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This Week In XR: VR's Big IAAPA, New Rift, Augmented Workers, Surgical Scores Mayo Clinic, Cash

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If it’s pitch dark at 7:15am that means three things: Halloween, daylight savings time, and the impending arrival of IAAPA, the massive amusement industry expo, which will take over the Orlando Convention Center November 13 - 16. VR is set to star again this year, and the announcements are already tumbling out, with Virtuix, makers of the Omni treadmill, leading the way with a major product introduction, VR Arena, and $50,000 cash to incent users to join in local and national competitions. Lots of other news caught my eye this week, so let’s get right to it.

Virtuix

Virtuix to unveil VR ARENA at IAAPA. Virtuix, the creator of the Omni, an omnidirectional treadmill for full VR immersion, has combined four of their new Omni 2.0s into a new small-footprint location-based entertainment attraction. The VR ARENA is built for a 4:1 player to attendant ratio and has accompanying software for setting up players and tracking leaderboards. VR ARENA is powered by Omniverse, Virtuix’s content platform featuring 18 games and online leaderboards. Focusing on esports to drive repeat visits, and an annual prize pool of $50,000, VR ARENA will run monthly and weekly contests for prizes. Qualified buyers can have their own VR ARENA for as low as $1,790/month.

Nomadic hosting grand opening Nov 14 at IAAPA. Nomadic’s new location-based VR installation in Orland, just down the street from the Convention Center, lets you reach out and touch the zombie-filled world of Arizona Sunshine. Nomadic blurs the line between the virtual and real with props and effects for a true mixed reality experience.

Onedome raises $3.33 million to expand location-based AR art installation and build new interactive gallery. Onedome’s The Unreal Garden is an immersive AR experience located in San Francisco featuring 10 artists who crafted interactive HoloLens experiences. Another location-based AR experience by Onedome is in the works: LMNL is an interactive gallery opening this winter on Market Street in San Francisco. Onedome plans for 10 more locations across the US over the next five years. Tickets for Onedome’s current installation The Unreal Garden can be purchased on Onedome’s website.

Hyundai’s Exoskeleton augments assembly line workers.  Developed by Hyundai’s own robotics team, workers can now wear a Hyundai Chairless Exoskeleton (H-CEX). The H-CEX is designed to reduce the fatigue of workers who work in a seated position. The robotics team, created when the company named one of its five pillars for the future as robotics, is soon to introduce the Hyundai Vest Exoskeleton (H-VEX). The H-VEX will augment jobs that require lots of arm lifting by supporting the upper body.

Hyundai

Oculus did cancel Rift 2 prior to Iribe’s departure, but an updated Rift is still on its way. Last week Brendan Iribe, co-founder of Oculus, announced his departure amidst speculation the Rift 2 has been canceled. Codenamed Caspar, the Rift 2 device was to be a complete rehaul of the PC VR Rift. Facebook seems to be shifting its focus to its new stand-alones, the Go and Quest, and has acknowledged finally that it is indeed working on some kind of AR glasses. Nonetheless, the company announced updated Rift this week. Much like the Vive Pro, the “Rift S” is said to sport higher resolution and inside-out tracking (no more light towers for tracking).

Mayo Clinic takes on surgical simulation platform from FundamentalVR. FundamentalVR’s surgical simulation platform is now being used in multiple Mayo Clinic centers to train surgeons. In addition to a three-year agreement made with Mayo Clinic. FundamentalVR just raised an additional investment of $1.4 million.

Magic Leap reduces barriers with a financing option for Magic Leap One headset. The Magic Leap One Creator Edition comes in at $2,295, a bit steep for smaller developers. Starting this week, Magic Leap offers a financing option of $96/month.

Watch holograms on Vimeo now with a Looking Glass display. In a partnership with holographic display maker Looking Glass, Vimeo now hosts holographic content alongside its video content.  Vimeo’s own Creator Labs created an app for Looking Glass users to record and capture holograms. Looking Glass owners can now stream holograms from Vimeo and record their own holograms with the Looking Glass Unity SDK. Looking Glass holographic displays start at $499.

The New York Times augments its Halloween edition with updated app. The New York Times app has had AR capabilities for a little while now, this Halloween AR piece is their 10th augmented article since February. The Halloween feature, “Monsters That Live On You,” presents viewers with an up-close look at the tiny and creepy crawly creatures that live on and around us.

XR Association shares starter guide for developers. The Global Virtual Reality Association (GVRA) created by Google, HTC Vive, Facebook and Oculus, Samsung, Sony, and STARVR to set standards and promote best practices, changed its name this week to XRA, and launched a new website, XRA.org where developers can find an “XR Primer 1.0: A Starter Guide for Developers”.

I dropped two stories earlier this week on Forbes: Unity Now Serving Mobile AR Ads, and No Headset Required, Lightform Is AR For The Real World.

"This Week in XR" is edited and written with Michael Eichenseer.

 

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