Virtual and Augmented Reality 2016

raconteur.
net
INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY
#0409
05 / 10 / 2016
VIRTUAL &
AUGMENTED REALITY
03
TRY SEEING LIFE THROUGH

A DIFFERENT LENS
Virtual and augmented reality are leaping into unexpected spaces
08
YOU HAVENT SEEN

ANYTHING YET
VR promises a different view

of cinema, TV and online video
10
TASTE AND TRY

BEFORE YOU BUY
VR and AR are moving into the

high street and mainstream retail
14
TREATING INJURED
MINDS AND BODIES
VR is helping to rebuild broken

lives in the healthcare sector
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY
03
David Ramos / Stringer / Getty Images
RACONTEUR
VIRTUAL &
AUGMENTED REALITY
DISTRIBUTED IN
RACONTEUR
PUBLISHING MANAGER
Rebecca Wetten
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Benjamin Chiou
MANAGING EDITOR
Peter Archer
HEAD OF PRODUCTION
Natalia Rosek
DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER
Lorna North
DESIGN
Samuele Motta
Grant Chapman
Kellie Jerrard
Seeing life through

a different lens
CONTRIBUTORS
JONATHAN BELL
DANNY BUCKLAND
IAN BURRELL
SOPHIE CHARARA
Editor at large at
Wallpaper* magazine,
author and former
contributing editor of
Blueprint, he specialises
in architectural design.
Former assistant editor

and media editor of The
Independent, and an
Insight Team investigative
reporter at The Sunday
Times, he is author of The
News Business column for
The Drum and The Media
Column in the i newspaper.
NICK EASEN
Award-winning freelance
journalist and broadcaster,
he produces for BBC
World News and writes on
business, economics, science,
technology and travel.
Both virtual and augmented reality have huge potential

to leap from visual entertainment to transform the
industrial and service sectors
Award-winning health
journalist, he writes for
national newspapers and
magazines, and blogs on
health innovation and
technology.
Features editor at
Wearable.com, she was
formerly the in-house
gadget reviewer for
Stuff magazine.
CHARLES
ORTON-JONES
Award-winning journalist,
he was editor-at-large of
LondonlovesBusiness.com
and editor of EuroBusiness.
EDWIN SMITH
Writer and editor, he

contributes to publications
including The Guardian
and The Sunday Telegraph.
Although this publication is funded through advertising and

sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features
are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 8616 7400 or e-mail
info@raconteur.net
Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content
and research. Its publications and articles cover a wide range
of topics, including business, finance, sustainability, healthcare, lifestyle and technology. Raconteur special reports are
published exclusively in The Times and The Sunday Times as well
as online at raconteur.net
The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct.
However, no legal liability can be accepted for any errors. No
part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior
consent of the Publisher. Raconteur Media
BUSINESS
CULTURE
OVERVIEW
SOPHIE CHARARA
group of schoolchildren are

watching an ancient sea
dragon peel itself off the
walls of Londons Natural
History Museum and come back to
life. But its not just kids who marvel
at what virtual reality (VR) is already
capable of, its grandparents, factory
workers, doctors, even jaded technology journalists. Research firm CCS Insight predicts that 800,000 VR headsets will sell in the UK in 2016 and 15
million worldwide. Its not smartphone
numbers, but for essentially year one
of sales, its mighty promising.
When we talk about VR, were talking about those boxy, closed headsets with high resolution displays,
lenses and head-tracking sensors.
They are designed to visually immerse the wearer in 360-degree videos and computer-generated animation with 3D audio and vibrating or
rumbling accessories and controllers to enhance the effect.
So far in 2016, VR has been dominated by PC accessories the HTC Vive
and Facebook-owned Oculus Rift
which have been in tens of thousands
of gamers houses for six months and
Samsungs 80 Gear VR headsets
which are powered by Galaxy phones.
October is shaping up to be a
game-changing month for VR.
Google is detailing top-tier content
(HBO, IMAX, Hulu) and hardware
(Samsung, HTC, LG) partners for its
new open Daydream platform, Facebooks Oculus Connect conference
is this week and Sonys PS4-compatible PlayStation VR finally ships on
October 13. It should sell millions.
FINANCE
HEALTHCARE
LIFESTYLE
By the end of the year, IMAX will augmented reality (AR) is more
have opened VR centres in Los An- difficult to get right than VR, but
geles, London, New York and Shang- has a longer-term future for enhai, and Utah-based The Void is tertainment, business and fundaplanning to roll out multi-sensory, mentally shifting how we interact
group VR experiences at arcades with computers. AR, in its most
around the world. A prediction: recent forms known as mixed rethanks to Google and Sonys afforda- ality, refers to smartglasses, helble headsets and new arcade-style mets and visors which layer realcentres, VR will be mainstream istic, 3D animated visuals over the
by Christmas.
real world.
It has become almost impossible
Apple chief executive Tim Cook
to miss VR in the last 12 months, has said AR is the larger of the
says CCS Insights Ben Wood. The two, by far because VR encloses
New York Times sent cardboard the wearer in a way that AR doesnt,
headsets to 1.5 miland Oculus has
admitted that getlion
subscribers
and
McDonalds
ting virtual game
created
Happy
characters, for inMeal boxes in Swestance, to inhabit
the same space as
den that could be
real humans and
turned into VR
objects could take
viewers. To drive
years, not months.
the take-up there
Lighting computneeds to be a steady
virtual reality headsets
stream of compeler generation corare expected to be sold
ling content berectly to match the
in the UK this year
physical room is
yond games.
Source:
a particular chalA new wave of
CCS Insight
influential creators
lenge. Still, Apple
is beginning to get
will soon be one of
involved in VR. Facebook and You- the only smartphone makers withTube both now support 360-degree out its own headset, although iPvideo. Oculus just won an Emmy for hones can access cardboard apps.
its animated short film Henry and Instead it is rumoured to be making
every day a new studio, director, early moves into AR.
developer or artist announces a VR
Microsoft with its HoloLens helseries, livestream or app. Batman, met, Intels Project Alloy prototype
Call of Duty, Bjork, Amazon Video, and Florida startup Magic Leap,
Netflix, Star Trek, Minecraft, the which has $1.5 billion of investOlympics, Sky Sports F1, New York ment behind it, have been demoing
Fashion Week, if youre not experi- futuristic mixed reality experiencmenting with VR in entertainment, es throughout 2016. Magic Leap is
youre leaving yourself behind.
more secretive, but weve seen demo
And yet, the common thread videos of everything from R2D2 and
in high-profile interviews is that C3PO in AR to how medical students
800k
SUSTAINABILITY
TECHNOLOGY
INFOGRAPHICS
could learn human anatomy with

