XR looks to be picking up in the public consciousness. Many XR firms are distributing immersive workplace solutions to a range of enterprise end-users, and at the same time, vendors are working on providing extensive product portfolios.
Now the Metaverse is gaining newfound traction from enterprise clients, companies like Meta, Microsoft, and Apple are reinforcing XR as a serious technology for various use cases.
A paradigm-shifting XR moment is inbound, but which firms will lead the immersive space race? Following XR Today to keep updated with the biggest XR trends and updates to stay in touch with the industry.
Red 6, Boeing Complete Advanced AR Trainer Trials
Red 6 and Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace firm, have finalized a series of tests for an immersive fighter jet trainer. In the exercises, the companies used a Boeing TA-4J aircraft to simulate scenarios during air combat, setting the stage for integrating and trialling the system on a T-7 advanced trainer.
Daniel Robinson, Founder and Chief Executive of Red 6, said, “the future is now” when discussing the T-7, powered with ATARS.
He said in his social media post,
Today we are proud to announce that Red 6 and Boeing have completed the first augmented reality test flight with Red 6’s ATARS and ARCADE. The future is now the T-7, powered with ATARS. This unique combination will usher in a new paradigm in training, directly impacting readiness and lethality.
Robinson thanked the Boeing team for “setting the example on how to move fast and support innovation” and the Red 6 Crew for delivering the solution “on time, on budget and under a severely compressed timeline.”
Robinson said in his social media post,
Today we are proud to announce that Red 6 and Boeing have completed the first augmented reality test flight with Red 6’s ATARS and ARCADE. The future is now the T-7, powered with ATARS. This unique combination will usher in a new paradigm in training, directly impacting readiness and lethality.
Robinson thanked the Boeing team for “setting the example on how to move fast and support innovation” and the Red 6 Crew for delivering the solution “on time, on budget and under a severely compressed timeline.”
Donn Yates, Executive Director of Boeing Air Force FIghters and Trainers Business Development, said his company was the first to team up with Red 6 “on this type of advanced training technology.”
The Executive Director added:
The successful series of ground tests and four flight sorties illustrate our collaborative ability to rapidly integrate, deliver and test new technology with the potential to change fighter pilot training for an entire generation. Combining Boeing’s platforms, capabilities and knowledge with new and emerging companies like Red 6 creates better products and services for the warfighter.
President Red 6, Thomas Bergeson, said he was proud of his team’s “efforts to go from integration into the TA-4J to fly the technology “in less than a year” successfully.
The executive added,
We remain focused on delivering a fully synthetic, outdoor training environment that will transform training for future fighter pilots. The combination of T-7 and ATARS will usher in a new paradigm in training, directly impacting readiness and lethality.
ENGAGE XR Debuts GenAI and Spatial Computing Features
ENGAGE XR is introducing Athena AI, an AI assistant available within the Metaverse service that collaborates with users via voice responses, interacts with ENGAGE XR application features, generates images, and generates skyboxes.
ENGAGE XR is designing its AI assistant service as a solution for its enterprise clients, with the firm noting how Athena AI is a tool ready for employee onboarding, sales calls, education, and training.
To power Athena AI, ENGAGE XR is leveraging OpenAI’s Chat GPT service – now partially operated by Microsoft – the firm is also leveraging Dall.e 2 and Blockade Labs technology to support a range of AI use cases.
The AI assistant leverages Open AI’s framework to debut a service that reacts according to a user and plays specific roles for use cases such as training. According to the firm, Athena AI leverages many Open AI resources to “provide a cohesive single service.”
David Whelan, the CEO of Engage XR, said in a social media post:
ENGAGE XR is designing its AI assistant service as a solution for its enterprise clients, with the firm noting how Athena AI is a tool ready for employee onboarding, sales calls, education, training and much more.
ENGAGE XR also expects its users to leverage the AI assistant alongside its MR/spatial computing innovations, which sees the service enter a new reality to create “meaningful outcomes” for ENGAGE XR clients while opening up new revenue possibilities.
ENGAGE XR presented an AR demo that shows the platform’s users collaborating in 3D space overlayed on a real-world location, falling closely alongside Apple’s spatial computing vision.
Using Meta Quest Pro devices, the ENGAGE XR development team designed an AR/spatial computing feature – depending on one’s chosen technical language – as an “extensive development sprint” that prepares the firm for the upcoming release of the Meta Quest 3 and Vision Pro in 2024. Later this month, Meta will reveal more about its Quest 3 device later this month at Connect 2023.
The firm notes that its developmental team has more work to do. However, ENGAGE XR is debuting “MixedReality ARPassthrough SpatialComputing” support on its virtual service in late 2023.
In another social media post, David Whelan said:
Immersive technologies will change large parts of the internet in the coming years, and we are just at the beginning. The future of work and the future of education will be massively changed by remote solutions that actually work and not only put you in the room with others but enhance your productivity and creativity. – With the imminent release of the Meta Quest 3, Lenovo VRX, Pico, and Apple Vision Pro, which are all focused on AR passthrough capabilities, it’s a pretty exciting time for our clients and ENGAGE [XR] as we work together to improve issues with today’s remote communication solutions which are largely provided using video streaming services. – I’ve had access to most of the prototype VR/AR headsets created from leading manufacturers of the past decade and let me tell you I’m super excited for what’s coming up over the next few months.
