The much-hyped metaverse, AR, and blockchain technologies have all gone boom and bust over the last few years—in some cases, more than once. But from that rubble of v1 ideas, we’re witnessing the birth of new products and services that can withstand the test of time. From rethinking urban planning to improving human vision, these technologies still hold a lot of promise for humanity.
8th Wall
For proving the power of AR through the web
Apps and platforms come and go, but the worldwide web connects us all. It’s why the WebAR company 8th Wall—acquired by Pokémon Go creator Niantic in 2022—has focused on creating interactive AR experiences that live inside URLs, so they can be accessed universally by smartphones, laptops, and even Meta Quest headsets. Its developers have created 100,000 web apps to date, including one offering sideline views of the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show, which garnered 3 billion views from 500,000 fans last year.
Lumus
For enabling normal AR glasses
From their size to their performance, AR headsets still feel too large for everyday use. But Lumus has built an AR projection system called Z-Lens that squeezes high-end AR into lightweight frames. The magic lives in a micro-projector hidden inside the temple area of the glasses’ frame. It fires light onto mirrors etched into the lenses that reflect the virtual image into the user’s eye. The 2Kx2K resolution is sharp and viewable in sunlight. The approach also allows for the use of both prescription and transition lenses, so your AR glasses can be more like your regular glasses.
Ocutrx
For using AR to fix our real vision
While most AR glasses promise to fill our eyes with digital images, Ocutrx is developing an AR headset called the OcuLenz, which is built to help the one in 10 people over 50 with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) see more clearly. OcuLenz works not by repairing someone’s eye but by repositioning the world around the blind spots. An onboard camera and micro-display send a real-time video feed to the parts of someone’s eye that are less damaged by AMD. A pilot study demonstrated that testers who could no longer read due to AMD were able to discern large print again. The company plans to deliver 100 headsets in 2023, with full commercialization next year.
Orlando Economic Partnership
For building a real city’s digital twin
Imagine if you could make a copy of your city in SimCity. That’s largely the idea behind the Orlando Regional Digital Twin, a high-fidelity digital doppelgänger of the region developed by the Orlando Economic Partnership in concert with 3D-platform developer Unity. It includes 800 square miles of interactive virtual maps, with information sourced from 200 different data sets. The twin is currently being used by developers to plan investments in the region, but in the future, it will increasingly be used as a tool to simulate the Orlando of tomorrow by modeling possibilities in urban planning and considering “what if” scenarios.
Roblox
For bringing generative AI to gamers
While we’ve barely scratched the surface on the potential of generative AI, Roblox is already building some of its superpowers into its creator tools to expedite game generation. The updates include Code Assist, which suggests functions as people code, and a Material Generator, which creates unique textures like an “antique wood floor” through simple prompts. So far, Roblox’s game designers have an appetite for the new features: Over a third of beta testers have utilized each of these updates, and developers generate about 70,000 new materials each day.
The companies behind these technologies are among the honorees in Fast Company’s Next Big Things in Tech awards for 2023. See a full list of all the winners across all categories and read more about the methodology behind the selection process.
The 5 next big things in metaverse, AR, and VR for 2023
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28.11.2023
The much-hyped metaverse, AR, and blockchain technologies have all gone boom and bust over the last few years—in some cases, more than once. But from that rubble of v1 ideas, we’re witnessing the birth of new products and services that can withstand the test of time. From rethinking urban planning to improving human vision, these technologies still hold a lot of promise for humanity.
8th Wall
For proving the power of AR through the web
Apps and platforms come and go, but the worldwide web connects us all. It’s why the WebAR company 8th Wall—acquired by Pokémon Go creator Niantic in 2022—has focused on creating interactive AR experiences that live inside URLs, so they can be accessed universally by smartphones, laptops, and even Meta Quest headsets. Its developers have created 100,000 web apps to date, including one offering sideline views of the 2022 Super Bowl Halftime Show, which garnered 3 billion views from 500,000 fans last year.
Lumus
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