Agenda

Description

The journey with XREAL Light, XREAL Air and Beyond

Speakers

Chi Xu

CEO , XREAL

Description

Following the WebXR Summit Series, Meet The Makers moves past the “what and the how”, to focus on the “Who” of the Metaverse; the people building it. This session will debut the new series pilot that featuring interviews that are both personal and technical with World Builder Artsy Marie, XR Engineer Ben Ferns, Generative AI Expert, Author Evo Heyning. Live in person, the team that executed the first volumetric live streamed red carpet and awards presentation at the 3rd Poly Awards, will discuss how they pulled off using Scatter’s Depthkit volume at ZeroSpace to put hosts and guests into the Polys Red Carpet Theater built by Cause+Christi.

Speakers

Julie Smithson

Co-Founder & COO , MetaVRse

James George

CEO & Co-Founder , Scatter

Elena Piech

XR Producer , ZeroSpace

Austin Cause Caine

Co-Creator , Cause + Christi: Immersive XR Design

Christi Fenison

Co-Founder , Cause + Christi: Immersive XR Design

Ben Erwin

Creator , The Polys - WebXR Awards

Description

From 2005 onwards, Forklift University has been at the forefront of training people in Powered Industrial Trucks (PITs). They do both OSHA-compliant training and issue OSHA certificates.

The brain retains more information from real-life experiences. The millennial generation requires training that captivates and teaches in a more visual manner. So, Forklift University needed a captivating solution for Gen Z while being user-friendly and adaptive for Gen Y to the boomers.

Also, when it comes to PITs training, safety is of utmost importance, followed by cost. They needed a solution that would enable their users to learn the dos and don’ts of forklift driving in a reasonably realistic warehouse setting.

Travancore Analytics (TA) has been a critical player in the extended reality domain. When Forklift University approached TA with the problem, TA suggested a combination of Metaverse and VR to achieve the intended needs. TA created a realistic warehouse and sit-down forklift using 3D software. The same was incorporated into a complex, yet user-friendly application developed using Unity. The application works in conjunction with HTC VIVE Pro 2, a VR head-mounted device. The combination allows the user to drive a virtual forklift in a virtual
environment and undertake training curated with OSHA guidelines in mind. With various training modules of varying degrees of difficulty and functionality, Forklift University can provide its users with close-to real-life forklift training with complete safety. With VR technology, we can create multiple PITs training software under various environments that replicate real-life challenges and incorporate several features that, in turn, develop more in-depth training software.

Speakers

Anwer Sadath K K

VP - Engineering , Travancore Analytics

Steve Drake

President , Forklift University

Description

Artificial Intelligence (AI) is already having a significant influence on the Metaverse and the intersection of AI and the Metaverse will become increasingly evident as AI evolves and the Metaverse grows.

AI can be used to create more realistic and engaging experiences in virtual worlds, intelligent avatars that can engage with users in a more natural way, and personalized content in real-time. All of this can improve the overall experience for users. Furthermore, AI can be used to create more efficient and scalable infrastructure for the Metaverse, enabling more users to participate and interact with each other.

However, there will be challenges as well, such as biases in algorithms that perpetuate harmful stereotypes, false or manipulated content leading to misinformation, and questions about privacy and security.

This expert panel will discuss the issues and how AI might potentially transform how we interact with others in immersive spaces.

Speakers

Amy LaMeyer

Managing Partner , WXR Fund

Kent Bye

Producer , Voices of VR Podcast

Tony Parisi

CPO , Lamina1

Alvin Wang Graylin

Author, Our Next Reality | Global VP, HTC , HTC

Description

The term “metaverse” has become the latest corporate buzzword, but how will virtual reality truly integrate into our professional lives?

To answer this question, think back to the late 90s: commercial internet access shrunk the world and established a new playing field for companies to facilitate team interaction, marketing, and product distribution.

Today, executives have a similar opportunity to transform their business’ operations and engage with customers in an immersive environment via the metaverse.

Opening up endless possibilities for communication, collaboration, morale and workplace culture, VR enables coworkers to catch up, watch a presentation, and brainstorm in an array of immersive settings without ever leaving home.

Join Andrew Hawken, CEO and Co-Founder of Mesmerise, and Leslie Marshall, Chief Marketing Officer at Mesmerise, as they discuss how companies can embrace VR for enhanced hybrid work environments. They'll also address the practicality of the medium and current tech limitations.

