Ontario, Jan. 16, 2023.— Virtualware partners with the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University to adopt and scale the award-winning VR enterprise platform VIROO®. This initiative will be inaugurated in early 2023 with the unveiling of a 100m2 custom-built immersive room at one of Canada’s most innovative universities in the world, providing access to students, faculty, and businesses to push boundaries and explore the use of VR tools and technologies in the region.
Leveraging each other’s strengths, the initial four-year partnership will foster initiatives to broadly facilitate access and promote the adoption of VR in education and research by blending physical and virtual workspaces.
Virtualware and McMaster Engineering are committed to making a global impact not only in education, but also in the enterprise. This partnership will see them join forces to explore new options and forge ways to collaborate with nearby companies interested in leveraging this emerging technology.
“This is an exciting partnership that will not only lead to new technologies to solve the world’s biggest challenges but will also attract new strategic partners in Canada and internationally,” says John Preston, Associate Dean, Research, Innovation and External Relations, McMaster Engineering.
As a result, the immersive room will be located at McMaster Innovation Park (MIP), Canada’s premier research and innovation park. This strategic location acts as a bridge between academia and industry, becoming part of Hamilton’s innovation ecosystem.
Powered by Virtualware’s VIROO® platform, the all-in-one tool will help professors and researchers guide their students towards more innovative and complete learning experiences, preparing them for the next generation of future-workforce skills. The partnership will be led by Ali Emadi’s research group focused on smart mobility applications.
“The collaboration will help companies start their VR journey, giving them the opportunity to incorporate the VR platform in their daily operations, so they can be more competitive and improve their processes,” says Ali Emadi, engineering professor and Canada Research Chair in Transportation Electrification and Smart Mobility, McMaster Engineering.
Thanks to the VIROO® platform, the Faculty of Engineering at McMaster University will now have the ability to create content, without the need to write a single line of code and deploy multi-user virtual reality autonomously. McMaster’s new 100m2 free-roam immersive lab will allow up to six users to connect and interact in the same physical room, communicating and collaborating in real time with unlimited remote users in the same VR environment.
“Our partnership with McMaster, will accelerate VR adoption across the region, creating valuable opportunities to build the most powerful enterprise VR ecosystem for industry,” says Unai Extremo, CEO & Founder Virtualware.
About McMaster Engineering
McMaster Engineering is committed to the pursuit of excellence and plays a significant role in helping McMaster University earn its reputation as one of Canada’s most innovative universities. Created in 1958, The Faculty of Engineering at McMaster is committed to research with impact and transforming the education of engineering through The Pivot – the first program of its kind to intensely focus on our engineering students and their learning.
About Virtualware
Virtualware is a pioneer in the Virtual Reality Industry. Founded in 2004, it has over time become the European leader in applying immersive technologies for industrial applications. The company was acknowledged as the world’s most Innovative VR Company at the 2021 edition of the VR Awards.
Virtualware offers cutting-edge solutions to global powerhouses and significant firms across industries, including GE Hitachi, Petronas, Iberdrola, Alstom, Guardian Glass, ArcelorMittal, Danone, Johnson & Johnson, Biogen, Bayer, ADIF, or the Spanish Ministry of Defense to name a few.
Virtualware’s flagship VIROO is a VRAAS platform that makes VR accessible to companies of all sizes and industries.
Headquartered in Bilbao, Spain, with a North American office in Toronto and partner companies worldwide, the firm is formed by a multidisciplinary team of 45 headcount including technologists and engineers who have launched over 500 projects in over 33 countries.
The Learning Room: Immersive Learning for Intellectual Disabilities
The Learning Room is a wrap-around projection room, with a Virtual Environment that extends across three walls and the floor, approaching the immersion of Virtual Reality without the claustrophobia of a headset.
A safe, unobtrusive simulation of day-to-day real-world experiences, allowing children with Intellectual Disabilities like Autism to master everyday life skills as well as academic learning. Teaching autistic children to cross a busy road safely can be dangerous. Here's where Projected Immersion and AR come into play.
The Learning Room helps trainers to set up real road-crossing challenges for the children to face in a progressively incremental sequence, giving them an opportunity to develop the skills needed to cross safely, without exposing them to busy roads before they are ready.
The project was implemented by Custom Technologies Design Lab at ZEP Rehabilitation Centre in Pune and is currently in use at this institution, and has demonstrated increased engagement, motivation, and learning in autistic students who use this system every day.
Doug Hohulin appointed to VRARA Chapter President - Kansas City, and the Automotive Group Co-Chair.
We are happy to have Doug Hohulin lead our Kansas City Chapter and to be the Automotive Group Co-Chair! As part of the KC Chapter President, Doug is organizing and leading The VRARA Kansas City Inaugural Chapter Meeting that will take place on JANUARY 31, 2023 5:00PM-6:30 PM at the UMKC XR Lab PLASTER FREE ENTERPRISE AND RESEARCH CENTER For more information or to register, click here.
The KC chapter is dedicated to helping Industry and Universities collaborate on XR Education, Business Development, and Leadership and will be hosting meetings with the support of local XR Industry and University leaders and KC Digital Drive.
Doug has worked on intelligent transportation systems (ITS) and was a member of the 5G Automotive Association (5GAA) for 4 year and is a member of the Texas CAV Task Force and KC Metro AV Task Force. At the Jan 26 Automotive Group Meeting, he will overview the 5GAA organization, and considerations for the XR Automotive Industry.
Doug worked for 33 years at Nokia/Motorola in Strategy, Business Development, Account Management, and Engineering roles. He focuses on XR/Metaverse, Digital Health, Telehealth, Education, Telecommunication (5G/6G, WiFi, Cable/10G), Sustainability/Energy/Smart Grid, and Public Policy projects. He is on the University of Kansas School of Nursing Advisory Board and an Affiliate Faculty member supporting various XR projects.
