Building a Virtual and Augmented Reality Lab in New York City
On Wednesday I was pleased to participate in a gathering hosted by the New York City Economic Development Corporation and the NYC Mayor’s Office of Media and Entertainment. At the event, NYCEDC President Maria Torres-Springer and MOME Commissioner Julie Menin announced a new City initiative to build a virtual and augmented reality lab in the City, focused on encouraging technology and creative development, startup formation and education and workforce development related to these emerging technologies.
There is a major opportunity for New York City to establish leadership in the development of virtual and augmented reality. Earlier this year, Goldman Sachs analysts suggested the combined hardware and software market for VR and AR will reach on a base case $80 billion by 2025, with a potential to grow to more than $180 billion. Virtual and augmented reality applications have the potential to impact a wide range of industries that are crucial to New York City’s economy, including but not limited to media and entertainment, real estate, education, tourism, finance and healthcare.
Virtual and augmented reality are not just a new form of media. They represent a new wave of human-computer interaction, and thus the opportunity for these technologies to change the underlying form, function and economics of many industries is as profound as the mobile, desktop and PC revolutions of past decades. In each wave of computing platform evolution, enormous value is created, and many incumbent companies and industries experience severe disruption.
New York City has a lot going for it when it comes to taking advantage of this opportunity. It has amazing research universities with engineering schools that are building fundamental technologies and developing talent important to the future of AR and VR. It has amazing design schools that are exploring the intersection of technology, design and creativity. It has a vast public school system that is committed to expanding a workforce expert in computer science and the creative arts. It has an enormous media and technology industry ecosystem, and is a leader in a variety of other industries that will be first to commercialize AR and VR technologies such as finance, real estate, education and healthcare.
At NYC Media Lab, we couldn’t be more excited about this opportunity. Working at the intersection of the City’s universities, startup ecosystem and its media and technology industries, every day we see the enormous enthusiasm and potential for virtual and augmented reality in New York. Just in 2016, we have:
- Run multiple prototyping programs on virtual and augmented reality matching talented technologists, designers and storytellers with member companies ranging from Viacom to Verizon;
- Convened at roundtables, tech conferences and our day-long Exploring Future Reality conference exploring technical, creative and commercial challenges and opportunities in VR and AR;
- Hosted more than 50 demos from university faculty and students in VR and AR at our Annual Summit and other events;
- Helped launch startups like SVRROUND, which is building a platform for live interactive 360 video and VR;
- Published a white paper and article after article on the opportunity in virtual and augmented reality.
Naturally I think there is a lot of potential to drive innovation and job creation around virtual and augmented reality, and ultimately to create economic opportunity for New Yorkers. In April of 2016, I counted around 2,200 people with the phrase “virtual reality” in their LinkedIn profile in the Greater New York City area. Today- just 8 months later- that number is at nearly 4,000. That’s curiously similar to the number of members of the NYVR Meetup, which stands at 4,200. The augmented reality Meetup, ARNY, stands at more than 2,500.
We‘ve observed a number of the large companies we work with introduce new labs and full time positions up and down the organization related to virtual and augmented reality. And it goes without saying that new startups are emerging in the space at a rapid clip. Half of the applications to NYC Media Lab’s Spring 2017 accelerator program, The Combine, were concepts around virtual and augmented reality.
So, it’s an exciting time for anyone working in this field. I’m pleased that the City of New York has decided to support the growing community of technologists, creative professionals and entrepreneurs that will make NYC a global leader in VR and AR. NYC Media Lab is preparing its bid and will be prepared for the City’s RFP- and I am interested to talk with anyone interested in what this Lab can and will become.
Do you have questions about how you can get involved? Contact Justin Hendrix, Executive Director of NYC Media Lab, at justin.hendrix@nycmedialab.org or reach out to him on Twitter.
