Our Xtended Futures: The Reality of Reality

The future promises a world serviced by robots and AI personal assistants, self-driving cars and headsets offering virtual and augmented experiences as far as the eye can see. But who’s telling the story and does this narrative even begin to consider the greatest and most important hurdle in the quest for technological advancement – human beings?

No.

Actually, that’s probably not the level of detail you were looking for. I’ll provide a few examples.

I don’t wear glasses – except for reading (I’m wearing them right now) but I would prefer not to because when in face-to-face conversation, or simply enjoying the environment around me, I make a point of breaking down as many barriers as possible between reality and the virtual or augmented world.

This may seem at odds with the barriers I’ve pushed and the research I’ve carried out in both VR and AR (and ultimately XR) for the past 6 years but I never simply talk about technology for the sake of it. I always think about the consequence of its existence – not just the facts, but how and, most importantly, why it will feature in our lives.

Every second counts so we should make that precious time feel as comfortable as possible. To achieve this, the story behind why we need something or would wish to use it is every bit as essential as reliability, sustainability and security.

At their recent OC6 developer conference, FaceBook confirmed it was planning to build AR glasses and map the world. Even if the glasses are delivered in the sleekest designer frames, I still don’t wear glasses AND I have no wish to share my every move with FaceBook – including my every view!

Virtual Reality is another amazing creative platform with immense potential. Neither VR nor AR are new technologies. They have both been with us for decades in one form or another, but the platforms and devices are making the greatest impact in this current era of digital realities.

Of course, content is king and the quality and experience must be extraordinary in order to entice an audience back again and again or encourage others to make the effort to do so.

And therein lies another problem. We live in a society that is time-poor and effort-deficient. To convince consumers to adopt emerging technologies and then have brands (or Mark Zuckerberg) give the reasons we’ll use them in the future and how they believe they will fit into everyone’s lives takes a huge leap of faith and a great deal of inconvenience and discomfort.

I spent 48 hours in VR a couple of years ago and the combination of virtual and physical experiences was incredible for research, inspiration and visual reference. It was however extremely uncomfortable and I wouldn’t encourage anyone else to undertake this.

Of course, immersion for that length of time isn’t reflective of regular device usage and we intentionally took things to extremes. Dial this back and consider a real human in a real environment (shopping mall, expo, arcade, training room, school, etc) and you’ll still find a level of discomfort unacceptable to many – and an end result that isn’t great for your physical appearance.

And I refer to VR Hair. This is a very real thing – a direct result of a very virtual experience.

VR Hair is something I’ve spoken about to clients and audiences since 2016 and it still isn’t recognised as a potential roadblock to consumers. It’s not an issue for enterprise and training because that’s a closed environment. It is a very different matter for consumers.

I tested an incredible experience with Renault two years ago where I drove, then was driven by their autonomous SYMBIOZ electric concept car. When I transferred control to the car, I was handed an Oculus Rift headset featuring software developed by Ubisoft. The VR content displayed an identical vehicle interior, followed by scenes outside the windows that transformed from the existing road network to a future smart city, a dramatic eclipse, then the car dropped away as my viewpoint rose and I continued my journey in the sky – every bit the flying car of the future!

Holoride now offers a similar experience as part of its collaboration with various auto manufacturers – from Audi to Porsche to Ford. This combination of tech, platform and content illustrates the potential for in-car entertainment in our self-driven future to great effect.

However, at this point everyone emerges from the car with VR Hair. A genuine issue for anyone heading to a meeting, journeying to a night out, travelling to a shopping destination. Or anything that involves meeting other human beings upon exiting the vehicle.

When focusing purely on the technology already available to us or planned for production, the assumed development route is similar for both VR and AR:

• Increasingly powerful headsets

• Cutting the cord and delivering wireless free-roaming (6DoF) experiences

• Familiar, user-friendly platforms

• More impressive passive and interactive content

The story being told about our technological future includes greater duration and deeper immersion for VR experiences (as per Ready Player One) and the Augmented future paints a picture of a global audience wearing designer glasses, consuming vast quantities of information and targeted advertising material.

And then the reality of reality kicks in. If at any stage VR Hair is an issue (ie, you have hair and plan for anyone else to see it) or if you don’t wear glasses and have no wish to do so in the new Augmented era, then the predetermined technological roadmap falls over.

