What are the Possibilities and Challenges of Virtual and Augmented Reality?

People increasingly spend a lot of time looking at screens and particularly so during these past two years of the Covid pandemic. Social media chatter and news on computers, phones and other devices have become a big part of our lives. Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are two technologies that are changing the way we use screens, while creating new and exciting interactive experiences. Virtual reality uses a headset to place you in a computer-generated world that you can explore. Rather than transporting you to a computer-generated world, augmented reality overlays digital content on top of the physical world using a wearable headset of mobile device. The speaker will explain the exciting world of VR/AR and discuss the consequences of this ever-expansive technology.   Speaker:  Michael McCready   Mike McCready is educator and researcher with a focus on immersive technologies such as virtual and augmented reality. He has over 20 years of development and is driven to explore new technologies and understand their application within business and society. He introduced one of the first VR development course at Lethbridge College in 2016 when he taught students to develop mobile VR games. One of Mike’s focuses is the social interactions made possible with VR and has planned and facilitated numerous social VR activities that have garnered national and international attention, included the world’s first full-day conference held in VR – Merging Realities. Mike is also the Program Research Chair of the Spatial Technologies Applied Research and Training (START) centre at Lethbridge College. In this role he works with organizations to integrate immersive technologies to their workflow to improve organizational effectiveness.