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Showing posts with label virtual reality. Show all posts
Showing posts with label virtual reality. Show all posts

Saturday, November 08, 2025

VR, Metaverse: Lighter, More Human Words That Evoke Presence, Play, Emotion, And Connection Rather Than Jargon


Excellent insight. VR, metaverse, spatial, and worlds have all grown stale or overhyped. They sound either too technical or too “Web3-bubble.” What’s needed now are lighter, more human words that evoke presence, play, emotion, and connection rather than jargon.

Here’s a creative taxonomy of fresh, marketable substitutes — depending on tone and audience.

🌬️ 1. Soft & Human-Centered Alternatives

Use these if your brand wants to sound friendly, accessible, and emotionally engaging.

Old Term Better Substitute Notes
VR Immersive view, living lens, dreamspace Suggests emotion & perception instead of tech.
Metaverse the Flow, the Loop, the Commons, the Layer, the Canvas Evokes social, creative, and open systems.
Spatial felt space, living room, flow zone, presence field Humanizes the sense of shared proximity.
Worlds realms, stories, loops, lands, fields, dreamscapes Feels poetic and open-ended.

⚡ 2. Trendy, Tech-Lite Terms

Great for startups, creators, or apps blending AI + immersion.

Concept Fresh Phrase Rationale
Virtual environments experience pods, presence hubs, shared flow, story layers Sounds futuristic but friendly.
Metaverse platforms living internet, next web, presence net, flow web Avoids hype; suggests evolution, not revolution.
3D or immersive media holo media, living content, deep media, flowcasts Light, catchy, and intuitive.

🌱 3. Natural & Organic Language

Evokes warmth, nature, and life—ideal for mainstream adoption.

Old Jargon New Word Emotional Anchor
VR headset viewband, senseband, dreamvisor Gentle, wearable, sensory.
Metaverse app playfield, garden, grove, commons Implies human gathering & growth.
Spatial computing living interface, field sense, reality mesh Feels intuitive and grounded.

🔮 4. Premium & Visionary Vocabulary

For high-concept storytelling or visionary tech brands.

Old Term New Substitute Feel
Metaverse Continuum, Living Web, Dimension X, The Fold, The Loom Evokes scale and sophistication.
Spatial Computing Cognitive Canvas, Reality Cloud, The Layer Suggests intelligence and synthesis.
Virtual World Parallel Space, Dream Layer, Reality Stream Feels cinematic and fluid.

🧠 5. Single-Word Brandable Concepts

Coinable or brand-ready words that could trend:

  • Flowverse – soft evolution of “metaverse”

  • Dreamnet – poetic, memorable

  • Realspace – grounding alternative to “virtual space”

  • Sensefield – evokes presence and connection

  • The Loop – simple, sticky, social

  • FlowOS – for a platform or ecosystem

  • The Layer – modular, tech-chic, minimal

  • Presence Cloud – enterprise-credible, human-friendly

  • Holohood – playful, communal, youthful

  • Dreamline – implies narrative continuity and vision



Brand Naming & Messaging Guide for the Post-Metaverse Era — a toolkit for startups, storytellers, or platforms that want to sound fresh, human, and visionary without falling into the VR/Metaverse jargon trap.

🧭 PART I — The New Language of Presence

Forget metaverse and VR. The future isn’t about escaping reality — it’s about expanding it. The new lexicon must feel alive, sensory, emotional, and social.

Core Idea New Lexicon Tone & Feel
Virtual Reality Living Reality, Immersive View, Flowspace Organic and human.
Metaverse The Loop, The Flow, The Continuum, The Layer Social and interconnected.
Spatial Computing Reality Mesh, Presence Cloud, Living Interface Intelligent and intuitive.
Virtual Worlds Playfields, Dreamlands, Commons, Story Realms Creative and social.

🌊 PART II — Three Brand Archetypes for This Era

Every product or campaign can anchor in one of these new marketing archetypes. Each archetype includes tone, vocabulary, and tagline direction.

1. The Flow Archetype — Fluid, Emotional, Effortless

Keywords: flow, stream, current, loop, wave, drift
Tone: poetic, relaxed, human, natural
Sample Brand Names:

  • FlowOS

  • Sensefield

  • Driftspace

  • The Loop

  • Fluid

Sample Taglines:

  • “Step into the Flow.”

  • “Reality, just lighter.”

  • “Where ideas drift and connect.”

  • “The Loop never ends—join it.”

2. The Dream Archetype — Playful, Creative, Emotional

Keywords: dream, story, sky, field, horizon, canvas
Tone: imaginative, youthful, warm
Sample Brand Names:

  • Dreamline

  • Skyfield

  • StoryLayer

  • CloudCanvas

  • Horizon OS

Sample Taglines:

  • “Paint your world in real time.”

  • “Dream it. Live it. Share it.”

  • “Reality, rewritten in color.”

  • “A new layer of imagination.”

3. The Presence Archetype — Real, Grounded, Connected

Keywords: sense, field, commons, mesh, circle, link
Tone: communal, earthy, grounded, tech-light
Sample Brand Names:

  • Sensefield

  • Presence Cloud

  • The Commons

  • Realspace

  • Circl

Sample Taglines:

  • “Closer than ever.”

  • “Shared presence. Simple as breathing.”

  • “The web becomes a place again.”

  • “Reality, together.”

🔮 PART III — Naming Frameworks

A. One-Word Trendables

Light, rhythmic, easy to say, brandable:

  • Flowverse

  • Dreamnet

  • Realspace

  • SenseOS

  • Flowhood

  • The Layer

  • Holohood

  • Continuum

  • Loopline

B. Compound Word Names

Blend human + tech vocabulary:

  • Mindloop

  • Skyflow

  • Dreamfield

  • SenseCloud

  • RealityStream

  • Playmesh

  • LightField

C. Evocative Phrases (for Taglines / Campaigns)

  • “Reality with feeling.”

  • “The living web begins here.”

  • “Dream in layers.”

  • “Enter softly.”

  • “Built for human presence.”

  • “From screens to scenes.”

  • “The digital becomes breathable.”

🌍 PART IV — Positioning Language

Old Hype New Fresh Alternative Tone Shift
“Enter the metaverse.” “Join the Flow.” From hype → human.
“Virtual experiences.” “Shared moments.” From tech → emotion.
“Spatial computing.” “The living web.” From sterile → organic.
“Digital twins.” “Reality mirrors.” From jargon → poetic.
“3D avatars.” “Living selves.” From cartoon → presence.

