Highlights

Intel Studios Shuts Down
Last month Intel quietly shut down Intel Studios, its volumetric video capturing stage. While other volumetric studios certainly exist, Intel Studios was highly notable for its size. The massive facility featured a 10,000 square-foot dome-shaped green-screen stage with more than 100 8K cameras and five miles of fiber-optic cables. The studio was started in early 2018, and in that time has been used to film music videos for K-pop band NCT 127 and Reggie Watts, as well as the large-scale volumetric recording of Grease that featured 20 dancers. Intel cites "business conditions" as the cause of the closure, and says it will be focusing instead on immersive sports video capture in the future. (Protocol)
Disney's Semantic Deep Face Model A Disney research team has proposed a "semantic deep face model," which it claims will help to reduce the uncanny valley effect in virtual facial expressions. It is a neural model that learns the affect of expression on the whole face, but is also nonlinear and is not specific to a single face. This allows flexibility in how expressions interact with each other and with a face’s individual geometry. (TechCrunch)
Dots Makes XR More Inclusive
Three designers from Royal College of Art and Imperial College London have designed a new gesture recognition system called Dots designed to make gesture recognition more accessible. The system is comprised of two inertial measurement unit in silicone discs that users can place on any two body parts. and register movement in XR by moving the discs in relation to one another. This fills a void in an industry where the machine learning used to generate hand-gesture controls cannot account for disabilities, which are often highly individual and unique. As XR becomes more and more prevalent, Dots is ensuring that the new world of tech is accessible to all. (Dezeen)

The Void Defaults

Location-based VR company the Void has recently defaulted on a key loan, and been forced to forfeit its assets including trademarks and patents, to its creditors. (Protocol)

Cybershoes Reaches Kickstarter in 12 Hours

Within 12 hours of launching its new Kickstarter campaign, Cybershoes reached its goal of $30,000 to make the shoes compatible with Oculus Quest. (RoadtoVR)

Dispelix Partners with Hoya

AR display company Dispelix has announced a partnership with Hoya Corporation, manufacturers of glass wafers for AR and MR wearables. (Dispelix)

Espire 1 Reaches $3M

Digital Lode, developer of the game Espire 1: VR Operative have announced that revenue from the game has made more than $3M in revenue since its release in November of 2019. (RoadtoVR)

Finance Sector Embraces VR

Looking for a better way to work remotely, the finance sector has begun to move into VR workplaces, both internally and for client meetings. (VentureBeat)

Launches & Announcements

Aldin Dynamics, the studio behind Waltz of the Wizard, says it is holding off on all developments of the game for PSVR until Sony clarifies the future of VR on the PlayStation platform. (UploadVR)
JVCKenwood has announced a new headset with a 120-degree field of view and 2.5k per-eye resolution. (RoadtoVR)
AR Post looks at how AR is beneficial in distance learning (ARPost)
New AR experience "Ask the Doggfather" lets you ask Snoop Dogg questions as he appears out of his Snoop Cali Red wine bottles. (NextReality)
Apple looks to AR as the future. (9to5Mac)
"Wolves in the Walls," winner of the 2019 Primetime Emmy for Outstanding Innovation in Interactive Media, has come to Oculus Quest. (Forbes)
OpenBCI is creating biometric sensors that attach to AR and VR headsets. (RoadtoVR)
Place the Mandalorian in your living room with this new AR App. (UploadVR)
Animal Crossing: Pocket Camp has instituted a new update adding two AR features to the game, but also cutting off users with older operating systems, infuriating many in the fanbase. (VRScout)
Shoppers Drug Mart is working with ImagineAR to integrate AR into their 2021 Virtual Conferences(Auganix)

In Focus: Thanksgiving in AR

American Thanksgiving was yesterday, Nov. 26. Take a look at all the ways XR worked to help celebrate the holiday this year.

Meet up with friends and family who can't get together this year with Road to VR's list of free VR socializing apps. (RoadtoVR)
8th Wall created an AR Turkey-gram to send to the family and friends .(8thWall)
Verizon's Parade Portal featured a VR, 260 view of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in a time when physical attendance at the parade is impossible. (Verizon)
The most recent episode of Replay AR's "AR Time Capsule" Series overlays historical photographs of vintage scenes from the parade along the traditional Manhattan parade route. (DigitalProducer)
Check out Oculus's list of best VR Films for the family. (Oculus)
And what's Thanksgiving withoug Black Friday? Here's Upload VR's list of Black Friday deals on all things VR(UploadVR)