For the fifth episode of ▶▶FAST FORWARD, we were joined by Kathleen Schröter, an immersive media expert helping companies understand the humane potential of technology.

For 11 years, Kathleen worked as Head of Marketing and Communications at the Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, a research institute for digital society, translating the newest technological developments across AR, XR, AI and Human-Machine Interaction into compelling stories.

In 2018, Kathleen was one of 13 impactful women in tech honored by the Advanced Imaging Society with their Distinguished Leadership Awards.

In her current role of Technologist and Alchemist at J2C, she helps companies to drive their business forward by creating connections between concepts and people.

The presentation was followed by a Q&A moderated by AC Coppens, CEO/Founder of THE CATALYSTS.

▶▶ More about Kathleen

For over a decade, Kathleen has been connecting storytelling techniques with future trends.

Her insights allow audiences to contextualize tech trends, deepen their understanding of R&D processes, and explore sci-fi scenarios that could soon become a reality.

Today, she uses an interdisciplinary approach, mixing this scientific understanding of tech with components rooted in the science of yoga, nature and ancient philosophy.

She works with clients from a range of industries, spanning from FoodTech to music to help them market and develop their business.

Kathleen is an active member of international committees dedicated to immersive imaging technologies, including the European Committee of the Advanced Imaging Society and the global VR Society. She was previously Executive Manager of the 3IT Innovation Center for Immersive Imaging Technology.

As a public speaker, Kathleen inspires us to see the synergies of interdisciplinary approaches. Through her talks, she shares her deep knowledge of image processing, computer vision and other immersive imaging technologies, as well as new ways to bring content to global audiences.

She can also tell you why philosophy and physics are deeply connected, how quantum physics is deeply embedded in the science of yoga, and how permaculture can not only help us tackle climate change, but also offers a powerful organizational model for innovative and sustainable businesses.

References, links and resources from Kathleen’s talk

▶▶ Does immersive tech have the potential to reconnect disconnected societies? According to Edgar Dale’s Cone of experience, after two weeks people remember 10% of what they have read but 90% or what they experienced or simulated.

▶▶ Body transfer illusions, such as the rubber hand illusion, show how the perception of body and self is changeable and manipulable. In this essay, the philosopher Thomas Metzinger tries to retrace where does the human sense of self actually come from.

▶▶ In her talk, Kathleen shared a range of examples and VR case studies:

▶ Hold the World is and educational experience featuring Sir David Attenborough.

▶ Fantaventura is psychedelic fantasy island VR experience with the legendary German rap group DIE FANTASTISCHEN VIER.

▶ In 2014, 276 schoolgirls were kidnapped from their hostels in Chibok, a small town in Borno State, North-East Nigeria. More than 100 girls have been rescued by the government but 112 are still missing. Daughters of Chibok gives the voice to their mothers, showing their daily lives and struggles.

▶ VR can be a tool for building presence. Home After War is a photogrammetric story about an Iraqi father returning to Fallujah to face the threat of improvised explosive devices.

▶ A Song Within Us is a Taiwanese 360° experience with voice recognition where you sing the song together with the indigenous tribe. The more you sing with them the more vivid the colours and patterns of their world and their forest becomes.

▶▶ Illinois Holocaust Museum's Survivor Stories Experience Holographic Theater is based on recordings of Seven Chicago-Area Holocaust Survivors. The Last Goodbye is another examplesof VR addressing Holocaust include “360° experience uses 3D, greenscreen, photogrammetry, CGI to create a VR Holocaust memorial.

▶▶ Philosopher Thomas Metzinger, already mentioned before, collaborated with Vr researcher Mel Slater. Some of Slater’s work include: The Drummer – an experience where you see yourself in virtual mirrors, as another sex and of other skin color while playing a drum.

In another study by Slater, 60 male participants experience in VR a scene of sexual harassment embodying the role of victom, perpetrator or by-stander, drawing on Milgram experiment.

Videos accompanying both papers can be found here.

▶▶ In this article on “The neuroscience of loneliness – and how technology is helping us” the authors examine how online tools can be helpful during periods of isolation while embodiment and social presence are nevertheless missing. One study used augmented reality to enable two people to interact with each other’s video chat images and found that they reported higher sense of social presence and a more engaging experience. Similarly, participating in shared activities benefits the formation of close relationships with others.

▶▶ Emoshape is a computing solution, based on cloud or chip, that teaches intelligent objects how to interact with humans to yield a favourable, positive result by emotion synthesis.

▶▶ This study was designed to test the role of immersion and media content in the sense of presence. Results suggest that both immersion and affective content have an impact on presence. However, immersion was more relevant for non-emotional environments than for emotional ones.

▶▶ Facebook is working on avatars: “we’re working to enable an even deeper sense of connection in VR than today’s 2D technologies provide. Our goal is to make virtual interactions feel as natural as in-person interactions. We call this “social presence.” It’s the 3D-enabled feeling that you’re physically sharing the same space with someone else, even though you may be miles apart — and that you can communicate your ideas and emotions seamlessly and effortlessly. To accomplish that in VR, you need lifelike avatars — virtual stand-ins that faithfully reproduce your facial expressions, gestures, and your voice”.