Photo by Mallika Singh
5 Takeaways From This Year’s Augmented World Expo
As the “metaverse” slowly transitions from a buzzword to reality, the Augmented World Expo—a gathering of augmented reality CEOs, engineers, creators, consumers and investors—showcased what the future of the industry might look like.
Since its first event in 2010, AWE has grown to over 250 augmented and virtual reality companies from around the globe. The 2022 conference, which ran from June 1-3 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in the Bay Area, was the biggest yet—and flush with new experimental formats and new technology.
One example of the conference's new approach: a three-act augmented reality play performed at the conference called “MetaTr@versal: A Day in the Life.” Written by extended-reality (XR) technologist Sophia Moshasha, the play used VR screen mirroring to tell the story of an entrepreneur pitching new interoperability standards to investors.
“It was super ambitious, because we were using technologies from ARWall,” said AWE Head of Operations Andrea Lowery. “I can't even characterize all the different audio visual inputs and time and energy and creativity and tech that went into this thing.”
This year’s AWE featured keynotes, breakout rooms and a tech playground that included interactive and immersive experiences. Here are the five standouts from the conference and the advancing technology.
Magic Leap’s New Headset
Lines began snaking around the corner of the Magic Leap booth before the exposition floor even officially opened, as crowds gathered to try the Florida-based company’s new Magic Leap 2 augmented reality headset.
Participants were paired up and assigned to one of three demos. I was able to try the “wildfire” demo, where the glasses scanned a printed code on a circular tabletop and displayed a topographical map. The demonstrator toggled overlays off and on, showing the spread of weather and fire across the landscape. The company hopes their technology will be used in the future to train first responders, as well as workers in manufacturing, health and defense, among other industries.
The new headset aims to tackle some of the problems with the release of its first incarnation—including a narrow field of view and limited range of applications—by expanding the horizontal field of vision from 50 to 70 degrees and reaching out to more potential partners.
The most impressive part of the Magic Leap 2 was optical dimming, which shuts out nearly all light outside the augmented reality elements on the tabletop, drawing users’ focus to the data and cutting down on glare in outdoor environments.
Tilt 5
Tilt Five: Immersive Table-Top Gaming
Tilt Five was another popular booth. The startup produces augmented and virtual reality gaming hardware, and has partnered with third party game developers to build software that integrates turns table-top games in AR experiences. The full system includes a game board, a light pair of AR glasses and a control wand.
The company raised over $1.7 million in fan funding on crowdfunding platform Kickstarter. It’s been shipping out completed products to its backers since December and hopes to have them all sent out by the end of the summer. Now, it has set its sights on expanding its offerings.
“We actually just signed with Asmodee Digital, who makes games like Catan, Carcassonne and Gloomhaven,” said Tilt Five Head of Communications Stephanie Greenall. “So we'll be taking a select number of their titles and putting them onto the board.”
Since last year’s AWE conference, Tilt Five has added mixed reality streaming, which allows fans to share their adventures on streaming and social platforms and the “XE Gameboard,” a larger board that tilts up so you can see further into the game.
TikTok’s booth showcasing its new AR features on June 3, 2022. Photo by Mallika Singh
TikTok Plays Catch Up in AR
About two months ago, TikTok launched Effect House, an AR development platform that plugs right into its mobile app. It’s an attempt to catch up on creative studio applications like Meta’s Spark AR Studio for Facebook and Instagram and Snapchat’s Lens Studio.
Effect House is built on a visual scripting system and a range of popular templates that is meant to make it easier for everyday creators to create their own visuals, without needing to know much about writing code.
According to Greg Feingold, AR ecosystem community lead at TikTok, there are already around 8,000 creators on Effect House’s Discord account, and videos using Effect House have already reached over 1 trillion views.
Fungisaurs
Fungisaurs: Augmenting Play with Figurines
L.A.-based artist and digital sculptor Aiman Akhtar’s background in 3D modeling and animation at studios including Nickelodeon, Dreamworks and Blizzard prepared him to develop his own line of augmented reality kids’ toys–in the form of small “dinosaur mushroom creatures.”
Fungisaurs started as a collection of real-life plastic toys in 2017, funded partially on Kickstarter. Three years later, Akhtar partnered with augmented reality company Octagon Studio to build ARise, a camera app that brings the physical toys to life and supports interactive play.
Next up for the company is more app integration, card functionality and a second series of characters.
“If we have a card read as well as the object, then we can trigger animations, we can trigger background changes,” Akhtar said. “So we can make narrative board games that can actually convey stories and have more interactivity between players.”
Fungisaurs was one of the only companies at AWE with a product tailored towards kids.
A conference attendee tries the HaptX DK2 Gloves on June 3, 2022. Photo by Mallika Singh
HaptX: Prototype the Training, Not the Product
HaptX, a leading producer in the haptic XR space, makes AR products for customers in training, manufacture, design and telerobotics. The company is based in Redmond, WA with offices in both San Luis Obisbo and San Francisco.
Its development kit, the DK2 Gloves, uses compressed air to simulate resistance by applying braking to the backs of the gloves, up to eight pounds of force per finger and up to 40 pounds per hand. The air contours the shape of the gloves to objects touched in virtual reality worlds.
