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Celebrating the 2023 Auggie Awards and XR Prize Challenge

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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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Apple’s rumoured mixed reality headset may be the miracle the European XR industry needs

Apple, Deep tech, Europe, Next Featured, Startups and technology, virtual reality / /
Apple’s rumoured mixed reality headset may be the miracle the European XR industry needs

Callum Booth

Story by

Callum Booth

Managing Editor

Callum is the Managing Editor of TNW. He covers the full spectrum of technology, looks after editorial newsletters, and makes the occasional Callum is the Managing Editor of TNW. He covers the full spectrum of technology, looks after editorial newsletters, and makes the occasional odd video.

Apple is a sector definer. While the company rarely creates entirely new products, its hardware ends up being the baseline other devices are measured by. You only need to look at how the iPod, iPhone, and iPad defined what people expect from MP3 players, phones, and tablets.

Now, Apple is hoping it can repeat this trick with an entirely new product: its rumoured VR/AR headset, expected to be announced on June 5th.

This is a huge moment for not only the company, but the European extended reality (XR) sector as a whole. While Apple has had some successes with products like the Apple Watch, it’s not released anything in recent years that has grabbed the world by the scruff of its neck in the way, say, the iPod did.

With its VR/AR headset, the Cupertino giant is on the brink of jumping into an entirely new industry, one that could either reinforce or destroy its reputation as a sector definer.

And for European XR companies? Apple’s hardware has the potential to do miraculous things. To find out exactly what and how, we spoke with several European companies — but before we get there, let’s spend some time analysing what’s actually happening with XR on the continent.

The state of extended reality in Europe

There are two sides you need to consider when looking at mixed reality in Europe: the consumer and the professional.

Let’s begin with the former. Various studies have found the European public are largely nonplussed about virtual reality and the metaverse — two of the current biggest elements of XR. This is something I’m certain many of us have experienced colloquially. It feels as though most people are generally unexcited by extended reality; hell, even those I know with headsets seem to stop using them quickly.

Where the consumer side of XR seems jaded, things are very different on the professional front. These sectors drive the majority of growth in the extended reality market, with the healthcare, industrial, and education sectors embracing the technology wholeheartedly and rapidly.

To put it another way, professional sectors have found uses for XR in Europe — while consumers are still waiting for a reason to adopt the technology. Despite this separation between the two markets, analysts are united in believing the continent’s XR market is about to get bigger. Much bigger.

According to Statista, the AR and VR market in Europe was worth $2.8 billion (€2.61 billion) in 2021. By 2025, this is expected to hit $20.9 billion (€19.4 billion), a 7.5x increase over four years.

This places consumer-focused European companies in the sector in a precarious situation. There’s potential to make a lot of money, but no guarantee that the public will actually embrace the technology.

An Apple-sized gamble

“The magnitude of the opportunity is enormous, but there’s a real risk that the technology could just not take off,” Leo Gebbie — Principal Analyst of Connected Devices at CCS Insight — tells TNW. “We’ve seen Meta pour billions of dollars into VR and the metaverse in recent years, but the technology has failed to inspire the masses.”

When I asked Gebbie why this is the case, he pointed to one major cause: “a lack of killer apps.”

The B2B XR market is growing because those tools have a clear use case, thinking training for surgeons or drivers. The thing is, that’s not the market Apple is after. It wants to put headsets into the homes of the public at large and, with no clear use cases for the public, Apple is taking a gargantuan risk.

The question, then, is what impact this dice roll will have on European companies already working in the sector?

More eyes means more money

There was one common response across all the companies TNW spoke with for this article: the release of Apple’s AR/VR headset will bring a lot of attention to the industry — and that will have financial implications for everyone.

“We expect it to have a substantial impact on the XR space,” Jerome Botbol — the Group Head of Immersive at Happy Finish, a creative production agency — says to TNW. When you consider Apple’s track record, especially when it comes to products that “command market share and drive adoption,” the headset could be “a major milestone for the industry.”

This is coming from a consumer perspective — precisely the market Apple’s headset will be targeting — as, generally, Happy Finish creates immersive experiences for the public on behalf of B2C clients. 

But will it have the same impact on the B2B sector? Or will things be different?

I put this question to Jakob Way, the CEO of Gleechi, a Stockholm-based development company making VR training software. So far, Gleechi has raised over $33 million (€30.78 million) in funding.

“The launch of Apple’s VR/AR headset holds tremendous potential for our industry,” Way says. “Apple has a history of disrupting markets, and their entry into the VR/AR space could have a transformative effect.”

Way continues, telling me that an Apple headset “could have a significant impact on the adoption and mainstream acceptance of [XR] technologies.”

Apple creating a consumer-focused VR/AR headset will pay dividends for the professional market too. In fact, it will be beneficial for the European industry as a whole, as it increases the knowledge and understanding of the technology across a wide spread of people.

Gebbie from CCS Insight confirms this though: “The VR industry would welcome an Apple entry into the market as it would immediately drive interest and investment from all quarters.”

In other words, Apple entering the XR market will deliver a lot more attention, which will turn on the money taps for European companies and startups in the sector, no matter whether they’re consumer or B2B focused.

An antidote for developer woes

While attracting more eyes to XR in general will be a boon for the European industry, another interesting advantage of Apple’s headset will be the reaction it’s likely to inspire from developers.

As Gebbie previously mentioned, one of the big issues impacting the progression of the consumer XR space in Europe is “a lack of killer apps.” One way this could be remedied is bringing more developers into the fold.

Max Kraynov — Group CEO of FunCorp, an app development company — tells TNW that Apple entering the market could alter the talent balance in the industry. “Another major player providing a platform to develop on” makes it “highly likely” that the industry will see “a spike in VR software development, and talent procuring/nurturing.”

This is something that Gebbie from CCS Insight also believes, saying that “developers who may have stayed away from VR so far due to the small size of the market are likely to show willingness to work with Apple given the potential for a headset from the company to sell in volume.”

The swell in interest that Apple entering the market will cause may motivate European developers who previously didn’t see the point in developing XR applications, or thought the sector was merely a flash-in-the-pan. But when the Cupertino giant gets involved, that’s a signal to professionals everywhere that there may be a shift afoot. 

User experience: A helpful baseline

Apple “has a habit of redefining expectations around a technology and turning new ideas into smash hit products,” Gebbie tells TNW.

As previously discussed, one of the things Apple is most famous for is taking pre-existing devices and giving people a reason to use them. Generally, it has achieved this by creative thinking, attention to user experience, and delightful form factors — a trio of points that the XR industry has historically struggled with.

“The problem we’ve had so far is that people put on a headset, and may have only experienced content that was created by enthusiasts, not professionals,” Matt Littler, CEO and founder, ARK Immersive, a VR production house, says. “There [is] no governance, cinematic language, or real stringent base to build an experience from, which leaves people not wanting to do it again.”

