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The Immersive Wire - 29 September 2021 (News edition)

The Immersive Wire - 29 September 2021 (News edition)

September 29, 2021

By Tom FfiskeCurated VR/AR analysis every Wednesday and Sunday

// 29 September 2021

Battered by the seasonal cold, but I managed to see Leopoldstadt before the virus-laden truck hit my head. Worth a watch if you want to see a slice of Jewish life in Austria between the 1900s and 1950s. Bring tissues.

 

TOP STORIES

Facebook will invest $50 million into building the metaverse 'responsibly.'

  • While it has a great set of initial partners, such as Women in Immersive Technologies Europe, I am curious to see how else the money will be spent. 'Responsibly' has a wide remit, and it can mean many different things to different stakeholders. What's responsible for a company whose business model relies on ads will be different from others.

  • It's a bit like a fund announcing that they will be investing money towards climate change, but keeping the details secret. While it's a positive step forward, it is important to know where the money flows and to judge the effectiveness of the investment, to ensure the metaverse can continue to be built towards a positive direction.

  • It is far too early to comment further, but in any case, I am very happy to see a substantial amount of money go towards building the future. I am now looking forward to more companies doing the same, and working collaboratively together over the next ten to fifteen years.

Qualcomm acquired

.

  • Working together since 2019, the latter creates an SDK that allows people to create AR experiences, optimised for the former's chipsets.

  • Qualcomm is one of the most invested chipmakers in immersive technologies, and the investment charts an interesting course for the company. They made clear that, due to the shortage, they are expected to reach some level of normality in 2022.

  • By then, we may see the results of the acquisition and how it may blend with their hardware offering. Will Qualcomm offer more software to go along with their hardware, ensuring that AR applications work efficiently with their chips? Or make sure AR applications can work no matter which OS, which was a big perk of Wikitude in the past? We shall see.

Xpanse, bought to you by Quantum Digital, allows you to unleash interactive 3D applications to any device, anywhere in the world, and for any market.

Xpanse provides bespoke fully branded 3D designed environments and is streamed live to any computer or mobile device. The user is placed into a 3D world having complete freedom of movement, with game-like interactively in real-time.

To view our introduction to Xpanse film click - HERE

OTHER STORIES

  • 1Spatial announced the award of a major new multi-year contract worth £8m with a department of the UK Government.

  • Apple added AR navigation to its maps tools.

    • And there is your AR update from Apple this year. For those who overhyped Apple's step into the space, I salute your ability to stir nothing into overzealous hype.

  • Copper Candle won three PLASA Innovation Awards during September’s PLASA Show 2021.

  • Dome Fest West, a festival about domes, will happen on 8 October.

    • Honestly I am unsure about the newsletter audience's appetite for dome-related content, so here you go!

  • Facebook Reality Labs commissioned LUSTRATION VR, a new 4x6 minute animated VR series by writer/director Ryan Griffen, for their Oculus TV platform.

  • Fast Travel Games announced they are expanding their business to provide publishing services to other VR game developers.

  • HTC trademarked VIVE Flow, ahead of a new announcement.

  • IMINT Image Intelligence announced a collaboration with Rokid Corp., developers of AR and MR glasses and headwear for industrial applications.

  • Immerse announced the Upskill Ultimatum, a report detailing the future of training.

    • One stat: 'nearly 50% of US and UK employees are prepared to move companies if they don't receive the training they need, yet HR departments are not prepared to revamp old methods for another seven years.'

  • Minnesota Twins launched Twins XR: The Art of Baseball. It was developed in collaboration with REM5 STUDIOS and in partnership with Best Buy.

  • Nreal announces $100m in Series C fundraising.

  • Oculus will unlock the OS for the Oculus Go.

  • PrecisionOS was named Best Spine Technology in Orthopedics This Week’s annual award program.

  • Vertigo Games announced that the VR music game Unplugged is coming to Oculus Quest on October 21.

  • The Void might be coming back.

Jobs boardNEW - INTERNSHIP, US. The intern will be primarily focused on developing proficiency in the use and application of tools designed for experiences in VR/AR headsets. GRIP-IE interns will assist the Get Real management team and clients in the design, development, and implementation of features within both internal and partner platforms. Interns will follow industry best practices including continuous improvement through code reviews of existing and new code. GRIP-IE interns will also be responsible for managing communication with software vendors on a variety of topics including bug identification, feature requests, troubleshooting, and documentation materials. Click here for more. NEW - BUSINESS DEVELOPMENT MANAGER, UK. Here at CIRCUS (an award-winning creative agency, specialists of Virtual Brand Experiences) we're on the lookout for an enthusiastic B2B Business Development Manager on a part-time, remote basis. If this sounds of interest and you love all things virtual, we'd love to tell you more. Just click here for more information. Click here for more. SENIOR WEBXR ENGINEER, US. Build a human-centric metaverse with a stellar team at www.urnowhere.com. Full-Time Position, Fully Remote Team, Core hours (10AM-5PM EST). NOWHERE aims to revolutionize gathering with patent-pending video presence technology that allows serendipitous social mingling between conversations with friends or colleagues at conferences, meetings, or parties all within dynamic web environments. Nowhere combines expertise from veteran founders, experience experts, engineers, game designers, theatre-makers, VFX artists from Windmill Factory to build a healthier digital future. Please share with anyone you think might be interested. JOIN NOWHERE.CREATIVE 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. Display your vacancy in front of thousands of talented VR/AR professionals in just a few clicks. Click here for more info.

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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!