how’s it going everybody all right so
today we’re here to talk about immersion
what is immersion immersion is the
illusion that you can be present
somewhere that you’re physically not at
the first examples that we saw of
immersion actually happened in the mid
nineteenth century whenever there were
murals there were panoramic murals that
were painted that viewers could stand in
front of and the images in front of you
flooded the entirety of your field of
view and he gave you this sense of
actually being present this example I
have up here is at the Battle of
Borodino where you can go into an art
exhibit you stand in front of it because
of how large and wide it is it actually
feels as if you’re on a hill on top of
the battle area getting to watch what
happens so the significance of immersion
is that it’s a tool that is very
important for how we tell stories
stories have evolved and the process of
telling us stories evolved over time
with technology it initially started
with word-of-mouth then we had the
ability with the printing press to be
able to to write into print books so we
had word of mouth into written text and
then from text we were able to make
photos and so from photos we were able
to take a bunch of photos together to
make movies and in the future we’ll
actually be using storytelling in
virtual reality but if a heart of
storytelling is the desire to immerse
your audience into the story or the tale
right so your storyteller is this
narrator who’s trying to captivate your
imagination and focus your attention in
1838 there’s this gentleman by the name
of wheat Stone who invented the
stereoscope so the stereoscope was the
first attempt and tool that was designed
that actually allowed us to see 3d wheat
stone had discovered that when you take
two independent still images and place
them in front of each one of your eyes
that your
mind’s eye actually generates a third
version of that photo that allows you to
actually portray and represent depth or
distance a few years later a guy named
Brewster came up and made what is known
as the lenticular starrock stereoscope
which you see on the right so this tool
is a viewer that allowed people to
actually put up to their heads
the lenticular stereoscope and they
could actually see with 3d a different
image so that was the birth of 3d a
hundred years later a gentleman by the
name of Gruber created the viewmaster
so what’s the viewmaster y’all probably
don’t know about these but you can ask
your parents about them because they
were super popular back then and even
when I was growing up so a viewmaster is
a cardboard disc it actually has 14
different images on it that are in pairs
of seven and those pairs the disc you
put inside of the viewer and then you
have the ability to actually push the
button to change what you see and it’s
in 3d so the significance of this is
that it’s the first time that you as a
viewer had the opportunity when someone
was telling a story that you can
actually change where you’re at
while that story was being told this
device premiered at the New York World’s
Fair in 1939 so then we get into
computers 1968 happens the first
computer-aided immersive experience
occurs it’s called the sword of Damocles
it’s so large and heavy that you
physically can’t hold it onto your head
that’s to be bolted to a ceiling and you
hold up with our hands so if you were
and as you can see the view creates a
computer-generated graphic that’s very
very basic that overlays what you’re
looking at and the intention behind this
is actually to augment what you see so
this was the first time that we didn’t
have to have photo stills right that we
didn’t have to have a card that had
different experiences on it but we had
this computer they literally had an
endless amount of opportunity and what
could be visualized or presented in
front of us but at the same time it also
opened up
how it was going to be applied and so I
want to stop for a second and tell y’all
this side story about the sword of
Damocles is anyone ever heard the tale
just love sort of Damocles yes no a lot
of interaction here all right so the
sword of Damocles is the story of
Dionysus who is a king who had a
follower named Damocles and Damocles
wanted to be the king
so Dionysus was like all right man I’ll
let you be king I’ll give you the crown
and I’ll give you this run but the day
before he did it he held and put up a
large sword above the throne that was
held by a single hair from a horse tail
so gives him the crown Damocles is all
excited goes and sits in the throne and
that all of a sudden looks up is like uh
I don’t think I want to do this any
longer right so you got really really
nervous and he ended up days later
actually giving the crown and the throne
back to Dionysius and the reason he did
that was because he learned it with
great power in fortune also comes
potential danger and responsibilities so
I’ll tell you why that’s important a
little bit but I want you all to know
that because you see what happened after
that is 1978 occurs and there’s a guy
named Jaron Lanier who’s working in a
