Tech Trends top XR Stories of 2019
Home » Blog » Tech Trends » Top XR Stories of 2019

Top XR Stories of 2019

A lot has happened in the immersive space over the past 12 months. What’s in store for 2020?

If it’s true what they say that time flies when you’re having fun, then 2019 must have been a really good year for immersive tech, because here we are gearing up for the holidays and I haven’t sent a single Christmas card. Literally, where has this year gone? Still, it has been such fun looking back at all the milestones we’ve experienced in immersive computing over the past 12 months, and I actually had a hard time picking out just 25 of them to share again with you.

A pretty compelling picture is starting to emerge of the paradigm shift towards spatial computing Click To Tweet

These stories are ranked in no particular order, and are a mixture of some pretty momentous stuff that has happened in the industry and a sprinkling of use cases that illustrate how these technologies are already impacting every aspect of our lives. When taken together, a pretty compelling picture starts to emerge of the paradigm shift towards spatial computing, and as we look back at the last year and wrap up another decade, it’s a reminder of how far we’ve come, and what’s in store for the future. Will the 2020’s finally hail the age of XR? I think they very well might, and hopefully, we’ll stick together on that journey.

The Oculus Quest saw console-like engagement from users as well as strong sales Click To Tweet
The Oculus Quest was a hit

At this year’s year’s E3 conference, Facebook’s Vice President of Special Gaming Strategies Jason Rubin told audiences that the Oculus Quest was seeing “console-like” engagement from users, selling $5 million worth of content in first 2 weeks since the device started shipping back in May. In fact, the device sold out at retailers such as Amazon, Walmart and Newegg. Since then, Facebook has continued to roll out new features such as native hand tracking and Oculus Link, which allows users to experience PC VR HMD quality on the standalone headset. By October, it was reported that Oculus Quest sales were responsible for significantly boosting the company’s non-advertising sales, which jumped to $269 million during the third quarter, a 43% year-over-year increase. “Quest is growing and doing quite well. We’re selling them as fast as we can make them, the demand has been strong and the content is starting to pick up,” Mark Zuckerberg said at the time.

The HTC Vive was phased out in October Click To Tweet
HTC Vive Retires

2019 said good-bye to the headset which was largely responsible for enthusing people about the possibilities of VR in recent years. The HTC Vive was phased out in October, replaced by the Vive Cosmos, which was priced at $699. But although industry pundits such as Venturebeat’s Dean Takahash called the new HMD an “engineering marvel” it came with a number of difficult trade-offs in terms of cost, visual quality, accessibility, and mobility.

There could be challenging times ahead for Magic Leap, and this could have a negative knock-on effect for the AR industry as a whole Click To Tweet
Bumpy Road For Magic Leap

As the year draws to a close, things are looking rather worrisome for what is arguably immersive tech’s most hyped-up company. First came the news that the company had signed control of its patents to JPMorgan Chase as collateral, closely followed by announcement of a new funding round, culminating with key resignations from high-profile executives including CFO Scott Henry and Senior VP of Creative Strategy John Gaeta (a special effects industry veteran who has worked on movies such as The Matrix). Magic Leap then announced it was pivoting towards enterprise customers following damning reports of extremely weak sales. Taken together, this could signal challenging times ahead for the start-up and possibly have a negative knock-on effect for the AR industry as a whole.

Cows Like VR Too

Dairy farmers in Russia started testing Virtual Reality on their dairy cows. According to Sarah Webber, a Research Fellow in Human-Computer (and Animal-Computer) interaction at the University of Melbourne, there is little evidence that the cows appreciated the content on the same level as we might, but argued that seeing animals interacting with technology could positively impact their lives by changing our persceptions and creating an empathetic bond between people and animals.

Dairy farmers in Russia started testing Virtual Reality on their dairy cows Click To Tweet
Google Ends the Daydream

The key message to come out of Google I/O this year was that the company largely abandoned its plans to push forward the development of headsets and content for VR effectively retiring the Daydream and focusing on Augmented Reality features for the Google Lens instead.

Trippy VR

The ‘Cyberdelic Incubator’ in Melbourne, Australia, is promoting a more conscious approach to technology through immersive media. The group’s lead Carl H Smith told the Guardian that XR’s power to instigate empathy can help us create more meaningful human connections, allowing us to experience what it’s like to be another gender, or to have a mental health condition such as schizophrenia. One of the incubator’s projects “Death is Only the Beginning” even went as far as simulating a near-death experience, and was subsequently adapted for use with palliative care patients.

