Laszlo Gombos (Samsung)
Winston Chen

MIT Student Center, Room 307 (Mezzanine)

NOTE: 9:30-10:30 am

WebVR allows anyone to experience and develop VR on the web. All you need is a compatible phone. Most major web browsers support an experimental version of WebVR (Samsung Internet, Google Chrome, Firefox, Oculus Carmel and Microsoft Edge).

Sandra Rodriguez, PhD (Eyesteel Films, MIT Open Doc Lab)

Compelling Immersive Storytelling & Human Centered Design

MIT Student Center, Room 491

The essence of every experience, in particular in immersive and interactive productions, lies in the ability to peak curiosity, inspire, invite play and yes, tell a story. VR and AR projects have opened up new realms of possibilities in terms of interactive narration. But what makes a VR experience “good”? What makes it stand out? What attracts users (and sponsors)? What are fundamental perceptual mechanics (visual, acoustic, haptic) that ensure a comfortable immersion? And how to ensure a compelling experience?

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MARTA ORDEIG

Garage Stories: Innovation <> Storytelling Workshop

Hands-on experience workshop that will help you incorporate effective storytelling into your project, either it is a film, a game or even an app; to make sure that you are  not only creating “fun experiments” but compelling and engaging experiences for your “visitors”.

WILEY CORNING (MIT MEDIA LAB, FLUID INTERFACES)
DANGER DONAGHEY (DEFECTIVE STUDIOS)

MIT Student Center, Room 407

A crash course where we will attempt to touch on all available functions featured in Unity. From introduction to the editor, we will cover scripting, physics, scene setup and transition; not to forget building and running a Unity executable. We will end with specific tips for working with VR, and discuss your questions or scenarios.

Kunal Khona (Android Developer at Wayfair)
Serena Booth (Google ARCore PM)

MIT Student Center, Room 407

This session will guide you through the basics of ARCore. ARCore brings augmented reality to Android at scale without any special hardware requirements. Learn the ARCore fundamentals of Motion Tracking, Environmental understanding and Light estimation. With ARCore, shape brand new experiences that seamlessly blend virtual content with the real world.

Chris Lowery (Fasility)
Kathy Trogolo (Fasility)

MIT Student Center, Room 307

A-Frame is an extension of HTML created with JavaScript, THREE.js, and open collaboration. It sits on top of the proposed WebVR standard, making it easier to access and promoting interoperability between the very different cardboard, mobile, and high end VR vertical markets.

We will look at A-Frame, its origins at Google and Mozilla, and THREE.js, the popular, free library A-Frame uses to talk to graphics cards via WebGL.

A-Frame’s code and community have grown quickly. Its openness, HTML and smart defaults have enabled mainstream web developers to get their feet wet, and even seasoned WebGL 3D developers have begun to use it as a reliable compatibility library. When the Web embraces a technology, it accelerates, gets adaptive, and goes mainstream. WebVR is just getting started. Thanks to A-Frame, it has the familiarity of HTML behind it, and a new generation of web developers learning a new medium that turns websites into nearly physical experiences.

Jason Jerald (NextGen Interactions)

MIT Student Center, Room 491

The most important part of VR interaction is the person doing the interacting. Human-centered interaction design focuses on the human side of communication between users and machines – the interface from the user’s perspective. Focusing on users is more important for VR than for any other medium. When VR is done well, interactions can be brilliant and pleasurable, but when they are done badly, they can result in frustration, fatigue, and sickness. There are many causes of bad VR, but the problems are usually centered on poor understanding of human perception, intuitive interaction, design principles, and real users. Quality interactions enhance user understanding of what has just occurred, what is happening, what can be done, and how to do it. For the best VR applications, not only must goals and needs be efficiently achieved, but the experiences must be engaging and enjoyable

Nick Landry (Microsoft)

MIT Student Center, Room 407

NOTE: THIS SESSION IS 1.5 HOURS, 1:30pm - 3pm

Mixed Reality blends people, places and things across a full spectrum ranging from the real-world to digital virtual worlds. This session is your introduction to building 3D applications and games for Windows Mixed Reality using C#, Visual Studio and Unity. We’ll start with a quick recap of Mixed Reality, the HoloLens device, immersive headsets and the Universal Windows Platform (UWP), and talk about interacting with holograms using gaze, gestures and voice. Next, we’ll dive into building 3D apps for Windows Mixed Reality in Unity with C#, using the Mixed Reality Toolkit for Unity, exporting our project to Visual Studio and running it on either a HoloLens device, an immersive Mixed Reality headset or the HoloLens Emulator. Science fiction becomes science fact, and Unity & UWP developers are at the front of this revolution. Come learn how to get started and build your journey into a world of holograms you create.

