[Music]
so what if I was to tell you that as
humans we disregard most of the
information that’s thrown out of our
brains every single day it’s not that
shocking but let me go one step further
what would you think if I told you that
one of the big reasons for that is that
that information coming at us on a
day-to-day basis is being fed to us in a
way that our brains are pre conditioned
to ignore and to disregard it and what
if I was to go one step further than
that and say if we corrected for that we
could open up a whole new world of
experiences every day the people that
otherwise would simply just ignore them
and let them go unexperienced now I know
some people are thinking about that and
saying no way there’s no way I can be
that tuned out in the world no way well
let’s do a quick exercise to illustrate
this point take a look at the picture
behind me how is this picture make you
feel what does this picture make you
feel it’s a difficult question to answer
you don’t have much in the way of
context around this photo you don’t know
who these people are you may not know
where this photo was taken or when the
circumstances around it and because of
that it’s very difficult to make any
type of meaningful connection with the
people here this is simply just a
two-dimensional photo on a
two-dimensional screen but if you think
about it I mean really think about it
this is how we get most of our
information in the world today if you’re
like me probably carrying around a cell
phone in your pocket or use your
computer to browse the internet or you
watch television like all of us do these
two-dimensional screens are our gateway
to the world they’re all around us
they’re how we connect today this is
challenging for us as humans on a very
basic level
and what do I mean by that well
two-dimensional screens by definition
I’m going to be very limiting and I’m
gonna bet a lot of people in this room
have experienced this for themselves but
you may have not even noticed it for
example maybe you used a video
conference program like Skype or
FaceTime when you couldn’t be with
family maybe you were separated by
distance or you couldn’t make it to a
birthday party you may have caught
yourself saying something like I wish I
could be there or I wish you were here
with me in a way that’s us admitting
that we cannot connect and engage with
the content on the other side of that
screen in the way we need to that screen
is separating us from that emotional
connection that we need to feel complete
as humans today we have the Internet in
the media speeding information to us
faster than ever before but our ability
to experience that content in the way it
was intended by the producer the creator
of that content is limited this is where
virtual reality has the potential to
help us make a significant step forward
in connecting with each other in
connecting with different content
different people all around the world
how’s it going to do that well let me
explain it to you this way first what
it’s going to do is virtual reality is
going to add a third dimension now
that’s one of several things that has to
happen to bridge the difference between
a two-dimensional screen and a
real-world experience but it’s a big
step forward why is that think about a
memory a powerful one something that has
significance to you you got it
if you start to boil down that memory
now you’re gonna start to get pieces of
context around it you remember what the
weather was like that day maybe it was
raining maybe it was sunny you remember
who the people were that were around you
you remember the experiences you may
even remember some very finite details
such as what was the color of the walls
or the floors the ceilings things that
are around you most importantly you’re
gonna remember how you felt you will
never forget how you felt all of these
aspects of context tied together to give
that memory power significance we as
humans do not focus on that single data
point at the middle we think about it
we understand context around it what is
happening around us if I look left or if
I look right I remember all of these
things together it tells me how I feel
this is how us as humans experience the
world today and this is how
two-dimensional screens filter us out
from the world prevent us from making
this critical human connection let’s go
back for a minute now to that photo we
talked about just a few minutes ago now
let me show it to you now in a slightly
different way so what I’m gonna do here
there’s gonna put on this virtual
reality headset and the first thing I’m
gonna do is I’m gonna start looking
around one of the first things you’re
gonna notice is that I can start to get
a sense of what’s outside of the field
of vision
I can tell a little rural area and if I
start to let this play now
I can start to pick up other elements of
context I’m in a village I can see how
people interact and the longer I stay
here the more I’m gonna pick up of this
I can start to get a sense of what life
is like in this village I can tell it’s
a warm day and I can almost start to
understand what it’s like to be here
even though I’m not physically there
I’ve only been here a couple of minutes
but if I was to stay there longer I
could pick up a lot more context a lot
more understanding this video is called
I’m eight it was part of Bill Gates
travel blog it’s shot in 360 video
format which is a much more immersive
content format than simply 2d standard
formats that you’ve all seen on video
before why as Bill Gates wanted to share
what it was like as much as possible to
physically be there to look around to
pick up all those elements of context
all of those things that made that
memory so powerful that we talked about
just a few minutes ago can now start to
get replicated in this experience it
brings you much closer to the experience
than simply if I was watching it on
television or what not high-quality
virtual reality content is content that
runs at 60 frames per second or better
feel the vision of 120 degrees or wider
with a resolution of 1080p and these are
just rough numbers this isn’t a hard and
fast rule but somewhere in this range
something really interesting happens
somewhere in this range your brain no
longer distinguishes between this
simulated image and real life now that’s
significant why is that significant well
