In today’s rapidly advancing technological landscape, Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have emerged as prominent players, revolutionizing the way we interact with digital content. These two technologies can be confusing to most. While both AR and VR offer immersive experiences, they differ significantly in their approach and application. In this blog post, we will delve into the contrasting characteristics of AR and VR, providing clear examples to help you understand their unique features and use cases.
AR: Bridging the Gap between Real and Digital Worlds Augmented Reality (AR) enhances our perception of reality by overlaying digital content onto the physical environment. By blending virtual elements with the real world, AR provides an interactive and contextually enriched experience. Imagine a tourism company using AR to create an immersive experience for visitors exploring a historical site. Through a mobile app, users can point their devices at different landmarks, and AR overlays historical information, virtual characters, and interactive elements onto real-world surroundings. This not only enhances visitors’ engagement but also provides educational and entertaining content, making the experience memorable and captivating. AR offers immense potential in the tourism, government, and entertainment sectors, allowing them to create unique and compelling experiences for their audiences.
VR: Immersion into Virtual Environments Virtual Reality (VR) transports users to entirely simulated environments, offering a fully immersive and often interactive experience. With the help of headsets and motion-tracking technology, VR creates a sense of presence, allowing users to explore and interact with computer-generated worlds. Here’s an example that illustrates how VR can be leveraged to benefit those in the entertainment and tourism sectors. Imagine an entertainment venue seeking to enhance its experience. By incorporating VR technology, the company can offer thrilling additional threads to its storylines, taking visitors through fantastical landscapes and breathtaking scenarios that continue even after they leave. VR enables unique and memorable experiences while also optimizing the use of physical space and resources.
Comparing AR and VR While both AR and VR offer immersive experiences, they differ primarily in their level of immersion and interaction. AR enhances the real world by overlaying virtual elements, allowing users to maintain a connection with their physical surroundings. VR, on the other hand, fully immerses users in a virtual environment, providing a sense of presence and enabling them to explore and interact within that environment. Depending on the specific goals and requirements, AR and VR can be strategically employed to deliver engaging and impactful experiences.
To discover how Alt Ethos can unlock the potential of AR, VR, and other immersive technologies for your organization, click the button below to schedule a free consultation with our experts. Our team of award-winning professionals will provide personalized recommendations tailored to your specific industry and objectives. Don’t miss out on the opportunity to tap into the future of experiences and transform your organization. Schedule your free consultation today!
On August 29th and 30th at AREA15 Las Vegas, Epic Immersive welcomed immersive industry luminaries from Secret Cinema, Marshmallow Laser Feast, David Byrne’s Theater of the Mind, Broadway, Swamp Motel, Meow Wolf, Delusion, Mycotoo, AREA15, Boomtown Fair, Les Enfants Terribles, The Oregon Shakespeare Festival, and more. As well as international guests from companies in China, India, Singapore, Russia, and Europe.
Epic Immersive is an immersive experience agency that has created 14-acre fictional cities and underground wonderlands. Companies like Apple, Google, and Facebook have commissioned Epic Immersive experiences.
The 2-day event included speakers Mycotoo’s Fri Forjindam, Fifth Wall Forum’s Stephanie Riggs, AREA15’s Michael Beneville, the Oregon Shakespeare Festival’s Nataki Garrett, and the team behind VR theatre experience Welcome to Respite (Tribeca Film Festival 2021 Official Selection), with many more.
Alt Ethos caught up with Steve Boyle, co-founder of Epic Immersive (co-created with Kimberly Flynn) to discuss event curation, announcements, and exciting future plans.
The Alt Ethos team really enjoyed The Immersive Industry Homecoming Summit. What was your process for curating the speakers; how did you go about choosing them?
We (Steve Boyle and Kimberly Flynn) worked together to identify the most compelling movers-and-shakers from the global immersive scene across a number of genres and mediums. It was of supreme importance to us that we threw a truly global event, and that our speaker roster reflected the incredible diversity of our field, highlighting femme and BIPOC creators.
We noticed that there were some announcements made at the event from the speakers. Can you please share some of those?
Two big ones come to mind: Stephanie Riggs announced the creation of Odeon Theatrical, a new platform that delivers AR content for live theatre, and Kim Adams announced the return of Adventure Lab.
What was the moment that surprised you the most at the event? Or a “wow” moment that comes to mind?
Steve: The wow moment for me was really just being there — those first moments especially when the energy is so high and the anticipation is there and we’ve really, truly come together for the first time in 18 months, with tons of safety precautions in place, and we’ve made it together safely. That was an amazing moment I’ll never forget.
Kim: Wow moments for me were in all the excitement and enthusiasm throughout the entire process from the speakers to our attendees, the positivity, excitement, support and joy from everyone involved and from everyone that attended was really magical. It was wonderful to feel the community excited to be sharing an experience again after such a long break.
Any shout-outs you would like to share?
