Author name: Rejus Almole

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Uncommon bags €28M to scale lab-grown meat using RNA technology

Next Featured, Startups and technology, Sustainability / /
Uncommon bags €28M to scale lab-grown meat using RNA technology

Linnea Ahlgren

Story by

Linnea Ahlgren

Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has a background in international relations and covers clean and climat Linnea is the senior editor at TNW, having joined in April 2023. She has a background in international relations and covers clean and climate tech, AI and quantum computing. But first, coffee.

Global livestock contributes 14.5% of all manmade greenhouse gas emissions. Our food systems need a significant revamp, not to say a revolution, if we are to have any chance of feeding a growing population while also making sure there is still a planet that is worth populating at all. 

Some of that revamping is happening in the lab, with cell biology taking centre stage. With global meat consumption showing no sign of slowing down (in fact, quite the opposite), cellular agriculture could be one of the keys to reducing livestock-related emissions. 

UK-based cultivated meat startup Uncommon announced today it has raised $30mn (€28mn) in Series A funding. The round was led by Balderton and Lowercarbon, but also included angel investors in the form of Sam Altman (of OpenAI fame) and his brother Max. 

Patent-pending RNA technologies

Uncommon, founded in 2018 and based out of Cambridge, leverages RNA technology to cultivate bacon and pork belly from pig cells. If RNA sounds familiar to you, it is probably due to the mRNA vaccines developed to fight COVID-19. RNA stands for Ribonucelaic Acid, a molecule that contains the instructions, or recipe, that directs cells to make a protein using its natural machinery. 

“As the only cultivated meat leveraging RNA technologies, we believe we have a competitive advantage that could help us become the largest protein company in the world,” said Benjamina Bollag, founder and CEO of Uncommon. 

The cultured meat startup has now raised a total of approximately €35mn, including a £1mn (€1.16mn) Innovate UK grant. The latest round will go toward bringing down the cost of goods further, the regulatory application procedure, and the scaling of production at a pilot manufacturing facility at Cambridge Technopark. Furthermore, the company says it will double its team over the next 18 months. 

Will cultivated meat succeed where plant-based alternatives appear to have failed?

Investors who backed the initial rush towards plant-based meat alternatives have not had a great time of it over the past couple of years. But if the failure to capitalise on the early enthusiasm for vegan meat substitutes has proved anything it is this: people will not stop eating meat, even if the future of the planet depends on it. 

Even though the taste and texture of plant-based alternatives have come a long way, they cannot fully replicate actual meat. Lab-grown meat doesn’t have that problem since it is, well, actual meat. 

Cells are taken from an otherwise unharmed animal and then cultivated in a lab setting. Uncommon transforms the individual cells into induced pluripotent stem cells in a process called “reprogramming,” a technology that won the Nobel Prize in physiology or medicine in 2012. 

Costs associated with the technology have thus far been prohibitive of commercialisation (and that is saying nothing of regulatory hurdles still to be overcome). However, companies in the sector claim that scaling production will reduce costs to where, in a few years time, the products will reach price parity with conventional meat. Indeed, Uncommon says it aims to own 5% of the global pork market by 2035. 

UK cell agriculture investment is booming

Analysts differ in their estimates, but the cellular agriculture market could be worth hundreds of billions by 2040; an attractive proposition for investors willing to play the long game and potentially do something good for the planet. Globally, the cultured meat industry raised $869mn (€806mn) in venture capital funding in 2022, down from $1.3bn (€1.2bn) in 2021. However, in the UK, investments rose by 400%. 

While most people have come to know him as the CEO that brought ChatGPT to the world, Sam Altman is an avid startup investor. He has backed over 100 companies over the years, including several biotech startups, for instance, Elon Musk’s Neuralink. 

Securing food supply

Cultivated meat may be one of our best bets when it comes to curtailing the slaughter of 200 million animals per day and cutting down the vast emissions and overuse of antibiotics associated with land use and factory farming. What’s more, it may help assist with food security. 

It is perhaps no coincidence that the first country to approve cultivated meat for human consumption – Singapore in December 2020 – imports 90% of its food. The US also approved the first cultivated meat product (chicken) in November 2022. 

However, the EU could be in for a bit of a tussle, as Italy’s government recently backed a bill that would ban lab-grown and other synthetic meats in the name of cultural food heritage. Although, given it is the country’s 68th government in 76 years, things may still change in time for when the technology becomes commercially mature.

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Geenee AR Launches Advanced Virtual Try-On Solutions for E-Commerce and Retail

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In the online shopping era, the one thing missing from a perfect shopping experience was a realistic way of trying on products remotely. Thanks to augmented reality and virtual try-on solutions (VTO), this is no longer an issue.

Various AR and WebAR development companies allow retailers and e-commerce brands to offer their customers a highly realistic way of trying various products. From clothes and shoes to makeup and home goods, consumers are able to make an informed shopping decision after using these solutions.

Geenee AR, a WebAR technology company, has recently announced a comprehensive suite of immersive digital shopping solutions for e-commerce brands, including ads, online stores, and onsite mirrors.

Virtual Try-On Solutions Improve the Shopping Experience and Increase Sales

One of the biggest problems for online retailers is the large quantity of returned products. When it comes to clothes, footwear, eyewear, and accessories, many consumers find that they don’t make a good fit for their body type. Or, once they try on the product, they don’t get the look they envisioned when they saw the product in the online store, presented by a model.

With virtual try-on solutions, consumers are able to have a more realistic idea of how they’d look wearing each product. This reduces the number of product returns and increases customer loyalty.

However, until recently, most, though not all, AR try-on solutions were usually focused on a specific type of product: be it makeup, eyewear, hairstyle, clothing, or jewelry.

Geenee’s Virtual Try-On Solutions 

With the new suite of virtual try-on solutions, retailers and e-commerce brands can offer their customers a complete experience. Geenee’s virtual try-on solutions include full-body virtual try-on for products like T-shirts, dresses, skirts, pants, jackets, and sweaters, as well as try-on for beauty products and accessories such as handbags, jewelry, glasses, and hats, and other headworn accessories.

full body virtual try-on Geenee AR

Moreover, the company’s virtual try-on solutions are size-inclusive and support a wide range of body types. This is extremely important for customers who want to look not just for the right size, but for garments that compliment their body and make them feel more confident.

“Augmented reality helps consumers make informed and confident purchasing decisions faster than ever before,” said Heather Lipner, Geenee AR’s Head of Product Design and Creative, in a press release shared with ARPost. “Will it fit? Will it look good? To see how something looks on your own face or body will trigger the confidence to purchase – the key driver for e-commerce success.” 

In addition to virtual try-on, the company also offers true-size AR for home goods like furniture and appliances.

Key Features of Geenee’s Virtual Try-On Solutions

Geenee offers a complete suite of solutions for online and offline retail stores. The main features of the virtual try-on solutions include:

  • E-commerce point of sale – web-based full body and face tracking, allowing customers to try all types of products, from head to feet;
  • Onsite mirrors – AR mirrors which allow customers to try on products in store without going to a changing booth;
  • Embedded ads – thanks to the company’s partnership with AudienceX, brands can offer virtual try-on experiences within their online ads across various websites and social media platforms.

Brands Report Positive Results After Implementing the VTO Solutions

So far, several fashion, beauty, and home goods brands have used Geenee’s virtual try-on solutions, and some of the results they shared with the company include:

  • For eyewear: 81% increase in add-to-cart;
  • For fashion products: 24% decrease in returned products;
  • For accessories: a 25% increase in conversion rates;
  • For home goods: a 67% increase in conversions and a 38% decrease in product returns.

virtual try-on accessories Geenee AR

These results confirm the vision of the CTO of Geenee, Evgeny Peshkov.

“Virtual try-on brings e-commerce to the next level. Being able to see how something actually fits rather than guessing based on 2D photos simplifies the customer’s decision,” Peshkov said.  “The number of advanced techniques built and fine-tuned specifically for this task allow for a high level of realism and fidelity. Geenee’s web-first VTO solution is ready out-of-the-box and can be easily integrated with any e-commerce platform.”

Experience Virtual Try-On by Geenee

Geeenee AR offers both brands and consumers the chance to test their latest VTO solutions. Anyone can test a demo version on a desktop or mobile here.