🧩 PART V — Short Marketing Scripts

For a Product Launch

“We built Flowspace for creators who don’t want to log in — they want to step in.
Not a metaverse. Not another world. Just your world, more alive.”

For an Enterprise Pitch

“Presence Cloud turns digital work into human collaboration.
Meetings become moments, data becomes dialogue.”

For a Consumer App

“Dreamline is where stories live — not as videos, but as living memories you can walk through.”

🌠 PART VI — Principles for the New Lexicon

  1. Drop the buzzwords.
    No “metaverse,” “blockchain,” or “VR” up front. Lead with the feeling of the experience.

  2. Use verbs of movement.
    Flow, drift, connect, breathe, loop, sense, unfold.
    Movement implies life and simplicity.

  3. Anchor in emotion, not engineering.
    Replace “compute,” “spatial,” or “render” with “feel,” “see,” or “share.”

  4. Think of nature as metaphor.
    Fields, rivers, clouds, gardens — familiar, universal, calming.
    It helps abstract tech feel organic.

🪶 PART VII — 5 Example Product Ecosystems (Re-Imagined)

Product Type Old Name New Generation Branding
VR headset Meta Quest Flowband, Dreamvisor, Senseband
3D creative tool Unity / Unreal CanvasOS, StoryField
Collaboration platform Horizon Workrooms Presence Cloud, Flowspace
Social app Roblox / Zepeto The Commons, Loopline, Playfield
AI simulation engine Omniverse Reality Mesh, Cognitive Canvas




The Real Failure of VR: A Design Flaw Masquerading as a Marketing Problem

Why the Metaverse Never Landed—and How Human-Centered Design Can Still Save It

Introduction: When Innovation Meets Nausea

The problem with Virtual Reality was never just branding. It wasn’t the word “metaverse” or the corporate logos trying to trademark our collective imagination. The real problem was physiological, not philosophical.

VR failed because it made people sick. Literally.

The headsets promised escape, immersion, and limitless new worlds—but instead, they induced headaches, nausea, dizziness, and detachment. The “killer app” turned out to be motion sickness. In the end, it wasn’t the dystopian sci-fi fears that doomed the metaverse—it was our inner ear.

What was billed as the next internet became a lesson in the limits of human-centered design.

1. The Design Disconnect: Tech That Fought the Body

Every major technological leap has succeeded by aligning with how humans naturally see, move, and think.

  • The mouse mimicked the hand.

  • The touchscreen mimicked the fingertip.

  • The smartphone mimicked the pocket diary.

VR, however, demanded that we leave the body behind.

Headsets forced our eyes to focus on a screen a few centimeters away, while our brains were told we were running, flying, or floating. This war between eye and inner ear created dissonance—our neurons revolted. It wasn’t immersive; it was invasive.

A technology that aspired to dissolve the boundary between digital and physical instead deepened it. VR became a metaphor for disembodiment itself: humans dangling between two realities, feeling sick in both.

2. The False Promise of “Presence”

Marketers called it presence: the illusion of being somewhere else.
But presence without comfort is alienation.

The mistake wasn’t ambition—it was misunderstanding the medium. VR sought to replace reality rather than extend it. The metaverse builders imagined that people wanted to spend hours in artificial worlds, meeting coworkers as legless avatars, floating in fluorescent voids.

But humans don’t crave pixels—they crave place.
They don’t want to “escape” reality; they want to enrich it.

Presence isn’t about tricking the senses—it’s about heightening connection, clarity, and flow. The headset, instead of freeing people, became a blindfold.

3. The Human Ergonomics Revolution That Never Happened

There’s a reason we don’t walk around with ski goggles strapped to our faces for fun. The ergonomics of VR were a nonstarter. Heavy, sweaty, isolating—the experience violated the first law of interface design: “Do not make people suffer to use your product.”

Early VR evangelists compared it to the iPhone moment. But the iPhone wasn’t just powerful—it was beautiful, portable, and intuitive. It fit the palm; it disappeared into life.

VR, by contrast, required ritual and resistance: charge the headset, clear the room, calibrate the sensors, tighten the straps. It turned the simplest act—putting it on—into a barrier.

Good design disappears. VR screamed.

4. The “Metaverse” Mirage: Fixing Marketing, Ignoring Physics

When the public balked, Silicon Valley tried to rebrand the nausea away. Metaverse was supposed to be the new frontier—the internet evolved into experience.

But language couldn’t fix lag.
Slogans couldn’t stop vertigo.
No amount of marketing magic could mask the truth that the hardware and human physiology were still at odds.

It was the same hubris that has haunted many tech revolutions: believing that scale and storytelling can outrun the body’s limits. But biology always wins.

The failure wasn’t in selling the idea; it was in selling it before it was livable.

5. The Next Frontier: Designing for Comfort, Not Control

The lesson for the next generation of immersive technologies—whether we call them Flowspaces, Dreamfields, or Presence Clouds—is simple:

Design must serve the nervous system before it serves the network.

We need devices that harmonize with human rhythm—lightweight, eye-safe, socially transparent, emotionally intelligent. Interfaces that listen to the body rather than override it.

Emerging “micro-immersion” technologies, like spatial audio, holographic displays, or ambient AR layers, suggest a more humane path forward—augmenting reality, not replacing it. Instead of escape pods, think windows. Instead of simulation, think sensation.

The future won’t belong to the companies that build deeper worlds; it will belong to those that build softer thresholds between worlds.

6. The Way Forward: From Headsets to Heartsets

The new design philosophy of the coming era will be empathy-driven computing:

  • Devices that adjust brightness, tone, and scale to your emotional state.

  • Experiences that reduce strain rather than exploit attention.

  • Interfaces that feel like breathing, not bracing.

VR made us forget that the most advanced interface is still the human body—and the most immersive medium is still human emotion.

When people talk about the “post-metaverse” age, they’re really describing a return to human sense-making. We’re entering an age of presence without pain, of digital touch that feels natural, and worlds that don’t require headgear to feel real.

Conclusion: A New Kind of Reality

In hindsight, the metaverse was never too early—it was too heavy. The dream wasn’t wrong; the design was.

The problem wasn’t that people didn’t want immersion; it’s that they didn’t want migraine.