Apple excels at these factors. The company “creates compelling use cases that provide purposeful experiences,” Littler says. “Immersive optimisation is about to begin.”

These factors — and particularly the focus on user-centric design — are key in encouraging consumers to overcome their distrust of extended reality. 

Consider the advent of smartphones. At the beginning of the sector’s journey, there were a myriad of different designs and user experience languages. Yet, with the iPhone, Apple effectively defined the way handsets should operate — many of these elements being adopted by other manufacturers along the way. 

The hope for European XR developers and creators, then, is that Apple’s headset provides a baseline user experience and design language. This may then not only draw the public towards XR as a whole — as the benefits of using it will be clearer — but also provide structure for those making software and content in the space on the continent, something that will benefit B2B applications too.

Will it be all rainbows and stardust?

While we’ve seen that developers and creators of XR content in Europe are likely to benefit from Apple’s headset, one element we haven’t discussed are the businesses making competing hardware.

On first inspection, one would assume Apple’s entry would be negative, with the company usurping those companies’ user bases and gobbling up market share. But is this the case? We put this to Varjo, a Finnish company making advanced VR headsets. To date, it has received over $165.8 million (€154.58 million) in funding over ten rounds.

“Varjo is the only company currently offering high-fidelity video passthrough technology, similar to what Apple is rumoured to be using,” Timo Toikkanen, Varjo’s CEO says. This, he tells TNW, is a validation of his work — and a technology that will be “​​the winning approach [to XR headsets] for a very long time.”

Where Toikkanen is particularly positive though is in how Varjo’s target audience differs from that of Apple’s.

“Instead of trying to go after consumer applications that are untested and unproven, we’ve built a whole market around advanced professional use cases,” he says. “Today, already 25% of Fortune 100 companies are using our products.”

Once again, the separation between consumer and professional XR rears its head.

If B2B-centric XR companies like Varjo are unworried about any negative impact Apple’s headset might have on their own hardware, what about other companies making consumer-focused VR/AR devices?

“Apple would pose a direct threat to headset makers already in the market, such as Meta and Pico,” Gebbie from CCS Insight says. This could somewhat explain why the former company unveiled its Meta Quest 3 headset merely days before the rumoured announcement of Apple’s device. It’s trying to both remain relevant in the XR hardware discussion and ride the wave of publicity Apple is generating.

Despite this, Gebbie believes that the launch of Apple’s headset could actually benefit businesses like Meta, saying that “this negative [threat] would likely be offset by a swell in interest in VR overall, which would likely help all companies to sell more devices.” 

Final thoughts: One headset to rule them all

Whatever happens with the launch of Apple’s headset, it’ll be good for European XR companies —in the short term, at least.

The interest and investment that Apple’s legacy and reputation brings will drag the extended reality market into a previously unseen amount of light. Whether that’s getting more consumer eyes on the market, encouraging developers to get involved, or providing a baseline for XR design language, Apple’s entry will have a positive knock-on effect for any European company in the industry. 

At first. Because if Apple’s headset falls flat, the initial spike in attention will swiftly drop, and this failure will likely be seen as a sign that the whole consumer side of the XR industry is untenable. If Apple can’t make a VR/AR headset an attractive proposition for the public, who can?

Of course, there will remain a thriving B2B market for the technology, but this will hardly be unscathed by the potential failure of Apple’s headset. The more money and interest that flows into a product category, the better and more efficient it will become. The reason laptops and phones are so advanced isn’t because they’re good for business, it’s because everyone wants them — and the same goes for XR headsets.

Apple is on a precipice, one that will shape the fate of the whole European XR industry. But, as Littler from ARK Immersive puts it, “If anyone can simplify the process, improve UX and ultimately get your grandma in a VR headset, it’s Apple.”

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Strivr Enhances Immersive Learning With Generative AI, Equips VR Training Platform With Mental Health and Well-Being Experiences

AI, Education & Training, Enterprise, Enterprise VR, featured, learning, Software, strivr, training, virtual reality, VR platform / /

Strivr, a virtual reality training solutions startup, was founded as a VR training platform for professional sports leagues such as the NBA, NHL, and NFL. Today, Strivr has made its way to the job training scene with an innovative approach to employee training, leveraging generative AI (GenAI) to transform learning experiences.

More Companies Lean Toward Immersive Learning

Today’s business landscape is rapidly evolving. As such, Fortune 500 companies and other businesses in the corporate sector are starting to turn to more innovative employee training and development solutions. To serve the changing demands of top companies, Strivr has secured $16 million in funding back in 2018 to expand its VR training platform.

Research shows that learning through VR environments can significantly enhance knowledge retention, making it a groundbreaking development in employee training.

Unlike traditional training methods, a VR training platform immerses employees in lifelike scenarios, providing unparalleled engagement and experiential learning. However, this technology isn’t a new concept at all. Companies have been incorporating VR into their training solutions for several years, but we’ve only recently seen more industries adopting this technology rapidly.

The Impact of Generative AI on VR Training Platforms

Walmart, the largest retailer in the world, partnered with Strivr to bring VR to their training facilities. Employees can now practice in virtual sales floors repeatedly until they perfect their skills. In 2019, nearly 1.4 million Walmart associates have undergone VR training to prepare for the holiday rush, placing them in a simulated, chaotic Black Friday scenario.

As a result, associates reported a 30% increase in employee satisfaction, 70% higher test scores, and 10 to 15% higher knowledge retention rates. Because of the VR training’s success, Walmart expanded the VR training program to all their stores nationwide.

Derek Belch, founder and CEO at Strivr, states that the demand for the faster development of high-quality and scalable VR experiences that generate impactful results is “at an all-time high.”

VR training platofrm Strivr

As Strivr’s customers are among the most prominent companies globally, they are directly experiencing the impact of immersive learning on employee engagement, retention, and performance. “They want more, and we’re listening,” said Belch in a press release shared with ARPost.

So, to enhance its VR training platform, Strivr embraces generative AI to develop storylines, boost animation and asset creation, and optimize visual and content-driven features.

GenAI will also aid HR and L&D leaders in critical decision-making by deriving insights from immersive user data.

Strivr’s VR Training Platform Addresses Employee Mental Health

Strivr has partnered with Reulay and Healium in hosting its first in-headset mental health and well-being applications on the VR training platform. This will allow their customers to incorporate mental health “breaks” into their training curricula and address the rising levels of employee burnout, depression, and anxiety.

Belch has announced that Strivr also partnered with one of the world’s leading financial institutions to make meditation activities available in their workplace.

Meditation is indeed helpful for employees; the Journal of the American Medical Association recently published a study that showed that meditation can help reduce anxiety as effectively as drug therapies. Mindfulness practices, on the other hand, have been demonstrated to increase employee productivity, focus, and collaboration.

How VR Transforms Professional Training

With Strivr’s VR Training platform offering enhanced experiential learning and mental well-being, one might wonder how VR technology will influence employee training moving forward.

