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Flipside XR Launches Free VR App Flipside Studio for Animated Content

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Virtual reality company Flipside XR has launched a new app designed for creators called Flipside Studio. Launched on March 2 with support from Meta, the VR app enables users to build animated content in real time, using advanced virtual production tools. Finished projects can be uploaded and shared on YouTube, TikTok, Twitch, and other social media platforms.

Flipside Studio virtual reality app

The VR app is part of Flipside XR’s goal to impact the entertainment industry using virtual and augmented reality.

A VR App to Empower Creators

In creating Flipside Studio, Flipside XR aims to encourage video content creators to harness virtual reality for creative expression. The app contains a number of tools and features that allow users to produce engaging, high-quality videos powered by VR.

With almost 100 video tools available, content creators will find that making videos has become more fun and more imaginative. The app works with Meta Quest 2 and Rift/Rift S VR headsets for motion capture technology, so animation production is easier.

In the press release shared with ARPost, Flipside XR CEO and co-founder Lesley Klassen emphasized the potential for users. “Creators can easily produce innovative, professional animated content that can be monetized across their social media channels offering endless opportunities to share original, engaging content with their audiences,” Klassen said. In addition, he noted the wide variety of added features since the early access version of the app, allowing users to create animated content more efficiently with VR.

And perhaps the best part of Flipside Studio? The app is available on the Meta Quest Store for free, so anyone can try it out and discover or unleash their inner animator.

Features That Bring Creative Ideas to Life

From amateurs to professionals, video creators will find Flipside Studio’s tools easy to use. It’s packed with features that will bring to life their most creative stories. Flipside XR aims to drive VR technology to the mainstream of arts and creativity. Thus, this new VR app is a step closer to their vision of accessible VR technology to everyone.

Some of the notable features of the Flipside Studio app include:

  • Sets and props – The VR app has a wide selection of sets to choose from, plus hundreds of props.
  • Character customization – The virtual reality app is integrated with Ready Player Me, so users can customize their own characters. Meanwhile, those without Ready Player Me access can use available in-app characters.
  • Production tools – Take advantage of multiple professional production tools like virtual cameras, lights, and teleprompters. Users can adjust and manipulate cameras as in real life, with a variety of camera angles and speeds.
  • Collaboration tools – Users can share the fun of video production with other creators using Flipside’s collaboration features. Creators can work on one virtual set, whether they’re doing a solo project or working with two or more people.
  • Live-streaming and recording capabilities – Share animated content via live-streaming on major social media platforms; users can also record and upload it on their channel at a more convenient time.
  • Advanced Flipside creator tools – Fully customized sets, props, and characters are possible with Flipside’s advanced creator tools through its Unity plug-in.

Virtual reality app Flipside Studio

After six years in development and thousands of beta testers, Flipside Studio is finally available for those looking for a way to upgrade their animated content production.

Leveling Up Entertainment With Flipside Studio’s VR Technology

In recent months, creators like comedians Jordan Cerminara and Rodney Ramsey have used Flipside to add value to their content. No longer confined to gaming, AR/VR in entertainment is unlocking creative ideas in the creator economy.

The release of the Flipside Studio app coincides with the growth of the creator economy, estimated by experts to reach more than $100 billion. With the tools provided by the app, creators can elevate their content using VR for more immersive and engaging experiences.

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The 2023 Polys WebXR Awards Recap

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The third Annual Polys WebXR Awards took place this weekend. The show was bigger than ever thanks to the first-ever in-person awards and a special event saying farewell to AltspaceVR. However, despite some new categories, the overall category list was shorter this year as a number of previous awards were combined.

A Very Special Polys

The Polys launched during the height of the pandemic. Fortunately, not being in person has a way of not greatly hindering an event that’s already dedicated to WebXR.

The event took place in a bespoke AltspaceVR world, with watch parties on YouTube as well as other remote platforms. However, this time, people were able to get together in person but they did it in a very “metaverse” way.

The Polys 2023 WebXR Awards

In-person hosts, producers, presenters, and an audience gathered at ZeroSpace, an XR stage and motion capture studio in Brooklyn. Their actions on the stage were volumetrically captured and displayed in The Polys’ AltspaceVR environment, similar to the launch of Microsoft Mesh. Polys Director Ginna Lambert said that this was the first award show to use the technology.

Further, while winners and honorees had previously received their Polys Awards as NFTs, the team worked with Looking Glass Factory so that this year’s Polys can be presented in a physical frame. This is as physical as The Polys can get, seeing as Linda Ricci designed the award to defy physics.

A Funeral for AltspaceVR

In lieu of a half-time show, Big Rock Creative CEO, co-founder, and producer Athena Demos held a eulogy for AltspaceVR. Virtual attendees lined the aisle to a pulpit adorned with flowers and candles in a ceremony that was heartfelt and a little macabre. Following mourners down the aisle was a coffin containing one of the iconic robot avatars that AltspaceVR used at launch.

“AltspaceVR will always hold a special place in our hearts,” said Demos. “While we say goodbye to the platform that brought us together, we will always remember the connections that we made here.”

AltspaceVR funeral - The 2023 Polys WebXR Awards

While the WebXR team has used AltspaceVR to host The Polys Awards and numerous other town hall events and summits over the last three years, Demos and her team have been using it to bring Burning Man into virtual spaces. There is also a farewell party scheduled by Big Rock Creative to last until the moment that AltspaceVR servers shut down later this week.

The Polys Awards

Where last year’s Polys saw 15 awards categories (not counting personal honors of Lifetime Achievement, Ombudsperson of the Year, and the Community Award), this year’s show had eight categories. That includes some new categories reflecting the advancement of immersive technology even over the last few months.

“We in this community are ahead of a massive shift that we call the fourth industrial revolution,” said host Julie Smithson. “We’re here to celebrate the progress made in WebXR in the year of 2022.”

Julie Smithson at The Polys WebXR Awards

Entertainment Experience of the Year

When popular culture looks at “the metaverse” they typically equate it with irresponsible escapism – something that people use to avoid the challenges of life. XR producer and director Kiira Benzing pointed out that positive escapism – using XR to take a break from life rather than to neglect it – is one of the medium’s greatest strengths.

“With the immersive medium, you get the opportunity to step into an experience,” Benzing said in presenting the award for Entertainment Experience of the year.

The award went to Project Flowerbed, an immersive gardening experience by the Meta WebXR team. The same project was nominated for Experience of the Year.

Innovator of the Year

Futurewei Technologies Senior Director for VR, Metaverse, Mobile, Apps, and Services Daniel Ljunggren presented the award for Innovator of the Year – previously “Innovation of the Year.” The award went to Sean Mann, CEO and co-founder of RP1, a “persistent, seamless, real-time platform with limitless scalability.”

“To be amongst this many pioneers and innovators in one space is amazing. I think we’re all winners,” said Mann. “I’m super excited to be a part of this.”

Developer of the Year

“Being on the frontier of the immersive web is a pioneering effort,” Yinch Yeap said in presenting this award. “It still feels like the Wild West.”