To build the next generation of presence tech, we must stop thinking like engineers and start thinking like anatomists, artists, and poets. Technology must fit the body before it can reshape the world.

When that happens—when comfort becomes the new innovation—the real metaverse, the one we were promised, may finally arrive.

And this time, we won’t need a headset to feel it.



Beyond the Headset: The Design Failure That Broke VR—and the Neuroergonomic Future That Can Save It

A Whitepaper on the Collapse of the Metaverse and the Rise of Human-Centered Reality Design

Executive Summary

Virtual Reality was supposed to be the next leap in human experience—a bridge between imagination and embodiment. Instead, it became a cautionary tale in overpromising and underfeeling.

The fall of the metaverse wasn’t merely a marketing failure; it was a design failure at the level of human biology. Headsets caused nausea, eyestrain, and alienation not because users were weak, but because the technology ignored the nervous system’s basic design parameters.

This whitepaper argues that the next generation of immersive technology must be guided not by rendering power but by neuroergonomic empathy—the science of designing systems in harmony with the brain and body. We explore:

  • The physiological roots of VR’s failure

  • The mismatch between machine design and sensory architecture

  • The psychological fallout of forced immersion

  • Emerging pathways toward Presence-Centered Design

  • Frameworks for Neuroergonomic Interfaces that align with human cognition, emotion, and perception

In short: the future of immersive technology is not “more virtual.” It is more human.

1. The Mirage of the Metaverse

In 2021, Silicon Valley rebranded itself around a dream—the metaverse. It promised to merge all realities: social, professional, artistic, and economic, into a seamless 3D web.

Investors poured billions into this “next internet,” but by 2025 the momentum had collapsed. Consumer adoption plateaued. Developers pivoted. Stock prices fell. And users, after a few minutes of experimentation, quietly removed their headsets and never put them back on.

The diagnosis was simple yet devastating: VR made people feel bad.

But that symptom masked a deeper cause—an entire industry that designed for fantasy, not physiology.

2. The Design Failure Beneath the Surface

2.1 The Physiology Problem

Humans evolved to navigate real space through synchronized sensory feedback loops.

  • Eyes track motion.

  • Inner ears (vestibular system) detect balance and acceleration.

  • Proprioception (muscle sense) confirms position in space.

In VR, these systems are forced out of sync. The eyes perceive motion while the body remains still, triggering sensory conflict, the root cause of motion sickness. This is not a minor UX flaw—it’s a neurological design incompatibility.

Diagram 1: Sensory Feedback Conflict

[Visual Motion] → Brain perceives forward movement
[Inner Ear (no motion)] → Brain perceives stillness
↓
Cognitive Dissonance → Dizziness, nausea, fatigue

2.2 The Ergonomic Oversight

Early headset design prioritized field of view, resolution, and refresh rate—metrics of machine fidelity, not human comfort. The result:

  • Excess weight on the neck and face

  • Eye convergence fatigue from stereoscopic misalignment

  • Heat accumulation and claustrophobia

  • Social isolation (blocked vision of physical space and people)

Diagram 2: Layers of Discomfort

[Physical Load] → Neck strain, heat
[Visual Load] → Eye strain, blur adaptation
[Cognitive Load] → Orientation confusion
[Social Load] → Isolation and self-consciousness

The irony: devices meant to create “presence” actually erased it.

3. The Psychology of Presence and the Illusion of Control

3.1 Presence Without Belonging

Presence—the feeling of “being there”—was VR’s holy grail. Yet real presence is not just sensory alignment; it’s psychological belonging.
People feel “present” not when pixels are sharp, but when purpose is clear and social context feels safe.

VR trapped users in beautifully rendered emptiness. Even multi-user spaces felt sterile: avatars without micro-expressions, environments without tactile reality. The brain knows when it’s faking connection.

3.2 The Cognitive Cost of Total Control

VR aimed for omnipotence—users could fly, teleport, reshape landscapes. But endless control creates decision fatigue.
Paradoxically, constraints create meaning. A chair that you can’t walk through, a horizon you can’t reach—these limitations anchor the self.

In VR, everything is editable; nothing feels real. The human mind finds comfort in friction.

4. Marketing Tried to Save It—But the Body Said No

The “metaverse” narrative was an attempt to rebrand discomfort as destiny. But semantic gloss couldn’t hide somatic truth.

Language like “worlds,” “realities,” and “spatial computing” failed because the experience itself was not livable. When the act of entering a space feels like donning scuba gear for your brain, no slogan can fix it.

Diagram 3: The Reality Gap

[Brand Promise] → “Limitless, connected, immersive”
[User Reality]  → “Heavy, isolating, disorienting”
↓
Trust Collapse → Brand rejection

5. From “Virtual Reality” to “Vital Reality”

To move forward, we must invert the paradigm.
Instead of simulating reality, technology must support vitality—the felt sense of being alive and attuned.

We propose a new framework: Presence Design Principles (PDP)

6. Presence Design Principles (PDP)

6.1 Principle 1: Harmonize with the Senses

Design should align with natural perception, not fight it.

  • Use light field displays instead of stereoscopic split screens.

  • Integrate subtle motion cues synchronized with vestibular input.

  • Favor wide peripheral awareness over tunnel vision.

Goal: The user forgets the interface, not their body.

6.2 Principle 2: Design for Comfort Before Control

Control is power; comfort is peace.

  • Prioritize ergonomic wearability and passive cooling.

  • Limit session length based on cognitive strain thresholds.

  • Design gestures that follow natural muscle memory (reach, grasp, turn).

Goal: Technology that feels like breathing.

6.3 Principle 3: Create Shared Anchors

Presence is amplified by shared meaning.

  • Use anchored audio-visual references that connect users to common spatial cues.

  • Blend digital and physical props (haptic tables, real lighting).

  • Design social presence indicators—eye gaze, micro-delays, breathing rhythms.

Goal: Social resonance, not simulation.

6.4 Principle 4: Preserve Psychological Safety

A sense of grounding prevents dissociation.

  • Always provide “exit anchors”—visible or tactile cues to the physical world.

  • Avoid over-stimulation or rapid motion.

  • Respect emotional consent in virtual social encounters.

Goal: Reality that expands without disorienting.

6.5 Principle 5: Build for Accessibility and Diversity

Not all brains perceive the same way.

