VRAR Planet
Today's news quick review
•PICO flagship store opens into Malaysia
•Excellent! Los Angeles Rams arena information AR real-time observation
• Multi-sensory food awards: novel experience brought by VR
• New version of Meta Quest Phone App pays more attention to VR social
• H&M's futuristic AR try-on filters are here!
•avoid office loneliness, AR/VR hybrid office system CPW launches
•VR equipment usage survey: Only PICO, a company with significant growth rate
•HoloLens 2 MR products help improve power station inspection efficiency
•Multi-person virtual table tennis: Meta's latest MR experience
• Swiss flight simulation training plan provider may US$20 million financing
1, PICO flagship store opens into Malaysia
With the acquisition by ByteDance, PICO's global territory has expanded very rapidly. In April this year, its consumer VR (Pico Neo 3 Link is released overseas and Pico Neo 3 Pro is launched in Europe first; in October, PICO 4 was launched in Japan, South Korea and many European countries, and will enter the Singapore and Malaysia markets one after another.
Recently, PICO's first flagship store in Klang Valley Center, Malaysia also successfully opened its store. It is located in the most prosperous area of Sunway Pyramids, aiming to become a one-stop solution for users' best VR experience.
is also divided into four experience areas in the flagship store: gaming, fitness, entertainment and socializing. There are scattered PICO VR headsets in every corner of the store, so customers can interact with them while selecting products. At the same time, the product expert team can also answer technical questions of VR enthusiasts at any time, and will also provide guidance to inexperienced users.
2, wonderful! Los Angeles Rams arena information AR real-time observation
With the development of technology, more and more sports events have begun to introduce AR/VR to improve the viewing experience of the audience. Everyone must have paid attention to the recent World Cup. In yesterday's report, we reported on the newly launched AR function of the official World Cup application FIFA. (Planet Daily | Apple MR headset may be released in the second half of next year; Goertek still accounts for 80% of the global mid-to-high-end VR headset market) (The title in the brackets above added the hyperlink of yesterday's daily report, and the content of this brackets was deleted~)
Recently, the US football team Los Angeles Rams also followed the AR trend and cooperated with AR sports interactive platform ARound to launch a large-scale AR event at the SoFi Stadium in Los Angeles, providing a real-time shared AR viewing experience for 70,000 viewers at the game site. Fans only need to point their phones at the stadium to view AR special effects and interact with other fans. Even if you watch the game at home, you can see a real-sized virtual stadium.
In addition, this AR event has also received SoFi title sponsorship, and it is expected to continue to expand cooperation in the future to promote brand marketing and sports competition experience upgrades.
3. Multi-sensory food awards: novel experience brought by VR
We all know that virtual reality can bring the most basic tactile and auditory feedback, and people can communicate with others in virtual reality, interact with games or other activities. In fact, the development of VR today not only shows basic senses, but also has made breakthroughs in smell, taste, etc.
Last week, Italian artist Mattia Casalegno showed off his latest art installation Aerobanquets RMX for the first time at Miami Art Week in Miami, Florida. This installation combines VR technology with delicious cuisine to serve guests with a multi-sensory virtual reality meal. When the experiencer wears the Meta Quest 2 VR headset with an external hand tracker, and then tastes the dishes cooked for them by James Beard winner, Michelin -star chef Chintan Pandya, you will have a completely different experience.
Usually when we eat, we just eat it and savor it.However, by wearing VR equipment, the ingredients, cooking methods, tastes, etc. of each dish will be presented in the VR headset. You can also hear the lifelike dish evaluation narration of top chef judge Gail Simmons during meals, and the dining experience will be real UP!
4, the new version of Meta Quest Phone App pays more attention to VR social
Generally speaking, after users buy Quest headset, they need to set it up on the Meta Quest mobile app, such as installing the application, inviting friends to experience VR together, etc. Previously, there were always Quest owners complaining that the design of its official app prioritizes store marketing rather than assisting users in setting up headsets or making related social interactions.
Recently, users' complaints seemed to have worked. Meta finally listened to some of the feedback and revised the application. Now, based on the top feature button bar of the Meta Quest mobile app, users can quickly cast headset views. Clicking on this bar will bring up a screen where users can view the application library, change the settings of the headset, or enter VR from their phone. Below this function bar is the user's friend list. They will sort by the time they have been online recently, with current online friends and open parties listed at the top, you can click on the friends' list to chat at any time, or invite them to join their own party.
In general, this revision is really good, at least the experience in VR social networking has been greatly improved.
5, H&M's futuristic AR try-on filter is here!
Want to buy clothes online, but you are afraid that the clothes will not fit and will not look good when worn. What should I do? In fact, with the development of technology to the present, this problem can be perfectly solved by AR filters. Snapchat is the first time in the world to introduce it to a social platform. It opened up an AR filter shopping experience as early as 2018, and international big brands such as Gucci and Chanel have already tried the waters.
Today, H&M also announced its cooperation with the Snapchat platform to preheat the physical products to be officially released by launching 3 surreal-style clothing/accessories Snapchat AR trial-on filters. It is understood that these AR filters were designed by H&M and the London Digital Fashion Institute to help users to try on new clothing smoothly and smoothly.
