Hitting Up Silicon Valley for AWE2023
AWE (Augmented World Expo) USA is one of our most anticipated events to pay a visit to every year, with the most innovative minds and businesses of the tech industry coming together to rave about the cutting-edge products, discoveries and inventions in augmented and virtual technologies.
With the event looming, we’ve been pondering about what is happening in the XR ecosystem at AWE USA this year? While we’re packing our bags, finding our passports and making our way across the pond to join other tech veterans in Santa Clara, we wanted to share what we’re most looking forward to across the three days.
Dolby.io
Not only will we be roaming the exhibition hall this year, we’ll also be bringing our own latest virtual reality demo to Silicon Valley to showcase on the Dolby stand. Powered by Dolby.io’s real-time streaming technology and Move’ai’s movement capture system, the demo streams a live performance featuring Jake Isaac and places you in the audience so you can participate with the virtual gig.
The performance was captured and recorded in the grandeur music hall of KOKO in London, and with the use of Move’ai’s motion capture technology, no suits were required when capturing the live performance, leaving the organic performance to be captured and translated into VR.
The demo puts you as a concert attendee into the experience and outputs the streams of the virtual gig to the web. We will be present on the Dolby stand #324 for both exhibition days of AWE and urge any tech lovers who are also avid concert-goers to swing by to test out the demo with us and say hi.
Magic Leap
Known for their groundbreaking AR headsets, it’s no surprise Magic Leap will be showing off their latest headset which can be used for enterprise MR solutions. We are familiar with their expertise in augmented technologies, having adopted the use of their first mixed reality headset for a variety of our client projects including Mercedes, Philips and DYSTOPIA 987 and have recently got our R&D hands on the Magic Leap 2 to test its use for future experiences.
It was recently teased that Meta and Magic Leap have partnered up. The collaboration between the two companies is exciting as it brings together two innovative companies bringing together the best of both their worlds.
Meta has a vision for bringing the immersive technologies we use everyday into the hands of the public for everyday practicalities, while Magic Leap are expert veterans in building MR hardware and software. Peggy Johnson, Magic Leap’s CEO revealed in a blog last year titled, “What’s Next for Magic Leap?” that one of their moves in the new year was to, “license our IP and utilize our patented manufacturing process to produce optics for others seeking to launch their own mixed-reality technology.”.
What We’re Excited for on the Expo Hall
Niantic
AR-pros Niantic have a mammoth presence on the AWE showfloor this year with the Niantic Lounge, featuring product demos, multiplayer tournaments and even a Happy Hour. Amongst their products will be a demo of generative AI meeting 8th Wall’s web AR. How can AI change how we create and use AR forever? We’ll be looking at Niantic and 8th Wall too see how they include AI in their AR toolkit.
XREAL
Formerly known as NREAL, XREAL has pioneered mixed reality glasses around the world. Having recently teased the XREAL Beam, teased as, “a first of its kind, with a spatial display that’s redefining AR”. What the Beam actually does, we’re not yet sure, but after a flashy rebrand and a mission to redefine how we can use, work and play with AR, XREAL is one to watch at AWE.
Unity
Unity CEO John Riccitiello will be doing a talk on, ‘How Immersive Storytelling Can Deepen Human Understanding of Critical Issues’. With the drive for Unity’s use-cases to expand beyond being known as just a game engine maker and being adopted into other real-time 3D operations, we’re curious to see John’s talk.
UltraLeap/Lynx/Pico
Lynx will be nestled on the Ultraleap stand this year with PICO. With both PICO and Lynx releasing new headsets this year, this will be one of the best opportunities to try out their new wears alongside UltraLeap’s hand-tracking technology and see what’s new for all parties involved.
Sightful
On the sightful stand will be the very first public hands-on of Spacetop, the world’s first augmented reality laptop. With no screens but a 100” augmented display, the Spacetop offers the first portable computer that comes fitted with AR glasses for you to take on the go and work anywhere. How will this compare to the surprises Apple may have in-store for the XR world?
We’re thrilled to be back in Silicon Valley for the world’s largest XR event. If you’re there, come say hi to us on the Dolby stand #324 and tell us what you’re up to.
