Today I’m in Cambridge, Massachusetts as a guest speaker for the annual HarvardXR conference hosted by Harvard University. This year’s theme, “Extended Intelligence”, focuses on the convergence of AI and XR at Harvard and beyond.

HarvardXR’s goal is to provide a platform for students, researchers, practitioners, and entrepreneurs to discuss how XR is shaping the future across different industries. I will be speaking at 2:20pm this afernoon in Room A: 1.321 as part of the Immersive Reality session, anchored by the legendary creative technologist, Bradley Munkowitz (AKA “GMUNK”). See the complete Speakers list.

It was my pleasure to attend Transfr’s holiday lunch at their headquarters just off of Times Square. I’ve had my eye on this virtual reality startup for a while now; their mission is exciting and the folks are lovely.

Transfr first entered my radar in early 2021 when their Chief People Officer, Jessa Vatistas, reached out concerning an interesting opportunity that might be of interest to me or someone in my orbit. That began a conversation longer than perhaps either of us had expected; swapping stories about the evolving nature of recruiting in the virtual reality space. The idea of making the jump from Amazon Web Services to a peppy startup in my own New York backyard did sound tempting. (And I must stress that the people at Transfr are lovely—and a good group of sharp folks is always a big draw.) But I was both making a play for a more serious role in quantum computing as well as rekindling a friendship with my old Unity family. Although the context wasn’t quite right for me to pursue a formal relationship with Transfr, I have remained a big fan of their work. I was delighted to be invited back to hang with Marc Herbert (VP of Engineering), Shelley Hu (Senior Producer, VR Studios), and Evan Harper (Architect).

Augmented reality (AR) is a field of computer research which deals with the combination of real-world and computer-generated data (virtual reality), where computer graphics objects are blended into real footage in real time.

Presently, most AR research is concerned with the use of live video imagery which is digitally processed and “augmented” by the addition of computer-generated graphics. (More from Wikipedia…) This quick guide assumes you have a web cam, printer, and some programming experience.