XR and AI Leap into the Future at Augmented World Expo USA 2026 as Expo Hall Opens in Long Beach, CA

Major product launches, new immersive experiences, and industry announcements from Snap, Qualcomm, XREAL, and other leading companies

LONG BEACH, Calif., June 16, 2026 /PRNewswire/ -- Today, the Expo Hall opens at Augmented World Expo USA 2026 (AWE), the longest-running and largest event dedicated to Augmented Reality, Extended Reality, Virtual Reality, robotics and AI. Over 5,000 attendees, 250 exhibitors, and 400 speakers are gathering to celebrate the 17th anniversary of AWE and share a landmark year of innovation across XR, spatial computing, AI, and robotics.

AWE USA 2026 comes at a pivotal moment for the XR industry, as new smart glasses, immersive experiences, and spatial AI technologies move from early adoption into everyday use. Guided by this year's theme, "I, Spatial: Humans Empowered by Spatial AI," the event explores how XR can help people stay at the center of technology as AI and robotics become increasingly woven into daily life. Throughout the week, attendees will get hands-on with the products, experiences, and ideas defining the current XR industry—from next-generation wearables and immersive entertainment to enterprise applications, gaming, robots, reality capture, and digital twins.

AWE has become the XR industry's "festival of festivals"—bringing together every corner of the ecosystem under one roof. AWE USA 2026 features the Gaming & LBE Hub, Startup Pavilion, Select Builders showcase, Immersive Art Festival, Research Poster Selections, and Enterprise VIP Program, alongside dozens of networking events and community gatherings. Together, these programs showcase the creativity, entrepreneurship, and real-world momentum driving the next chapter of XR.

Press passes for the event are still available—visit this link to request one. Attendees can buy tickets to AWE USA 2026 here.

The 2026 Auggie Awards will take place tomorrow, June 17, at 6 PM Pacific on the AWE Main Stage. This year's ceremony spans 20 categories, including the Startup to Watch award for the winner of the pitch competition and the Art Festival winner. It's set to be one of the most exciting in the program's history, celebrating the world's top XR innovators, awarding the coveted Auggie Trophies, and honoring the eight newest inductees into the XR Hall of Fame.

To help journalists navigate the many announcements and product launches taking place throughout the week, below is a roundup of key news and highlights.

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Adamas brings its developer platform for multi-user VR to AWE, letting studios focus on application logic while the Adamas runtime handles multiplayer networking, avatars, and object interaction out of the box. Built around a TypeScript SDK on standard Node.js projects, it includes a Project Studio for visual project editing and a Collaborative Runtime that lets teams launch multiple projects together in a shared multiplayer space. Now in early access, Adamas aims to make networked, collaborative VR development dramatically simpler for creators. Assets here. Contact: zekailin00@adamasvr.com

Aequilibrium Software Inc., a B Corp software studio, showcases its AI-driven VR Training Academy at AWE—immersive training where frontline staff practice real-world conversations in a safe, repeatable environment. Moving beyond scripted simulations, the platform uses generative conversational AI avatars (like "Maya") that interpret tone, intent, and emotional cues, combined with voice interfaces, hand-gesture interaction, and adaptive UI, so trainees actively shape each dialogue rather than follow a fixed path. Proven in pilots with credit unions including First Commonwealth and Ent (now Wings), Aequilibrium pairs the experience with a behavior-driven personalized scorecard that measures not just task completion but empathy, needs discovery, and how staff respond under uncertainty. Assets here. Contact: adrian.moise@aequilibrium.com

Allsides brings its NVIDIA-powered 3D digital-twin platform to AWE, showcasing The Cube—a scanner that turns physical products into high-fidelity, explorable 3D assets for e-commerce and immersive shopping. In a flagship deployment, European fashion platform Zalando uses Allsides to capture footwear as photoreal digital twins in roughly seven-minute automated scans, scaling toward tens of thousands of SKUs while cutting per-scan costs by up to 92% and improving geometry and texture accuracy tenfold. Built on NVIDIA Cosmos and RTX PRO Blackwell GPUs, the pipeline takes products from scan to storefront in 48 hours and has been shown to lift add-to-cart rates and reduce returns—pointing toward richer, more confident online shopping. Assets here. Contact: nadia.crespo@allsides.tech

Animus is showcasing its new AI-powered field capture platform for commercial construction, which turns smart glasses and smartphones into intelligent assistants that automatically capture and organize audio, video, photos, and notes from the jobsite. Designed for general contractor superintendents, the platform uses AI to convert real-time field observations into structured field events and daily logs, reducing time spent on administrative reporting and enabling construction leaders to stay focused on coordinating work in the field. By streamlining documentation and preserving project information as it happens, Animus aims to improve productivity, safety, and project outcomes across commercial construction projects. Assets here. Contact: jason@animus.tech

Avalon Holographics is showcasing NOVAC, its new holographic display platform that transforms digital content into shared, glasses-free 3D holograms viewable by multiple people simultaneously. Making its first public appearance at AWE, NOVAC enables users to interact with spatial content without headsets, eye tracking, or wearable devices, creating a more natural and collaborative way to visualize information. The holographic display table supports applications ranging from healthcare, aerospace, defense, and engineering to simulation, digital twins, education, and immersive entertainment, while integrating with existing 3D content workflows through platforms such as NVIDIA Omniverse, Unreal Engine, Unity, and industry-standard 3D file formats. Assets here. Contact: sarah.au@avalonholographics.com

