"It has the power to change the world for the better."

This is the how Dennis Hwang, who helped launch the hit game "Pokemon Go," described the phenomenon of augmented reality (AR) during a keynote speech he gave on Nov. 15 at the 2016 Next Content Conference, under the theme of "Designing interactive games for the real world."

"Soon, AR will be applied to all kinds of hardware, from smartphones and smart watches to glasses, contact lenses of the future, and it will change our world for the better. The potential of AR is truly limitless," said Hwang.

As the master art director for "Pokemon Go," he said he tried to find a game interface that would allow people to walk around and take in their surroundings while playing a game. "An AR game is not one you can play sitting on the sofa, staring at the TV," he said.





First Vice Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism Jung Kwan-joo looked around the various exhibition halls featuring VR and AR games ahead of the start of the conference.

"The conference will provide a forum for debate on the future of the content industry, which continues to show growth thanks to the convergence of content and technology," said the first vice minister.

"These days, VR tools and artificial intelligence (AI) are being applied to all kinds of digital content, right from the initial stages of design. As such, consumers have also started to accept VR and AI as natural features of their daily lives. Advancements in technology have enriched our lives, and it's my hope that in our future, connected as we will be by different forms of content, there will be more happiness for us all."

Before the opening ceremony, Nonny de la Pena, former journalist for The New York Times and founder of the production company Emblematic Group that creates documentaries using VR technology, gave a speech on "VR journalism." Jimmy Feng, VP of business planning at HTC, shared his ideas on "Virtual Reality - From Imagination to Reality" and opened the floor for questions from the audience.

By Jeon Han, Lee Hana
Korea.net Staff Writers
Photos: Jeon Han, Korea.net Photographer
hanjeon@korea.kr