What will our lifestyle be like inhabiting Mars? How can we take you into the latest fantasy film for real? How do you face death and live to tell about it? All sorts of solutions can be imagined.  Most likely, there has been a Hollywood movie about the possibilities.  How do you make that future a reality? Hire an Experience Architect.

Inventing the future

The difference between what Experience Architects do and what a futurist do is the difference between life and death. People’s lives will depend on what Experience Architects create. Where the futurist paints a compelling story about where we might be. An Experience Architect is actually inventing the future using emerging technology to push human experience to all new levels, yet keep participants competely safe. To do so, we need to engage all aspects of their physical, virtual and imagined reality as one world.

MIXING REALITIES

Mixing Realities for the Shared Creative Imagination

In our work, we are looking at real world and off-world problems like how isolation will disable astronauts inhabiting Mars. Yet, those deep-space explorers, living decades into the future, have yet to be born. When starting to invent theme park innovations 10 years ahead means the youngest attendees have yet to be born. In developing human performance for the future warfighter, the DoD looks 20 years ahead when the recruits are only 18 years old. Those recruits have not been born yet. How do you design for those who have yet to be born when the state-of-the-art technology is constantly and rapidly changing?

Liberating the Imagination

While radical innovation is constantly changing the way we do business, the human being evolves very slowly. What the Experience Architect focuses on is the inner-workings of the human being and how do we exploit the emerging technology to push human limits that have yet to be challenged? The key to discovering new limits of human performance is to dive into the deepest levels of the imagination. We are not trying to capture the imagination, we are working to liberate the imagination by engaging the audience as an equal partner.

We have just begun to realize how much more humans can achieve here on earth by not assuming we already know. With virtual prototypes, we can safely test creative leaps into future experiences today. We begin to understand what novel techniques can amplify the impact of future technology. However, its not all about design and technology. Its about both the art and science of expanding the human creative participation rather than trying to pacify them as the media becomes more mesmerizing.

Full Immersion

As Experience Architects, we use all the participant’s senses, in all dimensions, in all directions and all realities (real, virtual & imagined) as one world. That is how our mind and body has evolved and we use simulation and virtual worlds to safely push our perception of reality to do what we couldn’t, shouldn’t and wouldn’t in real life. Virtual Worlds start as a prototyping tool for collaboration that integrates the insights of diverse experts to produce an experience we have never thought was possible.  As we apply these simulated experiences into varying applications, our understanding forms a heuristic of Human Experience Modeling (simulation, capture and analysis) extending our natural abilities. We then apply this innovative tool in each application to see how we can transform lives, save lives, inspire lives, or prepare lives. Instead of extending human limits, we actually help people overcome their own perceived limitations to make life more extraordinary.

As we transform technology; technology transforms us

Each generation seems to start integrating innovations earlier and earlier to reinvent their future social lifestyle. In the case of expanding the capabilities of Virtual Worlds,the whole world is rapidly innovating, simultaneously.  This has never been experienced with a technological innovation before. No one country will lead all the innovative process as before.  Virtual Worlds will transform us in different ways across the global society. This will transform life faster and more drastically. This will begin with those being born within homes instrumented with Virtual Reality as a powerful learning tool. This generation will become the “Virtual Natives.” They will be the children of the amazing generation of parents called the “Digital Natives.” We know them as gamers, bloggers, e-commerce entrepreneurs. With the power of virtual learning landscapes in the home, they will out perform all the generations before. This is where we can begin to change the world for the better by preparing this Virtual Learning Lab for the home. This involves engaging the parent as a teacher.

Designing for the Virtual Native

To design for those who have not been born yet, we look inward to the intricacies of the human experience to see how we naturally feel, think and do things. How do we leverage our hearts, hands and heads to develop empathy with reason to engage each other? How does this technology make us not into super humans, but make us more of who we have always been, but fulfilling more of our true potential? This advancement of being a Virtual Native has as much potential to unite us as to divide us if we don’t think of the integrating Virtual Worlds for all.