Avatar SDK, a leading platform for creating personalized 3D avatars, today unveiled Avatar SDK Move, a new AI-powered tool that generates avatar animations from text prompts. With Move, developers and creators can describe a desired motion in natural language—such as "walk confidently," "wave to the audience," "perform a hip-hop dance," or "celebrate a victory"—and automatically generate high-quality 3D animations for their avatars. The technology supports both fundamental locomotion animations, including walking and running, as well as complex expressive movements such as dancing and performance-based actions. Assets: here Contact: victor.erukhimov@itseez3d.com

AVRwell will showcase its expanding AVRsuite portfolio at AWE, spanning vision, gait, mobility, full-body rehabilitation, and wellness tools. The highlight is a major expansion of StarGait, its gait and mobility training app, with new gait retraining and dual-task modules—reciprocal arm swing, carrying and sorting objects while walking, dynamic reaching, visual scanning, and cognitive challenges—designed to replicate real-world mobility demands for neurological, vestibular, orthopedic, and aging populations. AVRwell is also spotlighting its growing network of clinical partners, including UMMC, InvinciKids, and Mynd Immersive, through which its applications are reaching veterans and pediatric patients. Attendees are invited to connect with the team to learn more about AVRsuite, partnership opportunities, and the future of immersive rehabilitation. Assets here. Contact: edaviss@avrwell.com

BadVR brings big data into virtual reality at AWE, billing itself as the world's first fully immersive data-visualization platform. By letting users literally step inside their data, BadVR helps companies work faster and make better decisions, dramatically increasing the value of the data they already have. The Los Angeles company turns complex datasets into navigable, immersive environments for analysis. Assets here. Contact: suzanne@badvr.com

bHaptics, a global leader in haptic technology, showcases TactGlove DK3 at AWE—its next-generation XR haptic glove and the device's first hands-on public showcase. The DK3 expands coverage from six points to eight, adding two LRA motors in the palm to eliminate long-standing "haptic dead zones," while an upgraded wrist VCM delivers sharp, controller-grade feedback; together with bHaptics' patented Tactile Illusion algorithm, the glove generates continuous sensations across the whole hand—from the feel of a cat's fur across the palm to water flowing from fingertips to wrist. A slim, 41-piece ergonomic design minimizes interference with camera-based hand tracking on Meta Quest, Apple Vision Pro, and Galaxy XR, and a full software ecosystem—bHaptics Designer plus Unity, Unreal, Python, and JavaScript SDKs—supports developers and researchers. Now available for global pre-order at $385, TactGlove DK3 targets XR, medical simulation, defense training, and industrial use. Assets here. Contact: crystal@bhaptics.com

BleeqUp brings the BleeqUp Ranger to AWE, a 4-in-1 AI sports camera worn on your eyes. The lightweight TR-90 glasses combine an AI-powered POV action camera (Sony IMX sensor, sports-optimized stabilization, and one-click AI video editing), open-ear headphones, a real-time walkie-talkie for team communication, and professional sports eyewear with optional ZEISS lenses. Features include automatic highlight detection and logging, up to 5 hours of video and 48 hours of audio recording, and detachable, prescription-ready frames—putting capture, audio, and connectivity into a single hands-free wearable for athletes. Assets here. Contact: rika@bleequp.com

CADABRA, the AI-powered CAD copilot for engineers, launches Agent Mode at AWE (Booth S37)—a capability that lets engineers create and modify CAD models through natural language directly inside their existing CAD software. Rather than manually executing every command, sketch, and feature, engineers simply describe what they want and CADABRA performs the operations, from building parts from scratch to applying design changes across multiple components. Agent Mode completes the company's three-mode workflow alongside Ask Mode—which answers questions about geometry, materials, manufacturability, and cost within the live model—and Drawing Mode, which auto-generates manufacturing-ready drawings to company standards. Because it works natively inside professional CAD platforms, CADABRA fits existing engineering processes while cutting repetitive work and speeding iteration from concept to production. Assets here. Contact: taha@cadabrai.com

CatheXis Films: Think you can trust your senses? Think again. At AWE, disabled Army veteran, filmmaker, and XR creator Kat King presents SHATT[AR]PROOF™, an immersive experience inspired by her lived experience with treatment-resistant schizophrenia and complex PTSD. Through interactive storytelling, perceptual science, and accessibility-focused design, attendees explore how the brain interprets signals, assigns meaning, and constructs reality from incomplete information. Serving as a bridge to the larger GLASS ST[AR]S science-fiction universe, SHATT[AR]PROOF™️ also introduces PerceptAR, a concept exploring how XR technologies might support reality-checking and cognitive accessibility in everyday life. Experience SHATT[AR]PROOF at Playground Booth PG10 during AWE and remember: Perception is not reality, and the only way out is through. Contact: king.katharyn@gmail.com

CGTrader, the world's largest 3D model marketplace, home to 2.8 million assets from 150,000 designers and used by more than 12.5 million people worldwide — comes to AWE (Booth #1042) to debut CGTrader AI, its new 3D asset generation tool. Rather than betting on a single model, CGTrader AI brings multiple leading 3D generation engines together under one subscription, letting users generate models from a text prompt or reference image and then refine polygon type, polygon count, and materials with full editing control before taking a production-ready asset forward. The pitch is "stock and AI under the same roof": if the model you need already exists among 2.8 million designer-made assets, find it; if it doesn't, generate it. Currently in closed beta with a public beta launching at the end of June, CGTrader AI will be shown live at the booth. Assets here. Contact: justas@cgtrader.com

