AI/XR Tech Tools for New Trends

As Gartner released its 2022 report about Hype Cycle for Emerging Tech, all metaverse/ immersive/ AI creative enthusiasts can celebrate as their favorite playground got into the report.

The Hype Cycle release by Gartner is a analysis about the reception for new and disruptive technologies – from the moment of their discoveries and over-excitement that create, till the phase of incorporation in the mainstream (going through the phases of normalization – when people realize its actual and realistic benefits)

So, what new tech trends made it to the list and what are the tools used?

AI

We are used with different AI technologies to be on the hype list, it is pretty clear for everyone that AI will change our society as we know it – not clear if for the best or worst, or as any tech, with a little bit of good, a little bit of bad.

METAVERSES

Alongside AI (and in close cooperation), the XR space is evolving massively, Metaverse enters the report – quite expected after last year’s Facebook/Meta announcement. Meta and its Horizon world are extending rapidly from the US to Europe as well.

A whole range of Metaverses are already popular and more and more will emerge. Some of the tops are Fortnite (the Gen Z favorite gaming worlds) , Decentraland (popular community for networking, where you buy your virtual land, construct) Roblox ( popular between the next gen Alpha, over 54.86% of Roblox daily active users were under 13 years old as of 2020 – here. Spatial.io is a metaverse where you can hold events – even company events- have cultural exhibition. And are just a fewof those that are active now, while many more worlds will emerge.

And the XR creative community has its own virtual space 🙂 Alexandria was launched and XR experience from Cannes and NewImages Festival were presented there, while the creative community could socialise.

Interoperability between Metaverses will be the next big thing to be achieved – as users, what to go softly from one world to another. More about issues related to Interoperability, you can read Here.

DIGITAL HUMANS

Digital Humans are closely connected to Metaverses, because users need avatars that can produce a whole range of human body language. Full body avatars are going to be the next-gen (currently many are only with face and body and hand, without legs) that are interacting. And there will also be AI-powered Avatars with their own personality or with your personality – so, your AI-Avatar that can work in the metaverse office, while you have fun :D. And obviously, there are groups that are building virtual beings.

Closely related to Avatars are obviously the emerging fashion field (digital or virtual) – digital outfits are in high demands If you are into it, read TechvangArt articles about Virtual Fashion:

And how already this generation is interacting through Avatars – connect and make new friends, fall in love, set-up business, and support each other, you just have to watch the documentary by director Joe Hunting filmed in VRChat, We Met in Virtual Reality (already on HBO) – read below, TechvangArt review from Sundance Festival 2022

How to construct your Avatar? There are artists that can do that for you, using for example Unreal Engine or other tools. But, there are plenty of instruments out there if you want to try it out, such as Avatar Builder, Avatars Generators, Ready Player Me. Read about How to make better avatars than Zuckenberg, here

GENERATIVE DESIGN AI

Generative Design AI. Why spend hour and hour on ideation, when you can use generative design AIs? Iteration processes using AI-driven software programs used to generate a range of design solutions will change industries. The use of algorithms experience shorter design cycles, and unlock greater creativity.

Dalle E, Stable Diffusion or MidJourney are accessible also for personal use, the easiest to use is MidJourney. All have active communities around them, so learning how to make quick images is easy.
Advantages:

• small indie studios can iterate quickly
• artists can use them to help boost their creative ideas, especially if you are blocked,
• small SMEs who do not have in-house design can use these tools,
• It is free 😀 – well at least till a certain amount of images

Disadvantaged:

• Too banal, sometimes, many stereotypical images – if you want really original, you will have to edit on it
• Now, finally, anybody and everybody can be an artist

2D => 3D

If you are truly in the 3D space, you will need some other tools as well. But, they are appearing:
Kaedim is a London based startup that helps convert 2D sketches into 3D assets. Usually, this takes thousands of hours, but this modeling software promises to rapidly convert 2D images into 3D models. We did not try it out. Yet 🙂

And Apple promises to make things easy for 3D immersive creators. The AI ​​team from Apple has unveiled GAUDI, the latest neural architecture for 3D scene generation . It can capture complex and realistic 3D scene distributions, perform immersive rendering from moving cameras, and create 3D scenes based on text prompts ! The model is named after Antoni Gaudi, The famous Spanish architect.

WEB3 and NFTs

Web 3 and NFTs are also on Gartner Hype. Indeed the internet needs a new iteration- if web1.0 connected information and we got the internet, web2.0 connected people and we got social media, with its good and bads, web3.0 (will) connect people, places and things. Slowly, we say goodbye to web2 and the ecosystems around it, and welcome a new emerging ecosystem of innovators. And NFTs, after the huge hype from 2021, will find sooner or later its use case.

Read more about the thoughts of artist Beeple that made NFTs famous after selling his digital artwork entitled “Everydays: The First 5000 Days” with $69 million at Christie’s auction in 2021.