INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
fast-moving (and hype-plagued) industry and the people in it
Snapchat wants to leave augmented reality creativity up to the creators rather than prescribing what they should build
AI-powered face filters and VR experiences in the meantime.I was onstage next with a collection of startups which, while very different from
Ashley Crowder from VNTANA and Shawn Frayne from Looking Glass explained how they essentially built the technology they saw demand for:
holographic display tech that makes 3D visualization simple and real
People were crowding three or four deep to try to understand how the giant block of acrylic could hold 3D characters and landscapes.Maureen
Fan from BaoBab Studios touched on the importance of conserving cash for entertainment-focused virtual reality companies
Previewing her new film, Crow, Fan noted that new modes of storytelling need to be explored for the medium, such as the creative merging of
gaming and cinematic experiences.Up next was a large panel of investors: Niko Bonatsos (General Catalyst), Jacob Mullins (Shasta Ventures),
Catherine Ulrich (FirstMark Capital) and Stephanie Zhan (Sequoia)
The consensus of this lively discussion was that (as Fan noted earlier) this is a time for startups to go lean
Competition has been thinned out by companies burning VC cash and a bootstrapped, efficient company stands out from the crowd.Oculus is
getting serious about non-gaming experiences in virtual reality
In our chat with Oculus Executive Producer Yelena Rachitsky, we heard more details about how the company is looking to new hardware to
deepen the interactions users can have in VR and that new hardware like the Oculus Quest will allow users to go far beyond the capabilities
Beyond creative expression, AR is progressing slowly because no one wants to hold a phone in the air for too long
toolkit for opening augmented reality to collaborative experiences and the masses.Augmented reality headsets like Magic Leap and HoloLens
tend to hog the spotlight, but phones are where most people will have their first taste
Parham Aarabi (ModiFace), Kirin Sinha (Illumix) and Allison Wood (Camera IQ) agreed that mainstreaming the tech is about three to five years
away, with a successful standalone device like a headset somewhere beyond that
Dorvilias (DebiasVR) and Morgan Mercer (Vantage Point) took on the potential of VR in commercial and industrial applications
They concluded that making consumer technology enterprise-grade remains one of the most significant adoptions to virtual reality
(Companies like StarVR are specifically targeting businesses, but it remains to be seen whether that play will succeed.)With Facebook
running the VR show, how are small VR startups making a dent in social The CEOs of TheWaveVR, Mindshow and SVRF all say that part of the key
is finding the best ways for users to interact and making experiences that bring people together in different ways.After a break, we were
treated to a live demo of the VR versus boxing game Creed: Rise to Glory, by developer Survios co-founders Alex Silkin and James Iliff
They then joined me for a discussion of the difficulties and possibilities of social and multiplayer VR, both in how they can create
intimate experiences and how developers can inoculate against isolation or abuse in the player base.Early-stage investments are key to the
success of any emerging industry, and the VR space is seeing a slowdown in that area
Peter Rojas of Betaworks and Greg Castle from Anorak offered more details on their investment strategies and how they see success in the AR
may be in very early days, but that this period of exploration and experimentation is something to be encouraged and experienced
VR is following the same path.And what would an AR/VR conference be without the creators of the most popular AR game ever created Niantic
The company, which is deep in development of Harry Potter: Wizards Unite, is building out a developer platform based on their cutting-edge
In our chat, AR research head Ross Finman talks about privacy in the upcoming AR age and just how much of a challenger Apple is to them in
the space.That wrapped the show; you can see more images (perhaps of yourself) at our Flickr page
Thanks to our sponsors, our generous hosts at UCLA, the motivated and interesting speakers and most of all the attendees