Chameleon Studios presents The Castle at AWE (for Meta Quest 2 and 3), an immersive VR experience that teaches electrical concepts through escape-room-style problem solving. Players become apprentice to eccentric inventor Nigel Kupferman, diagnosing and repairing damaged systems room by room—applying real principles like Ohm's law, tool usage, and testing as the narrative's tension quietly builds. Blending instructional design with game design, the four-level experience (Level 1, "The Basement," is complete) moves learners from theory to application and extends into the physical world with an electrical training board for hands-on circuit building. The Sierra Vista, Arizona studio is at AWE to connect with investors and partners to fund the remaining levels. Assets here. Contact: cecil.colvin@gmail.com

Cintoo brings its cloud-based reality-capture platform to AWE (Booth #636), showcasing a VR Experience App built on Unreal Engine that streams high-fidelity scan data from real-world facilities at true 1-to-1 scale. Its hybrid rendering system lets users move seamlessly between inspection-level detail and a zoomed-out view of complex spaces, while multi-user collaboration allows distributed teams to meet inside the same reality-capture data in real time—on desktop, in a personal headset, or in immersive rooms like Igloo Vision displays. Open SDKs and APIs integrate Cintoo's scan data into digital twin, GIS, and BIM platforms such as Unreal, Esri, and Cognite, keeping reality capture flowing across the industrial metaverse rather than trapped in proprietary silos. Cintoo's Dace Campbell is also chairing the Digital Twins & Virtual Environment track on June 17. Assets here. Contact: elodie.gerard@cintoo.com

Cognitive3D, the spatial analytics platform trusted by more than 1,400 organizations to capture, replay, and analyze 3D behavior across XR experiences, arrives at AWE (Booth 929) with two new integrations. A partnership with HarmonEyes brings the Theia™ eye-tracking AI models—Mental Workload, Fatigue, Mental Readiness, and Attention—into Cognitive3D's session analytics, giving training, defense, and research teams a richer, on-device record of how users perform under load. A second integration with London-based XR studio Zappar embeds Cognitive3D's spatial analytics directly into Zappar's Mattercraft 3D web development tool, letting teams measure how people actually move through and engage with web, AR, and WebXR experiences. Both integrations are available now and being demonstrated at AWE. Assets here. Contact: tony@cognitive3d.com

Customer XR is showcasing its enterprise XR vision at AWE, championing what it calls "Immersive Tourism" alongside VR training for franchise brands like Koala Panda and Meineke. The agency recently launched the Innisfree Garden VR application—one of only ten apps available on both the Meta Quest Store and Apple Vision Pro App Store—letting users explore the award-winning botanical garden across seasons through 360° stereoscopic video and spatial audio. Customer XR is also rolling out a new channel program with technology services distributors, aiming to bring extended reality to CIOs and IT leaders and accelerate B2B adoption in a market it expects to reach $138.6 billion by 2032. Assets here. Contact: info@customerxr.com

Dark Arts Software, makers of the Trip the Light dance app for Meta Quest, will showcase a range of new developments at AWE from its double booth (G17) in the Gaming Hub. The centerpiece is a conference-long Trip the Light competition running all three days—free to enter, with daily prize winners and grand prizes announced at the close of the four-day event—alongside the debut of a new Virtual Dance Partner, a new song, and new UI and ergonomic features. Dark Arts will also give a first look at Trip the Light running on the Pico 4 Ultra, expanding beyond its original Meta Quest 2, 3, and 3S support ahead of a broader release on the new platform. Beyond the flagship app, the company will demo its enterprise-focused XR technology and promote its consulting and development capabilities, signaling its readiness to take on new clients for work-for-hire, location-based entertainment, learning and development training, simulation, digital twin, and mixed reality projects. Assets here. Contact: patrick.ascolese@darkartssoftware.com

The Diamond Resilience, a creator-led creative tech studio, previews two pillars of its virtual-economy ecosystem at AWE. Career OS is a gamified "pathway-to-pipeline" platform that brings a game-style leveling mindset to career growth, helping independent creators and freelancers turn real-world experience into visible progress and economic mobility as AI reshapes skills-based hiring. Diamond City, its WebXR virtual-economy hub, gives creators across gaming, Web3, and XR a persistent home for digital careers, culture, and commerce—and serves as the backdrop for The Academy: Smart Campus Experience™, with a pilot planned for Fall 2026. Founded by Marlaina Love, the studio is opening calls for beta testers, founding residents, and partners. Assets here. Contact: marlaina@thediamondresilience.com

EtageSoftworks, will debut "Enjoy the View," an interactive extended reality (XR) art installation, at AWE. The installation features a collection of artfully tech-embedded physical masks that visitors can experience either through a stationary standing presentation or by checking out a wearable mask to explore the expo floor firsthand. The wearable hardware runs EtageSoftworks' proprietary app, Musical Colors—a real-time music visualizer that captures live environmental and ambient sound on the floor and transforms it into fluid, momentary graphic visuals inside the viewer's field of vision—blurring the line between wearable technology and fine art while turning attendees into a living, moving part of the exhibition. Assets here. Contact: etagesoftworks@gmail.com

Enovis showcases ARVIS®, its augmented-reality surgical navigation system, at AWE—billed as "AR for the OR." Worn on a headband (or a Stryker Flyte/T7 helmet), ARVIS blends hands-on surgical performance with spatial navigation and voice control, giving surgeons real-time guidance on cuts, alignment, and implant position without breaking their line of sight. Its ASTRA™ platform spans total hip, knee, and shoulder arthroplasty, using reusable trackers and a single-tray, zero-footprint setup designed to cut clutter, disposables, and operating costs. The system delivers intraoperative measurements and a consolidated case dashboard showing how closely execution matched the surgical plan. Assets here.

