Monthly Archives: August 2022

Google first announced its Immersive Stream technology back in March, and since then, the white label B2B solution has been the center of much controversy regarding the consumer-facing version of Stadia. However, the company has made it clear that the new initiative isnt really new at all, has always been the plan, and does not interfere with the future of your games library. Well, at least not in the immediate future.

A few months later, Google announced that it would be expanding Immersive Stream into XR territory. For those unfamiliar, XR stands for Extended Reality and encapsulates both Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). That is to say that digital elements both replace and overlay reality. Microsoft calls this Mixed Reality, for example, but regardless, its the next frontier for sure.

You can actually already test XR via Chrome, Android, and iOS, and while its still quite early on, the results you can achieve via tests with a headset are promising. The most common use case for it right now is probably shopping. Take a digital 3D model of what youd like to fit into your home, and drop it to see how its real dimensions work with your living space, for example, and your shopping experience drastically improves.

This past week, Google Cloud hosted a few XR-related streams, and as you can see below, the technology that Ill again remind you originated with Google Stadia is now being prospected for use with other industries. It would seem that the company hopes to utilize instantaneous cloud-driven experiences via Stadias infrastructure to plop educators and students, designers, tourists, healthcare professionals, and more into digital playgrounds to create, play, and work while wearing a headset.

According to rumors, Google is, in fact, working on an Augmented Reality headset for release in 2024 which will be codenamed Project Iris, have a custom chip (Tensor, perhaps?), and utilize cloud streaming to host the experiences. To me, it truly does sound like Daydream VR had to die so that such a future that spans much further than gaming alone and uses Stadias incredible tech to drive the entire thing could come to fruition.

Imagine for a second a Daydream-style XR headset (but much more lightweight) that needed little internal horsepower and just used a Wi-Fi connection to cloud stream any AAA game, industry professional app, and more straight to your eyeballs. While we dont know much about what the future holds at this point, Im sure news of Immersive Stream for XRs future is not far away.

To be absolutely clear, while this technology originated from Stadias creation, Stadia itself was not really mentioned in the video, aside from the mention of Augmented Reality Sports, which could be game related. Other use cases for XR could include more intentional and effective employee training for car repairs, surgeries, and more. If this is sounding a lot like Google Glass (which also went the industry route after a failed consumer experience) mixed with Google Daydream mixed with Google Stadia, then thats because it probably is.

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Stadia's technology to be used for immersive AR and VR headset experiences - Chrome Unboxed

Astronomers have many tools for studying the cosmos: telescopes, satellites, interplanetary spacecraft, and more. The humble human eye is a critical part of this toolkit, too, as it can often spot patterns or aberrations that algorithms miss. And our visions scrutinizing power has been bolstered recently by virtual reality (VR) as well as by thousands of eyes working in tandem thanks to the crowdsourcing power of the Internet.

Researchers at NASAs Goddard Space Flight Center recently announced the discovery of 10 stars surrounded by dusty debris diskswhirling masses of gas, dust and rock left over after the earliest phases of planet formation. This result, enabled by VR and the help of citizen scientists, was recently published in the Astrophysical Journal. The findings could help astronomers piece together a time line of how planetary systems are built.

Debris disks encompass various stages of planet formation, including the youthful eras in which worlds are still embedded in the detritus from the messy, chaotic processes of their birth. Although astronomers have managed to see a few directly, most of these young planets are beyond the reach of current telescopes. Making a planetary system takes millions of years, so each debris disk observers see is just a brief snapshot of one moment in that systems life. To uncover the whole story, astronomers search for many disk-wreathed planetary systems at different stages of evolution, gathering multiple snapshots to piece together in a time line.

To hunt for debris disks, observers usually start by looking for stars that appear especially bright in the infrared; that abnormal brightness typically comes from a surfeit of starlight-warmed dust in a disk around a star. NASAs infrared telescope WISE (Wide-Field Infrared Survey Explorer) surveyed the entire sky, creating what in some respects is the most comprehensive catalog yet of stellar infrared measurements. With tens of thousands of data points to be analyzed and many debris disks likely hidden within the WISE catalog, whats a scientist to do?