place called visual programming
laboratory and he created their first
and coined the term virtual reality and
actually created the first VR headset
ironically it was named the iPhone and
it was spelled a ye pho a name so we got
our iPhone in the 80s before we even had
Apple of looking at smart phones right
and simultaneously this tool it was a
headset you put on your face that was
run by computers that had colorful
graphics and took you into these areas
it also included a glove that allows you
to actually reach out and to be able to
touch different virtual objects that are
in front of you to be able to interact
with things that you’ve never been able
to interact with before and you might
read the news a couple days ago Mark
Zuckerberg announced that oculus rift is
going to have a glove and they’re very
excited about it and everyone thinks
it’s new whoo but it actually happened
in 1987 right so and it was called an
iPhone back then which i think is
hilarious so the reason that things
didn’t take hold back then was because
not everybody had computers the
Computers they had certainly weren’t
fast enough to be able to operate some
of these programs and they didn’t have
enough people actually experienced
enough with computers to be able to
create create additional content so that
leads us to where we’re at today so
today we have billions of dollars that’s
being invested in the industry Facebook
got involved in the last two years by
purchasing oculus rift for 3.1 billion
dollars PlayStation has a VR headset
that’s out HTC vive has a headset
Samsung gear allows you to use your
phone with a mobile viewer so you can be
in VR wherever you’d like
and at the same time we’ve also come up
with two different types of content so
we have 360 images that you might see
whenever you’re on Facebook in your feed
those are the type of images that allow
you to actually pan or move around to
have a sense of being present somewhere
but you don’t have the ability to
actually move within that environment
first is virtual reality which uses game
engines to actually simulate you being
in an environment and so you use virtual
head-mounted displays or VR headsets
like the oculus rift or the PlayStation
VR headset or the HTC vive for you to be
able to interact or to move within
environments or games now the reason
this is important is because this is the
first time in history that when
someone’s attempted to tell us a story
that our interaction actually has the
ability to change potentially change the
outcome of the story so how are we using
this technology
right now we have enterprises they’re
using it for training the military we
have professional sports teams that are
using it to train quarterbacks or
different people inside of football
teams you have doctors using it for
surgeries and pain management and then
you also have consumers who are
consuming different pieces of content
that are driven by Hollywood and also by
the music industry so everyone’s really
excited about VR who are also really
really nervous because for the past
generations of how we measured effective
storytelling means we don’t know how to
tell a story at the VR so what’s
different what’s different is is that
the devices that each of you have in
your pocket
right now has more computing power in it
than the computers responsible for
taking man to the moon for the very
first time we have smaller processors we
have more powerful displays that can
generate more depth and color we have
batteries that are able to last longer
and to provide a bigger charge of energy
and we also have this thing called the
Internet
with all the sudden allowed us to create
and connect different pieces of content
together and give all of us access the
information that we otherwise wouldn’t
have but at the same time as the
Internet came out enable us to do this
we also had the ability to start
collecting information about engagement
and if we look at the history of
storytelling from the stories that were
read to us from word-of-mouth over a
radio to the images that were depicted
to us on side of a television to the
websites and the stories that we read on
internet there’s an industry that’s been
designed actually to study this measure
and measure this and it’s called
analytics or audience engagement so for
example television it’s all about seeing
how many or how large is your audience
of people that are viewing for the
internet it’s how many times do people
come to your website or click on your
YouTube video or social media how many
likes or an Instagram do you get so the
reason this is important is because over
time we have learned that we can tell
better stories by measuring how we
interact with things but VR it’s the
first time where we actually don’t know
how people are interacting because we
can’t see what they’re seeing so it’s
created this conundrum of where we need
to be able to provide more effective
advertising opportunities to make
stories better but at the same time how
do we do that without violating your
privacy as an end user how do we how do
we enable brands to be able to tell
better stories so you want to buy their