Speakers

Dan Donovan

Head of Customer Solutions , Mesmerise

Leslie Marshall

Chief Marketing Officer , Mesmerise

Description

At last year’s AWE, leaders of key standards development organizations (SDOs) and industry consortia including the Khronos Group, W3C, OpenAR Cloud, and ASWF discussed the need for more cross-organization collaboration to pave the way for an open, inclusive metaverse. It wasn’t just talk: these organizations have now come together along with hundreds of other SDOs, companies, and academic institutions to form the Metaverse Standards Forum, a venue for cooperation among metaverse stakeholders to foster the development of interoperability standards. The Forum has begun engaging in pragmatic, short-term projects like building a standards registar, coordinating use cases and requirements for input into SDOs, and creating interoperability prototypes, with more to come.

In this panel, leaders of Metaverse Standards Forum member organizations will discuss the interoperability challenges the group is prioritizing today, and how the forum is working to accelerate solutions. Attendees will gain insight into the nuances of topics including 3D asset interoperability; digital fashion; real/virtual world integration; and privacy, cybersecurity, and identity. The panel will explore current possibilities, challenges, and limitations within these domains, and discuss how attendees can contribute to the formation of an open metaverse.

Speakers

Neil Trevett

President , Khronos Group

Anshel Sag

Principal Analyst , Moor Insights & Strategy

Elizabeth Rothman

Advisor | Senior Legal Affairs & Digital Trust Advisor , XR Safety Initiative

Kavya Pearlman

Founder & CEO , XR Safety Initiative

Description

The grand challenge of the 21st Century is to create socially and ethically adept hybrid networks of humans and machines. The augmentation of human abilities and global ecological systems will play a critical role in our future. AI agents are already deeply integrated into society and integral to many activities from dating, driving, coding, to policing and Large Language Models and Multimodal AI have already changed the way we communicate, work, and play. But, while Augmented Ecologies are now reaching beyond industry experts and scientists to the rest of us with generative AI, these new hybrid ecologies between humans and machines will diminish individual human autonomy and agency if we do not empower people to create, manage and participate in them. This panel will look at this grand challenge for the future of an Augmented World!

Speakers

Anselm Hook

CTO , MorpheusXR

Sean White

Founder , Three Dog Labs

Tish Shute

Co-Founder , AWE

David A. Smith

CTO, Founder , Croquet

Description

Realistic-looking materials are essential to creating virtual worlds that are tactile and inviting. Creating believable materials for 3D objects is a complex problem with several approaches, many of which are either prohibitively difficult to master or unsuited for transmission over the web. Over the past decade, however, Physically Based Rendering (PBR) has emerged as an artist-friendly, intuitive, expressive, and robust technique for adding material attributes to 3D objects.

As part of its stewardship of the glTF standard, the file format known as the “JPEG of 3D,” The Khronos Group has created formal specification extensions for a variety of PBR materials. In this session, members of the 3D formats working group will present the latest waves of PBR extensions, explaining what they can achieve and best practices for using them to create 3D assets. They’ll also discuss how to test for model performance consistency across 3D viewers.

Speakers

Leonard Daly

President , Daly Realism

Sandra Voelker

Retail Emerging Technology Automation Engineer , Consultant

Emmett Lalish

Staff Software Engineer , Google

Ashleigh Miller

Sr Program Manager & 3D SME , Amazon

Description

Facial. Vocal. Verbal. Human conversations are complex. Many factors are at work when we speak, including our facial expressions, tone of voice and word choice. Today, companies are operating in a more globalized and virtualized world than ever before. It can be challenging to accurately understand the conversations needed to establish business-critical relationships. The stakes are high – reading a situation incorrectly can lead to miscommunication, confusion and ultimately, the erosion of trust.

Leveraging machine learning algorithms that draw from an ever-expanding database of emotional cues, Multimodal Emotional AI fuses data from all modalities (face, voice, words) together, helping to overcome the relationship challenge. By capturing the complex messages conveyed through emotional cues, we’re now able to identify key moments that influence sentiment and engagement as well as emotional intelligence (EQ) factors that build trust and empathy. It’s like having a coach sensing even the most subtle emotions in the room and making real-time recommendations on how to create the best possible human connection.

