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Mixed Reality

Samsung & Google Partner To Develop New XR Tech

From vrscout

Qualcomm is also involved in the partnership.

Last week Samsung held its half-annual Galaxy Unpacked event, during which the company revealed several updates regarding its lineup of Galaxy S23 hardware. That said, the most exciting news came towards the end of the presentation when Qualcomm CEO, Cristiano Amon, and Google SVP of Android, Hiroshi Lockheimer, joined Samsung’s TM Roh on stage to announce that all three companies are partnering to develop new XR experiences.

“An exciting space where Google has been investing in for a long time across both experiences and technology is AR and VR,” said Hiroshi in an official release. “These technologies are integral to the new phase of computing as it can change the way we interact with people and information to get things done in the real world.”



Speaking to The Washington Post, Samsung confirmed its interest in the development of “extended reality” devices. Recently, we’ve seen various hardware manufacturers use passthrough technology to provide immersive mixed reality experiences on headsets such as Meta Quest Pro and Pico 4. It’s unclear whether or not Samsung’s upcoming XR devices will make use of such technology.

Samsung was careful not to reveal any information regarding specific products or launch windows during the event; all we know at the moment is that a partnership between Samsung, Google, and Qualcomm exists. That said, we can speculate as to what the companies are up to.

Credit: Samsung

Qualcomm has been a leading provider of mobile processors among VR hardware manufacturers for years, therefore it makes sense that Samsung would seek the company’s help in developing its own line of standalone XR devices. On top of that, Samsung already has a considerable amount of experience developing VR hardware. Back in 2015, the company launched the Samsung Gear VR, a head-mounted VR display powered by a compatible Android smartphone, followed by the Odyssey+, a PC VR headset, in 2018.

For more information check out Samsung’s official Unpacked recap here.

Feature Image Credit: Samsung

Audi’s EV Concept Features Support For AR Glasses

From vrscout

The futuristic SUV features a digital console that can only be seen using AR technology.

German automotive manufacturer Audi recently unveiled a new concept SUV that can turn into a pickup truck on-demand. The “Actisphere” vehicle features a range of over 600 km, 800-volt charging technology, and no local emissions. Not only that, but the futuristic crossover features support for augmented reality (AR) technology.

According to an official release, the next-gen vehicle works in tandem with AR glasses to display interactive 3D content over the real world. In addition to providing critical driving status and navigation, the Audi actisphere concept does away with conventional control panels in favor of digital interfaces viewable using the aforementioned AR glasses.



According to the company, AR content will be “individually configurable for drivers and passengers.” Drivers, for example, can access navigational information while passengers browse the web, adjust the interior temperature, or control the music.

“The sphere concept vehicles show our vision for the premium mobility of the future. We are experiencing a paradigm shift, especially in the interior of our future Audi models,” said Oliver Hoffmann, member of the board of management for technical development.

“The interior becomes a place where the passengers feel at home and can connect to the world outside at the same time. The most important technical innovation in the Audi activesphere is our adaptation of augmented reality for mobility. Audi dimensions creates the perfect synthesis between the surroundings and digital reality.”

Credit: Audi

The vehicles feature a total of four AR headsets, one for the driver and each passenger. According to the official press release, the system can tell when an occupant is focused on a specific part of the console and provide more detailed information. Once a specific part of the console has been activated, passengers can then use hand gestures to interact with the controls.

Unlike a conventional console, controls for each function are located in front of their respective elements. For example, the AC controls are overlayed over the air vents while the sound controls are located over the speakers. AR technology can even layer high-resolution 3D topography graphics over the real world while in off-road mode as well as various traffic information.

Credit: Audi

“Conversely, the activesphere passenger can take his or her headset out of the car and onto the ski slope to help navigate the bike trail or to find the ideal descent when skiing downhill,” said the company in the official release. “Information about the car itself, the battery range, and the nearest charging stations can also be accessed inside and outside the vehicle. And when needed, there are also advance warnings such as of low tire pressure as well as a weather forecast function as a criterion for selecting a route.”