Its a great example of how so much of modern astronomy involves searching massive data sets for the proverbial needle in the haystack, says Meredith Hughes, an astronomer at Wesleyan University, who was not involved in the study. Even with machine-learning algorithms, its still hard to train computers to do this complex work of identifying noisy patterns and noticing subtle deviations from expectations, which is where the collective brainpower of citizen science comes in.

A project called Disk Detective trained citizen scientistsregular people who want to help out on research in their spare timeto look at WISE images and compare them to those from other astronomical surveys, such as the SkyMapper Southern Sky Survey, the Pan-STARRS survey and the Two Micron All Sky Survey (2MASS), with the goal of confirming the presence of disks around each candidate star. Since the projects start in 2014, citizen scientists have found more than 40,000 disksthats 40,000 snapshots of the history of how planets form.

To put these into a time line, though, astronomers need to figure out where each snapshot belongs. In other words, scientists need to know the ages of each star and its debris disk. When we know the ages of stars and planets, we can place them in a sequencefrom baby to teen to adult, if you like, says Marc Kuchner, a NASA astrophysicist and co-author of the new study. That allows us to understand how they form and evolve.

Pinning down a stars age with any substantial precision is a notoriously tricky problem in astronomy. One solution is to match up a star to its siblings, in an association known as a moving group. Stars often form in clusters from one giant cloud of gas, but many of these once-close stellar families drift apart as they age, their individual members spreading out across the Milky Way. By carefully measuring stars locations and velocities, researchers can determine which stars display the telltale motions that, traced backward, reveal they were collectively born at the same time and place. Once astronomers know stars in a group are related, its straightforward to calculate their age based on established knowledge of how stars grow and evolve.

Finding new moving group members isnt easy. To do so, astronomers traditionally rely on analyzing preexisting lists of moving-group stars, flagging potential new members via sophisticated mathematical models. The team behind the new project wanted to try something different and more visceral: it used a VR program to zoom around the stars and get a clearer, three-dimensional perspective on how things move.

I thought I would scare [NASAs VR scientists] away when I said I wanted to visualize the positions and velocities of four million stars, Kuchner says. But they didnt bat an eyelash! To create this virtual stellar cornucopia, the team used data from Gaia, a European Space Agency satellite that provides the best available measurements for the positions and velocities of stars in our galaxy. The resulting VR simulation served as a sort of time machine, tooknowing how fast and in what direction a star was moving allowed Kuchner and colleagues to trace its movement backward and forward in time.

While serving as a visiting researcher at NASA, lead study author Susan Higashio strapped on a VR headset to fly around the simulations millions of stars. She examined where the stars with disks were in relation to known moving groups and extrapolated the stars motions forward and backward in time to test their potential associations. It was so exciting when the four million stars appeared in VR, but it felt a little dizzying when they all started to swirl around me, she recalls. It was a really fun and interactive way to conduct science.

Higashio traced 10 of the debris disks from Disk Detective back to their moving-group families. The team then found the estimated ages of these disks, which ranged from 18 million to 133 million years old. All of them were extremely young, compared with our home solar system, which is around 4.5 billion years old. The researchers also identified an entirely new moving group called Smethells 165, after its brightest star. Whenever we find a new moving group, thats a new batch of stars whose ages we know more precisely, Kuchner explains.

The astronomers also found one strange, extreme debris disk around a star nicknamed J0925 that doesnt quite fit into their expected time line of planet formation. Its much brighter in the infraredmeaning it has more dustthan expected for a star of its age. As debris disks get older, some of their dust spirals into the star or is blown away by stellar winds. J0925, however, seems to have just gotten a fresh new delivery of hot dust, possibly from a recent collision between two protoplanets. Hughes highlights this star as the most interesting object uncovered in the study. Extreme debris disks are still a bit mysterious, but they are probably similar to what our solar system would have looked like during the giant impact that formed the Earths moon.

