Star Truck Rentals Chooses XRMentor™ for Technician Training

Star Truck Rentals is making a significant investment in workforce development by selecting Design Interactive’s XRMentor™ to train technicians. The company will employ a state-of-the-art augmented related solution by Design Interactive, an Orlando, Florida-based human factors engineering firm, whose clients include the U.S. military, the U.S. Department of Transportation and Fortune 500 corporations.

“Star Truck Rentals is proud to put our workforce first and thrilled to offer cutting-edge training to our associates,” stated Shane Rugg, Star Truck Rentals Training Coordinator. “We have been looking at augmented and virtual reality training for a while now. We are excited to start using XRMentor™ because it will allow us to reach a large number of technicians at all our locations quicker and deliver effective training more consistently.”

Star Truck Rentals is principally engaged in the long-term lease, short-term rental and fleet maintenance of light and heavy-duty, over-the-road trucks. Their customers include several Fortune 500 companies and Star Truck Rentals is the largest full-service truck rental and leasing company based in Michigan.

While Star Truck Rentals is always looking to improve their training offering, the COVID-19 pandemic did impact how they were able to deliver training with less opportunity to provide in-person, hands on training. The pandemic’s arrival certainly instigated a search for training tools that could help overcome the challenge of delivering training remotely to a large, distributed workforce.

Design Interactive specializes in augmented and virtual reality training. Their flagship product, XRMentor™, is an instructor led and self-guided training platform enhanced by augmented reality. DI’s ClassroomXR™ feature allows companies like Star Truck Rentals to provide livestreamed, first person instruction to remote technicians. According to Matt Johnston, Design Interactive’s commercial solutions director, Star Truck Rentals is joining a group of companies that are taking an innovative approach to augmented reality training.

“Firms like Star Truck Rentals are asking what they can do now that is effective and delivers training at scale,” he explained. “Using XRMentor™ they can put the augmented reality hardware on a single expert and use it to train all their technicians simultaneously and then share a recorded video of the instruction with everyone after the fact.”

Star Truck Rentals will certainly benefit from using the live streaming feature to make a companywide impact quickly. But they aren’t stopping there. They are going to outfit each of their facilities with XRMentor™ on Microsoft HoloLens 2 headsets and tablets making self-guided procedures available to everyone.

“The live instructor led classroom is certainly a great feature and likely where we will start,” Rugg noted “but our vision is to make sure our technicians have the information they need, when they need it.”

The investment in HoloLens 2 headsets and tablets means Star Truck Rentals will be able to take advantage of the entire XRMentor™ feature set. “ClassroomXR™ is a great place to start”, Johnston said, “but accessibility to content is important, and as Star Truck Rentals deploys the devices, technicians will be able to follow self-guided procedures and use a remote video collaboration feature to seek troubleshooting help from remote experts in real time”.

XRMentor™ offers four main features that Star Truck Rentals will benefit from:

• Web Authoring Portal: Easy to use augmented reality training authoring tool to create training modules, self-guided procedures and make video calls to remote technicians.
• ClassroomXR™: Live streamed, instructor led training from the Microsoft HoloLens to technicians viewing on the web portal.
• Self Guided Procedures: Step by step instruction provided on Microsoft Hololens 2, phones and tablets.
• Remote Video Collaboration: Face to face video calling between technicians and experts on phones, tablets and the web portal.

Design Interactive and Star Truck Rentals will collaborate on training content creation and craft an effective deployment plan that will enable technicians to get an immediate benefit from this investment but that also aligns with the long-term goals of the company.

About Design Interactive Inc.

Design Interactive is a leading provider of extended reality solutions including XRMentor, an instructor led training and self guided procedure platform enhanced by augmented reality. Founded in 1998, DI has been developing custom solutions for enterprise markets including oil/gas, utilities, trucking and transportation, healthcare, manufacturing and defense. For more information, visit the XRMentor website, Twitter and LinkedIn pages.

