Sales and public perception of virtual reality headsets have room to grow, with low levels of awareness among U.S. households, and lower-than-expected sales. A study from Parks Associates found that more than half (63%) of U.S. households say they are not familiar with or know nothing about VR.

Virtual reality and augmented reality seem to have a bright future, with AR and VR viewers expected to experience high growth numbers in the coming years. Over the next four years, global shipments of VR headsets will increase by more than six times and the number of AR headset shipments will increase by 150 times, according to new research from IDC. By 2020, VR headset shipments will grow to 61 million units globally, up from just more than 10 million units shipped this year.

Consumers are about to get another marketing does of AR in toys this holiday season. For example, the NeobearMagnifier NEO is a hand-held magnifying glass designed to create AR viewing for children. Hologrid: Monster Battle lets players see monsters created by the animator of "Star Wars" in battle

Oculus, Facebook's virtual reality acquisition, just released its new Oculus Touch peripheral, more closely aligning itself with HTC's Vive from a control standpoint.I've previously lamented the lack of standards and unification in control formats for VR, and while there still is no formal standard, the similarity of the Vive's hand controls and the new Oculus Touch seems to be an informal parity developers can depend on.