Recently, HaptX worked with Nissan to mock up its Nissan Leaf electric vehicle virtually. Its system allows designers to touch and interact with the virtual car, obviating the need for wasteful and expensive automotive prototypes, which can cost up to $200,000 per model. HaptX’s gloves, meanwhile, cost in the high five figures for enterprise customers.
HaptX had both a stationary and mobile demo station at AWE. The mobile device was set up in a backpack. One woman trying it out at the Expo said the backpack’s weight was about the same as two MacBooks.
“This will get significantly smaller in the future,” said Victor Oriaifo, an account executive at HaptX.
He said the company aims to shrink the portable device once it’s manufacturing at scale.
***
Watch the main stage presentations on the AWE.Live mobile app ( iPhone/ Android), where the remainder of the sessions will appear by the end of next week. View this article in video form on our TikTok page!
Correction: An earlier version of this story stated that AWE had its first conference in 2013. It was in 2010. It's also been updated to more accurately reflect the number of users on TIkTok's Discord account.
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Photo by Cedric Letsch on Unsplash
The result is more venture capitalists on the ground in Los Angeles, a growing tech hub now home to a handful of big name startups and tech giants, from SpaceX to Snap. The region’s tech and startup scene is one reason VCs have flocked here, experts in the industry told dot.LA. The influx can also be attributed to the rise of remote work and Silicon Valley’s weakening grip on the tech sector—a decentralization that has benefited places like Miami and Austin, too.
“Many funds—I’m finding more and more each day—have someone who just moved here full time,” said Kristin Kent, a principal at Expa, the startup studio and venture fund launched by Uber co-founder Garrett Camp.
Kristin Kent, principal at Expa.
Photo courtesy of Kristin Kent
Kent moved to L.A. from San Francisco about a year ago. She expects some colleagues to join soon. One of the firm’s partners, for example, just had an offer on a house accepted and plans to move to the region by year’s end. Expa, which was founded in the Bay Area and raised a $200 million fund in April, is looking at L.A. more often when making investments, Kent said.
“L.A. is exciting because it has, historically, felt more like media and entertainment only, but it’s becoming way more than that now, which is exciting for a lot of venture funds,” Kent said. “We are seeing tons of other companies start to come from L.A. We're starting to see some good talent develop in the area.”
Andreessen Horowitz, a Silicon Valley power broker, announced in July that it would move its headquarters “to the cloud” and become a mostly virtual firm. As a result, the company opened offices in New York, Miami and at 1305 2nd Street in downtown Santa Monica. Though the firm declined to comment for this story, general partner Andrew Chen recently explained on his blog why he personally moved to L.A.—specifically Venice. “It’s walkable, hip, artsy and has pockets of amazing beauty,” he wrote of the beachside neighborhood.
“Since arriving in L.A., I’ve been working with the startup/VC community to help boost the already vibrant tech ecosystem here. We’re committed to have a major presence here,” Chen wrote, noting the firm already has “several dozen employees” in the area. He said he’s now overseeing a16z’s new gaming fund and has maintained “several rotating dinner series for games industry founders and executives.”
One of the biggest names in gaming, Sony, has also dedicated more resources to L.A. Sony Ventures, which manages the emerging tech-focused Sony Innovation Fund, opened an office in April on the company’s Culver City studio lot. After traveling back and forth from the Bay Area to L.A. since 2016, Sony Ventures grew its team here in 2021 and now has three people, said Joseph Tou, the U.S. managing director for Sony Ventures. That headcount is likely to grow as Sony Ventures seeks to further immerse itself in L.A.’s tech scene, particularly in the entertainment space where the region—and Sony—are leaders.
“I just have a firm belief that when it comes to investing, you have to be part of the fabric of those things,” Tou said. “I've been flying to L.A. for 10 years, but I think living here and being in the Southern California ecosystem, it's way different than if you're coming and visiting. So therefore, an office.”
VCs, in some ways, are following the wave of tech talent that moved to Southern California during the pandemic. That included many founders and executives who’ve flown south from the Bay Area, said Kyle Lui, a general partner at Bling Capital who recently moved here himself. L.A. is seen as a sensible place to relocate, not only for quality of life and L.A.’s growing tech scene, but as a way to remain close to the industry’s power center in Silicon Valley if needed.
“There are a lot of second- and third-time founders who started their first company in the Bay because you had to, and now you don't,” Lui said. “They've decided they want to live where they want to live, and so L.A. has been a great destination.”
Vinay Singh, managing director at Anthemis Group, moved to Santa Monica just three weeks ago from New York. His firm, founded in London, has increasingly focused on deals in Southern California, he said. Moving to L.A. gives his firm a presence in L.A. without opening a physical office—while allowing him and his family to live by the beach.
Singh sees similarities between the early days of New York’s tech ecosystem and L.A., from big name startups like Snap going public to an influx of VCs to funds launching in the area.
Vinay Singh, Managing Director at Anthemis Group
Photo courtesy of Vinay Singh
“That is kind of what I saw starting to happen seven, eight years ago in New York, and it's repeating itself here,” Singh said. “That's exciting because I think it's kind of a harbinger of what is possible in L.A.”
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