the headgear.
Microsofts $3,000 development
kits can now be bought by the public, but with its small field of vision
for the AR visuals and that price,
this is no complete consumer product. The technology displays, lenses, batteries is what must improve
for AR to hit critical mass. Everyone
from Nasa to film director Peter
Jackson is waiting.
Being immersed in another environment or viewing digital content over
your field of view isnt just disrupting
entertainment. Developers and startups continue to explore AR and VRs
uses in industry, retail, education,
healthcare, therapy and journalism.
Instruction and training are being overhauled by innovative uses
of the technologies. Osterhout Design Groups AR smartglasses are
being used for telepresence for inflight emergencies so doctors can
instruct air crews while theyre still
in the air. And Metas headset targets both architects, for remote assistance, and teachers, for lessons
on chemistry and solar systems.
Still, its experimental.
We were too optimistic about
how quickly AR would be adopted,
says Mr Wood at CCS Insight. The
devices are too immature and most
deployments are small pilot studies.
We need devices with better battery life and improved field of view,
and companies need to see tangible
benefits. We expect pilot projects to
evolve in 2017 and are sure well see
momentum build in coming years.
Share this article online via
Raconteur.net
raconteur.net/virtual-augmented-reality-2016
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
03
David Ramos / Stringer / Getty Images
RACONTEUR
VIRTUAL &
AUGMENTED REALITY
DISTRIBUTED IN
RACONTEUR
PUBLISHING MANAGER
Rebecca Wetten
PRODUCTION EDITOR
Benjamin Chiou
MANAGING EDITOR
Peter Archer
HEAD OF PRODUCTION
Natalia Rosek
DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER
Lorna North
DESIGN
Samuele Motta
Grant Chapman
Kellie Jerrard
Seeing life through

a different lens
CONTRIBUTORS
JONATHAN BELL
DANNY BUCKLAND
IAN BURRELL
SOPHIE CHARARA
Editor at large at
Wallpaper* magazine,
author and former
contributing editor of
Blueprint, he specialises
in architectural design.
Former assistant editor

and media editor of The
Independent, and an
Insight Team investigative
reporter at The Sunday
Times, he is author of The
News Business column for
The Drum and The Media
Column in the i newspaper.
NICK EASEN
Award-winning freelance
journalist and broadcaster,
he produces for BBC
World News and writes on
business, economics, science,
technology and travel.
Both virtual and augmented reality have huge potential

to leap from visual entertainment to transform the
industrial and service sectors
Award-winning health
journalist, he writes for
national newspapers and
magazines, and blogs on
health innovation and
technology.
Features editor at
Wearable.com, she was
formerly the in-house
gadget reviewer for
Stuff magazine.
CHARLES
ORTON-JONES
Award-winning journalist,
he was editor-at-large of
LondonlovesBusiness.com
and editor of EuroBusiness.
EDWIN SMITH
Writer and editor, he

contributes to publications
including The Guardian
and The Sunday Telegraph.
Although this publication is funded through advertising and

sponsorship, all editorial is without bias and sponsored features
are clearly labelled. For an upcoming schedule, partnership inquiries or feedback, please call +44 (0)20 8616 7400 or e-mail
info@raconteur.net
Raconteur is a leading publisher of special-interest content
and research. Its publications and articles cover a wide range
of topics, including business, finance, sustainability, healthcare, lifestyle and technology. Raconteur special reports are
published exclusively in The Times and The Sunday Times as well
as online at raconteur.net
The information contained in this publication has been obtained from sources the Proprietors believe to be correct.
However, no legal liability can be accepted for any errors. No
part of this publication may be reproduced without the prior
consent of the Publisher. Raconteur Media
BUSINESS
CULTURE
OVERVIEW
SOPHIE CHARARA
group of schoolchildren are

watching an ancient sea
dragon peel itself off the
walls of Londons Natural
History Museum and come back to
life. But its not just kids who marvel
at what virtual reality (VR) is already
capable of, its grandparents, factory
workers, doctors, even jaded technology journalists. Research firm CCS Insight predicts that 800,000 VR headsets will sell in the UK in 2016 and 15
million worldwide. Its not smartphone
numbers, but for essentially year one
of sales, its mighty promising.
When we talk about VR, were talking about those boxy, closed headsets with high resolution displays,
lenses and head-tracking sensors.
They are designed to visually immerse the wearer in 360-degree videos and computer-generated animation with 3D audio and vibrating or
rumbling accessories and controllers to enhance the effect.
So far in 2016, VR has been dominated by PC accessories the HTC Vive
and Facebook-owned Oculus Rift
which have been in tens of thousands
of gamers houses for six months and
Samsungs 80 Gear VR headsets
which are powered by Galaxy phones.
October is shaping up to be a
game-changing month for VR.
Google is detailing top-tier content
(HBO, IMAX, Hulu) and hardware
(Samsung, HTC, LG) partners for its
new open Daydream platform, Facebooks Oculus Connect conference
is this week and Sonys PS4-compatible PlayStation VR finally ships on
October 13. It should sell millions.
FINANCE
HEALTHCARE
LIFESTYLE
By the end of the year, IMAX will augmented reality (AR) is more
have opened VR centres in Los An- difficult to get right than VR, but
geles, London, New York and Shang- has a longer-term future for enhai, and Utah-based The Void is tertainment, business and fundaplanning to roll out multi-sensory, mentally shifting how we interact
group VR experiences at arcades with computers. AR, in its most
around the world. A prediction: recent forms known as mixed rethanks to Google and Sonys afforda- ality, refers to smartglasses, helble headsets and new arcade-style mets and visors which layer realcentres, VR will be mainstream istic, 3D animated visuals over the
by Christmas.
real world.
It has become almost impossible
Apple chief executive Tim Cook
to miss VR in the last 12 months, has said AR is the larger of the
says CCS Insights Ben Wood. The two, by far because VR encloses
New York Times sent cardboard the wearer in a way that AR doesnt,
headsets to 1.5 miland Oculus has
admitted that getlion
subscribers
and
McDonalds
ting virtual game
created
Happy
characters, for inMeal boxes in Swestance, to inhabit
the same space as
den that could be
real humans and
turned into VR
objects could take
viewers. To drive
years, not months.
the take-up there
Lighting computneeds to be a steady
virtual reality headsets
stream of compeler generation corare expected to be sold
ling content berectly to match the
in the UK this year
physical room is
yond games.
Source:
a particular chalA new wave of
CCS Insight
influential creators
lenge. Still, Apple
is beginning to get
will soon be one of
involved in VR. Facebook and You- the only smartphone makers withTube both now support 360-degree out its own headset, although iPvideo. Oculus just won an Emmy for hones can access cardboard apps.
its animated short film Henry and Instead it is rumoured to be making
every day a new studio, director, early moves into AR.
developer or artist announces a VR
Microsoft with its HoloLens helseries, livestream or app. Batman, met, Intels Project Alloy prototype
Call of Duty, Bjork, Amazon Video, and Florida startup Magic Leap,
Netflix, Star Trek, Minecraft, the which has $1.5 billion of investOlympics, Sky Sports F1, New York ment behind it, have been demoing
Fashion Week, if youre not experi- futuristic mixed reality experiencmenting with VR in entertainment, es throughout 2016. Magic Leap is
youre leaving yourself behind.
more secretive, but weve seen demo
And yet, the common thread videos of everything from R2D2 and
in high-profile interviews is that C3PO in AR to how medical students
800k
SUSTAINABILITY
TECHNOLOGY
INFOGRAPHICS
could learn human anatomy with