ExpandXR (MetaSyn / STARC) is a patented AI-enhanced augmented reality technology for delivering treatment to civilians, first responders, and veterans with PTSD, people with social anxiety disorder, and anyone with a condition that calls for exposure therapy. The technology lets patients walk alongside their therapist through highly customized, realistic environments and confront their fears and avoidances in real time. Beyond commonly avoided settings like a grocery store, a party, or a restaurant, ExpandXR enables fully automated roleplay with more than 100 AI-AR characters of varied age, sex, race, and behavior — and the clinician can adjust each character's role and behavior on the fly. Developed and patented at Wayne State University's Stress, Trauma, and Anxiety Research Clinic (STARC) by Dr Arash Javanbakht, the platform won the 2025 UnitedXR Healthcare Solution of the Year Award and the International Society for Traumatic Stress Studies Innovation Award, and was a 2026 Webby Nominee. Contact: ajavanba@med.wayne.edu

Eyes of Freedom Immersive premieres at AWE, transforming one of America's most powerful traveling memorials into an accessible virtual reality experience through a collaboration between the Eyes of Freedom organization and the University of Colorado Boulder's Immersive Media Lab. Created by artist Anita Miller, the memorial honors the 23 Marines and Navy Corpsman of Lima Company who lost their lives in Iraq in 2005; the VR adaptation recreates Miller's life-sized portraits, military artifacts, and the companion sculpture Silent Battle at full scale with spatial audio and personal stories. Built using high-resolution photogrammetry, 3D modeling, and real-time rendering, the experience extends the memorial's reach to veterans, families, and caregivers—including in VA hospitals, hospice, and palliative-care settings where visiting in person isn't possible. The project sits at the intersection of art, education, technology, and public service, preserving the stories of the fallen for future generations. Assets here. Contact: patrick.r.clark@colorado.edu

Fantastic Voyage Labs brings Destination Lab to AWE, a VR platform that recreates fully equipped life-science laboratories for immersive, hands-on training. Users can design their own lab, tour realistic virtual laboratory environments, and practice with true-to-life equipment—closing the gap between classroom instruction and real bench work for biotech and clinical learners. Assets here. Contact: julia@fantasticvoyagelabs.com

Five Squared Interactive showcases Web Wide Worlds at AWE—an open, MIT-licensed ecosystem for building, hosting, and visiting interactive 3D worlds on the open web. Worlds are defined in an HTML-like markup format (VEML), published at a URL, and opened like a web page from a headset, phone, PC, or browser; at the booth, a visitor in VR builds a world hosted on the open internet while bystanders scan a QR code to join on their phones in real time. The toolset spans WebVerse (an open world browser), WorldHub (no-code creation), and WorldKit (full developer control), with a self-hostable avatar/identity system, Minecraft-world import, and generative-AI world creation from plain-language prompts. Founder Dylan Baker leads an "Open Standards — Web Wide Worlds" roundtable on June 17 at 1:00 PM (Room 103B). Assets here. Contact: dylan@fivesqd.com

FreeAim VR is now shipping its production-standard VR Shoes, featuring unique wearable robotics that enable natural, limitless full-body movement in virtual reality. For enterprise partners, our system integrates seamlessly with third-party platforms to advance capabilities in training & simulation, humanoid robotics AI, and telerobotics operation. Join us at Playground Booth 7 for a live demonstration of these cutting-edge mobility solutions and to discover more about how we can advance your solutions. Assets here. Contact: VR@Freeaim.com

Froliq highlights Sustainaball, a projection-based augmented reality soccer game that turns sustainability education into active play. Tapping into the energy and excitement surrounding the world's favorite sport, Sustainaball challenges participants to score clean-energy "sustainaballs" while blocking carbon-heavy "unsustainaballs." The headset-free XR experience has engaged students through programs with the Texas School for the Deaf and appeared at Austin FC's stadium alongside Huston-Tillotson University. Sustainaball demonstrates how spatial technology can help audiences explore environmental concepts through movement, competition, and shared experiences across schools, events, and community settings. Assets here. Contact: kelly.zhang@frlq.co

Ganzin Technology showcases its growing Aurora eye-tracking ecosystem at AWE alongside partners including Qualcomm, OmniVision, ams OSRAM, Himax, Jorjin, and Quanta, highlighting collaborations across the AI-glasses supply chain. Visitors can experience the J9 AI Glasses reference design—co-developed with Jorjin and built on the Aurora IIS eye-tracking platform—plus the latest Gaze2AI 2.0 framework and the ultra-low-power Aurora IIE platform. With a production-ready supply chain spanning optics, compute platforms, and wearable devices, Ganzin aims to make eye tracking a seamless, standard feature in next-generation intelligent eyewear. Assets here. Contact: sychien@ganzin.com.tw

