Wednesday, April 29th, 2015

Virtual - Augmented Reality Workshop

10:00 AM – 11:00 AM, Track II: Salon I

History of VR & AR: What It Was, What It Is, What It Will Be

David Cole, co-founder, NextVR

Philip Lelyveld, VR/AR Program Manager, USC Entertainment Technology Center

Jacki Morie, Owner/CEO, All These Worlds, LLC

Michael Zyda, Director, USC GamePipe Laboratory

David Marlett, author, VR filmmaker, CINEMERSIA

Marty Perlmutter, technologist, Patent Holder, Early VR/3D Technology Leader, Moderator

Philip Lelyveld is the Program Manager at the USC Entertainment Technology Center within the School of Cinematic Arts.  The USC Entertainment Technology Center (www.etcenter.org) is funded by the six major Hollywood studios plus related companies and CE companies to advise them on emerging technology-related opportunities and help them avoid format wars.  He also consults on emerging opportunities and business development for companies in the entertainment and related spaces. Mr. Lelyveld is currently leading the Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality Project; examining the creative, technical, and business issues that will shape this new, emerging art form. He recently brought together 120 storytellers to discuss and document thinking on the emerging language of VR storytelling. Phil is also overseeing a market research study to determine if aggregating niche markets is a more effective social media marketing strategy than pursing a mass markets. Prior to this he oversaw the Next Gen Display (‘UHD TV Plus’) Project and managed the Consumer 3D Experience Lab at the USC ETC.  The Lab researched stereoscopic 3D in the home, on personal devices, in public spaces, in advertising, and in theaters.  The Lab also covered 3D audio and 3D printing. Prior to USC Mr. Lelyveld spent 10 years within Disney’s corporate New Technology and New Media group coordinating major entertainment technology initiatives among the business units and representing Disney at multi-studio and multi-industry consortia.

Jacquelyn Ford MorieFounder and Chief Scientist. MS, MFA, PhD With degrees in both art and computer science, Dr. Morie has 25 years experience in developing innovative techniques for rich, emotionally evocative virtual reality (VR) environments. As part of this pioneering work, she invented a scent collar to bring the emotional power of smell to immersive experiences, and developed new types of functions for VR, such as connections to multiple sensor and feedback systems to make VR more effective. Dr. Morie spent 13 years as a Sr. Research Scientist at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies (ICT), which she helped found. While there, she created novel VR telehealth care activities using her deep understanding of art, computer animation and human behavior to enhance patient engagement with these programs. In the mid-1990s, Dr. Morie started comprehensive computer animation training programs at Walt Disney Feature Animation combining art and technology topics, which she later expanded to the special effects industries at studios such as Rhythm and Hues. Prior to that, Morie worked at UCF’s Institute for Simulation and Training, where she developed techniques to make VR environments more immersive and emotionally compelling, and helped lead a group of innovative students called The Toy Scouts. She has been expanding her VR research to include neuroscience and avatars, developing methods to determine how such technologies can effect positive change in those who use them.

Michael Zyda is the Founding Director of the USC GamePipe Laboratory, and a Professor of Engineering Practice in the USC Department of Computer Science. At USC, he founded the USC Games joint Advanced Games course and took that program from no program to the #1 Games program in the world in five years. His alums have shipped games played by over 790M players. From Fall 2000 to Fall 2004, he was the Founding Director of the MOVES Institute located at the Naval Postgraduate School, Monterey and a Professor in the Department of Computer Science at NPS. From 1986 until the formation of the MOVES Institute, he was the Director of the NPSNET Research Group. Professor Zyda's research interests include computer graphics, large-scale, networked 3D virtual environments and games, agent-based simulation, modeling human and organizational behavior, interactive computer-generated story, computer-generated characters, video production, entertainment/defense collaboration, modeling and simulation, and serious and entertainment games. He is a pioneer in the following fields - computer graphics, networked virtual environments, modeling and simulation, and serious and entertainment games. He holds a lifetime appointment as a National Associate of the National Academies, an appointment made by the Council of the National Academy of Sciences in November 2003, awarded in recognition of “extraordinary service” to the National Academies. He is a member of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences. He served as the principal investigator and development director of the America’s Army PC game funded by the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs. He took America’s Army from conception to three million plus registered players and hence, transformed Army recruiting. The creation of the America’s Army game founded the serious games field. He co-holds several patents, including two patents that form the basis for the 9-axis sensor in the Nintendo Wii U.

David Marlett, VR director/writer, founder, CINEMERSIA: David is the founder of CINEMERSIA, the world’s first production company dedicated to live-action, VR feature films. There he is building a team of extraordinary individuals dedicated to pioneering the new storytelling of immersive cinema. David brings 25 years of experience in the film and theater industries, with emphasis in screenwriting, directing, production, entertainment law and finance, VR research & development, and strategic consultation and leadership. David is a best-selling novelist, with his historical novel Fortunate Son reaching #2 in all of Amazon’s historical fiction, and #3 in all of their literature and fiction in 2014. In addition, he is a prolific photo-artist, with his award winning work having sold in galleries across the country. David recently wrapped principal photography on the world’s first live-action, feature, VR film, MansLaughter, scheduled for a August 15, 2015 release. Meanwhile he is in preproduction on this VR film and stage play, Blue Highway, which he is producing under the CINEMERSIA banner with the Emmy award winning Richard Middleton (The Artist, Hitchcock, I Love You Phillip Morris).

Marty Perlmutter, a 43 year veteran producer of emerging media, has worked in partnership with the David Sheldrick Wildlife Trust for the past year, creating ads to reduce demand for ivory in China. Perlmutter is president of the Multisensory Interactive Learning Institute (MILI) which has pioneered nonverbal techniques for learning. MILI's methods are used in the ads created with footage supplied by the Sheldrick Trust. Perlmutter helped organize the San Francisco March for Elephants and assisted in organizing marches in New York, Toronto, Munich and Los Angeles. The 16 ads created to date are distributed on social media sites in the People's Republic of China. Marty is now starting production of high impact spots intended for mobile phones in China and broadcast in the US. Perlmutter was the featured speaker at the Oakland Zoo's Celebration of Elephants, organizer of the Tiburon gathering that sparked the current Bay Area elephant conservation movement and is a frequent presenter on elephant conservation in Bay Area venues. He hopes to participate in the Clinton Global Initiative's forthcoming wildlife demand reduction program.