WEART at AWE US 2022
- Blog, Events
We got the opportunity to participate in AWE US 2022, which attracted a fantastic virtual and augmented reality population.
We had never been to AWE US before, and this was one of the first attendings we had gone to following the pandemic limitations. Presenting a new product, like our TouchDIVER, is always exciting, but it’s even more so when you do it in the heart of Silicon Valley and in front of such a competent crowd. After a year of online events, we have seen a passionate community resurface with a lot of anticipation for new products and solutions.
Every enterprise or startup has the opportunity to display its accomplishments thanks to the excellent exhibition management by the AWE team. There were many booths set aside for businesses, but there was also a separate area with sufficient-sized workstations for start-ups and smaller companies to have a chance to showcase their technologies to the public. Innovative technology and introducing brand-new products to the market were the subject du jour.
Based on the atmosphere, we went into the fair with a mixture of confidence and excitement. We were confident that our audience had the knowledge to recognize the revolutionary nature of TouchDIVER and how far we had pushed the limits of precise yet wearable haptics. At Laval Europe, we experienced the same responses at the beginning of the year: enthusiasm and even astonishment for what we can provide compared to what is already available. Force feedback, temperature, and texture. The latter is unusual for a light source of this kind. However, demo drivers thought it was different from what they had experienced in the end.
Everyone who used our demo was incredibly impressed, and some thought it was the event’s most incredible moment. The thermal feedback, in particular, surprised a lot of the attendees. The majority of participants had never heard of WEART, and nobody was aware that our product had been available since late 2021; when they found that WEART is a startup based in Italy, they related the quality and the design to the origin that it made.
This years’ experience at AWE was the occasion to meet all the companies working on haptics; SenseGlove, HaptX, and ManusVR. We observed five haptics-related approaches, each offering a unique benefit. With technology advancing every six months, haptics is a developing and promising business, as seen by the ecosystem’s strength. As a tech start-up, we confidently conveyed to headset producers and VR engine developers that hand tracking models should be open and integrate the haptic devices worn by users and haptic data into VR engines. The development of other use cases for VR and its wider adoption is greatly facilitated by such integration.
According to XR industry professionals, the knowledge that we have a good product with reliable operation is the ultimate accomplishment for a young startup like ours. Regardless, we are assured that this is just the beginning and that there is much more we can do to improve our product. So, on top of the accomplishments, we are working in the right direction.
And so, in the end, no one at AWE worried about technological barriers or delivering the product; everyone was professional and offered us the best feedback we expected.
The audience was dedicated to the device’s potential and what current use and future growth they could see on TouchDIVER. Everyone knows perfectly what VR is and what capabilities the existing technology may have. People focused on tactile feedback by the interface, were amused, and had fun.
In a nutshell, it was mutually great for the XR crowd and us to explore and share about VR and AR industry.
