Google’s head of AR and VR strategy, Steven Kan, described the evolution of the technology as a “multi-decade journey” in a speech at Mindshare’s Huddle event in London, according to a report by Digital TV Europe.
Speaking about the challenges that content creators face when telling stories through VR, Kan said:
“As I talk to people in the industry that are working on VR storytelling, there is simultaneously a lot of excitement and also a lot of frustration. The frustration is because truthfully we don’t actually know yet how to use these technologies to tell stories. We as creators, but also we as viewers, don’t know how to interpret these things”.
Despite the teething troubles, Kan is optimistic that audiences will adapt to VR storytelling techniques over time.
“These technologies are incredibly powerful and they have incredible potential. We, especially myself and people who are in this industry, are also incredibly inpatient to be able to use them and to deliver on all of the value and promise that we can see. But at the same time, we are so early on in this journey, we are so early on in understanding exactly how these technologies can be used, how they should be used, and we are so early on in training the audience to understand all of these cues”.
Kan named VR and 360° video as the most popular early use cases for the technology, followed by gaming. He concluded his speech by saying:
“[VR and AR] is a great area for all of us to be investing in, playing in, learning in and training in, because I believe it will be a medium that will continue to fuel innovation and powerful moments and powerful experiences for many years to come”.
