Come to VRDC and see how NASA is using VR to train astronauts

November will see the debut of the first-ever standalone Virtual Reality Developers Conference, and today conference organizers are excited to highlight one of the many exciting sessions talking place during the show.

This one's all about outer space. VR developers have long recognized VR's power to take people to other worlds, and now NASA's own Matthew Noyes is coming to VRDC to talk about how the space agency is investigating the many possibilities Hybrid Reality holds to support space exploration.

In their VRDC talk on "Hybrid Reality: A New Paradigm for Astronaut Training" the pair will run down how, with the advent of private sector innovations in consumer VR, rendering technology, and additive manufacturing techniques, there is a paradigm shift in astronaut training on the horizon combining immersive visuals reinforced by extremely realistic haptic feedback, as well as promising new augmentations to engineering workflow.

They'll offer rare insight into NASA's history of VR usage, and explore examples of modern-day astronaut VR training -- including a simulation of the International Space Station where users can interact with handrails and tracked physical objects in the real world while inside VR, and an instance of how NASA is using one type of virtual reality technology (a consumer headset) to completely simulate and develop another type of virtual environment (a reconfigurable CAVE).

Check it out and you can expect to learn about how the best elements of real and virtual worlds can be combined into a more tangible hybrid reality.

It promises to be a remarkable can't-miss talk, so make sure to head over to the VRDC website now and register to attend the conference. There's more, too: VRDC will feature a plethora of great VR/AR talks spanning games, entertainment, and beyond into subjects such as healthcare, journalism, travel, manufacturing, retail, live events, real estate, training, and so much more.

VRDC 2016 will take place November 2-3 at the Park Central Hotel in San Francisco. For more information on VRDC 2016, visit the show's official website and subscribe to regular updates via Twitter and Facebook.

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