Weekly Spatial Nov 20 2020 by AWE Team

Highlights

Stretchable Skin Sensors
Cornell has developed a stretchable skin sensor prototype, opening the door to a low-cost glove-like hand feedback sensor for use in XR. The one-off 3D printed Bluetooth prototype glove is inspired by silica-based fiber sensors that look for subtle wavelength changes to measure elements like temperature. The research is still in early stages and is funded by the NSF, US Army, Air Force, and Dept. of Agriculture. (Engadget)
VR Awards

The Academy of International Extended Reality's (AIXR) VR Awards took place last week. Big winners included Index by Valve, who won VR Hardware of the Year, Half-Life: Alyx by Valve for VR Game of the Year, and Cher Wang, CEO & Chairwoman HTC, who took home the Accenture VR Lifetime Achievement Award. (VRAwards)
Oppo Debuts New AR Glasses
On Tuesday, Oppo held their annual Inno Day, where they debut new and upcoming products. At this year's event, the company debuted two concept projects: Oppo X 2021, a phone with a rolling expandable screen, and the Oppo AR Glass 2021. The glasses feature a dual fisheye camera system for gesture recognition, a ToF camera, and a lighter design than the company's earlier glasses shown off at Inno Day 2019. Given the naming, it is unlikely either the phone or the glasses will be available at least until next year. (PocketLint)

The XR Market

Wave partners with Tencent
Virtual concert platform Wave has partnered with Tencent Music Entertainment to bring their virtual concerts to China. (TechCrunch)

Dell to Distribute HTC Vive

Dell has signed a deal with HTC to distribute HTC Vive headsets to European enterprise customers. (VRFocus)

Transfr Secures $12M
Transfr has secured $12M in Series A funding. The company works to scale up its VR job training programs. (RoadtoVR)

Cybershoes Launches Kickstarter for $30,000

Cybershoes has launched a new Kickstarter campaign looking to raise $30,000 to develop a kit for Oculus Quest compatability. (VRFocus)

Epic Acquires Hyprsense

Epic, makers of the vastly popular game Fortnite, has purchased Hyprsense, whose tech uses web cameras to track real-time facial expressions on avatars. (TheVerge)

Launches & Announcements

The United States Airforce has begun air combat training pilots with AI AR enemies. (VRScout)
Beauty company Coty is using AR to let customers test products. (TheDrum)
Google is shutting down its VR field trip app Expeditions and moving the experiences to its separate Arts & Culture app. (TheVerge)
Oculus rolled out the v23 update for the Quest 2, which includes making the 90Hz refresh rate the default in all system software and improved voice commands. (RoadtoVR)
The NFL Draws Superbowl-Sized Audiences with AR. (ARInsider)
LA's public transit system turns to AR to boost safety and ridership (Gensler)
Signal Theory partnered with National Geographic to create AR lenses where users can "climb" Mount Everest. (SignalTheory)
Microsoft has introduced a learning module for beginners to learn about and begin to create in MR. (Microsoft)
GoogleLens recognizes 15 billion products. (ARInsider)
Markets & Markets has published a report predicting that the AR market will grow to $77B, and the VR market $20.9B, by 2025. (PRNewswire)
Flipkart, owned by Walmart, has purchased AR company Scapic. (HindustanTimes)

In Focus: AWE Nite

Fundraising for XR Startups

Presented by HTC

Nov. 24th at 9am PST/12pm EST/5pm GMT
Are you an XR startup founder looking for funding for the next billion dollar company in spatial computing? Are you an XR Investor looking for your next great investment?

Join us for AWE Nite : Fundraising for XR Startups, where we’ll meet remarkable VC’s and founders who have experience of doing just that!

This session is presented by Vive X. Join to find out more about what companies Vive X is currently looking to fund in Europe.