Agenda

Description

How does augmented reality overlap with the shift from web2 to web3?
Amy will moderate a panel of experts on the convergence of #AR with the growth in adoption of blockchain, NFT, and cryptocurrency.

Speakers

Olivia Forman

Unity Developer , Jadu

Maddie Callander

VP Accelerator & Portfolio , BoostVC

Amy LaMeyer

Managing Partner , WXR Fund

Eric Wagliardo

Founder / Executive Creative Director , &Pull

Leighton McDonald

Spatial Interaction Designer , LATE-FX

Description

NASA developed a series of XR medical scenarios for astronaut training during deep space exploration missions. Led by Dr. Roger Dias, MD, PhD, MBA at the Brigham and Women’s Hospital (BWH) and Harvard Medical School, and funded by the Translational Research Institute for Space Health (TRISH), this project has a rather lengthy title “Mixed Reality (MR) Care-delivery Guidance System to Support Medical Event Management on Long Duration Exploration Missions” but is a very noble and important mission. The development of these XR, highly realistic, medical scenarios for in-flight space training was carried out by a collaboration between the BWH, Radiant Images, Inc., and Panogramma Inc. The photogrammetry and volumetric video capture, editing, and processing were performed with several other collaborators, including Metastage, Sony, and Arcturus. This session will cover the challenges and solutions this team faced and solved in the production of these medical training modules.

Speakers

Piotr Uzarowicz

Head of Partnerships & Marketing , Arcturus

Rodrigo Cerqueira

CEO , Panograma Inc

Christina Heller

CEO , Metastage

Roger Dias

Asst Prof of Emergency Medicine , Harvard Medical School

Michael Mansouri

CEO , Radiant Images + MeetMo.io

Description

Haptics is the next major unlock for augmented reality and virtual reallity, like “HD” and “4K” was for audio and video. This panel will explore the current state of haptics tech in XR, ethnics, accessibility and future-forward use cases, including live events, training and esports. The discussion will cover technologies, innovations, standards, advice on adoption, and hands-on development.

Speakers

Caleb Eubanks

XR Producer & Content Creator , RealityCheckVR

Alex Meland

Strategic Partnership Manager , Contact CI

Ashley Huffman

Strategic Partnerships , TITAN Haptics

Ivan Moreno

Developer , OWO

Description

A presentation on Toyota Material Handling’s deployment of VR Training for Dealerships. Measuring return on investment as well as the power of multiplayer/collaborative virtual reality training courses

Speakers

Roni Cerga

CEO , VR Vision Inc

Holly Brotzman

Dealer Human Resources & Training Manager , Toyota Material Handling

Description

Imagine a world where you attend a Broadway show any day of the week, at a price you can afford, from anywhere across the globe and have the best seats in the house. Now imagine that the community of artists, producers and crew members who create this experience have unified to craft an ecosystem of equality where all make a living wage and issues such as disability, sexual orientation, gender, and race inequity have been reduced to a case study in the history books. Imagine that world where we celebrate rich, diverse stories accessible to everyone, inspiring generations to come in elevating humanity. The intersection of foundational technologies has crossed the exponential growth point, making what was futuristic now real.

In this session we explore current and future XR live theatrical versions that intersect stage, screen and beyond. By creating digital assets and story moments in XR we accelerate the traditional development lifecycle while defining and building the virtual future of live entertainment.

Speakers

Tim Kashani

CEO & Co-Founder , Apples and Oranges

Pamela Winslow Kashani

Co-Founder , Apples and Oranges

Description

Recently, there has been, and continues to be, a flurry of activities around AR and the Metaverse. How these domains intersect and unfold over time is still very much in the early stages. What is clear, however, is that the “on-ramp” or gateways into the Metaverse starts with the ability to perceive the physical and digital worlds simultaneously. Many technologies and devices are needed to enable the true immersion and first and foremost is the ability to overlay the digital domain onto the physical space. In this talk we will discuss these aspects and delve deeply into near-to-eye display technologies that allows uses to coexist in the physical and digital domains.

Speakers

Bharath Rajagopalan

Director, Strategic Marketing , STMicroelectronics

Description

Most research works featuring AR and Brain-Computer Interface (BCI) systems are not taking advantage of the opportunities to integrate the two planes of data. In this project, we propose a prototype which combines an existing AR headset HoloLens 2 with a Brain-Computer Interfaces (BCI) system and we perform several tasks to validate this concept. In the first experiment, we reduced the distraction of the user by including information about the current attentional state, stress and cognitive load. In the second prototype we propose a system based on covert visuospatial attention (CVSA) – the process of focusing attention on different regions of the visual field without overt eye movements. In the experiment we did not rely on any stimulus-driven responses. Fourteen participants were able to test both systems over the course of two days.

