In the surprisingly near future, VR is very likely to transform how we interact with information, computers, and each other. This talk will discuss why VR is likely to be a key part of our future, why it's different from anything that's come before, and what that implies for researchers and developers.
Over the last 30 years, Michael has worked at companies that made graphics hardware, computer-based instrumentation, and rendering software, been the GDI lead for the first couple of versions of Windows NT, worked with John Carmack on Quake, worked on Xbox and Xbox 360, written or co-written at least four software rasterizers (the last one of which, written at RAD Game Tools, turned into Intel’s late, lamented Larrabee project), and worked on VR at Valve. Along the way he wrote a bunch of magazine articles and columns for Dr. Dobb’s Journal, PC Techniques, PC Tech Journal, and Programmer’s Journal, as well as several books. He’s been lucky enough to have more opportunities to work on interesting stuff than he could ever have imagined when he almost failed sixth grade because he spent all his time reading science fiction. He thinks VR is going to be the most interesting project of all.