QPORIT

 

1 - The Pandemic hastened the acceptance by the public of all digital possibilities of viewing content at home.

 

2 - Except for existing methods of monetizing digital content viewed at home, other alternatives have had monetizing problems.

 

Some streaming cases:

              a. Good streaming services: Netflix, Disney, ...

              b. OK & Promising: YouTube, Prime Video, ...

              c. Promising streaming services: Apple ...

              d. Struggling streaming services: HBO+ ...

              e. Failed streaming services Quibi ...

 

Home meetings:

              a. Good: Zoom

              b. Just getting started:

                           i. Zoom competitors like Teams

                           ii. VR Social Spaces

                                         1. AltSpace

                                         2. Spatial

                                         3. Engage

                                         4. Mozilla Hubs

                                         5. Oculus/Facebook Venues & Horizon

 

Other:

              a. Good: top games on VR

              b. OK, Less $$$ but working: teaching online

              c. Problems (partly no Union contracts): Live commercial theater

              d. Very promising, but not yet well monetized: Live indie VR theater

                           i. Example: The Under Presents... The Tempest

 

 

3. VR, AR, MR, AI, 5G and all XR technologies have made great progress in 2020. In particular:

 

a.       The new class of VR headsets is now almost consumer friendly, although the software (both content and navigational/operational software) is still lagging.

 

HMD's:

              a. QUEST2 - good resolution, terrific price (starts at $299)

              b. REVERB G2 - better resolution, higher price

 

CHIPS

              a. QUALCOMM - new powerful chips that will improve HMD's in 2021 and may enable 1st generation consumer Mixed Reality HMD's

              b. APPLE - Apple seems to be doing well with custom chips, and may have HMD devices in 2021 or 2022.

 

CAMERAS:

a.       Cameras for VR seem to be lagging behind. Maybe new generation in 2021.

 

ANIMATION:

a.       Computer animation has been 3D for years. Re-rendering for VR could release a lot of content. But HMD's must be capable (eyestrain, battery, and heat) of running easily for 2 hours or more.

 

SOFTWARE:

              a.  Scientific American is talking about the transition to "Spatial Computing"

              b. A few games have broken out financially

              c  There is an industry-wide (very important!) move to open standards:

                           i. OPEN XR

                           ii. webXR (also called web 3.0 and The Spatial Web).

 

4. Next year there will probably be some more in-person economic activity due to

              a. The likelihood of widespread vaccinations by Fall, 2021

              b. The likelihood that an active Presidential Task force on COVID-19 will improve overall national compliance with rational protective behavior:

                           i.            masks

                           ii.           distancing

                           iii.          testing with quarantines and tracking

                           iv.           school and workplace standards and supports

 

5. Conclusion:

a.       Digital entertainment has been accelerated

b.      Limited but gradual growth of in-person activity before Fall 2021, strongly influenced by new digital initiatives

c.       The balance between traditional commercial practices and new "indie" digital operations will depend on the "digital" flexibility and ingenuity of the existing commercial institutions, "versus" the "commercial" entrepreneurial skill and ingenuity of new digital innovations.

 

Note (not sure whether this is a disclaimer or shameless promotion):

QPORIT is working on

              1. comprehensive web 3.0 content including

                           i. gaming, art, story-telling, news, and educational content

                           ii. development of XR Live Theater

              2. improved web 3.0 navigational software

              3. business applications, including multidimensional data analytics

              4. a book on eXtended Reality (XR)

 

 

QPORIT also organizes the NYXR, StoryCode and StoryForward Meetups.

 

Please join one of these groups

for continued updates on the accomplishments and promise of XR!

 

NYXR

https://www.meetup.com/NYXR-New-York-eXtended-Reality-Meetup/