  • Calibrate for neurodiverse comfort zones (sensitivity, motion thresholds).

  • Offer non-visual presence cues—audio, vibration, spatial sound.

  • Support variable immersion levels—from glanceable AR to deep focus.

Goal: Inclusive presence, not uniform illusion.

7. Neuroergonomic Interfaces: The Next Frontier

If VR failed because it ignored the body, Neuroergonomic Interfaces (NI) will succeed because they listen to it.

7.1 Definition

Neuroergonomic Interface: A system that adapts dynamically to the user’s cognitive, emotional, and physiological state, optimizing comfort and engagement in real time.

7.2 The Core Triad

Diagram 4: The Neuroergonomic Triad

[Perception] ↔ [Cognition] ↔ [Emotion]
   ↑                 ↑                ↑
   ↳ Sensors        ↳ AI Models      ↳ Feedback Loops

  • Perception: Eye tracking, muscle micro-tension, heart rate variability

  • Cognition: Attention level, task load, fatigue detection

  • Emotion: Facial micro-expression, tone, galvanic response

Together, these form a bio-adaptive interface loop—the system reads the body and modulates its behavior.

7.3 Design Tactics for Neuroergonomics

Function Current VR Approach Neuroergonomic Upgrade
Display Fixed field, constant brightness Adaptive luminance & focus tracking
Input Hand controllers Eye-gaze + haptic micro-feedback
Sound Directional stereo Biophonic soundscapes responding to heart rate
Environment Static rendering Dynamic environmental tone (cooler hues under stress)
Duration Unlimited sessions Auto-tapered immersion cycles (biological pacing)

7.4 Architecture of a Neuroergonomic System

Diagram 5: System Architecture

[User Sensors]
   ↓
[Neuro Data Engine]
   ↓
[Adaptive Experience Layer]
   ↓
[Feedback Actuators] → Adjust visuals, sound, motion

  • User Sensors: Cameras, EEG, IMU, biometric bands

  • Neuro Data Engine: AI models mapping sensory load and emotion

  • Adaptive Layer: Adjusts stimulus intensity, field curvature, and narrative pace

  • Actuators: Deliver micro-changes in temperature, light, or tactile pulse

Result: Reality that meets you where your nervous system is.

8. Design Language for the Post-VR Era

To accompany this shift, we must also evolve the language of immersive tech.
Words like “metaverse,” “VR,” and “spatial” now carry baggage of overreach.

The new vocabulary must feel light, breathable, human.

Old Term New Lexicon Description
VR Living Reality Immersion aligned with biology
Metaverse Flowspace Shared dynamic environment
Spatial Computing Reality Mesh Networked sensory interface
Virtual World Commons Social presence layer
Headset Senseband Comfort-first wearable

Diagram 6: Language Shift Map

[Tech-Centric] → [Human-Centric]
Virtual → Living
Digital → Sensory
Metaverse → Flow
Interface → Relationship

9. Case Studies: The Emerging Design Renaissance

9.1 Apple Vision Pro: The Partial Pivot

Apple’s Vision Pro quietly abandoned “metaverse” rhetoric in favor of “spatial computing”—a hint of humility. Its design emphasized transparency (EyeSight front display) and comfort engineering, yet it remains heavy and isolating. The lesson: even elegant design can’t fully overcome physiological friction.

9.2 Mixed Reality Fitness Platforms

Companies like Supernatural and FitXR found a sweet spot: purpose-driven immersion. They use rhythm, movement, and breath alignment to ground users in the body. It’s VR as exercise, not escapism—closer to neuroergonomic harmony.

9.3 Lightfield Holography and Ambient AR

Emerging startups in Japan and Scandinavia are pioneering “no-headgear” holography—transparent displays that layer digital presence atop physical space. These prototypes eliminate motion sickness entirely, suggesting that the future may look more like sunlight than simulation.

10. From Immersion to Integration

The new design ethos rejects “total immersion” as an outdated metaphor. The goal isn’t to trap the user in a virtual bubble—it’s to integrate digital meaning seamlessly into natural perception.

Diagram 7: Evolution of Immersion

[Immersion 1.0] → Isolation
[Immersion 2.0] → Interaction
[Immersion 3.0] → Integration

Integration Principles

  • Ambient, not dominant

  • Context-aware, not context-replacing

  • Multisensory harmony, not overload

  • Designed for flow state, not attention capture

This marks a philosophical shift: from “building worlds” to cultivating experiences.

11. The Future Research Agenda

To evolve beyond VR’s failed paradigms, academia and industry must collaborate around Neuroergonomic Presence Design (NPD).

11.1 Research Priorities

  1. Cognitive Load Calibration: How long can the human brain sustain synthetic immersion without fatigue?

  2. Vestibular Synchronization Models: Predictive motion alignment to reduce sensory conflict.

  3. Emotion-Adaptive Interfaces: AI systems that modulate stimulus based on mood detection.

  4. Bioethical Design Standards: Prevent manipulative use of emotional data.

  5. Open-Source Presence Metrics: Quantifiable comfort and connection scores for comparison.

11.2 Proposed Framework: “Human Interface Index (HII)”

A composite score measuring biological comfort and psychological presence.

HII = (Visual Stability + Vestibular Harmony + Emotional Coherence) / Cognitive Load

High HII = technology aligned with human physiology.

12. Societal Implications: The Politics of Presence

This is not just about design—it’s about democracy.
If the next digital frontier is built around human sensory data, who owns the nervous system?

Neuroergonomic devices will generate intimate emotional analytics. Ethical frameworks must guarantee:

  • Consent: Users control biofeedback visibility.

  • Transparency: Algorithms must disclose adaptive logic.

  • Equity: Comfort shouldn’t be a luxury.

Presence must not become another form of surveillance capitalism. The future must belong to co-regulated technology—designed for empathy, not extraction.

13. Toward a Philosophy of “Living Design”

The next decade will shift from “user experience design” to “living design.”

Living design means:

  • Interfaces that grow, breathe, and respond

  • Environments that nurture instead of overwhelm

  • Technology that makes us more embodied, not less

Diagram 8: Living Design Ecosystem

[Environment] ←→ [Emotion] ←→ [Interface]
   ↑                                     ↓
   [Culture] ←→ [Design Ethics]

This evolution will redefine success metrics:

  • From “time spent” → to “wellbeing sustained”

  • From “engagement” → to “enrichment”

  • From “immersion” → to “integration”

14. Conclusion: The Redemption of Reality

The failure of VR wasn’t a betrayal of imagination—it was a misalignment with anatomy.

