VRARA Vancouver at TED2018
The VRARA Vancouver and 7 local VRAR companies represented BC’s immersive tech industry at the annual TED Conference, TED2018 “The Age of Amazement.”
Each year TED brings together change-makers and big thinkers from across industries and areas of research to discuss the ideas, science, and technology shaping our world.
From April 10 - 14, over a thousand attendees filled the Vancouver Convention Centre to exchange ideas, experience immersive installations, and discuss this year’s theme, “The Age of Amazement.”
The five-day conference was headlined by 100 international speakers, from artists and activists to developers and scientists. Each challenged the audience to think bigger and consider the ways in which emerging ideas and technology could impact our future. Talks covered everything from research on biological teleportation and advancements in AI to climate change and the #MeToo movement.
In partnership with TED2018, the Vancouver VR/AR Association had the opportunity to join the conversation and showcase how BC’s local industry is playing a major role in the advancement of immersive technology.
Along with a delegation of local companies, the VRARA Vancouver presented BC’s VR/AR industry to a VIP audience. Archiact, Cognitive 3D, LlamaZOO, Ziva Dynamics, Finger Food Studios, Shape Immersive, and Precision OS each demoed their products and demonstrated the impact that immersive tech can have on industries as diverse as gaming and film, to technical training and business solutions.
Shape Immersive unveiled their newest product at TED, which they built specifically for TED2018 in partnership with the VRARA Vancouver. Using Occipital's depth camera and mixed reality framework, the company was able to create the illusion of context-aware virtual objects. The result is one the most spatially accurate augmented reality experiences ever created.
“With computer vision technology, virtual content can now understand its spatial surrounding and interact with it. Experiences are no longer bounded by physical constraints and can be more versatile and imaginative,” said Alex Chuang, Co-Founder and CEO of Shape Immersive.
The demo was greeted with praise from industry professionals and since its debut, has already received 10,000 views on LinkedIn.
“It's so new that even the experts in our field that came and saw it at TED were caught off guard. This is unchartered territory for us digital creatives to play in," said Aaron Hilton, President at Steampunk Digital and the project supervisor for this demo.
The over 180 companies that make up BC’s immersive tech industry have proven the vast number of ways that VR/AR technology can improve how we live, work, and experience the world.
The challenge of identifying VR/AR utility has been resolved. What comes next is bringing immersive tech into the mainstream and connecting developers to the businesses that can benefit from their ideas. Attendance at influential conferences like TED, shines a spotlight on BC's tech industry and can open the doors to new opportunities and investment.
We’re looking forward to what next year brings!
BC VR/AR Industry on Display at TED2018
Six BC VR/AR companies will showcase their products at the TED2018 global conference on April 10.
6 VR/AR companies to showcase their products at global conference
Vancouver, BC - March 28, 2018, The Vancouver Chapter of the VR/AR Association (VRARA) has partnered with the TED2018 Conference to showcase BC tech and innovation in VR/AR on April 10.
The annual TED Conference will return to the Vancouver Convention Centre from April 10 - 14, 2018. Internationally renowned for bringing attention to the latest research and innovation in technology, entertainment, and design, the event routinely attracts influential business leaders from around the world.
This year’s theme, “The Age of Amazement,” includes a focus on the transformative power of emerging technology and the impact these innovations will have on how we live, work, and understand each other. The VRARA Vancouver is excited to join this conversation and demonstrate how VR/AR is shaping our future.
Trauma Platform, Precision OS
The VRARA Vancouver will attend TED2018, along with local companies Archiact, Cognitive 3D, LlamaZOO, Ziva Dynamics, Finger Food Studios, and Precision OS, and represent BC’s VR/AR industry to an international audience. The initiative offers each company the opportunity to demo their products to key industry stakeholders and showcase BC as a leader in immersive tech. Home to more than 180 VR/AR companies, BC is one of the largest immersive tech hubs in the world, second only to California’s Silicon Valley.
"With applications for game development, enterprise and immersive experiences, Vancouver's VR/AR ecosystem demonstrates that it is ready for the challenge of developing both the platforms and content of the future. Anchored by household names like Microsoft, populated by game-changing creators like Archiact and Finger Food, and supported by a connected, generous and innovative ecology of educators, incubators, and associations, this is a sector 40+ years in the making.” Nancy Basi, Executive Director, Film and Media at the Vancouver Economic Commission
The attending companies represent VR/AR innovation in entertainment, gaming, healthcare, education, and analytics. Together they demonstrate the wide-reaching applications for VR/AR technology and how it is improving the professional capabilities for business across diverse industries. VR/AR products are being used to increase efficiency, improve safety, and lower costs.
