Voices of VR

#1385: OpenXR 1.1 Release Promotes Extensions into Core & Marks Yearly Release Cycle for Prominent XR Industry Open Standard

April 15, 2024 14:34 - 51 minutes - 36 MB

The OpenXR 1.1 minor release comes out today, which moves some of the more commonly used extensions into core and it also marks a new Khronos Group commitment to a yearly release cycle. It's been nearly five years since the initial release of OpenXR 1.0 on July 29, 2019, and Khronos Group President Neil Trevett tells me that it's been one of the most successful open standards they've ever published, and I had a chance to catch up with Trevett and OpenXR working group chair Alfredo Muniz to ta...

#1384: 2019 Flashback to OpenXR 1.0 Release at SIGGRAPH

April 15, 2024 14:23 - 20 minutes - 14.3 MB

I'm digging into my unpublished interview archives backlog to publish this conversation with Khronos Group President Neil Trevett marking the 1.0 release of OpenXR that happened during SIGGRAPH in July 2019. We talk about the intention of OpenXR as a specification, and I figured that it's worth looking back at the evolution of the specification as it has become quite a prominent open standard within the XR industry. Be sure to also see episodes #1382 that I just published from GDC 2018, #507...

#1383: 2018 Flashback to OpenXR First Look at GDC

April 15, 2024 14:13 - 33 minutes - 23.1 MB

OpenXR 1.1 is being released today, and so I'm digging into my archive of unpublished interviews to go back GDC 2018 when OpenXR working group chairman Nick Whiting presented some of the first information about the OpenXR specification, which wouldn't have it's initial release over a year later on July 29, 2019 (see episode #1384 for more on that). I'll also be publishing an update on OpenXR 1.1 in episode #1385, and so these next three episodes should provide a pretty comprehensive look at t...

#1382: Interactive Generative AI Storytelling Installation “The Golden Key” Wins Top Prize at SXSW Leveraging Archetypal Folklore Motifs + Links to SXSW 2024 Coverage

April 04, 2024 12:38 - 1 hour - 42.7 MB

I interviewed The Golden Key co-directors Matthew Niederhauser & Marc Da Costa remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. Here is all of my coverage of projects in and around SXSW XR Experience 2024: #1360: Sneak Peak of SXSW XR Experience Projects, Events, & Lounges with Programmer Blake Kammerdiener #1362: “The Tent” Tabletop AR Mixes Photogrammetry, Volumetric Capture, & Theatre in Modern-Day Fairytale about Unhoused Crisis #1363: DIY 360 V...

#1382: Interactive Generative AI Storytelling Installation “The Golden Key” Wins Top Prize at SXSW Leveraging Archetypal Folklore Motifs

April 04, 2024 12:38 - 1 hour - 42.7 MB

I interviewed The Golden Key co-directors Matthew Niederhauser & Marc Da Costa remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1381: “Soul Paint” Wins SXSW Special Jury Prize for Innovative Body Mapping Technique to Spatially Draw Your Emotions

April 04, 2024 12:36 - 54 minutes - 38 MB

I interviewed Soul Paint co-directors Sarah Ticho & Niki Smit remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1380: “Reimagined Volume III: Young Thang” Adapts a Nigerian Folktale while Refining the Grammar of Spatial Storytelling

April 04, 2024 12:34 - 1 hour - 43.1 MB

I interviewed Reimagined Volume III: Young Thang director Melissa Joyner and co-directors Julie Cavaliere & Michaela Ternasky-Holland remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1379: “Maya: The Birth of a Superhero” Evolves Storytelling Grammar with Magical Realism, Dream Logic, & Interactive Embodiment

April 04, 2024 12:32 - 59 minutes - 41.5 MB

I interviewed Maya: The Birth of a Superhero co-directors Poulomi Basu & CJ Clarke remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1378: Anagram’s Mental Health Series Continues with Preview of “Impulse” Mixed Reality Story about ADHD

