The metaverse as spatial computing

Watching the Apple presentation of their headset, Vision Pro, made me ponder different perspectives on our digital future. Is it a metaverse in the sense of an interconnected universe of 3D environments where we perform various activities as avatars? This metaverse would be persistent, possess an economy, and allow the… Continue reading

The history of the future

I’m reading The History of the Future, a book written by Blake J. Harris, author of Console Wars. It contains a foreword by Ernest Cline, author of Ready Player One, the book which used to be or still is required reading for all those working at Oculus VR. The book… Continue reading

New media theatre

So many interesting things are happening in and around the virtual world High Fidelity that I can’t keep up. The company raised $35 million in June and combines virtual worlds, virtual reality and the blockchain. Philip Rosedale, creator of both Second Life and High Fidelity, also manages to invite interesting people… Continue reading

High Fidelity continues the tradition of virtual intellectual “salons”

What I love about virtual worlds are the incredible smart and visionary people one can meet there. This totally applies for High Fidelity, a young and cutting edge virtual world (think decentralized architecture, tokens, blockchain, VR-enabled, avatars who are responsive to their real life users). Founding father Philip Rosedale had… Continue reading

Pattie Maes: “next phase is about intelligence augmentation”

I attended a lecture by professor Pattie Maes of MIT Media Lab. She founded and directs the Media Lab’s Fluid Interfaces research group. Some of her main talking points: – The next phase in computing is about intelligence augmentation, by sensors, Augmented Reality and Artificial Intelligence. – AR will “edit” our… Continue reading

Connecting the dots: VR, AR, BCI and space

These past few weeks were remarkable: Facebook-people talking about Full Augmented Reality Glasses and Elon Musk about his Neuralink company, which wants to develop implantable brain–computer interfaces (BCIs). The goal is not just to treat brain diseases but to enhance the human being so that it can compete with AI-powered robots…. Continue reading

Full AR Glasses will augment the homo sapiens

This is a fascinating presentation by Michael Abrash, Chief Scientist at Oculus/Facebook, during the F8 conference. It’s about nothing less than augmenting the capabilities of the homo sapiens. He advocates full AR glasses and boy, they go far beyond Pokemon Go on your smartphone. Abrash refers to J.C.R. Licklider’s famous… Continue reading

Facebook Spaces – in search of applications

Facebook launches the social virtual reality thing Facebook Spaces. It seems to include Messenger (friends who don’t have an expensive Oculus Rift) can join through “windows”), 360 degrees video, real life pictures and Snapchat-like filters. Very mixed reality, but of course there are some challenges here: – It’s based on… Continue reading

Don’t say “augmented reality”, say “paint the world”

Snapchat introduces World Lenses, cute 3D objects which can fit in about everywhere. In the meantime Facebook announced during its F8 Developer Conference that augmented reality is ready to go mainstream. One obvious point to note is that Facebook is just following Snapchat here. The other: the clever guys at… Continue reading