The event takes place in Laval, France at the sports and convention center, Espace Mayenne, and runs for five days. Wednesday to Friday are the three days for business visitors, and on the weekend, Laval Virtual switches gears to welcome the general public.
Collaboration
We are all used to video conferences. But if you want to take remote meetings to a new level, then you want to look at the Shariiing solution from Immersion. Immersion created a solution that integrates a large display conference table with wall displays, HMDs, power walls, AR, and VR.
Not only is the solution flexible, but it also allows everyone to participate actively and to share ideas and data in real-time. It is possible to create, view, and edit documents and models as a team regardless of location.
Immersion's Shariing product creates a heterogenous application, display, hardware, visualization, and mixed-reality environment. This platform makes remote collaboration more personal and more productive.
Shariing creates a heterogenous application, display, hardware, visualization, and mixed-reality environment.
Computing
Workstation vendors like CARRI Systems and Silverdraft deliver tailor-made computing solutions. AMD and NVIDIA provide critical computing and graphics technology.
CARRI Systems are French specialists who focus on custom solutions for workstation customers. Silverdraft is an American workstation vendor with a European presence which builds some of the most powerful workstations on the market.
NVIDIA’s business partner in Europe, PNY, showed solutions like Omniverse along with the latest GPUs for visualization, compute, and artificial intelligence.
PNY showed the Ada Lovelace generation of NVIDIA's flagship RTX 6000 series
Mixed-Reality headsets
Lynx, a French startup, is now shipping one of the lightest, most functional, most versatile mixed-reality headsets. The Lynx-R headset weighs only 600 grams and is well-balanced front-to-back.
The front display is adjustable. And the display flips up like a pair of aviator sunglasses so that you don’t need to constantly remove the headset or push it up on your forehead to discuss with co-workers.
The HMD can either be open on the sides or fitted with a lateral hood. I found that using the Lynx-R with open sides did not detract from the VR experience. In fact, I found that having a bit of peripheral vision made it more comfortable for longer sessions.
Lynx's CEO greets a tour group on the exhibition floor.
Industrial AR & VR
Not all VR and AR software are made for industrial use, but Holo-light’s platform is. At Laval Virtual for the first time, the German company presented their streaming mixed-reality platform. It has a modular design that enables better application integration.
One advantage Holo-Light offers is importing CAD data directly without requiring data to be massaged or prepared in any way. This saves time in a design or production setting where efficiency and productivity are important.
In addition, the solution supports users from the very beginning of the design and development process through to the manufacturing launch on the production floor. The mixed reality architecture is also well suited to training and maintenance.
Holo-Light provides an industrial mixed reality platform that provides direct import of CAD data.
“Hands-on” virtual reality
Haptic is a critical addition to VR is many applications, especially training environments. Two companies, the Delf-based company, SenseGlove, and HaptX from Redmond.
Both products provide tracking and braking mechanisms. The SenseGlove product is light and provides good mechanical feedback through braking and vibration.
The HaptX product combines gloves with a larger design and a backpack with a compressor. The purpose of the design is to add pneumatic feedback through the gloves which allows greater feedback across more areas of the hand.
SenseGlove's haptic feedback makes VR training more realitic and more effective
A final perspective
Laval Virtual is the premier annual mixed reality gathering in Europe. The exhibition was full of solutions for collaboration, computing, headsets, haptics, and industrial VR/AR. For companies large and small, Laval Virtual is a must-see event for virtual reality solutions.