And, like in the Wild West, many of the biggest names are pseudonyms. This is certainly the case for this year’s winner, known only as “Jin.” Jin appeared as a similarly anonymized avatar to accept the award.

“I am a huge believer in WebXR,” said Jin. “I stand on the shoulders of giants. I am very humbled and I owe this to everyone building the immersive web.”

Game of the Year Award

“Game of the Year” is a broad category as most WebXR experiences are arguably “games” – and that’s what makes the award so important according to presenter Rik Cabanier, a software engineer at Meta. The award went to the mini golf game Above Par-Adowski by Paradowski Creative.

Above Par-Adowski VR game

Accepting the award was Paradowski Creative Director of Emerging Technology James Kane, who called WebXR “the best expression of the metaverse there is.” Kane was also a nominee for Innovator of the Year.

“I want to thank our team,” said Kane. “And thanks to the Meta team for creating an amazing WebXR platform as well as for directly supporting us.”

AR Passthrough Experience of the Year

“Where, for the past years AR experiences were mainly relegated to phones, now passthrough devices are everywhere,” said presenter Lucas Rizzotto. This allows more passthrough experiences on devices available today, but it also allows more impactful development of experiences for future AR devices.

The award went to Spatial Fusion by PHORIA and Meta, an experience which sees players repairing a damaged spaceship. Ben Ferns, a consulting developer, was one of those accepting the award.

“Huge thanks to the entire team – it was a huge team effort,” said Ferns. “It’s just exciting to see the promise of WebXR and passthrough.”

WebXR Platform of the Year

In presenting the award for WebXR Platform of the Year, Prestidge Group founder and CEO Briar Prestidge pointed out that every WebXR platform has strengths and weaknesses – something that she learned a lot about while famously spending “48 hours in the metaverse” for a documentary.

The award went to Croquet, “the operating system of the metaverse,” which also took home the Startup Pitch Competition Auggie Award last year. The award was accepted by The Polys on behalf of the organization.

Education Experience of the Year

The “digital divide” describes accessibility differences exacerbated by the benefit of technology only being available to those who can afford the required hardware or programs. WebXR is vital to the future of education because it lowers the cost of access for immersive experiences, according to Silicon Harlem founder Clayton Banks in presenting this award.

Banks presented the award to Prehistoric Domain, an immersive tour that brings learners up close and personal with virtual representations of dinosaurs and other extinct species. Accepting the award was creator Benjamin Dupuy. Prehistoric Domain was also nominated for Experience of the Year.

“WebXR opens so many possibilities – it’s very exciting,” said Dupuy in accepting the award. “We are all pioneers of the immersive web here and I think we’re at the beginning of an era where the line between illusion and reality is very thin.”

Experience of the Year

Demos returned to the stage – this time in volumetric capture instead of in her AltspaceVR avatar – to present the award for Experience of the Year to Spatial Fusion.

This was the experience’s second win of the night. The experience was also a nominee for Entertainment Experience of the Year. Ferns returned to accept the award and pointed out that the code has been open-sourced.

“I’m really excited to see what other people do with this now that it’s freely accessible,” said Ferns. “It’s an exciting time for trying out all of these new UX opportunities.”

This Year’s Honorees

In addition to the nominated awards categories, there are three honors categories. The honoree in each category is named by the previous year’s recipient rather than by a panel of judges.

Community Honor

Last year’s community honoree Trevor Flowers named Evo Heyning for this year, specifically for her work with the XR Guild, the Open Metaverse Interoperability Group, and [email protected].

“Whether it’s exploring AR, exploring 3D objects and NERFs, exploring interoperability of avatars and [email protected] specifically, being a part of these experiences with [Sophia Moshasha], with Ben [Irwin], with Julie [Smithson], with everyone – it’s meant so much to me,” Heyning said in accepting the honor.

Ombudsperson of the Year

The Ombudsperson of the Year Honor is specifically set up to recognize people working on the social and human aspects of WebXR. Last year’s honoree, Avi Bar-Zeev said that he was “honored to hand off the title” to Brittan Heller, a lawyer who introduced the term “biometric psychography” to describe mental and emotional profiling through an XR user’s personal data.

Brittan Heller at The Polys WebXR Awards

“I’d like to thank Avi, Kent [Bye], and everyone at the XR Guild and the Virtual World Society, and everyone in the XR community,” said Heller. “I appreciate how everyone here is so involved in making the community so welcoming to everyone.”

Bye, referenced by Heller in her acceptance speech, is a leading XR ethicist, a strong speaker in the nascent field of biometric psychography, and the first-ever recipient of this award.

Lifetime Achievement Honor

Last year’s Lifetime Achievement Honoree Brandon Jones selected Patric Cozzi for this year’s honor. Cozzi is the CEO of Cesium, but he was selected for this award because of his work co-creating glTF as a contributor to the Khronos Group.

Patric Cozzi at The Polys WebXR Awards

“I’m really honored for glTF and the community,” said Cozzi. “It was a grassroots effort for years.”

Looking Forward to the Future

This was the last year that The Polys WebXR awards will be hosted in AltspaceVR, but the team is still looking forward to next year’s event. While they haven’t yet said what platform (or platforms) it will take place on, there’s a full year to figure that out. And a year is a long time in this industry. If you missed this year’s ceremony, you can find the recording here.

The 2023 Polys WebXR Awards Recap Read More »

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Jackson Public Schools Implement Virtual Reality in the Classroom

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Virtual reality in the classroom is one of the many uses of immersive technologies. And, wherever it is in use, it has proven to be a great success. The latest educational organization to adopt it is Jackson Public Schools in Mississippi.

The second-largest school district in the Magnolia State, comprising seven high schools, 10 middle schools, 31 elementary schools, and four special program schools, has recently announced that its students will now be able to learn using VR.

VR Learning Made Available to a Large Number of Students

Currently, Jackson Public Schools enrolls 80% of the children in the capital city of Mississippi. Thanks to the partnership with a local company specializing in developing VR solutions for the educational field, Lobaki, the school district’s 19,000 students will soon have access to virtual reality in the classroom.

This partnership resulted in the full equipment of the entire school system with the necessary hardware and applications. They will allow the students to enjoy an immersive and hands-on learning experience in every class – from history to biology.

Teachers Are Happy to Use Virtual Reality in the Classroom

Not only students, but teachers are also excited to use the modern tools made available through the multiyear partnership with Lobaki. During the COVID-19 lockdown, they had the opportunity to learn how to use remote learning solutions.

And virtual reality in the classroom is a way of bringing together the best of both worlds; real and virtual.

“We have been interested in using virtual reality in our schools for quite some time now, as we are always looking to improve the educational experience,” said Dr. Rajeeni Scott, the Executive Director of School Support for Jackson Public School District, in a press release shared with ARPost. “With the additional challenge of learning loss created by the COVID-19 pandemic, we knew it was time to implement this solution within our schools.”

