SURF is initiating the XR Developer Network as a technically-focused group complementary to existing XR communities. The goal is to bring together those working on XR for education and research at the SURF member institutes, not tied to a specific application domain, or sector, but with the technological level as focal point. We feel there is a lot that can be gained at this level, by coming together, learn from and inspire each other, overcome (shared) challenges related to the technology, discuss XR developments, or even co-develop. In this way we want to lift the use of XR for education and research in the Netherlands to a higher level from a technical and development perspective.
The XR Developer Network starts off with a series of meetings, both online and in-person (the latter to aid in networking and provide for demo opportunities). But there is room to organically introduce other types of activities, and we would love to hear your ideas and discuss them further. In short, we want to build up a thriving community around the more technical sides of eXtended Reality with you. Note that this does not mean that you need to have a technical background to join the network!
Sign up for the kick-off on 26 January
You can register for the kick-off meeting of the XR Developer Network using this link. The first meeting will be held online on Thursday 26 January 2023. The program consists of a number of topics related to starting up the Developer Network, but also features a talk from Saxion XR Lab on the very interesting subject of digital humans:
| 13:00 | Introduction to the XR Developer Network, SURF |
| 13:15 |
Digital Humans and their applications, Saxion XR Lab A short overview about the usage of digital humans in two projects in the Saxion XR Lab. Digital humans are computer-generated representations of real people that can be used for various purposes, such as in films, video games, virtual reality experiences, and other interactive media. There are a number of tools available for creating digital humans. In this talk, we will present the ones we used, and how we are using them to improve our pipeline and overcome some limitations we faced with the technology. |
| 13:45 | Discussion on the XR Developer Network (setup, core team, meeting frequency, etc.) |
| 14:15 | Possible developer activities at the national XR event being organized by SURF and TU Delft (Q2 2023) |
| 14:30 | Closing |
We hope to see you all at the kick-off meeting! For any questions, please contact paul.melis@surf.nl.
Edit 9 January 2023: The initial text for this article used the unfortunate word choice "overarching" to describe the XR Developer Network. There is no hierarchy implied with respect to existing communities and the XR Developer Network is aiming to be complementary, spanning across those existing communities. The text has been updated to clearify this.
(Image sources: iFixit Oculus Quest 2 Teardown: Into the Metaverse, Unity XR Interaction Toolkit- How do I Grab objects from the player's pockets?, SURF Beeldbank)
0 Praat mee