Summarise with AI
Summarise with AI
A coworker called me a techbro the other day.
At first it stung, but after I had calmed down and fabricated a bunch of social media posts ‘from him’ disparaging the executive team with words that would make a Tourettes-ridden sailor blush, I thought about why this was.
The generous explanation which I am so graciously giving myself is that I’m incredibly and genuinely excited about technology.
I see its power and possibility everywhere, and I want to share that with people, including people waiting for the bus who have no interest in sharing in the power and possibility of technology at that particular moment in time.
So I’m using this/you as an outlet dear reader, to share my excitement and enthusiasm for a technology I am particularly excited about: virtual reality.
I’ve written about this extensively before, but I’m a big sci fi fan, and one of my favourite sci fi books is Ready Player One.
In Ready Player One, the metaverse is filled with realistic replicas of a whole host of real and imaginary places. Which is amazing, because personally I’ve always wanted to play Ping Pong against an Ewok on the Titanic, and hiring actors and a suitably decadent boat is too expensive in real life, so VR is my only option.
But how would we get started building this ourselves?
Starting it from scratch is obviously way too time consuming, and that’s why I’m so excited about Unity’s digital twin projects.
Unity is probably the best 3D graphics engine in the world, and their VR project, which has been running since December 2022, is special because it can take already existing data points to create virtual replicas of assets in digital space.
This seems boring, and on the backend it almost definitely is, but when you realise it means you can ‘clone the world’ as Wired puts it, you can really see the potent possibilities with this technology.
We collect an inordinate amount of data about almost every facet of human life, from driving to financial decisions to smartwatches collecting our health data. With Unity’s Digital Twin project, this data can be the building blocks for virtual digital entities, and massively speed up the development of virtual assets, which is incredibly cool.
But why would we want to replicate these things?
One main application is safety testing. It’s incredibly tedious and risky to physically test the safety implications of a new car, but having fully rendered digital twins of both the car and the occupants make it possible to run millions of simulations in seconds.
A more fun application is the injection of real-time data about basically anything we collect data on into things like video games and VR applications, the first steps towards Ready Player One and a shot at the Endorian Table Tennis Championship!
I posted on LinkedIn a while back about the SpaceTop, an AR laptop for work that comes with no screen whatsoever, but instead of being a horrific outcome of your delivery driver frisbeeing it over your garden wall, it’s completely intentional.
Instead, you get a laptop with a pair of pretty slick looking glasses, using which you can access a 100’’ augmented reality canvas whilst looking like a Blues Brother trying to make their fingers do the RiverDance.
When I first heard about the SpaceTop, it honestly made me reconsider the point/reasoning behind my current multi monitor setup, that takes up a tonne of space in my room and has given me the posture of an arthritic shrimp.
Just like we ditched keyboards on phones, ditching screens on computers might be one of the biggest technological advancements of the 21st century, and SpaceTop is right at the cutting edge.
With a goal to ‘give people tools to become 21st century explorers’, you probably best know Niantic through their flagship product, Pokemon Go.
Yes, Niantic powered the most successful mixed reality application of all time, but realising the most immersive virtual dogfighting experience hasn’t slowed them down at all.
The next thing in their crosshairs? Creating a 3D map of the world, through which AR developers can anchor experiences to physical places, in much the way Google Maps has mapped the 2D world and allowed us to anchor points to coordinates.
How are they doing this? Well they’re relying on their community of Pokemon Go and Ingress players.
Once a high enough level is achieved, players are invited to scan ‘waypoints’ in their vicinity for in-game rewards. This helps Niantic build out their map of the world.
Once Niantic has achieved their goal, they’ll have the foundations upon which AR developers can build literally anything as a real-time spatial computing, which is pretty much the Holy Grail for mixed reality.
It’s a lofty goal, but to be fair, enlisting the dedication of gamers is probably the smartest ploy you could think of.
Mixed reality isn’t all ‘taking over the world’ and creating NPC’s out of everyone living and dead, it has some real social and cultural impacts that are already starting to begin, like the pioneering work from Rendever.
It’s a sad fact, but senior citizens in our society often struggle with loneliness and an inability to keep up with technological innovation.
To combat the snarling of the coworker who called me a techbro, this isn’t just tech solutionism aimed at a semi-captive market. There’s actually a tonne of research out there to suggest that VR helps seniors socialise, remedy pain and most importantly, have new experiences that traditionally would be out of their reach without projects like Rendever’s.
I’m open with my optimism about well placed technology making the world a better place, and Rendever working to connect and uplift the lives of seniors, well that’s what technological progress should be about.
I’ve been on the record before to say that video game experiences are 100% art, and Archer’s Mark ratchet that sentiment up to 11, raking in shedloads of awards for their interactive experiences Notes on Blindness (Into Darkness) and On the Morning You Wake (To the End of the World).
Notes on Blindness (Into Darkness) in particular is something I am highly intrigued by, as it follows writer and theologian John Hull’s journey to becoming blind.
Good art puts you in a person's shoes, and when I first heard about Notes on Blindness (Into Darkness), it opened a whole new vector in my mind about how we might try to communicate feelings and experiences between people, and that’s truly an amazing concept. VR makes it possible to smash down the barriers between people, and allow true artists to craft experiences that give others insight into their unique human condition, and that’s pretty cool if you ask me!!
If you have any additional AR/VR/mixed reality projects you are excited about, or are feeling nervous about mixed reality, drop a comment below!
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