Author: vlz210

From the TED talk, I was particularly intrigued about how accurate image-stitching and depth detection shown in Photosynth was accomplished through using user data. This begs the question regarding user autonomy and how their data and images are being used. We can consider a hypothetical situation where photo data could be used to make political statements, vandalism, and threats. How would users be able to control what their data is being used for?

Particularly with scholarly VR articles, I was reading on Photo Tourism, which is a similar concept to what Photosynth was aiming at. Besides the aforementioned issue regarding user data, I was thinking about the physical limitations of VR. Many aspects of tourism lie outside of simply sight and audio. If you were to create a life simulating tourism experience, how would one simulate scent and touch? Though non-visual methods have been used for games such as chair chambers and whatnot, how would you integrate it seamlessly in another context? How would you automate it?

For this assignment, I opted to watch the Oculus Connect 6 Day 1 keynote. Zuckerberg’s first statement heavily stresses the competitive advantage that Oculus has in the VR market, considering their high market share.

One of the biggest news that was unveiled during the keynote was the hand tracking technology coming to Oculus Quest. This allows for the removal of the controllers traditionally found on earlier VR setups. I think the way Facebook has implemented this is very smart, since the tracking sensors will be built directly on the headset, being self-contained within one complete unit. I feel that this is a big step in the right direction for VR as it grants the user more control and freedom with their hands in natural movements rather than being reliant on controllers and having a constant grip on it.

Facebook Horizon was also revealed as a social VR experience with virtual worlds, avatars, and user-generated content. With Horizon, it brings us closer to the Oasis experience shown in Ready, Player One. I’m interested to see how this will play out considering the toxic environments on most social media platforms, and how Horizon will combat this.

For myself, the most exciting news was the reveal of Oculus Link, which allows for Oculus Quest users to run Rift content on the device. This gives the Quest the expanded capability to combine mobile VR and tethered VR, which gives it a diversified use cases, allowing for higher quality rendered content or mobile friendly content. With this diverse options, the Oculus Quest has the potential to be a great entry level product for VR.

Facebook also recently acquired CTRL LABS, who developed a wristband that can detect nervous impulses and use them as digital signals. As this is a non-invasive product, I’m interested to see how this can be used to influence Facebook’s future VR experiences, in terms of product but also for experience development, as I feel that brain signals can be a very powerful way to interpret ways of thinking.

These are photos I’ve taken in Fuxing Park, Century Park, and the coast.