How Augmented Reality based NFTs have the potential to revolutionise arts and culture

Galleries and museums are integral parts of international culture, yet in a time when the world is reeling from a pandemic and social distancing, the arts are suffering. Covid forced galleries and museums to shut their doors, leading to a complete halt in visitors and more importantly, income. In 2020, the market value for the global arts industry reduced by 22%, down from $64.4 billion in sales in 2019 to $50.1 billion. Technology, namely mixed reality, could transform the way traditional arts and artefacts are experienced going forward, and save the industry.

Non-fungible tokens (NFTs) and augmented reality (AR) products are quickly rising to popularity and becoming increasingly understood by the mass market, with virtual reality (VR) and AR now household terms. Mobile technology is ingrained into our lives, so it is a natural progression that digital experiences will take over the arts industry too.

Digital solutions such as desktop AR and mixed reality could be the answer to the challenges faced by the arts. By taking simple images of a physical piece, virtual representations of any artefact can be formed. People can view them as holographic images from the comfort of their homes and get a unique, personal perspective of art and history. Without the restrictions of velvet ropes and glass tanks, those who choose to soak in culture can do so with a 360 view of their desired object.

NFTs represent one-of-a-kind entities that function as a source of ownership over a virtual image. They are designed to prove a collector’s ownership over a particular digital item, as well as giving artists the chance to sell art for which there may not be a thriving physical market.

World-renowned digital artist Beeple has recently highlighted just how prevalent NFTs are becoming within the arts and culture sector, through selling his unique collection entitled “Everydays — The First 5000 Days” as an NFT for $69 million. This landmark digital sale highlights the opportunity for financial success, if the arts and augmented reality universes collide. In a similar sense, museums across the globe have digitised 7,500 3D images of their collections yet are at loose ends as to what to do with these images. Some museums, however, have started to make use of augmented reality; The Smithsonian, for example, has developed software that brings items from the Bone Hall back to life, yet there are still many museums failing to make the most of this technological movement.

Mixed reality presents financial solutions to struggling galleries and museums

Museums are typically publicly owned, getting most of their funding from taxes and donations, but the recent economic downturn has led to underfunding of the arts and culture sector. A UN report recently highlighted that 43% of museums faced closure in the first quarter of this year. NFTs can be an extremely lucrative opportunity for these institutions to upscale their revenue streams.

Museums and galleries which are currently facing financial shortcomings may find sanctuary in becoming accustomed to the digital collectables market through selling NFTs. Whilst it may be easy to pass off NFTs as just another passing technological fad, there are tangible economic benefits to adopting them long term.

These institutions are sitting on an abundance of artefacts, perhaps collecting dust, which could simply be waiting to be digitised and sold to generate additional income. Financing these objects as NFTs will in turn ensure income to cover operating expenses for the museum as a whole, whilst saving them the insurance costs of moving artefacts internationally, as they will exist digitally. Once a piece is tokenised and firmly minted on a blockchain, those NFTs can be sold, and as often is the case in the collectables community, they will be sold for respectable sums of money.

It is not solely the institutions that will reap the financial benefits of mixed reality projects, artists will too. The trading of NFTs is a transparent process, and creators have the option to receive percentages of future resales of their work, which is impossible for physical art sales.

NFTs meet the consumer demand for digital viewings

Seeing that footfall is at an all-time low for museums and galleries, there is a growing global demand for virtual methods of viewing artefacts. If institutions decide to utilise augmented reality software, they have the option of sharing their items internationally, for an entirely new and extensive audience to bear witness to. NFTs also offer each valuable item a form of preservation.

From immersive experiences in-house to at-home desktop AR facilities, museums and galleries can utilise augmented reality to provide an entirely new perspective on their historical pieces and meet the wider demand for digital entries into the culture they have to offer. This demand is also mirrored by artists themselves, who are desperate for income and are keen to utilise NFTs and mixed reality to disseminate their work to a wider audience.

From million-dollar trades to desktop AR bringing history and culture into people’s homes through their screens, there is a technological revolution afoot. Static art is being drawn into the mixed reality universe, and it might just have the power to save the industry.

May 17, 2021

Joy Way Dev Diary: Establishing the gameplay and style of AGAINST

Here at Joy Way, we LOVE mixing genres and gameplay mechanics. For a long time, our game designers wanted to make a rhythm videogame that would seem fresh but familiar to fans of the genre. It took some time to decide on a game mechanic that would be unique to the market, but we think we have finally found a winning formula!

The search for our own style and gameplay led us to create AGAINST, which we plan to release in the third quarter of 2021.

Mixing film noir crime drama styling and horror elements, AGAINST is set in the shadowy streets of 1930s New York City where players battle AGAINST the Mafia and dark forces. Looking to stand out in the rhythm action genre, the game mixes up its gritty visuals with a varied gameplay mechanic employing guns, swords and even knuckle dusters to help you dispatch foes.

Let us tell you how the game was created and what players will get on the release.

The birth of key game mechanics

The lead game designer of AGAINST, Aidar, has a fondness for rhythm VR videogames. Pistol Whip, Beat Saber – these projects made a great impact on the industry, being system sellers and the first choice for newly arrived VR gamers. And for a long time, while we were working on Stride and other projects, our developers wanted to give this genre a try. Although the genre is considered oversaturated, Aidar had his own vision of what could be brought to it.

Aidar tried to combine the mechanics of slicing and shooting, which was generally similar to how Pistol Whip works, but there was a problem – we wanted the player to quickly switch between the weapons, following the beat. We had the following options:

– the weapon automatically switched at the right moment. This was confusing for players. They didn’t feel like they were in control of the game;
– the weapon could be switched with a button. This created an additional challenge for the player who was distracted by that, instead of focusing on the rhythm;
– the weapon appeared in front of the player for them to grab when needed. This idea worked for us because when the player sees the weapon in advance, they already know what they should do next. In addition, the moment a weapon appears and is picked up is synchronized to the rhythm, which works in favour of the overall concept of the game.

Based on this idea, we mocked up a prototype. Prototyping is one of the most effective tools in game design, as it allows you to quickly see whether your ideas would work in a real game.

The prototype was approved inside the studio, and we also realized that we were not limited to the sword and pistol and could add any weapons and new mechanics as long as the moments of their activation coincides with the rhythm of the musical composition. That’s what led us to brass knuckles and the movement mechanics.

Locomotion and similarities with Stride

As for locomotion, we believe that it has a very strong impact on VR immersion, and that point & teleport locomotion should be forgotten as a relic of a bygone era. This idea was elevated to an absolute principle in Stride, with free locomotion based on the player’s body movements. But despite that, we decided that AGAINST should utilize the “on rails” type of locomotion in order to reduce the difficulty curve for casual players or players, focus on the rhythm aspect of the game and reduce potential motion sickness.

