Location

Augmented World Expo, Santa Clara California

Description

Currently, we use Augmented Reality mainly to superimpose virtual content within the physical space. As such we build applications to extend the Graphical User Interface into the physical space. But when used correctly, Augmented Reality (AR) can serve as a portal that seamlessly connects our physical and virtual realities. The physical world can become a new computing interface that allows us to externalize our ideas into physical/digital actions.
"What is virtual" is typically defined by the experience of personal desktop computing. But once we achieve a seamless fusion between the virtual and the physical, this separation will disappear and we will experience indistinguishable realities. This new definition of reality demands new tools – tools to build Hybrid Objects with virtual and physical affordances that map directly onto one another; tools that allow the user to modify and interact according to personal preferences.
In this talk, Heun will speak about the Reality Editor and the OpenHybrid.org platform which offers simple tools to build, modify and interact with Hybrid Objects: objects that combine the virtual and the physical seamlessly.

Biographies

Valentin Heun is a PhD candidate and research assistant at MIT Media Lab, where his research focuses on new computer interaction paradigms for the physical space. He is interested in transferring benefits from our shared digital experiences to our physical reality. Currently he is using his interdisciplinary design and engineering skills to build tools that empower designers. His works have been published in academic conferences such as Ubiquitous Computing (UBICOMP, 2012, 2013), SIGGRAPH Asia (SA, 2012), Tangible Embodied and Embedded Interaction (TEI, 2013), Computer Human Interaction conference (CHI, 2013) and User Interface Software and Technology (UIST, 2014). He has been interviewed by online media outlets such as Fast Company, Vice, Wired, the Daily Dot; named by Wired UK to the Smart List 2013, and awarded Fast Company’s Boldest Ideas in User Interface Design 2015 and Postscapes 2016 Editors Choice Award for IoT Software & Tools. He works closely with industry collaborators such as Steelcase, Audi, Lego, Qualcomm, Sony and NEC to create a new human interaction experience with everyday objects. Valentin holds an MS from the MIT Media Lab, the German Diplom (eq. master's degree) in design from the Bauhaus-University Weimar, and is cofounder of an HCI company supported by an entrepreneur’s scholarship from the German Federal Ministry of Economics and Technology.