**NOTE**: This session will include *live* demonstrations on Microsoft HoloLens as well as the new Immersive Mixed Reality headsets from Acer & other partners.

Amadeo Mapelli (Founder and CTO, Simmetri)

Max Harper (CEO, Simmetri)

MIT Student Center, Room 491

In this workshop you'll learn:

• The simple end-to-end process of build an engaging Simmetri VR experience
• See the seamless workflow from Google Blocks/Tiltbrush into Simmetri (now you can animate and interact with your creations)
• Learn about animating on timelines and building simple interactivity with Simmetri's Lua scripting interface
• See the simple terrain controls and all the objects you can build to construct your world

Important Notes:
Requires Windows: Windows PC or Mac Bootcamp installation
Simmetri Mentors will be on site all through Reality Virtually Hackathon.

The Simmetri VR creation engine empowered the grand prize winner of the 2017 SXSW VR Hackathon. 5 years in the making, this VR creation platform is designed from the ground up for artists and storytellers. Offering a creator-friendly user interface and features, Simmetri empowers storytellers, designers and VR imagineers to rapidly build and experiment.  Create through experimentation and play, and unleash your imagination. That's what Simmetri wants to help you do.

Andre Balta (Cubic)
Carl Dungca (Cubic)

MIT Student Center, Room 307

Cubic’s presents a broad stroke over game development and how that applies to Virtual Training and Game Based Learning. The following topics will be covered:

• Applications of Game Engines to Naval Training
• Applying the “Studio” model to DoD
• Using Game Design for Instructional System Design
• Technical Challenges with Game Based Learning
• And further concepts regarding how AR/VR/MR will be used to advance virtual training products

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David Gene Oh

MIT Student Center room 407

NOTE: 4-5pm

This will be Meta’s first time to host an external hackathon and we’re excited! We will be instructing on how to create a Meta project in Unity. Come learn how to develop for the future with our AR headset. 

Jeremy Kenisky (VP, Merge Labs)

Yifan Yang (Principal Engineer, Merge Labs)

MIT Student Center room 491

Merge, creators of the Merge Cube and Merge AR/VR Goggles will present a short course on getting started with development for the Merge Cube. Jeremy Kenisky, VP at Merge will describe the product roadmap, best practices for interactions, UX insights, and more. Yifan Yang, principal engineer will describe the SDK and how it works, with a short course on building out a working mobile app for the Merge Cube. Users who have never developed for Augmented Reality should be able to deploy an application for Merge Cube within an hour or less.

Kevin Vandecar (Autodesk)

MIT Student Center room 307

Using the Forge cloud services, it is easy to convert any 3D asset, and its data into a light weight model that can be viewed online. The Forge Viewer allows easy browser based 3d Viewing experiences, and direct access to the meta data of the model. The meta data can be accessed through APIs, and displayed in any way. The viewer has a WebVR extension, making VR experiences for Google Cardboard or Daydream easily possible. HTC Vive and Oculus Rift also support WebVR and could also be used. Our team is also working on AR capabilities, and will show some of that work-in-progress which might also be interesting for participants.

Vinni DaSilva (PTC)

MIT Student Center room 407

The Vuforia Augmented Reality platform is delivered with Unity 2017.2.  In this session, developers will be introduced to AR, techniques and the workflows required to make it all happen. Using Vuforia and Unity, we will create a new AR experience that enables developers to put virtual content onto objects. Developers will gain an understanding of the workflow to create AR experiences for iOS, Android and UWP will also discuss what developers should expect from AR in the near future as more AR devices become available.

Chris Kolb (Qualcomm)

MIT Student Center room 307

Mobile platforms provide a huge opportunity for XR applications both in terms of the ubiquity of the platforms and in the immersive boost of being untethered from cables, enabling users to get out into the real world. Designing applications for current mobile platforms requires special attention during the development process.  In this session you will learn about some key architectural characteristics of mobile GPUs, and considerations for building an application that take maximum advantage of the mobile Application Processor to create an immersive XR experience.

DAVID RHODES (MAPBOX)

MIT Student Center room 491

Use real world location data in your AR, VR and gaming projects with Mapbox's Unity SDK and ARKit libraries.

Attendees will learn how to generate custom 3D worlds, power location lookup, and incorporate traffic-based directions in your next Unity project. They will also see first hand how to create AR enabled applications that go from traditional room scale experiences, to being able to create world scale AR experiences using Unity.