Here and There

Spatial computing and mixed reality are unifying digital experience and the physical world. These platforms will change the way we connect across distance and enable new forms of presence. We can connect with users both “here” next to us and “there” around the world. We can compute in immediate contexts “here” and “there” in specific new contextual locations. Spatial computing can collapse space, time and presence to create previously unimaginable experiences.

In 2018, Magic Leap launched Avatar Chat, a new way for distant friends to communicate and collaborate with each other as if they were in the same room. Avatar embodiment is a fundamental feature of spatial computing, and is driving a paradigm shift in the way we connect and collaborate across distance— promising a simultaneity of the real and the unreal, of the near and the far. Being an Avatar will soon be an entirely new feeling we have every day, like others visiting our space and visiting their space at the same time, like being "there" while being here.

These new experiences call for new types of flexible interfaces. Spatial computing demands a constant negotiation between the Here and There - interfaces that are both on-demand and accessible, yet contextual and capable of existing in a real world specific location. How should designers working with mixed reality approach the Here and There? What features need to be Here and what features are better off There?

Magic Leap designer Karen Stolzenberg will discuss interaction challenges with the Here and There. An operating system designed for the Here and There must accommodate both user-relative and world-relative patterns. Social experiences that span the Here and There need to be modular to accommodate different types of user presence. Contextual interfaces can be lost in the world and require high user friction to manage.