We left Augmented World Expo in Silicon Valley last week in an enterprise state of mind. Vuzix announced specs for its new M-400 monocular microdisplay for assisted reality. It's packed with features. Moverio Assist will enable users to access a low-cost subscription system for remote experts. We finally wrote about Raymond, a Toyota subsidiary that uses VR to train forklift drivers. The biggest news came out of Apple's World Wide Developer conference in San Francisco, where the company introduced important upgrades to its ARCore platform.
Vuzix M-400 announced features, price and pre-orders available. The M-400 features the Snapdragon XR1 processor and ships in September for $1,499. Early adopters who pre-order today for $1,799 will be sent a current generation M-300XL so they won’t have to wait to start utilizing the platform. The M-400 features improved voice recognition, an OLED display, and built-in GPS. While featuring the same processor as the recently announced new Google Glass, Vuzix’s M-400 sports beefier specs overall.
Apple announces ARKit 3.0 at WWDC with Microsoft’s help. To show off the new features of ARKit Microsoft took the stage and demonstrated Minecraft: Earth, an AR version of the beloved building game. With ARKit 3.0, AR apps can occlude and be occluded by humans, meaning you and your friends can stand inside your minecraft creations and watch creatures walk between. The new update also adds full body motion capture for users to control AR characters and content with their bodies. Check out this video.
Coca-Cola utilizes smart glasses at Thessaloniki’s distribution center in Greece. The pickers wear the RealWear HMT-1 and use Ubimax’s xPick software to navigate the warehouse and collect orders. The company also uses Vuzix M300XL. Huge huge case from a big brand is very validating. Coca-Cola piloted the picking program in Greece and given its success aims to expand to other distribution centers.
Samsung may soon join the AR headset race. After early success with the Samsung Gear, and current work on high end Windows Mixed Reality headsets, Samsung may announce or even launch an AR headset by year’s end. The new Galaxy S10 will feature AR hardware and capabilities the company could use in a standalone AR product.
You can now browse the web’s 3D models with Sketchfab on the Magic Leap One. Using WebXR, Magic Leap One users can now browse and view the over 3,000,000 3D models on Sketchfab using the headset’s Helio browser. Sketchfab also integrates with Spatiate, a collaborative creation tool for the ML1, so users can upload their creations directly from their device.
XRHealth and VirZOOM partner up to provide fitness solutions for healthcare providers. The partnership aims to provide fitness programs for patients and data for doctors. VirZOOM’s VR fitness solutions will be enhanced by XRHealth’s data analysis platform for healthcare professionals to have remote access to patients’ fitness data.
Mario Kart VR comes to America. The first Mario Kart VR installation in America is now open in Irvine California. Our friends at UploadVR did a wonderful write up of the experience last August in London. The new Mario Kart VR attraction launches June 12 at the VR ZONE Portal inside K1 Speed in Irvine, CA. The short of it: Mario Kart VR is fantastic.
The Auggie Award for Best in Show at AWE went to Chicken Waffle and CENTERTEC. The partners built a large XR arena with custom lighting, music, and a pile of the latest VR headsets. Experiences included a competitive multiplayer VR game Blazer League, a Baby Hands minigame filled multiplayer sandbox, holograms of Mars Curiosity Rover, and more. By expo’s end nearly 2,000 people entered the XR arena and were wowed by the experiences within.
Intellexual releases new music video as 360 degree immersive experience. The musical team behind Intellexual, Nico Segal and Nate Fox, partnered with Fever Content to create an immersive music video experience for their new song Popstar. Popstar: Reflections – An Immersive Music Video can be experienced via VR HMD or smartphone using 360 video players on Youtube or Facebook. Fever Content also created custom AR filters that recreate some effects from the video, which are available on Instagram or Snapchat.
This Week In XR is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