Other noteable features include an autonomous driving mode during which the dashboard, steering wheel, and pedals disappear, a next-gen dashboard that serves as an xlarge soundbar, and an on-board bar (heated or cooled). Above the center console you’ll find find an additional console containing four AR headsets powered by the vehicles mixed reality system.

For more information check out the official release here.

Image Credit: Audi

This Mixed Reality Meal Combines Food And VR

From vrscout

A delicious meal that pairs beautifully with immersive technology.

This past week, Italian artist Mattia Casalegno debuted his latest thought-provoking installation, Aerobanquets RMX, at Miami Art Week in Miami, Florida. The multisensory experience combined VR technology with delicious food to deliver a mixed reality meal quite unlike anything we’ve seen before.

Inspired by F. T. Marinetti’s The Futurist Cookbook, a collection of fictional recipes from the future, the installation supported up to 16 guests at a time, each of whom donned a Meta Quest 2 VR headset equipped with an external hand-tracker. Throughout the unique gastronomy experience, guests dined on five to seven dishes prepared by Michelin-starred, James Beard Award-winning chef Chintan Pandya.

Guests could choose from two menus: regular and vegan. As they ate, the textures and flavors of each dish were rendered in VR. The experience also featured text brought to life by narration from Top Chef judge Gail Simmons.

“We currently live in a world where industrial farming, overfishing, chemical pollution, and soil degradation are jeopardizing the livelihoods of millions by depleting the environment,” said Casalegno on his website. “We live in a culture where speed and economics come before health and quality. With this work I want to put a spotlight on our endangering practices and at the same time relish the joy of eating.”

As you can see in the video provided, Casalegno developed a custom accessory that turns Meta’s Touch controllers into futuristic dishware. This was most likely done to provide a simple and convenient way for guests to track the location of their meals in VR. That said, the final product looks incredibly cool.

For more information about Aerobanquets RMX visit here.

Image Credit: Flavor Five Studio

Light Delights Is An Extra Trippy Mixed Reality App

From vrscout

Interact with a variety of eye-catching virtual objects with your own two hands.

Light Delights is a simple, yet surprisingly captivating mixed reality experience that turns your real-world space into a vaporwave art gallery. Available now on Quest 2 and Quest Pro VR headsets, the free app features a variety of unique multicolored pieces.

There are five virtual objects in which to inspect, each of which features its own unique interactions. This includes everything from physics-driven gyroscopic rings to a never-ending avalanche of virtual cubes and orbs. The app also features support for hand-tracking, allowing you to interact with virtual objects using your own two hands.

“The standalone color passthrough is IMO the most promising direction for MR,” said Greg Madison, the award-winning XR interaction designer behind the project. “I tested for fun some ideas over the weekend, the magic is there and it’s mesmerizing to play with.”

Light Delights is available for free on Meta Quest 2 and Meta Quest Pro. Simply download the APK via GitHub and install the file on your headset using a program such as SideQuest.

While the Quest 2 version is cool, we highly recommend trying the app out on a Quest Pro for the best experience possible.

Image Credit: Greg Madison

Watch Celebrities Conquer Their Biggest Fears In VR

From vrscout

The first episode will premiere on October 26th on Facebook, Instagram, and Meta Quest TV.

Meta is teaming up with actor & comedian Marlon Wayans on a new comedy series in which celebrities face their biggest fears in VR using Meta Quest 2. First reported by Variety, Oh Hell No! With Marlon Wayans will premiere next week on Wayans’ Facebook and Instagram. New episodes will also premiere every Wednesday on Quest headsets via the Meta Quest TV app.

Each episode follows a new celebrity as they attempt to conquer their personal phobia with the help of VR technology. This includes everything from acrophobia, the fear of heights, galeophobia, the fear of sharks, phasmophobia, the fear of supernatural entities, and zoophobia, the fear of animals.

