As 2024 rounds up, the XR world is prepping the year’s final announcements and events, leading to massive showcases that will shake up the industry next year.
Last month, Meta debuted two immersive devices, the Meta Quest Pro and the Ray-Ban smart glasses. As the devices look to enhance the general adoption and ubiquity of XR, other firms, big and small, are swooping in to claim their space in the enterprise XR field.
Moreover, it’s not just hardware or one specific use case. Certain enterprise end-users are gaining valuable immersive tools from vendors targeting one area and finding great success in solving workplace pain points – using XR.
ByteDance Issues Mass Layoffs
This Monday’s reports highlighted how Bytedance is undergoing a series of redundancies that are “widespread,” with workers expecting the layoffs to affect thousands of employees.
According to reports, the Bytedance layoffs with treating affect the firm’s Pico VR headset vendor. The vendor has already started communications with its affected employees about compensation.
Pico is facing layoffs for its total workforce that exceeded “2,000 at its peak” but has faced waves of layoffs, hitting 20 to 30 per cent of its employees in 2023.
Following this round of job cuts, the company’s employee headcount will remain “in the hundreds,” it added.
Tencent Technology News added,
In mid-October, there were rumors that PICO [had been] abandoned by ByteDance’s strategy. A number of PICO’s internal executives, including Ren Lifeng, PICO’s Vice President and Head of Content and Culture [were] transferred or resigned. News of layoff plans also came out, but this was denied by [ByteDance].
Metaroom by Amrax debuts on Autodesk Construction Cloud
This week, Amrax integrated its Metaroom application onto Autodesk Construction Cloud, ready for international AEC firms. This service provides a cost-sustainable alternative to traditional room measurement and design planning methods.
Metaroom allows teams to collaborate over immersive visualisations of real-world spaces by leveraging room scanning features on Apple iPhone Pro or iPad Pro devices that generate a digital twin, allowing workers to access the data via the cloud ready to add additional information to an object for a chosen use case.
Moreover, Metaroom recently debuted support for seamlessly capturing multiple rooms, floors, or entire buildings, generating a digital twin based on a user’s uploaded spatial information.
Managers can access RT3D models via Autodesk Build Insights, BIM 360 Project Home dashboards, or the latest Metaroom iOS application.
James Cook, Director of Industry and Technology Partnerships at Autodesk Construction Solutions, noted:
Embedding Metaroom’s 3D models within Autodesk Construction Cloud helps teams understand the real-life context of the Issues, RFIs, Submittals and more that they track in Autodesk Construction Cloud, helping them make better-informed decisions.
Samsung to Debut MR Headset in 2024?
This week saw more rumblings about a Samsung MR headset.
Samsung is following leaks from earlier in the year, showing how Google and Qualcomm are assisting with developing a Samsung headset. This week, Korean reports claim that Samsung’s Electronics Mobile Experience (MX) Division confirmed the production of “Infinite,” an MR headset device, forecasting a December 2024 debut.
Samsung is developing the device with an expectation for initial production quantities to sit at 30,000 units; on the other hand, Apple’s product assembly is set to 400,000 units – a reduced number compared to its initial expectations.
Samsung plans to unveil the device at its Unpack mid-next year, ahead of the planned launch, according to an insider speaking to Korean publication JoonAng, who also added:
The business is taking shape, with Samsung Electronics and Samsung Display signing an XR screen technology license agreement. (Samsung Electronics) plans to introduce XR devices at the Unpack (new product release) event in the second half of next year.
XRA Appoints Magic Leap Chief to Board of Directors
On Tuesday, the XR Association (XRA) announced the onboarding of top XR representatives from leading firms such as Magic Leap, VoxelSensors, XR Village, and Kaper.
Magic Leap’s Daniel Diez, Chief Transformation Officer, will represent the AR headset firm on the XRA’s Board of Directors to help guide the group in its emerging goals. Moreover, Elizabeth Hyman, Chief Executive of the XR Association, explained that 2023 had become an “important year for the industry.” This comes as new technologies transformed “the enterprise, industrial, and consumer spaces.”
Hyman also noted that Magic Leap is a “visionary company” that is significantly impacting how AR applications can transform businesses and the workforce.
Hyman added:
We are thrilled to have Magic Leap and all of these new XRA members join in our mission of bringing together stakeholders, policymakers, and industry leaders to create a responsible and collaborative future for immersive technology.
Additionally, Magic Leap’s Daniel Diaz added that as the XR industry grows and immersive technology adoption accelerates, “the XRA will continue to play an essential role in developing best practices, driving consensus around key issues, and spearheading the XR industry’s agenda across the broader tech landscape.”
Moreover, by joining the XR Association, Diaz stated that Magic Leap aims to “meaningfully contribute” to XRA initiatives, “as a board member, I am excited to help drive the industry forward and guide key aspects of its growth,” Diez remarked.
AI will “Bridge the Gap” for AR Smart Glasses, says Snap CEO
This week, Snap’s CEO, Evan Spiegel, hinted at AI investments and innovations for the social media application and advertising hotbed Snapchat. The news comes amid a strong Q3 for technology developments and capital gains and a rocky start of the year after the firm’s immersive hardware goals failed to take the XR world by storm.
At APAC AR Day, the CEO revealed that Snap is planning new AR services to enhance the platform for brands looking for a digital marketing route.
Moreover, Snapchat has already had success with its AI chatbot. Therefore, based on previous experience introducing AI to consumers on a developer level, Spiegel noted that “AI is reducing the barriers to creativity.”
The CEO also added:
There’s actually a pretty small number of 3D assets in the world, mostly images or videos. And so, how can we use AI to actually reduce the barrier of creation for those 3D assets? That’s something we’ve been investing a lot in recently to make it easier for creators to build more immersive AR experiences by just reducing that barrier to creation of 3D images and making more exciting and immersive lenses with LLMs.
One critical hurdle the XR industry faces is headsets, namely their weight, cumbersome nature, and lack of content. As the technology evolves, XR headsets are getting lighter and lighter. Meanwhile, advancements in AI are significantly streamlining content creation pipelines for developers – increasing the number of services available and, therefore, driving adoption rates.
Spiegel explained:
I believe we all have a vision in our minds of what we want to create. However, often, the tools are not sophisticated enough to allow us to bring to life the images, videos, or AR experiences we imagine. I think AI will help bridge the gap between our imagination and what we can actually create on our phones or with AR glasses.
The CEO plans to review more about Snap’s investment into AI at Lens Fest 2023 on Nov 9th.