the headgear.
Microsofts $3,000 development
kits can now be bought by the public, but with its small field of vision
for the AR visuals and that price,
this is no complete consumer product. The technology displays, lenses, batteries is what must improve
for AR to hit critical mass. Everyone
from Nasa to film director Peter
Jackson is waiting.
Being immersed in another environment or viewing digital content over
your field of view isnt just disrupting
entertainment. Developers and startups continue to explore AR and VRs
uses in industry, retail, education,
healthcare, therapy and journalism.
Instruction and training are being overhauled by innovative uses
of the technologies. Osterhout Design Groups AR smartglasses are
being used for telepresence for inflight emergencies so doctors can
instruct air crews while theyre still
in the air. And Metas headset targets both architects, for remote assistance, and teachers, for lessons
on chemistry and solar systems.
Still, its experimental.
We were too optimistic about
how quickly AR would be adopted,
says Mr Wood at CCS Insight. The
devices are too immature and most
deployments are small pilot studies.
We need devices with better battery life and improved field of view,
and companies need to see tangible
benefits. We expect pilot projects to
evolve in 2017 and are sure well see
momentum build in coming years.
Raconteur.net
raconteur.net/virtual-augmented-reality-2016
04
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
Virtual experience boosts results among students

Google
Virtual and augmented reality can enable teaching and training in situations which would otherwise be too hazardous, costly or even impossible in the real world
TRAINING
Education has
moved on from
books, pens and
pencils...
CASE STUDY: MINING INDUSTRY
EDWIN SMITH
While you can

collaborate with
one another in a
virtual world, it
leaves the physical
world behind AR
mixes the two and
potentially gets the
best of both
or the things we have to

learn before we can do
them, wrote Aristotle,
we learn by doing them.
Since 350BC, and probably long
before, humankind has recognised
the value and potential contradiction in learning by doing.
More recently, though, the
concept described in Aristotles
Nicomachean Ethics has been
bolstered by further scientific
evidence. Last year, a University
of Chicago study found that students who physically experience
scientific concepts, such as the
angular momentum acting on
a bicycle wheel spinning on an
axel that theyre holding, understand them more deeply and also
achieve significantly improved
scores in tests.
In the study, magnetic resonance

imaging showed that the group of
students who carried out the real-world experiments were more
likely to engage sensory and motor
areas of the brain when later thinking about the concepts they had
learnt about. Whats more, according to the professor who directed
the study: Those students who
physically experience difficult science concepts learn them better,
perform better in class and on
quizzes the next day, and the effect
seems to play out weeks later,
as well.
Some organisations and businesses have acknowledged the
same underlying principle for a
long time. In the aviation industry,
for example, flight simulators have
been used to train pilots to fly more
complicated aircraft for decades.
The benefits in terms of safety,
cost and learning are obvious, but
the characteristics of aviation gave
it an advantage that many other
industries and many other types of
learning havent been able to enjoy.
Now, though, that looks as if it may
be changing.
Backed by the financial might
Plextek
01
03
02
of Facebook after a $2-billion
acquisition in 2014, the Oculus
Rift virtual reality (VR) headset was released to consumers in
March when it was heralded as
the single most important development in the history of VR. As
more games, programmes and
VR environments are developed
for the 550 device, its influence
is likely to grow, but some people
are already taking advantage of
the technology.
The British Army have worked
with Cambridge-based company
Plextek to use Oculus Rift headsets
to train soldiers to respond during
Google
When students
have had a
360-degree
experience, the
questions they ask
tend to be much
more analytical,
higher-order
questions
01
Google Expeditions can drive
student interaction
and engagement
through virtual-reality field trips
02
Filming apparatus
used by Google
Expeditions
03
The British Army
works with Plextek
to train soldiers to
respond to injuries
in the field
the crucial 20-minute window

after an injury has been sustained by one of their colleagues
in the field, a time when specialised medical assistance often
isnt available.
There was a government act to
reduce the use of human tissue
in medical training, explains
Collette Johnson, director of medical at Plextek. While aiming to
ensure that training continued
to be conducted at a sufficiently
high standard, the military also
wanted to move away from typical
simulation that uses video projection and move towards more
remote systems, which dont require people to be in the same
room at the same time that frees
up space and provides a cost-saving, she says.
The VR system developed by
Plextek is voice-activated and requires users to take decisions in
real time about what to do on the
battlefield. As such, Ms Johnson
says, in its current form, it could

never completely replace handson medical training. But there are
other benefits. The framework
allows us to show what the knockon effects of a bad decision would
be. We can also record what people
are doing and then play it back to
them afterwards you learn a lot
more by viewing your mistakes
than being told your mistakes,
she says.
Learning and testing in this
way also tends to suit the young,
predominantly male demographic better from which the army
draws many of its recruits and
a VR system resembling a computer game is likely to be more
appealing than a classroom lesson
or written test.
But Oculus Rift isnt the only VR
tool helping organisations to train
and teach their people. Google
Cardboard, which allows anyone to
create a set of VR goggles by attaching a specially folded piece of card-
board to their smartphone, may

