AirMarkr

October 13, 2015

— Mobile App Europe (@MobileAppEurope) September 29, 2015

October 8, 2015

Somehow, Web Summit put me on a list with the founders of Sound Cloud, Delivery Hero, Toy Wheel and Rocket Internet... I don’t understand it, but I’ll take it. 

Currently posted in Copenhagen as the Entrepreneur in Residence for the Startupbootcamp Mobile to mentor the nine teams going through the accelerator program. There’s some exciting things going on here. Definitely check them out.  Not long to go until Demo Day!

Highlights from Tech Open Air 2015: Trying out the very trippy VR helmet with detatchable ‘eyes’ created by The Constitute, and the adorable “companion robot” Buddy by Blue Frog Robotics

At Arup Berlin's first Penguin Pool event, I was invited by ARUP to give a talk on immersive technologies and how it can help us design better cities (short description at 1:53) . My talk was largely influenced by Chris Milk and his incredible

More snaps from the AR / VR MakerLibrary workshop. People trying out the LeapMotion Sculpting app, and the Sony SmartEyeGlass.

The inventor/engineer of Helixator (Michel David) trying out the Drurovis Dive for the first time.

Some initial thoughts: It’s surprisingly light, and more comfortable than it looks. The display is monochrome (bright green) which makes the graphics appear clearer than some of the other AR glasses on the whole, but makes the experience feel more retro than futuristic, and it still has problems with daylight/bright backgrounds (as does most other AR glasses). That said, this is still just the developer edition, so it’ll be interesting to see how things will improve. You can find out more about the device here: https://developer.sony.com/develop/wearables/smarteyeglass-sdk/

My keynote talk will be on Mobile + gesture input + AR , how different companies have dealt with interface challenges, and what I’ve learned through AirMarkr. You can register here: http://mobileappeurope.com/registration/

As part of the MakeCity Festival Maker Library series, I went to Gilles Retsin’s talk at Elegant Embellishments. Well known for his ProtoHouse, what exited me most about his presentation was the way he explored the concept of infinite resolutions in architecture (what if we could engineer every single fiber, and even the tiniest spec of dust between the fibers, within a structure, what would that look like, what would it be like? ) which in turn unlocks the infinite resolution of the mind. Another interesting question he posed (in referencing the book ‘The Democracy of Objects’ by Levi R. Bryant) was, at what point do we stop being the ‘thing’ we are, if little bits were hacked off us bit by bit... At both the micro and macro level, we are both one, and many: trillions of cells making up a person, Millions of people making up a nation.

Testing the LeapMotion and the different apps for my talk on immersive tech (AR/VR) and how it could change the way we design/make things, limitations of the current tech and the different approaches on how they’re being solved. It’s part of a MakeCity Festival series as hosted by the British Council & Elegant Embellishments. They have a pretty cool list of speakers covering a delectable range of topics from the future of transport to interactive computational design in architecture. Yum! If you happen to be in Berlin you can register here http://www.eventbrite.com/o/british-council-germany-amp-elegant-embellishments-8206952321#twitter_feed

I spoke about the developments in the field of AR/VR in Europe vs Japan, but the most interesting panel I would have to say was on the doing business in Berlin vs Tokyo (protocols, startups and growing communities). Intriguing tip from one of the speakers: “The Japanese are very distrusting, but they love and trust books, the bigger, the heavier the the more trustworthy. So Evernote when trying to establish themselves in Japan published a 200+page book on how to use Evernote. It sounds bonkers but that’s the kind of stuff that works over there.” 

1:00 - 1:30. COMMON DIRECTION, DIFFERENT APPROACHES: TECHNOLOGY CONVERGENCE IN EAST AND WEST Development of immersive technologies and tech collaborations with heuristic prototyping.Panelists: Miho Tanaka (AirMarkr), Hermann Gumpp (Gumpp & Partners)

Thanks again Warsaw for having me. Your city/country has gone through a lot through history, and yet you have such resilience to rise up every time. I admire your strength of spirit a great deal. Hope to be back again! (And I have so much love for perogi, your potato pancakes and compote). Photo credit: Polish Chamber of Commerce