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Mixed Reality is the next evolution in human/computer interaction. It’s part of Microsoft's Vision to enable more personal computing and bring 3D to everyone. Hear how this vision will impact daily life in the future and what both individuals and organizations are doing today to help make this a reality.

Many analysts predict that the Enterprise will be the biggest growth area for Augmented Reality (AR), yet the ecosystem still finds itself in the trough of disillusionment according to Gartner’s hype cycle model. Find out what the AREA (Augmented Reality for Enterprise Alliance) is doing to grow and educate the ecosystem and what you can do to help!

Last year I spent 24 hours in VR. I commuted to work on the train, held meetings in London and discovered what it was like to fall asleep... and wake up in VR. This year, I'm going double the distance and living for two whole days in a virtual world, testing content, platforms, emotional boundaries and human endurance. If I survive to tell the tale, I'd like to share it.

From Somewear to Everywear: The future of AR As technology has advanced, the computational power that once resided on desks and laps has made the leap to pockets and wrists, and early commercial examples of interactive eyewear are already perched on noses. What's next? In this talk, I will share my thoughts about where AR is headed, addressing issues such as the crucial differences between designing for AR and VR, the impact of field of view, and the integration of AR with the increasing number of other displays that will surround us.

Jay Wright, President of Vuforia, will give an update on the current state of the AR industry and explore what we can expect as the technology continues to evolve rapidly and we climb the Slope of Enlightenment.

Over the past year, Tango launched on consumer phones with more phones in the future. We've been continuing to add new features to our SDK to allow apps to have an even greater understanding of the world. Jared will show some of the recent additions to the SDK and the augmented experiences they enable.

This tutorial will provide a detailed introduction to Augmented Reality (AR). AR is a key user-interface technology for personalized, situated information delivery, navigation, on-demand instruction and games. The widespread availability and rapid evolution of smartphones and new devices such as Hololens enables software-only solutions for AR, where it was previously necessary to assemble custom hardware solutions. However, ergonomic and technical limitations of existing devices make this a challenging endeavor. In particular, it is necessary to design novel efficient real-time computer vision and computer graphics algorithms, and create new lightweight forms of interaction with the environment through small form-factor devices. This tutorial will present selected technical achievements in this field and highlight some examples of successful application prototypes.

The slide material is available at
http://augmentedrealitybook.org

Augmented, Mixed and Virtual Reality empower us to visualize and display knowledge and information directly into our work and life environments. Yet we are still using 2D screens and printed manuals to work and learn - spending hours each day searching for the right information. How can we leave the ‘search engine era’ (of actively searching for knowledge) and begin the ‘Jarvis era’ where the right information surrounds us in a contextual way? A world where humans and knowledge are connected through holographic interfaces. The important factors are the enablers, acceptance and convergence. See you soon in the Jarvis Era!

As AI becomes the backbone for a range of mixed-reality experiences that take place in the urban environment, how will developers address the many ethical questions such an environment raises? These combined technologies offer the potential for enormous good, but it doesn’t take a dystopian to imagine how a sentient, tracking-intensive, interactive physical environment could be used for a range of subtle nefariousness that would be hard to undo once in place. This duo will discuss some of the major ethical issues to emerge from what will be an increasingly realistic, content-rich, and widespread augmentation of the physical world.

Most AR companies are relying on outside companies/firms to develop content. What does that content look like? What are the elements of AR content? How is storytelling different? Where can creators make AR content now?

Virtual reality has sparked the creation of a new computing platform, still in its infancy. The technologies to replicate the real environment and simulate presence have come a long way, but are still evolving. Challenges to make the experience more immersive and engaging will push the limits of technologies in processing, sensing, computer vision and displays. We’ll explore the challenges ahead and the innovation to deliver the ultimate VR experience where the real world merges with the virtual.

The future of the automotive (and most likely any other industry) technicians workplace will be connected. This session will give an in depth view how AR is an essential part - or more precise the overarching backbone - of a connected workshop in a modern dealer ship.

The AR industry is expanding rapidly and promises to be bigger than VR in the near future. Women are already playing a larger role in this technology with female AR entrepreneurs focusing on a wide range of business markets, from interior architecture, marketing, storytelling, healthcare, travel and education to drone maneuvering and more. This panel will showcase many of these companies and their work, and also discuss the importance of having a gender balanced industry that benefits from equal representation. We’ll also explore the differing educational backgrounds of women and the diverse roles they perform in these new AR companies. Panelists confirmed are Jodi Schiller (New Reality Arts), Tiff Willson (Roomhints.com), Abby Albright (DAQRI) and Jacki Morie (All These Worlds, Augmented Traveler).

Utilities have a jump on the rest of the world when it comes to IoT, Industry 4.0 and Smart Cities. They have had a lot of “things” to communicate with for a long time. Recently, AR has changed how that happens. This presentation will show how humans talk to “things” in a utility context. Examples will be presented from environmental, generations and power delivery perspectives.

EasyAR is an augmented reality SDK designed to build AR applications easily and smoothly. EasyAR 2.0 is a major update with many new features since the first public release. It brings amazing experience improvements with SLAM and 3D object tracking. And it makes AR easier to build with APIs exported into many different coding languages, easier to share with cloud recognition and scene recording.

While "storytelling" implies there is a preordained story to be told, "storycrafting" embraces the notion that a story's consumer can be an active participant in it's creation. During this session Aaron will share his experiences with immersive storycrafting in VR, AR, and Mixed Reality from entertainment to education as well as a vision for the future.

Project Holodeck is NVIDIA’s vision for the future of Virtual Reality. It’s a photorealistic, collaborative virtual reality environment that incorporates the feeling of real-world presence through sight, sound and touch. It spans many possible use cases — from product designers, architects to content creators. Join this talk to discover how NVIDIA is making it happen and how Project Holodeck can help our partners build amazing virtual worlds.

