SUBPAC - The Next Layer of Reality
Following our successful first closing, Hartmann Capital’s new fund, Hartmann Metaverse Ventures I has begun to allocate to the best founders in Web3. For the next few weeks, the research team will be presenting the investment cases for our first investments. Join us as we uncover the hidden gems that we believe will be the future of the metaverse.
This week Hartmann Capital analyst JP Minetos covers SUBPAC, a company focused on audio-haptic feedback technologies. Hartmann Capital’s investment will help SUBPAC expand haptics usage in music production and enjoyment, as well as be the de facto immersion technology for the ever-expanding metaverse.
Sensory immersion, coming to your car, concert or metaverse
There is no more secret about it. The world is going digital and people are spending more time than ever immersed in digital worlds, whether via games, movies/shows, or social media. In 2021 we saw VR finally experience a breakout moment with record sales of the Oculus Quest 2. We believe the trend of people seeking to enhance digital immersion will continue throughout the 2020’s.
The next level of digital immersion can be broadly divided into:
Brain-computer interfaces– which are still a ways away from professional & consumer adoption, but not as far as most might believe; and
Physical immersion technology such as virtual reality (VR) headsets, handtrackers, and haptics.
Meta, the largest VR-focused company in the world, has made it a priority to own the tracking-headsets and handwear markets. Oculus is by far the market leader, as Mark Zuckerberg always intended. While there are a handful of companies working on developing in such verticals, going against this multi-billion dollar conglomerate is a perpetual uphill battle. Haptics, on the other hand, are a different story. No clear market leader has yet appeared. We believe that our investment in SUBPAC will provide the company with the means to strive for dominance.
VR gamer wearing a SUBPAC M2X
Source: Road to VR
Haptic technology enhances experiences – such as gaming, listening to music or engaging with virtual worlds – by allowing the user to experience force, vibrations, or motion. Such haptics technologies allow new immersion experiences in the metaverse.
Unlike the vaporware being marketed to investors and metaverse platforms alike, SUBPAC’s technology is already live and being used today.
Software and hardware for the senses
SUBPAC provides real-time translation of audio to physical stimuli, be it in music, games, film or virtual worlds. It does so with revolutionary software often combined with its own hardware. SUBPAC sells physical tactile devices, including vests – such as the M2X and the soon-to-be-released X1 – that are worn by a user to create a more expansive and rich sensory experience.
SUBPAC’s M2X and the upcoming X1
At its core SUBPAC is a technology company, with an emphasis on software. While it’s hardware has been the perfect testing ground for SUBPAC’s patented technology, the real growth opportunity is in its integration into the physical devices of third parties, such as movie theaters, OEM and aftermarket automotive manufacturers and furniture companies.
Low-frequency audio inputs are automatically converted into physical sensations that correspond to the frequency of sounds, creating a rich and nuanced feeling for someone using a SUBPAC-supported device. Such vibrations can recreate the full-body concert experience for music, or can allow the gamer to feel in-game trauma such as explosions, car crashes, and shockwaves.
SUBPAC’s native AI technology converts sound information in real time, creating an environment where there is no predefined coding required for new inputs. It is not necessary for games and environments to natively develop with SUBPAC, as it can intuitively pick up rich and accurate audio sensations and translate them in real time.
SUBPAC’s software is a key function of scaling, as it works with any sound input - meaning that there is no additional software engineering required for SUBPAC technology to work with new sounds.
Music technology, metaverse ready
There are three areas where SUBPAC is set to dominate immersive haptics: music, automotive and the metaverse.
Music
Music is in SUBPAC’s DNA. From its beginnings in the music studio actively reproducing live bass frequencies, the company has focused on creators. Their current offering builds on its importance to live and studio musicians, producers and engineers. It's the creator community that strengthens the brand, with a deeply loyal fan base, from bedroom producers on their laptops to top recording artists, like Finneas onstage with Billie Eilish.
Source: SUBPAC
The immersive experience extends to users as well, of course. For example, SUBPAC collaborated with Beatsaber , the wildly popular guitar-hero-like music VR game which has sold over 4 million copies, to build an engaging experience for users around both their hardware and software.
SUBPAC is adding to the next layer of sensation when listening to music. Even the deaf can enjoy otherwise solely audio experiences by wearing SUBPAC technology. This is achieved by utilizing SUBPACs rich bass and low frequency sounds to expedite the sensation of music to the sense of feeling rather than hearing. This has allowed for hard of hearing creatives to explore new horizons.
Music has been a crucial part of the human experience for centuries, and will continue to be in the foreseeable future. The tactile tech of SUBPAC enhances and highlights auditory sensation in a way never seen before. Like with other aspects of the metaverse, music will be creator-driven, and SUBPAC’s tech is leading the market for the haptics they need.
2. Vehicle experiences
The average person spends on average over 8 hours weekly in cars, and with the advent of self-driving cars vehicle operators will act more like passengers. What do most Uber users do from the back of the car? They are on their phones, deep in ‘Metaverse 1.0’. The car quickly becomes the entertainment center of the future and a core access-point for the metaverse as we are shuttled between locations in our self-driving vessels.
Source: SUBPAC
Near term, automotive manufacturers are working with SUBPAC to create car seats that give passengers physical immersion to coincide with their music experience, which is expected to be market ready in mid-2022.
This technology can work in a safety ensuring manner as well, such as warning drivers about their blindspots or accidentally merging into lanes or can alert the driver if they need to brake.
Long term, every car will be an access-point to the Metaverse, with SUBPAC enabling full body immersion.
For all of these changing definitions of what a car is and how it can be experienced, SUBPAC technology can provide an answer to all of them.
3. Metaverse immersion
VR technology to access “the metaverse” has seen explosive growth since the release of the Oculus Quest 2 headset by Meta in 2020.
Source: Road to VR
This increase in VR usage coincides with users spending more time connected than ever before, as well as an increasing demand for immersion. However, the market for haptics in virtual reality has yet to meet, never mind exceed expectations. This is due to some heretofore serious limitations with much of the current generation of immersion technologies, including:
The physical technology being egregiously expensive for the average consumer (~ $10,000)
Uncomfortable devices, providing imprecise feedback
Developers needing to do laborious engineering to incorporate haptic tech
SUBPAC fixes this. The metaverse is on the verge of exponential growth, and unlike many companies liberally utilizing phrases like Metaverse and VR, SUBPAC offers a live solution comparable to nothing else on the market.
Conclusions
With their early start, state-of-the-art technology, creator loyalty, and automotive contracts secured, SUBPAC is positioned better than any other player in haptics.
Hartmann Capital is excited to work with SUBPAC and be part of the future of tactile-haptic technology. We believe that SUBPAC’s growth ambitions perfectly coincide with a Cambrian explosion in augmented and virtual reality – in music studios, live performances, cars, theatres, games, virtual worlds and beyond.