What’s interesting about virtual reality,
it’s the first medium that really is almost like a teleporter,
this ability to feel like you’re actually there.
But, one of the things that limits virtual reality is that it was all about computer games.
8i is providing a solution that solves this problem by reconstructing video into holograms,
so that ultimately something that was being used for entertainment
becomes part of the way that you interact with everyday life.
We’re only two years into this.
It’s the very very tip of the iceberg.
My name is Linc Gasking and I am the CEO and co-founder of 8i.
I got to experience virtual reality for the first time with an Oculus Rift.
When I tried this device on, there was no doubt in my mind that it was the future.
As an entrepreneur, it's not very often that a new medium comes along.
And so I can’t think of anything else I’d rather be doing.
There are over 100 virtual reality headsets currently in production and manufacturing.
Four years ago headsets were $40,000.
They’re now being given away.
Every major tech company has made investments in this space.
But right now they’re all having a similar problem, which is:
how do you get a whole mainstream audience to connect with this in a brand new way?
And the way to do that is bringing real humans into those virtual reality environments.
What we do at 8i is that we build software.
It’s a very different type of software that takes off-the-shelf video
and turns it into holograms.
Hey, so, welcome to the holodeck.
This is the 8i studios in Culver city.
So in this particular setup, it’s 40 cameras.
Our software is bringing all of that together into a hologram,
and with virtual reality, you can walk around them and interact with them.
It’s really passed a threshold where people are starting to really get a whole new level
of emotional connection with people in virtual reality.
A pretty big moment was when a mom brought her baby in, four months old,
and cradled her in her arms and left a message for her for the future.
Six months later, we brought her back and showed it to her,
and she actually stepped into her hologram
and looked down, and cradled her baby again.
Oh my!
Oh my gosh!
This is so weird.
She started to re-live that memory that she had six months earlier.
It really showed, your brain at a very deep level doesn’t make any difference between
a hologram and the real version.
Suddenly this becomes, not a gaming device, it becomes a way of
recording memories and reliving them.
And that has a way of connecting with everybody.
We had a birthday party yesterday.
It’s really exciting, because two years doesn’t sound like very much,
but actually 80% of startups fail within 18 months.
It’s been two years.
It’s kind of a big deal to even get to two years.
Unfortunately, 92% of startups fail after three.
This is the early stages of the next wave of human experiences.
Over the next three, five, ten years you’re going to start to see advanced holograms
and augmented reality.
Instead of going somewhere else, you’re bringing that somewhere else to you
and you’re seeing it through glasses and somebody appears in front of you in your room.
It’s like the next version of facetime.
When you achieve holograms that are realistic and then you make that instantaneous,
you get teleportation.
We’re reducing the cost of being able to do this,
so that ultimately with a couple of cellphones,
you are going to be able to transmit these types of experiences to each other.
You’re going to be having a whole different way of experiencing the world.
I’ve been apart of many startups, but there’s something interesting that happens
when you tap into something like what’s happened here.
It’s actually just a really surreal moment to be part of a technology
that seemed like a piece of science fiction from my childhood.
It just feels a great honor to be part of this movement that’s happening.
Virtual reality and augmented reality will be the next big thing.