Your Reality Is Augmented

Your Realityis Augmented

@BenjaminJoffe, CEO | Plus Eight Star Ltd.

eComm | San Francisco, April 2010

The Plan

1. Introduction

2. What is Reality?

3. Our Augmented Reality

4. Augmented Reality and Social Media

5. What We Can Do

Introduction

Benjamin Joffe

4 years 1 year 5 years

What I do Now

• Plus Eight Star– Digital Strategy & “Innovation Arbitrage”

– Best practices from Asia’s Internet

and mobile scenes

• Cmune– 3D social games

– Paradise Paintball, first “social shooter”on Facebook, MySpace, Apple.com

• Mobile Monday Beijing– Monthly forum for mobile professionals

Japan | AR Goes Mobile

South Korea | “Screen Golf” Mainstream!

5,000 “Golf Cafes”US$ 500 million market

82,000 daily visits (vs. 65,000 for “real” golf)

US$ 20 / 18 holes (10 times cheaper)

South Korea | VR Golf Going Global?

“I almost feel like I'm actually playing on the fairway”

“In view of growing demand for simulators abroad, I believe screen golf will become a global trend”

“Screen golf has created a unique market in our country, where people prefer rooms for chatting and socializing”

Hallmark does AR

AR = Technologically Boring...?

…Or Becoming Socially Interesting?

“When a technology becomes boring, that's when the social effects become interesting.”

Clay Shirky, Professor, NYUAuthor, Here Comes Everybody

What is Reality?

Different Realities

Japan & South Korea | Augmented Realities

China | Altered Reality

North Korea | Diminished Reality

Pyongyang Subway © Benjamin Joffe

What is Reality

• “Reality is that which, when you stop believing in it, doesn't go away”

– Philip K. Dick

What Things Arevs.

• What appears to be

– (perception)

• What we want things to be

– (intention & interpretation)

• What we are made to think

– (illusion & manipulation)

Our Reality is Augmented

Avatar Blues

• Some viewers…

“Experienced depressionand suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of Pandora.”

• James Cameron’s advice:

"Take a walk in the woods.Reacquaint with the nature we have right here."

Source: CNN, January 11, 2010

Avatar Blues

• Some viewers…

“Experienced depressionand suicidal thoughts after seeing the film because they long to enjoy the beauty of Pandora.”

• James Cameron’s advice:

"Take a walk in the woods.Reacquaint with the nature we have right here."

Source: CNN, January 11, 2010

Can we trust our senses?

Dove “Evolution” Ad

TED’s Augmented Reality

• Jason Wishnow

TED Movie Director

• His reality

– 5 Cameras

– Slideshow

– Sound

TED Performances are Superhuman!(and new speakers are scared)

QUIZ: Who’s behind?

PitchPerfect!

Who said?

“This is anti-autotune, death of the ringtone

This ain’t for iTunes,this ain’t for sing-along”

DOA

Jay-Z

(June 2009)

(8th Grammy + Best Rap Solo Performance)

Death of Auto-Tune by Jay-Z

ChemistryTest

Monosodium Glutamate

• Food Additive & Flavor Enhancer (MSG, E621)

– 1907 Isolated

– 1909 Patented by Ajinomoto (Japan)

– 1947 Introduced in the US

• Today

– Once associated with Chinese food, MSG is now used by most fast food chains and in many foodstuffs, particularly processed food.

MSG-Rich

• BBQ sauce

• Salad dressing

• Canned, frozen, dried prepared food

• Snack foods(jerky, potato chips…)

• Seasoning mixtures

MSG By Any Other Name…

• Hydrolyzed vegetable protein

• Hydrolyzed plant protein

• Autolyzed plant protein

• Calcium caseinate

• Textured protein (any)

• Yeast extract

• Autolyzed yeast

• Sodium caseinate

• Vegetable protein extract

• Glutamic acid

• Etc.

All contain MSG

QUIZIs Soylent

Greensoy-based?

"Fragrance is a message carrier.“

Mikel CirkusCreative DirectorBody & Home Care PerfumeryFirmenich (a fragrance maker)

Freshly Baked Bread!(in a bottle)

• “Conjures up pleasant childhood memories.”

• Many home sellers use this tactic to make their house more appealing to prospective buyers.

Artificial > Natural ?!

“The more artificial scents – rather than the natural scents – are coded into people's minds,”

“What's more, these newer codes all have brands names attached to them”

Mikel Circus

Firmenich (2003)

Faking Touch?

Introducing: the Haptic Pen(2004)

What Does It Do?

• Simulates Buttons on a Surface

• No Click

• Light Click

• Basic Click

• Hard Click

• Buzz

• Force Buzz

• Two-Click

• Buzz-Click

Responses to the Haptic Pen

• “High degree of believability in the tactile simulations.”

• “Participants reported experiencing longitudinal movement of the pen, typically confirmed by surprise when the actual mechanism was described.”

Uncomfortable Conclusions

1. Our senses have inherent flaws

2. Dis-con.nect between perception and reality

3. Our “default interpretation” cannot be trusted

4. To judge, we need to think.

Our Augmented Reality&

Social Media

What About Social Media?

1. Social Media Engineering

2. Manufacturing of Public Opinion

3. What can we do?

“Torches of Freedom”

“These torches of freedom will go on breaking down all discriminations.”

– Bertha Hunt March 31, 1929

Opinion Engineering

Bertha Hunt was Edward Bernay’s secretary, a PR pioneer hired by American Tobacco

“Age-old customs,I learned, could be broken down by a dramatic appeal, disseminated by the network of media”– Edward Bernays

Opinion Engineering

Bertha Hunt was Edward Bernay’s secretary, a PR pioneer hired by American Tobacco

“Age-old customs can be broken down by a dramatic appeal, disseminated by the network of media”– Edward Bernays

Global Voices

This “Twitter friend” for 2 years…

…was a Robot!

How?

1. Picture & name2. Timely responses3. Connector words4. Language twists5. Random words in structured phrases6. Intentional spelling mistakes

“dramatic appeal, disseminatedby the network of media”

Public Opinion?

• Iran’s “Twitter Revolution” #IranElection

• Research by Al Jazeera’s New Media Division

– Only 60 influential accounts on the ground

– … down to 6 accounts after clamp down!

Over 160,000 people already joined! You can too.

No word of Al Jazeera’s analysis

No word of the “Colored Revolutions”in Eastern Europe who used

the same methodology

Avatar Blues?

• Story ripped by CNN from a blog, based on the comments of just 10 people…

What Can We Do?

Replicant Check-List

1. AI or Human?

2. Check your sources

3. Check your senses

4. Check your emotions

Being Human

• Avoid default settings

• “Reacquaint ourselves with the nature we have right here” – James Cameron

• “I see you”

Thanks!

“And to the human race...Don't forget your humanity”

– Albert Einstein

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