XR+— all the (alt.) realities tech
As a journalist I’ll try most things, including having 200 hz of LED beamed into my brain through an intra-nasal brain-machine interface BMI (yeah — v. weird) and being encased in an exoskeleton to tele-operate a tank (as fun as it sounds).
But my favorite thing to do is escape reality — via tech — most recently, when I witnessed an AI “dream” alt. worlds.
I’m not that big a fan of VR. Despite the (one-time) hype, Virtual Reality has been around for at least 20 years, and let’s face it, it’s still no nearer most people’s living rooms. Plus those headsets are ungainly and nothing-like-the-future-we-were-promised.
But military, medical and industrial innovations in MR (mixed reality) and AR (augmented reality) really interest me, especially when used for remote training, or to prep personnel in cultural awareness ahead of deployment to conflict zones.
I’ve slipped into an AR/MR set-up at the secretive HRL Laboratories (Hughes Research Lab, as in Howard Hughes’ post WWII Malibu compound, that’s right) to see how rookie pilots learn to mimic brainwaves of experienced aviators (see what I did there?).
Here are a few more of those:
XR/AI Tales (Karen Palmer) at AT&T Shape
XR at Ford’s Design/Engineering Team
Augmented Reality Trial for Juvenile Offenders
This Augmented Reality Program is Smarter Than Pokemon Go
Augmented Reality Prototypes from Kopin
Vuforia, ScopeAR and Baobab talk Augmented Reality at Unity
Augmented Reality for Clothing from Drawsta
Augmented Reality for Architects
Virtual Reality Building Fantasy Lands At Otherworld
Megan Ellison, Vidiots, VRSE and Virtual Reality
More Virtual, Less Reality Required: Invisible VR from Doug Liman
//ENDS
S.C. Stuart is an award-winning futurist (and sci-fi writer), technology commentator and strategist focusing on AI, DARPA, exoskeletons, NASA, medical/military innovation, robots and virtual humans for companies including 20th Century Fox, DTCC (Wall Street), Four Seasons, Milken Institute, Nano (empowering global human health), New Line Cinema, RAND Corporation, Smithsonian and Sony Pictures. Published in ELLE China, Esquire Latin America, Four Seasons Magazine (global), Mosaic (Morgan Stanley), Singularity Hub and Ziff Davis PCMag.