Throughout the series, Wayans will be joined by such recognizable names as Anthony Anderson of the TV show Black-ish, Kelly Rowland of the music group Destiny’s Child, influencer Bryce Hall, professional wrestling duo the Bella Twins, influencer and singer Loren Gray, and comedian & TV host Loni Love.

Credit: Taylor Miller

“There’s nothing more fun than horror, pranking, and scaring friends,” said Wayans in a statement. “This show has all the above.”

Based on the footage provided in the trailer, the show features a unique combination of mixed reality technology and physical props. In some clips, we see the celebrity guests being tormented with different props, such as a rubber snake and a pair of music cymbals. It’s an interesting concept for a series, one that appears to make excellent use of the Quest’s immersive capabilities, not to mention mixed reality.

Credit: Marlon Wayans

“We are thrilled to collaborate with the hilarious and talented Marlon Wayans as he brings his closest friends face-to-face with their fears thanks to the power of virtual reality,” added Mina Lefevre, Meta’s head of development and programming. “We’re excited to partner with Jesse Collins Entertainment to bring these immersive experiences to life using Meta Quest 2.”

Oh Hell No! With Marlon Wayans premiers on October 26th. You can watch the show on Wayans’ Facebook and Instagram pages as well as Meta Quest TV. New episodes will be released every Wednesday at 9am moving forward.

Feature Image Credit: Marlon Wayans

Hologram Patients Allow Doctors To Train Anytime, Anywhere

From vrscout

Elegant training for a more civilized age.

It’s no secret that medical training is an expensive and time-consuming process. Thanks to immersive technology, however, healthcare centers around the world are capable of training doctors, therapists, and surgeons at a faster rate while spending less.

GigXR is one such company using cutting-edge immersive technology to train the next generation of medical professionals with its Gig Immersive Learning Platform. Powered by mixed reality devices like the Microsoft HoloLens 2, the platform uses mixed reality technology to project interactive hologram patients over the real world, offering students a way to hone their skills at home or in the simulation lab.

“Mixed reality is increasingly recognized as a useful method of simulator training. As institutions scale procurement, the demand for platforms that offer utility and ease of mixed reality learning management is rapidly expanding,” said Arun Gupta, Director of Postgraduate Education, Cambridge University Health Partnership.

“GigXR has already enabled instructors to better prepare learners with medically accurate simulation for observation and assessment. With HoloScenarios, we’re helping to evolve education from a mentorship-based model to one where students around the world can have equal access to top-flight expertise for mastering invention-based clinical skills.”

Available now for purchase, Gig XR’s HoloScenarios was developed in partnership with the University of Cambridge and Cambridge University Hospitals (CUH) NHS Foundation Trust. The first set of conditions focuses on respiratory conditions, including asthma, anaphylaxis, pulmonary embolism, and pneumonia scenarios.

Users assist holographic patients throughout the entirety of their healthcare journey, from diagnosis to appropriate intervention and everything in between.

Their performance is monitored by the platform in real-time, offering instant feedback. Instructors can also adjust the settings and update the difficulty for each and every scenario.

“Mixed reality is an excellent way to train. It’s incredibly intuitive. We’ve put customers in apps like HoloScenarios and they ‘just go’ – the experience is instinctual because you simply use your hands and the holograms superimpose over the real world in a way where they look like the real devices, patients or anatomical structures,” said Jared Mermey, CEO at GigXR.

“So our goal is simple: make it easier to create, deliver, and implement more high-quality mixed reality across the spectrum of  healthcare teaching and training.”

As previously mentioned, GigXR’s HoloScenarios currently features several respiratory conditions with implementation scheduled for this Fall. According to the company, Advanced Cardiac Life Support and Neurology modules will be available later this year. For more information visit here.

Image Credit: GigXR

Mixed Reality Stargazing Demo Skygaze Out Now On Quest

From vrscout

Turn your home into the ultimate stargazing lounge.