More info http://www.xrmentor.net

Design Interactive, XRMentor Contact:

Matt Johnston, Director Commercial Solutions,
Design Interactive
matthew.johnston@designinteractive.net
Tel: (352) 278-3050

Here are the On-Demand Videos from our METAVERSE event

Access our On-Demand Videos here

45+ videos from the Keynotes, Featured Speakers, Panels, and other sessions.

VIP Ticket Holders get access for free. VRARA Members get a discount. Email info@thevrara.com for your code.

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

Sports and Gaming Leveraged by Vuzix Augmented Reality Smart Glasses Through Verizon's 5G Network

Vuzix, alongside Verizon, announced the launch of this new technological advancement and commercialization aspects of delivering immersive augmented reality training experiences powered by Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband service and edge compute platform and Vuzix Shield smart glasses, a CES 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree.

Agreement opens door to more immersive experiences delivered through smart glasses

ROCHESTER, N.Y., Dec. 27, 2021 /PRNewswire/ -- Vuzix® Corporation (NASDAQ: VUZI), ("Vuzix" or, the "Company"), a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technology and products, today announced that the Company has entered into an agreement with Verizon to leverage the power of Verizon's 5G and edge computing technologies to deliver a first-of-its-kind augmented reality experience for sports and gaming.

The agreement between Vuzix and Verizon will focus on the technology advancement and commercialization aspects of delivering immersive augmented reality training experiences powered by Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband service and edge compute platform and Vuzix Shield™ smart glasses, a CES® 2022 Innovation Awards Honoree. This agreement between Vuzix and Verizon will leverage a proof-of-concept program that was completed earlier this year, which demonstrated the power of Verizon's 5G and edge computing platform to run applications at the edge of the network using Vuzix smart glasses to deliver improved response time, longer battery life and increased computing capacity. 

"By leveraging Verizon's 5G Edge and ultra-light weight AR smart glasses from Vuzix, we are delivering immersive technology in the field of sports training and fan experience," said Brian Mecum, Vice President of Device Technology at Verizon.

"5G and edge compute are important elements to ultimately deliver low latency and optimal performance of powerful smart glasses-based applications. We're excited to further our relationship with Verizon to leverage Verizon's 5G Ultra Wideband network and our award winning Vuzix Shield smart glasses to deliver new cutting-edge augmented reality experiences to sports and games," said Paul Travers, President and Chief Executive Officer at Vuzix. 

About Vuzix Corporation

Vuzix is a leading supplier of Smart Glasses and Augmented Reality (AR) technologies and products for the consumer and enterprise markets. The Company's products include personal display and wearable computing devices that offer users a portable high-quality viewing experience, provide solutions for mobility, wearable displays and augmented reality. Vuzix holds 243 patents and patents pending and numerous IP licenses in the Video Eyewear field. The Company has won Consumer Electronics Show (or CES) awards for innovation for the years 2005 to 2021 and several wireless technology innovation awards among others. Founded in 1997, Vuzix is a public company (NASDAQ: VUZI) with offices in Rochester, NY, Oxford, UK, and Tokyo, Japan.  For more information, visit the Vuzix website,  Twitter and Facebook pages.

Forward-Looking Statements Disclaimer

Certain statements contained in this news release are "forward-looking statements" within the meaning of the Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 and applicable Canadian securities laws. Forward looking statements contained in this release relate to Vuzix Smart Glasses, our business relationship with Verizon and among other things the Company's leadership in the Smart Glasses and AR display industry. They are generally identified by words such as "believes," "may," "expects," "anticipates," "should" and similar expressions. Readers should not place undue reliance on such forward-looking statements, which are based upon the Company's beliefs and assumptions as of the date of this release. The Company's actual results could differ materially due to risk factors and other items described in more detail in the "Risk Factors" section of the Company's Annual Reports and MD&A filed with the United States Securities and Exchange Commission and applicable Canadian securities regulators (copies of which may be obtained at www.sedar.com or www.sec.gov). Subsequent events and developments may cause these forward-looking statements to change. The Company specifically disclaims any obligation or intention to update or revise these forward-looking statements as a result of changed events or circumstances that occur after the date of this release, except as required by applicable law.

