New Realities


We wait years for a new reality, and then three come along at once!


In case you were in any doubt about the developing market for aug- mented, virtual and missed realities, the proliferation of conferences and showcases on the technologies should soon put you right. In the last month, AV News has attended Digital Catapult’s CreativeXR show- case and next month its VR Days in Amsterdam.


With so much XR activity un- derway, a series of events are underway to provide developers with showcases to seek partner- ships, venues and investors for XR experiences. The event host by Digital Catapult, CreativeXR, in London featured the next generation of immersive story- telling techniques, enabled by state-of-the-art digital technol- ogies in art and entertainment. Visitors to the showcase had


the opportunity to preview pro- totypes from the most promis- ing creative teams in the UK, all experimenting with immer- sive technologies to develop new theatrical, gaming and educational experiences. These were identified and developed through the CreativeXR pro- gramme, run by UK innovation centre Digital Catapult and Arts Council England.


Projects on show included:


• Flood by Megaverse - which uses VR to place participants into a city destroyed by a flood. As they explore the damage and hear from ghosts who endured the disaster, the rain pours down, and they’re brought back to the reality of a world on the knife edge of extreme condi- tions. Already a part of the Na- tional Youth Theatre, the inter- active experience uses amazing imagery to tell a cautionary tale for our times.


• Under Attack by Also Known As - Under Attack invites audi- ences to step into the role of a journalist covering a street pro- test. The room-scale VR instal- lation uses spatialised sound, smells and haptic feedback to enhance the sense of immer- sion and inspire participants to invest in protecting media freedoms.


• What is Normal? By Call & Response - an experience en- abling audiences to ask and answer important questions by talking to people with learning disabilities and autism. Using life size screens, AI and natural language processing, this con- versational experience creates new connections between di- verse people. • Now Was The Time by Imitat- ing the Dog – is a mixed reality production that explores new, alternative versions of Europe- an history. The theatre show uses real time engines to proj- ect actors on a screen, overlay- ing them with a series of beau- tifully rendered environments as they enact the past, present and future.


• UnDust by Satore Tech - is made in conjunction with the English National Ballet and based on Akram Khan’s Dust. Audiences wear a Magic Leap headset to watch avatars made from traces of movement and light (Dust) perform scenes from Khan’s piece. The inten-


tion is to bring ballet to a dif- ferent audience and to explore new ways of producing dance for those familiar with ballet.


Investment.


Digital Catapult’s Augmentor programme 2019 is aimed at the next generation of com- panies developing innovative, commercially focused appli- cations for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR). Bringing together investors, commercial partners and ear- ly-stage companies, Augmen- tor is helping to accelerate UK investment in immersive tech- nologies, boosting their devel- opment and adoption in multi- ple industries, and showcasing their potential to some of the UK’s leading investors. The 10 cohort teams were se- lected from a shortlist of 20 teams following an extensive online application process and a pitch day that determined which 10 companies would join Augmentor.


Jeremy Silver, CEO, Digital Catapult commented: “Aug- mented and virtual reality con- tinue to offer exciting oppor- tunities across a whole range of applications from high end automotive product design, to enhanced sports training visu- alisation, to new efficiencies in planning processes, to the quite remarkable precision re- mote control of flying robots.” “There are companies devel- oping all these applications in this year's Augmentor cohort. The market is still develop- ing more slowly than investors would like and for this reason, we are excited to continue to bring together a talented co- hort of companies and an ex- traordinary group of mentors in this programme. It’s great to see previous alumni of the pro- gramme returning as mentors too.”


Now in its third year, this 12- week programme provides the successful teams with expert mentorship from partners and previous members of the pro- gramme who have gone on to secure funding and commercial partnerships, including mas- terclasses delivered by Digital Catapult and partners such as HoloMe, Realities Centre and Seed Legals. Alongside previ- ous investor partners, this year Edge Investments, Remagine Ventures, MMC Ventures and ADV join Augmentor, bringing their expertise in creative in- dustries as well as years of in- vesting in tech.


In addition, the Augmentor cohort teams will have access to state-of-the-art immersive facilities including Digital Cat- apult’s UK-wide network of Im- mersive Labs and at Universi- ty College London. The teams will also have the opportunity


P16 AV News November 2019


to work with Digital Catapult’s network of supporters, research groups and academic institu- tions, which includes University of Bristol, University of Edin- burgh and more.


Selected teams


The ten teams selected this year are:


• Agile Datum - A data science company focused on improving the planning and housebuilding market.


