Robert Edgell, SUNY Polytechnic Institute – Seeing 3D

Go with the flow.

Robert Edgell, professor of technology management at SUNY Polytechnic Institute, explains that getting users in a flow-state may be the best way to get them to hand over their dollars for a wearable 3D gaming device.

Dr. Robert Edgell is an Assistant Professor of Technology Management at SUNY Polytechnic Institute and a Visiting Professor at the Swiss Business School in Zurich. Previously, he was a professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business and has taught at San Francisco State University’s College of Business.

His current scholarly research focuses on a range of interdisciplinary topics including media as a lever for corporate governance, responsible innovation and harm (in collaboration with colleagues from Stanford University Law School), top management team creativity processes, and entrepreneurial social impact.

Dr. Edgell received his Ph.D. in international multicultural management (magna cum laude) from the University of St. Gallen (AACSB accredited). He holds an MBA fromColumbia University Business School in the City of New York and a Bachelor of Architecture (5 year degree, cum laude) from Kent State University. Through Columbia’s Chazen Institute of International Business, he studied at the Rotterdam School of Management in The Netherlands. He is a registered architect and has studied at Harvard’s Graduate School of Design.

Seeing 3D

Have you ever wanted to see 3-D while playing a video game? Well now you can.

Although head mounted displays are coming onto the market, there still are challenges associated with these innovative wearable 3-D seeing devices. Several social and usage hurdles may impact their adoption. 

My research intent was to answer the question, “What are the critical factors that predict headset adoption?”

As with my previous research, I explored business approaches that might impact user acceptance. Headset producers who engage users with meaningful and transparent information practices while designing might be more likely to create beneficial headsets. Next, users’ satisfaction with immersions into virtual realms depends on how engaged they become in “flow” states. Flow is enjoying the moment so much that one loses a sense of time and place. Flow may be influenced by the mechanics, dynamics, and aesthetics of headset designs. Other important user considerations include visual strain, power cabling arrangements, and haptic interaction.  This type of interaction relates to the ease of using devices which enable touch and feel to manipulate virtual objects.

This model predicts that producers who effectively attend to all of these factors will be most successful with their exciting new headsets.

So grab a headset that meets this criteria and start playing!