XR AI Spotlight

Martin Piala, CEO and co-founder of Blurry, joins the show to break down what it actually takes to host, share, and scale Gaussian Splatting models on the web. With a background in building professional 3D infrastructure, Martin covers the practical decisions creators and studios face today: which file format to use and why raw PLY beats compressed versions for long-term flexibility, what splat co...

Stijn is an #XR software engineer spending his days pushing the limits of what #AR glasses, WebXR, and generative AI can do together. He is one of the most prolific experimenters in the XR developer community, constantly sharing prototypes across Snap Spectacles, Meta Ray-Ban, Apple Vision Pro, and WebXR. In this episode, Stijn breaks down how he builds faster using AI-first workflows, he walks us...

Oscar Falmer, Wearable Developer Advocate at Meta joins the show to break down what it actually takes to build for the Meta Ray-Ban AI Glasses. With the display glasses SDK released recently, Oscar walks through the two development paths: the Device Access Toolkit for mobile app extensions with heavy AI processing, and the new lightweight web apps optimised for the display. He explains why AI-firs...

Mike Golembewski is an interactive designer, researcher, and writer running MWG Design & Research, an independent consultancy focused on immersive media, artistic practice, and emerging technology. In this episode, Mike breaks down the structural challenges facing cultural XR, the category of immersive work that functions more like theatre or documentary than gaming. We cover why festival-prem...

Andrey Shelomentsev is the co-founder of Splatica, a London-based physical AI infrastructure startup building consumer-grade 3D reality capture pipelines. In this episode, we get into the real trade-offs between capture tools, how Splatica's one-click cloud pipeline turns a casual walk-around with an Insta360 into a navigable 3D Gaussian Splat scene overnight and what we need to turn photoreal...

In this episode, Ruben Frosali, founder of TRIDOT and Head of Cinematics at JADU AR, unpacks how he builds interactive Gaussian Splat experiences across Unity, AI generation tools, and mobile AR. Drawing on two decades of work across film, music videos, volumetric capture, shaders, and real time graphics, Ruben explains how 3DGS can be used in production workflows. He also shares how tools like Wo...

Fernando Rivas-Manzaneque is the CEO and co-founder of Volinga AI, a spin-off born from early research into 3D Gaussian Splatting for professional film and virtual production. In this episode, Fernando walks through what Volinga actually does: from its Unreal Engine plugin, which brings relighting, depth of field, reflections, and proxy mesh-based materials to Gaussian Splats, to the newly release...

Explore the latest in 3D Generative AI tools, workflows, and industry implications with Gabriele, Stefan, and Philipp. Discover top models, segmentation techniques, Gaussian splatting, and future trends shaping 3D AI. Subscribe to XR AI Spotlight weekly newsletter 👉 https://xraispotlight.substack.com/ *** CONNECT WITH OUR GUESTS ⁠🔗 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Stefan YouTube:⁠⁠⁠  @stefan_ai_3d  ⁠🔗 ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Philipp YouTube...

In this episode, Christian Stein, co-founder and CEO of Threedy GmbH, explains why CAD data remains so difficult to use outside engineering, even inside companies like Mercedes-Benz and BMW. Spun out of the Fraunhofer Institute for Computer Graphics Research, Threedy has spent years helping enterprise teams make massive industrial 3D data usable across web, tablets, and XR. He also shares where he...

In this episode, we speak with Inna Horobchuk, an architect and creative technologist exploring spatial AR through Snap Spectacles. She shares how her background in architecture informs her approach to designing digital layers in real environments, focusing on context-aware and utility-driven experiences. Inna explains why solving small, practical problems can be more impactful than building compl...

Shane Harris, founder and CEO of SideQuest and Tetiana from the popular YouTube channel Discover Tatiana join us to take a look at how VR discovery has changed from the early Quest era to today’s far more crowded market. They break down how SideQuest now works across Meta, SteamVR, sideloaded content, web, desktop, mobile, and in-headset browsing, and why aggregation, curation, reviews, and commun...

Mariem Farhat, co-founder and CEO of Solaya, joins us to break down how smartphone-based 3D Gaussian Splatting can make high-fidelity product capture usable for retail and e-commerce. Drawing on her background at the intersection of business, luxury, and deep tech, Mariem explains how Solaya is building guided capture, compression, web delivery, mesh conversion, and post-processing tools around a...

