April is the month when not only spring is in full-bloom but also innovation grows.
We took a perspective of inquisitive people and we got the chance to hear from people in the fastest-growing companies that are bringing incredible value to the realm of VR implementation in industry and for enterprise clients.
Here are top 6 news we found that we simply had to share with you. We found these pieces of information on various media portals of our friends:
HTC Vive’s $100 million USD global VR/AR accelerator program Vive X takes place simultaneously at three locations. Demo Days are happening in San Francisco, Shenzhen and Taipei. As with previous events companies exhibited their latest innovations in VR and AR hardware, entertainment, enterprise solutions, and tools and services before an audience of investors, and potential business partners.
The participants were those previously revealed back in November, the latest to join the programme as part of Vive X Batch 3. These included Cloudgate Studio, the developer behind Island 359, Pillow’s Willow VR Studios which created Spark of Light, SpatialStories Creative Suite developer Apelab, and Astral Vision which turns existing amusement park rides into VR attractions
“Vive X is the most active VR and AR investor with over 80 investments in the past two years,” said Marc Metis, Global Head of Vive X at HTC Vive in a statement. “We look forward to bringing Vive X’s unmatched support to Europe’s innovative VR/AR industry and continuing to invest in the next wave of content, services, platforms and hardware.”
The VRARA Vancouver will attend TED2018, along with local companies Archiact, Cognitive 3D, LlamaZOO, Ziva Dynamics, Finger Food Studios, and Precision OS, and represent BC’s VR/AR industry to an international audience. The initiative offers each company the opportunity to demo their products to key industry stakeholders and showcase BC as a leader in immersive tech. Home to more than 180 VR/AR companies, BC is one of the largest immersive tech hubs in the world, second only to California’s Silicon Valley.
“With applications for game development, enterprise and immersive experiences, Vancouver’s VR/AR ecosystem demonstrates that it is ready for the challenge of developing both the platforms and content of the future. Anchored by household names like Microsoft, populated by game-changing creators like Archiact and Finger Food, and supported by a connected, generous and innovative ecology of educators, incubators, and associations, this is a sector 40+ years in the making.” Nancy Basi, Executive Director, Film and Media at the Vancouver Economic Commission.
If you did not believe in a strong intersection between the world of immersive technology and films until not, this weekend may change your mind thanks to Steven Spilberg’s team and HTC Vive.
Steven Spielberg’s Ready Player One arrives in cinemas the last weekend in March and the audience could witness the large proliferation of VR experience. More content arrived on HTC Vive and the company will bring those immersive experience to over 30 VR arcades across the US.
And you would definitely like to see the Vive China President’s 16 takeaways on VR-first Future after he previewed Ready Player One. Road to VR featured his amazing text.
Thanks to VR Focus we could mark 2 years i.e. 24 months of Oculus Rift successfully navigating the waters of development and market presence.
Oculus began its fight back in December 2016 with the launch of the Oculus Touch controllers, perfectly crafted for immersive gameplay, they were smaller and lighter than HTC Vive’s controllers and far more accurate and ergonomic than PlayStation Move. Yet Oculus being Oculus fudged things again.
Having launched Oculus Touch for $199 in early 2017, only a couple of months after release Oculus halved the price, pissing a lot of early adopters off in the process. So this was the first time Oculus issued store credit to customers ($50) to apologise. The reason for the discount was due to a new offer, packaging the headset and motion controllers together for the low price of $598.
As the year went on this strategy got even more aggressive, with Sony Interactive Entertainment (SIE) publishing sales figures for PlayStation VR that seemed to indicate it had already overtaken Oculus Rift (and HTC Vive) in a few short months (although official unit figures have never been released by Oculus).
So in the summer of 2017 the big price drop came, Oculus Rift with Touch could be bought for a limited time for $399, making high-end PC VR a more affordable possibility.
Merging Realities: An Event of Multiple Perspectives is taking place on April 26, and the conference will feature renowned guests from the fields of virtual and augmented reality.
They will be speaking to participants who can join in from around the world.
This is made possible by being the first full-day conference to be hosted completely in virtual reality.
Kris Hodgson, interim chair of Lethbridge College’s School of Media and Design, says many virtual meetings have been held around the world, but this is the first conference they know of will spend an entire day in the virtual setting.
“Industry-leading speakers will highlight the latest advances in virtual and augmented reality. Our Multimedia Production program has spearheaded this event, led by instructor Mike McCready and his students, and it’s truly incredible what has been accomplished in only a few months.”
Some of the keynote presenters will include: Alan Smithson: co-founder and CEO of MetaVRse; Alex Katzen: Google’s Daydream business development team content specialist; Cathy Hackl: VR/AR global speaker, futurist and one of the most influential women in tech.
ARVRtech is, in particular looking forward to try out the latest technology, that will start shipping this summer from LOOXID LABS, that will be great addition for Immersive4Learning VR platform for personalized learning and training course creation.
LoxidVR is the first mobile VR headset to provide an interface for both the eyes and the brain. Two eye tracking cameras and six brain wave sensors are seamlessly integrated into Virtual Reality to measure eye and brain activity and packed in a slick and optimized design making it comfortable for anyone to wear. LooxidVR provides information about where the users have looked and how the user’ brain are activated in VR.
Both integrated features will enhance learner monitoring in VR space, engagement level and focus of attention. ARVRtech is looking forward to testing the latest technology in VR HMDs!
