The VR Philly Meetup is holding its second gathering tomorrow, August 27th, the group’s first meeting since the launch of the Oculus Rift DK2. The new headset will be on display at the Meetup, along with guest speakers and community networking time.

BrlFkoxCAAA4giGVR Philly is one of many burgeoning grassroots VR community gatherings now being held around the world. The group had its first event early last month, prior to the launch of the Oculus Rift DK2, which drew a bustling crowd of virtual reality developers, enthusiasts, and plenty of first-timers.

VR Philly #2 will be held tomorrow, Wednesday August 27th, and for the first time feature the Oculus Rift DK2 brought by VR developers and enthusiasts from the area. The event, which is free and open to all, is a great chance to check out the latest headset from Oculus VR.

In addition to the exciting new VR headset, the event will host VR demos from local developers and presentations from three guest speakers:

Yuval Boger of Sensics speaks at the first Philly VR Meetup
Yuval Boger of Sensics speaks at the first Philly VR Meetup

Eric Greenbaum – VR developer, Founder of Virtual Reality NYC, and patent attorney.

VR headset manufacturers have thus far devoted the majority of their resources developing the electronics, optics, and software elements necessary to enable virtual reality. I refer to this as the ‘dry side’ of the VR headset. In the last two years the dry side of the VR headset has come a long way. While high resolution, low latency head tracking and a solid base of content are necessary aspects for building a VR industry, they alone, are not sufficient. To make VR the paradigm shifting technology we are all hoping for, we need to address the aspect of the VR headset that directly connects the unit with the head and face of the user—what I’ve taken to calling the ‘wet side’ of the VR headset. In my talk I will focus on some of the work I’ve been doing to address the issues at the wet side

Rahat Ahmed – Chief of Strategy at TrinityVR

Rahat will be discussing both his thoughts on the VR space as an investor/strategist as well as TrinityVR and its Magnum VR controller.

Thomas Sharpless – Retired software engineer and member of the International VR Photography Association

Thomas will be discussing the use of practical spherical photography and its applications for virtual reality.

Philly VR #2 will be held at the same location as the first gathering, the Devnuts hackerspace in Philadelphia, and will begin at 7pm. Find full details and RSVP at the Philly VR Meetup page.

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Ben is the world's most senior professional analyst solely dedicated to the XR industry, having founded Road to VR in 2011—a year before the Oculus Kickstarter sparked a resurgence that led to the modern XR landscape. He has authored more than 3,000 articles chronicling the evolution of the XR industry over more than a decade. With that unique perspective, Ben has been consistently recognized as one of the most influential voices in XR, giving keynotes and joining panel and podcast discussions at key industry events. He is a self-described "journalist and analyst, not evangelist."