Académique Documents
Professionnel Documents
Culture Documents
10/17/2018 9:45am
Heise
Avatar and agent movements for Social VR
No Description
Dinesh Manocha
University of Maryland, College Park
Dinesh Manocha is currently the Paul Chrisman Iribe Chair of Computer Science and Electrical &
Computer Engineering at UMD. He has worked on real‐time physics simulation, sound simulation and
social VR with extensive technology transfers. He is a fellow of ACM, AAAS, AAAI and IEEE.
10/17/2018 9:45am
Room A
AR Is White Hot, VR Is Not, Yet
In this talk we'll explore some of the key ideas in my AR Enhanced to VR & AR, and why mobile AR is so
hot right now, and the reasons VR is not. VR is dependent on storage and bandwidth, forces outside of
VR technology itself, while AR is quietly and invisibly becoming part of the apps we use every day
without anyone knowing its name, or needing to.
Charlie Fink
Forbes, CharlieFink.com
Charlie Fink is an AR/VR consultant, columnist, speaker, and the author of "Charlie Fink's Metaverse, An
AR Enabled Guide to VR & AR." His new book "The World Will Be Painted With Data" is due March, 2019.
10/17/2018 10:15am
Room A
Disinformation in Future Reality
XR and synthetic media technologies will make it possible to generate new and more insidious forms of
propaganda and misinformation. The only way to address the problem is to understand what is possible.
This talk will scratch the surface of what is possible, and try to explore the political and social
implications of computational propaganda to imagine the worst, and plan for the fight. It will consider
how various technology developments may create new opportunities for bad actors, and what those
concerned with advancing the health of the public discourse must do to prepare.
Justin Hendrix
NYC Media Lab
Justin Hendrix is Executive Director of NYC Media Lab, a public‐private partnership between the City’s
industry and its universities to drive emerging media and technology innovation and entrepreneurship.
10/17/2018 10:15am
Heise
Data‐Rich Observation of Humans in Virtual Worlds
What is the value of collecting and analyzing multimodal data on human behaviors and responses in
today's virtual reality (VR)? What are the scientific and technical challenges of building a laboratory for
such research? How might findings translate to real‐world environments and situations? Recent
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advances in both VR and mixed reality (MR) technologies, and in the size and mobility of a range of
biometric sensor instruments, now make possible research that might answer these questions.
Attendees will gain an understanding of the challenges involved in "hacking" and integrating today's VR
and sensing instrumentation, and see an example simulation project.
Lee Boot
UM Baltimore County
Lee Boot is Director of the Imaging Research Center, and Affiliate Associate Professor of Visual Arts and
Computer Science and Engineering at UMBC. The aim of his research is to create and test new digital
media forms and new kinds of content to serve public interests.
10/17/2018 11:05am
Heise
Immersed in Immersive Design
The Fallingwater Institute's annual Immersive Design Residency demonstrates how to disconnect from
technology in order to immerse ones self in immersive application design. Learn about the exercises and
teachings that the program offered, and how we may draw inspiration from the great architects and
designers of the past.
Sean T. McBeth
XR Developer
He who is named Destroyer of Bug Lists, Hobbyist of Hobbies, Father of Two, Warper of Realities, Senior
Immersive Engineer at Deloitte Digital, Creator of Primrose VR, Lord of The Desk, First of His Name.
10/17/2018 11:05am
Room A
Leveraging XR Technology to Further Social Impact Goals
Games for Change's latest initiative XR for Change focuses on and promotes how immersive media is
advancing critical real‐world causes. This panel moderated by the organization's President brings
together various stakeholders who are using XR technology to facilitate socially positive change.
Panelists come from a wide variety of sectors including PR; Government: Non‐Profit; and Creative.
Together, these panelists will describe the increasingly intersectional and collaborative landscape that is
fostering development for immersive projects in unexpected places for intentional outcomes.
Susanna Pollack
Games for Change
Susanna Pollack, President of Games for Change (G4C), the leading advocate for the power of games &
XR as drivers of social impact. Prior to joining G4C Susanna worked across the commercial & public
sectors.
Rachel Henderson
Warschawski
Rachel is Vice President at Warschawski, where she leads VR/AR storytelling and integrated marketing
communications campaigns. She is an award‐winning VR producer, most recently for her work on
“Under the Net,” a VR film by the UN Foundation’s Nothing But Nets campaign where she served as
Communications Manager.
