What I Learned At Augmented World Expo 2015
I recently attended the Augmented World Expo 2015 (AWE) at the Santa Clara Convention Center. This was my first time, and this year they’ve teamed up with virtual reality and wearables, since all these lines are starting to blur some.
Here’s some of what I learned, in no particular order.
- Check the equipment. Have a backup.
Time and time again, I get burned by sound problems. It happens when I live stream, and it happens when I interview.
I won’t bother sharing the 3 1/2 minute interview I did with the awesome creator of the Mindride Airflow VR experience, since the audio is either loud pops or non-existent. Oh, then my camera battery died mid-day. All of these are squarely my fault.
I’m hoping this little device, plus a quality interview mic and directional mic, will solve things, and cover me for a variety of situations: meetups, interviews, and podcasts. Kent Bye with the Voices of VR Podcast delivers at a level of quality we should all aspire to. I’m working on it.
2. The Mindride Airflow VR experience looked cool.
This was the first thing you encountered upon entering the VR area of AWE2015:
I was anxious to try, and was pleased to learn there were spots still available when I got there, but ultimately took a pass because of ongoing chiropractic issues. It reminded me of my Birdly experience from last summer. Some people said it was fun but not groundbreaking, which is essentially what I felt about Birdly. Regardless, I continue to be excited by these fusions of art and virtual reality tech, and look forward to what these creative innovators come up with next.
3. There are a lot of augmented reality devices.
Can you name one? (Besides HoloLens, which wasn’t even at AWE2015). No?
Optinvent announced their ORA-X. ODG announced their R-7 glasses. Technical Illusions’ Jeri Ellsworth and Rick Johnson were there showing CastAR (of which I’m a Kickstarter backer), along with Meta showing the Meta 1, Atheer Labs, and lots of others. They’re out there and are being used for serious business. You just haven’t heard about them, because…
4. AR devices aren’t ready for the consumer.
They’re awkward and glitchy and expensive and not “fun”.
Companies like ScopeAR are able to gain traction by solving problems that save money. In the case of their RemoteAR product, for example, they’re able to demonstrate how an expert employed by the company (but not at the location where there’s a problem) can help troubleshoot and solve an issue using augmented reality. In a situation where human error can result in significant downtime, financial loss, and safety hazard, technology like this can be attractive to an enterprise.
5. Eye tracking is a thing for the DK2 now, and it works pretty well.
Our friends at Altspace were demonstrating eye-tracking technology using an upgraded Oculus Rift DK2. SensoMotoric Instruments (SMI) was on-hand in the Altspace booth showing off their eye tracking HMD upgrade package for DK2.
Bruce Wooden, head of developer and community relations for Altspace, walked me through the demo in-world. After a quick one-gaze calibration (SMI also has a zero-calibration option), my avatar was escorted to a mirror.
As I moved my eyes within the Oculus DK2 headset, my actions are modeled on my avatar.
Next, we launched a web browser and navigated to YouTube. From the YouTube home screen, I was able to “hover over” links on the page using only my eyes, then click using the mouse. The sensor and software were surprisingly adept at reading my eye movements without being overly twitchy.
Don’t plan on picking up this eye-tracking upgrade for yourself, though. They run $15,000, and I’m willing to pay… somewhat less than that. I left with the impression SMI is more interested in attracting a hardware vendor than turning it into a retail product.
6. Remote presence at conferences and expos is a thing now, and it works pretty well.
I noticed these wheeling around as soon as I arrived. There was a collection(?) — what’s a group of remote presence robots called? — of them arrayed behind the first few rows of the day 2 press conference. Some had faces showing on their screens, others had offices or conference rooms.
The ones at AWE2015 were a little beefier than the iPad-on-a-Segway versions I’ve seen other places, and are better adapted for pushing through expo crowds if necessary.
Since I was on-site, I asked Cubicle Ninjas’ Joshua Farkas, who tweeted that he attended via the Beam Pro, what his experience was.
Brian: How easy was it to connect up and start driving around?
Josh: The set-up process was as simple as downloading an app and logging in. It really couldn’t have been more seamless.
Brian: What was the reaction to your robotic avatar?
Josh: Everyone at the dojo thought I was crazy when I mentioned the idea. But the natural skepticism turned into pure joy as they drove around, met others, and learned about the tech. It was delightful.
Brian: How was the overall experience? Besides not being able to demo, was it a reasonable substitute to being here?
Josh: For AWE specifically, the lack of demo-ing makes being there a must. But to talk to passionate people, learn about new technology, ask questions, and have fun doing so from the comforts of your desk, it really can’t be beat. If you’re looking to get a sense of an event at a fraction of the cost it is highly recommended.