not be as sophisticated or immersive, but does have the benefit of
being cheaper.
This is one of the main reasons
its use in schools is being promoted by an Open University project
that aims to give virtual access to
places that time, cost or mobility
issues would have otherwise made
it more difficult to visit.
Professor Shailey Minocha, who
has been working on the Open University initiative, is encouraging
teachers to use the technology in
conjunction with another Google
innovation, Google Expeditions, to
help them prepare their students
for real-world field trips, or offer
some of the benefit of visiting locations such as the Great Barrier
Reef, Galapagos Islands or even
Londons Olympic Park.
We have found that it promotes
inquiry-based learning, says Professor Minocha. When students
have had a 360-degree experience,
the questions they ask tend to be
much more analytical, higher-order questions.
While students on a Google Expeditions field trip are equipped with
smartphones and the cardboard
add-ons, teachers have a tablet
computer with added information,
suggested questions and guidance
they can use to lead the session.
Professor Minocha is hopeful that
as interactive whiteboards, social
media and devices such as iPads
and smartphones have found their
way into the classroom and on to
some curriculums, the same thing
will happen with VR.
But while VR does have the ability to transport people to places
or into scenarios that would otherwise make training difficult,
costly or impossible, this is not
the only application for simulation-based learning tools. Increasingly, businesses are finding that
more prosaic tasks, such as negotiation and management within a
corporate setting, can benefit from
new technology too.
Working alongside clients such
as Cisco and the World Economic
Forum, Ososim has created train-
Tel: 01827 262 229

info@enlighten-ac.uk
www.enlighten-ac.uk
Innovation meets
affordability...
Enlighten use interactive technologies to impart knowledge and
understanding.
Were looking for more realistic
ways to train people, says Ren
Aguilar, global head of safety
at mining industry giant Anglo
American. We want to expose
people to risks and controls
without hurting them. Over the
last decade weve tried a lot of
different angles to address this.
The most recent of
these angles is the virtual
reality (VR) and simulation
technology that the company
has invested in, both at its
own Centre for Experiential
Learning and by sponsoring
the nearby Kumba Centre, a
new facility at South Africas
ing simulations in which employees are asked to collaborate with

colleagues from across large businesses in order to achieve a task,
such as staging a 24-hour global
charity music concert and dealing
with the crises that might crop up
along the way.
Using input from business
school
professors,
real-world
data
and
multi-dimensional modelling, the simulations
are designed to build internal
influencing skills, develop different types of communication,
reveal how people understand
the influence network and identify emerging leaders, according
to Ososim.
We model the way people behave
and use AI [artificial intelligence]
to make interactions rich and realistic, says Ososim chief executive
Jonathan Knight.
At present, the simulations are
carried out on normal laptop or
desktop computer screens, but Mr
Knight says virtual and augmented reality versions using the same
principles could be on the horizon.
Its the combination of new technology, particularly with AI, thats
University of Pretoria, which

opened in August 2015.
In addition to a cinemastyle theatre and Oculus
Rift headsets that are
used to virtually go inside
3D-renderings of real mines,
the Kumba Centre incorporates
a circular screen that is 4m
high, 10m in diameter and
32m in circumference. Using
five projectors, it can display
360-degree 3D images to
more than 30 people at the
same time.
The facility can be used to
simulate an incident such as a
collapse in an underground mine,
AUGMENTED REALITY
IMPACT ON LEARNING
Improvements in learner retention

since introducing AR as part of their
learning experiences:
18.1%
ENGLISH
AND MATHS
13.1%
MOTOR
VEHICLE
7.7%
HAIR AND
BEAUTY
2.9%
ENGINEERING
Source: Journal of Virtual Studies,
Wileman/Bloxham 2015
and also to illustrate the errors

that might have been made in
the build-up to the incident, its
consequences and the controls
that could be put in place to
mitigate them.
The use of such technology
in the mining is relatively new,
but tests carried out in the
United States found that a
group of people who had used
VR to practise making their
way out of a mine via a simple
escape route were then 37 per
cent quicker at exiting via a
more complex route than those
who had not previously trained
using VR.
so interesting, he says.
This thought is echoed by Ian
Hughes, an analyst at 451 Research. Although Mr Hughes feels
its augmented reality (AR), with
its ability to encourage collaboration in a more natural way, which
is likely eventually to prove more
effective than its close cousin, VR.
AR will overtake VR, says Mr
Hughes. While you can collaborate with one another in a virtual
world, it leaves the physical world
behind AR mixes the two and potentially gets the best of both.
Mr Hughes adds that with improvements in the detection of
physical space and reduced lag
times, future iterations of AR technology are likely to provide more
immediacy. Conjuring up images
of Tom Cruise swiping at screens
floating in mid-air in Hollywood
sci-fi movie Minority Report, he
adds that it could soon remove
the need for screens cluttering our
desks. You wonder what Aristotle
would have made of that.
raconteur.net
Enlighten are an award winning eLearning

solutions team with over 40 years experience
in the education and technology sectors with
branches across the UK.
01
02
03
VR IN LEARNING
E-LEARNING
AR IN LEARNING
POTENTIAL INCREASE
IN MOTIVATION
IMPROVES RETENTION
RATES BY
INCREASE IN ENGAGEMENT,
RETENTION & ACHIEVEMENT
84%
52%
20%
We work with clients to determine which of our eLearning, AR or VR

products will best meet their specific vision and offer a complete
service that encompasses hardware advice and sourcing, Consultancy
and training packages and development and implementation of
identified solutions. We can also develop innovative assessment
methods approved by awarding bodies.
Creating efficient, accurate and engaging eLearning programmes for
workforces and learners can be challenging. Enlighten can harness the
power of Virtual and Augmented Reality to recreate real-life training
environments and reduce on-site inefficiencies and risks.
Helping educators
develop learners digital
literacy skills for the
21st Century
( 01827 262 229

www.enlighten-ac.uk
designed by slrwebdesign.co.uk
05
04
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
Virtual experience boosts results among students

Google
Virtual and augmented reality can enable teaching and training in situations which would otherwise be too hazardous, costly or even impossible in the real world
TRAINING
Education has
moved on from
books, pens and
pencils...
CASE STUDY: MINING INDUSTRY
EDWIN SMITH
While you can

collaborate with
one another in a
virtual world, it
leaves the physical
world behind AR
mixes the two and
potentially gets the
best of both
or the things we have to

learn before we can do
them, wrote Aristotle,
we learn by doing them.
Since 350BC, and probably long
before, humankind has recognised
the value and potential contradiction in learning by doing.
More recently, though, the
concept described in Aristotles
Nicomachean Ethics has been
bolstered by further scientific
evidence. Last year, a University
of Chicago study found that students who physically experience
scientific concepts, such as the
angular momentum acting on
a bicycle wheel spinning on an
axel that theyre holding, understand them more deeply and also
achieve significantly improved
scores in tests.
In the study, magnetic resonance

