Michael Ludden

Principal Augmented Reality Evangelist, Bose

Michael Ludden is a technologist, futurist, evangelist and product leader who loves to operate on the bleeding edge of what’s possible and is a frequent keynote speaker at events around the world. Currently Principal Augmented Reality Evangelist at Bose, Michael was previously Director of Product at IBM’s Watson Developer Labs & AR/VR Labs, Product/Developer Marketing Manager Lead at Google, Head of Product/Developer Marketing at Samsung and Product/Developer Evangelist at HTC, among other career stops. He has also been involved at various times in development, co-founding startups, tech show hosting, and even cruise-ship singing (don’t ask). As passionate about solving complex real-world problems as he is about Immersive Technologies (AR/VR) and Machine Learning (AI), Michael is also fascinated by all things futurist, and has been continuously involved in the creation of some of the most innovative new products and use cases that exist on the bleeding edge of emerging technology today.

An expert communicator, Michael is adept at providing deep insights that are inspiring and accessible to broad audiences. As such, he is frequently invited to speak on the global speaking circuit as a keynote speaker, thought leader and panelist. He has been invited to speak at most of the major tech conferences around the world, a great many prestigious symposiums, several international universities and has also keynoted private corporate workshops for several multi-national Fortune 500 companies looking to inspire their employees to think strategically, creatively and with an eye towards breakthrough insights.

Session Track: Augmented Reality (AR)

Wednesday, June 12 3:00 pm – 3:45 pm Ballroom East

Building Magic: How XR Can and Will Give Us Super Powers

When we think of comic book heroes, we often think of characters with impossible abilities gained through ridiculous pseudo-scientific or supernatural means. But over the course of the 20th and 21st centuries, humans have made a habit of turning what pop culture media imagines, into reality. This has been true, for the most part, in the realm of Science Fiction: Think of the Tri Corders seen in Captain Kirk's Star Trek - aren't those a lot like modern smartphones? Or how about the self-driving cars in seen Knight Rider and Total Recall? How about editing our genes (CRISPR)? Cloning? AI? The list goes on. But as compelling as that may be to think about, our ability to make reality out of once-fictional pop culture imaginings is about to take on an even more unrealistic genre: Fantasy. Welcome to a trippy, but very real, introduction to the wild near-future world where humanity is inventing functional Magic through immersive technologies. During this talk, attendees will learn about where XR is headed and, perhaps more importantly, why it is nearly inevitable that we are headed in that direction, all through a unique social and technological lens. Attendees can look forward to leaving this keynote with a glimpse of a future to be excited about. One filled with augmented abilities, new layers of ways to interact with & affect the world, and more natural, human ways to complete tasks that frustrate us in the current human-computer interaction paradigm.

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