This year AWE USA 2023 presented a playground three times the size of what we saw in November 2021.
Probably the end of the Covid-19 restrictions has allowed a higher number of companies to be present, but we must also say that the XR sector is growing rapidly and in addition to startups, there are many big and important companies participated.
I had the opportunity to visit many booth in that days and personally test the new AR/VR technology present.
I have selected some company which particularly caught my attention and I interviewed some professionals to the stands.
As we get ready to attend AWE Asia 2023 on August 30th and 31st and AWE EU 2023 on October 24th and 25th (and get ready for AWE USA 2024!), you can find down here the interviews done at the booths during AWE USA 2023.
Among the interviews you can find information about this companies:
HaptX Gloves | Echo3D | Immersal LTD | Porotech | Wearable Device | Meta Quest Pro | RP1 | Doublepoint | TiltFive | PV Project by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. | Fundamental VR | SenseGlove | Holo Light | Interdigital…
You can find all the video that I made at AWE USA 2023 here: ARea6DoF | Playlist video AWE USA 2023
At the end of this article you will also find the video of the Auggie Awards and a short film of AWE After Party 2023.
HaptX | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
HaptX Gloves is a realistic touch for the enterprise metaverse. The only VR gloves with true-contact haptics leading head-mounted displays deliver immersive visuals and audio, but they’re packaged with plastic controllers that are designed for gaming. Professional VR users need to use their hands naturally and feel what they see. HaptX Gloves G1 bring your real hands into the virtual environment and enable a new suite of enterprise VR solutions.
HaptX invents and builds wearable technology that simulates touch with unprecedented realism, enabling natural haptic interaction in virtual reality and robotics. The multidisciplinary HaptX team includes mechanical, software, electrical, and biomedical engineers and human-machine interaction experts. They are pioneering a new approach to haptics to crack the toughest problems in human-machine interaction. Their mission is to bring lifelike touch to digital experiences, and they won’t stop until you can’t tell what’s real from what’s virtual.
Team: Jake Rubin (Founder + CEO), Dr. Bob Crockett (Co-Founder), Joe Michaels (Chief Revenue Officer), Joe Marino (VP, Engineering + Product), Kim Oberg (VP, Sales), Josh Shabtai, Lauren Hildebrand.
Website: https://haptx.com/
Echo3D | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Echo3D is 3D-focused API and cloud infrastructure to store, update, secure, and stream 3D content for real-time applications.
Echo3D is redefining how people create 3D, Metaverse, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), and spatial computing experiences. Echo3D is for developers to host, manage, and publish 3D content with the flexible cloud infrastructure, intuitive content management system, fast content delivery network, and other best-in-class tools.
With a killer team of 3D industry experts and pioneers, they focus on providing the easiest way for developers to deliver fresh 3D content instantly with no redevelopment or redeployment needed.
Echo3D announced two new features during AWE USA 2023: Ultimate Compression and Version Control, relevant as you figure out ways to better manage and optimize the 3D contents.
Echo 3D won an Auggie Awards during AWE USA 2023, in the category “Best Developer Tool”
Learn more about echo3D: linktr.ee/echo3d
Check out the documentation: docs.echo3d.com
Find free demos on their GitHub: github.com/echo3Dco
Team: Ben Pedazur (Co-Founder & CTO at echo3D)
Website: https://www.echo3d.com/
Immersal LTD | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Immersal LTD, part of Hexagon, develops AR tech that empowers people to merge digital and physical realities with Spatial Mapping and Visual Positioning. Immersal is based in Helsinki, Finland.
Hexagon is a global leader in sensors, software and autonomous solutions. Hexagon (Nasdaq Stockholm: HEXA B) has approximately 20,000 employees in 50 countries and net sales of approximately 3.9bn EUR.
Team: Matias Koski (CEO), Mikko Karvonen (CPO, CO-Founder), Teemu Berglund (CXO, CO-Founder), Panu Liukkonen (CTO, CO-Founder), Anttoni Vesterinen (Advisor, Co-Founder), Päivi Laakso-Kuivalainen (CMO).
Website: hexagon.com
Porotech | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Porotech is a spin-out from the University of Cambridge, and was co-founded in 2018 by Dr Tongtong Zhu, Dr Yingjun Liu, and Prof. Rachel Oliver. Their growing team comprises of 50+ members of staff based in Cambridge HQ (UK), Hsinchu (Taiwan) and Arizona (USA), and senior management team is equipped with over 150 years of experience in semiconductors and optoelectronics.