Vuzix Media and Investor Relations Contact:

Ed McGregor, Director of Investor Relations,
Vuzix Corporation
ed_mcgregor@vuzix.com  
Tel: (585) 359-5985

REM5 Debuts Quantum Mirror, an Immersive Art Experience With Custom Interactive VR Story

REM5 new project debuted in Minneapolis. Quantum Mirror is a new, immersive art experience that we've built out inside of our XR facility. In addition to the reality-bending infinity room made out of 180 mirrors, we built an in-house VR experience where visitors upload their consciousness in preparation for the experience.

Quantum Mirror—an immersive art experience that involves a “reality-bending infinity room”—was brought to life with the help of REM5 Virtual Reality Laboratory in St. Louis Park. Just a short ride from the cities, it’s truly worth the trip to go on this… well, trip. 

Before entering the Quantum Mirror experience, your “Quantum Concierge” will give you a brief overview of the project, and let you absorb all the info before actually going into the mirrored room. When we entered the waiting area, our guides asked us to think about three things while we experience this: our digital selves, our physical selves, and our infinite selves. 

This was already blowing my mind. They were saying so many words, and there was just so much going on. I was fully under the impression this was just gonna be a cute place to take some selfies. It is very much that, but it’s also so much more.

In the waiting room there are six seats. You’re given a VR headset to put on to experience your virtual self first. The entire VR visual experience was really incredible, and my favorite part was stretching my arms out in front of me and seeing them entirely in chrome, similar to the chrome arm doors located in the space. There are other parts during this VR section of the tour that you’ll just have to see for yourself. Some of this shit is nearly impossible to explain.

After the VR headsets come off, your group (which is always a party of six or less, if you want a private experience you’re encouraged to reach out to REM5 directly) is carefully escorted into the Quantum Mirror. In the middle of the room is a console that acts like a heart; it’s what makes the room come alive and assists with connecting your digital self with your physical self while inside the Quantum Mirror. 

The room is made entirely of mirrors, from top to bottom. So for the love of god, please wear socks. Don’t just roll up to the place in crocs like I did. (Since the floor is also mirrored they provide single-use booties to walk around in.) 

The 30-minute experience goes by fast. The Quantum Concierge mentioned they’ve had folks come back multiple times already, and I can totally understand why: It’s engulfing, and a complete sensory overload—in a good way. It encourages you to look and think about yourself reflected back in so many different ways thanks to changes in the lighting, and the sizes and angles of the mirrored surfaces. It’s truly mind blowing. 

Just like with any piece of art, Quantum Mirror is there to make you think beyond the world around us. How do we navigate the physical and digital words? Are we the same in both? While there’s only one physical version of us, in these mirrors there are hundreds of us. As Chuck Palahnuik once wrote, “You’re a different human being to everybody you meet.” This experiential exhibition speaks to that truth, and is a great reminder that who you think you are isn’t always what people see you as. 

It also made me think about social media and the ways we present our digital selves online. Which of us is real? Is any of it real at all? Each of us has a variety of answers to those questions, and that’s what makes Quantum Mirror so great. 

After the experience, guests are invited to leave a note for their digital selves. What did you gain from this experience? What’s one thing you want to share with your digital self? People can scan a QR code and save it on their phone, not only as a memory of this amazing installation, but also so they don’t forget the connection they had with their digital selves. 

I wrote that I wanted to be nicer to myself. I feel like we’re way too hard on ourselves—especially now, with the pandemic, the holidays, and everything going back to “normal” when it really isn’t. Quantum Mirror made me think about how I see myself now as well as how I will see myself in the future, and it was a reminder to be kind to every version of me that exists. 

Quantum Mirror Minneapolis
REM5 Virtual Reality Laboratory
4950 W. 35th St., St. Louis Park

Augmented Reality in Assisted Learning

The technological breakthroughs made in the recent times have been a near revelation in the education sector, Never before use of tech to teach has been more widespread and adaptable .

These techs, have immesne potential when it comes to engaging and teaching kids.  With the help of assistive technologies like AR, XR etc., they are now able to explore, interact, learn and adapt things with much more ease than the traditional approaches from the past. 