The New Project Showcases the Practical Role of VR in Our Lives

Virtual reality is no longer just for fun, entertainment, and hi-tech industries. It is becoming a part of our lives, from the simplest to the most advanced levels. For Lobaki, virtual reality in the classroom is proof of the huge potential of this technology.

“As one of the oldest and largest school systems in the state of Mississippi, Jackson Public School District’s decision to implement virtual reality technology stands out as one of the largest implementations in the United States to date,” said the CEO of Lobaki, Amber Coeur.

Using VR headsets and immersive experiences created by Lobaki, students will be able to interact with for example Civil Rights leaders or explore the structures of the smallest cells in the animal and vegetal world.

As a local company based in Mississippi, Lobaki is the ideal partner for this type of long-term partnership with Jackson Public Schools.

“As Mississippi’s only owned and operated virtual reality content creation company, the level of support from installation to training is unmatched,” explained Scott “We know they aren’t going to drop off hardware and leave …they are our next-door neighbors and fellow Mississippians.”

Jackson Public Schools Implement Virtual Reality in the Classroom Read More »

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Onboarding in the Boardroom: Starting the Conversation on Enterprise VR

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Gaming and social experiences are great uses for virtual reality. However, enterprise VR is also making huge strides to solve big problems in the world of work. Companies that do things like manufacturing, retail management, advertising, and just about anything else have a lot to gain from enterprise VR. But, they don’t always know where to start.

Everyone who runs a business making enterprise VR solutions has to have a decent pitch on why companies should sign on, but there are also some organizations that make onboarding their companies part of the experience.

Finding Direction With Endava

Endava is a tech services provider that helps companies use new technologies to solve problems, increase efficiency, and grow their business models. They aren’t exclusively interested in emerging technologies like extended reality and the metaverse, but they’re seeing a lot of client interest in those fields. And that’s a good thing.

“Don’t wait until the need or the use case is defined because by then you’re just chasing everyone else,” said Scott Harkey, the Executive Vice President of Financial Services and Payments at Endava.

Where to Begin

This often means that companies that do actively want to develop an enterprise VR strategy can be stuck in the awkward position of feeling that they should do something without knowing where to begin. That’s the point where working with a consultancy can help.

“Figuring out where to start is often one of the biggest parts of it,” said Harkey. “That, of course, is different for each organization. But, generally, thinking from a consumer experience perspective helps you focus on what is the problem that you’re actually trying to solve.”

Working with the entire company can help to keep the enterprise VR project on track. Uncertain executives might want to put everything in the hands of their builders, but that can lead to an over-developed and underperforming solution. Putting too much on the executives instead of the builders might hobble the project before it’s begun.

“Individual engineers often get really excited about new tech,” said Harkey. “As you get more senior in the organization, I think they tend to have a more pragmatic view of the technology… they tend to be more conservative with new technologies and want something that is more proven.”

Before proving something, it needs to work. From there, the learning can really begin.

“First it needs to work… It needs to solve the problem. If it’s cool, that’s great. But, does it work?” explained Harkey. “There’s definitely a desire to be experimenting with new tech.”

Gauging Success

Determining whether or not an emerging technology project is successful is a challenging task in enterprise VR. Some in the XR space have even suggested new metrics for XR experiences on the grounds that the way that we track engagement with more conventional media doesn’t do XR justice.

“Definitely experiment. Definitely play with things. There’s no better way to understand how this can impact your business than to play with it,” said Harkey. “But, set the expectations upfront if that’s what you’re doing… If you’re misaligned on the objectives, that’s when you can have a failed experience.”

Those expectations might be things like “engagement” – how many people are accessing the experience, and how long are they using it? However, it can be just as important to understand what they’re doing while they’re in the enterprise VR experience. According to Harkey, some companies use “investigation” as their only metric.

“If I’m doing anything in VR right now and I’m anyone other than Meta, and this is probably true for them too, I don’t really know what I’m doing in VR and I want to see what people engage with,” said Harkey. Harkey added that sometimes experimenting leads to an idea for a more practical or goal-driven solution. “A lot of the time, you’ll see those use cases start to emerge.”

Putting on the Headset With Morpheus

Morpheus is an enterprise VR engagement platform. It started off as a VR events coordinator using AltspaceVR, but has developed into a full-service solution provider with its own virtual world platform and headset distribution arm. And headset distribution is still a big deal.

“We looked at the market and were like, ‘no one has headsets’ so that’s one – that’s the first thing we need to tackle,” CEO Jeffrey Chernick told me during an in-world interview. “We actually send teams headsets and teach them how to use VR. We do one-on-one onboarding with everyone on a team.”

Upon entering the world, before the interview started, COO Jennifer Regan led a “grounding exercise,” acclimating to being in VR. “We are really focused on the least common denominator, which is the first-time user but we also want to make sure that we’re creating enriching spaces for advanced users,” said Regan.

Morpheus enterprise VR platform

Chernick believes that in the next couple of years, as headset adoption picks up, things like hardware distribution will shrink as a part of their business model. Morpheus also works on desktop and mobile devices, and they’re planning on expanding the availability of their enterprise VR application, which is currently only in Quest’s App Lab.

“A huge piece for a lot of corporate HR teams is the employee benefit of giving a headset,” commented Regan. “A Quest 2 gives them access to Supernatural, other fitness apps – there’s other programming that they can at least conceive of using.”

Exploring a Morpheus World

Users can bring their own enterprise VR content into Morpheus, or work with the team to create bespoke worlds. However, the available worlds in Morpheus have a lot to offer already. Some of the settings speak to their earlier days as a “one-off experience” platform but different areas can be built onto one another via a portal system to create vast multi-venue virtual worlds.

“Space is the most valuable tool and we try to maximize its power,” explained president Mikhail Krymov. Krymov is the “chief architect” behind the Morpheus worlds which include sunny knolls, rock gardens, firefly caves, lounges, lecture halls, and ethereal forests.

Interactions and assets come alive in the worlds as well. A hands-in interaction triggers fireworks. “Unofficially the best drinks in VR” slosh in the cup and clink during a toast. A minigame initiates between two avatars wearing boxing gloves. Speakers have their choice between holding a microphone or using a floating microphone that follows them as they move.

“Once you’re in the world, what do you do that’s not just a novelty?” asked Chernick. “No one’s coming in here for a four-person board meeting that they could just do on Zoom.”

These interactions aren’t just fun – they’re exercises in embodiment that help users get comfortable with the feeling of being in virtual spaces. As Regan pointed out, there’s still an “intimidation factor for newer users.” It’s easy to imagine familiar objects, whether fun or practical, helping users feel at home.

Enterprise VR Beyond “The Officeverse”

Enterprise VR solutions that do little more than add depth to a video call have been dubbed “the officeverse.” While those kinds of experiences are a natural way for enterprise companies to dip their toes into the immersive waters, they’re by no means the end of what companies are exploring or what builders are creating.