Belch describes Strivr’s VR training platform as a “beautifully free space” to practice. Employees can develop or improve their skills in a realistic scenario that simulates actual workplace challenges in a way that typical workshops and classrooms cannot. Moreover, training employees through VR platform cuts travel costs associated with conventional training facilities.

VR training platform Strivr

VR training platforms also contribute to a more inclusive and diverse workplace. Employees belonging to minority groups can rehearse and tailor their behaviors in simulated scenarios where a superior or customer is prejudiced toward them, for instance. When these situations are addressed during training, companies can protect their employees from these challenges and prepare them.

What’s Next for VR Training Platforms?

According to Belch, Strivr’s enhanced VR training platform is only the beginning of how VR will continue to impact the employee experience.

So far, VR training platforms have been improving employee onboarding, knowledge retention, and performance. They allow employees to practice and acquire critical skills in a safe, virtual environment, helping them gain more confidence and efficiency while training. Additionally, diversity and inclusion are promoted, thanks to VR’s ability to simulate scenarios where employees can tailor their behaviors during difficult situations.

And, of course, VR training has rightfully gained recognition for helping teach retail workers essential customer service skills. By interacting with virtual customers in a life-like environment, Walmart’s employees have significantly boosted their skills, and the mega-retailer has implemented an immersive training solution to all of its nearly 4,700 stores all over America.

In 2022, Accenture invested in Strivr and Talespin to revolutionize immersive learning and enterprise VR. This is a good sign of confidence in the industry and its massive potential for growth.

As we keep an eye on the latest scoop about VR technology, we can expect more groundbreaking developments in the industry and for VR platforms to increase their presence in the employee training realm.

Strivr Enhances Immersive Learning With Generative AI, Equips VR Training Platform With Mental Health and Well-Being Experiences Read More »

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Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act: Legislation That Aims to Provide Equitable Access to XR Tech

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The Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act of 2023 was drafted by Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester (D-DE) and Rep. Tim Walberg (R-MI) with the support of organizations like the XR Association (XRA), Talespin, Unity, Association for Career and Technical Education, Transfr, and HTC VIVE, among others.

“Emerging technologies, such as XR, can help meet people where they are and expand access to cutting-edge technology and training resources,” remarked XRA CEO Elizabeth Hyman in a press release shared with ARPost. “Rep. Lisa Blunt Rochester’s and Rep. Tim Walberg’s bill recognizes the importance of equitable access to skills training and workforce development programs and the key role immersive technology plays in delivering better outcomes.”

What Is the Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act of 2023?

One advantage of incorporating immersive technologies for workforce training is that these are cost-effective and safer. They can also provide expanded training to underserved communities, as well as to workers with disabilities.

The Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act aims to create a five-year program that provides support to various institutions, allowing them to utilize immersive technologies in their educational and training programs.

Furthermore, it aims to promote the development of inclusive technology while prioritizing underserved communities, such as rural areas and areas of substantial unemployment. It seeks to foster partnerships between private and public entities to address skills gaps, meet the needs of the workforce, and assist individuals who are facing barriers to employment.

“We’re excited to be able to work with Rep. Blunt Rochester, a member of Congress who cares deeply about ensuring underserved populations are able to tap into next-generation technology and skills training,” said XRA Senior Vice President of Public Policy Joan O’Hara.

There’s almost a quarter of Americans living in rural communities who are facing unique workforce challenges. Moreover, the US Bureau of Labor Statistics reported that, at the start of 2023, the country had 10.5 million unfilled jobs. The bill seeks to fill these gaps by enabling Americans from underserved communities and various backgrounds to have access to effective and high-quality training programs.

“XR technologies can dramatically change the way America’s workforce is recruited, trained, skilled, and upskilled. Scalable solutions are necessary to meet the diverse needs of today’s undiscovered talent to meet the needs of our complex workforce,” said Transfr CEO Bharanidharan Rajakumar.

How Will the Legislation Impact the Future of Work?

The Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act follows the footsteps of “recent legislative successes”, such as the Access to Digital Therapeutics Act of 2023, which effectively extends “coverage for prescription digital therapeutics”. It aims to provide support, in the form of grants, to community colleges and career and technical education centers.

The grants will allow them to leverage XR technology for purposes such as workforce development and skills training. Furthermore, Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act will enable such organizations and facilities to utilize XR technology to enhance their training, which, in turn, can help address the speed with which American companies meet workforce needs.

Immersive Technology for the American Workforce Act: Legislation That Aims to Provide Equitable Access to XR Tech Read More »

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A Very Interesting VR/AR Association Enterprise & Training Forum

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The VR/AR Association held a VR Enterprise and Training Forum yesterday, May 24. The one-day event hosted on the Hopin remote conference platform, brought together a number of industry experts to discuss the business applications of a number of XR techniques and topics including digital twins, virtual humans, and generative AI.

The VR/AR Association Gives Enterprise the Mic

The VR/AR Association hosted the event, though non-members were welcome to attend. In addition to keynotes, talks, and panel discussions, the event included opportunities for networking with other remote attendees.

“Our community is at the heart of what we do: we spark innovation and we start trends,” said VR/AR Association Enterprise Committee Co-Chair, Cindy Mallory, during a welcome session.

While there were some bonafide “technologists” in the panels, most speakers were people using the technology in industry themselves. While hearing from “the usual suspects” is nice, VR/AR Association fora are rare opportunities for industry professionals to hear from one another on how they approach problems and solutions in a rapidly changing workplace.

“I feel like there are no wrong answers,” VR/AR Association Training Committee Co-Chair,Bobby Carlton,said during the welcome session. “We’re all explorers asking where these tools fit in and how they apply.”

The Convergence

One of the reasons that the workplace is changing so rapidly has to do with not only the pace with which technologies are changing, but with the pace with which they are becoming reliant on one another. This is a trend that a number of commentators have labeled “the convergence.”

“When we talk about the convergence, we’re talking about XR but we’re also talking about computer vision and AI,” CGS Inc President of Enterprise Learning and XR, Doug Stephen, said in the keynote that opened the event, “How Integrated XR Is Creating a Connected Workplace and Driving Digital Transformation.”

CGS Australia Head, Adam Shah, was also a speaker. Together the pair discussed how using XR with advanced IT strategies, AI, and other emerging technologies creates opportunities as well as confusion for enterprise. Both commented that companies can only seize the opportunities provided by these emerging technologies through ongoing education.

“When you put all of these technologies together, it becomes harder for companies to get started on this journey,” said Shah. “Learning is the goal at the end of the day, so we ask ‘What learning outcomes do you want to achieve?’ and we work backwards from there.”

The convergence isn’t only changing how business is done, it’s changing who’s doing what. That was much of the topic of the panel discussion “What Problem Are You Trying to Solve For Your Customer? How Can Generative AI and XR Help Solve It? Faster, Cheaper, Better!”

