Spatial Computing is the future of the personal computing industry, and will aggregate literally everything else into it. That includes AI, including Machine Learning and Natural Language Processing, Computer Vision, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and all other apps that support the creation of and the maintenance of a digital 3D world, with the UX of the Internet to undergo major changes in the near future. All will be displayed in the optics of the Spatial Computing glasses you will wear, or new kinds of Holographic displays that will appear over the next decade on automotive windshields, new kinds of displays like the Looking Glass Display, and even contact lenses.

The definition: Spatial Computing is a series of technologies that can “see” and map the real world, understand it, and predict the next moves of objects within it, while doing the same for digital worlds that may or may not have ties to the real, physical world, all the while helping humans and/or machines navigate either.

While Infinite Retina really cares about AI, Augmented and Virtual Reality, and our partners are viewed as early adopters and valuable members of the community of people and companies that build such, we are seeing that calling this new world “XR” or “Mixed Reality” or, “Immersive” isn’t as satisfying as calling it “Spatial Computing.”

Why? Are the 3D sensing systems, like LIDARs that are being built into cars and glasses, “Immersive”? And what does “Mixed Reality” really mean? Finally, XR, and Mixed Reality come with Black Mirror baggage that Spatial Computing does not. These technologies should not be seen as scary, but should be seen as major new capabilities designed to help humans, not hurt them (although there certainly are downsides, and we will report on, and help corporations navigate the rough waters presented by them).

Irena Cronin, CEO of Infinite Retina, and Robert Scoble, Chief Strategy Officer, have visited many startups in this space and are working on a database that already has 5,000 companies in it, and our advisory board represents people working in many parts of the Spatial Computing industry from camera and sensor research to entertainment and cloud expertise.

Oh, and follow the money: we’ve seen there are tens of billions being invested in Spatial Computing by companies like Facebook, Magic Leap, Apple, Microsoft, HTC, and many others that we are under NDA with. We’ve never seen a spending spree in the tech industry like this, and it’s happening because of the promises of making computing far more personal, immersive, easier to use, and useful.

Our thesis is that for the next 24 months the first places you’ll see successful deployments of Spatial Computing are mostly gaming or enterprise uses, like surgery, logistics, mining, architecture, and car design, training, and many more. While we love playing games like Rec Room and Beat Saber in Virtual Reality, or Wonderscope or Pokémon GO in AR on our phones, we see a much bigger need as bigger companies, along with startups, bring new capabilities to market.

Even if you look at games, you’ll see that the people who fund a new round, or help them get noticed or get talent, are quite different than, say, the group of people and firms who brought us Airbnb, Spotify, or Instagram. We are building relationships with this new group and building new services around them, to bring their knowledge to new companies and projects that will bring new things to market.

Spatial Computing, though, isn’t just a way to make new companies or help older ones find new ways to cut costs or increase revenues. To us it’s personal. Robert Scoble’s son, Milan, is autistic and Robert is expecting these technologies to greatly increase Milan’s engagement with, and enjoyment of, the world. We talked with the head of innovation at drug company Pfizer and she told us that the company is doing research on Augmented and Virtual Reality on not just autism, but depression, pain, Alzheimer’s, and other health concerns. We’ve also talked with doctors who are using light to increase the perceptive abilities of athletes and others.

As these technologies become common we see huge changes for human beings. Some negative, like truck drivers who will probably lose their jobs to autonomous trucking, but many positive (the same trucks will have fewer wrecks and will use less energy and deliver things faster, and these technologies will retrain those same truckers much faster than educational technology has ever been able to do). These will assist us in living our lives, and, even present new wonderous entertainment capabilities.

We named our podcast, video series, and this newsletter “Spatial Computing Catalyst” for a reason: a rising tide lifts all boats, and our goal with all of these is to shine a light on the industry that’s building the fourth paradigm of personal computing, even as we work to build a series of services and, soon to come, research reports. We believe it’s one that will improve all of our lives.

We hope you do too. (Aside, this photo was from our first team meeting, held in the Palo Alto Apple store. Why? Infinite Retina got its name, in part, from Apple’s name for high-resolution screens. Spatial Computing will bring us all as many virtual high resolution monitors as we want, and we wanted to start our thinking about what Apple will do in this space – something that we’ll soon see an answer to as well).

– Irena, Robert, Marcelo, and Sam