However, we have taken some of the best practices from Stride and added running, jumping and wall-running to AGAINST to diversify the gameplay.

Visual style: how it started

The visual style is very important for us, because it either hooks a potential player or makes the videogame look like another clone of Superhot VR or Pistol Whip.

As we started with the gameplay prototype, the initial style was corresponding: simple shapes and colours; low-poly, easy-to-make models. We started experimenting, and our artists prepared a lot of concepts.

At some point, we decided on a digital Tron-esque style. Our 3d designer shaped the level, threw a bunch of particles in, adjusted the light, and it was ready. We recorded a gameplay video that was posted on Reddit to collect initial feedback.

Many positive reviews and well-reasoned criticism were received, so we made the final decision to make this game. Everything looked nice in the video, but the visual elements in actual VR were overwhelming the player due to the large number of particles and bright elements around. Enemy animations were hard to read, which is a big no for a rhythm game.

The search continued.

The gritty noir style

However, almost all options were similar to variations of SuperHot or Pistol Whip. We decided to try something radical and started looking towards the gangster aesthetic of America in the early 30s.

It was important for us to convey not only the scenery but also the crushing atmosphere of the Great Depression era, when a person’s own fears were even more dangerous than the marginalized social elements that flooded the night streets of New York.

That’s how a style was born that was unlike any other rhythm game, which reflected our vision and fit well with the gameplay.

However, just like in the first prototype, enemies kind of blended in with the background environment.

Therefore, we tried to make everything black and white, except for the interface elements and blood, and highlight the characters with contour lighting. It turned out much better.

The visuals remained a little flat and we decided to add volumetric light (aka “god rays”) to additional light sources like streetlights and car headlights. This created an even more mysterious aura, the atmosphere of film noir.

[You’re now here] Game announcement and a free demo.

As the game began to look great and the main gameplay elements worked well together, so we decided to release the demo on Steam. We wanted to introduce players to our game and get more detailed feedback. You can play it right now for free, and we hope you do! We would love to get more feedback to further improve as we get closer to the final release.

The noir style must go?

The noir style doesn’t suit our goals very well. In the future, we can keep it as an option, but the main style will be colourful. In the game, a lot of attention will be paid to locations that will be very different from each other visually, as well as have a variety of characters. The black-and-white style imposes limits in terms of music, which is bad for the modding community. We want AGAINST to be played equally well with both electro swing and your favourite pop hits. Also, the monotonous visual style can quickly bore the player and reduce the replayability of the experience.

Therefore, the final product will offer more visual diversity. The main focus is on the characters and objects of interaction.

VR optimization is a tricky process

The VR optimization process deserves special attention.

Developing VR titles, especially for standalone devices, is very much like developing a game for the first PlayStation. Our 3D designer on the project watched a bunch of videos about how developers made games for it and he was always interested in how they managed to find creative solutions to overcome the strict technical limitations. For example, it was possible to display only 5 enemies on the screen because PS1 had very little RAM.

We have to work in a similar situation, we constantly face rendering challenges and have to monitor the displayed number of polygons in each frame. For example, most of the houses in the new style will be just square boxes with textures, and all the details (windows, window sills, etc.) will simply be drawn.

For optimization purposes, we can’t make the shadows from the enemies render in real-time, so we want to make them hand-drawn spots on the floor. At the same time, we didn’t want them to be static, but change their rotation depending on the position of the light source.

This means that when an enemy runs near a lantern, the shadow under them is affected realistically.

Also, we probably won’t be able to use post-processing of the frame and all the other options for contrast and colour tone. Rather, we will do it on the textures themselves in Photoshop. And instead of real light reflections on the edges of enemies, there will be an imitation with the help of shaders.

Returning to the houses, we have reduced almost all the house models to simple boxes with detailed textures, while adding unique buildings as points of interest for the player, with more complex silhouettes and detailing.

Balancing between mysticism and realism

The main challenge in the enemy concepts is to maintain a balance of realism and mysticism to the extent that our Mafioso-nightmare-creatures fit eclectically into the setting, and don’t look ridiculous.

When we were preparing a replacement for the Venom model (what we in the studio call the enemy jumping on the player), the first thought was to make a lizard man from retro horror movies, a kind of amphibian, but the lead artist stopped us in time, and we came to a more neutral option – a werewolf.

The perfect reference for us is the style of animated series by DC, for example, Batman, and their animation in general.

We were inspired by their sharp stylization and simplicity of forms so that the silhouettes of our characters, weapons, and other things were highly readable and easily distinguished from each other.

Bosses and… a story?

It is no accident that so much attention is paid to the visual design of enemies. For us, this is not only an element of game design – it is much easier for a player to navigate in what is happening at high levels of difficulty if different types of enemies differ visually – but also an element of a story narrative. Yes, you heard us right, the game will have a story component, all levels will be connected by lore and a certain plot. You will learn more about the story closer to the end of development.

Bosses at the end of each level fit perfectly into this concept. They simultaneously test the player’s skills, are a rewarding challenge for completing a level, and also close the level’s story arc and tell a piece of the game’s lore.

Despite all the work done, the game is in the alpha stage and has more surprises for you, the players. We will be grateful for any feedback in our Discord. Have fun!

April 22, 2021

Emerging Healthcare Trends in VR

Virtual reality (VR) has seen a leap in both technology and accessibility in the past decade. A wide variety of standalone and tethered devices are available to consumers at a reasonable price, like the Oculus Quest 2 and the HTC Vive. A majority of the public interest around VR has been as an immersive gaming experience, but the practical applications of VR go far beyond videogames. In recent years, VR has become a subject of intense interest in medicine and medical education.

A Treatment Modality

One of the major subjects of interest for VR has been post-traumatic stress disorder and anxiety disorders. Several studies have investigated whether VR can be used to help people suffering from PTSD. These found that VR could enhance the effects of exposure therapy on PTSD symptoms. Still, it is unclear how applicable these results are to a general population as the sample groups were predominantly male military service members. Other studies examining VR as a treatment for members of the general public with anxiety disorders or depression found promising results regarding symptom relief.

Clinicians have also found novel methods to apply VR in the context of other psychiatric disorders. Patients with major psychotic symptoms like paranoia, persecutory delusions, and functional impairments found symptom relief by VR-based cognitive therapy. Some studies have found that addiction disorders like substance use and gambling demonstrated that VR could provide a safe environment to undergo exposure therapy without relapse. Body image disorders seem to respond well to VR as well, with bulimia and binge eating disorder patients experiencing symptom relief for up to a year after VR therapy.