Huge, huge thanks to projectionist and technical director Jacob Vorperian, and our tech wiz Christie Casey.
What are the future plans for The Immersive Industry Homecoming Summit?
Stay tuned! We’ll definitely be back in Vegas, and you’re going to want to be a part of a whole circuit of events we are planning in 2022.
What’s next for Epic Immersive?
A return to large-scale immersive experiences in 2022. Once again, stay tuned for big announcements!
We thank Steve Boyle for taking the time to chat with us and appreciate all of the effort that the Epic Immersive team, speakers, and collaborators put forth to make this Summit such a special event. Bringing together a group of visionaries, technologists, and storytellers is no small feat. Alt Ethos enjoyed the projection mapping within the space, the deep conversation from the speakers, the diversity of the group, and the pace of the presentations. We learned deeply about different companies and artists doing cutting-edge immersive work. Also, let’s not forget about the unique container that the summit took place in. If you’re ever in Las Vegas make sure to visit Area15.
AREA15 is an immersive playground, all rolled into a vast and vibrant space. Throw an axe, wander through a bamboo volcano, race on a zip line, or explore other mesmerizing realms. From the futuristic to the thrill-seeking, there’s an experience for everyone here.
Epic Immersive creates story-driven immersive experiences with explorable, 360-degree worlds. From ticketed experiences to corporate events to marketing activations, they deliver epic, unforgettable journeys.
You may have noticed that the term ‘metaverse’ has been buzzing recently. If you’re wondering why that is, as BBC states, “there is a huge amount of excitement about the metaverse among wealthy investors and big tech firms, and no-one wants to be left behind if it turns out to be the future of the internet.”
The metaverse’s powerful decentralizing potential has been a prediction even before Mark Zuckerberg’s recent announcement, and the advent of the pandemic, which also plays its part in it. According to Reuters: “The accelerated interest in the metaverse can be seen as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. As more people have started working and going to school remotely, there has been increased demand for ways to make online interaction more lifelike.”
The global changed circumstances along with increased demand suggests that the developing metaverse is on the near horizon.
We only need our mobile phones to remind us of technology’s significant strides in a short time. As Adage says: “Hardware is becoming more compact, quicker and more intelligent. Thanks to 5G, almost everywhere now has fast, dependable connectivity. In the metaverse, computer vision is becoming more intelligent, allowing for both visual and audible help. All of this contributes to the immersion of the experience, making the transfer of knowledge and experience more rewarding and human.”
As such, the metaverse goes beyond common associations like gaming…
… and is poised to impact several sectors like education and retail. As WSJ predicts: ”Real-world businesses will be able to participate in the metaverse as well by offering virtual versions of their bricks-and-mortar facilities, Unity’s Mr. Whitten says. With existing online stores, customers can read product descriptions and make purchases. In the metaverse, customers would be able to visit virtual retail outlets and try out products in 3-D and at full scale before buying.”
As any new technology brings with it its own changes, integrating the metaverse will open new avenues for the way both consumers and companies interact. AsForbes states: “Companies will need to transition their marketing strategies from online ad buys to existing in a shared, virtual economy. Companies will need to do market research on their new customers in the metaverse. How people act and what their preferences are in the metaverse could be totally different than how they behave and what they shop for in real life.”
The blog covers a range of sectors like Business, technology and culture of all the virtual worlds, including: realities and experiences of the Metaverse, 2D, 3D, mobile phones, VR/AR, games, MMORPGs, social networks, digital collectibles, esports; game design, Unity, Unreal, free-to-play (f2p), blockchain, and NFTs. His post‘What We Talk About When We Talk About the Metaverse’ also explores the meaning of the term ‘metaverse,’ how it has evolved, and what the future may bring.
Wikipedia Metaverse Definition.
The word “Metaverse” is made up of the prefix “meta” and the stem “verse”; the term is typically used to describe the concept of a future iteration of the Internet, made up of persistent, shared, 3D virtual spaces linked into a perceived virtual universe.
The Pathos Metaverse that Alt Ethos is launching.
Perhaps the most exciting aspect of this decentralizing technology is that it won’t just be one metaverse, but multiple, reflecting the unlimited creative potential and explorative possibilities of various entities. We’re honored to have been and continue to work with this unique technology through our metaverse design solutions. Our easy-to-use, dynamic, and engaging immersive platform provides exciting meeting places, magnetic events, and future-thinking hybrid-virtual-world solutions, pushing the boundaries of interactivity. To learn more about how your audience can create their own avatars and immerse themselves in your custom Branded World, please visit visit our metaverse branded solutions page.
Meow Wolf’s biggest attraction yet has finally come to Denver. But that’s by no means the whole story. For years, Denver has been preparing for Meow Wolf’s arrival in ways that are impacting not just the city but the entire region – and very likely beyond.
Millennials across the globe increasingly value experiences over material possessions.