For too long, design worshiped the visual while neglecting the vestibular, emotional, and social dimensions of reality. The path forward lies in creating technologies that respect the rhythm of the body and the cadence of consciousness.

The new revolution won’t be virtual—it will be vital.

When the next generation of immersive tools arrive—built on neuroergonomic feedback, empathetic aesthetics, and ethical presence—they won’t need to promise escape.

They’ll feel like coming home.

Appendix A: Conceptual Diagram Summary

Diagram Title Core Insight
1 Sensory Feedback Conflict Eye-ear mismatch causes sickness
2 Layers of Discomfort Physical, visual, cognitive, social strain
3 Reality Gap Marketing overpromise vs lived experience
4 Neuroergonomic Triad Integration of perception, cognition, emotion
5 System Architecture Closed bio-adaptive feedback loop
6 Language Shift Map From tech-centric to human-centric
7 Evolution of Immersion Isolation → Interaction → Integration
8 Living Design Ecosystem Environment, emotion, and ethics intertwined



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Monday, May 20, 2019

Tech Talk (9)

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Tuesday, January 12, 2016

Moving VR Writeup












I Finally Tried Virtual Reality and It Brought Me to Tears
Trying VR at CES made me feel more connected to my 18-month-old son ...... Over the past four days at CES, I embraced every virtual reality (VR) experience I could get my eyes on. From the crude but accessible Google Cardboard to the much ballyhooed Oculus Rift, I tried them all. I stood alone on the deck of a shipwreck and looked a whale in the eye. I strapped into a wooden rollercoaster alongside dozens of other people and nearly lost my lunch. I climbed Mount Everest in sneakers and jeans. .....

Back here in reality, VR has me concerned about the future of everything: entertainment, travel, gaming, work — you name it. And I so badly want to go back in.

...... If I had to describe myself in three words, they would be: writer, father, grump. The first term is obvious, and for the second, I’m the proud dad to an inquisitive toddler. As for the third — and CES fatigue is influencing this — I can’t stand bright, flashing lights, loud noises, crowds, congested places, and most amusement park rides (especially roller coasters). Oh, and I don’t gamble, I never do drugs, and I can barely sip on a beer per week lest I fall asleep. Yet here I am in Las Vegas, a city that’s one giant sensory overload, for CES, the world’s most overwhelming trade show. As a technology writer, it’s a place I need to be in a city I should never visit. ....... In 20 minutes, I was able to explore Paris, tour a Carnival cruise ship, take in a catwalk view of Russia’s fashion week, and even enjoy an EDM concert (okay, “enjoy” may be the wrong word). ...... A high school senior can tour a college without trekking across the country. A wheelchair-bound music fan can get in the front row at a rock concert. And a relocating home buyer can view a new house from the comfort of their old one. ...... More than anything, I wished my wife could have been there to share the undersea experience with me. I wanted her to know this awe-inspiring beauty. I also wanted her to abandon a world full of mortgages, diapers, rush hour commutes, and grocery shopping, even if just for a minute. ....... Like a visit to the moon, it’s impossible to describe VR to someone who’s never been there. The technology isn’t just physically isolating — in some ways it divides us emotionally, too. ...... I couldn’t help but think about my son. At 18 months old, he’s just starting to make sense of the reality we all take for granted. Pushing buttons and opening drawers in Job Simulator was so delightful that it helped me understand why he loves opening and closing that one cabinet in our real life kitchen that I haven’t managed to safety latch. ...... Then my playmate, Erin, shot me with a shrink ray. Suddenly, not only were all the toys enormous to me, but Erin’s avatar was looming over me like a hulking giant. Her voice even changed as it poured through my headphones, entering my head with a deep, slow tone. And for a moment, I was a child again, with this giant person lovingly playing with me. It gave me such a profound perspective on what it must be like to be my son, that I started to cry inside the headset. It was a pure and beautiful experience that will reshape my relationship with him moving forward. I was vulnerable to my giant playmate, yet felt completely safe. ...... One reason the world is fascinated with millennials is that they never knew a world without the Internet. Post-millennials, like my son, will never know life without virtual reality. Because they can live in someone else’s virtual shoes, will they be more empathetic? ....... Will they stop watching and reading the news in favor of experiencing it? ...... I started to think of this reality (if Las Vegas can even be considered real) as a trick not unlike VR. Eventually, I made my way back to my hotel room.





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Saturday, January 09, 2016

In The Tech News (3)

Ray Kurzweil’s Mind-Boggling Predictions for the Next 25 Years
By the 2020s, most diseases will go away as nanobots become smarter than current medical technology. Normal human eating can be replaced by nanosystems. ...... By the 2030s, virtual reality will begin to feel 100% real. ...... By the 2040s, non-biological intelligence will be a billion times more capable than biological intelligence (a.k.a. us). Nanotech foglets will be able to make food out of thin air and create any object in physical world at a whim. ...... By 2045, we will multiply our intelligence a billionfold by linking wirelessly from our neocortex to a synthetic neocortex in the cloud. ..... Ray’s “Law of Accelerating Returns” and of exponential technologies. ..... Each of these technologies DEMATERIALIZED, DEMONETIZED, and DEMOCRATIZED access to services and products that used to be linear and non-scalable.