Geenee AR Launches Advanced Virtual Try-On Solutions for E-Commerce and Retail Read More »

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An industry insider shares what’s in store for the future of dating apps

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An industry insider shares what’s in store for the future of dating apps

Alex Pasykov

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Alex Pasykov

Alex Pasykov (he/him/his) is the Ukrainian co-founder and CEO of Hily & Taimi dating apps, with 28M and 15M users respectively. Since 20 Alex Pasykov (he/him/his) is the Ukrainian co-founder and CEO of Hily & Taimi dating apps, with 28M and 15M users respectively. Since 2017, Alex has been introducing worthy dating alternatives to make people’s lives easier. While Hily helps people find partners based on their shared interests and compatibility, Taimi is the dating app that empowers LGBTQ+ people with the entire spectrum of dating options. Alex is pursuing his mission to help people date easily and has built a successful business with a $40M turnover.

This article is by Alex Pasykov, CEO and founder of dating apps Hily and Taimi, who will be speaking at TNW Conference, which takes place on June 15 & 16 in Amsterdam. If you want to experience the event (and say hi to our editorial team!), we’ve got something special for our loyal readers. Use the promo code READ-TNW-25 and get a 25% discount on your business pass for TNW Conference. See you in Amsterdam!

2023 has been a rough year for startups. Getting funding has become increasingly difficult, and this is no different for the dating app industry. Investors want dating businesses to operate effectively without raising investment. Dating companies that combine technological solutions with a strong brand have an advantage in further expanding their user base through organic growth, performance marketing, and paid acquisition. Thus, it’s now more important than ever to align product strategy with trends to build a sustainable dating business.

AI and the future of dating apps

Generative AI might be the breakthrough technology of 2023, but for dating apps, its possibilities are limited. We will likely see some features that help users to start a conversation faster or better than just: “Hey, how are you,” using AI-generated prompts and prescribed icebreakers. But because users will still want to chat with other real people, dating apps can’t just let large language models impersonate users on the platform. Nobody wants to date a chatbot in the real world.

However, AI can be integrated to improve algorithms and make dating apps run smoother. For example, it helps suggest people to connect with, based on a user’s preferences and usage history. And although chatbots cannot replace users on the platform, they can offer quick and efficient customer support. So dating apps can use large language models to answer user questions or help with other queries.

Greater Segmentation and Personalization

In the near future, dating apps are heading towards greater personalization for segmented audiences. Since Tinder’s breakthrough in 2012, it has catered to all audiences. But now, apps are gradually evolving and begin to cover more specific dating preferences for specific audiences. So, instead of one big app covering all needs, we have different apps created for different audiences and dating interests — like polygamous relationships or dating for Christians.

While segmentation is a growing trend, extremely niche apps like pro-vaxxer/anti-vaxxer apps, might not have the most sustainable business model. By drastically narrowing your audience and relying on a tiny user base, you introduce risks that could make it hard to raise funding or provide desirable metrics to investors, regardless of how cool your idea is.

While some dating apps focus on specific audiences, others focus on specific needs. For example, there are apps where you can indicate your preference for a one-night stand as opposed to a long-term relationship. There is a catch, though: when apps focus on specific audiences, like people looking for hookups, users are likely to switch to other dating apps that serve more needs than such nuanced experiences.

The future of dating apps

While it has become increasingly hard to raise funding, the online dating landscape has become more complicated as well. The biggest issue is still that most dating apps run on business models that need users to keep using the apps as long as possible, as opposed to quickly satisfying their needs. That said, dating apps that can successfully shorten the time between a first like and an actual meeting will likely succeed in the long-term.

In this regard, niche apps catering to specific audiences or needs, are leading the way. These apps set the standard for service quality for their targeted users and will elevate the level of service. If larger apps can learn from their experiences by integrating and effectively serving those segments within their own apps, it will accelerate business growth and acceptance of these apps in society.

The purpose of dating apps is not to make every user fall in love with each other, but to give them the freedom to pursue what they want — romantically or sexually — at any given moment. Today, someone might be looking for a date, tomorrow a casual hookup, and the day after that, a long-term relationship. By understanding the complexities of online dating and staying in tune with users’ evolving preferences, dating apps can increase their chances of success in key business metrics that matter to investors.

Check out Alex Pasykov’s talk at TNW Conference on June 15-16 to learn more about successful go-to-market strategies. Use the promo code READ-TNW-25 and get a 25% discount on your business pass for TNW Conference.

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Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro: A Tale of Two Headsets

Apple Inc., apple vision pro, AR glasses, featured, quest 3, trending, VR headsets, XR Headsets / /

Both Apple and Meta revealed highly anticipated headsets in the last seven days. The hype is just about the only thing they have in common. The two headsets have different audiences, different affordances and requirements, and drastically different price points. As such, they illuminate two drastically different approaches to the XR space.

The Meta Quest 3

The Meta Quest 3 has been the subject of rumors, speculation, leaks, and outright fabrication probably since before the Quest 2 came out. But, it was officially announced last week and is set to launch this fall.

The headset has been relatively easy to speculate on, seeing as it is the fourth iteration of flagship headsets in a familiar and built-out hardware and software ecosystem. As was largely expected, the Quest 3 appears to largely be a blend of the successful elements of the Quest 2 and some of the more advanced features that we saw from the Quest Pro.

From fairly early on, the Quest Pro was largely seen as a dev kit and a testing ground for future products. Pro hallmarks coming to the Quest 3 include color passthrough and the Pro controllers. The price of the Quest 3 is significantly less expensive than the Quest Pro, if slightly more expensive than the Quest 2, coming in at $499.

Following the announcement, most of what we have to go on as far as what kind of punch the Quest 3 packs still does largely come from speculation. Where previous Quest headsets were announced at last year’s Connect – Meta’s biggest annual event – the Quest 3 was announced through a relatively low-key social media campaign on the morning of the Meta Gaming Showcase.

Meta Quest 3 headset

As anticipated as the Quest 3 has been, it might not be the most hyped headset of all time – or even the most hyped headset to come out this week. Meta’s seemingly hasty announcement of the Quest 3 seems to have been timed to come out before Apple’s announcement of the Vision Pro.

The Apple Vision Pro

Apple’s entry into XR has long been awaited – if only because the company has repeatedly put off announcing a product. So, after all of the wait, what can the headset actually do?

The headset’s 12 cameras, five sensors, and six mics enable controller-free tracking, voice interactions, and impressive audio. Connected to a device it can run all day, but a battery pack will let it run on its own for two hours. Apple reported over 10 million pixels per eye, but did not release familiar resolution metrics or field-of-view.

The headset is capable of handling 3D assets sent via messages, and it constructs a 3D avatar that can be used in video calls. Developers with early access include JigSpace, and the headset’s software is compatible with Unity.

All of that said, currently available material doesn’t show a lot of actual XR content. The headset arguably looks more like what industry insiders call an “AR viewer” – that is, rather than providing spatial content, it provides a spatial interface for 2D content. That also made up the bulk of Apple’s demonstrations of the headset – and their justification for its massive price tag.

“If you purchased a new state-of-the-art TV, surround-sound system, powerful computer with multiple high-definition displays, a high-end camera, and more, you still would not have come close to what Vision Pro delivers,” Apple’s Technology Development Group VP Mike Rockwell said in the WWDC event that introduced the device. “Apple Vision Pro starts at $3,499.”

Apple Vision Pro headset

That raises an interesting question for the XR community. An Apple Vision Pro might be able to replace all of those things. But, could it replace a Meta Quest?

New Headsets and the XR Ecosystem

Both the Quest 3 and the Apple Vision Pro had XR experts excited. Many aren’t necessarily viewing the two headsets as in competition, but are rather thinking about how the headsets’ introduction will affect the general XR ecosystem.

“The Quest 3 has finally been announced, which is great for everyone in the industry,” 3lbXR and 3lb Games CEO Robin Moulder said in a talk at this year’s Augmented World Expo. “Next week is going to be a whole new level when Apple announces something – hopefully.” 

On the morning of the third day of AWE, the Quest 3 had been announced just an hour or so earlier and the Apple announcement had yet to be aired. However, a number of speakers presented the same idea – this is an exciting time for XR and Apple is contributing to that momentum rather than creating that momentum on its own.

