Dr. Adam Davis is the founder and CEO of Amalgamated Vision, a maker of wearable displays optimized for use as a reference display in healthcare and enterprise. Adam spent a career as a practicing physician focused on neruo-radiology, and regularly explored and pushed the boundaries of using 3D imagery to better understand each patient’s physiology. Most recently, he was a clinical associate professor and the Director of the Image Processing Lab at NYU Medical Center. There he specialized in medical image post processing, volume rendering, user interface, data visualization, image based procedural and surgical guidance. He’s also done product development for Siemens Healthineers and Olea Medical.It was from this deep appreciation for 3D medical imaging that Adam began developing a new type of wearable display highly suitable to medical environments. The team recently won the 2020 NASA iTech challenge alongside Mojo Vision.In this conversation, we dig into the technology and the unique perspective that is driving its development.The solution lies on your cheek bones, just below the primary visual field. It uses laser MEMs (laser beam scanning) with a novel pancake optic to project an image directly on the retina when you look down.We start the conversation with some background on medical imaging and the impact that stereoscopy (that is seeing images in 3D) can have in medicine. You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Hannah and Matthew Arevalo are two of the co-founders of Pinfinity, an augmented reality collectible pin platform enabling interactive experiences around our favorite brands. Previously, Pinfinity’s CEO, Hannah Arevalo was the director of brands for several product lines at Loot Crate, a subscription box business focused on fan culture. There she worked directly with brands such as Warner Brothers and Disney and led a P&L of $100M annually. She also helped the team garner more than a dozen industry awards around fast growth, great products, and customer service.Matthew Arevalo was a co-founder and Chief Innovation Officer at Loot Crate, and has spent much of his career focused on developing brand, community, and strategic business relationships.AR is seeping into many corners of our daily lives, and now it’s coming to collectable pins, a category of collectibles popularized by Disney in the late 1990s.In this conversation, we discuss fan culture, the pin collectable movement, and how augmented reality fits into a broader concept Hannah and Matthew call “fan commerce”.They go on to describe some of the lessons from their previous experience in a high-growth subscription box business, and how they are applying them to Pinfinity.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

This episode features Nathan Pettyjohn and Mike Lohse at Lenovo. Nathan is the Commercial AR/VR Lead at Lenovo. He is also the founder and president of the VR/AR Association and the annual VR/AR Global Summit. Previously Nathan was also the founder and CEO of venture-backed asile411, a mobile indoor navigation and 3D product cloud platform.Mike is the Hardware Product Manager for Commercial AR/VR at Lenovo. Previously Mike spent 9 years at ODG, which for a long time was the premier creator of AR glasses. As the VP of Advanced Products there, he was behind the impressive R7, R8, and R9 glasses.In this conversation, Nathan, Mike, and I chat about the key use cases that Lenovo’s customers want to solve with spatial computing, and where AR or VR fit in the mix. We talk about the challenges of moving projects beyond initial pilots as well as Lenovo’s role in delivering holistic, end-to-end AR and VR solutions to companies. This includes software, services, and hardware. We talk about Lenovo’s ThinkReality A6 headset and the lessons learned in the two years since its release. We also discuss the new ThinkReality A3. This new device tethers to a smartphone or PC to satisfy industrial or work-from-home productivity needs. We discuss how this new product fits with offerings from Microsoft and RealWear, and the device agnostic approach Lenovo is taking to meet the needs of their customers.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Robert Scoble is a futurist, strategist and the author of four books about technology. His latest book is The Infinite Retina, co-authored with Irena Cronin, which explores the emerging era of spatial computing, including AR, VR, robotics, autonomous vehicles, and more.Robert has spent his career at the intersection of technology and media, working as a journalist, an evangelist, and a futurist, most notably at Microsoft and Rackspace. During that time, he’s interviewed more than a thousand people from research labs to startups to major tech companies, including the likes of Tony Hseih, Mark Zuckerberg, and Bill Gates. The interviews, mixed with his own insights, formed the basis for the four books on technology trends he’s published over the last 14 years.But in 2017, he was accused of sexual harassment by several women, which became public during the Me Too movement. What Robert did was wrong, and he admits as much in our conversation. He goes further to describe the necessity for better behavior and better, more diverse company cultures throughout the tech industry. He seeks to counsel founders on the dangerous mindsets that lead to sexual harassment and the damage it causes to victims, their careers, and the companies where they work. He also counsels founders on the risks of loneliness, mental illness, and addiction, which are all far more common than many of us realize. (Jump ahead in the episode to 1:04:16 for this part of the discussion.)We start our conversation talking about Robert’s latest prediction about Apple and their plans to create the next great spatial computing device.This interview was recorded a few days before the recent Apple announcement about the AirPod Max, a device that forms the basis of Robert's predictions. He describes something with immersive spatial sound and visuals that can create an entirely new type of experience. We also talk about Google Glass and its violation of an implicit social contract we have with each other, as well as the role of Tesla in the broader definition of spatial computing.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Today I am kicking off 2021 with another annual monologue. I hope you and your family were able to have a safe and relaxing holiday despite the isolation and other challenges imposed by COVID.This is the forth such annual kickoff episode, and when looking back at my notes from last year, 2020 played out pretty much as expected, with the glaring exception of the impact of COVID. However one thing COVID did not impact is the pace of progress at the bleeding edge of the technology. The industry continues to make slow progress—sometimes it feels painfully slow—towards addressing the biggest challenges of AR glasses.In this episode, I restate why I believe AR Glasses aren’t a passing fad like 3D TV. I also share my take on some of the highlights of 2020 and what we might see in 2021 as it relates to augmented reality.While the road in front of us is still long, I am a firm believer that Augmented Reality in general, and wearable AR glasses in particular, will have a profound impact on our lives.