XR Technology for Industry According to Unity’s Andre Gauthier

XR Immersive Enterprise 2020 is coming up in early May. Hopefully, the world will be back together by then but the event is still going to be entirely online. While missing the social aspect is regrettable, the meat of the XR technology event is hearing people talk, and that can be done from anywhere.

On the topic of hearing people talk, your friends at ARPost are media partners for the event. That means that we have special access to the speakers from the XR technology industry.

We didn’t have to shake the tree very hard to find someone that we were excited to talk to but we couldn’t pass up the opportunity to talk with the good folks at Unity.

What Is Unity?

The name “Unity” probably sounds familiar to you. In case you don’t know how, it’s the biggest game and app design platform out there. Unity for games, videos, and apps today is like what WordPress was for the websites seven years ago.

Their footprint in the XR technology world specifically is pretty huge as well.

“Unity is the platform that makes this world a reality. We provide the most accessible real-time platform on which developers can build incredible AR and VR experiences. In this instance, ‘real-time’ means immediate data consumption and interactivity to bring these experiences to life,” Unity Montreal’s Studio Head and Vice President of Features Andre Gauthier said in an email interview. “I think it’s a big reason why more than 60% of all of the world’s AR and VR content is already made with Unity, including some of the world’s largest brands like Gensler, Skanska, BMW, Infinity, Lexus, Volvo, and many more.”

Unity at XR Immersive Enterprise

Gauthier is slated to be on the “Which Technology and Which Use Case?” panel discussion on the morning of day one. He and panelists Vinay Narayan of VIVE and Larry Persaud of Microsoft will be discussing existing XR technology for enterprise, how to choose the right solution, and considerations like ROIs.

“I’ll be joining a panel of other esteemed colleagues from the XR community, amongst them Vinay Narayan, Vice President Platform Strategy and Developer Community who is a Unity customer and advocate,” said Gauthier. “A large portion of the presenters and panelists create on Unity, including top AEC firms like Gensler, Arup, and AECOM – I’m excited to see what they have made using Unity. “

More Buzz Around Unity

To hear more about Gauthier’s Unity talk, we’ll have to wait until May. However, since we had his attention, we took the opportunity to pick his brain about some other Unity news in the XR technology world.

The Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio

“One of the most exciting developments for 2020 is the arrival of Unity’s Mixed and Augmented Reality Studio (MARS),”  said Gauthier. “The MARS Unity extension gives creators the power to build mixed reality (MR) and augmented reality (AR) applications that intelligently interact with any real-world environment.” 

The new platform uses Unity’s existing AR Foundation but gives extra affordances for testing and app data. It’s specifically designed for designing with mobile platforms and eventually wearable XR technology.

“You can use a mobile phone to make the development process even faster and more accurate with a mobile companion app that allows users to use their phone to create conditions, record video, and world data, and export it all back straight into the editor, again, without having to make a build of your project,” said Gauthier. “The first iteration is for mobile phones and the second iteration will be for wearable AR devices, Magic Leap and HoloLens.”

Unity Reflect

Gauthier also expressed excitement about the recent launch of Unity Reflect. The tool, which went live in the fall, uses XR technology to help teams visualize information and workflows in real-time 3D. It’s one of Unity’s most powerful industry tools.

“Last year we introduced our first AEC product called Unity Reflect that is a new product which will enable architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) professionals to unlock the value of BIM data by putting it directly in the hands of any user and on any device,” said Gauthier.“Unity Reflect will give everyone working in the AEC industry the power to see everything in context and quickly make changes, which improves collaboration and reduces costly mistakes.”

Look for Unity at XR Immersive Enterprise

Hopefully, the links in this article will scratch your Unity itch while we wait for their panel at XR Immersive Enterprise. In the meantime, we at ARPost hope to bring you more from some of the other speakers from the XR technology world.