Technical Session by Fabien Bénétou. https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/spasca-fot-sloan-q1/src/branch/main/data/filters
AI: Summary
The meeting focused on Fabien Bénétou’s presentation about creating filters for XR environments, specifically for handling academic documents and references. Fabien demonstrated the filter system that processes files on the front-end (unlike converters which work on the back-end), showing how JSON files containing references can be filtered and visualized in 3D space. The presentation included practical examples of filters that highlight references by year when objects are passed through VR rings, and discussion about the sequential nature of filters (allowing them to be chained together). The group also discussed challenges in academic writing workflows, the nature of citing and referencing, and the potential for XR to revolutionize how academics interact with their research materials. The conversation touched on various technical aspects of WebXR, the importance of modular design, and the need to balance innovation with practical utility.
Frode Hegland, Dene Grigar, Fabien Bénétou, Felix Zhang, Mark Anderson, Peter Wasilko, Tom Haymes, Karl Smink
AI: Speaker Summary
Dene Grigar served as moderator and focused heavily on writing processes and pedagogy. She emphasized the importance of thesis statements as the foundation of academic writing and described her teaching methodology where students must have approved thesis statements before proceeding. Dene discussed the difference between abstracts (written at the end) and thesis statements (written at the beginning), and the challenges of implementing XR in various fields including space exploration and military training.
Frode Hegland was energetic and active throughout the meeting, starting with a demonstration of his Author software showing how citations can be viewed in outlines. He emphasized the importance of making academic writing more visual and accessible, criticizing traditional academic paper formats as outdated. Frode was passionate about building excitement for XR in academia while acknowledging the need for practical applications. He led discussions about creating tangible objects in XR for academic authoring and stressed the importance of magic and experience in XR development.
Fabien Bénétou gave the main technical presentation about filters, explaining the distinction between front-end filters and back-end converters. He demonstrated live examples of filters processing JSON files in VR environments, showing how references could be highlighted by year when passed through rings. Fabien emphasized the modular nature of the system and how developers could create custom filters for their own file formats. He also discussed WebXR emulation tools and the integration of robotics with XR.
Felix Zhang introduced himself as a software engineer at Meta working on WebXR developer tooling and the W3C Immersive Web Working Group. He was present as a guest invited by Fabien and listened to the presentation without actively participating in discussions.
Mark Anderson provided thoughtful commentary on academic processes and the challenges of transitioning from traditional workflows to XR environments. He emphasized the importance of avoiding premature formalization and focusing on what makes things meaningfully different rather than just exciting. Mark discussed the balance between process definition and component identification, and the need to extract necessary information for XR environments.
Peter Wasilko contributed technical perspectives, particularly around functional programming concepts like lenses and traversals. He suggested better nomenclature for filters and discussed the difference between filtering as subsetting versus visual transformation. Peter also shared insights about non-linear writing processes and the importance of versioning in academic work.
Tom Haymes shared his writing process, describing himself as a “digital native writer” who prefers a more fluid, editorial approach rather than rigid outlining. He discussed the importance of versioning and the need for holding areas for ideas that don’t fit the current narrative. Tom also brought up the potential for AI integration in the authoring environment.
Karl Smink provided pragmatic insights about categorization being inherently contentious and suggested starting with plain objects that users can customize. He emphasized the importance of reviewing existing tools and workflows, and warned about the dangers of overhyping XR technology given the presence of grifters in the space.
AI: Topics Discussed
WebXR: Felix Zhang from Meta discussed WebXR emulation tools that allow testing VR applications without wearing a headset. Fabien demonstrated WebXR applications running in browsers, showing how 3D environments and interactions work through web technologies. The group discussed the importance of WebXR for making VR development more accessible and the challenges of testing and iteration.
Gestures: The meeting explored various gestural interactions in VR, particularly the concept of pulling objects through “rings” to trigger filters. Fabien demonstrated how grabbing and dragging objects through these rings could change their appearance (like highlighting references by year). The group discussed the embodied nature of VR interactions and how hand movements combined with voice commands create powerful interfaces.
Other Topics: The group extensively discussed academic writing processes, the nature of references and citations, the challenges of transitioning from traditional paper-based workflows to digital and VR environments, the importance of modular design in software development, concerns about overhyping VR technology, and the potential for XR to revolutionize academic work. They also explored concepts of progressive disclosure, memory palaces, and the balance between excitement and utility in technology development.
Interesting Anecdotes: Frode mentioned visiting the USS Carl Vinson aircraft carrier where they used wooden models of fighters on tables to track aircraft status – a low-tech solution that continues to work even when electricity fails.
Peter shared that he cleaned his desk once and couldn’t find anything afterward, leading to discussion about optimal levels of stimulation for different neurotypes.
AI: Concepts Introduced
Filters vs Converters – Defined by Fabien as the distinction between front-end processing (filters) that handle light tasks in the browser versus back-end processing (converters) that handle heavy tasks on servers.
Progressive Disclosure – Discussed by Frode as the concept where pulling or interacting with objects reveals more information gradually, allowing for different levels of detail based on user needs.
Thesis Statement – Dene defined this as the foundational element of academic writing that must be established before beginning the actual writing process, different from abstracts which are written after completion.
Memory Palace – Mark suggested using walls in XR environments as virtual memory palaces for organizing information, borrowing from classical mnemonic techniques.
AI: People Mentioned
Ted Nelson (mentioned by Frode regarding his work and hypertext concepts), Alan Kay (referenced by Tom in context of General Magic), Rob (mentioned by Mark regarding volume concepts)
AI: Product or Company Names Mentioned
Meta (Felix’s employer, developer of VR headsets), Microsoft Word (mentioned by Frode and others as traditional authoring software), Apple Vision Pro (mentioned by Dene and others as VR hardware), Google Drive (referenced in context of file searching), WhisperXR (speech-to-text solution), ChatGPT (implied by Tom when discussing AI), Visicalc (mentioned by Tom as example of transformative software), General Magic (referenced by Tom as cautionary tale), LaTeX/Overleaf (mentioned by Mark for academic writing), Jupyter Lab/R book down (mentioned by Mark for data visualization), Blender (mentioned by Peter and Fabien for 3D modeling), Obsidian (mentioned by Karl for note-taking)
AI: Other
The meeting revealed interesting tensions between different approaches to academic work – from Dene’s structured, pedagogy-focused methodology to Tom’s more fluid, digital-native approach. There was also a notable discussion about the challenge of balancing innovation with practical utility, with Mark cautioning against getting too excited about novel features that don’t provide meaningful value. The group showed strong interest in modular, extensible systems that can accommodate different workflows and file formats.
Chat Log URLs
https://otter.ai/u/Zc0Gy2bJKJ-J0-SWO4fZFpg4OOs?utm_source=va_chat_link_1
https://meta-quest.github.io/immersive-web-emulation-runtime
https://git.benetou.fr/utopiah/spasca-fot-sloan-q1/src/branch/main/backend/converters
https://github.com/calmm-js/partial.lenses
https://calmm-js.github.io/partial.lenses/exercises.html
The chat log reveals significant technical discussion with numerous shared resources about functional programming concepts like optics and lenses. There were administrative announcements about the Sloan project branding, advisory board presentations, and travel plans for Egypt. The chat also captured real-time reactions to presentations and additional context that enriched the verbal discussion, including links to technical resources that participants found relevant to the filter implementation discussion.