Drawing on real-world examples, Umesh Sachdev, Co-founder and CEO of Uniphore will describe how behavioral science and Emotional AI are helping to close the divide between humans and machines to drive deep and meaningful connections built on trust. Umesh will also discuss the potential applications for this technology and how it is being used to derive value from critical conversations across the enterprise.

And, make every conversation count.

Speakers

Umesh Sachdev

Co-Founder and CEO , Uniphore

Description

XR is at the heart of industry, education, health, and social networks. The development of immersive technology will only be successful if it is created by a diverse workforce, empowered to create an XR that represents that experience of all people. As our world is transformed by the prospect of XR, employment opportunities abound for people of all levels of education and experience.

**XR Impact**

Speakers

Naria Santa Lucia

GM, Digital Inclusion & Community Engagement , Microsoft

Kathryn White

Assoc. Dir., Metaverse Continuum Business Group , Accenture

Elizabeth Hyman

CEO , XR Association

Jessica Lindl

VP of Social Impact , Unity

Description

John Gaeta is the legendary creator best known for his Academy Award-winning work on the original Matrix Trilogy and creator of Bullet Time. John, now Chief Creative Officer of Inworld AI will talk alongside Chief Product Officer and Inworld Co-Founder Kylan Gibbs about their incredible new concept demo. Called ‘Origins’, the demo allows players to take on the role of a detective in a sci-fi world. Using your mic, you’re tasked with questioning witnesses, uncovering the narrative, and cracking the case. All of the NPCs use generative AI to create dynamic conversations, meaning you can ask them whatever you like, and the NPCs will react accordingly - whilst staying in character. John and Kylan will give you an insight into this fascinating new technology, set to revolutionize games and immersive media

Speakers

Charlie Fink

Consultant, Columnist, Author, Adjunct , Forbes

Kylan Gibbs

CPO , Inworld AI

John Gaeta

CCO , Inworld AI

Description

Producing VR content is a hard problem to solve. Studios invest in multi-year efforts to produce one title. The technical requirements, new design paradigms and a relatively small market size make it difficult to scale content production for VR. With headsets on the rise, now is the time to scale content and the solution is VR tools that leverage the power of the medium itself.

Topics led by panelists to explore include:
• Insights from the companies who build these tools and their stories about working with the next generation of content creators.
• What can businesses and industries do to adopt VR creation?
• How do we get “YouTube” level content creation by enabling at-home creators?

Speakers

Inga Petryaevskaya

Founder and CEO , ShapesXR

Lesley Klassen

CEO and Co-Founder , Flipside XR

Kiira Benzing

Executive Creative Director , Double Eye Studios

Johan Hanegraaf

Co-Founder & Head of Product , Arkio

Description

When AR and VR are used to train people in advance or assist them on the fly, users are typically given information about the current task step (cues), either immediately before or while doing it. Many tasks, in the real world and in AR and VR, also use precues about what to do after the current step. We have been exploring how precueing multiple steps in advance in AR and VR can influence performance, for better or for worse. Our work addresses tasks ranging from simple path following to manipulating physical and virtual objects with one or both hands. I will present some of our results on the effectiveness of different numbers and types of precues, and explain their implications for task training and guidance.

Speakers

Steve Feiner

Professor of Computer Science , Columbia University

Description

The metaverse is here and a paradigm shift from 2D to 3D is happening. Users are moving from content consumption in web and mobile towards content participation in 3D immersive experiences.
3D apps are exponentially more personal and behavioral. Providing users with agency to actively engage with experience. Traditional web & mobile analytics tools are insufficient with this new dimension, there are greenfield opportunities for new metrics in understanding human behavior.

In this talk Tony will discuss:

• The unique challenges and considerations of measuring and analyzing user behavior and data in immersive experiences
• The various methods and tools available for collecting and analyzing user data, including eye tracking, position, biometric sensors, and heat maps
• How to leverage insights from VR/AR content to improve and optimize your 3D apps for success

Speakers

Tony Bevilacqua

Founder & CEO , Cognitive3D

Description

Coming Soon!

Speakers

Chanel Summers

VP Product Development , VRstudios

William Tustin

CFO , Chicken Waffle

Bob Cooney

Author , The Being Virtual Show with Bob Cooney

Jonathan Nowak Delgado

CEO and Co-Founder , Spree Interactive

Description

In the gaming industry, "God Mode" is a special code that makes the players invincible in the virtual world. And today, In the real world, there is no character in more need of invincibility than Earth - the sustainability of communities, natural resources, and wildlife within it.

