Having started with more than 2,200 participants from all over the country, the ‘XR [extended reality] Creator Hackathon’, organised by Wavelaps in collaboration with the Ministry of Information and Broadcasting, is in its last stage of evaluation, with finalists being reviewed closely by a distinguished jury.
Panel experts include the Director General of the Ministry of Tourism Mugdha Sinha, who is evaluating XR’s potential in cultural storytelling and tourism; Rajat Bansal of Games24x7, who is assessing gaming and entertainment-focused XR solutions; Abhishek Gupta of HomeLane, who is reviewing XR applications in interior design and spatial visualisation; Dinesh Punni of Immersive Insider, who is assessing projects from the immersive education theme; and Saraswathi Balgam of Dancing Atoms, who is assessing projects from the healthcare and fitness themes.
Wavelaps has partnered with two of India’s leading XR communities, Bharat XR and XDG, for organising the challenge. “The XR creator hackathon is designed to push the boundaries of Extended Reality (XR) in sectors such as entertainment, tourism, education, healthcare, and e-commerce. More than a competition, it is a movement to position India at the forefront of immersive technology,” an official said.
The hackathon is a part of a larger event, the World Audio Visual and Entertainment Summit (WAVES), to be held in India from May 1 to 4. “With the XR Creator Hackathon, we are revolutionising the Indian XR industry. The solutions emerging from this platform will shape how we interact with the world, across industries, across realities,” Wavelaps founder Ashutosh Kumar said.
Many promising entries have been screened for the final round of the challenge. Among them is a social augmented reality (AR) app ‘neAR’, developed by Prekshit Bhargava, Akhil Kumar Anand, Amit Kumar and Pratyush Prashar, which allows users to see and interact in AR with posts made within the past 24 hours at their exact location. Another team, led by S. Bala Subramaniyam, born with a clubfoot, is from Chennai.
Many entries are focused on healthcare, fitness, and well-being for solutions to enhance medical training, mental wellness, and personalised fitness experiences, while some are on educational transformation, and digital media and entertainment.
Published – April 06, 2025 07:05 pm IST