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2020 was a dynamic year and the pandemic impacted and challenged all sectors. Below the best companies from our XR and space programmes and how they took ownership an rose to the challenge.

XR

With the new normal it is crucial that stakeholders in the healthcare industry understand, adapt, and react accordingly to the dynamic digital health landscape. Patients and consumers are becoming more aware of the technology and its benefits, using it at an increasing rate. On the other hand, the companies in the sector are providing solutions to respond to what the consumers need, focusing on intelligent, remote approaches, access to quality healthcare, better treatment options, reducing costs, improving patient outcomes, and value-based healthcare.

Entertainment

It seems that the AR/VR technologies in the entertainment sector are to improve and evolve drastically in the near future. Thanks to recent improvement both technologies are starting to “become much more accessible for consumer entertainment, which means that they should start to see much more success in the coming months. (Source: https://linchpinseo.com/trends-in-augmented-virtual-reality/ )

Moviestorm is developing FirstStage, a VR-based virtual production platform that exploits years of natural user interface research to deliver accessible collaborative previs tools that speaks the language of the artist rather than that of the technician.

Big Boy Systems has developed a POV camera able to record human perception. They produce content in an exclusive immersive video format with Big Boy Systems’s unique patented POV 3D and binaural cameras.

CtrlMovie disrupts the film and gaming industry by combining the best of both worlds, creating an exciting Choose-Your-Own-Adventure filmed entertainment experience. The CtrlMovie ecosystem allows film studios and independent filmmakers to create, produce and distribute branched narrative movies to any size screen.

Tourism

Extended reality impacts the travel and tourism sector mainly thanks to Covid-19 as users can now experience travelling to distant parts of the world from the comfort of their coach.VR.& AR startups also focus on offering the opportunity to travelers to test a location before they decide to go on a trip and spend money on a ticket and hotel room. Another feature that AR/VR startups in the travel & tourism industry offer to their customers is to allow them to re-experience “their holiday after they’ve returned home”. ( Source: https://linchpinseo.com/trends-in-augmented-virtual-reality/)

Globetrotter VR is company solving inefficiencies in the tours & activities market through cutting-edge immersive technology. They are creating an online portal that allows yearning travelers to experience the world from their couch, through truly interactive virtual tours with real guides.

Therapy

AR/VR technologies in the therapy industry have been used to help patients fight several mental disorders, for example, phobias, stress-related disorders, depression, eating disorders, and chronic pain.( source: https://www.intechopen.com/books/state-of-the-art-virtual-reality-and-augmented-reality-knowhow/virtual-and-augmented-reality-new-frontiers-for-clinical-psychology ).

Senopi AG is a digital health startup focused on senior healthcare. We are on a mission to increase the number of healthy life years of seniors. Their proprietary VR platform enables a nurse or caregiver to intuitively administer VR experiences and therapeutics to multiple seniors or patients at the same time.

AR/VR headsets

Micledi is building a super-bright, high-resolution micro-LED display to enable next generation AR headsets. Augmented reality experience has never look so realistic before!

AR/VR trends in the esports & gaming sectors

A lot of newcomers joined the world of gaming and the number of hours spent by gamers in front of the screen increased rapidly. Games with XR (AR/VR) technologies benefited from the times of lockdown and now are more attractive to gamers than ever. Due to the COVID-19 pandemic the gaming industry has grown major – more users, bigger engagement and in terms of XR - 2021 sets positive expectations and trends in the eGame industry. ( source: https://www.wionews.com/sports/evolution-of-esports-gaming-sectors-with-arvr-trends-346660)

Augmented Robotics reveals fantastic worlds by connecting toys and games and has set itself the goal of reshaping the gaming and the toy market pioneering in the new AR toy market with a revolutionary digital sales structure.

Anything World combines cutting edge AI, Natural Language Understanding, Computer Vision and extensive 3D libraries to allow users to request, see, manipulate and experience anything they can think of. It’s the fastest way for creators to make limitless AI driven 3D voice experiences!

Future of space tech

With the launch of Sputnik in 1957 space technologies have progressed very fast and led to development of hundreds of applications that use satellite data, including devices for everyday use, from satellite televisions to the Satnav in our cars. Now, companies are in a race to develop these technologies and use the new opportunities that emerged. Below are some of the trends in space tech along with the winners from our Space programme as defined by a Selection committee of investors.

Low Cost Space Technologies

The democratization and marketization of space is evident in the growth of the cubsat market (Davoli et al., 2019). Companies are trying to provide lower-cost more effective solutions as this has attracted a growing number of customers (from Space Agencies to institutions like universities and schools).

HyImpulse Technologies develops a small launcher using disruptive technologies to provide low-cost small-sat launch opportunities. Hylmpulse Technologies’ mission is to unlock the full potential of the rapidly growing multi-billion-dollar small satellite market by eliminating the current bottleneck of frequent, reliable, and low-cost access to space.

SteamJet Space Systems develops safer, smaller and more affordable propulsion systems specifically designed for CubeSats and Small Satellites. Their system allows customers to: extend their mission lifetime; change orbit and deploy constellations with simplified launch schedules; avoid collisions with other space objects; de-orbit their satellites at the end of the mission to avoid international penalties.

Space Products and Innovation (SPiN) provides a universal plug and play adapter (MA61C) that allow to integrate satellite off the shelf components without user intervention and assemble satellites like Lego. MA61C reduces costs by 40% and remove a year from integration time.

Earth Data

Climate change is a significant threat to our environment with potentially disastrous consequences and is an area where Satellite Technologies can help in tackling the challenge. On a global scale, satellites provide impartial information to monitor the environment and develop and validate models improving our predictive capabilities.

Aistech Space is an organization dedicated to harnessing the existing capacity to capture and manage the high volume of the Earth data generated at ground-level and transform it into high value-added information that can be useful, provide benefits and solve current problems in different areas of society, using the own Cubesat constellation.

SkyfloX is an ESA-backed start-up which is developing the patented concept ORCA: using airliner fleets for Earth observation.

At LESS Industries are being developed Industrial IoT solutions that, combined with AI, enable their clients to make better decisions. This will enable the customer to increase its operational efficiency, cost reductions, higher quality products, and competitiveness by giving them comprehensive real-time information about their processes and operations.

Source for space trends: https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/frspt.2020.00001/full#B17