VR has also been applied to the management of neurodevelopmental differences as well. Promising results have emerged, revealing that VR improved attention span similar to the more traditional continuous performance test training but with greater enthusiasm from participants. Some therapists use VR to help children on the autism spectrum develop social skills in a consequence-free environment with guidance from a therapist.

An Educational Tool

The field of medicine does not only benefit from VR as a treatment, but also as a powerful educational tool. VR is enabling immersive training programs that can reduce costs by avoiding costly props and other expenses. These simulations have the advantage of being versatile and highly customizable. The SimX system, for example, allows for the creation of tailor-made simulations to match the specific needs of each user. This is especially useful for training for less common conditions wherein finding simulations would require travel or pose a long wait time.

Finally, VR is bringing the promise of remote learning to new levels. With VR and online services, learners worldwide can work together to tackle each scenario in real-time. In times of social distancing and learning from home, VR provides an alternative to endless web meetings that is both engaging and effective.

Conclusion

The field of medicine is finally reaping the benefits of decades of advancements in VR technology and public interest. Although more research is needed to determine the best methods to use VR in healthcare, it is apparent that the technology will play an ever-increasing role in medicine in the coming years and shape the future of medical education.

April 21, 2021

4 Surprising Ways COVID-19 Has Forced the World to Innovate

Digital transformation is a conversation that is and was taking place before COVID-19. Businesses wanted to know how to become more competitive, reactive, and efficient, and how services for users can be improved. McKinsey’s global survey of 889 executives reported that COVID-19 certainly accelerated digital transformation by several years in some sectors. Many of these changes are expected to remain in place long-term.

Here, we take a look at the top COVID-19 tech trends and how they will remain part of our lives in the future, post-pandemic.

Qualcomm XR1 AR Reference Design — Image credit: Spatial

Are remote working and virtual reality training the future?

Remote working was clearly one of the biggest COVID-19 tech trends. The number of people remote working took a quantum leap as we were forced to stay in our homes and continue working as normal where possible.

Hybrid office and remote working models are likely to continue following the pandemic. The pandemic has disrupted cultural and technological barriers that prevented working from home in the past, creating a social shift in workplace expectations. McKinsey predicts that over 20 per cent of the global workforce could be working remotely three to five days a week. This would have a significant impact on local economies, transportation, and general spending.

Virtual training took precedence in the education and corporate world, with the widespread adoption of online activity fuelling this. While some may be concerned about effectively emulating an in-person learning experience when training remotely, virtual reality training can deliver exactly that. Virtual reality training helps to create a live, synchronous virtual environment and has been used in healthcare and medicine, engineering and auto manufacturers, and many more industries.

A report from PwC in 2020 forecasted that around 23.5 million jobs across the world will be using augmented and virtual reality by 2030 for training, meetings, and customer service. Virtual reality is cost-effective, practical, and a safe place to learn new skills.

Contactless payments

The COVID-19 pandemic changed how we pay for things. The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommended that we avoid cash and use contactless. Contactless payment has been a popular option for many years and has now become the preferred way to pay for the majority. So much so that research has reported that 54 per cent of shoppers would change to a retailer that provided contactless payment.

From start to finish, this technology has gone more mainstream, with mobile and contactless payments becoming the norm. It is predicted that this will become the standard method to pay, with faster, convenient, and secure checkouts that will dictate consumer behaviours.

Virtual reality tourism

The concept of virtual reality tourism would’ve likely been a futuristic one. Nobody would have ever predicted we would be staying in our own countries all year with airline companies struggling to stay afloat. That’s leaving plenty of us frustrated with a holiday itch to scratch. More and more of us are turning to virtual reality to relieve this demand for travel.

Virtual reality travel experiences are possible through headsets that give users realistic access to places like Antarctica and the pyramids in Egypt. Currently, virtual reality is used to help travellers decide where they want to go. It allows customers to take 360-degree tours of resorts, directly book their flights, and choose seats on planes, and specific hotel rooms at home.

The world needs sustainable tourism, and this is becoming a viable option to cut down emissions. This can also help preserve historic sites that are being damaged through mass tourism. Although virtual reality tourism isn’t intended to replace the experience of real-world travelling, it can help keep interest alive in locations abroad.

3D printing and laser scanning

Logistics and supply chains have been disrupted during COVID-19, resulting in shortages of goods. 3D printing has been adopted rapidly in many instances during the COVID-19 pandemic, with factories manufacturing on-demand resources for essential services like personal protective equipment and ventilators for healthcare.

The market study firm CONTEXT commented: “The demands made of printers in all price ranges increased as they were used to create pandemic-related items ranging from PPE to nasopharyngeal swabs.

“While this could not fully compensate for lost demand from closed markets (such as consumer products, education, and the dental and automotive industries), it clearly demonstrated the flexibility of the technology, showing how it can be leveraged to help overcome supply-chain disruptions and could, in future, be so used across many industries.”

The flexibility of 3D printing shows the value this can hold across industries. It allowed organisations to act quicker than other manufacturing technologies in the production process, removing the need to rely on complex supply chains that were disrupted. It would be a wise investment for the future.

COVID-19 has innovated tech in many different ways. It has changed everything from the way we do mundane things like pay for goods to how essential services are facilitated through specialist 3D printing equipment.

February 6, 2021

Defining the Next Normal for Immersive Concert Experiences

Entering 2020, no one could have imagined the real-time metamorphosis which would occur on the digital frontier over the next 14 months. Those who had been heralding an “immersive revolution” likely saw their pioneering foresight rewarded to some degree, as both businesses and consumers were thrust into spontaneous adoption of unfamiliar trends.

In the realm of live music experience, a few content platforms shrewdly pivoted to meet demands, while, as the year progressed, power players and decision makers were forced to take seriously this previously ignored (and therefore largely non-existent) landscape.

Now, as we embark on the furtherance of that journey into 2021, we are at least afforded a small bit of perspective, gained from the meaningful virtual music experiences which did occur. Furthermore, there is enough user-adoption data to speak for itself, and the table appears set for virtual concerts to occupy at least some portion of the total market take, even once the world resembles its former self.

Just what percentage of the market they will occupy is the looming question. And what impending breakthroughs can we expect in the coming year? While not a definitive case-study, the below reflects a reasonably comprehensive snapshot of the current and near-future virtual concert ecosystem.