Disk Detectives citizen-science work is still ongoing, now upgraded to use Gaias most recent batch of data. The team hopes to identify even more members of moving groups and new disks with their unique VR method. Lisa Stiller, one of the many citizen scientist co-authors of the study, offers encouragement for prospective volunteers. Dont hesitate to help out in a citizen-science project, she says. Your help will be needed in whatever form you choose or amount of time you choose to dedicate yourself.

Anyone with an Internet connection can still join the Disk Detective project, no experience needed. More than 30,000 citizen scientists have contributed, Kuchner says. The Disk Detectives are still working their way through hundreds of thousands of WISE imageswe still need your help.

Read this article:

Planetary Debris Disks Discovered with Citizen Scientists and Virtual Reality - Scientific American

DES MOINES, Iowa Theres a newway to experience the Iowa State Fair this year, through augmented reality.

Zirous, a West Des Moines technology firm, designed an app called Blue Ribbon Rescue.

The conceptis similar toPokmon GO. Thegoal is to collect as many blue ribbons throughout two of the thrill parks,Thrill Ville and Thrill Town. If youcollect enough, you can be entered to win prizes.

Developers of the app hope this brings something unique to the summertime tradition.

Obviously, the fair itself is a lot of fun and this just enhances the experience of being able to walk around being able to see things from the fair,Luke McDermott, senior application developer with Zirous, said. And then you get to experience all the fun things that like make Iowa what it is like pigs, a cup of cookies, lemonade, and Fairfield.

Every day of the fair, one person will winan Oculus Quest II virtual reality headset.

You can download the Blue Ribbon Rescue app for free on the Apple App Store or Google Play Store.

Read more here:

Experience the Iowa State Fair through augmented reality - WHO TV 13 Des Moines News & Weather

As the metaverse trend spreads online, universities are riding the wave to create metaversities. Several U.S. colleges plan to open virtual reality (VR) replications of themselves in fall 2022.

TikTok user Metaverse Cam shared this video briefly explaining the metaversity project.

Metaverse Cam explained that each participating school will digitally re-create its campus, including its buildings, statues and walkways. Students who opt into the metaversity learning experience will receive VR headsets that theyll use to attend online lectures. Its unclear whether the VR tuition cost differs from each colleges in-person tuition.

The idea is to make remote learning feel more personal with the VR campus interaction and to utilize the ability virtual reality gives us to present things in ways that are not possible in the physical world, Metaverse Cam explained.

The metaversity concept is a joint project between VR company Engage XR and VictoryXR, a team of VR education specialists. VictoryXRs website states that its VR college courses will have synchronous and asynchronous options. Each online class will be geographically agnostic, allowing students and educators to work together no matter how far apart they are in the world.

According to EdSurge, the Immersive Learning team at Meta (formerly Facebook) is funding the metaversity project.

We want to create an ecosystem for learning in the metaverse, Monica Ars, Metas head of Immersive Learning,toldEdSurge. We want to make sure that not only are we preparing the future workforce to interact with these technologies, but also to build them.

The universities confirmed by VictoryXR as participants for the metaversity project include:

Metaverse Cam closed his TikTok by asking viewers whether or not they believe metaversities could replace regular universities in the future; most commenters had adverse reactions to the concept of VR school, still not understanding the metaverse concept.

Oh, so college is getting even more devalued, a TikToker joked.

Watch them upcharge for tech fees and make it more expensive than actually going, another noted.

Theyre forcing this junk so hard, does anyone even use the metaverse? someone wrote.

Other TikTokers saw the potential of metaversities, intrigued by the possibilities they hold for the higher education system.

No doubt it will be a huge part of education in the near future, but the tech is still pretty early, give it 5 years, a TikToker commented.