In this episode, Mindy Lee from XGRIDS discusses the innovative PortalCam, a spatial camera that combines SLAM technology with Gaussian splatting for fast, high-quality 3D capture. The conversation explores practical workflows and adoption across industries including construction, real estate, filmmaking, robotics simulation, and XR. They also discuss pricing changes, interoperability with tools l...

Dr. Ryan Moore is a pediatric cardiologist and Chief Emerging Technologies Officer at Cincinnati Children’s Hospital, where he leads teams building AR, VR, robotics, and AI systems that can move from prototype to real clinical use. In this episode, Ryan breaks down how a children’s hospital ended up with an in-house Unity and Unreal “gaming lab,” and what it takes to prove value beyond a flashy de...

Today’s guest is Max Van Leeuwen, he is a digital creator known for his innovative work in augmented reality and more specifically Lens Studio. We discuss Max's creative journey, the importance of storytelling in AR projects, and the technical challenges faced when developing for Spectacles. The conversation also explores hand tracking, the role of mobile devices in AR experiences, and how to...

In this conversation, Andy Baker, lead developer at OpenBrush, and Sutu, a renowned digital artist, discuss the evolution of OpenBrush, a powerful VR creative tool. They explore its features, the experiences of artists using it, and the collaborative workflows it enables. The discussion also covers the importance of publishing and sharing creations, the future of VR as a creative medium, and the p...

James C. Kane is a Webby-winning developer and emerging tech artist pushing the boundaries of what #WebXR can do. We unpack how he builds narrative-first immersive experiences that grab attention in the first seconds, from establishing shots and pacing, to sound design, voice acting, and careful onboarding. James breaks down how he chooses between engines like Wonderland, PlayCanvas, and SparkJS a...

Giorgio Ballestin is a Technical Product Manager and XR specialist at MARIN, the Netherlands’ maritime research institute, where he owns the XR development roadmap and helps shape long-term simulation and digital twin capabilities. In this episode, we unpack how MARIN’s ship handling simulators evolved from large CAVE and motion-platform bridge systems into hybrid setups that add VR for deck-level...

A single Cascadeur post on X triggered an uproar on social media. From excitement to hatred, the community of professionals and creatives voiced their feelings, asked legitimate questions and tried to understand how AI is reshaping the work of animators. To answer these questions, I talked with Alexander Grishanin, CTO of Cascadeur , who explains how Cascadeur defines AI versus machine learning, w...

Asim Ahmed, multi-award-winning game developer and head of product marketing at Niantic Spatial, joins the show to break down how geospatial AI is reshaping both digital experiences and real world infrastructure. As one of the early marketing leaders behind Pokémon GO and a key force behind the Peridot franchise across mobile, mixed reality and AR glasses, Asim explains how Niantic Spatial is buil...

In this episode we talk with Thomas Flynn, a digital heritage specialist with deep experience in 3D digitisation, open access, and online publishing. Thomas has worked with UNESCO, Europeana, Oxford University, Creative Commons, and served as cultural heritage lead at Sketchfab, where he helped launch the British Museum's first open 3D collection. In this conversation, he explains how museums...

Mila is a PhD student in Switzerland and a researcher of social VR culture, known for a multi-year survey series on metaverse identity, harassment, and now virtual economies. In this episode, we unpack what people actually do in worlds like VRChat, and why platform design shapes everything from avatar choices to spending habits. Mila explains the shift toward semi-humanoid avatars, why many male u...

Cayden Pierce, CEO of Mentra, joins the show to discuss how his team is building an operating system for the next generation of personal computing through #smartglasses. Drawing on experience from MIT, building #AI agents, and earlier work with Steve Mann, he explains why all day wearability is the true barrier to mass adoption and how Mentra approaches power, latency, and ergonomics differently....

Nuno Leiria, founder and CEO of Nilo and former performance lead for Unreal Engine 5 and Fortnite at Epic Games, breaks down how Nilo lets anyone build playable 3D worlds in the browser in minutes without complex #GameEngines. He explains the sketch to #3D pipeline, where #AI handles modelling, rigging, animation, and starter code, and why latency is the key design constraint. We dig into real-tim...

Viren Tellis, co-founder and CEO of Uthana, joins the show to discuss how generative AI is reshaping motion creation for games, VFX, and interactive worlds. With over 15 years of experience leading product and operations teams at AppNexus and Hedado, Viren explains how Uthana’s technology can generate animation from text, video, or even in real time, giving creators instant, controllable motion wi...