Virtual Livestreams

At the onset of stay-at-home orders, the internet played host to an onslaught of typical artist livestreams, most of which were not monetized, and many of which felt like nothing more than webcam rehearsals. Removing for a moment the semantics surrounding the term “virtual” as an apt delineator for what a typical livestreamed performance represents, a few artists managed to manufacture splashy online concert experiences which felt more immersive and nudged the medium slightly forward.

To wit, major pop acts like Dua Lipa and Gorillaz, along with indie-cult darlings Glass Animals, and even 72-year-old event-music pioneer Jean-Michel Jarre all put forth meaningful livestream contributions last year in terms of attendance/revenue, spectacle, and just plain entertainment value.

Reports seem to indicate that these shows stacked-up with real-world event parameters, garnering significant participation from the artists’ respective fan-base(s), and boasting recoupment which vastly exceeds their production budgets. This is especially noteworthy, as it not only signifies that there’s viable business to be done during lockdown, but that a good percentage of any artist’s tribe is willing—even may prefer at present—to plop down dollars to watch the show from home.

What made these shows special, in particular—aside from obvious factors of them being established artists with huge fan-bases and major label production and marketing budgets—is that they were really the first to employ real-world staging and lighting techniques in a typical livestream format. This, in hindsight, serves as a no-brainer since the tech surrounding live concerts is arguably the highest form of live entertainment, and certainly what commands a premium price-point.

Given the healthy financials and public reaction to this format, it is safe to expect a tidal wave of copycats throughout 2021, which also runs the risk of consumer fatigue, just not any time soon. Furthermore, online enterprises like LiveNow and Veeps have emerged to assist with the streaming and ticketing components, quietly building the requisite user-base to eventually go mainstream.

VR Video:

There are also live-action VR video stalwarts like CEEK and MelodyVR (aka Napster?) still in the mix. While revolutionary in their conceit, neither service holds even a 4-star rating on any app store, with users objecting to both content resolution and streaming fidelity (some “concerts” are just a flat 2D stream with a graphic backplate). For companies which were founded several years ago, it registers as a collective fumble to not have further capitalized on these unprecedented market circumstances.

Platform-based Experiences

Gaming:

The next media sector to cause shockwaves across both the music and entertainment industries were established gaming platforms. Following up on their wildly popular pre-COVID concert with Marshmello, Epic Games’ Fortnite single-handedly redefined the conversation of virtual music events with their Travis Scott experience, and then later with another offering from LatinX superstar J Balvin. Not to be outdone, the user-generated online worlds of Roblox—with their Lil Nas X merch-moving extravaganza—along with the sandbox-style institution, Minecraft—where pop-up performances and virtual festivals regularly occur inside—each managed to cause a significant real-world stir.

It stands to reason, mind you, that these enterprises would be among the first to join the immersive concert party since they are so well-capitalized, and essentially just exploiting an existing captive audience. What will be particularly interesting to see, going forward, is if these events continue to serve as glorified marketing schemes, or rather, if they represent a substantial head start for each company on creation of their own metaverse.

Social VR:

Perhaps the most unquantifiable realm in the war to capture sequestered users’ attention, is that of platform-based Social VR. There are a multitude of consumer options, with users generally corralled into one or the other based on what their headset manufacturer promotes, or by word-of-mouth invitation.

Whatever the case, the landscape seems to have whittled down to a handful of real players: Venues (part of the Facebook/Oculus ecosystem, whose offerings have included shows from Steve Aoki, Jayden Smith and Major Lazer); AltspaceVR (regarded as the “original” social VR platform, now owned by Microsoft and becoming a favourite of entry-level developers to host virtual conferences and nightclubs); Sansar (a VR offshoot of the online Second Life platform, where well-known DJ dance parties and virtual EDM festivals are becoming commonplace); Wave (a pioneering VR music app-turned-social platform, whose virtual concert featuring The Weeknd reimagined social engagement); and, VRChat (an MMO-style social platform known for its whimsical avatar options and adult-centric environment).

Not without foibles, this market segment alone could warrant a breakout dissertation on the merits and prospects of each platform. Suffice to say, there is a lot of action inside these neo-virtual social clubs. With artists (and their management) getting hip to the opportunity to engage fans—often for competitive performance fees—along with users beginning to host their own gatherings where they can dance as avatars while interacting with old and new friends, alike, it’s safe to say we are just beginning to see the crossover potential of these worlds, not to mention the market ramifications.

Virtual Festivals:

Similar to established gaming platforms, certain established music festivals managed to execute a transmigration to the virtual realm in stunningly successful fashion. In fact, aside from premium livestreams (which are currently outliers to their format), the case can be made that this is the most successful type of virtual event to attract (or convert) erstwhile in-person attendees.

Of particular note, the hugely popular real-world music festival, Tomorrowland, was the first of its calibre to roll out a bespoke virtual version of itself. In what may retrospectively prove to have been a true “golden spike” moment, the event organizers profess to have sold over 1 million tickets. It was such a success, they did it again for New Year’s Eve, and are already teasing a year-round digital venue to host future shows. Not only does this revolutionize the virtual concert medium, but it sets the table for expansion and omnipresence for all major festivals, going forward. After all, no in-person festival could ever rival such attendance numbers.

Along those lines, one cannot speak about the at-large virtual concert landscape without making mention of the 2020 edition of Burning Man. Being traditionally scheduled later in the year, its directors had the luxury to outsource the festival’s transposition to a virtual realm to members of their loyal community. What resulted was a vast interconnected framework of different virtual venues (largely led by the creation of a central VR hub called BRCvr) which, in the end, seemingly all managed to coalesce. Truly, what was created was the world’s largest working metaverse. This is not to say there aren’t a slew of kinks to still work out (see: framework and hardware incompatibility, server performance issues, etc.). But it’s certainly one of the boldest steps yet to defining what a new normal could look like. Best of all, the project is still living online and can be visited and utilized throughout the year.

The unifying factor of all these platform-based venues and experiences is game engine technology. Whether using Unity or Unreal, or even some standalone in-house creation, the graphic eye-candy and user agency afforded by this technology are unparalleled. There are still purist concerns that performers inside game engine-derived shows are largely computer-generated avatars of the real-life figures. And, of course, if one has to download an app or file container in order to access the platform, it will be difficult to wrestle market share away from bigger players without a commensurate marketing budget.

Still, the pros seem to outweigh the cons here, particularly relating to the potential for interactive concert experiences, and especially so long as we are to remain socially-distanced.

Future Prospects

While there are still myriad obstacles to overcome (e.g. connectivity issues, avatar uniformity, music licensing), it cannot be argued at the start of 2021 that the flood gates are bursting with growth and expansion potential, which traditionally means major investment is not far behind.

