OVER’s Map2Earn Beta program makes creating 3D world maps more accessible to users with smartphones. Using the OVER app, they can now take photos of any physical location and generate an OVRMap. As a result, they can take part in OVER’s global mapping initiative, while also getting the opportunity to earn rewards.
Paving the Way for Richer AR Experiences
According to OVER, Map2Earn is the company’s’ “biggest project yet.” It introduces more accurate data collection capabilities and takes geolocalization capabilities to the next level.
The accuracy of GPS systems in outdoor spaces is limited to about 6 meters. However, with Map2Earn Beta, OVER has increased the localization accuracy to 20 centimeters.
This broadens the horizon for newer and more immersive AR experiences and use cases. For instance, users can have superimposed AR experiences on existing real-world structures or accurate geolocation of assets in indoor and multi-floor settings.
“When we think about the future of AR, we imagine an augmented world with contextualized 3D experiences that seamlessly merge with the physical world,” said Diego Di Tommaso, COO and co-founder of OVER, in a press release shared with ARPost. “In order to achieve this, we need a system to precisely locate the observer in space – we need geolocalization accuracy. That’s why we built Map2Earn, a system to precisely relocate you in space using computer vision that goes far beyond what can be achieved with GPS only. Such a system will finally enable the creation of the AR use cases that, as of right now, we can only just dream about.”
Its Alpha testing phase, which involved more than 1,200 maps created by 300 early users, was a success. Now, the Beta version is accessible to all users via the OVER app (available for both iOS and Android).
How the Map2Earn Beta Program Works
The Map2Earn Beta program is backed by an intuitive UX that guides the users through the capture process. Users, or – as OVER calls them – the mappers, will film each OVRLand location to generate three assets:
The location’s 3D point cloud, which delivers a precise visual reference of the location the user wants to augment through AR;
Relocalization algorithms, which use the point cloud to locate the observer and create a more immersive AR experience;
A NeRF (neural radiance fields)-generated digital twin of the mapped area, which creates a simulation of the mapped location.
The user-creator will own the 3D structure of the locations that they’ve mapped using their smartphone. As of this writing, users can view the digital twin via a virtual drone fly-through. However, OVER will be working toward making these locations freely explorable.
A New Way to Explore the Metaverse
With the Map2Earn Beta program, OVER and its users can build up-to-date, Web3-based 3D maps of significant locations. Also, the scope of the program covers both indoor and outdoor spaces.
“OVER’s vision is to create a Web3-based, community-owned, up-to-date 3D map of the most important indoor and outdoor locations in the world – the likes of which we have not seen before,” said Di Tommaso. “OVRMaps have a fundamental importance for AR. They are the portal to the AR metaverse, without which there is no way to reliably and coherently augment the physical world.”
The Map2Earn production release is scheduled for late January, when users will be able to mint their 3D maps as NFTs. Then, they can trade these assets via the OVER marketplace, as well as other decentralized marketplaces, such as OpenSea. This is one of the ways through which users can earn.
In the future, OVER will be launching a direct incentivization program. Through this, users will be able to access the so-called open-to-buy orders and acquire the maps of their desired locations.
To access the Beta program, download the OVER app on Google Play or the App Store and follow the directions, which you can find under “Map2Earn”.
Earlier this month Valve changed the longstanding format for displaying which VR headsets are supported on a game’s Steam Store page. The company says the change was made to ‘keep up with the growing VR market’.
Earlier this month some folks were alarmed to see that the ‘VR Support’ section on the right side of a game’s Steam store page—which showed the headsets and playspaces a game supported—had been removed, seemingly leaving only ‘Tracked Motion Controller Support’ to indicate that an app supported VR.
As Valve tells Road to VR, however, the information was not removed but merely reorganized and streamlined—and it seems it may have taken a bit for the changes to correctly proliferate across store pages.
