Samsung made a number of smart moves with the original Gear VR headset, which it unveiled almost two years ago. 

First of all, it partnered with the virtual reality hardware leader, the Facebook-owned Oculus VR. Second, it made the Gear VR just $99. And third, Samsung basically gave you one if you bought a Galaxy S7 phone, which happens to go inside the headset. 

These choices helped Samsung become a leader in the consumer VR space.

The company is likely to maintain that lead with its upgraded headset. The fourth edition of the VR headset gives the device a cool new look, replacing the hokey white body (with black accents) with a midnight blue chassis. 

This serves two purposes: You’ll look like less of a dork wearing them (thank you, Samsung) and the black interior cuts down on any unwanted reflections, which could improve the overall VR experience.

The headset also got a cushion upgrade, so the device feels more comfortable on your face, and comes with longer straps.

Since the new Gear VR has to partner with Samsung’s sharp, new Galaxy Note 7, it now includes a USB Type-C port. Don’t worry, it will also ship with a Micro USB port adapter, which you’ll want to be careful not to lose (during our demo, the tiny dongle slipped right out of the Samsung rep’s hands and went darting across the floor).

The new Samsung Gear VR is better looking and offered redesigned navigational controls.

IMAGE: JON LYNN/MASHABLE

Samsung also upgraded the optics a bit, going from 96-degree field of view to 101 degrees. They also took some feedback on the touch controls and redesigned the buttons, removing the indented cross pad, making the controls larger and adding a separate button that brings you back to the Oculus Home screen. All these changes should make it easier to control the VR headset with touch alone.

The headset also has a new USB Type-C port on the bottom that can both deliver power to the phone and be used for data. The latter feature should help it support VR peripherals, whenever they arrive.

Better in every way

I got a chance to try out the new Samsung Gear VR headset with the new Galaxy Note 7 inside. As promised, the new cushions and straps make it much more comfortable. You still adjust focus with the dial on top. 

Samsung let me try an immersive skateboarding video, which I watched while standing atop a real skateboard attached to a gimbal. Samsung did not give us an opportunity to try the new controls.

The video, though, looked great — naturally, since it was shot with high-quality 360 video rigs — and sound was provided by a standalone headset. 

I immediately lost myself in the video, looking around at the four or five other longboarders racing down the hill with me and doing my best to balance on the real skateboard as it moved about beneath me.

At $99.99, the new, hipper-looking Gear VR will likely keep Samsung ahead of the consumer VR pack for now. Come this fall, Google and its army of phone partners will be releasing their own Daydream-ready devices, VR headsets and controllers, which will almost definitely provide some much-needed competition. 

Tech trends that will impact your home

Imagine walking through the bathroom door at7am and the shower starts itself at optimal water heat and pressure. The thermostat adjusts when you enter the room. Want a new bathroom tub? What if you could 3D print it? High-tech homes are about to revolutionize the way we live.

While interior design once relied on color schemes and playful accents, new tech trends are completely revamping how we design, build and live in our spaces. Even more, they’re having a social impact, enabling users to reduce their carbon footprints and increase efficiency as they go about their daily lives.

3D printing, virtual reality and the Internet of Things (IoT) have just recently began to appear in our houses, but they’re making an incredible impact. So what capabilities do these tech trends have? And what will they look like further in the future?

3D printing

3D printers can create car parts and prosthetics. They can even build entire houses. Amsterdam boasts the 3D Print Canal House, a 13-room building and museum built entirely by a giant 3D printer, called the KamerMaker. The KamerMaker 2.0 is currently underway, and prints an area about as tall as a water bottle every second. An Italian engineering company is also working on building a 3D-printed house, and believes similar ones could be built in developing countries where sturdier structures are needed. So while we may not see entire neighborhoods being built by 3D printers just yet, it’s something to look forward to in the future.

It’s not to say that 3D printing isn’t mainstream yet. It is. Companies likeShapeways have users design and order their own 3D-printed items. Customers may design their items using 3D sketch apps likeGravitySketch, send it to Shapeways and have their items sent directly to them. What’s more, the company lists dozens of ready-made items for the home — from book shelves to wall art — at prices comparable to High Street stores. Most items are less than US$40.