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Alex Hertel is the former co-founder and CEO of Xperial, and currently an inventor at Intuit where he is a director in their Futures group.Alex completed his Ph.D. in computer science at the University of Toronto and is an expert in no-code languages as well as the use of immersive technologies to make the physical world digitally interactive.After his PhD program, he co-founded Walleto, which was acquired by Google and became Google Wallet. After several years at Google, he left to become the co-founder and CEO of Xperiel, where he helped to create a user-friendly programming language called “Pebbles” with the goal of democratizing AR and IoT programming in order to connect the Internet to the physical world.In this conversation, Alex explains how he applied his research to a concept he calls the “world computer” and how it relates to computing paradigms of the past. He sees the roles of displays being replaced by AR glasses, and our computing peripherals being replaced by the many internet-connected devices around us.Alex goes on to describe how a new no-code language can make the process of creating AR experiences more accessible. He also describes lessons learned through his two entrepreneurial experiences and the benefits of now being an inventor in Intuit’s Futures Group.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Justin Barad, MD, is the CEO and founder of Osso VR, a fully immersive, and scientifically validated, surgical training platform.Prior to starting Osso VR, Justin became a board-eligible orthopedic surgeon with a Bioengineering degree from UC Berkeley, and an MD (medical doctorate) from UCLA, where he graduated first in his class. He completed his residency at UCLA and his fellowship in pediatric orthopedics at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital.His experiences as a medical student and practicing surgeon opened his eyes to the many challenges faced by surgeons striving to provide the best care in the face of expanding medical understanding, technology, and complexity.In this second part of my two-part conversation with Justin, we talk about the imperative to improve medical education. He notes our approach to medical education and assessment is still largely based on what worked 100 years ago. But using today’s insights and technologies, while not a perfect, can dramatically improve and expand the quality of medical education. [quote]Justin goes on to describe the opportunity to accelerate the "trust curve" during in-hospital training—the notion that before you can get hands on and work your way up the learning curve, you have to work your way up the trust curve. Justin also talks about startup leadership principles he’s learned and his take on Virtual Reality versus Augmented Reality.Note: About half way into the episode you’ll notice we took a break and came back later to finish the interview.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Justin Barad, MD, is the CEO and founder of Osso VR, a fully immersive, and scientifically validated, surgical training platform.Prior to starting Osso VR, Justin became a board-eligible orthopedic surgeon with a Bioengineering degree from UC Berkeley, and an MD (medical doctorate) from UCLA, where he graduated first in his class. He completed his residency at UCLA and his fellowship in pediatric orthopedics at Harvard and Boston Children’s Hospital.His experiences as a medical student and practicing surgeon opened his eyes to the many challenges faced by surgeons striving to provide the best care in the face of expanding medical understanding, technology, and complexity. For example, after 14 years of education, nearly a third of graduating residents cannot operate without supervision.These insights, combined with a conviction to solve the problem, led him to co-found Osso VR.In this first part of my two-part conversation with Justin, we explore his life-long fascination with ways that software and technology can be applied to help people. He shares his journey of discovery, including some advice he got while still in high school. He was told if he really wants to invent something, then all he needs to do is understand the problem he’s trying to solve first. And the best way for him to solve medical problems is to be a doctor—an idea that did not appeal to him at the time.Justin goes on to describe his experiences as a medical resident and practicing surgeon, and how he came to hit on the problem he wanted to solve. He also shares the internal struggle he faced when forced to decide between two divergent career paths.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Charlie Fink is a respected author and speaker focused on AR and VR. He has been at the bleeding edge of the intersection of entertainment and technology for more than 35 years. Charlie was a VP of Creative Development at Disney, where he created the concept for the Lion King. He was the COO at Virtual World Entertainment in the early 90s, which was the first company to bring VR experiences to retail locations across the world. Charlie was Chief Creative Officer at AOL studios, where he launched a number of early brands on the web. And after his startup was acquired by American Greetings Interactive, Charlie then took over as President and Chief Creative Officer and drove one of the most popular websites at the time to profitability and success.Over the last few years, he has been applying all of that experience and insight to his current passion around AR and VR as an author, speaker, and now teacher. About 2 years ago Charlie joined me for an interview where we explored his career and his first book on spatial computing called Charlie Fink’s Metaverse.Recently, about a week before the US presidential election, we caught up to discuss what he brings as an author and a teacher.We go on to discuss the classes he is currently teaching at Chapman University as well as his latest book and current take on where we are as an industry.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.

Angela Robert is the Co-founder and CEO of Conquer Experience, a company using VR to dramatically improve training for operating room nurses.After earning a degree in math and computer science, Angela started her career as a software engineer before joining Electronic Arts where she contributed to more than 20 games. She became the development director of the initial and sequel release of the popular Skate franchise.After several years of building and leading teams at EA, she set off to improve the lives of medical patients by improving the quality of training for nurses.Angela is an active supporter of girls in STEM and women in technology and business, as an advisor, mentor, and speaker.For this conversation, Angela joined me for a fireside chat at the recent VRAR Association Global Summit - the 2020 online edition - where the theme was adaptability.We discussed how Angela pivoted her iPad-based and VR-based training company in response to COVID. Hospitals were no longer buying, and live in-person training opportunities for most procedures disappeared. Now hospitals are filled with out-of-practice operating room nurses, who had been reassigned or furloughed for months, that need to be ready to support a huge backlog of surgeries.Much of the conversation happened live at the conference, but the last bit was recorded afterwards. Although it’s all presented here as one unified conversation.You can find all of the show notes at thearshow.com.