“We decided to organize things a bit differently, as we found the old system wasn’t keeping up very well with the growing VR market,” a Valve spokesperson tells us. “You can now find this info in System Requirements. We also added flags for VR Only, VR Supported, and tracked motion controllers to the Features section. The changes are also aimed at giving developers more control and flexibility.”
So now instead of a game listing all supported headsets and/or VR platforms on the right side of the page, developers can choose to show ‘VR Only’ or ‘VR Supported’. Meanwhile, further down in the System Requirements section, developers can additionally specify which headsets or playspaces are supported under the ‘VR Support’ prefix.
Looking at several examples shows how this works in practice.
Half-Life: Alyx, for instance, lists ‘VR Only’ and ‘Tracked Controller Support’ on the right side of the page (and still prominently includes a notice that the game requires a VR headset). In its System Requirements we see ‘VR Support: SteamVR’, indicating that the game affirms support for all SteamVR headsets.
Dirt Rally 2 uses ‘VR Supported’ on the right side of the page, and under System Requirements we see ‘VR Support: SteamVR or Oculus PC’ (indicating that the game supports both the SteamVR and native Oculus PC runtimes). Notably the game does not list ‘Tracked Controller Support’ on the right side, meaning players cannot use VR controllers with the game but must use another input like keyboard or traditional controller instead.
While we don’t have any inside knowledge as to exactly why Valve decided to change this longstanding system, the reasons they gave do make sense from the outside. The previous system confusingly listed some specific headsets (ie: ‘Valve Index’, ‘Oculus Rift’ and ‘HTC Vive’) lumped right alongside a whole platform of headsets (ie: ‘Windows Mixed Reality’)—while ignoring more modern headsets like those from Pico or Pimax. Making this change streamlines things for Valve who would otherwise have to track and add all new SteamVR headsets as they come to market.
And further, the distinction between ‘Standing’ and ‘Room-scale’ playspace sizes has become much less important over the years; very few games require a room-scale space, even though most technically support it. That left the previous ‘Play Area’ section of the store page as something of a needless remnant (except for games that only support ‘Seated’ play).
That said, there’s no doubt the change feels like it’s coming out of nowhere. And with Valve’s minimal apparent interest in VR in the last few years, it raises questions as to ‘why now?’
In the spring of 2010, physicist Jari Kinaret received an email from the European Commission. The EU’s executive arm was seeking pitches from scientists for ambitious new megaprojects. Known as flagships, the initiatives would focus on innovations that could transform Europe’s scientific and industrial landscape.
“I was not very impressed,” the 60-year-old tells TNW. “I thought they could find better ideas.”
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As it happened, Kinaret had an idea of his own: growing graphene. He decided to submit the topic for consideration.
That proposal lay the foundation for the Graphene Flagship: the largest-ever European research program. Launched in 2013 with a €1 billion budget, the project aimed to bring the “wonder material” into the mainstream within 10 years.
On the eve of that deadline, TNW spoke to Kinaret about the project’s progress over the past decade — and his hopes for the next one.
Graphene arrives in Europe
Scientists have pursued the single sheet of carbon atoms that constitute graphene since 1859, but its existence wasn’t confirmed until 2004. The big breakthrough was sparked by a strikingly simple product: sticky tape.
Andre Geim and Konstantin Novoselov, two physicists at the University of Manchester, would regularly hold “Friday night experiments,” where they’d explore outlandish ideas. At one such session, adhesive tape was used to extract tiny flakes from a lump of graphite. After repeatedly separating the thinnest fragments, they created flakes that were just one atom thick.
The researchers had isolated graphene — the first two-dimensional material ever discovered.
The researchers donated graphite, tape, and a graphene transistor to the Nobel Museum. Credit: Gabriel Hildebrand
The science world was abuzz with excitement. Graphene was the thinnest known material in the universe, the strongest ever measured, more pliable than rubber, and more conductive than copper.
In 2010, Geim and Novoselov won a Nobel Prize for their discovery. The award committee envisioned endless applications: touch screens, light panels, solar cells, satellites, meteorology, and, err, virtually invisible hammocks for cats.