April 04, 2024 12:30 - 48 minutes - 33.8 MB

I interviewed Impulse (Preview) co-directors May Abdalla & Barry Gene Murphy remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1378: Anagram’s Mental Health Series Continues with Preview of “Impulse” Mixed Reality Story abou ADHD

April 04, 2024 12:30 - 48 minutes - 33.8 MB

I interviewed Impulse (Preview) co-directors May Abdalla & Barry Gene Murphy remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1377: Immersive Producer Katayoun Dibamehr’s Journey to Becoming an Award-Winning Producer at Floréal

April 04, 2024 12:26 - 48 minutes - 33.9 MB

I interviewed Floréal director Katayoun Dibamehr during Tribeca 2023 about her journey into becoming an award-winning immersive producer. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1376: Indie Musician Roman Rappak’s Annual Mixed Reality Performance Experiments & Expansion into “Detachment” Immersive Story

April 04, 2024 12:24 - 1 hour - 42.8 MB

I interviewed Detachment director Roman Rappak remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1375: Unique 2D Hand-Drawn Animation Technique with “Tadpole” Leads to a Provocative Immersive Story

April 04, 2024 12:22 - 46 minutes - 32.4 MB

I interviewed Tadpole director Diane Catsburrow Linnet remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1374: Telling Stories of Indigenous Leaders with OurWorlds.io’s “Chief” on Apple Vision Pro

April 04, 2024 12:21 - 50 minutes - 34.8 MB

I interviewed Chief co-director Catherine Eng remotely after the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1373: Interactive Biopic Doc on Opera Singer “Joseph Rouleau: Final Encore” that Mixes Modalities

April 04, 2024 12:17 - 43 minutes - 30.3 MB

I interviewed Joseph Rouleau: Final Encore co-directors Émilie Rosas & Colas Wohlfahrt remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1372: “Last We Left Off” 360 Video Plays Switches Between D&D Imaginal Realms with Physical Reality, & Exhibiting with Apple Vision Pro

April 04, 2024 12:14 - 32 minutes - 22.6 MB

I interviewed Last We Left Off director Connor Illsley remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1371: “Pirate Queen: The Forgotten Legend” Fuses Escape Room Mechanics with Environmental Storytelling & Embodied Gameplay

April 04, 2024 12:11 - 53 minutes - 36.7 MB

I interviewed Pirate Queen: The Forgotten Legend director Eloise Singer & writer Maja Bodenstein a few days after the launch of their game on March 7th. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1370: “Madame Pirate: Code of Conduct” Blends Spatial Representations to Tell the Story of Most Powerful Pirate in History

April 04, 2024 12:08 - 43 minutes - 30.5 MB

I interviewed Madame Pirate: Code of Conduct co-directors Morgan Ommer & Dan-Chi Huang remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1369: Interactive UN Doc “Dreaming of Lebanon” Blends Interactive Oral History, 360 Video, and Speculative Worldbuilding

April 04, 2024 12:06 - 37 minutes - 26.2 MB

I interviewed Dreaming of Lebanon co-directors Martin Waehlish & Cynthia Sawma remotely after SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1368: “Walk to Westerbork” Immersive Doc Shares Remarkable Story about a Dutch Jewish Holocaust Survivor Who Defied the Odds

April 04, 2024 12:03 - 55 minutes - 38.4 MB

I interviewed Walk to Westerbork director Mary Matheson remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1367: “Escape to Shanghai” Immersive Doc Tells the Story of Jewish Refugees who Fled to China to Escape the Holocaust

April 04, 2024 11:39 - 53 minutes - 37 MB

I interviewed Escape to Shanghai director Charlotte Mikkelborg remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1366: Electric South’s Ingrid Kopp on Increasing Access to Immersive Production Resources to African XR Creators + Tribeca 2019 Program

April 04, 2024 11:37 - 41 minutes - 28.6 MB

I interviewed Electric South director Ingrid Kopp during Tribeca Immersive 2019. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1365: We Speak Their Names in Hushed Tones Explores Impact of Migration on Families Left Behind in Poetic Immersive Still Life & Audio Documentary

