Axel Villamil

Creative Technologist. CEO and Founder of @StageKeep and @RedLabelStudios

[Aish @AishIdiot]

chat gpt just froze
claude's working though
anyone else facing the same?

#ChatGPTDown

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

@Techweek_ shooting my shot at your events in NY

[Ashavari @AshavariJoshi]

If ur at #NYTechWeek hit up @AxelVillamil

He’s funny ✅
Has empathy ✅
Approachable and kind too ✅
You’d be supporting POC ✅
10/10 would invest

[Ashavari @AshavariJoshi]

This is genius

@AxelVillamil is a Toronto ICON 🔥

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

Shooting my shot at #NYTechWeek @a16z @TechCrunch @Techstars

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

@HEAT__TECH So sick

[Sterling Crispin 🕊️ @sterlingcrispin]

I spent 10% of my life contributing to the development of the #VisionPro while I worked at Apple as a Neurotechnology Prototyping Researcher in the Technology Development Group. It’s the longest I’ve ever worked on a single effort. I’m proud and relieved that it’s finally announced. I’ve been working on AR and VR for ten years, and in many ways, this is a culmination of the whole industry into a single product. I’m thankful I helped make it real, and I’m open to consulting and taking calls if you’re looking to enter the space or refine your strategy.

The work I did supported the foundational development of Vision Pro, the mindfulness experiences, ▇▇▇▇▇▇ products, and also more ambitious moonshot research with neurotechnology. Like, predicting you’ll click on something before you do, basically mind reading. I was there for 3.5 years and left at the end of 2021, so I’m excited to experience how the last two years brought everything together. I’m really curious what made the cut and what will be released later on.

Specifically, I’m proud of contributing to the initial vision, strategy and direction of the ▇▇▇▇▇▇ program for Vision Pro. The work I did on a small team helped green light that product category, and I think it could have significant global impact one day.

The large majority of work I did at Apple is under NDA, and was spread across a wide range of topics and approaches. But a few things have become public through patents which I can cite and paraphrase below.

Generally as a whole, a lot of the work I did involved detecting the mental state of users based on data from their body and brain when they were in immersive experiences.

So, a user is in a mixed reality or virtual reality experience, and AI models are trying to predict if you are feeling curious, mind wandering, scared, paying attention, remembering a past experience, or some other cognitive state. And these may be inferred through measurements like eye tracking, electrical activity in the brain, heart beats and rhythms, muscle activity, blood density in the brain, blood pressure, skin conductance etc.

There were a lot of tricks involved to make specific predictions possible, which the handful of patents I’m named on go into detail about. One of the coolest results involved predicting a user was going to click on something before they actually did. That was a ton of work and something I’m proud of. Your pupil reacts before you click in part because you expect something will happen after you click. So you can create biofeedback with a user's brain by monitoring their eye behavior, and redesigning the UI in real time to create more of this anticipatory pupil response. It’s a crude brain computer interface via the eyes, but very cool. And I’d take that over invasive brain surgery any day.

Other tricks to infer cognitive state involved quickly flashing visuals or sounds to a user in ways they may not perceive, and then measuring their reaction to it.

Another patent goes into details about using machine learning and signals from the body and brain to predict how focused, or relaxed you are, or how well you are learning. And then updating virtual environments to enhance those states. So, imagine an adaptive immersive environment that helps you learn, or work, or relax by changing what you’re seeing and hearing in the background.

All of these details are publicly available in patents, and were carefully written to not leak anything. There was a ton of other stuff I was involved with, and hopefully more of it will see the light of day eventually.

A lot of people have waited a long time for this product. But it’s still one step forward on the road to VR. And it’s going to take until the end of this decade for the industry to fully catch up to the grand vision for this tech.

Again, I’m open to consulting work and taking calls if your business is looking to enter the space or refine your strategy. Mostly, I’m proud and relieved this has finally been announced. It’s been over five years since I started working on this, and I spent a significant portion of my life on it, as did an army of other designers and engineers. I hope the whole is greater than the sum of the parts and Vision Pro blows your mind.

[Greta Thunberg @GretaThunberg]

yes, please do enlighten me. email me at [email protected]

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

How do I tweet? I honestly forget.

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

@ForbesUnder30 thank you for the best conference of my life #30under30 I met so many amazing people…I’m so sad it’s over

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

I don’t want to be good. I want to be great.

[Goody Cambay @GoodyCambay]

The most powerful quote ever by
@AxelVillamil

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

More creatives need to learn about business. More businesses need to learn from creatives.

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

@deanfalcke @StageKeep Ah just seeing this. Thank you!! Catch us in Lisbon for Web Summit we’re going to do it even bigger 🔥

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

I’m lonely. You’re lonely too.

[Jaden @jaden]

And That’s How We Do It

[Me @KirkWrites79]

We were all Lupita in this moment.

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

The joke didn’t land but Will’s hand did #Oscars #jadapinkettsmith

[Jasmine @JasmineLWatkins]

When slack is down and coworkers try different methods to reach me

[Axel Villamil @AxelVillamil]

@OPEN_SUNDAY speaking facts

[MIKE SUNDAY @OPEN_SUNDAY]

I swear Toronto got top tier creatives the world just doesn’t know it yet