Road to VR’s Ben Lang and Cymatic Bruce to Moderate VR Panels at Samsung Developer Conference 2014

At next month’s annual Samsung Developer Conference in San Francisco, California, Road to VR’s Ben Lang and Cymatic Bruce will moderate the conference’s two panels on virtual reality. 2014 will be the first year that Samsung, who announced their Gear VR headset back in September, will have a track focused specifically on virtual reality at SDC.

Samsung announced Gear VR, the first ‘Powered by Oculus’ mobile virtual reality headset, in early September. The unit works in conjunction with the company’s recently released Galaxy Note 4 smartphone by placing the phone into the Gear VR headset, functioning as the display and processor. While the Note 4 has been launched, Gear VR is not out quite yet. When it does launch, the company will release it as the “innovator edition,” and says it is intended for developers and early adopters.

See Also: Oculus Head of Mobile – Gear VR is ‘Designed for 5 to 20 Minute Experiences’

Although Samsung had privately courted select developers early on, the company is now making a push to get devs working on cool projects for their new device. As such, Samsung Developer Conference 2014, held from November 11th to the 13th, is the first time the company has a track dedicated to virtual reality.

The conference will be host to eight 50 minute sessions on virtual reality, including two panels which will consist of VR industry insiders. Samsung has tapped Road to VR Executive Editor Ben Lang and Contributor Cymatic Bruce to moderate the two panels. Bruce is also Director of Developer and Community relations at AltspaceVR.

Virtual Reality Panels at Samsung Developer Conference 2014

Creating Realistic VR-Animated Videos – November 12th, 2PM PST

Learn how animation studios Reel FX, Dreamworks, and Framestore created VR effects that make you feel like you are immersed in the animation. Join a lively discussion about some of their technical and creative challenges and see how they solved them.

Panel Participants:

• Dan Ferguson – Director of Digital Interactive, Reel FX
• Brad Herman – DreamLab Founder, Dreamworks Animation
• Mike Woods – ECD / Head of VR Studio, Framestore

Moderator:

• “Cymatic” Bruce Wooden

Interacting with VR Today and Tomorrow – November 13th, 10AM PST

Since the Facebook acquisition of Oculus, VR has been rapidly advancing into the everyday consumer’s world. A panel of long-time VR interaction experts that have predicted this movement will share their thoughts on where VR is today, and where it will be in the next few years. They will also discuss mapping walking in the real world to your virtual character, picking up objects in VR, the sense of presence those generate, and the pros and cons of mobile vs. desktop VR.

Panel Participants:

• Andrew Dickerson – Director of Software Development, Samsung Research America Dallas
• Jan Goetgeluk – Chief Executive Officer, Virtuix
• Eric Romo – Chief Executive Officer, AltspaceVR
• Amir Rubin – Chief Executive Officer, Sixense

Moderator:

• Ben Lang

Road to VR will be on the ground at Samsung Developer Conference 2014 to bring you the most important VR news from the event.