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Show: Spatial Realities (english)

Understand the next computing revolution! Spatial Realities is your update on everything related to Extended Reality (XR), Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Spatial Computing, and the Metaverse.

Tech Journalist Thomas Riedel, together with co-hosts and guests, takes you behind the scenes of major platforms (Apple, Meta, Google, Samsung, HTC Vive, Snap, and more). We discuss trends such as AI glasses, Generative AI, or Gaussian Splatting, and highlight developments that matter to both the B2B industry and gaming enthusiasts.

Our topics at a glance:

🚀 Strategy & News: Current developments surrounding visionOS, HorizonOS, Android XR, SnapOS, OpenXR, and much more.

🛠 Industry Insights: How companies are already utilizing XR for training, design, and collaboration today.

🌐 Open Standards: What organizations like the Metaverse Standards Forum and the Alliance for Open USD are doing and why it matters.

🧠 UX & Design: What defines a truly great immersive experience?

From ethical questions to hardware analysis: We draw a comprehensive picture of the XR industry.

Subscribe to Spatial Realities for deep dives and relevant news from the world of spatial computers.

📝 Note regarding release schedule: This feed focuses on select English-language interviews and specials. Updates here may be less frequent. Do you speak German? Check out our main feed „Spatial Realities (Deutsch)“ for weekly updates and over 120 episodes covering the entire XR landscape.

  • E120 – Inside Cookmate: Developing for Snap Spectacles and The Futures of Smart Glasses with Kanzul Fatima Arif from Headraft
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Thomas Bedenk
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    Kanzul Fatima Arif

    Not much is known about Snap’s next device, except what CEO Evan Spiegel shared last year during their annual Lens Fest. The device promises to be better, smaller, more beautiful, and so on. Sure 🙂

    If there is one person outside of Snap who is best positioned to know what’s going on at the company and how they work, it might be Kanzul Fatima Arif. As the Head of Innovation at Headraft, she worked closely with Snap to develop Cookmate, a hero project for the American social media and XR leader, which is showcased whenever possible.

    That is because the app truly impresses with its stellar user interface on the 5th generation Snap Spectacles. While developing Cookmate, Kanzul and her team worked so closely with Snap that she was actually able to influence their development. For example, how pinned objects behave, how fonts are readable best of the Spectacles or how face tracking works for diverse skin tones.

    At the beginning of this episode, Kanzul tells us her personal XR story: the moving and empowering journey of an Pakistani woman who discovers the power of AR to process her own history. She also provides a deep dive into how Headraft handled the shutdown of Spark AR and the situation with 8th Wall and what the agency’s strategy looks like now. Finally, she describes in great detail how the team developed Cookmate, which meant stepping away from traditional game development methodologies.

    Shownotes

  • E117 – UnitedXR: The State of the Metaverse Standards Forum, Standards for AI and what about Apple? with Neil Trevett
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Neil Trevett

    Summary

    Today, we are heading to Brussels. At the premiere of UnitedXR (YouTube →), I sat down with an absolute heavyweight of the industry: Neil Trevett.

    If you work in graphics, you know Neil. He is the VP of Developer Ecosystems at NVIDIA, President of the Khronos Group, and Chair of the Metaverse Standards Forum.

    In this conversation, we dive deep into three key topics: First, the current state of the Metaverse Standards Forum. Second, Apple’s role in XR—and specifically the tension between the USD and glTF file formats. And finally, how standard organizations are handling the explosion of AI assets and new tech like Gaussian Splatting.

    This interview is essential listening if you want to understand the strategic side of XR and how to navigate the competing narratives in our industry.

    1. Reorganization of the Metaverse Standards Forum Trevett explains that the Forum is being streamlined based on initial experiences. Originally, they started with 18 different working groups to identify where the most interest lay. However, due to gaps and overlaps, these groups are now being consolidated into five core areas:

    • 3D Assets: Formats like glTF and USD, as well as topics like avatars.

    • Spatial Computing: Sensing, IoT, and connectivity.

    • Artificial Intelligence (AI): A horizontal topic that touches all areas.

    • Regulation and Privacy: Without trust in data privacy, the platform will not be used.

    • Ecosystem: General topics such as education.

    2. Definitions of Terms and the „Onion Model“ To resolve the confusion around terms like „Metaverse,“ „XR,“ and „Spatial Computing,“ Trevett uses the analogy of an onion ring:

    • The Core is XR: An umbrella term for the hardware, meaning Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) with sensors and displays.

    • The Middle Layer is Spatial Computing: This is the term Apple prefers. It describes using displays and sensors to interact with the immediate environment.

    • The Outer Layer is the Metaverse: This emerges when multiple people using spatial computing are connected with each other.