April 04, 2024 11:35 - 46 minutes - 32 MB

I interviewed We Speak Their Names in Hushed Tones director Omoregie Osakpolor remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1365: “We Speak Their Names in Hushed Tones” Explores Impact of Migration on Families Left Behind in Poetic Immersive Still Life & Audio Documentary

April 04, 2024 11:35 - 46 minutes - 32 MB

I interviewed We Speak Their Names in Hushed Tones director Omoregie Osakpolor remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1364: Step into the Movies with “The Vortex Cinema” Blending Cinematic Storytelling, Gaming, & Escape Room Mechanics

April 04, 2024 11:32 - 58 minutes - 40.3 MB

I interviewed The Vortex Cinema director Max Sacker as well as actors Christian Stotz & Brian Chase remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1363: DIY 360 Video for Perspective-Taking and Investigating Murder of Trans Woman in “Her Name Was Gisberta”

April 04, 2024 11:29 - 1 hour - 45.8 MB

I interviewed Her Name Was Gisberta director Sérgio Galvão Roxo remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1362: “The Tent” Tabletop AR Mixes Photogrammetry, Volumetric Capture, & Theatre in Modern-Day Fairytale about Unhoused Crisis

April 04, 2024 11:19 - 50 minutes - 34.8 MB

I interviewed The Tent creator Rory Mitchell remotely ahead of the SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1362: The Tent Tabletop AR Mixes Photogrammetry, Volumetric Capture, & Theatre in Modern-Day Fairytale about Unhoused Crisis

April 04, 2024 11:19 - 50 minutes - 34.8 MB

I interviewed The Tent creator Rory Mitchell remotely during SXSW XR Experience 2024. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1361: Agog Immersive Media Institute Launches to Help Social Good Orgs Leverage XR

March 11, 2024 19:56 - 53 minutes - 37 MB

The Agog Immersive Media Institute officially launched today by Grist-founder Chip Giller and philanthropist / investor Wendy Schmit. They describe Agog as "a groundbreaking initiative at the intersection of technology, communications, and social impact. Agog, a philanthropic organization, will help creators and nonprofit leaders harness the power of extended reality (XR) technologies to spur positive social transformation, opening new avenues for empathy, understanding, and activism." I had...

1360: Sneak Peak of SXSW XR Experience Projects, Events, & Lounges with Programmer Blake Kammerdiener

March 08, 2024 20:54 - 44 minutes - 31 MB

I had a chance to speak with Blake Kammerdiener, the lead programmer of the SXSW XR Experience selection to get a sneak peak of the 36 projects that are being featured this year (14 projects in the XR Experience Competition, 18 projects in the XR Experience Spotlight, and 4 XR Experience Special Events). The XR Experience Exhibition will be running from Sunday March 10 to Tuesday March 12 from 11a to 6p CDT. New this year to the Exhibition Floor will be sponsor booths on the main exhibition o...

#1359: Landmark Anthropological Field Study of VR with “In the Land of the Unreal” author Lisa Messeri

March 07, 2024 15:05 - 1 hour - 71.4 MB

Yale Anthropologist Lisa Messeri spent a year doing field work in Los Angeles in 2018 studying the political ecology of the VR community, and will be releasing her landmark book called In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles on Friday, March 8th. It's the best book about the culture of VR that I've read so far as it is pulling in many insights from Science and Technology Studies (STS), anthropology, social sciences, sci fi, pop culture, and philosophy. Making c...

#1358: Reflecting on Location-Based Entertainment VR in 2018 with Joanna Popper

March 07, 2024 14:19 - 33 minutes - 23.3 MB

Flashback to 2018 with Joanna Popper talking about the state of Location-Based VR. Popper is featured in the 7th chapter of Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri's In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles field study conducted in 2018. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1357: Jacki Morie’s Scent Collar and History of VR from VRLA 2017

March 07, 2024 14:18 - 33 minutes - 23.5 MB

Flashback to VRLA 2017 with Jacki Morie talking about her patented Scent Collar and VR history. Morie is featured in the 6th chapter of Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri's In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles field study conducted in 2018. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1356: Origin Story for Embodied Labs with Carrie Shaw from VRLA 2018

