Fastcompany.com takes a close look at the most innovative VR/AR companies.

Fast Company Ranks Its Top 10 Innovative Approaches to VR/AR

With the lockdown of America due to the COVID-19 pandemic, there is still good news to be found. If you are a gamer, whether serious or casual, then your tools for entertainment are definitely being improved at just the right time. Fastcompany.com has a breakdown of some of the best VR/AR products and how they might fit into your future. Some may seem familiar but others will catch your attention because they are using VR/AR for training employees or to teach kids to improve their reading skills. Below are a few:

WITHIN
For immersing kids in reading. The VR company Within is breathing some fresh air into AR storytelling with its Wonderscope platform and a series of interactive AR stories for kids. The stories feature cute characters that play-act stories in the real space right in front of the child, while the child reads lines aloud to move the story forward.

Later this year, the company will unveil Supernatural, a fitness-training application for VR.

STRIVR
For VR training programs used to train more than a million Walmart employees. Strivr is using VR to give employers a cost-effective way to train employees. “The company offers modules for training employees to do everything from treating customers with empathy to dealing with an armed robbery in the workplace.” Walmart has bought  17,000 VR headsets for employee training access to more than 55 learning modules. Almost 4,600 Walmart stores in the United States are using it.

MICROSOFT
For improving its HoloLens 2 with better field of view and gesture controls for business adoption. Microsoft is trying to help business users move away from the 2D screens most use every day to a future of hands-free, wearable user interfaces and 3D holographic images. Its HoloLens 2 mixed-reality headset, released in 2019, doubles the field of view of the first HoloLens, features a more balanced and comfortable design, and greatly improves the resolution of the 3D imagery you can see through the lenses. It also adds hand tracking, which lets you navigate the content you’re seeing in the lenses, as well as full eye tracking, which lets you scroll through text with your eye movements. Read more about why Microsoft is one of the World’s Most Innovative Companies of 2020.

DALLAS COWBOYS
For exciting fans with stadium-wide AR activations such as “Pose With the Pros”

The Dallas Cowboys worked with AT&T, Samsung, and Nexus Studios to prepare AT&T Stadium for some big-time AR experiences for fans. The organization relied on the Nexus Studios AR platform to create holographic images that can be seen through the user’s phone. The holographic images of players, mascots, and more can also interact with fixed objects like the stadium itself. During halftime of a 2019 game, the Cowboys streamed a live AR football game featuring giant cartoonish players that appeared to be playing on the field.

Fastcompany.com features another six companies in the article, which might be offer interesting investment ideas.

read more at fastcompany.com