Apple's 3D World, Yahaha Studios raised $40 million & Qualcomm's AR focus
Top Stories
Apple headset to play 3D content in virtual reality. Apple Inc.’s mixed-reality headset isn’t set to arrive until next year. But job listings and personnel changes at the company give a preview of some of the device’s capabilities such as a software producer with experience in visual effects and game asset pipelines who can create digital content for augmented-and virtual-reality environments.
Qualcomm unveiled their new Snapdragon platform built for slim augmented reality glasses. The Qualcomm Snapdragon AR2 Gen 1 platform has a multi-chip design that reportedly delivers 2.5 times the AI performance of the company's XR2-based reference design while using half the power. The platform includes a CPU, Tensor AI processing, graphics and engines for features like visual analytics.
Niantic's Lightship VPS will be compatible with Qualcomm Technologies' Snapdragon Spaces starting in 2023. This will allow developers who use Snapdragon Spaces to easily add functionality from Lightship VPS so that digital creations and experiences can be placed in and interact with the physical world in a believable way.
HTC’s next VR headset leaked? According to XR Hardware YouTuber, Brad Lynch, HTC is supposedly working on a standalone VR device similar in design to the HTC Vive Flow. Referred to by Lynch as the “HTC Vive Flocus,” the device supposedly features four black-and-white tracking cameras as well as one RGB passthrough camera, similar to the Pico 4.
In Funding
In China, investment in VR doubled in 2021 despite the pandemic. According to reports, the Chinese government is ramping up support for the virtual reality industry. Officials say that fundraising and investment volume in the VR sector has entered a new period of "explosive" growth and that the industry has excellent potential for further development.
Yahaha Studios has raised $40 million in Series A+ funding from Alibaba and Tencent. This follows an earlier $50 million Series A from Temasek and other investors. The new funding will be used to grow Yahaha's product, community, workforce, and ecosystem. The company's alpha test campaign has already recruited over 100,000 game content creators.
The TransMIXR project has received over 1 million euros from the Horizon Europe Programme, and Sound & Vision and CWI are partners in the project. The TransMIXR project is a European research project that aims to develop technologies to enable professionals in the cultural and creative industries to create new productions in XR.
Keep an eye on
The Schaffer-Nishimura Lab placed mice in VR to study their behaviour. The tiny subjects are immersed in a variety of closed-loop (interactive) and open-loop (non-interactive) visual scenes.
Radius XR was named a CES 2023 Innovation Awards Honoree in both the Digital Health and Virtual & Augmented Reality categories. They're known as a fashion-forward wearable healthcare technology brand.
BLACKPINK won the first-ever award for Best Metaverse Performance at the 2022 MTV EMAs in Dusseldorf, making both K-pop and virtual music history.
Nike's latest venture: a Metaverse marketplace called .Swoosh, a Web3-enabled platform where people will be able to buy its virtual products. The brand’s first virtual collection will launch on Swoosh in January 2023.
Events to be at
Nov 28 - Dec 02 Rotterdam | Immersive Tech Week
Dec 01 Rotterdam | The 6th International VR Awards
Dec 13 Online | AIXR Insights Live: The Great Debate: What is a Chief Metaverse Officer?
–
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news, comments, and your favourite Thanksgiving dish to team@aixr.org.
November 21 2022 Edition