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A weekly summary of all things XR & spatial computing
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Good morning!

This week, Gothamist covers how assistive apps and NYC programs are helping blind people navigate the city, Tony Parisi recounts 2019's AR ad projects, and Digital Trends speaks with Qwake Technologies, which is developing an AR helmet for firefighters.

Can GDC or SXSW (which was cancelled this week) be done in VR? Mozilla's Liv Erickson gives us a detailed breakdown why staging a virtual event for tens of thousands of people is very difficult in practice. Finally, we take a closer look at Snap's acquisition of some of Daqri's assets and former staff.

In other news, construction is nearly complete in the RLab Studio, a 2,000 square foot capture stage with 30 foot ceilings that our technology director Todd Bryant calls "the sanctuary of spatial computing." Check out our 360 time lapse below and Ori Inbar's 3d capture of the space here.



Have a great weekend.

- Justin
MUST-READS
How a Blind Commuter Navigates the Streets and Subways of NYC
The first day Bryan Velazquez walked outside without parental guidance, "it was as if an elephant had escaped the circus" - people in the neighborhood called his parents, worried he was lost. Velazquez, who is blind, had grown up holding onto family members for navigation and support. His first solo trip over a decade ago was the product of years of training with an orientation and mobility instructor via NYC's Educational Vision Services.

Now, during his solo trips, Velazquez uses various apps to help him find his way, from currency readers like MCT Money Reader to advanced navigation tools like Aira - of which Bose Ventures is an investor. Aira connects to an agent who accesses the user's location and on-device camera, helping guide them to their destination. Last fall the MTA conducted a pilot with Aira for free assistance calls (along with partnerships with other assistive apps like NaviLens) in all its 496 subway stations; and this week Aira will be available free at JFK, LaGuardia, and Newark Airports.

As for Velazquez, he teaches classes part-time at the Andrew Heiskell Braille and Talking Book Library, mostly on smartphone accessibility features: "He said he understands not everyone is tech-savvy or even tech-comfortable, but after seeing what a difference it made for him in the past few years he felt strongly about encouraging blind users to get out of their comfort zone."



8 min read
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Advertising: Mobile AR's Juggernaut
Tony Parisi reports on the rising number of AR experiences delivered "as ad units or sponsored content into existing mobile apps or websites that already have sizable audiences." Parisi notes that while standalone apps are fine, they introduce friction into the process - a "nonstarter for brands" in certain cases.

In 2019, we saw content such as branded filters, Snap Landmarkers, and WebAR experiences. Unity, where Parisi is head of XR Ad Innovation, added AR to its Unity Ads feature, and YouTube introduced its Beauty Try-On ad product. More evidence of AR advertising's potential: Parisi quotes stats from a Unity campaign done with MillerCoors...
  • "75% re-engagement with an AR Mini-Game experience."
  • "25% lift in favorability - meaning people were 25% more inclined to purchase and drink this beverage after seeing the ad."
  • "3+ minutes average time spent on WebAR."
7 min read
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Innovative Edge-Finding AR Eyepiece Lets Firefighters See Through Smoke
Qwake Technologies is developing "Ironman AR for firefighters" - an augmented reality heads-up display that leverages AI and an onboard thermal camera to highlight objects and people through smoke. CEO, founder, and adventurer Sam Cossman had found "a concept developed by a Turkish industrial designer" that was similar to what Qwake is developing now, and Crossman "started looking at what it would take to make it real."

Now, Qwake's team is composed of a neuroscientist, a computer vision expert, and a NASA rocket scientist (turned firefighter), among others.



5 min read
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COMMUNITY NEWS
Virti (RLab Accelerator, Fall 2019) was featured in a Digital Trends article about how VR is making medical training more effective and accessible. Virti focuses on soft skills that aren't typically a focus of med school training but help doctors deal with the stress of emergency medicine, with a system that uses artificial intelligence and natural language processing to analyze decision making, leadership, and communication. Research shows that students who work with the Virti system have reduced stress that transfers to real-life practice. In the article, CEO Dr. Alex Young explains how Virti designed their platform to meet the needs of doctors in developing countries with limited resources: Virti works on any mobile phone as well as with a VR headset, and the basic level of the platform, geared at teaching new medical professionals, is free. Read more here

Dr. Desmond Patton, RLab Faculty committee member and Associate Professor at the School of Social Work at Columbia University, published a new article on Social Work Thinking for UX and AI Design for ACM Interactions magazine. "Social work thinking underscores the importance of anticipating how technological solutions operate and activate in diverse communities. Social workers have long been the trained 'blind spotters' that UX and AI design needs." Patton's research demonstrates how hiring diverse domain experts is instrumental to ethical and human tech. Download the full article here.
EVENTS & CLASSES
UPCOMING CLASSES AT RLAB

Online Course: UX Design & Strategy for Emerging Technologies
Starts March 25
This 2-month online course gives product designers and managers a solid understanding of considerations for a new era of interfaces and UX. Provided in partnership with Emeritus and NYU Tandon. Register Here

Intensive: Motion Capture
April 3-4 @ RLab
Get hands-on experience with motion capture hardware and software used to develop avatars and create realistic movement in this 2-day master class. Register Here

Intensive: UX Design for AR/VR
May 1-2 @ RLab
Learn and develop your skills for creating experiences across the mixed reality spectrum in this 2-day interactive workshop. Register Here

Online Course: UX Design Principles for AR & VR 
Starts May 19
This 2-month online course gives UX designers an understanding of how to design UX for AR & VR technologies. Provided in partnership with Emeritus and NYU Tandon. Register Here
 

