We wrapped up this year with a meetup at TalTech IVAR Lab. This time the focus was set on using extended reality in business, R&D and public sector. In addition to hearing about Lab’s own projects and plans we also got an insight of how XR is used in teaching engineering students (TalTech, Centre For Intelligent systems) and creating an opportunity for citizens to take part in urban planning (Tallinna Linn, Avalinn Project).
EEVR Meetup #30 took place in Baltic Film, Media and Art School on November 2nd. This time we had two presentations. First of them was made by Külliki Tafel-Viia and Ermo Säks and covered research related initiatives and projects concerning Metaverse made in BFM. Secondly, Märt Lume talked about his impressions from AWE EU 2022. In addition to presentations, quest were able to try out brand new Quest Pro and Tilt Five Holographic Game System.
On a warm August evening a bunch of XR enthusiast gathered in a unique cinema setting at Tartu Elektriteater to catch up and enjoy the Estonian premiere of Joe Hunting’s movie “We Met in Virtual Reality”. During the movie the audience had a chance to ask questions via menti.com and these questions and other related topics were discussed after the movie by Andra Siibak (University of Tartu, Professor of Media Studies), Ermo Säks (Tallinn University BFM, Junior Research Fellow) and Märt Lume (Chairman of EEVR). Watch the recording of the panel discussion below.
This event was a a part of a sTARTUp Day 2022 side events program to boost Estonian XR Community and build general awareness of XR field.
EEVR Meetup #28 took place in Tartu and was hosted by awesome Mobi Lab team. This time the focus was set on Augmented Reality and the topics varied from our own Estonian AR projects to somewhat new phenomena that is Passthrough and its implementations.
Three very interesting talks were held. The link to each can be found below as well as in EEVR Youtube channel.
Allan Valm- How to add value to physical locations?
Ott Saar- Augmented Reality Enhancements for Remato
Märt Lume- AR Experiences with Passthrough VR: Short Study of What’s Out There Now
EEVR Meetup #27 was held on 30th of april 2022 at CM Games office in Tallinn. Despite a long break between Meetups it was nice to see many kind faces and fellow enthusiasts. The agenda consisted of 3 very interesting talks and speakers from Estonian top XR companies. Topics varied from companies’ insights to global events and business. Each talk can be watched from below.
Rein Zobel from MaruVR Productions “Impressions of GDC 2022. What stood out?”
Marko Post from FrostFX “Executing Production Globally”
Bohdan Sereda from CM Games “CMVR: What’s under the hood?”
The last meetup of 2021, EEVR #26, was held in TalTech’s XR Center in Tallinn.
EEVR official Launch Party took place during sTARTUPd Day, the largest tech festival in the Baltics held in Tartu, Estonia. The highlight of the party was definitely the premiere of EEVR Launch Video, which showcases six world-class use cases of Virtual Reality by EEVR member companies today. Check it out below! (with English subtitles).
With over 50 attendants enjoying 3 talks, 4 demo booths, food, drink and networking, the event was a great success. Perhaps it was the community missing an actual physical get-together, or the scale of the event possible due to being part of sTARTUp Day festival, but this was the largest turnout in EEVR’s 5-year history. It also set a new quality bar for future EEVR events. Here are a few photos.
The following companies exhibited their VR products in demo booths:
- Futuclass – Futuclass VR lessons (Quest)
- Estonian Rescue Board – fire and water safety learning apps (Vive and Quest)
- Taltech – VR environments developed by students and research teams (Quest)
- Blueray – time travel to experience the historic Oru Palace of Toila in 1938 (Quest)
Two of three talks given are currently available on EEVR Youtube channel (subscribe!), and linked below.
Märt Lume, Chairman of EEVR – Estonian VR Out of The Closet And Towards The Metaverse
Janek Innos, Estonian Rescue Board – How Virtual Reality Can Save Lives
The third talk, Mystical Type Experiences in VR by Madis Vasser, Researcher at Tartu University and Co-Founder of EEVR, is pending for a later release following a publishing in a scientific journal.
EEVR VR #4 was themed around scientific research in a wide variety of fields relating to Virtual and Augmented Reality.