Ideas

387 episodes

#704: Embodied Game Design & Experiential Design Insights from Robin Hunicke

by kentbyeOctober 9, 2018

Robin Hunicke is the co-founder of Funomena, which recently released Luna. I had a chance to catch up with Hunicke at Oculus Connect 5 where she shared her insights into embodied game design, game design theory, experiential design, and some of the...

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#703: The Hierarchy of Being: Embodiment in Virtual Reality

by kentbyeOctober 9, 2018

Oculus employees Yelena Rachitsky and Isabel Tewes gave a great talk at Oculus Connect 5 titled 'The Hierarchy of Being.' It's a great melding of theory and practice of the impacts of embodiment on the phenomenological experience of a VR experience...

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#702: The VR Exercise Revolution: Empirical Data from the VR Institute for Health & Exercise

by kentbyeOctober 6, 2018

Aaron Stanton says that VR is the most effective piece of exercise equipment he's ever purchased. He's spent over 100 hours playing an exercise mod of Audioshield, which is more than he's used his exercise bike, treadmill, or elliptical machine...

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#701: Experiential Design of Cause-Based Marketing with Empact Labs + OC5 Highlights

by kentbyeOctober 4, 2018

Brands are looking to cause-based marketing & creating interactive experiences in order to provide customers an opportunity to participate in the story of brand that has a deeper purpose and mission that they're trying to achieve. Immersive...

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#700: Six Psychonauts on VR, Psychedelics, & Consciousness Transformation

by kentbyeSeptember 26, 2018

I had an opportunity to moderate a panel featuring six psychonauts who are exploring the intersection between Psychedelics, VR, and consciousness transformation at the VRTO conference in Toronto, Canada on June 16th, 2018. The participants from left...

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#698: Universal Mind & Quantum Mechanics: Idealism as Fundamental Consciousness & VR

by kentbyeSeptember 22, 2018

Is consciousness emergent from our bodies? Or is it a fundamental field of the universe? It's possible that various quantum entanglement anomalies from Quantum Mechanics experiments could eventually provide some answers, but there isn't yet a...

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#697: A Tour of Phenomenological Philosophers & Embodied Insights into VR

by kentbyeSeptember 20, 2018

Nicolas Goyer is a writer and philosopher who takes a tour through phenomenology & post-modern philosophy, and how the can provide insights into immersion, embodiment, imagination, mythology, and the human experience experience for experiential...

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#696: Metaphors of Presence & Experiential Design Keynote Talk at Symposium iX

by kentbyeSeptember 19, 2018

Metaphors of Presence & Experiential Design keynote talk that I gave at the Symposium iX conference in Montreal covers provides some concrete metaphors for presence, explores the connections between the Yin and Yang concepts of Chinese Philosophy...

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#694: Ken Wilber on Transformational VR, Maps of Consciousness, & Integral Philosophy

by kentbyeSeptember 15, 2018

Ken Wilber is a philosopher known for his 'Integral Theory' framework that mapping of all dimensions of reality, consciousness, and stages of human development. He's synthesized maps and models from various Buddhist wisdom traditions, psychology...

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#693: Pain Management & Other Medical Applications of VR

by kentbyeSeptember 7, 2018

Howard Rose is a pioneer in creating medical applications for Virtual Reality, and I had a chance to catch up with him about his company Firsthand Technology which is creating pain management applications for VR. He's also creating medical VR...

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#692: Using Immersive Anxiety to Symbolically Depict Racial Tension

by kentbyeSeptember 6, 2018

Dinner Party is a short VR story that premiered at Sundance, and it uses the story of the alien abduction of Barney and Betty Hill to metaphorically explore the racial tension of interracial marriage in the early 1960s. I spoke to writers Laura...

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#690: Survey of Harassment in VR: Cultural Dynamics vs Tech Solutions

by kentbyeAugust 29, 2018

On April 4th, Jessica Outlaw released a survey of 600 regular virtual reality users about harassment experiences in VR, which was funded by Pluto VR.