A Bushel of Apples in XR…

One of the XR community’s biggest hopes regarding Apple’s entrance into the market is that XR will be catapulted to the mainstream by Apple’s gravitas. One of the main concerns is that Apple tends to play by their own rules, so a wave of new Apple XR users might be disruptive (or at least, not additive) to XR’s established ecosystem. Not all share this concern.

“If Apple does announce something, they’ll do a lot of education,”  Khronos Group President Neil Trevett said during a panel at AWE. “It will progress how people use the tech whether they use open standards or not.”

Now that we’ve seen from Apple, it’s worth wondering how much education would be involved. The Vision Pro seems largely intent on offering a spatial view of Apple’s apps rather than on incorporating existing XR solutions and uses.

“Apple is not seeking to build a wide XR ecosystem with a cheaper device, like Meta with the Quest line-up,” XR analyst Tom Ffiske wrote on the headset. “The company instead seeks to monetize an already-lucrative subsection of its audience with high-margin subscriptions and software, accessible at a $3,499 price tag.”

Make no mistake: at least for now, Apple Reality Pro is another Apple device within the Apple hardware ecosystem. It is not a new XR device within anything like a metaverse ecosystem.

Apple Vision Pro

“Apple Reality Pro’s biggest advantage is integration into the Apple ecosystem,” VRDirect founder and CEO Rolf Illenberger said in an email shared with ARPost. “The all-important ability to go from the iPhone, to iPad, to Apple Watch with a similar user experience and low barrier to entry… That’s where we believe the potential exists to create believers in AR.”

Mesmerise Head of Platform, Michael Hoffman, is of the same opinion, “Compatibility with other iOS devices will also help the headset integrate more seamlessly into daily life.”

…Or a Rush on Pears?

The next question is whether Apple can bring people into XR without the Vision Pro. Meta (ignoring its various evils) did a lot to introduce people into the XR universe through incredibly low price points. This is not a game that Apple is playing at all – there probably won’t be too many Vision Pro headsets sitting under Christmas trees this year.

That doesn’t mean that Vision Pro doesn’t have a future. After all, this is the first iteration and it hasn’t even hit the market yet.

“The wire may prevent some users from purchasing the product, and the price tag will scare away many people,” Mytaverse CTO and co-founder Jamie Lopez said in an email shared with ARPost. “But Apple has a long history of lowering prices and making new hardware easier to use. Time will tell how Vision Pro changes the world.”

Still, the announcement may have brought people’s attention to XR in the shorter term. If the sticker shock scares them away from the Vision Pro but doesn’t scare them away from XR, they may find that a lot of what the Vision Pro announcement demoed is already possible on far more affordable headsets.

#WWDC23 pic.twitter.com/FVB2iu5zy0

— XREAL 👓 (@XREAL_Global) June 6, 2023

XREAL (formerly Nreal) made this connection on Twitter and, (potentially unpopular opinion) I didn’t see Apple showing the Vision Pro doing a whole lot of things that the XREAL Air can’t do – and the XREAL Air is literally a tenth of the price.

To be clear, Apple claims sarcastically high resolution for the Vision Pro. This allows users to do things like read emails and webpage text in-headset. This is still a bit of a tall order for products like XREAL.

Advancing Next-Generation Inputs

“By the time we have the Apple headset and the new Quest 3, everybody is going to be freaking out about how great hand tracking is and moving into this new world of possibilities,” said Moulder.

Hand-tracking does play a huge part in the Vision Pro announcement, as the Vision Pro doesn’t have controllers. While it can connect to other devices like Bluetooth keyboards, the headset uses a combination of gaze tracking, hand tracking, and voice commands – which was a first sign that the headset might not be particularly robust for applications like gaming.

Meta, on the other hand, has been experimenting with inputs like voice and gesture controls since the Quest 2, but is by no means ditching the controllers. As cool as gesture recognition is, more robust applications like games and enterprise applications require more nuanced controls – and for now, that still means buttons.

For what it’s worth, Moulder advocated for an input system that uses one controller for things like conjuring menus and one free hand for fine interactions. I would like to see a system like that work with applications like Nanome that provides intuitive interactions that would be great with hand tracking, but provides enough interactions that controllers are still the only way to go.

“Current hand tracking technology does not meet the needs that 6DoF controllers can provide, which consumer AR glasses don’t,” Nanome co-founder and CEO Steve McCloskey told ARPost in a recent in-platform interview.

Time Will Tell

Will flocks of people buy the Apple Vision Pro? Will those that don’t, pick up headsets like the Quest 3 or even consumer AR glasses? Do Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro exist in the same market, or was Zuckerberg wrong to time his announcement in a way that forced the two headsets into an artificial narrative? All I know is, it’s going to be an interesting couple of years.

Meta Quest 3 and Apple Vision Pro: A Tale of Two Headsets Read More »

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Is the Age of the QR Code Over (Again)?

AR platform, augmented reality, featured, webAR / /

The QR code has had its ups and downs in consumer AR. These grid icons scanned through the camera on a mobile device or XR headset provide a faster and easier way to access online content than typing in a URL.

However, they have their shortcomings in industry applications and can limit the accessibility and usability of increasingly connected physical environments for the typical user. That’s why AR companies including Taqtile and DEVAR are working on alternatives.

QR Codes in Enterprise

QR codes in many low-impact and sheltered areas do the job for things like indoor navigation. Because of their ease of use, they are also often employed in field applications. In these applications, the codes may pull up guided instructions, informational content, or other resources for deskless workers.

However, on rugged machinery or when used outdoors, QR codes may become faded by environmental exposure, damaged or worn down, or may be difficult for service workers to locate. Because they link to online content, they can also pose a security risk in some applications.

“Because phones and cameras can read QR codes, they can be used to identify equipment,”  Taqtile Chief Business Officer, Kelly Malone, told ARPost. “Removing this form of physical identification can reduce exposure of a unique vehicle or asset.”

To solve these problems, Taqtile developed Touch Alignment for its Manifest platform. The service allows users to identify three points on a piece of equipment that can be recognized by XR glasses or smart devices in the same way that a QR code would be. Touch Alignment works alongside Manifest’s other image-recognition abilities for identifiers like serial numbers.

Touch Alignment in Manifest

“With Touch Alignment, Manifest customers use physical locations on equipment as reference points to access virtual assets,” reads a release from Taqtile. “A series of three customer-assigned alignment points specific to the particular piece of equipment, or class of identical equipment such as a vehicle model, replaces the QR codes.”

augmented reality touch-alignment by Taqtile

According to the Taqtile representative, the company hasn’t recognized a limit on how close together or far apart the alignment points need to be, though “more than 12-18 inches between points provides the best alignment accuracy on larger pieces of equipment.” With the help of the operator, Touch Alignment still works if one or more of the alignment points are obscured.

“If there’s damage, a human approximation of where the point ‘should or would be’ is likely more accurate and, even if it’s not precise,Touch Alignment is forgiving enough to still be useful and provide directional/spatial assistance,” said Malone.

QR Codes “in the Wild”

QR codes are good for bringing up information about an environment because they are relatively small. However, they aren’t the best for bringing up information about an object. The code needs to be placed on an object, potentially obscuring it, or off of an object potentially losing context.

Recognition of the object itself would eliminate the need for any external marker. And, thanks to advances in computer vision, this technology is already coming to WebAR authoring tool MyWebAR by DEVAR.

MyWebAR’s 3D Object Tracking

“With an AR headset, you can see the world in real time, while the designed AR content completes your experience,” DEVAR founder and CTO Andrei Komissarov said in a release shared with ARPost. “3D object tracking is a logical milestone for us on our way and opens up huge opportunities for new industries in augmented reality.”

Devar - MyWebAR - 3D object tracking

The new capability recognizes physical objects when provided with a 3D model of the same object. The technology is currently in an early-access period for interested members of MyWebAR’s Enterprise subscribers. Early images of the technology show effects like lenses applied to figurines, but other use cases are potentially endless.

Replacing the QR Code?