The performance of operational teams in the safety/security domain relies on the quick exchange of context-related information. Sharing visual AR information lets you communicate more effectively. In this talk we will discuss how collaborative technology using AR supports information exchange, based on Dr. Datcu’s recent research done with the Dutch police at TWNKLS.

With VR and AR markets emerging, mixed reality has been thus far, a mixed bag. Norwegian-based The Future Group emerges from four years of stealth to discuss Interactive Mixed Reality (IMR), the initial launch in Norway of the IMR-based television program "Lost in Time" and the potential impact on television, gaming, esports and other markets.

In game design theory, the "magic circle" is a liminal space, either physical or imaginary, that's set aside for play. By entering the magic circle, ordinary people assume extraordinary identities, and real-world events take on special meanings (for example, "kicking a ball" becomes "scoring a goal"). It's a place of immersion, narration, catharsis, and dreams. The emerging medium of mixed reality heralds an era in which the lines between reality and fiction blur in unprecedented ways across multiple contexts. How are magic circles being drawn in this new storytelling tradition, and how can this be medium be used and abused? The answer will take us on a romp through the Major Arcana, the Soviet LARP scene, psychogeography, hypersigils, immersive theater, "alternative facts," micronations, escape rooms, and the city of Tlön.

Learn how to make the world your canvas. Build AR experiences that interact with objects and reconstructed environments using Vuforia’s Smart Terrain. This session will address best practices and design principles necessary to create AR experiences using the content and structure in real world settings.

Boeing has a long history in Augmented Reality, and through our Research and Technology group, have been researching and developing technologies related to it for a number of years. The Advanced Production Systems team have developed a complete end-to-end, prototype Augmented Reality system for use in Boeing manufacturing applications, including calibration algorithms and techniques, display techniques, tracking technologies, streamlined techniques for getting design data into the tool as well as other system components. This system has been designed to be as flexible as possible to cover as many manufacturing use cases as practical with one tool, and has been piloted on production programs. This presentation will cover various aspects of the system design, development and pilot implementations the team has worked on, and will highlight the partnerships with the our IT organization to standardize the tool within Boeing and to roll it out as an Enterprise AR solution. The presentation will include a technical overview of the system, implementation examples, and standardization work within Boeing.

The 3 key challenges that people with blindness and visual impairment often face due to vision loss are diminished degrees of mobility, independence and self-confidence -- all which are driven by one central problem: lack of immediate access to the high amounts of information that sighted people use and depend upon daily. Aira, a leading startup in assistive technology, is on a mission to give everyone equal access to that information, but more specifically, giving blind people greater access through emerging technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR), thereby enhancing their independence in daily life. Augmenting Information Through AR: In its mission, Aira is using the concept of Augmented Reality (AR) in its intelligent platform to literally augment the information for the blind, similar to how the world of sighted people is augmented by AR. Moreover, in building our service, we are also leveraging the convergence of other key technologies such as miniaturized sensors, wearables, widespread bandwidth and human-assisted Artificial Intelligence (AI) to power a dynamic platform. Assistance Within Seconds: Our use of the latest technology connects blind users within seconds (via their Google Glasses) to Aira´s network of trained, certified remote Agents for assistance with a myriad of daily activities, including: navigating busy city streets and airports; performing in the workplace and classroom; grocery and mall shopping; label reading; cooking at home, catching transportation; recognizing faces in a crowd; ordering from a restaurant menu, experiencing such venues as Disneyland, museums, and sports events, and literally traveling the globe. AR allows Agents to see what the blind person would see as assistance is rendered remotely. Aira services are accessible to the blind virtually anywhere in the world that has internet access.

Virtual reality is an incredible medium for telling a story, but also presents a unique set of challenges for the storyteller. I will discuss how our team at Construct Studio solved these challenges while developing our recently released interactive VR experience, The Price of Freedom. This talk will cover such topics as: manipulation of scale to influence a player's emotions, challenges with using text in VR and our solutions, exploration of character identity and presence, play testing for story understanding, setting a mood in virtual space, and strategies for directing the viewers attention.

VR came into living rooms less than a year ago and has already captured the public imagination in a way that's reminiscent of other rapidly mass adopted technology. Yet VR's potential is greater than a single device category or computing platform. The immersion of VR and its application in areas ranging from games and entertainment to education and enterprise positions it as the next mass adopted medium. The question is, when will we get there? This session looks at how consumer and enterprise facing initiatives will drive VR forward in the years to come.

Electric Boat designs and builds nuclear submarines for the U.S. Navy. We have recently completed an augmented reality (AR) project to assist in wiring electrical cabinets. This work was funded by the National Shipbuilding Research Program (NSRP, www.nsrp.org). A follow-on project is underway to use AR to assist with installation of cables on board the ship during construction. Cable installation is a difficult task requiring teams of people to work in a coordinated effort in tight spaces. This project will provide users with a graphical overlay identifying the correct hangers, and a path highlighting the sequence of hangers to route each cable. The goal is to significantly reduce labor time for cable installation while improving product quality. The presentation will discuss lessons learned during the completed cabinet wiring project and various practical aspects of the current cable installation project. These include AR development in a large industrial company setting, a new markerless registration algorithm, and evaluation of AR display devices.