“I’d like to thank VRARA for asking me to be the Chapter President - KC and Automotive Group Co-Chair. I believe that VRARA plays a vital role in bringing together professionals, companies and Universities in the XR field and facilitating collaboration and innovation. Through events and initiatives organized by VRARA, we can foster a strong XR ecosystem in the KC area and make it a hub for XR development and adoption. I am committed to working with VRARA to achieve these goals and to support the growth and success of the XR industry as a whole.”- Doug Hohulin
Check out the NIDO Nestlé Augmented Reality experience developed by CamOn!
For the launch of NIDO’s "Explorers Collection" milk cans, CamOn created 4 Augmented Reality experiences to provide consumers with special content.
The campaign consisted of different lithographed cans, containing QR codes associated either with a jungle, ocean, arctic or space themed experiences. For each of them, a Web 360 was developed with special content.
For example, for the jungle experience we created a trivia game with fun facts and a photo opportunity with Web AR of a giraffe and a lion. Product information and an Instagram filter were also included.
The campaign’s objective was to interact with the public in an original and didactic way, offering content that could be enjoyed both by parents and their children.
Perfect Corp. Reveals Top AI and AR Retail, Beauty, and Fashion Tech Trends Ahead of CES 2023
Post originally appearing on businesswire.com
NEW YORK--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Perfect Corp. (NYSE: PERF), the leading artificial intelligence (AI) and augmented reality (AR) beauty and fashion tech solutions provider, has revealed the top retail technology trends to watch in 2023 and will also be highlighting its innovative AI and AR-powered solutions at CES 2023 in Las Vegas. CES attendees and media will have the opportunity to explore Perfect Corp.’s innovative AI and AR solutions through a series of experiences including:
“We are thrilled to showcase the newest AI + AR solutions that are helping to revolutionize the retail experience and to highlight the top technology trends shaping the retail space in 2023”
Pepcom Technology Showcase: Perfect Corp. will demo its suite of AI and AR beauty and fashion tech solutions at the Pepcom Digital Experience, the largest independent media technology event showcasing what’s new at CES. The event will take place on January 4th, 2023 from 7:00 pm to 10:30 pm at Caesars Palace in Las Vegas.
Virtual Web 3.0 Immersive Booth: Perfect Corp.’s suite of AI and AR solutions will also be available to explore in an interactive and immersive digital booth experience which is returning for the second year. As the world of Web 3.0 becomes a major player in the retail industry, the digital booth experience allows attendees to demo solutions in real time and learn about the latest innovations through a fully virtual experience. To explore the virtual booth experience, please visit the immersive experience here. Technology demos can also be accessed easily on the Perfect Corp. demo store.
CES 2023 Panel: Solving Retail’s Biggest Challenges: Perfect Corp.’s Chief Marketing Officer Adam Gam will join industry leaders to discuss the technology trends and innovations that are transforming retail. The panel will take place Friday, January 6th, 1:00 pm-1:40 pm in Marcello 4404 at The Venetian Hotel. Tickets for the panel can be purchased at here.
Leading the Way in AI and AR Retail Technology Innovations and Insights
“We are thrilled to showcase the newest AI + AR solutions that are helping to revolutionize the retail experience and to highlight the top technology trends shaping the retail space in 2023,” shared Perfect Corp. Founder and CEO, Alice Chang. “As we continue to forge new frontiers in AI + AR technology, we are excited to share key insights that can help brands across industries elevate their retail experiences in the year ahead.”
The Top Technology Trends Shaping the Retail Space in 2023:
As the retail industry continues to undergo a digital transformation, AI and AR technology has quickly emerged as a crucial component of the modern shopping experience. These technologies are helping to enhance and elevate retail, bringing consumers immersive and personalized experiences across the omni-channel shopping journey. To read the complete report on the top technology trends of 2023, visit Perfect Corp.’s blog.
Perfect Corp. has revealed the top 6 technology trends that will majorly influence the retail world in 2023 including:
Sustainable Digital Transformation:
Around the world, businesses are turning to technology solutions to create more sustainable business practices. Digital solutions such as AR and AI are among the top technologies allowing brands and retailers to operate more sustainably.The Return of In-Store Retail:
2023 will see an increase in brick-and-mortar shopping, as restrictions from the Covid-19 pandemic ease and consumers return to physical in-store experiences. AI + AR technologies can help to elevate in-store shopping experiences, providing experiences that are both immersive and touchless for customers.The Rise of AI Skin Technology:
During the Covid-19 pandemic, consumers across the world began to prioritize skin care as a key component of their overall wellness routine. This has led to the rise of AI-powered skin technology which allows brands and retailers to take personalization in skin care to a new level. In 2023, this technology will continue to see widespread adoption.The Evolution of Fashion Tech:
Although AI + AR technologies have long been an essential aspect of the retail shopping journey in beauty, in 2023, these technologies will begin to play a larger role in the world of fashion retail. Particularly in the jewelry and fashion accessory spaces, brands and retailers will begin to adopt AR virtual try-on technologies for rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and more.AI Personalization:
AI technologies are one of the most impactful and effective tools for personalization. Whether by leveraging AI to provide customers with a customized makeup tutorial, or by implementing an AI diagnostic experience to match customers with a tailored skincare product regimen, in 2023, AI technology will play a larger role in the world of retail and beyond.The Rise of Web 3.0, Virtual Commerce, and Immersive Digital Experiences:
Web 3.0 now holds massive potential as a new revenue stream for brands, whether through interactive virtual stores, digital avatars and wearable product collections, and much more. To stay competitive in 2023, brands should stay on the pulse of this quickly evolving space, and be sure to consider Web 3.0 and virtual commerce when planning digital transformation strategies.
About Perfect Corp.
