State government increases funding for virtual reality in Bavaria

XR hubs to establish VR in companies

The Ingolstadt carmaker Audi demonstrates how VR can be integrated into the company: at its flagship stores, customers can use VR glasses to view their cars designed online in 3D before they are even built. IKEA is also exploiting the potential of VR: in the "VR Showroom", customers can equip their room with any IKEA furniture and digitally explore what they would like to see in reality. Since February 2019, fire-fighters from the district of Cham have been able to practice operations and train without there actually having to be a fire thanks to VR. Bavaria is now creating three XR hubs in Würzburg, Munich and Nuremberg so that even more companies and institutions can benefit from the innovative opportunities. Applications from the XR range for business applications are to be tested and established at these centres.

The expanded support is no surprise in view of these kinds of opportunities. The first funding decision for the XR Hub Munich was presented on 18 October 2019 at Augmented World Expo Europe. This is the starting signal for the first of the three innovation centres. 

Digitization has already arrived in Bavaria

We have been reporting time and again about innovations created in Bavaria in the areas of AR and VR for some years. In our #bytevaria – Augmented and Virtual Reality in Bayern magazine for cross-industry innovation you will always find current reports about the latest XR events and developments in Bavaria.