VR baby hands change your perspective, utility will drive consumer AR | Finn Staber on The AR Minute

The AR Minute with Nathan C
Season 2, Episode 7

Making information about the world around us more accessible with real-time spatial computing is going to make consumer adoption of AR take off, notes Chicken Waffle CEO, Finn Staber in this fast, wild ride of The AR Minute with Nathan C.

“I can’t wait to walk around with eight screens of information at my disposal, pulling things up when I need them. Especially with smart glasses, I see the utility as a big driver for adoption (of XR tools).”

Imagining a future with XR glasses or smart lenses, the large conference experience could be enhanced so that guests could consult a virtual LinkedIn preview hovering over the heads of people they’ve just met or “buy now” buttons near a pair of epic boots on the subway.

You need to look no further than the acclaimed Baby Hands series of VR games to know the team at Chicken Waffle are adept at building engaging cross-platform games and experiences in virtual reality. Using unlikely perspectives, wildly interactive environments, deep-cut cultural references, and appealing to a gamer’s curiosity proves a winning recipe for this accomplished XR studio.

We quickly take this episode from games and entertainment use cases in VR to get into the promise of an XR enabled future and the careful nuance needed when addressing crucial issues like ethics and privacy in the metaverse.

When you talk about “ethics” in technology, you’re immediately faced with the question - “Whose ethics are we talking about? Does this idea serve everyone?”

If the same XR data and artificial intelligence (AI) that can proactively identify and prevent workplace accidents can also be used to invade worker privacy and manipulate user behavior, we must work vigilantly to ensure that the tools we make are benefitting society.

There’s a lot of work needed to reach this vision of the metaverse, but it’s possible if we use the research available to us, continue to have the hard conversations, and keep each other accountable in forums like AWE.
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Special thanks to our Season Two series sponsor, @AWE for creating an environment where “XR business thrives,” ideas flow freely, and the global community comes together to push this industry forward.

Since 2010, over 5,000 XR companies and 60,000 professionals have come together at AWE events to learn from the brightest industry minds, to experience cutting-edge technologies first-hand, to challenge each other with crucial conversations, and to build the connections that drive a diverse and vibrant community and ecosystem.

Learn more at awexr.com

The AR Minute with Nathan C is back for season 2 of no-fluff, no-jargon interviews that demystify the worlds of AR, VR, XR and whatever else we’re calling metaverse technology these days.
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The AR Minute brings you into the conversation with the people building the metaverse—discussing the real work and challenges of innovative technologies, rather than focusing on the technical specs and future hype.

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