Botao Amber Hu

Bio

Botao Amber Hu is a researcher, designer, educator and creative technologist. He founded and leads Reality Design Lab, an interdisciplinary research and design lab that focuses on the intersection of philosophy of technology, speculative design, spatial computing, and programmable cryptography. He also serves as a visiting lecturer teaching "Mixed Reality Design" at the China Academy of Art. His primary focus is on developing intercorporeal interactions within collocated mixed reality, democratizing spatial computing education, and exploring blockchain-based protocols as substrates for artificial life.

Amber is not only a researcher and innovator in these fields, but also an accomplished designer and creative technologist who established Holo Interactive Inc., the company that operates the lab. With expertise in XR, AI, artificial life, cryptography, robotics, ludology, and media theory, he has collaborated with renowned companies such as Apple, Twitter, DJI, Google, Microsoft, Pinterest, and thatgamecompany.

His works have been featured at top conferences such as SIGGRAPH, UbiComp, WWW, ALIFE, CHI, CHI PLAY, CSCW, SXSW, and TEDx, and have received accolades including CHI Best Interactivity Award, Red Dot Design Award, iF Design Award, A’ Design Awards, Webby Awards, and Core77 Design Award. He holds a bachelor's degree in computer science from Tsinghua University and a master's degree in AI from Stanford University.

Designer / Artist Statement

“What is that Reality in the Future?”

As a researcher-led experiential futures designer, my work lies at the intersection of the philosophy of technology, speculative design, spatial computing, artificial life, and programmable cryptography. I create immersive mixed reality experiences that invite audiences to step into potential futures through a form of embodied play, challenging their perceptions, sparking inspiration, and provoking dialogue about the paths we might take.

As someone who majored in Artificial Intelligence, my fascination with the future began with a curiosity about technology's role in shaping society. However, after working as a data scientist in the typical Silicon Valley AI industry, I quickly realized that the rapid development of AI brings society a grief of human de-centering, similar to the Copernican trauma.

The future is not just about technological advancements; it also encompasses social, cultural, ecological, and even more-than-human dimensions. Influenced by Dunne and Raby, the pioneering speculative designers who proposed, "We need to shift from designing applications to designing implications," I began transitioning my career from AI engineer to speculative designer. I aim to use design as a tool to question the futures we envision with technological advancement, challenging default assumptions and inspiring pluralistic technological thinking.

Beyond pure speculation, I also emphasize experiential storytelling through mixed reality media. Guided by Jenova Chen, a legendary emotional game designer, I have learned the art of interactive storytelling and understand the importance of creating emotional connections through play, crafting embodied immersive experiences that engage and transform audiences.

Influenced by Ian Cheng, I'm envisioning a future with many worlds and realities, where machines do all the mundane tasks and play finite games, and people are struggling to figure out how to spend their unstructured time by playing infinite games called worlding. In the culture of worlding, I'm fascinated by the concept that autonomy leads to flourishing without a creator's hold. I believe that the blockchain may serve this purpose of autonomy, potentially merging the biosphere and cybersphere to form an autonomous hyper-ecology, which may surpass our traditional understanding of the living environment, challenging our definitions of nature and life, and moving towards planetary intelligence.

Educations

2012-2014

Stanford University, Palo Alto, USA.
Master of Science in Computer Science concentrated in Artificial Intelligence
Advisors: Andrew Ng, Jure Leskovec, Dan Boneh

2007-2012

Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.
Bachelor of Engineering in Computer Science. Special Pilot Computer Science Class.
Advisor: Andrew Chi-Chih Yao.

2011 - 2012

Hong Kong University of Science and Technology, Hong Kong, China.
Visiting Researcher.
Advisor: Qiang Yang.

