Our XR World to Come

Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Make STEAM Work For You

"Does the pandemic mean the death of the office? No, of course not," says futurist, author and XR consultant Charlie Fink. But he does foresee a world where we work, learn and play remotely, much more extensively than we did before the pandemic. In his new book, Remote Collaboration, Virtual Conferences and the Future of Work, Charlie offers a comprehensive look at current VR and AR applications we can use today. A number of them are free or low-cost. Some are XR--or extended reality--combining virtual reality with augmented reality. But Charlie, who writes a regular consumer-technology column for Forbes, says we're barely getting started. "I like to say we started at the beginning, and we're still at the beginning," he explains. Staying current in XR, he's said in the past, is a challenge. That's because the field is evolving, even as we speak. But Remote Collaboration, Virtual Conferences and the Future of Work still gives an intriguing look at XR applications. Team creative projects, virtual-conference platforms are spotlighted. So are ways of virtually creating art, performing music and even connecting remotely with experts, such as repair people, if the dishwasher suddenly decides not to work. Implementation beyond imagination You'll recall, in a previous conversation, Charlie explored the ways the pandemic had accelerated the use of extended reality (XR). We first met Charlie at VRLA 2018. He had-just-published first book, Charlie Fink's Metaverse: An AR-Enabled Guide to VR and AR. Since that 2018 interview, the world has changed in ways no one could have predicted. Today, Charlie has published three books. (His second, Convergence: How the World Will Be Painted with Data, came out in 2019.) And now, more than ever, we're just on the threshold, as we discover what XR can mean in "everyday" applications. Charlie talked about his new book, explored the ways XR can be effective in various work/education situations and projected what implementation might mean for our future world. On this edition of Over Coffee®, we cover: The story behind Charlie's new book, developed as he taught classes at Chapman University; Some of the applications for remote collaboration; A look at the "big 'oh wow'" one application creates, with avatars; How real-time AR works; Some of the ways current remote-conferencing VR applications work; The directions in which Charlie foresees the conference industry growing, in the future; A look at his new podcast, "This Week in XR", with Paramount Pictures Futurist Ted Schilowitz; Some of the XR applications for socializing/leisure time; The ways in which Charlie foresees the world changing as a result of increased use of XR.