Late last night HTC finally unveiled the standalone head-mounted display (HMD), Vive Focus, which will utilise the Vive Wave open virtual reality (VR) platform. Following this reveal came the announcement of a partnership with AECOM to jointly develop and extend the reach of VR technology to benefit the architecture, engineering and construction (AEC) industry.
AECOM, a fully integrated global infrastructure firm, announced today that it has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with HTC Corporation. The MOU establishes a cooperative, long-term relationship intended to leverage AECOM’s distribution channels for transformative infrastructure projects and HTC’s emphasis on developing next-generation VR innovations including the HTC Vive and the newly announced Vive Focus.
“Virtual reality has the potential to be the biggest paradigm shift in history for architects, engineers and designers, providing incredible efficiencies and cost savings while empowering professionals to design with previously unmatched levels of precision,” said Mr. Sean Chiao, AECOM’s president, Asia Pacific. “Developing these technologies into practical tools we can use is a powerful demonstration of AECOM’s relentless commitment to drive innovation for our industry and our world.”
HTC unveiled the Vive Focus, its highly anticipated standalone VR HMD for the China market at its Vive Developer Conference 2017 (VDC2017) last night, which will be the inaugural product under the MOU to go into beta testing in a newly established VR laboratory in Taiwan. The laboratory will be expected to incubate a host of future innovations, such as content demonstrating the full array of possibilities and benefits that VR presents to AEC professionals planning, constructing and maintaining physical structures.
The content produced by this laboratory will be showcased on a special service portal dedicated for the AEC sector and used to promote widespread adoption of VR technologies across professional communities.
“We are very excited to partner with the world’s leading AEC company,” said Raymond Pao, Vice President of VR New Technology, HTC. “We have seen enterprises using Vive for employee training, product ID design, review and showcasing in the past 18 months. With the collaboration with AECOM we now can jointly bring the AEC industry to a new era by providing immersive visualisation during designs, plan and build/construct stages.”
The Vive Focus is currently only planned for release in China. VRFocus has contacted HTC for information regarding a western release of the Vive Focus – or a comparable product – and will update with any further information.