GRACIA AI launches the first 4D Gaussian Splatting app for Apple Vision Pro at AWE, bringing fully volumetric, moving video into mixed reality—free worldwide on M2 (or newer) devices, with 25+ scenes at launch. Unlike stereoscopic or fixed-perspective spatial video, Gracia's captures are truly volumetric: viewers can physically walk around living performances and scenes placed in their room through passthrough. A codec-style compression approach that transmits keyframes and motion deltas makes 4DGS streamable, cutting bandwidth by more than an order of magnitude (an 80 Mbps connection is recommended). Launch highlights include a spatial-audio musical performance and step-by-step educational demos, and the app joins Gracia's existing presence on Meta Quest 3, Pico 4, PC VR, and WebXR. Assets here. Contact: polina@gracia.ai

Grepow will showcase its latest custom-shaped battery solutions for XR devices, smart rings, smart glasses, and AI wearables at AWE. Drawing on more than 20 years of lithium-polymer battery expertise, the company is highlighting ultra-compact, high-energy-density batteries engineered to meet the unique form factors of next-generation wearable technology. Demonstrations will feature curved batteries for smart rings, ultra-narrow batteries for slim smart glasses frames, and custom round and shaped batteries designed for AI-powered devices such as audio recorders, badges, and pendants. Attendees can explore working prototypes, meet with Grepow engineers to discuss custom battery architectures and rapid prototyping, and learn how the company's specialized battery designs can help manufacturers create lighter, longer-lasting, and higher-performance XR and AI products. Assets here. Contact: eileen@gensace.com

GridRaster is a pioneering technology company transforming how industrial sectors leverage spatial computing and AI for automation, robotics, industrial operations and digital twins. They recognized early on the transformative potential of XR, AI, and cloud technologies to enhance efficiency and productivity across the entire product life cycle—from design and assembly to manufacturing, training, and maintenance operations. Utilizing 3D AI-driven spatial mapping and XR, GridRaster's SPIDER platform was developed in collaboration with large enterprise customers in the aerospace, defense and other industrial enterprises. Their clientele includes the US Air Force, US Space Force, US Army, leading aerospace and defense companies.

Assets here. Contact: dijam@gridraster.com

HADO will showcase its augmented reality "physical esport" live in the LBE Zone, inviting attendees to strap on a lightweight AR headset and wrist sensor and step onto a compact court to play or watch the 3-versus-3 game—where players charge, fire energy balls, and raise shields through arm movements. The popup-style activation is meant to demonstrate what active, social, spectator-friendly XR looks like in person, while the HADO USA team uses the event to connect with potential partners including location-based entertainment operators, investors, educators and CTE/youth program leaders, brands, XR technologists, and media, as it builds toward a U.S. flagship arena, a national league, and school and university programs. Assets here. Contact: shane@hado-usa.com

Halion Tech unveils AR glasses designed to serve as an intelligent personal secretary for busy, driven people who are losing tasks, context, and decisions in the noise of daily life. Unlike productivity apps that demand your attention, Halion lives in a form factor people are already familiar with and integrates seamlessly, surfacing what you need without requiring you to stop what you're doing. They are showing a working prototype at AWE and are accepting interest from early access users, beta partners, and investors. Assets here. Contact: aarnav@haliontech.com

Hidden Realities debuts at AWE (Booth S82), giving the public its first look at Heart Full of Magic, a smartphone AR experience that turns hospital murals into interactive story worlds. Founded by immersive-tech executive Dana Ware—former Chief Creative Officer of ARound, which built large-scale stadium AR for the NFL, MLB, and MLS, and Creative Director at The VOID—the company layers augmented reality directly onto existing murals, architecture, and landmarks with no app, headset, or special hardware; visitors simply scan a QR code or point their phone at the art. First deployed at Primary Children's Hospital in Salt Lake City, Heart Full of Magic lets children recovering from surgery explore magical worlds, collect treasures, and move through the space in ways designed around emotional wellbeing and recovery. Hidden Realities is now opening pilots for hospitals, museums, attractions, libraries, and public spaces, and will preview a new initiative, Portal Pets, at the show. Assets here. Contact: danafaithware@gmail.com

Hololabs Studio, the team behind the augmented reality technology for Mario Kart: Koopa's Challenge, is set to debut its new free-roam VR experience, Abyss: Vault, at AWE. A 2026 AWE Auggie Award finalist in both the Best Game or Toy and Best Independent Creator categories, this 30-minute, 2-6 player experience is designed to bring theme-park-quality storytelling and collaborative gameplay to location-based entertainment operators. The studio is hosting a coordinated worldwide launch and will present a behind-the-scenes session on their design and go-to-market strategy in a talk in the LBE Zone on June 16th, with demos available on the show floor in partnership with Synthesis and Pico. Assets here. Contact: brett@hololabs.org