• Also Known As - An immersive storytelling, research and de- sign studio creating immersive training tools for people who work in high-risk jobs. • Artificial Artists - A team of in- teractive and VFX specialists. It has developed a 3D animation platform that empowers artists to create quality 3D content for


VR training systems for blue chip companies. It has a back- ground in aerospace and now seek to enter the emerging sports VR market.


• Neuro Create - A start-up specialising in immersive in- teractive digital platforms including developing person- alised immersive collaborators that spark creativity, enhance cognitive agility and lead to 'Augmented


Intelligence' for


users. • M-XR - A start-up developing 3D capture technology which uses a custom engineered sys- tem and machine learning to measure and extract previously unattainable 3D information. • Resus VR - A medical train- ing start-up, which improves the decision making of health- care professionals through ex- posure to VR simulations. It’s


panies having never previously raised investment, have raised a total of over £3 million.


Commercial perspective


While the scale of UK devel- opments


might come as a


surprise, our first involvement with this embryonic market was last year’s VR Days event in Amsterdam.This year, taking place from the 13th – 15th November 2019 and co-orga- nized with Laval Virtual. One of the missions of VR Days is to show and educate corporations, governments and business owners the solu- tions XR technology has avail- able to increase their output. The Training and Simulation Summit for example is a way to discover how VR is helping improve the training of employ- ees. Many studies have proven that VR is more effective than videos by stimulating long term memory through mimicking. Today, many industries are using immersive technologies in their training program like healthcare This year. a range of experts from various fields of activity (automotive, defence, aviation, etc.) will share use cases and results of VR training during a 3-hour conference: Michael Kaldenbach, Digi- tal Realities Leader at Shell, Jack J. McCauley from Oculus, Miriam Reiner from the Israel Institute of Technology, Henri Jaspers, Senior Training De- velopment ASM and ,Martin Liboska from Deutsche Tele- kom. Roundtables will also be on hand to discuss the fu- ture of technology and what it


can bring more to the industry. Brain computer interfaces, vir- tual worlds and digital twins. In another session it is shown how developments in the area of brain-computer interfaces and VR support each other and how the development of a par- allel virtual world helps compa- nies to work more effectively. Other sessions relate to busi- ness services – for example, a job interview with a virtual per- son could simply banish sexual and racial preferences, but what are the technical developments and the ethical implications of this trend? These and other questions will be addressed in a session with, among others, Al- bert "Skip" Rizzo, University of Southern California, Remmelt Blessinga, Talespin and ethicist Dorothea Baur.


Investors


Startups and small-scale com- panies will have the opportunity to present their project to VR experts and attract investors’ attention. In order to connect people and create new part- nerships, VR Days organises several matchmaking events throughout the 3 days of the trade show. A networking event will be hosted by the Europe Enterprise Network.


“Access to capital is crucial in growing the XR ecosystem. With the investor event we are giv- ing XR startups and scaleups a high-quality nect to investors from around the globe.” said Daniel ‘Kip’ Doornink, found- er of VR Days Europe and XR- BASE.


VR Days – the most interesting conference of 2018 and a showcase for XR projects and innovations for 2019.


digital and immersive media. • Extend Robotics - A robotic technology company. It is de- veloping a drone flying platform with two robotic arms, which is guided by virtual reality tech- nology over 5G to perform ma- nipulation tasks remotely. • Darf Design - An award-win- ning interactive design studio located in London. In 2018 it launched a mobile platform which allows users to share 3D content in the real-world using AR.


• Imaged Reality - A VR and AR startup which believes immer- sive technologies will transform training, knowledge and skill development across the Oil & Gas, mining, construction, en- gineering industries and univer- sities.


• IN Reality - A software tech- nology company, specialising in


goal is to create the first ‘flight simulator for healthcare’. From training for doctors and sportspeople,


to


Vicki Dobbs Beck. Executive in Charge of ILMxLAB, and keynote speaker at Creative XR. It is her mission is to pioneer in the area of immersive storytelling. ILMxLAB wants to make it possible for people to, ‘Step Inside Our Stories.’ The division combines the storytelling and innovation talents of Lucasfilm, Industrial Light & Magic and Skywalker Sound and builds on a foundation of pioneering R&D in real-time computer graphics and virtual production.


‘Augmented


Intelligence’, and quick and easy ways to configure 3D content, the latest Augmentor cohort runs the gamut of excit- ing and innovative possibilities for


immersive technologies,


pushing at the boundaries of what is possible. Previous Aug- mentor participants include Gravity Sketch which created a tool that allows designers to collaborate and develop 3D models in VR, and has since raised £1.25 million, and Re- ality Zero One which developed an end-to-end solution for 3D capture and raised £285,000 of initial funding following its Augmentor experience. Over the course of the previous two cohorts, the majority of com-


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