Cezara Windrem
AARP
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Cezara is an emerging technologies leader, innovation and product executive. At AARP she is exploring
how immersive media can be used to create valuable solutions to issues people face as they age, and
empower them to live their best life.
Dr. Marc Ruppel
National Endowment for Humanities
Marc Ruppel is a Senior Program Officer at the National Endowment for the Humanities, Division of
Public Programs, where he leads the agency’s flagship public digital humanities grant program, Digital
Projects for the Public.
Emma Mankey Hidem
SunnySide VR
Emma has over a decade of media production experience. From documentary to interactive media to
VR/AR or any combination thereof, she loves telling stories in whatever digital medium works best for
the subject matter.
10/17/2018 1:20pm
Room A
Building a Better World: Why Diversity and Inclusion Matters in All Realities
As creators of VR, AR, and MR experiences, we have a responsibility to everyone who engages with our
worlds to understand the implications of our choices; as we start to better understand the power of
VR/AR/MR experiences, we have both a commercial incentive and an ethical imperative to think
carefully about how we craft our worlds and the people who populate them. Jen applies her
experiences from 25 years of game development to provide concrete, actionable ways to understand
the implications of the creative choices we make and improve the diversity and representation in our
products.
Jen MacLean
International Game Developers' Association (IGDA)
As Executive Director for the IGDA and IGDA Foundation, Jen MacLean helps game developers build
sustainable, fulfilling careers and create a community that is inclusive of and welcoming to everyone
who wants to make games. A 25+ year industry veteran, MacLean has held positions from playtester to
CEO in game development, and has a BA from the Johns Hopkins University and an MBA from Columbia
Business School.
10/17/2018 1:20pm
Heise
Designing an Avatar with Amazon Sumerian for Virtual Cultural Heritage
Projects
Why do some immersive experiences seem magical and transcend you to an alternative reality while
other experiences do not produce the same effect?
Based on our literature review** of over 30 projects both academic papers and
commercial/independent projects, the most important criteria that separates the best immersive Virtual
Cultural Heritage experiences from others is the concept of Social Presence. Social Presence provides an
user with the feeling of being fully present and connected with others in the environment.
Based on our literature survey, the Social Presence is achieved through virtual embodiment through use
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of Virtual Humans and Avatars in the experience. There is evidence to show that experiences that lack
social presence reported users being bored, disengaged and uninterested. The presentation session will
present some key findings from the literature review in terms of User Experiences and the a case study
of use of Amazon Sumerian for creation and use of embodied virtual humans / agents in Virtual Cultural
Heritage projects.
Kashyap Sridhar
eGlobaltech/VRUXDC
Kashyap Sridhar is a Business and Technology strategist involved in designing user centered design
solutions for over 10 years. He is a Human Factors / Mechanical Engineer and is interested in emerging
technologies. He runs the VR meetup group called VRUXDC, a community hub for those interested in the
UX of XR/AI. Kashyap has wide experience leading creative teams on projects that is in the intersection
of business and engineering and technology.
Rob Cloutier
Digital History Studios
Robert Cloutier has been a 3D animator for 25+ years with 12 in the games industry and 2 years in VR.
He has lectured widely on VR including having served as an Adjunct Professor at UMBC.
10/17/2018 1:50pm
Heise
Expanding the effectiveness of safety training through virtual reality.
Attendees to the presentation on Mosaic Learning's VR Jobsite Experience will gain a better
understanding of how virtual reality training can be utilized to increase the effectiveness of safety
training and immersion based on dangerous real‐world scenarios. As an analog to the high‐risk
environment that iron workers around the globe face on a daily basis, the VR Jobsite Experience
provides a glimpse into the future of high‐risk training and can allow any user the ability to train on and
experience some of the most dangerous tasks posed by working on an active construction site.
Geoff Gill
Mosaic Learning
Geoff has a knack for delivering exceptional work against elevated expectations. With more than 15
years managing and mentoring across advertising and branding, Geoff also knows how to build a
powerhouse team. Whatever the project, he brings design chops, critical thinking skills and a strategic
mindset to solve the toughest creative challenges.
10/17/2018 1:50pm
Room A
How can Virtual Reality Improve Police‐Civilian Encounters?
The Lab for Applied Social Science Research (LASSR) in collaboration with the University of Maryland
Institute for Advanced Computer Studies (UMIACS) have developed a cutting‐edge virtual reality
program that merge social science with computer science. This program evaluates decision‐making by
putting participants in real‐life scenarios that they may encounter at work or in their daily lives. In
addition to evaluating how the setting of and actors in the scenarios influence decision‐making, the
program can assess how participants’ own characteristics and physiological outcomes that may play a
role. This presentation will present preliminary results from research with police officers and students.
