Nazara Publishing Launches Pokerverse VR

Pokerverse VR, an immersive multiplayer poker experience for Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, is now available worldwide. Developed by Hyderabad-based studio YesGnome and published by Nazara Publishing, this marks Nazara’s debut in Virtual Reality / Metaverse gaming.

Pokerverse VR is a free to play game, designed to offer entertainment, social interaction, and skill-building. Featuring real-time multiplayer, natural VR controls, and AR/VR flexibility, it allows players to step into a futuristic poker lounge or bring the game into their real-world environment.

“With Pokerverse VR, we’re taking our first step into immersive gaming experiences at Nazara Publishing,” said Nitish Mittersain, Jt MD & CEO of Nazara Technologies. “As platforms like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest gain traction, we see exciting possibilities in this space. We’re actively exploring future titles with developers who want to build for the next era of gaming.”

“We wanted to reimagine poker as an immersive, social experience that felt tactile, intuitive, and global from day one,” said Sridhar Muppidi, Founder of YesGnome. “It’s been an exciting journey building Pokerverse VR, and we’re thrilled to partner with Nazara Publishing to bring this vision to players across platforms.”

Key Features of Pokerverse VR:

• Live Multiplayer Tables – Instantly sync with players across the world.
• AR/VR Modes – Choose between full virtual environments or augmented overlays in your real space.
• Smart AI Bots – Practice solo with challenging AI opponents.
• Natural VR Controls – Gesture-based interaction to check, call, or peek at your cards.
• Custom Raise Panel – Fine-tune betting strategy in real time.
• Floating Menu – In-game access to settings, audio, and VR/AR toggle.
• Progression System – Earn XP to unlock levels and track performance.
• Daily Rewards – Stay engaged with free chips every day.

Nazara Publishing is a game publishing division of Nazara Technologies, committed to supporting innovative Indian developers in emerging gaming platforms. It aims to support Indian and global game developers by providing resources, expertise, and a strong network to bring gaming experiences to a wider audience. While no additional VR titles have been announced yet, the company is actively scouting high-potential projects for future collaboration.

Pokerverse VR is now available on:

• Meta Quest Store
• Apple Vision Pro App Store

Google Close to Acquire Intel, Samsung -backed AdHawk Microsystems for $115 Mn

Google is reportedly in the final stages of acquiring AdHawk Microsystems, a Canadian startup specializing in eye-tracking technology, for $115 million. This acquisition is part of Google's renewed focus on headsets and smart glasses, aiming to integrate AdHawk's advanced eye-tracking technology into its Android XR operating system.

Image ~ AdHawk@X/Twitter

AdHawk Microsystems, founded in 2017, has developed innovative eye-tracking technology that eliminates the need for traditional cameras, enabling higher sampling rates, lower latency, and improved efficiency. Their technology is particularly valuable for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, making it an attractive acquisition for Google.

AdHawk has received investment from major tech firms like Samsung, Intel, HP, and Sony, as well as Ray-Ban owner EssilorLuxottica, which is Meta's partner in smart glasses. This highlights the industry's confidence in the Canada based startup's technology and potential.

AdHawk Microsystems is a relatively young company, founded in 2017. While its technology is advanced, the company may not yet have achieved significant market penetration or revenue generation, which can impact its valuation. The acquisition price of $115 million for AdHawk Microsystems, despite its innovative technology, can be attributed to this along with several other possibile factors.

The eye-tracking technology market is competitive, with several players offering similar solutions. While AdHawk's technology is innovative, it may face competition from other companies, which can influence its valuation.

The acquisition includes $15 million in performance-based payments, indicating that the final price is contingent on AdHawk meeting certain targets. This structure allows Google to manage risks and ensure that the technology delivers on its promises.

This possible acquisition aligns with Google's broader strategy to enhance its presence in the AR/VR market, following its previous acquisition of parts of HTC's XR division and the launch of the Android XR operating system.

Interestingly, AdHawk Microsystems has had some notable interactions with Meta (formerly Facebook). In 2022, Meta considered acquiring AdHawk Microsystems, but the deal did not materialise. AdHawk's advanced eye-tracking technology, which is crucial for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications, made it an attractive target for Meta. However, the acquisition talks did not progress, and AdHawk continued to operate independently.

AdHawk's micro-electromechanical systems (MEMS) eye tracker requires significantly less data than camera-based systems, producing higher sampling rates and lower latency. This technology is particularly valuable for augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) applications.

AdHawk has also developed products like the MindLink glasses, which offer high-speed, high-quality eye tracking in a mobile device. These glasses are used by researchers and clinicians to study eye movements and their connection to neurological and ocular health.