Onboarding in the Boardroom: Starting the Conversation on Enterprise VR Read More »

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Frame Releases Second Set of Platform-Defining Updates

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It’s been over a year since ARPost introduced readers to Frame, the hardware-agnostic web-based virtual meeting platform. The team, a part of Virbela (which has its own app-based virtual world platform), just announced a major update. It was time to step back in with Vice President Gabe Baker.

Gabe Baker in Frame 3.0

A Peek at the Update

Frame’s update was all about adding power to the platform while making it easier to use. The result was added or improved tools with a more streamlined user interface so that more advanced users can access the tools without cluttering the view for everyone else.

New tools include advanced analytics and new APIs for adding members and admins and editing assets. There’s also a new question queue system for support centers, classrooms, and other large-scale discussion cases, and a partner program that rewards users for attracting subscribers to the platform.

Analytics - Frame 3.0

“Fundamentally, we believe that the web browser IS the metaverse and that we’re entering a new era of spatial computing that will result in many traditional websites, apps, and services existing on the spatial web alongside the 2D internet that we’re used to today,” Baker wrote in a blog post announcing the update.

Even if you’re not building and hosting your own frames, there are benefits coming for average users as well. These include new environments, graphics updates like real-time light and shadow, and a still experimental option to use full-body avatars.

Frame Releases Second Set of Platform-Defining Updates

Also announced were coming roadmap updates including increased asset storage and support for multiple web browsers. Some of these will be limited to the paid subscriber tiers, but will all be rolled out “while maintaining a robust free plan.”

Seeing Is Believing

Reading about the updates is one thing, but I jumped into the platform, first solo and then in a live session with Baker to check them out for myself. As a connoisseur of VR avatars, I was pleasantly surprised before even entering a Frame.

I Have Legs and a Jacket. Life Is Good.

The avatars weren’t one of my favorite aspects of the platform last time around, but they’ve come a long way. Even if you don’t opt for the full-body avatars, the “classic” avatars are a lot more expressive and have some layered clothing options that were missing before. You can also use your Ready Player Me avatar, but not in full-body mode.

“[Full-body avatars] are hard to achieve on the web just for performance reasons,” said Baker. “We still have a ways to go on the full-body customizations.”

Full-body avatars - Frame 3.0

I was curious about whether Frame had had some conversations with parent company Virbela, who have had full-body avatars since the beginning. However, it’s not that simple, as Virbela is a native app as opposed to a browser-based platform.

“It’s a bit of a different world because they’re a Unity-based application,” said Baker. “In terms of the back-and-forth, there’s not really much because we use Babylon.js.”

All the Pretty Lights

Frame is also a year behind Virbela in announcing graphics performance updates. Graphics and display are big topics at the company because they are key areas where developers can compromise to achieve performance. That’s a big deal for a platform designed to run on everything from headsets to computers to mobile phones.

“It’s always going to be more important to us that people can get into Frame than that they can have an amazing graphical experience,” said Baker. “People do use Frame to explore digital twins and then they do need that level of graphical fidelity.”

And, that level of graphical fidelity is available to those users. The platform has long had a feature that tones down display quality automatically to the highest level that can be achieved by the user’s hardware while maintaining a stable experience. There is also a system in the works for builders to upload separate versions of their worlds for devices with different abilities.

Performance requirements aside, one of the worlds that we visited was at least as visually impressive as the average VR application – and more impressive than a number of them.

“There are still some visual experiences that you really need to be in a native application for, but the gap is narrowing,” said Baker, who was also the guest on our latest episode of XR Talks. (If you missed it live on Twitter Spaces yesterday, you can listen to it on YouTube here or Spotify here.)

Tools for Builders

Another area where the company tries to achieve compromise is with developer tools. The plan has always been to keep the platform agile and approachable, but it’s quickly growing into a fully-featured world-building tool for developers who need it.

“When we first started Frame, our whole thing was like ‘no nonsense, no download, no code,’ and we still very much believe in that vision,” said Baker. “But now we’re kind of branching out because we do see people that want to do those kinds of things… and if you don’t want to, you don’t have to.”

Worldbuilders have more ability than ever to create and bring in their own assets, as well as enable visitors to do the same. They can also see who created or edited which assets and when through new analytics tools.

Welcome to Frame 3.0

There are a growing number of browser-based immersive spaces. And most of them can be accessed from portals placed within a Frame. That is one of the many reasons that this is one of our favorite platforms in the immersive web. And it just keeps getting better.

Frame Releases Second Set of Platform-Defining Updates Read More »

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Mental Health and VR: The Role of Emerging Technologies in Transforming Mental Health Care

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With one out of eight people in the world living with a mental disorder, mental health has become a critical concern of global importance. However, many people are still not receiving the care they need and deserve. Fortunately, emerging technologies are becoming more affordable and accessible, offering new possibilities to transform mental health care. One such solution is mental health services in VR.

To explore the key role emerging technologies play in revolutionizing the field of mental health, we delve into the current challenges the industry faces and how new technologies can potentially address them. Terrance Williams, the founder of Meta Wellness, shares his insights on how digital and immersive technologies can augment the delivery of mental health care services.

Major Gaps in Mental Health Systems

Mental health systems worldwide are marked by significant gaps in information and research, governance, resources, and services. For instance, around half of the world’s population live in countries where the ratio of psychiatrists to people is 1 for every 200,000. In the United States alone, almost one out of four adults with mental illness reported that they were not able to receive the treatment they needed.

Virtual reality offers an accessible and affordable way to provide high-quality and timely mental health care.

The Role of VR in Mental Health Care

VR and similar technologies have the potential to provide more immersive and engaging interventions that can significantly enhance the quality and accessibility of mental health care. Terrance Williams believes that VR is the next stage toward the future of mental health. He explains that instead of telehealth services relying on zoom or a computer to host their sessions, they can now do their sessions in VR in the metaverse.

According to Williams, the effectiveness of VR has been seen in a number of ways including the treatment of acrophobia, panic disorders, schizophrenia, agoraphobia, social phobia, claustrophobia, and eating disorders.

VR simulations have also shown great promise as an effective element in therapy sessions for PTSD as they allow a person to face their trauma in a relaxed and controlled setting. Indeed, the possibilities are endless. Even in the realm of rehabilitation, VR has been seen as useful in cognitive rehabilitation in adults and children with autism spectrum disorder.

Challenges in VR Mental Health

The development and use of VR in mental health care must be carefully monitored and regulated to ensure that it benefits patients and does not create new risks or challenges. Asked about the challenges that mental health professionals face when incorporating VR into their practices, Williams says that one of the biggest things he often gets asked about is HIPAA compliance. Although he explains that this does not pose a threat as long as certain measures are in place and certain steps are taken to maintain compliance.

Another issue often raised when it comes to mental health in VR is the accessibility of equipment. Headset devices are needed to conduct sessions in VR. Since the technology is still fairly new, VR headsets are not as common as phones, tablets, or laptops. While they can now be easily bought at electronic stores, they are not yet standard items in the common household. This limits access to mental health VR services, especially in low-income families.

