Tomorrow is on Display at the Near Future Event

Birdly flight simulator

We’re about a week out from The Near Future Event, a unique half-day event that will peak into the future of some exciting technologies that are on the cusp of transforming our lives. The April 27th event at Union Market’s Dock 5 will explore four pillars of human-technology interactivity – the way we LIVE, WORK, LEARN, and PLAY, and how the network of the future is enabling our everyday routines to be reimagined in fascinating ways.

Last week, we revealed the great lineup of speakers that will take the stage, and today we’re previewing some of the cool demos that will be featured.

USC’s New Dimensions in Testimony is an ambitious project that combines machine learning with the tradition of oral storytelling. Using hours of interviews filmed on a special set, USC has created a hologram of a holocaust survivor who answers users’ questions about his experiences. With machine learning, the program gets better at answering complex questions the more it’s used.

And if you haven’t already seen them rolling around the streets of DC, attendees will also get a chance to see Starship Technologies highly talked about delivery robots in person.

The latest in virtual reality will be on display. Participants can soar through cities with Birdly, a flight simulator from Somniacsthat lets users fly like a bird around simulated cityscapes. Once strapped in, users can use their “wings” to control everything from their altitude to their direction. A fan mounted on the front even mimics the breeze depending on what speed and direction you’re headed in.

VR is also changing entertainment, and that shines through with Voyager, a cinematic full-motion VR chair platform. Viewers wear a VR headset as the Voyager pod moves them around to direct their attention through the scene. Though there is a virtual 360 surrounding, the purpose of Voyager is to move a person through scenes to tell a story, combining the power of a VR experience with cinematic storytelling. Voyager’s small movements also serve the purpose of reducing motion sickness, a problem for VR in the past as it has tried to embrace longer forms of content. And Dolby will be showcasing Dolby Vision on mobile devices and next-generation audio delivered by AC4 technologies that underpin next-generation audio and visual experiences.

Finally, augmented reality will also be on display with Microsoft’s Hololens. The sleek headset allows users to still see their surroundings, and integrates the real world into the display. Hololens allows users to see and interact with holograms in everything from gaming to urban planning and education. Also in the realm of AR, Taqtile will be showcasing their extensionof the Hololens with Holomaps—a hologram platform for landscapes, cities, and buildings.

That’s just a small sneak peak, to learn more keep an eye on NCTA’s Twitter feed @NCTAitv and the event hashtag #NearFuture next week.