imaging showed that the group of
students who carried out the real-world experiments were more
likely to engage sensory and motor
areas of the brain when later thinking about the concepts they had
learnt about. Whats more, according to the professor who directed
the study: Those students who
physically experience difficult science concepts learn them better,
perform better in class and on
quizzes the next day, and the effect
seems to play out weeks later,
as well.
Some organisations and businesses have acknowledged the
same underlying principle for a
long time. In the aviation industry,
for example, flight simulators have
been used to train pilots to fly more
complicated aircraft for decades.
The benefits in terms of safety,
cost and learning are obvious, but
the characteristics of aviation gave
it an advantage that many other
industries and many other types of
learning havent been able to enjoy.
Now, though, that looks as if it may
be changing.
Backed by the financial might
Plextek
01
03
02
of Facebook after a $2-billion
acquisition in 2014, the Oculus
Rift virtual reality (VR) headset was released to consumers in
March when it was heralded as
the single most important development in the history of VR. As
more games, programmes and
VR environments are developed
for the 550 device, its influence
is likely to grow, but some people
are already taking advantage of
the technology.
The British Army have worked
with Cambridge-based company
Plextek to use Oculus Rift headsets
to train soldiers to respond during
Google
When students
have had a
360-degree
experience, the
questions they ask
tend to be much
more analytical,
higher-order
questions
01
Google Expeditions can drive
student interaction
and engagement
through virtual-reality field trips
02
Filming apparatus
used by Google
Expeditions
03
The British Army
works with Plextek
to train soldiers to
respond to injuries
in the field
the crucial 20-minute window

after an injury has been sustained by one of their colleagues
in the field, a time when specialised medical assistance often
isnt available.
There was a government act to
reduce the use of human tissue
in medical training, explains
Collette Johnson, director of medical at Plextek. While aiming to
ensure that training continued
to be conducted at a sufficiently
high standard, the military also
wanted to move away from typical
simulation that uses video projection and move towards more
remote systems, which dont require people to be in the same
room at the same time that frees
up space and provides a cost-saving, she says.
The VR system developed by
Plextek is voice-activated and requires users to take decisions in
real time about what to do on the
battlefield. As such, Ms Johnson
says, in its current form, it could

never completely replace handson medical training. But there are
other benefits. The framework
allows us to show what the knockon effects of a bad decision would
be. We can also record what people
are doing and then play it back to
them afterwards you learn a lot
more by viewing your mistakes
than being told your mistakes,
she says.
Learning and testing in this
way also tends to suit the young,
predominantly male demographic better from which the army
draws many of its recruits and
a VR system resembling a computer game is likely to be more
appealing than a classroom lesson
or written test.
But Oculus Rift isnt the only VR
tool helping organisations to train
and teach their people. Google
Cardboard, which allows anyone to
create a set of VR goggles by attaching a specially folded piece of card-
board to their smartphone, may

not be as sophisticated or immersive, but does have the benefit of
being cheaper.
This is one of the main reasons
its use in schools is being promoted by an Open University project
that aims to give virtual access to
places that time, cost or mobility
issues would have otherwise made
it more difficult to visit.
Professor Shailey Minocha, who
has been working on the Open University initiative, is encouraging
teachers to use the technology in
conjunction with another Google
innovation, Google Expeditions, to
help them prepare their students
for real-world field trips, or offer
some of the benefit of visiting locations such as the Great Barrier
Reef, Galapagos Islands or even
Londons Olympic Park.
We have found that it promotes
inquiry-based learning, says Professor Minocha. When students
have had a 360-degree experience,
the questions they ask tend to be
much more analytical, higher-order questions.
While students on a Google Expeditions field trip are equipped with
smartphones and the cardboard
add-ons, teachers have a tablet
computer with added information,
suggested questions and guidance
they can use to lead the session.
Professor Minocha is hopeful that
as interactive whiteboards, social
media and devices such as iPads
and smartphones have found their
way into the classroom and on to
some curriculums, the same thing
will happen with VR.
But while VR does have the ability to transport people to places
or into scenarios that would otherwise make training difficult,
costly or impossible, this is not
the only application for simulation-based learning tools. Increasingly, businesses are finding that
more prosaic tasks, such as negotiation and management within a
corporate setting, can benefit from
new technology too.
Working alongside clients such
as Cisco and the World Economic
Forum, Ososim has created train-
Tel: 01827 262 229

info@enlighten-ac.uk
www.enlighten-ac.uk
Innovation meets
affordability...
Enlighten use interactive technologies to impart knowledge and
understanding.
Were looking for more realistic
ways to train people, says Ren
Aguilar, global head of safety
at mining industry giant Anglo
American. We want to expose
people to risks and controls
without hurting them. Over the
last decade weve tried a lot of
different angles to address this.
The most recent of
these angles is the virtual
reality (VR) and simulation
technology that the company
has invested in, both at its
own Centre for Experiential
Learning and by sponsoring
the nearby Kumba Centre, a
new facility at South Africas
ing simulations in which employees are asked to collaborate with

colleagues from across large businesses in order to achieve a task,
such as staging a 24-hour global
charity music concert and dealing
with the crises that might crop up
along the way.
Using input from business
school
professors,
real-world
data
and
multi-dimensional modelling, the simulations
are designed to build internal
influencing skills, develop different types of communication,
reveal how people understand
the influence network and identify emerging leaders, according
to Ososim.
We model the way people behave
and use AI [artificial intelligence]
to make interactions rich and realistic, says Ososim chief executive
Jonathan Knight.
At present, the simulations are
carried out on normal laptop or
desktop computer screens, but Mr
Knight says virtual and augmented reality versions using the same
principles could be on the horizon.
Its the combination of new technology, particularly with AI, thats
University of Pretoria, which

opened in August 2015.
In addition to a cinemastyle theatre and Oculus
Rift headsets that are
used to virtually go inside
3D-renderings of real mines,
the Kumba Centre incorporates
a circular screen that is 4m
high, 10m in diameter and
32m in circumference. Using
five projectors, it can display
360-degree 3D images to
more than 30 people at the
same time.
The facility can be used to
simulate an incident such as a
collapse in an underground mine,
AUGMENTED REALITY
IMPACT ON LEARNING
Improvements in learner retention

since introducing AR as part of their
learning experiences:
18.1%
ENGLISH
AND MATHS
13.1%
MOTOR
VEHICLE
7.7%
HAIR AND
BEAUTY
2.9%
ENGINEERING
Source: Journal of Virtual Studies,
Wileman/Bloxham 2015
and also to illustrate the errors