“You’ll have a say in what materials you will use, what your materials will look like, and how they are made,” said Peter Limburg, Head of Business Development and Sales at Shapeways. “Mass-manufacturing is made to eliminate as much variety as we can. With 3D printing, we are allowing things to be more personal. The joy from our products will be a lot higher.”

3D printing also means we don’t rely on factories that are oceans away. Shapeways’ factory is located in Long Island, NY, and ships out 200,000 unique items each month. Additionally, 3D-printed items produce less waste — the process uses exactly the amount of material necessary to make a product and no more, reducing an individual’s carbon footprint.

People involved in the industry have been forward-thinking entrepreneurs. However, as 3D printing moves to the mainstream, larger companies like HP are jumping on the bandwagon. Ricoh and Canon have both announced they will release printers, too. Limburg says these larger companies will help bring down prices and drive innovation, benefitting the entire industry. It’s confirmation, he says, that 3D printing is here to stay.

VR and AR

VR and AR will soon play a critical role in helping people make better decisions in regards to interior design and online shopping. The tech tools will help consumers choose big-ticket items, allowing them to see how all the elements will fit into their homes without having to purchase them.

Furniture companies in particular are using AR apps. Littlewoods and Very have developed AR apps that act like a personalized catalog. Instead of having to visualize how a piece of furniture will look in their home, users can scan their room with their camera and virtually place the furniture in 3D. DIRTT, a company that uses technology to manufacture highly customizable interiors, uses a VR app in their furniture showroom, increasing their in-store experience.

Alper Guler is the founder of AR Pandora, a company that develops AR and VR apps. He says that people are now starting to try Google Cardboard experiences at home because they are very affordable and available through most mobile phones. However, people will be more likely to try devices such as Oculus Rift and HTC Vive in physical stores and showrooms because those devices require expensive computers to run. The headgear itself cost more than US$500, as opposed to $15 for Google Cardboard. “Retailers will benefit from this by helping their customers visualize better. These technologies will help them sell more, and I think faster,” said Guler.

AR and VR also helps clients better imagine their newly designed spaces. Without these technologies, designers working online have problems with presenting to their clients, said Guler. “They make the [whole] design with 3D modelling tools, but when it comes to presenting it… they only take a snapshot of their 3D model… and send those images to the client,” he said. However, with AR and VR, people can see their newly designed 3D homes from any angle.

VR in particular will put clients in their newly designed spaces before they even exist, offering an experience far beyond viewing flat images of their designs. Facebook has even showcased its social VR, which allows people to interact in VR together.

It may seem far-fetched — reports show it will take 6-8 years for VR to go mainstream — but Facebook’s social VR pushes the boundaries. The whole notion could soon become a reality for clients and interior designers, enabling them to meet and discuss designs in VR from miles away and feel as if they are in the same new room.

The Internet of Things (IoT)

IoT encompasses a wide range of in-home capabilities. From thermostats to lightbulbs, ordinary objects have been given serious upgrades with IoT technology. And widespread adoption of this technology will lead to substantial energy savings. According to a study by the Consumer Technology Association, IoT could help avoid up to 100 million tons of CO2 emissions, and reduce energy consumption in each household by 10 percent.

Voice-activated platforms have been popular among larger tech companies. Google just announced it would launch a voice-activated home device integrated with Google search capabilities. This would be similar to Amazon Echo, a device that sits in your home and acts as, really, a personal assistant. The Amazon device is powered by Alexa — when you speak to her, she’ll do things like turn on lights, play music and set up your Wi-Fi network.

AdMobilize just built the MATRIX device, a product made to simplify the IoT space. Any connected device can be integrated into the MATRIX — it’s a central hub for all the smart devices in a home. The device downloads apps just as a smartphone would — such as ones that detect when you’ve gotten out of bed in order to turn the shower on, for example — allowing for hundreds of capabilities within the home. The technology is also touchless: users only have to gesture with their hands to turn the lights out. However, it’s not on the market yet — the company is just finishing up fabrication and has been taking pre-orders.

