XR for a Changing World: Demos from the hubraum Mixed Reality Demo Day

Thursday 6/24/21 08:22am
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Posted By Brian Vogelsang
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In our blog, Creating a new Reality for Smartphones with Spatial Computing, we introduced hubraum, a tech incubator run by Deutsche Telekom that connects start-ups with industry telco players to create business opportunities.

Their recent Mixed Reality Demo Day event, co-hosted by Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. (QTI), Nreal, Unity, and others, showcased the latest in spatial Internet. Also known as spatial computing, this next evolution of the smartphone uses extended reality (XR) so that users are no longer limited to looking down at the Internet through their 2D screens. Instead, XR immerses the user so the Internet surrounds and moves with them.

Thirteen XR start-ups demonstrated amazing XR solutions at the event ranging from gaming and enhanced TV to eCommerce, healthcare, and education, all driven by the convergence of XR, AI, and 5G. Let’s review a few of the demos to see where XR is headed.

Matsuko - Holographic Communications

The need for face-to-face communication that captures non-verbal communication cues and emotional expressions in remote meetings has never been higher. Matsuko is addressing this with their holographic mixed reality communication technology (e.g., holographic video calls) allowing for physical presence in remote communication.


Meeting participants run Matsuko’s app on their smartphone that records their faces in real-time. They also connect XR glasses to the smartphone, which reconstruct each participant, pixel by pixel, as realistic life-like 3D holograms in real-time.

Matsuko says this technology is the next evolution of online communications and is significant because 90% of what people remember from conversations are non-verbal cues.

TRIPP – XR Wellness Solutions

In a completely different space, TRIPP showed off their XR app for mental health and emotional well-being. This next generation platform features a collection of experiences that render soothing visuals and plays calming sounds. The platform’s AR and VR modes, known as TRIPP Here and TRIPP There respectively, engage users in what TRIPP says are “transformative experiences that hack the way you feel.”

 

The company is now evolving its technology to measure biosignals with biosensors to manage health and wellbeing. They are also moving toward personalized experiences, and with 5G they say they’ll be able to render and update content faster and better as well as adapt their procedural environments in real-time. They’re also conducting clinical trials of the technology for treating addiction, depression, stress, and anxiety.

tagSpace – Location Tagging in AR

tagSpace showed off their unique location-tagging app. This AR app allows users to identify locations of interest and pin them with virtual tags. These tags appear as popups overlaid on a view of the surroundings using a smartphone or XR glasses. Users add information to the tag, such as descriptions, images, ratings, etc., and can make them accessible to other users.


tagSpace says they’re aiming to provide information for every location of interest in the world while making it more efficient to find locations and associated information related to users’ surroundings.

eyecandylab – AR-Enhanced TV Viewing

As eyecandylab noted in their presentation, TV viewing hasn’t changed much over the last few decades. However, if eyecandylab’s technology is any indication, that’s all about to change.

eyecandylab’s technology supplements the TV viewing experience with AR content overlaid around the TV through a smartphone or XR glasses. The four-year old company has been pioneering this space with big media brands and telco operators to create a more social, interconnected, and immersive experience. They are now expanding their platform to OTT devices powered by Google TV.

At the event, eyecandylab demonstrated a prototype of a soccer game streamed on TV, along with a virtual soccer pitch showing the players’ positions updated in real-time.

TechTics – Technology to Train Your Own Object Detection Guide

If you’ve ever built ready-to-assemble furniture and wondered if you’re holding a 6mm or 8mm fastener then this next one is for you.

The TechTics platform allows users to train their own object detection guides to give meaning to objects in the world. Users simply look at an object through their smart glasses, take a picture, and use virtual menus to label and classify the item. The app then uses object detection to show an overlay with information stored about that object whenever the object comes into view.

TechTics says their platform is like see-what-you-see assistance but doesn’t depend on a remote person. Through a growing collection of shared object metadata, users can more easily identify objects in their surrounding environment.

realshot

Every hardcore gamer has probably been told at some point to put down their controller and go outside for some physical activity.

But die-hards needn’t fear, as realshot now brings together the best of both worlds. The realshot AR application connects remote players via XR glasses to compete against each other in real-life games like basketball, soccer, baseball, golf, and cricket. In conjunction with the AR glasses, the application uses computer vision technology to automatically detect when points are scored and overlays the score on all players’ views. During the event, realshot showed a demo of two remote basketball players. The app detects when a player’s basketball enters the hoop and updates the scores accordingly.

realshot says their technology is an exciting alternative to traditional, stationary gaming where long sessions on the couch can lead to health issues like obesity.

XR Programs

In addition to the rich XR hardware and software solutions noted in our blog Creating a new Reality for Smartphones with Spatial Computing, XR developers can also take advantage of our XR programs

The Qualcomm® XR Enterprise Program, which Matsuko and Tripp are members of, provides developers with co-marketing opportunities, insights and advanced briefings into XR roadmaps, and access to XR resources.

For additional information about XR and spatial computing check out the following blogs:

Also, be sure to check out the Nreal Light Developer Kit.

If you have an interesting spatial computing/XR projects, let us know about it, and we may feature it on QDN!


Qualcomm XR Enterprise Program is a program of Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. and/or its subsidiaries.

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