Available now on the Meta Quest, Skygaze (Demo) is a prototype VR experience that turns your headset into a mixed reality stargazing lounge. You can explore the solar system and search for constellations, learn more about our system’s planets, or catch a show at the virtual planetarium, all from the comfort of your living room.

The app is simple, but nonetheless captivating thanks to its unique use of Meta’s Passthrough API. You begin by identifying the walls of your real-world home using your Touch controllers. Once you’ve finished setting up, the ceiling of your home will begin to retract, revealing a crystal-clear night sky littered with stars, planets, and constellations, each of which features accurate positioning based on your geographical position and local time of day. There’s even the option to lower your walls, allowing you to view even more of the night sky.

According to developer Emanuel Tomozei, Skygaze is still in active development; what’s available now is just a sample of what’s to come at launch. That said the current version of the app still offers plenty to do. You can search for and identify various stars, constellations, and planets. There’s also a separate planetarium space where you can watch a 360-degree film about our solar system. It’s a pretty surreal feeling, watching city-sized asteroids pass overhead as you relax at home.

Skygaze is available now as a free demo on the Meta Quest via the App Lab. Based on the trailer, it appears as though we can expect a virtual telescope mode in the future, which should add additional stargazing opportunities. I’m also hoping the app eventually makes its way to Project Cambria, Meta’s work-focused mixed reality device with high-resolution color passthrough.

“I am hoping to develop it into a full app but it all depends on interest and funding. Any ideas of thoughts on what works, what doesn’t or what could be improved or added would be great to hear!” said Tomozei in a Reddit post.

We first talked about Skygaze last year, back when it was called Stargazer. Tomozei submitted the project to the Facebook XR Hackathon where it won third place in the Mixed Reality track. At the time, he vowed to spend the prize money won in the competition on developing a full-fledged app, and today we saw the first fruits of his labor.

For more information on the Skygaze project visit here.

Image Credit: Emanuel Tomozei

Lynx Secures $4M in Series A Funding, Aims to Become “European Champion of Mixed Reality”

From roadtovr

Lynx, the French XR hardware startup known for crowdfunding the Lynx R-1 mixed reality headset, today announced it’s secured $4 million in its Series A round, led by social VR platform Somnium Space.

Alongside Somnium Space, participants in the latest funding round also include what Lynx calls early supporters of the company and “other investors involved in the AR/VR field such as ex-Meta and Google engineers.”

This brings the company’s total outside funding to $6.8 million, according to Crunchbase data, following the R-1 headset’s $800,000 Kickstarter campaign back in late 2021 and a seed round of $2 million in early 2019.  As a part of the deal Artur Sychov, founder & CEO of Somnium Space, is joining the company’s board of directors.

Built on Qualcomm’s XR2 chipset, Lynx R-1 combines high quality cameras and virtual reality displays to achieve passthrough AR in addition to standard VR (aka, mixed reality), making it an early pioneer of the category. The headset also ditches the standard Fresnel lenses for a novel optic called a “four-fold catadioptric freeform prism,” which is said to slim down the size of Lynx R-1 seemingly beyond what current Fresnels can do.

“At Somnium Space we truly believe in the future of open and decentralized Metaverse which empowers its users. This includes, not only software, but also very importantly hardware,” says Artur Sychov, Founder & CEO of Somnium Space. “The Lynx team led by Stan has created an extraordinary AR / VR device (Lynx-r) with openness in mind which will change and revolutionize the way we all think and interact with this market category. I am very happy to support this company and believe that together we will push the boundaries and potential of the VR/AR industry forward.”

Founded in 2019, Lynx has high ambitions for its R-1 headset too. Priced at $600 for its consumer version, the company is looking to lead the way into the same product category that many established players are soon to enter, including Meta with Project Cambria and Apple with its rumored headset, reportedly code named N301.

“We have this opportunity right here to create the European Champion of Mixed Reality with our work at Lynx, supported by a vibrant community of users and developers desperate to see alternatives to Big Tech companies products and their closed ecosystems.” says Stan Larroque, founder and CEO of Lynx. “What’s the point of creating a European Metaverse if the underlying platform, the door we use to access it, remains in the hands of the same big players with their damaging business models?” he adds.

