Aardvark Brings Flocks of Apps To SteamVR
A new open source immersive browser prototype, Aardvark, provides spatial "gadgets" that run over SteamVR applications. Gadgets are hosted on web servers and can be bookmarked as well as shared via URLs. This form of simultaneously used XR applications has been raised before in Immersive Web issues #15 and #43 and perhaps Aardvark is a platform where those ideas can grow.
Facebook Wants to Connect With You
Fresh out of a re-brand and some organizational shuffle, Facebook Reality Labs (née Oculus) is hosting an online event in which they are rumored to be unveiling a new version of their Quest headset as well as providing more information about upcoming online social spaces. The community group's very own Jacob Rossi is scheduled to talk about "The Future of the Web in VR for Work and Play". Good luck, Jacob!
Relatvty (sic) Frees a $200 Headset
On the other end of the XR hardware spectrum from the Quest 2 comes this tweet from these can-do kids:
"I’m Max Coutte and when my best friend Gabriel Combe and I were 15 years old we built our own VR headset because we couldn't afford to buy one. Relativty is not a consumer product. We made Relativty in my bedroom with a soldering iron and a 3D printer and we expect you to do the same."
The original North Star AR headset had a similarly hands-on origin but thanks to a large maker/hacker community a more polished version with injection molded parts and a field tested belt pack is close to release.
Ada Introduces The Immersive Web
I suspect that most readers of the Immersive Web Weekly are regularly called on to explain the context and history of the WebXR Device API and the immersive web in general. To help ease people onto the immersive web our very own chair, Ada Rose Canon, has put together a tight 30 minute video that covers the basics of WebXR without assuming that the viewer is already versed in virtual or augmented reality technology.