Whether swooping over sprawling landscapes or careering through space, an hour spent on Icaros – a virtual reality at-home gym that claims to exercise both mind and body – promises to be a truly holistic workout. Is this what the future of fitness looks like, or is it just another VR gimmick?

Reading is an emotional experience. Books can make you laugh, cry or feel scared - but can technology make them even more immersive? MIT's Media Lab has created a book that lets you really feel and experience first-hand the emotions and environments described in the text.

The company has been bought for $2 billion. With an angle to keeping a finger on the pulse of emerging technologies, Mark Zuckerberg has announced that the companies intend to develop virtual reality outside of gaming, into communication, entertainment and more.

Tesco and Oculus Rift have created a virtual reality supermarket that lets shoppers browse from the comfort of their armchairs. As supermarket sales stutter and experts predict the sector is in "structural decline", retailers are looking to provide more immersive experiences.

Cloud over Sidra is the United Nations' first ever virtual reality film. It follows a twelve-year-old girl – named Sidra – who lives in the Za’atari camp in Jordan, and is designed to support a UN campaign highlighting the vulnerable state that is refugee life.

Gun-wielding men stand atop a boat pitching and rolling on turbulent water, while a tank explodes in slow-motion. This is the TV spot for the Army Reserve and it’s accompanied by a roadshow in which potential candidates can use Oculus Rift to really get a taste of how life in the army could be.

If video killed the radio star, it’s fair to say that home consoles killed the arcade. Between 1983 and 1985, a fifth of America’s arcades were shut down, and when the NES exploded into US front rooms in 1985, that decline only steepened. But could the rise of VR see the arcade make a comeback?

Pizza boxes becoming screens, and decorating your home with virtual furniture sounds fantastical, but it already exists through augmented reality. Brand experiments with this technology have led to mixed results. Is augmented reality relevant for bricks and mortar stores?