This Week In XR: Nreal Prevails, Augmedics, Admix Funded, The LBVR Deadpool

Happy Juneteenth! The US District Court of Northern California dismissed all of Magic Leaps claims against Nreal and its co-founder (and ex-leaper) Chi Xu today, stating “Magic failed to state claims on which relief could be granted.” ML has 30 days to get specific before the whole zillion dollars of lawyering goes poof. What’s always intrigued us about this dust-up is how the got here. Chi worked at Magic Leap. He saw a better way to do spatial computing. Rather than building a mini-Intel in your basement to make proprietary photonic wafers, Chi’s integrating Qualcomm chips and tethers his AR glasses to your android phone. Its headset will be available for $499 in the fall.

Augmetics raises $15 Million round of funding lead by employees. The company will use the funds to continue development of its augmented reality surgical image guidance technology. A series B funding round was set to close this Spring, but the COVID crisis halted all investor activity, and prompted the employee lead round.

Admix lands $7 Million funding to bring ads into XR. Admix has made advertising in video games possible for years via its Unity and Unreal SDKs. The funding will help further development of its existing platform, and expand features for XR titles.

Afworx-funded Red6 has received an investment from Lockheed Martin. Last fall we introduced readers to Red 6, a secretive start up funded by the Air Force new technology group. The company has created a system that uses AR in real jets to simulate dogfights.

Apple’s WWDC 2020 next Monday. Tune in for the first keynote at 10AM PDT. Lots of great info as always, but the cult of mac will be online this year. We’ll be listening for some hints about their much-anticipated AR glasses, which may take on the eyeglass industry.

Collison, the celebrity filled, epically huge international conference slated for Toronto is online this year as well. Tickets start at $149. Celebrity speakers include Arianna Huffington, Justin Trudeau, Andrew Yang, Margaret Atwood, Gary Vaynerchuk, and executives from the biggest names in tech.

From the Department of Toldyaso: 190M 5G subscriptions by the end of 2020 predicted by Ericsson. 90% of the 5G subscriptions are coming from Northeast Asia, China and South Korea specifically where 5G infrastructure and deployment has seen the most progress. So this means less than 15M people in North American and Europe will have 5G in the next few years. A big middle finger to those who said I was a mean old under-informed cynic. While that may be true, I was still right when in May 2019 I said 5G prematurely was being hyped to justify somebodies over inflated stock prices, and predicted it wouldn’t reach 10% of the US in two years, or longer.

HTC Vive announces VIVE XR Suite for companies embracing remote work. The new suite comes as an answer to the effects of the pandemic and includes 5 applications: VIVE Sync, VIVE Sessions, VIVE Campus, VIVE Social, and VIVE Museum. Companies like VirBELA, who is behind the Vive Campus app, have partnered with HTC on the VIVE XR Suite. The VirBELA deal makes sense. That’s basically Second Life for business. And it scales big. Other efforts like Sync require gaming PCs and VR, which continue to face significant headwind, and mucho friction.

Cannes XR Virtual to exhibit 55 immersive experiences inside MOR. From June 24th through 26th VR headset owners can step into the Museum of Other Realities to attend the virtual festival. Offline recordings will be available through July 3rd. An awards ceremony for the top experiences will take place the night of June 26th.

New Playstation 5 camera could support better PSVR tracking and PSVR2. Along with the PS5 announcement itself, Sony shared its new PS5 camera accessory which has higher fidelity sensors than the PS4’s. While Sony made no specific mentions of a new PSVR, the camera is stereo just like the current PSVR camera. 

Sandbox VR lays off 80% of its staff. This is significant because Sandbox makes the operating software and licensing mechanisms for VRcades. LBVR has been hard hit by COVID. Sandbox VR has had zero revenue during the pandemic, leading to the recent layoffs. There is some hope for LBVR, says VirtuixOmni.

Cleanbox is cleaning up. The company was focused on LBVR sanitization, should be laying in the grave next to Sandbox, but since their Cleanboxes kill COVID-19 they’ve added eight new salespeople to handle all the incoming orders.

Highschool grads get an AR celebrity celebration with Flo Rida. Broward County public high schools partnered with ImagineAR to bring a highschool graduation ceremony into students’ homes. Students can use AR to dance and snap a picture with Flo Rida and accept a diploma from their superintendent. 

Adobe launches new app: Photoshop Camera. The app includes many filters users can use on their faces and the world around them to enhance or totally change an image.

The UK Defense and Security Accelerator awarded a triple-figured contract to Polystream. Polystream is developing technology to stream virtual 3D interactive training to a full platoon of soldiers. The simulations are built in partnership with Bohemia Interactive Simulations.

New iPad Pro app Canvas can scan 3D models of your home. The new iPad’s sensors may make their way into the next iPhones, allowing your smartphone to make similar scans of the world. 

Jean-Michel Jarre hosting live VR concert in VR Chat this weekend. The concert, dubbed ‘Alone Together’ will be on a virtual stage specially designed and produced by VRrOOm. The event can be experienced in VRChat using this link, or on flat screen devices via Jarre’s YouTube Live.

Epic announces Unreal Fest Online for July 14. This free online event is geared towards users of Unreal of all stripes: game developers, film makers, architects, etc. A full agenda of speakers and content can be found on the Unreal Engine’s website, where you can register for the event for free. 

“This Week in XR” is written and edited with Michael Eichensser.