The World in 2025: 8 Predictions for the Next 10 Years
In 2025, in accordance with Moore's Law, we'll see an acceleration in the rate of change as we move closer to a world of true abundance. ....... A $1,000 Human Brain .... A Trillion-Sensor Economy .... the IoE will generate $19 trillion of newly created value. ...... Perfect Knowledge ... you'll be able to know anything you want, anytime, anywhere, and query that data for answers and insights. ..... 8 Billion Hyper-Connected People .... Disruption of Healthcare .... this lucrative $3.8 trillion healthcare industry with new business models that dematerialize, demonetize and democratize today's bureaucratic and inefficient system. ....... Biometric sensing (wearables) and AI will make each of us the CEOs of our own health. Large-scale genomic sequencing and machine learning will allow us to understand the root cause of cancer, heart disease and neurodegenerative disease and what to do about it. Robotic surgeons can carry out an autonomous surgical procedure perfectly (every time) for pennies on the dollar. Each of us will be able to regrow a heart, liver, lung or kidney when we need it, instead of waiting for the donor to die. ........ Augmented and Virtual Reality .... The screen as we know it — on your phone, your computer and your TV — will disappear and be replaced by eyewear. Not the geeky Google Glass, but stylish equivalents to what the well-dressed fashionistas are wearing today. The result will be a massive disruption in a number of industries ranging from consumer retail, to real estate, education, travel, entertainment, and the fundamental ways we operate as humans. ........ Early Days of JARVIS ... In a decade, it will be normal for you to give your AI access to listen to all of your conversations, read your emails and scan your biometric data because the upside and convenience will be so immense. ..... Blockchain
The Internet Allowed Us to Learn Anything—VR Will Let Us Experience Everything
The Internet has liberated information from the constraints of the physical world and essentially made the sharing of information free and unlimited for everyone. From communicating with friends on free Skype calls to taking university-level classes on Coursera and Udacity, our current access and connectivity dwarfs anything we’ve seen before. ....... Massive open online courses have fantastic content, yet a very low percentage of students end up finishing them. It’s great to see my friend’s posts on Instagram and Snapchat, but nothing beats being together in person. And no matter how many times I’ve read about the Apollo 11 mission, I’ve never taken a step on the moon. ....... Just as the Internet and smartphones have enabled the rapid and cheap sharing of information, virtual reality will be able to provide the same for experiences. That means that just as we can read, listen to, and watch videos of anything we want today, soon we’ll be able to experience stunning lifelike simulations in virtual reality...... And just as the democratization of information reshaped society, this is going to have a massive impact on the way we work, live, and play......... one word: presence. Presence is the phenomenon that occurs when your brain is convinced, on a fundamental and subconscious level, that the VR simulation you are experiencing is real. ...... Want to watch the Super Bowl from the fifty-yard line? Be on stage at your favorite concert? Or just visit and explore a faraway country? Well, that’s exactly what Mark Zuckerberg wants you to be able to do on the Oculus Rift. ..... Using 360-degree video and light field technology, we can now capture real-life events and distribute them to anyone, anywhere. ...... Soon you’ll be able to explore every city, watch every sports game, and explore the universe in VR. Content plus presence is an extremely potent combination. ..... Part of the great sadness of the modern world is being able to text, call, and video chat with friends and family from all over the planet but never truly feel like you’re with them. Sometimes this ghost of a connection can paradoxically be worse than nothing, being just realistic enough to make you miss your loved ones without feeling the true warmth of their presence. ......... Multi-user virtual reality can enable a specific kind of phenomenon—social presence. ...... social presence can convince your brain to believe that the other people in the VR experience are really there with you. ...... An average Tuesday night in the VR future could include dropping into a professional conference with a coworker of yours, watching a football game with your father on the other side of the country, then hopping into a VR concert with your best friend from high school—all without leaving the house.......

The rise of the Internet was one of the most profound developments of the past century. The Internet famously allowed the futurist Ray Kurzweil to conclude that “A kid in Africa has access to more information than the president of the United States did 15 years ago.”

........ Can we finally create a digital university that surpasses the quality of our oldest and grandest learning institutions?
Six Technologies That Hit Their Tipping Points in 2015
A broad range of technologies reached a tipping point, from cool science projects or objects of convenience for the rich, to inventions that will transform humanity. We haven’t seen anything of this magnitude since the invention of the printing press in the 1400s. ........ The Internet and knowledge ... As of 2015, however, nearly half of China’s population and a fifth of India’s population have gained Internet connectivity. India now has more Internet users than does the U.S., and China has twice as many. ....... Smartphones with the capabilities of today’s iPhone will cost less than $50 by 2020. By then, the efforts of Facebook, Google, OneWeb, and SpaceX to blanket the Earth with inexpensive Internet access through drones, balloons, and microsatellites will surely bear fruit. This means that we will see another three billion people come on line.

Never before has all of humanity been connected in this way.

....... Workers in the remotest villages of Africa will be able to offer digital services to the elite in Silicon Valley. ...... Doctors in our pockets ... Our $100 smartphones are more powerful than the supercomputers of the 1970s—which cost millions of dollars. ..... With better sensors, we can develop sophisticated medical devices, drone-based delivery systems, and smart cities; and, with A.I., we can develop self-driving cars, voice-recognition systems, and digital doctors. Yes, I am talking about applications that can diagnose our medical condition and prescribe remedies.
........ Apple released a watch that, using a heart-rate sensor and accelerometer, can keep track of vital signs, activity, and lifestyles ...... sensors and A.I.-based tools to do the work of doctors. ......... Bitcoin and disintermediation ..

The blockchain is not useful just for finance. It is an almost incorruptible digital ledger that can be used to record practically anything that can be digitized: birth and death certificates, marriage licenses, deeds and titles of ownership, educational degrees, medical records, contracts, and votes. It has the potential to transform the lives of billions of people who lack bank accounts and access to the legal and administrative infrastructure that we take for granted.

........ Engineering of life ..... CRISPR gene modification .. an ancient system that protects bacteria and other single-celled organisms from viruses, acquiring immunity to them by incorporating genetic elements from the virus invaders. ..... to edit the genes of plants to produce more-nutritious food and require less water. ...... The drone age ... You can expect Amazon and Walmart to deliver your groceries and Starbucks to bring you your morning latte via drone. And they will monitor traffic and crime, perform building inspections, and provide emergency assistance in disasters. ...... These are an even bigger deal for the developing world. Large sections of Africa don’t have roads; remote towns and villages can’t get medical supplies; and large cities are clogged with traffic—much of it for delivery of small goods. Drones will solve many of these infrastructure problems and reduce pollution and traffic. They will also allow the constant monitoring of the Earth’s changing climate and wildlife ecology. ......... Saving the planet with unlimited clean energy ...... Solar and wind capture are already advancing on exponential curves, installation rates regularly doubling and costs falling. .......

By, 2030, solar capture could provide 100 percent of today’s energy; by 2035, it could be free—just as cell-phone calls are today.