The hypothetical hammock would weigh just 0.77 mg and support a 4 kg cat. Credit: Royal Swedish Academy of Sciences.
Kinaret recognized the potential. Three years later, he was heading an EU drive to take graphene from the lab to the market.
Hype versus reality
Commercializing graphene was never going to be straightforward. Studies suggest that innovations typically take between five and seven decades to evolve from inventions to products with significant market shares. Evolution would be slow — but observers were already impatient.
As the Flagship’s director, Kinaret had to manage such starry-eyed expectations. At talks, he’d frequently refer to the Gartner hype cycle, a depiction of how new technologies evolve.
The timeline starts with a breakthrough that sparks media excitement. In graphene’s case, reporters were soon claiming the material was set to replace silicon.
“Graphene cannot replace silicon,” says Kinaret. “Graphene is a semi-metal; it’s not a semiconductor.”
When reality fails to meet such inflated expectations, interest wanes and investment shrinks. Gartner describes this stage as the “trough of disillusionment.” Graphene appears to have exited this perilous period, partly thanks to the EU’s long-term commitment.
The backers that remain tend to be more practical and persistent. Now, their target is mainstream adoption.
“That’s something we promised — and delivered.
Initially, many commercial partners were frugal with their investments. One very large European company had a budget of only €20,000 for 30 months — “just enough to buy coffee for the people working on it, but not really enough to do anything substantial,” Kinaret recalls.
To increase their involvement, the Flagship needed their trust, which was challenging as rival brands would have to work together. Nokia, for instance, would have to collaborate with Ericsson.
“One dimension of trust that people needed was to trust this is for real,” says Kinaret. “The other is that participants needed to trust each other.”
The Flagship’s current membership suggests that trust has now been secured. The proportion of companies has grown from 15% to roughly 50% today. The other half are either research organizations or universities.
Kinaret describes the growth of industrial engagement as the Flagship’s key development.
“That’s something that we promised, and it’s something we have delivered,” he says.
From lab to fab
Around 100 products have emerged from the Graphene Flagship. The vast majority are business-to-business technologies, such as thermal coating for racing cars and eco-friendly packaging for electronic devices. Consumers’ products have been slower to commercialize.
Kinaret spotlights a few of his favorites. One is Qurv, a Spanish spinoff that makes graphene-based sensors, which cars can use to detect pedestrians in fog and rain.
“There are detectors today that do the same thing, but they can cost about $500 each,” says Kinaret. “The graphene detectors could cost about $1 each. That would be a total game changer in that business.”
Qurv’s wide-spectrum image sensors could enhance computer vision. Credit: The Graphene Flagship
Another highlight for Kinaret is Inbrain Neuroelectronics. The startup is developing graphene-based implants that can monitor brain signals and treat neurological disorders.
The devices could eventually stimulate the brain to control tremors caused by Parkinson’s disease. Traditional electrodes can achieve this, but they’re far stiffer than highly-flexible graphene.
“The brain is like a lump of jelly — it keeps moving around,” says Kinaret. “If you put a stiff electrode there, it results in scar formation.
Kinaret is also excited about the prospects for fundamental science. In 2018, Graphene Flagship partners revealed that over 2,000 materials can exist in a 2D form. Not all of them are stable, but a number of them are the focus of active research.
“You can make superconducting materials.
Some researchers are exploring what can be achieved by stacking the substances in multi-layers.
“You can grow them so there is a very specific twist angle between the different layers, which means they’re slightly misaligned. This misalignment angle is a very important new parameter,” says Kinaret.
“By tuning this misalignment angle, you can make materials that are superconducting and that have very interesting optical properties. This has only been explored for roughly four years, in terms of basic research, and it’s still quite far from applications. But it offers interesting possibilities for the future.”
Mission accomplished?
Kinaret is proud of the Flagship’s achievements. He believes the initiative has surpassed its targets by significant margins.