Hyper Creative, a Taipei-based XR studio, brings Dance Guru to AWE (Gaming Hub, Booth DaGH11)—a mixed reality social-dance platform that lets anyone learn partner dancing at home with a virtual partner. Instead of flat video tutorials or the cost, intimidation, and scheduling hassles of in-person classes, users step into an immersive MR dance space to learn Cha-Cha, Waltz, Salsa, and Bachata through guided lessons, practice repeatedly with a virtual partner, and perform in game-like competitions that earn rewards and unlockable costumes. Built for Meta Quest and Pico (with SteamVR and Android XR planned), it blends XR learning, social fitness, and rhythm gaming, and is rolling out multiplayer dance parties and AI-powered partner interaction. Founded by former HTC Vive/Viverse product lead David T.H. Huang, Dance Guru began as a 2024 Meta Presence Hackathon winner and is now in Early Access with monthly content updates. Assets here. Contact: david@hypercreative.tech

Immergo Labs, Inc. brings its AI-powered XR telehealth platform for physical rehabilitation to AWE, letting therapists and patients meet as full-body avatars in shared immersive environments while real-time biomechanical data is captured on off-the-shelf hardware like Meta Quest, laptops, and phones. Built on a proprietary AI-and-biomechanics stack, the platform delivers clinician-led sessions, game-like personalized home exercise programs, and real-time feedback on movement quality—addressing the no-show rates, travel burdens, and incomplete home programs that plague conventional rehab. Backed by a $1M NSF SBIR Phase II award and validated through an ongoing Houston VA study, Immergo targets an estimated $33B market spanning Veterans Affairs, private practice, and hybrid telehealth rehabilitation. Co-founded by UC Santa Cruz PhDs—including Forbes 30 Under 30 honoree Aviv Elor—the team draws on backgrounds at Meta, Google, NIH, and Disney. Assets here. Contact: aviv@immergolabs.com

Immersity, by Leia Inc., brings its Immersity Platform to AWE, pairing Spatial AI software with switchable-display hardware to deliver glasses-free immersive 3D across the devices people already use—smartphones, tablets, laptops, monitors, and emerging form factors. At its booth, the company runs live demonstrations spanning gaming (adding depth and presence to everyday gameplay), video communication (more engaging, connected remote calls), entertainment (movies, sports, and digital content brought to life with spatial depth), and content-creation and productivity workflows for visualizing and interacting with 3D content. The throughline: weaving immersive experiences into familiar devices and workflows rather than requiring dedicated headsets. Visitors can see the platform's software and switchable-display hardware working together across device ecosystems firsthand. Assets here. Contact: nichole.melrose@leiainc.com

Insight Enterprises, a Fortune 500 solutions integrator, showcases its Advanced Digital Twins at AWE—highly detailed, navigable 3D spaces built in minutes using Neural Radiance Fields (NeRF) and 3D Gaussian Splatting for photorealism and real-time performance from simple 2D image capture. Insight provides a true end-to-end service: strategic consulting, on-site capture, optimization and compression to run on any device, and added interactivity and data-layer integration—while ensuring the resulting scans and data belong solely to the client. Use cases span construction and site planning (virtually "walking" a job site to track milestones), hospitality (letting guests see exactly what they're booking), and training enhanced with generative, interactive AI avatars embedded in the twin. Backed by 35+ years and a network of 6,000+ partners, Insight brings enterprise-grade scale to spatial computing. Assets here. Contact: meredith.smith@insight.com

Invelon comes to AWE (Stand 1337) as a US-based, end-to-end extended-reality company spanning hardware, software, and services—and is using the show to spotlight its acquisition of Onirix, the well-known no-code Web AR platform. Onirix lets creators and companies build and deploy immersive experiences across smartphones, tablets, interactive screens, and XR headsets, with image, surface, and spatial tracking plus environment scanning, all through a drag-and-drop builder. Folding Onirix into Invelon Worldwide consolidates the company's position in the XR sector and advances its goal of accelerating real-world XR adoption across industries like tourism, logistics, manufacturing, and workforce training. Invelon positions itself as a one-stop shop that removes the complexity of juggling multiple vendors across the XR stack. Assets here. Contact: vperez@invelon.com

IVRHA announces a premier media partnership with The Economist at AWE—billed as a high-profile collaboration spanning its highly anticipated European and US events and highlighting the cutting edge of immersive technologies across multiple continents. The partnership begins in Valmiera, Latvia on October 8–9 with the 8th Annual Virtual Reality and Healthcare Europe Symposium, followed by two groundbreaking, one-day events at the University of Central Florida in Orlando: "From Microgravity to Medicine: Virtual Reality at the Frontier of Space Health" on Tuesday, October 27, and "Embodied Intelligence: Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, and Skill Acquisition in Humanoid Robotics" on Friday, October 30. It is aimed at clinicians, researchers, aerospace and robotics specialists, and immersive-technology builders working at the intersection of spatial computing, medical science, aerospace health, and advanced robotics. Together with The Economist, IVRHA is set to drive global conversation across all three events. Event details: Europe Symposium, Space Health, Robotics. Contact: bob@coolbluemedia.net

Jadu AR is showcasing the private beta of Jadu, a new social capture platform built around "spatial memories" — photorealistic, explorable 3D captures of real-world moments that users can create with a single tap. Using Gaussian splatting technology, Jadu transforms scenes into immersive spatial experiences that can be viewed from multiple angles and enhanced with spatial audio and effects. At AWE, the company is demonstrating how users can not only capture and revisit these 3D memories, but also use a new feature called Fuse to combine their captures with those from other users, creating entirely new shared spatial experiences. Designed to encourage active participation in the physical world, Jadu offers a new approach to social media that blends spatial computing, creativity, and real-world exploration. Assets here. Contact: js@jadu.ar

