Shatter your boss? In AR you can.
There is no doubt that augmented reality is becoming a real thing. Pokemon Go and Snapchat filters prove that there is real consumer interest in the technology. The big question in many people’s heads is what are going to be the next big breakthroughs in the AR space?
Anna Cho is an entrepreneur in the augmented reality space. She is the organizing force behind the Augmented Reality and Computer Vision Meetup. Ms. Cho is a member of the River Ecosystem, an AR/VR early stage accelor funded by Rothenberg Ventures. Rothenberg was one of the first VCs to create a fund solely allocated to VR/AR technologies. They have since expanded to other frontier technologies such as AI, Blockchain, and Robotics.
While the VR community has had its fair share of representation — UploadVR, SVVR, SFVR to name a few — Ms. Cho said that AR meetups are lacking aside from AR Bay Area. This is surprising given the many industry experts who predict that AR will be a larger industry player than VR.
Anna did not say much about her stealth mode startup. Only that it is a mobile AR shopping platform and she is in conversations with several large brands. eCommerce is space many expect AR to have huge applications in. Imagine you want to redecorate. You look around your home through a Hololens or your cell phone screen and you see the inventory of Ikea as though it were in the room. From that device you can browse inventory, selecting it, purchase it, and in an Amazon-second have it delivered to your door.
If you are interested in learning more about AR, aside from Meetups like the one Anna organizes, what other channels expose the general audience to AR? Art exhibitions. Such as Codame founded by Jordan Gray and Bruno Fonzi. Jordan has been involved in the interactive art space for as long as he can remember. His father was an electrical engineer, so on cold winter days in Minneapolis young Jordan would use soldering irons to create his own version of R2-D2 as well as other robots and electronics.
Years later Jordan found himself at the Desert X art festival in Palm Springs representing Shybot. (Translation from Russian title: “Sociophobic Robot Shybot explores the desert at DesertX”). It goes to say that Jordan functions on left brain and right brain simultaneously, interested in the engineering and philosophy of interactive media. Shybot was programmed to walk away when people approached it. Is the purpose of a robot to serve a human or can a robot have its own agenda? Art is wonderful.
In the last 8 years Codame has built over 60 interactive installations. From echolocation to led light dances Codeme gives interactive designers a place to exhibit their work. On the one hand these events give people a chance to try out, play with, experiment new interactive tech. On the other hand it gives product designers real time UX feedback. What will life be like after mobile phone/tablet format we are currently used to? Perhaps art has the answer.
Codame’s current installation shown at the AR Meetup is “Holoshatter,” in partnership with Yosun. Holoshatter allows you to “flick” 3D representations of real people and see them pixilate to oblivion.
While Jordan says the purpose is to “allow people to disattach from their online repesentation made popular with the selfie culture.” He also adds that “in offices people love to flick their bosses out of existence.” Perhaps HR could use this as a performance review tool.
Codame’s next event in San Francisco will be the Arto Bots. It will be an exhibit capturing the ideas of what bots could be to having robots making art in front of your eyes. And ff you happen to be in Germany on October 30th, there will be an encore event to their popular 3D Webfest sponsored in part by Autodesk.
Three other AR co-founders were representing their AR helmet technology startup Etho at the event. (Website in early stages). Jerry Jiang, Krishna Manda, and Parth Darji recently moved to San Francisco from New York. The pair, with a third co-founder, are developing the software for AR capable motorcycle helmets. Imagine seeing a green lane in front of you that becomes yellow when a car is getting too close. Krishna, whose arm is in a cast for a second time knows this use case application all too well.
The pair moved here at the request of automotive corporate VCs who wanted to see them settled in with a reputable incubator and early seed funding before discussing any partnership deals. The AR motorcycle space is a particular niche after former industry leader Skully closed suddenly last year, unable to fulfill almost 3000 pre-orders.
“We want to make sure we have a working prototype before opening up sales to a beta test market,” said Krishna. Wise idea. Markets remember. Particularly early adopters. What the entrepreneurs have going for them is a real and obvious interest in the market. Any helmet manufacturers or investors, Etho is open to your partnership inquires.
The AR market is growing with interest from entrepreneurs and investors. However beyond consumer use of Pokemon Go and Snapchat there isn’t whole lot of consumer interaction with AR. San Francisco is a city full of innovation and chances to witness the future today. When you are planning your next weekend outing or time to learn something new. Consider looking for an Augmented Reality event. Maybe you can even flick your boss into oblivion!
