VRARA Global Summit Europe Concludes Online Event

The VRARA wrapped up its summit, which featured some of the world's top XR executives and representatives

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VRARA Europe Summit Concludes Packed Event
Event NewsInsights

Published: October 7, 2021

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Rory Greener

The VR/AR Association’s (VRARA) Global European Summit took place September 29th to October 1st, uniting over 300 speakers across numerous sessions, keynotes and virtual booths for attendees.

The summit featured presentations by representatives sharing ideas on extended, augmented, virtual, and mixed reality (XR/AR/VR/MR) solutions and practices across verticals such as eCommerce, healthcare, entertainment, and tourism.

The fall summit featured keynotes from XR firms such as Facebook’s Oculus, Realwear, Unity, HTC VIVE, and others seeking to foster relationships between XR providers and end users.

HP Reveals Adaptive Biometric XR Tools

Opening this year’s Summit was Cécile Tezenas du Montcel, New technology Business Development Manager at HP, who spoke on tools to incorporate groundbreaking ‘intelligent’ biometrics for official HP VR Headsets.

During the presentation, Cécile gave insights on Omnicept by HP and how the US global PC manufacturer used biometrics to revolutionise VR training.

HP’s data-driven platform allows XR developers to produce enterprise-grade, adaptive immersive experiences that react to a wearer’s physical response in real-time.

The Palo Alto-based firm also claimed its biometric solution could improve employee training, satisfaction, and wellness with a centralised platform for enterprises to review metrics and assess individual performance during VR training sessions.

Build Metaverse Under ‘Open’ Framework, Execs Say

With Zuckerberg turning the Metaverse into a trending topic, it is no surprise the platform became a speaking point at the VRARA Europe event.

Marcin Klimek, Chief Executive and Co-founder of ExplodedView, hosted a philosophical discussion on the nature of the Metaverse.

Much of the discussion revolved around the Metaverse becoming a potential successor to the internet, sparking debate on whether it should operate as an open or closed platform.

When asked whether tech giants such as Facebook could successfully build the Metaverse, panellists Timmu Tõke, Chief Executive for Ready Player Me and Krzysztof Wróbel, CEO for Virbe, voiced concerns and saw more potential in an open platform.

The panellists agreed calling for a global standard similar to the internet to stop large companies from monopolising the Metaverse.

McCauley: Facebook, Ray-Ban AR a Long-Term Win

Jack McCauley, former Oculus Co-Founder and Engineer, held a keynote reflecting on his time at Oculus and how he helped to pave the foundations for Facebook’s 2014 acquisition of the firm.

McCauley also commented on the recent partnership between Facebook and Ray-Ban to produce AR smartglasses, stating “with [Facebook’s] vast experience, [they] will be able to make that work.”

McCauley claims the partnership will be beneficial as more AR technologies emerge, concluding:

“The AR experience with the Rayban glasses is a win for them, not in the short term, but in the long term”

How Will Telcoms Build 5G for the XR Market?

Philip Wogart, Executive Director DACH at VRARA, hosted a key panel exploring 5G XR use cases across military, medical, and entertainment verticals and future of 5G-powered XR solutions.

During the discussion, panellists explored the benefits of using private, dedicated 5G networks for XR technologies, due to better security and lower latency, which would lead to future public infrastructure.

Featured panellist Leslie Shannon, Head of Ecosystem and Trend Scouting at Nokia, spoke on the importance of cloud computing in the emerging 5G XR landscape.

She added 5G was the “necessary link” needed to for edge computing-enabled networks to offload data usage from XR devices by “taking the processing off the end device [and] moving it into the network.”

Tourism Innovation Summit to Support XR Startups

Silvia Aviles, Tourism Innovation Summit (TIS) Event Director, spoke on XR opportunities in tourism, citing XR highlights from recent years.

During her presentation, the TIS representative spoke on the Touristech Startup Fest, a TIS accelerator and outreach project that has begun accepting research pitches from 400 tourism tech startups.

During the Summit, which will take place November 10 to 12 in Seville, Spain, the accelerator will promote and unite global innovators who hope to “transform the tourism sector.”

 

 

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