The Immersive Wire - 12 September 2021 (Sunday edition)

SUNDAY READ EDITIONCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday

// 12 September 2021

Azeem Azhar's Exponential is well worth a read if you enjoy following the social impact of technologies today.

A

nimation, video production, and interactive services

Enjoy the newsletter, and want to give a friend an Oculus Quest 2? Refer someone by the end of today, and they will receive:  A free PDF copy of The Immersive Reality Revolution; A chance to win an Oculus Quest 2 (winner announced next Wednesday);Simply copy and paste your personal referral link to others, then receive the PDF when they sign up:

The conversation around AR glasses is both aggravating and exciting.

Aggravating because people espouse about the potential of AR glasses, and how it will be the next computing platform with a similar staying power as the mobile phone – even though they have never tried them. And exciting because, well, they might be right.

We’re at the preliminary stage where technology companies are doubling down on AR glasses development

, building the future behind lab doors, and resolving an incredibly difficult technical challenge. The glasses need to be light, attractive, and enough computing power to make the high spec bump worth it. All while handing the heat of running metallic components on people’s heads.

Many thinkers see the arrival of AR glasses as the start of a new era of computing a paradigm shift where people can interact with a virtual overlay of the real world and paint a new canvas of information. Imaging attending a tourist site and seeing AR images and information about the location itself. The same technology can also be used as a tool of terror; imagine the same site being splayed by virtual slurs and graffiti that ravage the same location, unseen by unspecced eyes. Directions literally lead people down the right streets, a guiding hand through the maze of roads and paths. Messages and emails filter through the headset, nudging users with gentle tugs of information to read then or later.

Trouble is, we haven’t seen any AR glasses that come close to this vision

. People dance on the air of potential, while the firm ground of reality include Ray-Ban glasses with simple cameras.

But let's take a quick step back - where can the use of AR go? China and India are helpful for pointing the way. Historically we tend to focus on ourselves because it is much easier and closer to our hearts and home - which is fair, but can lead to stale arguments. We should, because China is innovating much faster than Western counterparts by engaging shoppers in incredible ways. Live events, integrating social messaging, and a bombastic feel to the launch of products - their consumers engage with their digitised audiences more than the USA and UK managing the slow decline of its retail space. Images of their shopping sites can be seen by Western countries as cluttered and confusing; but the multi-channel approach helped the country propel its ecommerce offering into new heights, similar to how Amazon conducted its growth through the 2000s and 2010s.

The full read will be in the Immersive Wire Revelation (book title pending), out later this year. Keep an eye on this newsletter for updates.

Xpanse, by Quantum Digital, is a game-changer for any hi-fidelity 3D rendered product-based enterprise, allowing both customers as well as potential customers to view and engage with products, multimedia, and downloadable material from anywhere in the world and on any device.

Learn more.

Martin Taylor, co-founder and director of Prox & Reverie

What is your background? I’ve always had an interest in pursuing creative and technical avenues, and initially, I decided to study a degree in engineering and product design, fusing the two interests. But after working in this industry for a period of time, I pivoted into a career as a filmmaker, joining film school in my mid-20s. It was there that I elected for a supportive module, studying psychoanalysis and semiotics to explore another deep source of inspiration to me – lucid dreaming and how to share their content with other people.

I’ve attempted to recreate the experience and process of lucid dreaming in various media formats, but 2D film didn’t provide the same level of control and immersion – this is when my obsession with VR set sail in 2013 as new immersive technologies caught up with the idea. With VR, everything seemed to click into place, and as I began developing virtual experiences, I was introduced to further forms of immersive technology. Having now launched Prox & Reverie, I’ve attempted to build a studio that merges VR, AR, MR and physical technology into one fully functional machine – something entirely unique that users can use to create inner imagined worlds as much as experience them.

What are you working on, and what’s a key learning that you’ve had from it? We’re developing a unique production studio concept called ‘convergence volume’, officially named by us as The Forge. The goal with The Forge is to have a single studio space containing layered perceptions of the physical world and inner, imagined realities overlapping and intersecting as a continuous spectrum.

Users of The Forge will experience complete virtual production, performance capture, pre-vis, and volumetric capture, using leading hardware and software solutions including the Unity and Unreal engines, Xsens motion capture, Manus, Faceware, Oculus, and Vive, to name just a few. All of these technologies will be fully integrated, allowing for the creation and manipulation of digital worlds. We’re attempting to open a permanent bridge into the metaverse.

If you had to give one piece of advice, what would you give?

If you have a creative idea or aspiration, start earlier – as soon as possible! Don’t wait until the ‘right time’ , because it’s almost impossible to reach that moment. I think I am hitting my stride late on and would have loved to have been where I am now earlier. If you know what you want, buckle down and work out how to leverage how to get there.

If you want to know more about Prox & Reverie, click here.

