Augmented World Expo Europe – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

October 28, 2019

AWE EU 2019: Interview Highlights

The Augmented World Expo (AWE) may not be on the consumer radar as the event tends to focus on enterprise but that doesn’t mean to say there’s nothing interesting going on. As a matter of fact, the recent AWE EU event in Munich, Germany saw quite the turnout, and naturally, VRFocus caught up with several of them to see what they had in store for the future of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) technology.

AWE EU 2019 image1

Exhibitors covered the length and breadth of the VR/AR industry, whether that was Hologate demonstrating its location-based entertainment (LBE) platform allowing up to four people to play at once to Glue, a collaboration platform that’s both customisable and scalable depending on a businesses needs.

In the interview below you’ll hear from the likes of Varjo, the Finnish hardware manufacturer behind the new VR-2 and VR-2 Pro headsets. The company unveiled the two new VR devices just prior to the event, meaning AWE EU was the first time Varjo had demoed them to the public. Needless to say, the Varjo stand remained busy throughout, as attendees tested the high-resolution display alongside Ultraleap’s hand tracking.

Also on hand was Blend Media which had just officially announced Blend Market. This is an online marketplace designed to connect creatives working in the immersive industries with corporate clients looking to hire professionals for projects.

AWE EU 2019 image2

While there were some big fancy stands by XR’s more prominent companies AWE EU was also about highlighting the smaller startups trying to make their presence known. One of those was Nucurrent, a specialist in wireless charging technology. Fairly standard in high-end smartphones nowadays, Nucurrent displayed its wireless charging system retrofitted to an Oculus Go and its controller using a docking station. Ideal for those who want a storage and charging solution in one.

Check out the interview compilation below. And for all the latest enterprise-focused VR/AR news from around the world, keep reading VRFocus.

October 9, 2019

New Speakers & Sessions Confirmed for AWE 2019

There’s just over a week to go until the European leg of the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2019, offering a chance for virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) professionals from around the world to get together, share ideas, and test the latest immersive technologies. As the event details are finalised AWE EU 2019 has confirmed a new bunch of companies and speakers attending, plus the topics they’ll be discussing.

A wide range of companies are now confirmed to speak, including Accenture, American Museum of Natural History, Audi, BBC, Blippar, BMW, Boeing, Bose, Coca-Cola, Deutsche Telekom, EDF Energy, European Parliament, Facebook, Google, HP, HTC Vive, Hugo Boss, L’Oréal, Louvre Museum, Magic Leap, Microsoft, Nestle, PTC, Siemens, Snap, Spatial, Tetra Pak, T-Mobile, Tobii, Varjo Technologies and Volvo.

As for some of the newest and most interesting sessions, whose talking and where:

Main Stage: Solving for the Massive Skilled Workforce Shortage: How Scalable AR/VR Enterprise Solutions Will Impact Workforce Productivity | Nathan Pettyjohn, Commerical AR/VR Lead, Lenovo
Main Stage: 5Billion people and counting. The urgent need for HapticVR Surgical training | Vicky Smalley, FundamentalVR
Main Stage: An AR/VR Ecosystem: The Triangle of Hardware, Software Platform and Solution | Fireside chat with Michael Zawrel, Sr. Product Manager, Mixed Reality & HoloLens, Microsoft ; Kerim Ispir, COO, RE’FLEKT ; and Juergen Lumera, Automotive Service Solutions, AR Product Management & Innovation, Bosch
Main Stage: Coca-Cola HBC Pioneers Vision Picking in FMCG Sector | Konstantinos Eliopoulos and Suzana Rari, Coca-Cola HBC, and Jan Junker, Ubimax
Main Stage: XR and European Institutions | Fakhreddine Aouadi, European Parliament and Fabien Benetou, European Parliament and UNICEF
Main Stage: AR Collaboration – Goodbye Video Conferencing | Jacob Loewenstein, Spatial
Main Stage: 6DoFemale Panel
Main Stage: Enabling immersive exploration with Google Earth VR | Rupert Breheny, VR Manager, Google
Main Stage: Test Drive with Volvo and Varjo | Casper Wickman, Sr. Technical Leader/Sr. Researcher, Volvo Cars and Urho Konttori, Founder, Chief Product Officer, Varjo Technologies
Creator Track: Augmented Reality is a New Tool for Training of Creativity Through Drawing | Andrey Drobitko, Founder & CEO, SKETCHAR
Creator Track: Preserving Amsterdam’s Monumental Street Art in VR | Gabriele Romagnoli, Owner, GR Talk
Developer Track: Audio AR Wearables and AI | Daniel Zeitman, Senior Developer Advocate, Bose
Developer Track: Introducing the Vive Pro Eye: Using Your Eyes to Enhance the VR Experience | Graham Breen, Sr. Manager, B2B Solutions, HTC Vive and John O’Neill, Technology Evangelist, Tobii
XR Enablement: How AR and 5G will make 3D Internet a reality | Ambarish Mitra, Founder, Blippar
Enterprise Track: Video-projected Augmented Reality in the Beauty Industry | Panagiotis-Alexandros Bokaris, Digitalization & Diagnostics Team Manager, L’Oréal
XR Enablement Track: CONVERGENCE: How Blockchain and Other Exponential Technologies Will Impact the Future of Work | Amy Peck, Founder/CEO, EndeavorVR
XR Enablement: The Future of Digital Humans | Kaspar Tiri, Co-Founder, Wolf3D
XR Enablement: Redefining VR: Touching Masterpieces | Luis Castillo, Co-Founder & CEO, Neurodigital