Work co‐authored by Long Doan, Robert Koulish, Connor Powelson, Shaun Genter, Genesis Fuentes, and
David Johnson.
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Dr. Rashawn Ray
University of Maryland, College Park
Rashawn Ray is Associate Professor of Sociology and Director of the Lab for Applied Social Science
Research (LASSR). He co‐edits Contexts Magazine: Sociology for the Public. Ray’s research focuses on
racial and social inequality with a particular focus on police‐civilian relations and men’s treatment of
women.
10/17/2018 2:25pm
Room A
Where are we now? 360 video in Journalism
A look at the current state of Journalism and 360 video and best practices for creating compelling
stories.
Josh Davidsburg
University of Maryland, College Park
Trained as an on‐air broadcast reporter, Josh taught himself cinematography and videography. He now
specializes in streaming media and the intersection between cinema and journalism. His passion lies in
the future of journalism and the role streaming video, 360 video and social media will play in the
profession.
10/17/2018 2:25pm
Heise
Reconstructing Reality: From Physical World to Virtual Environments
With increasing availability of data in various forms from images, audio, video, 3D models, motion
capture, simulation results, to satellite imagery, representative samples of the various phenomena
constituting the world around us bring new opportunities and research challenges. Such availability of
data has led to recent advances in data‐driven modeling. However, most of the existing example‐based
synthesis methods offer empirical models and data reconstruction that may not provide an insightful
understanding of the underlying process or may be limited to a subset of observations.
Dr. Ming C Lin
University of Maryland, College Park
Ming C. Lin is currently the Elizabeth Stevinson Iribe Chair of Computer Science at the University of
Maryland College Park and John R. & Louise S. Parker Distinguished Professor Emerita of Computer
Science at the University of North Carolina (UNC), Chapel Hill. She is also an honorary Chair Professor
(Yangtze Scholar) at Tsinghua University in China. She obtained her B.S., M.S., and Ph.D. in Electrical
Engineering and Computer Science from the University of California, Berkeley
10/17/2018 2:55pm
Room A
Succeeding Your Way Out of Business In VR: A How‐To
In this talk and Q&A session, Experiment 7 co‐founder and veteran game developer Demetri Detsaridis
will pull back the curtain on the consumer VR market in 2018, looking at both the choices his own
company made, the results of those decisions, and the broader trends and conditions behind it all. Learn
what it takes to succeed in VR as it currently exists and how to prepare for the many potential futures of
the industry…or die tryin’.
Demetri Detsaridis
Experiment 7
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Demetri Detsaridis is the co‐founder and Managing Director of VR games studio Experiment 7, as well as
a veteran executive and consultant in the videogame and interactive multimedia space.
10/17/2018 2:55pm
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Fostering an XR Community in the Enterprise
This talk highlights the various activities APL is undertaking to promote the effective ingestion of AR and
VR capabilities into our primary workflows. Nick DeMatt shares the underlying principles and efforts that
are bringing together disparate talents from across the Laboratory to create an environment that
enables learning, innovation, and collaboration.
Nick DeMatt
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Nick DeMatt has 30 years of design and fabrication automation experience. His current work focuses on
leveraging AR across the traditional design, test and fabrication processes.
10/17/2018 3:45pm
Heise
Using Virtual Reality at the NIST Measurement Science Laboratory
The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is a measurement science laboratory whose
mission has a primary economic focus. The High Performance Computing and Visualization Group at
NIST has been using immersive visualization along with parallel computing in its collaborations with
other NIST scientists over close to two decades. During this time the Group has developed an approach
that emphasizes merging quantitative immersive visualization with interactive analysis in our 'Virtual
Measurement and Analysis Laboratory' to enhance understanding of projects. This talk highlights the
insights that enable us to further NIST's mission using virtual reality as one of our tools.
Dr. Judith Devaney Terrill
NIST
Dr. Judith Devaney Terrill is the Leader of the High Performance Computing and Visualization Group in
the Information Technology Laboratory at the National Institute of Standards and Technology. Her
background is in physics, parallel computing, visualization, and machine learning.
