27 Jan 2020
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Emily Friedman
Weekly Spatial: Women's March, Sundance, and VR Cancer Treatment
AR/VR Weekly
Catch up on the latest AR/VR highlights, funding news & launch announcements: Week of January 20
Image Source: Mark
Welcome to another edition of the Weekly Spatial by AWE! In addition to keeping you up-to-date on the biggest news, funding activity and announcements in immersive tech, here are three stories that caught our eye last week:
Highlights
The Women's March organizers in downtown L.A. brought tech into the movement this year by testing Mark, an AR street art app that placed pieces by artists like Amy Sol, Sam Kirk, and others at specific sites throughout the march.
Meanwhile, Sundance's New Frontier program shows the growing influence of tech at the festival: Among the features are Spaced Out, an underwater VR experience, and AR app Dance Trail, which puts "megagiant" dancers around festival sites.
Finally, an Italian-American study has shown that VR during chemotherapy can improve breast cancer patients' quality of life during treatments. Women involved in the study were able to escape their stress on an interactive deserted (virtual) island.
The XR Market
More backorders! First Quest, now Index and VR Power: Valve says it expects to restock before the release of Half-Life: Alyx; while Rebuff Reality expects to ship new orders of its popular VR Power accessory for Quest on February 20.
Brand New: Launches & More
New VR Experience of Scottish Waters, Part of #MustSeaScotland (BBC)
Accenture & Qualcomm Collaborate with InterContinental Hotels to Pilot XR Event Planning Solution (Yahoo! Finance)
NexTech AR Enters VR Market with Virtual Shopping Platform VRitize (VentureBeat)
"I am a Man" VR experience debuts at the VR shop in Frederick, MD on Martin Luther King Jr. Day (Frederick News-Post)
Lenovo is building another standalone VR headset for educational use (The Verge)
Google Fiber commissions AR app by Code the Dream for Frida Kahlo-inspired murals in downtown Durham (WRAL)
VRoOOm to Launch VR Platform for Immersive, Multi-user Streaming of Live Events (Variety)
Inception XR Launches AR Kids Library Service with LG U+ (Yahoo! Finance)
UK Care Facility Using VR to Help Children with Autism (New York Post)
Mobile AR App Octi Evolves into Social Network via Facial Recognition Tech (Next Reality)
Marz Brewing Company Launches New IPA Beer with a Dedicated AR Music App (ARPost)
Event Listings
WEARABLE EXPO: February 12-24, 2020 (Tokyo, Japan)
Global Tilt Brush Art Fest and Tournament: February 13-25 in a city near you!
Virtual Medicine: March 25-26 (Los Angeles, CA) Use this link for a 20% discount!
AWE Asia 2020: March 28-29 (Shenzhen, China) EARLY BIRD ENDS JANUARY 20
AWE USA 2020: May 27-29 (Santa Clara, CA) TICKET PRICES INCREASE FEBRUARY 3!
AWE EU 2020: October 15-16 (Munich, Germany) Super Early Bird tickets are on sale!
