2019 – The Augmentation Year (Up next: AWE US Conference)

AR, Events, Industry

Dear everybody,

best summer greetings from augmented.org. I`m back, baby! Due to some (positive) personal changes and a huge load of work, augmented.org didn`t get big postings, lately. But now it`s time to rejoin the fun and keep the updates rolling in. I`ve been following all news and tweets, saw the latest crazy AR smartphone filters, heard the rumors on new AR devices, am still waiting for my own HoloLens 2 as everybody. Well, additionally, I hope I can squeeze some video-see-through AR out of the Oculus Quest´ cameras once it arrives in my office… So, lot`s of fun to see and try out in 2019, again. Talking about fun…

The AWE show coming up next

The Augmented World Expo conference will take place in Santa Clara, CA, May 29th – 31st!

Next week, the AWE US conference will happen once again. Time to take a look at the schedule and make some picks. What could be worth visiting? What must not be left out? Let`s jump into a listing of awe of “20,000 square feet of jaw-dropping AR/VR” to get back on track with AR this summer:

Tracks to watch out for

Three days packed with talks and sessions. Where to go? My personal picks would be the following for now:

Day 1

  • Ori`s keynote – def. worth to kick things off and always fun. Superpowers to everybody, let`s go!
  • LetinAR will be presenting their pin mirror tech that could help out to overcome different restrictions for today`s AR glasses (focus/convergence, form factor,…)
  • Long-term AR fellow Tish Shute will continue to talk about the the shift from electrons to photons in her talk on the vision of the mixed reality future
  • ILMxLAB (kind of the immersive R&D department from Lucasfilm) is def. worth a glance to see what they are up to lately. I had a chance to chat with them during one of the last FMX conferences and they sure do have some great ideas and the resources to play with the latest unpublished tech
  • The XR Savety Initiative will guide us through their plans on how to improve and guarantee our privacy and savety within an MR space. “Why should we care?” you ask? Obviously we must! If MR becomes the follow-up to the PC, internet and smartphone – we must build it on a solid base with a great tech and ethical questions answered.
  • 5G marketing or a glimpse into the future of out-on-the-streets MR? I hope the latter, coming from Qualcomm to give us some insights on what to expect with location-bound mobile systems.
  • Great Charlie Fink about the Change of the world as we know it… Lalala, the convergence will take us into the future.
  • What is motivating the big five tech companies to invest in AR/VR? (Well, money obviously.) But more insights on the WHY, HOW and WHERE WILL IT LEAD by Mike Boland.
  • Hannah Nye will talk about why we need to rethink UX design. Very important as porting 2D screen clicks and windows to MR just doesnt make sense.
  • Also needed: more discussion on the AR cloud (and an open standard) to give us the MR future we wanted

Day 2

  • Are we getting really there yet? Holographic display discussions to avoid glasses at all?
  • “Best Start-Up Winner at CES 2019” nreal is showing off with their slim AR glasses. What are their plans for the near future? I`d sneak in.
  • Is AR ready to take off (for investment and for mainstream use)? I love the work of 6D.AI and recommend listening to Matt and the others. Matt is also having his keynote speech in the afternoon.
  • Who owns the digital parallel space connected to MY physical property? Legal discussion to open eyes. It may sound too early to discuss, but def. a concern as soon as open standards arise or the biggest player share the cake without asking landlords and cluttering the twin world with noise.
  • Columbia University joining in to present their R&D on cooperation in MR spaces.
  • If you joined the UX discussion on day 1, it might be good to continue here: “What comes after the interface?” With all area access to all digital data in our future AR glasses: how to pick? How should the AI pick for us? What is relevant? How will the human-machine-interaction look like down the road? Worth listening, I`d say!
  • … and maybe move on to the brain-computer-interface along the way.

    • Besides, there is def. more to pick. Esp. if you are interested in specific solutions from AR providers or game engines. Also, check out the start-up pitches #1 and #2. There is a panel on storytelling that might get loud and Samsung also has a slot with still missing description. Maybe time for them to show something new reg. AR/depth-cam hardware or software services?

Day 3

There is even more to tune in. The interaction demos to trick our brain sound like fun and the planet scale AR might be entertaining (I do love the AR Show podcast). Speaking of podcasts, well-known VR voice Kent Bye will also join for a session to dive into ethical questions and dilemmas of the beloved mixed reality. My recommendation to join him!

Last but not least, an AR Documentary might something to chill down before the afterparty… :-)

Summer time

So, that`s it for today. Hope you can make it to AWE US (or later on AWE EU…) and meet up all the fellow AR-fans for a beer or an AR demo session! Let´s roll out some more augmented devices and software tech in 2019! Can`t wait to get closer to more augmented spaces!

Cheers!