    3. Vision: AR vs. VR Trevett clearly distinguishes his vision from dystopian ideas, such as those outlined in Matthew Ball’s book or „Ready Player One,“ where people spend 24 hours a day in VR. He believes that Augmented Reality (AR) will be the „true metaverse.“ His argument is that AR overlays the real world with contextual information and brings people together, rather than isolating them in a purely virtual world.

    4. The Role of Apple He praises Apple as a company capable of building the entire technology stack itself. Although Apple does not currently use open standards for spatial computing, Trevett does not view this negatively. He explains that proprietary platforms can often innovate faster than open standards and that both approaches complement one another.

    5. Importance of AI and New Standards AI is described as essential for building the metaverse because it solves problems that previously seemed unsolvable, such as semantic understanding of the environment or gestures.

    • Hardware Level: The Khronos Group is working on integrating Machine Learning (ML) acceleration directly into graphics APIs like Vulkan so that AI models can run efficiently on glasses.

    • Gaussian Splatting: A concrete example of new standards is the integration of „Gaussian Splats“ (a technique for rendering 3D scenes) into the glTF format. A draft for this already exists and is scheduled to be finalized in early 2026.

    6. The Wish for a „Metaverse Browser“ When asked about a „magic wand“ wish, Trevett responds that the metaverse is the spatial evolution of the web. He wishes for a kind of open-source „Metaverse Browser“ or a sandbox. This would be a collaborative environment where developers can test standards and identify gaps in the interoperability of various 3D web technologies.

    Shownotes

    Transparency: The Google AI Tool Gemini was used to transcript the interview, generate a summary and correct the intro. Adobes GenAI-Tool for podcasts was used to optimize the on-location recording. Also the chapter marks have been generated with Adobes transcription and Gemini file analysis capabilities. Both tools have been used with caution. For example: You can still hear background noise and even a sirene in the background, although the background noise has been dramatically reduced.

  • E114 – XR Journalism in the Crossfire of Hype and Reality with Antony Vitillo & Jan-Keno Janssen – XRC25
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Jan-Keno Janssen
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    Antony Vitillo

    This Episode contains a recording of a panel I moderated at the second nextReality.Festival in Hamburg. The Festival is framing Germanys oldest XR prize, the nextReality.Contest.

    Transparency annotation: Spatial Realities is a media partner of the nextReality.Festival. Although travelcosts have been covered by nextReality Hamburg e.V., my opinion and this reporting still remails independent.

    The Guests: Antony Vitillo (LI →), XR Developer and owner of the famous blog „The Ghost Howls“ — one of the most popular international XR bloggers — and Jan-Keno Jansen (LI →), Editor at German c’t magazine since 2007, an XR reporter since the early Oculus days, and since 2021 host of c’t’s YouTube Channel 3003, one of the most successful tech channels in Germany.

    About the Panel „Look Behind the Goggles: In XR Journalism in the Crossfire of Hype and Reality“ we discussed how reporting about XR has changed over the last ten years. Both, Jan-Keno and Antony, can tell different storys. Jen-Kenos XR-journey started when he tried one of the first prototypes meeting Palmer Luckey in the US and how he was trying to write about how it feels to be in VR. For Antony the story started with his Blog, which was originaly a marketing blog, but quickly adressed a community which was developer-heavy and craving for facts and numbers. Learn how the panelists handle the growing pressure from US-BigTech in this episode!

    From left to right: Thomas Riedel (Host Spatial Realities), Antony Vitillo (The Ghost Howls), Jan-Keno Janssen (Director c’t 3033)

    Shownotes

  • XR in Space – Augmented Reality for Astronauts on the Moon with Leonie Bensch
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Leonie Bensch

    This is the ignite episode of „XR in Space“, a Spatial Realities podcast-special.

    Imagine a shadow so black, it could be a hole. And if you drop something into it, it’s practical gone.

    That’s a realistic scenario for future moon missions. As the moon has no atmosphere, light is not dispersed nor weekend at air molecules leading to brutal light conditions you can not imagine as an earthling. Starting 2030 we build the Artemis moon base from where we might conduct complex missions not only on the surface of the moon itself but also to start our journey to Mars.

    And so that astronauts do not step into a shadow which is actually a hole in the ground, stumble and damage their spacesuit or instruments, an augmented reality interface could be helpful.

    Leonie Bensch, Doctoral Candidate at the European Space Agency, researches exactly that. In her research she develops AR scenarios in Virtual Reality (VR) to test designs and gather feedback before developing costly physical prototypes. For Example she examines how a grid might help to understand the topographical feature of the moon surface or how far an object is away. No easy task as safety and reliability has top priority in space.

    Leonie is not only a researcher at ESA. As one of three conference chairs she organized the Space CHI 4.0 conference which took place June 23-24, 2025 at the European Astronaut Center in Cologne. This podcast-special was mainly inspired by that conference, as there were many inspiring talks and keynotes and even two ESA Astronauts taking part.