Be it a math’s problem, scientific query, seeing and understanding colors or as in our case, making crossing roads safer. 

Here at CT we continue to explore the possibilities with various workshops and interventions with varied age groups. 

At the ZEP Rehabilitation Centre in Chinchwad, near Pune, Children with Autism, Cerebral Palsy, Attention Deficit, HyperActive Disorder, Learning Disability and other associated conditions find a space to grow, with the therapy they need to help them live fulfilling lives.

Now, this therapy takes a technological leap forward with Immersive Large Scale Augmented Reality.  In a Pilot Project, this technology is being used to help the children learn how to cross a road safely, watching for vehicles, recognizing their sounds, learning how traffic signals work, and understanding what various Traffic Signs mean.

Three precisely angled projection surfaces, and three projectors beaming carefully calculated scene imagery on them make up the Immersion Room, creating the illusion of being present at an intersection in traffic, and yet, visually removed enough from reality to be non-threatening and friendly.  A camera captures the child undergoing the learning exercise, and includes the child in the scene when appropriate, completing the immersion in the child’s mind, and providing a visual language to communicate with children whole ability to communicate verbally might be restricted.

Within a short while since the deployment of this technology, ZEP has seen a sharp uptick in both the receptivity of the children to the therapy as well as the speed with which they learn and adopt new behaviours, beginning with the safe crossing of roads, and moving on, in future, to all sorts of everyday challenges that these children will face in their lives.

More info:

www.customtechnologies.biz

sameer@customtechnologies.biz

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

Download Report

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

Highlights from our METAVERSE event on Dec 17, 2021

We had a 10K+ audience for our METAVERSE event today!

You can watch the On-Demand Videos here

Metaverse is the hottest word in the tech world right now and it impacts all verticals from the Enterprise to Storytelling! Everyone is asking "What's our Metavarse strategy?," "Which metaverse platform should we use?", "How are brands adapting their customer experience?"

During our event, “Metaverse is about people” was a common theme talked about.

Top sessions and countries by attendance included:

Other highlights:

• Seek keynote and new partnership with Dude Perfect and the launch of SeekNFT.

• rooom keynote on how the Metaverse is becoming usable for enterprises in B2C and B2B.

• Charisma will present their platform that can deliver powerful character-driven immersive experience. In Hollywood terms, the Metaverse needs to make us laugh, and make us cry - make us feel something. We saw this hinted at in Ready Player One where the characters head into The Shining scene..

• Trivver presentation on how to understand the data that is derived from the Metaverse and NFT's

• Vault Hill presentation on bridging humanity & tech with a deep dive of their human-centric metaverse

• Emergent talk on camera products to create the bulk of the metaverse geared systems

• VRdirect case studies from Siemens, Nestle, Deutsche Telekom

• Liquid Avatar talk on digital identity

• Presentations and demos from Accenture, Autodesk, Google, Microsoft, Nokia, Snap, SuperWorld, UPS, Thermo Fisher, Virbela, Glue, PWC, among others!

• Analyst insights form ABI Research

• Special presentation by China President of HTC Vive

• Live cross-reality talk directly from the Somnium Metaverse!

• Sessions and panels on Future of Work/Enterprise, Fashion, Entertainment, Education, Healthcare, Shopping, Museums, Tourism, Interoperability, Avatars, Haptics, NFTs, Blockchain, Crypto, Ethics, Privacy, Law, and more!

Thank you to our Sponsors!

Liverpool – Immersive Advertising with a 40% increase in each KPI

Both Display and Facebook ads could go from being 2D to actually offering the user a virtual and 3D sample of a product. This leads consumers to interact with an item of their interest as if they had it in their space, seeing it in detail from different angles, adjusting the chosen model, colors and size.

The Liverpool brand used this solution to run Display campaigns and Facebook feed ads about 10 products from their Home catalog. Users who clicked on the ads saw a hyperrealistic 3D version of that item. Incorporating AR in this way encourages the purchase decision and increases traffic in the e-Commerce channel. In addition, the results achieved a 40% increase in the reach KPI compared to traditional formats.

