pureVR

‘We believe that that Virtual Reality has a huge potential to transform all organisations.'

A common question we’ve faced whilst developing pureVR is ”VR? That’s just gaming, isn’t it?” True enough, it’s great for gaming and if you try PlayStation VR, Oculus or other platforms it can be a really immersive experience, but we think the potential is far bigger than just gaming, for all organisations.

pureVR, VR, AR, MR, all possibly to be labelled xR shortly, is a combination of differing technologies, each with the potential to improve experience at work or outside and we’ve selected the best tried and tested solutions, whilst developing our own too. pureVR currently includes:

?      Toshiba dynaEdge – Assistive Reality aimed at Field Service, Maintenance, Manufacturing and other sectors, where a Field Engineer can summon a colleague for assistance or guidance, whilst providing visibility, recording and schematics through the google-glass style headset linked to a wearable Windows 10 computer. dynaEdge integrates with Skype for business and Teams to provide a truly collaborative experience.

?      HYPERVSN – this holographic emitter technology has a real wow factor – you have to see it to experience it because the movies just don’t do it justice. This is set to transform Retail, Exhibition, Design and entertainment markets as shop-fronts and exhibitions go virtual in a big way.

?     pureVR HR Induction – our first foray into development as a business and although it’s been a steep learning curve over the last six months it’s been a great challenge. The first solution offering, available soon, provides a customisable Augmented Reality HR induction Solution, which we’re really excited about because we see many benefits and, as far as we know, no-one else is doing it.. yet.

We started the HR induction idea on the Microsoft HoloLens platform – a brilliant solution, especially with version 2.0 being demo’d last week with higher resolution and wider field of view – but, with headsets costing ￡4-5k each, we saw that this may be cost-prohibitive for many SMEs. 

Through real-life testing, we realised that some people are simply put off by headsets and are much more comfortable viewing AR content on a tablet or smartphone. We talked to several software developers about joint-ventures but couldn’t find a good fit, several companies over-promised and under-delivered. So, six months ago we bit the bullet and started developing it ourselves. Learning development cross-platform with multiple toolsets is not for the faint-hearted but we’ve worked hard and been encouraged with results along the way. The content quality is a critical factor and we’ve mastered this superbly.

Being flexible is important too, so making pureVR completely cross-platform and device-agnostic was essential, as was making it flexible for device-only, or fully immersive via headsets or both. On the headsets, we looked at many options and solutions. We modelled cardboard, 3D-printed prototypes and finally settled on a hybrid mix of traditional manufacturing with 3D-print features and personalisation. We can now produce custom VR headsets, branded to each customer, for about ￡100 each. 

We’ve produced the whole solution totally in-house and the benefits:

- enhances the traditional new starter induction tour with AR elements; people, figures, products, statistics;

- makes an induction consistent; message from the CEO but he’s not there? No problem, a virtual welcome from the CEO makes each induction special;

- time-saving for HR personnel – we don’t envisage VR induction replacing the personal touch completely but it could provide breaks so that inductions are less time consuming for HR personnel.

 We’re launching this as a complete managed service package including design, content creation (storyboard, video, graphics, chroma key, teleprompter, data display), app development and production on App Store (Apple iOS) and Google Play Store (Android). As part of the service, we can include devices, bespoke personalised headsets, content curation and scheduled change/updates. Cost depends on complexity but we’re aiming to price this within the reach of any organisation. 

This brand new service, which we believe is a UK-first will launch later this month and we have some exclusive launch offers for early adopters.