Dispatches from the Future of Virtual Reality: The NYC Media Lab Summit

Virtual reality technology has found its way into Ghostbusters, into Syria, and even into titles of tech industry executives. So it was not surprising that the protagonists of the the daylong NYC Media Lab Summit last week were VR and its sister, augmented reality.

The summit — organized by Media Lab and sponsored by News Corp, Bloomberg, NBC, Verizon and several other communication giants — brings together gamers, those who work in entertainment, and journalists to talk about new applications of technology in media. The panel also featured workshops on data visualization and electrical engineering for beginners.

But the focus of the day was on VR. In a panel about the future of virtual reality, Media Lab executive director Justin Hendrix noted an ongoing shift in enthusiasm from mobile to VR and AR. Both are ripe with commercial media storytelling opportunities — the next step will be to raise public awareness of VR and its applications.

Other highlights included:

• 2018 will be the year of VR, according to Ken Perlin, professor of computer science at New York University. Even though VR is now finding its way into the public by means of news and entertainment, Perlin predicts the medium will not truly take off for two years. VR is now “where the web was in 1995,” when you had to go to a net cafe and then you will finally have it at home, Perlin said.
• The ethics matter just as much as the technology. Whose reality is it? How can you trust it? Empathy and manipulation of people’s emotions are important considerations, said Emily Bell, director of the Tow Center for Digital Media and one of the summit’s keynote speakers.
• It won’t be the legacy media that leads the VR way. Instead, it will be start-ups and people willing to experiment, according to Adaora Udoji. Udoji, a former ABC associate producer, is the founder of The Boshia Group, a NYC-based 360 video and VR production group.
• There is a lot of figuring out left to do. Several answers from the panelists were prefaced with “We don’t know yet.” As with television in the 1950s and Snapchat today, journalists and other media players need time to figure out how to most efficiently use and monetize VR.
• This strong focus on VR and AR was reflected in the new product demos. They included the first, live Shakespearean production ever staged in social virtual reality, and use of Google Cardboard to help students with autism.

• Everything (VR and otherwise) boils down to what humans want and when they want it. Vox CEO Jim Bankoff kicked off the morning saying the company was always finding ways to “cut through clutter and speak to a person in a real way,” an approach known as human-centered design. (See the Tow Center’s recent Guide to Journalism and Design).

Noreyana Fernando is a post-graduate fellow at the Tow Center for Digital Journalism.