For a while now, Denver has been the number one choice of those among them wanting to move to a new city in the US, and a third of Denver residents are now millennials (CNBC). City government took notice, and laid plans to stay ahead of the curve with a multi-year community-generated cultural plan designed to fully integrate arts, culture and creativity into daily life, work and play. These ingredients of Denver’s special sauce are part planned, part serendipitous – and that recipe is the reason Meow Wolf and Alt Ethos CEO and Founder Ethan Bach (who had worked together in Santa Fe on helping to elect a new mayor and in Denver for the Meow Wolf announcement party) recognized the potential and established their primary operations in Denver.
Years in the making, the Meow Wolf Effect is still unfolding.
Early predictions were for 1.5M visitors per annum, but the surge of advance ticket sales suggests there may well be a lot more. Whatever the number, this massive new influx of visitors will have major implications for the creative economy (“Is Meow Wolf good for artists? Overall, yes” – Denver Post), the tourist industry, and the culture at large. It will transform opportunities for growth in entertainment offerings, art sales, retail, and dining, which will have a ripple effect across the region. It’s never been just about the Meow Wolf site itself.
As Ethan says: “The Meow Wolf Effect is an intimate and intentional look into a cultural phenomenon sparking the creative economy in a way that I have not witnessed in my lifetime.
This is our moment of opportunity. If we keep harnessing our collective energy with strategic planning in order to make the best possible outcome, we can make a huge shift in the new economy.”
On behalf of The Colorado Creative Industries (CCI) and Alt Ethos, we invite you to our virtual presentation “Global Creative Connection through Immersive Virtual Worlds” hosted in our new Pathos Metaverse, a 3D avatar platform, this Friday October 1st, 2021 at 2:00 PM MST
Alt Ethos Presentation: Come explore the future of art, technology, and global connectivity through virtual worlds from top creators and thought leaders in the immersive industry. The pandemic shot us into the future of digital engagement and immersive worlds. As some creatives quickly grasped the change to become known internationally, others were left confused. This talk will walk you through the history, present, and future of virtual worlds and how they will impact the global community, our professional lives, and our collective digital future. Speakers:
Julian Reyes, MC
Eric Dallimore, Moderator Panelists
Carlos Austin
Ethan Bach
Evo (Evonne) Heyning
Celeste Lear
Q&A from audience submitted in writing
Carlos Austin, Real-Time “In World (VR)” Live Multi-cam video switching and still photographer at Austin Photograph
Carlos is passionate about the arts with an emphasis on photography/video “in-world” TV production and emerging drone technology. An XR evangelist as this technology begins to mature. Helping create Broadcast television standards for capturing live events in virtual social platforms. Real-time switching live shows with a multi-camera setup. There are so many opportunities to communicate and educate the world through XR. 3rd Generation photographer and storyteller.
Ethan Bach, CEO Alt Ethos
Ethan Bach is the founding CEO of Alt Ethos: experiential design agency and Founder and Board Member of DATA (Denver Arts + Technology Advancement). Westword calls Ethan, “An entrepreneur with an eye on the future’s future.” Bach holds an MFA in Electronic Arts from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. Alt Ethos is an award-winning design company and has been recognized in CodaWorx Magazine; the Young Industry Professionals, and by the Mayor of Fort Collins.
Evo (Evonne) Heyning, Metaverse Media. Creative Executive Producer
Evo Heyning is an award-winning producer, technologist, founder and creator focused on the future of participatory media. Evo focuses on collaborative teams that work across fields, sectors, and platforms to create meaningful global endeavors. Evo has created virtual beings, worlds, and campaigns for 20 years. Evo produced major live streaming concerts and campaigns for the White House including the launch of the Affordable Care Act and virtual worlds for diplomacy, civic engagement, and nonprofit development.
Celeste Lear, Immersive Event Producer & Designer, XR Entertainment Specialist, Music & Sound Director, Host, VR Consultant
DJ Celeste is an entertainment & event industry professional with 15+ years of concert, festival & conference production experience. Immersive technology expert skilled in designing & executing cutting-edge events both physically, virtually, AND in Virtual Reality. First in a new wave of DJs who design their own stages & perform as avatars in VR Festivals and Nightclubs. Executive music direction, production & clearance for International, multi-media installation projects for UN & UNESCO, including a large-scale video mapping experience in Paris.
About Pathos Metaverse
Pathos Metaverse is a browser-based virtual world by Alt Ethos. For this panel, all of the speakers will be avatars in the Pathos Metaverse. Through live-action virtual cinematography, CCI participants will stream the event in real-time. Selected avatar audience members will also be in attendance and watching the entire production in the Pathos Metaverse.
Pathos Metaverse is an easy-to-use, dynamic, and engaging immersive platform. Pathos Metaverse provides exciting meeting places, dynamic events, branded virtual worlds, and future-thinking hybrid-virtual-world solutions, pushing the boundaries of interactivity.
