This past weekend we organized a Memory Palace Hackathon here in Cambridge to begin work on a new project. We are creating a new software for building memory palaces in virtual reality.
We've done a lot of work on memory at Linguisticator over the last several years, particularly in applying memory techniques to learning complex subjects (like languages). We're excited about leveraging new technology to be able to make the art of memory more accessible and easier to learn than ever before. Rather than needing to rely purely on descriptions and imagination, we'll be able to see our structures and mnemonics instantly in virtual reality.
The idea is to create a platform where anyone can import 3D models and images to build memory palaces for anything under the sun. But since everyone already has such a platform already in the form of our own imaginations, this VR program will go a step further. We will be creating guided modules within the platform that walk users step-by-step through the process of building memory palaces for specific subjects.
As our language students know, just learning the memory techniques themselves - even learning them very well - is not enough when it comes to storing huge complex subjects like entire languages. That's why we added step-by-step guidance to our language maps for how to set up the mental spaces and fill them with appropriate mnemonics in order to learn a language's grammar at record speed. With a VR application, this process will be even faster and easier. It will also include much more than just languages.
We'll get things started with some guided modules of our own, but as a platform, we intend to open things up to instructors and memory artists all over the world. Once you have enough experience to build memory palaces for complex topics, you'll be able to create your own guided modules to walk others through the process. Medicine, law, art history, engineering... the sky is the limit in terms of what modules could be developed.
This past weekend, we invited a bunch of people with different skill sets to come together and start building out the necessary pieces we need to launch a crowdfunding campaign. We had designers, marketers, programmers, and business people all working together to get together a crowdfunding strategy, a website, and 3D demos showing how the VR system will work. We kicked off Friday night with pizza (loads of pizza!), and got to work on Saturday morning. By Sunday afternoon we had a lot of good work done. Over the next few days, we'll be tidying up everything that was done over the weekend and pulling it together to promote our prelaunch.
If you would like to learn more, please visit our new site for VR memory palaces, Macunx.
Special thanks to everyone who came out for the weekend, and to FreeFly VR for sponsoring our event by sending a couple of their VR headsets for us to use. Thanks, as well, to Dominos Pizza for giving us free pizza for the event, and to Social Incubator East and the Future Business Centre for hosting us.
Check out Macunx VR HERE.