NEWS
► Apple’s iPhone 15 Pro will capture 3D ‘spatial videos’ for the Apple Vision Pro. Apple announced today it has a new iPhone feature that will tie into its brand-new mixed-reality headset, the Apple Vision Pro. With the newly announced iPhone 15 Pro, you’ll now be able to capture what Apple is calling “spatial videos.” The company says these videos will allow you to relive your memories in a new way on the Vision Pro. Read it here.
► Samsung's XR headset allows users to smell virtual environments. Samsung is developing a new high-end extended reality (XR) headset with Google and Qualcomm. In August, images of the XR headset prototype leaked online, showing tracking RGB cameras and a depth sensor. A new rumour suggests the device will enable users to smell virtual environments and objects. The new XR headset will be unveiled at Samsung's LSI Tech Day. This event will be held on October 5 in San Jose, where the company will discuss future technologies such as AI, 5G, and machine vision. Read it here.
► Microsoft has completed a hardware trial period with the US Army. This month, Microsoft successfully completed an MR hardware trial period with the US Army, allowing the firm to continue innovating the Hololens product while leveraging a massive military contract which currently sits as a $22 billion investment for the US Army. Microsoft is undergoing a research and development period with the US Army to refine version 1.2 of the HoloLens Integrated Visual Augmentation System (IVAS), an MR device for in-the-field soldiers. Read it here.
► Tech titans meet US lawmakers. Tesla CEO Elon Musk, Meta Platforms CEO Mark Zuckerberg, Google CEO Sundar Pichai and other tech CEOs met with lawmakers at Capitol Hill to discuss AI regulation. Bill Gates, OpenAI CEO Sam Altman, Microsoft CEO Satya Nadella and Nvidia CEO Jensen Huang also attended the meeting, while more than 60 senators took part. Lawmakers are seeking ways to mitigate dangers of the emerging technology, which has boomed in investment and consumer popularity since the release of OpenAI's ChatGPT chatbot. Musk said the meeting was a "service to humanity" and said it "may go down in history as very important to the future of civilisation." Lawmakers said there was universal agreement about the need for government regulation of AI. Read it here.
► Venice Immersive has wrapped. The event is the Extended Reality section of the 80th Venice International Film Festival of La Biennale di Venezia (August 30th - September 9th, 2023). Venice Immersive is entirely devoted to immersive media and includes all XR means of creative expression: 360° videos and XR works of any length, including installations and virtual worlds. The 2023 Venice Immersive selection was composed of a total of forty-three projects (five 360° videos, twenty-one standalone VR projects, fifteen installations, two VR worlds on VRChat) from twenty-five Countries. Celine Daemen won the grand prize of the Venice Immersive section, for Songs for a Passerby, which allows users to become puppeteers of their own bodies in a melancholic journey through a cityscape. Marion Burger and Ilan Cohen won the Venice Immersive achievement award for Emperor, an interactive and narrative experience in virtual reality, which invites the user to travel inside the brain of a father suffering from aphasia. Dutch director Adriaan Lokman won a special jury prize for his short VR film Flow. Read it here and here.
► Jet pilots get augmented reality upgrade. UK Typhoon fighter jet pilots flying NATO missions will be kitted out with BAE Systems' new night-vision augmented reality helmets. The UK Ministry of Defence has awarded BAE a new, £40m ($50m) contract to equip Britain's Royal Air Force with Striker II Helmet Mounted Displays. Read it here.
PERSPECTIVE
► Oculus: The virtual reality company's complete history and a guide to its devices. Oculus was a virtual reality company founded by Palmer Luckey in 2012. It was acquired by Facebook, now known as Meta, in 2014 for $2 billion in cash and stock. Read it here.