They are a microLED pioneer and global gallium nitride (GaN) material technology developer, with a revolutionary approach to GaN-based RGB microLEDs. This company redefined what is possible with the creation of a new class of porous gallium nitride (GaN) semiconductor material called PoroGaN®. Proprietary technology and unique production process allow for the creation of porous semiconductor materials and structures with enhanced behaviour. Thanks to PoroGaN technology, they developed their newest ground-breaking technology: DynamicPixelTuning® (DPT®), the world’s first all-in-one microLED. With their proprietary technologies, Porotech is revolutionising the display and semiconductor industries, and ushering in a new age of display technology.
Porotech’s game-changing DynamicPixelTuning ®(DPT ®) technology offers the most advanced solution to full colour microLED displays. Porotech’s DPT ® technology can deliver game changing design and performance advantages in any display application.
DPT® (DynamicPixelTuning®) | Revolutionary approach to full colour microLED displays. DPT ® means the end of ‘RGB’ sub-pixels and instead allows a single pixel to be designated any colour in the visible spectrum. This simplifies & improves the design of the display and optical system and removes major manufacturing roadblocks.
Contact: https://www.porotech.com/contact/
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/company/porotech/
Team: Dr Tongtong Zhu, Dr Yingjun Liu, Prof. Rachel Oliver, Tongtong Zhu (CEO & Founder of Porotech), Miranda González Farrington (Marketing and PR Coordinator at Porotech)
Website: https://www.porotech.com/
CANON USA | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
CANON USA
Canon EOS R5 and R5C camera bodies
Canon RF 5.2mm F2.8 Dual Fisheye Lens
180 VR regular production already on market
180 4k livestream proof of concept
360 VR high resolution production used 4 cameras and 4 dual fisheye lenses with third party stitching software.
More information: Calvin Anderson – https://www.usa.canon.com
Wearable Device | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Wearable Devices Ltd. is a growth company developing a non-invasive neural input interface in the form of a wrist wearable band for controlling digital devices using subtle finger movements. These digital devices include consumer electronics, smart watches, smartphones, AR glasses, VR headsets, televisions, PCs, laptop computers, drones, robots, etc.
Since their technology was introduced to the market in 2014, they have been working with both Business-to-Business (B2B) and Business to Consumer (B2C) customers as part of our push-pull strategy.
Wearable Devices Ltd. are now in the transition phase from research and development to commercialization of their technology into B2B products. At the same time, they are in the final stage of manufacturing their first B2C consumer product, the “Mudra Band”, an aftermarket accessory band for the Apple Watch which allows touchless operation and control of the watch.
Headquartered in Israel, the company was founded in March 2014 by Asher Dahan, Guy Wagner and Leeor Langer, with renowned expertise in the fields of analog sensors, signal processing, deep learning and machine learning algorithms, software, and human-computer interaction.
Wearable Devices Ltd. develops a non-invasive Neural input interface for controlling digital devices using subtle finger movements. They believe that neural-based interfaces will become as ubiquitous as wearable computing and digital devices in general, just as the touchscreen became the universal input method for smartphones.
Team: Asher Dahan (Chief Executive Officer, Director), Guy Wagner (Chief Technology Officer, President and Director), Leeor Langer (Chief Technology Officer), Shmuel Barel (Chief Marketing Officer at Wearable Device)
Website: https://www.wearabledevices.co.il/
Meta Quest PRO | AWE USA 2023 | PLAYGROUND
Meta Quest Pro brings together the latest in VR to change perspectives on how we design for physical and virtual worlds. Using VR painting and various studio apps, the creative process goes to a whole other level.
Authentic avatar expressions mimic your natural facial expressions, so you can be fully present in meetings and gatherings with friends and bring more of your true personality to life in VR.
A streamlined profile and counterbalanced design combine for more comfort so that you can work, create and collaborate longer in VR. And with flexible levels of VR immersiveness, the virtual world is no longer one size fits all. Best part? It’s great even if you wear glasses.
With Quest Pro, they are introducing Infinite Display. Get a slimmer, lighter headset design thanks to their innovative patented pancake lens and display technology that reduces the optical stack by over 40%. Enjoy more engaging VR content with crisp, clear 22 pixels per degree visuals, 75% greater contrast, and a 1.3X larger colour gamut for more vibrant colour.