people who are experiencing high-quality
virtual reality content starts to
experience subconscious layers of the
brain that don’t happen when you’re
watching on television or
something basically bad the
fight-or-flight response starts to get
engaged emotion spatial orientation
balance if you’ve ever experienced
virtual reality you’ll know that your
brain is telling you you’re moving in a
direction or you’re looking at a certain
way but in reality you’re standing
completely stationary in this way your
brain is starting to understand what
this image is or what this experience is
but it’s interpreting it in a way you
would experience a human interaction in
the real world virtual reality can be
used for a lot of different things there
are so many use cases in the world today
about what virtuality can be used for
empathy cross-cultural experiences think
about it anytime you’ve been told you
had to have been there or I just can’t
explain in words and why is that
that’s because virtual reality is very
experiential it’s a technology that has
to be experienced for example I can
stand here and I can try to explain to
you what it’s like to fly think about it
this way I can stand her all day but no
matter how hard I try no matter how
eloquently or how detailed I try to
explain what it’s like to be off the
ground my words are not going to
register in your brain in the same way
as being physically off the ground that
same sensation doesn’t get activated by
simply telling you words and we
understand this but we don’t know why we
understand this because we say things
like I just couldn’t explain it you had
to have been there but now we can go
there now we can get to experience like
walking a mile in somebody else’s shoes
the proverbial experience just like I
was showing you for a minute ago
watching this little village in rural
Nigeria if I was watching television I
probably wouldn’t be able to think about
what that life is like but being in the
middle of it have it operate around me
starts to register on different levels
um
and starts to get engaged it starts to
become more human there’s a lot of
debate in the world today about if
virtual reality is the right tool for
this this is a great debate I can tell
you right now this is not going to be
settled with words for the very reason I
just explained before virtual reality
has to be experienced to be understood I
simply can’t tell you how it’s going to
help us in the future so here’s my
challenge to you today don’t prejudge a
virtual reality is simply a new gaming
system or a new way to watch movies or
and just another way to tune out the
rest of the world think of it as a way
to tune in the rest of the world to
connect with an experience that you may
have only read about or that maybe
you’ve seen on TV but you want to
understand it more you’re just not
getting as much as you need from a new
story or from a publication somewhere so
experienced virtual reality for yourself
but more importantly experience virtual
reality as a way to get in touch with
the rest of the world and in doing so
make the world more human thank you very
much
[Applause]
so what if I was to tell you that as
humans we disregard most of the
information that’s thrown out of our
brains every single day it’s not that
shocking but let me go one step further
what would you think if I told you that
one of the big reasons for that is that
that information coming at us on a
day-to-day basis is being fed to us in a
way that our brains are pre conditioned
to ignore and to disregard it and what
if I was to go one step further than
that and say if we corrected for that we
could open up a whole new world of
experiences every day the people that
otherwise would simply just ignore them
and let them go unexperienced now I know
some people are thinking about that and
saying no way there’s no way I can be
that tuned out in the world no way well
let’s do a quick exercise to illustrate
this point take a look at the picture
behind me how is this picture make you
feel what does this picture make you
feel it’s a difficult question to answer
you don’t have much in the way of
context around this photo you don’t know
who these people are you may not know
where this photo was taken or when the
circumstances around it and because of
that it’s very difficult to make any
type of meaningful connection with the
people here this is simply just a
two-dimensional photo on a
two-dimensional screen but if you think
about it I mean really think about it
this is how we get most of our
information in the world today if you’re
like me probably carrying around a cell
phone in your pocket or use your
computer to browse the internet or you
watch television like all of us do these
two-dimensional screens are our gateway
to the world they’re all around us
they’re how we connect today this is
challenging for us as humans on a very
basic level
and what do I mean by that well
two-dimensional screens by definition
I’m going to be very limiting and I’m
gonna bet a lot of people in this room
have experienced this for themselves but
you may have not even noticed it for
example maybe you used a video
conference program like Skype or
FaceTime when you couldn’t be with
family maybe you were separated by
distance or you couldn’t make it to a
birthday party you may have caught
yourself saying something like I wish I
could be there or I wish you were here
with me in a way that’s us admitting
that we cannot connect and engage with
the content on the other side of that
screen in the way we need to that screen
is separating us from that emotional
connection that we need to feel complete
as humans today we have the Internet in
the media speeding information to us
faster than ever before but our ability
to experience that content in the way it
was intended by the producer the creator
of that content is limited this is where
virtual reality has the potential to
help us make a significant step forward
in connecting with each other in
connecting with different content
different people all around the world
how’s it going to do that well let me
explain it to you this way first what
it’s going to do is virtual reality is
going to add a third dimension now
that’s one of several things that has to
happen to bridge the difference between
a two-dimensional screen and a
