AR Zoo's only confirmed active venue is Asahikawa Medical University Hospital, where SoVeC began running the location-based XR CHANNEL version on November 2, 2026, with content developed with STARIUM and Asahiyama Zoo supervising the animals' ecology and movements.
AR Zoo as covered here is a location-based app attached to a particular place. The most recent story puts it in a hospital, not a zoo or a tourist site: SoVeC Corporation began operating AR Zoo at Asahikawa Medical University Hospital on November 2, 2026, using XR CHANNEL, with XR content jointly developed with STARIUM. Children at the hospital can see life-sized animals through smartphones and tablets in three locations, and Asahiyama Zoo supervised the animals' ecology and movements.
The same story says the Asahikawa installation is the first permanent AR Zoo in Hokkaido and the second facility nationwide. That is the only installation covered in these stories, and the earlier venue is not described. The coverage gives no details on where the first site is, how the app is distributed outside a facility, or what content differs between sites.
The rest of the stories in this run are not about AR Zoo. They cover figures, game releases, film festival awards, and retail promotions. None of them mentions AR Zoo, SoVeC, STARIUM, XR CHANNEL, or Asahiyama Zoo. Read as a whole, the run establishes AR Zoo as an in-facility XR application operated in partnership with a content developer and an animal supervisor, and nothing beyond that.
Written with AI from the cited Yomimono stories below, each itself sourced.
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8h ago
SoVeC Corporation began operating AR Zoo at Asahikawa Medical University Hospital on November 2, 2026, using its location-based AR app XR CHANNEL. The XR content was jointly developed with STARIUM. Children at the hospital can see life-sized animals through smartphones and tablets in three locations. Asahiyama Zoo supervised the animals' ecology and movements. It is the first permanent AR Zoo in Hokkaido and the second facility nationwide.