XR Talks with ARPost

Incorporating VR Into Mental Health Care

For mental health professionals looking to incorporate VR into their practices, it is important to start with learning the basics of virtual reality technology and how it can be used for mental health purposes. Collaborating with companies that specialize in building VR platforms for mental health professionals, like Meta Wellness, can also help navigate the technology.

Through Meta Wellness, Williams has been helping mental health professionals, therapists, life coaches, nonprofits, and many others in the virtual reality space. The company specializes in building VR platforms for mental health professionals for telehealth purposes. Clients anywhere in the world can buy or rent virtual reality spaces to host telehealth or private group sessions. As one of the pioneers in the space, they are committed to educating, growing, and exploring the possibilities of what virtual reality can bring.

Stronger Mental Health Care With Mental Health VR

Williams believes that in the future, 90% of all mental health telehealth sessions will eventually take place in the metaverse through virtual reality. He believes that mental health VR is the next phase in this sector. As the technology grows, so will the capabilities and accessibility.

Indeed, virtual reality and other immersive technologies can play a key role in addressing the indisputable and urgent need for wide-ranging transformation toward mental health for all. They can bridge the vast gap and reduce inequities in mental health systems.

Mental Health and VR: The Role of Emerging Technologies in Transforming Mental Health Care Read More »

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Honor This Black History Month in XR

AR experiences, Editor's Pick, featured, history, racial equality, social justice, trending, VR experiences, XR experiences / /

February is Black History Month and it’s not too late to honor through the magic of XR thanks to these activations from ROSE, TIME and Meta, and Virbela.

Walk Through Black History With ROSE

As a Black-owned company, ROSE makes an effort every year to create an immersive and educational experience for Black History Month, and this year the company delivered yet again. This year’s AR experience, with “resistance” as the highlight, is titled Marching Forward.

The experience, which you can visit here on your smartphone, takes the form of a double row of AR statues. You walk down the aisle and tap the statues to learn more about their inspiration.

Marching Forward Black History Month AR experience by ROSE

“We really wanted to create balance within the experience with the solid bronze look of the statues and in turn, draw the users to explore the changing Black Lives Matter text on the ground,” explained ROSE Art Director Jourdan Johnson. “The text updates to display colorized images related to the moment to get a better understanding of what they are learning about.”

This involves physically moving down the aisle, which is a powerful experience but can be complicated for example in smaller spaces. If you need more room or have mobility issues, you can reposition the experience to make it easier.

The stories start with the roots of the Civil Rights Movement in the 1960s, moving up through the Black Panther Party, art and literature movements through the 1980s, and moving up into the current-day BLM movement. The story behind each statue is read by professional voice actress Joy Ofodu. You also have the option to read the information yourself.

Black History Month AR experience by ROSE Marching Forward

“From a podium or a canvas, your voice can be heard and can make a difference. That is an important message for everyone going through this experience,” said Johnson. “We can use the knowledge of the past and get inspired, particularly for those who are not Black, to support and amplify Black voices in our communities in a multitude of ways.”

Experience the Struggle With TIME and Meta

Meta teamed up with TIME to create MLK: The Time is Now, a free experience exploring how ongoing issues like housing, voting rights, and law enforcement practices remain real issues facing the Black community 60 years after Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech. The experience works comfortably while sitting and employs hand tracking.

Black History Month VR experience MLK - Now is the Time

Hand tracking is often an intimate part of the experience, bringing users into the different vignettes presented in the experiences. For example, the second experience, putting you in the seat of a Black man in a car that has just been pulled over, only progresses when you take your hands off of the steering wheel, escalating the situation with the four police officers.

Black History Month VR experience - MLK - Now is the Time - car, police

The experience, available on Meta Quest, uses a combination of artistic and engaging virtual reality, moving voiceovers, recorded interviews with modern subjects, and archival footage and audio. Overall, the experience is a brief but powerful exploration of the fact that the Voting Rights Act did not bring complete equality.

This experience was not created specifically for Black History Month – it actually came out last month. But, if you’re looking for educational XR experiences to celebrate BHM, put this on your list. And, if you don’t get around to it in February, it isn’t going anywhere.

Step Into Virbela’s New and Improved Black History Library

For our final stop this Black History Month, we’re visiting Virbela. If you’ve celebrated Black History Month with ARPost in the past, you already know about Virbela’s Black History Library. It’s true, this isn’t the first time that the platform has hosted this initiative, but it is the first time since the platform got a major graphics update last spring.

Virbela black history library

The library is bigger, brighter, and better than ever in its new home. Inside, the library is divided into sections on musicians, authors, playwrights, programmers, and more. So, browse around or go straight to what interests you. The actual items in the library are links that take you to reading suggestions, music playlists, and other resources.

Virbela black history library book club

To find the library, enter the Virbela open campus. Then, click on the map icon in the upper right corner. At the top of the page, change the view from “Campus Map” to “World Map” and select the Black History Library from the menu on the right.

How Do You Honor Black History Month

Whether you’re walking through Black history with ROSE, putting your hands on it with TIME and Meta, or reading up on it with Virbela, we hope that you make the best of this Black History Month by diving into XR.

Honor This Black History Month in XR Read More »

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AWE 2023 Is Right Around the Corner

AR/VR events, augmented reality, AWE, Events, extended reality, featured, virtual reality / /

Augmented World Expo, AWE for short, returns to Santa Clara this year from May 31 to June 2, 2023. The agenda is still coming together but there’s already a lot to be excited about. Let’s take a look.

Morning Keynotes

Many XR companies save some of their biggest announcements for the AWE stage. Even when companies aren’t dropping new products, apps, and services, they use the time to inform and inspire listeners about this rapidly developing space.

Day One

The first day of AWE always starts with an opening keynote from event founder Ori Inbar. Inbar’s addresses are always insightful and digestible with good measures of his palpable enthusiasm and humor. During his opening keynote last year, Inbar spoke about how XR can help make both big dreams and small dreams become reality.

Next up is the Qualcomm keynote from Vice President and General Manager of XR Hugo Swart. At his keynote last year, Swart presented Snapdragon Spaces and introduced the first two recipients of Qualcomm Ventures’ metaverse-funded companies.

Then, Nreal CEO Chi Xu takes the stage. Nreal hasn’t been a keynote presenter in the years that ARPost has covered AWE. But, the company is definitely going places. This year saw the commercial launch of Nreal Air (review) and we know that they have at least one more model waiting in the wings for the next big launch.

Day Two

Day two only has one proper keynote scheduled, this time with Magic Leap. Last year, the company’s Head of Product Management, Jade Meskill, took the stage to talk about the Magic Leap 2 and “augmented enterprise.” We don’t yet know what will come of this year’s keynote but it’s being given by the company’s CEO Peggy Johnson.

Following that is a “Fireside Chat” with Unity CEO John Riccitiello. That it’s a “fireside chat” and not a “keynote” arguably suggests that there won’t be any big product announcements but that doesn’t mean that this session shouldn’t be on your schedule.

Days two and three are lighter on heavy-hitting speakers to encourage attendees to check out the expo floor, which we’ll look at next. Don’t worry though, there are sessions to look forward to beyond just keynotes and we’ll look at some of those later.

