The Future of XR Creation

XR Tokyo returns for our Summer event of 2026. On Thursday, August 27th (from 7pm), welcoming Akihiko Shirai, Ph.D who will talk about his work from immersive VR experiences for children, science museum exhibits, VTubers, and smartphone metaverse platforms to AICU media, AI-driven UGC, and the AI manga YOUKAI, asking what we should build beyond XR and generative AI.

This XR Tokyo event is being sponsored by our long time partner STYLY. And we've got some great demos to try and be inspired by. We look forward to seeing you there!

[Would you like to demo or share a quick lightning talk at this or a future event? Just get in touch]

Akihiko SHIRAI, Ph.D. is an entertainment systems researcher, author, and founder & CEO of AICU Inc. For nearly 30 years, he has explored how VR, social XR, avatars, metaverse platforms, and generative AI can expand human creativity and participation. His career spans RenderWare, NHK-ES, ENSAM (France), Miraikan, media creator education, and GREE VR Studio Laboratory, where he led avatar-driven metaverse and VR entertainment R&D. Today, under the vision “Creating People Who Create,” he leads AICU’s Creative AI ecosystem, including AICU media and AICU Magazine, which has published 27 issues of roughly 150 pages each, alongside AI-driven UGC, creator education, Social Inclusion, and creator-rights technologies.

This talk will be in English with real-time subtitles available to read on your smartphone via a QR Code link

[Would you like to demo or share a quick lightning talk at this or a future event? Just get in touch]

We have lightning talk slots available which can run for 2-3 minutes. They're perfect for introducing yourself, a project or introducing a demo. Slots are limited, so please reach out ahead of the event. We may have some slots available in the evening still but we recommend dropping us a message in advance to guarantee a spot!

[Would you like to demo or share a quick lightning talk at a future event? Just get in touch]

Amanda Parks will be presenting a VR experience called Busy Buds. Busy Buds is a mixed reality productivity prototype that turns everyday tasks into a playful experience. Created for the 2024 Meta Quest Presence Platform Hackathon, where it placed 3rd globally in the Utility & Design Experiences category, users place virtual flower buds onto real-world tasks and watch them bloom with help from their friendly companion, Bee.

Yusuke Yamazaki from Hapbeat will be bringing their unique wearable haptic device that turns audio into vibration you feel through your body. Hang it around your neck or strap it anywhere for powerful, crisp, and richly expressive haptics. For XR developers, all you need is an ordinary Wi-Fi access point - no dongle, no internet, no cloud, no account, no API key needed. Meta Quest 3 and virtually any other headset can drive it directly with no PC in between. SDKs for Unity, Unreal and more let you trigger haptics by event ID in a few lines of code.

Manabu Iekame will showcase some new and upcoming features of DeoVR, a video streaming platform that can stream high quality videos for XR.

[Have a demo to show? Drop us a message, we'd be glad to have you]