“It’s going to change the home because it’s going to allow people to interact with technology without having it impair their life,” said Isabella Mongalo, Brand Manager at AdMobilize. “[It’s] creating a really natural way for people to interact with technology and to have a smart home in a way that is really seamless and touchless.”

The average home may not yet see 3D-printed items or smart devices, but they will soon. More and more AR, VR, 3D printing and IoT will enter our homes — and stay. The devices will alter and improve the way we interact with and customize our homes, until we won’t be able to remember a time before we weren’t able to 3D print a new bathroom tub.

PlayStation VR play area requirements detailed, seated play recommended

PlaySTation VR is set to arrive on October 13, but a new official pamphlet being distributed by the company (via Polygon) sheds some light on what players can expect in terms of space requirements and gameplay style. The document shows that the idea space is about 6′ x 10′ big, with the player seated roughly in the middle, facing the PlayStation Camera at the long end.

HTC Vive’s room-scale VR, by comparison, requires 6’6″ by 5′ of play space, which is smaller despite PlayStation’s advisory in the pamphlet above that players remain seated whenever possible during in-game experiences. Applications are able to provide experiences that let the player wander in the general play are, but the wording in this document makes it pretty clear that developers building those kinds of experiences should provide clear instructions about what the user can do when standing up.

Sounds like sensitivity about liability to me, which is understandable given past video game debacles like Nintendo having to provide a protective silicone sleeve for every Wii motion controller it created because of some broken TVs.

Other info shared in the sales document for PS VR include system requirements, details regarding second-screen viewing von your TV via Social Screen, compatibility with glasses (it has that), and a proviso that the height of your in-game play area will depend on how high you place your PlayStation camera, and what angle it covers.

PS VR is set to be among the most accessible options for advanced virtual reality, thanks to a relatively low cost of entry. I’ve also heard that it is probably the most generally comfortable option among headsets from a few people, and of course having Sony’s weight behind it should help a lot with game developer interest.

Who needs a 4K display? Surfing the web in VR is where we're all going.

envisioned it would look like in the '90s.

According to Google's François Beaufort, the Chromium team is working on a "VR shell" to let users browser the web using Google Cardboard or Daydream-ready VR headsets with a smartphone slotted in.

Chrome for VR is currently an experimental feature and can be activated by going to "chrome://flags/#enable-vr-shell" in the URL bar. 

As reported by Road to VR, the Chrome in VR isn't fully functional yet even with it enabled. It's slowly rolling out to Chrome developer channels, so be patient if you don't see it yet.

As Google gears up for its big VR push with Daydream-ready smartphones, headsets and controllers, the company is no doubt preparing software and content to launch with it.

At its I/O developer conference this year, Google announced a VR version of the Google Play store for users to download and discover new VR content. YouTube, MLB.com and HBO Now were some VR apps unveiled.

The Daydream Home VR interface.

IMAGE: GOOGLE

Developing Chrome for VR is practically a must. While it may not be an out-of-body experience that literally puts you in the Internet, users will, in theory, be able to launch and view 360 video and VR content directly from within the VR browser.

Last year Road to VR took a look at Samsung's Gear VR internet browser. A VR Chrome browser could provide a similar experience.

OnePlus ain’t interested in virtual reality or wearables

OnePlus, the Chinese smartphone manufacturer, has no plans to invest heavily into smartwatches or virtual reality in the near future.

Co-founder Carl Pei made it clear that while it has worked on devices for both markets in the past, it does not want to become a competitor. Instead, the focus is back onto the single flagship, the OnePlus 3.

Like most things, OnePlus doesn’t want to follow the trends of most mobile companies. In an interview with TechRadar, Pei said that wearables are “too risky” and that “jumping into Android Wear would have lost us a lot of money.”

He is probably right, Android Wear has failed to capture a large amount of sales in the past two years, in part due to Google’s passivity towards the platform. It has lacked advertising space that Apple has gobbled up for its Watch, and lacks the Fitbit’s fitness appeal.

OnePlus came close on wearables but no cigar

OnePlus was close to launching a wearable last year, but pulled the plug at the last minute, possibly due to the risk factor.

