The Future of AR and VR Technology in 2019 – A Panel Discussion

Transcription

Speaker 1:          Well, I want to welcome everybody. My name is Annie Morley and I’m the president of the Idaho Virtual Reality Council.

Speaker 2:          Woo. Yeah. You know what? Yeah, let’s clap. This is awesome.

Speaker 1:          Before we get started, I wanted to just, uh, make sure that we thanked trailhead. How fantastic is this space? I mean this, this is awesome. And if you, um, are not familiar with trailhead, please do make sure you grab some information. I’m on the way out. They’re doing a ton of really cool stuff here in Boise. So huge thanks to trail head for letting US use your space. Um, and this is hard to see and you can see my, I just realized you could whatever. I’ve been working on this all, all day here and it’s, it’s still not working, right? Um, the reason we’re here is really our mission. So the Idaho Virtual Reality Council’s mission is to bring together the people, technologies and companies to create a thriving aa AR vs VR industry in Idaho. And I want to just say, I mean looking at this event, we can’t even even fit in the IRC office anymore. I mean, gone are the days where we would all cram in there and I’d rent like 20 chairs, you know, this is just fantastic, you know, you’re laughing, you were there two years ago, but this community just continues to grow and it’s so, it’s just so exciting to see that. So thank you again all for being here.

Speaker 1:          I want to tell you a little bit about 28, 28 team was absolutely awesome. Um, we brought vr to over 50 different events last year and put ’em over 12,000 people in virtual reality. So those are some pretty cool. Yeah. Thank you. Was there some really great numbers? And we go around the country and um, you know, talk to organizations like htc, um, and tell them, oh yeah, you know, we, we put 11,000 people in Vr in 2017 and they’re just like, where in Idaho? And you’re like, yeah, it’s happening. Uh, so over 12,000 people went into Vr last year at events that we were at and, and putting them through. We were at festival of trees. Uh, we brought in some outside speakers from different, different areas. And some of these meetings were over 100 people in attendance, so we just continue to continue to grow. It was an awesome year.

Speaker 1:          We also launched a vr community kit. This unfortunately the universe has this thing where you can’t be in two places at one time. So I was finding it really difficult and uh, suddenly I was having to say no to events, but we launched this kit where we’re able to give people the headset, the computer, everything they need to to run vr at their event. And it’s been super successful. That was used by over 40 different groups. It went to schools, afterschool programs, a different organizations used it. And what that also did is it allowed these, these different organizations to keep the technology longer. So we had classes that would keep it for a few days and get to really, really utilize the technology versus just getting into one experience for a short amount of time. Be Our batch. 20 eight team was awesome. We keep growing this event.

Speaker 1:          This is our signature event. Every year we moved it out to the Revolution Concert House out in Garden City. Made it an 18 and over event. We really wanted to make sure we were getting those adults in virtual reality and getting them excited about the technology. And we did that. It was such a blast. Um, you’ve never seen so many adults like just smiling and having fun. I know some of you are there and, and, and can agree with me. Okay. So what are we doing in 2019? I just want to tell you where we’re headed. So evangelism has been a big thing for us from the beginning, uh, just getting this tech into people’s hands and showing them the consumer and enterprise value that it has a this year we’re really focusing a lot more on that enterprise value, getting out to companies and showing them that it’s much more than just playing a game or entertainment.

Speaker 1:          There’s real life applications out there. I’m in businesses that are, that are genuinely returning a true Roi and are changing the way people are doing business. So again, continuing to be a focus for us education, uh, hosting technology workshops, building relationships with the universities and secondary schools. So we’re still going to be focusing in that. Last year the Vr for Ed program was launched and we did that in partnership with in collaboration with the stem action center as well as block Smith whose stuff you see back there, uh, and 10 rural schools in Idaho got vr to their, to their locations and they were learning how to code through using that technology and it was extremely well received. That is about to launch again this year. And so we’re going to continue with that. We’ve got some Dev workshops we’re doing. Bringing our community to get together at events like this is, is just really important so that we’re all talking and working together as well as learning from each other and we’re going to keep getting speakers from outside the area as well as relying on some of those experts that we have in the state.

Speaker 1:          I’m trying to move fast acceleration, so we want to make sure that more organizations from Idaho are on this. On this map. It’s really hard to see. But this is the AR, Vr xr leaders. And what’s awesome is that there is an Idaho company, there might be actually two on here now, which is, which is super exciting. So we want to help get more organizations on there by mentoring and promoting Idaho companies to external partners. Um, so we’re going to continue, continue doing that, um, our partnerships, so we have partners and we want to continue to extend those relationships and build those but also bring new organizations on a to help us as we are on this journey to make sure that Idaho is a real strong leader in this space. So I’m working with local and national companies to help with the financial, organizational and technical growth.

Speaker 1:          So, um, thanks to all of our partners that have been with us so far and, and I’m sure there’s some more that are going to be coming on this year. We’re really excited about. All right, so how do you get involved, um, company partnerships? Should your organization be listed on that last slide? You know, come and talk to me about how your organization can get involved with us and start enjoying some of the fun things we’re doing. And how we can strategize together to build this membership join as a member. Uh, I’m super excited. We’re adding some new membership options this quarter. So some additional value with discounts. Um, some cool swag. The list goes on, those are going to be rolling out in a couple months. So, or excuse me the next two months. So watch for that information. If you want Vr at your organization, reach out to us.

Speaker 1:          That’s what we do. Uh, that’s what I’m, I’m here to do. So if you want a demo or if you want us to come in and bring the technology or if you have an event, a leverage ar, ar, Vr Kit, uh, that’s what, that’s what we’re here for. And we’re always looking for volunteers at events to just help get people in and out of Vr. So there’s tons of ways to get involved. And we have a lot of upcoming events. We have an events calendar on our website. Just a few. We have a couple coffee meetings that are coming up in February. We have a Dev meet up where we’re going to be talking about Ar, uh, with a facebook spark ar studio. We have, we will be at the Idaho business and Tech Expo on February 20th and then March 5th is our next slated meeting and I’m working on a, a big speaker out of California, so I that, that date might move a little bit. Um, but I can’t quite announced that yet until that person’s confirmed. So Cross your fingers for me because it’s a really, really cool speaker. Okay. I’m moving on. I know you want your hair for the panel. You’re not here to listen to me, so. Okay. Let’s have our panelists come up on the stage. Where are they? All right, come on over. Should we clap for. Let’s clap while they’re coming up?