“This is a fantastic opportunity for BC’s world-class VR/AR companies to showcase a variety of products to a global audience. From entertainment to education, to medical and business applications, BC is growing its reputation as a leading jurisdiction in the VR/AR sector.” Bruce Ralston, Minister of Jobs, Trade and Technology
“We are excited to showcase the local innovators who are pushing the immersive tech sector forward and putting BC on the map as a global leader in VR/AR.” Dan Burgar, VRARA Vancouver Chapter President
Evasion VR Game, Archiact
In partnership with Shape Immersive, the VRARA Vancouver will feature a special AR application tailored to TED attendees. One of AR's biggest promises is the ability to organize information at its origin. With the help of computer vision technology, digital content can now understand its spatial surrounding and interact with it. Experiences are no longer bounded by physical constraints and can be more versatile and imaginative.
"We are very proud of VRARA Vancouver to represent our Association at the TED Conference. Our members make a strong contribution within our ecosystem and will showcase what the 4th technological transformation (VR/AR) is all about at the conference." Kris Kolo, Global Executive Director
MinelLife VR, Llama Zoo
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Archiact was first founded in 2013, specializing in early virtual reality development. Today, with offices in Vancouver, Canada and Shanghai, China it is one of the world’s largest virtual and augmented reality studios – providing top quality experiences across all major platforms in entertainment and enterprise solutions. Archiact has partnered with the very best at Intel, Epic Games & Nvidia to deliver AAA quality graphics for next generation devices. Their upcoming flagship title “Evasion,” is an authentic full locomotion FPS featuring intense action that has already been hailed by VR critics as a “Borderlands for VR” and a “landmark FPS title”, a must-have VR game for 2018 which will be showcased at TED.
For more information, please visit https://www.archiactvr.com/.
Cognitive 3D was founded in 2015 with a vision to change the way human behavior is analyzed and understood. The platform records, measures, aggregates, and analyzes data from VR, AR, and MR experiences, and generates reports with actionable insights. This technology helps brands develop better products, understand spaces in new ways, and carry our training with clearer results. Cognitive 3D is also creating a language for VR/AR/MR analytics, giving people new ways to talk about and understand this new type of behavior. For more information, please visit https://cognitive3d.com/.
LlamaZOO Interactive is an award-winning AR/VR development studio that creates 3D communication, training, and digital twin visualization solutions. LlamaZOO Interactive will be demoing the following two projects which showcase the power and capability of VR for visualizing complex interactive 3D data for industries such as mining and education. JetsonVR is the world’s first virtual reality canine dissection experience where users to conveniently, safely, and interactively explore the complete canine anatomy, and dissect it organ by organ, inside a virtual lab. MineLife VR fuses complex geospatial and mine planning data into an interactive, 1:1 scale digital twin of the planned, current, and future states of a mine site, over 30,000 km2 (18,600m2). For more information please visit https://www.llamazoo.com/.
Ziva Dynamics is an innovation company changing how virtual humans are created and rendered in interactive experiences through proprietary authoring, intelligence, and rendering technologies. The software automates the creation and utility of virtual humans, through anatomically-correct psychologically-driven character stimulation intelligence. Ziva Dynamics joined forces with Intel to showcase the future of character FX at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival. Ziva will have two stations set up to show the advancements in virtual human and creature simulation with our tech over the last 2 years. For more information, please visit https://zivadynamics.com/.
Precision OS is a software company positioned to positively impact Orthopedic surgery with their high-fidelity VR software platforms. Their focus on the critical elements of surgery, haptics, and metric feedback provides for an unparalleled educational experience. In addition, their pre-operative planning tool eliminates the trial and error associated with fracture care through an immersive interaction with your patients’ images. This combined with their carefully selected team provides the domain expertise one would expect to change the delivery of Orthopedic care globally. For more information, please visit https://precisionostech.com/.
Finger Food Studios is an award-winning technology solutions company that excels at creating industry transforming solutions for global companies at the convergence of AR/VR, AI, and IoT. Combining technical prowess and some of the world’s best creative, engineering, quality assurance, and business professionals, the company embraces challenge as an opportunity to change things for the better. We care deeply about our clients’ success and are dedicated to creating positive change for each business we work with, our community, and the environment. For more information please visit https://www.fingerfoodstudios.com/.
VR/AR Association Vancouver Chapter (VRARA) represents the coming-together of brilliant minds across the VR/AR/MR ecosystem in Vancouver, from original content creators and creative distributors to innovative hardware companies and ambitious researchers. Vancouver is a national and international hub for technological innovation and the VRARA Vancouver chapter is dedicated to supporting and strengthening BC’s position as a global leader in immersive technology. VRARA Vancouver works across the globe with other VRARA chapters to provide members with worldwide reach and opportunities. For more information, please visit www.thevrara.com/vancouver-chapter/ and find the VRARA Vancouver on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram.
Key Contact
Dan Burgar, VR/AR Association Vancouver Chapter President
604.880.8983