Like a regular lens, except for one thing…
Digilens
DigiLens raises $50 million in Series D. Samsung led the rounds, giving an indication of where these low-cost waveguide lenses for AR glasses could go. The investment values the company at $530 million.
Unreal Engine 5 could change games, movies and the metaverse. To show the power of the new UE5 game development platform, Epic is freeing the whole city from the Matrix demo, so developers can create games and experiences on it. The world will be populated by 20,000 metahumans driving cars and roaming the city streets, with every block rendered in exquisite detail, down to every leaf and brick.
The smart city of cyberspace and digital data metaverse of the future and technology, internet and … [+]
Getty
Citi Says The Metaverse Economy Could Be Worth $13 Trillion By 2030 In a report released last week, the bank says the Metaverse represents a potential $13 trillion market opportunity by 2030, which could have up to 5 billion users.
A photo taken on March 7, 2022 shows a partial view of MINILAND in the LEGOLAND theme of Dubai … [+]
AFP via Getty Images
Epic and Lego are teaming up to build The Legoverse. The release didn’t say Legoverse, to be fair, but I had to. The joint publication of the two companies was poor in details but not in superlatives. “The Lego Group and Epic Games will combine their vast experience to ensure that this next iteration of the internet is designed from the ground up with the well-being of children in mind.” It’s not even clear that the money has changed hands. Maybe Epic is fed up with how Meta dominates tech news every week. They have 3,741 backlogged press releases, so that won’t put a lot of a dent in there.
Army to purchase 120,000 HoloLens IVAS systems to plug soldiers into the IoT battlefield of … [+]
The American army
Army plans thousands of IVAS systems with FY23 budget. It’s the kind way of saying that the military is slow to complete its planned twenty-two billion dollar purchase of HoloLens technology. On the one hand, the command likes Microsoft, The HoloLens and IVAS. They say delays are normal. On the other hand, they were hampered by congressional budget allocations, only getting half of what was asked for, which in itself was far less than expected. As they now speak of the next HoloLens, the XR combat use case may stay in the cockpit longer than expected.
Professional surgeons in disposable uniform and VR headset performing operation on patient in modern environment … [+]
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Orthomed & Osso bring VR surgery training to the animal health market. The simulator used to train doctors can also train veterinarians.
Artist’s conception of possible Apple XR glasses.
TAEYON-KIM
Apple headset rumor roundup: Everything we’ve heard. It’s a slow week, so…
Virbela’s recently upgraded campus.
Virbela
This week in XR is now a podcast hosted by Ted Schilowitz, futurist at Viacom, and Charlie Fink, the author of this weekly column. Our guest this week is Alex Howland, founder and president of Virbela. You can find us on podcasting platforms Spotify, itunesand Youtube.
What we read
Magic Leap 2 aims to bring AR to businesses, without BS this time (Connie Guglielmo/Cnet)
How the Metaverse Could Change Work (Mark Purdy/Harvard Business Review)
Will your company adopt AR for training? (Jonny Evans/Computerworld)
The State of XR in Manufacturing and Industry 2022 (Rory Greenier/XR Today)