Speaker 2:          Yeah. Okay. So we have amy,

Speaker 1:          who is a silver draft, super computing’s CEO and cofounder, Ryan de Luca from blackbox Vr, CEO and Co founder. We have marcus Negron from Blacksmith, CEO and cofounder. And then we have burt hellman. Yes. Okay. I’m from intercon and he is an ar, vr learning specialists. So, um, why don’t I give you guys the mic for just like a minute to talk a little like, just should I, do you

Speaker 3:          want to reintroduce yourself or should I just jump right into it? Okay. That means I have to pull up the questions.

Speaker 4:          Hold on. Okay, hold on. Okay.

Speaker 3:          So this is a really hard one. Let’s talk about 2018. Tell us I want, I want to hear from each one of you, like what, what are the big things that happen in 2018? Who wants to start? Let’s just jump right in. Wow. Big things that happened. I would say new headsets, like x towel. That is, it is about 46 pixels compared to the vive was very exciting. So new high end headsets, um, are a Vario, another one, five k headsets. So there were quite a number of new really high and high pro headsets that came into play that were really exciting.

Speaker 5:          Yeah, definitely, definitely agree with that. And what’s exciting about 2018 is as new technology comes out, everybody has some big expectations, right? Like of course with every new thing, it’s going to be the biggest thing in the world within two days and everybody knows that doesn’t really go that way, right? It’s a little bit slower than you want. When the Oculus rift was announced, you know, years ago, it was a game changing innovation, a world changing innovation and everybody really wanted to see it come to fruition. And it has evolved over the years. This last year we had the arc of this Ngo that was announced, which was a standalone mobile headset, was not sick stuff was not room-scale, but it really brought good quality mobile vr to people versus those, you know, crappy little google cardboard things. And you know, a lot of people used to say, Hey, have you done vr before?

Speaker 5:          They go, yeah, I’ve done it before. I had one of those Google cardboard. And it’s like, no, that’s not vr. You know, that’s a little parlor trick. And so this last year it’s seeing a lot of great new headsets, new technology, but a lot of new apps. If you have great hardware and you don’t have great applications, then it’s useless. And that’s what people keep saying like where’s the killer app and what’s going to happen and this last year, like you showed on that, that slide, the number of companies that are jumping in here, it’s ridiculous. And it seeing the investment, seeing the, the, the people that are doing it, launching really cool, exciting games that are not gimmicks. That was a big exciting part of 2018 to me.

Speaker 6:          Also new microphones I guess. So obviously the biggest thing that happened last year was we had our first revenue as a startup. So that’s cool,

Speaker 3:          exciting.

Speaker 6:          Do that. We had 4,000 students learning a d creation and vr about through our system, which is pretty awesome too. Um, headset wise, I want to go low end because uh, something really exciting happened there, which is the oculus go. I’m just so well thought through just a really, really all around nice device to start with and not expensive. So there was really awesome. Um, and I have to say for me like the dark horse last year that I did not really have on my radar, but I’m seeing all the time now is the windows Mr. device suit. Um, so much nicer. We have one back there if you, if you want to have a look so much nicer to just plug and play something that must pretty much be the first time that Microsoft actually delivered on plug and play. Um, so excuse me. Microsoft, I’m sorry. Um, and then software wise also like on the game side, totally out of nowhere, Sony’s own development studio released some amazing. We are titles that I bet almost nobody has heard about who doesn’t have a psvr and Sony playstation. So that is really cool.

Speaker 7:          Okay. Yeah. Stereo, right. I don’t know which hand did he, I don’t know which hand he used, right? Um, or maybe it’s both. Maybe that’s it. Uh, so for us, a 2018 was kind of up and down for us, you know, and what we were seeing in the industry, you know, there’s a lot of push that 2018 was going to be the year that Vr just is everything and I’m in, you know, there’s some posts out there by a game ceos who said, you know, we expected it to be all this and it just wasn’t. That’s kind of what we experienced as well with 2018 there’s a lot of hype. And then we had a lot of slowness around vr creation, uh, at the beginning of 2018. At the end of this last year. It started to pick back up as we were looking at kind of those trends to kind of understand what’s going on.

Speaker 7:          Uh, it kind of came down to a, a number of things that we could kind of pinpoint. It’s education, it’s cost, it’s, I’m a content which we’re now starting to see a lot more of. And I think he’s a little bit of fear around that. And I think these are starting to be overcome in 2018. And that was a good thing, right? When we talk education, people don’t know what Vr can do. All right, we’re finally starting to get over that hurdle. We’re starting to see some adoption, a cost, right? That’s always everybody’s biggest thing. How much does it cost to build this experience? Uh, is it $20? How much is, you know, if you look at some of these sdks, we’ve been working with a couple of companies and some of their pricing is upward of $60,000 for a year licensing to do a specific piece.

Speaker 7:          And as a smaller company like us, we just can’t, you know, put forth that kind of bill. And so, uh, that cost is, is truly an inhibitor of, of Vr, ar going forward. We also see that we talked about, uh, uh, content, right? We’re starting to see good content. That’s fantastic. Um, but then they know the content creators are, are saying where the users and these are just saying, well, we’re the content creators and so we’re, we’re in that dilemma still, but I think we’re starting to grow. We’re starting to get there. Um, the last thing we talk about it a little bit of fear that we saw, you know, when we go around to events and saying, hey, would you like to try vr? People my age, I’m kind of older, I guess I don’t know where this crowd, I’m older, but people my age or you know, we’re, we think we’re experts in the field.

Speaker 7:          We think that we’ve, we’ve gained all this experience and so when we go to put on a Vr headset and were unsure about what that experience is going to be like, there’s just fear with a lot of people have, am I going to know what to do? Is this going to be easy for me to do? But that is starting to get overcome. We’re starting to see more people get past that in 2018. So, uh, in our, in our perspective and what we’ve seen a lot of good movement in 2018 toward getting past some of those hurdles of the past.

Speaker 4:          Here’s one thing

Speaker 3:          now, one thing I want to add, if we want to look at it from the business side of things and what really happened in 2018 is the clear adoption of product design and creation inside of Vr. Where is it was 2017. Let’s try it. Let’s see if we can work this into our workflow. Will the artist adopt this 2018? It is standard inside workflows where we’re taking apart the headsets and attaching a simple handle to it. So you know, a car, automotive designers in front of a chair, you know, his screen and he’s just lifting it up, designing, lift up, look designing and then connecting worldwide. Whereas before it was, you know, the sampling of it is in full adoption and workflow from design through manufacturing in 2018.

