Category: strivr

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The VR Job Hub: Strivr & Varjo

VR Job Hub

Every weekend VRFocus gathers together vacancies from across the virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR) industry, in locations around the globe to help make finding that ideal job easier. Below is a selection of roles that are currently accepting applications across a number of disciplines, all within departments and companies that focus on immersive entertainment.

Location Company Role Link
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Staff Accountant Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Senior Product Designer – Portal Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Engineering Manager – Data platform Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Senior Software Engineer – Frontend Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Staff Software Engineer – Data Platform Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Technical Support and Escalation Engineer Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Intern – Software Engineer (Summer 2021) Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Senior Project Manager Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr People Operations Lead Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Senior Product Manager Click Here to Apply
Palo Alto, CA Strivr Senior Product Manager, Platform Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Senior 3D Graphics & Rendering Developer Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Senior Visul Pipeline Engineer Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Senior C++/3D Graphics Developer Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Senior Cloud Computing Engineer/Architact Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Lead Full Stack Web Developer Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Developer Relations Engineer Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Sourcing Manager Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Sales Development Rep Click Here to Apply
Helsinki, Finland Varjo Sales Solution Engineer, EMEA & APAC Click Here to Apply

Don’t forget, if there wasn’t anything that took your fancy this week there’s always last week’s listings on The VR Job Hub to check as well.

If you are an employer looking for someone to fill an immersive technology related role – regardless of the industry – don’t forget you can send us the lowdown on the position and we’ll be sure to feature it in that following week’s feature. Details should be sent to Peter Graham (pgraham@vrfocus.com).

We’ll see you next week on VRFocus at the usual time of 3PM (UK) for another selection of jobs from around the world.

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Training Solution Specialist Strivr Completes $30 million Funding Round

Originally a virtual reality (VR) training solutions provider for sports teams, Strivr has since expanded its focus towards the enterprise markets, now partnering with companies including BMW, Fidelity, JetBlue, Verizon and Walmart. Today, Strivr has announced the completion of a Series B funding round, securing the company a $30 million USD investment.

The round was led by Georgian Partners with existing investors GreatPoint Ventures and Alumni Ventures Group taking part. Franklin Templeton and Prologis Ventures joined the round as new investors. The new funding will allow Strivr to further its immersive learning solutions for enterprise use cases, designed to help companies improve workforce engagement and performance.

“With more than 1.5 million training sessions conducted in VR and over 22,000 headsets deployed across our customer base, Strivr has developed the world’s only end-to-end software platform for the delivery of immersive solutions to elevate workforce learning and performance,” said Derek Belch, founder and CEO of Strivr, in a statement. “We are thrilled to leverage this new round of investment led by Georgian Partners to more rapidly accelerate the adoption of Immersive Learning in the enterprise and take the next step in connecting immersive data to real-world performance improvement.”

In addition to the funding round, Strivr has announced the issuance of a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering the measurement of training data in VR. The company has developed an algorithm which uses sensing data from sources like head, hand, and eye movements, as well as physiological data, to predict how performing a task in VR will translate into a real-world situation. Thus giving clients a better understanding of how VR will benefit their particular industry.

“With the rapid increase in large enterprises embracing Immersive Learning to improve performance, we are now able to connect employee learning with business outcomes using completely new types of data,” said Tyson Baber, Partner at Georgian Partners, who has joined Strivr’s board of directors. “We believe in Strivr’s team, mission, and methodology, and are very excited to partner with them as they deliver the next generation of predictive, workforce analytics.”

Strivr has now managed to raise $51 million in venture funding. As the company continues to drive immersive learning forward, VRFocus will keep you updated.

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Walmart is Using VR to Assess & Promote Employees

Walmart is no stranger to VR, from its nation-wide VR training program, to its recent traveling VR installation to promote How to Train Your Dragon: The Hidden World (2019). Now, the company is putting the technology ever closer to the heart of its business by using it to determine if prospective middle managers have the right stuff to make it up the corporate ladder.

As reported by the Wall Street Journal, Walmart has partnered with Menlo Park-based VR training startup Strivr yet again to create a VR skills assessment program that will help the company promote its mid-level employees.

A prospective candidate dons a VR headset and is tested to see how they respond to a number of situations in VR—everything from an angry shopper to an underperforming worker. WSJ reports that the program tests a worker’s strengths, weaknesses and potential, and is being deployed to stores ultimately with the aim of determining who gets raises and who gets demoted.