Whatever you need to do, you have a new superpower. Pop open multiple resizable screens to organise tasks, work on new ideas, stream podcasts, news feeds or playlists, or simply message with friends. It’s never been easier to multitask.
With self-tracking controllers that are balanced to hold and provide TruTouch haptic feedback, and precision pinch for fine control, VR has never felt this intuitive and second nature – it’s like the controllers are natural extensions of your hands in VR.
Meta Quest Pro comes with all the goods and then some, so you can start working, creating and collaborating – Meta Quest Touch Pro controllers, charging dock with rapid USB-C power adapter, ten advanced VR/MR sensors, 256GB storage, 12GB RAM and a Snapdragon XR2+ Qualcomm processor.
Website: https://www.meta.com/it/en/quest/quest-pro/
LOOKING GLASS | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Guru Sundar explains how the products of Looking glass that you can find here: https://look.glass
And here more information on Holograms that say hello. Introducing Liteforms™ — conversational holograms powered by Looking Glass and ChatGPT.
Website: www.lookingglassfactory.com
The videos you will find now are videos taken during the opening of the Expo to journalists. The crowding and “roller coaster” shots are due to the rush of journalists during the various presentations. The companies name’s are listed below:
Rp1 | Double Point | TiltFive | PV: from Physical to Virtual | Fundamental VR | SenseGlove | Holo Light | Interdigital.
RP1 | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
RP1 is a persistent, seamless, real-time platform with limitless scalability. RP1 delivers a new paradigm in network server architecture, solving the fundamental obstacle in the creation of a real-time internet (metaverse).
Their technology enables creators, designers, and developers to effortlessly deploy 3-D immersive content in a real-time, persistent virtual world, without the need for sharding. They are helping create the foundation and standards of a web-deployable system with no pre-compiled downloads and accessible on any device, including mobile, desktop, AR, and VR.
You can learn more about RP1 through their Discord community.
Team: Sean Mann(CEO and Co-Founder, RP1)
Discord: RP1 Discord Invite
Website: https://www.rp1.com/
DoublePoint | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Doublepoint is a Touch Sensing – Algorithms For Smartwatches
Wrist Based Raycasting – Using the IMU we can detect not only where you’re pointing, but also the exact moment you pinch your fingers together. This means that raycasting interactions are possible with a single IMU on your twist, with no extra hardware on headsets needed. This saves the AR headset’s power and compute from tracking the user’s hands while providing a tried and tested intuitive interaction paradigm.
Eye Tracking Trigger – When paired with eye tracking, their pinch detection allows you to simply look at the thing you want to select, then pinch your fingers to select it. No blinking, no staring, no speech, just look and tap.This is point and select on steroids. Faster and easier to learn than a mouse. It’s what the mouse wishes it could be.
Surface Interactions – When paired with computer vision hand tracking, their alghoritms sgnificantly improve the tracking resolution of the users fingertips as they interact with real world surface. This means knowing the exact moment a user has touched a surface, distinguishing between hover and actual contact. This makes anything in the user’s surroundings into a touch screen, and allows they to interact with the world the way we are familiar with. Through touching it and feeling rich haptic feedback.
Touch is Critical to Interaction – For most of human history, humans have shaped the world through applying forces, pressure, touch on the things around us. Through millions of years, we’ve developed cells, organs and neural structures to thoroughly monitor these forces. So it only makes sense for us, designing natural, intuitive interactions for next-generation platforms, that we should be able to touch and feel things with our fingertips in these worlds as well. Touch is Not Like Vision or Sound Touch is hard to virtualize properly, because of some basic laws of physics and how we are built biologically. It’s hard to make you feel the full range of touch you need for good interactions in virtual worlds. This is why they think they need to allow users to interact with real world objects and feel real tactile feedback.
Team: Ohto Pentikäinen (Co-Founder & CEO at Doublepoint), Jamin Hu (Co-Founder and CTO at Doublepoint | Pianist)
Website: https://www.doublepoint.com/
Tilt Five | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
The team at Tilt Five® are gamers, visionaries, and rocket scientists (seriously). We bring every aspect of our history and passion to our technology, providing a cutting-edge gaming experience and sharing the magic of augmented reality (AR) with developers and gamers around the world.