Bridging the Virtual Divide

We are beginning to collaborate with organizations such as the Virtual World Society and Goodwill Industry to explore how we can more rapidly advance the human experience for all of society. We need to explore, design and develop all new enablers for this future Virtual Native to lay the ground work to discover the best of what innovation has to offer society. This is not a generational thing, its a paradigm shift for all of society to learn. The future generations will learn to leverage the power of Virtual Worlds to unlock minds and link hearts to innovate a better world.

This takes a forward-thinking Experience Architect to help parents, employers, merchants and leaders to prepare for this tsunami of innovation to transform technological disruption in the liberation of human potential. This will be a matter of learning how to think like a Virtual Native.

Learn more in the release of my latest talk given at the Assembly Required Conference, in Baton Rouge to inspire new possibilities with “How to Think Like a Virtual Native.”

Christopher Stapleton
Co-Founder www.VirtualWorldSociety.org @VRWorldSociety
Experience Architect and Producer, www.Simiosys.com @Simiosys
Info@Simiosys.com
Twitter  @Mixing Realities
SKYPE: Simiosys
Profile: www.linkedin.com/in/christopherstapleton/
Publications: www.researchgate.net/profile/Christopher_Stapleton/publications 

copyright 2017 SIMIOSYS.com

As much as the idea of Virtual Reality (VR) Arcades excites us, should we not consider that these are two concepts have already died a dramatic death in the marketplace before? So it seems that these businesses and products have come and gone.  Now we are putting them together at IAAPA like we did with fine dining and theater and called it “dinner theater.”  Putting two things together, doesn’t necessarily make them better.  It can make them worse, but its not because either are bad. Its how they are crafted together that is important, We shouldn’t make all the same mistakes and be surprised at the results.

The arcades that survived were the ones that had a social elements mixed with food and merchandise such as Chuck E. Cheese’s or Dave and Buster’s. The arcades who thought it was about the technology created what some call a “coffin industry: One box, one player, one game.” It attracted a small lonely demographic that was not worth taking up prime real estate.

What makes VR popular now and not before is because of the enabling technologies of tracking, resolution, processing power, field of view, etc. at a lower price point. However, this makes for a good consumer product at home, but not necessarily a Location Based Entertainment (LBE) solution. In fact, it can be anti-social slapping a piece of plastic on one’s face and excluding everybody else out of the excitement. Even if you put up a monitor showing what they are seeing, your friends are still once removed from the player’s experience. That is not increasing social engagement and human connection, it is diluting them. Plus the hygiene problem with all the greasy fingers from the food and beverage just adds to the operational hassle.

The reason people leave the home for entertainment, no matter what century you live in, is because they all can enjoy being transported to an escape together. Otherwise, they can watch the entertainment at home. So a LBE with VR needs to consider the guest experience first and layer in the VR where it adds and not diminishes the social engagement and human connection that we all crave. There are so many more ways you can incorporate VR without an Head Mounted Display (HMD).  It is critical to the bottom line that the experience design needs to expand beyond the VR HMD. That is why you need an Experience Architect before buying or building any VR Arcade or LBE (even if you do solve the sim-sickness issue).

An Experience Architect creates memories, not buildings. They imagine the LBE from the point of view of the guest experience.  They design the social experience from how we engage with our hearts, hands and heads, not from the technology, flashing lights and theming. This is something that can’t be rendered in a sketch or watched on a Pre-Visualization video.  This has to be rigorously play-tested with prototypes that can bring together the real, the virtual and the imagined together for affective assessment. VR Prototyping is where VR is most dramatically being used to transform our industry. Prototypes are intended to amplify problems so we can fix them. The standard rendering and or pre-viz video tends to hide these problems to sell an idea, not to prove its value. Pretty sketches do not represent the true guest experience that will be making the long-term Return on the Investment (ROI) in the end.

With VR Prototypes we can create and test the ability to make memories that will bring guests back over and over again. This repeat business is what keeps the doors open to the venue to reach the bottom line of the long-term ROI. When developers are obsessed with just opening the doors on budget and in schedule at the cost of guest experience, the venue will experience a slow death as we have seen many times before. This was seen most dramatically with Wanda’s development of experiences that were suppose to out-Disney Disney.  However, we saw how those venues slowly became empty. As reported by the the Wall Street Journal, this drove their massive divestment of their toxic LBE assets this last year. As an industry, we must learn from our mistakes and not cover them up. We can’t be fooled by the shiny, sparkly things in the window surrounded by flashy lights and carnival music.