March 07, 2024 14:17 - 25 minutes - 17.9 MB

Flashback to VRLA 2018 with Carrie Shaw talking about the founding story of Embodied Labs, which provides VR training to care givers. Shaw is featured in the 5th chapter of Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri's In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles field study conducted in 2018. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon.z Music: Fatality

#1355: Reflecting on the Technicolor Experience Center & Mars Home Planet with Marcie Jastrow

March 07, 2024 14:16 - 34 minutes - 23.7 MB

Flashback to SXSW 2019 with Marcie Jastrow talking about the Technicolor Experience Center, and the Mars Home Planet location-based experience. Jastrow is featured in the 3rd chapter of Yale anthropologist Lisa Messeri's In the Land of the Unreal: Virtual and Other Realities in Los Angeles field study conducted in 2018. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1354: Mission Responsible Panel Discussion with Polys Awards Ombudsperson of the Year Winners

March 06, 2024 19:49 - 1 hour - 42.1 MB

The Polys Awards brought together all four winners of the Ombudsperson of the Year Award for a panel discussion in Engage XR on Human Rights Day, December 10, 2023, to talk about the tech policy and ethical implications of XR technologies. The panel included myself (2020 winner) along with Avi Bar-Zeev (2021 winner), Brittan Heller (2022 winner), and Micaela Mantegna (2023 winner). This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1353: “Our Next Reality” Book Debates Future of XR + AI, and Speculations of Superintelligence Promises & Perils

March 03, 2024 09:45 - 1 hour - 75.9 MB

The book Our Next Reality: How the AI-powered Metaverse Will Reshape the World is structured as a debate between Alvin Wang Graylin and Louis Rosenberg, who each have over 30 years of experience in XR and AI. Graylin embodies the eternal optimist and leans towards techno-utopian views while Rosenberg voices the more skeptical perspectives while leaning more towards cautious optimism and acknowledging the privacy hazards, control and alignment risks, as well as the ethical and moral dilemmas. ...

#1352: “Our Next Reality” Book Debates Future of XR + AI, and Speculations of Superintelligence Promises & Perils

March 03, 2024 09:45 - 1 hour - 75.9 MB

The book Our Next Reality: How the AI-powered Metaverse Will Reshape the World is structured as a debate between Alvin Wang Graylin and Louis Rosenberg, who each have over 30 years of experience in XR and AI. Graylin embodies the eternal optimist and leans towards techno-utopian views while Rosenberg voices the more skeptical perspectives while leaning more towards cautious optimism and acknowledging the privacy hazards, control and alignment risks, as well as the ethical and moral dilemmas. ...

#1352: Felix & Paul Studios Secures Funding for Next LBE VR + Apple Vision Pro’s Focus on Entertainment

February 23, 2024 18:13 - 52 minutes - 36.1 MB

On February 13, 2024, Felix & Paul studios announced that they had secured multi-million dollar financing for their next Location-Based Entertainment (LBE) VR experience that was their "most ambitious project yet" and based upon a brand-new IP that's set to launch in 2025. They had such a big success with their previous LBE of The Infinite (based upon documentary footage shot over the course of 2.5 years on the International Space Station) that they realized that LBE experiences were going t...

#1351: “Stranger Things VR” Breakdown of Story, Gameplay, & Design Process with Tenderclaws Co-Founders

February 22, 2024 18:20 - 57 minutes - 39.6 MB

Stranger Things VR is part action adventure, psychological thriller, and deep dive character study of Vecna, who the main villain of the Stranger Things tv show introduced in Season 4. I have only seen Season 1, and so there there parts where I had to watch a recap to get a bit more context but it definitely can still work as a standalone piece. Seasons 1 and 4 are apparently the ones that give the most context to this VR experience, but there are also other references that from throughout al...

