Another Peak at VR-Enabled Cars, This Time From Holoride and Porsche

vrcoin on April 6, 2022

We’ve been keeping our eyes on holoride for a while now. The company promises VR-enabled in-vehicle entertainment and productivity applications – and they’ve delivered. However, those experiences have been demos and attractions at events, not something that an individual could actually use in their personal vehicle. holoride recently announced their first commercial installment with Porsche, featuring Cosmic Chase, holoride’s first original title, developed by Schell Games. While this is still a location-based experience currently only available at LA’s Porsche Experience Center, it does give us an exciting look at one of the experiences coming to consumer vehicles as early as this year. What Is the Experience? Schell Games is the studio behind well-known VR titles including Until You Fall, Among Us VR, and the I Expect You to Die series. If some of this is ringing a bell, Schell Games was one of the leaders in a $12M funding round

Data Security: Top Challenge in the Metaverse According to Tech Leaders

vrcoin on April 5, 2022

Ninety-seven percent of the respondents acknowledge the importance of data in the metaverse; Source: Bright Data Everyone’s talking about the metaverse. Tech giants are in a race to integrate into this new parallel world even as questions of data security surface. While the concept isn’t new, the business landscape has only recently been looking at the potential of the metaverse outside the gaming world. According to a survey from a web data platform Bright Data, and conducted by research firm Vanson Bourne, more than half of its respondents are aware of how the metaverse works. About 89% consider it important for business operations and 97% of the respondents acknowledge the importance of data in the metaverse. However, 60% cite data and security as the top challenges of this virtual world. Everyone is asking the same question: how will the metaverse impact cybersecurity? Cybersecurity and the Metaverse Cybersecurity has been a

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.

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

Virtual Reality Reimagines Employee Training Through Xelevate

vrcoin on March 2, 2022

Virtual reality and metaverse are mainly associated with men and gaming. White men are particularly leading the charge in today’s top gaming platforms such as Roblox, Sandbox, and Decentraland. Moreover, males outnumber females when it comes to owning non-fungible tokens (NFTs). According to one survey, 20% of US online male adults own at least one NFT. Meanwhile, only 7% of their female counterparts are NFT collectors. While women are involved in creating NFT art, they make up less than 16% of all NFT artists. Moreover, female artists generate only 5% of total NFT sales. The Tide Is Shifting in Virtual Reality Entrepreneurship A growing number of women entrepreneurs are breaking into the male-centric metaverse. They’re also promoting “metadiversity” in this sphere that remains vulnerable to the real-world realities of discrimination and harassment. Some groups such as Women in Blockchain Talks and Curious Addys are guiding women toward crypto-literacy. Others like

XRSI Releases Report on the Dangers of XR Data Collection

vrcoin on February 23, 2022

The metaverse is composed of virtual worlds. However, those virtual worlds are built and occupied by real people. While they offer real utility, they also pose real risks, particularly given the capacity of XR hardware to collect data and the inability of regulators to keep up. XR Safety Initiative held a roundtable event, The XR Data Classification Roundtable, on International Human Rights Day last year, and a detailed report of their findings and positions has recently been made available. Where Does XR Data Go? “People relinquish their data without realizing the risks or consequences. While this is not new, the difference today is we are moving towards an era of constant reality capture, especially with increased adoption of immersive technologies and a strong push to build the next iteration of the internet, also known as the Metaverse,” reads the “Virtual Worlds, Real Risks and Challenges” report. These strong words from

8th Wall Partners With Ready Player Me to Reality-Bending Effect

vrcoin on February 15, 2022

XR developer platform 8th Wall has just announced a partnership with cross-platform avatar builder Ready Player Me. To be fair, the list of companies compatible with Ready Player Me is growing all the time. However, there are a few things about the two companies that make this partnership particularly special. I Want to Talk About Ready Player Me To really understand the importance of this announcement, we have to make sure that we’re on the same page regarding Ready Player Me. The outfit allows users to make a 3D avatar starting from a photo. From there, they can change the avatar as well as its outfits. Ready Player Me avatars If this sounds familiar, it could be because you’ve probably done it quite a few times already – making an avatar is a common first step when stepping into a new VR platform. But, this isn’t a VR platform. This