That's a wrap! The fifth annual Augmented World Expo took place last week in Santa Clara, California. As in prior years, this was the premier annual event in the industry, featuring speakers and exhibitors from the augmented reality field as well as from related endeavors--such as wearable technology--that make up the broader "augmented world." USA Today called it "the Consumer Electronics Show of the future. The increasingly near future."
More than 30 panel discussions were held over two days--including mine, in which Cecelia Abadie (LynxFit), Robert Hernandez (USC Annenberg School of Journalism), Pete Wassell (Augmate) and Joe Rampolla (ARDirt/Park Ridge Police Dept.) discussed the Future of the Augmented World, including a lot of discussion with the audience about privacy expectations.
Keynote presentations included Ori Inbar's overview of the year's developments and trends, Robert Scoble's application of his "Age of Context" thesis to the augmented world, and private investor Tim Chang's fascinating talk on the "Augmented Soul"--the emotional and spiritual consequences of AR technology.
Unique offerings this year included the AWE Hackathon--in which several teams competed to create the best digital eyewear program, and for which I got the pleasure of being a judge--and a fashion show of digitally augmented clothing. But of course, as in prior years, the highlight was the scores of hardware and software exhibits across the Expo floor.
Below is the Prezi summary of the conference that I delivered to last night's AR Detroit meetup, along with the video of my panel discussion. You can find all these videos and more on AR.Org's YouTube channel. If you didn't attend this year, I encourage you to mark your calendars for AWE 2015, to be held June 2-3, 2015.
