Softspace

Softspace is inventing a new kind of tool for thought for thinkers and makers using virtual reality and augmented reality. https://soft.space/ (tools for thought)

• see-through augmented reality (e.g. HoloLens) is really hard, and a truly mainstream headset built around this tech is still years away. Until recently, I believed that virtual reality was the only viable medium for Softspace for the foreseeable future. Last summer, Oculus released their Passthrough API... It's a complete game-changer... we'll be working toward the first release version of SoftspaceAR, which I intend to submit to the official Oculus app store by the end of September (2022).
• SoftspaceAR Prototype01 is a passthrough augmented reality app for the Oculus Quest 2 that fills the space around with the subfolders and images of any Dropbox folder you select. It implements several intriguing ideas that both our team and many users have long wanted to test:
  🕸 3D force-directed graphs
  🗃 3D folder structure explorers
  😎 Passthrough augmented reality
  🤲🏼 Controller-less hand-tracked UI
  • debrief: The Quest 2’s passthrough is good enough... The Quest 2’s hand tracking is good enough, and getting better... Working with ~1000 objects at once is totally feasible.
• Prototype02 is all about writing... the ability to work with text is critical for almost any serious productivity workflow—even ones centered on 3D content. From object names, to short annotations, to entire paragraphs, text is everywhere... Finally, the one “radical” design decision I made was to make the paragraph the object primitive (as opposed to the page).
• Prototype03 is about making Softspace deeply interoperable with your other tools... Could we keep that immersive spatial magic, while reading from and writing to a file format that’s highly portable? Like markdown?... We need to invent a layout system that is strictly ordinal, yet meaningfully spatial.
• • Prototype04 is an answer to the question: Could a spatial interface let you work with the true shape of your ideas?... Knowledge is a Network... Technically, it’s a graph in which pieces of information are the nodes and relationships between those pieces are the edges.* (Everything Is A Graph) Text and topics are our informational nodes, and the references from text to topic are one of two kinds of possible relation. The other kind of relation that is possible is inclusion (cf transclusion): topics can be expanded, and text added to that topic as a way of defining it.

SoftspaceVR is a virtual memory palace for all your creative projects. SoftspaceVR is a new kind of tool for productivity, creativity, collaboration, and knowledge management. It's a beautiful virtual workspace where you always have room to do your best work. Fill it with the research and ideas that form the heart of any creative project, then invite your clients and collaborators to step into your mind—from anywhere.

• Install Softspace v2020.1.X for Oculus Quest or SteamVR.

cf Virtual ThinkingSpace