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| Today's Metaverse brief: - The metaverse is primarily a corporate space, accessible mainly to those with financial power, such as investors, Psychology Today reports.
- Sony has announced a new MR headset designed for professional use, developed in collaboration with Siemens, featuring dual 4K OLED microdisplays.
- HTC has unveiled the Vive Full Face Tracker for the Vive XR Elite, an advanced eye and face tracking add-on now available for order.
Thank you! Vildana
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| 1 | | The metaverse, as portrayed in U.S. media, is primarily a corporate space, accessible mainly to those with financial power, such as investors, technology experts, and consumers, Psychology Today reports. This representation overlooks marginalized groups and those without buying power, raising concerns about exacerbating social inequalities. More: - The public's understanding of the metaverse is largely influenced by media coverage.
- 21% of U.S. news articles depict consumers as the primary metaverse participants.
- Content creators are the focus of 19% of the media coverage
- A significant 54% of articles discuss monetizing the metaverse, while 11% critically assess the metaverse, with 5% addressing ethical concerns.
- Early reports of the metaverse include instances of racism, sexual assault, and homophobia.
- Research indicates that the metaverse can significantly influence the formation of peer groups and fulfill critical needs for relatedness and self-expansion.
Zoom Out: - The role of media in shaping the narrative around the metaverse and its impact on marginalized groups is further discussed in the original study here.
- As of September 2023, Meta Platforms, Inc. has changed its stock market ticker from FB to META following its initial announcement in October 2021.
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| 2 | | 
What the numbers say: Since its release in 2013, Dota 2 has become a leading esport, featuring significant prize pools in official tournaments. Denmark's Johan Sundstein, better known as N0tail, is the game's most successful player and the top-earning eSports competitor globally, having amassed over $7M from Dota 2 competitions. He's followed closely by JerAx (Jesse Vainikka) from Finland with ~$6.5M and ana (Anathan Pham) from Australia with ~$6M in earnings. The fourth highest is Sebastien "Ceb" Debs from France, followed by Finland's Topias "Topson" Taavitsainen. Relevance: The global eSports market is projected to reach $5.48B by 2029, reflecting a growing trend that has increasingly led major gaming firms to focus on eSports. Dota 2 players dominate the top earnings list in this field, with the top 21 earners exclusively from this game. | | | |
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| 3 | | Sony has announced a new MR headset designed for professional use, developed in collaboration with Siemens, featuring dual 4K OLED microdisplays. This headset is tailored for spatial content creators in product design and film production, offering advanced features for realistic rendering and spatial tracking. More: - The headset includes two 1.3-type OLED microdisplays with 4K resolution and 96% DCI-P3 coverage.
- Powered by Qualcomm's Snapdragon XR2+ Gen 2, it supports split rendering for stable frame rates with large 3D models.
- It features six cameras and sensors for spatial tracking and video see-through functionality.
- Designed for extended use, the headset has a balanced build and comfortable parts, with a flip-up front for real-world focus.
- Availability is set for later this year, with pricing details to be announced.
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| 4 | | HTC has unveiled the Vive Full Face Tracker for the Vive XR Elite, an advanced eye- and face-tracking add-on now available for order. This innovative accessory enhances the VR experience with detailed facial feature tracking and eye-tracking capabilities. More: - The Vive Full Face Tracker includes two eye tracking cameras with a 120Hz sampling rate, enabling foveated rendering and automatic eye distance detection.
- It features a 60Hz face camera that captures and tracks 38 facial features, including lips, teeth, tongue, cheeks, nose, and chin.
- The accessory, priced at $200, connects to the VR headset via a USB-C port.
- HTC's Vive Wave platform and OpenXR support the software, ensuring compatibility with apps developed for Vive Focus 3's full-face tracking.
Zoom Out: - In November, HTC released the Vive Ultimate Tracker for full-body tracking, which is compatible with Vive XR Elite and Vive Focus 3.
- Previous HTC releases include a facial tracker for Vive Pro in 2021 and a similar add-on for Vive Focus 3 B2B headset in 2022.
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| 5 | | The European Commission (EC) actively seeks information on competition in the emerging markets of generative AI and the metaverse, highlighting these sectors' dynamic and evolving nature. This initiative, led by Margrethe Vestager, EVP of competition policy, aims to understand and regulate these rapidly developing markets to ensure fair competition and innovation. More: - The EC's requests for information (RFI) target the level of competition in AI and metaverse industries.
- Investigations include big tech firms' deals with genA developers and providers.
- For EU merger regulations, Microsoft's investment in ChatGPT developer OpenAI is under review.
- In 2023, venture capital investment in EU AI exceeded €7.2B, while the European metaverse market reached over €11B.
- The EC anticipates significant growth in these markets, impacting business competition.
- Responses to the calls for contributions on virtual worlds and genAI are invited by March 11, with interested parties having the option to contribute to either one or both topics.
Zoom Out: - In July 2023, EC unveiled a strategy aimed at establishing leadership in the metaverse sector and curtailing the dominance of Big Tech in this emerging field, seen as a potential driver of economic growth.
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| 6 | | Rokid, a Chinese AR company, has raised ~$70M in a strategic financing round, marking a significant investment in the AR sector in China. This funding coincides with Apple's upcoming release of its Vision Pro headset, highlighting Rokid's growing influence in the metaverse industry. More: - The Hefei Municipal Government led the investment, with CEC Capital as Rokid's exclusive strategic and financial advisor.
- Rokid will establish its industrial metaverse headquarters, an ecosystem hub, and an R&D center in the Hefei New Station Hi-Tech Zone.
- The partnership aims to boost Hefei's tech sectors, especially in micro-display and metaverse, and to co-create a metaverse developer platform.
- Rokid, founded in 2014, specializes in spatial computing, AI, and AR technologies, with a presence in over 80 countries.
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- Alicia Framis, an artist from Barcelona, will become the first woman to marry an AI-generated hologram, with the ceremony scheduled for this summer at a museum in Rotterdam.
- Web 3.0 insurance platform Day By Day has integrated ZeroBiometrics' ZeroFace, a biometric zero-knowledge proof authentication tool, to enhance its fraud protection measures.
- French pharma Servier collaborates with Aitia to apply "digital twin" technology in a new Parkinson's disease project, building on their previous work in pancreatic cancer and multiple myeloma.
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