December has arrived. The holiday season is approaching and many of us may be receiving an XR headset or device as a gift in preparation for an immersive 2024.
With sales of the Quest headset increasing significantly after Black Friday, the holiday period could offer good consumer/enterprise optics and the space could gain a lot of capital from the consumer holiday market, which in turn could have implications for the workplace XR market.
Meanwhile, some of the leading XR companies of 2023 are securing notable funding rounds as 2024 is expected to be a landmark year for XR.
The XR market may experience the calm before the storm. Next year, Apple will introduce Vision Pro after years of hype, and Microsoft will also begin rolling out its industrial Metaverse service.
2024 will be a very important year for the industry. After a difficult start to 2023, readers should take note of the incredibly hard-working companies and individuals who have supported XR through this brief but bleak period, propelling our space towards a seemingly fruitful 2024.
Additionally, for expanded predictions for enterprise XR in 2024, check out XR Today’s Forecast Showcase.
Meta Nixes Android, iOS messages from v60 Quest update
According to a recent report, Meta has introduced some significant changes to its immersive Quest operating system with the v60 update. The changes are being rolled out across the product lineup, including the Meta Quest 2, Meta Quest Pro, and Meta Quest 3 VR headsets. One significant change is the removal of Android and iOS notifications. This effectively isolates Meta’s head-mounted display (HMD) from messages on smartphones and other devices.
Meta introduced this feature two years ago to prevent people from mentioning their phones during gameplay. However, the Quest 2 headset cannot support this feature due to low quality passthrough, while the Quest 3 and Pro can display full color passthrough in the field of view (FoV).
Additional features in v60 include:
- new home environment: Additional tweaks to the Meta Horizon home interface include new home environments such as Blue Hill Gold Mine and Lakeside Peak.
- common interests: Users can meet, chat, and build communities with people with similar interests on the Horizon platform. Users can customize how their information appears to others.
- CPU-GPU overclocking: Meta improves the quality of the app experience by allowing users to clock the central and graphics processing units (CPU/GPU) when operating mixed reality (MR) applications, and increases the response time of the user interface (UI) to free up the CPU. It’s a 34% improvement over default settings, and about 19% on the GPU.
- Cloud Computing for the Perimeter: Lastly, the Meta Quest family offers cloud computing to improve how devices remember their boundaries.
The trend for 2024 is industrial metaverse, GenAI
Deloitte, one of the Big Four consulting firms, has identified industrial metaverse and spatial computing as one of the top technology trends for 2024. Deloitte emphasized in its 15th Technology Trends Report that Metaverse will soon become a full-fledged enterprise tool.
Deloitte research shows that revenues from the industrial metaverse are expected to reach up to $100 billion by 2030, outpacing the consumer and enterprise sectors. The report also noted that early adopters and consumers of emerging technologies will see their creations reemerge as enterprise productivity solutions.
According to Deloitte, the industrial metaverse involves replicating real-world processes by blending real-world physics with spatial data and AI. The report cited examples of workers in facilities using remote guidance and engineers creating product prototypes with photorealistic digital twins. Deloitte highlighted that organizations typically adopt a “simulation first” strategy before constructing a facility.
The report also noted that increased investments in emerging technologies such as digital twins, 5G deployments, cloud, edge, and AI have created significant value and addressed long-standing challenges. A recent Deloitte study found that 92% of manufacturing executives have experimented with or implemented at least one metaverse-based use case, with an average of six use cases. Respondents also expected a 12-14% increase in revenue, throughput, and quality through investments in industrial metaverse use cases over the next few years.
Process simulation and digital twins were also identified as the most common use cases and were considered “lifesavers” when operations are complex, costly, and precise.
Snap wins $20 million grant
The state of California granted $20 million to Snap Inc. in the form of tax credit incentives and grants.
The funding will help the company expand its offices globally and increase its AR smart glasses manufacturing capabilities.
According to the Los Angeles Business Journal, since the program began in 2013, more than 12,000 businesses have benefited from the program’s incentives, creating nearly 165,000 jobs.
Under the deal, Snap will use the funds to develop AR devices.
The social media company previously launched its Spectacles product, smart glasses with attached cameras that can record video and upload footage to the platform. The company is expected to receive funding in 2025 to bolster its dormant hardware portfolio.
Virtuleap hits $2.5 million with AI.
Virtuleap recently acquired approximately $2.5 million to integrate AI into its XR product portfolio. The company has previously worked with companies such as Penumbra and HP. GED Ventures Portugal led the $2.5 million investment round, according to 1Bibi Sattar Marques, Partner and Board Member at GED Ventures PortugalThe newly acquired capital “reflects the company’s strategic approach to investing in technologies that have a positive impact on people’s lives, especially their health.”
Marques also explained that Virtuleap is committed to combining technology and wellness to usher in a new era of mental health that is accessible to everyone.
With this funding, Virtuleap will integrate its new AI services into its flagship EnhanceVR product, an immersive cognitive training solution covering seven core categories including memory, attention, information processing, mental flexibility, problem solving, motor control and spatial orientation. can be provided.
AI integration allows users to evaluate training assessments through collected data, which provides important clinical outcomes. Amir Bozorgzadeh, CEO and co-founder of Virtuleap, noted that the funding round will allow his company to “accelerate the development and commercialization of our cutting-edge VR cognitive solutions” with the recent inclusion of AI. Bozorgzadeh also pointed out that the EnhanceVR AI integration comes “at a time when there is an impending ‘cognitive crisis’ underway.”