#1350: Healium Developer Challenges Meta’s Open Ecosystem Claims Being Stuck in App Lab for 3 Years While Launching on Day One for Apple Vision Pro

February 21, 2024 23:19 - 1 hour - 43.2 MB

Last Wednesday, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg posted a review of the Apple Vision Pro on his Instagram page where at the end he made the claim that Meta intends on being a much more open platform and ecosystem than Apple. While Meta has pushed forward standards like OpenXR and has an industry-leading implementation of WebXR, their curation strategy on the Quest store has been highly curated and much more similar to a closed, walled garden strategy of a gaming console. According to my informal coun...

1349: Building Juno for YouTube visionOS App with iOS developer Christian Selig

February 15, 2024 20:00 - 1 hour - 42.7 MB

One of the more popular apps for the Apple Vision Pro is Juno for YouTube, which iOS developer Christian Selig created in a week using the emulator to have ready in time for the February 2nd launch. Mark Gurman reported on January 18th that Spotify and YouTube were joining Neflix in not having native visionOS apps at launch, and Selig saw an opportunity to port his previous YouTube API integrations from his Apollo Reddit app into a native app. I caught up with Selig on the same day that he pu...

#1348: The Journey from VRvana to Apple Vision Pro with co-founder Bert Nepveu

February 09, 2024 22:41 - 1 hour - 61.6 MB

Bert Nepveu is a co-founder of VRvana, which made a enterprise mixed reality headset that was acquired by Apple in 2017 and provided a number of key innovations that have now shipped with the Apple Vision Pro. I had a chance to sit down with Nepveu to capture a comprehensive founder's journey from the beginning inspiration in 2005, the first prototype in 2013, the failed Kickstarter in 2014 after the Crescent Bay prototype at Oculus Connect 1 stole their thunder, and then their pivot into mor...

#1347: One of the Grandfathers of VR Tom Furness on the Origins of Virtual Reality

February 08, 2024 08:52 - 36 minutes - 24.7 MB

Tom Furness has been working on virtual reality technologies since 1966, but most of his early work with the United States Air Force has remained fairly secret (see my previous interviews in episodes #245 and #347). Ivan Sutherland and Mort Heileg are often cited as early VR pioneers, but Furness was also working secretly at Wright Patterson Air Force base on the first helmet-mounted displays, visually-coupled systems, and eventually The Super Cockpit. It wasn't until he was given permission ...

#1346: Apple Vision Pro First Impressions with Road to VR’s Ben Lang & the Comparisons to Meta Quest

February 06, 2024 19:57 - 1 hour - 50.6 MB

The Apple Vision Pro launched on February 2nd, 2024, and I feel like it represents an inflection point in the XR industry where the screen resolution is high enough for it to be used as a viable screen replacement, the eye-tracking combined with pinch gestures is a paradigm shift in human-computer interaction reaching new levels of speed and intuitiveness to get into productivity flow states, and the software ecosystem of 600 visionOS apps with over one million 2D iOS and iPadOS apps makes a ...

#1345: AI-Driven Poetry Performance & Decolonization Workshop at Sundance New Frontier with “Being (the Digital Griot)”

January 23, 2024 20:44 - 51 minutes - 35.6 MB

I interviewed Being (the Digital Griot) creator Rashaad Newsome remotely during the Sundance 2024 Festival. See more context in the rough transcript below. This is a listener-supported podcast through the Voices of VR Patreon. Music: Fatality

#1344: “Turbulence: Jamais Vu” Wins IDFA DocLab Immersive Non-Fiction Award with Embodied Mixed Reality Doc on Depersonalization & Derealization

January 23, 2024 20:41 - 57 minutes - 39.8 MB

I interviewed Turbulence: Jamais Vu creators Ben Joseph Andrews & Emma Roberts at IDFA DocLab 2023. See more context in the rough transcript below. Here are my 19 episodes from IDFA DocLab 2023: #1328: Kickoff of IDFA DocLab 2023: Natalie's Trifecta is a Virtual Tour of Natalie Paneng's Digital Art, Identity, & Imagination #1325: End of Tung-Yen Chou’s Gay Sauna Trilogy with "Traversing the Mist" #1327: "Voice in My Head" Remixes Your Inner Monologue with AI #1329: Mixed Reality "PHANTOM...

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