While it could sound somewhat dystopian, a comprehensive and impartial test could better help limit traditional biases in the hiring process. Beth Nagel, Walmart human resources market manager for the Pittsburgh area, however calls VR a “touchpoint in our selection process. It’s not a disqualifier,” but rather another tool to help the company substantiate “what we as a manager see in someone as potential.”

SEE ALSO
Walmart to Launch Nation-wide VR Training Program with Over 17,000 Oculus Headsets

“What we’re trying to do is understand the capacity of the individual from a leadership perspective and how they view situations,” said Drew Holler, Walmart’s senior vice president of associate experience.

More surprising still, the program has already been used to assess over 10,000 employees; WSJ reports it’s been used in a new store management structure to help reduce the number of managers needed. In essence, it appears Walmart is looking for better managers that help them reduce overall labor costs.

Strivr also worked with Walmart on their nation-wide VR training program, which launched last year alongside the purchase of over 17,000 Oculus Go headsets by the big-box store. The two companies are also working to further integrate data points such as a worker’s body movement and attention data to get a clearer picture of employee potential. For now though, employees are only assessed on the answers they give, although it’s not hard to imagine in the near future that a company may use any number of data points, such as eye-tracking data, to better approximate what’s going on in their employee’s heads.

The post Walmart is Using VR to Assess & Promote Employees appeared first on Road to VR.

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STRIVR Secures $16M Series A Financing to Expand Enterprise VR Training

STRIVR, the immersive VR training company, announced a $16 million round of financing led by GreatPoint Ventures (GPV) that is said to advance the company’s further expansion into the enterprise market. With this investment, GPV Managing Partner Ray Lane also joined the company’s Board of Directors.

Co-founded by former Stanford Cardinal kicker Derek Belch and Jeremy Bailenson, the founding director of Stanford’s Virtual Human interaction Lab, STRIVR first catered to professional and collegiate sports teams, creating immersive training programs to improve athletes’ skills across the NHL, NBA, and NFL.

The latest finance round follows a $5 million seed round struck back in 2016, bringing the company’s total funding to $21 to date.

More recently, the company is known for their work in creating VR training programs for Walmart, which will see a roll-out of over 17,000 Oculus Go headsets coming to US-based Walmart stores.

“In a world rapidly shifting to asset performance and predictive analytics, human capital has been largely ignored with outdated training and development tools,” said Ray Lane, a GPV Managing Partner and now member on STRIVR’s Board of Directors. “STRIVR offers companies like Walmart real-world, immersive experiences utilizing VR to place employees into their actual work environments to be trained, affecting their ability to drive both workforce development and retention.”

SEE ALSO
Walmart to Launch Nation-wide VR Training Program with Over 17,000 Oculus Headsets

The list of enterprise customers includes JetBlue, Fidelity, Tyson Foods and United Rentals. Tyson Foods’ safety/hazard awareness pilot training program, the company has reported more than a 20% reduction in injuries and illnesses compared to the year prior, with 89% of learners saying they felt more prepared after VR training.

To support its expansion, the company has recently opened offices in New York, Seattle, and Nashville, in addition to its existing offices in Los Angeles and Menlo Park.

The post STRIVR Secures $16M Series A Financing to Expand Enterprise VR Training appeared first on Road to VR.

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VR Training Specialist STRIVR Raises $16M to Fuel Expansion

Having begun as a sports training company using virtual reality (VR), STRIVR has gone from strength to strength to diversify into other training verticals. Today, the company has announced a $16 million USD round of financing led by GreatPoint Ventures (GPV) to further its expansion plans.

STRIVR image1

“This is a critical time at STRIVR and we are beyond-excited about GreatPoint Ventures’ investment,” said Derek Belch, CEO, STRIVR in a statement. “Ray and his team bring a wealth of knowledge and experience to help us effectively operate at scale as we expand in the enterprise space – and we’re humbled by the belief in our team and our winning approach to helping customers take learning and training to new heights.”

With this investment, GPV Managing Partner Ray Lane also joined the company’s Board of Directors. “In a world rapidly shifting to asset performance and predictive analytics, human capital has been largely ignored with outdated training and development tools,” said Lane. “STRIVR offers companies like Walmart real-world, immersive experiences utilizing VR to place employees into their actual work environments to be trained, affecting their ability to drive both workforce development and retention.”

STRIVR has been been working with the likes of JetBlue, Fidelity, Tyson Foods and United Rentals to transform employee learning. Tyson Foods for example has used VR in its general safety/hazard awareness training. In the initial pilot, the company claims it experienced a more than 20% reduction in injuries and illnesses compared to the year prior, with 89% of learners saying they felt more prepared after VR training.

