Associate Professor Zhao Shengdong was invited as a keynote speaker in the 23rd ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology at Gothenburg, Sweden last November 10, 2017. His topic was “AR as a key enabler in defining the next interaction paradigm for Human Computer Interaction”.

“We live in an interesting time. Although we don’t know exactly what the future will be like, transformational change is a certainty. There are several noticeable trends: one is the change of the computing paradigm from reactive to pro-active. All major companies are working on this paradigm shift, investing heavily in AI and machine learning. This will redefine the role and responsibility of our personal devices and dramatically change our lifestyles over the next few years. Another interesting trend is the interaction shift from device-centric to human-and-environment-centric, which has the potential to allow humans to return to a more natural way of living. Inside this movement, a central enabling piece is AR technology, but this is not without significant challenges. It will be exciting to work on the problems to accelerate this paradigm transformation, to which I hope the VRST community can make a significant contribution.”

The ACM Symposium on Virtual Reality Software and Technology (VRST) is an international forum for the exchange of experience and knowledge among researchers and developers concerned with virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) software and technology. VRST provides an opportunity for VR/AR researchers to interact, share new results, show live demonstrations of their work, and discuss emerging directions for the field. The event is sponsored by ACM SIGCHI and SIGGRAPH.