How virtual is your reality?
Virtual Reality (VR) is changing considerably the way we feel experiences. VR applications encompass areas such as cinema, live sports and music concerts.
In order to boost your interest and familiarity on the topic, I have selected what I believe to be the most inspiring TED talks on virtual reality.
Hope they inspire you!
1. Chris Milk: How virtual reality can create the ultimate empathy machine
Description: Chris Milk uses cutting edge technology to produce astonishing films that delight and enchant. But for Milk, the human story is the driving force behind everything he does. In this short, charming talk, he shows some of his collaborations with musicians including Kanye West and Arcade Fire, and describes his latest, mind-bending experiments with virtual reality.
2. Chris Milk: The birth of virtual reality as an art form
Description: Chris Milk uses innovative technologies to make personal, interactive, human stories. In this talk, he traces his relationship to music and art, from the first moment he remembers putting on headphones to his current work creating breakthrough virtual reality projects that transport viewers to a new time and place. VR is the last medium for storytelling, he says, because it closes the gap between audience and storyteller. To illustrate, he brought the TED audience together in the world’s largest collective VR experience.
3. Michael Bodekaer: This virtual lab will revolutionize science class
Description: Virtual reality is no longer part of some distant future, and it’s not just for gaming and entertainment anymore. Michael Bodekaer wants to use it to make quality education more accessible. In this refreshing talk, he demos an idea that could revolutionize the way we teach science in schools.
4. Eric Whitacre: Virtueller Chor Live (in German)
Description (German): Komponist und Dirigent Eric Whitacre hat Millionen inspiriert durch die Zusammenführung von “virtuellen Chören”, also Sänger aus vielen Ländern in Video zusammengebastelt. Jetzt, zum ersten Mal überhaupt, schafft er dieses Erlebnis in Echtzeit, mit 32 Sängerinnen und Sängern aus der ganzen Welt, die durch Skype die Bühne teilen mit einem Chor aus Sängern von drei örtlichen Colleges, für eine gewaltige Aufführung von Whitacres “Cloudburst”, basierend auf einem Gedicht von Octavio Paz.
5. Meron Gribetz: A glimpse of the future through an augmented reality headset
Description: What if technology could connect us more deeply with our surroundings instead of distracting us from the real world? With the Meta 2, an augmented reality headset that makes it possible for users to see, grab and move holograms just like physical objects, Meron Gribetz hopes to extend our senses through a more natural machine. Join Gribetz as he takes the TED stage to demonstrate the reality-shifting Meta 2 for the first time.
6. Alex Kipman: The dawn of the age of holograms
Description: Alex Kipman wants to create a new reality — one that puts people, not devices, at the center of everything. With HoloLens, the first fully untethered holographic computer, Kipman brings 3D holograms into the real world, enhancing our perceptions so that we can touch and feel digital content. In this magical demo, explore a future without screens, where technology has the power to transport us to worlds beyond our own.
7. Phil Kauffold: The Future of Virtual Reality
Description: Phil Kauffold takes us through his perspectives on the future of virtual reality gaming and technology. Phillip Kauffold studied Animation at Art Institute of California San Francisco. He got his start in video games working on Tomb Raider: Anniversary at Crystal Dynamics. He eventually managed the cinematics pipeline, which lead to a whole new career path where he could use both his artistic and technical skills. Phil started teaching character and creature rigging at the Academy of Art University in San Francisco in 2012. He continues to work on multiple virtual reality projects.
8. Zenka: Will virtual and augmented reality move us into the knowledge age?
Description: Zenka’s sculptures and street art paint a picture of where we are in time and where we are headed based on new developments in virtual and augmented reality. Finding new ways to visualize accelerating change begs the question: how do we prepare for fast change in the knowledge age?
Final Thoughts
And don’t forget to keep checking our virtual reality section. We’ll be posting there findings from our studies and showcasing interesting content.
Meanwhile, enjoy the virtual space!
