Welcome to our monthly podcast, Building New Realities. Future Visual’s CEO, Tim Fleming, discusses ideas and stories around building new realities with today’s XR thought leaders.

A warm welcome this week to Tim's guest Antonia Forster. In today's episode, Tim welcomes Antonia Forster, an XR Technical Specialist at Unity.

Together they discuss topics ranging from Unity and controllerless hand tracking, to AI and metaverses.

Antonia gives some insight into the use of XR as a tool for equality, equity and empathy.

Antonia's socials:
Twitter: https://twitter.com/AntoniaRForster
LinkedIn: https://www.linkedin.com/in/antonia-forster/

Topics discussed in this episode: 
• Antonia Forster's background [00:18]
• Technical and empathetic research in Unity [3:49]
• Thoughts on VR as a tool for empathy [6:20]
• Current projects in Unity [10:30]
• Feelings on controllerless hand tracking [12:18]
• Greatest technological challenges with hand tracking [13:18]
• What we can learn from animal behaviour [17:13]
• Investigations into decision making [23:08]
• Greatest opportunities in XR [28:36]
• Problematic results with AI [31:00]
• Thoughts on how Metaverses may emerge [32:57]
• Projects that changed your approach to your field [37:42]
• How to help build a new reality [38:28]
• Social programs [43:05]
• Museums as a platform [45:33]
• Book recommendations [50:49]
• Theories and laws[52:21]

Resources mentioned in this episode:
Algorithms to live by [50:59] 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Algorithms-Live-Computer-Science-Decisions

Solving for happiness [51:39] 
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Solve-Happy-Engineer-Engineering-Uncovering

Dunbar's number [52:54]
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunbar%27s_number

Unity Industrial webinars [54:14] 
https://create.unity3d.com/unity-for-industrial-series

Ep 13: Solving the future of XR with Antonia Forster

This week Tim Fleming’s guest is Simon Roberts, Business Anthropologist. 

Simon is one the world’s leading anthropologists in business.  He advises some of the largest global organisations, including Intel, Facebook, Spotify, Google and many other Fortune 500 companies, through his London-based consultancy, Stripe Partners. His book The Power of Not Thinking is out now in e-book and Audio format and will be published on July 9th.

Simon talks to Tim about how he helps companies understand people by conducting ethnographic research and thereby taking yourself into other people’s worlds. Companies can therefore construct meaning in pursuit of building better products and services by grounding  truth and reality to businesses. The Covid crisis has rapidly accelerated the adoption of remote immersive collaboration technologies - Tim and Simon discuss Amara’s Law  - will it prove us wrong as we assume everything is going to change quickly post Covid? 

In discussing his new book, Simon  suggests that intelligence can be held in our bodies and that embodied knowledge is a real force - should we trust our executive brain or should we trust our gut? Find out in this fascinating discussion.

Ep 5: The Business of Body Intelligence with Simon Roberts

This week Tim Fleming’s guest is Joanna Popper, HP’s Global Head of Virtual Reality for Location Based Entertainment and leads Go-To-Market initiatives for XR.

Joanna is a Hollywood and Silicon Valley Media executive and one of the most influential women in VR. 

Joanna talks to Tim Fleming about how HP is leading the way in the immersive space, building new realities with constant hardware innovation and taking advantage of embodiment to bring us the future of computing.

Ep 6: Immersive Space - The HP Way with Joanna Popper

Rachel Blackman is an actor, improvisor, theatre maker, somatic educator and embodiment trainer and coach and creativity mentor. 
You may remember her with a shaved head and double barrelled bazooka as Chara in Matrix Revolutions.

Tim Fleming and Rachel discuss the synergy between VR and embodiment and theories around Feldenkrais and neuroplasticity. 
Can you achieve what you can’t imagine?

Ep 7: How Embodiment and Virtual Reality Create Presence?

This week Tim Fleming's guest is Phil Rowley, Media Futurist and Futures Director at Omnicom who demonstrates his extraordinary enthusiasm and passion for futurism as an art and science.

Phil works with businesses and brands to imagine and fast-track their future via emerging tech and innovation. He converts thought-leadership and tech trends into actionable innovation strategies around the future of media and entertainment, future of audio, future of gaming, future of AR, VR & AI - and their application for the future of marketing.

Tune in now to the future in this eighth podcast from immersive technology experts, Future Visual.

Ep 8: The Challenges Of Being A Futurist with Phil Rowley

This week Tim Fleming's guest is Walter Davis, Head of talent and learning technology at Aggreko and technology thought leader and strategist.

Aggreko is a supplier of temporary power generation equipment and of temperature control equipment. They Power everything from large events to whole geographic areas that do not have the suitable infrastructure.

How is Aggreko deploying VR and AR training? Tune in later today and find out.

Ep 9: How Aggreko Is Deploying Immersive Technology with Walter Davis

Tim Fleming's guest this week is Sebastien Jouhans, Technology Director of Jack X at Jack Morton Worldwide. Jack X is Jack Morton’s innovation practice.

Sebastien works with emerging technologies and creatives in order to inject cutting edge thinking and lead teams to deliver successful projects. Sebastien is passionate about technology, touch interfaces, natural interfaces, physical computing, Internet of Things, bots, NLP, Machine Learning and blockchain. 

How is Jack X connecting technology to experience? Tune in and find out.

Ep 10: Connecting Technology to Experience with Jack X and Sebastien Jouhans

This week Tim Fleming's guest is Claire Ellis - Brand strategist, creative, business-leader and firm believer in the power of 'so what?'.  Claire is the Managing Director of Strategic Sales and Marketing Agency, JPC. Claire has spent the last 22+ years building brands, cutting through complexity and devising imaginative strategies and creative ways to help clients more effectively engage and convert.  What’s coming next for customer experience? Tune in and find out. #CX

Ep 11: Customer Experience In The Age of Immersive Technology with Claire Ellis

Welcome to our monthly podcast, Building New Realities. Future Visual’s CEO, Tim Fleming, discusses ideas and stories around building new realities with today’s XR thought leaders.

A warm welcome this week to Tim's guest Professor Karen Cham.

Karen has an impressive 25 years experience in technology transformation and human centred design and she is an expert in harnessing human/machine convergence to drive complex socio-technical systems change. Karen also excels in R&D for Next Gen, ensuring the DX of values at scale by leveraging the user experience (UX).

What makes Karen curious and why does she think we might be losing depth perception in lockdown? Tune in and find out.

Ep 12: Digital Transformation with Professor Karen Cha‪m‬

Welcome to our new bi-weekly podcast, Building New Realities. Future Visual’s new fortnightly podcast discusses ideas and stories around building new realities with today’s XR thought leaders #VR #AR #VirtualReality

#BuildingNewRealities