We were in San Jose for the SID and remained in the area for a few days afterwards. We were able to get a day at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) 2015 conference in Santa Clara. Unfortunately, we weren’t able to stay to be physically present at the expo that went alongside the conference, but we were able to get along to a day of the conference. There were four tracks and one of us, so we had to make some decisions on what to cover.
The administration of the conference was far from great. The registration didn’t start until almost the starting time of the event, some rooms were too full so that people couldn’t get in and the lunch arrangements were so slow, that by the time we had eaten a quick salad, it was time to go back to the sessions.
The big story of the event that everyone was commenting on was the acquisition of Metaio by Apple (Apple Buys VR Start-Up). This German company has been one of the key suppliers of software to the A/R and with a background in the automotive industry. The A/R community was a bit surprised by the acquisition, which immediately meant that it stopped supplying new software and will stop support at the end this year. That leaves something of a hole, that Apple may choose to fill with its own solution. Many believe that Metaio was well ahead of other software suppliers. Specialists in the area that we spoke to in this area did not have an obvious replacement company.