The Expo Floor

It’s impossible to know exactly what will be going on on the expo floor, which is part of what makes it so exciting. A list of exhibitors (over 130 of them) and a map of the expo floor are posted on the AWE website, but what companies will be showcasing and how is a mystery until the floor opens on day two.

First off, a number of haptics pioneers will be there including Haptx, bHaptics, and SenseGlove. Any immersive technology is better when you experience it yourself instead of just seeing it on YouTube, but this is doubly true for haptics. But, unfortunately, many of these products are still hard for the average person to get their hands on. That makes the expo floor a great intro.

Mojo Vision will also be on the AWE expo floor. While this company isn’t likely to be putting their AR contact lenses onto the eyeballs of just anybody, they do have rigs that allow you to get a glimpse through what they’re building.

DigiLens, Vuzix, and Lenovo will also be on the AWE Expo floor. These companies make components and enterprise hardware that’s usually a cut above available consumer models. Trying them out can be a glimpse into the future. I got to get my hands on some of their hardware at last year’s expo and left feeling enlightened.

Also, Tilt Five will be returning. Last year, their augmented game board was the life of the expo floor drawing huge crowds – not just to interact with the product but to watch other people interact with the product.

Of course, that’s only a sliver of the total exhibitors. Personally, I’m hoping to reconnect with some of my friends from Avatour, Echo3D, FundamentalVR, Inworld AI, Leia Inc., Mytaverse, OVR Technology, VRdirect, and Zappar.

Expert Talks and Panel Discussions

Day One

On day one, right after the keynotes, many will likely stay in their seats to see Forbes columnist, author, and educator Charlie Fink talk with Magic Leap founder and former CEO Rony Abovitz about “How We Can Invigorate XR.” A few hours later on the same stage, Qualcomm Director of Product Management Steve Lukas will talk about “Building AR for Today.”

A little after that, one might head out of the Mission City Ballroom to Grand Ballroom C’s “Web3” track where EndeavorXR founder and CEO Amy Peck will be debating “Pros &Cons of Web3” with XR Guild President Avi Bar-Zeev. It’s hard to find an XR organization that Peck isn’t or hasn’t been involved with, and Bar-Zeev co-created Google Earth and HoloLens.

From there, one might head back to the Mission City Ballroom for “Intersection of AI and the Metaverse: What’s Next?” a panel discussion with leading XR ethicist Kent Bye, HTC VIVE China President Alvin Graylin, WXR Fund Managing Partner Amy LaMeyer, and Creative Artist Agency’s Chief Metaverse Officer Joanna Popper.

But wait! Happening at the same time is “How XR Technology Is Changing the Fashion Landscape” with Beyond Creative Technologist David Robustelli, Ready Player Me co-founder Kaspar Tiri, and DressX co-founder Daria Shapovalova.

Depending on which of those last two talks you see, you might have time for “What Problem Does the Metaverse Solve?” with Nokia Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting Leslie Shannon.

If you miss the first fashion session, you can always catch “Redefining Fashion and Beauty’s Next Decade – From Virtual Beings and Gaming to Generative AI” with LVMH VP of Digital Innovation Nelly Mensah, 5th Column founder and CEO Akbar Hamid, and Journey founder and Chief Metaverse Officer Cathy Hackl.

Day Two

On the same day that the expo opens up, on the main stage, Paramount Pictures Futurist Ted Schilowitz presents “XR Excellence: Demonstration & Discussion” – billed as a collection of “what he thinks are the best experiences in VR and MR today, and what we can learn from those experiences” followed by Q&A.

But oh no! At the same time in Ballroom D, Khronos Group President Neil Treveett, XRSI founder and CEO Kavya Pearlman, and Moor Insights & Strategy Senior Analyst Anshel Sag are talking about building open standards for the metaverse!

XR Talks with ARPost

Both of those events conflict with a “Meet the Makers” session featuring Julie Smithson and Karen Alexander of MetaVRse, Sophia Moshasha of the VR/AR Association, and Ben Erwin of The Polys Awards.

Later in the afternoon, Inworld AI’s Chief Creative Officer John Gaeta and Chief Product Officer Kylan Gibbs debut a new concept demo called “Origins” – a new kind of caper in which a human detective must navigate a world of generative AI bots.

The evening of AWE Day Two is also The Auggie Awards. We can’t tell you too much about the Auggie Awards because the finalists aren’t out. In fact, you still have until April 7 to submit nominees. Then, there’s a period of public voting until May 4. You can submit nominees and vote for your favorites here.

Day Three

On day three, in the “AI and Virtual Beings” track, producer, director, and strategist Rebecca Evans, Stanford University Graduate Research Fellow Eugy Han, Odeon Theatrical CEO Stephanie Riggs, and Dulce Dotcom advisor Dulce Baerga will discuss “Avatars, Environments & Self Expression – from Social VR to Cross-Reality Experiences.”

From there, you might head back to the Mission City Ballroom for a Fireside Chat with Tom Furness, the founder and chairman of the Virtual World Society – one of the oldest and noblest organizations in immersive tech.

AWE concludes on the afternoon of day three with Inbar’s closing statements and the Best In Show Awards on the main stage.

How to Attend AWE

Once again, all AWE recordings will become available on AWE.live. If you want to experience AWE in person, you still have time to get tickets. If you’re reading this before February 28, you still have time for Super Early Bird Tickets. You can also get 20% off of your ticket price by using discount code 23ARPOSTD at checkout.

And keep an eye on ARPost as AWE draws nearer. As a media partner of the event, we’ll be giving two free tickets to selected readers as part of an upcoming drawing. Watch our social media channels for details.

AWE 2023 Is Right Around the Corner Read More »

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Sandbox VR and Netflix Preparing Squid Game VR Experience

featured, Location Based VR, sandbox vr, VR experiences / /

With 1.65 billion hours viewed, Squid Game is Netflix’s most-watched series. And soon, Squid Game fans will be able to do more than just watch their favorite show. Netflix has announced a partnership with Sandbox VR to create a fully immersive Squid Game VR experience. Thus, everyone will be able to become an actor and experience the action in the show in a premium location-based VR experience.

Squid Game Becomes a Top Location-Based Virtual Reality Experience

Sandbox VR focuses on building location-based immersive experiences using VR technology.

Using patented motion-tracking technology, the company lets players use their own bodies as controllers. This offers the most realistic and immersive experience – free of handheld devices, wires, and other physical limitations.

These are some of the reasons why Netflix chose Sandbox VR to develop the Squid Game VR experience. The players will find themselves in the well-known locations of the show and will engage in competitions with other players.

Become a Star in the Squid Game VR Experience

What is more exciting about this VR experience is the fact that you will leave with more than just memories. Each player will receive a personalized video showing the highlights of their actions in the game and a summary of their Squid Game storyline.

This is the next best thing to actually starring in the show, something that Sandbox VR considers important.