The very notion of technology is to improve on old, ineffective systems, especially in the healthcare industry. For thousands of years, bones were set blindly – now we use x-ray technology. For centuries, breast cancer exams were done by feeling for lumps – now we use mammograms. For decades, IV needles were inserted while trying to feel soft veins – today light and sound are making the invisible visible. Augmented reality (AR) is expected to make a major impact on the healthcare industry, and several companies are already disrupting the market. Medical device companies from Silicon Valley are making it possible for healthcare professionals to view clear, anatomically accurate, real-time deep tissue imaging of veins and arteries beneath the surface of the skin – via AR smart glasses. During this session, Evena Medical CEO Frank Ball, along with Evena Board Member and Amgen Medical Director Yan Chow, will demonstrate how new platforms can wirelessly display live ultrasounds via smart glasses and other mobile displays, such as a tablet or laptop, allowing physicians to remotely visualize veins, organs and tissue deep beneath the skin from anywhere in the world. This new technology has finally caught up with the imagination, and is revolutionizing the future of medicine.

In this talk, Ryan and Jeff will dive into the design and development of "Escape to Mars": an AR scavenger hunt game taking place right here at the Augmented World Expo. They'll talk about the tools they used and how rapid prototyping and collaboration are crucial when timelines are tight. They'll also touch on some of the common mistakes designers make when designing games that take place in the real world and what steps you can take to turn the challenges of real-world game to your advantage.

AR and VR platform launches are providing further impetus and investment towards true “All Day Wearable” devices. New holographic and diffractive “waveguide optic” platforms are emerging as enablers, where additional features like eye-tracking provide unique user interaction modalities, for both enterprise and consumer applications.

Disruptive technologies are changing the game everywhere we look. In the industrial world, manufacturing businesses have increasingly evolved into service providers, from Rolls Royce’s well-known “Power by the Hour” jet engine business model, to the automotive industry’s current focus on how to provide “Mobility Services” rather than just selling cars. For these reasons and more, today’s workforce requires adaptability, comfort with change, and a quick learning curve.

Augmented reality provides a flexible tool that empowers workers to keep up with the pace of ever-accelerating change. AR minimizes mental effort and cognitive load for workers, regardless of individual differences in information retrieval capacity. In this presentation, we’ll explore how AR is raising the bar for industrial businesses today by improving productivity and safety, minimizing downtime, and accelerating learning and adaptation.

This session will cover how Cisco has implemented an augmented reality solution for its hardware documentation using Blippar. We've used Blippar to recognize Cisco products in the lab and provide the customer with the right information at the right time. End result: Better customer satisfaction and a significant reduction in support cases. The session will take the audience through the entire process followed at Cisco, so that it's easy for another large company to learn from our experience and replicate it in their organizations.

How are wearables and AR able to increase patient engagement in therapies? Join us as we explore the novel use of AR on devices such as Google Glass and Recon Jet in conjunction with VicoVR a Kinect like device that allows for skeletal tracking on mobile and wearable devices. In this discussion we will explore the use of the systems with patients and providers to increase engagement in therapies such as; Post-Op rehab and physical therapy, ER gait and stroke assessments, and home based physical therapy.

VR is disrupting many design professions from architecture to engineering, construction to manufacturing and of course, in Media & Entertainment. Tomorrow's designers, makers, and artists will simply rely on VR as core technology to get their job done. This is because immersive experiences help us perceive the design as though we’re physically present: allowing creators to better predict and make more informed decisions about our designs and artistry. As a world leader in 3D design software and deep knowledge of Media & Entertainment, Autodesk is in a unique position to leverage new creative immersive technology like VR, to build tools that will usher in the Future of Making Things.

Infrastructure engineering needs to rely on accurate data. Unfortunately, outdoor AR is generally not sufficiently robust and accurate for engineering users to rely on for their work. As a solution, we have proposed an alternative method that consists of augmenting digital twins of city environments in the form of 3D photo-realistic meshes obtained from drone photos. In addition of providing guaranteed accuracy and robustness, our augmentation method can be used off-site, during the night or in areas covered with snow.

“Do electric sheep dream of androids?” Probably not but that isn’t to say the intersection of animals and high tech isn’t a real one. The veterinary medical sector is one especially ripe for innovations around the use of VR, from the development of educational tools for training the next and current generations of veterinarians to engaging with pet owners, farmers and other stakeholders, and beyond. Nerdy Vet and VR enthusiast, Chris Shivelton Queen, takes you on a journey into the fascinating world of VR, medicine and animals, looking at current use cases and offering predictions on where the future will lead us.

Why is Merged Reality different from Virtual or Augmented Reality? In this talk, Suzanne will discuss how to approach designing for the new capabilities that Intel RealSense technology enables for designers of Virtual and Merged reality applications.

AR is not the future it is now. Osterhout Design Group is delivering self contained, head worn mobile computing and the market is ready.

An in-depth look into the recent developments at Wikitude and what the next version of the Wikitude SDK will offer augmented reality developers.

Integration of AR technology into today's enterprise the here and now. Frontier technologies including IoT, AI, Robotics, AR/VR form a mesh that weaves within the Digital Framework in enterprises. Financial services, health care, telecommunications, public utilities, education, automotive and other verticals are making major moves to use frontier technologies to better serve customers and unlock greater return on investments. How does AR fit into this mesh? What new approaches need to be taken to build rapid customer centric use cases using relevant contextual data to address the highly specific industry requirements, challenges and opportunities.

Ceeable is developing a mobile augmented reality (AR) device to aid people with low vision disorders such as age related macular degeneration (AMD), diabetic retinopathy and retinitis pigmentosum. There are over 280 million people worldwide who have vision disorders and over 15 million in the united states who have AMD. The Ceeable device is based on a commercially available AR hardware platform and incorporates proprietary and patented software algorithms to map and correct for visual distortions in real time. The technology has been demonstrated to be effective in clinical studies and the results have been published in peer review journals. The company envisions the device as the first of many products that will be a significant advancement in technologies to aid low vision patients and demonstrate the capability of AR to change the human condition.