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#688: A Sufi Zikr as Social VR Ritual

by kentbyeAugust 25, 2018

Gabo Arora's ZIKR: A Sufi Revival premiered at Sundance this year. It's a 360-degree video capture of a number of different Sufi rituals, songs, and dances, but it had a real-time, social VR experience overlaid on top of the live action footage...

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#687: Group Rituals in VR + 2D vs 3D Cinamatic Language Experiment

by kentbyeAugust 23, 2018

Lawnmower Man director Brett Leonard is working on a project called Hollywood Rooftop, which is going to be shot both as an immersive 360 video as well as a 2D film. It's an experiment to discover some of the unique cinematic storytelling...

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#684: Insight Engineering: Data Portability, Identity, VR, & The IoT Edge

by kentbyeAugust 15, 2018

Samantha Matthews Chase calls GDPR - General Data Portability Regulations rather than data protection. GDPR has forced many companies to make over a decade's worth of our data available to use, and Chase sees this as a goldmine that can be mined for...

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#677: Cory Doctorow on the Risks of Permanent Regulatory Dominance

by kentbyeAugust 14, 2018

Cory Doctorow is a science fiction author, a co-editor for Boing Boing, and consultant to the Electronic Frontier Foundation. He’s been closely tracking the relationship between Tech, Law, Culture, & Markets, and he is seeing a concerning pattern...

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#676: ACLU’s Jennifer Granick on Surveillance, Privacy, & Free Speech

by kentbyeAugust 14, 2018

There’s a tension on the web today between creating a safe space to be online versions the costs to censorship and free speech. Spam, bots, trolls, harassment, hate speech, and terrorism are on the frontlines of making the web an unpleasant place to...

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#675: Internet Archive’s Brewster Kahle on the Future of the Decentralized Web

by kentbyeAugust 14, 2018

Brewster Kahle told me that the average of a web page on the Internet is 100 days before it either changes or disappears completely. Kahle realized that you can’t run a culture when you have no institutional memory, and so he started the Internet...

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#674: Tech, Law, Culture, & Markets: A Holistic Look at the Decentralized Web Summit

by kentbyeAugust 14, 2018

In “Code and Other Laws of Cyberspace,” Lawrence Lessig wrote about four socioeconomic regulators of society as being the law, cultural norms, economic markets, and architecture/code (i.e. technology). All of these four factors combine in order to...

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#670: A Primer on Self-Sovereign Identity Standards with Kaliya Young

by kentbyeAugust 7, 2018

Kaliya Young (aka Identity Woman) has been working on digital identities for the past 15 years including helping facilitate the twice-a-year Internet Identity Workshop. These workshops lead to the Rebooting the Web of Trust workshops and the...

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#669: Internet Co-Inventor Vint Cerf on Decentralized Internet Challenges

by kentbyeAugust 4, 2018

Vint Cerf is a co-inventor of the Internet, and he's currently working as a Vice President at Google at their Chief Internet Evangelist. With all of the ethical discussions about the dangers of centralization of power and influence for censorship...

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#668: Guns, Money, & Morals: A Debate on the Ethics of VR Simulation, Capitalism, & the Limits of Decentralized Techno-Utopianism

by kentbyeJuly 31, 2018

Hotdogs, Horseshoes, and Hand Grenades (aka H3) is an open-ended sandbox VR experience where you can play with a variety of exotic firearms. It's a puzzle game where you have to figure out how to activate, load, and fire a huge range of different...

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#665: Using VR for Interdisciplinary Collaboration & Social Science Research

by kentbyeJuly 24, 2018

One of the recurring themes that was coming up at the IEEE VR academic conference was how VR is starting to catalyze interdisciplinary collaborations between different academic fields including computer science, social science, neuroscience, and...

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#664: VR in China: Taoist & Buddhist Insights into the Yin Archetypal Story

by kentbyeJuly 4, 2018

I gave a talk about Metaphors of Presence at the Sandbox Immersive Festival in Qingdao, China where I talked about how Chinese Philosophy insights about the balance between Yang and Yin could help describe the fundamental tensions in immersive and...

