Mary Hopper, Ph.D. Founded Digital Den in 2013 as an R & D company that designed and developed 3D applications using Unity 3D and related authoring tools to create fun and informative immersive experiences.
Digital Den also had an extensive collection of vintage and new immersive hardware (Virtual Boy, Power Glove, Leap Motion, Mindwave, View-Master VR, GearVr, Oculus Rift DK1/2, HTC Vive etc.). The collection was used during presentations and workshops at a variety of corporate and educational events. Those have now become part of the New Media Museum’s Immersive Media Colllection.
Check out the Extended History of Digital Den at New Media Museum
Related presentations before Digital Den was formed.
Hopper, M. E. (2008, May). Ok, Now What? Ideas from Havok to the Holodeck [Presentation]. Sloan-C International Symposium, Emerging Technology Applications for Online Learning, Carefree, AZ.
Hopper, M. E. (2008, April). SecondLife: Powerful Places for Teaching and Learning. UMass IT Conference: The Scholarship of Teaching & Learning, Making “IT” Matter, Boxborough, MA.
Hopper, M. E. (2008, December). Using Virtual Worlds for Computer Science Education and Research [Presentation]. Computer Science Seminar, University of Massachusetts, Boston, MA.
2013
Digital Den setup a public lab at Metropolitan Storage in Cambridge, MA.
Digital Den@Metropolitan Storage hosted open hours from July to December 2013.
The first Public Preview was held on August 25th-27th.
Digital Den’s took the lead in sponsoring an initiative to found a NEW Computer Museum in the Boston area.
Digital Den sponsored the NEW Computer Museum Launch Party.
NEW Computer Museum Launch Party
Sunday, October 20, 5 pm – 9 pm
1st Exhibit 5-7 pm
Launch Party 7-9 pm
Middlesex Lounge Restaurant
315 Massachusetts Avenue Cambridge
Boston Tech Breakfast Meetup
Friday, November 8, 2013, 8 am – 10 am
Microsoft N.E.R.D. Center, One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
http://www.meetup.com/Boston-TechBreakfast/
Hopper gave a presentation.
Hopper, M.E. (2013, November). Where’s The Immersion? From Lab to Living Room [Presentation]. Boston Tech Breakfast. Microsoft NERD Center, Cambridge, MA.
Here is a YouTube video of Hopper’s presentation.
Here is YouTube video showing the demos.
Playtime@Digital-Den
Saturday, December 14th, 2013, noon – 1 pm
Metropolitan Storage
134 Massachusetts Avenue, Cambridge
This event provided an opportunity to have hands-on demos of Digital Den’s extensive Interface Collection. The brand new Oculus Rift was even up and running!
Digital Den’s Post about Playtime!
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- Nathaniel Pierce helped attendees with the Oculus Rift!
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- Both old and new faces came to play with Digital Den’s interface collection.
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- Brand new Oculus Rift DK1 Setup
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- Complete Rockband Setup
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- Young visitor practices Mindwave
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- “May the Force be with You,” our fun, hands-free interface exhibit.
2014
New Computer Museum Sampler, Evening Social
Friday, March 14, 2014, 6:00 pm to 8:00 pm
Microsoft NERD Center 1 Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Playtime with a sample of collections provided by a variety of exhibitors.
Digital Den Post about NEW Computer Museum “Sampler”
Immersion 2014
Friday – Sunday, June 6 – 8, 2014
Los Angeles, CA
Digital Den took their Immersive Interfaces exhibit to the Immersive Education Initiative’s conference hosted by The Getty (J. Paul Getty Museum) and Loyola Marymount University (LMU) in collaboration with the Smithsonian Institution and the Western USA Chapter of the Immersive Education Initiative (iED West).
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- Attendees tried out Digital Den’s immersive exhibit
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- Nick Potvin with Immersion Exhibit
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- Mike Gale and Nick Potvin kicked back on the beach
Digital Den’s Post about Immersion 2014
Boston VR Meetup
Wednesday, July 23, 2014, 6:00 pm – 9 pm
hack/reduce
275 Third Street, Cambridge, MA
We took some of our best demos to the New VR Hardware and Demos event.
http://www.meetup.com/Boston-Virtual-Reality
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- iRacing with Logitech wheel & Oculus Rift (Photo by Jeff Bail)
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- Virtual Boy (Photo by Jeff Bail)
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- Another fun exhibit
Digital Den’s Post about the VR Meetup!
