Episode #1000 of the Voices of VR podcast is a special, three-hour retrospective featuring over 100 of the best answers I've received about the ultimate potential of VR over the past 7 years. I hope that it serves as a primer on the scope and breadth of different XR applications across many different contexts and domains of human experience as described by a diverse range of subject matter experts who are on the frontiers of innovation within spatial computing. The episode starts with describing the power of presence and immersion, and then elaborates on the underlying neuroscience foundations of perception and embodied cognition that explain why Extended Reality (XR) technologies like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) present unique affordances that go above and beyond what previous communication mediums can deliver. I believe XR represents a new computing paradigm that will be moving from flat 2D interfaces through windowed portals to volumetric experiences and worlds that are more embodied, immersive, participatory, social, and spatial.

Episode #1000 of the Voices of VR podcast is a special, three-hour retrospective featuring over 100 of the best answers I’ve received about the ultimate

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit that has been defending civil liberties & digital rights for over 30 years since it was first announced on July 10, 1990. My first conversation with the EFF was with Dave Maass at the VR Privacy Summit in November 2018 when consumer VR was still in a nascent phase and lower priority relative to civil liberty threats back then. But over the past year, the EFF has been starting to investigate the civil liberties and privacy implications of XR technologies, especially as VR has been gaining more commercial momentum. The EFF published an article on 'If Privacy Dies in VR, It Dies in Real Life' on August 25, 2020 a week after Facebook announced that Facebook accounts would be required to use the Oculus VR headsets. After Facebook's Project Aria AR prototype was announced at Facebook Connect, the EFF published 'Augmented Reality Must Have Augmented Privacy' a month later on October 16, 2020. Their latest article was published on June 2, 2021 about 'Your Avatar is You, However You See Yourself, and You Should Control Your Experience.'

The Electronic Frontier Foundation is a non-profit that has been defending civil liberties & digital rights for over 30 years since it was first announced

In her Contextual Integrity theory of privacy, Helen Nissembaum defines privacy as 'appropriate flows of information' where the appropriateness is defined by the context and its contextual informational norms. Contextual Integrity is a paradigm shift away from the Fair Information Practice Principles, which emphasizes a model of privacy focused on the control of personal information. Framing privacy through the lens of control has led to a notice & consent model of privacy, which many have argued that notice and consent fails to actually protect our privacy. Rather than focusing on the definition of privacy as the control of private information, Contextual Integrity focuses on appropriate flows of information relative to the stakeholders within a specific context who are trying to achieve a common purpose or goal.

In her Contextual Integrity theory of privacy, Helen Nissembaum defines privacy as “appropriate flows of information” where the appropriateness is defined by the context and

Ellysse Dick is a policy analyst who has written 10 technology policy publications over the last year about VR & AR for the The Information Technology & Innovation Foundation. The ITIF is a non-partisan, non-profit tech policy think tank, who says their mission is to 'advance innovation,' believes 'disruptive innovation almost always leads to economic and social progress,' has a 'considered faith in markets and businesses of all sizes,' and believes in 'deftly tailoring laws and regulations to achieve their intended purposes in a rapidly evolving economy.' In other words, they lean towards libertarian ideals of limited government to avoid reactionary technology policy that might stifle technological innovation.

Ellysse Dick is a policy analyst who has written 10 technology policy publications over the last year about VR & AR for the The Information

OpenBCI's Project Galea was originally announced on November 19, 2020 as a 'hardware and software platform that merges next-generation biometrics with mixed reality.' OpenBCI has been collaborating with MIT Ph.D. student Guillermo Bernal in integrating PhysioHMD's design, which includes EOC, EMG, EDA, PPG sensors in addition to 10 EEG channels and eye-tracking into a single headset. On January 24th, Valve CEO Gabe Newell told New Zealand's 1 NEWS that Valve was 'working on an open source project so that everybody can have high-resolution read technologies built into headsets, in a bunch of different modalities.' 1 News reported that Valve was collaborating with OpenBCI. Then on February 4th, 2021, Tobii announced that it was 'engaging in research collaboration with Valve and OpenBCI by incorporating Tobii's eye tracking technology with elements of Valve's Index hardware to produce developer units for the recently announced Galea Beta Program.' The Project Galea dev kits are expected to ship sometime in 2022, and Newell told 1 NEWS, 'If you're a software developer in 2022 who doesn't have one of these in your test lab, you're making a silly mistake.'

OpenBCI’s Project Galea was originally announced on November 19, 2020 as a “hardware and software platform that merges next-generation biometrics with mixed reality.” OpenBCI has