“Things are becoming more dialectical between producers and consumers, or that line is melting where consumers can create whatever they want,” said Virtual World Society Executive Director Angelina Dayton. “We exist as both creators and as consumers … We see that more and more now.”

“The Journey” of Emerging Technology

The figure of “the journey” was also used by Overlay founder and CEO, Christopher Morace, in his keynote “Asset Vision – Using AI Models and VR to get more out of Digital Twins.” Morace stressed that we have to talk about the journey because a number of the benefits that the average user wants from these emerging technologies still aren’t practical or possible.

“The interesting thing about our space is that we see this amazing future and all of these visionaries want to start at the end,” said Morace. “How do we take people along on this journey to get to where we all want to be while still making the most out of the technology that we have today?”

Morace specifically cited ads by Meta showing software that barely exists running on hardware that’s still a few years away (though other XR companies have been guilty of this as well). The good news is that extremely practical XR technologies do exist today, including for enterprise – we just need to accept that they’re on mobile devices and tablets right now.

Digital Twins and Virtual Humans

We might first think of digital twins of places or objects – and that’s how Morace was speaking of them. However, there are also digital twins of people. Claire Hedgespeth, Head of Production and Marketing at Avatar Dimension, addressed its opportunities and obstacles in her talk, “Business of Virtual Humans.”

“The biggest obstacle for most people is the cost. … Right now, 2D videos are deemed sufficient for most outlets but I do feel that we’re missing an opportunity,” said Hedgespeth. “The potential for using virtual humans is only as limited as your imagination.”

The language of digital twins was also used on a global scale by AR Mavericks founder and CEO, William Wallace, in his talk “Augmented Reality and the Built World.” Wallace presented a combination of AR, advanced networks, and virtual positioning coming together to create an application layer he calls “The Tagisphere.”

“We can figure out where a person is so we can match them to the assets that are near them,” said Wallace. “It’s like a 3D model that you can access on your desktop, but we can bring it into the real world.”

It may sound a lot like the metaverse to some, but that word is out of fashion at the moment.

And the Destination Is … The Metaverse?

“We rarely use the M-word. We’re really not using it at all right now,” Qualcomm’s XR Senior Director, Martin Herdina, said in his talk “Spaces Enabling the Next Generation of Enterprise MR Experiences.”

Herdina put extra emphasis on computing advancements like cloud computing over the usual discussions of visual experience and form factor in his discussion of immersive technology. He also presented modern AR as a stepping stone to a largely MR future for enterprise.

“We see MR being a total game changer,” said Herdina. “Companies who have developed AR, who have tested those waters and built experience in that space, they will be first in line to succeed.”

VR/AR Association Co-Chair, Mark Gröb, expressed similar sentiments regarding “the M-word” in his VRARA Enterprise Committee Summary, which closed out the event.

“Enterprise VR had a reality check,” said Gröb. “The metaverse really was a false start. The hype redirected to AI-generated tools may or may not be a bad thing.”

Gröb further commented that people in the business of immersive technology specifically may be better able to get back to business with some of that outside attention drawn toward other things.

“Now we’re focusing on the more important thing, which was XR training,” said Gröb. “All of the business cases that we talked about today, it’s about consistent training.”

Business as Usual in the VR/AR Association

There has been a lot of discussion recently regarding “the death of the metaverse” – a topic which, arguably, hadn’t yet been born in the first place. Whether it was always just a gas and the extent to which that gas has been entirely replaced by AI is yet to be seen.

While there were people talking about “the enterprise metaverse” – particularly referring to things like remote collaboration solutions – the metaverse is arguably more of a social technology anyway. While enterprise does enterprise, someone else will build the metaverse (or whatever we end up calling it) – and they’ll probably come from within the VR/AR Association as well.

A Very Interesting VR/AR Association Enterprise & Training Forum Read More »

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A Week of VR Meditation With Mindway

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Mindfulness can exist in the virtual world. Mindway is a VR app that promotes mindfulness – both in virtual worlds of unearthly peace and through lessons that you can carry with you when you put the headset down. I gave the app a test run by incorporating it into my own stressful work week.

A Modular Subscription-Based App

A good first place to start an app review is talking about the specs, like the size of the app and how much it costs. That’s not really how Mindway works.

First, the app is free to download from the Quest App Lab, though a number of elements of the app require a monthly or annual subscription – or you can buy the whole package once and for all for $50.

Further, the initial app download is small but individual modules within the app come as independent downloads. That might make things complicated if you’re trying to decide whether you have space for the experience, but it also means that you can really effectively pick and choose which modules you want to keep on your device.

The app doesn’t currently have a comfort rating. That might be because the individual experiences are so different. Each module explains the position in which it works best. Some encourage you to be seated, while others that deal more with mindful movement require you to be standing. Still, none of the modules that I tried made me too uncomfortable.

The app is compatible with the whole Quest product line from the original Quest to the Quest Pro, but I used my Quest 2. Controllers are required to navigate menus and carry out simple interactions in some of the practices, but there aren’t any complex controls. The thumbsticks can be used for snap turns, but there’s no movement and head-tracking is sufficient.

Mindway’s Major Components

When you first enter Mindway, you find yourself in a calm virtual environment reminiscent of a Quest Home. In front of you are three main menu items: ASMR, Mindfulness, and Sleep.

Sleep, Mindfulness, ASMR - Mindway VR app

If you turn to your right, there’s also a room where you can join public or private sessions. This is used for scheduled group events, but you can also go in alone to sit by a calming VR campfire or use an invite code to share the space with friends.

If you aren’t familiar with mindfulness, it’s an approach to mind-body wellness that promotes active awareness of your physical state and thought-life in the present moment instead of dwelling on the past or being anxious about the future. A text explanation will never really do justice, so consider checking out the introductory journey in the app.

ASMR

I’ve become something of an ASMR aficionado over the years, and let me just say that I’m hoping for more from this selection in the future. The selection currently consists of soft-spoken stories and a marble-maze mini-game that plays with some audio effects. (Take out your Conquest VR if you’ve got one.)

ASMR - Mindway

While Sleep and Mindfulness sessions usually last between eight and 15 minutes, some of the ASMR sections go on until you exit the session, making them ideal if you want to use them as the base of longer meditations.

The marble game is fun and the soft-spoken stories are great, but I didn’t get big ASMR vibes. There’s a whole category of ASMR that uses visual cues but I haven’t really experimented with it because I usually listen to ASMR when I’m trying to sleep, so seeing more visually-based ASMR in this mindfulness VR app has a lot of potential.

Sleep

Speaking of sleep, you might have gotten curious at the idea of sleep modules in a VR app. I know I did. If you’re imagining drifting off with your headset on, that’s not what’s happening here.