There are still applications where QR codes work just fine. And, some people are still going to prefer them in some use cases. So, Taqtile and DEVAR will both continue to support visual markers on their platforms with their new markerless solutions serving as optional alternatives.

“We’ll continue to support QR codes for companies that prefer them, but we also want to provide a more elegant way to spatially anchor AR content, facilitating easier, more consistently available paths to access Manifest work instructions,” Taqtile CTO John Tomizuka said in the release.

Taqtile is also working on expanding the availability of Touch Alignment to more of its offered platforms, which are used more widely by customers and are often used together with Manifest.

“We plan to make it available to all the platforms that we support as long as it is useful for our customers. There are some dependencies that we have in terms of relying on how good the hand tracking is, as well as other factors like usability that will affect that decision,” said Tomizuka. “Ultimately, we want to have consistent concepts and processes on all the platforms that we support.”

Shared material from DEVAR similarly says that “we cannot disclose the full details about everything we have under development,” but further development on the company’s roadmap “allows us to take interaction with the real world and augmented reality content to a whole new level.”

The Next Major Tracking Solution?

Touch Alignment works as an enterprise solution because it works on large objects and maintains security of potentially sensitive information. MyWebAR’s 3D object tracking works as a consumer solution because it’s fast, easy, and works on smaller objects.

As we so often see with developments in XR, these QR code replacement solutions aren’t a case of two companies competing but rather different providers solving the same problem for different users and use cases.

Is the Age of the QR Code Over (Again)? Read More »

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Hands-on: Apple Vision Pro isn’t for Gaming, But it Does Everything Else Better

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While Apple’s new Vision Pro headset isn’t going to satisfy the existing base of consumer VR users, it’s mastering the rest of the basics better than anyone else.

Probably 90% of what consumers are using VR headsets for today is entertainment, and of that entertainment, most of it is gaming. And if you’re among those people using such headsets today, you’ll reasonably be disappointed that Apple Vision Pro lacks controllers and isn’t going to be playing top VR games anytime soon. But for everyone else, it’s a back-to-basics approach that’s laying a sturdy foundation to build upon in the future.

Today at Apple’s headquarters I got to check out Vision Pro for myself. Unfortunately the company didn’t permit any photos or footage during the demo, but the clips below are a fair representation of what I saw.

Photo by Road to VR

Apple Vision Pro (AVP, let’s call it) is doing what only Apple can: carving out a subset of what other devices do, and making sure that subset of things is done really well. And given the current state of UX on most other headsets, this is a reckoning that was a long time coming.

Look & Tap

It starts with the input. Apple is leaning heavily into using your eyes as a cursor, and a pinch gesture as a click. The headset has cameras on the bottom that face downward so that even subtle pinches from your hand in your lap are visible and detected. But you don’t see a floating cursor where your eyes are, nor do you see a laser pointer shooting out of your hand. You just look at the thing you want to press, then do a quick pinch.

On paper you might think this sounds shoddy. But remember, this is Apple. They’ve tested and refined this system six ways from Sunday, and it works so well that after a minute or two you hardly think about how you’re interacting with the headset, you just are.

The pinch input is responsive and reliable. It felt so natural that the two or three times the headset missed my pinch during a 30 minute demo it felt really weird because my brain was already convinced of its reliability.

This look-and-pinch system is so simple for the headset’s basic input that I won’t be surprised if we see other companies adopt it as soon as possible.

Reality First

So there’s the simple input and then there’s a passthrough-by-default view. This is an MR headset after all, meaning it can easily do augmented reality—where most of your view is of the real world, with some virtual content; or virtual reality—where all of your view is virtual content.

When you put AVP on your head, you instantly see the outside world first. In fact, the way that Apple defers to the passthrough view shows that they want to treat fully immersive experiences as the exception rather than the rule. Generally you won’t pop into a fully immersive scene unless you actively making the decision to do so.

The passthrough view is certainly best-in-class, but we’re still probably two generations away from it truly feeling like there’s nothing separating your eyes from the real world. Granted, I was able to read all the text on my phone with no issue, which has been the ‘bar’ for passthrough quality that I’ve been waiting to see exceeded.

Beautiful Virtual Displays

The imperfect passthrough resolution somewhat betrays the exceptional display resolution which exhibits not even a hint of screen-door effect. It may not be ‘retina resolution’ (generally agreed to be around 60 pixels per-degree), but it’s good enough that I won’t know how far off it is from retina resolution until I sit down with an objective test target to find out.

That’s a long way of saying that the headset’s display has excellent resolution with great clarity across the lens. Top of the class.

This clarity is helped by the fact that Apple has done its Apple-y thing and ensured that panels, text, and images consistently render with superb quality. The entire interface feels iOS-polished with animations and easy to use buttons and controls. The interface was so simple to use that the demo chaperones had a hard time keeping me on task as I wanted to flick through menus and move floating apps around the room.

But here’s the thing, probably 75% of what Apple showed me was essentially just floating screens. Whether it was videos or a floating iMessage app or the web browser, it’s clear that Apple wants Vision Pro to be first and foremost be great at displaying flat content to the user.

The other 25% of what I saw, while very impressive all around, felt like just the start of a journey for Apple to build out a broader library immersive experiences.

Record & Rewatch Memories

AVP might not be a VR gaming headset, but it does at least one thing that no other headset does: capture volumetric memories using its on-board cameras. Using the button on the top of the headset you can capture volumetric photos and videos with just a press.

Apple showed me a demo of a volumetric video capture of a group of kids blowing out candles on a birthday cake. It was like they were right in front of me. I’d never even seen these kids before but I could immediately feel their giddy emotions as they giggled and bounced around… as if I was sitting right there while it was happening. Not to mention that the quality was good enough, at least in this best-case-scenario demo capture, that my first thought had nothing to do with the famerate or quality or dynamic range, but purely of the emotion of the people in front of me.

That instant connection—to people I don’t even know—was a clear indicator that there’s something special to this. I can already imagine watching a volumetric video of a cherished memory, or of a loved one that has passed, and I know it would be a powerful experience.

Doing it Right

And here’s the thing; I’ve seen plenty of volumetric video demos before. This isn’t a new idea, not even close. The thing that’s novel here is that everyday users could potentially shoot these videos on their own, and readily watch, share, and store them for later. On other headsets you’d need a special camera for capturing, special software for editing, a player app, and a sharing app to make the same thing happen.

This is the ‘ecosystem’ part of XR that’s missing from most other headsets. It’s not about what’s possible—it’s about what’s easy. And Apple is focused on making using this headset easy.

Continue on Page 2: Immersion Isn’t Off the Table »

Hands-on: Apple Vision Pro isn’t for Gaming, But it Does Everything Else Better Read More »

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The case for letting workers live in the WFH la-la land

Corporates and innovation, Future of Work, Startups and technology / /
The case for letting workers live in the WFH la-la land

Kirstie McDermott

Story by

Kirstie McDermott

Work can be pretty stressful these days: globally tech workers have had to deal with the effects of the pandemic, adjust to remote work—and handle all those more recent return-to-office mandates—in addition to dealing with fears of redundancy in an environment that has seen hundreds of thousands of sector layoffs since mid-2022.

It’s not surprising that workers are feeling the strain. Forty-four percent of European workers reported that their work stress had increased as a result of the pandemic, according to an EU-OSHA workers’ survey.

Burnout is rife, with a 2021 study finding that 66% of Polish workers and 59% of workers in Czechia experienced, or were close to burnout. Workplace trends such as quiet quitting, rust-out, and compassion fatigue are all symptoms of the same thing: employees are overworked, under-recognised, and fed up.

Your resilience depends on your age and expertise level too. Cigna 360’s Global Well-Being Survey found that 98% of young adults aged 18 to 24 (aka Gen-Z) are experiencing worker burnout globally.

What doesn’t help workers’ stress or exhaustion levels are the sweeping decrees from tech billionaires, such as Elon Musk. You could argue that by their very nature, billionaires are removed from the concerns of the average worker anyway, but Musk takes things further.

As the CEO of Tesla and SpaceX and the former CEO of Twitter, he is hardline when it comes to how and where his employees should do their jobs. He recently told CNBC that “It’s not just a productivity thing, I think it’s morally wrong,” in reference to how service workers have no choice but to show up, while Silicon Valley engineers are the work-from-home “laptop classes living in la-la land.”