AdHawk's eye-tracking technology is used in various fields, including human-computer interaction, cognitive wellness, and productivity enhancement. Their technology provides valuable insights into human behavior and mental states, making it a powerful tool for AI assistants and other applications.

Google's past acquisitions in AR /VR segment

Google has made several strategic acquisitions in the AR/VR sector over the years to enhance its capabilities and expand its presence in this market.

In 2016, Google acquired Eyefluence, a company specializing in eye-tracking technology for AR/VR headsets. This acquisition helped Google enhance its eye-tracking capabilities, which are crucial for creating intuitive and immersive AR/VR experiences.

In 2017, Google acquired a portion of HTC's XR (extended reality) division for $1.1 billion. This acquisition brought in talent and technology to bolster Google's AR/VR efforts, particularly in developing hardware and software for immersive experiences.

In 2020, Google acquired North, a Canadian company known for its Focals smart glasses. This acquisition aimed to strengthen Google's position in the smart glasses market and integrate North's expertise in creating lightweight, stylish AR glasses.

Mahakumbh in the Metaverse: ABP Network launches virtual experience centre to perform snan at Triveni Sangam, Prayagraj

ABP Network, a leader in innovative digital experiences, proudly announces the launch of a metaverse version of the Mahakumbh Mela 2025, coinciding with the grand celebrations at Prayagraj. As one of the largest religious gatherings in the world, the Mahakumbh Mela will now be brought to a global audience through a dedicated Metaverse platform by ABPLIVE, the digital wing of ABP Network, transcending geographical boundaries.

ABPLIVE's Mahakumbh Metaverse is a pioneering step in virtual spirituality, accessible through www.abpverse.com

The Metaverse platform will offer virtual tours of the Triveni Sangam, live streaming of the Shahi Snan (Royal Bath), and interactive sessions with spiritual leaders and cultural performers. Devotees and visitors from around the world will be able to participate in the Mela's rituals and ceremonies in real time, fostering a sense of unity and connection. It presents an opportunity for devotees worldwide to engage in a virtual snan at the Triveni Sangam. This immersive platform allows visitors to delve into a detailed timeline of events surrounding the important Akharas, participate in virtual aarti and pooja ceremonies.

With meticulous attention to detail and reverence, the Mahakumbh metaverse is more than just a digital platform; it's an invitation to experience the essence of devotion and cultural heritage in a new and exciting way. This initiative reflects ABP Network's commitment to providing its audience with immersive and meaningful digital experiences.

Key Features:

• High Interactivity and Puja Options
• Details of Important Akharas and Snan Dates
• Opportunity to Brand and dedicated kiosks for partners
• Snan at Triveni Sangam Ghats
• Options to Download the snan video and share on Social Platforms
• Karma Coins - To Collect during the journey

The Kumbh Metaverse experiment is ABPLIVE’s fourth metaverse experiential project. Readers previously participated in the Ram Mandir, ABP Nadu Metaverse created to mark the second anniversary of the fast-growing Tamil platform. The Election Centre Metaverse launched as part of ABPLIVE’s ongoing election Metaverse has already received accolades and has been among the fastest growing destinations for online news readers.

ABP Network cordially invites everyone to join this virtual abode of Mahakumbh Mela, embarking on an enriching journey that blends the essence of devotion with the marvels of modern technology. The Mahakumbh Mela 2025, which has started from January 14 and will continue till February 26, 2025, at Prayagraj, is a once-in-a-lifetime event that attracts millions of devotees seeking spiritual purification and cultural enrichment. The introduction of the Metaverse platform is poised to enhance this experience, making it accessible to a wider audience and preserving the essence of this sacred gathering for future generations.

Join the metaverse now: https://www.abpverse.com

Tech Mahindra Launches AI, ML, Analytics and AR/VR -Powered Sports Tech Platform Built on AWS

Tech Mahindra launches a sports cloud platform built on AWS to provide an immersive fan experience globally, powered by AI, ML, Analytics and AR/VR

To provide personalised fan experiences while offering data-driven insights to sports enthusiasts and organisations worldwide

Tech Mahindra, a leading provider of digital transformation, consulting and business re-engineering services and solutions, announced it has collaborated with Amazon Web Services (AWS) to build a sports cloud platform. The offering focuses on building next-generation digital capabilities for sports organisations and delivering immersive and personalised experiences to sporting enthusiasts worldwide. The sports cloud offering is the result of a Strategic Collaboration Agreement (SCA) signed between the two organisations in September, 2023, with a shared vision to bring the sports institutions closer to the fans, and the fans closer to the action. The SCA supports ease of access for Tech Mahindra to AWS resources and services, and allows both entities to participate in joint go-to-market initiatives and drive business growth.