Most recently STRIVR revealed a partnership with retail giant Walmart, helping train employees across North America. This will see about 17,000 Oculus Go headsets in stores by the end of the year for employees to use.

As the training company continues to expand, VRFocus will keep you updated with the latest announcements.

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Walmart Acquire 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets to Train Staff

By now a number of industries, sectors and businesses have established that the immersive nature of virtual reality (VR) makes it an idea way to train staff in a way that is realistic, but lacks the inherent risks in training new employees in the real-world scenarios. Another company which has now come to this conclusion is retail giant Walmart.

Walmart previously brought VR headsets to its Walmart Academies in an attempt to improve training. Having seen positive results from that project, the company is now planning to offer Oculus Go headsets to all its US stores.

From next month, over 1 million Walmart employees will be given the opportunity to try out the VR training. This will mean that four Oculus Go headsets will be arriving at every Walmart supercenters, while neighbourhood market and discount stores will get two headsets each. The aim is to allow every member of staff to have access to the same kind of training given to managers and department managers.

“The great thing about VR is its ability to make learning experiential,” said Andy Trainor, Walmart’s senior director of Walmart U.S. Academies. “When you watch a module through the headset, your brain feels like you actually experienced a situation. We’ve also seen that VR training boosts confidence and retention while improving test scores 10 to 15 percent – even those associates who simply watched others experience the training saw the same retention boosts.”

The Walmart training scenarios were created using software from leading VR training company STRIVR, who have also worked with athletes and sports teams to deliver training content that is realistic, relevant and repeatable.

“We are entering a new era of learning, and Walmart continues to lead the way,” said Derek Belch, CEO of STRIVR, which worked with Walmart on its initial launch of VR in Academies last year. “The power of VR is real, and when offered as a cornerstone of learning and development, it can truly transform the way an organization trains its people.”

For future coverage on how VR is being used in training, keep checking back with VRFocus.

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Walmart Buys 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets For Worker Training

Walmart Buys 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets For Worker Training

Walmart and VR startup STRIVR are expanding a partnership and distributing Oculus Go headsets for worker training at every store.

The roll out should see 17,000 Oculus Go headsets distributed to Walmart stores for employee training — four going to every Supercenter and two heading to each Neighborhood Market or Discount Store before the year is out. The standalone VR headsets can be used with more than “45 activity-based modules” for training Walmart associates in “new technology, soft skills like empathy and customer service, and compliance.”

Walmart kicked off its program with STRIVR last year after the startup showed early adoption with athletic training through scenes captured from the real world and shown in a VR headset. A quarterback could get extra play repetitions without leaving the house and a skier could train for the Olympics without needing to be on the mountain.

With Walmart, the company pilot tested this summer training associates how to load the new “Pickup Tower” which allows customers to pick up online orders without interacting with another human being.

“VR is allowing associates to be trained before the towers are even installed – no teachers required,” a Walmart blog post reads. VR is said to boost “confidence and retention while improving test scores 10 to 15 percent,” according to Walmart’s Andy Trainor, who directs training.

The latest effort could introduce 1 million Walmart store workers to standalone virtual reality powered by Facebook. The 17,000 headsets, at roughly $200 each, is an investment of less than $3.5 million in hardware plus STRIVR’s training program. That isn’t exactly a large expense for an operation of Walmart’s scale, so if this project is successful we might see other companies following suit.

And if employees actually enjoy the training via VR headset? Facebook just showed workers at the largest employer and retailer in the United States why one might want to buy an Oculus VR headset. Come 2019 when a different class of standalone arrives capable of playing must-have games like Beat Saber and Superhot, Walmart might have a lot of employees ready to speak to customers from personal experience.

That’s certainly one way to get one billion people into VR I hadn’t considered before.

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The post Walmart Buys 17,000 Oculus Go Headsets For Worker Training appeared first on UploadVR.

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Does VR Have the Potential to Improve Athletic Performance?

In elite sports any training advantage means the difference between winning and losing, between getting gold rather than silver, and between being great rather than average. That is why athletes are always open to trying out new techniques that will give them an edge over their competition. One of the latest trends dominating sport is training using virtual reality (VR). Athletes in different sports are now using VR to improve their athletic performance.