Apple Brings Spatial Computing to iOS
Recently, Apple developed plans to debut an Application Store for the Vision Pro that distributes services and games for the impending MR headset. Accompanying the new customer-facing service will be “countless iPad and iPhone” applications that work on the visionOS.
The change makes it possible for both new and existing apps for the iPhone and iPad to run on the Vision Pro device. During its WWDC event, Apple showed how clients could use first-party productivity applications on the Vision Pro product.
With the Vision Pro Application Store and the overall accessibility of the gadget’s SDK for designers, Apple is opening up its impending MR headset, a lineup of system-selling apps prepared for its 2024 debut that covers different use cases from gaming to communications to productivity to entertainment.
Moreover, Apple notes that the cross-pollination of iOS applications to the Vision Pro allows “most iPad and iPhone” services to work on the Vision Pro. Therefore, developers can extend an application’s audience reach with “no additional work required.”
Apple will, by default, publish iPhone and iPad applications on the Vison Pro App Store automatically, significantly increasing the number of use cases for the product instantly.
In an official statement, Apple said:
Most frameworks available in iPadOS and iOS are also included in visionOS, which means nearly all iPad and iPhone apps can run on visionOS, unmodified. Customers will be able to use your apps on visionOS early next year when Apple Vision Pro becomes available.
The Vision Pro App Store is coming this fall, says Apple. The firm is also working on an upcoming beta release of visionOS that will include the App Store; this should prove prosperous as developers are already seeing great success with the available SDK framework.
Despite strides in porting iOS services to visionOS, Apple states that porting a 2D application to the Vision Pro spatial computing SDK is complicated. However, Apple is supporting applications which may face issues.
Via App Store Connect, Apple will notify developers if their application is incompatible and unavailable on the Vision Pro. If an iOS application requires a capability unavailable on Apple Vision Pro, Apple will support developers in providing an alternative functionality or updates to a service’s UIRequireDeviceCapabilities to suit visionOS.
An Apple AVFoundation Engineer, Chris Flick, stated that Apple is “supporting a new spatial experiences paradigm.”
Flick also added:
We’ve made it as easy as possible to bring your existing 2D content to a spatial experience. With some small modifications to your current 2D pipeline, you can support 3D content using MV-HEVC. You can even continue to use all your existing captions from 2D assets. But if you provide timed metadata, those captions can be unobscured and provide a comfortable viewing experience.
Moreover, Apple’s Xcode 15 beta includes a visionOS simulator that allows developers to “easily” test a service’s core functionalities in a spatial computing environment. This will enable developers to try to see if an application is supported on the Vision Pro. Developers must either sign up for Apple’s developer lab or submit an iOS application for compatibility testing.
Moreover, within its iPhone showcase earlier this week, the firm debuted a lineup of new features to sell the latest iPhone iteration to audiences.
Regarding XR, Apple introduced spatial video recording for the most recent iPhone model. The elements empower device operators to make 3D recordings of moments, ready to play the recording back and watch it as an RT3D MR visualization – viewable from different points via the Vision Pro.
Spatial media streaming is coming to Apple smartphone devices next year, significantly improving the product portfolio’s XR abilities from its AR-lite beginnings and readying the massive user base for the Vision Pro 2024 debut – hopefully swaying smartphone owners to buy Apple’s new product.
Meta Reveals US Education Partnership
On the other hand, prominent XR firm Meta has announced a massive immersive partnership with 15 universities across the US, ringing in the new academic year – the announcement comes as Meta is readying up for Connect 2023.
These institutions, currently actively engaging in immersive learning, are hosting classes in VR to determine the efficacy of XR technologies in the educational curriculum.
The programme will include the following universities and their respective programmes:
- Stanford University and its Business School partnership with BodySwaps to learn soft skills
- Arizona State University to teach language skills in virtual environments
- New Mexico State University, which has applied VR to criminal justice for crime scene evaluations and other subjects
- University of Iowa to teach soft training skills to business students with virtual reality
- Purdue Global to train nurses for hospital care via role-playing and simulations
- University of Alabama at Birmingham, partnering with VictoryXR to teach business courses virtually
- Nova Southern University, teaching VR to first-year medical students about human anatomy
- Miami Dade College for its virtual campus for courses such as music, chemistry, research, architecture, biology, and many others
- Morehouse College, for its digital twin campus, teaches chemistry, journalism, business, biology, and many more courses.
The Meta Quest product lineup facilitates many education-based apps for science and technFord math (STEM) courses. The Morehouse College Quest Store and others have also hosted VR learning apps for subjects like history, foreign languages, and more.
It has already seen massive success across Europe, including Italy. The nation’s University of Camerino has hosted its first course based entirely on the Metaverse, the next step for spatial communications and the Internet.
Additionally, Itaca Education has tapped Meta’s hardware and technologies for virtual learning in the natural sciences and physics. This allows students to leverage virtual components, rather than turning to physical props and materials, to expand access to all learners.
According to Meta, students and tutors can join immersive spaces to conduct their classes.
Germany and Austria have teamed up with GoStudent, leading to significant gains in language learning with virtual reality. GoVR learners can join immersive environments to interact remotely with native-speaking tutors and classmates from other locations.
Moreover, The United Kingdom’s Noun Town has created new means to learn languages like German, Japanese, Chinese, Italian, French, Spanish, Korean, and others.
