Gene Feldman of Nestle appointed as co-chair of VR/AR Association Metaverse Committee

We are thrilled to have Gene Feldman help lead our community by hosting our weekly online sessions about XR & Metaverse.

Feldman is a member of the Center for Functional Excellence within Nestle Purina Pet Care supporting training innovation through the use of technology. Gene currently holds a Master's in Education and has been is in field of education/training and development for the past 25+ years. Over the past 8 years, Gene has been identified as a leading VR/AR integration expert for immersive training solutions and functional use case implementation.

“I am really excited to co-chair the committee to pass along learnings and solutions to empower those working within XR.”

— Gene Feldman

Mike Vann appointed as co-chair for VR/AR Association Metaverse Committee for XR, Web3, and AI

We are thrilled to have Mike Vann help us lead our community and host online sessions for Metaverse with guest speakers, live discussion and networking so our Members can grow their knowledge and connections!

Mike is the CEO & Co-founder of Agents of Play, a development studio creating business metaverse, AI-powered avatars/agents and experiential technology for global enterprise, agency, non-profit and .gov partners. In 2024, AOP will launch bizVersive, a platform allowing businesses to create 3D immersive web spaces with AI characters. Mike actively promotes metaverse strategy and technology benefits across all industries.

Driven by the potential of virtual human interactions, Mike is inspired by the entrepreneurs, creatives and technologists shaping the metaverse. He envisions an open metaverse that enhances and extends life and business for everyone.

Previously, Mike collaborated with the world's largest mobile and social gaming properties to develop and monetize vast player communities. His metaverse journey began at the intersection of game development and brands seeking premier branded entertainment experiences. Agents of Play was established by game and brand experts after collaborating with the founders of Activision, leading to the pioneering of Advergames. Before his venture into technology, Mike held media and sponsorship roles at the NFL and New York Times company.

“I’m energized to work with a community of innovators to realize the potential and impact of a global metaverse for all. The VRARA Metaverse committee will establish best practices, drive research and enable strategic collaboration among VR/AR/XR, Metaverse, Web3, AI and industry leaders.

The Metaverse has the potential to revolutionize global interaction, economy, and creativity, creating a connected reality that transcends physical boundaries and reshapes how we live, work, and connect.

The future is here, let’s go!”

— Mike Vann

Vanessa Mullin appointed as Co-Chair of our VRARA Metaverse Committee

“I’m excited to help in co-chairing the committee and ensure we commit to building a community of like-minded individuals driving to collaborate, build best practices and learn from each other. We are at the beginning of a very exciting technical revolution, and I look forward to being a part of the, and helping to guide, the conversation.”

— Vanessa Mullin

Vanessa works as European Business Development Lead for Didimo, a company building a platform to bring Digital Humans to the Metaverse. She has an extensive background in sales, but the core of her skillset comes in connecting great technology with great people, helping to bring ideas to life. Her experience at Unity within both the Gaming and Media and Entertainment verticals allowed for quick upskilling and networking, helping to connect the dots and ensure all the weird and wonderful projects creators believed in, became a reality. Moving to Didimo, she has honed in on thought leadership and driving forward the areas which matter most to her; all which intersect in the metaverse!

Over the last 4 years she has watched the tech landscape shapeshift, and the last few months have pushed the 'metaverse' to top of everyone's list of hot topics, despite no one really knowing just yet what it means.

Attend our METAVERSE 2.0 virtual event on March 9-10 https://hopin.com/events/metaverse-2-0

VR/AR Association (VRARA) launches the Metaverse Committee to create best practices for the ecosystem and industry

After our hugely successful METAVERSE event, we want to continue the momentum, discussions, and collaboration and have created the Metaverse Committee.

The Metaverse Committee will set best practices and enable collaboration among the global providers, enablers, brands and other industry partners to create and deploy engaging technologies and solutions for the Metaverse and other Web 3.0 activities, programs and platforms.

The Committee will host Online Meets every 2 weeks. Topics we will cover: Metaverse platforms, Avatars and Meta Humans, Volumetric , Blockchain, NFTs, Cryptocurrency, Privacy, among others.

Join us to:

• Learn what the best minds in the industry are focusing on

• Skip the cliches and dive deep into the real issues

• Get an insider view on how the leading companies see the future, and how they’re planning to get there

• Connect & network with others

More info: Metaverse Committee

Email info@thevrara.com if you want to be added to the mtg invites!

