Hon Hai Technology Group (Foxconn), has announced the signing of an Memorandum of Understanding with XRSPACE, the company pioneering the next generation of visual reality through VR in the metaverse.

The Metaverse looks like being “the next big thing” after smartphones, bringing people together and changing the way they live their lives through 3D real-time interaction, physical to virtual, virtual to physical communication. It is different from other previous tech products, as it involves gaming, animation and content. It requires 10 times more computing power and display resolution, combining Silicon Valley technology with the creative imagination of Hollywood.

Foxconn will both partner with and invest US$100m (approx. €92m), with US$15m (approx. €13.74m) as the first stage with a stake in XRSPACE. Combining XRSPACE’s strengths in AI and other technologies including digital avatars, 3D virtual space creation and interaction, computer vision and hand gesture and hologram tracking, with Foxconn’s manufacturing capabilities in software and hardware vertical integration, the partnership will look to realise a shared vision of creating a “holistic Metaverse ecosystem”.

The partnership between Foxconn and XRSPACE will, says Hon Hai in an official statement, “showcase the new strength of Taiwan’s industry, integrating first-tier consumer experience, technology, components and manufacturing positioning the Taiwan market as a global leader in delivering consumer experiences in the global metaverse”.

Founded in 2017, XRSPACE is focused on building the entire metaverse, with features include shareable 3D space, social interaction for user groups or virtual people, instant 3D interaction, open creator contents, blockchain economy transaction, physical to virtual/virtual to physical, support different hardware devices such as VR/AR/mobile phone/tablet, etc.

XRSPACE now focuses on two anchor Metaverse products: PartyOn, the social music metaverse for mass consumers, and GOXR, an enterprise metaverse that allows enterprise and creative industries to create their own metaverse experiences.

In PartyOn, users from all over the world can hold various music events, from sing-along parties to concerts with thousands of people. The real-time social interactions combined with “true sense of presence” creates a brand new social experience beyond current social and live-stream platforms. In GOXR, anyone from creatives, enterprises, brands, museums and galleries are able to easily create its own metaverse to showcase, and be able to engage further with its users by hosting virtual events. 

Launched on January 20, 2022 in the Greater China region, PartyOn supports hundreds of licensed hits in Mandarin, and other languages. Available on the Pico Neo VR HMD series, the Rokid Air AR Glasses series, the XRSPACE MANOVA VR HMD and the Meta Quest VR HMD series, PartyOn is “bringing the music metaverse to wherever users may be”. 

“XRSPACE is devoted to pioneering metaverse experiences in the Web 3.0 era, making them more accessible to everyday users,” said Peter Chou, Chairman and CEO of XRSPACE. “We are excited to partner with Agora, Pico, and Rokid in this first step towards building a wider metaverse for the music industry, with more wondrous experiences to be shared in the future.”

Built on the foundations of ultra-low latency acoustics, multi-user presence, and real-time social interactions and additional cross-device support, PartyOn delivers “hyper-real online music performances” to the upcoming 5G metaverse era.  

“We are thrilled to partner with XRSPACE, and we envision that this partnership will enhance the software technology, delivering a holistic metaverse hardware and software ecosystem,” said Young Liu, Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group. “Foxconn’s approach towards the Metaverse is the same as that for electric cars—we will provide our expertise within the framework rather than solely focusing on the end product, developing in key areas that include AR/VR, software, infrastructure, content and applications and addressing the increasing demand for cloud services and more powerful server architecture. Foxconn, as the world’s largest server provider, will be able to provide its knowledge to support these potential opportunities.”

“In order to create a bigger and better metaverse in the future, we need to combine cloud, AI, edge computing, 5G and storage,” said Peter Chou. “This is the key reason for this partnership. Foxconn has a clear vision on metaverse. We believe there are so many things we can do to complement each other and work together to make the metaverse better. We are super excited for the partnership with Foxconn, this strategic partnership is not just only making our metaverse experiences better and stronger, Foxconn will also help us a lot on global market development.”

During last year’s HHTD21 (Hon Hai Tech Day 2021), Foxconn leveraged XRSPACES’ GOXR platform, bringing the event to the Metaverse. Together, Foxconn and XRSPACE offered unique experiences to online participants, receiving positive feedback from both businesses and consumers.

…

Photo – top of page: Young Liu, Chairman of Hon Hai Technology Group (left) with Peter Chou, Chairman and CEO of XRSPACE (right)

…

Read also: HON HAI GROUP MOVES INTO SOFTWARE DEVELOPMENT FOR AUTO APPS