Germany: Virtual Presentation of AUREA Awards 2021
On January 22nd & 23rd, this year’s AUREA Awards were presented to developers of exciting VR, AR and Mixed Reality applications in four categories during a virtual conference and show format moderated by Alexander Mazza. Initiated three years ago by Europa-Park co-managing director and technology visionary Michael Mack and MackNeXT, the awards quickly became a prestigious international prize for companies specializing in Virtual Reality developments. Ten finalists were invited to present their developments via live video feed to the five-member expert jury chaired by Kathleen Cohen (The Collaboratorium, Santa Monica/California). Other members of the jury were Prof. Thomas Wagner (VR Coaster GmbH), Nils Wollny (Holoride), Cathy Hackl (Magic Leap) and Frank Govaere (UFA).
This year’s awardee in the “Experiene“ category is Feelbelt for its development of “Feelbelt 2.0“ in the field of haptic feedback for users of multimedia content. In addition to content and sound, the application enables the incorporation of the sense of touch into the staging of a virtual world, in order to make experiences even more immersive. In the “Impact“ category, the project “Rebuilt from Memories“ by Arthelps was honored with an AUREA award: a VR project which uses photogrammetry to generate 3D environments from photo images. For expample, the application can be used to virtually rebuild places that do not exist anymore, inviting users to virtually explore and visit them in 3D. Adventure Lab received an award in the “Interaction“ category for the development of the digital platform “Dr. Crumb’s School for Disobedient Pets“ – a kind of VR live escape game in which two to eight players can use VR glasses to solve puzzles and complete missions together from any place in the world. The fourth AUREA Award, which was presented in the “Creative“ category, went to Big Rock Creative (BRCvr) for the development of the virtual universe “Burning Man 2020 in VR“ based on the annual art and community week Burning Man, which takes place in the USA.
This year, the jury of the AUREA Awards decided not to honor any of the ten finalists in the fifth category of “Innovation“, as “all of them are equally innovative“ and develop new, exciting applications, but VR technology as such has arrived in the real world. In principle, however, the category will remain part of the awards.
For the first time, the AUREA Awards were held in cooperation with the Baden-Wurttemberg Film Academy. Three outstanding future projects by students and graduates of the film school were selected as winners of the special AUREA Entertainment award and presented during the digital award event. The prize money of 3,000 euros each will go directly to supporting the winning teams.
In the fall of 2020, the LBE attraction YULLBE, a virtual reality experience world developed by MackNeXT and VR Coaster based on the latest standards in technology, opend on the grounds of the Europa-Park Resort in Rust. Read all about YULLBE in the cover story of EAP issue 6/2020. (eap)
