{"id":767,"date":"2016-12-12T14:39:12","date_gmt":"2016-12-12T22:39:12","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/research.ecuad.ca\/s3dcentre\/?p=767"},"modified":"2025-08-18T21:43:07","modified_gmt":"2025-08-18T21:43:07","slug":"predicting-the-future-of-vrar-at-launch-academy","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/2016\/12\/12\/predicting-the-future-of-vrar-at-launch-academy\/","title":{"rendered":"Predicting the Future of VR\/AR at Launch Academy"},"content":{"rendered":"

Recently, I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion called \u2018The Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality\u2019. I was flattered to be asked by the organizer and my answer was of course \u2018yes\u2019. I thought of others who have tried to predict VR\/AR\u2019s future \u00a0(e.g.\u00a0Ray Kurzweil<\/a>,\u00a0Ted Schilowitz<\/a>) and wondered what I could add to the now deluge of words on the subject.<\/p>\n

The event, held at the Launch Academy<\/a>,\u00a0was sold out with 60 people packing into a space that normally holds 45. Before the session started the moderator,\u00a0Mack Flavelle<\/a>,\u00a0polled the crowd trying to get a sense who had turned up. These people were true devotees: a mix of investors, educators and those who have fledging VR businesses. He asks the raucous crowd for quiet. We panelists assume our perch on the bar stools provided (with vinyl seat covers that I kept sliding on!).<\/p>\n

Mack, ever the thoughtful provocateur, poses many important questions. The panels that I have been on or seen recently are more academic in nature, so I try to conceive of answers that are thoughtful and pithy. The other panelists, informed colleagues\u00a0Kayla Kinnunen<\/a>, Wren Handman<\/a>,\u00a0and Eric Hine<\/a>,\u00a0stick handle adroitly through Mack\u2019s questions giving short snappy answers.<\/p>\n

Then\u2026he asks \u201cOk panel what is the one thing that is going to kill VR? But please don\u2019t include lack of content in your answer.\u201d<\/p>\n

But surely that is the problem with VR right now? We groan in unison as we search for answers. I take a stab at it \u201cI think it\u2019s going to be advertising. I mean if you start to put ads in a virtual space surely that will be the death of it.\u201d And so it goes. An hour goes by and it seems like 5 minutes. We provide answers to a dizzying array of questions: When will VR become like you cell phone, you can\u2019t leave home without it so you drive home and get it? My answers seem to strike a chord especially regarding VR\/AR\u2019s lack of borders: \u201cWe seem to get inquiries almost daily about our research internationally especially China\u201d.<\/p>\n

Before I know it the panel is over and people come up and provide praise and validation for our contributions. But if those of us who are the so-called experts were really honest with each other we would just say that we can\u2019t predict the future of VR\/AR. Of course we can make some best guesses based on things we know today. But everyday there are new technological innovations that disrupt what we knew yesterday and we are all asking ourselves the same question. How does it affect what I do and where is it all going?<\/p>\n

Maybe we should consider changing our approach. Instead of trying to figure out where it is all going we could tell each other our aspirations for the technology. We can\u2019t control technological change. But we can help shape its growth making it something useful for the future. I hope Launch Academy asks me again to be on a panel. And if they do I will make sure I have Velcro\u2019ed my pants!<\/p>\n

Alan Goldman, Adjunct Researcher and Industry Liaison S3D Centre of Excellence Emily Carr University of Art + Design<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Recently, I had the opportunity to be part of a panel discussion called \u2018The Future of Augmented and Virtual Reality\u2019. I was flattered to be asked by the organizer and my answer was of course \u2018yes\u2019. I thought of others who have tried to predict VR\/AR\u2019s future \u00a0(e.g.\u00a0Ray Kurzweil,\u00a0Ted Schilowitz) and wondered what I could […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":768,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"templates\/template-full-width.php","format":"standard","meta":{"inline_featured_image":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,12,20],"tags":[37,43,54],"class_list":["post-767","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-events","category-news","category-virtual-reality","tag-future","tag-panel","tag-virtual-reality"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=767"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1343,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/767\/revisions\/1343"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/768"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=767"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=767"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/palette.ecuad.ca\/bgml\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=767"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}