Jobs boardCREATIVE TECHNOLOGIST - AUGMENTED REALITY, UK. Poplar.Studio is a leading AR and 3D platform for marketing and e-commerce. Join our growing team based in London (remote for the time being), and work closely with the Business Development, Production and Product teams, in order to assess the feasibility of AR client and internal projects, both from a creative and technical point of view. Develop creatives and proof of concepts across social media AR (Spark AR, Lens Studio, Effects Creator, etc.), web-browser based (8th Wall, Zappar, etc.) or app-based (Unity, ARCore, ARKit, etc.). Work alongside our amazing global AR creator community as they develop experiences for our brand and retail clients. Click here for more. VR SOFTWARE DEVELOPER (Unity3D, C#), London. Valkyrie Industries, an early stage haptics start-up, is looking for a talented and experienced Unity3D developer with a passion for VR to join the R&D team. You'll be involved throughout the development cycle and must be able to evaluate new technologies, develop new experiences from scratch and optimise existing projects. Click here for more. FULL STACK DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Software Engineer with 4+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR SOFTWARE ENGINEER (Node.js), remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Software Engineer with 5+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated Web development team. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR DEVELOPER (VUE.JS), remote Position. Looking for an experienced JavaScript developer who is highly skilled with Vue.js. You will be joining our Web development team to develop and enhance customer facing Web Applications, where you will be responsible for following best practices to produce modular and maintainable code. Click here for more. QA LEAD, remote positions available. Looking for a competent QA Lead with 2+ years of industry experience to join our dedicated QA Team in Waterford. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY GAME DEVELOPER, remote position. Looking for a competent Senior Unity Developer to join our team with 5+ years industry experience. The talented individual must have vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more.  SENIOR PRODUCT OWNER, remote position. Looking for a competent Product Owner. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UI DESIGNER, remote position. Looking for a competent UI Designer. This talented individual must have a vision and drive and must not be afraid to back big ideas. Click here for more. UX DESIGNER, remote position. Are you looking for a unique challenge working in virtual & augmented reality with a bleeding-edge technology company? Then read on. Click here for more.ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN DIGITAL MEDIA, UK. We are looking to appoint a dynamic and adaptable course director for our BA (Hons) in Digital Media to lead and deliver teaching, learning and assessment on the BA Digital Media and steer its next phase of growth. As well as a track record of academic leadership you will have extensive practical experience in digital media such as immersive storytelling (AR/VR/XR), modelling and animation, creative media design / production, or web / mobile app design and development. Click here for more.SENIOR IMMERSIVE LEARNING DESIGNER, UK. Make Real is looking to expand our digital learning team with a Senior Immersive Learning Designer. Your role will be to consult with clients in order to create exciting and imaginative design solutions. Your designs will affect behaviour change in order to deliver on specific learning outcomes, while being achievable within a set budget and timeline. Click here for more. SENIOR UNITY DEVELOPER, UK. As a growing and exciting business, we are looking for full-time talented multi-disciplinary Unity developers to join our expert team in central Brighton. Our ideal candidates will have a broad range of technical experience with a proven track record of delivering interactive Virtual & Augmented Reality projects across a range of HMD & mobile hardware. Working as part of our existing team of designers and artists, the roles will primarily involve the delivery of VR/AR projects for our global clients. Click here for more. EU ACCOUNT EXECUTIVE. Avatour is the remote collaboration platform for site meetings. Our cloud service enables full-motion 360° real-time communication, experienced via a web browser or optional VR headset. We are looking for an Account Executive to expand the Avatour business in the European Union. You’ll be initially our only salesperson in the EU, and directly responsible for the expansion and preservation of our customer base in the region. The ideal candidate will have a track record of success selling an Enterprise SaaS product, and experience in customer success as well. Click here for more.BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGERS, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for three full-time B2B Sales Managers who are excited about technology advancements, and able to sell to CxO/Director level within enterprise accounts. Click here for more. HEAD OF MARKETING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Head of Marketing capable of taking VRtuoso to the next level. We’re looking to make the leap to working with enterprise level companies at scale and we hope you’re the one to help us accomplish this. Click here for more. CHANNEL SALES MANAGER, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Channel Sales Manager to lead the channel and reseller programmes. The role is primarily responsible for onboarding new partners, serving as the primary liaison for new partners, growing the sales of existing partners, and assisting with sales/marketing initiatives for our reseller channel as a whole. Click here for more. DIRECTOR OF ENGINEERING, UK. VRTUOSO, a rapidly growing and multi-award winning company, is looking for a Director of Engineering to lead our engineering department and help us build, deliver, and maintain the leading VRtuoso Virtual Reality products for the enterprise market. Click here for more. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

Refer a friend today

Enjoy the newsletter? Consider sharing it around! Just one referral gives you and the referred a free PDF copy of The Immersive Reality Revolution. Just share the link below, and you get the book.

How to redeem: Copy and paste your personal referral link to others, then receive the PDF when they sign up:

That's all for this week! Want to have a chat, let me know about a news story, or talk business? Either reply to this email, or contact tom (at) virtualperceptions (dot) com. Have an excellent day!