Since finalizing the design of Lynx R-1, the company has also completed an office expansion in Paris, now at more 200 square meters of R&D, and established a new office in Taiwan.

This Environmental Art Exhibit Is Powered By Mixed Reality

From vrscout

Mixed reality meets environmental awareness.

Arcadia Earth is a one-of-a-kind art exhibit that features a wide assortment of multi-sensory technology designed to immerse you in a captivating mixed reality experience while, at the same time, educating you on various ecosystems as well as our impact on the environment, including single-use plastic waste and overfishing.

The experiential art show is powered by the HoloLens 2, Microsoft’s latest mixed reality headset. Using this device, you can access virtual animations layered over the real world just by looking at certain objects. You can even interact with certain elements using their own two hands via the headset’s built-in hand-tracking technology. Along for the ride is a friendly mixed reality orb designed to help guide you through the experience.

The exhibit is composed of numerous rooms, each featuring its own unique theme. The first room, for example, focuses on our negative impact on coral reefs via a life-sized diorama brought to life using mixed reality. Throughout the experience, you can watch as the holographic reef quickly fades to white due to bleaching.

The room also features a series of holographic orbs floating throughout that, when touched, unlock additional environmental facts, such as how changing the type of suncreen you use can have a positive impact on biodiversity. Clicking on this hologram automatically sends relevant information to your phone, allowing you to take immediate action in helping save the coral reefs.

In addition to mixed reality technology, the exhibit makes use of proximity triggered audio and video elements, offering a multimedia experience quite unlike anything we’ve seen before. The physical installations can even be updated over time with new mixed reality content and information.

Credit: Arcadia Earth

Arcadia Earth’s mixed reality experience will be open to the public in New York City later this month. Tickets begin at $33 ($39 peak). As if you needed another reason to visit, proceeds from ticket sales will be used to plant mangrove trees, which are known for their ability to isolate carbon from the atmosphere.

The exhibit was developed in partnership with Enklu with support from Oceanic Global and WWF. For more information visit arcadia.earth.

Image Credit: Arcadia Earth

Meta Is Reportedly Launching Multiple VR Headsets By 2024

From vrscout

Project Cambria will supposedly release this September followed by a new Quest in 2023.

A new report by The Information states that Meta (formerly Facebook) is currently in the development of four new headsets that will release by 2024. The website claims to have seen an internal roadmap outlining the company’s next steps, revealing an ambitious plan to dominate the VR/AR space.



According to the report, this lineup of new hardware will begin the release of Project Cambria this September. Designed specifically for use in the workplace, this VR/AR device will supposedly feature both eye and face tracking as well as high-resolution colored Passthrough technology, allowing for more realistic mixed reality experiences. The visuals are so clear that you’re able to pick up a pen and start writing comfortably without removing the headset, a major improvement over the original Quest and Quest 2 if accurate.

While The Information originally reported that Project Cambria will cost around $800, a Meta spokesperson has since reached out to the publication clarifying that the cost will cost “significantly higher.” An updated version of Cambria, codenamed “Funston”, will supposedly launch in 2024. Before that Meta will launch two additional Quest headsets, “Stinson” and “Cardiff,” in 2023 and 2024 respectively.

The report also offered several updates on Meta’s long-awaited AR device. Codenamed “Nazare,” these AR glasses will supposedly launch in 2024. The company is also working on a pair of cheaper smartglasses called “Hypernova” powered by an electromyography wrist band that will allow you to control the device using only your thoughts. Unlike Nazare, which is supposedly a standalone device, Hypernova will pair with the user’s smartphone.

Moving forward, the company could release a lighter, more advanced pair of AR glasses in 2026 followed by another iteration in 2028, but let’s not get ahead of ourselves. First, we need to see just how Meta’s Narare AR glasses fair in 2024.

For more information check out The Information’s full report here.

Image Credit: Meta