Based on the available technologies and competencies, the user partners represented in this project have formulated their requirements. In several iterations, these were validated by focus groups, market research, and consultations with potential users and customers of the B2B platform the consortium aims to build an XR ecosystem for creating, managing, and sharing XR assets and experiences. Building upon this solid foundation, the technology partners adapted the technology R&D roadmap to the needs of the users, designed a system architecture, developed a first set of components and services, and integrated it to the extent that, 18 months into the project, user partners have started using the core platform and its individual components to create their demonstrator applications. The first demonstrator phase, which will end in May 2024, will provide concrete feedback on the platform. The XR experiences produced by the use case partners with the help of the XReco technologies will not only show what the aspired B2B platform will enable future customers to do. They will also serve to demonstrate the tools and workflows that led to these results. Currently, the platform provides (1) the Neural Media Repository (NMR) that exploits neural based technologies to enable search and retrieval of multimodal content from the repository of the platform or from connected external repositories, such as broadcast archives or public content collections. Several media domains have already been included in the system and are now available for search, such as image, video and 3D content. (2) The search front-end is integrated with a content marketplace, facilitating content exchange. A first version of the tools for defining content licenses and registering them on a blockchain is available. (3) XReco is developing a set of solutions for the creation of novel media content, incl. techniques such as 3D Neural Reconstructions (NeRF and SfM), Free Viewpoint Video, Offline Volumetric Video and Holoportation. (4) To facilitate XR content and experience creation, we are developing XR Capsule, a no-code easy-to-use solution that any creator can use without prior experience in Extended Reality, and provide a simplified guided interface to Unity 3D, both applicable to a wide range of sectors. Finally, the AR CMS and editor will enable users to create location-based experiences fast and easily. This work is complemented by an in-depth analysis of the legal framework, in particular concerning privacy and copyright, and created a list of risks and opportunities for each for the core functionalities of the project to support risk management.