Quantum Interface creates experiences that change the way we interact with the world from fashion, health care, automotive and beyond. ​It is not super powers or the scifi of tomorrow it is here today Quantum interface's patented technologies and solutions enhance experiences across any platform: virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR), Internet of Things (IoT), drones, immersive media installations, transportation and beyond. Quantum Interface enables real time, predictive experiences based on user intent, touch and touchless technology, gaze tracking, head control and more. Quantum Interface's tech is kinda like Minority Report, Star Trek, Iron Man and Yoda all wrapped into one glorious consistent consumer experience. Now grab a cape, boots or the force and experience it!

Virtual, augmented and mixed reality are transforming the computing landscape, driven by the power of realtime 3D graphics. Join VR pioneer Tony Parisi as he envisions the future of user interface-- with the world as our canvas and people at the center..

The 21st Century Workforce is being increasingly characterized by multi-skilled, cross-skilled, and dynamically adjustable talent. At the same time, McKinsey estimates that 30-45% of the global working age population is currently economically underutilized. The combination of contextual computing and augmented reality-based workplace guidance provides the potential for real-time enhancement of worker skills and knowledge to increase worker capability, flexibility, productivity, and safety. The session will discuss the challenges faced in global workforce development as well as innovative contextual computing and augmented reality capabilities that are improving the performance of blue collar workers in the field and on the factory floor today.

French Emergency Medical Services are revolutionizing their call centers with vision sharing devices, both for routine emergencies as well as mass casualty events like the terrorist attacks in Paris and Nice. AMA is proud to be a partner in these efforts and would be delighted to share our experience and results with several EMS teams from the past year.

Developing a sense of "presence" is of crucial importance for both virtual and mixed reality experiences. As a rule of thumb, presence requires a minimum of 90fps, a 100+ degree field of view , 1k per eye and near-perfect hand tracking. However, to achieve these specs with a wireless HMD would require substantially more powerful GPUs, larger battery packs, and better heat rejection. We posit that with the advent of "world-scale" inside-out tracking (MS Hololens, Google Tango), tetherless high bandwidth solutions (eg. TPCast), and 1:1 pass-through video, it is now likely that a compelling mixed reality will emerge from Virtual Reality hardware manufacturers. In otherwords: AR/MR hardware developers will have a moving target on their hands as the HTC Vive, the Oculus Rift and the Sony PSVR become tetherless and are adapted to provide mixed reality capabilities.

Technology and innovation play a major role in sport success today. Within this context, technologies such as wearable technology, Internet of Things, artificial intelligence, and virtual reality are becoming core ingredients of training and preparation for competition. How close are athletes to becoming superheroes? What are some of the major technologies shaping the sports industry? How far can we, and how far should we, push technology? All of this and more!

In the new Industry 4.0 world, operational leaders need more visibility into their business, greater agility to adapt to changing customer requirements, and a workforce capable of working in harmony with new technologies bringing data and smart, connected equipment to the production environment. Join this session to learn how augmented reality is scaling in industrial settings and how wearables are providing the human interface to industrial IoT with new and compelling results.

Heart rate, ECG, Blood pressure, Blood glucose, body temperature, blood oxygen saturation, etc are vital health signs that have been widely used in the medical field to assess the state of a person's health. In the past these measurements were typically carried out in a doctor's office by trained personnel using specialized equipment only when the person visits the doctor's office. These infrequent and isolated measurements do not provide a consolidated and continuous view of how these markers are varying on everyday basis while the person is going about their normal day-to-day life. It is well known that early detection of significant changes to these health markers can prevent/delay the onset of more serious diseases. Technology and products from NeuroSky and partners enable easy to use devices that can be used by individuals/employees/families to measure all these vital signs at home/office/anywhere and remotely and securely send data to the healthcare provider/institution/government agency as the case may be. Having access to this consolidated view of health markers enables these entities to identify early signs of health risks and preemptively take measures to address the issues. This capability can significantly lower the cost of healthcare for organizations and governments.

We've built ZapBox - our amazing, yet affordable, Mixed Reality platform. At $30 it's 100x cheaper than Microsoft Hololens but still allows your users to experience room-scale, fully tracked, MR experiences - complete with controllers. In this session I'll be showing you just how easy is to build these experiences in ZapWorks Studio. If you're well behaved then we may even incorporate some collaborative elements allowing multi-user interaction live on stage. By the end of this talk you'll be well on your way to make epic MR experiences with ZapBox.

As virtual reality and mixed reality systems reach broader adoption, more companies require the need for positional tracking to precisely match user movement with rendered content. Yet what initially began as a key competitive advantage has quickly evolved into a complex yet commonplace commodity. Lighthouse has been open-sourced. Inside-out positional tracking can be done with consumer-grade sensors. And future mobile devices will likely come with much of the sensor package required to enable 6-DoF positional tracking. While some aspects of positional tracking are being commoditized, others are still difficult open challenges. We'll explore the differences between visual odometry and full SLAM, sparse point clouds and dense models, and costs associated with different kinds of systems.

Discussion will focus on use models for AR that will create market pull (consumer/industrial) for products with AR capability built in.

Finger Food CEO, Ryan Peterson, discusses the new digital industrial revolution and the knowledge arbitrage that has pivoted Finger Food from a video game company into a multi-million dollar technology innovation company. Learn how AI, Internet of Things, and mixed reality is creating a new future and get insight into how Finger Food is using HoloLens to transform industry processes.

Play is more than just what kids do. It is a way to learn, to cope and to normalize. Augmented reality offers new opportunities with play to deeply engage and create moments of joy and escape while still grounding the child in reality. This is an important factor for hospital therapists who need patients to engage with their environment, their treatment, and their care providers. This session will discuss the value of therapeutic play and the impact of AR for pediatric patients.