One of the debates in recent Sustainability forums has been the extent to which the massive digitalization of people, processes, and technology during the pandemic has proved a bountiful benefit or dramatic detriment to the planet. And the XR industry has been a major beneficiary of this accelerated digitalization and has the opportunity to demonstrate how the industry and total ecosystem (be that Metaverse, Blockchain, etc) will positively contribute to REAL Sustainability outcomes.

This critical panel will explore where and how XR can meaningfully impact climate-positive and social-forward initiatives and enterprises, and put the Earth in God-Mode - before it's too late (ie, "Game Over").

Speakers

Shivam Kishore

Sr. Advisor Digital Transformation | Sustainability , UN Environment Programme

Rika Nakazawa

Group Vice President, New Ventures & Innovation , NTT

Heidi Lehmann

Sustainable Capital & Innovation Advisor, Co-Founder , Kenzen

Description

Subtitle: A practical manual for blending physical and digital experiences in brand communication.

In the age of Digital Fashion, Beauty, and the Metaverse, it's crucial to distinguish effective instruments that drive sales from non-scalable hype bubbles. Experience has shown that the so-called Metaverse is not entirely about virtual worlds but about blending real-life experiences and digital content.

This talk covers:

- analysis of our new cases at the intersection of XR and offline - AR Mirrors for Mugler and Semi-digital Clothing collection for Bershka

- review of concrete outcomes that we received - awareness, audience engagement, and sales growth

- the best and proven to be effective XR setups for offline and practical manual for their implementation

Attendees will also learn essential, immediate action steps to take advantage of XR for offline and receive measurable and substantial sales growth.

Speakers

Dmytro Kornilov

Co-founder/CEO , FFFACE.ME

Description

Coming Soon!

Speakers

Casandra Vuong

Co-Founder , Cas and Chary XR

Chary Keijzer

Co-Founder , Cas and Chary XR

Tristan Gribbin

Founder & CEO , Flow

Description

The increasing popularity of XR applications is driving the media industry to explore the creation and delivery of new immersive experiences, while pushing engineers and inventors to address the challenges of real video content manipulation. Considering this reality, the talk will discuss these challenges and introduce key technologies that leverage open standards to enable large scale distribution of new immersive experiences.

A volumetric video is comprised of a sequence of frames, and each frame is a static 3D representation of a real-world object or scene capture at a different point in time. Volumetric video is bandwidth-heavy content that can be presented as dynamic point clouds, multi-view plus depth, or multi-plane image representations.

These bandwidth requirements can be achieved through dedicated compression schemes that produce data rates and files sizes that are economically viable in the industry. Standards play a crucial role in ensuring interoperability across these different types of content and experiences, and this talk will spotlight the Moving Picture Experts Group (MPEG) Visual Volumetric Video-based Coding (V3C) standard as an open standard solution for efficient streaming of volumetric video.

To enrich XR experiences, inventors and industry must synchronize to create and distribute additional media
and interactions mechanisms alongside all the volumetric video components. In fact, the MPEG-I Haptics and MPEG-I Scene description standards are currently under development and will soon propose solutions to industry.

From the perspective of real content creation, it remains challenging but crucial to enable technologies that cover 3D capturing, calibration, depth processing, format conversion, transmission, and rendering. This session will explore two creation pipelines that leverage the aforementioned standard codecs: (1) a real-time pipeline for telepresence using depth and color cameras; (2) an offline pipeline for sports and media applications using color cameras and prior geometric information.

Speakers

Valerie Allie

Video Solutions Group Director , InterDigital

Christiaan Varekamp

Senior Scientist , Philips Group Innovation, Research

Description

What makes companies stand out, what are investors looking for, what are they avoiding, and what are some of the biggest mistakes startups make when pitching VCs?

Join this panel to chat with investors who focus on investing in AR/VR, Spatial Computing and the Metaverse will share their hot take on a specific use cases and opportunities.

Speakers

Tipatat Chennavasin

General Partner , The Venture Reality Fund

Cansu Cinar

Start-Up Consultant , Investor

Petri Rajahalme

Founding Partner , FOV Ventures

Taylor Hurst

Principal , Konvoy