COLLABORATIVE MATTERSTREAM As next-generation augmented and virtual reality technologies converge with tools for making the physical world from the molecule up—or at least from filaments of materials—a new world of collaborative manufacturing will begin to take shape. Part process innovation, part design revolution, and part game, new virtual and augmented spaces for making will take rapid prototyping to a new level. By 2025, distributed networks of people will collaboratively craft objects and even entire spaces in both physical and digital form, blurring the boundary between them.

WHAT’S DRIVING THIS FORECAST Lightweight manufacturing and scanners that allow anyone to turn a digital object into a physical one, or vice versa New augmented and virtual reality technologies that support digital collaboration on 3D and spatial objects The emergence of so-called 4D printing technologies to produce objects that change over time in response to triggers from the environment The widespread adoption of microtasking that taps distributed networks of (sometimes) strangers to collaborate in accomplishing a larger goal The development of algorithmic management “recipes” for managing such projects

AUGMENTED DESIGN SPACES Using AR/VR headsets to share perspectives and information, distributed teams collaborate to design and even prototype new physical spaces and objects SIGNAL: Hololens creates a holographic overlay on any physical object or space—and the overlay can be manipulated with hand gestures while communicating via Skype SO WHAT: Eventually crowds can rapidly design and test novel solutions to shared environmental problems, perhaps reinventing a city block in a matter of days or weeks Image source: http://www.microsoft.com/microsoft-hololens/en-us

VIRTUAL HANDCRAFTS Connected by 3D headsets and virtual maker environments, people remotely co-sculpt objects to be 3D printed at a designated site SIGNAL: With Meta’s augmented reality glasses, users can sculpt pottery that can then be 3D printed SO WHAT: A new generation of collaborative crafting takes shape as people use gestural interfaces to jointly shape objects for art or practical use  Image source: http://www.betakit.com/meta-is-making-it-happen-new-video-demonstrates-ar-3d-sculpting/

INTERACTIVE OBJECTS http://www.sjet.us/MIT_4D%20PRINTING.html New 4D printing materials drive a host of experiments with objects that change over time in response to interactions with future users SIGNAL: MIT’s Self Assembly Lab demonstrates the ability to program 3D-printed objects to change shape SO WHAT: 4D-printed products and even entire infrastructures adapt to the changing needs of specific users in different contexts Image sources: http://www.sjet.us/MIT_4D%20PRINTING.html http://www.wired.com/2014/11/skylar-tibbits/

COLLABORATIVE 3D BROWSING New tools allow people to create custom virtual spaces for interacting with 3D versions of web objects for everything from meetings to collaborative shopping SIGNAL: AltSpace is creating a virtual web browsing platform that uses a VR headset to display 3D web assets from diverse websites in collaborative spaces Image source: http://www.roadtovr.com/altspace-investment-venture-capital-2-5-million-google-ventures-formation-8-shared-vr-browsing-environment/   SO WHAT: Web browsing evolves as a more collaborative experience in which people interact with holographic objects in 3D spaces they co-invent

THE NEXT FIVE YEARS Digital fabbing emerges as a distinctly social activity Forking enters the common lexicon as a manufacturing term for digitally/physically building on something that someone else has created Platforms explore new forms of governance for collaborative making, such as forking only the best projects as determined by votes New payment systems are designed to compensate digital contributions in a world where digital/physical mashups become a more commonplace mode of acquiring goods Advanced 3D gestural interfaces emerge as a new generation of design tools Experiments in microtasking of object fabrication lay the tracks for what might be thought of as global assembly lines

TEN-YEAR SCENARIO In the world of 2025, the matterstream is a reality as material literally streams through 3D printers to create goods from digital designs. The designs, the matter, and the goods created are collaborative products of distributed efforts and visions. “Social fabbing” platforms emerge as 3D analogs to social media platforms like Flickr or Instagram. Meanwhile companies increasingly turn to algorithmically driven global assembly lines to harness global microworkers for the design and production of custom 3D-printed goods. Augmented reality is no longer seen as a distraction from the physical world but instead as a way to interact with it more intimately—and even to create it.