1) One or two sentences about the lesson you MOST agree with and the lesson you LEAST agree with:

Most Agree Lesson: Virtual currency will become more relevant to our lives than traditional currency. Even nowadays, virtual currency like bitcoin has been gaining more and more values and attention from people. Therefore, in the future, with better technology of VR equipment, distances among global citizens will narrow and also the traditional physical currency will be less used.

Least Agree Lesson: Everyone will become ‘Gamers’ & watching game streams will be a major pass-time. Though with high-end technology of VR and AR people can have very real-feeling experience in games or the virtual world, I still believe the reality is where people are based on and there are more things to do in real life.

2) A First SpaceWalk / Ghost in the Shell / Notes on Blindness

3) Kevin Kelly AR Article review: The mirrorworld sounds still quite far away from today though the concept and technology of AR have came into our view for a while. Besides the methods to achieve mirrorworld, what is more difficult to imagine is how people will be influenced by this, just like the people 100 years ago can’t imagine our life. 

1.  Response to  16 Lessons for a VR-First Future From ‘Ready Player One’

2. Choice of VR titles:

Tilt Brush/ horizons/ super hot

3. Response to AR Will Spark the Next Big Tech Platform—Call It Mirrorworld

The part that touches me the most is:

The next generation will master visual literacy. A properly educated person will be able to create a 3D image inside of a 3D landscape nearly as fast as one can type today. They will know how to search all videos ever made for the visual idea they have in their head, without needing words. The complexities of color and the rules of perspective will be commonly understood, like the rules of grammar. It will be the Photonic Era.

The Millenials today are viewed as the aborigines of the Information Era, they are (or I am)  naturally used to computers, phones, the Internet. It’s easy but at the same time shocking to imagine a future world where we have to try really hard to master visual literacy and get accustomed to the Photonic Era.

1. Alvin Wang Graylin, “16 Lessons for a VR-First Future From ‘Ready Player One’” (2017)

I most agree with: No. 3 “Network speeds and cloud computing capacity will be the key utility of the future.”

Even Skype video calls are not very stable as of now; we are still struggling with random interruptions and low quality of video resolution. To expect some desirable quality of VR/AR experiences, network speeds and computing capacity are a necessity.

I least agree with: No. 8 “Gathering experiences and access will be more important than gathering wealth”

Hope it becomes true. But I guess relatively a small portion of privileged people would enjoy the full potentials of VR/AR technology. In the worst case scenario, the gap between the haves and the have-nots might widen. We have to keep in mind that only 35.13% of the world population has smartphones.

2. Three VR titles from the NYU Shanghai VR Titles Catalog

A. Lucid Space Dreams

I was wondering how they would visualize our dreamscape. After I tried it on Oculus Quest, the first thing I noticed was that this VR video doesn’t have any user interaction. Since its title is not just a generic dream but a lucid dream, it’d be much more interesting if it gives users more interactive options. Overall, the project was audiovisually fascinating.

B. In the Eyes of the Animals

This project, a sensory visualization of how other species view the world, is highly consistent with the original purposes of VR experience. We cannot see the way how bats or mosquitoes see; we can’t even imagine it. Virtual Reality, however, allows us to explore what’s beyond, behind, and beneath our realm of human cognition.

C. The Big Picture: News in Virtual Reality  

A flat TV or a computer screen was the only way I could catch up the news. I’m wondering what it may look like in 360 degree video—I think it has quite a lot of potentials to reshape the current news platform. As all the press media aren’t looking at matters from the same perspectives, it’d be interesting to see *visually* which press is more or less biased (If an algorithm is fair enough to properly quantify the bias or credibility of each press.)

3. Kevin Kelly, “AR Will Spark the Next Big Tech Platform—Call It Mirrorworld” (2019)

“A commercial-free mirrorworld would be infeasible and undesirable. However, if the only business model is selling our attention, then we’ll have a nightmare—because, in this world, our attention can be tracked and directed with much greater resolution, which subjects it to easy exploitation.”

As advertisement drives a substantial amount of revenue for Google and Facebook, the newly emerging AI platform might also seek to generate ad revenues. It’ll be not only annoying but somewhat creepy to see some user-targeted ads popping out everywhere.