....... We are also seeing similar advances in battery storage. Combined with the advances in energy, large swaths of the planet that don’t presently have electricity have the potential to light up in the early 2020s. Having unlimited, clean energy will be transformative for the developing world—and the planet.
Stay Tuned for the Technological Transformation of Governance
Just as early waves of technological innovation in education and health care simply attempted to digitize old practices — putting an analog class into a MOOC or a patient’s file into the cloud — early forays into governmental technology involved bringing civil services online and enabling citizens to follow government protocols on websites instead of in buildings. .....

new governance technologies preparing to reroute lines of authority and change what it means to be a citizen in the 21st century.

....... Others are helping teams to build consensus and budget together, dynamically and elegantly. Still others are creating operating systems for political parties that are already winning seats in government. .....

Whether we're facing climate apocalypse on Earth or colonizing Mars, the deciding factor between human civilization being extractive and oppressive, or cooperative and generative, will be how much we as a species have practiced the skills of equitable collaboration on a day-to-day basis — hearing diverse viewpoints and synthesizing them, consciously understanding the flows of power dynamics, and designing in the key factors of human wellness.

......... Human beings have been sitting in circles listening to one another for millennia, but software and the internet allow us to scale up these practices in a way we never have before. ....... Cobudget for funding and Loomio for decision-making. ........ Many of the worst aspects of command-and-control, mechanistic, hierarchical governance are consequences of limited communications technologies. If we can make distributed cooperation just as efficient, the need for those old governance forms — which cause a lot of human suffering in the name of efficiency — could be obviated. ..... The key difference is: are you privatizing everything, or are you building the commons? The real distinguishing factor isn't the governing practices, which may be similar to a point, but the governing purpose. Are we building in service of the people and the community, deeply rooted in social values and human rights, or are we in service of private interests, which only answer to their own internal logic of profit and power? ....... Already, in our network, Enspiral, where we run businesses in service of positive social outcomes, we constantly have to 'hack' company structures to make them reflect how we actually want to work. We're sticking to the law, of course, but there's some legal gymnastics involved and we're constantly having to blaze a trail. Are we a community? A company? A charity? None of the current forms actually quite fit, and the distinctions seem contrived. ........ One of the protections against government corruption in democracies is that the moment of the vote is hidden and blind. ......

the very idea that our key moment of agency as a citizen is ticking a box every three or four years is the insane part

..... Our 'democratic' system is another example of something developed a couple hundred years ago because of very limited communications technology — election dates in the US are still determined by how long it took people to go on horseback between cities. ..... What's actually incredible is when you create a society where people not only feel safe being open about their political opinions, but they genuinely discuss them with different people, and their opinion can evolve through that interaction — they can change their minds.

When citizen deliberation is possible, that's when truly amazing solutions can emerge, from synthesizing different views.

......... What can users of SMS-enabled mobile banking in Africa teach us about how our apps could work? People in warzones and disaster areas know a ton about decentralized networks, because centralised infrastructure fails them. Activists threatened by oppressive governments have heaps to teach us about privacy, identity, and leveraging online communications tools for effective action and resistance. ....... most people in this space are running completely analog processes using technologies like neighborhood meetings and science-fair like exhibitions of citizen-generated ideas. They are willing to pound the pavement.
Cosmology Is in Crisis — But Not for the Reason You May Think
a growing zoo of subatomic particles...... We still have no idea what the vast majority of the universe is made of. We struggle to understand how the Big Bang could suddenly arise from nothing or where the energy for “inflation,” a very short period of rapid growth in the early universe, came from. But despite these gaps in knowledge, it is actually human nature — our tendency to interpret data to fit our beliefs — that is the biggest threat to modern cosmology. ....... explanations for the nature of dark energy range from proposals to scrap Einstein’s theory of relativity, the addition of a new fundamental field of nature, or even that

we may be seeing the effects of neighboring parallel universes

. ....... only those papers that agreed with the status-quo were being accepted by journals. ...... Blind analysis is the most straightforward and obvious thing to do ..... By using these three approaches — blinding, systems engineering and transparency — the next generation of cosmology experiments should be able to convince people that confirmation bias is not a factor in understanding the cosmos. Without them,

by looking to the heavens, the most interesting thing we may find is ourselves.

On the Origin of Truly Innovative Ideas
The day before something is truly a breakthrough, it's a crazy idea....... But few companies actually try crazy ideas — especially the most successful ones...... The same conditions that increase the rate of biological evolution also drive the greatest rate of idea generation. ...... "speciation" is very similar to "ideation," or the formation of new ideas. ..... High-pressure environments incentivize people to try crazy 'Hail Mary' ideas, and while most fail, if one works, it is usually a true innovation. ..... Place your "innovation team" outside the mother ship, far away from the hordes that will tell them how "crazy" their ideas are. True innovation is massively disruptive and the average employee hates disruptive change. Steve Jobs isolated his Macintosh team far away from the rest of Apple and proudly flew a pirate flag above the building.
The Recipe for Generating Crazy, Innovative Ideas in Companies
it's important for "ideas to have sex." ..... This is how new ideas are made — I merge your idea and my idea and it becomes something new and valuable. ...... if new idea generation is a function of "idea interaction," then the rate of people interacting matters a lot. ...... In the 1950s, 7% of the population lived in cities..... Today, a little over 38% of people live in cities.....By 2050, 70% of the world’s population will live in cities........

doubling a city's population drives a 15% increase in income, wealth and innovation.

...... Jobs was very particular about where the bathrooms were placed in Pixar's office because he wanted "serendipitous personal encounters" to occur. ...... ask people to pick a spot and sign up to give a 10-minute talk on any subject, personal or professional. ..... Make sure you have a communication outlet that allows ideas to bubble up from anywhere, across disciplines and layers of the organization. ....... when you ask them to deliver 10x performance, with severely limited resources (i.e. 1/10th the budget and 1/10th the time), it drives invention and innovation. ...... Musk did this with Tesla, creating an epic car company with no legacy, no unions, no old factories and no old approaches. ....... Create hyper-constraints on your team. Set a difficult goal driven by a powerful massively transformative purpose and incentivize them to try new ways of attacking the problems you want solved ....... if you want true innovation, give the hardest, craziest challenges to the youth (or at least youthfully minded) in your company. ...... At what age do you think most Noble Laureates do their prize winning work? Not win their medal, but actually publish the research? .... Turns out, it's in their mid to late twenties...... "The young do not know enough to be prudent, and therefore they attempt the impossible… and achieve it, generation after generation." ...... Where in your organization do you allow your teams to try crazy ideas?

