How to Create Social Impact Experiences in XR with Trent Clews-de Castella

As someone who loves exploring the great outdoors, I know firsthand how powerful an experience it can be. Being in nature has a way of grounding us, connecting us to something bigger than ourselves, and inspiring us to take better care of our planet. That's why I was excited to learn about the potential of immersive technologies like virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) to be used for exploring natural places and for social impact.

Imagine exploring for example a national park and instead of just seeing the regular paths and features, you could also learn at the same time about the park's history and geology, the plants and animals that live there, and even see how the park would look in the future if certain conservation efforts were not implemented. It would be amazing! How about learning for example about “how communities in Fiji and Colombia are coming together to build resilience and safeguard future generations”, well that last one is exactly the one we will be discussing today in our recent episode with the creator of Ecosphere available in Oculus.?

More and more, we can see how the potential for exploring natural places and creating social impact will only continue to grow. It's worth considering the investment in immersive technologies for exploring natural places, as the benefits are clear, and the technology is becoming more accessible and affordable.

In today’s episode, we’ll be speaking with Trent Clews-de Castella and learning about:

1. What inspired Trent the co-founder of PHORIA to start exploring the immersive technology space?
2. How is PHORIA using evolving tech to transform the human experience in positive ways?
3. How did PHORIA use mobile AR to create a social and immersive storytelling experience with "Our Planet"?
4. Why is the ecosphere project significant in terms of social impact, and how does it differ from other VR content?
5. What has been the team's experience navigating a middle path between art and technology, and how has it influenced their work?
6. What challenges did the team face when producing the ecosphere project, and how did they overcome them?

Please let me know if you have any questions about this episode or what guests you would like me to bring next! ??

Notes. We’re excited to share with you the recent news of the exclusive XR Magazine digital publication as well as our new exclusive newsletter for members! Besides getting access to curated guidance and insights from our select guest interviews, you’ll also get discounts on every one of our XR, Web 3, and AI workshops!!! You can subscribe now here: XR MAGAZINE

*If you’ve already heard about the podcast and prefer video, you can also head over to the D.O.! YT Channel to enjoy the interviews.

XR Weekly News

The State of XR in Manufacturing and Industrial 2023

Extended reality (XR) provides massive potential in the industrial and manufacturing space by promising new opportunities for rapid product creation, prototyping, and training. Although it’s safe to say XR offers benefits in various industries. Firms in the manufacturing and industrial sectors were some of the first to explore the potential of this new space.

For years, leading into 2023, manufacturing and industrial brands have searched for technology solutions to solve commonplace problems, such as slow and complex product development processes and expensive training requirements. XR can unlock the manufacturing industry’s true potential, enhancing everything from design to the testing and approval of products.

Various hardware and software manufacturers are in the manufacturing and industrial immersive solutions space, providing unique emerging technologies from industrial Metaverse services to field-service smart glasses.

What are the Internet of Behaviour (IoB) implications for XR Analytics?

What is the Internet of Behaviour (IoB)?

IoB is a protocol that uses sensors to collect behavioural data from devices. In this case, it leverages VR and AR devices such as mobile and head-mounted displays (HMDs). Data is processed using cloud computing, artificial intelligence (AI), machine learning (ML), and data science to extrapolate human behaviour.

It represents the next level of business intelligence (BI) to understand and optimise behaviour. It is, therefore, a critical component of an interoperable, synchronous and persistent Metaverse with shared experiences.

Over time, predictive analytics on human behaviour in XR will drastically improve user experiences and business performance metrics.

How Does the Internet of Behaviour Work?

IoB connects AR and VR devices to cloud services like Amazon Web Services (AWS). Application programme interfaces (APIs) collect sensor data, including gyroscope, accelerometer, and other sensors, in real-time data exchanges.

Companies store data in databases and analyse them with AI algorithms to create an intelligence engine capable of understanding user behaviour patterns. 6DoF spatial data on head, hand, and body movements in 3D space is a complex dataset. However, cognitive science and significant research and development (R&D) interpret XYZ coordinates as insights which help XR businesses understand their audiences.

Our approach to the IoB tech stack is an end-to-end data analytics platform which does all the heavy lifting so customers, regardless of data analytics expertise, can quickly see data visualisations and measure performance goals .

About the Author?

Diana Olynick is a Canadian engineer, XR Designer and award winner, speaker and the host of the XR Magazine podcast.? Diana has more than 10 years of experience in engineering and she is a current mentor of two Canadian organizations, North Forge and Futurpreneur Canada where she guides early-stage entrepreneurs in the areas of engineering applications and technology adoption. She also serves as a committee member and writer for the Keystone Professional Canadian publication. Diana has been a guest in various podcasts and events, delivering and sharing her knowledge and experience in the areas of XR in the fields of Ethics in XR as well as XR design.?

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