Founded in 2012 and previously known as AxonVR, the company’s tech promises to deliver realistic touch feedback to users reaching out for objects in VR, thanks to microfluidics in the glove system that physically and precisely displace the skin on a user’s hands and fingers.
Virtual and augmented reality have not yet reached mainstream consumers as some predicted but enterprise-focused startups such as HaptX have found traction. Large tech companies such as Facebook and Apple also continue investing in the technology, and investors keep making bets.
“Using #augmentedreality (#AR) and #blockchain technologies, the game featured ‘Vatoms’, virtual objects that players can interact with.
Due to pandemic restrictions, the game, originally developed as an outdoor activity in other markets, was adapted to allow people to hunt for the packs in and around their own homes. Packs contained either Playstation symbol chips or an instant-win prize, which would then be stored in a digital wallet.”
Imagine, if it was not Doritos, but bones to build a skeletal system (Biology, nursing, medicine, etc.), philosophers (Philosophy, political science, social sciences) and the rewards or badges in the leaderboard. #gaming and #gamification
The parent company of Snapchat has bought Vertebrae, a company that lets brands create and manage 3D versions of their goods.
Early tests of AR shopping experiences, such as a recent collaboration with Gucci to let people virtually try on a pair of limited-edition sneakers, have shown Snap that people are more likely to buy something after they interact with it in 3D.
Snap declined to say how much it paid for Vertebrae, but the deal was likely small relative to its $500 million acquisition of WaveOptics, which makes the AR displays in its Spectacles smart glasses. Vertebrae raised about $10 million in venture funding to date. It lists Toyota, Adidas, CB2, and other well-known brands as clients on its website. It also worked with Facebook — Snap’s biggest competitor — on AR shopping tech in 2019.
And looking beyond smartphones, AR shopping is more compelling in a future world when more people are potentially wearing smart glasses with displays in them, such as Snap’s latest Spectacles.
What is happening with virtual and augmented reality in higher education?
This week the Forum will explore that question with two authors of a new report, iLRN‘s State of XR 2021. Maya Georgieva and Emory Craig, founders and principals of Digital Bodies, are world experts in Extended Reality. They have also been brilliant and in-demand Forum guests in 2020, 2019, and 2018.
startup JigSpace, which was among the first apps to support ARKit and LiDAR for iPhone augmented reality apps
“Creating and sharing knowledge in 3D should be simple, useful, and delightful. We’re on a mission to unlock the utility of augmented reality at massive scale and bring interactive 3D experiences into everyday life,” said Zac Duff, co-founder and CEO at JigSpace
Compared to the camera effects from Snapchat and Facebook, mobile AR apps built on ARKit from Apple and ARCore from Google haven’t had quite the impact we expected them to when Apple originally announced ARKit.
It requires that companies become what we call digital masters. Digital masters cultivate two capabilities: digital capability, which enables them to use innovative technologies to improve elements of the business, and leadership capability, which enables them to envision and drive organizational change in systematic and profitable ways. Together, these two capabilities allow a company to transform digital technology into business advantage.
We found that the elements of leadership capability have endured, but new elements of digital capability have come to the fore.
While strong leadership capability is even more essential than ever, its core elements — vision, engagement, and governance — are not fundamentally changed, though they are informed by recent innovations. The elements of digital capability, on the other hand, have been more profoundly altered by the rapid technological advances of recent years.
Experience design: Customer experience has become the ultimate battleground for many companies and brands.
Customer intelligence: Integrating customer data across silos and understanding customer behavior
Emotional engagement: Emotional connections with customers are as essential as technology in creating compelling customer experiences.
As ever, well-managed operations are essential to converting revenue into profit, but now we’re seeing a shift in the focus of digital transformation in this arena.
Core process automation: Amazon’s distribution centers deliver inventory to workers rather than sending workers to collect inventory. Rio Tinto, an Australian mining company, uses autonomous trucks, trains, and drilling machinery so that it can shift workers to less dangerous tasks, leading to higher productivity and better safety.
Connected and dynamic operations: Thanks to the growing availability of cheap sensors, cloud infrastructure, and machine learning, concepts such as Industry 4.0, digital threads, and digital twins have become a reality. Digital threads connecting machines, models, and processes provide a single source of truth to manage, optimize, and enhance processes from requirements definition through maintenance.
Data-driven decision-making: from backward-looking reports to real-time data. Now, connected devices, new machine learning algorithms, smarter experimentation, and plentiful data enable more-informed decisions.
Transforming Employee Experience
Augmentation: Warnings that robots will replace humans have given way to a more nuanced and productive discussion.
Workers in Huntington Ingalls Industries’ shipyard use augmented reality to help build giant complex vessels such as aircraft carriers and submarines. They can “see” where to route wires or pipes or what is behind a wall before they start drilling into it.
Future-readying: providing employees with the skills they need to keep up with the pace of change. In the past few years, this has given rise to new models of managing learning and development in organizations, led by a new kind of chief learning officer, whom we call the transformer CLO
Flexforcing: To respond to fast-paced digital opportunities and threats, companies also need to build agility into their talent sourcing systems. As automation and AI applications take over tasks once performed by humans, some companies are multiskilling employees to make the organization more agile.
Transforming Business Models
three elements supporting business model transformation: digital enhancements, information-based service extensions, and multisided platforms.
AR: The cutting-edge technology slowly changing your reality
For years, augmented reality technology has been quietly integrated into our lives. Experts believe it is ready to make the jump to the mainstream, but technical and social barriers remain.