More info http://camonapp.com/en/augmented-reality-marketing/

Case study: Step aboard a virtual sales showcase with Unity Forma and Varjo Aero

Arksen, an emerging British marine adventure company, has created a real-time 3D, configurable model of their Arksen 85 yacht, powered by Unity Forma. Built with multiple hands on deck, this new virtual reality experience raises the bar for immersive marketing and marks the maiden voyage of Unity Forma into VR. With the new Varjo Aero headset, the Arksen yacht can be experienced in full fidelity, with even the most minute details brought to life in VR.

“Instead of having to interpret and rotate 2D models around in your mind, the Varjo Aero VR headset transports you into the Arksen 85 digital twin. Allowing you to see and feel the space as you would in real life, providing a richer experience that gives a true understanding of what life would be like onboard an Arksen 85.” –Ewan Hind, COO, Arksen

Read the full case study with Arksen, Unity Forma, and Varjo: varjo.com/blog/case-arksen-virtual-yacht-showcase-unity-forma-in-vr/

This Friday, don't miss the Charisma.ai presentation on virtual humans

Join Guy Gadney, CEO of Charisma and Rianna for their talk at 9:45am EST on Dec 17th during the Metaverse virtual event!

Register / Login

The key to a successful Metaverse will be entertainment. In Hollywood terms, the Metaverse needs to make us laugh, and make us cry - make us feel something. We saw this hinted at in Ready Player One where the characters head into The Shining scene. Suddenly, they find themselves inside the movie itself as opposed to just watching it.

For the past few years, we have been working to deliver a technology platform that can deliver this sort of powerful character-driven immersive experience. This is not the dry world of chatbots or dialog engines which are designed for call centres or search engines. This is Charisma: designed to bring captivating and believable characters together in narrative universes.

Metaverses with experiences like The Shining are why we built Charisma. These are complex, multi-character stories where players influence character moods, memories and relationships. These are the next generation of interactive stories like Choose-Your-Own-Adventures, enabled by new artificial intelligence technologies like GPT-3, machine learning and natural language processing. Indeed the really exciting piece of this puzzle is that the next challenge is not a technological one, it is a creative one.

Steppenwolf, powered by Charisma

For this reason, we ran Charisma through numerous Writers Labs to make sure that we designed it to allow writers to focus on their characters and stories, not the code that sits behind them.

Earlier this year, we published a white paper outlining a Universal Character Model with the University of Southern California’s ETC, Digital Domain, Fable Studios and Dramatica which hints at a way that avatars should be designed for persistent worlds like Metaverses and endless narrative games. When storytelling is layered over the idea of AI chatbots, something magical happens. But it also breaks a traditional chatbot system whose goal is to get you in and out as fast as possible.

Charisma was built with entertainment as its foundation stone - much like the fictional narrative engine in HBO’s Westworld. Indeed as well as powering avatar-driven stories on mobiles, web, Unreal, Unity and VR experiences, we recently extended Charisma into the world of physical robotics. In the near future, perhaps Charisma will be used to power both the virtual characters in virtual worlds, and real robots in real worlds.

Charisma’s no-code storygraph designed for writers:

For the present day, our work with Hollywood studios, indie games producers, Metaverse companies and comic book publishers demonstrate that, as well as great Metahuman-style visual avatars, we need avatar behavior platforms like Charisma that can make fictional and real characters come to life in the Metaverse.

To test Charisma to its limits, we bought the rights to a fabulous 1950s sci-fi story which we are adapting into an immersive novel for release in 2022. We have a strong cast of over forty characters - all of whom you can converse with to influence the story. Our vision is that these experiences should be built into the core of every Metaverse to bring them life with virtual beings we want to meet and talk to time and again.

So within a year, expect that your favorite television characters will also exist in a Metaverse. Your favorite book will have Metaverse adaptations, and that Metaverses themselves will be where the best narrative game experiences exist. Because at the end of the day, we all love a good story and captivating characters. And after all, what’s an avatar or a Metaverse without Charisma?...