Couple that with the extreme advancements being made in the arenas of virtual production, volumetric and light field capture, and even a rekindling of motion capture technology for VR, we can only surmise that the near future of this budding mass medium is as exciting (and potentially profitable) as any media vertical. The announcement last month at (virtual) CES by Sony of their cross-platform immersive music experience from Madison Beer which utilized their long-gestating AXA capture stage is one example.

Honourable mention should also be offered to Redpill VR and Sensorium. They have been operating in stealth for several years, but have consistently managed to garner creative partnerships and fresh capital infusions, whilst waiting for the surrounding tech and potential market to mature. But, until we can see what they’re actually offering, it’s hard to assert that they will drive the market; rather, their success would be a by-product of a market that is finally catching up to their innovations.

WebXR:

Finally, it should be noted that the most promising arena of all the above to host virtual concerts may actually be that of WebXR. Given the fact that this “platform” can already host high-quality 2D, 360 and volumetric video, along with the more obvious fact that it’s the only 3D arena mentioned here which doesn’t require downloading an app-container to access (i.e. anyone with access to a webpage can experience it), this latent state seems anomalous. After all, companies like Facebook and Amazon hold heavy positions in its future, whether on the developer side or engineering side. Perhaps the only thing standing in the way of a proper coming-out party for WebXR is the existence of a seminal event with a noteworthy artist.

Conclusion

All told, the future for immersive concert experiences is wildly promising. Astute creatives and executives are getting smarter about this landscape every day, and audiences are adapting rapidly to whatever is on offer—not “en masse”, but they never do (lest we forget VR c. 2015-19).

And although a person could already fill their 2021 calendar with as much virtual activity as the real-world experience it would be replacing, the average quality of the experience still has far to rise.

We can remain hopeful that in the shadow of the greatest global challenge to take shape during any of our lifetimes, new rituals will emerge…spurred by fans and music lovers seeking to connect, artists and creators pushing to evolve, corporate backers willing to invest, and engineers ready to break the mold.

Along with everything else in 2021, the future wellbeing of the music industry may depend on it.

February 3, 2021

Consumer-Friendly AR Makes Its Way to Telecom

If there’s one feeling consumers have grown familiar with in their dealings with the telecom industry, it is – by all accounts – frustration. There’s just something about waiting for the cable guy to show up sometime between noon and 6 p.m. to fix your internet connection only to have him arrive late leaving with the issue unresolved. It’s the same old song and dance, which is probably why the telecom industry consistently ranks as one of the most hated by consumers.

And now, with a pandemic raging across much of the world unchecked, waiting for the cable guy isn’t even an option. If a router goes down or the Wifi gets glitchy, consumers can’t even sit and wait around for a technician. In fact, a January 2021 survey by TechSee, a technology provider to some of the world’s biggest telecoms, found that 65 percent of consumers would rather avoid technician visits unless absolutely necessary. What’s more, 60 percent would consider ceasing business with a company following a technician visit that did not meet their safety expectations.

Pandemic or not, though, waiting for a tech is becoming a thing of the past. And that’s very much welcomed news by the vast majority of the internet and cable-loving population.

Contactless Service

The COVID-19 pandemic has fueled the rapid acceleration of technology adoption by some of the world’s largest telecom companies. Companies searching for ways to provide effective and fast contactless service have found a little bit of secret sauce in augmented reality (AR).

Most recently, Verizon and Vodafone have started experimenting with the technology. Consumers, for their part, seem to be overjoyed.

The introduction of AR has brought a visual element to the table that is the key to successful contactless interactions with customers. Visual technologies have three core elements:

Video

Video or images let technicians or remote experts actually see the devices in their environment (think wireless router, cable modem, TV set, etc.)

Augmented Reality

AR – the technology where graphical information is displayed over a physical environment – provides interactive guidance and clear notations to technicians and field workers.

Computer Vision

Imagine if your smartphone or tablet had eyes and could see. That’s essentially what technicians get with computer vision tech. It’s the science of teaching machines to see, learn, and identify everything from device ports, cables, LED lights, wiring – you name it. Computer Vision relies on a visual knowledge base that’s ever-expanding, making it easier to determine common issues and to develop automatic responses to those issues.

How it Works in the Wild

It’s not just a pipedream. The tech is here. It’s really a matter of adoption.

When a customer needs assistance, an agent or virtual technician can instruct the customer from a remote location using AR for visual guidance. Instead of orally explaining how to reset a wireless router, a technician – sometimes hundreds or thousands of miles away from the customer – is able to show the customer what to do using an AR overlay right on their smartphone or tablet.

The strategy has proved successful for companies like Vodafone. When the pandemic hit, Vodafone recognized that their usage of visual assistance represented both a competitive advantage and an indication of business continuity, and heavily advertised the service on their website. Other telecoms stepped up to meet the need of the day. For example, Verizon instituted Fios in a Box to help their subscribers self-install triple-play services, while keeping their technicians out of people’s homes.

Empowering customers to resolve their own telecom-related issues through visual assistance reduces the need for technicians to be dispatched on-site, which ultimately translates into millions in savings and a better customer experience.

Visual Self-Service – The Next Step

Remote visual assistance, for all its benefits, still relies on a technician to guide the end-user. The stuff that really dazzles consumers – and what seems to be in popular demand these days – is no interaction with anyone. At all.

Self-service tools are just the ticket, giving consumers everything they need to simply fix and address issues themselves without ever having to interact with a support agent or technician. For example, imagine you’re stuck at home with a TV that’s giving you nothing but static. Using visual self-service, a consumer would simply point their phone at the television and a virtual assistant could recognize the make, model, and guide the customer through a fix via a series of on-screen AR instructions. Think Snapchat but, you know, with an actual purpose.

The Future is Here. Now.

If it sounds like the stuff of sci-fi fantasy, it’s because even a few years ago it basically was. The COVID-19 pandemic has jammed a decade of innovation into little more than a year or two. The result? The next time your internet goes down, you might never need to speak with an actual person. And if past consumer frustrations are any indication, that just maybe a good thing.

January 18, 2021

How VR is Challenging Content Consumption & Creation

Virtual reality (VR) is a new medium which allows an array of creative talent to challenge the way we experience art. Whether it’s something as simple as an IMAX-style experience at home, or completely changing your viewpoint so that you’re a part of the film itself, moving between characters and breaking free of the frame.

VR has become an important part of every major film festival, and I’m excited that Viveport has become the go-to destination for film festivals. We’ve worked with the BFI London Film Festival, New Images, Raindance, IDFA, Stereopsia, Venice, and many more.

