8 TED Talks To Help You Prepare For The Era Of AI-Driven Spatial Computing

Computing is expanding and evolving from personal computing to mobile computing to spatial computing. The recent release of the Apple Vision Pro, Apple’s first spatial computer, as well as the spatial video capabilities of the iPhone 15, as well as the Meta Quest 3, and new AI hardware are helping set the stage for a new era of computing.

It will change how businesses operate and think about their products, services, and how they support their workforce. Spatial Computing has been years in the making. But for the first time, it’s available in consumer tech products that early adopter consumers can buy and experiment with.

Spatial computing is an evolving 3D-centric form of computing that, at its core, applies AI, Computer Vision, mixed reality, and a wave of technologies to blend virtual experiences into a user’s experience of the physical world. It’s a new field of technology that combines new advances in software, hardware, data/information & connectivity. It enables humans to interact & communicate in new ways with each other & with machines/tech, as well as gives machines/tech the capabilities to navigate & understand our physical environment in new ways. From a business perspective, it will expand computing into everything you can see, touch, and know. It is a new, evolving field of computing that requires a new set of tools and components to reach its full potential.

Business professionals have an opportunity today to be the first to leverage Spatial Computing and Spatial Computing Interfaces. To do so with the best results, they need to understand what Spatial Computing is and how Spatial Interfaces work. These eight TED Talks explain the foundational technology behind Spatial Computing, explain many of the technologies that underpin this form of computing, and help you imagine what the future of interactions, imagination, communications, and interpersonal relationships might evolve in this new technological era.

Galit Ariel: How AR can make us feel more connected to the world

In her 2018 TED Talk, Galit Ariel takes us on an adventure to space. Except the space she describes is right here on Earth, accessed through augmented reality. Although Ariel’s TED Talk is from 2018, it can easily be applied today to the launch of the Apple Vision Pro, Meta Quest 3, and the beginning of the era of spatial computing. Ariel describes interacting in the space around us, leaving digital breadcrumbs for the next person to walk by in their physical space. Instead of watching a nature documentary, you can experience it – your room turning into a nature scene. Ariel takes us on an adventure beyond screens to one where our imaginations can run wild. This talk will help inspire you and frame your understanding of how the future of imagination is evolving.

Alex Kipman: A futuristic vision of the age of holograms

Alex Kipman imagined computing free from screens and devices. It’s one where technology can see, touch, and feel. “A reality where people, not devices, are the center of everything,” Kipman says in his TED Talk. The idea behind Spatial Computing is that it doesn’t get in the way. Instead, it embraces who people are. In his TED Talk, Kipman brings out the first Microsoft Hololens and describes how holograms relieve humans from traditional computing, “imagine pushing a hologram and it pushes you back with equal force.”

Kipman describes how computers will understand us, not limit us – one of the essences of Spatial Computing. Kipman discusses three ways he thinks machines would interact with reality.

• Input reality (speech recognition)
• Output information into reality (holograms)
• Exchange energy with the world via haptics.

“Machines are becoming capable of understanding our world, and they can interact with us in a personal way,” he says. Kipman talks about how technology will return us to humanity, and “stop living in a 2D world of monitors and pixels.” Kipman doesn’t just describe Spatial Computing, he provides examples and why we should aspire to Spatial Interfaces in our lives.

Meron Gribetz: A glimpse of the future through an augmented reality headset

“Today’s computers are so amazing, we fail to realize how terrible they are,” Gribetz proclaims. Not the opening you might expect from a TED Talk, but Gribetz thinks neuroscience could be the answer. Like Kipman, Gribetz talks about our ancestors and how humans were meant to talk to each other instead of being hunched over our phones. Gribetz says computing should “extend our bodies with digital devices.” Spatial computing is about extending the human experience instead of gamifying it or cluttering it with information. Instead, we’ll experience layers of digital information overlaid on the real world.

Gribetz describes a “zero learning-curve” computer – a system you already know how to use. Gribetz describes three interface guidelines:

1. You are the operating system
2. Touch to see – you should be able to reach out and touch what you see.
3. The holographic campfire – we can connect much better to each other if we can make eye contact instead of being distracted by 2D devices.