Event: NYVR Meetup
March 19, 6PM-9PM @ NYU MakerSpace 

Monthly VR meetup. This month's theme is VR for video production, featuring Elvis Au with Blue Sky Studios and Lewis Smithingham with MediaMonks.
Register Here

Event: Data Science Day
March 31, 8AM-6PM @ Columbia University 

Presentations from leading voices in data-driven innovation, lightning talks from Columbia University faculty, and a pavilion of interactive technology demonstrations and research posters. Register Here

Event: XR Europe 2020
April 28-29 @ London 

Join thought leaders from major growth verticals to discuss how VR & AR/MR can bring ROI and propel your business forward. Discount code: 5099RLAB100 for a discount. Register Here

Event: XR Immersive Enterprise 2020
May 5-6 @ Boston 

A look at how virtual, augmented & mixed reality are transforming training, collaboration, design, manufacturing and marketing across industry. Discount code: 5107RLAB100.
Register Here

Event: LDV Vision Summit
May 13-14 @ New Lab 

The premier global gathering in visual tech. 20% off tickets with discount code: RLAB. Early bird tickets available through April 24.
Register Here

Event: Symposium & Hackathon for VR/AR in Healthcare
June 25-28 @ Boston

Clinicians, scientists, designers, developers and other experts form interdisciplinary teams to build amazing prototypes, learn about VR/AR/XR, and experience interactive lessons on how to create it. Apply Here

Event: The Art of Immersive Storytelling
June 29 - July 3 @ Anderson Ranch Arts Center Registration Deadline: March 4

Join Maya Georgieva, Director XReality Center at The New School for an intensive storytelling workshop at the Anderson Ranch Arts Center this summer.
Register Here


OPPORTUNITIES & JOBS

Opportunity: LDV Vision Summit Startup Competition
Deadline: March 24 

Visual tech startups with <$2M in funding are invited to apply to showcase your technology to leading investors, technologists and operators. Submit Here

Competition: Games for Change Student Challenge
Deadline: March 31 

All middle and high school students nationwide can enter their original social impact games for the chance to win awesome prizes and national recognition.
Learn More

Opportunity: NYC Media Lab & ASCAP Challenge
Deadline: April 3 

11-week summer prototyping program seeking university teams to explore how emerging and spatial tech might unlock new ways to compose and experience music. Apply Here

Opportunity: ITP Camp
Deadline: May 15 

4 week crash course/playground for non-student makers, artists, musicians, programmers, fabricators, and creatives of all sorts. Apply Here
INDUSTRY NEWS
Thoughts on "GDC in VR"
This is the month when GDC and SXSW should have overlapped - where XR creators would have had the chance to showcase their work to thousands of attendees.

Liv Erickson, tech policy fellow at Aspen Tech Policy Hub and MR team member at Mozilla Hubs, draws from experience to weigh in on VR Twitter's idea to do "GDC [and SXSW] in VR," particularly "building out large-scale conferencing systems and the social considerations of replicating an event like GDC in social VR." Here's why virtual GDC is a very different animal in practice:

 
  • "There is no demonstrable proof that any platform has successfully existed to pull off VR-controlled crowds of over 29,000 people.... High Fidelity raised $79M to try and do this.... at max, some ~423 people joined... during a stress test."
  • "To be flaw-proof, such a system would need to integrate with existing applications.... It would need to do so without draining out the battery of your phone, it would need to be resilient if a network dropped, your speakers would need to have a working knowledge of how to solve microphone and audio issues."

With that said, IEEE VR 2020 is going completely online, including hosting online virtual spaces in Mozilla Hubs. "These rooms will include spaces to co-watch the video streams of papers, keynotes, panels, and workshops in small groups, visit virtual poster sessions, the 3DUI contest, and demos at the designated times, and have social activities during breaks and after-hours."


9 min read
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Brain-Like Computer Chips Are a Totally Wild Concept. and They Might Just Be the Future of AI
The authors of a new paper in Nature Nanotechnology argue that nanomaterials may be able to significantly drive down chip energy costs in coming decades. At our current rate, the researchers write, energy consumption by binary operations using CMOS chips will "surpass ~1027 Joules in 2040, which exceeds the total energy being produced globally." Switching to a neuromorphic architecture - where logic and memory coexist - may "substantially lower power consumption by physically emulating neurons and synapses at the small circuit or device level."

The researchers suggest a few different flavors of nanomaterials that could be used in neuromorphic design: zero- and one-dimensional nanomaterials (which could be used to design neuromorphic wearables like smart prosthetics), and two-dimensional nanomaterials that can be used to create "synaptic resistors and multilevel memory" processors.


4 min read
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Inside the Collapse of Daqri's $300M Bet on AR
Snap took on some of Daqri's remaining assets last year, and brought on board around two dozen employees, led by former Daqri CTO Daniel Wagner (he's director of software engineering at Snap now). The news coincides with a $34M acquisition late last year by Snap. From Toolbox:

"The asset grab fits with Snap's long-running commitment to staying competitive in augmented reality.... To further its role in AR, the company announced in mid-2019 it would raise $1B in development funds, largely for acquisitions and other initiatives. As proof, Snap acquired AR software developer AI Factory for $166M in January this year."


10 min read
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TRANSACTIONS & ANNOUNCEMENTS
You Can Now Download 1,700 Free 3D Cultural Heritage Models

Talespin Raises $15M for AR/VR Enterprise Training
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