It is difficult for a technology not to advance if it is not invested in developing not only now, but in sowing the seeds for the future. And with this in mind, virtual and augmented reality company PICO has organised its first hackathon called the PICO Dev Jam, which aims to encourage students and early VR developers to get to grips with the development environment.
The competition is open to applicants from Europe, North America, Southeast Asia, Japan, Korea and China, with a prize pool of $50,000. Participants will have to create a new demo of an app, game, tool or prototype experience using the latest version of PICO's developer SDK toolkit, which features advanced options for mixed reality apps and games.
"At PICO, we are on a mission to strengthen the entire XR ecosystem through open collaboration and the exchange of ideas," said Henry Zhou, president of PICO. "PICO Dev Jam allows us to do just that by opening up the world of VR/MR to developers and university students and giving them the opportunity to create innovative tools and content that will not only benefit PICO's customers, but will impact the development of the industry as a whole."
Entries to the competition must include a short PowerPoint or video explaining the entrant's proposal, a description of the specific functions and tools developed, and access to the project being created so that the jury can evaluate and test it. The winners from the different regions will be announced on December 5, as this is an online event. However, PICO will be touring universities and centres in Europe and North America to offer presentations and its range of tools and products.
If you want to participate in PICO Dev Jam, you can sign up from here.