“The future of computers is not locked inside screens. It’s right here, inside us,” Gribrtez concludes.

Nadine Hachach-Haram: How augmented reality could change the future of surgery

Nadine Hachach-Haram is a surgeon by profession. In her TED Talk, Hachach-Haram describes robotic surgery, where the surgeon doesn’t have to be at the patient’s bedside to provide care. Hachach-Haram describes how surgeons can guide and mentor local doctors through a procedure through augmented reality.

Hachach-Haram live streams the AR collaboration software with real-time surgery. AR allows people to virtually interact like how they would in person. Hachach-Haram’s TED Talk is specific to surgery but it works for anyone. The use of AR technology – and now spatial computing guides, trains, and teaches until the doctor can perform the operations all on her own. It breaks boundaries, connects people, and democratizes access.

Matt Mills: Image recognition that triggers augmented reality

“Wouldn’t it be amazing if our phones could see the world like we do?” Matt Mills’s talk is from 2012 but the technology he shows how using mobile phones can bring physical objects to life.

“This technology allows you to see the world through someone’s eyes, and for that person to…effectively store it and tag it to something physical that exists in the real world,” Mills says.

Blaise Agüera y Arcas: Augmented-reality maps

A “3D environment is a canvas on which all sorts of applications can play out,” Blaise Aguera says. 2D maps to 3D images of a city, i.e. “street view” is something we’re used to now. But in 2010 connecting Flickr photos to Bing maps was interesting and new. Aguera shows how using AR maps you can see not just a map but what others tagged too. Look to the sky and see the constellations digitally mapped above. It’s a lesson in how to think spatially, going beyond what the technology of the time is capable of.

John Underkoffler: Pointing to the future of UI

We love referencing the gestures in The Minority Report. But did you know those gestures were real research for the movie? “You have to be able to navigate in 3D,” John Underkoffler says. What we want computers to help with is spatial. Computers don’t understand real-world space. Underkoffler asks the audience. “What happens if you explain space to a computer?” You operate the real world with your hands. In one example, a computer meets architects halfway, by projecting shadows a building makes or the distance from the road using physical models at scale. That work was 15 years old in 2010 when Underkoffler gave the talk. But the idea of computers working to understand our physical space, instead of the other way around, is what leads us to Spatial Computing.

Honorable Mention: Imran Chaudhri The Disappearing Computer — and a World Where You Can Take AI Everywhere

The HUMANE AI Pin launched in November 2023. It was a hyped device but the idea behind the device leads us to understand Spatial Computing. Spatial Computing, to work with Spatial Interfaces and understand the physical space around us, needs artificial intelligence. “For the human-technology relationship to evolve beyond screens, we need something radically different,” Chaudhri says. The Humane AI Pin might not be the device we all use. But the idea that we can interact without a screen, instead we have a personal AI, that can think of computing differently.

Understand Spatial Computing

Hopefully, these talks leave you inspired. The idea of Spatial Computing is years in the making. It started with the idea of human connection. How can people collaborate with digital tools and with each other across the world? Spatial Computing and Spatial Interfaces are going back to basics of how people think, act, and move. The computer is catching up. John Underkoffler thinks we should demand it from our machines. They aid us in the task of creation. Imran Chaudhri prompts us to imagine personal AIs as the future of computing. Galit Ariel shows us how the space around us can come alive to become the next frontier.

TED turned 40 years old recently. Thousands of TED Talks have inspired and sparked ideas and imagination. These TED Talks are the start of a journey to understand Spatial Computing, how it works, and why it’s necessary. In the future, we bet we will see more inspirational and impactful TED talks about the future of computing, the future of interfaces, and the future of human-to-human interaction and human-computer interaction. Many of the presenters in their talks thought their technology was five years away. It’s taken a bit longer than many have predicted. Here’s to the next 40 years of TED Talks. Who knows, we may be spatially on stage with the presenters in the future.