In partnership with Samsung Global Innovation Center, NYC Media Lab and NYVR, LoNyLa/TimeWave is launching VIRTUAL REALITY LAB NY, which combines VR development sessions, a public demo and NYC Media Lab’s autumn conference on VR.
The goal: to provide media creators and technologists with an opportunity to create VR/AR/MR prototypes, brainstorm and explore complex formats using immersive technology, and collaborate with like-minded members of the VR community. Virtual Reality Lab NY details are as follows:
I. 11 Development Sessions
Ten 3-hour sessions for creators to do hands-on work on new VR formats.
Time: 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M.
Dates: EVERY MONDAY, beginning on SEPTEMBER 14, 2015 and running to NOVEMBER 23, 2015.
Location: Samsung Global Innovation Center.
Gear: We expect most lab participants to bring their own gear. However, we’ll have Gear VR, Rifts, Cardboard and Leap Motion VR kits on hand.
II. Exploring Virtual Reality
Google Cardboard. Samsung Gear. Microsoft Hololens. Magic Leap. And soon, the Oculus Rift will be on sale. Is the age of virtual reality, long anticipated, finally upon us? Exploring VR is a ½ day event with over two dozen speakers delivering lightning talks and interactive demos. The event will feature faculty, startups founders, and corporate media lab technologists. The discussion will focus on the impact of virtual reality on the media and technology industry, including best practices on how to build experiments in VR storytelling, production and distribution. Click for more info on NYC Media Lab events.
Time: 9:00 A.M. – 12:30 P.M.
Date: THURSDAY, NOVEMBER 5, 2015
Location: TBA
III. Demo Night Splash
The finale of the Virtual Reality Lab will be a demo of the formats created during the course of the lab. This festive event will enable participants to share their VR applications and experiences with an audience, galvanizing interest, generating feedback and capping a few months of hard work.
Date: FRIDAY, DECEMBER 4, 2015.
Time: 6:00 P.M. – 8:00 P.M.
Location: Samsung Studio. See map on right.
Huge thanks to our sponsors
Who: Media Creators, Writers, Storytellers, Filmmakers, Designers, UX, Developers and Creative Coders
Dates: Sept 14 – Dec 4, 2015
Location: Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor. NYC 10010
Cost $40. Teams of 3 or more will be given a 10% discount.
To apply for the lab, send letter stating 1) your interest in VR or the VR project you intend to work on 2) your area of specialization – e.g., technologist, designer, artist, etc. – and 3) CV to: virtualrealitylab@timewavefestival.com.
Space limited to 35 people. Note: we do have a waitlist.
We encourage you to form teams beforehand. The lab is also running a Slack site for VR creators.
SCHOLARSHIPS AVAILABLE FOR STUDENTS
If you’re a student (undergrad or grad) at NYU, Columbia University, Pratt, New School/Parsons or CUNY, you can apply for a scholarship, which is sponsored by NYC Media Lab.
For scholarship applicants, send a cover letter with your school affiliation to: virtualrealitylab@timewavefestival.com. Please describe your interest in VR or the VR project you have in mind for the lab.
MAP OF SAMSUNG GLOBAL INNOVATION CENTER
MAP OF SAMSUNG STUDIO
VR Lab NY Schedule
| DATE | TIME | LOCATION | DESCRIPTION |
| MON, Sept 14 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Sept 21 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Sept 28 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Oct 5 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Oct 12 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Oct 19 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Oct 26 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Nov 2 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| THURS, Nov 5 | 9:00 A.M. – 12:30 P.M. | LMHQ, 150 Broadway, 20th floor, NYC 10038 | Exploring VR Conference |
| MON, Nov 9 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Nov 16 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| MON, Nov 23 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Global Innovation Center, 30 West 26th Street, 7th Floor, NYC 10010 | Maker Session |
| FRI, Dec 4 | 6:30 P.M. – 9:30 P.M. | Samsung Studio, 130 Prince St, NYC 10012 | Lab Demo Splash |
Chaki Ng
Chaki Ng is passionate in novel ways to connect users and contextual content and information, across various devices+screens. Currently, he is the general manager of Viacom Lab, a brand new user-centered and experimental team within Viacom to explore new things, at the intersection of media+product+design. Prior to the Lab, he spent 3 years as head of product at Viacom Music and Logo Group for entertainment brands MTV, VH1, CMT and LOGO. He rebuilt the team from 2 product owners to 2 vp of product and 7 product owners to develop multi-platform, video-centric products (responsive websites, 15 iOS/Android/XBOX apps) for TV shows and events like VMA, with hundreds of millions of streams a year. He led the transformation to user-centric, MVP, and agile/squad-based development processes, helped started data science initiative for MTV News, and led future looking mindset as corporate liaison of MIT Media Lab. Previously, Chaki investigated place-based discovery and social experiences at the MIT Media Lab, by co-deploying a real-time, pervasive network of 30 large touchscreens using RFIDs and AI algorithms in its new building. He also was a veteran of adaptive learning experiences via Interactive Constructs, a 10M+ annual revenue and 60+ employee technology company that he co-founded (with $0 investment dollars) and sold, which powered leading products like Read180 for education companies like Scholastic, Harcourt, and Pearson. Chaki holds PhD and SM degrees in computer science from Harvard, where he designed auction-based algorithms to solve complex multi-user resource allocation problems in distributed systems including wireless sensor networks and cloud computing. He also holds MBA (MIT Sloan) and BS (Northeastern) degrees. Chaki is an advocate of using user-centered design and various rapid innovation methods (from Stanford D.School and LUMA Institute) for product development as well as general business design problems. He continues his extensive startup involvement by acting as mentors at accelerators and is currently Expert-in-Residence at the Harvard Innovation Lab, advising student startups, and acting as competition judge.