The increasing need for enhanced experience among sports fans, the growing adoption of Internet of Things (IoT) experience for efficient management of sports stadiums, and the growing demand for data-driven insights by sports organisations is expected to fuel the overall growth of sports technology.

Tech Mahindra and AWS will collaborate to offer a comprehensive digital platform to sports organisations, offering use cases related to content and community engagement, customer data management and audience segmentation, and sports analytics, while delivering immersive stadium-to-home fan experiences by leveraging augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/ VR), and metaverse gamification. The cloud offering will also enable sports organisations to build and transform digital properties of sports teams and franchises and generate new revenue streams by developing new services and features tailored to audience needs.

Tech Mahindra aims to deploy its sports cloud offering to enhance the digital capabilities of sports leagues, franchises, and organisations, providing immersive and personalised experiences to fans worldwide. Punjab Kings, a professional franchise Cricket team based in India, has been working with Tech Mahindra to engage fans by bringing content, community, and commerce together.

Satish Menon, CEO, Punjab Kings, said, “I'm pleased to know about Tech Mahindra’s collaboration with AWS to build a sports cloud, and it’s exciting that it can accelerate the digital transformation aspiration for sporting organisations. Combining action from on-and-off-the-field with digital initiatives can create new opportunities for global sporting organisations to engage fans and take them deeper into the game. This can enable sporting organisations to plan broadcasting and content development in more creative ways, and offer greater game insights, all from a fan’s perspective. My best wishes to the teams from Tech Mahindra and AWS.”

Built on AWS, the world’s most comprehensive and broadly adopted cloud, Tech Mahindra’s sports cloud offering will be powered by real-time analytics, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), high-performance compute for AR/ VR, enriched broadcasting, and Web 3.0 technologies, enabling high volumes of digital data to be processed in real-time, and providing sports fans with an elevated experience.

The platform will use AWS native services, and specialist AWS services such as AWS Elemental MediaLive for delivering 24/7 linear channels and live events at scale; AWS Elemental MediaConvert for transcoding content for broadcast and multi-screen delivery; Amazon Kinesis Data Streams for storing and ingesting various streaming data in real-time at any scale; and Amazon Managed Blockchain, a fully managed service designed to help customers build resilient Web 3.0 applications on both public and private blockchains. Tech Mahindra will also leverage Amazon SageMaker – a fully managed ML service from AWS that enables developers and data scientists to build, train, and deploy ML models for any use – to power AR/VR video and image analytics, and enable fans to experience virtual stadium tours, live events, shopping, and access footage from sporting events.

Samira Bakhtiar, General Manager, Media, Entertainment & Sports, AWS, said, “AWS provides cloud-enabled technologies that are at the heart of digital innovation, athlete performance optimisation, and epic fan engagement, transforming the way sports are played, analysed, and enjoyed. Tech Mahindra shares our passion for the sports industry, and our belief that cloud, AI, ML, and emerging technologies will drive the sports technology of the future. Our collaboration with Tech Mahindra will enable leading sports organisations to take the fan experience to the next level by creating immersive experiences and providing data-driven insights. We are excited about the potential to make sports more engaging and enjoyable for fans, and more productive for sports organisations around the world.”

Jagdish Mitra, Chief Strategy Officer and Head of Growth, Tech Mahindra, said, “New-age technology and data-driven insights are changing the way we consume sports. At Tech Mahindra, we are committed to investing in sports tech to provide personalised experiences for sports fans worldwide. Our collaboration with AWS, that offers the broadest and deepest set of cloud services, will transform how fans interact with their favourite sports, creating a dynamic and captivating experience for viewers. By building sports cloud on AWS, we aim to build a personalised, fan-focused community that transcends physical sports. The platform is positioned to disrupt the sports tech industry by providing opportunities for sports organisations and franchises worldwide to create a delightful fan engagement experience that is built on content and community, leading to commerce.”

As part of its NXT.NOWTM framework, which aims to enhance ‘Human Centric Experience’, Tech Mahindra has a deep focus on leveraging cutting-edge technologies to deliver enhanced experience and enable digital transformation to meet the evolving needs of the customer.

Tech Mahindra offers innovative and customer-centric digital experiences, enabling enterprises, associates, and society to Rise for a more equal world, future readiness, and value creation. It is a USD 6.5+ billion organisation with 148k+ professionals across 90 countries helping 1250+ global customers, including Fortune 500 companies. It is focused on leveraging next-generation technologies including 5G, Metaverse, Blockchain, Quantum Computing, Cybersecurity, Artificial Intelligence, and more, to enable end-to-end digital transformation for global customers. It is the only Indian company in the world to receive the HRH The Prince of Wales’ Terra Carta Seal for its commitment to creating a sustainable future. It is the fastest growing brand globally in ‘brand value rank’ and among the top 7 IT brands globally in brand strength with AA+ rating. With its NXT.NOWTM framework, Tech Mahindra aims to enhance ‘Human Centric Experience’ for its ecosystem and drive collaborative disruption with synergies arising from a robust portfolio of companies. It aims at delivering tomorrow’s experiences today and believes that the ‘Future is Now’.