Speaker 4:          Awesome.

Speaker 3:          Awesome. Okay. So were, you touched on this a little bit, but I want to ask, uh, what didn’t happen that you were expecting in 2018

Speaker 4:          if you want to use?

Speaker 7:          Yeah, I guess for me what didn’t happen was the explosion, right? Just the, uh, just everything going full force, a lot of also missing a lot of tools, right? There’s so many distant or discordant platforms, right? We can develop for one ar headset or in another one, or if I’m working in unity for a, if I’m trying to develop for the vibe, then I’ve got to do something different. If I’m going to go over to the, a oculus rift, you know, there’s, there’s little tweaks and things that just have to be worked around. And how do I deal with mixed reality headset, you know, we talked about windows mixed reality. Um, so I know that that’s a goal that people are trying to get toward, but I’m still not seeing a really clean, unified way to get there. Maybe this is the right solution, right blacksmith. Hopefully. I mean, that’s where you’re going, right? Um, but, uh, but that’s what was really hoping for

Speaker 6:          is something that was really integrated, that really works smoothly, that uh, I can make it once and feel like I can deploy it everywhere without having to make too much of a, of a tweak to it. And so that’s kind of what I was missing out of 2018. Yeah. I thought I would lose more weight in Vr.

Speaker 5:          Okay.

Speaker 6:          But uh, a Ryan doesn’t deliver his home device yet and actually my problem with that is like I’m getting kind of old, so this stuff is so crazy motivating that I can seriously. I do this once and I’m sore for like five days because I’m overdoing it, which is probably something that you are seeing if your machine. Right. It’s like you got to be careful with that.

Speaker 5:          Yeah. So I was also gonna say I didn’t see Marcus lose much weights but, but he took, you took that one out, you know, you always look good. For me it really was. No, I wasn’t really expecting the explosion because it is kind of true that, you know, we’re all, we’re all here for the marathon, not a sprint. And it’s gonna be some great longterm businesses. You know, the, we, we all understand that. We all hope it goes a little bit faster. I think we all hope there’d be an oculus rift or a vive pro type of device that really move the needle and it was something interesting but it really wasn’t. Other than I could this go and some higher quality headsets. I didn’t, haven’t really got to that next stage of traction yet. You know, there’s a lot of disappointment and a lot of the forums and places and from consumers that we haven’t yet seen that next gen device, but what everybody’s saying is Oculus, facebook, HDC vow. They want to wait till they can come out with something that’s really gonna be different versus just a speck upgrade. And so there’s a lot of rumors about that coming next in 2019. But I was really hoping that we’d have a good wireless solution by now for high end device. We tried like the TP cast, we try a lot of these add ons or the vibe pro and it was just a. It was so much extra effort that we just said let’s, let’s wait till they summer a little bit better.

Speaker 3:          You know, I really would say obviously the consumer end is obvious, but really on the media and entertainment side, the content side, the a lack of drive to make content in this space. You know, I’m the enterprise. Yes, but on the media and entertainment side, lack of content and challenges with that, whether there’s a number of businesses that started up, it was a big push from a studio standpoint and then a pull back. I started push a hype and then a pullback. So I would really say more on the content, media and entertainment.

Speaker 3:          So let’s talk about magic leap. Yeah. So there was a ton of hype around magically launching a in 2018 tons of investment. What are your thoughts on that? Who wants to go first? I’m not going to force the line. Markets are going to be. I’m going to. I’m going to be. I’ll be honest, and then you guys can whack me if you think I’m being inappropriate. No, you can’t. Obviously it’s a bit of a disappointment. I’m not a little lack luster that we’re seeing and experiencing and I, and again, there isn’t the content and so similar to what I just spoke to you about the content, when there’s not the content, it’s that, you know, cat and mouse sort of thing. But uh, you know, I think let’s talk in five years and then let’s see where we’re at.

Speaker 5:          Oh, the magically puts the fire festival of 2018. Yeah. I think anything with too much hype, right? Like when you’re hearing like the ridiculous amount of money, there will be multiple trillion dollar companies created with ar and Vr because it replaces so many different devices. Basically every one of your friends can be replaced with, with magic leap eventually, right? So you don’t have to buy a phone, you have to buy a monitor, you don’t have to buy a TV, you can replace all that with one device. And so it’s going to be a huge thing, whether it’s magic leap or somebody else, but whenever there’s overhype on anything, you know, uh, when star wars, the next one started coming out to, you know, like almost every example of this is going to be the greatest thing ever. That’s your, your separate disappointments. So that was really a blunder by magic leaps CEO and what they really were trying to do is raise so much money in and kind of can, can keep up.

Speaker 6:          Yep. That was honest. I was actually at the conference in La. So is that the acrl into the, uh, fire conference? I don’t know. They did not fly us in, but they had some very weird keynote that went on for a long time and the chairs were super hard, so that was not nice. Um, yes, you can live up to the hype. I would have expected more though to be brutally honest. I think their format, I don’t know if you’ve seen it, but it looks like those quarters and by artificially limiting your field of view and then in that small little window having another small window where the magic actually happens, it very much looks like those early three d movies like you really have to learn how to shoot a three d movie to look good, which is days that one big rule, the three d content can never leave the screen because it immediately breaks immersion and that was happening to me so much with that device, but as Ryan said, that’s like remember the first billion dollar tech company that was sold youtube to google and back then everybody was like one point $3,000,000,000.

Speaker 6:          Those idiots think they make this in a week right now. So yeah, that’s not a lot of money that it went to magic leap and this will be such a strong technology and impact so much that you know, it’s a fear bet and they are really brilliant people. So I’m excited, but I’m also really excited for the homelands to announcement. Coming very soon as it looks like.

