers to help pull this off, so if you’re interested, here’s the form to volunteer. I’ve already signed up, and I hope to see you online for the conference!