Musk also said he’s a big believer that people are more productive in person, saying that “People should get off their goddamn moral high horse with the work-from-home bullshit.”

Some are on Elon Musk’s side, with a Forbes survey revealing that 45% of 65 surveyed billionaires don’t believe in work-from-home culture either. But for many workers, his comments feel out of touch, and his declaration that he works seven days a week, and only takes “two or three” days off a year is even more alienating.

The future of work is shifting fast

European and global workers have experienced a sea change in the way they work over the past few years.

Workers want a remote or hybrid model as it eliminates commute time (and cost), can be a much more effective way to do deep work, and it also fosters a culture of flexibility, where a set schedule doesn’t matter as long as the work gets done—which is particularly attractive for working parents.

The rise of four-day working weeks is another aspect of change. Successfully trialled in the UK by non-profit 4 Day Week Global, the initial results found that 91% of participating companies will definitely continue or plan to continue with the format.

As return to the office mandates begin to make an impact, nearly a third of Eurozone workers want to work from home more frequently than their employer allows them to, according to a recent European Central Bank study.

The study found that workers who commute more than one hour each way want 10 work-from-home days each month. Those with a commute time of less than 15 minutes want six days at home a month.

Employees will vote with their feet if necessary. “Workers are more willing to change jobs if they have remote work preferences that exceed those they perceive their employers to have,” the study’s authors say.

Offering flexibility in the form of working styles is now considered to be an employee benefit, and it’s one that positively contributes to employee happiness, which increases as much as 20% by having the ability to work 100% remotely.

Work-life balance goes beyond what benefits employees. It’s good for business too, with companies offering fully remote jobs now able to utilise a much larger, global talent pool to boost their success. In addition, a survey conducted by Airtasker found that remote employees get more done, working 1.4 more days every month, or 16.8 more days every year, than those in the office.

For workers though (beyond mere happiness), the biggest benefits of achieving an optimum work setup, whether that is remote, hybrid, or fully flexible, is that it can help reduce chronic stress, prevent burnout, and as a result help to mitigate physical and mental symptoms such as anxiety, hypertension, digestive troubles, and heart problems. A true win-win.

For thousands of roles across the European tech sector, check out the House of Talent Job Board today.

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Celebrating the 2023 Auggie Awards and XR Prize Challenge

AR/VR events, auggie awards, augmented reality, AWE, Events, featured, trending, virtual reality / /

The Augmented World Expo has its own awards ceremony – the Auggie Awards. Watchers of the XR space submit nominations and vote for their favorites. A panel of distinguished judges then selects the winners from among the finalists. Or, at least, that’s how it works for the first 16 categories.

The Best in Show awards, the XR Startup to Watch, and a few other Auggie Awards are determined differently. This year also saw the award of the XR Prize Challenge that AWE founder and CEO Ori Inbar announced last year.

The 14th Annual Auggie Awards

“I’m super excited to be hosting the Auggie Awards ceremony for the 14th year,” said Inbar. “The Auggie Awards have been recognizing XR since 2010.”

Ori Inbar and Auggies

Inbar shared that there were a record 377 nominations this year, which public voting narrowed down to 89 finalists before 30 judges chose the 16 winners. Or, the 13 winners, as one organization left with a record-breaking three awards.

Auggie Awards 2023 judges

Best Art or Film

Developer, entrepreneur, and consultant Antony Vitillo, perhaps better known as “Skarred Ghost”, presented the first Auggie Award of the night for Best Art or Film.

“I totally love storytelling experiences and the emotions they give me,” said Vitillo.

The Auggie Award went to Delta Reality for The Museum of Digital Life. The massive multi-user art exhibit includes everything from 2D photographs to 3D objects and virtual worlds. Delta Reality was also nominated in the same category for The Metaverse Park and was up for Best Enterprise Solution and Best in Location-Based Entertainment.

The group won over Mutienliao, Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and Ferryman Collective. Unfortunately, no one from Delta Reality was present to accept the award.

Best Campaign

It was the “great pleasure” of University of South Australia Professor of Computer Human Interaction Mark Billinghurst to present the Auggie Award for Best Campaign. The award went to Zappar for Countdown: Bricks Farm. The interactive game for a New Zealand Supermarket included social lenses, games, and recipes.

Ori Inbar, Caspar Thykier, and Mark Billinghurst

“We talk about technology, but it’s all about the people,” Zappar CEO and co-founder Caspar Thykier said in accepting the award.

The experience beat out two experiences by CamOn XR and an experience by Viewtoo, as well as another Zappar experience that had also been nominated. Zappar was also up for Auggie Awards in the categories of Best Creator & Authoring Tool, Best Developer Tool, Best Headworn Device, Best in Location-Based Entertainment, and Best Societal Impact.

Best Collaboration Tool

Sony Electronics Head of XR Business Development Thaisa Yamamura was “honored to present” the Auggie Award for Best Collaboration Tool. She also presented the winner with a 15.6in Sony Spatial Reality Display.

The Auggie Award went to Pfizer for VR collaboration tools used in developing the COVID-19 vaccine, and was accepted by a representative of the company. Also nominated were Arthur, Morpheus, Holo-Light, and R3DT GmbH.

Best Consumer App

“We spend a lot of time talking about enterprise XR, and for good reason, but the consumer market is where things really scale,” XR analyst Mike Boland said in introducing the Best Consumer App category.

The Central Library of Düsseldorf App, by Exponential Dimensions, took home this award, despite facing stiff competition from the likes of Snap Inc. and Overlay LLC. The Auggie Award was accepted in person by a representative of the City of Düsseldorf.

Best Creator & Authoring Tool

“This is an exciting category because these are the tools we can all use to create amazing worlds for each other,” All These Worlds LLC founder Jackie Morie said in presenting the Auggie Award for Best Creator & Authoring Tool.

The Auggie Award went to Snap Inc for Lens Studio with fellow nominees Overlay LLC, Zappar, HoloPundits, ARSOFT, and DEEPFINE. The award was accepted in person by a representative who passed on praise to the “300,000 AR creators creating with us.”

Best Developer Tool

Another Snap representative, Head of Platform Developer Relations Tessa Kriesel, took the stage next to present the Auggie Award for Best Developer Tool. This category could have gone to anybody with finalists Blippar, Zappar, 8th Wall, Holo-Light, and Qualcomm, but echo3D took home the prize.

echo3D Auggie Awards 2023

Best Enterprise Solution

“XR Tech has the power to change the way we work but only when we have enterprises who do the development and work to bring those projects to us,” AWE Advisory Council member Shelley Peterson said in presenting the Auggie Award for Best Enterprise Solution.

Nominees in the packed category included Lowe’s Innovation Labs, Delta Reality, and HoloPundits, but Ajna Lense, an MR developer headset by Indian company Dimension NXG took the prize. The same headset was also a finalist in the Best Headword Device category.

Best Game or Toy

“This one has a special meaning to me as someone who has devoted his entire life to a toy,” skateboarder Rodney Mullen said in presenting the Auggie Award for Best Game or Toy.

Resolution Games was nominated for both Demeo and Spatial Ops, ILMxLAB was nominated for StarWars: Tales From the Galaxy’s Edge, and DB Creations was nominated for Table Trenches. However, the prize went home with the team of Innersloth, Schell Games, and Robot Teddy for Among Us VR. Or, it will be mailed home, as no one accepted the award in person.

Best Headworn Device

Science fiction author Daniel Suarez had the honor of presenting one of the evening’s most anticipated Auggie Awards – and perhaps the one with the stiffest competition.

Zappar’s Zapbox, DigiLens’ ARGO, Sony’s PlayStation VR 2, the Magic Leap 2, XREAL (previously Nreal) Air, and the Varjo XR 3 Focal Edition were all in the running, but the prize went to the HTC VIVE XR Elite.

best headworn device Auggie Awards AWE 2023

“We’re just so happy. This is something we’ve been working on for a long time,” HTC China President Alvin Graylin said in accepting the award. “We’re so excited to be recognized here.”