Perfect Corp. (NYSE: PERF) is the leading SaaS AI and AR beauty and fashion tech solutions provider, dedicated to transforming shopping experiences through empowering brands to embrace the digital-first world. By partnering with the largest names in the industry, Perfect Corp.’s suite of enterprise solutions deliver synergistic, technology-driven experiences that facilitate sustainable, ultra-personalized, and engaging shopping journeys, as well as equipping brands with next generation of consumer goods. Perfect Corp. offers a complementary suite of mobile apps, including YouCam Makeup and YouCam Perfect, to provide a consumer platform to virtually try-on new products, perform skin diagnoses, edit photos, and share experiences with the YouCam Community. To learn more, please visit PerfectCorp.com.
CYMAX VR 360 MOVIE THEATER IN INDIA
On 9th December 2022 ,CYMAX has inaugurated the first ever VR360 MOVIE theatre in GVK ONE Mall, Banjara Hills, Hyderabad,Telangana state, India , and playing full of amazing VR 360 movies from a variety of genres.
The astounding response from public is more encouraging to play immaculate VR360 movies seamlessly in the world’s first of its kind CYMAX technological invention, the multi-channel 360 degree rotational VR simulated chairs aligned with multi movie streaming console.
Counting on this successful endeavour, Cymax welcomes the VR 360 movie makers to collaborate and produce more and more VR 360 movies as CYMAX is expanding to establish more VR360 movie theatres in PAN India.
So far the VR movie experience is limited only for the people who purchase VR headsets, where as with the advent of CYMAX VR movie theatres the immersive movie experience in now at the reach of a common man at the cost of any ordinary movie ticke
VRdirect News: How Nestlé is scaling virtual reality to train employees
VRARA Member VRDirect is proud to be a key partner of global enterprises like Nestlé, Siemens and Altana for their VR strategies.
Some examples of their work over the past 365 days include Nestlé starting to scale VR as part of their workflows: safety trainings, virtual tours and onboarding in VR are a now a key pillar of Nestlé's IT innovation strategy.
Click here to learn, how Nestlé is using the VRdirect platform to create a VR training for the Nescafé factory in Girona, Spain to improve awareness for safety instructions and traffic rules on the company’s giant premises.
Dinesh Punni Joins VRARA as Berlin Chapter President.
We are thrilled to welcome Dinesh Punni to the VRARA team as the VRARA Berlin Chapter President. Dinesh Punni has been eating, drinking, and breathing immersive technologies (AR/VR) for more than 7 years now.Today, he uses his experience to pave the way for upcoming talents by teaching them how to create immersive experiences on his YouTube channel and on immersive insiders, his XR online education platform.
Over the past years of creating content online, his audience has grown to over 20.000 followers across multiple social media platforms. Dinesh holds regular speeches at various events (such as TEDx, AWE, and IGS) and conferences across the globe.When he's not working Dinesh likes to read, compete in video games, and take a walk in Real Reality (RR).
“This is a truly exciting opportunity, and I am dedicated to making the most of it by bringing more amazing
✅ AR/VR Events & Meetups
✅ Hackathons & Competitons
✅ Free lectures & free content
to help our community continue to grow and thrive. 📈
I can't wait to get started and see all that we can accomplish together! ✌🏽
Feel free to to follow us to stay up-to-date on all the opportunities to get involved. ↗️”— Dinesh Punni
CamOn's new augmented reality project for Whiskas®
For Whiskas®, we created a Web 360 experience to promote their new cat food recipes.
By scanning the QR code on the product packaging, consumers access the experience and learn about the benefits of each recipe in an interactive way. With a single click, they can also find out which retailers sell Whiskas® products.
In addition, users can visualize the food with Augmented Reality and access the photo opportunity to take a fun picture of their pet.
Job Opportunity: Emerging Media Arts Faculty {University of Nebraska-Lincoln}
We are currently accepting applications for a tenure track Assistant Professor of Emerging Media Arts: Moving Image + Cinema Production. This position comes with stipends to support research and creative activity. It's an awesome opportunity to be part of the founding team! Questions - ping us!
CamOn's new AR project to enjoy the FIFA World Cup
To enjoy the FIFA World Cup 2022, Coca-Cola Mexico launched a promotion in which consumers can take home a doll representing a player from Mexico’s national football team.
These dolls were created by the promotional agency CAPSA and arrived in a box with a QR code. When scanned, the user accesses the Web 360 developed by CamOn, which includes different interactions.
First, users can visualize the players’ characters in Augmented Reality and they can also play penalty kicks. If they score three goals or more, they access a Web AR bonus where they can take a photo with the cup.
In addition, the experience lets users download GIFs with special World Cup slogans.
CamOnApp is now CamOn
Just like Augmented Reality, CamOnApp keeps evolving. After 8 years in the business, they’re renewing their image to reflect their internal transformation.
The company started in 2014 when Augmented Reality was just beginning to show its full potential. At that time, the only way to experience AR was through a mobile application. Thus CamOnApp, a pioneering Augmented Reality company, was born, providing solutions through its own platform.
Augmented Reality has evolved in several ways, but the main one is that this technology can now be experienced directly from a web browser. Thanks to this new format, Augmented Reality experiences are easier to share. This significantly improves the user experience and makes AR more accessible to a much broader public.
Undoubtedly, these advances also translated into higher user engagement and conversions. That's why this technology is currently in the spotlight, generating a great opportunity for growth that CamOnApp has been able to take advantage of.
First, they have expanded and diversified the types of immersive experiences they produce, ranging from SLAM, Web 360, AR 3D Viewer, and Image Tracking to Social XR. With all these options, they offer comprehensive, creative, and innovative solutions tailored to each business’s needs and interests.
This allowed them to scale their services globally. Their solutions have made a difference for more than 200 companies in LATAM, EMEA, USA and Asia. These include Disney, Telefónica, AB InBev, Coca-Cola, Nestlé, Nike, L’Oréal, Globant, and Publicis, to name a few.
