This week we are at the Immersive Tech Week, formerly known as the VR Days. This is the first time we have a booth: as our clients are mostly in education, it’s just a little less interesting for us than the NOT or the BETT.
This year, we had two projects we wanted to show and get extra input for. Intern Guido is doing user research for the Brittenburg project (linked page in Dutch) he is working on. Partner 100%FAT joined in and brought a predecessor of the ‘Limescoop’ (/liməˈskoːp/).
Interns Michelle en Stijn showed the (English version of) ‘AR(e) you Ready?’ (more information in Dutch can be found here), our speculative game on the future with AR. Their main goal is to find inspiration for new future scenarios we can use in the game.
We enjoyed experiencing the latest XR hardware, such as Pimax headsets, the Quest Pro and the SenseGlove.
Pimax is developing an interesting all-in-one system that can function as a console, mobile phone and VR headset. We will keep our eyes on it! The Passthrough functionality of the Quest Pro impressed us with its seamlessness. We are purchasing it and we are planning on creating many AR prototypes with it in the future.
The team, including our interns, learned more about the field through visiting the tradeshow, trying out experiences at the Playground and through joining talks and roundtables at the conference.
The amount of attention on more philosophical discussions in the program was noteworthy. Netwerk Mediawijsheid, Rathenau Institute and the city of Rotterdam organized various workshops and presentations covering the future of the metaverse (if you want to use that term). Experts and others interested in this subject discussed how children can explore virtual worlds in a media literate and safe way, how they can learn through immersive media and how we can ensure that the metaverse is designed in a way that respects public values?
I was talking to a visiting employee of Stanford who was impressed by this. To him, it really emphasized how different Europe is from the US. We might not be the fastest to move, but by thinking things through we’re aiming for a future where our values are represented, which might bring us much further.
Although this is very anecdotal evidence, I guess we’re doing something right. We’re proud to contribute to this approach, especially with our speculative game ‘AR(e) you Ready’?
It seems like a very good move to relocate the event to Rotterdam, with lots of initiatives from the city and Hogeschool Rotterdam. I think you will see us here next year as well!
