Mark Zuckerberg talks about his vision for Meta at SXSW

vrcoin on March 17, 2022

In my visit to SXSW, I could not miss the fireside chat with Mark Zuckerberg that took place two days ago. I have never seen Zuckerberg in real life, and even if he was in streaming, it was anyway intriguing that he was speaking live and also answering live to the questions of the audience, so it was a bit like having him in the room with us. I’m not a big fan of Zuck, honestly speaking, but he’s still the CEO of the most important XR company in the world, so it’s worth listening to what he has to say. And seeing his big face and listening to his words was in the end an interesting experience. If you are afraid of having missed some big announcements, relax. During the interview, the Zuggity Zuck just repeated the same things we have already heard a bazillion times: his vision for

ITIF Releases Report on Moderating Multi-User Immersive Experiences

vrcoin on March 16, 2022

When you’re on social media and see someone engaging in dangerous, illegal, or often just distasteful activity, it is often fairly easy to report the content or the poster. In the physical world, these situations are less frequent and scarier but here too there are ways to report illicit interactions when necessary. But, what about immersive experiences? We tend to spend most of our time talking about the positive interactions and promises of immersive experiences. While AR and VR applications combine the best of in-person and online events, they also combine the worst of these settings for people who would misuse them. A recent report by the Information Technology & Innovation Foundation (ITIF) explores this. Authors and Influences “Content Moderation in Multi-User Immersive Experiences: AR/VR and the Future of Online Speech” is a free online publication by Daniel Castro, ITIF vice president and director of the Center for Data Innovation.

Holoride In-Car VR Entertainment Heading To Audi Vehicles

vrcoin on March 13, 2022

Backseat VR technology will arrive on select Audi sedans and SUVs as soon as this Summer.Last month HTC Vive announced that it was partnering with in-car VR entertainment company Holoride to bring its new HTC Vive Flow to backseats everywhere.During SXSW this week it was announced that Holoride technology will be launching on select Audi sedans and SUVs with the new MIB 3 technology this Summer, offering consumers their first taste of backseat VR entertainment.Powered by a blockchain ecosystem, the platform features one-of-a-kind “Elastic Content” that takes into account everything from the speed and movement of the vehicle to the length of the trip itself. This means no two in-car VR experiences will ever be exactly the same.So, how exactly does this system work? Holoride partnered with a company called Terranet to utilize VoxelFlow, a system of sensors that captures movement data and transates it into gameplay in real-time. As

Editorial: Should We Let Mark Zuckerberg Have The ‘Metaverse’?

vrcoin on March 11, 2022

Here’s how Meta distills the benefits of Mark Zuckerberg’s latest effort to shape modern life: “3D spaces in the metaverse will let you socialize, learn, collaborate and play in ways that go beyond what we can imagine.”We already have multiple VR headsets from different manufacturers for socializing, learning, collaborating, and playing in ways that are impossible to fully grasp until experienced. If VR headsets already do what Zuckerberg’s homepage at Meta describes, and Oculus was almost synonymous with much of this already, why would he abandon Oculus as a brand and move the goal posts out into the future? There’s a bigger role to play in shaping the future of human experience than just shipping better VR systems year after year, and Zuckerberg is taking that role as the head of Meta Platforms. There’s the worsening effects of climate change to contend with as well as the seemingly always-four-years-away dream

Gundam Metaverse In Development By Bandai Namco

vrcoin on March 9, 2022

The shared virtual world will feature characters from popular games like Pac-Man, Dark Souls, and Gundam.Bandia Namco, the Japanese video game and toy company with massive global appeal, recently announced plans to commit a whopping 13 billion yen ($130M USD) towards the development of a new “metaverse” experience dedicated to its most popular gaming and anime franchises.The “Gundam Metaverse,” as they are calling it, will feature a number of popular IPs, such as Pac-Man, Soul Calibur, Dark Souls, and of course plenty of giant robots from the critically-acclaimed Gundam universe. The primary goal, according to BNE (Bandai Namco Entertainment), is to help fans of the brand connect with each other through virtual concerts, movies, live events, and other social VR experiences.BNE made the announcement when the company shared its mid-term plans (April 2022 to March 2025) with shareholders detailing the three core goals of its “IP Axis Strategy.”Connecting fans through its

The LA-Based Marketing Agency Expanding Into the Metaverse

vrcoin on March 8, 2022

With more and more business and sales being conducted in virtual worlds, one digital marketing agency with physical offices in California is expanding its services into the metaverse. The LookinMeta Launch LookinLA is already a digital-first marketing agency. With partners like Google, Salesforce, and Shopify, high-tech trends like big data analytics and online retail are not new to the company. So, what’s new? In a way, everything. “We are the forefront of metaverse marketing,” LookinLA CEO Ali Payani said in a release shared with ARPost. “Our clients are now able to expand their businesses and operations into the virtual world to amplify their growth and authority.” The March 3 release announced a new platform from LookinLA called LookinMeta. This platform will give clients and client companies access to a whole suite of emerging technology tools and services. What Marketing Looks Like in the Metaverse A lot of the release has

Spatial Hosts “First-Ever Metaverse Film Screening”

vrcoin on March 7, 2022

Late last year, enterprise remote collaboration platform Spatial announced a major pivot “to become the metaverse for cultural events such as NFT exhibitions, brand experiences, and conferences.” The platform recently made good on that endeavor in a major way, hosting the “first-ever metaverse film screening.” The premiere of the documentary film GameStop: Rise of the Players took place in a custom Spatial room on March 1 and included a screening of the film, a director Q&A, selfie opportunities and, of course, an NFT giveaway. Remembering Recent History In January of 2021, GameStop stock was struggling. Around a year earlier, the company had announced that it would be closing many locations, and many expected that the entire chain would soon follow. Members of the Reddit group r/wallstreetbets made a run on the stock. Stock value jumped from under $20 on January 8 to $325 on January 29. Some stock-trading apps

The XR Week Peek (2022.03.07): Samsung is planning to launch an XR device, PSVR may arrive in 2023, and more!

vrcoin on March 7, 2022

Another week has passed by, and while the situation in Europe is always more complicated because of the war, in the XR landscape nothing particularly special has happened. It has been a pretty boring week, notwithstanding the MWC, which, as it happened the last few years, hasn’t brought important news about XR. But this roundup will be worth reading anyway, so don’t go away too fast! Top news of the week (Image by Samsung)Samsung is close to launching an XR device, or maybe two The metaverse hype is growing, and with it, all the interest of the big brands towards XR. Last month, we got to know that (according to a rumor) Samsung is working together with Microsoft on new AR glasses, most probably powered by a Qualcomm chipset. This week, instead, we discovered that Samsung is actually working on another headset in parallel.  According to the Korean magazine Electronic Times, the device

HTC Vive Shows Off Portable 5G Device With RC Cars

vrcoin on March 3, 2022

Set up a private 5G network for multiple VR headsets in under 30 minutes using the Reign Core.Today marks the final day of MWC 2022 in Barcelona and so far we’ve been treated to a variety of incredible announcements showcasing the future of connectivity. Day four of the event included informative talks featuring speakers from companies such as Amazon Web Services, Weta Digital, and Nolia as well as a plethora of incredible demos from a large list of exhibitors. One demo from HTC had attendees driving a small remote-controlled car fitted with cameras and 5G connections around a tiny racetrack using a portable 5G base station called a Reign Core.Vive Flow / Credit: HTCThose lucky enough to experience the demo had two different views of their carthanks to a couple of hi-res video feeds (POV and top-down) that were delivered using a 5G network from the Reign Core. As the drivers