News
How Jaron Lanier, “The Father of VR”, Warned us about Meta. | by Joakim Vindenes | Nov, 2021 | Medium
Jaron Lanier is among a growing quorum concerned with how VR can be used to abuse and manipulate people, creating a perfect Skinner box. This article dives deeper into those concerns stemming from the recent Meta announcements and their influence on the Metaverse.
Experiences
Real VR Fishing on Oculus Quest 2 | Oculus
Back in issue 26 we highlighted Real VR Fishing and the really great work they did making fishing fun. This year they celebrate their second year with updates that give you more control on how you fish, and improves the feel of the game. It's still a great way to relax and unwind in VR and if you haven't tried it yet the updates make it even more accessible for people who don't fish in real life.
Apps
SketchAR
This app is one of the most fun drawing experiences we've had on a mobile device. Create art using their suite of tools and instantly turn your artwork into an NFT. Unlike other art apps they were recently granted a patent for their markerless tracking system that does a fantastic job getting virtual artwork "glued" to real world objects even if they are moving.
Reading
Holo-Light showed me that AR cloud rendering may already work - The Ghost Howls
Holo-Light is a startup focused on cloud rendered that is scaling cloud rendering for XR applications, allowing high quality experiences to run on not very expensive hardware. This read is an impression of what their recent XRnow service does to remove technical barriers setting up cloud rendering to create impressive low latency experiences to stream to virtually any device.
A look at the metaverse through four lenses of a metamorphosis
With the practical examples of what the Metaverse will look like being watered down by multiple companies making claims to already being a metaverse it's important to reconsider what the term means, and what the journey to reaching it could look like when separated from the promises mean to sell you on a specific platform.
Business
20 Augmented Reality Statistics You Should Know in 2021
AR has improved rapidly in the last few years and taking stock of those achievements is important to appreciate what it's capable of in 2021. This list is a good source to reference for presentations and conversations about where AR is now and what it could mean for our clients and partners.
Learning
MIT xPRO Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality | Online Certificate Program
Dr. Fox Harrell, Ph.D. and Director of MIT's Center for Advanced Virtuality is offering a professional level certification course titled 'Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality'. If you're looking for a course that will give you the fundamental knowledge and vocabulary around XR concepts to work with developers and clients then this course may be right for you.
UX Design for XR applications and Immersive Storytelling — Circuit Stream Workshop 2020 09 17 - YouTube
Circuit Stream released one of it's live workshop sessions with Adriana Vecc tackling UX design within XR applications that was really good. Immersive storytelling does not have enough attention being paid to it when compared to how to use the tools to make an experience, and we appreciate this session being shared for everyone to learn from her experiences creating interesting and engaging XR content.
One More Thing
Media Literacy in the Age of Deepfakes - MIT
With rising concerns for recognizing truth in our media and entertainment this free project from MITVirtuality is something you should visit and share with everyone, especially students and young people in your life. Understanding the technologies used for deepfake videos and spotting digital manipulation is so important we feel it should be taught in schools.
Commentary
This past week's Augmented World Expo was significant to us in two very important ways. First it brought together a lot of AR/VR/MR/XR professionals, companies, and enthusiasts who are doing amazing things. Second, this was the first in-person VR conference to take place since the pandemic started in 2020.
Though we couldn't attend in person (maybe next year) we did enjoy all of the coverage, virtual sessions, and video that they shared on the AWE YouTube channel. Conferences always make us even more excited and optimistic about technology, but now we also feel the need to learn and engage more with people helping build the future.
In the spirit of all of the interesting things we've learned coming out of AWE we found ourselves browsing more learning resources this week, and wanted to share some of the those along with great reading recommendations. With so many of us concerned about what Meta's vision of the Metaverse will mean it's important to ensure we know how to properly understand what going virtual means for more than just our social interactions.
Hopefully some of the information this weeks helps you along that journey.
Thank you for reading and subscribing, and we'll see you next week!
— Other Realities Directory | Other Realities Journal | Twitter | Facebook | YouTube —
Other Realities