Tilt Five® was founded in California with the vision of building the first consumer AR system that would bring everyone to the table to play games — but it became so much more than that! Tilt Five is the most spellbinding gaming platform ever, bringing your favorite games to life as 3D stereoscopic holograms.
Team: Jery Ellsworth (Co-Founder & CEO), Jamie Gennis (Co-Founder & CTO), Hans Ten Cate (CBO), Stephanie Greenall (Head of Communications)
Website: https://www.tiltfive.com/
PV Project by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
PV Project is a project Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc., by transporting various physical objects into the virtual world,
they aspire to create new forms of entertainment, and materialize people’s ideas and dreams which were not possible in the real world.
The Mission of PV Project by Sony Music Entertainment (Japan) Inc. is leveraging their technologies to support IP holders and virtual platform providers, they aim to co-create virtual experiences which stimulate fan communities.
Utilizing Sony’s technology and expertise, they design 3D scanning systems tailored to the characteristics of the specific IP.
Each 3D scanning system is optimized based on the target subject, be it an object or a person. We strive to achieve the highest quality scanned models that meet and exceed the expectations of the fan community for each IP.
In their data bank, scanned assets and individual user data are linked together, and managed in a manner that is optimal for each virtual platform.
They also aim to provide added value to the 3D scanned assets, through the latest technologies.
Website: https://physical2virtual-pj.com/en/
Fundamental VR | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
FundamentalVR is a healthcare technology company with a mission to accelerate human capability via precision simulation and as a result, advance pre-human competence in surgery and additional clinical environments to improve patient outcomes.
They are partner with medical device, pharmaceutical companies, and healthcare systems to enhance skills acquisition and training globally. Through their platform Fundamental Surgery, they offer a range of skills and training experiences that facilitate remote and immersive medical training within a virtual reality (VR) environment.
These VR experiences provide situational awareness and allow teams to remotely collaborate, rehearse, and practice in a frictionless, ‘plug and pay’ way.
Their HapticVR™ environments and experiences deliver the gold standard for skills transfer, allowing users to physically interact with a virtual patient. HapticVR™ enables users to develop the knowledge of how it feels to perform a procedure correctly or incorrectly – helping to build muscle memory that is particularly important in advanced and precise surgical environments.
Their haptic technology has been shown to improve accuracy and skills development.
The FundamentalVR Story – Technologists Richard Vincent and Chris Scattergood have applied their extensive knowledge to the world of medical technology to innovative medical training methods.
They began their medical simulation journey in 2015, where they founded FundamentalVR, with the main goal of democratizing medical training globally.
Since its founding, FundamentalVR has gone on to develop its own proprietary HapticVR™ system which is now being used globally across medical specialties. It is being successfully used to build high fidelity simulations to improve patient care and standardize training via safe, repeatable, metric lead methods.
The company continues to experience exponential growth in business, partnerships, and medical specialties.
FundamentalVR is laser-focused on its mission to accelerate human capability across the globe.
Team: Richard Vincent (Ceo & Co-Founder), Chris Scattergood (Co-Founder)
Website: https://fundamentalsurgery.com/
SenseGlove | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
SenseGlove is an innovation driven company on a mission to create the mouse and keyboard of the future. We believe that in the era of the Metaverse digital interactions will feel as natural as the real ones: in addition to clicking and scrolling you will be able to touch, grab, hold and feel the virtual as if it was real. Already available for professionals using SenseGlove in their VR training solutions, these interactions will be ultimately a norm for everyone. Just like the mouse and keyboard today.
From electrical engineers, haptics researchers and computer vision experts to XR developers, UX designers and product innovators, SenseGlove is a team of sci-fi enthusiasts with skills and passion to enrich human capabilities and bring sense to the Metaverse. Advancing Haptic Technology is our way of achieving it.
SenseGlove originates from the graduation project of its two founders, Johannes Luijten and Gijs den Butter, at the Delft University of Technology, the MIT of Europe. The first working prototype along with a VR use case was created in 2017 together with Volkswagen, which remains our partner to this day.
SenseGlove force feedback technology is the most crucial element of realistic simulation, as it provides the feeling of the size and density of virtual objects. Combined with vibrotactile feedback to feel impact simulations, this haptic technology creates the most intuitive experience.
SenseGlove is a fully functional wearable in production, accessible to any XR professional. Our haptic technology has been applied and approved by over 500 corporations: Volkswagen, P&G, Airbus, etc. Our custom-made Proof of Concept program will help you with your first haptic use-case.