The data appears to support his claims. The European Commission aims to turn every €10 million that’s invested into one patent application. The Flagship, says Kinaret, has more than 10 times that requirement. The targets for scientific publications, he adds, have been surpassed by a similar factor.
Kinaret’s research targets potential applications. Credit: Graphene Flagship
There are still challenges to overcome. In electronics, for instance, high-quality graphene has to be transferred from the substrate on which it’s grown and onto the system where it’s used. The Flagship can do that well manually, but automating the process on an industrial scale has proven more difficult.
Nonetheless, Kinaret reminds the team they should remain positive.
“Engineers are typically short-term optimists and long-term pessimists,” he says. “They expect progress to be much faster initially than it turns out to be, but in the end, they underestimate the impacts of new technologies.”
In the future, Kinaret expects Europe to become a graphene powerhouse. The Flagship has given the continent a head start over the US in the race toward the mainstream.
He admits, however, that laypeople still ask what graphene is and can do.
“If we get to a situation where a surprised ‘what?’ has been replaced by ‘so what?’ because it’s become ubiquitous or mainstream… then we’ll have made it.”
While Oculus doesn’t offer much publicly in the way of understanding how well individual games & apps are performing across its Quest 2 storefront, it’s possible to glean some insight by looking at apps relative to each other. Here’s a snapshot of the 20 best rated Oculus Quest games and apps as of December 2022.
Some quick qualifications before we get to the data:
Paid and free apps are separated
Only apps with more than 100 reviews are represented
John Carmack, legendary programmer and key player in the Oculus gensis story, announced he’s left Meta, writing in a memo to employees that he “wearied of the fight” of trying to push for change at the highest levels of the company.
Carmack has never been one to mince words. Outside of bringing industry expertise to Oculus in 2013—notably a year before Meta (ex-Facebook) acquired the VR headset startup for $2 billion—Carmack has been a rare window into the world of consumer VR and one of the most important companies behind it. And even now, it appears we’re getting a peek into how things work in Meta, or rather, how they don’t work.
Last Friday, Carmack sent out a memo to employees saying he was effectively leaving Meta, mentioning the company’s VR efforts were developing at “half the effectiveness that would make me happy.”
Carmack demos an early Oculus Rift prototype at E3 2012
Parts of the memo were previously leaked in a Business Insider piece, however Carmack went one step further by releasing the memo in a Facebook update. We’ve included the text in full at the bottom of the article.
Having spearheaded Oculus’ mobile efforts throughout his tenure, in 2019 Carmack stepped down as Oculus CTO to a “consulting CTO” position, something he said would reduce his time spent at the company to a “modest slice” so he could pursue new ventures outside of VR.
Still, Carmack says the last few years at Meta has been a struggle:
“I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover.”
He contends the waning sway within Meta was “admittedly self-inflicted,” owing to the fact that he wasn’t really up to engaging with C-level battles for influence:
“I could have moved to Menlo Park after the Oculus acquisition and tried to wage battles with generations of leadership, but I was busy programming, and I assumed I would hate it, be bad at it, and probably lose anyway.”
Carmack says in a follow-up Twitter thread that there was “a notable gap between Mark Zuckerberg and I on various strategic issues, so I knew it would be extra frustrating to keep pushing my viewpoint internally.”
Before making the move to Meta vis-à-vis Oculus, John Carmack was co-founder and Technical Director of the famous id Software. He also founded Armadillo Aerospace, a private aerospace company. Carmack says he is now “all in” working on artificial general intelligence (AGI) at his startup Keen Technologies.
The full text of his internal memo follows below:
This is the end of my decade in VR.
I have mixed feelings.
Quest 2 is almost exactly what I wanted to see from the beginning – mobile hardware, inside out tracking, optional PC streaming, 4k (ish) screen, cost effective. Despite all the complaints I have about our software, millions of people are still getting value out of it. We have a good product. It is successful, and successful products make the world a better place. It all could have happened a bit faster and been going better if different decisions had been made, but we built something pretty close to The Right Thing.