These experiences might help make you a little drowsy, but what they’re really doing is stocking a mental toolbox with mindfulness tools that you can take with you to bed. This is actually one of my favorite recurring elements of Mindway as an app overall, so we’ll return to a larger discussion of this later.

Mindfulness

Mindfulness is the heart and soul of Mindway. As such, this is the most populated section with (in my opinion) the best content. This content is split into “Journeys”, “Practice”, and “Build Your Own”.

Mindfulness - Mindway

Practices are shorter sessions that you can do independently of one another, while each journey is a series of sessions on a related topic that build on one another. The Build Your Own section allows you to create a practice session by selecting a topic, a world, and a soundtrack. Whether part of a journey or an individual practice, sessions are between eight and 15 minutes.

Build Your Own - Mindway

On the other hand, if you are familiar with mindfulness as a practice, I hope that you won’t be too skeptical of a VR-based mindfulness application. Mindway uses VR very cleverly to facilitate common mindfulness exercises. You can even select the “Science” button in the home environment to learn about how Mindway develops their sessions.

During body scans, a sparkling mist gradually rises up around you. When focusing your attention on a fire, the fire begins to die down if you get distracted by the environment for too long. During breathing exercises, particles seem to flow into you when it’s time to inhale and flow out when it’s time to exhale. Reach high up to grab an apple from a tree during a stretch.

A Week of Mindfulness

I used Mindway for about a week during the course of writing this article. There were stretches where I used it every day, there were days that I didn’t use it at all, and there were days that I kept going back in for multiple sessions.

I discovered mindfulness in college and it was a big part of my life for a good couple of years but at some point, I really got away from it. The first thing that I noticed in Mindway was how deeply I’m still able to breathe. I can breathe pretty heavily in my headset when I’m boxing in VR, but that’s different from long, slow, deliberate breath – something I didn’t realize I missed.

I liked some sessions more than others, but there was nothing that I encountered in Mindway that I didn’t enjoy. My favorite content is the “Boost Your Energy” Journey. The three-part journey has practices for starting the day with focus without being overwhelmed, for regaining your energy as you go through your day, and for winding down when it’s time to relax.

Boost Your Energy Journey - Mindway

While I like knowing that I can pop on the headset for a reasonably short session whenever I want throughout my day, the narrations do often remind you that you can take things like breathing exercises and meditation models with you wherever you go. While the visualizations are nice and might be helpful for people newer to mindfulness, Mindway is very educational.

An Unanticipated Promotion

The child in my life doesn’t really understand what I do for a living, but she knows that sometimes we get to play with neat tech, like an AR narrative puzzle. Sometimes, I set up my headset for her to enjoy some supervised offline play. (I lock apps, so I know that she’s playing Bait!, not Peaky Blinders.)

The other day, she saw the new Mindway thumbnail in my apps library and asked about it. I told her that she could check it out if she wanted to, but I warned her that it wasn’t exactly a “game.”

It turns out that she loved it. She was able to navigate the simple menus by herself and tried out a number of experiences. Hearing the audio of the guided meditations through the Quest 2’s native off-ear speakers, I was able to watch – admittedly a little stunned – as the energetic eight-year-old sat through around a half-hour of various mindfulness exercises.

I’m not a doctor, and I’m never going to advocate that any VR headset become “an electronic babysitter”, but it seems to me a curious kid could do a lot worse things in VR than mindful breathing.

Peaceful Periods in VR

Hitting the mat in the third round, assassinating communist informants in the back of a bar, betraying your crewmates in space – VR experiences can be pretty intense. While those experiences can be a lot of fun, it’s nice to know that Mindway provides a corner of the immersive world where you can have a little peace and quiet before getting back to your day.

A Week of VR Meditation With Mindway Read More »

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The Expansion of Immersive Therapeutics in Healthcare

featured, Healthcare/Medicine, Immersive Technology, Mental Health, virtual reality / /

With better accessibility and affordability, immersive therapeutics is now transforming how patients receive optimal care. Particularly in mental health and physical therapy, it has been instrumental in optimizing treatment outcomes, and helping patients overcome anxiety, discomfort, and other challenges to their recovery.

For several years now, we’ve seen virtual reality at work in healthcare. VR is now widely used in virtual sessions for psychological therapy, training simulations for medical professionals, gamification of exercises for physical therapy, and healthcare marketing.

Today, developments in immersive technologies are widening the applications of immersive treatment options for various healthcare issues. One of these is immersive therapeutics for the treatment of intractable health conditions.

But what exactly is immersive therapeutics and how does it truly impact healthcare? Here, we dissect what this emerging treatment approach is and share feedback from tech experts and users alike.

What Is Immersive Therapeutics?

Immersive therapeutics is an evolving field of medicine that delivers treatment using advanced technologies such as virtual reality, augmented reality, and artificial intelligence. It alleviates patient suffering and enhances treatment by placing patients in highly immersive and sensory-rich environments.

Through immersive therapeutics, patients connect with virtual environments at a deep emotional level that can alter the brain’s perception of pain and divert their attention.

According to Gita Barry, President of Immersive Healthcare at Penumbra Inc., “By captivating the patients in a virtual environment, patients can engage with serene beachscapes or play cognition games to cope with the craving feeling and safeguard their path to recovery.”

Being highly effective in distracting patients from pain and cravings, immersive therapeutics has great potential for use in physical rehabilitation and addiction treatment.

“The more immersive an experience is, the more it can be engaging, positively distracting, entertaining, and effective from a therapeutic and clinical standpoint,” says Joel Breton, game designer and president of Immersive Healthcare Studios at REAL System by Penumbra. This is what makes immersive therapeutics effective in addressing challenges in therapeutic treatments.

Advancing Immersive Therapeutics for Better Healthcare

As immersive therapeutics continues to evolve, more companies are looking to increase the accessibility of these therapies, broadening their applications in new treatment options for various healthcare issues.

Some of the most promising clinical uses include treating stress, anxiety, fears, disorders, and phobias. Its applications for pain management, rehabilitation, wellness, and healthcare optimization are also expanding fast.

One company that is at the forefront of advancing the use of immersive therapeutics is Penumbra. Technologies like Penumbra’s REAL System are already showing real impact in the field of immersive therapeutics.

With platforms like the REAL i-Series for VR/mental health and the REAL y-series for VR/physical therapy, patients can access VR-based treatments and self-manage their conditions from the comfort of their own homes.

Penumbra REAL y-Series immersive therapeutics
Penumbra REAL y-Series

Of the 40 million US adults with substance abuse disorders, about 40 to 60% relapse at some point in their lives. While contact with drugs is the most obvious cause for relapse, stress cues linked to substance abuse are also common triggers.

This is where immersive therapeutics becomes most helpful. By helping counteract disruptive effects on the brain and behavior, immersive experiences help those in recovery regain control of their lives.

Real Impact of the REAL System

Barry believes that immersive experiences have the potential to impact millions of patients across a range of conditions. Developed using clinical evidence, Penumbra’s REAL System effectively supports the physical rehabilitation, cognitive, and wellness needs of patients in recovery.