products without them knowing all bunch
of stuff about you that’s not necessary
and kind of makes them seem rather
creepy if you ask me so what my company
is focused on is actually getting right
on the front line of that in developing
VR analytics tools that allow us to
collect the information that brands and
companies need so we can start telling
better stories but at the same time
making sure that your
personal information isn’t given to them
so this puts us in a spot where we look
to you all is the future I’m Karl I’m a
part of what’s called the Oregon Trail
generation right so my generation we
didn’t grow up with mobile devices we
don’t we didn’t use them the same way
that y’all that you all use them and
it’s very very interesting to me that
the way that VR headsets can be
generated from the use of phones will be
something that in the near future each
of you will be able to access content
whenever you’d like and you’ll also be
able to create it
so what we need in the future is more
socially conscious innovation that comes
from people that are your age that have
a different understanding of what kind
of story do you want to hear and what
kind of advertisement do you want in
front of you do you want to be able to
have somebody sell something to you
inside of VR while you’re playing a game
or do you want the fact that you’ve
played a game that later on there’s an
advertisement that comes to you because
you played the game and saw that product
these are all things that you actually
have the power to help change for the
way that companies like mine do business
because right now we don’t know the
answers right and the beauty of this is
that this is an opportunity for each of
you to actually become an empowered
consumer that changes the way that we
tell stories so in conclusion I hope
that some ago will explore VR feel free
to come in and talk to us the VR demos
that are be going on in the next 20
minutes and remember that if you want to
get involved to be a responsible
storyteller because the power of
immersion is the power to bring somebody
into a place that they’ve never been and
that is a very very incredible
opportunity but with it comes
responsibility so in closing remember
the sword of Damocles it’s not just a VR
headset it was it was a kind warning to
all of us to the remember that with
great power and responsibility and the
fortune that come come from VR that we
must be cognizant of its dangers and we
should be responsible on how we exercise
those powers thank you
[Applause]
today we’re here to talk about immersion
what is immersion immersion is the
illusion that you can be present
somewhere that you’re physically not at
the first examples that we saw of
immersion actually happened in the mid
nineteenth century whenever there were
murals there were panoramic murals that
were painted that viewers could stand in
front of and the images in front of you
flooded the entirety of your field of
view and he gave you this sense of
actually being present this example I
have up here is at the Battle of
Borodino where you can go into an art
exhibit you stand in front of it because
of how large and wide it is it actually
feels as if you’re on a hill on top of
the battle area getting to watch what
happens so the significance of immersion
is that it’s a tool that is very
important for how we tell stories
stories have evolved and the process of
telling us stories evolved over time
with technology it initially started
with word-of-mouth then we had the
ability with the printing press to be
able to to write into print books so we
had word of mouth into written text and
then from text we were able to make
photos and so from photos we were able
to take a bunch of photos together to
make movies and in the future we’ll
actually be using storytelling in
virtual reality but if a heart of
storytelling is the desire to immerse
your audience into the story or the tale
right so your storyteller is this
narrator who’s trying to captivate your
imagination and focus your attention in
1838 there’s this gentleman by the name
of wheat Stone who invented the
stereoscope so the stereoscope was the
first attempt and tool that was designed
that actually allowed us to see 3d wheat
stone had discovered that when you take
two independent still images and place
them in front of each one of your eyes
that your
mind’s eye actually generates a third
version of that photo that allows you to
actually portray and represent depth or
distance a few years later a guy named
Brewster came up and made what is known
as the lenticular starrock stereoscope
which you see on the right so this tool
is a viewer that allowed people to
actually put up to their heads
the lenticular stereoscope and they
could actually see with 3d a different
image so that was the birth of 3d a
hundred years later a gentleman by the
name of Gruber created the viewmaster
so what’s the viewmaster y’all probably
don’t know about these but you can ask
your parents about them because they
were super popular back then and even
when I was growing up so a viewmaster is