Speaker 7:          Well, I don’t got much to add except for it has that little thing that looks like a Walkman that you can carry around with you. And I kind of want one because, you know, that kind of takes me back to my childhood of having a Walkman. But uh, so it’s, it’s Kinda the Walkman of Vr, right? I know, you know, there’s a, I think there’s a place for it and I think that, like they said it’s going to grow, but, um, you know, when I look at it from a, uh, a lot of what we do as an enterprise space, right? And so we look at things from a, uh, will it be able to be vetted in the enterprise, can we use it with, you know, their standard it equipment if we’re looking at is something like that. So, um, and granted is Vr ar standard it equipment? Probably not, but uh, you know, so we ended up going toward a windows mixed reality headsets just because you know, that plug and play, that Vr name that it’s windows. So it must work kind of an attitude. So that’s where we’ve been spending a lot of our time. Um, but uh, I still do want that little Walkman puck because that’s cool.

Speaker 4:          Right.

Speaker 3:          Bonus round question. Before we move into 2019 really quickly, I want you to tell us what your favorite vr title is that nobody has heard about, but should, that’s part one. And then what is your most used vr application

Speaker 4:          real quick?

Speaker 3:          Oh, I think my favorite, especially we’re gonna touch on this since it’s sundance time. I would say my, my hamlet’s three slash 16 and then there is an experience that is retail retail is really starting to push into the vr space and there is an experience with Lululemon. I think I can be that. Can I talk about. I think I can talk about this with Lulu Lemon, uh, where it will be. It’s at Sundance and it is a, you know how they have the stores and they have the yoga and you can go in. Well a lot of the stores can have the yoga experience. So now they have a vr experience with yoga, with retail combination and that is, that’s pretty

Speaker 4:          mind blowing.

Speaker 6:          There’s an app on oculus called transparence. Has Anybody tried transparence? See like nobody. See, I did a good job. Oh, I got to pick something else. It’s this crazy like scary, like mind blowing, kind of emotional mental escape room kind of experience experienced by Elijah would actually. And it actually was. It’s actually blew my mind. I did. I did it all in

Speaker 5:          one night. You have to figure out all these things running around. It’s like a haunted house and things are jumping out yet, but it’s really well done. And I, I can’t believe that more people aren’t freaking out about it because it literally like, was it a game changer in my mind because I’ve been doing vr for a long time. It made me realize the true power of Vr because how immersed I was in this experience. So transparence on Oculus. You gotta try it.

Speaker 4:          Okay.

Speaker 6:          Uh, I’m going to go with astro boy on the PSVR. Astro bought, right. Thank you. Otherwise it starts with astro. If you search for it, you’ll find it, um, for making amazing use of the space and the idea of what we are. Could be, um, some called it, um, I can’t remember the name of some very famous Nintendo game, uh, only in Vr. And then all those fans from that Nintendo game got really angry. Stu can expect, um, and so, but it’s a, it’s a game worth trying just for what he can actually do in this space. Uh, I don’t know if you’ve heard of this. This is a pretty rare one is called Google earth.

Speaker 5:          No, I’m just kidding. I love, I never get to travel and so no,

Speaker 6:          you just get a, you know, I, I have to admit I probably don’t know any really obscure ones besides the ones that we make for our clients, which are pretty cool. But uh, yeah, that’s it.

Speaker 4:          Wow.

Speaker 6:          Oh, we just passed it until she asked

Speaker 4:          question. Would you answer for me what your, what program you’re, what vr application you’re most in. So go

Speaker 6:          what? Bianca, what? Well, for development or for actually use. Okay. So, uh, we’re a union shop, right? So we’re mostly in unity doing development stuff. So I spend my time mostly in c sharp code. Um, but uh, yeah, and then of course the experiences that we’re developing a polo versus creed for workouts and then tons of blog Smith, uh, we’re getting, we’re getting creations in from the outside and sometimes we don’t even know how they found us and make stuff. I asked about this, our internship program back there. Uh, thank you guys are making amazing stuff and I’m watching that pretty much everyday now.

Speaker 5:          So by far beat sabre, it’s the most fun. I mean, and you know, the exciting thing about fitness being one of the killer apps for Vr is that you have to do it every single day. So I wake up every single day and after a little bit of pre workout I run upstairs, put my ankle weights on my little toy poodle follows me up there, sits in his little spot because he knows what’s happening. And I flail around for half hour now according to him. But I have the most fun. I don’t get bored of it. I’ve literally done a thousand songs and tracks over a thousand songs playing in there. I’m an expert so if anybody wants them to. But it helps

Speaker 6:          with weight loss, but it’s unbelievably fun and I will never be on a treadmill or elliptical again for cardio. It’s the best thing I’ve ever done.

Speaker 3:          This is the founder of bodybuilding.com that is saying that just to remind her, he knows fitness so I never would have to get on an elliptical ever again. All right. I’m in. Um, well since we’re on the hardware full solution side, I would say an enterprise, I would say we, our main application would be v Red, b. red is an autodesk application that has done for product design and creation. I think the other would be on the AEC side, pushing with regards to rabbit, taking it into unreal.

Speaker 4:          Um,

Speaker 3:          a huge mix. A huge mix. All right, so let’s talk 2019.

Speaker 4:          Oh,

Speaker 3:          what are the big things that are coming in 2019? Who wants to go first? Not everybody at woods.

Speaker 4:          Okay.

Speaker 6:          HTC is toying with eye tracking. I’m as white as a one device called the cosmos. Um, oculus released. It’s the quest which could be a moba. Oculus rift, except that it’s more like an oculus go with tracking. So I have high expectations on that one, uh, but I hope it’s as well executed as the, as the goal. There is rumors of a next psvr version. There’s the Hololens to nobody knows what magic leap is doing, probably not themselves. Um, windows Mr devices like the Samsung hd device is amazing. Like better screen than the Oculus rift and vive pro. Like imagine that for him. He knows him already. Device am I forgetting much?

Speaker 6:          Anybody else? So those other trains, but ultimately they are all betting on, they’re all betting on cable or wireless. Um, that’s a big thing. I tried my first wireless devices and was kind of not so impressed because you immediately have a boundary problem. Wireless vr devices will be awesome if you would be in trailhead and nobody would be here and no chairs. Um, otherwise like the focus that I tried, uh, I walked like two steps and like people to shutting off because you’re walking too far and I’m like, what’s the point of a wireless device if I’m actually now not allowed to walk? So I’m not sure if that’s the right path. Everybody that I know in the enterprise space once lightweight, super massive high, that’s what they want, that’s what they need. And I hope that the, uh, via the, uh, eye tracking, which supposedly, but now stand side by side with the of I’ve pro, uh, we’re bringing us some good stuff there.

