This Week In XR: Unity In The Money, Free Roam Star Trek, AR[T] From Apple, More

You'd think the industry would take a break the first week of August and hit the beach instead of bombarding vacationing writers with a relentless stream of announcements, while the legendary computer graphics show, Siggraph, attracted tens of thousands of CGI and XR enthusiasts and practitioners to LA this week. Next year's edition will be in Washington, DC for the first time.

Location Based VR, led by the VOID and SandboxVR, continues its rapid expansion, while VR and game development platform Unity rakes in another round of significant investment, brining its valuation to six billion dollars. Meanwhile, VRLA called it quits. There are too many XR conferences to keep up with, so this represents a thinning of the herd, so to speak. The founders say they are focused on other projects.

In a clear sign of vitality on the consumer side, Mark Zuckerberg announced on Facebook's earnings call that “Quest is selling as fast as we can make them."

Unity Technologies reaches $6 Billion in valuation. The milestone was reached thanks to recent investments by D1 Capital Partners, Canada Pension Plan Investment Board (CPPIB), Light Street Capital, Sequoia Capital, and Silver Lake Partners. The newest wave of investment, which included a tender offer for common shareholders, totaled $675 million. 

Bandai Namco releasing AR toy in October. The “augmented interaction ecosystem” pairs with any Android or iOS tablet and allows for spatial interactions with on screen apps. At launch Tori will pair with 5 apps that leverage the tablet like device’s spatial interactivity. Experiences range from flying handheld spaceships, to launching mini catapults, to drawing in 3D with a stylus. Price has yet to be announced on the product’s website. 

Global Foundries to digitize training and maintenance processes using PTC’s Vuforia. GF is a leading provider of semiconductor technologies. Workers will wear devices such as the Microsoft Hololens 2 or RealWear’s HMT-1 enabling remote expert assistance and in context 3D renderings of equipment. 

SandboxVR announces Star Trek LBVR experience. Star Trek: Discover Away Mission launches this fall at SandboxVR’s Hong Kong, San Francisco Bay Area, and Los Angeles locations and will launch worldwide soon after. Groups up to 6 players will be lead by Mary Wiseman’s Sylvia Tilly character of the U.S.S. Discovery. Sandbox VR is working directly with Star Trek writers to create an authentic Star Trek experience.

The VOID opens new location in New York City. The temporary pop-up location will open its doors August 16th at the Westfield World Trade Center. Press are welcomed to schedule sessions August 13-15th with a grand opening celebration August 15th 7-10pm. 

SE4 demos remote robotics using VR. Using VR simulation and AI, SE4’s solution to controlling robots remotely involves simulating the intended use in VR, then sending recorded instructions to the robot. The robot executes the recorded instructions while using AI to adjust to dynamic environments. The first use case demoed is in the construction industry, though the company envisions their tech being used in outer space.

Apple promoting AR artists with [AR]T. [AR]T brings together artists leveraging Apple’s ARkit to create immersive spatial art experiences. The initiative includes experiences available at all Apple Store locations, and an [AR]T Walk in Hong Kong, London, New York, Paris, San Francisco, and Tokyo.

AWE EU agenda announced. This year’s AWE EU features Magic Leap, Facebook, Google, Varjo, and more. AWE EU takes place October 17-18 in Munich, Germany.

Aris MD turns X-ray vision into science fact. The founders discovered they can apply the technology they developed to visualize scans of the human body to any kind of scan, of any kind of object, creating, in effect, x-ray vision. This breakthrough has led to two NASA prizes and overwhelming deal flow for the two year old start up.

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