Squid Game VR experience

“Our mission is to bring people closer together through world-class immersive experiences. What could be a more perfect fit than Squid Game, the most widely shared and discussed television series of the past years?” said Steve Zhao, founder and CEO of Sandbox VR, in a press release shared with ARPost. “It’s an amazing opportunity to partner with Netflix to provide these fans the chance to transport themselves into the world of the show.”

Sandbox VR – the Right Choice for a Premium VR Experience

The choice made by Netflix for this partnership is fully justified. Sandbox VR is a fast-growing company. They are now operating in over 30 locations across five countries and expanding rapidly.

Sandbox VR - Chicago, IL
Sandbox VR – Chicago, IL

Sandbox VR currently offers six proprietary experiences: Deadwood Valley, Amber Sky 2088, Curse of Davy Jones, Deadwood Mansion, Star Trek: Discovery, and Unbound Fighting League (UFL). According to the company, “all Sandbox VR experiences are developed by an in-house AAA gaming studio led by game industry veterans and are specifically designed for groups to play as social experiences.”

As Zhao put it, adding Squid Game to their line-up of experiences is “a perfect fit”.

When Will Squid Game VR Experience Be Available and Where?

The Squid Game-based VR experience will open in late 2023. The US fans can enjoy this and other Sandbox VR experiences in more than 20 locations, and more than 15 states, including California, New Jersey, Texas, Minnesota, Nevada, Illinois, and Washington.

Sandbox VR - San Francisco, CA
Sandbox VR – San Francisco, CA

More locations are set to open in the near future in Kentucky, Kansas, Pennsylvania, and Virginia.

Sandbox VR and Netflix Preparing Squid Game VR Experience Read More »

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“The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights” Is a Charming AR Story Puzzle

AR Apps, AR games, augmented reality, children, featured, Reviews / /

When a polar bear sees the northern lights for the first time, he wants to reach out and touch them. How will he get there and who will he meet along the way? That’s up to you with this charming interactive AR story puzzle.

The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights

“The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights” is a sort of choose-your-own-adventure AR story for children where the “chapters” are physical puzzle pieces. The artwork and story are by Julie Puech and Karl Kim.

The ways in which these pieces fit together (or don’t) helps the AR story keep a logical narrative. However, pieces can be added and removed or swapped out resulting in multiple different possible tellings of the tale.

Of course, the adorable puzzle doesn’t tell the whole story. The puzzle pieces come to life with the help of a free AR mobile app for Apple and Android devices. The mobile app recognizes the pieces and animates their artwork, as well as queueing an audio narration by Kasey Miracle.

As a weary old XR veteran with a cold little heart, I sometimes find it helpful to recruit fresh eyes for product reviews – like when my younger brother provided his insights for my Nreal Air review. This time I recruited the help of my fiancée’s eight-year-old daughter.

What’s in the Box?

The puzzle comes with 15 AR story cards and an instructional booklet. The instructional booklet has information about the product, links to the app, and some advice for doing the puzzle for the first time – but don’t panic if you lose it. The puzzle information and a QR code to the app are both on the outside of the box and the first puzzle piece triggers an AR guide to using the app.

AR app - The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights - AR Story Puzzle

The free app, powered by Unity, opens with a quick warning about being aware of your surroundings while using AR and encourages you to supervise children when using the app. From there, the app only has a play button and a settings button. Settings include background dimming to make the animations stand out better, or an option to turn the animations off.

Do be aware that the app is 394 MB and does require a fairly modern device to run. Like any AR app, it requires the use of your camera while the app is running.

Following Directions

Some pieces have special icons on them. Cards with a blue “+” are optional chapters that don’t have to be included in the AR story. Cards with green and orange arrows can be swapped out for one another, changing how the story unfolds.

The play guide recommends that you remove the optional chapters and two of the interchangeable chapters the first time that the puzzle is constructed. This is presumably an introductory version of the puzzle to avoid throwing too much at first-time players.

As with any puzzle, it’s important to find a flat surface large enough for the puzzle when completed. The play guide recommends a space of two feet by three-and-a-half feet. The AR story puzzle is long and narrow in nature, particularly with all of the possible pieces in play, but has some curves in the overall shape so it isn’t just a straight line.

AR app - The Bear Who Touched The Northern Lights

The AR instructions at the beginning of the puzzle remind you that you also need to have space to sit comfortably with the puzzle in front of you for about 20 minutes (give or take). After all, the play guide also recommends additional activities like asking the child to try to construct the story from the puzzle before watching the narration.

Putting the Pieces Together

The first time putting the puzzle together, we followed the play guide’s advice to remove extra pieces and one set of interchangeable chapters. The shapes of the pieces are similar enough to make it a little challenging for young hands to assemble without it being frustrating. They’re also different enough that the story can’t be constructed in an order that wouldn’t make sense.

It only took a few minutes to assemble the puzzle for the first time, and then we fired up the app. The AR instructions are short, cute, and very informative, telling us everything we needed to know without being boring. It takes the app a second or so to recognize the cards, so moving from one chapter to the next is neither seamlessly fast nor frustratingly slow.

The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights - AR Story Puzzle

The animations are cute and colorful, and the effects are simply but beautifully done. The default background dimming on the app is 35%, and it certainly worked. Turning it up can make the background disappear completely, which makes for optimum viewing quality, but also makes it harder to find the pieces in the camera. Pick what setting you like best.

At one point in the story, the bear starts receiving items for his journey. The Child got to choose which items he used when, but only one item was ever needed in the story, and selecting the wrong item isn’t penalized – you just pick again. We were split on this. It’s nice that we couldn’t pick wrong, but picking at all felt kind of unnecessary. (This made more sense later on.)

We reached the end of the AR story. Sort of. Immediately upon finishing the puzzle and the story the first time, The Child asked to do the puzzle again with the extra chapters.

Putting the Pieces Together Again

We added in the two optional AR story pieces and swapped out both of the interchangeable pieces and put the puzzle together again. Suddenly, the choices made a much bigger difference and a lot more sense.

The interchangeable pieces provide the bear with a different item and see him use it in a different way. The additional chapters introduce new characters, which the bear befriends by using the different items. This gave The Child a new appreciation for the AR story, but it gave me a new appreciation for the AR app.

Doing the puzzle the first time, one would be forgiven for assuming that the chapters are stand-alone pieces that don’t affect one another. Doing the puzzle again makes it clear that the app is telling a new story each time based on the pieces, their placement, and your choices throughout the story.

AR Story Puzzle - The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights

We’ve only done the puzzle those two times so far. I haven’t done the math to figure out how many different versions of the story are possible with different choices, pieces, and arrangements, but I know that there are a lot of versions of the story that we have yet to hear.

And that’s a good thing. As soon as we finished doing the puzzle the second time, The Child immediately asked if there were any more AR story puzzles like this one.

Where to Find the AR Story Puzzle

So far, The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights is the only product by Red+Blue Stories (but we’re hopeful for more). The company is based in Canada but also ships to the US. Prices start at around US$34, but you can pay more for different shipping options. As of this writing, the AR story puzzle is not available on other online retailers like Amazon.