Ken Perlin
Ken Perlin is a professor in the Department of Computer Science at New York University and directs the NYU Games For Learning Institute. He is a participating faculty member in the NYU Media and Games Network (MAGNET). Perlin was also founding director of the Media Research Laboratory and director of the NYU Center for Advanced Technology. His research interests include graphics, animation, augmented and mixed reality, user interfaces, science education and multimedia. He received an Academy Award for Technical Achievement from the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences for his noise and turbulence procedural texturing techniques, which are widely used in feature films and television, as well as the 2008 ACM/SIGGRAPH Computer Graphics Achievement Award, the TrapCode award for achievement in computer graphics research, the NYC Mayor’s award for excellence in Science and Technology and the Sokol award for outstanding Science faculty at NYU, and a Presidential Young Investigator Award from the National Science Foundation. Dr. Perlin received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from New York University, and a B.A. in theoretical mathematics from Harvard University.
Clara Fernández-Vara
Clara Fernández-Vara is a game scholar, designer and writer. She is an Associate Arts Professor at the NYU Game Center. Her area of expertise is narrative in games and how it can integrate with game design, focusing on adventure games. She is particularly interested in applying methods from textual analysis and performance studies to the study of video games and transmedia artifacts. Clara’s videogame work is grounded in the humanities, informed by her background in literature, film and theatre. Before joining the NYU Game Center, Clara was a a researcher and game developer at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT). She holds a Ph.D. in Digital Media from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Masters in Comparative Media Studies from MIT. Clara has presented her work at various international academic and industry conferences, such as DiGRA (Digital Games Research Association), and Foundations of Digital Games and the Game Developer’s Conference (GDC). She has worked both in games for research as well as in the commercial sphere. Her first book, “Introduction to Game Analysis” has been published by Routledge.
Omer Shapira
Omer Shapira is the head of Virtual Reality at Fake Love. His practice combines live action elements with procedural graphics, using custom-built software and hardware. Previously, Omer was a VR Developer at Framestore, The NYU Media Research Lab and the MIT Media Lab, and a Filmmaker and VFX Artist in Israeli TV. His work was presented at Tribeca Film Festival, Sundance Film Festival and The Barbican. His commercial VR work won an Art Director’s Club Award and was a Webby Awards Honoree. Omer has a B.Sc in Mathematics from Tel Aviv University and a Master’s from the NYU Interactive Telecommunications Program.
- What kind of lab is it?
- What equipment will I have access to?
- What software can I use?
- How do I join a team?
- Do we get API decks to work with?
1. What kind of lab is it?
Created in response to the need for longer-term development vehicles, VR Lab is a hands-on maker space. While a hackathon can be an effective sprint, the VR Lab offers creators more time to develop VR applications and experiences.
2. What equipment do I have access to?
We expect most lab participants to bring their own gear. We aim to have a variety of headsets and other VR tools (e.g. Leap Motion kits) on hand. You will need a laptop.
3. What software do I use?
We recommend that you download Unity 5 personal edition. It’s free. To learn the software, Unity has provided tutorials, documentation and live training. Visit Learn with Unity.
4. How do I join a team?
We encourage you to form a team before signing up for the lab. However, if you don’t have team, we’ll conduct an informal pre-lab meet-up. During that time, you can identify collaborators and a team. In addition, once you register, we’ll send you a Slack invite. Please join Slack to meet other lab participants, form teams, share tech tips and inspirational articles and get feedback on your project. Your team can also form a private communication channel during the lab.
5. Do we get API decks to work with?
Currently, we have the Leap Motion API deck to distribute.
If you have other questions, shoot us a mail at virtualrealitylab@timewavefestival.com.