The fourth iteration of AWE in Europe, all the talks will be held alongside the main exhibition for attendees to go hands-on with the latest VR and AR tech.

Tickets are still available to those that wish to attend from 17th – 18th October 2019. You can even use VRFocus‘ AWE EU 2019 code: EUVRFOCUS20 which provides 20% off an all-access ticket. For any further updates, keep reading VRFocus.

October 9, 2018

Theorem Solutions Bringing Engineering Solutions App Digital Realities And ‘Visualization Pipeline’ Tech To AWE EU 2018

While what we would consider to be the ‘main’ events season is now over with the end of this year’s Oculus Connect, there are still a number of events in the pipeline that are set to be of particular interest to those interested in immersive technology.

Digital Realities HoloLens key art One such event is the 2018 European edition of the Augmented World Expo – better known as AWE – which will be taking place at the MOC Exhibition Centre in Germany from October 18th 2018 through to the 19th. There is, no doubt, a large number of announcements to come from European firms involved in what is increasingly being termed “XR”, and we now have confirmation of at least one firm who will be bringing new experiences not just to virtual reality (VR) via the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive, but augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) too.

Engineering and manufacturing partner Theorem Solutions – which VRFocus last reported on in January upon the reveal of their unified immersive reality engineering solution app, Digital Realities – will be bringing their range of associated CAD and PLM utilising experiences to AWE EU 2018 along with launching its new ‘Visualization Pipeline’ server technology.

“To complement our Digital Realities experiences we are also launching our Visualization Pipeline technology, which is a server based technology that rapidly processes CAD data into a wide variety of formats for use in 3D Engines – Unity and Unreal, Photorealistic Rendering or AR/MR/VR tools, applications and with lightweight viewers.” Explains the firm in a statement. “Engineering and Manufacturing businesses are increasingly looking into the benefits of using AR, MR and VR to improve processes and collaboration, cut costs and make access to data easier. The Visualization Pipeline is helping to make that possible with a single application.”

Thoerem Solutions - Digital Realities

“Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality is everywhere at the moment and is making its way from the recreational gaming world into the commercial enterprise world. Integrating these innovative technologies into existing engineering and manufacturing workflows opens up new ways of working, and modernises current processes, futureproofing them as technology evolves, and ultimately saves organisations time and money in the long run.”

Attendees to AWE EU 2018 will be able to try out demonstrations of the upgraded Digital Realities experiences across a number of devices. Theorem Solutions will be locatable at stand #109 during the event.

VRFocus will bring you more news on the goings on at AWE as we get it.