As long as its cheaper, then yea bring it on, it will give soo many more people the chance they didnt have before, another said.

Despite the potential benefit of metaversities, many commenters were still concerned about the logistics behind the concept. TikTokers argued that certain aspects of the college experience would not make sense when transferred to a VR setting and vice versa.

Im not so sure about this one will you have to virtually walk across the entire campus to get to your online class? If so, Im out, lmao, a TikTok user said.

Didnt we see how completely virtual college absolutely ruins the experience? Except for convenience like travel time (which this includes so??), another user questioned.

College is more important for the social opportunities available. Friends helped me land jobs after graduation, someone commented.

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Excerpt from:

TikTokers divided on the concept of virtual reality metaversities - In The Know

Image: NASA, ESA, CSA, and STScI

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With Meta Quest 2, you can view the James Webb Space Telescope footage in cinematic virtual reality format and possibly discover new details.

On July 11 and 12, NASA, ESA and CSA presented the first images of the telescope, which is located at a distance of about 932,000 miles from Earth. The images reach deeper and farther back into the history of the universe than any previous images and provide new insights into the formation of galaxies.

Featured are the star-forming region NGC 3324 in the Carina Nebula (see cover image), a group of five galaxies called Stephens Quintet, and the Southern Ring Nebula, catalogued as NGC 3132, 2,500 light-years away.

Meta packaged the images into a virtual reality movie that shows the high-resolution images at various zoom levels. The widest format fills the Meta Quest 2s field of view. It looks like sitting in the front row of a movie theater and looking at a big screen. This allows you to immerse yourself in the telescopes footage and see new details that would be difficult to see on a smartphone or monitor.

You can find the VR movie on Oculus TV by typing James Webb into the search field.

If youre reading this article on a smartphone or computer, click on the appropriate Oculus TV media content and select Watch Later. The VR movie should then appear in Oculus TV under Saved.

For the best picture quality, you should download the VR movie. Heres how to do that:

Hungry for more? This video isnt the only way to explore space in VR.

Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.

More here:

The James Webb footage is even more impressive in virtual reality - MIXED-news.com

Image: FIDENA

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VR experience meets puppetry: The German Museum of Puppet Theater and Puppetry shows puppets and figures in VR.

Admittedly, Ive had little to do with puppets so far. And so, my path would probably not have crossed the Museum of Puppet Theater and Puppetry in Bochum, Germany, anytime soon. But the VR experience Puppet 4.0 piqued my curiosity. I paid a visit to the virtual puppet museum and was pleasantly surprised!

The real puppets from the museums collection cannot be visited in reality at the moment. However, with an Oculus Quest, I can already view three-dimensional images of the figures in virtual reality. I can also move some of the dolls myself to get to know them better.

In the VR experience, I find myself in typical puppet theater scenarios. Picture a forest, a marketplace, or an oriental temple. Fritz Wortelmann, founder of the German Institute for Puppetry, appears in miniature as a puppet himself. Puppet Wortelmann provides information about each individual figure on display.

In five VR rooms, I learn about various aspects of puppet theater. In the first room, for example, I learn about puppets that were used by the Nazis for their propaganda in the 1930s. Or, did you know that because puppeteers were associated with sorcery by the church, they were considered dangerous in the Middle Ages? I didnt.

In other rooms, I look at stick figures from Asia and learn about wayang Indonesian puppetry. A few puppeteers move up to 30 figures at the same time. There were probably shadow play figures already on the island around 1500 BC.

From China, there are figures of hand puppetry from the 16th century. The figures are exact miniature representations of the performers of the Chinese opera at that time. One of the miniature heads on a wooden stick represents a 17th-century Japanese performer.

I can lift some dolls to look at them closely. However, the exhibits are rarely interactive. This is intentional, says Mareike Gaubitz from the museums documentation and research center. They want to remain a museum and not develop a VR game.

