20 Extended Reality (XR) companies that we’re excited about in the South West

Augmented reality, 3D and virtual reality projects have long been a core part of the Rocketmakers world. We’ve collaborated with, created and played with some of the most advanced technologies, and we’ve been keen supporters of the growing community in the South West of England. As part of our focus on XR this month, we have taken a moment to celebrate the diversity and impact of companies locally.

• Actigaze - click with your eyes
  In a few years all electronic devices with a camera will be able to track your gaze. This will change the way we interact with technology, similar to the way touch screens did a few years ago. Actigaze allows you to click links with your eyes, as accurately as with a mouse. Eye gaze technology figures out where on the screen someone is looking, so the eyes trigger clicks and scroll the page instead of your hands. But until now the technology has been slow and inaccurate, Actigaze has developed a new technique, which is a gamechanger.
  
• Beam - switch 3D content at the click of a button
  Beam is one of Rocketmakers own projects. We created a 3D CMS and analytics platform that beams content into 3D worlds, instantly and seamlessly, and delights users with experiences that can adapt and evolve. Beam requires no developers, and can deliver fresh content instantly, anytime, and can be easily customised for different audiences. 
  
• Checkmate VR - add immersive shopping to ecommerce
  Checkmate VR allows businesses to incorporate immersive shopping into their existing ecommerce website through integrating an asset library and 3D shop window. You can even have a fully immersive virtual showroom. They have worked with some impressive big brands such as Target and Estee Lauder. 
  
• Condense Reality - experience live events on your coffee table in 3D
  Condense Reality brings live events into the Metaverse! This technology is designed for artists and content creators to live stream into virtual environments. Video content is broadcast in real time in high quality into game engines, primarily Unity and Unreal Engine and AR applications, including ARKit and ARCore.
  
• Dynamerse - making scientific simulation happen in virtual reality
  Dynamerse makes scientific simulations interactive, collaborative and VR capable. Their tools help researchers work more effectively, they can complete tasks faster, more accurately and save money. Through live-streamed simulations, scientists from around the world can collaborate together through VR. 
  
• IN Reality - training in immersive virtual reality
  With a background in the aerospace industry, IN Reality provides immersive virtual reality training for industries such as aerospace, rail, transportation and energy. VR for professional training is an extremely powerful tool because it is highly engaging, low risk, and is a way to enable learning through practical experience.
  
• Limbs and Things - healthcare simulation to improve patient outcomes
  Based in Bristol, Limbs & Things is a leading healthcare simulation manufacturer committed to improving patient outcomes by facilitating realistic learning experiences. Founded in 1990, their products are now used in training for various roles such as nurse, paediatrics, pharmacy, physician assistant and postgraduate medicine. Their trainer products cover a vast range of categories such as anaesthesia, cardiology, dentistry, dermatology, general surgery and more. 
  
• Shedeo - immersive experience creators
  Shedeo is a digital interactive company specialising in AR and VR technology. They create immersive experiences for their clients, one of their recent projects is the video game Speed Quest. 
  
• Ultraleap -  develops hardware to track spatial movements so they can interact with digital content
  Ultraleap is on a mission to reach beyond controllers with no wearables or touchscreens. Using their advanced hand tracking, users can interact naturally and in 3D with VR technology. They have a team of more than 150 spread across the world, with locations in Silicon Valley, US and Bristol, UK. 
  
• Vitae VR - using VR to identify brain decline
  Vitae VR, together with award-winning research scientists at King’s College Hospital, London have developed VStore - a tool to assess cognitive function which will change the landscape for prevention and diagnosis of brain decline associated with dementia and mental illness.
  
• Vaarst - harness the power of data and robotics in ocean applications and beyond
  Vaarst enables intelligent data flow from marine robotics, helping to drive towards a more sustainable future, protecting people, lowering operating costs and reducing carbon footprint. Utilising live 3D SLAM-based imaging for positioning & measurement, 3D visualisation and machine learning, the system delivers live 3D point clouds and navigation with millimetric precision.
  
