Cannes festival attracts attention, the 'Spacetop' raises $61 million, and Samsung acquire eMagin.
Also this week...Palmer Luckey claims new Apple headset is "excellent", while pundits debate Tim Cook's original MR vision and VR market projections hit $113.59 billion by 2032.
Good morning Metaverse Business Brief readers. Let’s jump into the most relevant news from the immersive world in our weekly roundup.
Top Stories
All immersive eyes are on Cannes Next festival. With the arrival of one of the most noteworthy conferences in the emerging tech calendar, those in the film industry have descended on Cannes for this year’s program of insights and experiences. The Marché du Film team has also confirmed that the Cannes XR program will return in 2024 after what is being dubbed a ‘revamp’. The 2023 edition of the Marché du Film event will instead contain immersive events from contributors like Banksy, with the artist premiering a new VR experience.
Oculus founder Luckey praises “Excellent” Apple headset. Palmer Luckey made the comment in a May 4th twitter spaces interview, which only became noticed after being highlighted on reddit. In the interview, it is also suggested by Luckey that the headset will be expensive. This confirms reports and rumours that suggest the retail cost of the device may be up to $3000. Palmer Luckey did state that he hadn’t seen a final version of the headset, however he did reiterate that based on his experience it was “gonna be a huge deal.”
Tim Cook’s original vision sacrificed in latest headset design. In other news regarding Apple’s potential new device, it is claimed in a report from Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman that the final MR headset has changed significantly from the desired plans laid out initially by Apple’s CEO. Cook originally planned for a lightweight pair of AR glasses that could make the same splash as the first iPhone, however rumoured plans put the device more conservatively in line with existing VR headsets currently available on the market.
VR market to grow from $30.64 billion to $113.59 billion by 2032. The valuation has been produced by Precedence Research, with the supposed availability of cheaper, higher quality hardware considered the greatest driving factor behind the market’s potential expansion. Perhaps even more notably, the report sheds substantial insight into the VR marketplace of today. Precedence Research claims the Asia Pacific market holds the greatest revenue share of 41%, largely owing to a larger consumer and enterprise marketplace in countries like China.
In Funding
Sightful’s Spacetop takes $61 million. The ‘Spacetop’ device comes in the form of an AR ‘laptop’ that combines AR glasses with a keyboard. In theory the device turns the AR glasses into a virtual desktop computing environment. Launching as an all in one product for $2,000 dollars, shipments of an initial 1,000 units will begin in July.
VoxelSensors secure €5 million. The Brussels-based startup aims to grow a novel patented technology called SPAES, which provides ultra low latency (less than 5 milliseconds) and highly efficient (consumption of less than 10 milliwatts of power) 3D perception systems that allow for the blending of the physical and digital worlds.
Copresence emerge from stealth with $2.75 million. The Swiss based provider of digital avatar generation software have announced a closed beta launch of an app for their platform, which it claims will create a digital likeness in minutes. The photorealistic 3D digital twins of a users face can be used for gaming, video conferencing, and in VR/AR environments. The software makes use of an AI scanning technology that is smartphone compatible.
Keep an eye on
Samsung Display acquire eMagin. A definitive merger agreement was signed on the 17th of May, with the acquisition valued at around $218 million. eMagin have developed a highly advanced OLED microdisplay dubbed a ‘direct patterning display’, which achieves around 15,000 nits. The potential for this display to be used in XR headsets is high, with large organisations like Valve working with eMagin in the past on similar compatible displays.
Meta and BMW update us on collaboration. In a brand new video released by Meta, both organisations claimed they have made progress in introducing AR and VR to cars, most notably in allowing interaction with objects while moving at high speed in the real world. Zuckerberg himself demoed this advancement, which combines inertial motion data from the car in real time with the tracking system in Meta’s Project Aria research glasses.
H&M launch Stranger Things Roblox experience. The clothing giants have developed the experience to build on the introduction of the H&M Loooptopia world in January. The biggest element of the experience will be the “Surfer Boy Pizza Delivery Game”, inspired by a scene from the hit Netflix show and intending to promote a new 25 piece kids summer clothing collection.
Campfire launch holographic collaboration system. Having worked on the product for years, Campfire have announced a new multi-platform app for PC, Mac and iPad that has been developed as a part of the system, which allows teams to collaborate across platforms in meetings using XR visualisations. The technology is expected to be in high demand within enterprise XR teams as it simplifies remote collaboration using 3d models and scans.
Events to be at
May 31 California | Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2023
June 01 Online | The 7th International VR Awards Nomination Webinar 2
June 13 Online | Insights Live: Metaverse vs Web3: A Convergence?
July 11 Online | Insights Live: The Importance of Inclusivity and Diversity within the Metaverse
August 08 Online | Insights Live: How the Metaverse would Transform Education
October 24-26 Houston | The 10th Augmented Enterprise Summit
November 30 Rotterdam | The 7th International VR Awards
Our best wishes for a productive day. Please send any news and comments to team@aixr.org.
May 22 2023 Edition - Issue 20