VR Arcades could be awesome, but they first need to meet the expectations they set in the imagination of an adoring audience passionate about great out-of-home entertainment. Whether you are the real estate developer, operator or IP owner, hire the Experience Architect first! They can either design you a great experience from the beginning or help create an “experiential make-over” to fix what is already done.

The International Association of Amusement Parks and Amusements Infographic

I have been going to IAAPA for 30 years. It is the largest Theme Park Conference in the world. I have also been going to IITSEC, the largest Military Simulation Conference in the world. They are in the same city at about the same time.  Over the three decades, they have been beginning to look alike.  The key common denominator is Virtual Reality (VR). At IAAPA, the VR HMDs were quite the oddity with the clowns, pitch games and frozen dots that fill the conference, but there was a difference this year.

Talon Simulation, who has been exhibiting VR at IAAPA for years, says the questions are changing about VR. Instead of people asking, “What is that (VR)?” They are now asking “How much is that?”  For being in the VR business for 30 years, I would say that is a turning point.  When they want to buy it, that is adoption! However, I ask,  ”is that true innovation?” VR has been creeping into all parts of the conference since Facebook bought out Oculus.  Consumers realized what immersive, interactive entertainment was all about. Out-of-home entertainment venues are now suddenly interested (or maybe scared of the competition?).

This is the “awkward stage”. for VR in the Location Based Entertainment (LBE) business.  They innovate like the razor business. The razor industry slaps another blade on and calls it “innovation.”  The entertainment industry slaps another “D” on it and calls it innovation. First there is 2D, 3D, 4D rides! Yes, a 5D attraction won an award this year. Doesn’t the 5th Dimension branded that already? In lieu of 6D they now have VR.  So slapping a VR HMD on the old carney rides and arcade games is now called “Innovation!”  REALLY?

The turning point with VR and LBEs is that now there is a demand. That means now we can start innovating creatively with it, not just the technology, but everything from the guest experience to the return on the investment (ROI).  What the industry doesn’t know is that VR, once it is considered strategically and not tactically, it will completely change the business as we know it. Are they ready?  Personally, I don’t think they are because they are calling them VR Arcades.  VR and Arcades are two industries that have already died a slow death decades before.  There will be a whole new experience, business and name for it. What should be call it?

Stay tuned, I have been taking notes on what I see and speaking to people to see how they react.  If nothing else, it will be both scary and wondrous!

IAAPA:

I had a great opportunity to be an Honorary Teacher at the Crooms Academy of Information Technology where I taught “Innovation Skills” all day to five classes of over 20 bright students each.  It was exhausting and exhilarating all at once (how do teachers do it?). These kids are so full of ideas and innovative thinking, which seems to come so naturally in an environment that encourages a student’s full potential.  Each class was so unique and brilliant in their own ways.  These core innovation skills and personalities are not always encouraged in traditional schools and work environments (creative problem-solving,  expressive communication, critical thinking, interpretive analysis, team building, etc.). Creative behavior and expression in more strict environments is often misunderstood as deviant and disruptive (we did get a bit noisy and rambunctious). However, the school was founded by someone who was a powerful voice for an amazing community that can’t be overlooked.

The school was founded in 1926 by Joseph N. Crooms the fifth child of freed slaves. He grew up in Goldsboro, Florida a Freedmen community that was later annexed in 1911 (unscrupulously) by Sanford’s infamous Mayor, Forest Lake. Mr. Crooms founded two schools in the community for African Americans in Seminole County, a highly segregated community. Crooms Academy is now a proud technology magnet school of the Seminole County Public Schools system. I highly recommend visiting the Goldsboro Museum , across the street from the Trevon Martin Memorial in Sanford Florida.