Take a look and read VRFocus‘ regular Saturday feature, This Week In VR Sport when you get a second. You’ll see all sorts of sports and disciplines every week looking into the possibilties as to what immersive technology can offer. Take football. Last year VRFocus reported that Arsenal and Stoke City had partnered with VR company Beyond Sports. The VR used by both teams covered four disciplines: “Spatial awareness (which re-creates match moments from every angle), high density (a series of match moments in a short space of time), decision making, and high pressure (simulating match situations).” VR allowed the players to recreate different match scenarios to improve their performance.

Recreating competitive scenarios using VR is being used in the training of both UK and U.S. athletes. VR technology got a huge boost in the recently concluded Winter Olympics where U.S. Alpine skier Mikaela Shiffrin won a gold medal in the giant slalom. Shiffrin’s golden run is notable because she is part of the U.S. Ski and Snowboard team whose use of VR training had been heavily publicised. In partnership with STRIVR, the U.S. skiers were able to wear special headsets and watch a 360 degree video that accurately recreated the Jeongseon course. STRIVR Chief Strategy Officer Danny Belch stated: “total immersion in VR has been scientifically proven to boost recall of topics, future performance on tasks/skills, and overall engagement with the learning/training material. It is undoubtedly a better way to learn than simple 2D videos.” The advantage of getting a VR run of Jeongseon certainly helped Shiffrin perform exceptionally well.

UK athletes are now incorporating VR in their training, with UK Sport partnering with the visualisation experts at BAE systems for the VR-Vantage project. The project aims to give UK athletes—both Olympians and Paralympians—a chance to get a feel of the environment they will compete in through VR. UK Sport Director of Performance Simon Timson explains that this technology improves athletic performance by helping athletes familiarise themselves, and practice, in the competition environment. This familiarity, in turn, breeds confidence, which athletes need to perform at their best.

Coral revealed in a feature on ‘The Impact of Technology’ that F1 has moved to embrace VR and give drivers an extra edge. This hi-tech training method is especially crucial in F1 now that in-season testing is currently prohibited. F1 World Champion Nico Rosberg is one of a handful of drivers who have used VR. Telling Wareable how the technology helped him: “To practice, the more realistic, the better. We had a simulator that was virtual reality and we used a lot of that to prepare for the actual driving.” Unsurprisingly, Rosberg is affiliated with Mercedes, the three-time-reigning drivers’ and constructors’ F1 champions that are at the forefront of VR use in the sport.

According to team principal Toto Wolff, Mercedes is already building a new, state-of-the-art simulator that will incorporate VR. This will allow drivers to not only visualise the track, but also test-drive it. “VR is going to definitely be the way forward,” Wolff admits, noting that “the better you can actually simulate what is happening on track, the quicker it is going to make you.”

VR has certainly come a long way in the context of its role in sports. From being used mainly to enhance the fan experience, it is now being utilised to improve athletic performance across all types of sport. The future of peak athletic performance is looking like it will be achieved using VR.

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NVIDIA Reveal VRWorks 360 Degree Video 1.5 Release, Partners Comment On SDK’s Inclusion

When it comes to telling a story there’s nothing quite like an immersive experience. Whether it’s in virtual reality (VR) or augmented reality (AR) the different ways you can use the technology to craft a tale are pushing an author’s ability to show their world in new directions. This, naturally, includes 360 degree video. And we’ve seen a growing increase in the amount of productions being made, awards being presented and recognition being received within the filmmaking industry all linked to VR and AR – which almost expressly involves 360 degrees.

NVIDIA VRWorks - 360 VideoAs part of NVIDIA’s GPU Technology Conference (GTC), which will be taking place all this week in San Jose, California; the company has revealed as part of the proceedings a number of announcements relating to the VRWorks 360 Video SDK, the latest version of which (v1.5) was released today. Three firms relating to the creation of media, Z CAM, STRIVR and Pixvana all revealed their adoption of the SDK as part of their presentation, speaking to the NVIDIA blog.

“Because NVIDIA VRWorks 360 Video SDK shared the same API between Windows and Linux, it was super-fast and easy to integrate into our Linux cloud platform.” Explained Pixvana’s Sean Safreed, Product Director and Co-Founder of the company. Pixvana develops the SPIN Studio Platform which can be used to stitch together 360 degree footage. SPIN, naturally, integrates VRWorks 360 Video SDK. “The ability to access the VRWorks SDK through our powerful GPU-accelerated cloud backend simplifies the workflow and massively speeds the process from shot to review to final distribution, which our customers love.”

