Big XR News from Varjo, WEF, Snap, and Canon

Apple’s upcoming smart glasses (or MR headset) may be around the corner. Rumours around the device’s design features and its mysterious RealityOS framework are flooding social media.

Moreover, ChatGPT still sits at the top of technology headlines. Now, with CoPilot taking shape thanks to a partnership with Microsoft, OpenAI and other firms are helping to define the future of work with AI.

With emerging technology, XR and others, expanding in common knowledge use cases are also growing. Business innovation is gaining many optimistic predictions about applying innovative new technology solutions.

Whether XR, AI, or digital transformations, the enterprise technology innovation space is fruitful in prospective returns, and now real-world usage may back forecasts up.

Varjo Demos XR Enterprise Use Cases in London

This Wednesday, XR Today visited a Varjo product demo in London, United Kingdom, where the firm showcased several XR use cases for its headsets across enterprise verticals.

Varjo highlighted how enterprise end-users could leverage the firm’s headsets and solutions for architecture, engineering, and construction (AEC) professionals, aerospace pilot training, healthcare instruction, and automotive design.

At the event, Patrick Wyatt, Chief Product Officer, Varjo, spoke to XR Today. The Varjo representative stated how its MR device’s high-fidelity design and emerging enterprise use cases facilitate growth for the Helsinki-based firm’s primary design and pilot training segments.

For example, Varjo’s pilot immersive simulations software uses physical cockpits that show the controller an operator is using surrounded by virtual content.

“This allows them to develop the right muscle memory to train with real-world content, rather than viewing VR content incorrectly,” said Wyatt.

Moreover, Wyatt noted how Varjo’s collaboration with industry verticals, partners, and software enables use case innovation. The CPO said how Varjo integrates with professional software platforms such as Autodesk VRED and FlightSim Tooling to “make sure that we can showcase our headset in context with software that our customers are really using to build these use cases we’ve discussed.”

Adopting Emerging Tech Drives Business Transformation

The World Economic Forum (WEF) released its Future of Jobs Report 2023 last month. In the report, the WEF found that emerging technologies are most likely to affect workplace change.

The WEF surveyed 803 companies employing over 11.3 million workers across 27 industry verticals. Of its questioned individuals, more than 85 percent of polled organizations identified increased adoption of emerging technology solutions and broadening workplace access to digital services as the most likely trend to drive enterprise transformation.

Moreover, 75 percent of WEF’s surveyed companies expect to adopt emerging technologies such as big data, cloud computing, and AI in the next five years. They predict that emerging tech will disrupt roughly 44 percent of worker skills.

In a follow-up interview this week, WEF, Jeff Maggioncalda, CEO at Coursera, added, “whether you are a factory worker or on the frontlines or whether you’re a knowledge worker sitting behind a desk. Technology is shifting the way almost every job task will be performed.”

The news comes as the WEF released a report on the impact of the Metaverse and DAO frameworks in the enterprise. The report showed how Meteverse and DAO-ready businesses could become more agile thanks to reorganized talent pools that allow work to flow to talent.

Moreover, the WEF frames how DAO frameworks can modify conventional jobs like director, representative, project worker, and merchant. DAO value propositions alter how a core group of employees coordinates and delivers work.

Snap Gains Former Meta Senior Employees

Snap Inc, the parent firm operating the popular social media and AR-lite application Snapchat, announced on Monday that it had hired two former Meta employees to help it achieve its immersive advertising objectives.

Patrick Harris, Snaps Senior Vice President of Partnerships and David Sommer, Head of Verticals, are the new hires at Snap. The pair will help deliver individualized advertising experiences and familiarize third-party developers with the platform’s toolkits.

The announcement comes as Snap Inc. reports an increase in daily active users of 280 million, indicating that the platform has a large user base ideal for brand marketing and advertising objectives.

At its 2023 partner summit, Snap introduced AR Enterprise Services (ARES) for creating engaging branded AR marketing and advertising content through integrated tools such as 3D Viewer, Fit Finder, AR Try-On, Enterprise Manager, and Hands-On Integration Services.

Snap’s hiring comes during Meta’s mass lay-offs of roughly 11,000 employees in November 2022 and another 10,000 as of April 2023.

Canon Kokomo ImmersiveCalling Solution

Canon recently opened early access to its Kokomo ImmersiveCalling platform in Canada and the United States for the Meta Quest 2.

Unveiled at the Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2022 in Las Vegas, Canon’s service allows face-to-face communications with other Quest 2 users.

The software works by tethering a compatible smartphone or tablet to the Meta headset to enable facial imaging technologies within immersive environments.

Canon’s solution creates digital avatars of a caller as a full-body digital twin, assisting users in feeling connected in an immersive environment. Moreover, callers can share data and digital media in real time.

Canon plans to launch numerous online events to engage new users, including top names such as Nathaniël de Jong, Casandra Vuong, and Chary Keijzer.

Meta Quest users can access Kokomo ImmersiveCalling through the App Lab storefront, and the application will provide a pairing with Canon’s mobile app for both Android and iOS devices.