BREAKING NEWS from Electronica 2022:
 
Virtual Reality has long been a sci-fi staple, always imminently poised to reinvent life as we know it. Through the decades, in fiction from Brainstorm (1983) through The Lawnmower Man (1992) to Ready Player One (2018), creatives have imagined a parallel universe where only electronics could take us. What are real-world tech giants doing with the ideas? Will it finally happen? What are the ethical and societal implications? And who will dominate the market?
 

Meta Introduces the Meta Quest Pro

Facebook parent Meta is still all-in on mixed realty (MR), launching their new Meta Quest Pro. It sports more power than its predecessor, running a Qualcomm Snapdragon XR2+ processor backed up by 256 GB of nonvolatile storage and 12 GB of RAM. With the product shipping October 25th, 2022, even at its $1,499 MSRP, it’s taking on an increasingly competitive market, which has seen Apple on an AR/VR acquisition streak and poised to disrupt the market in 2023 (if MacRumors is correct), while Lenovo is already testing enterprise VR with its ThinkReality VRX headset and Google is back at the AR drawing board with small-scale public betas. Will virtual reality finally live up to its promise? The tech giants are counting on it, and they’re jostling to be the ones to get you hyperconnected.

CWIC 2022 Explores the Hyperconnected Human

Where is this world of ubiquitous connectivity between our wetware and the metaverse going to take us? On Wednesday, November 2nd, Cambridge Wireless brings us the CWIC 2022 event in Cambridge, UK, where they aim to tackle such heady issues as security, identity and privacy, living in the metaverse, health and wellbeing, and human transcendence. Follow their hashtag on Twitter — #CWIC2022 — for updates leading up to and from the event.

Compact Camera Module Market Will Be Worth $60bn

To help us to see, our technology needs to see. Compact camera modules are used as peripherals for our favorite development boards, such as Raspberry Pi / ESP32, but that’s a small market when compared with their use in mobile phones, dashcams, reverse cams, etc. David Manners of Electronics Weekly foresees a bull market for camera module manufacturers ahead, following a pandemic slump. He says the market, headed up by leaders LG Innotek, Sony, and Samsung, will be worth $60bn by 2027.

Elektor at electronica 2022

We are looking forward to one of the highlights of our calendar — electronica 2022, which takes place in Munich, Germany, between Tuesday the 15th and Friday the 18th of November this year. With over 150 exhibitors showing off their latest developments, the fair is sure to live up to its promise of “the entire world of electronics.” If you can’t be there, our team will be there to cover it for you, including event highlights such as the World Ethical Electronics Forum (WEEF) and the exciting Fast Forward start-up and scale-up awards. Mark your calendar and keep an eye on our website and YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn for up-to-the-minute coverage.
 

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