Virtual Reality (VR) vs Augmented Reality (AR) Which Tech Will Win the Battle?

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality are two technologies vying for the hearts and minds of the mainstream market. Which will win the battle? Both are expensive, and still have room for growth. For consumers with limited funds for entertainment, which technology is worth the investment? No one wants to buy the next Betamax, Sega Dreamcast, or Wii U. After the presentations, demo some of the technologies!

So we have two experts to discuss, present, and debate the virtues of each technology! Callen Shaw and Sean McBeth are experts in VR and AR, respectively. They both live, breath, and work with these technologies; and will provide their insights as to the virtues of each technology, industry trends, and demo or discuss specific examples of each technology to help you make informed purchasing decisions in the future. Do not miss this unique opportunity to hear about what exists now, and get a glimpse into the future as well!

Schedule:

12:30-2:00pm Callen Shaw and Virtual Reality Presentation & Demo

2:00-2:30pm Break, demo tech, network

2:30-4:00pm Sean McBeth and Augmented Reality Presentation & Demo

4:00-5:00pm Demo games, tech, networking, meet the speakers

5:00pm Exeunt

Sean T. McBeth

Is a senior software engineering consultant, building virtual and augmented reality games, training simulations, and abstract data visualizations. Audio synthesis and processing, computer vision, peer-to-peer networking, real-time communication, hardware prototyping, and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) are other areas in which I work. I've worked across the range of desktop, Web, mobile, embedded systems, and relational database systems.

His current work is focused on Immersive Media. He has successfully bootstrapped and deployed multiple VR projects for Google Cardboard, Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, and Gear VR and AR projects for HoloLens and iOS. He has also built a number of hardware prototypes in radio and wireless input devices. Before VR, he built several analytics-heavy OLTP applications for desktop, Web, and mobile Web.

Callen Shaw

Is a veteran indie game developer with over 30 games to his name. He is currently the Lead Game Engineer at MediaRez developing a variety of serious games in Unity, for mobile VR and other platforms. He is also a VR evangelist, developer, and thought leader. He has even made a VR party game with like 10 mini-games in 1! Come demo it after the presentations!