Meta announced recently that AR/VR Africa Metathon applications being co-hosted by BlackRhino VR and Imisi 3D can now be accessed.
The AR/VR Africa Metathon refers to a collection of activities and signals organised by the Meta worldwide XR fund to help African XR artists in creating customised technologies that illustrate various use cases of the metaverse across the continent of Africa.
The AR/VR Metathon will have three main modules i.e. a training course, a hackathon event that will see the presence of participants from 16 different countries, and a rigorous boot camp to further improve innovations. The modules are set to be active from now to April next year.
The AR/VR Africa Metathon is a chance to highlight how pre-existing technological instances of AI, virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) can be quite vital for the future prospects of the metaverse, and the business solutions being developed by Africans. He elaborated further, saying that the XR Programs and Research Fund is a $50 million commitment for a span of 2 years, encompassing activities and research work that is focused at responsibly establishing the metaverse.
According to him, the company are engaging with partner organisations, civil activist bodies, governments, nonprofits, and educational establishments via this initiative to explore the processes involved in sustainable technological development. Hence, the tech giant has collaborated with extended reality (XR) firm Imisi 3D and VR production service provider BlackRhino VR, for the launch of the programme. It will be a drive to provide support for aspiring XR industry talents in Africa who are working on a diverse array of solutions to showcase the versatile landscape of African metaverse solutions.
Judith Okonkwo, Founder of Imisi 3D & AR/VR Africa remarked that the team is enthusiastic to be collaborating with BlackRhino VR and Meta for this year’s event, which follows the sixth hackathon edition and events in more than 28 African nations. According to her, the AR/VR Africa Metathon in 2022 offers a combination of its pre-hackathon instruction, the hackathon, and a camp. She said that it is the firm’s most expansive event to date, and features collaborators from 16 countries, enabling even broader access for XR. She said that the company hopes to uplift participants from around Africa, and enable them to gain skills and participate in remote hacking sessions on top of respective hackathon events in their countries.
According to her, the company’s objective is currently to generate greater global-level demand for metaverse solutions, enhance XR content access in Africa, demonstrate offerings and improve XR developer capabilities.
Co-founder and Managing Director of BlackRhino VR, Brian Afande, stated that the company is optimistically working on the project with the two collaborators. The Metathon will promote discovery and research among youthful African creative innovators by presenting them with the chance to create Afrocentric XR applications that address some of the particular difficulties they face on the continent. He said that this sort of engagement is needed in the continent to emphasise the potential of new and unexplored socioeconomic prospects made possible by XR Technologies.