Metaverse Platforms Report (download)

Join us for our Immerse Global Summit at Metacenter Global Week 2023 on Oct 17-19 in Orlando, the metacenter for spatial computing!

Download report

VRARA Metaverse Platforms report

The metaverse is where the physical and digital worlds come together. It is a space where digital representations of people – avatars – interact at work and play, meeting in their office, going to concerts and even trying on clothes.

Mark Zuckerberg believes Metaverse is the future of the internet and the next evolution for social networking. To reach it, people would need to wear VR headsets or augmented reality glasses that superimpose the digital realm onto the physical world. The dream for Zuckerberg was always to develop technologies that not only connect people, but also enable us to feel present with the people we care about - “like we’re right there with people no matter how far apart we actually are.”

Epic CEO Tim Sweeney says “Metaverse is a multitrillion-dollar opportunity. The next three years are going to be critical for all of the metaverse-aspiring companies like Epic, Roblox, Microsoft, Facebook.” Epic has two major goals: 1. Leverage it’s Fortnite from a game with 60 million monthly active users to an experience that could reach a billion in the future, and 2. Enable all companies to have a real-time 3D presence with it’s tools.

Unity’s CEO John Riccitiello says “the metaverse is about presence and there is so much potential.” Unity is one of the major underlying tools set for creating the metaverse. As the second most-used games engine in the industry, Unity will help define gaming's new metaverse concept and usher in a new era of 3D.

Google CEO Sundar Pichai said “We are excited about the future of immersive computing. There will be many experiences as part of it, including immersive, interactive virtual worlds.”

This report highlights many of the companies that are building the Metaverse. We hope you find this information insightful.

Kris Kolo

Global Executive Director

VRARA

Download our new Report, Avatars and Meta Humans, featuring the best companies

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VRARA Avatars & Meta Humans Report

Advances in augmented and virtual reality promise to revolutionize the workplace and entertainment. These technologies include the use of avatars, holograms, and digital twins to help humanize the experience. Many companies are moving to a hybrid workplace model and collaboration effects in the virtual world are evolving into a new normal.

Foreword By Piotr Uzarowicz from Arcturus Studios

Since I was a kid, I’ve lived under the assumption that the future promised in sci-fi movies and TV shows was always just around the corner. Everything from hoverboards to flying cars were expected rather than hoped for, and it was just a matter of time until Star Trek tech was part of our daily lives. The reality has been a bit more gradual and grounded, but for those of us that work in mixed reality, we know that the future is closer than most realize.

In the next few years, there is going to be a significant and permanent change in the nature of video content. You’ve probably heard that before, but after several false starts and a lot of unrealized potential, technology and ambition are finally catching up to each other. It won’t happen all at once, but we are on the cusp of holograms going mainstream, and volumetric video becoming a common tool for everything from ecommerce to sporting events.

Digital character creation is approaching a new era, and augmented reality will truly enter the mainstream and start living up to its promise. It may not be quite as transformational as a flying car, but it will be close (and significantly safer!).

The global pandemic has caused many companies and creators to rethink how they position themselves to the world, including to potential and returning customers. For instance, having an online presence these days is just a given for companies operating in ecommerce, especially with brick and mortar locations taking a hit (for obvious reasons). But we’ve reached the point where we have to start preparing for what comes next.

How do you stand out when things that used to be seen as an advantage are now requirements? How do you go one step further than everyone else and create new ways to engage with your audience? The future standard-bearers for ecommerce aren’t going to rely on more video, but rather better video.

Customers are constantly looking for new, better options when they shop online. Rather than filming products and models in traditional video formats, retailers will capture them in volumetric video and create holographic models to show a much richer version of what the customer is looking to buy—and that’s not something that is coming in years. It’s happening right now.

The same is true for sports, as broadcasters are seeking new ways to engage audiences. Concert venues are also looking at ways to make people feel like they are actually there, while musicians from around the world are always trying to connect with fans in an entirely new way.

And that’s just a few of the obvious areas where we will see major changes very soon. Behind the scenes, creatives are finding ways to use MR and new video technologies to improve what they are already doing. Virtual production has become a VFX hot topic—and they have barely scratched the surface of what it can, and will, mean for the industry.

