A preview of Snap’s AR offerings at the Super Bowl. Image provided by Snap.
This Week in ARExperience
February 10, 2022 by Jon Jaehnig
- Snap Inc will be augmenting this year’s Super Bowl. Viewers with Snapchat will be able to view NFL shows in the app’s Discover section and can watch for Snap Codes during the game. Super Bowl fans with the NFL One Pass app will also be able to access AR content through Snap’s Camera Kit technology. Some fans in the stadium can also expect surprises.
- After the game, the Foo Fighters will be playing a concert in VR that will be viewable via Oculus Venues. The concert will also be streaming live on Facebook.
- Also in Meta news, the company announced a “personal boundary” in its social Horizons platforms to prevent unwanted virtual contact. The release comes following a string of reports from users that they had been harassed within the platform. To be fair, this problem isn’t unique to Horizons, though most other virtual worlds have long since addressed the issue.
- The XR Safety Initiative held its first “Data Classification Round Table.” The gathering discussed the importance of understanding data sharing both in the context of the conventional internet as well as how it applies to immersive technologies. A report detailing the event is free to download.
- Cross-platform avatar provider Ready Player Me has released a line of avatars available only to owners of CRYPTOPUNK NFTs. Owners can claim their avatar by connecting their Metamask wallet to their Ready Player Me account. Each of the 10,000 CRYPTOPUNK NFTs has its own unique Ready Player Me avatar, which has the Punk’s number on its chest.
- While platforms like Ready Player Me are helping to build the future of the metaverse, Gartner predicts that a quarter of all people will spend at least one hour per day in virtual worlds by 2026.
- And in this corner, the next big player in the metaverse might be professional wrestling, as WRESTLETALKS reports from a recent WWE earnings call.
- The Trillion jewelry company has just launched a new try-on app for their products. The app was specifically designed to show real-time AR try-on of very realistic models of rings, necklaces, and earrings. Potential customers can also view jewelry on “Amelie,” the company’s virtual avatar model.
- Eight immersive films made in Korea are scheduled to be shown at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona and two immersive films made in Taiwan are scheduled to be shown at SXSW.
- The “Festival of International Virtual and Augmented Reality Stories,” or FIVARS, has announced its selections for this year’s film festival. While the organization is based in Canada, the multi-day celebration takes place entirely in online worlds.
- 3D web engine Babylon.js released a new snapshot rendering mode.
- Also in 3D web news, mobile AR experience company Blippar announced a fun mobile game created with AT&T just in time for Valentine’s Day.
- For AAA gaming news, Sony launched the webpage for the highly anticipated PS VR 2.
As always, there’s a lot going on this week. However, the largest single trend has to be immersive arts and entertainment. Looking forward to immersive film showings at FIVARS, MWC, and SXSW is exciting, but seeing major sporting outlets like the NFL and WWE talking about immersive media is truly a signal of adoption for fans and viewers not specifically following technology in general and immersive tech in particular.
