TIFCA Press Releases

Market Leaders join forces to drive computing innovation and market growth

San Francisco, Calif., (Mar 26, 2018) – At a special launch event sponsored by Intel, market leaders announced The International Future Computing Association (TIFCA) which is built from the merging of the Open Gaming Alliance and the Immersive Technology Alliance. TIFCA’s mission is to lay the groundwork and enhance the viability of building what’s next. TIFCA will do this through several key initiatives including: influential membership meetings, stakeholder education, international market-building events, special initiatives, and more. Read More

Register Now to Hear International Speakers Present the Latest Advances in Immersive Technologies and the Impact of AI on Digitized Media

Toronto, Canada (Oct 16, 2017) – Immersed 2017 marks the 4th anniversary of the premier East Coast gathering of immersive technology leaders, investors, content makers, creators and end users to experience a showcase of digitized realities and to learn more about the impact of artificial intelligence (AI) and other upcoming technologies. Register today to attend the Immersive Technology Alliance’s (ITA) Immersed conference at the Ontario Science Centre in Toronto, Canada, October 19-21. Read More

Celebrating its fourth year, the Immersive Technology Alliance’s (ITA) Immersed conference takes place at the Ontario Science Centre from October 19-21 in Toronto, Canada. Audiences include professionals working in augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), mixed reality (MR), 3D, and organizations that stand to enrich operations by using immersive technologies today.

“We are thrilled to present this year’s keynote speakers: Frank Soqui, General Manager of VR for Intel, a 35-year company veteran; Buzz Hays, immersive film legend and Head of Product for Lytro; and David Parker, a technology consultant whose volunteer work with the terminally ill and virtual reality at Toronto’s Mt. Sinai Hospital has changed lives and earned national press,” said Neil Schneider, president of the Immersive Technology Alliance.

Leading international speakers discuss the media’s not-too-distant future and demonstrate how a multitude of industries are enriching day-to-day operations and customer satisfaction using immersive technologies like AR, VR, and 3D.  The benefits go well beyond business and entertainment; immersive technology is positively impacting lives today.

Notable industry speakers include Space Channel, FORREC, InMediaStudio, IBM (Watson), Chosen Realities, Jon Peddie Research, The Khronos Group, Nvidia, Sophic Capital, Enable Education, and more. Additional speakers will be revealed during the lead-up to the conference.

Intel Corporation is the gold sponsor for Immersed 2017. Participating industries include: entertainment, education, marketing, healthcare, manufacturing and experience design. A discount program is available for students.

Professionals and industry working in the field will learn from market leaders and benefit from valuable networking opportunities throughout the show. Businesses and organizations will learn how immersive technology can positively impact their deliverables today and meet the right people to do it.

Key features of Immersed include a dedicated two plus day professional speaker and education series, a private business-to-business exhibition hall, and several top level networking opportunities including meals for most professional days.

Learn more at www.GetImmersed.com.
Immersed on Twitter: @Get Immersed | #Immersed2017
Immersed on Facebook: www.Facebook.com/ImmersedCon

About The Immersive Technology Alliance (The ITA)
Non-profit and non-proprietary, The Immersive Technology Alliance (The ITA) was founded to help build viability for the immersive technology markets such as augmented and virtual reality, stereoscopic 3D, gesture technology, and more.

Media Contact: Carol Warren
Crew Communications
Tel. 714-890-4500
Email: cwarren@crewcommunications.com

Canada’s Top Immersive Event for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Stereoscopic 3D Professionals

Toronto, Canada – May 31, 2017 -The Immersive Technology Alliance’s (ITA) Immersed 2017 conference takes place at the Ontario Science Centre from October 19-22, 2017 in Toronto, Canada. Celebrating its fourth year, Immersed 2017 is for professionals, entrepreneurs and content makers working in the virtual reality, augmented reality, stereoscopic 3D, and holography industries.