Meanwhile, artists working with digital character creation and digi doubles are finding new ways to incorporate mixed reality technologies, including new solutions like volumetric video to create better, photorealistic results. For the general public, the changes in these fields may seem gradual (thanks to the talents and painstaking efforts of today’s artists), but behind the scenes new technologies are giving new creators the ability to experiment, while veterans have better options than ever before.

It won’t all happen at once, but we are on the verge of a significant and permanent shift in the way we create and consume video, and the companies in this report are helping to make that future a reality. We may still be a few years away from a future where our childhood selves feel fully satiated, but the next few years are going to be amazing to see, and even better to be a part of.

Piotr Uzarowicz

Head of Partnerships & Marketing, Arcturus Studios

Foreword By Remington Scott, CEO, Hyperreal Digital Inc.

We have a new home and it’s called the Metaverse.

While we have seen buzzword names come and go, this is clearly something more. It is a big enough part of the future for Facebook to change its name and direction - so it is clearly a good rallying point for those of us listed in this VRAR Industry Report. It will focus potential clients, potential investors, potential employees, and our own technological development into a new virtual space of unlimited possibilities.

Just as Media and Telecommunications became the Internet, the Internet is going to merge with the experience of reality itself to become the Metaverse. Fifty years ago, few people predicted how much personal computing and the Web would reach into our personal and business lives; are there really any sceptics left who do not now see how deeply the virtual, the immersive, the augmented realities will impact the world for the next fifty? The belief is there because the money is already there, along with billions of users across several formerly disparate businesses: video games, Film & TV, mobile apps, social media, advertising, and more.

The use of digital humans has been growing exponentially – what was once the purview of high-end cinema has now become ubiquitous across almost every film and television program. Not just as stand-ins for occasional scenes, but for the full-length of features and in close ups. In fact, very little of what is now viewed in these media has not had the virtual production treatment. Some of this has been driven by technology, and some of it by the lower relative costs, but a whole lot of it still by the creative talents of the artists represented by the companies in this report.

What we are experiencing is the growth of digital human applications spreading out to related industries such as advertising and branding. Advertisers can easily see the possibilities in using virtual production techniques to deliver targeted variations of cast, environments, and products for their audience. They know that being able to appeal to a specific demographic with a vast database of virtual human options will lead to higher return on nvestment. At Hyperreal, we know this is not speculation and that large brands are building this future as we continue to refine the technologies to deliver it.

It may be true that the aforementioned applications are based on virtual substitutes that save money by not having to fly a superstar brand ambassador to a mountain top or the moon, or indeed to pay a real superstar at all (we can just cook them up in the virtual kitchen made to order.) But perhaps the main growth for us is in media and entertainment environments where only virtual beings can exist.

For example, it is likely that mobile Apps will morph into mere attributes of your personal support digital human or HyperModel™ (as we call our hyper-realistic virtual beings). Why have separate apps for all your home or office functions when they can be integrated into a more human communication with a single assistant? Sure, Siri and Alexa are building the way there - but the future will be more like Halo’s Cortana, with the embodiment of the human form being a key aspect. We once imagined a world with support robots buzzing about us, but clearly it is less about a single physical form, than a virtual being that can manage the multiple devices, machines, tools, schedules, and software around us. The original Sanskrit avatar was an embodiment of the heavenly form - and our service avatars will be the embodiment of the knowledge of the cloud, as well as serve as our guides to experiences in the virtual world.

To make these avatars relatable, the need is to make them as human as possible; this means visually, in expression, in form, in actions, in interactions. At Hyperreal, we believe there is a significant difference in the ability to achieve the Metaverse’s full potential with fully realistic digital humans, versus the cartoonish ones of the older platforms. The challenge that Hyperreal, and the other companies represented in this report all face, is to make these avatars real enough to have human and emotional connections.

The team at Hyperreal believes that digital humans will be at the center of all Metaverse activations. The growing community of companies that make avatars might have spent several years being on the edge of all media and entertainment, however, we are about to find out what it means to be in the middle of it.

Remington Scott

CEO and Chief Architect, Hyperreal

(HyperModelReal-Time Ray-Traced in UE4)

Recap of our VRARA Metaverse event by the Media Press

By Jon Jaehnig

VR/AR Association Holds Virtual Summit Dedicated to the Metaverse

A conversation about the metaverse from the people building, living, and working in it.