The Venice Film Festival felt like another landmark last year. The judging panel was comprised of three incredible names, one of the most exciting line-ups I’ve seen to date.

Celine Tricart led the panel – she’s a pioneer in VR and has rightly won awards at every major festival, including last year’s Venice Film Festival Grand Jury Prize for Best Immersive VR. Celine’s work is captivating and pushes the boundaries every time.

Asif Kapadia joined Celine. Asif has an amazing catalogue of work and is the director of acclaimed documentaries, Senna, Amy, and Diego Maradona – if you haven’t seen them, I urge you to track them down. He is a master of storytelling, demonstrated beautifully in everything he does, so it’s great to see such an artist join the panel.

The final judge was Hideo Kojima. A legend who has helped to change how videogames are made and experienced, and make the world recognise the art of storytelling in games. Kojima-san has previously spoken about his hopes for VR, and how it has great potential for creators.

Having such a visionary panel is a great cause for optimism for the future, VR is attracting the top talent from across the world, and is only going to get better.

Hardware and content creation is also getting easier and more intuitive every day. In the past, we’ve seen VR used to help create major motion pictures like Ready Player One and John Wick – helpful in production and direction. New technology is always coming through to help high-end film making to be even more accessible, and things like face-tracking and physical trackers keep breaking down the barriers for techniques like motion capture.

And as you see with the Venice Film Festival there are more and more people creating content for VR, not just with VR. The genius mind behind The Mandalorian, Jon Favreau, also released Gnomes & Goblins this year – another new way to experience storytelling in VR.

I’ve talked about the film industry a lot, but that’s only the tip of the iceberg. Last year also saw the Victoria & Albert Museum in London launch its first VR experience, with Alice: Curiouser and Curiouser, supported by Vive. Icelandic artist Kristjana S. Williams was commissioned to create new content for the exhibition, and Vive/PRELOADED to create a sensational immersive experience. It was the first time the prestigious museum had experimented with a VR-based exhibition and another brilliant example of how new technology can be used to share stories.

And let’s not forget the fashion show with RYOT and the Fashion Innovation Agency at the London College of Fashion, helping the next generation of talent to explore their creativity. Unencumbered by the limitations of physics, they designed some truly stunning work which changes how you think about fashion.

2021 is going to be another amazing year for content creators, and I can’t wait to see what they dream up next.

January 13, 2021

VR in Therapy: VR’s Positive Impact on Mental Health

When we think of virtual reality I tend to think of gaming and fun virtual experiences. But the benefits of VR stretch far wider than just entertainment – Both virtual and augmented reality (VR/AR) have been used in a range of industries like sport, surgery and even dogs in the military. And, one other area that is seeing an increased benefit is mental health.

Mental health continues to be a growing concern nationally, with mental illness estimated to be costing the UK economy up to £100billion a year with it being reported that 1 in 4 people in England will experience a mental health problem of some kind each year. In addition, it’s predicted that the impact of Covid-19 will see up to 10 million people needing mental health support as a direct consequence of the crisis. That’s almost 20% of the population of England needing additional support from an already burdened system.

Virtual reality has already been assisting treatments for mental illnesses, such as phobias, anxiety, eating disorders and post-traumatic stress disorder. Digital apps are already widely being used by the NHS to support patient’s mental health and with the cost of technologies falling, it’s predicted that medical care and therapy will seek to further utilise digital technologies to include wider use of VR in mental health care.

VR therapy and its promising impact

There is currently a clinical trial taking place across NHS trusts throughout the UK, the largest of its kind, led by the University of Oxford and Oxford Health NHS Foundation Trust, which sees participants with severe mental health disorders challenge their fears through VR therapy. Under the guidance of a virtual coach, the gameChange VR study aims to allow participants to complete everyday tasks that they might have otherwise felt overwhelmed by.

Dr Rob Dudley, consultant clinical psychology and lead for the gameChange VR study at Northumberland, Tyne and Wear NHS Foundation Trust explained: “By using virtual reality technology treatment people can experience feared places like a local shop, cafe or GP surgery in a virtual environment which feels real enough to allow people learn how to manage, and that they are safer than they feel.”

Although the trial is still in early stages and continuing over the course of 18 months, it is hoped that by users experiencing challenges in a realistic virtual environment, they will be able to manage their fears and anxieties in a controlled way without the added real-world stressors.

VR therapy vs. face-to-face therapy

OxfordVR is one of the partners of the gameChange VR study. Founded by Daniel Freeman, the team behind OxfordVR believe that an effective mental health treatment plan is an active one, where the patient can practice helpful behaviours in realistic situations, something that is not always possible during face-to-face therapy.

Daniel Freeman is a pioneer in the use of VR treatments for mental health patients after he first began working with VR in 2001. In 2017 he conducted research by reviewing 285 studies from a 25 year period that had used VR to treat mental health conditions. His review concluded that: “the results unequivocally confirm that VR is a proven modality for delivering rapid, lasting improvements for patients.”

This research was followed up by a trial in 2018 conducted by OxfordVR and University of Oxford, where Freeman is professor of Clinical Psychology. The trial saw 100 people with a prolonged fear of heights either receive VR therapy or no treatment. Those who received VR therapy experienced 5 treatment sessions guided by a virtual assistant, resulting in an average 68% reduction in their fear of heights.

Freeman explained: “Virtual reality is transforming psychological therapy in all sorts of areas…There are very few conditions VR can’t help because, in the end, every mental health problem is about dealing with a problem in the real world, and VR can produce that troubling situation for you.”

The benefits of VR therapy

VR systems produce a controlled environment, with therapists able to control what a patient sees and hears. They are also able to make adjustments and provide a tailored approach to the individual needs of the patient. Guided virtually, patients experience a safe space to develop their emotional responses.

VR therapy offers an accessible solution to people seeking help for their mental health. While many can hit a stumbling block finding a therapist, or meeting a therapist face-to-face, VR allows the user to access therapists from home without wait times with systems even able to be used with mobile devices and smartphones.

Dr Albert “Skip” Rizzo, the Director of Medical Virtual Reality at USC’s Institute for Creative Technologies, spoke at the Psych Congress Elevate conference in 2020, stating that VR should be used as a tool in conjunction with traditional methods: “We’re not eliminating the need for well-trained clinicians,” he said. “In fact, what we’re really doing is giving clinicians tools to extend their skills. Technology doesn’t fix anyone. It’s a tool in the hands of a well-trained clinician.”

Where does VR therapy go from here?