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#657: Using Neuroscience Theory for Experiential Design + The Nature of Consciousness

by kentbyeJune 23, 2018

Danielle Perszyk is a cognitive scientist, and co-founder and lead scientist at Oscillations who is using neuroscience theory of synchrony in order to make predictions for how to direct attention and tell stories using body and gestures without any...

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#656: Racial Justice: Using AR to Reclaim History with Site-Specific Context

by kentbyeJune 18, 2018

Our stores of the past shape our future. There is a growing movement to use augmented reality technologies to reclaim suppressed histories by creating site-specific AR art installations that challenge institutionally-backed narratives. Glenn...

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#655: Orpheus Technodelics is Publishing Consciousness Hacking VR Experiences

by kentbyeJune 12, 2018

Sound Self developer Robin Arnott is starting a publishing label named Orpheus Technodelics to curate and distribute consciousness hacking VR experiences. 'Technodelics' are digital psychedelics that provide peak experiences, and Arnott hopes till...

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#654: Indigenous Futurism & Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace with Jason Edward Lewis

by kentbyeJune 8, 2018

I talk with Jason Edward Lewis about the Aboriginal Territories in Cyberspace initiative, as well as the two 2167 Indigenous Storytelling in VR that he helped to produce. How do we reckon the past, present, and the future, and what types of...

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#653: Indian Philosophy Insights into VR Presence: The Five Koshas

by kentbyeMay 23, 2018

I speak with Mike Sapiro about the Indian Philosophy concept of the five koshas and insights that might provide into VR presence.

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#652: Design Principles for Embodiment

by kentbyeMay 23, 2018

I speak to Cris Beasley about her design principles for embodiment.

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#651: Anime-Inspired, Embodied Game Design & the Spectacle of VR eSports with “Light Strike Array”

by kentbyeMay 23, 2018

Here's a bit more information on the game mechanics of Light Strike Array:

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#648: New ARCore Features, Google I/O Highlights, & Open Questions about Ethics & Privacy

by kentbyeMay 19, 2018

Google announced some new features for ARCore at Google I/O last week including Sceneform to help Java developers integrated 3D content into apps, augmented images to trigger immersive AR experiences off of trained images, and cloud anchors to...

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#645: Oculus Go + Open Questions Around Facebook, Privacy, Free Speech, & Virtual Governance

by kentbyeMay 8, 2018

The Oculus Go was released on Tuesday, May 1st at the Facebook F8 developer conference, and it is a self-contained, 3-DoF mobile VR HMD with a price of $199 that is optimized for media consumption and social VR interactions. Facebook showed off four...

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#644: Beat Saber Lets You Become the Music Through Puzzles Your Body Solves

by kentbyeMay 1, 2018

Beat Saber is a rhythm game that is like an embodied puzzle game that creates a visceral connection to 10 custom music tracks. It's similar to Soundboxing and Audio Shield, but you use extended light sabers rather than your fists, which makes you...

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#643: Matt Miesnieks on the State of the AR Ecosystem

by kentbyeMay 1, 2018

Matt Miesnieks is creating an AR cloud with 6D.AI, which aims to 'synchronize 3D computer vision data across devices, time and space' in order to enable 'persistent content, occlusion, and real-time shared experiences.' Miesnieks has founded a...

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#642: Experiential Design Insights from Chinese Philosophy & Natural Philosophy

by kentbyeApril 26, 2018

One of the things that inspires me to do the Voices of VR podcast is being able to talk with hundreds of people listening for the underlying patterns of experiential design. VR & AR are reflections of the human experience, and so any experiential...

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#641: Oculus’ Privacy Architects on their Open-Ended Privacy Policy & Biometric Data

by kentbyeApril 19, 2018

Oculus will be releasing a new Privacy Policy and Terms of Service tomorrow that will go into effect on May 20th, just five days before the EU's General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) privacy law enforcement deadline of May 25th. I had a chance...

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#637: The Yang and the Yin of Immersive Storytelling with Oculus’ Yelena Rachitsky

by kentbyeApril 3, 2018

The future of VR storytelling will be immersive and interactive. Yelena Rachitsky is an executive producer of experiences at Oculus, and she's been inspired by how interactive narratives have allowed her to feel like a participant who is more...