The AR instructions say that a child can use the product by themselves after the first go-around. That may be true, but if you’re letting your child construct this AR story puzzle without you, you’re missing out.

“The Bear Who Touched the Northern Lights” Is a Charming AR Story Puzzle Read More »

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How XR Fan Engagement Brings Fans Closer to the Game

augmented reality, extended reality, featured, sports, Sports & Fitness / /

Over the years, ARPost has covered the physical nature of XR in athletics and sports a number of times – from how athletes use XR to improve their game, to how gamers can use VR sports to stay fit, to how thrilling and active a good AR team game can be for players and spectators alike. XR is also increasingly being used in another capacity: fan engagement.

Is AR the Future of Fan Engagement?

Athletes are usually sports fans, but are sports fans usually athletes? This article isn’t about how XR can make a sports viewer into a finely-tuned machine, or how a sports viewer can become a star in their own right through things like esports. After all, not all sports fans want to do those sorts of things.

However, it’s probably fair to say that all sports fans want to feel closer to the athletes and teams that they follow. That doesn’t mean getting onto the field, but it might mean getting out of the stands. Sports teams and property managers are increasingly using XR for sports fan engagement to let fans get closer to their passion, if not closer to the action.

In-Arena Opportunities for CBJ Fans

In January, NHL team The Columbus Blue Jackets unveiled “The Fan Zone” in their home Nationwide Arena in partnership with MVP Interactive. Followers of ARPost might remember that MVP Interactive also made appearances in our 2021 article about how and why brand engagement is driving XR development.

“The Blue Jackets are one of the few sports organizations taking the lead to bring fans the latest in cutting-edge technology with first-ever immersive experiences to their arena,” MVP Interactive CEO James Giglio said in a release shared with ARPost. “Our team was honored to work with everyone at CBJ to bring technology forward with multi-generational experiences to their Fan Zone.”

Slapshot Challenge 3 - The Columbus Blue Jackets - fan engagement

The 4,000 square-foot space overlooks the team’s practice area and includes a number of XR experiences, as well as the eSports Lounge for CBJ gaming, the team’s official esports arm. As exciting a development as esports is in the general gaming world, we’re most interested in the XR fan engagement activations.

“With the upgraded space and technology advancement of our new Fan Zone, we hope to provide a world-class experience for fans of all ages,” Blue Jackets Vice President of Marketing Ryan Chenault said in the release.

XR in the Fan Zone

In the “Slapshot Challenge” fan engagement activation, fans choose between three different game modes including “Shots on Goalie” pitting their skills against a virtual goaltender. Using a real stick and a ball, the fan’s movements are tracked by sensors to replicate an on-ice experience in a space reminiscent of the Cave VR system.

Slapshot Challenge - AR fan engagement - The Columbus Blue Jackets

The “Goalie Challenge” flips the scenario, both figuratively and physically. In full goalie gear, the fan now faces the screen where a virtual contender appears to launch physical balls their way. While the goalie in the slapshot challenge is entirely automated, the placement of balls fired off in the goalie challenge can be controlled by a friend via a computer interface.

“The Blue Jackets are dedicated to removing barriers to the game of hockey and investment in this space is a meaningful nod to this mission,” said Chenault. “By providing both stick-in-hand and controller-in-hand activations, we can give fans an opportunity to not only watch the game but experience it first-hand.” 

Slapshot Challenge 2 - The Columbus Blue Jackets - fan engagement

There are less intense fan engagement opportunities as well. A “Pose with a Pro MorphingStation” gives fans an opportunity to take a selfie next to a virtual replica of their favorite Blue Jackets. A similar activation allows fans to pose in a virtual Blue Jackets jersey. All of these activations reward the fans with videos and images optimized for social media.

Pose with a pro - The Columbus Blue Jackets - XR fan engagement

Implementation and Stats

On entering the Fan Zone, fans have the opportunity to check in by scanning a QR code and providing an email address to receive their videos and photographs. According to figures provided to ARPost following the launch of the activation, over 1,200 fans entered the Fan Zone on opening night and 375 provided emails to receive their digital mementos.

Further, the “average dwell time across experiences was 24.55 seconds.” This may not seem like a long time, but it is averaged across all of the fan engagement experiences though the challenges likely engaged fans for significantly longer than the AR photo opportunities.

NIL in AR

The “Pose with a Pro” fan activation presented by the Blue Jackets shows that there is a lot of promise in sports fan engagement with virtual replicas of their favorite athletes. That isn’t just limited to professional sports, however.

College sports are tremendously popular but its athletes were, to some degree, barred from benefiting from that popularity for most of the history of college sports. That’s because college athletes were largely prevented from benefiting from their name, image, and likeness (NIL) by the NCAA – the organization that governs college sports.

However, in 2021, the NCAA began loosening NIL rules, opening up potentially lucrative opportunities for college athletes. AR publishing platform LDP Studio claims to be part of the first “NILAR” (name, image, and likeness in augmented reality) agreement. The signee? The University of Tennessee senior tight end Jacob Warren for the Craven Wings restaurant chain.

“We believe AR Hero will change the way college football fans experience the game by engaging more people with the players they know and love,” LDP Studio VP of business development Jessee Black said in a release shared with ARPost. “It’s a really cool and futuristic new concept for QR code use which increases engagement for businesses and brings fun to the fans.” 

NILAR Jadob Warren - fan engagement

AR Hero, the tool that runs the experience, invites users to trigger fan engagement activation via a QR code. From there, fans can take photos and videos with an AR version of Warren that goes through different poses giving plenty of opportunities to fans.

“With AR Hero, fans can feel like they are part of the action and experience the players they know and love in a whole new way,” said Black. “Businesses have the opportunity to create more engagement with fans through ‘NILAR’ as well.”

The First NILAR Agreement?

It’s easy to be skeptical of whether this fan engagement initiative is really the first NILAR agreement. It is very probably the first NILAR agreement in college sports and it just might be the first of its kind anywhere as LDP Studio claims.

Digital twins of celebrities aren’t brand new. However, the ownership of these twins has long been problematic. The owner of a digital twin is usually the studio that commissioned it, rather than the individual that the twin is created from.

NILAR agreements with athletes as well as other individuals have huge potential to give individuals more control over their own digital twins. That’s a big win for those individuals from an economic standpoint, but it’s also a good idea from an ethical perspective.

Getting Sports Fans Out of Their Seats

With good AR fan engagement, everybody wins. Fans get more interactive ways to engage with their favorite content and athletes. Athletes can have an AR proxy that’s available to fans while they’re busy training, on the field, or at home. Teams get new ways to bring fans deeper into the sports that they love (and, yes, collect some much-cherished user data).

The good news keeps getting better. XR fan engagement activations are becoming simpler to use, more interactive, and are even being created in ways that are more mindful of the humans that lend their digital duplicates to these activations.

How XR Fan Engagement Brings Fans Closer to the Game Read More »