Immersed 2017 will feature a large public exhibition hall that showcases immersive experiences and science to over 13,000 potential museum and conference visitors. Featured markets include business, video games, immersive cinema and experiences, education, and broadcasting. Read More

Dr. Michael Madary Leading Responsible Consumer VR Experience Working Group

Toronto, Ontario (May 17, 2016) – The Immersive Technology Alliance (ITA), has secured Dr. Michael Madary, one of the foremost experts on virtual reality (VR) ethics, to lead a new working group on safe practices and responsible consumer targeting for VR content and products.

“Immersive technology holds great promise for new forms of education, social interaction, medical treatment, and artistic expression. My own work, in collaboration with the ITA, is about enabling the well being of end users and the positive outcome of technologies such as virtual reality and augmented reality. We are all still learning what this powerful media is capable of, and the alliance provides a valuable opportunity for technology and content makers to build the required tool sets for safe and viable experiences,” said Dr. Michael Madary, Responsible Consumer VR Experience Working Group Lead. Read More

Toronto, Ontario (March 10, 2015) –The Immersive Technology Alliance (ITA), the official trade organization for immersive technologies such as virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and stereoscopic 3D, is celebrating its second year under its new name and mandate.  The alliance was founded in 2009 and features dozens of member companies and organizations.

“With VR and AR products coming to market, the alliance and ITA VR Council are here to facilitate industry-wide viability, advancement and adoption of immersive technology.  We’ve been getting the top names in the same room for years, and there is much to be achieved together,” said Neil Schneider, Executive Director of The Immersive Technology Alliance

“We are excited to join the ITA to work together as an industry to move forward immersive experiences”, said Robert Sterzing, President of Optoma and ITA’s newest member. “As an electronics company focused on engaging consumers with audio-visual products and technologies, we see virtual reality as the next frontier, and it’s important that we get the software, hardware and content aligned and optimized to bring the best experience to consumers.” Read More

Murcia, Spain Event features educational presentations, demos, and business / career building opportunities.

Murcia, Spain (July 22, 2015) – Hosted by The Immersive Technology Alliance and the University of Murcia, Immersed Europe takes place September 3rd and 4th (Thursday, Friday). It features two days of sessions by global immersive technology experts, networking meals & reception, and a free exhibition for the general public. Read More

Industry Finally Has a Place to Learn About Augmented and Virtual Reality in PRIVATE

Toronto, Ontario, Canada (May 28, 2015) – Until recently, the non-profit and non-proprietary Immersive Technology Alliance was limited to corporations or academic institutions. At the 2015 SVVR conference, the ITA has announced the immediate availability of individual memberships for all professionals without corporate requirements. First year membership is only $149.99 and includes the new Immersed Access service. Qualified content-making companies can join for free for the first year.

Immersed Access is an NDA-backed online community for the purposes of making it both safe and easy for the industry to share, collaborate, and learn. This private site includes educational sessions, locked-down discussion forums, and community-submitted blogs and articles. The service is non-partisan, all platforms and professionals are welcome, and contributions benefit the industry at large.

“The industry rarely collaborates online because they don’t want content to be shared with the press, or the materials aren’t yet ready to be publicly available, or they don’t want to be embarrassed as they go through the experimental and learning stages like everyone else. Open to all, Immersed Access is where future industry leaders and the most tenured are able to safely interact as a community. Who’s in the community? That’s part of what’s confidential,” explained Neil Schneider, Executive Director of The Immersive Technology Alliance.

“We are excited to finally have a place to drive collaboration and knowledge sharing”, said Denise Quesnel, Co-Founder of the Canadian 3D & Advanced Imaging Society, and Co-Chair of SIGGRAPH’s 2015 VR Village. “We are encouraging everyone from individual content creators to companies to use the ITA and Immersed Access as an international resource.”

To help bolster The ITA and Immersed Access, the Canadian 3D & Advanced Imaging Society is dissolving and joining forces with The Immersive Technology Alliance. Featuring over 600 member companies and professionals, the Society is encouraging its membership to join The ITA in its place to fulfill its mandate, and their leadership team will continue active roles in the now larger alliance. Key interests for the original Society membership includes 360-degree VR experiences and stereoscopic 3D cinema.

Other relationships have been struck with SIGGRAPH 2015, SVVR, and more to be revealed soon to help drive awareness for The ITA and to start building a constructive community for all professionals in the space.

