Watch: Four experts discuss the three year outlook for virtual and augmented reality
Watch the full video of the #NYCML16 panel on VR
Kai Bond, the General Manager of the Samsung Accelerator; Ken Perlin, the Director of the Games for Learning Institute at NYU; Adaora Udoji, an angel investor, and Jake Zim, the Senior Vice President of Virtual Reality at Sony sat on a panel at the NYC Media Lab’s 2016 Summit to discuss the future of virtual and augmented reality.
As interest in the media industry accelerates, the panelists predicted that by 2018, AR/VR will be widely adopted if it is used to enable social interactions. Perhaps this is the underlying motivation that has driven Facebook to develop VR streaming capabilities and Nintendo to release Pokémon Go, the first massively popular AR game. Using their own careers to investigate the evidence behind their prediction, the group pondered an important and timely question: how are AR/VR technologies impacting social life and the industry at large as they grow more ubiquitous?
AR and VR applications have the potential to connect users to another person’s lived experience in more meaningful ways. Perlin recalled his mother growing upset after experiencing the devastating and ongoing Syrian refugee crisis through a New York Times VR project. Watching her build compassion helped him realize that AR/VR can deliver transformative storytelling—a lasting feeling that traditional written or televised news can’t always instill.
And Udoji, a former broadcast journalist, reflected on living through hurricane Katrina. In hindsight, she wished the Ricoh Theta 360 video camera had already been on the market—it could have helped her fully document the extent of the damage to raise awareness later on.
Each of these examples allude to a larger conversation about VR potentially becoming “the ultimate empathy machine,” as WIRED magazine has reported.
“The things that makes AR and VR different in my mind, is that you are just as likely to come into contact with it at work as you are in your personal life” — Adaora Udoji
So how can New York City’s media industry harness the business potential AR/VR alongside its affecting qualities? The panelists argued that NYC has already been a hub for such developments. As the city is a leader in live entertainment — AR/VR’s “close cousin,” according to Zim — new technology experiments are bound to be socially engaging. Cultural fields that employ thousands of the city’s residents will have the opportunity to direct AR/VR innovation towards sector-specific adoption.
The panel highlighted these broad themes to offer new insights. AR/VR has arrived and it is transforming our lives and our city: watch the video above to learn how…
Audience members offered their own commentary; browse the discussion through #NYCML16 tweets…
Alexis Avedisian, Communications Manager, NYC Media Lab alexis@nycmedialab.org / @nycmedialab / @holyurl