Speakers

Nataliya Kosmyna

Research Scientist , MIT

Description

Introducing a new technology into an organization is always a challenge- funding it, building it and operationalizing it, even more so. This is especially true when the perception is that it could make existing skillsets obsolete.

The creation of 3D content involves new workstreams and new stakeholders, but the aesthetic sensibilities and consumer insights needed to engage customers remain unchanged. The impact of curation and storytelling will never fall away. We need the talent we have today- most of whom have never leveraged 3D assets in their work.

Emotional intelligence has a place on your technology roadmap. It’s a big LOE, of course, but baking it in means you’ll spend a lot less time dragging colleagues into the future kicking and screaming. (Not literally, of course.)

The process is rooted in this basic truth; We need one another.

Speakers

Cynthia Maller

Head of 3D Creative Technology , Walmart

Description

How might we best use XR to power the next generation of healthcare innovation? During this fireside chat with Rebecca Rough, PHD (Defense Health Agency), Col. E. Mark Shusterman, MD (AFWERX), and Maj. Gen. (ret) Josef Schmid III, MD (NASA / Air Force) they will share more about best practices and key considerations around nascent AR/VR technologies enabling remote healthcare solutions, training, and knowledge sharing. 

Speakers

Dr. Rebecca Rough

Innovation Design Strategist , Defense Health Agency

Col E. Mark Shusterman, MD

Senior Medical Advisor , AFVentures

Fernando De La Peña Llaca

CEO & President , Aexa Aerospace

James Colraine

Head of Engagements , AFVentures

Maj. Gen. (ret) Josef Schmid III

NASA Flight Surgeon & Major General (retired) , NASA

Description

Using VR in training and simulation is now more than a stopgap during the pandemic or a fad in the hype of the metaverse. Visionary Training Resources (VTR) and Tobii will share their experience of how VR and eye-tracking technologies convince major airlines to adopt this efficient and cost-effective pilot training approach. With Tobii eye tracking and scalable equipment of VR headsets, training and simulation are empowered by data insights for validation and evaluation. This will meet the needs of more strict and critical training and lead to a truly informed and adaptive approach. Other industries can also learn from this case and get their first movers' advantage.

Speakers

Rick Parker

CTO , Visionary Training Resources

Johan Bouvin

Senior Director of Sales and Business Development , Tobii

Description

iQ3Connect and LG NOVA (LG) will present key aspects of joint applications and services for enterprises in the Metaverse. With the goal to drive real-world business transformation, the presentation will discuss challenges and solutions that enable enterprises to create, deliver and consume complex XR applications at scale in the Enterprise Metaverse.

Speakers

Ali Merchant

CEO , iQ3Connect

Limor Schafman

Director, Strategy + Operations , LG Nova

Description

Headset-based AR/VR offers an immersive dive into these new digital worlds, but to many it still feels cumbersome and unfamiliar. As a result, mass adoption is still relatively slow.
3D Lightfield displays offer a naturally immersive, “window-like” 3D look into the Metaverse while leaving users’ faces unencumbered. They can be readily deployed on familiar terminals, from smartphones / tablets to laptops or automotive displays.
Better still, this method ensures compatibility with much of the existing digital content ecosystem, hence democratizing access to the Metaverse and potentially accelerating its deployment.
In this talk, I will review our efforts at Leia to commercialize Lightfield-based mobile devices and our take on how to steadily ramp consumer adoption of the Metaverse.

Speakers

David Fattal

CTO , Leia Inc

Description

Apparel, footwear and accessories brands around the world have been hard at work transitioning from 2D to 3D designs with programs like Clo, Browzwear, Keyshot, Modo and others. First this streamlined the design process, then enabled B2B sales without samples, and now we're seeing incredible, immersive customer experiences across eCommerce, social media, NFTs and game-engines (aka the metaverse). Hear from industry leader Safir Bellali, Senior Director/Advanced Digital Creation at VF Corp and Ashley Crowder, Co-Founder/CEO VNTANA on how brands have transformed their digital product creation process to streamline the 3D journey from design to sales and marketing and beyond.

Speakers

Ashley Crowder

CEO, Co-Founder , VNTANA

Safir Bellali

Sr Director, Advanced Digital Creation , VF Corporation

Description

This session will review some of the most exciting technological innovations that are being patented throughout the world in the AR / VR / MR space. Numerous examples of patented and patent-pending innovations covering both hardware and software inventions from the smallest companies to the largest companies (e.g., Apple, Microsoft, Google, Facebook) will be provided. Predictions of future patent infringement lawsuits will also be made.