NVIDIA gave focus to Z CAM, the earliest adopter within the camera industry of the VRWorks 360 Video SDK. At GDC Z CAM has unveiled its V1 Professional VR Camera, able to record at 6K with 60 FPS in 360-degree stereo utilising ten cameras. As with those before it will be continuing support. Z CAM’s CEO explained the importance of including NVIDIA’s work.

“Integrating the VRWorks 360 Video SDK made it easy for us to enable live streaming of high-quality, 360-degree stereo video, and to support live streaming of both mono and stereo 360 VR, so our customers can really push the boundaries of live storytelling.”

You can see a demonstration of the Z CAM’s new product below, a video recorded at Times Square in New York City and put together using their Wonderstitch software with the NVIDIA SDK.

Lastly are VR production house STRIVR, last seen on VRFocus back in January as they worked with VR training programs to help athletes preparing for this year’s Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang, South Korea. The company’s Chief Technical Officer, Brian Meek, described how it’s using the SDK to put some additional speed into production of video for its immersive training platform.

“Integrating VRWorks 360 Video SDK accelerated the STRIVR stitching process from 15 fps to between 45 and 60 fps, a 3-4x performance gain,” explains Meek. “Which translates into much faster turnaround time from filming to delivery.”

There’s sure to be plenty of news from this year’s GTC event. Look out for more on VRFocus throughout the week.

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This Week In VR Sport: Super Bowl Gets Immersive, Mixed Reality Statistics & VR Ski Training

Sports keeps modernising as athletes demand the best ways to practice, the most immersive ways to train, and fans keep demanding the best ways to view and interact with their favourite pastime. Every week here on VRFocus we collate the top sports stories of the week which involve new technologies.

Whether you’re a sports fan or just a technology buff, you’ll find some fascinating facts in our news stories below – make sure to check back at the same time next week for more from the world of sport.

Get Augmented Reality ‘Immersive View’ Of The Super Bowl

Going to a busy event can be a hassle, but StubHub are making it easier than ever for Super Bowl fans to attend the biggest NFL event of the year. Everything in the immersive view experience allows you to understand every aspect of the game and event. Parking, picking up tickets, attending pre-game events, finding seating, everything can be done and organised through your phone, and with augmented reality (AR) capabilities to boot.

Matt Swan, StubHub CTO says the new immersive view shows clear value for consumers; “StubHub’s immersive view experience not only demonstrates a practical use case for AR within ticketing and live events, but also serves as an important milestone for the industry. When it comes to our users, we’re passionate about providing solutions in ticket buying and selling that offer a clear value. As the first ticketing player to implement this technology, we hope to further enhance the purchasing experience ahead of the biggest day in football.”

Users on iOS devices will be able to use immersive view on the Super Bowl ticket buyers landing page on the StubHub app.

Kindred Futures And Zappar Collaborate On Mixed Reality

Kindred Futures Zappar

Two companies are coming together to change how we look at sports statistics, fantasy leagues and more. They hope to present sports with mixed reality (MR) taking fans deeper into the sporting experience and making it more immersive and interesting than ever before.

Jeremy Yates from Zappar commented “The main barrier of getting mixed reality to the mass market is the cost of new hardware. There’s an exciting future of data visualisation, with mixed reality providing an immersive and engaging way to both view and interact with information. This exploration is all part of our goal of democratising this technology. We’re very excited about partnering with Kindred to see how we can drive innovation and bring the future closer to today.”

Meanwhile, Will Mace, head of Kindred Futures has said; “We’re very passionate about ensuring that audiences are given enough data to make sensible gaming decisions and think that our experiment with Zappar is an exciting step in the right direction.”

We’ll have more news on the new technology as we get it.

U.S. Ski Team Trained In Virtual Reality For Olympics

US SKI VR

The 2018 Pyeongchang Winter Olympic Games are approaching fast, and SportTechie reports that the U.S. ski team have been practicing hard using virtual reality (VR) for the event. STRIVR has built VR training programs for the NFL, and now they’ve built recreation of the ski courses that will be featured during the Winter Olympics, giving athletes the opportunity to train.

Troy Taylor, high performance director at U.S. Ski & Snowboard said; “Obviously there is nothing that can replace the real world experience, but VR is proving its worth in terms of allowing an athlete to see the course they will race on before they actually compete.”

Hopefully the knowledge the VR practice has given them will give them a real world edge on the slopes too, though the proof will come when the events kick off on February 10th.

For all of the latest sports news in the world of VR, makes sure to keep reading VRFocus.