JP Technology Initiatives, brings the VR Foottroller to AWE, a foot-based controller that delivers hands-free, walk-in-place locomotion for immersive experiences. Connecting over Bluetooth HID as a gamepad, it drives four-way movement in standalone Quest 2/3 titles and the full library of SteamVR PC games, and doubles as a pedal for driving games or a foot controller for titles like Skate. Beyond gaming, the Foottroller enables natural locomotion for NVIDIA Omniverse and Isaac Sim, simulation and training, robot teleoperation, and WebXR experiences such as exploring photorealistic 3D Gaussian Splat scenes right in the browser. Available as crampon add-ons or fully assembled units (from $79.99), it aims to make moving through VR more intuitive—and to free the hands for everything else. Assets here. Contact: xin@jptiinc.com

KiWear will showcase its new KiWear Smart Ring at AWE, the company's first consumer product and what it describes as the industry's first touchless smart ring controller. Powered by proprietary gesture-recognition technology, the ring enables users to control smartphones, tablets, TVs, smart glasses, vehicle infotainment systems, and other connected devices using intuitive finger gestures such as swipes and pinches, eliminating the need to touch a screen or the ring itself. In addition to device control, the ring includes health-monitoring features such as sleep, heart rate, and blood oxygen tracking. Attendees can experience hands-on demonstrations of the Smart Ring at KiWear's booth (#1142), while the company will also highlight its ongoing collaboration with Qualcomm Technologies on next-generation AI and XR interactions, including a prototype ring powered by the Snapdragon S7+ Gen 1 platform at Qualcomm's booth (#911). Assets here. Contact: tina@ox3production.com.

Luminara — VR and AR pioneer Dr. Thomas A. Furness III, of the Virtual World Society's Light School, takes the AWE stage on June 17 at 1:35 PM (Room 101B), where he will make a major announcement about the formation of a new institute. That initiative, the Luminara Institute of Light, is a new interdisciplinary effort exploring how extended reality, artificial intelligence, light, biofeedback, creativity, and human connection can unlock the deeper capacities of the human mind, heart, body, and spirit. Its work focuses on immersive learning environments, new languages of light and sound, biofeedback-enabled interfaces for self-awareness, and shared experiences that foster connection, compassion, and service. Luminara is inviting researchers, technologists, artists, educators, physicians, and partners across XR, AI, neuroscience, medicine, and the arts to help build technologies that uplift humanity. Assets here. Contact: info@luminara.institute

MedMicroMaps is showcasing microbeXR, a new VR-based biomedical education game for Meta Quest that transforms complex topics such as DNA, RNA, microbes, and cellular biology into an immersive, mission-driven learning experience. Backed by the National Science Foundation, the platform uses spatial computing and gamification to help students build science confidence and explore potential careers in healthcare, biotechnology, and life sciences. At AWE, attendees can experience live demos that place them inside interactive 3D biological environments, meet virtual microbial characters, and work through medical-themed challenges. The company is also highlighting its M3 Grid ecosystem, a youth-focused XR platform designed with FERPA-compliant privacy protections and tools for educators, parents, and schools adopting immersive learning technologies. Assets here. Contact: drjane@medmicromaps.com

Mentra will be showcasing MentraOS, the open-source platform that lets developers write one app and deploy it across multiple smart glasses brands. Experience the SDK and app ecosystem powering Even Realities, NIMO, Mentra Live, and Vuzix smart glasses, with additional OEM partners launching over the next nine months. Businesses are already deploying MentraOS-powered smart glasses in real-world workflows, while consumers use them daily for live captions, dashboards, proactive AI assistance, and more. Whether you're building smart glasses applications, deploying them across your organization, or looking for the best daily-wear smart glasses experience, visit Mentra at Booth #1238. Contact: cody@mentraglass.com

Mixel Studio showcases OXR at AWE, a no-code platform for building, presenting, and orchestrating XR experiences across devices. Creators design spatial scenes from a web browser, guide audiences through synchronized immersive lessons in mixed reality, and keep headsets, browsers, and mobile viewers in sync—then update and redeploy spatial content without rebuilding from scratch or relying on developers. With instructor-led spatial learning and configurable audience-agency controls, OXR is built for education and training across architecture, medicine, manufacturing, museums, and K-12 STEAM. Assets here. Contact: chiaolin@mixelstudio.com

Monsarrat, a Los Angeles startup, is launching Landing Party at AWE—billed as the world's first outdoor roleplaying video game. Where Pokémon Go pinned gameplay to map points, Monsarrat's seven patents lay out a contiguous game area across real-world outdoor spaces, populated in augmented reality with dozens or hundreds of fantasy trees, rocks, creatures, and buildings to explore on foot. The result brings deep storytelling, roleplaying, and physical activity to outdoor gaming—a largely untapped market the company aims to establish as a primary platform alongside PC, console, and mobile. Founder and CEO Johnny Monsarrat previously co-created the massively multiplayer online (MMO) genre at Turbine, and the company's advisors include former Blizzard president Mike Ybarra and former PlayStation CEO Jack Tretton; Landing Party launches in June 2026 on the App Store and Google Play. Assets here. Contact: jmonsarrat@monsarrat.com

