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Charlie Fink

Good morning XR! So much news to cover this week, it’s hard to keep up. I remember the tidal wave of new website announcements in the mid-1990s during the first Internet boom. This is that all over again.

Charlie Fink

Magic Leap’s Developer Conference shows us the magic. It was definitely worth taking two red-eye flights to experience 48 hours of nerd Woodstock: the Magic Leap’s first Developer Conference. There was an unmistakable festival feel to the event. Founder & CEO Rony Abovitz and his phalanx of Leapers, as ML employees are called, reveled in their new freedom to openly talk about their plans for the new spatial computing platform, which has broad entertainment, convenience, communication and enterprise potential.  ML must convince hundreds of developers to populate their app store before the full commercial launch with ATT mobile next year.

Charlie Fink

Rovio released a full-featured AR version of its popular Angry Birds mobile game that’s a joy to play in augmented reality, supplying dozens if not hundreds of hours of entertainment. Magic Leap proudly unveiled WETA’s Dr. Grordbot’s Invaders, an art piece of historical science fiction as much as a game built for mixed reality. As a hit at the conference was Meow Wolf, the Sante Fe art collective that makes off-beat theme-park-like attractions, which debuted a mech experience that uses the ML1. The experience will be available to the public in its new Las Vegas location when it opens next year. They are working on a Denver location.  https://www.forbes.com/sites/charliefink/2018/10/10/how-magic-leap-is-making-the-magic/#634f7bc896a3

Headphones built for Magic Leap One and designed for AR experiences launch. Sennheiser's AMBEO AR One in-ear headphones are the first officially licensed audio accessory in the Works with Magic Leap program. The headphones are designed specifically for spatial audio and the accompanying AMBEO Augmented Audio Lab software allow developers to create 3D soundscapes. Utilizing active noise cancellation the headphones can mix both external environmental audio with the virtual world. AMBEO AR One headphones are $250 and will be available in November 2018 through Magic Leap. http://sennheiser-ambeo.com/arone/

Ubiquity6

Disney selects Ubiquity6 for its prestigious Accelerator program. In its first foray into AR, Disney and U6 will working together to bring people together in physical spaces using shared AR. It works something like this: Disney invests a small amount in the new partners selected for the program, providing technical support and the opportunity to collaborate with the company. U6 hopes to implement it’s AR Cloud solution, which can invisibly geolocate interactive content that users reveal through smartphones, throughout entertainment behemoth’s vast outdoor empire of theme parks around the world. The program hugely benefitted free roam VR LBE The VOID last year as it got access to ILMx Lab, Star Wars and two prime real estate locations in its California and Florida parks.

The Disney agreement stresses strict confidentiality, so U6 CEO Anjney Midha could only tell me that Ubiquity6 shared AR experiences will be “something” with the Wreck it Ralph franchise and that “the partnership goes beyond games and floating information above retail shelves, ‘classroom lessons’ and "large public spaces."

Charlie Fink

SPACES establishes itself as a player in LBVR. After a harrowing four hour round trip journey to The Irvine Spectrum mall, I got to play their Terminator experience. Whle the game offers the usual free roam fun, the most unique aspect is the mapping of the player onto a Terminator exoskeleton and providing a video afterward. SPACES is the theme-park design shop which spun off from Dreamworks before its acquisition by NBC Universal. The company just announced a second location will open Tokyo’s entertainment district, Shibya Crossing. CEO Shiraz Akmal told me the company has ambitious roll-out plans for next year with international joint ventures and domestic franchise plans.

Exit Reality’s new X Arc system. I visited Exit Reality’s shop in LA last week as well. The company is famous for driving panel trucks outfitted with Vive room-scale VR rigs to West Coast events like VRLA. CEO Yoni Koenig shared their new, top-secret modular, location-based system, which the company will officially unveil at IAAPA in Orlando next month.