To date, they have developed more than 500 Augmented Reality projects in more than 20 countries, targeting different verticals such as FMCG, Entertainment, Food & Beverage, Advertising, and Education.
As part of this process, their team of professionals has also grown. Today they are a group of over 30 experts with a passion for immersive technologies, 3D design, and product development. Every day they are working to create innovative projects that increase their clients’ reach and revenues.
All this internal evolution challenged them to renew and restructure. After 8 incredible years of work and growth, they are proud of their position as a leading Augmented Reality company. That's why they decided to create a new website that reflects who they are today.
CamOnApp grew along with Augmented Reality and they needed to reflect their internal evolution to the outside world: CamOn is the product of that transformation.
CamOnApp evolved to continue providing the best solutions to their customers and the whole community. They are renewing themselves so that everyone can witness that evolution.
Arcturus Unveils a New Beta Tool Designed to Fuel Virtual Production, XR and More
Volumetric video pioneer Arcturus released several updates for its industry-leading HoloSuite platform, including a new beta feature developed to connect volumetric video clips, and seamlessly blend them together. The first of its kind, content creators can use the feature to populate full virtual production scenes with real people, build live-action branching narratives with no gaps and offer original experiences for the metaverse using people instead of CG avatars.
Dr Bianca Wright appointed as Chair of VR/AR Association's Metaverse for Good Committee
We are thrilled to have Dr Bianca Wright help lead our community and chair our Metaverse for Good Committee. As part of this role, Dr Wright will host our Online Meets with guest speakers and the committee will create best practices and guidelines for our industry.
Dr Bianca Wright is passionate about investigating the possibilities, challenges and risks of new and emerging technologies including immersive: XR, virtual reality, augmented reality, mixed reality and gaming, particularly in the context of tech for good. She has led and worked on a range of projects in academia and industry, most recently focusing on immersive technologies, including the Google Digital News Initiative-funded project Playing the News VR: Coventry Blitz and the development of a unit in Tech for Good mobile app development for the Prince’s Trust. Bianca is the Curriculum Lead: Immersive (Associate Professor - Academic) at Coventry University and leads the immersive strategy for the Faculty of Arts and Humanities.
An award-winning technology journalist and analyst whose work has appeared in consumer and trade magazines and websites in the US, the UK, Australia, South Africa and Europe, Bianca was first runner-up in the print business magazine category at the 2002 Telkom ICT Journalist of the Year Awards. She also won second place in the 2002 AISI Media Awards special category IDRC Award For Reporting on Research and Innovation. She has written several white papers about technology and business and has covered the technology industry for publications such as IDG Connect, CIO, and Nearshore Americas. In 2012, she was selected as one of the Top 40 Under 40 business achievers by the Nelson Mandela Bay Business Chamber. She completed the VR Mobile 360 Developer nanodegree through Udacity. Bianca's PhD focused on serious games and gamification.
“I am honoured to be joining VRARA’s Metaverse for Good committee. We all have a responsibility to build an inclusive, sustainable metaverse that serves the needs of all and works to address the very real challenges we face as a society and as a community. I look forward to working with the team and all VRARA members to help make this vision of a metaverse for good a reality.”
College Football Playoff to Deliver Mobile Augmented Reality Experience for Fans Via Technology from ImagineAR, SIDEARM Sports
College football fans around the world can share in the celebration of the 2023 College Football Playoff (CFP) National Championship by taking photos and videos with the virtual CFP National Championship Trophy that can be instantly shared exclusively during national championship weekend via the official CFBPlayoff mobile app.
This new mobile augmented reality (AR) innovation is made possible by ImagineAR and SIDEARM Sports on behalf of the College Football Playoff. ImagineAR Inc. (IP:CSE) (IPNFF:OTCQB) is an AR company that works across sports teams, businesses and enterprises to create their own AR mobile campaigns. SIDEARM Sports, the official athletic website and mobile app provider of the CFP, is the nation’s leading digital fan engagement platform and a LEARFIELD company.
“We are honored to work with the College Football Playoff and ImagineAR to launch this immersive engagement opportunity for fans around the world,” said Jeff Rubin, President of SIDEARM Sports. “The CFP is the culminating moment of the college football season, and we’re excited to commemorate this special time with such a unique and interactive opportunity.”
IGS 2022 Miami: XR Today Expert Round Table
The Immerse Global Summit (IGS) 2022 took place in Miami 5 to 7 December, and concluded its final days in the sunny backdrop of Miami Beach’s historic Fontainebleu Hotel.
Hosted by the Summit’s President and Founder Nathan Pettyjohn, Virtual and Augmented Reality Association’s (VRARA) Kris Kolo, and many others from the IGS and VRARA teams, the organisation’s latest iteration rallied some of the tech industry’s most prized companies, thought leaders, and experts.
The event also kicked off a series of stellar keynote speeches, workshops, product demos, and other feature presentations for the global tech industry. Many products showcased at the conference included flagship releases of VR headsets and solutions such as the Meta Quest Pro, Magic Leap 2, Lenovo ThinkReality A3, and AT&T’s Volumetric Video Photo Booth, among many others.
XR Today is honoured to summarise several featured stories from the meeting as part of our final event coverage of the global virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) industry.
For our IGS summary, XR Today is pleased to welcome,
Timothy Allen, Founder, Chief Executive, and President, Oberon Technologies
Veronica Costa Orvalho, Founder, Chief Executive, Didimo
Khalid al-Muawad, Chief Experience Officer, Midwam
Casey Jensen, Vice President of US Sales and Marketing, rooom
Tony Wang, Co-Founder and Chief Revenue Officer, Agora
Marcin Klimek, Chief Executive, Exploded View
The six interviewees shared with XR Today their greatest takeaways from the global XR industry, challenges and hopes for the industry, and analysis of the future of the Metaverse.