The programmers deliberately refrained from using VR controllers. I only use my hands to move through the computer-generated environment. The operation should be as simple as possible, both for children and for seniors, who are already somewhat skeptical about VR headsets, says Gaubitz, whose enthusiasm for the puppet theater is plain to see.

Strictly speaking, it is not called puppet theater, but rather figure theater, I learn from little Mr. Wortelmann. Because when you hear puppets, you immediately think of childrens programs and toys. But the world of miniature theater is more diverse than the classic childhood shows. Some figures transform or are split down the middle, for example when they are fatally struck with a sword by an Italian soldier in shining knights armor.

Those who want to immerse themselves completely in the virtual tour should set aside some time. It takes a good 90 minutes if you wish to watch and listen to everything. But its worth it: little Mr. Wortelmann can tell gripping stories and, as is usually the case in museums, you learn a lot in the process. In any case, the VR experience opened up a new world of puppet theater and puppetry to me.

The Puppets 4.0 project was funded by the federal government and the city of Bochum. The plan is to introduce more people to the world of puppet theater. On the one hand, we get VR enthusiasts to perhaps engage with the topic of puppet theater for the first time, says Mareike Gaubitz, on the other hand, puppet enthusiasts come and are fascinated by the possibilities of virtual reality.

For more information and tickets, visit the official website (You can select English language in the upper right corner).

Note: Links to online stores in articles can be so-called affiliate links. If you buy through this link, MIXED receives a commission from the provider. For you the price does not change.

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VR experience Puppets 4.0 takes you into puppet theater - MIXED-news.com

Last year, when the festival was half in and half out of lockdown, the actor and playwright Tim Crouch gave a talk as part of the online SHEDx programme. His theme was the future of the Edinburgh Fringe and the possibility of making it better after the pandemic.Thinking about the festival's inordinate size, he made an analogy with industrial farming. He compared the millions of cobs of corn being harvested from the fields near where he grew up with the thousands of shows ripe for the picking in August. "The industrial scale of the Fringe now makes it difficult for delicate organic material to thrive," he said. "The deeper nutritional value is denied us by the pace of the market."

He hoped the festival would benefit from the fallow period imposed by the pandemic and would return with healthier produce. Today, though, he wonders if his optimism was not misplaced. "A lot of people are trying to will it back to how it was and it can't be how it was," says Crouch when we meet in the Royal Lyceum's rehearsal room. "If we have these last two years and don't actually change from it I worry that we haven't taken this opportunity."

His own contribution to this summer's 3,171-show harvest is a one-man play, Truth's A Dog Must To Kennel. Like so much of Crouch's work, it is as bold in concept as it is simple in execution. Take, for instance, his 2005 play An Oak Tree, in which one of the characters was played by an actor who had never seen the script. Or consider 2009's The Author, in which the actors sat among the audience as they talked about a play they had supposedly performed in.

Then there was 2019's Total Immediate Collective Imminent Terrestrial Salvation for the National Theatre of Scotland, in which the audience sat in a circle reading a book that foretold the fate of a messianic cult leader and his acolytes. "The form is as central to the play as the story," he says.

Similarly stripped-back in presentation, Truth's A Dog Must To Kennel requires Crouch to spend much of the time wearing a virtual-reality headset, a portal to action happening elsewhere. That action is taking place in an altogether grander theatre where a production of Shakespeare's King Lear is in progress.

"It's the idea of one thing inside something else this other theatre inside this theatre," he says.

Crouch is fascinated by the scene in King Lear in which Edgar pretends to take his blinded father Gloucester to the edge of a cliff. Edgar's description, and the old man's leap of faith, is like an act of theatre: it is not real but the audience implicitly agrees to believe it. "That's a piece of virtual reality without any digitalisation whatsoever," he says. "It's using a mind, words and imagination. That's where the root of theatre exists for me."

He says it is not necessary to have a knowledge of King Lear to follow Truth's A Dog Must To Kennel, but he is fascinated by the play's modern-day parallels. For some of the time, he takes on the part of the Fool, a character who departs from King Lear before the interval and misses the tragedy's bleakest moments.