Touchless interaction in VR is moving forward. With players like gestigon, Leap Motion and Sony the necessary software tools are progressing. Now, all start looking at AR ... and new challenges arise: As in AR you can see your surrounding and your hands, any tracking needs to be 110 percent accurate. But how can this work with a HMD that might be taken on and off, that will not allow a new calibration every time, where the eyes and the 3D cameras have different angles? Even at the CES none of the big players demoed a solution for this. During this session the CEO of gestigon, a market leader in touchless AR and VR interaction solutions, will elaborate on these challenges and give an inside view why even the big fish like Microsoft with their Hololense have not solved the touchless AR interaction paradigms.

XR is intelligent and interactive connecting real humans and physical objects with digital agents and entities. VR/AR will evolve into XR to become the future interface for Cloud Computing, IoT, Big Data, Prediction, Self-driving cars, Personalized Medicine, Robots, Drones, Cryptocurrency, Smart Cities, and AI. Social VR and AR will connect people in new and powerful ways but XR will connect the intelligence of people to the intelligence of machines in a space shared and understood by both. This talk will look at this new and intimate relationship between humans and intelligent agents.

Smartglasses have been hyped as the next computing platform, so let's take a look at how the biggest adopter, large enterprises, are using them. This session is about the fundamentals of why enterprises are using smartglasses, what the killer hardware features and software applications are for them, and how the ecosystem can better serve their needs.

Josh Farkas, CEO of the creative agency Cubicle Ninjas, will discuss how biofeedback can be used to unlock the hidden potential of virtual and augmented reality. Using their industry leading health and wellness app (Guided Meditation VR) as an example, Josh will share their findings with: * Gathering real-time heart rate, breath, and brainwave data. * Visually displaying biometric data for max effectiveness. * Crafting reporting platforms for those outside of AR or VR. * Analyzing and leveraging biometric data in unexpected ways. * Exploring the limitless future possibilities.

Mixed reality is the next major technology disruption after the smartphone, but the majority of enterprise customers have never tried the technology first-hand. How do we build mixed-reality experiences to ensure a lack of familiarity doesn't become an obstacle to mass adoption? As audience focus expands from early technology enthusiast to more mainstream users, it's increasingly likely for first-timers end up confused or overwhelmed. These folks walk away from their initial experience embarrassed by their own technology hang-ups, when they should be feeling excited and inspired. This talk focuses on avoiding the pitfalls of presenting mixed-reality experiences to "virgin" users. John Howard and the team at LOOOK have created multi-user applications that have been experienced by thousands of mixed-reality "virgins". They will share a first-hand understanding of what works, what doesn't, and how to ensure experiences are focused on the audience and the message, not the technology.

Industry 4.0 presents a unique opportunity for machines and humans to communicate with each other. We are seeing a combination of technologies at the edge of IoT where human workers are getting predictive maintenance notifications and alerts for better operations in manufacturing. The convergence of machine sensors, big data, and artificial intelligence tied to AR Smart Glasses creates an augmented worker needed for this next industrial revolution. Companies will see unprecedented efficiency gains with digital transformation in this sector.

1. Intro to challenges faced by visually impaired 2. Current Solutions (and their limitations/problems) 3. Building better solutions (UX design for visually impaired) 4. Putting V.I. design in your programs - designing for accessibility 5. Pathfinding & spatial navigation (and why it's so important) 6. Algorithms & industry overview - what's next for AR, and what that means for Visually Impaired users.

Virtual Reality is a mature 50-year media technology still searching for its unique voice in advancing the human experience. Tapping diverse industry practices from entertainment, training, scientific and medical practice, Virtuality requires a unique range of performance and expression. By engaging the full bandwidth of human experience, immersive media integrates the mind, body and emotions into defining the future of individual performance. This session shares how the real world integration of Virtual Reality is scaffolding a common language of VR from the expertise of all disciplines. From training elite athletes to engaging the wonder of a child, VR becomes a convergence of all forms of media and tapping into a primitive human connection we have for storytelling, game mastery and free-play inquiry. Attendees will learn how to tap into the intuitive interplay of story play and game to provide a framework of how to orchestrate collaborative teams to systematically innovate diverse VR applications.

AR+VR will change the world but will it be for our betterment or detriment? Are we headed towards utopia? Or is our future inevitably dystopic? In this talk, Tom Emrich looks at the impact of AR+VR and extrapolates how this new wave can make humanity's dreams come true or propel us all into our worst nightmare.

A discussion of the current state of WebVR/WebAR, and the opportunities and challenges associated to it....

The work of field service engineers, inspection and maintenance workers, assembly mechanics, and electricians are typical of the many jobs that require technical field documentation, detailed work instructions, form submissions and reports. Newer needs include hands-on coaching by remote experts, visualization of data feeds and analytics from the industrial Internet of Things. Support for these workers started with paper, moved to PDFs, expanded to include rugged handheld computers, and currently includes tablets, smartphones and other mobile devices. Yet none of these permit the hands free use that promotes safety and ultimate productivity. Immersive Augmented Reality may be an eventual solution, but current platforms are early and fragmented, the investment in content transformation is massive, usability is not well solved and devices are not suitable for tough environments. Enter the industrial head mounted tablet—a new category of wearable device that acts as the pragmatic bridge to industrial AR, solving many of the problems faced by the 100 million global skilled field workers in heavy industry.

