Evolutionary tree of tech (Authors-Midjourney) There is no shortage of diagrams that purport to explain the evolution of technology in society. One fun diagram in the academic study of emerging technology is Geelâs (2002) âdynamic multi-level perspective on [Technology Transitions].â The diagram sure beats popular industry sources like the Gartner Hype Cycle diagram in terms…
In October 2022, Forbes reported that 100,000 people had stopped using Metaâs social VR app, Horizon Worlds. This wasnât surprising, given that Metaâs employees apparently weren’t using it either. In internal memos, Vishal Shah, Metaâs VP of Metaverse, reprimanded employees for not using (and not âfalling in loveâ with) the app, arguing that âthe aggregate…
AR and VR intersect (and often conflict) with expectations of privacy in public space in ways that will only become more salient over time. There is a varied and sustained engagement with the topic in the AR literature, which act as sophisticated surveillance systems. As Mark Pesce notes â â[f]ar less a new beginning than…
Most people who spend significant time with virtual reality become familiar with the queasiness that VR experiences can leave you with long after you remove the headset. In my case, I can locate this feeling in a very precise spot in my stomach: a knotted, vaguely poisoned sensation that sometimes takes hours to wear off….
Last year, I wrote reviews of Reality Media: Augmented and Virtual Reality by Jay David Bolter, Maria Engberg, and Blair MacIntyre (2021), and The Aesthetics of Virtual Reality by Grant Tavinor (2021). While the books aim to do different things, a shared feature is that they each dedicate a chapter to media genealogy. Both delve…
Anyone who studies or talks about augmented reality and virtual reality technologies will inevitably get asked the question: but how is that augmented/mixed/virtual reality? Isnât that more AR than VR? How one talks about these technologies is continually evolving. With every application/device that is released a version of this debate gets kicked up again, whether…
Inevitably, a big 2023 story will be Appleâs release of their long-rumored XR headset. For years, news and tech websites have published minutiae of the project, quoting supply chain analystsâ claims it will be âthe most complicated product Apple has ever designedâ as well as âa game-changer for the headset industry.â While fans may be…
Fifteen years ago, a grad student named danah doyd was finishing off her dissertation titled Taken Out of Context: American Teen Sociality in Networked Publics exploring how teens were leveraging newly forming social media to live their lives in novel ways; boyd spotted people and publics coming of age in new ways. Itâs useful to…
We have no way of knowing exactly what form the metaverse will eventually take but that doesnât mean we canât start regulating it. What we know about the metaverse The term metaverse might invoke visions of gaming platforms and virtual worlds in which people socialise in real time as unique digital avatars. Platforms such as…
Both augmented reality and virtual reality have increasingly pushed to become key players in the workplace. AR has had a much longer history within the workplace, particularly as an assistive technology in manufacturing industries. There is a body of research in the field of Human Computer Interaction (HCI) that presents experimental cases â with Funk…