"The Fool disappears from a world that is increasingly becoming unliveable," he says. "It has the potential of a civil war, the dismantling of governance all those things that feel acutely contemporary. If I write about the schism in Lear the deposing of a leader and the arrival of a lawless, ego-driven, reckless tyranny we're quite close to that now."

In the Fool's early departure from the play, he also sees a connection between all those in the performing arts industry, from actors to carpenters, who were forced to make an exit when the pandemic threatened their livelihood. "This is about leaving," he says. "It's about the last two-and-a-half years, wondering what we're doing, how we carry on, how we re-engage, how difficult everything is, where is theatre in all of this and the invasion of the digital. This play celebrates the fact that we are all together and that in each one of us sits an alternative one of us."

Tim Crouch: Truth's A Dog Must to Kennel, Royal Lyceum, Edinburgh, 628 August.

Original post:

Tim Crouch on his virtual-reality themed riff on King Lear: 'It's about the last two-and-a-half years' - The Scotsman

It was hailed as the biggest virtual reality gaming centre of its kind outside of London.

The hospice created it after looking for imaginative new ways to generate income for its care services after being hit hard during lockdown.

It also aimed to introduce more younger people to its work.

But Alice House has today (Friday, August 8) announced that NEVRlabs is to close for business on Sunday, August 14.

Despite regular custom and partnerships with schools and businesses, the hospice says the centre was unable to attract the level of income needed.

The ongoing impact of Covid and the cost of living crisis have been blamed, together with the forthcoming end of the Governments Kickstart Scheme in September which funded many of the staff.

Ray Priestman, chairman of the hospice trustees, said: Like many organisations in Hartlepool and beyond, we must invest carefully and focus on our priorities.

"As most people know, these are hard times for families, businesses and charities.

We have made the difficult decision to close NEVRlabs and move all virtual reality services back to Alice House, returning the project to its original focus of offering entertainment and wellbeing support to Hospice patients.

He added: As the economy heads towards further uncertainty, we have reviewed our commitments and this is the most financially responsible thing to do, in order to help protect the future of the Hospice, which remains our entire reason for being.

"We would like say a special thank you to all the staff at NEVRlabs for their hard work, effort and enthusiasm we wish them every success in the future and hope that they leave us with new skills and some happy memories.

Finally, thanks to everyone else that supported us throughout this journey; we hope that your warmth towards Hospice care will continue and that we will see you again soon.

Resources from the centre will either be repurposed in the hospice, based in Wells Avenue, Hartlepool, or sold.

Continued here:

Why a Hartlepool virtual reality gaming centre is to close after less than a year - Hartlepool Mail

Technology like virtual reality (VR) has taken the travel industry by storm as travel agencies, airlines, and tourism boards embrace the growing interest in virtual travel. By 2030, the global virtual tour industry is predicted to generate $6.5 billion, and similar growth patterns are happening in other industries that have adopted virtual technology, such as the real estate industry.

With virtual tourism, people from around the world can visit Spains top museums,such as the Prado Museum and the Dali Museum, in an online and immersive space.According to Head Out, virtual international visitors can also walk through Spanish cities like Barcelona using video and virtual reality to visit landmarks such as Sagrada Famlia.

Even though Spain is one of the most visited countries in the world, recording more than 80 million tourists in 2019, travel is set to change next year with ETIAS. Because of this, the countrys embrace of virtual tourism may pay dividends.

Since Spain is a country in the Schengen Area, travelers visiting from a visa-free country starting in 2023 will need to get an ETIAS to visit the country for stays of up to 90 days. Some visa-free countries, as perETIAS Visa, include Canada, the United States, and Mexico.

While the ETIAS application is quick and easy, and all you need is a valid passport and debit or credit card to pay the fees, it may be a hurdle in someones travel plans. Plus, since the ETIAS will be a new system, there could be processing issues and other problems that follow the launch of new ideas and procedures. If an international traveler cant go on their trip, there are dozens of virtual tours they can take.