    Shownotes

    XR in Space Episode:

    XR in Space – Immersive Tech for Space Simulators with Pale Blue CEO Felix Gorbatsevich

  • XR in Space – Immersive Tech for Space Simulators with Pale Blue CEO Felix Gorbatsevich
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Thomas Bedenk

    This Episode is part of the „XR in Space“ Series.

    There was one moment in Felix‘ keynote, where everybody was thinking the same: How can I get this insanely detailed model of the ISS onto my headset? No wonder that this was the first question asked after the keynote. And funnily enough it was even the question of co-host Thomas Bedenk, when Felix talks about the ISS model in this episode.

    The Keynote was hold at the Space CHI 4.0 Conference (→) back in June 23-24 at the European Astronaut Centre in Cologne. Our recording takes place a month later.

    Felix Gorbatsevich is the CEO and co-founder of the Norwegian company Pale Blue, which is specialized in simulation and training simulators for various industries, including human spaceflight and subsea operations. In this episode we are particularely discussing how they were involved in a couple of experiments involving parabolic flights. Felix explains how they used them to find out how XR headsets can work in zero gravity and micro gravity as well as scanning how astronauts actually move in Zero G on a space spation. These information were than used to make training on their virtual reality model of the ISS even more realistic.

    Pale Blue is particularly known for its highly detailed digital twin of the International Space Station (ISS), which models the station down to individual screws and stickers for realistic astronaut training. This simulator is crucial for helping astronauts become resilient to zero-gravity sickness by creating a disconnect between visual and physical sensation. Pale Blue also applies its simulation technology to validate new spacecraft designs, such as the Luna Gateway, and participates in the SpaceXR Consortium to develop robust XR solutions for actual space missions, including intra-vehicular (IVA) and extra-vehicular (EVA) activities.

    At the end of the episode Felix is asked to articulate his expert opinion about the XR industry, with over 10 years of experience. And how he thinks how XR and the space industry is connected.

    Shownotes

  • E093 – Mixed Reality Report 2024 with Gabriele Romagnoli / Aurea Award Recap
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Thomas Bedenk
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    Gabriele Romagnoli

    In this Episode the Thomas² talk with Gabriele Romagnoli about his lately published Mixed Reality Report. The XR Expert took a laborious challenge: Find and categorize XR Apps mainly at the Quest Store which are Mixed Reality. But what does that even mean? Gabriele decided to be rather rigorous with the categories instead of shotgunning all the categories on one app. We talk about the results of the report as well as what that means for the state of the industry.

    About the report
    The report analyzes 400+ mixed reality (MR) apps, primarily from the Meta Quest store, to understand ecosystem evolution and user preferences. It finds a near 50/50 split between gaming and non-gaming MR apps, though gaming titles receive more ratings and higher average ratings. While action, puzzle, and sports are popular gaming categories, fitness and productivity dominate the non-gaming space, with many non-gaming apps still considered tech demos. Gabriele suggests MR development has been slow due to technical challenges, a small user base, and the difficulty of creating compelling MR experiences. The report concludes with a look at AI-integrated apps and co-located experiences, and Gabriele plans to continue tracking the MR app landscape.

    Find the report here:

  • E061 – Interview: Avi Bar-Zeev about Spatial Computing and its origins as far as we know it in 1992
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Avi Bar-Zeev

    Welcome to 2024 and welcome to the age of Spatial Computing! At least that is what Apple wants us to believe. And they push hard and swift to proof they want to make it happen. So much, that they just announced to release the Apple Vision Pro as early as February 2nd 2024! That is indeed „Early next year“.

    But that is not enough: Within their developer website they ask developers not to use the words AR, VR or MR, but only to speak about Spatial Computing.

    Time to investigate what Spatial Computing actually is. But there is a problem: The Wikipedia article is rather short. And not very helpful. Usually that’s what journalists or the so-called experts on LinkedIn would do: Read the Wikipedia article and hope they understand enough, what a word actually means. It was enough for Metaverse (it was not). But for Spatial Computing we really could need some historical help.

    Thats why I am happy to have Avi Bar-Zeev as a guest in this episode. He claims to have used the word as early as 1992 at Worldesign Inc, which would be 10 years earlier than what the Wikipedia articles source Simon Greenwolds work „Spatial Computing“ from 2003 claims.

    In „Spatial Computing“ Greenwolds uses this example to explain Spatial Computing: “The simplest example may be an auto-flushing toilet that senses the user’s movement away to trigger a flush. This is trivial spatial computing, but it qualifies. The space of the system’s engagement is a real human space.”

    Avi doesn’t agree here. Although the toilet recognizes you leave the room, the computational aspect of the mechanism is not existent.