10/17/2018 4:15pm
Room A
Keeping Stem Real in Virtual Reality
Join Filament Games Vice President of Sales Jennifer Javornik as she details proven strategies for
leveraging the unique capabilities of VR to create immersive, non‐linear storytelling experiences
designed to educate, empower, and inspire the next generation of STEM leaders. Using our upcoming
game Breaking Boundaries in Science as a case study, audiences will gain new insights into best practices
for creating VR experiences with real‐world impact.
Jennifer Javornik
Filament Games
Jennifer Javornik is a technology growth executive who specializes in new business development,
partnership management, revenue growth, and entrepreneurship. As Vice President of Sales for
Filament Games, she works with companies, organizations, and individuals to explore how they can
increase efficacy and engagement in learning through digital learning games, simulations, virtual and
augmented reality.
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10/17/2018 4:15pm
Heise
Lost City of Mer: inspiring RW action through a cross‐platform VR experience
This session presents a case study of the making of ‘Lost City of Mer’, a cross‐platform interactive and
immersive experience that combines a smartphone app with VR with the aim of addressing the
challenges of climate change. Made in cooperation with the Auckland University of Technology, Lost City
of Mer utilizes a ground‐breaking living narrative structure where the audience’s real‐world actions
impact the story that unfolds in VR. Innovative “swimming”, game play, elements of sci‐fi and mystery
inspire users to reduce their carbon footprint in order to restore a magical lost civilization.
Liz Canner
Lost City of Mer, LLC
Liz Canner, a digital media artist and writer, uses innovative approaches in her films, VR, and cross
platform projects to inspire social change. Her work has received over 60 honors and awards.
10/17/2018 4:45pm
Heise
Novel Perception
The Novel Perception project seeks to enhance users’ awareness of the world through naturalistic
access to sources of information beyond the basic human senses. The system collects signals from a
variety of sensors, synchronizes them in real time, registers them in real space, and then overlays them
onto the real world by display though a mixed‐reality headset. The NP team has implemented social,
thermal, and hyperspectral overlays; next they plan to develop physiological, radiological/nuclear, and
radio frequency overlays. The volume and velocity of the data streaming from these additional sensor
modalities may be overwhelming, so a next objective is to leverage artificial intelligence and brain‐
computer interfaces to sculpt the deluge per the tasks at hand.
Ariel M. Greenberg
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Ariel M. Greenberg is a Senior Research Scientist in the Intelligent Systems Center of Johns Hopkins APL.
His work addresses topics in psychophysiology and behavioral modeling and simulation, toward
applications in defense, intelligence, public health, and medicine.
10/17/2018 4:45pm
Room A
Extending The Experience
With immersive technology rapidly making its way into the mainstream, experience designers must
quickly adapt to a new model of customer interaction, purchasing decisions, and experiential marketing.
In this talk, Founder and Chief Experience Designer of Capitol Interactive Joseph Cathey examines best
practices for designing immersive experiences, trends in the industry, and how face filters and selfies
will evolve into a multi‐billion dollar industry.
Joseph Cathey
Capitol Interactive
A filmmaker turned entrepreneur, Joseph has created immersive experiences and lectured for
organizations such as Discovery, AARP, and US State Department. As organizer of the DCVR Meetup,
Joseph has organized dozens of events and activities to grow the local VR community into an inclusive
collective of nearly 2,000 designers, developers, and filmmakers.
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10/18/2018 9:30am
Heise
AR in Higher Education: What students are already doing to visualize and what
we can do to help.
What are the ways that AR will impact higher education? Outside of medical models, comprehensive AR
education solutions are yet to be fully explored. Founder of Fourth Wave (fourthwavestudios.com), an
independent AR design studio with a focus on education, Joseph Schiarizzi, discusses use cases and
shows examples of how AR can impact fields of study that you may not have considered. He also
explores ways AR products can make the greatest impression on students, especially those in applied
science programs, based on feedback to Fourth Wave products.
Joseph Schiarizzi
Fourth Wave
Joseph Schiarizzi founded Fourth Wave, an independent AR design studio, in 2017 to bring better
visualization technologies to students and educators. His background includes work in child psychology,
computer science, and computer vision.
10/18/2018 9:30am
Room A
Imagining Future Cities
This talk focuses on designing future cities and future worlds using World Building — the content
developer’s ideation and research tool of choice when working with AI, AR and 4D media platforms.
Practiced by award‐winning game designers, production designers, film directors and social change
agents, World Building is a frontier thinking process of imagining near future spaces, cities and worlds.
Audience members will leave with three 4D media examples to grow out of World Building. Panel
members will share professional insights into the success and challenges of World Building new future
cities solutions in and for immersive experience.