Speaker 7:          Yeah, I got to go before all the good stuff’s taken. Uh, so when, when I look at it, I look at it from kind of a development perspective and what we’re seeing out there right now is a kind of like this whole workflow thing, you know, where we take something from a three d model or from plans directly into something else that goes directly into ar and Vr. We’ve been talking to a number of companies and we’re not allowed to talk too much about what they’re doing, but they’re, they’re really trying to get that point where if you’re using one of their modeling applications, he can take it directly into their ar studio without doing anything to the model and, uh, you can have an ar experience right away. All right. So I think we’re going to start seeing some of that that’s supposed to emerge in 2019, supposed to come out in 2019, like all software development.

Speaker 7:          It’ll probably slip. But uh, you know, those are the kinds of things that I see that are, that are pretty exciting, you know, of course. Tons of new headsets or pro or on the way I’m Raymond from our company was just down at ces taking a look at all of the stuff that’s coming out and of course a lot and wearables and everything else. But uh, you know, that’s not necessarily VRA air. But uh, you know, we, we started talking about this whole extended reality piece and, and where does it stop? Where does it begin? Um, you know, there’s, there’s just a lot that’s coming in as far as those perspective.

Speaker 6:          I forgot something. We are going to release our first public version of locksmith after three years.

Speaker 8:          Yeah.

Speaker 6:          I see a lot of Pale faces back there until one of the most merciless APP stores, theme and Windows store. So we’ll see how that goes. I might be here next year, maybe not. And you have something going

Speaker 5:          that’s right. So you guys may have heard of the first virtual reality resistance training battle arena sport called Blackbox vr launching in San Francisco in March 11th.

Speaker 8:          So we’re excited about that.

Speaker 5:          It’s hard team members here also and three years of work and he actually are the ones that did most of the work aren’t here. Okay. But the rest of it. Yeah. Now we got pretty much the entire team here tonight. Um, I will not buy my mom and marcus rift because it is difficult to set up and it is, it’s the computer. She’s going to mess something up. The sensor moves. But a second that architect quest comes out, I’m going to be giving it to all my family because hanging out with people in vr feels like the same as this. And I really want to play beat favor other places, you know, I don’t want to go higher up in my vr room. I want to do in the living room. I want to flail around, look like an idiot there too. But I want to bring it with me to my hotels.

Speaker 5:          You know, like I want something that’s simple, pull it out like oculus go and it just works and inside tracking potentially it makes it so that we can run around inside trailhead and it’s funny because we’re so used to being inside of these bounds and be and kind of knowing where those are. Right? And once those go away and we can play inside of a warehouse or inside of a, a field, you know, and anywhere it’s going to be like completely mind blowing and I cannot wait for that. The other thing with 2019 is a big focus on location based entertainment. Uh, we’re seeing huge amount of investment going into basic vr arcades, vr experiences inside malls. Amazon is killing the malls, retail space, getting really cheap, which is horrible for most people, but for location based entertainment and you know, gyms and things like that, it’s a huge win. So there’s going to be a lot of those coming out. Two thousand 19.

Speaker 3:          I couldn’t agree more. I think that from the consumer base, the quest will be huge. I think the location based, there was a little bit of a disappointment for 2018, so I do think it will be really pushing forward in 19 and I think content, you know, again that is starting to move, it was a little slow but that, that push is happening, but you know, the full adoption now towards the AEC architecture, engineering, construction market, that there is a significant drive there, especially around what that workflow is going to look like and how you scale that from massive projects down to a residential platform for silver draft. What we really are pushing a what would be called a multiuser or mover kind of systems where it is up to say 10 GP use connected to 10 headsets or 10 ipads from a HR standpoint. So, and Mr. Environment, virtual reality and ar combined. So really doing these systems that are multiuser will be a big push for us for 2019. Awesome. There’s a lot to look forward to. So let’s go even further into the future. I, um, what do you guys think it’s gonna look like in five years, what are we going to be doing in five years? You want to start giving me a good start?

Speaker 7:          I’ll go. I’ll be sitting on a beach somewhere. A super rich because I made all my money with vr and ar hopefully. Right? I mean, that’s, that’s where Ryan is going to be at. No, uh, uh, again, looking at it from a development perspective or from an ecosystem perspective, I’m really hoping and, and uh, and I think the world is trying to get to a place where we have the tools in place to to more quickly develop our ar and vr experiences, right? We talked about, I just talked about companies who are trying to go directly for models into a, into an ar experience. I think we’re going to start to see that become more and it becomes simpler, right? So that, so that we can do that more quickly. I think a lot of enterprise, and I was thinking about this for 2019 as well, they’re really moving toward Ar, right?

Speaker 7:          We’re seeing a lot of use in, uh, in wearables, the glasses where they are, they can map an entire, like, say a manufacturing facility. They’ve got to turn off this knob and do service to this one place where they have lockout requirements, right? So they’ve got to make sure that these valves are turned off well. They have systems now where you can have somebody remotely watching you as you’re turning something off and uh, and they can see the entire model and they can help you through those things and you can create experiences now that do similar things. I think we’ll see a huge adoption, uh, in those kinds of things were, um, you know, you can start seeing some of that. Even go toward customers if they’ve got a, you know, if they’ve got to do something with their computer or with a peripheral or a or whatever it is, they can quickly turn it. We’re starting, we see things like the Ikea App where you can put your furniture in your room. Right. Those are huge things. I think we’re gonna see a, a flood in the market and stuff like that. That just makes life easier. It makes things work, work better. And again, coming back to that development perspective, I think if you’re a nerdy Geek like I am and you want to build something, uh, it’s gonna be a lot easier as far as the future comes around in five years.

Speaker 6:          So I, I hadn’t really started with a question because there’s just so much going on. I just want to point out one thing that um, I haven’t seen mentioned that much, but there’s so much going on in that space as well. Can you hold this for me?

Speaker 6:          Hey Mom, I just send you a three d model that borrowed that I, we talked about. Um, could you show this to dad and you know, asking me if he likes that I would speak German to her because she’s 6,000 miles away. There’s quite a likelihood that we will model transfer that you guys are talking about. Right? What’s a model? A model is something that you need highly specialized software and people or highly specialized skinny when what happens if you all have this in our hands, what happens then? And we know those guys are working on that. We will see a flood stream or a locksmith. We expecting a flood stream of three d content that we will attain with our solution and lots of other companies out there will try to do the same. Um, I’ve seen one of the most credible solutions that the magically pass is the replacement or the skype call.