Research Publications

2023 - 2024

[D13] Shan Luo, Jianan Johanna Liu, and Botao Amber Hu. 2024. "Hearing the Bullseye: Demonstrating the Design of an Auditory-Cued Archery Exergame for the Visually Impaired and Their Sighted Family and Friends." In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion '24), Interactivity. [To appear]

[D12] Shan Luo, Jianan Johanna Liu, and Botao Amber Hu*. 2024. "Hearing the Bullseye: An Auditory-Cued Archery Exergame for the Visually Impaired and Their Sighted Family and Friends.". Student Competition. In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion '24), Student Competition. [To appear]

[D11] Shan Luo, Jianan Johanna Liu, and Botao Amber Hu*. 2024. "Hearing the Bullseye: Demonstrating an Auditory-Cued Archery Exergame for the Visually Impaired and Their Sighted Family and Friends." In Companion Publication of the 2024 Conference on Computer Supported Cooperative Work and Social Computing (CSCW '24 Companion). [To appear]

[D10] Botao Amber Hu, Yilan Tao, Yuchen Zhang, Sizheng Hao, and Rem RunGu Lin. 2024. ""MOFA The Ghost": Demonstrating an Asymmetric Inter-Bodily Social Exertion Game in Spontaneous Collocated Mixed Reality." In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion '24), Interactivity. [To appear]

[D9] Jianan Johanna Liu, Danlin Huang, Yuqi Song, Shan Luo, and Botao Amber Hu. 2024. "Foldiverse: Augmenting Paper Folding Physiotherapy for Children with Autism via Family-Centered Mixed Reality Design.". In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion '24), Student Competition. [To appear]

[D8] Botao Amber Hu, Yuemin Huang, Mingze Chai, Xiaobo Aaron Hu, and Yilan Elan Tao. 2024. "GravField: Towards Designing an Inter-bodily Live-Coding Performance System within a Collocated Mixed Reality." In Companion Proceedings of the Annual Symposium on Computer-Human Interaction in Play (CHI PLAY Companion '24), Work-in-Progress. [To appear]

[D7] Botao Amber Hu*, Jiabao Li*, Danlin Huang, Jianan Johanna Liu, Xiaobo Aaron Hu, and Yilan Elan Tao. 2024. "EchoVision: A Handheld Mixed Reality Mask for Experiencing Bat Echolocation." In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing & the 2024 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing (UbiComp/ISWC '24 Adjunct). [To appear]

[D6] Botao Amber Hu*, Yuchen Zhang, Yilan Tao, Tongzhou Yu and Rem Rungu Lin. 2024. "HoloKit: Demonstrating an Open-Source Smartphone-Based Mixed Reality Headset for Spatial Computing Education." In Adjunct Proceedings of the 2024 ACM International Joint Conference on Pervasive and Ubiquitous Computing & the 2024 ACM International Symposium on Wearable Computing (UbiComp/ISWC '24 Adjunct). [To appear]

[C6] Botao Amber Hu* and Fang Ting. 2024. "Speculating on Blockchain as an Unstoppable ‘Nature’ Towards the Emergence of Artificial Life". In Proceedings of the 2024 Conference on Artificial Life (ALIFE '24). [To appear]

[W1] Botao Amber Hu*, Yuemin Huang, Mingze Chai, Xiaobo Aaron Hu and Yilan Elan Tao. 2024. "Crafting Your GravField: A Workshop on Exploring Intercorporeality as Live-Coding Instruments within a Co-located Mixed Reality". In Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC ‘24). [To appear]

[D5] Botao Amber Hu*, Yuemin Huang, Mingze Chai, Xiaobo Aaron Hu and Yilan Elan Tao. 2024. "GravField: A Participatory Performance Exploring Intercorporeality as Live-Coding Instruments within a Co-located Mixed Reality." In Proceedings of the 2024 International Conference on Live Coding (ICLC ‘24). [To appear]

[D4] Botao Amber Hu*, Yuchen Zhang, Sizheng Hao and Yilan Tao. 2024. "MOFA: Multiplayer Omnipresent Fighting Arena". In Proceedings of the 2024 Conference and Exhibition on Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH ‘24). [To appear]