Oberon Technologies
Allen discussed the benefits of immersive learning platforms, citing a company study on the return on investment (ROI) for clients via VR training. It revealed a fourfold increase in learner retention rates and long-term ones of up to 90 percent.
Regarding customer experiences (CX), Oberon also reported a 50 percent decrease in dissatisfied customers and 9.9 percent decrease in customer handling times, indicating both hard and soft ROIs.
He added his firm assessed industry averages and worked with customers to specify savings targets. According to his finds, energy industries such as nuclear power plants could save millions of dollars by expediting repair times, deploying technicians for less time, and avoiding accidents such as radiation exposure and other environmental risks.
Regarding upskilling challenges across multiple verticals, Allen discussed the costs and expenses of creating immersive learning experiences. Such tools needed a strong ROI to “compensate for those costs,” namely by reducing risks and creating on-demand training solutions.
Oberon’s virtualised training for power plants and other dangerous facilities “helped with the ROI for [their clients’] investments,” he stated, adding it was key to work with heavy industry companies “where the safety of communities, workers, the environment” was a “critical factor.”
Explaining further, he said,
“That’s been our focus: anything we can do to help customers reduce the amount of time in a critical incident or dangerous insert, or avoid hazards, is the kind of savings areas we’re exploring. It’s more soft savings, but in the end, it’s hard savings for everyone”
Allen added that instructors could conduct training modules remotely and learners no longer needed to visit secure facilities or in-person instruction with potentially dangerous or costly mistakes.
Digital twins used in the trainer provided one-eighth inch accuracy of facilities to familiarise learners with environments before travelling or working there. Delivering VR experiences and support for trainees, including service support, certification training, and operation instructions streamlined educational modules to fully prepare learners for their jobs.
The platform also supported legacy data for previous standard operation procedures (SOPs) and other VR content. This avoided fully redesigning content and combining old and new data.
rooom
Jensen first explained that rooom founder Hans Elsner originally created the solution as a 3D platform with advanced 3D compression technologies.
Later, the company moved towards the Metaverse, with the COVID-19 pandemic triggering rooom’s demand to develop immersive spaces complete with new 3D technologies.
rooom’s event platform “took off” due to its immersive capabilities to host products, 3D assets, and enterprises in virtual showrooms, leading to events, festivals, training modules, and other use cases.
When asked about the benefits of using rooom’s virtual spaces, Jensen stated the platform was “all about sustainability.”
Continuing, he explained,
“We’re working with a lot of companies to cut down travel and training costs. Currently, we have a big problem in the US and abroad with hiring and retraining, with constant turnover rates. many companies are automating their upskilling procedures, which is standard across many industries. We’re helping companies collaborate and train in virtual spaces to cut costs due to constant retraining”
He stated rooom also aimed to offer products across verticals, rather than salespeople showcasing devices at physical events.
The platform’s virtual labs provided a full range of device demos, including explosive views, product descriptions, and real-time product demos.
Following last year’s beta testing, rooom won several innovation contests with Deutsche Telekom. The new comprehensive system hosts full-scale events, virtual CX stores, product views, and other functions.
Explaining further, he said,
“We’ve done a lot of interesting demos with clients to learn how to make the more fluid, nut just for internal and business matter, but also for consumers. We wanted to bridge the gap between the real and virtual world while helping with customer service and product knowledge”
Additionally, the enterprise aims to “be a place where brands and different companies can get involved.” Such companies included those monitoring brands such as Nike and Gucci, who have adopted their own Metaverse strategies, and find metaverse adoption overwhelming.
Continuing, he said,
“Forbes called us the ‘WordPress of the Metaverse, and we want to make it a really democratised platform. We want to make it easier for people to test and adopt these solutions, understand metrics, experiment and take baby steps into it. We’re building the foundation right now for, down the road, when we have interoperability and a true Metaverse.
The Jena, Germany-based firm has also collaborated with the Khronos Group and Metaverse Standards Forum along with some of the world’s top tech firms.
Didimo
Didimo’s Orvalho started by discussing her company’s recent Series A fundraiser in early November, which she said was a “huge milestone” amid the ongoing global economic outlook.
The funding, worth $7.1 million USD, was proof the company had built technologies essential to the future of the Metaverse, she said. It would also use the funds to “put the product in the hands of [its] customers” by scaling technologies and building commercial teams.
When asked about its solutions, Orvalho explained that Didimo’s technologies take selfie photos of objects or people. Using AI-generated algorithms, she stated the platform automatically uploads 1,000s of photos to create digital avatars “even from people that don’t exist.”
Future interaction models would become a “digital extension” of users and offer a virtual identity for metaverse shopping, gaming, and try-on clothing.
Citing one of her favourite use cases, she predicted that in five years’ time people with disabilities could use the technology to reconstruct faces or bodies while interacting in the Metaverse. Additional use cases included educational purposes, where avatars could interact with real-time language translations.
Orvalho added such efforts would lead to “building the next interaction model to support new ways of communicating.”
Explaining further, she said that people typically idealised their online personalities by applying photo filters, adding,
“We choose which represents us the best because we can customise, personalise, add makeup and tattoos to, change garments, and other adjustments. We provide the fundamental elements, and then users can personalise them for different environments, whether for work or leisure.
When asked why enterprises were leveraging avatar technologies, the executive said it was “very industry-dependent.” Some used avatars for fashion try-ons to reduce the cost of returns and avoid overproduction by allowing companies to scale production to order.
In gaming or social metaverses, people could also use avatars to reduce costs related to creating digital characters. Artists previously used very expensive hardware and software to create digital assets, namely with delayed throughput. Didimo’s technologies eliminated this by producing avatars “at scale.”
She added: “What we have built is a single destination for creating digital characters across verticals.”
She explained two main processes when asked whether avatars would incorporate future technologies such as blockchain, cryptocurrencies, and other digital assets.
From a top-down perspective, technology firms needed to create “complex” systems for digital assets with “the geometry, rig, animation, shaders,” and other tools.