• VRGO - a chair that translates your movements to the virtual world.
  VRGO creates an immersive and responsive virtual reality experience through hands free movement at the touch of a button. They design VR movement devices for both the home and business including the VRGO chair, a new kind of motion controller for virtual reality. The hands-free chair translates your tilting and spinning in the real world as movement in the virtual.
  

Public-facing businesses:

• Limbic Cinema - from light sculptures to architectural projection mapping
  Limbic Cinema is an award-winning multimedia design studio that specialises in projection mapping and immersive video environments. They are passionate about creating meaningful and memorable visual experiences for those with stories to tell and messages to deliver. Their work takes a variety of forms from architectural projection mapping on urban facades, to light sculptures in public gardens. 
  
• Limina Immersive - research and consultancy into VR
  Limina Immersive is a UK-based research organisation and consultancy dedicated to helping teams bring immersive technology to broader audiences. They deliver their work in the form of consulting, audience research projects, reports, workshops, talks and seminars. Since 2016, they have brought immersive technology experiences to over 15,000 in-person audience members through their touring VR theatres. 
  
• Lost Horizons - arts centre, venue and creative playground
  You will find Lost Horizons HQ in the centre of Bristol, this venue is an independent arts centre and bar and operates as a creative playground for the ever-growing Shangri-La family to showcase art and live music. Lost Horizons is also the world’s first fully hybrid venue with an exact digital twin capable of replicating performances into VR in real time. 
  

Agencies:

• Immersive promotion design - marketing for the immersive world
  Immersive Production Design is a marketing consultancy supporting immersive creatives and businesses. As well as helping immersive creators to market their work, they also create immersive campaigns using AR, spatial sound and other creative tech that transports you into the world of a brand.
  
• Opposable Games - games developer in 3D
  Opposable Games is a forward-thinking Bristol-based game developer. They deliver high quality character-led games in 2D and 3D, earning a reputation among the most exciting studios in the industry. They embrace the potential of emerging technologies such as virtual reality, and design new gameplay experiences underpinned by their OneTouchConnect software which allows cross platform devices to recognise each other and start transferring information.
  
• Relative Dimensions studios - VR and game programming
  Relative Dimensions provide virtual reality and game programming solutions to bring unlimited worlds to a limited space. Previously, they have collaborated with VRGO to create their bespoke OpenVR drivers that seamlessly integrate the VRGO device with SteamVR games. Plus produced a Doctor Who virtual reality game demo for the BBC.
  
• Rocketmakers - software development for the metaverse
  That’s us! We’re a team of Queens Award winning software developers that build innovative software, apps and websites for startups, scaleups and large organisations. Founded in 2007 in Bath, England Rocketmakers aims to make a difference to people’s lives with the software we build, and work on projects covering a wide range of different sectors, from elite sport and medical systems to sustainable energy and fair trade travel. Our most well-known AR work is with Bath University and our own product, Beam (above).
  
• Whiley & Co - VR training and simulation creator
  Whiley & Co is a team of technology consultants, software designers, 3d modellers and artists dedicated to creating new technology solutions. Whiley & Co use tailored simulation training to help organisations deliver real-life scenario training. Previously, they have developed vocational VR training applications and created digital humans for soft skill acquisition.

At Rocketmakers we leverage our experience to build innovative software for companies of all sizes. If you have a vision for a project and you need a technical partner to help you design, develop and deploy it, get in touch: firstcontact@rocketmakers.com

Since we put our list together, we’ve found three more companies worth mentioning:

Kaedim (transforming 2D art into 3D content), Virti (immersive learning, artificial intelligence and game design to drive employee engagement) and Amutri (rapid 3D visualisation). Get in touch if there’s anyone else we should include in our article by emailing briony@rocketmakers.com 

Rocketmakers is a Bath-based software development agency on a mission to have a direct, positive and meaningful impact on the lives of more than 50 million people through the software they build and the support they provide.