Immersive Masterpiece

Visitors to the Mauritshuis museum in Holland were able to use AR to step into Rembrandt’s haunting painting “The Anatomy Lesson of Dr. Nicolaes Tulp” which was painstakingly recreated – with actors standing in for each character in full period costume and makeup – and captured with 600 reflex cameras to produce 3D scans. The intention, says Dutch design agency CapitolaVR, was to ‘create a portal to the past, to the moment the painting was created.”

Visitors to the Mauritshuis museum in Holland were able to use AR to step into one of Rembrandt’s most haunting paintings Click To Tweet
#MeToo

The words of sexual assault survivor Chanel Miller were brought to life with an AR project undertaken by her fellow students at Stanford following a dispute with the university about how her ordeal should be memorialized. The “Dear Visitor” guided AR exhibit placed her own words, spoken in court, on the spot of the attack she suffered. “It goes beyond what a physical plaque could do,” says Hope Schroeder, a graduate who was part of Stanford’s augmented reality club, 4 AR/VR that developed the project.

Sony’s Next Move

Although the PSVR has proven to be the most commercially successful VR hardware to date – selling over 4.2 million units so far – there are high expectations that its next generation headset will bring significant improvements including wireless connectivity. At the same time, the company has also signaled that it is not ignoring the Augmented Reality market, launching a frankly awesome AR location-based Ghostbusters experience back in October.

The words of sexual assault survivor Chanel Miller were brought to life with an AR project Click To Tweet
Valve’s Long Game

In June Valve released its Index headset priced at a hefty $999, which got mixed reviews for providing a good experience, but only under very controlled circumstances. In short, the headset was hard work to setup properly and not very user-friendly. But the company’s ace in the pack was yet to be revealed in November, when it announced that its new Half-Life game would be released as a VR exclusive in 2020.

In June Valve released its Index headset priced at a hefty $999 Click To Tweet
Nintendo Dips it Toes Into VR 

Arguably the best-loved company in gaming, there is always excitement whenever Nintendo starts to dabble with VR, and the success of the Labo kits was proof that the company could actually have a better chance of enticing the average consumer to engage with immersive tech than some other bigger players in the space, not least because they still hold the IP for some of the world’s all-time most popular games such as Super Mario and Zelda, both of which were supported in VR.

Arguably the best-loved company in gaming, there is always excitement whenever Nintendo starts to dabble with VR Click To Tweet
Virtual Immortality 

A $2.5 million project funded by the Dallas museum and created by Steven Spielberg’s USC Shoah Foundation immortalized holocaust survivor Max Glauben as a hologram able to share his WW2 experience with future generations. The project involved a week of filming, during which Glauben was captured answering over 1,000 questions by 18 cameras placed at 9 different angles.

A $2.5 million project funded by the Dallas museum and created by Steven Spielberg's USC Shoah Foundation immortalized holocaust survivor Max Glauben as a hologram Click To Tweet
Rising From The Ashes

Following the devastating fire at Notre Dame cathedral in Paris, visitors turned to VR to experience the magnificent building and its destroyed iconic spire. Several virtual tours remain available, highlighting the potential of such immersive technology to help preserve at least the essence and significance of historical monuments for future generations.

Talk Show Fun

Jimmy Fallon has proven to be a bit of a VR champion, showcasing it in fun ways on mainstream media. In April the Tonight Show host played Beat Saber against Captain Marvel star Brie Larson, followed by a hilarious game of Virtual Reality Pictionary with Kristen Stewart, Gaten Matarazzo of Stranger Things

Jimmy Fallon has proven to be a bit of a VR champion Click To Tweet
Holographic performances

Artists have embraced immersive tech with gusto in 2019. Bjork launched her Vulnicura VR album, David Bowie’s “Ziggy Stardust” character was brought to life with real-time motion capture technology and Madonna performed at the Billboard Music awards alongside no fewer than five of her Augmented Reality personas. Meanwhile, Facebook hosted a concert by GRAMMY award-winning singer/songwriter H.E.R. and Dean Takahashi tested an app that let him remix AR audio at a live Elton John concert.