Best in Healthcare and Wellness

XR Association President Elizabeth Hyman called the field of healthcare and wellness “a great way to change the world” in presenting the Auggie Award for this category. Nominees included Groove Jones and Lucid Reality Labs but the award went home with ARSOFT for NextMED – a tool for medical visualization.

best healthcare and wellness Auggie Awards AWE 2023

“We’re here from Spain just to be with so many interesting companies and amazing people,” founder and CEO Santiago González said in accepting the award.

Best in Location-Based Entertainment

“So many people find their first XR experience through LBEs,” Hopscotch Interactive CEO Emily Olman said in presenting the Auggie. “This is an amazing category that brings so many people into XR for the first time every single day.”

Nominees included ONTOP and Delta Reality, but Thykier returned to the stage to accept the award for LEGO MYTHICA Magic Forrest – Zappar’s second Auggie of the night.

Ori Inbar, Caspar Thykier, and Emily Olman

“It’s everyone’s dream to work with a property like LEGO,” said Thykier. “There’s a wonderful team there and they’ll be happy that we’ve won this.”

Best Indie Creator

“Without our indie creators, there would not be an industry,” GatherVerse Summit founder Christopher Lafayette said in presenting the Auggie Award for Best Indie Creator. He also gave a “shoutout to our startups.”

In a field that included DB Creations and OnBoardXR, the prize went to Big Rock Creative, best known for bringing Burning Man into VR for the past three years. The producers, Doug Jacobson and Athena Demos gave brief speeches, but were accompanied onto the stage by a team of creators including the worldbuilding duo Cause and Christie.

Big Rock Creative

“We all start out as indie collaborators,” said Demos.

“I want to thank the whole team. We’re very excited to learn the language of storytelling in this new medium,” said Jacobs.

Best Interaction Product

“You guys are so lucky to have the XR devices and the ecosystem that you have out there,” Graylin said, returning to the stage to present the Auggie Award for Best Interaction Product. “These are good times.”

VIVE itself was nominated for their Self-Tracking Trackers, along with the likes of Leia Inc., SenseGlove, and Wisear. Graylin presented the award to TriLite for the Trixel 3, an impressively small projector for AR displays.

best interaction product Auggie Awards AWE 2023

“Thank you so much, AWE,” Head of Product Marketing and Business Development Susan Backhaus said in accepting the award. “This is a great recognition of our work.”

Best Snapdragon Spaces App

“We’ve been super impressed by the number and quality of applications we have seen,” Qualcomm’s Senior Director of XR Martin Herdina said in presenting the first Qualcomm-sponsored Auggie Award.

best snapdragon spaces Auggie Awards AWE 2023

The award went to Verizon for The Future of Training, an XR upskilling program. In this case, the Auggie also came with a $10,000 check from Qualcomm.

Best Societal Impact

Unity VP of Education and Social Impact Jessica Lindl said that “the world is a better place with more creatives in it,” as she prepared to award another of the evening’s most anticipated Auggies. The category had a number of repeat nominees including Lucid Reality Labs, with two experiences in this field, and Zappar for their Zapvision solution.

best societal impact Auggie Awards 2023

Thykier returned to the stage once again to accept the third Auggie Award of the night – beating the record that the company set last year. This time Thykier was accompanied by a number of Zappar representatives to accept the award that makes product information available to vision-impaired individuals through an enhanced QR code.

“We do a lot of exciting work at Zappar, but it’s amazing to do some important work,” said Thykier, who also gave special thanks to Unilever, the consumer packaged goods company that partnered with Zappar on the project. “This is the [Auggie] that is super important.”

Best Use of AI

“It came to the attention of the world recently that the singularity is underway,” AWE co-founder Tish Shute said in presenting the Auggie Award for Best Use of AI. “There is a cycle where AI feeds XR and XR feeds AI. This is going to cause an acceleration that is mind-boggling, to say the least.”

best use of AI - Auggie Awards AWE 2023

With competition like Move.ai and Avataar, it was a tough field. The Auggie was awarded to Maxar Technologies for SYNTH3D – a high-fidelity world-scale digital twin created with satellite data.

The Startup Pitch Competition

“We had an incredible group of startups pitch,” Boost VC Partner Maddie Callander said in presenting the Startup to Watch Auggie. “It’s always exciting to see the cutting edge.”

Atopia won from among the 14 finalists for “creating the metaverse of arts and culture.” The Auggie was accepted by co-founder Annabell Vacano.

Ori Inbar, Maddie Callander, and Annabell Vacano

“We couldn’t have done this without our small team back in Germany,” said Vacano.

Best In Show

WXR Fund Managing Partner Amy Lameyer presented the Best In Show award. This award is presented during the event wrap-up and considers expo floor interest. The award went to Sightful, one of the companies behind Spacetop – a laptop that uses AR glasses in lieu of a screen.

The award was accepted in-person by the company’s co-founders Tomer Kahan and Tamir Berliner. Berliner talked about the growth of AWE and of XR generally, including the massive presence of XR hardware at the recent Consumer Electronics Show. He also referenced Ori’s end-of-show announcement that AWE will move from Santa Clara to Long Beach.

“I do want to thank everyone here, but Ori, also to you. I met you, I think it was AWE 2014 in Tel Aviv, I think that there were about a hundred people there – not speakers, attendees,” said Berliner. “I think the move to LA is messaging everyone that CES should watch out because Consumer Electronics is becoming AWE.”

The AWEsome Award

The AWEsome Award is determined by a “complex algorithm” that includes “buzz,” participation, expo floor interest, and other factors. The Auggie was presented by XREAL founder Peng Jin.

The award went to EXIT SUIT but was not accepted in person. Ori commented that exhibitors are often packing up their booths while the event wrap-up is under way.

Visual Impact

A special award, the “Visual Impact Award” was presented by NTT Ltd. Group Vice President of Connected Industry Rika Nakazawa to the XR artist best known as Sutu. Sutu had created the art used for promoting AWE but also used as the backdrop on the main stage.

“I’m so happy that Ori asked me to create the art,” said Sutu. “It’s been a journey. I was at AWE in the early days and to see what it’s become and to be a part of that, it’s been a journey.”

The XR Prize Challenge

Last year, Inbar announced The XR Prize Challenge: “A global competition to harness the power of XR to fight climate change” with a $100,000 grand prize. 230 projects were submitted. 150 of those advanced to the next level. 90 of those submitted a minimum viable product. Those were narrowed down to 11 finalists. In the end, there were three runners-up and one winner.

The runners-up and grand prize winners were announced in the categories Optimize, Educate, Visualize, and Replace. All runners-up received an Nvidia graphics card.

Optimize

Niantic VP of Business Development Jenna Seiden presented the runner-up in the Optimize category, saying that “the technologies that we’re celebrating tonight make the world more magical.”

incitu

The award went to inCitu, a project that shows immersive models of familiar locations in potential futures – for example, as impacted by rising sea levels due to climate change. An earlier version of the experience had first been demod at a 2019 AWE event in Munich.

Educate

IEEE Standards Association President Yu Yuan presented the runner up in the education category saying, “education is very important to get more people working with us in XR.” The award went to Mangrove City – a VR experience that helps users understand the ecological significance of wetlands.

mangrove city AWE 2023

Visualize

University of Oregon Assistant Professor of Immersive Media Psychology Danny Pimentel presented the runner up in the “Visualize” category.

“It was moving to see so many organizations and creators around the world leverage these technologies in such thoughtful ways,” said Pimentel.

Qikiqtaruk

The award went to Qikiqtaruk: Experiencing the Arctic Under Threat. The project brought in multiple co-creators to make a virtual tour of a national park that serves as an immediate example of the impacts of climate change.

The Grand Prize

Tom Furness, founder of the Virtual World Society, presented the Grand Prize to Between Two Worlds. The AR app helps users learn about endangered species, their habitats, and why they are endangered.

Another Year, Gone

That wrapped another year of the Auggie Awards and of the Augmented World Expo. Of course, events are coming up in Europe and Asia, as well as regional meetups and events that visitors can join on the AWE.live app. Until next year, it’s time to make some Auggies-worthy news for next time.