Exit has also partnered with Cyprus-based Neurogaming, to bring its free roam X Arc brings a European content library to the US for the first time. The all-in-one multiplayer LBE solution combines both physical infrastructure with digital distribution for VR experiences. Neurogaming’s PlayVR content library releases new content quarterly and boasts VR exclusive titles such as Alpha CentaVR, RevolVR, and Beat Saber. X Arc is available for pre-order now. https://exitrealityvr.com/products/x-arc/

It’s official, the HTC Vive wireless adaptor launches this week. Vive owners can now get a near free roam experience at home if they’ve got the open square footage and the new Vive pro wireless adaptor. Touting a 2.5-hour battery life, the Vive Wireless Adaptor promises easy setup for untethered room-scale gameplay with no noticeable latency. The wireless adaptor is priced at $299 for the Vive and an additional $60 for a Vive Pro attachment kit. https://www.vive.com/us/wireless-adapter/

RE’FLEKT wins the 2018 European Product Leadership Award for their AR technology. Frost & Sullivan presented the award to recognize the innovation of RE’FLEKT’s AR platform. The REFLEKT ONE platform makes it easy to use existing CAD data to enhance maintenance and repair manuals with AR. RE’FLEKT’s technology has been deployed at companies such as Bosch, Daimler, Leybold, and more. In regards to the many AR projects using RE’FLEKT’s technology, CEO and founder Wolfgang Stelzle said “To date, these cases are the largest enterprise AR cases in operation globally. We are proud that our solution is not only ready for mass adoption but are already improving the modern workplace.” https://www.re-flekt.com/

Upskill announces Skylight for Microsoft HoloLens, an enterprise mixed reality experience. Built with inspiration from Minority Report, Skylight helps industrial workers visualize large and dynamic information when and where they need it. Instructions, PDFs, images, and videos can all be presented in context with complex tasks improving worker performance by 32%. Skylight is being used by industry partners such as Boeing today, and an early access program is now open. https://upskill.io/skylight/

First Human-Eye resolution headset company raises $31m series B round led by Atomico. Varjo Technologies aims to bring human-eye resolution VR technologies to market for industrial use. With a B2B focus, Varjo is today collaborating with Airbus, Audi, Lilium, Saab, Sellen, Volkswagen, and Volvo Cars to bring VR innovation to their industries. Audi’s Jan Pfuleuger said, “Varjo’s technology is convincing and will help us to close the existing gaps and speed up our development cycles using the advantages of a continuous virtual process.” Varjo’s VR headset launches late Q4 2018. https://varjo.com/

UNTAMED ARena augmented reality battle app launches for WowWee Fingerlings. Kids can now scan their Fingerling creatures and bring them to life in AR. The creatures can be battled with friends or anonymous challengers, and taken care of as pets. UNTAMED ARena’s gameplay has kids jumping, dodging, and being physically active in a Full Body AR space. Developed by HappyGiant, UNTAMED ARena comes complete with leaderboards, unlockable new moves, and collectible creatures. https://untamed.wowwee.com/

The first two things entrepreneurs do with a new medium: toys and porn. We have not checked the latter despite constant pitches from Naughty America. That is really their name. 

Fnatic esports opens new fan hangout in Sansar. Fans of Fnatic can now immerse themselves in an intergalactic clubhouse styled virtual space. In the FNATIC META BUNKR fans can watch games with each other, meet Fnatic team members, and experience virtual events together. A first in social VR, Fnatic partnered with Sansar to design a space centered around community engagement. Benoit Pagotto, Marketing Director of Fnatic, said: “There’s no doubt that virtual reality within the world of esports is the future of the sport, so we’re incredibly excited to deliver an enhanced more engaging experience to our fans.”

https://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20181008005220/en/Fnatic-Partners-Sansar-Pioneer-New-Future-Fan

https://atlas.sansar.com/experiences/fnatic-team/fnatic-meta-bunkr?utm_expid=.Tdw0XLHjSX6EVx9pgWXrsg.0&utm_referrer=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.google.com%2F

The author would like to thank Michael Eichenseer for his editorial work on this story.

 

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