It might be worth mentioning that OnePlus is a subsidiary of Oppo, which is a subsidiary of BBK Electronics. BBK sells kids watches in China under different subsidiaries and is the fifth largest manufacturer in the world, which may be another reason why OnePlus is lukewarm on the wearables market.

Virtual reality is another area where OnePlus has flirted with, but ultimately not invested in. In 2015, sent hundreds of Google Cardboard devices to fans for its OnePlus 2 launch. This year, it offered 30,000 Loop VR headsets for the OnePlus 3 launch.

PR stunts are not hints at an incoming VR announcement from OnePlus though, as Pei mentions in his interview. He believes that Oculus, Google, and Valve are the three major players in VR and it will take a few years before a winner emerges, who sets the standards for VR.

Pei does see a future where OnePlus has a VR headset, but it looks like the company is waiting to see what the prefered functionality, features, and controllers are before it invested millions into the market.

Israeli air force works on battlefield IoT technology

An Israeli Air Force (IAF) event recently gathered together 400 of the country’s top military minds to brainstorm next generation connected battlefield technology.

As reported in the Jerusalem Post, the Mahanet event held in Haifa drew together top technologists from across all branches of the Israeli military to collaborate on bleeding edge warfare innovations.

The specialists worked on a variety of projects, some which will be mothballed while others will become future military capabilities for the Israeli military.

One project involved an IAF attempt to develop a platform for battlefield assistance that could also incorporate internet of things (IoT) technology.

“Virtual reality can simulate a battlefield, and generate scenarios where [pilots] are attacked,” said Lt. Guy Cohen, the head of the air force innovation team. “I can use the Internet of things to link up a battalion commander in my sector to someone sitting an [air force] control center.”

Such breakthroughs could change “the way I attack, or look at the whole area and communicate with gestures,” said Cohen. “We are looking at how we can take these things to our world of command in the IAF.”

Israeli tech used in aircraft servicing

Another application of virtual reality that the IAF conference explored was using VR technology in training technicians on how to service the F-35 fifth generation fighter jets, which are expected to enter into active service later in 2016.

And for those who prefer to launch remote air strikes while laying in a relaxed posture, the techies conceived another project that enabled a pilot to navigate drones while lying in a specially wired bed.

“If you’re on the battlefield and you can’t afford to be exposed [to enemy fire], we can take sensors and use them to enable soldiers lying down to control drones,” said Cohen.

The collaborative work also focused on developing innovations that could enable the Israeli military to rapidly transfer data from intelligence officers or ground units to aircraft.

A previous Mahanet conference hatched a project to land an Israeli robot on the moon, which is now scheduled for a 2017 launch onboard a small spaceship.

Like Follow Follow Binge-watch Hulu in virtual reality thanks to new Oculus Rift support

Watching Hulu in virtual reality got a lot easier on Wednesday after the company announced its VR app would support the Oculus Rift. 

After a delayed 2015 launch, Hulu's VR app for the Samsung Gear VR finally arrived in March. Now the app is available for the much more powerful (and expensive) Oculus Rift, strengthening Hulu's commitment to VR.  

Currently, the main function of the app is to show users 2D content within the confines of a virtual cinema environment, but the app also delivers 30 original VR experiences that users can view without a Hulu subscription.

In addition to the existing VR video selection, Hulu has also partnered with Syfy channel producers to offer a special immersive VR experience for the network's 12 Monkeys show on Hulu.com. 

Called the "Temporal Facility," it allows fans to virtually visit the fictional time machine featured on the television show. According to Hulu, this is just the first in a slate of show-specific VR experiences that the company plans to bring to the app.

As you can see from the demonstration video (above), the 2D viewing room in the app isn't a particularly stunning VR experience. As the company builds its original VR content library, however, it may be enough to get users accustomed to jacking into Hulu using virtual reality headsets instead of their televisions or tablets.

Like Follow Follow Bill Gates and Neal Stephenson drive into the future in a Tesla in VR

Science fiction meets technology in the very best way in this short three-minute video posted by Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates earlier this week.