September 23, 2018

Public Voting Opens For The Breakthrough Auggie Awards 2018

After the success of the Auggie Awards at latest year’s Augmented World Expo 2017, which was awarded to those who contributed extraordinary innovation to the virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) industries. This year a new award is being handed out in the form of the Breakthrough Auggie Awards which will honour the “Most Innovative Breakthrough”, “Most Impactful Breakthrough” and an outstanding “Women XR Laureate” award.

Auggie Awards

In total there are six different awards being handed out at the event. This includes the “most Innovative Breakthrough” which will honour a collaborative project which was introduced a new, novel and unique approach not seen before. The “Most Innovative Breakthrough” award will honour a collaborative project which demonstrates a use case which has the potential to dramatically impact the industry. The “Most Innovative Breakthrough” will be honouring a collaborative project by a female researcher of project manager.

Three additional awards will also be handed out as part of the Breakthrough Auggie Awards 2018 for the the best in show for both AR and VR content, along with an overall best in show award for the whole expo. The nomination period for the awards has already ended and the public voting period is now under way. The voting period for the Breakthrough Auggie Awards 2018 are open until October 1st, 2018

Once the public voting closes on October 1st, 2018 the judging period will run until October 8th, 2018 with the winners being announced at AWE Europe 2018. The AWE Europe 2018 is planned to take place on October 18th-19th in Munich, Germany at the MOC Exhibition Center. Over 2,000 attendees, 100 speakers and 100 exhibitors will come together at the event to share their love and knowledge of all things XR.

Tickets are currently on sale for AWE Europe 2018 with tickets starting at €149.00 (Euro) for a one day pass going up to €1,295.00 for a two day all access pass and ISMAR combo pack. More details on tickets and availability can be found here and more information on the Breakthrough Auggie Awards 2018 can be found on the award site.

VRFocus will be sure to bring you all the latest on the Auggie Awards and AWE Europe 2018 in the future so stay tuned for more.

September 16, 2018

Augmented World Expo Announces Partnership With Digi-Capital

The Augmented World Expo (AWE) announced earlier this week that they are partnering with Digi-Capital, an analytics firm and global adviser and provider of XR industry intelligence. AWE of course provide events focusing on virtual, augmented and mixed reality (VR/AR/MR) which all fall into the umbrella term of XR. This new partnership gives the XR industry a new level of access to leaders and products combined with data, survey analysis and regional reports.

Digi-Capital

This means that AWE attendees will gain access to select Digi-Capital material such as analytics and reports to help drive XR innovation initiatives, spur corporate and VC investment, along with helping new startups go to market. Part of the partnership also includes Digi-Captial having a survey program offering unique access to AWE’s industry “brain trust”. This partnership will see people across the XR industry able to benefit from a range of services and information, helping to making it a better place all-round.

Additionally, the partnership will also see Digi-Capital founder and managing direct, Tim Merel, headlining AWE events, providing the State of the Union keynotes and sharing live, global and regional XR analytics. He will first be presenting at the upcoming AWE Europe 2018 conference and expo.

Elsewhere, AWE also announced that the AWE Europe 2018 conference would be returning to Munich this year and is co-locating with ISMAR, the IEEE International Symposium on AR and MR to deliver the industry’s most comprehensive showcase of XR innovation to help bridge the gap between scientific ideation to market commercialization.

AWE EU

“Since my first ISMAR in 2008 where I was introduced to the promise of AR to change our lives, it was my dream to bring together the research and commercial sectors of the AR Industry. This year, by co-locating AWE and ISMAR in Munich we achieve this goal; the cross-pollination between research and industry will manifest itself in deeper understanding of the current research as well as what’s required to support XR adoption in the industry. ” said Ori Inbar, co-founder and executive producer of AWE. “At no other event can you see the products available today combined with the critical-ingredient science inspiring the technology of tomorrow–for an interconnected vision of the road ahead for XR.”

AWE Europe 2018 is planned to take place on October 18th-19 in Munich, Germany at the MOC Exhibition Center. It will see over 2,000 attendees, 100 speakers and 100 exhibitors come together to share their love and knowledge of all things XR.

Tickers are currently on sale starting at €149.00 (Euro) for a one day pass going up to €1,295.00 for a two day all access pass and ISMAR combo pack. More details on tickets and availability can be found here and for more news on AWE in the future, keep reading VRFocus.