If you currently run any kind of experiential activity involving VR headsets – be that in-store or in-car – it is essential you offer an area for your participants to rearrange themselves and be pampered before sending them back into the ‘real’ world with the lasting memory of your brand. It should be about the content, not the inconvenience.

VR headsets will become lighter and thinner, but they’ll still need a big enough screen to offer wide field of vision – and until further notice, they’ll ruin your hair. AR glasses will become slimmer, lighter and (hopefully) cooler, but they’ll still be glasses until they evolve into contact lenses – and I’m not sticking them I’m my eyes either.

I would however implant the tech directly inside my head and beam the full visually immersive experience to my optic and auditory nerves. I spoke about ‘internalising’ tech at Futurefest in 2016 and it’s this bizarre time jump that delivers the progress everyone is talking about, without the physical or psychological barriers of VR and AR headsets.

Elon Musk’s recent startup, Neuralink is now hoping to develop the technology to make this happen – but it’s a huge step for most people to make when trusting technology inside the human body. This is akin to human evolution and not a comfortable conversation, but one that should be happening. Now.

In the same keynote, I also predicted Trump’s election win and Elon Musk as the future US President. There’s time for Elon’s campaign to kick off, but he still has work to do inventing the future and I intend to be there, telling the right story about the incredible potential for various realities, whist avoiding AR glasses and VR Hair along the way.

2020 Vision

The Reality Industry has spent the past six years talking about ‘next year’. Every year. We’ve been proposing potential and identifying opportunities for an audience keen to invest, dedicate time, effort and resources, without offering much in return. So, is 2020 the big year for consumer VR and AR?

I’m a man of few words. You may disagree if you’ve read some of my blog posts or seen any of my longer event keynotes – but I believe in actions, they speak far louder than words.

The thing about immersive experiences is that to really appreciate them, you need to be immersed. Sounds simple but it’s not when we share so much digitally. Using video to tell stories about the benefits of VR therapy or AR for industrial solutions is a powerful tool in a marketers armoury – and they’re far more effective than simply creating the technology and hoping your audience will view it or adopt it.

Until now, the Reality (XR) Industry has been hobbled by the hardware – from low-end phone-based headsets to expensive desktop PCs with their wired units. This, in a wireless world where we’re all trying to escape from desktop tethers whilst demanding higher and higher resolution and ergonomic comfort. These expectations aren’t unreasonable because we’re used to technology advancing at a breakneck pace.

Thankfully, Oculus launches its Quest VR headset next week for £399, a 6 DoF (Degrees of Freedom) device with hand controllers, unencumbered by phones, PCs or wires and empowering the user to move freely within the real world to navigate the virtual, unlike the cheaper Oculus GO that has you rooted to the spot.

You’ll be told there are better headsets on the market, even by Oculus. Some are cheaper, others with faster processors and higher resolution but none stand a better chance of changing hearts and minds and reaching the largest audience than the GO – if the story is told in the right way: A  tale of magic and wonder and learning and discovery wrapped up in out-of-this-world experiences. Not Virtual Facebook. I’ve spent more time in VR than most and Facebook is the last thing I want to experience in any reality.

So what about consumer Augmented Reality? I’m not going to list all the headsets/glasses but Hololens and Magic Leap look stupid and are way beyond consumer pricing, Vuzix Blade looks cool but is still $1,000 and ODG and Meta are no more. Those price points are still too high for anyone other than early adopters, so use your phone (because it has always been AR-ready) for social cosplay, apps for way finding and beyond, then throw in a Lenovo Jedi Challenges Lightsaber, because it’s an awesome demonstration of consumer AR capability with haptic feedback and multiplayer mode.

Alternatively, you could combine VR and AR as I did in my XR Immersion Suit on the world’s fastest city zip wire in London for a Vice documentary or during my Digital Freedom Festival keynote ‘Blurred Line Between Man and Machine’

Both utilise VR headsets for maximum Field of Vision (FoV) using their built-in cameras to offer an augmented view of the real world around us. These actions do indeed speak louder than words as the research delivers the message that we’re not there yet – the world needs stunning (and life-changing) content to add value, depth and relevance if we’re going to engage and retain a consumer audience for both VR and AR. You can’t hope to tick some of the boxes and still be successful – you need them all. Effective video storytelling not only raises awareness of XR content, it tells your audience where it is, why it exists and how it is relevant to them.