In the video, Gates takes off his tech icon hat and becomes a fan as he meets up with famed science fiction author Neal Stephenson to talk about the latter's latest novel Seveneves.

As we mentioned earlier this week, the book is on Gates' summer reading list this year. On his website, Gates gives a brief review of the book, writing, "Seveneves reminded me of all the things I love about science fiction. It is a great novel to get lost in, learn from, and think about. More than anything else, it has me thinking I should get back to reading sci-fi again."

But the coolest part of the meeting of Gates and Stephenson is the exceedingly tech-infused context in which it occurs. 

The two men, who both live in Seattle, hop in a Tesla (possibly the most futurist car you can buy right now) and the entire in-car conversation is captured using a 360-degree camera, which means you can view the conversation using a virtual reality headset.

It's not as long as or as in-depth as Comedians In Cars Getting Coffee, but it's easily the best sci-fi-tech meeting of the minds we've seen in a long time. 

This should definitely become a regular VR show. Please get on that, Bill. 

Google is building a cinema-grade VR camera with IMAX

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif. — Google wants to take VR all the way to Hollywood.

Last year the company launched its platform for creating 360-degree video, called Jump, and since then Hollywood studios have come calling, Google's head of VR, Clay Bavor, said at the Google I/O developer conference on Thursday. He also said Google will be working with IMAX to build a cinema-grade VR camera system.

Google partnering with IMAX on a cinema-grade version of the Jump camera. #io16pic.twitter.com/Y1fwY7Iu0Z

— Pete Pachal (@petepachal) May 19, 2016

Bavor didn't reveal any details of the camera or technology, but presumably it would be a step above the GoPro Odyssey, the first Jump camera, which cobbles together 16 individual GoPros within a Google-designed rig. That camera uses Google tech to stitch together all the footage into high-res 360-degree video with depth.

That depth is what provides a richer experience when the footage is viewed on a VR headset. Objects appear in 3D, as if they exist in real space, as opposed to seeing a "flat" spherical image. It's not perfect, however — the viewer can't really move around the environment much at all.

However, high-end VR camera systems like the Lytro Immerge promise at least a limited space that viewers can move in. Presumably Google's cinematic Jump system would do the same, although the Lytro system isn't in the hands of filmmakers yet either.

Google also announced it would partner with Yi, a Chinese action-cam manufacturer, to build an Odyssey-like rig for the company's 4K action camera.

Although cinematic VR is in its infancy, consumer 360-degree cameras are already in the hand of consumers. The Ricoh Theta S captures bare-bones 360 footage, and Samsung's Gear 360 is available in Korea and is coming to the U.S. this summer.

Facebook's first live-action VR film shows the power

NEW YORK — I’m standing in Grand Central Station just a few feet from the iconic brass clock tower in the terminal’s main concourse. I step aside to let a young girl take a selfie and later watch a couple send their daughter off to college. To my right, I can see the Apple Store in the distance.

There’s no denying the power of people-watching at train stations, especially when hellos and goodbyes offer a genuine window into the lives of those around you.

But in this case, I’m not physically there. Instead, I’m about 30 blocks south at Facebook’s New York office, watching the company's first original piece of content shot with its new professional-grade Facebook Surround 360 camera. 

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

The short film, a live-action virtual reality experience called Here and Now, transports you to busy Grand Central to watch a series of vignettes play out before your eyes. The fully produced and choreographed video made its debut on Facebook today, just one month after the camera was announced on stage at the F8 developers conference. 

The video is now available on Gear VR devices through the Oculus Video app (and via the Gear VR store), but for those who don't have a headset, you can watch it as a 360 video on Facebook. However, watching it as a 360 video doesn't compare to the experience of living that moment in VR. 

This isn't my first time tinkering around with creative VR experiences — I’ve ridden a virtual rollercoaster (it was so real that, at one point, I screamed), roamed an ancient castle in Italy and even painted inside a McDonald’s Happy Meal — but standing in the middle of Grand Central (something I’ve done countless times before) was perhaps the most visceral reaction I’ve had with VR yet.