Speaker 6:          They are human model that they’re using that you are interacting with. They’ve been using it as an assistant. It is so real. As you guys seem real to me right now. I hope you are. This is just a tiny little fraction of what those companies that we’ve seen on those slides are working on. And every tiny little bit changes this. Like if apple brings out a three d scanner phone ever changed so much and whether it had been two years, so in five years I simply don’t know. But there’s lots of developments going on that are not just headsets, but are part of this workflow to drive this content on an unimaginable scale.

Speaker 5:          Uh, so he’s moving to the beach. I’m moving to the metaverse in five years. I, uh, I really strongly believe that the beginnings of the metaverse will be here because right now almost all experiences are individual apps, right? You upload one, close it down. Imagine if the web was like that. You load up a website, you download a whole bunch of stuff, and then if you want a little bit different when you close it all down, opened it back up. That’s where we’re at with Vr and I have an Oculus home and I decorated it for Christmas. Nobody saw it. But you know, my wife, I tried to get people to look at it, but it’s weird. That just wouldn’t do it. But I can’t wait until we can. We can have our own spaces in there and we can immediately move in between different apps.

Speaker 5:          And with five g networks, that’s the next big thing that’s coming. I’m slow Internet connections, know slow in five years’ standards. You know, is making it so it’s really difficult to jump in between experiences plus do it on the move so you have an oculus quest inside out type of product that switches in between ar and vr because obviously we all know ar is going to completely change the world at the spatial computing everywhere you go. Apples making ridiculous amount of acquisitions in Ar, right? A lot of secret ones, but a lot of them that we’re hearing about and they’re not just buying like applications or buying like lenses and and people that are going to make a really cool set of glasses. Everyone thinks 2020. So we will bring all those devices with us. We will be able to jump into Ar Vr at. We’ll jump into different experiences and then you guys can see my Christmas decorations. They were awesome and they were much easier to take down the real life ones.

Speaker 3:          Well I would, I, other than the fact that will be on an airplane and we’re watching Netflix in Vr, I really. It’ll be ai within vr. I mean, we’re already doing it to a small degree, but that will be working to help with generative design so you are not having to recreate what is the, what is the, you know, the flow in a hospital to get a patient from a to b, the computers learning that, understanding what is working, what is not working, and then creating those designs automatically for you in the virtual environment. So I think that that combination of these incredible technologies together creating generative design will be in full force in five years.

Speaker 1:          Okay. I have one last question then I’m going to, I’m going to turn it over to the audience. Um, I’d like for each of you to describe a recent experience you’ve had witnessing someone using vr and this can be with your product or, or another that really reinforced how powerful the tech is, wants to start or if you don’t want to answer, you don’t have to.

Speaker 4:          Yeah.

Speaker 6:          So, um, those guys are looking away. So I have to be fast before they look at me. I spent my Saturday morning in the Vr one arcade and I don’t know if you guys actually know this, but this was the first time that I’ve actually witnessed an innocent, never has experienced vr before, capa who also have to have real estate background, but that was about it. See their new house that they’ve been designing with you for the first time in Vr and there was an absolutely breathtaking experience for me because we’re talking about this stuff at coffee talks and what if and if and whatever. Right. But this was as real as it can get. They have never seen me or before they go in the headset. We have set up the experience. We use the, uh, the architecture Mata brushed it up for vr viewing. We brought two of them, the cup at both of them at the same time into this space with the vr one multiplayer setup. And they were like every new vr experience ever. They were like, oh my God, this is amazing. This is, I can’t believe what I’m seeing. I thought the ceiling should be higher.

Speaker 6:          There was amazing. They went on for 40 minutes and they went into serious productive mode within not even a minute and yes, it was disrupted by, while I can’t believe how this looks like, but most of the time it was essentially like that interaction that you had with them step in the shower. I think there was some discussion around the shower because I saw her walking into the shower in virtual reality, turning around and then telling you, yeah, that would work. That. That’s awesome. So it seems like, you know, when you design a house, there’s always constraints, right? But then they found literally, you know, I wouldn’t say problems, but they found where there was a discrepancy between the architect and their own vision. They saw it for the first time and it was completely breathtaking. Like those windows are exec. I loved your face. Like all they like those windows. They are amazing. That’s exactly how I envisioned it. And you were like, yeah, of course I drew them that way. Right. But the ugly truth is there’s pretty much only one person who understands architectural drawings. That’s you and nobody else. Um, so for them there was the first time they’ve actually seen that house and that was really cool.

Speaker 5:          No, it’s funny. We designed our jam inside virtual reality also and we went to visit it a little while ago after they finally built some of the walls and it was this weird feeling like this the first time I’ve ever been here, like with it, with the walls up. But I for sure felt like I’ve been here before. Like it’s a creepy kind of almost like Deja Vu kind of feeling because being in Vr makes you feel like you were there for me. It’s not that long ago. Seeing an older gentlemen that wasn’t quite as mobile as it used to be. And he grew up like in Kansas somewhere like that. Forgot exactly. And he went inside Google Earth Vr and he immediately figured out how to find the different things that you want to do. And he visited his hometown, did he hasn’t visited in 50 years and he was still able to remember how to go down certain streets and turn left because that’s where the smiths lives.

Speaker 5:          And this is where the farm was and um, when he took the headset off, he was so thankful to be able to have that experience again and to be able to really feel like you went back there and uh, it’s, it’s mind blowing if you haven’t used Google Earth Vr. I know we kind of joke that it’s a very famous, but if you haven’t used it, get in there and really play around. It’s amazing. And also say people working outside vrs hilarious. You know, because people pushed so hard to people you wouldn’t expect not these bodybuilders just like regular people trying to kill that last person out there that’s trying to get them and like they only got a little bit of hit points left and they did their last chest press they can do and they’re yelling and pushing and they never do that in a regular gym. So it’s pretty fun to watch him.

Speaker 4:          Yeah, I’m good. I’m, so there’s a couple

Speaker 3:          I would say. One is my daughter who is vr obsessed. She gets in these things and you can’t get this child out of them. And she has decided for a national history day, she’s going to do Vr, so she had to, you know, try to convince them that this would be allowed, this isn’t the norm, but her in and in the office and trying to get her attention and she’s in creating her world as a mom and a CEO of this company, just watching this, this child be completely somewhere else, is incredible to say. Uh, another is an experience with, it was an automotive designer who’s been in Vr, who’s done vr and, but with a new tool set and actually went in to sit down in the vehicle and forgot he wasn’t vr and fell to the floor. So I would say those two.