Which Way to the Holodeck?
Friday, August 22, 2014, 6:00 pm – 9:00 pm
Microsoft NERD Center
One Memorial Drive, Cambridge, MA
Have you heard? VR is back! Or is it? Is it hype or real? Can you really feel like you are walking around Paris, Egypt, the Moon or Mars from the comfort of your very own chair? Attendees were able to find out, and better yet, try it! They also heard about what is going on in the local area and even found out how to make their own VR experiences.
Here’s a Digital Den post about the event.
Holodeck?
Hopper had an experience in Cambridge.
Sensorama!
2015
Digital Den’s former location, Metropolitan Storage, closed.
Fond farewell
Playtime with cool toys!
Sunday, April 19, 2015, 2:00 pm – 3:00 pm
Champions Sports Bar
Kendall Square, Cambridge, MA
The GearVR is here, and of course, we’ve got it! We shared the newest in cool VR toys, along with the rest of our VR collection, with some students and others who happened to be passing by that day.
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- Sharing how it works
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- A bit of hands-on time
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- Nathaniel shares tips
Digital Den’s Post About Cool Toys
Digital Den@Brown’s Cool Caves!
Digital Den developed a “virtual edition” of the New Computer Museum using Unity3D.
Welcome Area, New Computer Museum v. 1.5
Digital Den hosted the New Computer Museum, Virtual Edition release party in October.
NEW Computer Museum VR Ed. Release!
Sunday, October 18, 2015, 1:00 pm – 2:00 pm
Champions Sports Bar
50 Broadway, Cambridge, MA
New Computer Museum, Virtual Edition
New Computer Museum Virtual Edition, Release Party
Here is a post about the application and event.
3D Museum!
Digital Den began offering Workshops October, 2015!
Digital Den’s post introducing Workshops!
2016
Digital Den announced the release of Cosma 3D!
Here is a video walk-through of the application.
Notice that all of the posters and objects are links.
Digital Den post annaouncing Cosma 3D
Digital Den was among companies included in article by Dylan Martin in BostonInno.
He did an excellent job of rounding up what was going on in the local VR scene
15 Boston Tech Cos. That Are Shaping the Future of Virtual Reality (Dylan Martin, BostInno)
Digital Den@Unreal Meetup, Jacob Wirth
North Shore Tech Meetup
Wednesday, May 25, 2016, 7 PM
Beverly Public Library, Beverly, MA
Spring Technology Show & Tell
http://www.meetup.com/NorthShoreTECH/events/230428815/
Edtech Product Showcase
Monday, June 13, 2016, 5:30 PM
Innovation Hub, University of Massachusetts – Lowell
Deshpande Symposium for Higher Ed
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- Mary and her toys
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- Doing the demos
360-degree picture taken by Neil Carlson using Cardboard
Tech in Motion’s Immersive Tech: Demos and Drinks
Thursday, July 28, 2016, 6-8 PM
Fragomen, 100 High Street, Boston, MA
http://www.meetup.com/TechinmotionBoston/events/230839497/?gj=co2&rv=co2
Digital Den@Tech-in-Motion’s Immersive Tech: Demos and Drinks
HubWeek @ Harvard
A Cross-disciplinary Exploration of the Emerging Worlds of Virtual and Augmented Reality
Wednesday, September 28th, 1:00 – 5:00 pm
125 Western Avenue Allston, MA
Digital-Den spent the afternoon at Harvard’s Innovation Lab (iLab) sharing our AR & VR demos with the large, high-energy crowd attending their HubWeek event. We were just one of over 30 ventures that shared the exhibition floor, and this was by far the biggest and most inclusive event representing Boston’s AR/VR eco-system in Boston to date.