Virtual Reality technology is more applicable to the industry of architecture than almost all others. The job of an architect is the clear visual communication of data. This data relates to how the building is designed and built. A vital aspect of this data is not accessible without VR scale. Scale is one of the most vital aspects of architecture. By accessing scale throughout the design process we can access the feeling of the space and solve issues that may only be seen after construction when it is too late or costly to fix. VR not only allows us to feel the space but it also levels the playing field in terms of understanding space. Not everyone is trained to understand the drawings architect's produce. VR allows users to see and understand the space as if they were standing there themselves.
These are revolutionary issues for our industry not just a simple progression of earlier ideas and concepts.

This talk shows how to design intuitive games and play for the emerging platforms of virtual and augmented reality. AR and VR each have their own strengths and affordances that are often limited because developers tend to see them through the lenses of old paradigms such as computer monitors and smart phone screens. Learn how to approach these technologies from a playful designer's perspective and "affordance mine" them to devise novel experiences that take full advantage of what these platforms have to offer and will appeal to a broad audience.

Three experts from different fields explore convergence of technologies and where the cutting edge and future of AR and virtual-reality can go. Crossing Disciplines, The cutting edge and potential of VR/AR. This panel explores how we are adapting to the technological change that we create. Every time a new generation of communications technology or media platform is developed, our culture responds. Advances in AR, combined with wearables and true ubiquity, will further cause our human experience of our world to change. Contextual locative data delivered to us is already enriching our day-to-day lives, and the jump to delivering this via immersive AR will give us a deeper understanding of places, and people, if we care to access our data in this way. However, the range of how humans will adopt these technologies—or if they will—remains unknown. Various ethical and legal boundaries are shaping the future envisioned by technologists, and as such, the imagination of what AR can be, and how it is best deployed, continues to be a source of debate. This panel explores the relationship between humans and AR, and between governance and technological visions, with experts in the social impact of automation, imaging, healthcare, and integration.

Learn about DAQRI’s vision to bring AR everywhere and change the way we work with the DAQRI Smart Helmet and the DAQRI Smart Glasses. In this session, Cassie will discuss DAQRI’s ecosystem of products, differentiated capabilities, and the roadmap.

A talk with examples on how MR is influencing how we plan and develop the places of the future. Through narrative, images and practical examples we will demonstrate how we use MR to engage clients and collaborators during the design process, how new software tools are enabling the use of mobile MR devices with limited processing resources, and how we're projecting MR will influence how the spaces of the future will evolve. Project examples, Live Demos, Real world applications.

With the proliferation of HMDs and the popularity of games such as Pokemon GO, VR and AR technologies are officially hot commodities. While early iterations of these experiences are exciting and novel, the industry is still struggling with how to turn something ‘cool’ and ‘niche’ into a mainstream reality, and meet predictions that have so far not yet come to pass in early adoption numbers. Many enterprises stand at the precipice of delivering advanced AR/VR applications which will enable better business practices, such as in healthcare, engineering, manufacturing, retail, travel, and even marketing. But there is still the need to move beyond a gaming environment and into real world practicality. The bridge necessary to ingratiate AR/VR into everyday life is conversational capabilities. The ability to speak naturally, in one’s own native tongue, dialect and conversational-style, will help enmesh the user into the experience. This session will explore how developers can overcome the current lack of user interaction in VR/AR experiences and allow users greater control and immersion through conversation.

Mobile Extended Reality (XR) is likely to become one of the world’s most disruptive computing platforms. It is expected to transform the way we interact with the world around us every day, delivering unprecedented new experiences and the potential to exponentially increase productivity. XR is inherently meant to be mobile, intuitive and always connected. Many new technologies in the areas of low power visual processing, cognition, and connectivity are required for this vision to become reality. This keynote presentation will discuss:
• A view of the evolution of XR from today to the future
• Examples of unprecedented experiences that XR is expected to enable
• Necessary technology advancements required in areas such as 3D graphics, computer vision, next-gen displays, machine learning, and wireless connectivity to support a new class of intelligent, and personalized XR experiences

The real success of a new technology such smart glasses happens when it is adopted in mass and that will only happen in the enterprise world when it is economically and financially profitable. That is why we must focus on the return of investment (ROI). Since the launching of smart glasses, enterprises have been doing pilots and prof of concepts to validate the technology and to measure the KPI sand ROIs. In this session, we will have a general view of the existing devices for the enterprise market as well as a review of the main use cases for smart glasses in enterprises with the published ROIs in some vertical markets.

Performing operations underwater are fraught with risk and tend to be expensive. Virtual and Augmented Reality offer a unique platform to help ensure projects are done right the first time. Booz Allen has developed a capability, OceanLens, that helps workers "see" under water. Fusing public bathymentric, topographic, and nautical data sources, we created a virtual world based on the contours of the ocean floor. We then layer client data on top of this world to help planner make more informed decisions. This mapping offers a global view to help submariners plan activities to localized views to deep water structures like oil rigs. Inspired by the events of Deepwater Horizon, OceanLens hopes to use Virtual Reality to ensure we never are working blind underwater.

Cybersickness or virtual reality sickness is a real phenomenon that can result in lingering aftereffects that impact your balance and motor skills even hours after the experience. Lack of awareness of the impact of cybersickness or even the strain these systems can put on your visual system could negatively impact productivity, safety and satisfaction. Design Interactive has compiled a set of design guidelines for those creating content for amusement, entertainment or training experiences that can help you mitigate the after effects of exposure to VR.

In this talk, I will provide an overview of my work in the area of designing novel business solutions that use wearable, augmented/mixed reality and natural user interaction technologies . The talk will focus on how to create novel ways of collaborating , learning and working using mobile, wearable sensing and AR/VR/MR technologies.

The use of mobile and wearable computing in conjunction with AR and NUI offer innovative and compelling new forms of collaboration with promising strong uptake by industry.