Dr. M A Greenstein
MaMax Studio / Art Center College of Design
M A Greenstein a frontier thinking design researcher and innovation strategist dedicated to the idea
that face to face conversations between designers, technologists and scientists can lead to life‐changing
products and principles.
10/18/2018 10:00am
Heise
Augmented Reality: Making Surgery Safer
While medical imaging has radically evolved over the last few decades, how those images are displayed
is basically the same as it was in 1950. Visual data are shown on a flat 2D screen, on displays that force
health care providers to look away from the patient, and even away from their own hands while
operating. Augmented reality (AR) has the potential to dramatically shift this paradigm. This session
details AR tools being developed at the Maryland Blended Reality Center that overlay imaging directly in
a practitioner’s field of view, for life‐saving applications in medicine and surgery.
Dr. Sarah Murthi
University of Maryland, Baltimore
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Sarah Murthi has developed and validated novel applications for ultrasound, including the Focused
Rapid Echocardiographic Evaluation (FREE). She has been awarded several Department of Defense
grants, and has real‐world experience bringing technological ideas into common clinical practice. She is
Associate Professor of Surgery at UMB's School of Medicine/R Adams Cowley Shock Trauma Center.
Dr. Amitabh Varshney
University of Maryland, College Park
Amitabh Varshney explores applications of virtual and augmented reality in several areas, including
healthcare and telemedicine. He has worked in visual saliency, summarization of large visual datasets,
and visual computing for big data. He is Professor and Dean of UMD's College of Computer,
Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.
10/18/2018 10:00am
Room A
Around The World In 360 Degrees
In this session, Mark Lambert gives an overview of global 360 video production and location based VR
attractions. He shares his experiences filming 360 video in 14 countries and working on four location
based VR attractions in Dubai. One attraction transports people to Paris, DC, Rome, Dubai and Tokyo,
another flies over the Swiss Alps and Kenya's Masai Mara. He also discusses challenges filming 12
endangered species from Mountain Gorillas in Uganda to Sea Lions in Australia. Discover what is
involved in global filming (from permits to poisonous spiders) and also lessons learned from creating VR
park attractions.
Mark E Lambert
VArtisans
Mark Lambert headed up VFX work on movies like Harry Potter, Stuart Little and Polar Express, has
directed and edited TV shows and commercials and, since 2015, entered the world of 360 video and VR.
10/18/2018 10:50am
Heise
3D Acquisition and Rendering for AR and VR Applications
Acquisition of 3D geometry and realistic rendering are fundamental components of AR and VR systems.
AR applications generally need to sense the 3D environment of the user, and often physical 3D objects
need to be reconstructed so they can be shared and manipulated virtually. Realistic rendering is a key
requirement to provide the sense of presence in VR, and to blend virtual objects seamlessly with the
real world in AR. In this presentation, he will discuss previous and ongoing research that his research
group is pursuing to further improve the capabilities of these crucial enabling technologies for AR and
VR.
Dr. Matthias Zwicker
University of Maryland, College Park
Matthias Zwicker joined the University of Maryland in March 2017 as the Reginald Allan Hahne Endowed
E‐Nnovate Professor in Computer Science. His research focuses on fundamental algorithms for
computer graphics applications including AR and VR.
10/18/2018 10:50am
Room A
NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions meets Virtual Reality
Watch how VR can be used to explore mathematical function in a playful yet informative manner. The
NIST Digital Library of Mathematical Functions is the definitive source of special functions and we
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demonstrate how to abuse these surfaces to gain new insight into the structure and nature of these
beautiful figures.
Sandy Ressler
NIST
This is the second time Sandy Ressler’s been involved with VR at NIST, in the mid 90’s he was
prototyping manufacturing and robotic systems. In a prior lifetime (the 80s) at Bell Labs he created
unique real time graphics demos.
10/18/2018 11:20am
Room A
Collaborative VR supporting Cybersecurity ‐ Lessons Learned and Insights
Presenters will provide a general overview of the Virtual Reality Data Analysis Environment (VRDAE)
project at Army Research Laboratory. We will discuss highlights from the project to include a variety of
insights and lessons learned while developing a VR environment that cross cuts a variety of VR genres.
The VRDAE project is an ongoing VR project related to Cybersecurity Research and Analysis and was
recently highlighted in the Department of Defense (DoD) Science, Technology, Engineering,
Mathematics (STEM) Lab Narratives.