Speakers

Jeff Rosedale

Partner , Baker & Hostetler, LLP

Description

Volumetric video technology captures full-body, dynamic human performance in four dimensions. An array of 100+ cameras point inward at a living entity (person, animal, group of people) and record their movement from every possible angle. Processed and compressed video data from each camera becomes a single 3D file – a digital twin of the exact performance that transpired on stage – for use on virtual platforms. Finished volcap assets are small enough to stream on mobile devices but deliver the visual quality detail of 100+ cameras, making them a go-to solution for bringing humans into the Metaverse.

The volumetric video market is expected to grow from $1.5B USD in 2021 to $4.9B USD by 2026 as holographic imaging becomes increasingly crucial for the development of compelling, human-centric immersive content and Metaverse creators strive to solve the “uncanny valley” problem.

The session dives into the latest and greatest applications of volcap in augmented reality across multiple sectors – including fashion, entertainment, AR marketing and branding, enterprise training, and more…

We’ll examine the ground-breaking potential this technology holds for augmented and mixed reality as well as some of the challenges that may face this burgeoning industry.

Speakers

Elisha Burrows

Stage Hand , Departure Lounge Inc.

Skylar Sweetman

General Manager , Metastage

Description

In this talk, Luis will provide a structured overview of the key delivery bottlenecks, what technology advancements are being made and some case examples of recent metaverse implementations spanning transportation, education and entertainment, in order to answer the question: “Are we there yet?!”

Speakers

Luis Oscar Ramirez

Founder and CEO , Mawari

Description

If you love live performances but have felt frustrated by their virtualized formats, from jury-rigged social VR to not-actually-live live events in Fortnite and various streaming platforms, this is the workshop for you. Come see a future where anyone can customize a show in real time from their browser, then host it live for potentially hundreds of people in the same virtual space.

In this session, Alex Coulombe of Agile Lens provides a sneak peek at the platform his new company Heavenue is building to make putting on a live show in the metaverse easier than ever. Be among the first to see what it looks like to import assets, set up custom characters, establish environments (including time of day and weather), and cue anything from lights to sets to costumes. How do we attain hyper realism? How do we make experiences accessible across browsers and VR headsets? Is it hard or expensive to bring a live actor's performance into a virtual space? All this and more will be answered. Join us to explore the future of live virtual performance.

Speakers

Alex Coulombe

CEO , Heavenue / Agile Lens

Description

No other topic took us by storm quite like the metaverse. Its ability to provide seamless, immersive digital experiences due to its always-on connectivity also offers substantial potential for industrial use. So how can we transfer this concept to the enterprise market? And how will AR/VR experiences become more scalable? Get insights in the enterprise perspective from Peter Verrillo (Enhatch) and Kurt Scheuringer (Lockheed Martin). Join Susanne Haspinger (Holo-Light) and Evan Helda (AWS) as they introduce a new cloud platform to create the Industrial Metaverse – enabling industrial AR/VR use cases that were not scalable or even possible before.

Speakers

Susanne Haspinger

Co-founder and COO , Holo-Light

Peter Verillo

CEO , Enhatch

Evan Helda

SR. Specialist Spatial Computing , Amazon Web Services

Description

Storytelling IP is well-known for making transmedia journeys, from books to movies to comics to TV shows and even Instagram stories and AR activations. Now, the Metaverse provides yet another place for IP to shine. Here, fans can not just engage with the stories and characters they love, but own a piece of them.

The NFT landscape supports both top-down and bottom-up storytelling. We’ll bring our audience up to date on the current state of storytelling in the Metaverse and cite case studies of specific NFT projects, including our own, that shine a light on new ways to tell stories. Some NFTs evoke a story, have a backstory or inspire the viewer to create a new story. Our collections are unique in and of themselves and shine a light on a new frontier of storytelling in the Metaverse and a new business model: the world’s next Kickstarter.

Speakers

Iris Ichishita

Filmmaker, Producer , Toekenz

Eve Weston

CEO/Creator of Realities , Exelauno

Description

By 2030, the global esports industry is expected to reach over $4.7 billion. While only a fraction of that is VR esports, the fact is that twenty years ago no one could've anticipated the value, appeal, or evolution of traditional esports. Now it's exciting to anticipate the future of competitive VR, which beautifully combines technology and physicality for sport.

Join this group of expert panelists as they discuss how players, community moderators, content creators, event organizers, and others play an essential role in the development of VR esports and the communities overall.

Speakers

Ace Eddleman

Author & Board Member , International VR League

Amy Stormant

Content Creator | Reporter , VR Community Builders

Christopher Vezina

Founder , VR ESPORTS LEAGUE

Tabby Gibbs

Manager of League Community and Broadcasting Manager , Virtualities

Dewey Blankenship

Founder , VR Party League