Since GPS is not working in buildings, Augmented Reality can be a big support to position and navigate people accurately through indoor locations. Further it helps to merge digital data with the building environments. This not only enables location-based communication with tourists at airports, but also visualizes future real estate projects, assists with predictive maintenance and much more. Let’s take a look at how we see buildings in the future.

With the Reality Editor 1.0, we have shown that a combination of Internet of Things, Augmented Reality and the power of the World Wide Web allow us a ubiquitous and straightforward user operation of Things. But when we connect Things with each other using Augmented Reality, how can we include logical actions and reactions. In this talk, we will introduce the Reality Editor 2.0 a next level AR-IoT tool that uses Augmented Reality for enabling the user to programme HOW the physical World around us works intuitively. With a live demo, we will show how we can create instantly little programs placed in physical space that will help us in our day to day lives.

In an age of information, attention our scarcest resource. If storytelling is the art of navigating (your user’s) attention, then the rise of VR—a fundamentally new storytelling medium—is a powerful opportunity for resource management. VR is poised to revolutionize business, entertainment, education, healthcare, and more. Still, the devices that power these experiences have yet to coalesce around an optimal user experience, and VR content creation remains nascent. How do we capitalize on the potential of VR? Where do we look to understand this new media paradigm? In this talk, I’ll share insights based on my expertise as an executive leading the charge of new interaction paradigms; data from 200,00 developers worldwide who actively build embodied VR experiences; and a decade of experience as a professional dancer, choreographer, and performer. Audiences will emerge from this talk* with new understanding of the core components of embodied storytelling, such as: - How body language impacts decision-making - How to define the user's mask: are they an explorer, a guest, or a voyeur? - How to break free of the traditional narrative arc driven by the hero’s journey to create narratives based on an interconnected storyworld - How to uncover content domains and use cases uniquely suited to VR: the dangerous, the impossible, the expensive, and the counterproductive - How to explore the grey spaces between real-world and digital physics in order to build a more human experience I hope our audience will leave this talk* with an understanding that VR is more than glorified film and bigger than gaming. This technology upends narrative control, unleashes mosaic perspectives, and demands embodiment. Thanks to VR, tiny screens that clamor for our attention give way to objects and experiences that respond to our humanity. VR must be a virtual world, not a virtual window, and we can only accomplish the former through rich, embodied interaction. In VR, we discover that interaction can be a form of art. And when we do that, we can transform not only how humans interact with technology, but also how humans fundamentally understand the world.

By connecting smart, wearable devices, AGCO has facilitated better and faster decision making at the point of impact while adding seamless connectivity and plant-wide collaboration. Wearable technology and supporting applications have allowed AGCO to fuse plant-level and enterprise networks to the people, processes, and technologies where they deliver value. The business benefits have exceeded all initial expectations.
AGCO's Jackson, MN plant has converged wearable technology, including watches, smart eyewear, ring scanners, tablets, phones and PCs to its manufacturing processes.
1) Audit finished product before it is shipped to dealers for consumer purchase; wearable technology allows the Quality team to thoroughly inspect tractors while improving standards in safety, issue trending, quality and productivity.
2) Standard work instructions and operation management systems; wearable technology allows operators to have voice activated instructions without leaving their work station; improves productivity, quality and throughput; complex configurations require accessible OJT for seasoned and new employees

The key benefit of using AR in your web browser is how quick and easy it is to share. You can send a single web link through social media or email and the recipient can just tap on the link and it works. But up until recently this has not included Computer Vision based AR for a number of technical and market reasons. This presentation will position the web browser in the overall context of Computer Vision history, and we'll look at how this has evolved through developments including jsartoolkit.js, tracking.js and AR.js. We'll then dive deeper into the latest developments to show how OpenCV performs running in the browser and how this compares to native applications. This deep dive will compare the different feature detection/extraction algorithms and how they perform on some well known image data sets. The session will conclude with demos that show how this all works right now in over 2 Billion capable web browsers.

Users today not only need but expect immediate information and a great experience. CivicAR is the first mobile AR solution specifically for the public sector, helping cities cater to the increasing expectations of mobile residents, visitors and workers. Every sign, restaurant front, bus, lightpole—any asset or location has the potential to serve as an opportunity to inform and communicate. For the public sector, AR has powerful business-specific applications in everything from transportation to tourism to utilities, taking a futuristic phenomenon and transforming it into a practical solution for cities. While the industry focus for AR/VR involves extra gear such as goggles and glasses, CivicAR is phone based creating a ubiquity that is appealing to public agencies and consumers. The session explores and even demonstrates revolutionary developments in public sector Augmented Reality as it simplifies and enhances daily life for citizens, visitors, and workers, creates efficient, connected communities, and is the next step for smart governance.

The NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory is using cutting-edge augmented and virtual reality technology to explore space and our own planet in innovative ways. JPL’s scientists and engineers plan activities for the Mars Curiosity rover and analyze Martian geology while walking on a 3D reconstruction of the Martian surface. Engineers designing rovers and spacecraft can preview full-scale holographic prototypes before any parts are built. Astronauts aboard the International Space Station can use AR interfaces to receive virtual assistance from experts on the ground and work more efficiently. These are only some of the projects in AR and VR that are going on right now at JPL. This talk will present recent projects that leverage immersive technology to tackle unique visualization challenges, and discuss research that shows the beneficial effects of using AR and VR to accomplish these tasks.

Light field displays have the potential to revolutionize the optical architectures currently used in today's augmented and mixed reality systems. In this talk, Ed Tang will discuss the merits and drawbacks of light field technologies including sections on multi-focal imagery and near-field image generation. A look at the current state of the art will follow,, concluded by details on the light field solution employed by Avegant and its potential for the future.