Lee Trossbach
Army Research Lab
Lee Trossbach is a contractor (ICF) at Army Research Laboratory with a focus area of cybersecurity
analysis and visualization methodologies. Lee has been in his role for over 10 years and is a co‐founder
of the VRDAE project with Dr. Curtis Arnold.
Barry Byrd
Army Research Lab
Barry Byrd is a contractor (ICF) at the Army Research Laboratory with a focus area of Virtual Reality
development. He has been a software developer for 18 years and is a core developer on the VRDAE
project.
Alex Rieschick
Army Research Lab
Alex Rieschick is a contractor (ICF) at the Army Research Laboratory with a focus area of Virtual Reality
development. He has been in his role for over a year and is a core developer on the VRDAE project.
10/18/2018 11:20am
Heise
Leveraging Immersive Media in Education
This panel will discuss practical methods and applications for implementing Immersive Media for
education, including public education and museum exhibition, through to advanced university and
industrial settings. Panelists will share their experiences in leveraging Immersive Media at all budget
levels, from inexpensive, easy to learn approaches to getting started with these technologies for the first
time, through to developing state‐of‐the‐art facilities for research, education and content production.
Nick Jushchyshyn
Drexel University
Nick is the founding Program Director of Drexel University's VR & Immersive Media program. His
research focuses on the development and application of production pipelines for VR/AR and other
immersive media formats in areas including education, cultural heritage, medicine and narrative
experiences.
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Susan Poulton
Door 44 Digital
Susan recently served as the Chief Digital Officer at The Franklin Institute science museum and is now
President of Door 44 Digital, a digital strategy consulting firm.
Tom Armbruster
209 Group
Tom is an adjunct professor at California State University in Los Angeles and founder and CEO of the 209
Group who's expertise draws on knowledge and experience from the film, video game, life science &
medical, automotive, defense and aerospace industries.
Justin Berry
Yale
Justin Berry is a Critic at the Yale School of Art, Core Faculty at the Yale Center for Collaborative Arts and
Media, and Principal Investigator for the Blended Reality program, an applied research grant from HP.
10/18/2018 1:20pm
Room A
Building an XR Lab on a Budget
Immersive Technology is a fast‐paced and dynamic industry filled with both exiting potential and hidden
risks. Blake Schreurs will provide a beginner‐friendly talk about the state of Mixed/Augmented/Virtual
Reality industry to help shine a light on what's real, what's marketing, and what's changing the world.
The talk starts with an overview of the most common technologies available, then provides information
on industries impacted by the growing field of immersive technology, and concludes by providing insight
into existing limitations and promising technologies various companies are creating to address those
limitations.
Blake Schreurs
Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory
Blake Schreurs is a professional Virtual Reality developer and a co‐founder/designer/developer for the
Immersion Central XR lab at the Johns Hopkins Applied Physics Laboratory.
10/18/2018 1:20pm
Heise
Interaction design for mobile VR
Designing for Virtual Reality is challenging. Compared to computers, mobile phones or tablets, there is
no standard of interaction. This makes it difficult to create experiences that are intuitive for first time VR
users and to keep them engaged. Jeremie Lasnier will go through different use cases based on his work
at LiveLike, developing live sports streaming experiences for broadcasters. The talk will be focus on
mobile VR (Gear VR, Oculus Go, Daydream).
Jeremie Lasnier
LiveLike VR
Jeremie Lasnier is the Co‐Founder and Chief Creative Officer at LiveLike, the company is building
engaging experiences for broadcasters around the world to watch sports with friends and fans
(VR/AR/mobile/web).
10/18/2018 1:50pm
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Room A
Scene Reconstruction Engines – A critically needed component for improving
the AR / VR experience.
Modern kitchens, contemporary offices and flower gardens are boundless 3D spaces, full of
electromagnetic energy ("light") and overlapping objects that include highly non‐Lambertian, partially
transmissive, textureless and finely‐structured matter ("Generalized Scenes"). Most urban spaces that
people occupy in the course of their daily personal and professional lives are “generalized". But, today's
Scene Reconstruction Engines (SREs) are unable to reconstruct generalized scenes in a way that satisfies
mass market requirements for devices‐using‐scene‐reconstruction (DSRs) like AR glasses, mobile phones
and UAVs, which requirements address accuracy, size, power and affordability. A severe SRE
price/performance bottleneck exists. Quidient researchers are developing SREs using a new approach
called Generalized Scene Reconstruction ("GSR") that has the potential to break the bottleneck.
