VR, and especially AR and MR are poised to create a huge market for enterprise and consumer by 2020, reaching over $100B. However, in order to create mass adoption both for enterprise and consumer, various hardware requirements need to be met, such as wearable and visual comfort, and costs. None of them are currently addressed, most of today's AR and MR headsets being too bulky, too heavy, low FOV, low resolution, low brightness, and have inherent vision limitations such as Vergence Accommodation conflict. Most of these challenges are linked to optics and photonics. In addition to an invited program of speakers, a visionary talk will be presented by Mark Bolas, Director of Technology Incubation, Microsoft Corp., and a demo session showcasing various VR and AR headsets will be available for sign-ups.
 

Visionary Talk: Virtual Reality and Augmented Vision  

Visionary Speaker: Mark Bolas

As we dive head-first into the new medium of mixed reality, we find that the ability to bend light is central to the palette of mixed reality systems and content designers as they bend the reality that is ultimately formed in the user’s mind. This talk will look backwards and forward in time to explore just how messy that process has been, and how much messier it will become.

Session: The Coming of Age for Smart Glasses, AR and VR  

Speakers:
Bernard Kress, Microsoft Corp., USA
Thad Starner, Georgia Institute of Technology and Google Glass, USA
Jim Melzer, Thales Visionix, USA

Session: AR and VR Ecosystems Developments

Speakers:

Patricia “Tish” Shute, Huawei, USA
John Haddick, ODG Osterhout Design Group, USA
Jonathan Waldern, Digilens Corp., USA

Session: New Optical Hardware is Key to Next Generation AR and MR

Speakers:
Behnam Bastani, Oculus, USA
Guillaume Basset, Resonant Screens, Switzerland
Poking Li, Himax Display Ltd., Taiwan
Joel Kollin, Microsoft Research, USA

Session: Vision Comfort as a Key to AR Mass Adoption
Speakers:
Hong Hua, University of Arizona, USA
Edward Tang, Avegant Corp., USA

Session: AR/VR Applications for Enterprise and Consumer Markets

Speakers:
Barry Silverstein, Oculus VR, USA 
Kayvan Mirza, Optinvent SaRL, France
Brett McCorkle, Erie Insurance, USA
Robert Schultz, Vuzix, USA