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Sunday, August 23, 2015

There Is Bollywood And Then There's Sports

U.S. Navy personnel using a VR parachute trainer
U.S. Navy personnel using a VR parachute trainer (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
What Bollywood is in India, sports is in America. Because Hollywood, big as it is, is not in America what Bollywood is in India.

How You Watch Sports Is About to Change Forever With Virtual Reality
We live in an era of unprecedented global interest in live sports. .... The Summer Olympics holds the highest estimated total viewership, with almost 5 billion people tuning in at some point—approximately 70% of the world’s population.

The entire sports market is worth $700 billion per year, or 1% of global GDP.

...... Sport has a unique, almost unparalleled power to permeate boundaries and bring people together. ..... Yet, the viewing choices for fans are essentially binary: to watch sporting events on TV, or go to a stadium and watch the game live. The former lacks the energy of a live event, while the latter can be expensive and, for most games, is too far away to attend. ..... an exciting new alternative emerging. Virtual reality offers fans the best of both worlds — delivering the electricity of a live game at home (or wherever they are) — and a growing number of new entrants are working to make VR the next big thing in sports. ....... The San Francisco 49ers’ Levi’s Stadium boasts WIFI thirty times faster than any other stadium. The soon-to-be-opened Sacramento Kings Arena promises to be at the cutting-edge of sports experiences. ...... The Pacquaio v Mayweather boxing fight sold out in minutes, with tickets changing hands for upwards of $13,000. ...... VR levels the field, enabling the masses to experience what only a minority might otherwise experience. For live sports broadcasters, virtual reality offers the holy grail of sports fan engagement and monetization —

to be able sell the same seat infinite times.

.
Broadly, these break down into three categories:

  • Stitched 180- and 360-degree film companies using an array of high resolution, often 4K cameras to give an immersive visual experience, coupled by a layered audio experience. Examples of such companies include Jaunt, Next VR, 3D-4U.
  • Player training and performance improvement technology, which enables elite players to run plays repeatedly, improving their knowledge, understanding and execution of those plays. Examples include EON Sports, SIDEKIQ and STRIVR.
  • Immersive social networking for VR, focused around embedded filmed content. Examples include AltspaceVR and LiveLike.
We are not seeking to build a better camera; we are building a new medium. We believe people go to stadiums for more than just the view; they go for the atmosphere, the social interaction, the electricity, the sense of being there. .....

Our mission is to recreate the magic of live events for people around the world.

........ Fans can pick any viewing position, move around and talk to other fans. ..... Primary limitations include the accuracy and depth of 3D data (as gathered by cameras or sensors) and the quality of the virtual reconstruction of the game being tracked (which in turn depends on both high-quality graphical rendering and clever AI). ..... ever improving cameras and methodologies) as well as technological leaps being made in graphics. Virtual experiences are becoming photo-real. The line between filmed and virtual broadcast is narrowing. ...... the recent Jurassic World movie, which features largely CGI landscapes .... A fan can pick any seat in the stadium, but can also experience the game from new perspectives — such as on the field, or watching from the viewpoint of a particular player. They can even float above the field and watch from viewing positions that are very difficult to capture using cameras...... Emotions are difficult to capture using facial tracking. There is a small latency when rendering the event (roughly six seconds). There are technical challenges in dealing with multiple concurrent conversations between fans. ..... We believe the future of live sport viewing will be a combination of actual footage and virtual reconstruction, and that our approach provides that real sense of being there at the game.
I think the idea of recreating "the magic of live events for people around the world" is an exciting proposition.

What if a stadium were to be built catering primarily to the VR experience? Trying to add the VR experience to existing stadiums is the second best option. The best option is where you put the VR experience at the center of it all.

This has use for many things other than live sports. This has use for MOOCs, for example, Massively Open Online Courses. Because, so far, social has been the hard part. How do you do social online? This could be put to use for political gatherings and protests. Egypt might have had a different outcome if a global audience had participated in Tahrir Square.

Done right VR is a richer experience than getting a seat at the stadium. I think you could use this VR thing for extended family gatherings with disastrous effects.

Have you figured out that nausea thing, though?
 
“One day Amitabh (Bachchan) came to me with a box full of sweets. When I enquired about the occasion, he said his daughter had delivered a baby and that he had become a ‘nana’. I jokingly remarked,’it took you so long to become a Nana. Look at me. I am Nana since my birth,” laughed Nana Patekar.


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Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Virtually Speaking

Mark Zuckerberg buying Oculus has laid news emphasis on virtual reality, hardly a new thing. The scale of the discussion has changed irreversibly.

Bringing Burning Man to the masses through virtual reality, now that's a thought.

Drones for a few hundred dollars. Virtual reality headgear for a few hundred dollars. "Don't underestimate the power of the common man!"



The Quest to Put More Reality in Virtual Reality
After the initial unfamiliarity wore off, chatting with Rosedale and Karpf in virtual space was much the same as it would have been in real space. ..... The impressive 3-D headset being developed by startup Oculus VR, acquired by Facebook in March for $2 billion, has spurred new work on virtual-reality hardware by startups and established companies such as Sony ...... hanging out in virtual space will become a new form of mass-market entertainment. ..... Second Life .. “We did our best and got to a million people and made half a billion dollars [in revenue] or something” ..... Rosedale still logs into Second Life from time to time (his avatar is younger and slimmer than he is, with a muscled torso). So do about 1 million other people each month, and Linden Lab remains profitable. But hanging out in a free-form virtual world didn’t become mainstream, as its founders had hoped. ........ people donning Oculus headsets to dip into quick social interactions or strange environments. ...... virtual worlds will open up a new era of human existence ..... the freedom to explore and experiment inside a virtual world generates a “social force,” creating positive interactions between people that are impossible in everyday life–much like the Burning Man festival he attends each year ...... When I met Rosedale in that virtual club, his avatar’s eyes sometimes darted wildly to the side because of glitches with the face-tracking technology. ...... popular enthusiasm about virtual worlds is surging again thanks to Oculus ...... Rift goggles, due by 2016 .. All are expected to retail for only hundreds of dollars. .... “Imagine sharing not just moments with your friends online, but entire experiences and adventures”


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Thursday, June 19, 2014

The Next Platforms: Virtual Reality, Blockchain, TV, Wearables


Shop Amazon - Get the New Fire Phone



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