Speaker 4:          Gotcha.

Speaker 6:          So, um, uh, it was me, that was the last guy that I think about this. I was working with another company and I’m a. So I see vr all the time, right? I, I’m in there, I’m doing stuff, playing games, doing our experiences. But um, this, uh, this guy’s

Speaker 7:          like, oh, hey, you need to try this vr experience. They take up this elevator and you’re walking this plank to grab this cake and everyone done that. Okay, well, they said they set it up so that they’ve got a board that you’re walking out on it. You’ve got some foam under the board switch. It’s not stable. And I’m like, it’s Vr. I’m, I’m, I’m, I’m definitely scared of heights. I’ll just say that first of all. And so and so, um, I get up there and I’m like, okay, that’s great. We got her and I’m like, I almost couldn’t take that next step. I mean, I knew, I knew that the four was right there and I’m, I’m, I’m on this board. But it was so real. I mean, everything about it was just, my pulse was racing. I, I physically couldn’t move. So I finally am like, come on, come on, knock it off the cake or whatever. I’m supposed to knock off. But, but it is a, it at that moment I just realized what an immersive and powerful tool, virtual reality really is. Um, you know, we can just immerse, we can become, we can, we can learn, we can grow, we can get fit. I think there’s so much possibility and so much growth and that the only thing that stops us is our creativity. So

Speaker 1:          that’s a great way to end. Um, so I wanted to turn it over. I think we have time for a few questions. We’ve talked a lot up here, but um, does anybody have any questions they would like to ask? Ask the panelists? Yeah, I’ll bring you the mic. Okay. So she asked what’s going to happen this year and you all talked about stuff that’s happening in other places, you know, like oculus and stuff. What’s going to happen

Speaker 4:          here?

Speaker 5:          Well, I think it’s a good side of this. The best turnout that the Idaho virtuality councils ever had.

Speaker 4:          So round of applause.

Speaker 5:          No. Again, he said like, we’re not going to be the biggest. We don’t have the most people, we don’t have the most companies, but we can be the most organized. We can be the most focused and we can really build an amazing Vr, a our community here in Idaho and that it’s all of you that’s going to make that happen and we’ve got great companies, you know, like that are represented up here and some of that or not and more and more people are learning more and more people are understanding it and that the fact that they were trying it and understanding it is going to turn into new companies. It’s going to turn into people using it at their companies and it’s gonna be a game changer here in Idaho. So we’re really hopeful and we’re going to do everything we possibly can as a team and with your help and support and all of our members and board members to continue to push that narrative that vr and ar is coming the. It’s just like when the internet came, just like when the smartphone revolution and we can be at the forefront of it and Idaho, not Silicon Valley, Seattle, Austin. It’s our attorney

Speaker 1:          and

Speaker 5:          and we’re still gonna have lots of potatoes and that’s fine.

Speaker 3:          It is, it is here and Idaho has some incredible opportunities to be the leader in this space. Um, companies are coming to this town frequently to push what’s possible in vr and ar and ai and Idaho just needs to grab a hold of that and push it and drive it. There should not be fear dive in, create vr kids and you know, together especially if we work in collaboration, the companies together, the way we’re doing tonight, we can have significant impact and we will.

Speaker 6:          So I think it was over a year ago that I had last to explain where boise is to someone they usually answer. I’m getting these days is like, oh yeah, okay. Uh, and that was actually the guy from unity. What does he mean here? Because his wife sold kind of t sheets for quickness. So it’s something really weird. But Boise is on the map. So that is happening. I’m shameless self plug. We are expanding our internship program here. So if you want to walk those next steps with us, those are going to be crazy, hectic and exciting. And if you want to help out, we’re back there. I’m Gus. Can you just wave? He has a IVC shirt on. So that should help. Yes, exactly. So if you have someone or if you want to get involved, get involved.

Speaker 7:          I think the number one thing that we can do as a community is collaborate. Right? And ome touched on that just a second ago. But, uh, you know, I think we have this tendency to want to hold onto our, our little idea or intellectual property because that’s us, right? But how do we know what’s possible with it until we share it with somebody in the community who can help to guide us, who can help to move us along as, as, um, you know, looking over here, uh, to Marcus’s company. I’m like, man, there’s, I want to collaborate with this guy. I’ve got some ideas that I think that if I work with him, we can, we can grow, right? We can, we can make something really cool and, and it, you know, we can hopefully make money, right? I mean, that’s the goal, right? Uh, but, uh, and maybe it’ll be the next big thing, right? But, uh, I think if we will work together, if we will collaborate, if we will open her ideas and, and be honest and, and, uh, with each other and also protective of each other’s intellectual property. Right? We don’t want to steal someone’s good idea, but we do want to help them with it, right? Because when one of us is discussable, all of us is successful here in Idaho.

Speaker 3:          Wonderful. One thing to think about is there, there’s a multibillion dollar company called Barco and so of the things that I would offer up anybody here is to come visit silver draft because we talked a lot about vr with regards to headsets, but there’s vr that are from the cave. Um, there’s some new technologies that barcode is putting out and Barco headquarters within the United States base is over at this silver draft office. So that way there’s a transportable cave that will be coming back and about a couple of weeks it’ll be back up. And that is a vr experience that you can walk in, wear glasses, see it. They have some new technologies that they are releasing, I think it’s called a three d point or something, something like that that that’ll be coming as well and so it can end that way. You can introduce yourself to other kinds of vr and what’s in the market. But if you think about this, you know, massive company out of Belgium that comes to Idaho in the United States is, you know, pretty cool, noted. I’ll be emailing you to schedule a meeting at your facility. Will tell us the question.

Speaker 7:          Well, I was going to ask about that episode of Black Mirror where you know, you had bar after death. Well that was dystopian or Utopian up, but based on what you just said, what can we in the community, what can we do as individuals, as organizations, the government or what can we do to help you and what shouldn’t we try to do to help you? I guess

Speaker 4:          I want to answer,

Speaker 5:          but you know what not to do, Norris. I just want to make that like this weird thing that people think we actually have something, but then it’s like, oh, wait, what? No. Uh, honestly, uh, spread the word about what we’re doing here, you know, spread the word about our success is because of the only reason that people know about Nashville is because a bunch of country music stars came out of there. It wasn’t just like a random recording studios. Did you hear about that studio in Nashville that makes country music? I know you heard about the big stars, right? And then where are they from? Nashville. So let’s talk about vr companies that spread the word about the vr companies, what they’re doing and how they can be successful. And also anybody in here can immediately go home tonight and get on you to me, get on any of these, uh, online learning sites.