real-world experience but it’s a big
step forward why is that think about a
memory a powerful one something that has
significance to you you got it
if you start to boil down that memory
now you’re gonna start to get pieces of
context around it you remember what the
weather was like that day maybe it was
raining maybe it was sunny you remember
who the people were that were around you
you remember the experiences you may
even remember some very finite details
such as what was the color of the walls
or the floors the ceilings things that
are around you most importantly you’re
gonna remember how you felt you will
never forget how you felt all of these
aspects of context tied together to give
that memory power significance we as
humans do not focus on that single data
point at the middle we think about it
we understand context around it what is
happening around us if I look left or if
I look right I remember all of these
things together it tells me how I feel
this is how us as humans experience the
world today and this is how
two-dimensional screens filter us out
from the world prevent us from making
this critical human connection let’s go
back for a minute now to that photo we
talked about just a few minutes ago now
let me show it to you now in a slightly
different way so what I’m gonna do here
there’s gonna put on this virtual
reality headset and the first thing I’m
gonna do is I’m gonna start looking
around one of the first things you’re
gonna notice is that I can start to get
a sense of what’s outside of the field
of vision
I can tell a little rural area and if I
start to let this play now
I can start to pick up other elements of
context I’m in a village I can see how
people interact and the longer I stay
here the more I’m gonna pick up of this
I can start to get a sense of what life
is like in this village I can tell it’s
a warm day and I can almost start to
understand what it’s like to be here
even though I’m not physically there
I’ve only been here a couple of minutes
but if I was to stay there longer I
could pick up a lot more context a lot
more understanding this video is called
I’m eight it was part of Bill Gates
travel blog it’s shot in 360 video
format which is a much more immersive
content format than simply 2d standard
formats that you’ve all seen on video
before why as Bill Gates wanted to share
what it was like as much as possible to
physically be there to look around to
pick up all those elements of context
all of those things that made that
memory so powerful that we talked about
just a few minutes ago can now start to
get replicated in this experience it
brings you much closer to the experience
than simply if I was watching it on
television or what not high-quality
virtual reality content is content that
runs at 60 frames per second or better
feel the vision of 120 degrees or wider
with a resolution of 1080p and these are
just rough numbers this isn’t a hard and
fast rule but somewhere in this range
something really interesting happens
somewhere in this range your brain no
longer distinguishes between this
simulated image and real life now that’s
significant why is that significant well
people who are experiencing high-quality
virtual reality content starts to
experience subconscious layers of the
brain that don’t happen when you’re
watching on television or
something basically bad the
fight-or-flight response starts to get
engaged emotion spatial orientation
balance if you’ve ever experienced
virtual reality you’ll know that your
brain is telling you you’re moving in a
direction or you’re looking at a certain
way but in reality you’re standing
completely stationary in this way your
brain is starting to understand what
this image is or what this experience is
but it’s interpreting it in a way you
would experience a human interaction in
the real world virtual reality can be
used for a lot of different things there
are so many use cases in the world today
about what virtuality can be used for
empathy cross-cultural experiences think
about it anytime you’ve been told you
had to have been there or I just can’t
explain in words and why is that
that’s because virtual reality is very
experiential it’s a technology that has
to be experienced for example I can
stand here and I can try to explain to
you what it’s like to fly think about it
this way I can stand her all day but no
matter how hard I try no matter how
eloquently or how detailed I try to
explain what it’s like to be off the
ground my words are not going to
register in your brain in the same way
as being physically off the ground that
same sensation doesn’t get activated by
simply telling you words and we
understand this but we don’t know why we
understand this because we say things
like I just couldn’t explain it you had
to have been there but now we can go
there now we can get to experience like
walking a mile in somebody else’s shoes
the proverbial experience just like I
was showing you for a minute ago
watching this little village in rural
Nigeria if I was watching television I
probably wouldn’t be able to think about
what that life is like but being in the
middle of it have it operate around me
starts to register on different levels
um
and starts to get engaged it starts to
become more human there’s a lot of
debate in the world today about if
virtual reality is the right tool for
this this is a great debate I can tell
you right now this is not going to be
settled with words for the very reason I
just explained before virtual reality
has to be experienced to be understood I
simply can’t tell you how it’s going to
help us in the future so here’s my
challenge to you today don’t prejudge a
virtual reality is simply a new gaming
system or a new way to watch movies or
and just another way to tune out the
rest of the world think of it as a way
to tune in the rest of the world to
connect with an experience that you may
have only read about or that maybe
you’ve seen on TV but you want to
understand it more you’re just not
getting as much as you need from a new
story or from a publication somewhere so
experienced virtual reality for yourself
but more importantly experience virtual
reality as a way to get in touch with
the rest of the world and in doing so
make the world more human thank you very
much
[Applause]
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