If you’re looking to bring avatars to life in Metaverses, contact Charisma, and see our presentation on Friday, Dec 17: The Characters That Live In the Metaverse - from Superheroes to The Shining

To stay up to date with the latest AI and Metaverse news, subscribe to the Charisma newsletter.

Register / Login

ManageXR Raises $4 Million Seed Round to Scale XR for Business

Rally Ventures Leads Funding for Enterprise Device Management Platform for VR and AR

San Francisco - December 16, 2021 - ManageXR, an enterprise device management platform designed for VR and AR devices, today announced that it raised $4 million in Series Seed financing from Rally Ventures, with venture partner and previous lead angel investor Jay Borenstein joining the company’s Board of Directors. 

According to estimates from PwC, nearly 23 million jobs worldwide will be using AR and VR by 2030. As more enterprises turn to extended reality (XR) to train employees, more doctors use XR to treat patients, and more schools use XR to teach students, they face significant hurdles expanding their operations from early-stage pilots to organization-wide solutions. ManageXR serves as the core infrastructure for organizations looking to scale their XR deployments, enabling them to remotely control every aspect of their XR device fleet, including distributing apps and files, customizing the home screen user experience, tracking device health and usage, and more.

“Device management solutions have been around for years but, until recently, there hasn’t been a viable option for VR and AR devices. We’re solving that problem for businesses at an inflection point in the industry,” said Luke Wilson, founder and CEO of ManageXR. “Between the recent investments in the space from the largest tech giants and businesses now using VR and AR for everything from employee training to patient care to sales enablement, extended reality in the enterprise is at the cusp of mass adoption and we’re thrilled to have Rally Ventures join us for the ride.”  

Today’s financing will be used to support ManageXR’s expanding team and go-to-market strategy, as the company has experienced rapid growth since becoming available to beta users in 2020 and officially launching in 2021. In that time, ManageXR has facilitated more than 200,000 sessions-to-date across thousands of VR and AR devices used by small, midsize, and enterprise companies, including XRHealth and Brink’s. The company also recently partnered with Pico Interactive, a leading enterprise VR and AR hardware manufacturer, to preload ManageXR on all Pico devices in the U.S. and continues to look for ways to expand its partner network of hardware and software companies around the world. 

Lobaki, a company that helps schools across the country implement innovative educational programs with VR, uses ManageXR to grow and scale its business. “The ability to remotely fix a malfunctioning app enabled us to sustain a 200-device deployment at a school over 1,200 miles away. With ManageXR, we can take on larger projects with confidence,” said Amber Coeur, CEO of Lobaki. 

“XR is set to fundamentally change how we conduct business, collaborate, and experience the world in our professional and personal lives, but as adoption increases, so do the challenges that businesses face in successfully implementing their programs,” said Jay Borenstein, venture partner at Rally Ventures. “I am very excited to support Luke and his growing team as they accelerate how corporations can manage and benefit from XR devices at scale and ultimately bring enterprise-wide XR to the mainstream.” 

To learn about how ManageXR powers and scales XR for business, visit www.managexr.com.

About ManageXR

ManageXR solves the challenge of working with XR at scale. Whether you are managing one device or thousands, ManageXR enables users to distribute content, customize the user experience, maintain security, and troubleshoot devices, all in just a few clicks. ManageXR is based in San Francisco, California. For more information or to schedule a ManageXR demo, visit www.managexr.com.

US Air Force Cements Dynepic Training Platform as AETC Requirement

The U.S. Air Education and Training Command (AETC) leaders have unanimously voted to validate Dynepic’s Member Operations Training Analytics and Reports platform (MOTAR) as an AETC requirement, marking it as a key function of Force Development for all future Airmen. Effective immediately, AETC wings will get both the new training models with virtual reality and artificial intelligence, and the solutions for tracking progress.

This agile system ensures the highest quality Airmen graduate the AETC pipeline, equipped with every aspect of knowledge, skill and experience. MOTAR also provides robust performance analytics to its talent management systems, keeping the Air Force modern by following Airmen from the beginning of their career all the way to retirement.