For those living in New York, the clock at Grand Central is more than just a landmark. It’s a spot to meet friends before taking the subway out to a Mets game, a location to kill time before taking a train north, a place to reconnect with someone you haven't seen in quite awhile. It's somewhere with meaning.

The short film was developed by Facebook's internal creative agency The Factory, which consists of designers, engineers, filmmakers and producers, who often collaborate to create commercials and billboards. To show off its pricy Surround 360 Camera ($20,000) — and demonstrate how developers can create VR videos for it — The Factory was asked to create an experience that highlights its potential for filmmakers. And as the largest social network on the planet, it's only natural Facebook chose to focus in on the human element and connecting with others. So when I put on an a Gear VR headset (a device owned by Facebook’s Oculus subsidiary) to watch Here and Now ahead of Tuesday's launch, my first reaction was: Oh, I know this place. While VR’s role in film has been thoroughly debated — is it the future of storytelling and even what we want? — Here and Now is impactful because it plays on human emotion and familiarity. There are no virtual zombies to run away from here.

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

“There are a lot of VR experiences out there with big explosions and effects, but we wanted to explore the concept of everyday reality with something everyone can relate to,” Larry Corwin, creative director at the Factory, told Mashable. 

Facebook filmed Here and Now back in March over three days by shutting down the main concourse for two hours each time. While the team rehearsed with actors and real commuters in the background, the final footage includes 20 principal actors and more than 500 extras. It was filmed in one take — about 13 times — and shot in 6K (most VR experiences are filmed in 4K). The clarity of the footage is noticeably crisp and immersive.“We also wanted Grand Central to become a character," added Margaret McLaughlin, executive producer of the project. "You can hear different conversations and follow certain people or moments — even a guy in the background holding a Pomeranian — or just embrace the architecture, look up at the historic ceiling and take it all in."

The Facebook 360 Surround camera

IMAGE: FACEBOOK

Although the film would be insignificant without the power of VR — after all, not much happens within that three-minute span — with the headset, the short film succeeds in placing you very much within a New York moment, whether you’re in an office downtown or halfway around the world. 

Hollywood can argue the future of filmmaking could include high-budget, action blockbuster scenes in virtual reality, but there's no question the intimacy of Here and Now is what may truly resonate with viewers down the line. 

BONUS: Hands on with McDonald's Happy Meal VR headset

Nvidia's latest offers low-cost, high-power boost to virtual reality

In the age of mobile everything, a sexy, new PC graphics card struggles to find the proper acknowledgement from mainstream users. But even if you haven't installed a graphics card in years (or ever), Nvidia's latest, the GeForce GTX 1080, is worth paying attention to.

Why? Because it promises to deliver a huge performance boost to one of the hottest new areas of computing: virtual reality.

"Our first Pascal gaming GPU, the GeForce GTX 1080, enables incredible realism in gaming and deeply immersive VR experiences, with dramatically improved performance and efficiency," Jeff Fisher, senior vice president of Nvidia's PC business, said in a statement released on the company's website on Friday. "It's the most powerful gaming GPU ever built, and some of our finest work."

Part of the reason the graphics card has so many insiders excited is that it offers two times the performance in virtual reality at hundreds of dollars less than the previous top tier option — just $599 versus the GeForce GTX Titan X at $999. 

The card even got a ringing endorsement from the company behind VR gaming favorite EVE: Valkyrie. "GeForce GTX 1080 promises to be the ultimate graphics card for experiencing EVE: Valkyrie," Hilmar Veigar Pétursson, CEO of CCP Games, said in a statement provided by Nvidia.  

"We took scenes from our Paragon game cinematics that were designed to be rendered offline, and rendered them in real time on GTX 1080," Tim Sweeney, founder of Epic Games, said in a statement. "It's mind-blowing and we can't wait to see what developers create ... in the world of games, automotive design, or architectural visualization — for both 2D screens and for VR."

Like Follow Follow This is how stunning VR video from GoPro's Omni camera looks

GoPro's decision to delay its Karma drone until the holiday is sad news. But cheer up, the company's just released the first footage from its Omni VR camera. And it's absolutely stunning.