that might have been made in
the build-up to the incident, its
consequences and the controls
that could be put in place to
mitigate them.
The use of such technology
in the mining is relatively new,
but tests carried out in the
United States found that a
group of people who had used
VR to practise making their
way out of a mine via a simple
escape route were then 37 per
cent quicker at exiting via a
more complex route than those
who had not previously trained
using VR.
so interesting, he says.
This thought is echoed by Ian
Hughes, an analyst at 451 Research. Although Mr Hughes feels
its augmented reality (AR), with
its ability to encourage collaboration in a more natural way, which
is likely eventually to prove more
effective than its close cousin, VR.
AR will overtake VR, says Mr
Hughes. While you can collaborate with one another in a virtual
world, it leaves the physical world
behind AR mixes the two and potentially gets the best of both.
Mr Hughes adds that with improvements in the detection of
physical space and reduced lag
times, future iterations of AR technology are likely to provide more
immediacy. Conjuring up images
of Tom Cruise swiping at screens
floating in mid-air in Hollywood
sci-fi movie Minority Report, he
adds that it could soon remove
the need for screens cluttering our
desks. You wonder what Aristotle
would have made of that.
raconteur.net
Enlighten are an award winning eLearning

solutions team with over 40 years experience
in the education and technology sectors with
branches across the UK.
01
02
03
VR IN LEARNING
E-LEARNING
AR IN LEARNING
POTENTIAL INCREASE
IN MOTIVATION
IMPROVES RETENTION
RATES BY
INCREASE IN ENGAGEMENT,
RETENTION & ACHIEVEMENT
84%
52%
20%
We work with clients to determine which of our eLearning, AR or VR

products will best meet their specific vision and offer a complete
service that encompasses hardware advice and sourcing, Consultancy
and training packages and development and implementation of
identified solutions. We can also develop innovative assessment
methods approved by awarding bodies.
Creating efficient, accurate and engaging eLearning programmes for
workforces and learners can be challenging. Enlighten can harness the
power of Virtual and Augmented Reality to recreate real-life training
environments and reduce on-site inefficiencies and risks.
Helping educators
develop learners digital
literacy skills for the
21st Century
( 01827 262 229

www.enlighten-ac.uk
designed by slrwebdesign.co.uk
05
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
Austin Peck
01
Putting viewers at
the heart of events
Virtual reality is set to take video journalism into a new
dimension which could alter public reaction to world events
and the perception of news coverage
IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM
IAN BURRELL
t was the sight of viewers in

tears after they had been transported into the midst of crumbling buildings in last years
Nepalese earthquake that first
convinced filmmaker Bryn Mooser
that virtual reality (VR) was the future of journalism.
When they would take off the
headsets, a lot of them would be
crying as if they had some personal relationship to Nepal, recalls
Mooser, founder of pioneering VR
producer RYOT, which was bought
in April by AOL-owned media
brand The Huffington Post. Had he
shot his footage in more conventional fashion, he doubts he would
have generated anything like the
same reaction.
This is the year of virtual reality
proclaims the slogan for Beyond the
Frame, a new partnership between
Viceland, the new television network from media group Vice, and
Samsung, which through its Samsung Gear headset is a leading producer of VR goggles.
VR has become the talk of the
news industry. From The New York
Times to Euronews, organisations
are falling over themselves to appoint senior executives to oversee
production in the format. Sky News
will shortly launch an app dedicated to VR content in news and other
genres. Mooser is to host what he describes as the first-ever global news
show in VR. The Big Picture: News

in Virtual Reality is being made by
HuffPost RYOT and will shortly premiere on the Hulu app.
Yet even as this revolution is being
televised, much of the viewing
public is oblivious to what is taking
place. Because donning the rather
bulky VR eyewear remains a niche
pursuit, with under a million headset sales worldwide, many to hardcore gamers.
While 2016 might not feel like the
year of VR, levels of investment in the
technology reflect expectations that
it will transform the practice of journalism, and the relationship between
news and those who consume it.
02
The promise is so big, which is

why we have gone in early when we
know its early, says Jimmy Maymann, AOLs head of content and
consumer brands. To have the
reporter stand in a war zone and
[you can] put yourself in the narrators place, that is emotionally so
strong nothing we have done in the
past, either in text or video, has been
as strong as that.
Mooser agrees that this is only the
beginning. He is pushing the boundaries in 360-filming, which does not
require a headset and is regarded
as a first step towards VRs more
immersive viewing experience.
RYOT achieved a journalistic first
this summer by using 360-filming

to give the audience an all-around
panorama of the famous balloon
drop finale at the Republican Convention. Nobody had ever shot this
in 360 before, says Mooser, who
challenged his team to get the film
on the HuffPost website before the
last piece of confetti hits the floor.
A seven-person relay team raced the
cameras memory card to a nearby
Starbucks to post the film online.
One of the outstanding VR films
made thus far is the 11-minute Fight
for Falluja, recorded by The New
York Times during five weeks embedded with Iraqi
forces battling Islamic State. The
all-encompassing
view exposes the
vulnerabilities of
those on the front
line and journalists
who would normally be hidden
behind
camera.
Sky News correspondent Alistair
Bunkall made a
VR film among migrants in Lesbos. Vice News made
the first VR newscast last year, parachuting viewers into traffic-blocking New York protests over unaccountable policing.
But, aside from the cost of the
headsets between 100 and
700 production difficulties have
slowed the growth of the format.
VR is difficult to do, concedes Rich
Evans, head of social media at Sky
News. Most VR cameras are not only
pricey, but heavy. Most time-consuming is the editing, to stitch it
together so that it feels like a seamless experience, as opposed to I can
see this big black hole or this arm
and shoulder dont match up. But
he remains sure VR has an exciting
future in news.
Jason Farkas, head of CNNs VR
unit, is pioneering the use of a plastic
rig made from a 3D printer and containing six GoPro cameras, which
shoot independently. The kit is being
supplied to all bureaux and is the size
of a grapefruit. Mr Farkas describes
the initial experience of watching VR
as a holy cow moment.
The engagement times of VR viewers are remarkable. They watch VR
films for an average 3.9 minutes, 50
per cent more than conventional
XXXX
2
07
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
01 & 02
Bryn Mooser of
VR studio RYOT
filming a bonfire
of ivory stockpiles
in Kenya in April,
as the government cracks down
on the illegal
ivory trade
Nora Kirkpatrick
06
video (2.6 minutes) and 160 per cent

