The Benne boggrecord has recently been published on Håvard Røste's personal blog. We also publish it on Kaupr, with permission from Røste.

VR, AR, XR. Yeah, you know, a form of glasses that give you information right on your retina or send you headlong into a virtual world.

Digital Glasses

In the last couple of years, “XR”, which is the collective term for everything related to various “digital glasses”, has completely fallen into the shadow of all the hype around AI. And rightly so -- because AI really has the potential to change our lives, and is already in the process of doing so.

The previous XR wave took place in the mid-2010s. With expensive PC-based VR glasses that gave people a digital experience close to reality. Several players also tried AR glasses, but the technology was too immature, unuser-friendly — and expensive.

Companies like Meta and Apple have invested huge sums in XR and the fruits we are starting to see now. Maybe not on the financial level of the companies themselves, but at least in terms of products that approach what the people want. Particularly exciting now is that XR and AI are being combined to a greater extent.

Data and information

We humans are vain beings, who don't want to put anything in our faces. After all, we want to look good! This is why Meta's collaboration with Ray-Ban exciting and correct. These are simple (but cool) AR glasses with camera and sound, but which in the last edition have also got certain AI features, such as more advanced voice control, but also aids for the visually impaired and blind.

Recently, Metas also showed off its AR concept glasses. “Orion” gives us a glimpse of what's to come in the next few years. Stylish, compact glasses, which have the potential to free us from the mobile screen. Glasses that can give us that information will want, placed on top of the physical world, but which nevertheless allow us to be present in the physical and real world.

“The world will be papered with data” said a wise man once. We're not there yet, but we're getting there. There are so many advantages to freeing ourselves from the screens and being able to choose for ourselves degree of digital and physical worldBased on the situation in which we find ourselves, there are so many benefits of freeing our hands from the mobile, avoiding bent necks and not having to stick physical screens everywhere.

Exciting Norwegian solutions

While AR glasses are expected to be the next big consumer product, there is also a lot going on on the VR front. In VR, as you know, we are closed inside a virtual world, without seeing the surroundings around us. Here, development has proceeded at a steady pace, giving us spectacles such as Quest Series, which at a relatively reasonable amount of money can provide a tremendous experience of presence. It is now widely used in training and learning by both companies and individuals worldwide.

For example, we have exciting Norwegian companies that are building flexible platforms for use with various XR glasses (or an ordinary PC or tablet). Such a company is Bargain Reality, which in a few years has grown to over 20 employees and, moreover, can turn into profitable operations. Its head office is located in Hamar, but the company already has customers all over the world. Among other things, the company supplies Training solutions for NATO.

Other exciting XR companies in Norway include the pioneers of Vue de fabrication, specializing in training and learning in the field of health, and Vixels, which delivers an impressive platform for the construction industry towards a global market. These and 60 other companies have in recent years found together clustered in the food cluster VRINN.

Norwegian Cluster and Conference

You can meet several of the Norwegian and Nordic XR companies at the conference Nordic VR Forum November 6—8, which is back for the eighth year in a row. Last year, the conference gathered more than 550 people and showcased the XR environment in Norway and the Nordic countries and the opportunities their solutions offer in an outstanding way.

So impressive has the Norwegian XR environment now become that Innovation Norway has also benefited the industry cluster VRINN with official cluster status. An important and absolutely correct allocation to further accelerate the development of technology-oriented jobs, in a country that constantly lagging behind our neighbors in the area.

So, of course, the XR is back, but was never really gone either.

Kaupr's blog column is open for posts, analyses and debate in Norwegian, Danish or Swedish, and in some cases also in English. Send your article or idea to morten@kaupr.io.

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