Cathy Hackl Contributor CMO Network I’m a tech futurist & speaker with expertise in AR VR & the Metaverse.
NASCAR Revs Its Metaverse Engines With Zed Run
NASCAR is partnering with Zed Run to release NASCAR-branded digital horses on Zed Run’s racing platform. The two parties are still defining details, including venue and broadcast activations for Zed Run and the potential future appearances of the team, driver, and track IP in Zed Run. Both parts are still determining the distribution or sales plans.
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Burberry Drops NFTs In Mythical Games’ Blankos Block Party
Mythical Games launched luxury clothing brand Burberry NFTs at Blankos Block Party blockchain. The new Burberry Blanko is a shark character called “Sharky B,” which has Burberry’s new TB Summer Monogram. Sharky B is an NFT character that can be purchased, upgraded, and sold within the Blankos Block Party Marketplace. The marketplace is still in the beta testing stage.
Megan Thee Stallion Debuts In VR Experience With AmazeVR
AmazeVR, the virtual reality company that brings artists closer to fans through immersive experiences, signed an agreement with artist Megan Thee Stallion. AmazeVR will create a unique immersive experience for Megan Thee Stallion, featuring a theatrical release in selected locations with haptic motion chairs and a music metaverse service available through virtual reality headsets at home. The experience will go public early next year.
ImnotArt Exhibits NFT Art From Chicago Artists
imnotArt is the first physical NFT art gallery in Chicago with displays that feature digital art by rotating artists. These displays allow for an immersive art experience that will support both still and moving images in high resolution, switching between different works of art on a single display. From August 14 until August 22, 2021, imnotArt will open its new exhibition called “The New Digital: Born in Chicago,” a collection featuring digital art created by Chicago-based artists. The exhibit’s goal is to demonstrate art that highlights how Chicago inspires creativity through the city’s architecture and culture.
Sensorium Galaxy Demonstrates AI-Driven Avatars
Sensorium Galaxy’s artificial intelligence avatars are driven to be the first in a new generation of virtual beings. These avatars can support complex and unscripted conversations through their own personality, built upon their biography and interactions with users. The avatars get their brains from fluxCortex, a hybrid evolving artificial intelligence based on genetic algorithms and reinforcement learning. The brain is paired with large language models, including GPT-3 by OpenAI. The avatars can recognize speech, process the query, and create a response. Sensorium Galaxy wants to connect artificial intelligence characters where users can talk with them for hours inside a virtual world. The avatars also possess both long and short-term memory, allowing them to hold a long conversation without losing context. MORE FOR YOUSenators Want Facebook To Provide More Info About Data Privacy And Political Ads PoliciesAs Coca-Cola Auctions Its First NFT, More Brands Are Entering The MetaverseThe Marketing Challenge For Esports
Ariana Grande Joined Fortnite With Successfl “Rift Tour” Event In The Metaverse
Fortnite and Ariana Grande partnered to host the “Rift Tour” event, a musical experience that allows gamers to use Ariana Grande as a playable character. The pop star virtually performed five in-game shows across the three days. Besides the music experience, Fortnite released other items during the tour inspired by Ariana Grande. The event featured unique visuals and mini-games such as sliding around a long tube of colorful goo, jumping around on a purple teddy’s back, getting over a plane, and shooting to enemies and purple crystals. Then Ariana Grande makes her entrance, and in between the concert, gamers can walk through bubbles in the sky, ride a rainbow llama through the clouds, and follow Ariana Grande through a maze. Although Fortnite has hosted these virtual concerts, the “Rift Tour” is acclaimed as a one-of-a-kind experience.
ZERO Launches A New Architectural Platform For DAOs
A DAO can be any type of community or organization with the novel advantage of being able to program incentives for anyonewho contributes to it. Similar to how Bitcoin incentivizes miners to run the world’s largest monetary network without a company, employees or an office, DAOs generalize this principle into a system capable of coordinating any type of economic resource on the blockchain. For many, DAOs in 2021 remain difficult to setup. ZERO is launching as an all-in-one platform for building DAO-based organizations. The company states that with ZERO, a team can setup a DAO in minutes, which is coupled with a vertically integrated suite of tools for remote collaboration; including but not limited to video conferencing, secure messaging, task boards and a host of blockchain-based features. ZERO makes the process of connecting your own DAO to your own NFT platform simple. According to the company, similar to how WordPress made it easy for nearly anyone to build a website, ZERO does the same thing for anyone wanting to build a presence on the blockchain, irrespective of their technical expertise.