Last Friday, December 17, The VR/AR Association held a one-day event dedicated to the metaverse and avatars as part of the Immerse Global Summit Series. With so much buzz around the term generated by people outside of the industry, this free one-day summit was a welcome opportunity for bonafide experts to comment on the situation.

We weren’t able to attend all of the sessions, and as of this writing, recordings have not been made publicly available. But, presented here are some of the highlights and takeaways from the event.

NFT Talk

A surprising number of sessions focused on NFTs. While many have dismissed non-fungible tokens as scams, a number of speakers praised them as the key to interoperability and creating value across virtual spaces.

Seek Announces NFT Platform

During the opening Keynote, “Interoperability Across the Metaverse,” Seek CEO Jon Cheney announced the Seek NFT platform.

“I think, in the future, all of this content is going to be in 3D. When we jump into these different places, they’re going to be in 3D,” said Cheney. “We’re excited today to announce Seek NFT. Mint directly to the NFT platform of your choice directly from Seek.”

The session, co-hosted by Dude Perfect Chief Strategy Officer Jordan Harbbertson, concluded with the opening of the auction for the first Dude Perfect NFT minted with Seek with proceeds to benefit the VR/AR Association. Many in the public comments section expressed disinterest in being sold an NFT during a keynote address, but that seems to be the way of the world these days.

Victoria VR Launch

Mario Valle Reyes, co-founder and Managing Partner of Altered Ventures, hosted a session titled “The Metaverse and Its Unlimited Potential With Blockchain.” During this panel too, Reyes spoke of blockchain technologies as the link not just between virtual worlds, but between virtual worlds and the physical world to create true interoperability across immersive platforms.

“The metaverse is about more than VR,” said Reyes. “How are we going to transport attributes from the physical world to the digital world?”

The session launched Victoria VR, a blockchain-enabled worldbuilding game that Reyes had also teased at the 2021 VR/AR Global summit.

“We see the future of Victoria VR as a universal platform for VR experiences,” Victoria VR co-founder and CEO Adam Bém said during the Global Summit session. “To create not just a game, but a virtual world where people are able to live and work.”

Creator Economies in AR and Web3

A number of panel speakers linked the idea of augmented reality and “Web3” as the real way to link digital assets and real-world opportunities.

Value From Virtual Worlds

“The time and effort and resources spent in virtual worlds gives users no real control… virtual worlds lose their relevance when a new virtual world comes out,” SuperWorld co-founder and CEO Hrish Lotlikar said in his panel “A Virtual World That Enhances People’s Real Lives.” “Web3 really solves that… NFTs are really the building blocks of all of this.”

Lotlikar didn’t call out NFTs as a lone hero, but part of the Web3 movement. To him, that includes AR content creation tools, the AR Cloud, spatial computing, and consumer AR glasses.

“SuperWorld is not just a technology company, but a movement of people who want to be in our community,” said Lotlikar. “We have an opportunity to build a world that empowers all of us.”

Empowering Creator Economies

“We are at a turning point in history where we have the technology to decide what we want to be… The challenge now is if we are going to be able to drive adoption to this kind of technology,” said OVR co-founder and PwC senior advisor Diego Di Tommaso. “Ownership created incentives for people to participate in the metaverse.”

Verifiable ownership of digital assets driving adoption isn’t the only point on which Di Tommaso and Lotlikar agree. Di Tommaso also emphasized the importance of AR to the conversation that is so often dominated by VR.

“VR is going to be big – even bigger than it is now – but at the end of the day, we are physical beings and we live in a physical world,” said Di Tommaso. “We’re not going to want to spend all of our time with these big glasses on.”

Non-Human Agents in the Metaverse

Whether you call them “embodied AIs,” “virtual beings,” or whatever else, the idea of artificial intelligence that looks just like you and I in virtual worlds got some considerable discussion time.

Charisma CEO Guy Gadney presented “Characters in the Metaverse” with writing lead Rianna Dearden. Charisma is a platform for “powering conversational characters” built with AI. AI is then digitally embodied through Unreal Engine, Unity, Metahuman, or Ready Player Me.

