This week we learned more about how the US Army plans to start using the Microsoft HoloLens to augment combat soldiers. The deal ignited controversy inside the tech giant, as employees objected to the weaponization of their work. They probably should have thought of this possibility sooner, as Microsoft already does a lot of work with the DoD, and is said to be competing with Amazon for its massive cloud contract.
Amazon is also working on earbuds that would be compete with Apple's Airbuds. Snap also made a flurry of announcements at its partners conference, including the launch of Snap Games and Landmarkers, which are the geolocation and then computer vision aided anchoring (SLAM) to turn a real world locations into digital canvases for their creative users. The company says it reaches 90% of people between 13-45. Today Snap announced it was anchoring a Game of Thrones experience to New York's Flatiron building, one of its Landmarkers, to celebrate the much anticipated last season of HBO's award-winning sword-and-sorcery series, which premieres at 9pm EST on Sunday, April 14th.
US Military reveals first version of custom Hololens 2, ‘IVAS’. The Integrated Visual Augmented System includes live 3D maps, a heads up display with compass and aiming reticle, as well as thermal imaging. The military aims to use the headset on and off the battlefield, for example the headset gathers data from its wearers such that after a training exercise a soldier’s performance and health data can be analyzed. The current iteration of IVAS is bulky, but future versions will be smaller and integrated into a soldier’s helmet.
Amazon announces Alexa powered Airpods style headphones. The wireless headphones will provide access to Amazon’s voice assistant on the go and sport a form factor similar to Apple’s Airpods. According to Bloomberg the headphones aim for better audio quality than Airpods as well as touch controls.
Vuforia makes enterprise AR content creation easy with Expert Capture. The new update to PTC’s Vuforia AR software allows experts in any field to quickly capture and create step-by-step instructions using AR, without the need for any coding or development. The new feature set was announced at the recent Hannover Meese enterprise XR conference in Germany. Hannover Messe, one of the world's premier industrial technology conferences for enterprise, is focused on industrial automation, IT, industrial supply, production technologies and services to energy and mobility technologies, including AR.
Osso VR brings surgical training to Europe. Newcastle Hospital’s Simulation Centre in the UK will be the first European installation of Osso VR’s surgical training. Osso VR has seen success in the US with VR-trained surgeons performing 230 percent better than a traditionally trained control group.
Meanwhile, in location based VR:
Arizona Sunshine gets a dark and gritty free roam facelift at Nomadic in new location based Rampage experience. Opening this Spring in Orlando, the new freeroam VR experience forces players to use flashlights and navigate a dark refinery filled with infected creatures. In addition to the darker environment, Arizona Sunshine: Rampage features a virtual goods system whereby players can pay for additional ingame upgrades, such as beefier weapons.
Virtuix Omni boasts $30k per month revenue with Omniverse VR ARENA. Designed for operation by a single attendant, VR ARENA can support a throughput of 20 players per hour. Placed in a popular Pinballz Austin, TX location, the VR ARENA sports a queuing app allowing players to sign up and receive a text message once their play session is about to begin. The first month, 15% of players were repeat customers, which Virtuix encourages with weekly and monthly cash prize tournaments. Pinballz charges $15 per play, or $12 as part of a combo package.
New Star Trek VR experience opens at Dave and Buster’s. Star Trek: Dark Remnant puts players on the deck of the U.S.S. Galileo alongside the U.S.S. Enterprise protecting the ships from debris and fighting off Klingons. The experience has multiple characters, scenarios, and endings that are different every time. Star Trek: Dark Remnant was developed by VRstudios and development partner Strange Reptile.
ICYM my two latest stories.
Xperiel wins Edison Award for AR Cloud/IOT system.
Snap doubles down on consumer AR with Landmarkers.
This column is written and edited with Michael Eichenseer.
