More VR/AR companies make Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies list. Fast Company listed 10 companies this year in its Virtual/Augmented Reality sector: 1. Snap for its Lenses. 2. Adobe for adding AR authoring to its software suite. 3. HTC Vive for being HTC Vive. 4. Gannett for telling the Trump border wall story with VR. 5. Strivr for creating immersive experiences for brands. 6. The VOID for location based VR with Disney’s unforgettable IP. 7. Firstborn for creating branded mixed reality experiences. 8. Zappar for easy to use AR/VR creation tools. 9. Positron for its VR chair built for cinematic experiences. 10. The Raymond Corporation for VR forklift training.
Fast Company’s Most Innovative Companies of 2019 lists Unity Technologies at the top for enterprise. Unity has long been used by game developers, both indie and AAA, to build games. In recent years, as the engine’s feature set and usability have grown, non-game use cases have arisen such as training, education, and VR/AR applications. For this consistent innovation beyond the bounds of its original intention as an easy to use game engine, Fast Company placed Unity Technologies as number 18 on its top 50 Most Innovative Companies list, and number one in the enterprise sector.
HTC Vive announces Vive Focus Plus with 6DoF controller for Summer 2019. While an exact price has yet to be announced, the Vive Focus Plus is HTC Vive’s answer to standalone VR. The Plus comes with improved optics, a more comfortable head strap, and wireless six degrees of freedom controllers, similar to the upcoming Oculus Quest. The Vive Focus Plus is being marketed as an enterprise device. Those with a Vive Focus and its 6DoF controller dev-kit accessory can have a taste of what the Vive Focus Plus will soon deliver, as our friend Antony Vitillo experimented with recently.
Star Wars: Project Porg comes to Magic Leap One. ILMxLAB has crafted another Star Wars experience for XR, and this time it’s as a virtual pet. Magic Leap One owners can soon enjoy caring for cute Porg creatures, as seen in Star Wars: The Last Jedi, in their living room or anywhere. C-3PO makes an appearance as well, as he attempts to teach players how to care for their new Porg pets.
Human-eye resolution VR headset Varjo VR-1 launches for enterprise. The fixed-foveated display headset sports the highest pixel density of any VR headset on the market to date. Utilizing a dual display technique, where a smaller higher resolution display is positioned in the center of a larger lower resolution display, the headset can pump out impressive details in the 20 degrees around the center of a user’s vision. Priced at $6000 with a $1000 yearly service licensing fee, the product is aimed solely at enterprise use cases.
Vive teases more Cosmos headset details showing off the upcoming headset’s controllers. The small teaser tweeted out by HTC Vive shows a short clip of the controllers being used with the new headset, and mentions that they will be compatible with existing VR games and experiences. Not much of a tease tweeting out obvious features. Thanks for not disappointing at least, but let’s hope for some more clarity on features and a release date soon.
Upskill’s Skylight AR platform coming to smartphones and tablets. The Skylight suite, originally built for AR headsets such as Microsoft’s HoloLens, will soon work with iOS and Android devices. The move by Upskill aims to expand the use cases for Skylight AR to devices every worker carries with them today, as well as the AR headsets of the future.
"This Week in XR" is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