Gilded Fest
Held at the Lawn on D
Saturday, October 1st, 10 am – 10:00 pm
Festival of Music, Technology, and Innovation
VR@MIT Open House
MIT Stratton Student Center
Monday, November 14th, 2016
Digital Den shared our “Intro. to AR and VR” exhibit at the VR@MIT open house.
2017
We are just past the season for getting toys, and boy did we do that — we added a bunch of cool new toys to our “Pop-up Lab” that will be available to play with during our events and workshops. Here are the highlights of what we have recently added to the collection…
“VR Ready” MSI Laptop (Core i7 6700HQ, 2.60 GHz, NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1060, 16 GB)
HTC Vive (Set up for room scale VR)
Newest Model of Samsung Gear VR
Ricoh Theta S 360° Camera
A whirlwind trip to New York for a series of VR related events.
Wednesday, February 15, 7:00 – 9:00 PM
Virtual Reality for Producers: How to Create and Deliver for the New Content Frontier
NY VR AR Association” and NYU Data Future Lab
137 Varick St, New York (The Bowery)
Thursday, February 16, 10 – 11:00 AM
Samsung’s 837 Store
837 Washington St. (At 13th Street)
Visit to Samsung’s store that was one of the spots mentioned in the New York Post article that had helped to inspire this New York adventure. Here’s a promotional video and a few articles about the store to give you a sense of what’s there.
Samsung’s new flagship NYC building isn’t a retail store at all (Chris Welch, The Verge)
Samsung’s 837 mixes technology and delicacies (Jennifer Gould Keil, New York Post)
Thursday, February 16, 4 – 5:00 PM
Jump into the Light
355A Bowery, New York (The Bowery)
Thursday, February 16, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
New York VR’s February Meetup
Microsoft Flagship Store
42nd St. @ 8th Avenue (11 Times Square, Across from Port Authority)
Chris Kairalla of VRBFoto also shared a 360° Photo that he took of the audience.
Thursday, August 17, 6:00 – 9:00 PM
New York VR’s August Meetup
Microsoft Flagship Store
42nd St. @ 8th Avenue (11 Times Square)
As usual, the NYVR schedule was jam packed full of interesting people showing off some awesome new ultra-cool technology. There was way too much to cover in detail, but here are just three of the better highlights.
- Lewis Smithingham of 30 Ninjas shared some backstory and technical know-how from their work on the CONAN360° LIVE Pre-Show. It was fun to see how something like that was actually pulled-off successfully.
- Ken Perlin of NYU’s Future Reality Lab gave a shout-out to Microsoft’s far-out prototype Holographic Display Glasses that he had seen at SIGGRAPH, and then he shared some implications of their likely commercial availability in about five years. Here’s a video and paper about the technology behind them.
Holographic Near-Eye Displays for Virtual and Augmented Reality (SIGGRAPH 2017)
- Robin Alter from Ultrahaptics gave an explained the demo he was showing that can give the feeling of touch using ultrasound waves sent to bare skin so that users can feel shapes, textures and other sensations sans gloves and controllers. Here’s a picture of the actual demo and a promotional video that he showed about Ultrahaptics collaboration with Dell, Nike and Meta.
Thursday, August 17, 9:30 – 11:30 PM
NYVR’s After-Party@Madame Tussaud’s “The Void”
Madame Tussaud’s
234 W 42nd St, New York, NY (Times Square)
Digital-Den was represented at Silicon Valley VR Expo (SVVR)!
There was a very nice series of back-to-back keynotes by Tony Parisi (Unity Technologies), Nonny de la Peña (Emblematic Group), Rikard Steiber (HTC), and Kent Bye (Voices of VR).
Digital Den@Silicon Valley VR Expo (SVVR)
2018
Digital Den visited the Firt Miami VR Expo held at Magic City
The visit also provided a glimpse into some important trends in the industry, and the most obvious among those is the rise of VR venues like Miami’s VR Park.
Digital Den@Miami VR Expo Post
First Toy Worlds@Cosma were posted.
2019
Digital Den began a hiatus while M.E. Hopper took on the Worlds Challenge.
More soon …
Digital Den 
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