Apollo 11 Lands On the Metaverse
Banquet, Dapp Craft Studios, The Aldrin Family Foundation, and frequent NASA collaborator and fashion designer Nick Graham teamed up to launch Apollo 11-52 in Decentraland as a tribute to the Apollo 11 moon landing on its 52nd anniversary. The event called “The Eagle Has Landed” took place on July 24, 2021. During it, Dapp Craft Studios announced a collection of unique wearables, from spacesuits to gold puffer jackets featuring the Apollo 11 mission patch, designed by Nick Graham in collaboration with Banquet. As part of the event, a donation was made to The Aldrin Family Foundation (AFF), which is a non-profit that offers STEAM-based educational tools that prepare the next generation of space travelers.
The Olympic Team Of Great Britain Released An NFT Collection
Team Great Britain is the first Olympic team to debut in the NFT world. Private label marketplace Tokns and clothing manufacturer Ben Sherman collaborated with Team Great Britain to create the NFT collection. The opening NFT collection features gymnast Max Whitlock and his two gold medals from the 2016 Rio Olympics. Each NFT will include an authorized and one-of-a-kind crypto key. This NFT collection aims to connect with fans in new ways since there will be no spectators at the games.
Redpath Waterfront Festival Includes Augmented Reality Stops
Toronto’s Redpath Waterfront Festival will launch a new walking trail with augmented reality. The Festival will be open to the public from September 17 to October 3, 2021. The Redpath Waterfront Festival will include other activities such as public art and several local promotions at waterfront businesses. Multidisciplinary Studio FLOAT4 developed the augmented reality experience. Visitors will need a smartphone to scan QR codes at designated spots along the trail. The augmented reality features immersive experiences such as visitors walking on water, whales swimming in the sky, how the waterfront looked a century ago, and a graffiti mural by Anishinaabe artist Que Rock.
Binance And Hermitage Museum Will Create NFTs Of Da Vinci and Van Gogh’s paintings
Binance NFT Marketplace and the Russian State Hermitage Museum will collaborate to release NFT collectibles of renowned artists’ artworks, including Leonardo Da Vinci, Vincent Van Gogh, and Claude Monet. All Binance users can participate in the auction that will take place at the end of August. Binance will mint two NFT copies for each artwork. One NFT copy will be auctioned at the Binance NFT Marketplace, while the second NFT will be stored at the Museum. Hermitage’s Director Mikhail Piotrovsky will sign and date each NFT copy. All proceeds from the sale will go to The State Hermitage Museum. This fall, an upcoming NFT art exhibition will occur at the Museum, where the NFT copies of the masterpieces will be displayed.
Snapchat Launched 3D Bitmojis
Snapchat is continuously evolving to set a precedent for the Metaverse. Initially, Snapchat’s Bitmojis started looking as a sticker or as an avatar. Now, Snapchat launched a new feature where users can create their 3D virtual humans. This recent update allows users to create snaps with 3D full-body versions of their Bitmojis with the ability to choose between different facial expressions, gestures, body positions, and backgrounds with a total of 1,200 combinations to pick. Snapchat also updated customization options where users can choose different clothing textures and adornments. Snapchat is offering users to become the best virtual version of themselves.
Shopify Allows Merchants To Sell NFTs Directly To Customers
Shopify announced that it’s now allowing merchants on its platform to sell NFTs directly to customers. Shopify’s President Harley Finkelstein noted on his Twitter account that before, merchants would have to sell NFTs through a third-party marketplace that would cause less control of the sale process and customer service. One of the first merchants to offer NFTs directly to customers will be the National Basketball Association’s Chicago Bulls with its NFTs “Legacy Collection,” featuring its six world championship rings.
Splinterlands Raised $3.6 Million Through Private Token Sale
Splinterlands is a trading card powered by blockchain technology that closed a private token sale with $3.6 million in proceeds. The deal revolved around the SPS Token, built for the Splintershards DAO and will form the foundation of game-related governance proposals. With the SPS Token, users will influence governance-related decisions, including sponsored tournaments, rewards, card balance updates, and more. Many crypto-native funds and ecosystem players contributed to the token raise, such as Animoca Brands, Polygon, Gate.io, among others.
Coca-Cola Released Branded Virtual Wearable NFTs
Coca-Cola partnered with avatar developer Tafi to launch branded virtual wearables NFTs. Coca-Cola’s first NFT collection commemorates the celebration of International Friendship Day. The proceeds from the auction will go to Special Olympics. The NFT collection is called “Coca-Cola Friendship Box,” inspired by the vending machines. The box contained a branded bubble jacket, a sound visualizer such as the sound of a bottle opening or the beverage being poured over ice, and a friendship card inspired by the collectible cards in the 1940s. Coca-Cola’s wearables will be available in its “Rooftop Party” at the virtual world Decentraland.
