The AWE Playground Returns to Showcase the Largest Collection of Never-Before-Seen XR Experiences

AWE attendees will get hands-on with 20+ experiences showcasing XR in art, cinema, dining, fashion, gaming, health, music, sports, travel, work and more

AWE, the world’s #1 augmented reality and virtual reality conference and expo, today announced its largest AWE Playground roster ever, with industry-leading AR+VR (XR) companies taking attendees on innovative experiences never before gathered under one roof. From mind-bending VR art using brainwaves, to journeying through an AR guided meditation or embarking on a gamer’s ultimate dream in a free-roam mixed reality heist—AWE 2018 attendees will see, touch and feel the future of XR like nowhere else in the Playground’s 20,000 sqft. experience center.

AWE USA will be held at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley May 30 – June 1, 2018, with the AWE Playground open to AWE USA 2018 attendees May 31 June 1 to All-Access and Expo-Only pass holders. Register now for tickets at http://AugmentedWorldExpo.com.

Some of the featured experiences to expect in the AWE 2018 Playground include:

  • Machines of Progress by EyeJack: Illustrated and animated by Australian artist Sutu, Machines of Progress is a colorful, large format illustration of a futuristic laboratory for testing fictional technologies and strange interface designs.
  • Heal-ium: Positivity Tree by StoryUp XR: In a world filled with negativity, harness the power of your brain’s *Positivity* to transform your VR or AR environment. It’s kind of like virtual telekinesis. Use your mind’s gamma asymmetry to grow a VR tree or an AR butterfly from a chrysalis to a beautiful monarch.
  • Kitty Kong — The 8th Wonder of the World by Shape Immersive is a multi-player, interactive, and full 360-degree mixed reality experience. In this mission to save the world from the notorious Kitty Kong, players must work together to create a magical barrier to contain the destruction.
  • Tribe VR DJ School by Tribe XR: Take your first DJ lesson in VR.
  • Relax VR: Take a break. Take a breath. Sit back . . . and escape to the world’s most relaxing, natural settings. Gaze at vast, undulating ocean waves toward the horizon as you de-stress to a gentle meditation or soft melodic tunes.
  • In Situ eXPerience by Realcast will project attendees into an immersive storytelling experience–delivered through AR smart glasses, AR smartphones and movement trackers–so real you think it is actually happening.
  • Where Thoughts Go: Prologue is a groundbreaking interactive social narrative. In this universe, sleeping creatures float toward you awakened by a gentle touch to reveal the thoughts of others who have previously visited.
  • Two Bit Circus: Join the mad scientists, artists, inventors, and storytellers from Two Bit Circus as they showcase some of their most popular games.
  • PUB TALK – An experience like no other by Nuheara: Come try IQbuds intelligent wireless earbuds in a bustling pub setting, and feel the difference that augmented hearing can make.
  • The Multiple Reality Machine by Igloo Vision displays any form of 360°, VR or AR content in a shared, immersive projection space. For AWE, Igloo has developed a series of scenarios to show how groups of people can engage and interact with multiple immersive realities.
  • The Globacore Heist by Globacore: Commit the heist of the century in a VR museum, dodging lasers, fighting off flying drones, and avoiding becoming shark food in order to steal treasured artifacts and return them to their proper place in space and time.
  • Heroes Alliance Online by Beyond One lets attendees connect with other players and battle against a massive fire breathing dragon flying through the venue. Avoid obstacles, dodge fireballs, and aim powerful attacks–all through the lens of a smartphone.
  • Infinadeck is the world’s first commercially-viable omnidirectional treadmill. This patented device allows users to naturally walk in any direction, allowing users to take a stroll through vast, immersive new worlds.
  • Hypercube XR by River Studios is a love story about two hypernauts using mixed reality to communicate through dimensions, reaching for clues across space and time. This installation uses the mozilla XR ecosystem to send guests on a quest through a fanciful world blending VR, AR, and optical tricks from the past.
  • AR Whack-A-Monster by Project Ghost Studios will blur the lines between the real, the augmented, and the virtual in this storytelling experience.
  • Critical Mass by Ultrahaptics: Step inside a virtual lab with a reactor that is about to go critical. To shut it down, you must coordinate with your partner to solve a puzzle. Touch, feel and manipulate its virtual controls and objects with your bare hands. Save the lab and yourselves before time runs out.
  • The Animaker by Resonai, The Tech Museum of Innovation, Omai and Occipital is an immersive exhibit which invites visitors to collaborate with AI-powered ‘robots’ to bring their creations to life. Utilizing artificial intelligence, 3d scanning and animation techniques, visitors create their favorite animal with LEGO/Duplo to see it live and interact in a virtual world.
  • Augmented Reality Arts Garden presented by cFire, Lynchini, Enklu & Betwixt Reality: Experience art in an exciting new way with the launch of a multidimensional augmented reality experience featuring performances by principal dancers of The San Francisco Ballet, original music by Empress, and digital sculptures by prominent local AR artists.
  • Beat Saber Mixed Reality Experience by Liv Inc.–where attendees record themselves in mixed reality. Put yourself into the VR games that you love and broadcast that experience to the world.

More information about the AWE Playground including the floorplan can be found on our website.

“AWE’s Playground pushes the envelope of augmented and virtual reality and features experiences you don’t see everyday—even if you work in XR,” said Ori Inbar, co-founder and executive producer of AWE. “It gives every attendee a chance to do more than merely ‘watch’ a technology demo by taking a break from the hustle and bustle of the expo floor, and dive into mind-blowing adventures in AR and VR that will inspire any professional.”

At AWE 2018 from May 30 – June 1 at the Santa Clara Convention Center in Silicon Valley, 6,000+ attendees, 300+ exhibiting companies and 350+ speakers will engage in hundreds of tech demos, art installations, educational sessions and product launches. Bridging the gap between technology and the human experience, AWE 2018 is the industry event for experiencing hundreds of immersive new worlds and opportunities as presented by the world’s most innovative AR+VR companies and creative minds.