She said,
“It’s really complex and you need to provide it to companies creating the games and [platforms] for metaverse experiences and integrate the technologies for compatibility. We use open standards and are completely interoperable”
Regarding consumer adoption, she said that interoperable platforms could embed digital characters on multiple environments and metaverses, leading to the integration of blockchain technologies, increased identity protections, and other security measures.
According to Orvalho, people only needed to provide selfies or descriptors for creating digital characters with AI-backed voice commands, allowing users to secure and own their identities. Users could also choose where their avatars would interact with digital assets in different environments.
Midwam
According to AlMuawad, Midwam’s solutions were key to developing Saudi Arabia as a strategic tech and metaverse incubator. He explained in his interview that the Middle Eastern country was playing a major role in incubating emerging technologies and firms dedicated to the industry.
The company, founded in 2012, believed that Middle Eastern projects and the global market strengthened the industry with numerous experiences and knowledge for developing projects.
Midwam currently has a 30-person-strong team from multiple backgrounds with over 20 years of combined experience. It develops immersive experiences based on knowledge across verticals such as entertainment, tourism, culture, sports, and others.
Speaking on Midwam’s industry and global partnerships, he explained that real-time 3D (RT3D) platforms such as Unity Technologies and Epic Games’ Unreal Engine had collaborated “for many years” and were “reliable companies.”
He continued, stating,
“We like to work with a lot of partners because we are a local company with local knowledge. We deal with local sectors and each of them require subject matter experts for consulting projects. We have technology partners depending on the type of development for each project and exchange programmes for knowledge transfers”
AlMuawad added that Midwam worked with firms like Unity for training programmes that “uplifted the capabilities [of] developers in Saudi,” along with tech hubs in Dubai, the United States, and others.
Concluding on the direction of the Metaverse, he stated that it was an exciting space to have and a “reality check” on people’s transactions, behaviour, communications, and connections.
Developing the industry would take more time for people to “understand the real dynamic of that space,” he said.
He continued that younger generations would offer added value with enthusiasm, but would need “a little bit more time for people to adopt and understand what’s possible in that space.”
He concluded that companies such as Midwam could help create interesting developments to educate people in the space and boost their interactions.
ExplodedView
Similarly to Didimi, ExplodedView’s Klimeck explained the importance of avatar firms, stating that, for the first time, people could have “actual representations” of themselves to navigate the Metaverse.
Platforms like Ready Player Me were developing interoperable, bespoke platforms for avatars, creating a new economy around the concept.
Speaking further, he said,
“All the experts at [the IGS] agreed that avatars would become a ‘thing.’ They were all using them, including myself, and my avatar is an expansion of my personality [in the Metaverse]. Imagine a future where every single person uses an avatar [to interact]”
Avatar technologies received more funding to create a new economy for enterprises. This created new business models to reach people “in a completely new way.”
He explained that younger audiences had become accustomed to “living with their avatars since their infancy” and building them from the beginning, from three to four years old.
Continuing, he said,
“For brands to expand and explore opportunities across younger demographics, [they must understand that this] will generate much of the revenue in the very near future”
He segued to his firm’s Web3 technologies, including face, hand, and eye-tracking, stating research conducted roughly two years ago had built and developed frameworks for Google’s ARCore and Apple’s iOS ARKit. Such platforms provided live data for face tracking, including facial expressions, eye movement, and other features. Currently, ExplodedView is iOS exclusive.
The company focused on developing its quality of content and expressions due to positive feedback to create added realism.
ExplodedView also aimed to build emerging technologies such as AI and machine learning (ML) but needed to determine the best applications for such tools. Currently, face tracking for platforms like MediaPipe did not function interoperably, presenting new challenges for developers.
Explaining further, he said,
“Most don’t consider that [one of the world’s main platforms] only gives you six frames per second, and is sometimes unusable. Face tracking and camera resolutions need to improve. Meta’s face tracking is a game-changer for communication [which was] a completely different level of communication.”
Companies developing solutions similar to HTC VIVE’s lip-tracking tools would deepen immersion and lead to greater levels of realism for avatar development.
Concluding, Klimeck discussed the potential of deeper emerging technology integration for avatars in the Metaverse, by solving similar current and future problems. He said he was also fortunate to see “the development of mobile devices from the very beginning” as an example of previous challenges.
Conversely, ethics were an important concern for developers to avoid discrimination based on physical appearances, similar to passport travel and others forms of transport.
Explaining, Klimeck said in the interview,
“The Avatar itself will be treated as part of a user’s identity. Systems will not validate the avatar itself, but the blockchain-based records behind them. In reality,m you get your passport assigned in the future, but what happens when you have different avatars? A person can fake a passport, but cannot have multiple versions using different passports. If a person has up to 20 or more avatars with each doing something, and one committing a crime, do you ban one or all of the avatars?”
He concluded that many people were not concerned enough about privacy. As avatars received more functionality in the Metaverse, people would value them more as an extension of themselves.
The trigger would come as people increasingly valued these identities, avatars, and creative content as further discussions took place in future events.
Agora
Speaking to XR Today for the first time since his keynote speech at the Real-Time Engagement (RTE) 2022, Wang stated the event was “a very successful one” and that future ones would remain “globally distributed, decentralised, and immersive.”
Agora would also also advance its full-release solution stack, covering technologies such as spatial, high definition (HD), and ambisonic audio formats, as well as video latency for broadcasting, voice-powered apps, and others. The company also planned a full-stack solution for app developers “as the content creator for the web age.”
He added: “We believe that if you have five, ten, or even 1,000 apps, the industry will begin to take off and everybody will benefit downstream at the hardware level.”
Agora also has numerous companies exploring the Metaverse with new technologies, which aimed to empower content creators, metaverse platforms, and democratise Web3 solutions.