Also present was Virbe founder and CEO Chris Wrobel. Virbe is also for creating intelligent virtual beings by matching one of four digital character creators with one of four conversational AIs, with capacity for more possibilities through SDKs and custom integrations.

“It’s not only about one reality, one device, it’s about bridging realities,” said Wrobel. “Virtual beings are the bridge for one person or one company to be present in the metaverse 24/7.”

The Metaverse for Enterprise and Education

Those speakers weren’t the only ones aware of virtual beings. VR/AR Association Education Committee cochair Carlos Ochoa called for “regulation for metahumans” during his panel “Are We Ready for Meta Education? A World Beyond Augmented Learning.” Panels on education and enterprise were also more grounding in terms of the current value of virtual worlds today.

“Meta Education”

“Meta Education is education that can take place in the metaverse,” futurist Dr. Colleen Bielitz said in the Meta Education Panel. “Meta education is going to see the same kind of threats as in-person education.”

Multiverse Institute For Arts & Technology founder and CEO Elisabetta Rotolo stressed that these kinds of concerns are significant because the value in virtual worlds comes from interactions with other humans facilitated by the technology – not by the technology itself.

“Context emerges in the metaverse, even now, from people’s interactions with each other,” said Rotolo. “The metaverse needs to be conceived, designed, and built by storytellers.”

Because we learn from other individuals in virtual worlds, we need to be careful about who we learn from, according to Mike Christian, CEO of From the Future LLC. Unfortunately, this problem is made more complicated by the fragmented and early stage of the technology.

“From my understanding of the metaverse, there is no metaverse today – so to speak. There are smaller projects, ‘microverses,’” said Christian. “As we get into the metaverse and education we want to trust that what we’re learning is true.”

The Metaverse for Work

Christian’s sentiments were echoed by Head of North America at Glue, Adam Lorimer, in his session “The Metaverse at Work Today.”

“Don’t wait for the big-M metaverse,” said Lorimer. “There are dozens of smaller metaverses out there and you can experience them today.”

Enterprise conversations at the summit also echoed the education conversation that, for all of its shiny tech, the real value of the virtual worlds is connecting people, though that tech does facilitate new kinds of connections.

“The human connection in enterprise has evolved significantly in the last few years,” Cavrnus CEO and founder Anthony Duca said in a talk on “The Metaverse and Hybrid Work.” “One of the things that the metaverse provides is that we don’t need to recreate the real world. You can create these dynamic spaces that are persistent.”

Duca also announced an upcoming update to his platform in partnership with Epic Games to focus on increased performance.

Immerse Returning to In-person

The icing on the cake from this summit was the announcement that the Immerse Global Summit will be returning to an in-person venue in 2022. The summit is scheduled to take place from December 5-7, 2022, in Miami Florida.

Source

Submit your solution/company for our Blockchain, NFTs, Crypto Report

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The value chain for the metaverse is very interesting and we want to capture all the companies involved in this report that do Blockchain, NFTs, Crypto! (Submit for our other report on Avatars and our report on Metaverse platforms if more applicable.)

The metaverse is predicated to be an open, interoperable decentralized technological architecture. It integrates a suite of crypto community innovations in decentralized finance (DeFi) for payments and NFTs (non-fungible tokens) for digital in-world items that hold real value.

A virtual economy needs currency, and cryptocurrency is your answer to it. Blockchains and cryptocurrencies will become an integral part of the metaverse. A blockchain will allow transactions to be cryptographically secured.

For example, Holoride debuted Ride crypto, the currency of its in-car metaverse. Holoride, the Audi-backed startup that's creating an in-vehicle virtual reality entertainment system designed for passengers, has begun publicly selling its Ride cryptocurrency token.

NFTs are "one-of-a-kind" assets in the digital world that can be bought and sold like any other piece of property, but which have no tangible form of their own. The digital tokens can be thought of as certificates of ownership for virtual or physical assets. The purpose of NFTs is to denote the value of things while also protecting their unique, individual authenticity — something that's not possible with a fungible asset like money or Bitcoin.

In addition, it is the integration of NFTs into the Metaverse that has initiated the transformation of our interactions in virtual worlds, impacting part of the real world. Gucci has sought to reach new consumers in the Metaverse in the game Roblox.

If interested to Sponsor this report, email info@thevrara.com

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