Replies to the 16 Lessons assignment:

Most agree: No.3 Network speeds and cloud computing capacity will be the key utility of the future.

Like web and cellphone, being the mainstream devices of digital life means that VR&AR devices will be widely used and there will be a social community of users. Therefore, stable connection and high-speed data transportation are the key utility to guaranteeing the stable online processing of VR/AR devices.

Most disagree: No.7 VR can erase race and gender inequality gaps.

VR creates a visual world for users but it does not mean that users can completely get rid of the real world. Using avatar in the VR world will not erase race and gender inequality–it can only temporarily help users forget the real-world limitations.

VR Experience:

I experience three VR projects, BBC Spacewalk, Scaring VR video, and Cowboy shooting game.

BBC Spacewalk

BBC Spacewalk is the most excellent VR project I have ever experienced. It is a project about space movement and astronauts mission. In the space, users need to use controllers, which are two hands of astronauts to grab spaceship to move around, repair the spaceship, etc. The graphics are in high quality and I really enjoy diving into this visual space. What shocks me is that I even feel dizzy of weightlessness. That is amazing.

Scaring VR video

This project set me inside a blocked room and it is pretty scaring. But what a pity is that I can only stand and watch–there is no interaction design in this project. I think VR is suitable for Scaring game and movie because it can provide a sense of realness and shock which video and video games cannot provide for users.

Cowboy shooting game

This is the only game that I experience in this class. The gamer needs to hold the controller to shoot and change the clip by shaking the controller like a cowboy. I love the design of changing clips because it makes me feel like a cowboy. The graphics quality is good but not as excellent as the Spacewalk one.

In conclusion, I think that VR can be used for games and interactive visual project. 

 Review of the Kevin Kelly AR article

AR, as the third platform after the first and the second platforms of Web and phones, will digitalize the rest of the world. But We still have a long way to go.

After reading the 16 lessons for a VR-First Future, I gained a lot of insight on what VR technology is capable of in the future. I agree with most of the points that was made in the article but if I were to pick my favorite/most agreed point, it would be that VR will play a bigger role than AR in the future. Which I believe many people would actually disagree on.

Most Agree: 2. VR may play a bigger role in our future lives than AR

I believe that AR is a very promising technology, and will play a bigger tole than VR in the near future as soon as its technology matures. However, I believe ultimately VR will surpass AR because there are many limitations to AR technology. There are qualities discussed in class about how it is very complicated to achieve realistic AR due to how our eyes perceives light. Another reason why I believe VR will play a bigger role in the future is because of the possibility of a brain-reading technology. As humans learn more about neural science, there are already researches in reading the brain using techniques such as tracking blood flow. Once these kinds of technology is refined, it is possible for VR to go to a next level of immersiveness.

Most Disagree: 5. Virtual Schools will democratize high quality education to the world

The author argues that VR can give learning resources more accessibility, and I do not think that this is true. I believe that the spread of knowledge is already very accessible through current sources such as online video platforms like youtube,  where some would even argue is a better source than traditional school education. however, VR can help in some aspects of education in terms of experience. Being able to witness certain things with a high level of immersion can enhance the students experience on the subject. Examples being watching historical events, scientific experiments(there are already VR applications that simulates the creation of chemical molecules), and even experience live music. These experiences are all very valuable, and is all made accessible through the VR technology. 

Thoughts on mirror world:

I think the mirror world is a very interesting concept, and I believe it does a great job in capturing the qualities of augmented reality. I also am very excited about the endless potentials that a refined AR technology can do. The amount of information and utility that it can bring to our lives are endless.

Three catalogs I experienced:

Music video by imagine dragons

live music in washington square park

nasa space experience

thoughts on the VR experience at IT:

I do not personally own a VR headset, so this experience was very exciting for me. I was able to feel what it is like an astronaut in space, swim in the ocean with sea creatures, and even watch a live performance in Washington square park. This session was very helpful to me in terms of giving me an idea of what VR is capable of, and also what types of projects were successful through this medium.