a cardboard disc it actually has 14
different images on it that are in pairs
of seven and those pairs the disc you
put inside of the viewer and then you
have the ability to actually push the
button to change what you see and it’s
in 3d so the significance of this is
that it’s the first time that you as a
viewer had the opportunity when someone
was telling a story that you can
actually change where you’re at
while that story was being told this
device premiered at the New York World’s
Fair in 1939 so then we get into
computers 1968 happens the first
computer-aided immersive experience
occurs it’s called the sword of Damocles
it’s so large and heavy that you
physically can’t hold it onto your head
that’s to be bolted to a ceiling and you
hold up with our hands so if you were
and as you can see the view creates a
computer-generated graphic that’s very
very basic that overlays what you’re
looking at and the intention behind this
is actually to augment what you see so
this was the first time that we didn’t
have to have photo stills right that we
didn’t have to have a card that had
different experiences on it but we had
this computer they literally had an
endless amount of opportunity and what
could be visualized or presented in
front of us but at the same time it also
opened up
how it was going to be applied and so I
want to stop for a second and tell y’all
this side story about the sword of
Damocles is anyone ever heard the tale
just love sort of Damocles yes no a lot
of interaction here all right so the
sword of Damocles is the story of
Dionysus who is a king who had a
follower named Damocles and Damocles
wanted to be the king
so Dionysus was like all right man I’ll
let you be king I’ll give you the crown
and I’ll give you this run but the day
before he did it he held and put up a
large sword above the throne that was
held by a single hair from a horse tail
so gives him the crown Damocles is all
excited goes and sits in the throne and
that all of a sudden looks up is like uh
I don’t think I want to do this any
longer right so you got really really
nervous and he ended up days later
actually giving the crown and the throne
back to Dionysius and the reason he did
that was because he learned it with
great power in fortune also comes
potential danger and responsibilities so
I’ll tell you why that’s important a
little bit but I want you all to know
that because you see what happened after
that is 1978 occurs and there’s a guy
named Jaron Lanier who’s working in a
place called visual programming
laboratory and he created their first
and coined the term virtual reality and
actually created the first VR headset
ironically it was named the iPhone and
it was spelled a ye pho a name so we got
our iPhone in the 80s before we even had
Apple of looking at smart phones right
and simultaneously this tool it was a
headset you put on your face that was
run by computers that had colorful
graphics and took you into these areas
it also included a glove that allows you
to actually reach out and to be able to
touch different virtual objects that are
in front of you to be able to interact
with things that you’ve never been able
to interact with before and you might
read the news a couple days ago Mark
Zuckerberg announced that oculus rift is
going to have a glove and they’re very
excited about it and everyone thinks
it’s new whoo but it actually happened
in 1987 right so and it was called an
iPhone back then which i think is
hilarious so the reason that things
didn’t take hold back then was because
not everybody had computers the
Computers they had certainly weren’t
fast enough to be able to operate some
of these programs and they didn’t have
enough people actually experienced
enough with computers to be able to
create create additional content so that
leads us to where we’re at today so
today we have billions of dollars that’s
being invested in the industry Facebook
got involved in the last two years by
purchasing oculus rift for 3.1 billion
dollars PlayStation has a VR headset
that’s out HTC vive has a headset
Samsung gear allows you to use your
phone with a mobile viewer so you can be
in VR wherever you’d like
and at the same time we’ve also come up
with two different types of content so
we have 360 images that you might see
whenever you’re on Facebook in your feed
those are the type of images that allow
you to actually pan or move around to
have a sense of being present somewhere
but you don’t have the ability to
actually move within that environment
first is virtual reality which uses game
engines to actually simulate you being
in an environment and so you use virtual
head-mounted displays or VR headsets
like the oculus rift or the PlayStation
VR headset or the HTC vive for you to be
able to interact or to move within
environments or games now the reason
this is important is because this is the
first time in history that when
someone’s attempted to tell us a story
that our interaction actually has the
ability to change potentially change the
outcome of the story so how are we using
this technology
right now we have enterprises they’re
