Blog 1

As a highschooler in Silicon Valley, it was inevitable for my family to have tons of family friends that are very well involved in the CS scene, despite my family not having any computer or engineering backgrounds. One of our closest friends, Fengwei Lee and his startup, REALITEER, developed a series of VR/AR programs that aimed to use VR/AR to promote mental and physical well-being. These programs included games that had you mimic taichi, dance, and other types of choreography to a selected audio track, with lightsabers that were used to hit targets as they approached you. There were specific programs within for different purposes, such as relaxation, exercise, dance, and kids’ entertainment. As far as I know, his startup and him took nearly two year experimenting with different strategies and codes. Furthermore, from the finished product, the project used various commercial applications, like Unity, and original codes. I assume that the project was inspired by the creator, Fengwei’s time working in companies like Dreamwork, and his own family. This was a way to entertain and help people of all ages from toddlers to seniors to feel better. Moreover, revisiting this project made me think about the future of VR/AR – that computer science can have a much more obvious and tangible effect on the general public’s well being, in this case, encouraging people to be active mentally and physically. I also predict that as society becomes more and more digital, with the creation of platforms like the Meta Verse, developing health promoting Virtual and Augmented reality is critical.

Link to the start up and it’s projects: https://realiteer.com/about/