Compared with previous online shopping, the AR experience has improved the "immersion" and "pleasure" of users' online consumption, which can bring nearly double shopping conversion rates to merchants. 74% of Snapchat users bluntly said that they prefer to shop with AR more than offline and other platforms. Technology has changed life, and in the future, AR can definitely bring us more surprises.
6. Avoid office loneliness, AR/VR hybrid office system CPW launches
In the current epidemic situation, we always cannot avoid remote work from home alone (of course, there will also be remote work before the epidemic). When working alone, you will inevitably feel lonely and cannot communicate and hand over time with your colleagues. To alleviate the loneliness of remote work, Japan's large-scale architect firm Nikkei Design and AR/VR solution company hololab launched an AR/VR telework system: CPW (full name is Symbo Physical Workplace).
In this system, office workers can interact online through AR virtual avatars. At present, this system has passed the initial stage of testing and can achieve the initial vision and will be planned to be provided to customers in the near future.
It is understood that this solution is based on AR and VR modes. You can use Quest 2 or HoloLens 2 headsets. Whether you are working from home or in the office, you can interact with colleagues remotely. The scene is built on a 3D model of a physical office and can also be recognized through gestures during the interaction. Maybe in the future, we no longer need to go out to work and can work in such a virtual office. Save the distance to work, maybe the work can be more efficient.
7. Survey on the Usage Rate of VR: Only PICO has a significant growth rate
People who have been paying attention to the VR industry for a long time must understand that the development of VR is not smooth.From the launch of the first VR device to the current dividend period of the VR industry, it has gone through a tortuous process. Nowadays, VR products are constantly enriching, and the global VR equipment market is also beginning to flourish. The most important one is of course Oculus. In addition, there are HTC Vive, HoloLens, Nolo and other categories. There are also many domestic products, among which PICO is one of the most prominent VR equipment troops.
According to the latest VR hardware survey data of Steam, in November 2022, PICO 4 jumped to become the fastest-growing VR device, with growing by 0.48% month-on-month . In contrast, VR equipment usage rates for other brands of equipment are almost showing a downward trend, especially the Oculus Quest 2 and Oculus Rift S in the front row, and the month-on-month declines reached 0.37% and 5% respectively.
Although PICO 4's current market share is still very small, only 0.67%, as a new device, it shows the strong market impact it should have in the early stage. At present, PICO has entered the overseas market and its domestic release will be soon. We will continue to pay attention to the subsequent development.
8, HoloLens 2 MR products help improve power station inspection efficiency
In fact, whether it is AR, VR, or MR, it has made many changes in our daily lives. Whether it is VR viewing, AR makeup trial, or MR experience, or more functions, it adds a bit of color to the lives of ordinary people. Of course, the effectiveness of new technologies is more than that, and their industrial help is particularly considerable. Hokkaido Electric Power Co., Ltd. is one of the beneficiaries.
The company mainly operates electricity retail and power generation businesses in Hokkaido, Japan and Tokyo metropolitan areas. Hokkaido has a harsh natural environment, and the company hopes to achieve a sustainable society that carbon neutrality by providing a stable power supply and creating value for the next generation. To achieve this goal, Hokkaido Power is actively using Microsoft MR solutions such as HoloLens 2 and Azure Spatial Anchors to improve the efficiency of thermal power station inspections. So far, they have developed an MR inspection application based on Microsoft HoloLens 2.
In industry, HoloLens 2 can not only share images, but also use MR technology to add holographic information to the actual field of view. This may completely change the on-site operation and will be of great help to improve the efficiency of inspection work and the company's data transformation.
9. Multiplayer virtual table tennis: Meta's latest MR experience
Compared with VR's pure virtual experience, MR's mixed reality can combine physical scenes and virtual experiences, which has attracted more people's attention.
Recently, Meta showed how Quest Pro uses Control Sharing Point Clouds to achieve a local multiplayer experience in one video. The video shows two people standing at the end of a rectangular table playing ping-pong, both wearing Quest Pro headsets, which transforms traditional physical tables and VR controllers into ping-pong tables and ping-pong rackets, just like we play balls with real tables and rackets.
It is understood that under the function of sharing point cloud , the headset worn by users can capture the outline of physical objects based on unique visual features. This technology can enable exciting new use scenarios as long as there are multiple Quest headsets in your home or business. Based on this function, the multiplayer gaming experience no longer requires external sensor technology to achieve spatial synchronization between individual devices, which can bring users a better and more convenient experience.
10, Swiss flight simulation training program provider may raise US$20 million in financing
It is understood that recently, VR startup and Swiss flight simulation training program provider VRM has officially renamed Loft Dynamics and announced that it has completed a US$20 million in Series A financing.
Loft Dynamics was founded in 2016. It has previously cooperated with Varjo to create a VR flight simulation solution. The supported models include Airbus H125, H145, etc., and its customers include airlines such as , Airbus , etc.The company is the world’s first and only VR full-sport simulator certified by major aviation regulators, meaning pilots can train in their simulation software and earn credits just like they would on actual aircraft.
This round of smooth financing can help the company's influence in the international market in the next stage. Its co-founder and CEO Fabi Riesen said: “After years of development, we are ready to expand Loft Dynamics into a global company and bring our technology and training solutions to the world. This funding comes at the right time as we will be able to meet the growing demand for flying schools and expand the range of aircraft types we support.”
text/R Starman