Celebrating the 2023 Auggie Awards and XR Prize Challenge Read More »

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Generative AI will help your business handle more customer issues, faster

Corporates and innovation, Deep tech, Future of Work / /
Generative AI will help your business handle more customer issues, faster

Andrea Hak

Story by

Andrea Hak

Andrea is TNW’s Branded Content Editor and, as a writer, she’s covered a wide range of topics from ClimateTech to AI and gender bias. She’s Andrea is TNW’s Branded Content Editor and, as a writer, she’s covered a wide range of topics from ClimateTech to AI and gender bias. She’s always on the lookout for stories that explore the social and political impact of emerging technology.

There’s a lot of buzz around generative AI’s potential to push productivity into hyperspeed, from quickly spitting out lines of code for developers to text and image tools that allow marketing teams to produce new campaigns faster.

But one area where it can really make a direct and measurable impact for your customers is by adopting it within your support and customer experience teams.

Perhaps you’ve heard that consumers are less patient than ever before?

Zoom recently conducted a survey with Morning Consult to learn more about what consumers think about their customer support experiences with businesses. Over half of the respondents said they’d switch to a competitor after just one or two bad customer support experiences.

And let’s not forget how many potential customers will detract as soon as they read the negative reviews these experiences can generate.

On the flip side, the study also found that respondents who had a positive customer support experience would be surprisingly likely to sing said company’s praises publicly:

  • 79% would recommend the company to others
  • 60% would write a positive review online
  • 46% would mention the company on social media

Patience isn’t just something affecting customers. Employees (including customer service reps) are suffering from digital overload which is hurting focus, productivity, and ultimately engagement. In fact, a recent study by Gallup found that employee engagement has remained stable but low at 21% globally over the last few years. That’s where generative AI has the potential to make the most significant impact in the workplace, by automating repetitive tasks and becoming a virtual assistant to busy teams.

Companies like Zoom have been using AI for years to improve the user experience and automate business processes.

But not all companies are taking full advantage of its capabilities. Let’s dive into a few stats around what consumers actually expect and how generative AI can help you, not only meet those expectations but go above and beyond.

What consumers want: Less waiting and better problem solving

It’s important to keep in mind that your customers don’t love Kenny G as much as you do, so keeping them listening to that smooth jazz on a loop won’t dull the pain of having to be on hold all afternoon to speak to a service rep. Zoom found that, while a majority of customers expect short wait times (85%), only 51% actually experience them.

Once they do get through, another factor that causes frustration for customers is inaccurate resolutions to their problems (54%). What’s more, customers expect representatives to be knowledgeable (90%), friendly (89%), and easy-to-contact (89%).

This may sound pretty obvious but catering to each customer individually – with a smile – can wear your customer service team thin as your business scales.

In the last few years, chatbots have become every customer service agent’s favourite technology, helping them to cut waiting times by providing self-service support for customers. However, today most companies have chatbots that operate on a preset range of questions — any question that goes even slightly out of those bounds and your chatbot is utterly useless.

Next generation chatbots

Generative AI allows your chatbot to go off-script. Instead of reaching for a set copy/paste responses, these intelligent operators can search through a much broader database to generate unique answers. This helps relieve customer service teams by allowing for more self-service. For example, Zoom has reported it’s now able to successfully resolve 93 out of 100 customer conversations through self-service (without needing to involve a customer service agent).

And, the longer they interact with your customers, the more they learn about your product/service and the types of queries and issues customers commonly encounter.

Add to this the fact that they can easily be trained to answer in a wider range of languages, providing better support to global businesses.

What’s more, you can employ generative AI algorithms to analyse customer feedback, reviews, and social media data to get a complete picture of each customer’s interactions with the brand. This ensures a more complete and accurate handover to human customer service reps if needed. Additionally, it even allows for predictive support, so that your team can detect and solve issues before they become actual problems.

Voice and speech generation will be the next frontier. Generative AI can be used to develop realistic and natural-sounding voice interfaces, enabling customers to interact with devices, applications, or customer support using voice commands.

Keeping customers happy beyond basic needs

Most customer service reps spend time putting out fires, but the promise of smarter self-service bots means your team can move from spending time on problems to building a base of happy and loyal customers.

In fact, Zoom found that customers are more than twice as likely to buy from a company after a positive support experience (87%) than after a negative one (35%), providing a unique window of opportunity. Here are a few ways your team can take advantage of generative AI to make customers happy:

Personalised recommendations

As mentioned previously, a great strength of generative AI is its ability to analyse a broad set of customer data, preferences, and behaviours. These insights can also be used to generate personalised recommendations. If your chatbot helps a customer successfully exchange a product for the right size, why not suggest an add-on or a complimentary product based on their order history?

Content generation for dynamic customer segments

With more time, customer service teams can redirect their attention toward building engaging customer loyalty programs. With the help of generative AI, they can create dynamic customer segments based on purchase history, allowing for a personalised approach. Generative AI can also help generate content in seconds for newsletters, a dedicated website, or community page.

AI innovation and human connection

If you’re excited about the possibilities generative AI could bring to your business, check out Zoom’s Work Transformation Summit EMEA on-demand to learn what this year’s speakers had to say on the topics of generative AI, the future of work, and customer experience.

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AWE USA 2023 Day Three: Eyes on Apple

AI, Apple Inc., AR/VR events, augmented reality, AWE, Events, extended reality, featured, Meta, trending / /

The last, third day of AWE USA 2023 took place on Friday, June 2. The first day of AWE is largely dominated by keynotes. A lot of air on the second day is taken up by the expo floor opening. By the third day, the keynotes are done, the expo floor starts to get packed away, and panel discussions and developer talks rule the day. And Apple ruled a lot of those talks.

Bracing for Impact From Apple

A big shift is expected this week as Apple is expected to announce its entrance into the XR market. The writing has been on the wall for a long time.

Rumors have probably been circulating for longer than many readers have even been watching XR. ARPost started speculating in 2018 on a 2019 release. Five years of radio silence later and we had reports that the product would be delayed indefinitely.

The rumor mill is back in operation with an expected launch this week (Apple’s WWDC23 starts today) – with many suggesting that Meta’s sudden announcement of the Quest 3 is a harbinger. Whether an Apple entrance is real this time or not, AWE is bracing itself.

Suspicion on Standards

Let’s take a step back and look at a conversation that happened on AWE USA 2023 Day Two, but is very pertinent to the emerging Apple narrative.

The “Building Open Standards for the Metaverse” panel moderated by Moor Insights and Strategy Senior Analyst Anshel Sag brought together XR Safety Initiative (XRSI) founder and CEO Kavya Pearlman, XRSI Advisor Elizabeth Rothman, and Khronos Group President Neil Trevett.

Apple’s tendency to operate outside of standards was discussed. Even prior to their entrance into the market, this has caused problems for XR app developers – Apple devices even have a different way of sensing depth than Android devices. XR glasses tend to come out first or only on Android in part because of Android’s more open ecosystem.

“Apple currently holds so much power that they could say ‘This is the way we’re going to go.’ and the Metaverse Standards Forum could stand up and say ‘No.’,” said Pearlman, expressing concern over accessibility of “the next generation of the internet”.

Trevett expressed a different approach, saying that standards should present the best option, not the only option. While standards are more useful the more groups use them, competition is helpful and shows diversity in the industry. And diversity in the industry is what sets Apple apart.

“If Apple does announce something, they’ll do a lot of education … it will progress how people use the tech whether they use open standards or not,” said Trevett. “If you don’t have a competitor on the proprietary end of the spectrum, that’s when you should start to worry because it means that no one cares enough about what you’re doing.”

Hope for New Displays

On Day Three, KGOn Tech LLC’s resident optics expert Karl Guttag presented an early morning developer session on “Optical Versus Passthrough Mixed Reality.” Guttag has been justifiably critical of Meta Quest Pro’s passthrough in particular. Even for optical XR, he expressed skepticism about a screen replacement, which is what the Apple headset is largely rumored to be.

karl guttag AWE 2023 Day 3
Karl Guttag

“One of our biggest issues in the market is expectations vs. reality,” said Guttag. “What is hard in optical AR is easy in passthrough and vice versa. I see very little overlap in applications … there is also very little overlap in device requirements.”