Maj. Jesse Johnson, Commander of the Analysis and Innovation Directorate’s Det 23 and Tech Training Transformation (T3) started with a Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) proposal, pitching collaboration with the Dynepic DX learning platform to create an Air Force-unique, digital ecosystem. After receiving approval, the combined team finished the job in 10 months, launching MOTAR.

When the T3 team presented MOTAR to AETC’s leaders, the panel unanimously voted to validate MOTAR as an AETC requirement.

Christina Padron, Director of Partnerships and Growth, said: “This sets MOTAR on the path to become a USAF (United States Air Force) Program of Record, and it isn’t just about us - MOTAR supports an entire ecosystem of the most cutting edge and powerful training technologies from some of the most innovative companies in the industry, which are now accessible for all trainers and students across the USAF.”

T3 used AFWERX, RapidX, Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) and Agile Acquisitions methodologies to envision and develop MOTAR.

DARK SLOPE STUDIOS PUSHES VIRTUAL PRODUCTION TO ITS LIMITS WITH HYPERREALITY TV

The Hyperreality Initiative aims to produce a brand new form of reality television that allows participants to seamlessly travel between real and virtual worlds

The new technology will help create new formats for established concepts such as competition, dating, and other challenge shows

2nd December 2021 (TORONTO, ON) – Dark Slope Studios, the Toronto-based virtual production and metaverse gaming company, reveals its “Hyperreality Initiative,” the next step in blurring the lines between the real world and virtual worlds for reality television production.

Every production under the Hyperreality Initiative incorporates game-engine workflows, game mechanics and motion capture to create formats where participants can be immersed in boundaryless virtual worlds for key elements of the show’s narrative. Unscripted television will never be the same as those in any given show travel seamlessly from the real to the virtual world and are empowered to explore relationships, navigate adventures, and endure challenges that they would never otherwise have the chance to experience.

“Virtual production is the next logical step in entertainment and we’re taking it further with a highly skilled game-engine team armed with tools to apply the Hyperreality Initiative’s core concepts to a truly broad list of television show genres, especially in the unscripted category,” said Dan Fill, President, Dark Slope Studios. “We view the Hyperreality Initiative as a nearly limitless opportunity for bringing audiences highly engaging television that breaches creative boundaries previously limited by traditional production techniques – our technology completely melts away those boundaries and leaves us wide open to do just about anything in television production.”

Dark Slope is positioned to drive the new Hyperreality genre to the next level utilizing its expertise and advanced technology including:

Virtual Production Studio – Dark Slope works out of its virtual production studio in Toronto, Canada, equipped with warehouse-scale inertial and optical motion tracking, greenscreens, game-engine pipeline and more
Flex KS © Pipeline – Our Flex Kitchen Synch pipeline allows for remote direction, real time pre-viz, unlimited camera positions and more.
Virtual Avatar Creator – Participants or producers can choose or create a virtual avatar with endless possibilities. Avatars are a blank slate for creativity that let participants express themselves for others on-screen and viewers at home.
Camera, hand, object and face tracking – Dark Slope’s integrated tracking technology allows our creatives more control to manipulate and recreate real-world movement and produce authentic interactions within the digital world.
Advanced Haptics – Show participants can “feel” real feedback while in the digital world via torso, hand and environmental haptic feedback. This feedback adds to realism and creates authentic participant reactions.
Combining all of these virtual production tools with unscripted television brings countless creative opportunities and opens Hyperreality production up to as many genres as possible.

More info https://darkslopestudios.com/

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

Submit here

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

Submit here

Lucid Reality Labs rated top AR/VR Company and Top Global Service Provider of 2021

Lucid Reality Labs has been rated top Augmented and Virtual Reality Company worldwide and a Top Global Service Provider of 2021. On November 29, 2021, Clutch.co (https://clutch.co) the top ratings and review company announced their official global development and IT services leaders, yet again (https://lucidrealitylabs.com/blog/lucid-reality-labs-the-number-one-global-virtual-and-augmented-reality-developer), recognizing Lucid Reality Labs as the top immersive technology developer.

