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Volumetric video and other spatial 3D technologies allows us to add a Z axis to the way we learn. Director of Silicon Harlem Ben Erwin is on the show to discuss teaching in the same three dimensions we all live in.

Julie: Hello, my name is Julie Smithson and I am your XR for Learning podcast host. Ben Erwin is an expert of the XR ecosystem, including hardware and software platforms and events in the rapidly evolving industry. Recognizing the revolution of how we consume information being brought about by spatial computing and volumetric video, Ben is focused on creating new experiences in WebXR and social VR. As director of Silicon Harlem's annual tech enabled community conference since 2018, Ben programs the agenda, develops the marketing, and produces the events. The next one which will be held at the forum at Columbia University on October 16th, 2020. Welcome, Ben. Thanks very much for joining me today.

Ben: Thank you for having me, Julie. It's an honor to be here. I appreciate being on your show.

Julie: Great. Well, I think you and I have had a couple of different conversations that we want to touch base with, and starting with spatial memory. And we're in a time where many of us are developing and working and moving to online and virtual worlds. And I've always said -- and I think people are starting to realize -- that we live in a three dimensional world. Why don't we learn inside of it? And this is where spatial computing comes into play. But even deeper from that is how we respond as a human and how we intake this information and what we do with it. So maybe you can do a little bit of intro to yourself and how you got into knowing more about spatial memory and the applications around it.

Ben: Thank you. I started my business in the late 90s, as the Internet -- as Web 1.0 -- became a thing. And I've been developing all the way through the rise of social and the rise of mobile. And so this new evolution that we're seeing right now -- some call it Web 3, some call it the Fourth Industrial Revolution -- where we're adding 3D to-- as a medium. And it's more than just adding a Z-axis to content. The fact that we're inside of an experience, when you put on a VR headset and you are inside of a room and you have other people there that are also avatars like you, the impression that that makes on your mind is a remarkable difference to any other type of experience. And though 2D communications platforms -- the video conferencing, and all of the ways that we're used to doing it -- as high quality as it is, even the lower fidelity early stage media that we're at inside of social VR -- and just in general -- the medium of 3D has added so much to the way that we perceive it, that I'm very excited about how that is going to be part of our learning process, because when we see things and we are in an area, it imprints our minds differently than it would when we're just in 2D space.

Julie: Just to give our listeners a little bit more premise, "spatial" obviously means the things that are around you. And that's not just objects, that's your environment and also sound as well. So maybe you can talk a little bit more about your memory and how you take these things in, and you remember them more. That's the big change now from learning things in two dimensions and now learning about them and being a part of them in that three dimensional world.

Ben: Part of it -- as you introduced there -- is that it's the room around you, it's the objects in the room. And very importantly, it's sound. And part of spatial audio is the perception of being close to something or what side it's on. And it's more than just a left-right traditional stereo audio effect that we have. It's a