A New Generation of Interaction

“The Quest 3 has finally been announced, which is great for everyone in the industry,” 3lbXR and 3lb Games CEO Robin Moulder said in her talk “Expand Your Reach: Ditch the Controllers and Jump into Mixed Reality.” “Next week is going to be a whole new level when Apple announces something – hopefully.”

robin moulder AWE 2023 Day 3
Robin Moulder

Moulder presented the next round of headsets as the first of a generation that will hopefully be user-friendly enough to increase adoption and deployment bringing more users and creators into the XR ecosystem.

“By the time we have the Apple headset and the new Quest 3, everybody is going to be freaking out about how great hand tracking is and moving into this new world of possibilities,” said Moulder.

More on AI

AI isn’t distracting anyone from XR and Apple isn’t distracting anyone from AI. Apple appearing as a conference theme doesn’t mean that anyone was done talking about AI. If you’re sick of reading about AI, at least read the first section below.

Lucid Realities: A Glimpse Into the Current State of Generative AI

After two full days of people talking about how AI is a magical world generator that’s going to take the task of content creation off of the shoulders of builders, Microsoft Research Engineer Jasmine Roberts set the record straight.

jasmine roberts AWE 2023
Jasmine Roberts

“We’ve passed through this techno-optimist state into dystopia and neither of those are good,” said Roberts. “When people think that [AI] can replace writers, it’s not really meant to do that. You still need human supervisors.”

AI not being able to do everything that a lot of people think it can isn’t the end of the world. A lot of the things that people want AI to do is already possible through other less glamorous tools.

“A lot of what people want from generative AI, they can actually get from procedural generation,” said Roberts. “There are some situations where you need bespoke assets so generative AI wouldn’t really cut it.”

Roberts isn’t against AI – her presentation was simply illustrating that it doesn’t work the way that some industry outsiders are being led to believe. That isn’t the same as saying that it doesn’t work. In fact, she brought a demo of an upcoming AI-powered Clippy. (You remember Clippy, right?)

Augmented Ecologies

Roberts was talking about the limitations of AI. The “Augmented Ecologies” panel moderated by AWE co-founder Tish Shute, saw Three Dog Labs founder Sean White,  Morpheus XR CTO Anselm Hook, and Croquet founder and CTO David A. Smith talking about what happens when AI is the new dominant life form on planet Earth.

Tish Shute, Sean White, Anselm Hook, and David Smith - AWE 2023 Day 3
From left to right: Tish Shute, Sean White, Anselm Hook, and David Smith

“We’re kind of moving to a probabilistic model, it’s less deterministic, which is much more in line with ecological models,” said White.

This talk presented the scenario in which developers are no longer the ones running the show. AI takes on a life of its own, and that life is more capable than ours.

“In an ecology, we’re not necessarily at the center, we’re part of the system,” said Hook. “We’re not necessarily able to dominate the technologies that are out there anymore.”

This might scare you, but it doesn’t scare Smith. Smith described a future in which AI becomes the legacy that can live in environments that humans never can, like the reaches of space.

“The metaverse and AI are going to redefine what it means to be human,” said Smith. “Ecosystems are not healthy if they are not evolving.”

“No Longer the Apex”

On the morning of Day Two, the Virtual World Society and the VR/AR Association hosted a very special breakfast. Invited were some of the most influential leaders in the immersive technology space. The goal was to discuss the health and future of the XR industry.

The findings will be presented in a report, but some of the concepts were also presented at “Spatial Computing for All” – a fireside chat with Virtual World Society Founder Tom Furness, HTC China President Alvin Graylin, and moderated by technology consultant Linda Ricci.

The major takeaway was that the industry insiders aren’t particularly worried about the next few years. After that, the way in which we do work might start to change and that might have to change the ways that we think about ourselves and value our identities in a changing society.

AWE Is Changing Too

During the show wrap-up, Ori Inbar had some big news. “AWE is leveling up to LA.” This was the fourteenth AWE. Every AWE, except for one year when the entire conference was virtual because of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been in Santa Clara. But, the conference has grown so much that it’s time to move.

AWE 2024 in LA

“I think we realized this year that we were kind of busting at the seams,” said Inbar. “We need a lot more space.”

The conference, which will take place from June 18-20 will be in Long Beach, with “super, super early bird tickets” available for the next few weeks.

Yes, There’s Still More

Most of the Auggie Awards and the winners of Inbar’s climate challenge were announced during a ceremony on the evening of Day Two. During the event wrap-up, the final three Auggies were awarded. We didn’t forget, we just didn’t have room for them in our coverage.

So, there is one final piece of AWE coverage just on the Auggies. Keep an eye out. Spoiler alert, Apple wasn’t nominated in any of the categories.

AWE USA 2023 Day Three: Eyes on Apple Read More »

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Apple to Open Locations for Devs to Test Vision Pro This Summer, SDK This Month

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Ahead of the Apple Vision Pro’s release in ‘early 2024’, the company says it will open several centers in a handful of locations around the world, giving some developers a chance to test the headset before it’s released to the public.

It’s clear that developers will need time to start building Apple Vision Pro apps ahead of its launch, and it’s also clear that Apple doesn’t have heaps of headsets on hand for developers to start working with right away. In an effort to give developers the earliest possible chance to test their immersive apps, the company says it plans to open ‘Apple Vision Pro Developer Labs’ in a handful of locations around the world.

Starting this Summer, the Apple Vision Pro Developer Labs will open in London, Munich, Shanghai, Singapore, Tokyo, and Cupertino.

Apple also says developers will be able to submit a request to have their apps tested on Vision Pro, with testing and feedback being done remotely by Apple.

Image courtesy Apple

Of course, developers still need new tools to build for the headset in the first place. Apple says devs can expect a visionOS SDK and updated versions of Reality Composer and Xcode by the end of June so support development on the headset. That will be accompanied by new Human Interface Guidelines to help developers follow best practices for spatial apps on Vision Pro.

Additionally, Apple says it will make available a Vision Pro Simulator, an emulator that allows developers to see how their apps would look through the headset.

Developers can find more info when it’s ready at Apple’s developer website. Closer to launch Apple says Vision Pro will be available for the public to test in stores.

Apple to Open Locations for Devs to Test Vision Pro This Summer, SDK This Month Read More »

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Apple Unveils Vision Pro, Its First XR Headset

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Today at Apple’s Worldwide Developers Conference (WWDC) the Cupertino tech giant unveiled its long-awaited XR headset, dubbed Vision Pro.

Similar to Meta’s Quest Pro and newly unveiled Quest 3 headset, Apple’s first mixed reality headset is capable of both virtual reality and augmented reality thanks to its color passthrough cameras, however it appears the company is focusing much more on AR tasks.

Called a “spatial computer” by Apple, the device is in large part targeting general computing tasks such as content consumption, video chatting, and productivity apps–the sort you might find on the company’s iPads and Macs, albeit available through its own device-specific App Store.

Apple Vision Pro’s input is based on optical hand tracking, eye-tracking, and voice input, and doesn’t feature controllers like headsets decidedly more dedicated to gaming.

Image courtesy Apple

Here’s a brief breakdown of the spec shared with us today: Apple’s M2 chipset runs the standalone headset, while its new R1 chip processes input from 12 cameras, five sensors, and six microphones. R1 is said to stream new images to the displays “within 12 milliseconds — 8x faster than the blink of an eye,” the company says. That cable and pack you see in the image above is actually a battery, which the company says provides two hours of use.

Image courtesy Apple, via ArsTechnica

Vision Pro features custom micro‑OLED display system which the company says packs in 23 million pixels, or more than a 4K TV. We’re still learning about more specific hardware specs, such as field-of-view (FOV) and more concrete numbers for its displays.

The headset also features an exterior display to show a user’s eyes. A system, called EyeSight, can either obscure the digital version of your eyes to other people in the room, or show them to indicate you’re ready to talk face-to-face.

Image courtesy Apple

Vision Pro is coming to the US first in early 2024, priced starting at $3,500, putting it clearly in the “enthusiast” camp. Apple calls it its “most advanced personal electronics device ever.”

We’re at Apple’s campus for WWDC today and are going hands-on with Vision Pro today. Check back soon for our full impressions, and to find out if Apple’s first big entry into XR was worth the wait.

This story is breaking. Check back soon for more info.

Apple Unveils Vision Pro, Its First XR Headset Read More »