The issue is our efficiency.
Some will ask why I care how the progress is happening, as long as it is happening?
If I am trying to sway others, I would say that an org that has only known inefficiency is ill prepared for the inevitable competition and/or belt tightening, but really, it is the more personal pain of seeing a 5% GPU utilization number in production. I am offended by it.
[edit: I was being overly poetic here, as several people have missed the intention. As a systems optimization person, I care deeply about efficiency. When you work hard at optimization for most of your life, seeing something that is grossly inefficient hurts your soul. I was likening observing our organization’s performance to seeing a tragically low number on a profiling tool.]
We have a ridiculous amount of people and resources, but we constantly self-sabotage and squander effort. There is no way to sugar coat this; I think our organization is operating at half the effectiveness that would make me happy. Some may scoff and contend we are doing just fine, but others will laugh and say “Half? Ha! I’m at quarter efficiency!”
It has been a struggle for me. I have a voice at the highest levels here, so it feels like I should be able to move things, but I’m evidently not persuasive enough. A good fraction of the things I complain about eventually turn my way after a year or two passes and evidence piles up, but I have never been able to kill stupid things before they cause damage, or set a direction and have a team actually stick to it. I think my influence at the margins has been positive, but it has never been a prime mover.
This was admittedly self-inflicted – I could have moved to Menlo Park after the Oculus acquisition and tried to wage battles with generations of leadership, but I was busy programming, and I assumed I would hate it, be bad at it, and probably lose anyway.
Enough complaining. I wearied of the fight and have my own startup to run, but the fight is still winnable! VR can bring value to most of the people in the world, and no company is better positioned to do it than Meta. Maybe it actually is possible to get there by just plowing ahead with current practices, but there is plenty of room for improvement.
Make better decisions and fill your products with “Give a Damn”
Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives. Ioanna is a writer at SHIFT. She likes the transition from old to modern, and she’s all about shifting perspectives.
As we’re moving towards an EV-dominated future, efforts to introduce wireless on-road charging systems are increasing.
Now, Germany’s famous Autobahn will welcome its own wireless charging system — although it won’t be available to individual EV drivers. Instead, it will power a public bus transporting passengers to the city of Balingen.
The technology will be provided by Israeli wireless charging company Electreon, which will collaborate with German EnBW — an EV charging infrastructure provider — for the realization of the project.
Electreon will deploy 1km of Electric Road System (ERS) along a stretch of the Autobahn, providing dynamic wireless charging while the bus is in motion. This will be accompanied by two static charging stations placed at stops along the bus route.
The project consists of two phases: firstly, the deployment of a 400-meter-long route with two static charging stations. Secondly, the expansion of the electric road by another 600 meters.
Notably, this endeavor follows a successful pilot of the two companies in the Germany city of Karlsruhe. An electrified road was installed at the EnBW training center, powering a local public bus at peak hours.
“We have already shown in our joint Karlsruhe project with EnBW how effective, safe, and easy to deploy wireless dynamic charging is. We hope this is the start of many more projects on public and private roads in Germany,” Dr. Andreas Wendt, CEO of Electreon Germany, said in the press release.
The Israeli company has run wireless on-road charging projects in Italy and Sweden as well.
But although Electreon and severalUS-basedcompanies are testing the tech, only a few European companies are active in the field. These include Italian Enermove, German-based Magment, and Swedish Elonroad.
Wireless on-road charging could play a pivotal role in eliminating range anxiety and the inconvenience of long charging times at stations. This, in turn, will facilitate the transition to electric vehicles.
On the downside, it requires a tremendous change (and investment) in infrastructure, which, by the time it is realized, might turn out to be obsolete as a result of technological advancements in conventional charging stations. Perhaps, the European industry is taking a wait-and-see approach before shelling out all that cash.
nDreams, the VR studio and publisher behind titles such as Fracked (2021) and Phantom: Covert Ops (2020), today announced it’s acquired long-time partner studio Near Light.
