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<p dir="ltr" class="intro">WIRED 2015: Next Generation is our annual event dedicated to inspiring young minds, where innovators aged 12 to 18 years old gather at London’s Tobacco Dock for talks, hands-on workshops and Q&As. For more from the event head to our WIRED Next Gen Hub.
What will having fun be like, in ten years time? If WIRED Next Generation is any indication, there'll be lots of virtual reality -- but robotic toy-cars and good, old-fashioned music will also hold their own.
Throughout the day, the event's young attendees alternated talks and workshops with sessions in the entertainment-centred Interactive Area. VR experiences, complete with moving platforms and flight simulators were the biggest hits. Some of the longest lines were for ICAROS -- a game where users fly over a virtual rendition of forests or snowy mountains, ensconced in a hand glider-like frame -- and ebove, a VR mountain-biking platform developed by Activetainment.
The declared intent of both ICAROS and Activetainment is coupling VR with workout: Activetainment is in the process of developing a VR treadmill, too. Beyond the fitness argument, for Next Gen's young attendees the experiences were just genuinely fun. "I found the virtual reality bike scarily realistic," said 16-year-old Eric. "At some point I was falling from the bike and I felt like I was about to hit the ground. Just amazing."
Another popular game on the floor, Rovr, combines a concave pedestal and shoes with sphere-lined soles to create a convincing sense of walking in a VR world -- while in fact the user slides back in position after every step.
Virtual reality wasn’t only about gliding, striding and pedalling around. Others were more eager to wear Oculus to look at things with different eyes, or up close. Marshmallow Laser Feast’s project In the Eyes of the Animal, for instance, made possible to see a natural landscape the way it is perceived by the visual systems of animals such as owl, frog and dragon fly. Alchemy VR’s immersive film First Life -- written and presented by Sir David Attenborough -- showed how primordial organisms evolved, over 500 million years ago.
Music was the other big hit; many had a crack at learning to sing and play clarinet with Philarmonia Orchestra’s tutorials. Others enjoyed something less traditional with Mogees, a pill-sized device that transforms any surface in a customised synthetic drum. "I am a drummer and this really makes me think about how music is changing," said Elizabeth, 17.
Just next to Mogees’s stand, fans of flight stopped by Extreme Fliers’s spot to admire the maneuvers of its latest model, Micro Drone 3.0, while across the room coding-enthusiast kids hovered around the Technology will Save Us stand featuring BBC micro:bit computer kits.
Many will remember Next Generation as an all-day-long car race. Over a figure-eight-shaped racetrack, Anki Overdriverobotic cars vied for victory, steered by kids and parents through smartphones equipped with Anki’s app. Daniel, a 15-year-old racer who during the day played with Overdrive at least five times, told WIRED: "I found the idea of controlling the cars with your iPhone very innovative, amusing. But, also, the cars are fast, and very sensitive." Even in a century, toy cars will still rock.
This article was originally published by WIRED UK
