AR was hot at CES this year. Vuzix launches its Blade AR glasses later this month. Its booth was mobbed. Everyone was clamoring to try Focals by North. I saw AR glasses from NReal, RealMax, DigiLens, 3rd Eye, Dreamglass and Rokid. Oculus and Microsoft only give private demos at the show. AT&T announced an expanded partnership with Magic Leap targeting the enterprise market. Vive made their usual flurry of CES announcements, notably introducing the new Cosmos HMD. VR was out in force, with Samsung, Acer, Quanta, Pico, Pimax, and VRginners demonstrating new VR HMDs with innovative capabilities. Dimenco showed me a desktop and a laptop they call "Simulated Reality." Their PCs do full 3D volumetric interactive AR without a headset. Yup. Interactive 3D without glasses. An idea whose time has come.
You can read my full CES AR/VR roundup by clicking here.
Without further delay, I give you:
That puck never had a chance.
I came back from Vegas with a wicked cold. To my CES Survival Guide, I will add "hand sanitizer."
There were only a couple of non-CES items worth noting:
RecRoom reached over 1 million headsets in 2018. The free to play VR social experience hit a milestone near the end of 2018, being installed on over 1 million VR headsets. RecRoom is playable on PSVR, Vive, Oculus Rift, and the Windows MR headsets. In addition, a recent update allows keyboard and mouse players to hop in with a third person view. So far the RecRoom community has built over 400,000 player made rooms ranging from puzzles, talk shows, competitive games, and story-driven experiences.
Niantic, creators of Pokemon GO, raises another 190 million in series C financing. The series C round was closed on December 20th, 2018 and places the company’s overall funding to date to over $415 million. They are positioning themselves as a game platform, joining the vaunted unicorns of XR, Unity, and Epic.
Virtual art—past, present, and future: a new mini-documentary from sp[a]ce gallery at Ayzenberg. In a series of interviews with some of the key players (including yours truly) in the history of XR (VR+AR+MR), sp[a]ce gallery, in conjunction with a.Open Studio [sic] explores why the virtual art medium did not take hold in the 1990s but is now experiencing a renaissance. Focusing on creative innovation now occurring in tandem with advances in hardware and software, the video showcases collaborations across various disciplines and how audience interaction is being revolutionized.
Tom Emmrich of Super Ventures, a fund focused on AR, posted his 2019 predictions for AR. Worth the read. Agree with every point he makes.
This Week in XR is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