Standardization is a key to growing markets and healthy ecosystems in many industries (if not all of them). What needs to be standardized or is being standardized in today's Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) industry? What outcome can be expected from these standards activities? How can they change the industry? In this session, VR/AR standards developers will give you the latest update.

TBD

Companies are deploying wearable computing solutions today. Not as a pilots but live in full productive environments. On a global scale. With extremely short return on investment. Learn how companies like AGCO, DHL, Samsung, Schnellecke, or Volkswagen do it.

Mixed reality covers a spectrum of experiences from traditional AR to VR. Come learn about Microsoft’s mixed reality strategy, and how you can create experiences that cover the entire spectrum using one platform and one set of tools.

With a zillion products in its catalog, Wayfair's challenge venturing into VR & AR is obvious - How do you produce content at scale ? Discover how Wayfair applies it's e-commerce savvy engineering chops to produce it's library of 3D game ready models of furniture - an overview of the model pipeline powering Wayfair's AR & VR apps - And maybe your application too!

The presentation will demonstrate methods for industrial application of augmented reality in intralogistics using the examples of picking, packing and palletizing of goods. Common logistical processes are based on paper instructions, computer installations or handheld devices to guide workers according to their tasks. Augmented reality replaces these technologies and gives the worker more possibilities of interaction and deeper integration into the process, which leads to the optimization of processes. Key enabler for the intended improvement is the dynamic and contextual information presentation induced by virtual representations of goods to be handled and dynamic information. As a result the worker is offered the actual data for each process step just in time and place. Virtual objects e.g. in the shape of packages are placed in the view field to show the adequate positions to place the goods. Virtual hints like arrows give directions for action and guide the worker throughout the processes. The results are faster processing times of manual work – hence the overall throughput will increase. These effects were measured and compared to common processes in a case study. The presentation will depict how these results can be achieved in real world scenarios. Video footage is being presented to illustrate assisting technologies based on augmented reality and consequently show how future work in industrial environments will massively benefit from the application of AR.

Mixed reality devices like the Hololens open up a new realm of possibilities in terms of user interfaces and user experience. Today, we mainly find game-like experiences or ports of a 2D user interface in a 3D space, but with more time in the device, our group discovered options that make much better use of this space. From our own research and experience in working on practical applications in mixed reality, we explore what we’ve learned and user experience processes we’ve adapted to create new and meaningful user interfaces that take better advantage of the medium.

From smartphones to head mounted displays to VR glasses, mobile is revolutionizing VR and AR creating immersive and engaging worlds for general consumers. In contrast to PCs which provide a rich visual experience, but are still not accessible to the mass market, mobile is untethered and on the forefront of broad innovation.

This progressive panel of ecosystem players – from technology to content creation and distribution, to graphics and audio, to user interface and form factor - believe VR and AR is the next mobile computing platform and are working together to realize the goal of mass VR and AR adoption. Diverse perspectives will be shared on how mobile innovation is taking VR and AR mainstream.

Don’t let your startup fall into legal and regulatory traps! Brian Wassom (Warner Norcross & Judd LLP; Augmented Legality) will bring you up to speed on recent governmental interest in AR, and the actual and threatened litigation happening across the augmented world now that AR/VR/IOT technology has finally reached the mainstream. Captain Joe Rampolla (Park Ridge Police Department; ARDirt) returns to the AWE stage with updates on criminal activity targeting the AR community and its consumers. The panelists will also take your questions.

Over the next four years, or two clicks of Moore's Law, a ton about our technology world will change. Scoble will bring you the best from his travels visiting R&D labs, startups, and innovators around the world. He views the world through his rose-colored-mixed-reality glasses, which will be the new user interface for self driving cars, Smart Cities, IoT, and many other things in our world. He'll send you off with some lessons for companies both large and small.

In November, 2014 NSF International initiated a pilot with Google (one of their customers) to explore the use of wearable technology as a means to create both a more interactive and cost effective means to conduct food safety auditing. Today, NSF employs wearable technology around the globe for many applications across the food industry. The last 2 1/2 years has been a constant learning process as both the wearable hardware and supporting software has continued to evolve. This presentation will share those learnings, as well as discuss the broad range of applications that are currently in use.

The awarded ViewAR™ system lets you create your own Augmented- / Virtual-Reality applications as easy as it gets. With only four steps your app is ready for publishing - only applying web-designer skills (HTML5 / JavaScript) 1. Choose a template and the desired features 2. Style the app via CSS 3. Upload your 3D-content 4. Release! Integrating more than 12 trackings, the ViewAR system runs on iOS, Android and WebGL and offers a wide variety of out-of-the-box modules. It gives you the ability to create custom-tailored applications in a cost- and time-efficient way. Experience how the world of Augmented- & Virtual Reality hast just become a whole lot easier! A hands on demo and tutorial on how to create and publish AR-apps in less than 15 minutes! Even incorporating an HMD.

Get Robert Scoble & Shel Israel's latest book "The Fourth Transformation: How Augmented Reality & Artificial Intelligence Will Change Everything" and join them in a meet-and-greet and book signing after Robert's keynote at AWE May 31 from 6:00-7:00PM outside the Theater area.

Link: https://www.amazon.com/Fourth-Transformation-Robert-Scoble/dp/1539894444/

The ZGC Innovation Center @ Silicon Valley, an incubation space, is hosting an after party on Wednesday, May 31.

After your first full day of sessions, come join us to network and relax. Free beer and snacks will be provided. Entertainment includes a DJ / VJ + live demos!

The ZGC Innovation Center is located 2 blocks from the SCCC at 4500 Great America Pkwy, Santa Clara, CA 95054.

To gain admittance to the after party, you must be an AWE USA 2017 attendee and show your badge.

More information can be found here: https://markskwarek.wixsite.com/aweafterparty