Nreal AR Raises $60 Million From AliBaba, Mojo Vision AR Contacts Demo, Liv Raises $8.5 For VR Streaming

Nreal Raises $60 Million from Alibaba. The funding will help China’s Nreal AR Smartglasses launch in its home country following roll outs in Japan and the U.S. The company raised $200 Million at a $700 Million valuation last year, and has built its own manufacturing planet in Wuxi, China. The $600 the AR glasses are cheap for what they are, but they do need to be tethered to very specific new 5G Android smartphone. Nreal says the new funds will also enable them to grow their app ecosystem, which will be critical to user adoption.

Mojo Vision Demos Next Generation AR contact lenses Every once in a while I see something that makes me go wow. Scott Stein of Cnet said wow. Tony Vitillo said wow. Dean Takahasi of Venturebeat said: “The Mojo Lens prototype is a critical milestone for the company in its development, testing, and validation process, and is an innovation positioned at the intersection of smartphones, augmented reality/virtual reality, smart wearables, and health tech.” The company demo’d basic apps in through the actual lens, showing off simple interactive graphics like a compass, and text clear enough to read like a teleprompter. You control the device with gaze, which would definitely take some getting used to. The company has branched out from serving the vision impaired to exploring sports and fitness applications. Mojo Vision has raised over $200 Million.

Hackers Make off with $600 Million in Ronin Cryptocurrency from Axie Infinity. The hack of the blockchain powering the play-to-earn NFT game Axie Infinity has led to one of the biggest crypto heists. Axie brushed it off on Twitter, causing everyone to wonder whose crypto got stolen here.

LIV Raises $8.5 Million to record and livestream players inside of VR and AR games. Creators are able to either film their real bodies inside their favorite VR game or transform themselves into a customized avatar. LIV supports full-body tracking, finger tracking, eye animation, and lip tracking. The technology works live with no post-production needed. The Series A funding round was led by BITKRAFT, with Sony Innovation Fund, Amazon Alexa Fund, Credo Ventures, Samsung Next, and Olive Tree Capital. Angel investors including Dave Wu, partner at Maveron Ventures also investing.

The Nimo Smart Glasses Want to Replace Your Laptop Screen replacement is back. The old Meta (not to be confused with the company formerly known as Facebook, which bought their trademarks out of bankruptcy), founded by Meron Gibretz in 2013 and foundered in 2018, was based on the premise of screen replacement, too. Nimo Planet has been working on their AR glasses for more than four years with a core team of 10 people based out of Kerala, India. The company expects the glasses to ship in India the first half of 2023 for $799.

Wendyverse serving fun in Meta’s Horizon Worlds. This is one virtual land grab that makes sense. I also like that Meta is presenting the brand in a way that is organic to the medium. You can only get virtual food there, but you can also shoot some hoops and play other interactive games.

Live Actors Have Returned to The Under Presents. First launched in 2019, The Under Presents is a pioneering interactive VR adventure incorporating both live actors and scripted performances to deliver a narrative-driven mystery that centers on themes of time, fate, and free will. Many of the original cast members of The Under Presents will be returning for this limited engagement, including: Brandon Bales, Michael Bates, Karlie Blair, Sophie Cooper, James Cowan, Whitton Frank, Genevieve Flati, Stephanie Hyden, Dasha Kittredge, Terence Leclere, Deirdre Lyons, Haylee Nichele, Kelly Pierre, Soren Royer-McHugh, and Katelyn Schiller.

This Week in XR is now a podcast hosted by Ted Schilowitz, Futurist at Viacom, and Charlie Fink, the author of this weekly column. Our guest this week is TFM Jonny, professional Vtuber on Youtube, Twitch and Tiktok, where he plays an anime wolf boi who lives in VR Chat. You can find us on podcasting platforms Spotify, iTunes, and YouTube.

What We’re Reading

Augmented Reality Goes Mainstream How a flight line superintendent turned an inspired idea into the Air Force’s one-stop shop for Augmented Reality. Another overnight success that only took ten years. (Amy Hudson/Air Force Magazine)

The Metaverse Will Be a Multi-Platform Mess Conflicting priorities will mean there’s a fragmented collection of different 3D realms, not a single destination. (Stephen Shankland/Cnet)

I went to metaverse fashion week and it was like a dystopian nightmare (Charlotte Edwards/The Sun)