Artists have embraced immersive tech with gusto in 2019 Click To Tweet
Virtual Worship

Churches across the US are embracing technology, including conducting whole services in Virtual Reality.  “We are leaving the information age and entering the experience age of VR and AR,” said D.J. Soto, pastor of VR Church, where roughly 150 avatars regularly attend services in AltspaceVR. Soto believes these virtual churches are much more inclusive, allowing for conversations to happen which would be difficult in physical places of worship.

150 avatars regularly attend church services in AltspaceVR Click To Tweet
Snapchat

Snap has emerged as a major player in the AR space thanks to its popular filters and lenses, even releasing a Gucci-themed version of its proprietary spectacles hardware. Most significantly, however, 2019 has seen a creative community start to grow and earn substantial revenues around the format. AR lenses were used to promote blockbusters such as “X-Men: Dark Phoenix” and “Joker” or the new latest adaptation of Philip Pullman’s “His Dark Materials” as well as indie films such as Borley Rectory which turned users into a character from a classic ghost tale for Halloween.

Snap has emerged as a major player in the AR space Click To Tweet
Training for Just About Anything

By far the most compelling use case for immersive tech at the moment is in training and simulation, and those applications are virtually endless. From teaching firearms safety to Kentucky gun owners to helping train police in identifying cases of human trafficking or teaching veterans how to cope with hostile job interviews, all the way through to a “Thief Simulator” (which does exactly what it says on the tin) and even an active shooter training which was deployed in the Walmart Academy experience to help its employees prepare for such scenarios following recent shootings.

Losing One’s VRginity

No technology can be considered successful if it doesn’t attract use cases in the adult industry, so it is actually encouraging to see stories emerging such as that of porn company VRBangers charging couples around $15,000 to make their own naughty VR movie, or of Anna Petukhova, a Russian fashion model and entrepreneur who launched a global franchise of VR sex clubs called VRayu, which caters equally for men and women looking to explore their sexual fantasies in a safe virtual environment.

Anna Petukhova, a Russian fashion model and entrepreneur, launched a global franchise of VR sex clubs called VRayu Click To Tweet
Shut-Downs and Acquisitions

One notable casualty in the AR ecosystem this year was Daqri, which shut down in September in spite of raising $275 million in overall funding. There were also some significant acquisitions in the space, such as Jaunt XR being bought by Verizon, and Apple acquiring UK start-up Ikinema.

VR Therapy

A University of Barcelona study documented the therapeutic effects of virtual body swapping. Results showed that subjects holding conversations with themselves – while inhabiting an avatar of Dr. Sigmund Freud – showed improved mood compared to talking about problems in a virtual conversation with pre-scripted comments. Researchers believe that this method could be a useful tool for clinicians in the future.

A University of Barcelona study documented the therapeutic effects of virtual body swapping Click To Tweet
MacGyver Escape room

MacGyver creator Lee David Zlotoff teamed up with “Lawnmower Man” director Brett Leonard to create a VR escape room experience called MacGyverWorld slotted for release in 2020. The experience will use 3D capture technology, which scans participants as they enter a location-based VR venue so that friends can see each other as holograms and work collaboratively.

MacGyverWorld is slotted for release in 2020 Click To Tweet
HoloLens Army

A version of the HoloLens designed for military use has been tested by the US Army earlier this year, following an announcement that Microsoft accepted a $480 million deal to supply thousands of HoloLens units to the army, in spite of strong objections from many of its employees. The system – which is still in the prototype phase and is not expected to deploy until 2022 at the earliest – also collects data to highlight areas that need improvement and further training.

A version of the HoloLens designed for military use has been tested by the US Army Click To Tweet
Minecraft

After releasing a teaser trailer in May and unveiling the first gameplay footage of “Minecraft Earth” at Apple’s conference in June, Microsoft proceeded with gradually rolling out what was arguably the most anticipated AR title of 2019 with a Beta version released in several cities including London and Seattle in July, followed by broader public releases in the following months. As of the end of November, the game had reportedly surpassed 2.5 million downloads.

As of the end of November, Minecraft Earth had reportedly surpassed 2.5 million downloads Click To Tweet

Tech Trends offers a broad range of Digital Consultancy services to guide companies, individuals and brands in effectively leveraging existing and emerging technologies in their business strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a XR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.