more than text (1.5 minutes).
VR will get more immersive as
haptic controls and ambisonic sound
give users enhanced sense of touch
and hearing. Augmented reality (AR)
is a tricky area, which might threaten
the integrity of editorial content. But
AR can be used to layer rich graphics
and other explainer features on top
of the core journalism.
Also VR will influence news as a
tool of the public relations industry.
This weeks Helsinki-based Nordic
Business Forum will enable an international press corps to view its speakers remotely on VR
goggles. Reporters
will have an immersive 360-degree
sense of the forum,
giving them a frontrow view from the
comfort of their
own home or office,
says
co-founder
Hans-Peter Siefen.
The launch of
Googles Daydream
VR system, based
on mobile phones,
should be transformative. The next
12 months is a critical time, says
Andrew Hawken, former head of Sky
News Digital and chief executive of
VR content startup Mesmerise, who is
speaking on VR at next months PromaxBDA UK The New Normal conference. Pretty much everyone has a
smartphone, so the Google strategy is
based on enabling the smartphone to
be capable of great VR and its relatively inexpensive, he says.
Louis Jebb, founder and chief executive of London-based VR specialist
Immersivly, says the news business
has seized the moment and moved
beyond experimentation with the
format. In the last two to three
months, the companies that invested in pilot schemes have moved to
appointing an executive producer to
oversee day-to-day aggregation and
production, says Mr Jebb.
VR can be a game-changer for
news by putting the audience at
the heart of events, he says. It has
the power to modify their attitude
to what news is through an altered
sense of editorial engagement.
It has the power

to modify their
attitude to what
news is through
an altered sense
of editorial
engagement

raconteur.net
FROM LEFT Zappar founders Dr Simon Taylor, research director; Caspar Thykier, chief executive; and Connell Gauld, chief technology officer
OPENING A WINDOW
ON THE WORLD WITH
AUGMENTED REALITY
Smartphones have become an evolutionary appendage and
the devices we cannot leave home without, presenting a huge
opportunity to provide new types of immersive experiences through
augmented reality, says Caspar Thykier, chief executive of Zappar
e spend on average a
staggering two hours and
forty minutes on mobile
devices a day, according to research
firm eMarketer. A Bank of America
survey found 96 per cent of millennials
in the United States say they cannot
live without their phone above
toothpaste and deodorant. Our
smartphones screen is the window
through which we live our lives.
The proliferation of mobile devices
capable of supporting augmented reality
offers a new lens to explore the world.
This gives businesses an opportunity
to reimagine the relationship between
customers and their print, products,
packaging and point of sale. It connects
the physical world to powerful, bitesized digital experiences.
There is real business value on offer. It
is no longer just an add-on to a marketing
strategy, but an essential component
of an increasingly connected world. A
profound shift is on offer in the ability
for businesses to connect with their
customers and consumers.
Augmented
realitys
unique
strength is not in its reach, but in the
frequency and depth of consumer
engagement it delivers. At Zappar,
we believe this has the potential
to transform customer loyalty and
sales through immersive short-form
experiences. Numerous companies
have shown this in practice.
A recent initiative with Rovio for
The Angry Birds Movie is a case in
point. The Angry Birds Action! app

supporting the films release featured
our scanning component. Products,
packaging and point of sale for global
partners, including Sony Pictures,
McDonalds, LEGO, PEZ, Walmart
and H&M, featured BirdCodes that
people could scan through the app,
giving them exclusive mini-games and
photo features. More than a billion
BirdCodes were released globally,
driving installations of the app, greater
average dwell time and increased sales.
Many other diverse industries
are harnessing these short-form
experiences. In South Africa,
petroleum company Engen printed
our zapcodes on till receipts. The
codes unlocked a driving game with a
weekly leaderboard and data capture
mechanic. Over an eight-week period
Engen saw an 11 per cent uplift in sales
compared with the same weeks in the
previous year. This reimagining of
something as uninspiring as a receipt
demonstrates the massive potential.
In
the
education
sector,
organisations
are
augmenting
workbooks for science, technology,
engineering and maths learning. A
fun, interactive storybook has been
developed in the US, following the
Rockwell family, set in a scientifically
plausible future. It invites the reader
to join a number of activities, and the
connected experiences help children
to visualise difficult concepts, interact,
measure and retain knowledge.
We often design these immersive

experiences, but we have also
developed tools that enable any
business or individual to do it themselves
as part of our mission to democratise
augmented reality. Using the ZapWorks
platform, everyone from a beginner
to an advanced multimedia designer
can create experiences. Whichever
route they choose, companies can
also access metrics on how their app
performed via a dashboard.
Were in a time of tremendous
change in what is possible on mobile.
The potential for augmented reality is
empirically proven and available today.
With ZapWorks, were reimagining the
tools to deliver the best short-form
experiences fit for mobile. This opens
up exciting opportunities for the
next generation of digital creatives
and businesses to build new ways of
connecting with users.
Businesses
now
have
the
opportunity to create outstanding
bite-sized experiences. They can turn
their existing consumer touchpoints
into multimedia channels they control
and understand through improved
analytics, directly connected to the
device that matters most to people
in their daily lives. The opportunity to
rethink whats possible on mobile and
deliver increased engagement with
end-users is unmissable.
To find out what augmented reality
can do for you, visit www.zappar.com
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
Austin Peck
01
Putting viewers at
the heart of events
Virtual reality is set to take video journalism into a new
dimension which could alter public reaction to world events
and the perception of news coverage
IMMERSIVE JOURNALISM
IAN BURRELL
t was the sight of viewers in

tears after they had been transported into the midst of crumbling buildings in last years
Nepalese earthquake that first
convinced filmmaker Bryn Mooser
that virtual reality (VR) was the future of journalism.
When they would take off the
headsets, a lot of them would be
crying as if they had some personal relationship to Nepal, recalls
Mooser, founder of pioneering VR
producer RYOT, which was bought
in April by AOL-owned media
brand The Huffington Post. Had he
shot his footage in more conventional fashion, he doubts he would
have generated anything like the
same reaction.
This is the year of virtual reality
proclaims the slogan for Beyond the
Frame, a new partnership between
Viceland, the new television network from media group Vice, and
Samsung, which through its Samsung Gear headset is a leading producer of VR goggles.
VR has become the talk of the
news industry. From The New York
Times to Euronews, organisations
are falling over themselves to appoint senior executives to oversee
production in the format. Sky News
will shortly launch an app dedicated to VR content in news and other
genres. Mooser is to host what he describes as the first-ever global news
show in VR. The Big Picture: News

in Virtual Reality is being made by
HuffPost RYOT and will shortly premiere on the Hulu app.
Yet even as this revolution is being
televised, much of the viewing
public is oblivious to what is taking
place. Because donning the rather
bulky VR eyewear remains a niche
pursuit, with under a million headset sales worldwide, many to hardcore gamers.
While 2016 might not feel like the
year of VR, levels of investment in the
technology reflect expectations that
it will transform the practice of journalism, and the relationship between
news and those who consume it.
02
The promise is so big, which is

why we have gone in early when we
know its early, says Jimmy Maymann, AOLs head of content and
consumer brands. To have the
reporter stand in a war zone and
[you can] put yourself in the narrators place, that is emotionally so
strong nothing we have done in the
past, either in text or video, has been
as strong as that.
Mooser agrees that this is only the
beginning. He is pushing the boundaries in 360-filming, which does not
require a headset and is regarded
as a first step towards VRs more
immersive viewing experience.
RYOT achieved a journalistic first
this summer by using 360-filming