The Immersive Technology Alliance is also getting ready to launch their next industry-building Immersed conference on October 4-6, 2015 in Toronto, Canada, and the new Immersed Europe conference in Murcia, Spain on September 3-4, 2015. Speakers and industry are encouraged to reach out right away by emailing speakers@getimmersed.com!

For further information:

Immersed Access
http://www.immersedaccess.com

Immersed & Immersed Europe Conferences and Events
http://www.getimmersed.com

The Immersive Technology Alliance
http://www.ita3D.com

About The Immersive Technology Alliance (The ITA)

Non-profit and non-proprietary, it’s the official voice and industry body for technologies like augmented and virtual reality, 3D, gesture technology, and more.

Media Contact:

Carol Warren
Crew Communications
Tel. 714-890-4500
Email: cwarren@crewcommunications.com

Toronto, Ontario, Canada (January 5, 2015) – The Immersive Technology Alliance (ITA) is currently forming working groups to make effective quality assurance and software compatibility standards for virtual reality (VR) devices. Defined industry standards will allow content makers to confidently produce experiences for all immersive solutions and community platforms.

“The ITA is a unique forum for diverse companies to identify collaborative opportunities to accelerate the mainstream adoption of virtual and augmented reality. Consumer-ready VR and AR will require many interoperating standards, and Khronos looks forward to working with the ITA to help make that vision a reality,” said Neil Trevett, President, Khronos Group (makers of OpenGL).

Early ITA participants include ImmersiON-VRelia, YEI Technology (PrioVR), FOVE, VRVANA, Siliconarts, Next Galaxy Corp, University of Central Florida and more.  A private ITA CES 2015 meeting will reveal additional participating technology leaders.

ITA membership is collating and developing the required knowledge that will define a measurable experience and specification to aim for and be rated against. The compatibility standard will follow: created internally or passed on to a qualified industry-wide standards body. This standard will help fulfill the quality assurance specification.

“ITA standards are reminiscent of the work we did in the early days of digital cinema to get the industry to adopt the format. This will be a major catalyst for the widespread adoption by content makers and consumers alike,” said Mary Spio, CEO, Next Galaxy Corp.

“Less time content makers spend on reinventing the wheel and more time spent on valuable differentiation of their products will accelerate the industry. The more informed debate and varied discussion we can have in the creation of standards the better,” said Alan Price, President of The ITA.

“Academia has been working on VR for over 30 years. This is an invaluable contribution for creating Virtual Reality Standards and supporting developers and industry,” said Dr. Joseph LaViola, Director of the Interactive Systems & User Experience Research Cluster of Excellence at the University of Central Florida.

“VR experiences should provide the best user experience possible independently of hardware choice. The only way is by standardizing the interaction among the different layers, cameras, sensors, HMDs, Human Interface Devices, Mobile phones, and more.  The ITA has the structure, people, tenure and know-how to build the big picture and put the industry first,” said Manuel R. Gutierrez Novelo, CEO of ImmersiON-VRelia.

“We look forward to contributing to a collective standard that will allow content and platform providers to confidently support the imminent explosion of immersive hardware accessories. This is a critical foundation piece for the next big thing in gaming and simulation,” said Francesca Hartop, CEO of YEI Technology.

“The ITA provides a unique platform for both hardware makers and content producers in that it not only supports traditional high profile technologies, but also embraces emerging next-generation technologies that have potential for success,” said Colin Shin, CMO of Siliconarts.

“This is our chance to get the sharpest minds together and do something amazing. Everyone would benefit from a non-partisan proof-of-quality seal, and an eventual industry-wide VR standard would help make sure that creating and selling exceptional virtual reality content is easy and efficient on all solutions,” said Bertrand Nepveu, CEO of VRVANA.

All qualified parties are welcome to participate and ensure that the upcoming standards are both effective and durable. CES 2015 Meetings with ITA representatives can be scheduled below:

Media Contact:

Carol Warren
Crew Communications
Tel. 714-890-4500
Email: cwarren@crewcommunications.com