The VR camera, which consists of a chassis that holds six Hero4 cameras, launches in August for $4,999.99. 

In a new video introducing the Omni, Swedish freestyle skier Jesper Tjader, Icelandic snowboarder Halldor Helgason and few others use the Omni to film their snow run down the Suzuki Nine Queens course.

The 360-degree video is viewable in 4K (2160p) resolution and was shot over the course of three days.

Although GoPro says the video was shot using prototype Omni cameras and the consumer version will have significant quality improvements, the footage is damn good. You can hardly see any of the stitching seams between the six cameras.

"VR is a whole new experience that can fully transport someone into another experience," Woodman told Mashable last year. "The ability to promote empathy through VR, the better it is for people to have a human connection. It's gonna open up all kinds of viewing experiences and expand the lifespan of content."

Riders left dangling as UK's first VR rollercoaster stops in mid air

LONDON — Galactica, the UK's first virtual reality rollercoaster, gave passengers an even more unique experience Monday when it ground to a halt halfway round the track.

The attraction at Alton Towers in Staffordshire, which opened to much fanfare in March, stopped high above the ground shortly after departing the base station, leaving riders dangling for some 30 minutes.

The park said that water on a sensor caused the ride to come to a stop.

Passengers tweeted about their experience from the ride itself and shortly after the experience.

One, Meg O'Dea, said that the experience was "terrifying" until staff told them what was happening.

“On the afternoon of 2nd May, heavy rain obscured a sensor on Galactica which meant that the ride was automatically stopped," a statement from the park emailed to Mashable said.

"This is a standard safety feature on this ride and the ride was working exactly as it is designed to do. The health and safety of our guests is our number one priority and our team followed standard procedures to get the guests off as quickly and as safely as possible. The ride re-opened.”

Galactica races round 840 metres of track at speeds of up to 75 km per hour over 189 seconds, sending riders upside down as they whizz through virtual galaxies.

Passengers wear special headsets built around Samsung Gear VR devices, which present audio visual experiences in sync with what their bodies are going through.

Mashable visited Alton Towers for a preview ride before it opened.

Alton Towers has had a tumultuous year. Last June, four people were seriously injured when a carriage on the Smiler rider smashed into another empty carriage. Two people ended up having legs amputated.

Last month, the park's owner Merlin Entertainments admitted breaching health and safety laws over the incident and is expecting a hefty fine when it appears at Stafford Crown Court on May 20.

Virtual Reality Will Change Business as We Know It

The next five to ten years will be huge for virtual reality. Already, VR promises to connect us, making geographic locations irrelevant and changing our ability to experience something that would otherwise be out of our reach.

To understand how it will be used by businesses in the coming years, a group of successful entrepreneurs from Young Entrepreneur Council (YEC) explain some of the most exciting opportunities they see for VR.

1. Brands Will Use VR to Improve Customer Loyalty

Brands and VR were made for each other. Businesses and brands will engage consumers with story-driven VR experiences that educate and entertain. This will create a new kind of relationship between brands and their audience as they start becoming active participants instead of passive bystanders. The hardest thing to do as a brand is to get your audience to actually feel something. Immersive, interactive VR experiences will get people closer to feeling, which gets people closer to caring.

Ashleigh Hansberger, Motto

2. There Will Be Changes in Teleconferencing

Trying to connect everyone by phone and talking to laggy, pixelated faces on a flat screen is probably one of the most hated things in modern business. Virtual reality will change that and allow these sorts of meetings to take on a more personal and natural feel. As the technology progresses hopefully it will be able to incorporate expressions, eye contact and other human elements we currently lack. This will make our telecommuting lives better and our meetings more productive. When fully formed it might even reduce business travel significantly.

Tony Scherba, Yeti

3. It Will Improve E-Commerce for Products That Require Fit

Complemented with augmented reality, VR will have a big impact on online shopping. One industry that’s not making as big a breakthrough as others is shopping for things that ne1ed to fit well (whether clothes for you or furniture for your place). Being able to “see” those things to determine the fit will remove the handicap for these products and open the floodgates for online shopping that have been lagging. It will be amazing to see how a couch would look in your living room before buying it.