Tech Mahindra is part of the Mahindra Group, founded in 1945, one of the largest and most admired multinational federation of companies with 260,000 employees in over 100 countries. It enjoys a leadership position in farm equipment, utility vehicles, information technology, and financial services in India and is the world’s largest tractor company by volume. It has a strong presence in renewable energy, agriculture, logistics, hospitality, and real estate. The Mahindra Group has a clear focus on leading ESG globally, enabling rural prosperity and enhancing urban living, with a goal to drive positive change in the lives of communities and stakeholders to enable them to Rise.

How Immersive Technologies are Empowering the Fight Against COVID-19

“I feel like I’m playing PAC-MAN,” IEEE Member Todd Richmond told a grocery store employee when food shopping recently. “I turn down a row, see people, turn back around and immediately head for another aisle.”

The grocery shopping experience, like the rest of the world, has been turned upside-down by the COVID-19 pandemic. But as we navigate through this unprecedented crisis, many technologists like Richmond have one eye on the future.

“I can imagine an augmented reality app being developed in the future that helps people deal with social distancing more efficiently,” says Richmond. “In theory, such an app would essentially map out where a user is in relation to where other users are – it would pull data on higher risk areas based on population density and other factors, enabling the user to navigate around a particular area more safely.”

The world, as we know it has changed forever and is going through a transformational phase. It has fundamentally changed the way we operate. In the past couple of weeks, the pandemic has not only brought about uncertainty but has disrupted businesses across sectors, especially Healthcare. Today the virtual environment has taken center-stage. People have had to go on an overdrive to quicken the pace of adaptation to new-age technologies in order to fight against the pandemic. 

Uniquely challenging times call for uniquely innovative solutions, such as the one Richmond outlined. Here are some other ways that augmented reality and virtual reality (AR/VR) technologies can help combat COVID-19 and other challenges moving forward.

VR is empowering doctors and care providers

One thing that sets COVID-19 apart from other viruses impacting the respiratory system is the damage it can do to the lungs of those infected.

Healthcare experts have found that those infected with the virus sometimes have difficulty breathing, and in serious cases, run the risk of their lungs becoming inflamed. If the respiratory illness worsens, a pneumonia can develop that affects all areas of the lungs.

“Virtual reality and 3D imaging technologies can be leveraged to better spot the unique characteristics associated with COVID-19,” IEEE Senior Member Jacob Scharcanski explains. “By making this data – focusing on lung imagery for COVID-19 and other viral infections – available to physicians, we might be able to do a better job of spotting the virus and its impact on patients earlier, which would be extremely beneficial in terms of activating on an appropriate treatment.”

IEEE Member Anderson Maciel notes that immersive technologies have been utilized in medical education for over two decades now.

“Immersive technologies have been leveraged in medicine for some time now,” says Maciel. “Applications range from helping educate physicians prior to delicate surgeries to enabling patients to virtually interact with doctors in an appointment.”

Moving forward, AR/VR technologies are poised to potentially augment care providers’ ability to understand specific illnesses, such as COVID-19, providing unprecedented insight into how to combat them.

Educating and enabling the public

“In my opinion, the best application for AR/VR in terms of combatting new, still rather unknown infectious diseases is focused on improving the behaviors that lead to infection and spread,” says Maciel.

“Virtual reality in particular is ideally suited to train average citizens – who don’t have any medical experience and are most likely to unknowingly spread a virus – in everyday behaviors because of the feeling of presence that it provides,” explains Maciel. “People immersed in virtual scenarios tend to behave as they would in the real world, which is not true with other educational methods, such as public service announcements and digital campaigns focusing on informing the public on best practices. Short of placing a citizen in an actual dangerous scenario, virtual reality is the best there is for accurately providing experiential knowledge.”

Beyond education, Maciel highlights how immersive technologies are supporting citizens throughout the COVID-19 pandemic by enabling a sense of normalcy. For those practicing social distancing and remaining home, Maciel says AR/VR can also be used to augment fitness-focused games, enable virtual travel, optimize social gatherings and more.

Richmond also shines a light on AR/VR as a tool to help manage future disruption. “Once multi-person VR and telepresence-focused technologies are further along, the ability to connect in shared virtual spaces will be a massive shift in how we connect remotely.”

With social distancing measures still firmly in effect, the type of multi-person VR platform Richmond outlined would go a long way in keeping us connected – yet apart.