Eyefluence's Jim Marggraff to Speak on Entertainment's Latest Disruption at Future of StoryTelling Summit

MILPITAS, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--

Eyefluence, the creator and leader of eye-interaction technology for augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR) and mixed reality (MR) devices, today announced that CEO and founder Jim Marggraff will be speaking at this year's Future of StoryTelling Summit in October. Marggraff will discuss the language of looking and the way Eyefluence's eye-interaction will impact the way stories are told in the new medium of VR.

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"Our eyes have the capacity to communicate much more than we think," said Marggraff. "With technologies such as ours, storytellers will have the opportunity to react to where their audience looks and how they emotionally respond. We call this the language of looking. Storytellers will embrace the language of looking, where the audience is no longer just a group of passive viewers. They now become active, critical participants in the story."

Eyefluence's multipatented technology transcends traditional eye-tracking with its vision-driven interaction model. Embracing the capabilities of the eye as one of the fastest moving organs in the body, Eyefluence uses natural eye movement and signals to achieve what one does with a finger on a smartphone, but faster. When it comes to storytelling, viewers will use their eyes to interact with other characters, and impact the story, communicate, engage, and empathize with virtual characters and even play an active role in crafting the story as it plays out simply with their eyes. Eye-interaction in virtual and augmented reality headsets gives an audience member agency, allowing one's thoughts and intentions to influence action within a scene.

"The first moving pictures were silent, appealing to our visual senses. Then, when sound was introduced into films, storytelling took on another level," said Steve Schwartz, President of Chockstone Pictures and Eyefluence investor. "Eye-interaction technologies add an entirely new depth and meaning to the way we tell stories. As a storyteller, they allow us to engage, participate and interact with the audience like never before. Lots of tech innovations are called quantum leaps, but this may really be one."

The Future of StoryTelling (FoST) is an intimate, invitation-only summit that brings together 500 leaders from the worlds of media, technology, business and communications to discuss how the art, practice and science of storytelling are changing in the digital age. Marggraff joins the roster of past distinguished speakers, including author Margaret Atwood; former Vice President Al Gore; VR visionaries Chris Milk and Felix & Paul; former Burberry CEO Angela Ahrendts; and GE Vice Chair of Business Innovations Beth Comstock.

"At FoST, we're always looking for the next-generation technologies that promise to transform the way we tell and experience stories," said Charles Melcher, Founder and Director of FoST. "I believe that Eyefluence technology holds the key for allowing VR and AR to reach their full potential, giving viewers the ability not just to inhabit stories, but to fully interact with them."

FoST takes a unique approach to its summit. It produces three- to five-minute short films with each of its featured speakers, on the topics of discussion. These short films are distributed to the online community in advance of the summit. After watching the films, attendees select which speaker sessions they would most like to attend. Then, at the summit, attendees take part in intimate roundtable conversations with their chosen speakers and approximately 25 others who have self-selected to participate in the same session. Marggraff's film can be viewed here.

About Eyefluence

Eyefluence is engineering the ability to transform intent into action through your eyes. Eyefluence's multipatented eye-interaction technology for head mounted displays (HMDs) leverages eye biomechanics and the eye-brain connection to expand human potential, revolutionizing navigation and engagement in augmented, virtual, and mixed reality worlds. The company is led by successful serial entrepreneurs Jim Marggraff and David Stiehr, and includes a cross-disciplinary team of experts in UX design, computer vision, optics, machine learning, as well as electrical engineering, mechanical engineering, industrial design, and computer science. Eyefluence is engaged in development with Fortune 100 and other leading HMD manufacturers that are working to accelerate the wide adoption of VR, AR and MR headsets. Intel Capital led a Series A round as a strategic investor, and the company's Series B round was led by Motorola Solutions Venture Capital and also included investments from Jazz Venture Partners, NHN Investment, and Dolby Family Ventures. For more information, please visit www.eyefluence.com and follow us on Twitter at @Eyefluence.

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