BREAKING NEWS 2:00pm PST: SXSW has been cancelled. They stubbornly held out until the last minute, and finally the City of Austin blinked. Speculation is it had to do with the peculiarities of their insurance policy. This is a bad sign. Sporting events like college basketball’s “Sweet 16,” concerts, and conferences, are all going to suffer, with billions in losses. This is so much bigger than XR. What happens to hourly service workers when no one needs service?
Web Summit’s Collision Conference set for Toronto in July has just been postponed to 2021. Instead, they’re going to organize an online conference. The Educators in VR summit on Altspace last week was surprisingly good and very well attended. Not surprisingly, Spatial.io’s Jacob Lowenstein told Forbes he is seeing a dramatic increase in inbound.
Out of home entertainment consultant and former Disney LBE executive, Kevin Williams, says the out-of-home VR business is also being impacted by the pandemic threat. “LBVR has always had hygiene concerns. It’s a full blown problem now. This is the worst possible time for self-cleaning self-service headsets to start showing up in bars.” Our bet is that Cleanbox, which provides large sanitizing boxes for LBVR and other venues, is going to have a very good year.
Google cancels I/O conference over corona virus concerns.
First look at the combat testing of the Army's HoloLens from Microsoft.
The US Military reveals their modified Hololens 2 as testing continues. Since Microsoft won the $488 Million contract from the US military back in 2018, soldiers have been testing the Hololens hands on in month long checkpoints. Each iteration has had both software and hardware tuned based on the military’s feedback, from less distracting UI to adding thermal sensors. The third checkpoint test is set for this summer, with a fourth scheduled for 2021 followed by a product delivery date of September 2021.
VIVE Pro Eye Office Arena-Bundle
Vive Pro with eye tracking now available in three enterprise level tiers. The three tiers include the Vive Pro Eye Office, the Vive Pro Eye Office - Arena Bundle, and the Vive Pro Eye. The biggest of the three, the Arena Bundle comes in at $2350 and includes the equipment necessary to setup a 10m x 10m tracking space, including four total lighthouses and a 20m long cable. The Vive Pro Eye Office at $1599 includes a Vive Pro Eye, along with improved warranties and dedicated technical support. The regular Vive Pro Eye had its price dropped to $1399.
Fologram uses AR to aid bricklayers. All Brick used an app built by Fologram to help its bricklayers working on the new Royal Hobart Hospital. Bricklayers wear AR headsets like the Hololens and see holograms depicting the entire layout of a project, down to the precise position of each individual brick. You can check out the app using a smartphone by downloading a demo from Fologram’s website.
Hopefully by June the conference hysteria will die down.
Currents New Media announces that for the first time ever it will have a conference in addition to its yearly festival. The conference, taking place June 14-16 in Santa Fe, will explore how XR and AI are shaping society this coming decade. The event has only 200 available tickets and includes keynotes and workshops from a sleuth of industry experts and creators.
Nreal adds native hand tracking to its headsets thanks to partnership with Clay AIR. Clay AIR’s software will use the cameras embedded in the front of Nreal’s headsets to track users’ hands.
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What We’re Watching
21 Minutes on how the recent computer generated Lion King was made in VR
What We’re Reading
Looking Glass CEO Shawn Frayne shares his thoughts on the holographic future.
“This Week In XR” is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