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#635: Candid Assessment of the VR Industry from a Leading Indie Developer

by kentbyeMarch 28, 2018

What is happening with the VR industry? Is the adoption and growth still on target to support a vibrant and diverse ecosystem of independent VR developers? Leading headset manufacturers have not been transparent in sharing any specific information...

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#630: A Live Musical Graphic Novel Lecture: Cory McAbee’s Mixed Modality Performance

by kentbyeMarch 9, 2018

Each year, the Sundance New Frontier features VR experiences, films, and live performances that push the boundaries of storytelling. Cory McAbee did live performance of a piece called Deep Astronomy and the Romantic Sciences, which combines elements...

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#628: VR 2025: Current & Future State of VR & AR Industry

by kentbyeMarch 2, 2018

Tony Parisi is the Head of AR & VR strategy at Unity so he has an insider's perspective of not only where the VR and AR industry is today, but some hints as to what xR is going to look like by 2025. Parisi had a fireside chat with HTC Viveport...

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#626: Exploring Space & Experiential Modulation of Time with Felix & Paul Studios

by kentbyeFebruary 24, 2018

Felix & Paul Studios had two experiences at Sundance this year. One featured the training of NASA astronauts in Space Explorers, and the other was a time-lapse VR story featuring characters from Wes Anderson's Ilse of Dogs film in front half with a...

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#624: Exploring Near-Future Moral Quandaries with INVAR Studios

by kentbyeFebruary 19, 2018

Rose Colored by INVAR Studios & Adam Cosco won the award for best live-acton VR experience at the Advanced Imaging Society's Lumiere Awards on February 12th. I previously interviewed Cosco at VRLA last year, and I had a chance to talk with INVAR's...

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#621: Balancing Player Control & Authorial Control with “Virtual Virtual Reality”

by kentbyeFebruary 6, 2018

Tender Claws' Virtual Virtual Reality is a Daydream-exclusive interactive story that won the best VR experience at the 2017 Google Play Awards VR, and it's one of my personal favorite interactive narratives within VR. Virtual Virtual Reality (aka...

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#617: Journey into a Black Hole with “SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime”

by kentbyeJanuary 31, 2018

Sundance New Frontier had a solid line-up of VR experiences this year with a number of immersive storytelling innovations including SPHERES: Songs of Spacetime, which takes you on a journey into the center of a black hole. It's a hero's journey that...

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#616: Jeremy Bailenson’s Academic Journey in VR with “Experience on Demand”

by kentbyeJanuary 30, 2018

Jeremy Bailenson founding director of Stanford University's Virtual Human Interaction Lab, and his latest book Experience on Demand traces his academic journey through virtual reality. It's an intellectual memoir that focuses on his personal work in...

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#615: LARPing: The Future of Live-Action Role Playing in Immersive Entertainment

by kentbyeJanuary 26, 2018

Live Action Role Playing (LARPing) is something that emerged out of table top games like Dungeons & Dragons in the 1970s driven by a desire to be more immersed in living out fantasy scenarios. Boffer LARPs use foam weapons to simulate D&D-style...

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#614: Designing Around Disruptive Audience Members for Interactive Narratives

by kentbyeJanuary 24, 2018

Tommy Honton is an experiential designer in the immersive theater space, and he's helped to design interactive narratives that can handle a range of different disruptive responses that can ruin the experience for other people. One question for all...

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#613: Storytelling in VR from a Depth Psychological & Mythological Perspective

by kentbyeJanuary 18, 2018

John Bucher wrote a book titled 'Storytelling for Virtual Reality: Methods and Principles for Crafting Immersive Narratives' where he includes interviews with dozens of VR experience designers and the major insights into immersive storytelling...

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#611: “Sleep No More” Creative Producer on Blurring the Lines of Reality with Punchdrunk’s Immersive Theater

by kentbyeJanuary 10, 2018

Punchdrunk's immersive theater piece of Sleep No More opened in March 2011, and it's inspired countless experiential designers of immersive theater, and virtual and augmented reality experiences. It was a paradigm shift that broke the fourth wall...

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