A few weeks ago I spent the weekend in Milwaukee, Wisconsin with a table setup to introduce attendees to VR and adjacent things. Specifically, I focused on 3D cameras, 3D scanning, 3D display technology, and virtual reality. It was a fun way to introduce curious kids and adults to my passions and to chat with some interesting people.
So much to see!
Over 1000 people came to visit the Milwaukee Maker Faire on November 2-3 at the Discovery World science museum. It was the same weekend that Kamala Harris and Donald Trump had rallies which complicated getting around a bit, but it didn’t seem to disrupt things too much. The ground floor and the top floor both had quite a few table booths setup for different organizations and individuals. There were FIRST Robotics entries, model airplanes and rockets, underwater research robots, leather work, paper craft, glass arts, and even a booth doing wicker caning for chairs!
There were some booths setup for the purpose of giving kids hands-on activities like building cars to race down a tall roller coaster-like track, large collections of Lego bricks to build with, and even a station with over 25 soldering irons for kids to make their first LED blinky (supervised!).
Especially fun were the booths dedicated to motorized fun projects such as building R2-D2 from Star Wars, Daleks from Doctor Who, and small electric scooters with fun shapes like the Oscar Meyer wiener mobile!
A booth of our own
The VR Voyaging booth was all about learning with signs asking visitors to “Ask me about” technologies including 3D cameras, 3D scanning, and VR. I showed off the Fujifilm FinePix Real 3D W3 point-and-shoot camera, the Calf 3D VR180 camera, the Looking Glass Go holographic 3D display, the Meta Quest 3 VR headset, the Revopoint Miraco standalone 3D scanner, and a few other toys. I took a few head scans of folks who wanted to see how scanning worked, and created a reel of 3D content to cycle on the display which always elicited a double-take.
Several people stopped by to talk about 3D photography. One guy said he’s been doing his own shots for over 30 years. I got to talk about different ways to capture 3D stills and videos and how to view them. The one thing missing from the table (and my personal collection) is a vintage stereogram viewer. Some day!
I think my favorite part was letting people try VR for the first time. I set it up with nothing but the aquarium home environment running. I figured anything else would be too involved for first-timers due to learning the controls and interactions, and I also wanted something more fun that just playing a 3D-360 video as many demos offer. Invariably, a young kid would walk up and stare with curiosity, not sure if they should ask. When I offered to put it on they were excited but unsure. Once they were strapped in, it was a delight to watch their own delight! They would just freeze a bit when they started to see things swimming around. I would have to remind them that they could move around and look in every direction! Then, just for fun, I’d tell them to bring their hands up (hand tracking was enabled). Many of them were so fascinated by their hand outlines that they forgot about everything else!
Often, the kids would be done and the adults would be ready to walk away, but I’d hook them too. They seemed to think it wasn’t for them for some reason. Once I convinced them to put it on, they had basically the same reactions! It was fascinating seeing young, middle-aged, and elderly adults trying this for the first time and just stunned in disbelief. A minute before they were holding out their phones to capture their child’s reaction, and now they were just as engrossed. It was clearly not what they expected, and it was very rewarding to see.
All in all, it was a very enjoyable weekend with lots of satisfied “customers.” It was also a great group of fellow tinkerers and passionate hobbyists. I had fun engaging with people in ways that were new to them and introducing them to a whole new realm. With it coming up close to Christmas, perhaps there will be a few extra headsets under the tree soon! Hopefully, they’ll remember to head back here to discover how to make the most of their new devices.
