HTC unveils its vision for VR in entertainment, travel and healthcare at SXSW 2022

This year's South by Southwest (or SXSW) event kicks off today (March 11, 2022) in Austin, Texas and runs until March 20. HTC is at this show, and not just to underpin its pivot away from smartphones. Its comparatively relevant VR-industry arm VIVE is presenting some of its latest applications or partnerships that might make hardware such as the Focus 3 even more useful or powerful in the future.

They include BEATDAY in 3D, VIVE's purpose-built metaverse space for concerts. The company will lay a demo of this platform on for SXSW 2022 attendees, thereby giving them a glimpse of its upcoming venue environment, as well as an NFT avatar to save as a souvenir. It is rated for an improved experience and reduced perceived physical limits thanks to "the latest volumetric capture technology".

BEATDAY's inaugural time-slot will go to the Taiwanese indie outfit Amazing Show, and will roll out on the Focus 3 thereafter. VIVE has also announced that it is getting into VR movies, starting with the new "immersive" animation The Sick Rose, produced in collaboration with the TurnRhino Original Design studio.

The partially interactive film blends traditional Taiwanese dough-figure art with stop-motion techniques and VIVE's technology, and sees its North American debut at SXSW. Besides that, VIVE has announced an expansion on another current partnership it has with the healthcare-tech group MyndVR.

MyndConnect is a next-gen platform intended to address isolation in senior citizens by allowing them to interact with family members in a metaverse environment. "Elastic Content", on the other hand, comprises HTC VIVE's latest in-car entertainment portfolio, created in conjunction with the company holoride and accessible via Focus-series glasses while riding in vehicles.

These new assets are all now part of what HTC calls its "VIVERSE vision", and are slated to join the OEM's range of VR products, slated as open, secure and safe for the consumers and commercial entities that might be interested in it.

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