using it for training the military we
have professional sports teams that are
using it to train quarterbacks or
different people inside of football
teams you have doctors using it for
surgeries and pain management and then
you also have consumers who are
consuming different pieces of content
that are driven by Hollywood and also by
the music industry so everyone’s really
excited about VR who are also really
really nervous because for the past
generations of how we measured effective
storytelling means we don’t know how to
tell a story at the VR so what’s
different what’s different is is that
the devices that each of you have in
your pocket
right now has more computing power in it
than the computers responsible for
taking man to the moon for the very
first time we have smaller processors we
have more powerful displays that can
generate more depth and color we have
batteries that are able to last longer
and to provide a bigger charge of energy
and we also have this thing called the
Internet
with all the sudden allowed us to create
and connect different pieces of content
together and give all of us access the
information that we otherwise wouldn’t
have but at the same time as the
Internet came out enable us to do this
we also had the ability to start
collecting information about engagement
and if we look at the history of
storytelling from the stories that were
read to us from word-of-mouth over a
radio to the images that were depicted
to us on side of a television to the
websites and the stories that we read on
internet there’s an industry that’s been
designed actually to study this measure
and measure this and it’s called
analytics or audience engagement so for
example television it’s all about seeing
how many or how large is your audience
of people that are viewing for the
internet it’s how many times do people
come to your website or click on your
YouTube video or social media how many
likes or an Instagram do you get so the
reason this is important is because over
time we have learned that we can tell
better stories by measuring how we
interact with things but VR it’s the
first time where we actually don’t know
how people are interacting because we
can’t see what they’re seeing so it’s
created this conundrum of where we need
to be able to provide more effective
advertising opportunities to make
stories better but at the same time how
do we do that without violating your
privacy as an end user how do we how do
we enable brands to be able to tell
better stories so you want to buy their
products without them knowing all bunch
of stuff about you that’s not necessary
and kind of makes them seem rather
creepy if you ask me so what my company
is focused on is actually getting right
on the front line of that in developing
VR analytics tools that allow us to
collect the information that brands and
companies need so we can start telling
better stories but at the same time
making sure that your
personal information isn’t given to them
so this puts us in a spot where we look
to you all is the future I’m Karl I’m a
part of what’s called the Oregon Trail
generation right so my generation we
didn’t grow up with mobile devices we
don’t we didn’t use them the same way
that y’all that you all use them and
it’s very very interesting to me that
the way that VR headsets can be
generated from the use of phones will be
something that in the near future each
of you will be able to access content
whenever you’d like and you’ll also be
able to create it
so what we need in the future is more
socially conscious innovation that comes
from people that are your age that have
a different understanding of what kind
of story do you want to hear and what
kind of advertisement do you want in
front of you do you want to be able to
have somebody sell something to you
inside of VR while you’re playing a game
or do you want the fact that you’ve
played a game that later on there’s an
advertisement that comes to you because
you played the game and saw that product
these are all things that you actually
have the power to help change for the
way that companies like mine do business
because right now we don’t know the
answers right and the beauty of this is
that this is an opportunity for each of
you to actually become an empowered
consumer that changes the way that we
tell stories so in conclusion I hope
that some ago will explore VR feel free
to come in and talk to us the VR demos
that are be going on in the next 20
minutes and remember that if you want to
get involved to be a responsible
storyteller because the power of
immersion is the power to bring somebody
into a place that they’ve never been and
that is a very very incredible
opportunity but with it comes
responsibility so in closing remember
the sword of Damocles it’s not just a VR
headset it was it was a kind warning to
all of us to the remember that with
great power and responsibility and the
fortune that come come from VR that we
must be cognizant of its dangers and we
should be responsible on how we exercise
those powers thank you
[Applause]
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