[C5] Rem Rungu Lin, Botao Amber Hu, Koo Yongen Ke, Wei Wu, and Kang Zhang*. 2024. "Cell Space: Augmented Awareness of Intercorporeality". In Proceedings of the Conference and Exhibition on 2024 Computer Graphics and Interactive Techniques (SIGGRAPH ‘24). [To appear]

[J1] Fang Ting and Botao Amber Hu. 2023. "Composable Life: Us and Our Land". In ProtocolKit for Summer of Protocols (SoP 2023). [→]

[D3] Botao Hu*, Yuchen Zhang, Sizheng Hao, and Yilan Tao. 2023. "MOFA: Exploring Asymmetric Mixed Reality Design Strategy for Co-located Multiplayer Between Handheld and Head-mounted Augmented Reality." In Extended Abstracts of the 2023 CHI Conference on Human Factors in Computing Systems (CHI EA '23). 🏆 Best Interactivity Demo. [→]

[D2] Botao Hu*, Yuchen Zhang, Sizheng Hao, and Yilan Tao. "InstantCopresence: A Spatial Anchor Sharing Methodology for Co-Located Multiplayer Handheld and Headworn AR." In 2023 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality Adjunct (ISMAR-Adjunct '23). 🏆 Honorable Mention. [→]

2010-2022

[D1] Botao Hu*, Yang Liu, and Ran Duan. 2019. "City of sparkles." In ACM SIGGRAPH 2019 Virtual, Augmented, and Mixed Reality (SIGGRAPH ’19), [→]

[C4] Peiliang Li, Tong Qin, Botao Hu, Fengyuan Zhu, and Shaojie Shen*. 2017. "Monocular Visual-Inertial State Estimation for Mobile Augmented Reality." In 2017 IEEE International Symposium on Mixed and Augmented Reality (ISMAR '17). [→]

[C3] Si Shen, Botao Hu, Weizhu Chen, and Qiang Yang*. 2012. "Personalized click model through collaborative filtering." In Proceedings of the fifth ACM international conference on Web search and data mining (WSDM ’12). [→]

[C2] Botao Hu, Yuchen Zhang, Weizhu Chen, Gang Wang, and Qiang Yang*. 2011. "Characterizing search intent diversity into click models." In Proceedings of the 20th international conference on World wide web (WWW ’11). [→]

[P2] Dakan Wang*, Gang Wang, Pinyan Lu, Yajun Wang, Zheng Chen, and Botao Hu. 2011. "Is pay-per-click efficient? an empirical analysis of click values." In Proceedings of the 20th international conference companion on World wide web (WWW ’11). [→]

[P1] Dong Wang*, Weizhu Chen, Gang Wang, Yuchen Zhang, and Botao Hu. 2010. "Explore click models for search ranking." In Proceedings of the 19th ACM international conference on Information and knowledge management (CIKM ’10). [→]

[C1] Yuchen Zhang*, Dong Wang, Gang Wang, Weizhu Chen, Zhihua Zhang, Botao Hu, and Li Zhang. 2010. "Learning click models via probit bayesian inference." In Proceedings of the 19th ACM international conference on Information and knowledge management (CIKM ’10). [→]

Awards

2024

Core77 Design Awards. "Composable Life", Notable in Speculative Design Award

A’Design Award. "HoloKit X", Silver in Wearable Technologies Design

iF Design Award. "HoloKit X", Winner in Product/Gaming Hardware/VR/AR

Summer Of Protocols. Protocol Improvement Grant. $90,000.

2023

Red Dot Design Award. "HoloKit X", Winner of Product Design

Core77 Design Awards. "HoloKit X", Notable in Consumer Technology

Core77 Design Awards. "HoloKit X", Runner up in Emerging Technology

Webby Awards. "HoloKit X", Nominee in Technical Achievement / Metaverse, Immersive & Virtual

SXSW Award. "HoloKit X", Nominee in Innovative Design

Exhibitions

2024

ISWC 2024. "HoloKit X". Melbourne, Australia.