The REAL i-Series, for instance, is currently in use at the Chemical Dependency unit of Hoag Health. The VR-based solution has been incorporated into group therapy sessions to create positive shared experiences and boost communal engagement.

Penumbra REAL i-Series immersive therapeutics
Penumbra REAL i-Series

The use of the system helps patients feel at ease and more open to participating in group therapy. Seeing the benefits of the i-Series, Hoag Health is now also using it to support staff well-being and retention.

As REAL System President, Breton explains that REAL’s VR experiences are designed to address physical therapy, occupational therapy, and speech-language rehab as well as general mental wellness. According to Breton, the sense of immersion VR provides distracts patients from pain and fatigue. By keeping them engaged and entertained, the patients are more likely to adhere to their treatment programs.

Transforming the Future of Health

Immersive therapeutics is undoubtedly transforming the future of healthcare by providing patients with a higher level and quality of care.

“With greater awareness of the benefits VR-based tools can provide in addiction treatment and broader healthcare, we anticipate that clinicians will identify both new applications and also new patient populations who can benefit from the immersive experience VR provides,” says Barry.

The goal of immersive therapeutics is to widen access to transformative care. Whether patients are in health facilities or at home, immersive solutions can help them overcome health challenges and ensure optimal recovery. Through the continued collaboration of tech experts and health practitioners, immersive therapeutics has the potential to transform the entire healthcare industry.

The Expansion of Immersive Therapeutics in Healthcare Read More »

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XRHealth Merges With Amelia Virtual Care

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XRHealth is an enterprising company that combines telehealth with VR gaming for remote physical and occupational therapy solutions. Amelia Virtual Care also pioneers VR telehealth, but prioritizes a different kind of therapy by focusing on mental wellness.

The two companies recently announced a merger. The resulting company will offer both physical and mental therapy through the combined teams, skills, and software of both companies. Eran Orr, current CEO of XRHealth (which will be the name of the new combined company) will remain CEO.

What Amelia Virtual Care Brings to the Table

“We’re thrilled to join forces with XRHealth at a time when clinicians are adopting virtual reality as a mainstream tool for delivering high-quality care and engaging patient experiences,” Xavier Palomer said in a release shared with ARPost.

XRHealth Laptop and external control

Palomer is the founder and current Executive Chairman of Amelia Virtual Care but will pivot to Chief Growth Officer of the new combined company. “While VR is still novel to many patients, it’s a well-proven solution grounded in more than 30 years of research and experience,” said Palomer.

ARPost hadn’t crossed paths with Amelia Virtual Care prior to the merger, but we’re looking forward to seeing all that they bring to the new combined company. Of particular interest, Amelia’s solution incorporated a finger-worn electrodermal response sensor for recording the participant’s galvanic skin response.

Joining Forces With XRHealth

“We’re ready to introduce the XR platform that any hospital and clinic can use,” Orr said in the release. “The merger enables us to offer a one-stop shop to diverse players and streamline the technology in a way that will see XR devices adopted for a variety of treatments, with XRHealth leading the way for the entire industry.”

Eran Orr XRHealth with VR headset
Eran Orr

Orr’s company has already achieved a number of significant accomplishments in both the technology and adoption and infrastructure. The Medicare-covered platform runs on a number of devices including Pico headsets and the VIVE Flow. Both headsets offer adoption venues for users as well as different hardware and software capabilities.

XRHealth with HTC Flow headset
XRHealth with HTC Flow headset

“With our merger, we now have an end-to-end product that addresses privacy and security, multiple use cases with a variety of content, compliance and regulation, and operational tools to support scale,” XRHealth co-founder and CTO Miki Levy said in the release. “We have a growing number of content partners today and expect this to increase dramatically after this merger.”

Miki Levy XRHealth
Miki Levy

Better Together

Amelia Virtual Care brings its own experts, a different branch of medicine, and some hardware innovations. XRHealth brings greater hardware accessibility, greater patient accessibility, and its own branch of medicine. Between the two, this merger seems like a win for the growing number of individuals pursuing healthcare through VR appointments and practices.

XRHealth Merges With Amelia Virtual Care Read More »

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Expanding the Applications of VR Training for Mental Health Awareness and Wellness at Work

featured, Healthcare/Medicine, Mental Health, training, virtual reality / /

The use of VR training for mental health awareness is not a new concept. This technology has become a powerful tool that enhances the professional development and overall well-being of employees in the workplace.

With Mental Health Awareness Month serving as a crucial reminder of the importance of addressing mental health concerns, we once again go through the role immersive technologies play in promoting mental health awareness and providing support.

The Prevalence of Mental Health Issues 

In the United States alone, approximately 50 million adults are experiencing a mental illness. But what’s more alarming is that over 55% of them receive no treatment. That’s 28 million individuals struggling with mental health issues on their own.

In the workplace, employees experiencing poor mental health are more likely to face absenteeism, lower job satisfaction, and burnout. The impact of these issues extends beyond individual employees, affecting overall productivity, morale, and employee retention within organizations. Fortunately, business leaders are now realizing the need to address mental health concerns in the workplace.

Harnessing Immersive Technologies for Mental Health Support

XR technologies, including VR training, have emerged as powerful tools for addressing mental health concerns and fostering a supportive workplace environment. Companies like Moth+Flame have been at the forefront, developing immersive training solutions that promote mental health in the workplace.

Moth+Flame Mental Wellness library

This month, they launched a Mental Wellness library to facilitate open conversations on mental health concerns. Through this library, individuals can engage in realistic scenarios, practice meaningful conversations, and acquire the necessary skills to provide appropriate support.

According to Kevin Cornish, founder and CEO of Moth+Flame, developing the library was a big commitment they made in support of mental health awareness. Their goal is to get more people comfortable with talking about mental health at work so that, ultimately, people know how to ask for help and how to offer help. “We believe that the more people who are trained on how to handle these conversations, the more people will ultimately get help,” says Cornish. “If one person gets the support they need by using this conversation and being prepared for a tough conversation, then we have succeeded.”

Collaborative Efforts in VR Training for Mental Health Awareness

Moth+Flame is not alone in recognizing the potential of XR technologies for mental health training. Several companies and organizations are utilizing VR to improve mental health awareness and support in the workplace.

PsyTechVR is also empowering organizations by giving them access to VR apps with guided meditations and art therapies that enhance mental wellness. The company, which launches new therapy content every two weeks, offers both self-guiding VR courses as well as courses with a specialist, where the doctor has access to user’s training in real-time and guides them through all the training.

Penumbra’s REAL Vision VR Wellness offers over 100 immersive experiences designed specifically for improving employee mental wellness. The company’s REAL i-Series is designed to offer VR-enabled tools for cognitive activation, distraction therapy, reminiscence therapy, mindfulness therapy, and relaxation therapy.