He also stated the Metaverse needed to supercede national boundaries, political events, and other differences. Wang added,
“We have the chance in the virtual world to form a new community — one that is purely organised in a distributed global fashion, based on passions and common interests. Despite national boundaries, people will gather in communities, sometimes from 50 different countries. Cryptocurrencies and decentralised finance (DeFi) would provide the base to sustain such communities, without fiat currencies in the distant future”
Secondly, he added that nations were moving away from globalisation 1.1, which had “bugs” similar to many technologies. Nations were also retreating back to older, protected systems, he said.
Despite this, the online world would merge in an “unprecedented way,” and Agora would provide software developer kits (SDKs) to build the Metaverse as a “dream weaver of the future world.” Developers would use their passion and visions to build solutions to break communication barriers.
Live translation software would also facilitate such measures, allowing unprecedented interactions. This would also lead to new monetisation models outside YouTube or Facebook advertisements.
Regarding the potential of the Metaverse to empower content creators with new devices and hardware maturity, he said that changing user behaviours and hardware was difficult.
Wang congratulated companies attending the event for their efforts to develop hardware via research and development (R&D), prototyping, and mass production, which was “pushing this industry forward.”
He also called for the industry to build standards for greater interoperability. Citing Elon Musk’s patenting and developing auto-drive technologies, he said the tech magnate “advanced the entire industry with one base standard.”
These breakthroughs would “quickly promote consumer adoption,” which he urged the industry to address and expedite adaptation. Concluding, he said: “We all believe we have the conviction that this will happen. The challenge is when and how.”
EndeavorXR’s Amy Peck Notes Top 2023 Trends
Post originally appearing on xrtoday.com by Demond Cureton.
XR Today spoke to Amy Peck, Founder and Chief Executive of EndeavorXR about the top tech trends in 2023 on the sidelines of her keynote speech at the Immerse Global Summit (IGS) 2022 in Miami.
EndeavorXR is a strategy and consulting firm for virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) solutions and symbiotic frontier technologies. Peck is also the Board Chair of Prospera Women and hosts the Future Construct podcast.
Keynote 2023 Tech Trends
Amy recalled some top takeaways from her keynote speech, many of which explained the dichotomy between metaverse creation for consumer and enterprise-facing companies.
She stated that the Metaverse and Web3 were becoming overused terms. Many companies aimed to determine their future products and services, outline benchmarks, and apply their strategies to the “real-world limitations of [Web3] technology.”
Peck added that companies should have a more than 20-year outlook on their strategies that also include environmental, social, and governance (ESG) goals.
Explaining further, she said,
“A lot of companies have very lofty goals for 2030, and they won’t reach them without these technologies. They offer not only the opportunity for critical monitoring with digital twins and artificial intelligence (AI)-backed, also closed-loop optimisation strategies, but can also simulate outcomes so that you can improve processes today and meet those goals in the future, which is the near future”
IGS 2022 Miami Takeaways
Speaking on the biggest takeaway from the event, Peck stated that many speakers explored similar themes such as digital twin optimisation strategies, return on investment (ROI), and others.
ROI strategies targeted “futuristic innovation,” allowing enterprises to explore “the best results” as it was crucial to receiving further investments.
Companies also needed to push innovation strategies and build “an innovation pipeline that is cross-functional” not limited to innovation hubs and research and development (R&D) teams.
Tech Trends for 2023
Speaking on the emerging trends for 2023, Peck explained that sectors in social media, fashion, entertainment, and games would intersect with a “multimedia approach” to engage consumers.
Digital twin technologies were rising as emerging trends, namely from major tech firms such as NVIDIA, Unity Technologies, and others. Enterprises were expected to adopt digital twin and 3D asset management strategy, she added.
Continuing, she said,
“I think what we’ll see in 2023 is a lot more companies plugging in, probably at the 3D asset phase, especially for companies that already have 3D pipelines, like consumer packaged goods (CPG) companies or retail and design. More broadly, companies may leverage digital twins of offices, manufacturing lines and retail spaces a lot more. I think mobile augmented reality (AR) will also get exponentially better.”
Smiling, she added, “and I really hope that, in 2023, we don’t hear the word phygital anymore”
EndeavorXR Updates
Peck later segued to updates with her company, EndeavorXR, explaining it had always worked with larger original equipment manufacturers (OEMs) such as HTC, Magic Leap, Meta Platforms, and others.
Doing so allowed her clients to “keep a pulse on the hardware [side],” but her firm also explored front-end strategies to assess current company progress, their existing tech capabilities, and future products and services.
She recommended companies work towards internal development capabilities, even if just a single Technology Director to manage external relationships while ensuring future systems were interoperable with legacy systems.
Current and Future Challenges
Speaking on the “hype cycle” of the XR industry, she explained that post-COVID, many companies were “still reeling.” After restrictions eased, people could travel, see each other, and have meaningful conversations again about the industry’s future.
She added that many companies in the tech industry had just begun to ‘scratch the surface’ of collaborating in virtual environments. For her, immersive platforms were improving despite the limitations of current hardware devices.
Platforms such as Spatial allowed people to collaborate via the internet, mobile devices, headsets, and others, providing a “persistent environment.”
She said: “That’s really a big deal. I would have liked to see more of that and less of the hype cycle, where everything is called the Metaverse or Web3 while conflating the two terms.”
Peck also cited events “detrimental to the industry” such as fraud, rug pulls, the failure of FTX and other cryptocurrencies and exchanges, as well as “false scarcity with non-fungible tokens (NFTs)” and the crypto market collapse.
Continuing, she criticised some trends in the industry, stating,
“It doesn’t help the industry because again, I think [people] have lumped everything into the umbrella term of ‘Metaverse’. We as an industry haven’t done a good job of educating the general public on what the Metaverse, Web3, VR, AR, the blockchain, AI, and other underlying technologies mean at a very high, decoder-ring level that is accessible to everyone. I don’t think we did a good job in 2022 – I hope we do a better job in 2023”
Concluding, she said it was important for the industry to follow industry experts who are “really deep in the space” rather than just technology influencers.