Tolga Tanriseven, GirlsAskGuys

4. There Will Be Changes in the Education Market

From applications for all levels of education, including college and university classes, virtual reality can make learning more enriching and enjoyable as well as address some of the various ways people learn that current curriculums cannot seem to individually address. Companies that can offer educational products that use virtual reality have a real opportunity.

Drew Hendricks, Buttercup

5. There Will Be an Improved Design Process for Products

I think it will further enhance the ability to design products. With virtual reality and simulations, you can do much better user testing without them having to be in the same room and get faster feedback, as well as make much quicker changes. This will decrease the overall cost of production.

Jayna Cooke, EVENTup

6. It Will Offer the Opportunity to Have an “Anywhere” Experience

VR’s use cases for businesses are only limited by our imagination. A huge application I expect in the near future is in e-commerce. Currently, one of the biggest issues with e-commerce, for both the store and the consumer, is ordering something that doesn’t match your expectations. VR gives us the opportunity to create the “anywhere” experience so that a user can manipulate a product and get a better understanding of what they’re buying. The same can be said of booking hotel rooms, cars, travel and adventure tours. Virtual reality is poised to bring the world to you, just like the internet itself, on a more nuanced level.1

Michael King, IPullRank

7. It Will Offer Improvements in Entertainment Like Movies, Media and Games

Entertainment will be the first industry to get disrupted by VR. Imagine sitting in your living room and watching the Superbowl with VR. VR takes you right in the stadium. It will have a similar impact on movies and gaming. I was at CES recently and I saw that even a one-person VR startup had 10 minute-long queues simply for trying out the demo. The VR economy will easily surpass the app economy in my view.

Ashu Dubey, 12 Labs

8. It Will Advance Real Estate Sales

Nobody is satisfied purchasing a house based on pictures, and some people would rather not go “house hunting” physically. VR could be a great bridge between those who would like to see the property up-close and those who’d prefer a less involved approach. It will assist agents in increasing turnover by making fewer site visits, and might be a more efficient (and secure) way to conduct business in real estate. While it might currently be reserved for apps on smartphones and tourism, VR has the potential to change how we make investments into property. There’s a huge opportunity for a company that will be able to assist realtors in capturing real-time imagery of each property in a manner that is timely and user-friendly.

Cody McLain, SupportNinja

9. HR Departments Will Become 100 Percent Remote

I think the best aspect of virtual reality is that employees can have more engaging interactions with the HR department, whether it is in the interview process, training, or just a simple meeting. This will be able to happen from anywhere in the world and still feel as though they are sitting across from you. For example, instead of asking an employee a situational question and getting their reply, we could actually put them in a situation in VR and see how they truly react. This will take HR to a whole new level never before experienced.

Derek Capo, eFin

10. It Will Impact the Health and Fitness Industry

Virtual reality will become a tremendous performance hack for anyone who wants to visualize the future as if it is already here. Athletes and doctors are already using hardware like OculusVR (acquired by Facebook) to visualize all of their goals coming into fruition, including perfect health and performance. People will finally be able to step outside of themselves and hit the winning shot, beat illness, or close the perfect deal.

Matt Wilson, Under30Experiences

11. It Will Offer Immersive, On-the-Job Learning Experiences

I’m most excited about the opportunity of virtual reality apps to facilitate learning and relationship building in a business setting. You’ll be able to master public speaking by practicing in front of a virtual audience, you’ll be able to see how business is conducted in Japan by working virtually from that office for a week, and your avatar can get together regularly, face to face, with your boss across the country. The number of skills you’ll be able to acquire and mentors you’ll be able to tap will explode when there are no practical or geographic limits.

Alexandra Levit, Inspiration at Work

12. Geographical Location Will Become Irrelevant

Already we live in a virtual age, where with the usage of Skype, Google Hangouts and other forms of digital media it doesn’t really matter where you are physically located. However, with the advancement of virtual reality, not only will it not matter where you are geographically, but it will actually appear as if you are in the same place even when you are thousands of miles apart.