Scott Ackerson
Quidient
Quidient is Scott’s third 3D imaging company. He holds ten patents, has a Master’s in Business from
Wharton, a Bachelor’s in Systems Engineering from the U.S. Naval Academy and is a former Submarine
Force Officer.
Karthik Murthy
Quidient
Karthik is an Imaging Systems Engineer at Quidient; has a Master’s in Electrical Engineering from
Oklahoma State in the field of Computer Vision and is primarily responsible for Imaging Systems
Integration and Testing and overseeing technical demonstrations.
10/18/2018 1:50pm
Heise
Immersive Earth Science: VR Connects the Dots Between Data and Reality
Have you ever seen people get really excited about science data? Navteca, along with the NASA Applied
Sciences Disasters program, within the Earth Science Division of NASA's Science Mission Directorates,
has been exploring virtual reality (VR) technology for the next generation of Earth science technology
information systems. VR has the potential to allow people to experience scientific content in new and
engaging ways, including interacting with GIS and Earth observation data, as seen in this presentation of
VR interactive flooding, immersive hurricanes, and global climate data visualizations. By adapting data
sets to create stunning, immersive visualizations and combining them with three dimensional city
models and land topography, this session will inspire and inform as to how VR can create a new way to
understand Earth science information across disciplines.
Shayna Skolnik
Navteca
Shayna Skolnik is co‐founder, CEO, and creative mastermind of Navteca, a Maryland technology
company that has been pioneering the use of VR technology for Earth science, working closely with
NASA and others to push the boundaries of GIS data visualization.
10/18/2018 2:20pm
Heise
Mixed Reality for Mission Impact: Lessons Learned Exploring Geospatial
Concepts
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Mixed reality allows us to see the world in exciting new ways. ByteCubed, an early Microsoft HoloLens
agency partner, collaborated with the National Geospatial‐Intelligence Agency to envision and explore
opportunities for mixed reality to transform traditional analog experiences into a rich, immersive
platform for training, simulation, and collaboration. Attendees will learn about the process of taking an
idea from validation to deployment, finding opportunities that deliver unique business value based on
the unique capabilities of immersive technology, and hear lessons learned to help better find
opportunities to transform their own mission and organization needs.
Jordan Higgins
Byte Cubed
Jordan leads UX and immersive design at ByteCubed, an early Microsoft Mixed Reality Agency Partner
focused on government innovation. He also serves on the board of UXPA DC, and teaches design at
George Mason University.
10/18/2018 3:10pm
Heise
Transmedia ‐ Everyone is a Hero
Transmedia satiates today's audience hunger for experience and connectedness and offers brands long‐
term and retrograde engagement. Joseph Campbell Hero’s Journey has been the narrative backbone
behind most every novel, television show, movie, and game for centuries past. But the confinement of
the linear story and a single hero to save the day, does not fit audiences of today who want to be heard,
stay in intrigued, and be involved. Transmedia is here to save the day by engaging audiences in a grand
narrative with multiple heroes across multiple platforms and formats in a nonlinear story world, which
encourages an encyclopedic impulse and offers various entry points that allow audiences to take control
of the experience and make it uniquely their own.
Skye will introduce you to transmedia, how it relates to the history of storytelling and the evolution and
access to technology over the last 100 years. She will highlight how to utilize transmedia storytelling to
achieve more meaningful engagement with your audience by creating a story world that can extend
across multiple platforms including VR, AR, web, TV, film, and books.
Skye Von
little GIANT Wolf
Skye Von is an award‐winning transmedia filmmaker known for her unique approach of blending
traditional storytelling and new media formats to create unique, meaningful experiences and the
founder of the transcultural, transmedia story studio little GIANT Wolf.
10/18/2018 3:10pm
Room A
Businesses Moving the Needle with AR and VR
Tim Cook, Apple’s chief executive, has said that AR will “change the way we use technology forever.”
Mixed Reality hardware and software represents a new platform for media, communications, gaming,
and education. While this all sounds very futuristic, today, many large companies and institutions are
already using augmented and virtual reality to differentiate their brand, engage alumni, raise money,
solve clinical needs, tell stories, explain complex concepts, and celebrate milestones. Join Will Gee, CEO
and Co‐Founder of Balti Virtual, and several leading companies as they discuss their use cases, value
propositions, goals and benefits of using mixed reality.
Will Gee
Balti Virtual
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With over 20 years in 3D software development and content creation reaching back to the gaming
industry, Will Gee co‐founded Balti Virtual to focus on delivering augmented and virtual reality
experiences to businesses, consumers and large institutions. Will has produced award‐winning games
and patented 3D simulation technology, consumer AR products, and met the needs of global customers
in marketing, health care, entertainment, government and real estate.
