mixed reality

Augmented reality for the Web (& download a pet dinosaur!)

January 24, 2019 by JD Lasica 1 Comment

Plus other takeaways from an AR meetup

During the winter I’ve been head down working on book two of the high-tech thriller trilogy I’m writing (stay tuned for an announcement in March), so I haven’t been venturing out as much. But last night I attended AWE Nite SF, the largest augmented reality meetup in the San Francisco Bay Area. Nearly 400 people (including smartie techie friends Shel Israel and Nicole Lazzaro) jammed the Microsoft Reactor offices in SoMa for free pizza, beer and three demos from top-tier AR startups.

Download the dino from 8th Wall.

I won’t blog the entire event (does anyone do that anymore in the age of Twitter and Instagram?), but there were some notable takeaways worth sharing. I’ll start with how to download your own pet dinosaur to your iPhone or Android phone. Start by having your phone read this QR code (these days you don’t need a QR reader, it’s embedded in your phone’s Camera). Moments later you’ll have a little purple dino hopping around on your desk, kitchen table, or wherever you’d like to position it. [Read more…] about Augmented reality for the Web (& download a pet dinosaur!)

Virtual reality events usher in a new era

July 2, 2018 by JD Lasica 2 Comments

I’ve been a longtime fan of virtual events, dating back to the early 2000s when lots of us were attending speaker events in Linden Lab’s online world Second Life. I even devoted a chapter to the trippy intellectual property challenges posed by virtual worlds in my book Darknet.

Back then, you would teleport into the designated space (perhaps an open-air amphitheater) and move your avatar around, through keys or mouse clicks, and type out comments and questions for the speaker and fellow participants while your connection went up and down. High-speed Internet was still years away.

It was fun and cool but ultimately clunky and frustrating. Second Life still exists but mostly its best days are behind it.

Well, a decade and several technological epochs later, a new era is about to unfold, an era not of virtual worlds but virtual experiences propelled by virtual reality, augmented reality or a hybrid of the real and virtual worlds called mixed reality.

And a major player in this emerging space will be High Fidelity, which closed a $35 million funding round on Wednesday with the goal of bringing VR to a billion people worldwide. [Read more…] about Virtual reality events usher in a new era

‘Fourth Transformation’ book review: Brace for impact

December 1, 2016 by JD Lasica Leave a Comment

A clear-eyed look at the mind-blowing changes in spatial computing dead ahead

Title: “The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence Change Everything”
Authors: Robert Scoble & Shel Israel
My rating: ☆☆☆☆☆
Release date: December 7, 2016 on Amazon

At the Launch Scale conference in San Francisco on Nov. 14, technologist-futurist Robert Scoble held forth for 20 minutes wearing a mixed reality headset, allowing him to interact with the attendees (startup founders, angels and techies) while projecting a presentation behind him. “Within two years,” he said at one point, “everybody in this room will be wearing a glass. And you might say ‘I’m never going to do that,’ but I’m telling you right now, you will.”

A few minutes later he insisted: “You all are going to have this in 12 months or less.” [Read more…] about ‘Fourth Transformation’ book review: Brace for impact

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