ISWC 2024. "EchoVision". Melbourne, Australia.

Fusebox Festival, Comtemporary Austin. "EchoVision". Austin, U.S..

SIGGRAPH 2024 Immersive Pavilion. "Multiplayer Omnipresent Fighting Arena". Denver, U.S..

The International Conference on Live Coding 2024. "GravField". Shanghai, China.

SIGGRAPH 2024 DAC. "Composable Life: Us and Our Land". On-line.

2023

ISMAR Demonstrations. "InstantCopresence". Sydney, Australia.

CHI Interactivity. "MOFA". Hamburg, Germany.

2016-2019

SIGGRAPH Immersive Pavilion. "City Of Sparkles". Los Angeles, U.S..

Future of Storytelling. "Project: HoloKit". New York, U.S..

National Association of Broadcasters Show (NAB). "Project: Skywand". U.S..

Teaching

2024

Speculative Spatial Computing.
Fall 2024. China Academy of Art. Hangzhou. China.

Playshop: Latent Spaces & Permissionless Dreams.
Summer 2024. China Academy of Art. Hangzhou. China.

2023

Design New Realities.
Fall 2023. China Academy of Art. Hangzhou. China.

Selected Talks

2024

“Allow me into your dream".
Beijing Film Academy. Beijing, China.

"Introduction to Spatial Computing and Develop with Apple Vision Pro and HoloKit".
School of Design and Creative Technologies, University of Texas at Austin. Interaction Design. Austin, USA.

“Wizards vs Muggles! - MOFA: A Gameplay Framework exploring the Design Space of Spontaneous Collocated Mixed Reality"
Computational Media and Arts (CMA), Hong Kong University of Science and Technology. Guangzhou, China.

"Expanding Intercorporeality: Exploring Human-Human and Human-Robot Interactions in MR". The Future Laboratory, Tsinghua University. Beijing, China.

2023

"Designing New Realities: Research Through Design for Collocated Mixed Reality Experiences".
School of Design & Innovation, China Academy of Art. Hangzhou, China.

"Dream Together in New Realities: Unleash the Power of Copresence in Headworn AR".
Harvard XR Forum. Boston, USA.

"HoloKit: Open Source Mixed Reality Headset for Reality Designers".
Integrated Design & Media, New York University. New York, USA.

2017-2018

"HoloKit: a Cardboard-like AR and what will you make with it?".
AR In Action (ARIA). MIT, Boston, USA.

"What you get is what you imagine".
TEDx Beacon Street, Boston.

"HoloKit: Google Cardboard for AR".
AR in Action (ARIA). New York.

Patents

U.S. Patent. Application. LOCAL MULTI-DEVICE FAST SPATIAL ANCHOR POINT SYNCHRONIZATION METHOD FOR MIXED REALITY AND SYSTEM

U.S. Patent. Granted. AN IMAGING METHOD FOR MODULAR MIXED REALITY (MR) DEVICE

U.S. Patent. Granted. PLANNING A FLIGHT PATH BY IDENTIFYING KEY FRAMES

U.S. Patent. Granted. INTERFACE FOR PLANNING FLIGHT PATH

U.S. Design Patent. Granted. A MIXED REALITY HEADSET

U.S. Design Patent. Granted. A MIXED REALITY HEADSET (HEADSET)

U.S. Design Patent. Granted. A MIXED REALITY HEADSET (HEAD BAND)

U.S. Design Patent. Granted. A MIXED REALITY CONTROLLER

U.S. / PCT Patent. Application. IMAGING METHOD FOR MODULAR MR DEVICE

U.S. / PCT Patent. Granted. A METHOD TO MANUFACTURE MR DEVICE