Company Bio: Balti Virtual inspires wonder and creativity with world‐class AR/VR content, experiences
and software for Fortune 1000 companies and large institutions. Our client list includes many global
brands including Under Armour, Johns Hopkins, the University of Virginia, PayPal, Kawasaki, Marvel and
NBC Universal, among others.
Elizabeth Muse
University of Virginia
Elizabeth leads a 10 person team focused on global outreach, network and engagement activities with
UVA Clubs connecting the University of Virginia's alumni, parents and friends in more than 100
communities around the world.
John J. Thompson
Northrop Grumman
John is the senior business development representative for Northrop Grumman's naval aviation business
area. Previously, John served 24 years as a naval officer and pilot with the US Navy including six combat
deployments.
Dr. Gislin Dagnelie
The Johns Hopkins University Wilmer Eye Institute
Dr. Dagnelie is a pioneer and expert in ophthalmology research focused on blindness, optobionics and
retinal implants to stimulate sight. He is supported by the National Institutes of Health and the National
Science Foundation.
10/18/2018 3:40pm
Heise
Virtual Reality, Music and Pain: An Interdisciplinary Approach to Pain
Management
Research in non‐pharmacological pain management seeks alternatives to pain treatments that present
severe side effects. This endeavor is increasingly important as opioid addiction and deaths in the U.S.
rise, and as governmental agencies recommend health care practitioners and patients move away from
opioid‐based pain management. Virtual reality (VR) and music therapy (MT) have been separately
explored as interventions for alleviating pain, with relatively consistent levels of success. This session
details a unique research collaboration between the University of Maryland’s School of Music, School of
Nursing and the Maryland Blended Reality Center that combines VR and MT for non‐opioid pain
management.
Dr. Amitabh Varshney
University of Maryland, College Park
Amitabh Varshney explores applications of virtual and augmented reality in several areas, including
healthcare and telemedicine. He has worked in visual saliency, summarization of large visual datasets,
and visual computing for big data. He is Professor and Dean of UMD's College of Computer,
Mathematical, and Natural Sciences.
Craig Kier
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Maryland Opera Studio
Craig Kier is an active guest conductor nationwide while leading the Maryland Opera Studio. At
Maryland, he has expanded activities to include an annual opera commissioning prize, is exploring VR in
the performing arts, and is Artistic Director of the School of Music Kurt Weill Festival, a cornerstone of
UMD’s Year of Immigration.
Dr. Luana Colloca
UMB School of Nursing
Luana Colloca researches human pain modulation from both a mechanistic and translational viewpoint.
Her team explores the role of neurobehavioral and genetic influences on expectancy‐induced analgesia
in patients suffering from chronic pain. She is Associate Professor of Anesthesiology at UMB's School of
Nursing/School of Medicine.
10/18/2018 4:15pm
Heise
Adaptive Immersive Analytics
This session will cover recently‐published and ongoing research from three studies, including:
1) Multimodal displays: Specifically, encoding data into odors (information olfactation)
2) The use of VR data visualization techniques for real‐world analytical work among federal economists,
statisticians, and data scientists
3) Machine learning and computer vision methods for evaluating user behavior in immersive
environments
Andrea Batch
iSchool at University of Maryland
Andrea Batch is a Ph.D. student at the UMD iSchool and an economist at the U.S. Bureau of Economic
Analysis. Her work revolves around information visualization, human‐computer interaction, immersive
environments, and machine learning.
10/18/2018 4:15pm
Room A
Evidence‐based VR Therapy: The surprising role of narrative and play
An XR producer and a VR research program manager with backgrounds in game development and
graphic novels discuss their work developing evidence‐based interventions for education, behavior
change and healing.
Russell Shilling
Fmr DARPA PM/ Independent Consultant
Russell Shilling is a retired Navy Captain, Navy Aerospace Experimental Psychologist, Former DARPA PM
and STEM Director at the U.S. Dept of Education. He is responsible for starting pioneering work in
education innovation, VR therapy for PTSD, simulation, and videogame technologies.
Daniel Greenberg
Media Rez
Daniel Greenberg founded Media Rez, producing innovative videogames and XR for health, behavior
change, and fun, including interventions for treatment adherence, relapse prevention, healthy lifestyles,
and pain control with research testing by GWU and UPenn.
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