DressX Launched AR Filters For Customers To Wear Couture
Los Angeles-based digital fashion startup DressX is building a library of High Couture garments and accessories. Customers can scroll through the page choosing any displayed product, purchase the selected item, and upload a photo of themselves with any special requests. The DressX team layers the digital clothes on top of the customer’s picture. A day later, a finished image is emailed back to the customer with a file of the item. Users can pay a monthly subscription to access specific items as augmented reality filters.
Louis Vuitton Released “Louis: The Game” With NFTs
Louis Vuitton joins the gaming and luxury fashion alliance to capture a younger audience. Louis Vuitton released a mobile video game in honor of Louis Vuitton’s 200th birthday called “Louis: The Game.” The mobile video game features the fashion house’s mascot Vivienne on a journey through the luxury brand’s history. Players can explore different worlds by achieving various quests with immersed NFTs. Some of the NFTs were created by Beeple.
Facebook Announce Metaverse Product Team
After Mark Zuckerberg’s announcement that Facebook will move to be seen as a Metaverse company, some details have come across this week. Mark Zuckerberg, his team, and Wall Street analysts had a call about Facebook’s earnings and profit plans. Zuckerberg said that Facebook’s goal is to sell its headsets as cheaply as possible and make money through commerce (selling digital goods) and advertising within the metaverse. Facebook’s FRL VP, Andrew Bosworth, said the metaverse team would be under Facebook’s VR group, Reality Labs. Mark Zuckerberg also confirmed that Facebook’s next hardware launch would be its Ray-Ban smart glasses at its earnings call. The smart glasses’ arrival is still unclear.
DIGITALAX’s NFT Collections Are Now Available On Polygon
Web 3.0 Fashion Operating System DIGITALAX announced is launching its NFT collections on Polygon. Users now can perform high-speed transactions at notably lower costs and can also tour different fashion NFT collections available on DIGITALAX’s Drip NFT Marketplace. Additionally, Polygon’s increasing DeFi ecosystem will enhance DIGITALAX’s goal of merging Fashion with DeFi.
Toyota Shows Off AI-Powered Basketball-Playing Robot During The Olympics
Toyota recently revealed its new basketball-playing robot in the Tokyo Olympics powered with Artificial Intelligence (AI). The robot appeared during a Group B game between France and the United States at the Saitama Super Arena in Japan. The robot was able to shoot three-point shots during the halftime of the official match. Toyota’s robot, also known as CUE 3, is six feet ten inches tall and has sensors around its torso to analyze the distance from the basketball ring and the angle that it needs to achieve for a perfect basket. The robot also uses motorized arms and knees for movement. During the Tokyo Olympics, Toyota has deployed various artificial intelligence-powered robots to help in many operations such as transportation and entertainment.
Circus Maximus Aims To Be The First Festival DAO
Circus Maximus Festival organizers seek to put the partying back in the hands of the people and adopt a new ticketing process. The rules governing the Circus Maximus Festival organization will be decided by DAO members and encoded in smart contracts. Two brothers hatched the idea: Ivan Jokić, one of the founders of the event organization company, Noa Group, and Nikola Jokić, Chief Technology Officer at fintech platform Krypto Investment Partners. The community and music fans will vote to determine the festival’s location, performers, budget distribution, future direction, among other decisions. To become a member, first, it needs to acquire a ticket that will be an NFT to ensure that the holder is part of the future Circus Maximus DAO. The precise workings of the Circus Maximus DAO are still in progress. The Jokić brothers expect the DAO will take shape between August 8 and 13 of the current year.
Global Soccer Star Ronaldinho Launches A New NFT Collection
Soccer Icon Ronaldinho teamed up with creative studio INFLUXO to launch a new NFT collection. The NFTs are being sold in two different drops. The first drop features seven unique NFTs consisting of vivid paintings of crucial moments in Ronaldinho’s career. The auctions will take minimum increment bids of $10,000, and the NFTs come with a private meetup and dinner with Ronaldinho in Dubai, a roundtrip ticket, and a two-day stay at a five-star hotel. The second drop includes a set of six collector cards that users can purchase, and an additional card will be airdropped that is part of the series. If a collector completes the whole collection, it will enter into a sweepstake for a chance to win the “Dubai Experience.” The drop dates are coming soon, and INFLUXO will host the sale.
Porsche Offers Its First NFTs
Porsche offered for the first time an original design sketch in an NFT-charity-auction with FANZONE. The auction took place at SuperRare from August 2 to August 6, 2021. The exclusive design sketch created by Peter Varga, Director Exterior Design at Porsche, shows the combination of two iconic Porsche models: The all-electric Taycan Cross Turismo and the iconic 911. The auction winner will receive the digital artwork as an NFT proof of authenticity and the physical sketch. The auction proceeds will go to “Viva con Agua,” an international non-profit organization that advocates for human access to clean drinking water and essential sanitary provision
Source: Forbes.
