Hello VR/AR Enthusiasts,

We are quickly approaching year 2020 and about to cross another decade in human history! I remember when I started Chronos back in 2014 and so many people around me were convinced that VR would reach mass adoption by the end of year 2017, and how by year 2020 (right about now) VR would absolutely have taken over the world.

That hasn’t happened as I see it. VR has had slow adoption instead. AR is still in prototype stage. Many players have left the field, some are still here. I am grateful to everyone who has made a contribution to the industry to get VR/AR to where it is today, and to those who continue to do so. Building the future certainly isn’t easy. There is a certain complacency that we have sometimes that because we have enjoyed such rapid technological development in our lifetime, that technology will continue to grow and evolve on its on. But that’s certainly not the case: a lot of people applying themselves and their talents is necessary, as well as collaboration, vision, and dare I say faith and courage? Courage to risk doing something new, and faith that amazing technology is going to be developed because humans have the capacity to imagine a new and better future, as well as the ability and perseverance to come up with the solutions necessary to make a dream real.

A lot of the technology that we enjoy today, and even take for granted, was once a distant dream: online banking, online shopping, calling through a wireless phone. Even human flying was once a distant dream for some, and a downright crazy idea for most. Yet today we practically take flying for granted, after having mastered the skies and the engineering required to produce reliable airplanes.

We must keep dreaming, and we must also keep working and building new things. And we must also teach the next generation, so they can learn from us and build even better solutions for a better world.

And so it’s fitting that I’m announcing a new program titled Youth Mixed Reality Development. This program has been in the making for quite some time, and is the result of collaboration with many groups and individuals in our area, including coding schools.

The Youth Mixed Reality Program is a creative program that focuses on kids ages 8 through 15. The first course teaches the fundamentals of 3D modeling, which is an important skill not only for VR/AR development, but useful in a number of other industries as well. You can learn more about this program in a post that I wrote recently:
Youth Mixed Reality Development – by Chronos Global Academy

We are offering a free 3D printer to the people who sign up for our first course by October 25.

The course dates can be found on the course page on our website:
CGA Youth Mixed Reality Development

There are limited seats, and this course will fill up soon. If you have kids, or know kids that would benefit from this after-school program, sign up can be done through this page:
https://signup.chronosga.com/products/cga-virtual-reality-development-seattle-1-day-intensive-course

After we offer this first program, we will consider offering the same program to adults (that is, ages 16 and up).

BTW, today news came out that Google has discontinued the DayDream.

I consider this good news for the VR industry. As we are now in the second generation of VR hardware, there is no room or need for smartphone-based HMDs. In our Academy we are focusing on using the Oculus Quest and Valve Index for development. With those two HMDs we get the best of both worlds: mobility with the Quest (untethered), and I don’t think I need to argue that the Index is the best HMD in the world right now, hands down.

If you’d like to try either of these, then consider booking a session to visit our lab. Contact us for details.

We are still preparing a holiday party for December. If you’re interested in volunteering for that, please let us know.

Thank you,

Ricardo Parker