Collaborations among tech, health, and business sectors are paving the way for better VR experiences tailored to mental health. The National Institute of Mental Health for one has been funding research on virtual reality exposure therapy and other immersive applications.

The Impact of VR-Based Mental Health Training Programs

Although specific case studies on VR-based mental health training programs are still emerging, the potential impact is significant. Moth+Flame, for instance, partnered with the US Air Force to provide VR training specifically for suicide prevention, demonstrating the efficacy of immersive experiences in sensitive topics.

They have seen firsthand the transformative effect of VR in military suicide prevention training. By expanding access to these training programs and empowering more individuals to handle difficult conversations, the hope is that more people will feel comfortable seeking help and offering support.

Looking Ahead: Empowering a Supportive Work Environment

VR training for mental health awareness has the potential to revolutionize workplace well-being. As more organizations recognize the significance of addressing mental health concerns, the demand for immersive XR experiences will continue to grow.

As Mental Health Awareness Month highlights the importance of open dialogue, companies across various industries are embracing VR training as part of their mental health initiatives. By incorporating XR technologies into their employee development programs, organizations demonstrate a commitment to fostering a supportive work environment that prioritizes mental well-being.

It’s not just Moth+Flame, PsyTechVR, and Penumbra leading the way in utilizing XR technologies for mental health support. Other companies have also recognized the value of immersive experiences in promoting mental health awareness. From mindfulness apps to virtual therapy sessions, the potential applications of XR in mental health care are vast. Collaborative initiatives between industry leaders and mental health professionals further amplify the impact of XR in promoting mental health awareness.

Expanding the Applications of VR Training for Mental Health Awareness and Wellness at Work Read More »

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Wonderland Engine Is Here to Make WebXR Development Faster and Easier

augmented reality, developers, Development, extended reality, featured, News, virtual reality, webXR / /

WebXR development is increasingly popular. Developers want to create content that users can enjoy without having to install apps or check the compatibility of their devices.

One of the companies working for the advancement of immersive technologies, Wonderland GmbH, based in Cologne, Germany, has recently announced one giant leap forward in this process. They have recently released Wonderland Engine 1.0.0, a WebXR development platform already vouched for by top content creators.

Wonderland Engine 1.0.0 – Bringing Native XR Performance to WebXR Development

What is special about the new engine launched by Wonderland? Its first benefit is the ability to mimic native XR performance. Before its launch, Wonderland Engine 1.0.0 passed the test of content creators.

WebXR development platform Wonderland Engine editor vr website with browser

Vhite Rabbit XR and Paradowski Creative, two companies creating XR games, used the engine to develop content. The Escape Artist, an upcoming title by Paradowski Creative, is created with Wonderland Engine 1.0.p0, and its developers say that it matches native games in terms of polish and quality.

“We’re excited to announce this foundational version of Wonderland Engine, as we seek to bridge the gap between native XR app development and WebXR,” said the CEO and founder of Wonderland, Jonathan Hale, in a press release shared with ARPost. “We see a bright future for the WebXR community, for its developers, hardware, support, and content.”

Top Features of Wonderland Engine 1.0.0

The developers who choose Wonderland GmbH’s WebXR development platform to create content will be able to use the following:

  • Full 8th Wall integration – complete integration of 8th Wall AR tracking features such as face tracking, image tracking, SLAM, and VPS;
  • Runtime API rewrite – better code completion, static checks for bugs before running the code, and complete isolation for integration with other libraries;
  • Translation tools – necessary for the localization of WebXR content;
  • Benchmarking framework – to check for content performance on various devices.

Developers can find the complete list of features and bug fixes on the official release page.

According to the company, Wonderland Engine users can launch their first running app into the browser in less than two minutes. With a bit of experience, users can build a multi-user environment that supports VR, AR, and 3D in 10 minutes, as demonstrated in this video.

The XR Development Platform Is Optimized for VR Browsers

To indicate their commitment to helping content creators, Wonderland GmbH is optimizing their tool specifically for the most popular VR browsers: Meta Quest Browser, Pico Browser, and Wolvic.  

Wonderland Engine WebXR meta browser

Wonderland Engine-based apps support any headset that has a browser available. Also, any headset released in the future will automatically be supported, if it has a browser. Apps created with Wonderland Engine can also run on mobile devices through the browser, as Progressive Web Apps (PWA), which also allows them to run offline.

Apart from the two game development companies mentioned above, the company is also working with various content creators.

“It was crucial to bring the whole ecosystem with us to test and validate the changes we made. This resulted in a highly reliable base to build upon in upcoming versions,” Hale said. “By making it easier to build XR on the web we hope to attract developers and content creators to WebXR. We see WebXR truly being able to rival native apps and offer consumers a rich world of rapidly accessible content to enjoy.”

Meet the Wonderland Team at AWE USA 2023

The creators of Wonderland Engine 1.0.0 will present the WebXR development platform at AWE USA 2023 (use ARPost’s discount code 23ARPOSTD for 20% off your ticket), which is taking place in Santa Clara, CA between May 31 and June 2.

The company is one of the sponsors of the event and will also be present at the event in booth no. 605.

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Talespin Releases AI-powered, Web-Accessible No-Code Creator Platform

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To prepare professionals for tomorrow’s workplace, you need to be able to leverage tomorrow’s technology. Talespin was already doing this with their immersive AI-powered VR simulation and training modules.

Now, they’re taking it a step further by turning over a web-based no-code creator tool. To learn more, we reconnected with Talespin CEO Kyle Jackson to talk about the future of his company and the future of work.

The Road So Far

Talespin has existed as an idea for about ten years. That includes a few years before they started turning out experiences in 2015. In 2019, the company started leveraging AI technology for more nuanced storytelling and more believable virtual characters.

CoPilot Designer 3.0 Talespin

CoPilot Designer, the company’s content creation platform, released in 2021. Since then, it’s gone through big and small updates.

That brings us to the release of CoPilot Designer 3.0 – probably the biggest single change that’s come to the platform so far. This third major version of the tool is accessible on the web rather than as a downloaded app. We’ve already seen what the designer can do, as Talespin has been using it internally, including in its recent intricate story world in partnership with Pearson.

“Our North Star was how do you get the ability to create content into the hands of people who have the knowledge,” Jackson told ARPost this March. “The no-code platform was built in service of that but we decided we had to eat our own dogfood.”

In addition to being completely no-code, CoPilot Designer 3.0 has more AI tools than ever. It also features direct publishing to Quest 2, PC VR headsets, and Mac devices via streaming with support for Lenovo ThinkReality headsets and the Quest Pro coming soon.

Understanding AI in the Designer

The AI that powers CoPilot Designer 3.0 comes in two flavors – the tools that help the creator build the experience, and the tools that help the learner become immersed in the experience.