    As the former team-lead prototyping the AppleVision Pro he explains what he understands Spatial Computing is:

    „The general accepted definition of Spatial Computing is that humans are naturally spatial, we exist in a spatial environment, we interact in the world around us. There is the world within arm’s reach, and then there is the world we can see. But all of those things is what we call ego-centric, they are very much about us who are placed in the world. Spatial Computing is essentially trying to get the computer to understand that, that world, that we live in, so that we can interact with the computer. Because everything else up to now has been us trying to adapt to the computer’s world. […] Spatial Computing is adding a few new technologies in order to bring the intelligence of the computer into our world.“

    Shownotes

  • E059 – News: Meta Quest 3 Numbers, Update v60, VIVE Ultimate Tracker announced & Gabriella Chihan Stanley, Co-Founder of Vrisch
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Gabriella (Gabs) Chihan Stanley

    Interview

    In this Interview I am happy to welcome Gabriella (Gabs) Chihan-Stanley. She is co-founder and communications manager of XR Content Production Company Vrisch, which just has been nominated with a project at the VR Awards and already won a lot of them in the past, Gabs is also the founder of XR Vienna, Vienna’s first community of XR professionals. Gabs was under the 20 best European women founders of 2018 and is an active member of Women in Immersive Tech.

    News

    • Meta Quest 3 appears the first time in Steam VR statistics
    • Steam Link for Meta Quest
    • Meta Quest Update v60
    • HTC VIVE Ultimate Tracker released

    Events

    • Spatial Realities Meetup – Winter Special

    Shownotes

  • E051 – Interview – Monica Arés, former Head of Immersive Learning at Meta, Executive Director at IDEA Lab of the Imperial College London
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Monica Arés

    Interview

    In this episode I am incredibly happy that I was able to talk to Monica Ares. Monica is a global leader for Immersive Learning, XR and AI. Her immersive journey started as Director of the Dr. William Russell Blake Planetarium in Plymouth, teaching over 5.000 students annually. To bring the benefits of Immersive Learning to more people, she went to Amazon and finally to Meta, where she was responsible to develop VR content with 3rd party developers to create high-quality VR educational experiences for the Oculus App Store among other things. She was knee-deep in the restructuring of Facebook to Meta and the Metaverse hype-times. Monica takes us along her journey until she leaves Meta, explaining what the state of XR means for Immersive Learning, and what it ment for the cause of Immersive Learning when Meta announced the year of efficiency.

    „Mark Zuckerberg is a human who cares deeply about education, he always has. […] But often times product roadmaps need to follow what they’re good at. […]. Education is such a good use-case, it’s a hugely scalable market. But it’s only scalable once you can support it.“ says Monica.

    Monica just recently moved to London and took over the role of Executive Director of IDEA Lab at the Imperial College.

    AWE Europe 2023

    Meet Monica Arés at AWE Europe on 24+25 October in Vienna! Meet with the global XR Industry at the most important Conference for XR, Spatial computing and Metaverse, do business, network, and have a drink or three with me, as I will also be attending the hole conference!

    And as the Spatial Realities Show is an official partner of AWE, I am happy to be able to give away two two-day tickets. And that’s quite easy! Just send me an email at info@spatialrealities.de. And with that you will be in the draw to win two free tickets!

    And if you don’t want to bet on your luck to get a ticket for free, enjoy the 20 per cent discount code as part of this community. Use Spatial20D to get 20 Per cent of your regular ticket price. Again, use Spatial20D to get 20 per cent discount thanks to our Spatial Realities community discount.

    Shownotes

  • E049 – Immersive Video with iPhone 15 Pro, Roblox goes Metaverse, Meta Quest 3 Specs & Accessoires, win 2 Tickets for AWE Europe and Daniel Maas from VRPilot about pilot training with stand-alone headsets
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    Thomas Riedel
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    Daniel Maas

    Interview

    In the long interview I am happy to talk to Danile Maas from the Danish VR Startup VRPilot. Daniel and his team have been working on a cockpit simulator since he dropped out from a big defense company in late 2019. The first contract was with the Royal Danish Airforce and the team had to show in a couple of months, that they can actually deliver what they sold. From there on the proof of concept convinced many more companies like DHL or Alaska Airlines to use VR Pilot. When COVID hit the globe their approach to use a standalone headset really payed out. Learn in this in-depth interview how VR is a perfect medium to train pilots and prepare them in a safe, fast and cheap way for even the worst situation while being in air. Because you know what they say: Take off is optional, but landing is mandatory!

    Partners of the Episode: HTC

    News

    • Immersive Video with iPhone 15 Pro
    • Roblox Developer Conference
    • Roblox gives out Meta Quest Pros for free
    • Meta Quest 3 Leaks and Accessoirs
    • 17 Million Euro investment in German Metaverse-solution Rooom

    Shownotes