Then again, Spains embrace of virtual tourism may be a sign of the times rather than a helping hand since virtual tourism has reached all corners of the world. You can tour some of the main attractions at Yellowstone National Park in the United States and go on virtual safaris in Africa on the same day. Or, you can wander freely around the gardens of the Palace of Versailles in France.

Live entertainment has become an integral part of our lives, so its no surprise to see travel, another form of entertainment, join the film and gaming industries. The gaming industry, in particular, has embraced the idea of using digital, virtual, and live technology to replicate and transport players to another place, such as traditional land-based casinos.

For example, The Hippodrome Casino in Londons Leicester Square is regarded as one of the most famous casinos in the world, built at the turn of the 20th century. Recognizing its global popularity, the land-based Hippodrome launched its digital partner,Hippodrome OnlineCasino.

This online casino platform has replicated the history and atmosphere of its land-based sibling, allowing international players to experience the closest thing to being at the London venue from their home countries.

Technology has improved our lives in many ways, and its advantages are now seeping over to the real estate and travel industries as virtual showings and tours skyrocket in popularity.

In Spain, virtual tourism may be useful when the ETIAS launches in 2023, but even then, the growing virtual tourism market is a sign of the times. We get most of our entertainment like games and movies virtually, so why not travel that way too?

Continue reading here:

How Will Virtual Reality Help Spains Tourism Industry? - The Leader Newspaper

Have you ever heard someone say, If it weren't for tomorrow, it'd be the future today or The future is unwritten?" Well, dear readers, when it comes to the use of augmented reality (AR) technology in the events space, that future is now!

The natural fit between AR and events is something to be explored and celebrated. AR is so well suited for expos, trade shows, conferences, and festivals. Basically, anywhere large groups of people come together in a flexible space, AR can make a difference. It adds big value to event management software by providing wayfinding meta maps, engaging spatial experiences, and deep location intelligence. It is making groundbreaking new experienceswith no programming required.

A Total Package for Event Management Solutions

Event management companies of all sizes are turning to Map D and ARway, both from Nextech AR Solutions, to make their trade shows, conferences, festivals, and other events sizzle. Map D, which has long been a well-respected product for association event management, has blossomed when combined with ARway. ARway is advanced AR technology that makes creating rich experiences easier than ever.

In one recent case, Restaurants Canada (RC) used Map D and ARway to manage its event, which is one of North Americas largest hospitality industry conferences. They were able to add delicious layers of richness to the attendee experience. So how big was the team and how did they do it? Oh, just two people with a smart phone.

Just as the use of AR and other advanced technologies for events and tradeshows has evolved over the past few years, so has Map D. It was once a niche product tailored mostly to association events and tradeshows, festivals, and expos that needed an easy way to sell booths online. Now, with the development of new features needed to optimize and enhance complex contemporary events, it has matured into the total package for event management.

No Special Equipment or Expertise Required

Some of the key features in Map D that event managers are coming to depend on are attendee ticket sales, interactive floor plans; online booth sales, real-time event updates; management tools for exhibitors, sponsors, speakers, and sessions; location-based content and notifications; and (of course) the ability to easily create compelling AR experiences.

ARway is the secret sauce behind creating those experiences. Its a no-code spatial technology platform that allows anyone to tap into the creative potential of the metaverse. Creators and users alike enjoy the powerful potential of the technology. People stay engaged with AR content longer than any other type. More than a billion people use AR on a regular basis, a number that will only grow. For events, AR is a game-changer. It opens the door to so many critical capabilities - from virtual signage, to wayfinding, to location-based popup information. While its easy enough for anyone to create these experiences, custom development offers an even wider array of rich experiences and services.

Sponsored byMap DandARway

See the article here:

Industry Trends: Map D and ARway Make Augmented Reality a Reality for Events - TSNN Trade Show News