MultiSet AI returns to AWE with its enterprise Visual Positioning System (VPS)—a scan-agnostic, AI-driven positioning stack that gives devices a shared real-world coordinate system. It works with any 3D scan (LiDAR, Gaussian splats, Matterport, NavVis, Leica, XGrids and more) and runs across iOS, Android, Unity, WebXR, Meta Quest, and Ray-Ban, with on-prem, private-cloud, or on-device hosting and no vendor data lock-in. Delivering roughly 5 cm median accuracy across multi-floor indoor and outdoor environments, MultiSet powers AR overlays and device tracking for warehouse training, maintenance and inspection, asset navigation, field services, and retail. Recently rated the "most robust VPS" for last-mile logistics, it brings visual awareness to enterprise workflows from maintenance ticket resolution to underground utility mapping. Assets here. Contact: shadnam@multiset.ai

Noorcon Inc showcases NucleusXR at AWE, a modular XR platform spanning enterprise and education use cases. Its modules include an enterprise walkthrough that pairs a web portal with XR and an interactive anatomy series for immersive medical and science learning. Assets here. Contact: vahe.karamian@noorcon.com

notAnImage debuts OHLO at AWE—billed as the first tabletop hologram that gives remote people and AI a face the whole room can see, and that sees everyone back. Requiring no glasses or headset, OHLO renders a 3D face at human scale visible from any angle, with facial expressions, eye contact, a 360° perception system that senses who is in the room and who is speaking, and a steerable laser "pointing finger" for highlighting objects or text in the user's space. It is aimed at families with children (a distraction-free AI or live homework tutor), families with aging parents (face-to-face holographic presence), and AI builders, who can make any model inhabit the device through on-device inference and an open SDK with MCP support. Founded in 2026 by French engineers Sebastien Baudribos and Gilles Cadet, notAnImage began building OHLO in 2025. Assets here. Contact: gilles.cadet@notanimage.com

OwnXR debuts AI-powered content creation at AWE—billed as the fastest way to build immersive XR experiences without specialized modeling expertise. Requiring no 3D background, the platform lets users generate AI-created 3D models and Gaussian Splat (3D Splat) content on demand, then combine those assets with interactive tools and publish engaging virtual and augmented reality experiences directly from OwnXR. The release also adds image recognition that turns any object or image into a marker to trigger dynamic interactions inside AR experiences, unlocking new possibilities for education, training, marketing, events, and digital storytelling. It is aimed at creators, educators, marketers, and event teams who want to produce rich XR content without modeling skills. To celebrate the launch, OwnXR is offering a limited-time conference discount available only during AWE; visit the booth for live demonstrations of every new feature. Assets here. Contact: kjeon@ownxr.com

PeKe Labs is unveiling their gesture-based controller for hands-empty and screen-free smart glasses control. The phone-mounted touchpad enables discreet and reliable smart glasses functionality without needing to remove your phone from your pocket. The controller works with any glasses or device that has a published SDK; PeKe is actively partnering with enterprises who will natively embed the technology into their technology stack, delivering a more seamless experience for the end user than add-on integration allow. Live demos will be available at AWE, and early access sign-ups are open at pekelabs.com. Contact: shreepath@pekelabs.com

Petricore, Inc. will showcase its growing slate of immersive work across gaming, education, and emerging tech at AWE. The team is celebrating an AWE Auggie Award nomination for Best Campaign for The Last Resort, its interactive AR companion experience built with Scholastic for the bestselling book series, while also offering a look at Project Death's Game, an upcoming VR title coming to Meta Quest and Steam (wishlistable now). Stop by to learn more about Petricore's games, development services, and partnership opportunities. Assets here. Contact: ryan@petricoregames.com

Photonengine enables developers to transform apps into real-time, multi-user experiences with fast, reliable multiplayer connectivity across platforms. At AWE (Booth 938), Photon premieres its latest multiplayer XR Starter, Spatial Starter, featuring smart-glasses video streaming into virtual and mixed reality environments. Trusted by over 1 million developers and supporting more than 1.5 billion monthly active users, Photon provides secure, low-latency infrastructure for web, mobile, PC, console, and immersive XR devices—synchronizing objects, input, video, voice, and chat in real time across Meta Quest, Pico, and Apple Vision Pro. With global infrastructure, private-cloud deployment options, and clear documentation, Photon continues to power scalable connected experiences for developers, studios, and enterprises worldwide. Assets here. Contact: dirk@photonengine.com

PICO unveils Project Swan running PICO OS 6 at AWE, a revolutionary multi-panel operating system that replaces flat screens with an infinite, multi-app spatial canvas for ultimate productivity. Positioning itself as XR's most open, stack-agnostic ecosystem, PICO seamlessly bridges the gap between OpenXR game engines, native Android, and the web through WebSpatial—a pioneering W3C open standard that allows the world's 20 million web developers to build native 3D apps using standard HTML, CSS, and React. This "write once, spatial everywhere" architecture lets developers deploy a single web codebase across PICO, Apple Vision Pro, and AndroidXR in the future, slashing time-to-market to nearly zero. Combined with PICO's new integrated agentic AI tools to help build XR applications with AI. WebSpatial AI Skill, creators can now leverage "AI Vibe Coding" to instantly scaffold project structures and compile full