However, stunning VR or AR content alone simply isn’t enough if it doesn’t encourage an audience to return to it or go out into the real world and act upon it. Don’t be afraid to ask the question “why?” at ANY stage – or your audience will instead.

Is 2020 finally the ‘year of XR’ for consumers?

Yes.

Why?

Let’s Talk About Sex

Actually, we’ll get back to the headline in a minute. For now, let’s talk about techs. Rolling into 2018 and everyone is asking the usual question – what’s the next big thing in tech? An easy answer is Artificial Intelligence, but ironically it’s not an intelligent answer, because it’s the wrong question.

AI will deliver unprecedented pace of engagement, hyper-accelerated data management, offer decision-making services, freeing human brain power to do what it does best – add personality, creativity, strive for success and push boundaries.

But it isn’t answering a question that needs to be asked right now. Those of us that ‘make stuff’ – either physically or virtually – and provide more than a service find ourselves delivering an experience, heightening sensations and making us all feel better as humans – even if only for a second, we’re asking the most important question – what’s the next big platform?

It’s mobility. Not just cars, it’s bigger than that. This is a platform that has history, heritage and a solid technological background, so it doesn’t fall at the first hurdle.

The automotive industry has spent forever telling an audience (drivers) that they can’t be distracted from their main objective – driving. This hasn’t been an opportunity to sell, as with most ‘platforms’ or deliver information overload. We have specific data to process when a vehicle is on the move – speed, obstacle avoidance, range and comfort and little beyond.

Although systems are already being integrated into the latest generation of cars, most visual information is still processed by us and acted upon in the most appropriate manner.

Entertainment has come in the form of audio-only broadcast or playback and nothing can encroach on our main focus. The industry is about to experience seismic activity.

With the introduction of the autonomous vehicle this ALL changes. From zero distraction to channelling the outside world. All of it.

I’m in the fortunate position where I get to test a lot of emerging technology at a very early stage. It makes a fundamental difference when you experience the future, rather than simply read about it. Take it from me, if I’ve been hands-on, I will tell it like it is – not just a sanitised relaying of the facts, but how we’ll feel physically and emotionally about what’s around the corner.

I’ll write a lot more about mobility as a platform as we deliver it in 2018 and beyond, but back to that headline…

If the car moves from a focused driving environment to an empty vessel bursting with promise, how do we fill our time and fulfil our potential? Well, you tap into the obvious first – social comms, localised information, entertainment (movies, music and gaming) and deliver the mobile office. But it’s in moving beyond this where we really tap into the benefits of a controlled environment.

I spent time with Renault recently, testing their autonomous SYMBIOZ EV. This performed on the expected levels – driving itself and in silence, but with the additional element of VR. Wearing a headset seamlessly built into your vehicle, displaying content that moves and turns in sync with the movement of the car doesn’t just immerse the occupants, but enhances the experience beyond that of a simple VR HMD. Control and comfort (both physical and psychological) are key ingredients to acceptance of VR as a viable medium. This is incredibly effective in a car.

So what content do we make?  I’ve long held the belief that we’ve neglected the psychological aspect of being human when designing a vehicle. Many people around the world use their cars as a personal and private space. A symbol of independence in an increasingly impersonal and overcrowded world. This naturally brings us to the elephant in the car – sex.

Drivers and passengers have sex in cars, but manufacturers refuse to publicly acknowledge this. As we head towards a world where we’ll be offered alternatives to ownership and ‘self-driving’, how will mobility brands entice their passengers in? They’ll need to offer comfort, personalisation and access to the things we all take for granted outside a vehicle.

So, admit it or not – sex happens. And it’s something that will increasingly occur in new virtual environments. Not to replace the real thing, but to enhance it, or extend the long distance (and potentially socially-driven) relationships.

In a data-hungry world, the connected car is only relevant if it’s actually connected. We demand this in our everyday lives and 2018 is a big year for building the foundations of the new mobility platform so we’re ready for the next technological revolution.

I’ve spent enough time with Huawei over the last 12 months to realise they’re poised to make this future platform a reality. They have a new partnership in place with PSA Group to connect vehicles to the outside world and each other but Huawei is once again playing its trump (small T) card with their future dominance of the 5G market.

I’m more than along for the ride with Huawei, I’ll be pushing for everything we hope for to become reality so we’re still driving the future, even if the cars are driving themselves.