When I first started investigating VR within therapy I was taken back by how much positive influence the technology had already impacted the industry. And like most industries, it’s not about replacing the current working methods, but instead, it’s about enhancing them and making life better.

With VR therapy being more cost-effective and easy to use, it’s looking to be a promising solution to the growing mental health crisis in the UK in 2021. Although more studies need to be completed, as evidence of its efficacy continues to rise, VR therapy will become more available and be used more widely.

January 8, 2021

What’s Happened & What’s to Come, VR’s Rollercoaster 2020/21

To say 2020 was tumultuous would be generous. So firstly, I hope everyone has been keeping safe and well.

When I think about the industry in 2020, it was a landmark year for VR, and actually for the overall XR vision of where we’re headed to. This year the demand for all home-based entertainment increased, as a direct result of COVID restrictions. But that doesn’t tell the whole story. This year has seen several huge games in VR, Half-Life: Alyx, Star Wars: Squadrons and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

And in B2B, remote working was proven to work, meaning a rise in tools which support remote collaboration. Adoption of VR-based tools has been increasing across a range of industries for everything from designing products, through to carrying out basic training for employees.

Consumer

Let’s have a look at consumer VR first. COVID was one of several factors which continued the acceleration of consumer VR. Normally there’s a seasonal pattern to sales, but we saw more of a steady upward line in 2020 instead of the usual cyclical trend.

It’s important to note that the market has started to mature more and segment. Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2 showed there’s enough demand for more casual games and a pick-up-and-go experience. But high-end graphics and experience require a PC, and just as with the console vs PC market, we’re seeing the VR industry segment along those lines.

There were a number of AAA games coming to VR this year. Half-Life: Alyx was a thrilling demonstration of what can be achieved when a game is designed for VR. It was intuitive, heart-stopping, and a worthy addition to the fabled Half-Life story. Our Vive Cosmos Elite launched at just the right time for people to enjoy Half-Life: Alyx, and we heard a lot of people loved the experience. Star Wars: Squadrons was another favourite for a lot of people – the immersion of VR changes the way you play, and Microsoft Flight Simulator will be an early Christmas present for a lot of people, too.

A wider trend this year has been privacy – we saw it with the various COVID tracking apps, and that kept the topic in the public eye. Facebook has seen a visceral reaction from a number of developers and users due to the requirement of using a Facebook account for the Quest 2. It remains to be seen exactly how big a barrier that creates, but VR is a unique technology in how it effectively introduces multiple cameras in your home, so privacy is an entirely valid concern. We remain committed to safeguarding user privacy and feel that will continue to be an important part of the decision-making process of consumers.

Industry

A part of the VR industry hard hit this year was Location Based Entertainment (LBE). That’s set to change in 2021, as normal life starts to resume. We’d actually seen the demand for LBEs increasing all over the world. Venues are regularly opening across the world, ranging from solo to multi-player experiences – there’s a lot of popularity for them across Asia and we’ve seen that demand grow in Europe and the Middle East as well.

Related to that, one of my favourite builds this year was the Danny MacCaskill experience at RIDE OUT in Amsterdam. Created by the magicians at REWIND and Cut Media, riders use a bike mounted on a motion control platform, with working brakes, drivetrain and steering, as they inch along perilous cliff edges, and race over mountain crests. It’s a great example of just how immersive VR can be, working seamlessly with real-world elements to produce something which truly makes you feel like you’re there.

B2B

It’s obvious that the pandemic was the main influence on 2020. It did finally mean that remote working was taken seriously, and that’s something which will shape the future. The vaccine is incredible news, and I’ve no doubt that people will return to working in offices, but it won’t be at the same scale as before – CCS Insight predicts that in 2022, over 50% of office-based workers will actually work remotely.

Anecdotally, I can tell you that in early Q2 when most of EMEA implemented lockdowns and travel restrictions, there was a short time where a lot of our external meetings were cancelled entirely – but quickly people adapted to working remotely and by mid-Q2 we ended up having more customer meetings than before.

Major companies across the world have already made it clear that they won’t ask employees to go back to the old model of working, embracing the opportunity to improve work/life balance, and not forcing people to live in major cities. The shift earlier this year meant suddenly hardware a big focus – do people have good laptops, screens, mics and webcams.

But that first stage of adjustment focused purely on hardware, and that’s not the full story. A good workplace is about collaboration, and as companies tried remote working for the first time, a lot of them encountered issues. We all know that meetings can be boring and people get easily distracted, especially when it’s a video call. From our research story on the future of remote collaboration, a third of respondents (36%) expressed exhaustion after being faced with hours of video calls, with nearly half (47%) craving more face-to-face meetings to break the monotony of Zoom calls.

That’s partly why we stepped up the launch of our Vive Sync tool, a great way to carry out meetings in VR. I did have someone ask me the other day – “I have a three-hour meeting, why would I do that in VR, wouldn’t it be uncomfortable?” – the honest answer is… is that meeting comfortable in real life? Are you able to focus for the entire time? Sometimes the problem is that we’ve become conditioned and accustomed to long meetings – we just accept the time drain. We’ve seen that people using Vive Sync are more focused and engaged. It’s good for presentations of any kind, and easily the best way to review a 3D model of a design/building/component.

And when it comes to any kind of design process, VR changes how organisations operate and work together. Bugatti saw a 40% reduction in design time through using VR, and Bell Helicopters went from a six-year to a six-month design time. We designed our Focus Plus headset in VR, and everyone from Adobe to Autodesk and more, have created tools for 3D design.

On the developer side of things, the industry continues to grow stronger. There’s more talent joining the industry every day, and projects range from crowdfunding through to corporate investment. The uncertainty around COVID meant that in some sectors investment slowed down, but Vive and Vive X continued to seek out the best talent across the world. One of our European highlights was investing in Emissive, a very exciting French company, whose VR builds blur the line between education and exploring, with immersive expeditions which bring faraway lands and lost eras to life.

2021

So what can we look forward to in 2021?

Hand-tracking was another hot topic for a bit of 2020 – most of the industry has been experimenting with it for quite some time. Our own SDK first launched in February 2019. Hand-tracking makes VR feel even more futuristic and intuitive and adds another new way for users to interact. 2021 will see more tech developed to make interactions natural – hand-tracking, more accurate body tracking, as well as facial expressions. It’s a level of immersion which won’t necessarily be immediately seen in consumer technology but will help in industry and trickle out to gaming as well.

In terms of users, segmentation will continue to develop in 2021, with the more casual end of the market expanding. We’ll keep seeing that progression, similar to the console vs PC debate, with both having attractive elements to different groups of users. Not everyone wants to invest in a full VR/PC kit, and not everyone wants just casual gaming or the tech limitations of trying to upgrade an AIO to PC-VR.

