1 Jun 2018 | Tom Emrich

AR for the Blind, Gesture-Controls, Hi-Def Haptic Wear, AR 'Ears,' & more announced at AWE USA 2018

Augmented Reality Virtual Reality AWE USA 2018

AugmentedReality.org – the non profit behind AWE – kicked off an initiative to promote collaboration on an Open AR Cloud. For those interested to stay informed about this initiative – please sign up at: OpenARCloud.org.

"The AR Cloud will be the single most important software infrastructure in computing, far more valuable than Facebook's social graph or Google's pagerank index," said AWE Founder and CEO, Ori Inbar. "However, there is a growing concern in the industry that this critical infrastructure could be controlled by corporations and also be fragmented across too many instances. For this reason we are kicking off a historical endeavour to ask the XR industry to come together to collaborate on an Open AR Cloud that will act as a standardized, interoperable and accessible foundation for all developers and creators to build upon."

AWE also announced the official dates for AWE Europe 2018 on October 18-19 in Munich, Germany and AWE Tel Aviv 2018 on November 5. Also announced was the latest schedule of AWE Nite meetups which take place monthly in San Francisco, New York, Toronto and Chicago. Details for AWE Asia will be announced shortly.

Below are the highlights of the AWE USA 2018 press conference announcements. 

Kopin today unveiled the world's first gesture and voice-controlled wearable smart screen, weighing 1.5 ounces and surpassing any other market product in modularity, battery and cost. http://www.kopin.com

RealWear revealed the first commercially available 'ruggedized' AR head-mounted wearable certified for ATEX Zone 1 and C1/D1 Potentially Explosive Environments. https://www.realwear.com

eSight, known for its high-resolution and high-camera contrast technologies, introduced a breakthrough augmented reality headset platform designed to provide enhanced vision in precision environments. https://www.esighteyewear.com/technology

Wikitude revealed SDK 8, the 8th version of its award-winning augmented reality SDK, now featuring Scene Recognition, Extended Object Tracking and Instant Targets.  https://www.wikitude.com

Vyking introduced what it bills as the 'first mobile AR marketing platform," a lightweight SDK that delivers 3D creative deployment and analytics.  https://www.vyking.io/

Vuzix revealed their partnership with Qualcomm on the new Snapdragon XR1 platform to develop next generation smart glasses, as well as a new partnership with Plessey Semiconductor.  https://www.vuzix.com/

Kaayatech showcased its groundbreaking HoloSuit motion-capture suit, allowing users to fully immerse themselves with full-body physical  https://www.holosuit.com

Ultrahaptics launched STRATOS Explore, a new SDK for creating 3D haptic sensations in mid-air. https://www.ultrahaptics.com

NuHeara demonstrated its new augmented hearing solutions, which amplify digital audio while subduing inessential ambient noises, all while keeping the wearer aware of their surroundings.  https://www.nuheara.com

Zappar announced ZapBox 2.0, a Mixed Reality kit allowing developers and businesses to reimagine how they design, build and create room-scale interactive 3D experiences.  https://www.zappar.com

ScopeAR debuted a new AR platform to deliver both real-time remote assistance and AR smart instructions. https://www.scopear.com

vSports launched and demonstrated for the first time vGolf, the first Mixed Reality golf simulation and training system. http://vsports.io

Resonai, in collaboration with The Tech Museum of Innovation, presented The Animaker, an immersive exhibit that invites visitors to collaborate with AI-powered robots. https://www.resonai.com/#!/home

Varjo revealed the world's first cinematic-quality (40X resolution) Mixed Reality technology to seamlessly merge real and virtual worlds in cinematic fidelity. https://varjo.com

Mantis Vision demonstrated its 3D sensing solutions based on structured light and a smart decoding algorithm, for front 3D facial  cameras. http://www.mantis-vision.com