If you'd like to hear more on the subject matter in this post, this Alexa Stop Podcast Innovation Social CES Special delivers.

Me, Myself and i: The Eternal Avatar

We talk about personality, be that for brands or individuals, as if it’s something that comes naturally. Actually, in an ever-growing digital environment where we face a multitude of platforms and networks, it’s all too easy to lose your voice in a maelstrom of white noise. 

If you believe Mark Zuckerberg, the future of VR is Social. Of course he’s going to say that with the backing of the world’s largest social network, but what does this mean?

Last week, Facebook revealed a set of much better looking avatars for their foray into social VR as part of their expanding Oculus lineup. It’s an important second step – the first being ‘Spaces’ earlier this year and other established networks such as vTime and Altspace offering a few customisable features to allow visitors to feel comfortable in their virtual skin.

Whether you want to accurately represent yourself or an ‘alternative you’, the audience needs to overcome the fact you can’t currently broadcast your own face thanks to the lump of plastic and a screen in the way, so let’s not get hung up on that. Think about the avatar itself and how it needs to become platform agnostic – not just across VR environments, but also into AR, regular digital screen content and even an audio signature.

We have yet to witness VR’s Pokemon moment as the platform still doesn’t fit into many people’s lives. It is taking hold for enterprise but consumers still couldn’t give a crap as it requires too much effort and is too easy to put down. This is why personalisation and realistic avatars are a vital step on the road to success.

The concept of lurking in alternate worlds and sharing quality time with others will be experienced by a mainstream audience when Stephen Spielberg brings Ready Player One to life in cinemas next year. Although HTC has plans for actual VR content, you won’t need to watch the film with a headset on so there will at least be more eyeballs on the VR lifestyle. Let’s see how many like the idea of the real thing.

I’ve been tackling the significance of avatars in general but they’re more of a branding exercise. What happens when you add real substance, with AI sitting behind the facade?

With a recent death in the family, mortality is something close to my heart right now. This was brought into focus a few weeks ago when I received a LinkedIn status message “Wish Matt a happy birthday” – from a colleague and friend who died in 2015. You could say he lives on through social channels but this isn't really true is it? 

I've pondered the social and emotional benefits of preserving VR snapshots in time with family members for future generations – those no longer with us or simply to remember magical moments with your children and loved ones. The true measure of technology is when it exists for a reason, rather than simply existing. 

We talk about Artificial Intelligence and automation stealing jobs from the rest of us but they'll be freeing up precious time for us to be more productive in other key areas. What if we use AI to deliver immortality? Sounds far-fetched, but it isn't. 

When we have perfected digital personalities, mimicking real individuals and 'thinking' as they do, why wouldn't the LinkedIn, Twitter or Facebook status of the future be delivered from beyond the grave?

Of course there are ethical and religious issues and a few technical hurdles to overcome, but I’m not suggesting we take control of someone else’s personality, rather it becomes a box-checking exercise to ‘live on’ or ‘delete persona’ beyond death. This throws up the question of whether erase means erase or we’re merely placing our personalities in a ‘recently deleted’ folder.

It’s easy to see how a grieving relative could be tempted to have one more conversation, or ask the questions you never seemed to find time for. Does this become a path to acceptance or a way to normalise post-life interaction? For some it will be a simple choice, others may decide on both.

Filming VR moments offers us a virtual time machine, with the ability to relive events as if we were there again, albeit passively. Add layers of interaction across multiple devices and platforms and you begin to see how this becomes about the persona, rather than the delivery mechanism – like real life.

In a deluge of indiscernible Fake News, a hacked personality in VR will offer the ultimate brain-washing medium so there are some enormous hurdles plus new levels of digital encryption and authentication required.

We could potentially face a transitionary period where we’re testing AI avatars as a direct replacement for genuine social accounts to see if audiences notice the difference. It’s these standards that bots and personal assistants need to strive for, proving this research is essential.

Avatars are the ringtones of the future and will be a huge growth market over the next decade. Control the supply of these and you own the gateway to digital personality, the most comprehensive database on earth. You’ll make yourself useful in a world of useless and provide a service as a brand or build a business driven by data, insight and creativity.

I plan to add more substance to this subject over the next few months through the written word and on the global conference circuit. It deserves the widest possible audience.