SenseGlove products are super easy to use. The Nova is a wireless glove made to be donned in 5 seconds, and is adjustable to 3 different sizes for a perfect haptic experience. The Nova is an adjustable haptic technology based glove that easily fits on any hand.
Team: Johannes Luijten (Co-Founder SenseGlove) | Gijs den Butter (Co-Founder SenseGlove)
Website: https://www.senseglove.com/
Holo Light | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
Holo Light are unleashing the full potential of Augmented and Virtual Reality (XR) in the enterprise market. By creating an Industrial Metaverse, they are closing the gap between the virtual and the real world. Empowering people to seamlessly create, build and operate in the digital space.
They listen carefully to what the industry needs. And they create unique, industry-ready AR/VR technology: highly innovative and tailored precisely for scalable use cases and business models.
Their team unites passionate developers and experienced business experts. Founded in 2015, they are a global AR/VR tech leader.
Team: Florian Haspinger (CEO), Alex Werlberger (CTO), Luis Bollinger (CMO), Susanne Haspinger (COO), Isabella Doppler (CFO), Helmut Gulde (CDO).
Website: https://holo-light.com/about/
Interdigital | AWE USA 2023 | Playground
For 50 years, InterDigital® has been inventing foundational wireless and video technologies that have become essential to daily life and enable the next generation of connected ecosystems. As a result, InterDigital is a leader in making the connected world we depend on possible.
Their business model is rooted in research and innovation, and InterDigital’s world-class engineers drive the development of advanced technologies and contribute them to global standards that define the future of wireless communication and video. Sitting at the intersection of today’s connected world and tomorrow’s next generation connected ecosystems, we are focused on shaping the future of communication. Many companies bring innovations that improve a single product; but at InterDigital, our inventions help improve every product in the markets we participate in, from the most basic to the most advanced, transforming industries and enabling connected ecosystems that are part of our daily lives.
InterDigital has been a wireless pioneer for five decades, with our engineers and inventors designing and developing a wide range of advanced technologies used in digital cellular and wireless products and networks, including 4G and WiFi-related products and networks. Today, they’re a leader in wireless evolution from 5G to 6G, a thought leader in their industry and, over the course of the last two decades, the source of several thousand contributions to key global standards.
With a respected video heritage yielding one of the leading innovation portfolios in the industry, InterDigital is also a leader in video research, driving new capabilities and making significant contributions to key global video standards. Today, they are a consistent contributor to MPEG and ITU standards while leading innovation in 2D, 3D, and immersive video standards, state of the art video codecs, and advanced video solutions.
Alongside these research capabilities, InterDigital is using AI/ML to drive both wireless and video standards towards the future, leveraging AI/ML as a valuable tool to drive efficiency and new capabilities in wireless networks and in video compression and delivery systems.
To continue their investment in advanced research and technology development, they license their intellectual property to those who use their innovations by integrating them into the wireless and video devices you use today. InterDigital remains an essential contributor to the global standards that pave the way for the future of wireless and video technologies and that provide the bedrock for the connected ecosystems upon which billions of people rely and trillions of dollars of economic activity are built. They work tirelessly to ensure a fair and reasonable compensation for their contributions and to ensure that global standards operate effectively.
The more we rely on technology to connect our lives, our businesses and the world around us, the more our world will rely on InterDigital to enable next generation connected ecosystems.
InterDigital: Enabling the Technology of Tomorrow
Website: https://www.interdigital.com/
Auggie Awards | AWE USA 2023
And what you find below is the entire video of the Auggie Awards! (Sorry for the initial roller coaster)
You can find more information here: Auggie Awards Winners at AWE USA 2023
After Party | AWE USA 2023
And finally a short video of what was the After Party of AWE USA 2023.
If you want to sponsor my work or if you want me to sponsor your work contact me, I will be happy to find the right way to do it!
Cecilia is also an artist, photographer, videomaker, community manager and International Journalist. She is the organizer of AWE Nite Florence and she is the Italian Representative for Artivive.
Cecilia created a project called “Flying Into The Metaverse Through Books & Culture”, which is a series of interviews with the most important professionals in the XR field and manages an online Journal called ARea6DoF, registered to the Italian Court, where she writes the articles about the different topics she is concerned with.