Speaker 5:          You can learn how to create vr applications for free at home. Using unity personal edition are unreal. Like you can have your first one created by tomorrow. It’s actually really super fun thing to go in there and create something in Vr. You know, you can create inside Vr, but even if it’s on a computer screen, put your headset on and you’re there and they’re, the headsets aren’t that expensive anymore. You know, they’re, they’re getting cheaper and there’s used ones. There’s no excuse if you’re thinking about joining in vr industry, you don’t have to sign up anywhere. You can learn it tonight at home after your normal job and what’s going to help our community

Speaker 3:          grow and have more people that know how to do it.

Speaker 4:          Um,

Speaker 6:          I, W I want to say, uh, we have something happening on our side, which is maybe an interesting answer. You can completely anonymously headbutts by going to our website, close all your eyes about how it looks like as it was from last year because it is downloaded the software, excuse all the bugs, start creating and submitting stuff. We have by now identify creators all around Idaho who got taught on the software last year and kept edit and they’re surprising us almost every day before they submit and what they upload. If you want to get involved directly with us, you can do it that easily and we won’t even know who you are until the day where we send you an email and invite you to our discord server or you know, just trying to find out who you are because you have an anonymous user name at that point. But generally as a community, I think the biggest thing that you can do for us is understand where we are. We are startups and we are starting this up as in we are learning as we go be a pivoting as we go. We are changing as we go and absolutely nothing is perfect. Um, and then understanding, try to understand what we’re trying to do and if you have some connection that you think we should make, send us an email.

Speaker 4:          Um,

Speaker 7:          for us, we’re going to bring a vr experience that we’re currently in the middle of or we’ll bring it the next time we meet. Hopefully that’s the goal of feedback, right? Please be willing to jump into the experience, give us feedback, give us ideas on where we can go next. If you see something really cool, I love these meetings because it gives us a chance to talk about the cool stuff that’s happening, so just bring in those new ideas and those new cool things that you’re finding. It helps the community grow

Speaker 3:          for us. I would say spread the word, dive into these technologies, reach out to us, learn about what we are doing. We’re continually looking for great people, doesn’t even need to be job specific. We just want a really fantastic team that is willing to learn and dive into these things. A silver draft is not just hardware. We’re actually a full solutions company, so we look at the workflow, we integrate workflow, we train in the workflow. We do do quoting and scripting tool sets within vr for our enterprise clients, but we need creative minds and and people willing to push the boundaries on what’s possible and not possible. And you know, getting to getting to know us. I think the challenge for silver draft is that we’re an Idaho company, but all of our work is really out of state and so sometimes we’re so focused on our, our clients, our clients are unbelievable clients and so our focus ends up being there, but we really want to have a base here in Idaho and a community in Idaho and so don’t be shy about pushing us to engage more with you and you know, I think this helps.

Speaker 3:          She stalks me. It’s good. It’s good. You’re welcome. I would just add to that, continue to support the IDRC, so join as a member so that we can continue to bring these events to the community, bringing in speakers, having these local experts in front of the audience. If your organization wants to partner with us, uh, talk to me. So just continuing to support us as an organization so we can bring all these resources and people together to have these conversations I think is really important. You’ve got a question?

Speaker 4:          Okay.

Speaker 9:          So first off, a big thank you to Annie and the Idaho virtual reality counsel for bringing this amazing panel. Thank you for bringing this to trailhead. I think if turnout is a measure of success, we might be doing this again at trailhead looking forward. Okay. By the way, I mtm Rasa guard. I’m the executive director here. Trailhead. Welcome to my space now to the question, Ryan, can you speak to, um, some of the research that’s being done around vr with respect to children on the autism spectrum disorder and any potential applications that you see arise out of that?

Speaker 3:          Do you want to answer? Should I actually hand that over?

Speaker 4:          Expert right here?

Speaker 3:          Where is he? Where is he? Oh yeah, I didn’t see you there. Hold on. So I’m actually going to pass this off to Mitch. Are you okay with that? Sure.

Speaker 10:        Well, we’ve had in 2018, uh, we were very much in the infancy stage, but my son Nathan has a, has autism. He’s 10 years old and myself and Brendan Smith and Jim Bradbury are currently in the process of developing a, a research institute and working with Boise State University. Uh, and several other party. Sorry, it wasn’t exactly prepared to speak, but, um, it’s uh, it’s so exciting to see what the progress my son specifically has had a in virtual reality. So the, uh, the possibilities are endless. I’m speaking specifically on one experiment that we’re working on is he was down at a vr one last weekend a scheme and so next weekend, uh, actually two weekends we’re going to take him skiing at see, uh, see where we go from there. So, yeah, we’ve, we’ve had some specific successes in a, he had his first plane flight, uh, in July this past year and all of the preparation was done in virtual reality of vr wanted. So, um, I think where we’re going to specifically start is a education based, um, I know, uh, a Boise State University and the program just started this month on building a application. So, um,

Speaker 4:          very cool. Thanks for sharing. So my son is on the that. No, that’s, that’s an area of focus. I’m really curious to see what you do with it. That’s our main motivation. Hope. Sorry.

Speaker 10:        That’s our main motivation. And uh, I hope, uh, starting Thursday, two days from now that we’ll pick up where we left off in 2018.

Speaker 2:          Yeah. So, and if you’re interested in getting involved,

Speaker 1:          reach out to the Idaho vr council and we can, we can connect to you. Uh, are there any other questions or else we can kinda ended here and turn you a little more time for demos and, and chatting with people. What do you think? Are we done more questions? I can’t tell.

Speaker 4:          No,

Speaker 2:          I think we’re done. Yeah, that’s it. Yeah, we went pretty long. I know. I was trying to be short too. I’m sorry. Thank you so much to our panelists. Can we give them a round of applause? And thank you so much to everybody who came, we, uh, if you want to go ahead, go back there and try blocks without a hangout for a little bit.

Speaker 1:          I think we’re going to be here until about seven. So thanks again for coming.

End of Presentation

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