Clutch.co recognizes the industry leaders based on a meticulous evaluation process(https://clutch.co/service-providers/how-we-choose-global-2021), determining them based on five different criteria that include provided services, clients, case studies, received awards and social media presence.

JEREMY FISHMAN CLUTCH CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE MANAGER
“It’s a massive honor for us at Clutch to celebrate the global leaders in the development and IT services industries! These firms cemented their reputation through invaluable hard work and dedication. Their passion pushes the sectors forward!”

Lucid Reality Labs takes pride in their perfect 5-star ranking (https://clutch.co/profile/lucid-reality-labs#summary) that was earned by providing expertise, quality and support to their clients along all stages of the experience development, including post-production.

ALEX DZYUBA LUCID REALITY LABS CEO
“We continue to focus on Healthcare/MedTech, Life Sciences/Pharma and EdTech industries, helping accelerate innovation with a common goal to improve capabilities and systems for medical specialists thus ensure a positive impact for patients globally.”

Lucid Reality Labs is committed to their common goal, as they advance their skills and build more unique solutions. The team is grateful to all of their clients who continue to entrust Lucid Reality Labs with providing the best immersive solutions for their business. You can find more about the developed AR and VR solutions in the Lucid Reality Labs Portfolio (https://lucidrealitylabs.com/portfolio) or by Contacting them (https://lucidrealitylabs.com/contacts).

About Lucid Reality Labs
Lucid Reality Labs is a technology consulting, design and development company that focuses on solving business challenges with immersive tech solutions. A team of diversely skilled professionals creates unique interactive Augmented, Virtual and Mixed reality experiences for Fortune 500 clients across the globe, focusing on Healthcare/MedTech, Life Science, Education and other sectors.

Contacts
info@lucidrealitylabs.com
https://lucidrealitylabs.com/contacts
https://www.linkedin.com/company/lucidrealitylabs
https://www.facebook.com/lucidrealitylabs
https://twitter.com/LucidRealityLab

More info https://lucidrealitylabs.com/blog/lucid-reality-labs-nr1-ar-vr-company-and-top-global-service-provider-2021

NuEyes Technologies Joins VR/AR Association

NuEyes, a pioneer in the field of augmented reality smart glass technology is happy to announce that it has joined the VR/AR associations Orlando Florida Chapter. Founded in 2015, the VR/AR Association is a global member community of the best minds in virtual reality and augmented reality with Chapters in major cities across the world designed to foster research, develop standards, and promote and connect members.

"We are very excited to have NuEyes join the VRARA. The Pro 3 is a very innovative product that will enable new applications and use cases for AR." said John Cunningham Orlando Chapter President 

“The VR/AR Association has been instrumental in moving the industry forward and being at the forefront of building a network of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality leaders delivering the metaverse NOW” said Mark Greget, Founder and CEO of NuEyes Technologies, Inc.

ABOUT VR/AR ASSOCIATION

The VR/AR Association promotes and supports VR/AR Chapters in cities throughout the world. Chapters are run by a Chapter President who aims to support the VR/AR Association mission. Responsibilities include hosting meetups with speakers, industry panel discussions and presentations on a bi-monthly schedule, supporting local chapter research and case studies, and assisting in connecting and promoting member companies and individuals interested in growing every aspect of the virtual reality and augmented reality ecosystem.

ABOUT NUEYES TECHNOLOGIES, INC.

NuEyes is a veteran-owned smart glass technology company based in Orange County, California, that was launched in January 2016 to assist those with eye conditions such as macular degeneration, glaucoma, and retinitis pigmentosa. Over the past five years, the company has seen extensive sales growth and has obtained Federal, State and Insurance reimbursement for its devices. NuEyes addresses a multitude of augmented reality markets including low vision and medical, enterprise, gaming, and entertainment. With the leadership of NuEyes having over 16 years of combined experience in this space and we understand what it takes to successfully bring a new products to market.

Media Contacts

Regina Chatman

VP of Sales and Marketing - NuEyes

regina@nueyes.com

Websites:www.nueyes.com

P: 800-605-4033