This marks the first such studio acquisition by nDreams, which follows a $35 million investment round secured back in March 2022.
Details of the acquisition are still thin on the ground, however nDreams says bringing the Brighton, UK-based Near Light closer into the fold will allow them to work on yet more “medium-defining games.”
In addition to running three of its own first-party studios, over the years nDreams has published a number of third-party VR titles, including Little Cities (2022) from Purple Yonder, as well as the Brighton-based Near Light’s VR titles Shooty Fruity (2018) and Perfect (2016).
Founded in 2016 with the launch of virtual travel experience Perfect, Near Light is headed by industry veterans Paul Mottram and Ben Hebb, known for their previous work at Wide Games, Kuju Brighton, and Zoë Mode.
“To be making our debut acquisition is yet another incredibly exciting milestone for nDreams,” added nDreams CEO, Patrick O’Luanaigh. “For other development studios with whom we are similarly aligned on vision and strategy, there’s certainly potential for more acquisitions in our future.”
“We’re really proud to be joining with nDreams and shaping the future of VR and AR games together, a new frontier with the opportunity to do things nobody has done before,” said Near Light co-founder Paul Mottram. “Near Light is very much aligned with the philosophy of Patrick and nDreams in terms of how we want to make games and build teams. It feels like the ideal fit for us.”
Near Light is currently developing an unannounced VR title, slated to be published by nDreams.
Diver-X, the Japan-based startup known for pitching an ambitious VR headset earlier this year, is at it again, this time with a pair of VR gloves that incorporates a membrane capable of flexing and compressing to replicate the sensation of touch.
The original HalfDive headset campaign on Kickstarter managed to secure enough cash to be considered fully funded back in January 2022, although the team decided to cancel the campaign and return the funds to backers. In the end, the Sword Art Online-inspired headset, which allowed you to play whilst laying down, was deemed too niche a product to deliver at such a small scale.
Now the startup is back at it with another Kickstarter, albeit with an ostensibly wider appeal. Its ContactGlove not only tracks each finger and includes SteamVR tracking mounts for positional tracking, but also allows for button input emulation so you never have to pick up a controller during gameplay. Ultimately, its ‘pro’ feature on higher-end models boasts haptic feedback thanks to flexible membranes that contract and expand to replicate touch on the user’s fingertips.
The Tokyo-based Diver-X says its VR glove controller is natively compatible with Steam VR, providing mounting adapters for both Tundra Trackers and Vive Trackers.
The button input is an emulated affair, as in you need to go through a configuration software to assign individual buttons to hand gestures, like bending your right index finger to pull a trigger, so it’s up to the user whether that feature can be useful and in what context.
Here’s a look at ContactGlove promo from the Kickstarter. Take note: the magnetically attached controller with joystick and buttons seen in the video is not a feature listed on the Kickstarted campaign:
The Kickstarter is already live, and it seems to have caught fire among backers looking to nab a pair of the company’s VR gloves. At the time of this writing, the project has already blasted past its original funding goal of ¥26M (~$200,000) with over funds tipping over ¥29M (~$220,000).
The company is pitching ContactGloves starting at ¥65,000 (~$490) for models without the flexible touch membrane, and ¥94,000 (~$710) for non-haptic models with Tundra Trackers included. All haptic-capable versions of ContactGloves are already gone unfortunately, which were priced starting at ¥115,000 (~$870). We’ll be keeping our eye on stretch goal updates to see whether the startup adds the ability to purchase haptics as an add-on.
Here’s a quick look at the specs, courtesy of Diver-X:
Battery: 6 hours without haptic feedback, 2 hours with haptic feedback (will be improved by software update)
Charging time: 2.5 hours (USB type-C)
Wireless connection: includes dedicated dongle
Size: S/M/L
Hand tracking: bending sensor and IMU (standard version does not support finger opening)
Vibration: Back of the hand (equipped on all models)
Tactile feedback: thumb, index finger, middle finger (on tactile-equipped models only)