Simiosys’s Christopher Stapleton launches the Virtual World Society’s Story Explorers at the Augmented World Expo (AWE) EU 2017 in Munich Germany. Panel discussion features pioneers, Valentino M, Navid Nassir, Anastasia Miron, sharing ways to apply stories to transform lives.

Christopher Stapleton practices Eye Surgery in a Munich laboratory to gain a first hand experience of high-performance experts.

A Decade of Deep Dive Research in Human Experience & Imagination

As we have waited for the long anticipated arrival of Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality into the mainstream markets, Simiosys has been taking as many deep dives into the human experience as possible. According to Christopher Stapleton, the innovation of Virtual and Augmented Reality (VR/AR) goes far beyond the present novelties that we see in the news. Every application of VR is teaching us something new, from passing time to seeking thrills; from performing surgery to rehabilitating from surgery; from urban combat to a soldier’s cognitive therapy; from a student learning to teaching training; from marketing to shopping.

The human experience is quite extreme and varied across the spectrum of life. Virtuality will be augmenting each and everyone of these applications differently. Simiosys is discovering how this will impact the future in its Real World Laboratories embedded into commercial, civic and academic institutions worldwide.

How can you simulate eye surgery with Virtual Reality, if you haven’t ever done it for real? The photo above shows Christopher Stapleton performing eye surgery with the latest microscopic optical equipment at the Munich Technical University (TUM) Computer Aided Medical Procedure (CAMP) lab (Figure 1). He is helping invent the future of medical imaging and computer interfaces. As a Research Director and Theme Park Designer he brings unique experience and training to help develop the most compelling interfaces mixing reality with virtuality and the imagination. “Medical Imaging is just another form of storytelling to convey a compelling image of the patient’s health. Now storytelling engages all senses, in all directions and dimensions across all realities.”

With his 35 year career in creating extreme experiences, he can identify problems and opportunities of emerging technology and techniques to reach the optimum human performance. More importantly, he can understand the requirements that a robots will need to learn with advance Augmented Intelligence (AI) to replace many of the tasks done by humans. This will reinvent many professional practices and eliminate even more jobs than any other technology. However, it will create as many new jobs as it eliminates.

However, these new jobs are designed for what he calls the “Virtual Native,” those who grew up with Virtual Reality in the home. They will be making so many creative leaps with technology that will make what we see as futuristic look like a thing of the past. “The applications we are seeing in the news today, were explored in the 1990’s. What we are seeing now, is the past catch up with the present. In the future, the Virtual Native will see reality, virtuality and the imagination as one world and an extension of themselves and abilities.

Mission LEAP:

Concept Art

Sketchup Model, Mockup Prototype

Concept Art

Development Process

NASA funded Mission LEAP Mock Up was a full scale prototype of a lunar colony museum exhibit.

We utilize a preliminary process we call “Promotyping,” in which to play-test challenging and unproven concepts. Incorporating benchmarks from around the world, we then conduct front-end evaluations of the novel concepts to inform the design with early insights and validation.  We adapt a grounded and systematic entertainment design methodology that maximizes the interplay of story, play and games to ensure the compelling impact of the client’s message.

Our concept design approach incorporates a formative evaluation process we call the “Innovation PlayTank” that mocks-up experimental experiences and simulation technologies to test their creative, technical, operational and economic value and requirements.  Development of conceptual experimental experiences include projects from a futuristic NASA off-world colony; Mixed Reality Sci-Fi Rock Opera, MemoryScapes for a holocaust museum; to prehistoric, underwater time traveling archeology exhibit.

Making Memories that Last a Lifetime

Concept art for Sci-Fi Rock Opera show at Resorts World Sentosa

For both large and small projects, we focus on making memories that will last a lifetime. We believe that “limitation is the root of all creativity” and smaller projects can often provide the biggest insights that can contribute to the success of larger industry innovations.

Our tools for concept design include multiple forms of digital documentation to promote a vision and capture the lessons-learned from promotyping, prototyping, playtesting.

These consultation services are supported by the ability to rapidly prototype an experience in the Lab, and to conduct applied research and playtesting in order to test an idea before money and time are spent in costly development.