The International Association of Amusement Parks and Attractions (IAAPA) concludes its centennial conference and expo today. The massive location-based entertainment expo in Orlando featured roller coasters, moon bounces, bumper cars, go-karts, trampolines, midway games, laser tag, modular escape rooms, arcade games, cotton candy machines, people movers, motion platforms, and lots and lots of VR. Hologate’s small footprint four-player VR system continues its winning streak and was awarded the “Best New Product” award. They’ve sold hundreds of their small footprint four player VR system. Hologate’s success has spawned a slew of competitors, many making impressive debuts at the show, including VR Studios’ “Atom” enclosure, the Omni Arena, Exit Reality's xHub and Hollow Zone. I know HTC Vive people were around, though we didn’t speak. They must be bursting at the sight of everyone using the Vive Pro and its amazing extended room scale tracking. My IAAPA round-up will drop on Monday. Too much VR, too little time.
Happy VR Day! Tomorrow, Saturday, November 17th, the second Virtual Reality Day will take place in 72 cities and online. VR Day features free public events where people can see what the buzz is about and 24 hours of performances and talks in social VR sites High Fidelity and AltspaceVR.
Nomadic VR is nomadic no more. They came out of stealth in early 2017 (which in VR world seems like a long time ago) with six million dollars in venture funding, and an epic demo called “Chicago” which, like The VOID, combines physical sets and props. On Wednesday they opened their first location in Orlando. Industry doyennes got their first chance to experience Nomadic’s LBVR treatment of “Arizona Sunshine.” The experience is very strong artistically, featuring train rides, death-defying leaps, shaky elevator rides and climaxes with the discovery of a real dead body and an air evacuation by helicopter, made more real with vibrating seats and wind.
Magic Leap Seeds The Garden. The company has officially launched the Independent Creator Program, inviting developers to apply for grants between $20,000 and $500,000. Those selected will get with tech, marketing, and hardware support with the money. No exclusivity is required. Creators retain the rights to their IP, and can submit as many proposals as they like. Deadline for submissions is Dec 15.
CEO of Huawei says AR glasses are on the way. In an interview with CNBC, Huawei CEO Richard Yu said the company is working on AR glasses, which he thinks are about two years away. They'll be going toe-to-toe with Apple, Facebook, and Magic Leap, and wild cards like North.
North opens first smart glasses stores in Brooklyn and Toronto. Customers can now visit the North Showrooms to share their prescription information and have their heads 3D scanned for a choice of 2 styles and 3 colors of North’s Focals smart glasses.
Looxid Labs raises $4 million series A to continue emotion AI research. Looxid Labs uses a VR headset with eye-tracking cameras and EEG sensors to record eye movement and brain activity of users. The user data is fed into Looxid Labs’s emotion recognition system where emotional states are detected and classified by machine learning algorithms. The investment will be used to expand the team’s AI expertise and further research and development capabilities.
Sketchfab passes 1 billion page views as the largest collection of 3D content on the web. Since it’s founding in 2012 Sketchfab has made its mission to “to get every 3D model on the web published on Sketchfab and every 3D embed powered by Sketchfab." Over 3M models have been published on Sketchfab to date by over 2,000,000 members. The rise of spatial computing means growth should continue to accelerate. Here's a link to an embedded 3D model.
VR series SPHERES releases on Oculus Rift. SPHERES is a virtual reality series that takes viewers on a journey through the cosmos. Written and directed by Eliza McNitt and produced by Darren Aranovsky, the three-part series has been featured at the Venice Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival, and the Tribeca Film Festival. The distribution rights for SPHERES sold earlier this year in a first-ever seven-figure deal for a VR experience at the Sundance Film Festival, where it was acquired by CityLights. You can experience SPHERES now on Oculus Rift for $9.99 on the Oculus Store. Art meets astronomy.
HP Labs shares Opera Glass solution for seamless snacking of VR. The proof of concept amounts to a headstrap-less VR headset mounted atop a stand placed on a designer’s desk. This simple solution offers designers the ability to peak into VR to view models at scale without the need to leave their desk or fully gear up in a dedicated VR space. The simple stand can be grabbed by a hand and set back down for faster 3D CAD revisions. An idea whose time has come.
New Vive Focus 6DoF controllers used at Volkswagen for new VR training powered by Innoactive. VR training is nothing new to Volkswagen, they’ve previously announced the use of Vive Pro headsets by 10,000 workers. That’s a lot. Volkswagen’s VR platform is powered by Innoactive which raised 4.4 million Euros earlier this year to expand its Innoactive Hub product. The company is the first Vive partner to show off the Vive Focus’ upcoming 6DoF controllers.
Wonderscope, a new AR app for kids, launches on iOS. Within’s new children’s iOS app encourages kids to see through their device screens and experience the world around them. Wonderscope is a spatial-storytelling experience utilizing ARKit, voice recognition, and Within’s “Look At” feature for approximate eye-contact with characters. The app is free and comes with a full story experience. A second can be purchased in-app for $4.99. Great way for kids to learn that the world will soon be painted with data.
“This Week in XR” is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
We'll be off next week for the Thanksgiving Holiday.
