Just got back from the Level Up Gaming Showcase. It’s really amazing to see all the young talent Ontario universities and colleges have to offer. It’s even MORE amazing to see who came down to see what some of these young minds had to share!
Visiting our immersive technology demo was none other than Dr. Steve Mann. With countless inventions under his belt, he is considered the father of wearable computing, he is a tenured professor at the University of Toronto, AND he is the General Chair of the IEEE International Symposium on Technology and Society and Associate Editor of IEEE Technology and Society.
This is the guy who did Google Glass before Google, and inadvertently raised the spectre of AR privacy concerns after getting assaulted at a Paris McDonalds when employees didn’t like the idea of potentially getting recorded without being aware.
The display featured an AMD based machine running Call of Duty Black Ops 2 with the DDD TriDef Ignition drivers, an iPod Touch with the new EyeFly 3D add-on, Z-Fighter; a 3D gaming research project by Chris Zerebecki (from iGO3D / UOIT), and an AR prototype by Meta-View.
The running joke was that when visitors came by our booth, they wanted to add our 3D demo to the ballot of people’s choice winners. Unfortunately, Call of Duty Black Ops 2 is NOT a student’s work. If it was, that student would have spent the evening driving around the building in their limo for a few hours before collecting their award. Still, it was encouraging that they enjoyed the 3D experience so much!
The exhibit was busy, so our time was limited. However, we did manage to score a good interview from the show featuring an AR demo. Will update soon enough!