She concluded: “Whether you’re a company or just an individual interested in the technology, find as many case studies and subject matter experts (SMEs) as possible to help you build a well-rounded understanding of technology.”
Snapdragon AR2 to Empower AR Devices, Qualcomm Says
Post originally appearing on xrtoday.com by Demond Cureton.
The Immerse Global Summit 2022 Miami concluded on Wednesday, where some of the biggest players in the tech industry gathered to explore the future of Web3 technologies. Qualcomm Technologies has remained at the forefront of developing top-tier solutions for the global virtual, augmented, mixed, and extended reality (VR/AR/MR/XR) industry, with its latest solution designed for AR devices.
The San Diego, California-based firm has become synonymous with delivering XR solutions capable of untethering head-mounted displays (HMDs) from PC.
This has allowed companies to access standalone headsets with the latest specs along with major support for software development via the company’s Snapdragon Spaces platform.
XR Today spoke to Brian Vogelsang, AR Product Leader at Qualcomm, on the sidelines of the event about ongoing updates with its latest product release, the Snapdragon AR2 platform.
The AR2 is set to empower the smart glasses sector with an innovative, standalone, and sleek processing platform to deliver the next generation of smart glass devices.
XR Today: What have been your biggest takeaways from the IGS 2022 Miami?
Brian Vogelsang: My biggest takeaway has been the excitement across the industry. It’s been a challenging couple of years due to the pandemic.
The tech industry responded by rallying as a community and a group. It was amazing to get together with everyone and see renewed interest and engagement.
XR Today: Qualcomm recently debuted its Snapdragon AR devices platform. What are its features and what it aims to achieve?
Brian Vogelsang: The AR2 is in its first generational stage in a series of processors to enable AR. We wanted to help facilitate lightweight, wearable glasses with comfortable form factors, allowing people to use them for longer periods of time.
We also wanted to unlock that capability in AR smart glasses and spent some time thinking about achieving such goals. Qualcomm concluded that it needed to build dedicated processors for AR.
Previously, we had built XR processors for VR and AR, but through our engineering efforts and researching market demand, we realised it needed dedicated processing and spent several years working on the technology.
The platform contains multiple processing chips and we think it will empower both enterprise and consumer AR smart glasses with form factors capable of achieving mass adoption.
XR Today: Do you believe AR or VR will drive mass adoption across the XR industry? What are your general thoughts on this?
Brian Vogelsang: Over the past couple of years, we’ve seen tremendous adoption of VR for commercial use cases in verticals like health and wellness, training and immersive learning, and others.
VR has gone through a rapid transition from a primarily consumer-focused, tethered device for gaming and entertainment, to standalone headsets in similar verticals.
Before 2019, headsets were largely tethered to PCs, and Qualcomm helped to ‘cut the cord’ and enable the next evolution of standalone devices.
This began with devices from Lenovo, HTC VIVE, Pico Interactive, and Meta Platforms, so the growth we’ve seen for consumer use cases has been very strong since then.
The AR market has been primarily focused on assisted reality, or devices with monocular displays and sometimes cameras, but are wearable computers for tasks such as remote guidance.
With it, experts can see what you see to guide professionals with step-by-step work instructions via a micro display similar to Google Glass or Vuzix. Other devices from Magic Leap and Microsoft’s HoloLens headsets offer deeper levels of immersion.
We saw an opportunity to create a new category between the two with devices featuring AR viewers. These are AR smart glasses that are tethered to smartphones, which debuted in 2019.
The smart glasses tether via a USB cable to process most of the computing on the smartphone and content is viewed on the head-mounted displays (HMDs).
We also developed perception technologies for hand, eye, and position tracking in the physical environment. This allowed smart glasses and smartphones to synchronise seamlessly.
These are devices like the Lenovo A3 and similar, and we think that is the future. With the AR2, we wanted to determine how to make truly wireless devices and enable broader adoption of immersive technologies for enterprises and consumers.
XR Today: Snapdragon Spaces has been one of the major driving forces behind accelerating the XR industry. Can you tell us more about this?
Brian Vogelsang: Snapdragon Spaces is Qualcomm’s way of delivering technologies for original equipment manufacturers (OEMs). We’re now bringing that directly to developers, who can download the software development kit (SDK) for Unity or Unreal Engine.
Developers can gain access to its deep AR, perception, hand-tracking, 3D reconstruction, and other technologies. These allow them to create experiences on our devices and we are excited to work with the developer community on these technologies.
We made them generally available in June this year and, more recently, announced its expansion to support not just AR, but also VR and MR. With Snapdragon Spaces, we support optical see-through AR smart glasses. These range from the Lenovo A3 [and Magic Leap 2]. We’re also expanding into MR and AR, allowing developers to build an AR device with greater interoperability with MR headsets.
Final Thoughts on the Future of XR, AR Devices
Vogelsang added he was enthusiastic about the momentum across the XR industry and community. Along with its efforts with the AR2 and Snapdragon Spaces, the Meta Quest Pro, Lenovo VRX, Magic Leap 2, and Pico 4 and Pico 4 Enterprise had announced along with a “new wave of headsets.”
He concluded that future AR2-enabled glasses were on the way, so the community was “ramped up about” it and Qualcomm was “ready to build for this as well.”
The IGS 2022 Miami took place 5 to 7 December at Miami Beach’s iconic Fontainebleau Hotel and united some of the world’s most renowned tech firms for the future of XR.
Companies such as Meta Platforms, Lenovo, Magic Leap, Qualcomm, Unity Technologies, Sony, and many others attended the event to explore the future of immersive technologies, host workshops, and launch panel discussions on Web3 solutions reshaping the future of computing.
