Sly Lee (Emerge) on the Importance of Touch to Immersive Presence

Sly Lee is the co-founder & CEO of Emerge, a cross-reality presence company, building a platform that aims to enable more meaningful, engaging, and diverse interactions in XR that bring us closer to the people we care about through touch and emotion.

Sly is an entrepreneur and scientist who is passionate about creating positive global impact He was named to Forbes 30 Under 30, and he is a member of Global Future Council on Virtual and Augmented Reality at the World Economic Forum.

Earlier in his career, Sly was the founder of The Hydrous, an organization that assembled an international consortium to create and share 3D maps of underwater coral reefs.

In this conversation, we explore the concept of human connection in the age of the metaverse, and why the sense of touch has an important part to play.

Sly goes on to describe the product he’s creating, how it differs from haptic controllers, and the feedback he’s getting from early users. We explore how touch is incorporated into social interaction within our inner circles, and what the trends and differences are internationally.

You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.