And that relates to something I’m really excited for in 2021 for VR. 2020 was a great year for PC graphics, and in the future we expect to see ray-tracing combined with foveated rendering, as the graphics card makers continue to push their technology. It’ll mean you’ll be able to experience better graphics for more of the time, as the area being rendered is essentially being super-sampled. Really sharp graphics will increase immersion even more and allow game developers to create experiences like nothing you’ve ever seen before.

And as a result of consumer VR user segmentation, hardware will follow suit. We’ll continue to see high-end PC-VR hardware take more advanced leaps. And at the other end of the spectrum, we’ll see more activity as well.

The early efforts at VR viewers had low barriers but also clunky execution. The leading processors in smartphones are now very impressive and capable of powering VR viewers, so we expect to see the rise of All-in-Two devices – lightweight glasses which are connected to a smartphone. It’s technology we’ve looked at for some time, tackling the problem from multiple angles including working with chip manufacturer industry leaders Qualcomm to create the VIVE Wave platform, meaning powerful smartphones running 5G can drive XR experiences.

The high-end of the B2B market has already seen a flurry of device launches at the end of 2020, again proving the demand. We feel there will be some more consumer-focused announcements in 2021 as tech takes another step forward.

Omdia predicts that by 2025 the VR industry will be worth $10bn, and 2021 is a critical element, continuing the momentum built this year now that VR is undoubtedly established.

December 21, 2020

Virtual Education: Best Practices when Facilitating Immersive Experiences

With the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, educators and school boards began exploring ways to approach online learning and stay connected with their students. While many of these virtual experiences and distanced classroom tools aren’t completely new to the education industry, this period of crisis compelled administrators and teachers to learn more about VR, explore its versatility, and experience for themselves how effective it can be in the classroom.

Virtual education through VR was a popular tool prior to the worldwide lockdown. Teachers have noted how presenting information in VR versus traditional methods like lectures, powerpoints, or textbooks, allow students to digest and understand the material quicker and more thoroughly. Specific places, moments in history or complex systems like the human body become more real and new information about these topics is no longer abstract.

Like any tool, however, how VR is used in the classroom to greatest effectiveness is the next question – while we can inherently understand the value of being immersed in a topic of study, the experience of VR can be an isolating one. Using this technology in education must come with its own process to be fully integrated into the curriculum.

Keep it Student-Centered

VR learning works best when information or story-based learning is presented from a first-person perspective. Since VR targets the user’s audio and visual learning centred experiences feel like you’re present and have a first-person perspective, allowing students to relate to the content more and to take in information from their own perspective. With using these capabilities in education applications, students are able to see topics that are covered in the syllabus with better context. There’s also an opportunity to explore concepts that would be either too expensive to demonstrate in class. This may mean witnessing science experiments that are too dangerous or expensive to reproduce, exploring biology and body systems in detail that would be impossible for most public schools, or witnessing daily customs from remote locations in a social studies course that brings the world to life without leaving the classroom.

Pay Attention to the Sequence

Experienced teachers know that whether they are with the same students in a classroom all day or seeing different groups for specific classes, timing and order of lessons are an important part of the curriculum and how it is received by students. For longer classes, you may notice that sometimes your student’s attention may drop off close to the middle portion of the class. There have been psychological studies on how people can recall information better when it’s presented towards the beginning and end – known as the Serial Position Effect. If you tend to notice your student’s attention starting to drift around halfway through the lesson, following the format of having more challenging concepts presented in the beginning, transitioning into VR learning, and recapping everything at the end could keep them focused and engaged with an exciting yet informative experience.

VR allows students some time to focus, blocking out the classroom and its distractions and can reinforce concepts introduced not only by being immersive but by being individually paced, viewed by a single person in a headset. However, since it can be an isolating experience, and monitoring multiple students’ headsets at once may be challenging, in-person re-caps and discussions about the content can round out the lesson.

Give Opportunities to Collaborate

The idea of discussing what was witnessed in VR brings us to another key part of using this media in the classroom – learning to hold discussions around something that may have been viewed individually and extract a group experience. Although the teacher is the main leader of discussions in the classroom, peer learning can be just as effective in nurturing a student’s understanding of a subject. This informal way of teaching and learning not only helps students practice and review what they have just learned, but it creates an active learning space where they can slowly build up their confidence with the content. While VR may sometimes get a bad reputation for being isolating, there are countless opportunities to make it collaborative. This could take the form in completing a group project inside a virtual environment or allow students to take turns in the space and come back together for a discussion. Plus, especially for classrooms still doing remote learning, virtual environments provide the perfect platform for students to still meet and work together regardless of the location.

Integrate VR with What You Already Use

VR is an incredibly powerful tool, one that can really transform the future of learning. However, for some of the reasons already discussed, and its cost and the logistical challenges of monitoring headset activity, we anticipate it being used in certain situations and covering certain topics in a limited way. A common misconception when it comes to VR applications is the need to rewrite whole curriculums and syllabuses in order to accommodate using the technology. But the beauty of VR is that it can be shaped, moulded, and work alongside the topics and assignments already created. VR should ultimately be used as an enhancement to existing content and an opportunity to explore what might seem impossible to view – but it will never be able to cover all topics – some things are better discussed and experienced in person. Tools used in the classroom should ultimately provide added value and support to the class.

Keep it Fun!

VR is new enough that most people haven’t used it extensively. The best practices are evolving for this new media, so acknowledging that the best laid plans may go awry is part of adding this to the classroom. Experiences may take different amounts of time than were allotted, or students may be so interested in the format they need to repeat the experience to take in the content. So don’t forget that the entertainment and fun value are part of the tool. Much like when computers were first introduced to the classroom, along with the software they were running, they provided an education in learning something new, and engaging with a new tool as part of the learning challenge. Most of the educational applications for VR present subjects and information in a game-like manner, making it much more enjoyable to learn about subjects that can sometimes be a little dry or boring. Like many adults, students probably need a few minutes when they begin a VR experience to just look around and take it in before diving into content, so be sure to build in time for exploration. Most hardware headsets are pretty intuitive, requiring only seconds to learn so that shouldn’t be a barrier.

Virtual Education – The Next Generation of Learning

While most educators haven’t had the opportunity to get well acquainted with VR, the benefits for students to be immersed and see what would otherwise be impossible should make the technology a game-changer in education. It’s time to start exploring solutions that go beyond lengthy textbooks and pixelated diagrams. When virtual education has been carefully thought out and done right, it can make a world of a difference in helping students understand concepts and theories immediately.