Vive X Europe – Augmented & Virtual Reality Confabulation

June 2, 2020

Soft Skills Training Specialist Bodyswaps Joins HTC’s Vive X as Platform Goes Live

Everyone at some point in their working lives will probably come across a manager or fellow employee who grates on them, whether that’s through poor communication, listening or other behaviours. Bodyswaps is a virtual reality (VR) platform which specialises in these soft skills, announcing the launch as well as joining HTC’s global XR accelerator program, Vive X.

Bodyswaps is a training solution for enterprise and educational organisations looking to supply employees with new tools when it comes to interacting with others, boosting confidence to create a positive behavioural change.

The launch of the platform this week comes with three modules, Active Listening, Clear Communication and Challenging Non-inclusive Behavior. The team has three more planned for 2020, Job Interview Skills, Emotional Intelligence and Unconscious Bias Awareness.

Using active reflection to encourage behavioural change, Bodyswaps worked with behavioural scientists and learning designers to create its solution, where learners can act with their own voice and swap perspectives to watch themselves back. The platform supports all major standalone VR headsets to aid remote learning.

A UK tech startup, Bodyswaps was conceived during Digital Catapult’s immersive tech accelerator, Augmentor, by co-founders Julien Denoel and Christophe Mallet. Its growth will now be supported with additional funding and business support by Vive X.

“With Vive X’s support and investment, we plan to make our solution accessible on more platforms, expand our library of soft skills simulations and develop our analytics solutions to provide clients with behavioural data at scale,” says Mallet in a statement.

“We are pleased to announce Bodyswaps as one of the latest startups in Europe to receive the backing of Vive X. We have had a focus on Enterprise VR with our latest group of investments and believe soft-skills training is an area with particularly high growth potential. Bodyswaps stood out because of its innovative and scalable approach to VR learning that cuts across many different industries,” adds Dave Haynes, Director of Vive X & Developer Ecosystem, HTC Vive.

For those interested in giving Bodyswaps a try you can book a demo and download a trial version on the official website. For further updates on the platform, keep reading VRFocus.

June 7, 2019

Hands-on at Vive X: An Enterprise Focused Future

May ’19 saw the global Vive X accelerator hold a selection of demo days to help promote a variety of startup companies involved in the fourth batch selection. Days were held in Beijing, Tokyo and London (the one in San Francisco was this week), and VRFocus took a trip to the across the UK capital to see what was on offer.

HTC Vive Pro Eye

One of the main reasons VRFocus also wanted to attend was to get some more hands-on time with the HTC Vive Pro Eye – the new flagship device which has just launched – as well as the HTC Vive Focus Plus, the standalone headset which is only going to be made available to enterprise customers – meaning it’s a rare chance to test the sucker out.

There were four companies showcasing their tech with Vive headsets, Kainos, Immersive Factory, Vobling and ZeroLight. Kainos is a British digital solutions company that was using Vive Pro Eye to demonstrate an AI driving tool, which could analyse and collect insights into driver behaviour – essentially a more advanced hazard awareness test. This certainly proved to be one of the more interesting use cases for virtual reality (VR) eye-tracking at the event, as the system could tell with incredible accuracy where a driver was looking at all times and how quickly and when they noticed a road hazard.

The simulator didn’t require any other input from the user – you didn’t need to actually drive the car, for example, it’s not Need for Speed – all that was required was awareness of the surroundings. This also meant the system logged one of the fundamental faults of most drivers, not looking at mirrors. It’s this type of VR use case that could introduce many more people to the technology, as it provides not only a better environment for hazard perception training; the software can offer decent accurate feedback.

Immersive Factory was the only company displaying the HTC Vive Focus Plus for its training software. Reasonably comfy, it’s a far bulkier piece of hardware than Oculus Quest, as well as being unable to offer the same tracking capabilities of the consumer headset (only two front-facing cameras!). Screen quality was good (as far as we could tell) from the one short demo, but highly noticeable was the unergonomic 6DoF controllers which are well below-par when compared to rivals.

As for Immersive Factory’s demo, it was a neat little simulation to teach correct health and safety procedures when operating a cherry picker. The goal was to change a bulb, demonstrating how not following safety procedures can lead to accidents while working at heights. Needless to say, VRFocus managed to get to the required height by operating the pickers levers but forgot to attach a safety harness. So when leaning towards the bulb the obvious happened, VRFocus went tumbling to the concrete floor.

Vobling was another company in the training realm, showcasing a VR simulator the firm had built for Scandinavian train operator SJ. This combined both the eye-tracking and controllers to help close a door that was stuck. Not a simple process (there was no giving it a boot), the software provided a highly detailed environment where certain locations had to be inspected and a procedure followed to release the door properly.

Testing these sorts of simulators out certainly helps to demonstrate how useful VR really can be for the workplace (it doesn’t solely need to be about zombie headshots) particularly when offered the visual detail the HTC Vive Pro Eye can offer. And it now means VRFocus can unstick an SJ train door when travelling across Sweden if needs be.

As for ZeroLight, this is a company well versed in VR, having worked with cars makers like BMW on a range of projects. The one at Vive X was an oldie but a goldie, highlighting how purchasing a new BMW in the future could be done entirely in VR. The demo is a couple of years old now but it looks great on the Vive Pro Eye, being able to swap alloys around, change the paint colour and more. There was even a physical racing seat provided so that at the right moment you could step inside the car to examine the interior and alter its design as well.

VRFocus is positive regarding the future of consumer VR and only expects it to get better. However, should it all implode and the general public gets bored with strapping high-end tech to their faces, there will always be a place for VR when it comes to enterprise solutions. It’s just way too useful, with too many applications across a number of industries proving that when taken seriously, VR can produce excellent results.

May 21, 2018

Signups now Open for Vive X Europe

HTC’s Vive X Accelerator programme to help grow the global virtual reality (VR) ecosystem by supporting startups has begun its push into Europe. Earlier this month VRFocus reported on the first Vive X meetup in London, which took place last week. Today, the initiative has announced that signups have begun to join Vive X Europe.

Applications are open to any startups working in the fields of VR, augmented reality or mixed reality (MR) technology. On the HTC Vive blog Dave Haynes, Director of Vive X Europe notes that: “We’re especially interested in hearing from companies working on B2B and Enterprise applications, a market that we think European startups are especially well placed to address. Given the region’s startup track record in media (Spotify), fashion (Farfetch), gaming (Rovio), e-commerce (Deliveroo) we expect to see a broad range of startups apply.”

While London, UK will act as the European hub for Vive X, the Vive X team will be travelling to key cities next month to meet with local startups, their founders and supportive investors. These will be Helsinki, Paris (14th June), Madrid (15th June), Berlin (20th June) and Amsterdam (21st June), each of which will act as hubs for their own countries activities in the VR/AR ecosystem.

Vive X Europe

In Addition to its own events Vive X will also support other leading European-based programs supporting early stage VR/AR startups, including Augmentor and Nordic VR Startups.

Applications are open until 30th July 2018, with the official site offering further details on how to apply and what the programme offers.

London is Vive X’s sixth location, with the others being Beijing, San Francisco, Taipei, Shenzhen and Tel Aviv. Since inception the initiative has invested in over eighty companies worldwide across a range of strategic industry sectors including education, health, medicine and entertainment. VRFocus will continue its coverage of Vive X, reporting back with the latest announcements.