More generative 3D tools (tools that help the creator build environments and characters) is coming soon. The tools really developing in this iteration of CoPilot Designer are large language models (LLMs) and neural voices.

Talespin CoPilot Designer 3.0

Jackson described LLMs as the context of the content and neural voices as the expression of the content. After all, the average Talespin module could exist as a text-only interaction. But, an experience meant to teach soft skills is a lot more impactful when the situations and characters feel real. That means that the content can’t just be good, it has to be delivered in a moving way.

The Future of Work – and Talespin

While AI develops, Jackson said that the thing that he’s waiting for the most isn’t a new capability of AI. It’s trust.

“Right now, I would say that there’s not much trust in enterprise for this stuff, so we’re working very diligently,” Jackson told ARPost. “Learning and marketing have been two areas that are more flexible … I think that’s going to be where we really see this stuff break out first.”

Right now, that diligence includes maintaining the human component and limiting AI involvement where necessary. Where AI might help creators apply learning material, that learning material is still originally authored by human experts. One day AI might help to write the content too, but that isn’t happening so far.

“If our goal is achieved where we’re actually developing learning on the fly,” said Jackson, “we need to be sure that what it’s producing is good.”

Much of the inspiration behind Talespin in the first place was that as more manual jobs get automated, necessary workplace skills will pivot to soft skills. In short, humans won’t be replaced by machines, but the work that humans do will change.

As his own company relies more on AI for content generation, Jackson has already seen this prediction coming true for his team. As they’ve exponentially decreased the time that it takes for them to create content, they’re more able to work with customers and partners as opposed to largely serving as a platform to create and host content that companies made themselves.

Talepsin CoPilot Designer 3.0 - XR Content Creation Time Graph

Solving the Content Problem

To some degree, Talespin being a pioneer in the AI space is a necessary evolution of the company’s having been an XR pioneer. Some aspects of XR’s frontier struggles are already a thing of the past, but others have a lot to gain from leaning on other emerging technologies.

“At least on the enterprise side, there’s really no one doubting the validity of this technology anymore … Now it’s just a question of how we get that content more distributed,” said Jackson. “It feels like there’s a confluence of major events that are driving us along.”

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Why Your Next Workplace Training Session Might Be in the Belly of a Volcano

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Whoever said workplace training had to be boring? Thanks to advances in virtual reality, the world of workplace learning and development might finally be something to get excited about…and not a moment too soon.

In the world of training, education, and development, what’s fun and what’s effective are often one and the same. Educators have understood for quite some time that engagement is critical to the learning process. And there’s no quicker way to lose someone’s interest than boring them or lulling them to sleep.

A disengaged student is a student that isn’t learning, and that’s why we find that fun is very much an essential ingredient to the learning process. However, while educators have known this to be true for quite some time, it seems that, in the corporate world, this lesson has yet to truly sink in.

Can you remember the last time you took part in workplace training? If not, that might be because it wasn’t very memorable. If you’re like most people, your experience with workplace training probably amounts to sitting in a drab, windowless room and struggling to keep your eyes open as a grainy video drones at you from a television set in the corner.

Workplace Learning and Development Don’t Have to Be a Drag

Thanks to the emergence of technologies like virtual reality and augmented reality, however, this drab form of corporate training may soon be a thing of the past. Companies are realizing that they can save a considerable amount of time, money, and other resources on training and development. With these portable, cost-effective technologies, organizations can upskill a distributed workforce in a way that’s interactive, inclusive, and sustainable.

In my time working with Gemba, we’ve worked with the companies like Johnson & Johnson, Coca-Cola, and Pfizer to deliver immersive, impactful VR training programs, all while eliminating up to $2M in travel costs and over a ton of CO2  per trainee.

For organizations big and small, that’s a real, meaningful step towards sustainability — and, unlike most other sustainability initiatives, this transition doesn’t entail sacrifice. On the contrary, we’ve found that VR-based training is not only cheaper and more sustainable than traditional forms of training, but it’s actually more effective.

Fun and Efficiency Make VR Training an Inevitability

In our experience helping companies train and develop their employees, we’ve found that the use of VR is associated with significant improvements in educational efficacy.

While many might intuitively understand this, independent research has shown that making the learning process fun or enjoyable not only improves students’ willingness to engage in learning, but also improves their ability to retain information — even if the information itself is dull.

And this phenomenon isn’t unique to students. In fact, we’ve seen the same effect being borne out time and time again in our own work with professionals. An assessment of Gemba’s VR-enabled training with automotive technology supplier, Aptiv, found that a more immersive, engaging, and enjoyable learning experience led to faster, more effective training.

An independent case study of the program, published by the World Economic Forum (WEF),  found that Aptiv was able to reduce what was originally two days of in-person training to just four hours of VR-enabled training. The study concluded that, overall, the use of Gemba’s VR-enabled training allowed Aptiv to upskill its workforce with 80% greater efficiency, compared to real-world training.

And there’s a very real need for more efficient, effective workplace training. According to the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), over one billion workers globally will need to be upskilled by the year 2030. As technological advancements continue to reconfigure our world, organizations will be hard-pressed to find fast, effective, and scalable means of upskilling such a sizable portion of the workforce.

With VR, The Sky’s No Limit

It’s for these reasons that VR-enabled training’s mainstream adoption is all but an inevitability. Already, leading global enterprises like Unilever, Volvo, L’Oreal, and Nike are making use of VR-enabled training to optimize workforce development. And at the same time, advances in both hardware and software are making virtual and augmented reality platforms more impressive by the minute.

This begs the question — if you can hold a virtual meeting anywhere, why do it in a virtual recreation of some drab, lifeless conference room? Why not in the belly of a volcano? Or a castle floating above the clouds? Or at the bottom of the ocean? Why create a pixel-perfect digital twin of your cramped office space when you can convene anywhere on (or off) Earth?

I know what some of you are thinking — “That sounds rather childish,” or “That seems unprofessional.” To which, I’d respond, is being boring a prerequisite for professionalism?

I’ve had the luxury of working with a wide range of people and professionals throughout my career. I’ve worked in the gaming industry, been a university lecturer, and worked extensively with corporate leadership from around the world. Across all these spaces and demographics I’ve found one thing to be true — people like having fun. As a CTO myself, I can tell you from first-hand experience that you don’t magically become a dullard the moment they put a “C” in front of your title.

And we can expect businesses to be on board as well. Given enjoyment’s proven ability to make learning more effective, you can rest assured that organizations will be eager to inject VR training with all manner of fanciful, gamified fun. And I, for one, can’t wait.

Guest Post

About the Guest Author(s)

Frankie Cavanagh

Frankie Cavanagh

Frankie is a visionary leader, an innovative technologist, and a game-changer in the world of virtual reality and learning. His background in teaching, combined with his passion for game design and XR technology and his skills as an artist, designer, and coder, gives him a unique ability to create immersive and engaging experiences that revolutionize how businesses train and develop their workforce.

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