to give the audience an all-around
panorama of the famous balloon
drop finale at the Republican Convention. Nobody had ever shot this
in 360 before, says Mooser, who
challenged his team to get the film
on the HuffPost website before the
last piece of confetti hits the floor.
A seven-person relay team raced the
cameras memory card to a nearby
Starbucks to post the film online.
One of the outstanding VR films
made thus far is the 11-minute Fight
for Falluja, recorded by The New
York Times during five weeks embedded with Iraqi
forces battling Islamic State. The
all-encompassing
view exposes the
vulnerabilities of
those on the front
line and journalists
who would normally be hidden
behind
camera.
Sky News correspondent Alistair
Bunkall made a
VR film among migrants in Lesbos. Vice News made
the first VR newscast last year, parachuting viewers into traffic-blocking New York protests over unaccountable policing.
But, aside from the cost of the
headsets between 100 and
700 production difficulties have
slowed the growth of the format.
VR is difficult to do, concedes Rich
Evans, head of social media at Sky
News. Most VR cameras are not only
pricey, but heavy. Most time-consuming is the editing, to stitch it
together so that it feels like a seamless experience, as opposed to I can
see this big black hole or this arm
and shoulder dont match up. But
he remains sure VR has an exciting
future in news.
Jason Farkas, head of CNNs VR
unit, is pioneering the use of a plastic
rig made from a 3D printer and containing six GoPro cameras, which
shoot independently. The kit is being
supplied to all bureaux and is the size
of a grapefruit. Mr Farkas describes
the initial experience of watching VR
as a holy cow moment.
The engagement times of VR viewers are remarkable. They watch VR
films for an average 3.9 minutes, 50
per cent more than conventional
XXXX
2
07
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
01 & 02
Bryn Mooser of
VR studio RYOT
filming a bonfire
of ivory stockpiles
in Kenya in April,
as the government cracks down
on the illegal
ivory trade
Nora Kirkpatrick
06
video (2.6 minutes) and 160 per cent

more than text (1.5 minutes).
VR will get more immersive as
haptic controls and ambisonic sound
give users enhanced sense of touch
and hearing. Augmented reality (AR)
is a tricky area, which might threaten
the integrity of editorial content. But
AR can be used to layer rich graphics
and other explainer features on top
of the core journalism.
Also VR will influence news as a
tool of the public relations industry.
This weeks Helsinki-based Nordic
Business Forum will enable an international press corps to view its speakers remotely on VR
goggles. Reporters
will have an immersive 360-degree
sense of the forum,
giving them a frontrow view from the
comfort of their
own home or office,
says
co-founder
Hans-Peter Siefen.
The launch of
Googles Daydream
VR system, based
on mobile phones,
should be transformative. The next
12 months is a critical time, says
Andrew Hawken, former head of Sky
News Digital and chief executive of
VR content startup Mesmerise, who is
speaking on VR at next months PromaxBDA UK The New Normal conference. Pretty much everyone has a
smartphone, so the Google strategy is
based on enabling the smartphone to
be capable of great VR and its relatively inexpensive, he says.
Louis Jebb, founder and chief executive of London-based VR specialist
Immersivly, says the news business
has seized the moment and moved
beyond experimentation with the
format. In the last two to three
months, the companies that invested in pilot schemes have moved to
appointing an executive producer to
oversee day-to-day aggregation and
production, says Mr Jebb.
VR can be a game-changer for
news by putting the audience at
the heart of events, he says. It has
the power to modify their attitude
to what news is through an altered
sense of editorial engagement.
It has the power

to modify their
attitude to what
news is through
an altered sense
of editorial
engagement

raconteur.net
FROM LEFT Zappar founders Dr Simon Taylor, research director; Caspar Thykier, chief executive; and Connell Gauld, chief technology officer
OPENING A WINDOW
ON THE WORLD WITH
AUGMENTED REALITY
Smartphones have become an evolutionary appendage and
the devices we cannot leave home without, presenting a huge
opportunity to provide new types of immersive experiences through
augmented reality, says Caspar Thykier, chief executive of Zappar
e spend on average a
staggering two hours and
forty minutes on mobile
devices a day, according to research
firm eMarketer. A Bank of America
survey found 96 per cent of millennials
in the United States say they cannot
live without their phone above
toothpaste and deodorant. Our
smartphones screen is the window
through which we live our lives.
The proliferation of mobile devices
capable of supporting augmented reality
offers a new lens to explore the world.
This gives businesses an opportunity
to reimagine the relationship between
customers and their print, products,
packaging and point of sale. It connects
the physical world to powerful, bitesized digital experiences.
There is real business value on offer. It
is no longer just an add-on to a marketing
strategy, but an essential component
of an increasingly connected world. A
profound shift is on offer in the ability
for businesses to connect with their
customers and consumers.
Augmented
realitys
unique
strength is not in its reach, but in the
frequency and depth of consumer
engagement it delivers. At Zappar,
we believe this has the potential
to transform customer loyalty and
sales through immersive short-form
experiences. Numerous companies
have shown this in practice.
A recent initiative with Rovio for
The Angry Birds Movie is a case in
point. The Angry Birds Action! app

supporting the films release featured
our scanning component. Products,
packaging and point of sale for global
partners, including Sony Pictures,
McDonalds, LEGO, PEZ, Walmart
and H&M, featured BirdCodes that
people could scan through the app,
giving them exclusive mini-games and
photo features. More than a billion
BirdCodes were released globally,
driving installations of the app, greater
average dwell time and increased sales.
Many other diverse industries
are harnessing these short-form
experiences. In South Africa,
petroleum company Engen printed
our zapcodes on till receipts. The
codes unlocked a driving game with a
weekly leaderboard and data capture
mechanic. Over an eight-week period
Engen saw an 11 per cent uplift in sales
compared with the same weeks in the
previous year. This reimagining of
something as uninspiring as a receipt
demonstrates the massive potential.
In
the
education
sector,
organisations
are
augmenting
workbooks for science, technology,
engineering and maths learning. A
fun, interactive storybook has been
developed in the US, following the
Rockwell family, set in a scientifically
plausible future. It invites the reader
to join a number of activities, and the
connected experiences help children
to visualise difficult concepts, interact,
measure and retain knowledge.
We often design these immersive

experiences, but we have also
developed tools that enable any
business or individual to do it themselves
as part of our mission to democratise
augmented reality. Using the ZapWorks
platform, everyone from a beginner
to an advanced multimedia designer
can create experiences. Whichever
route they choose, companies can
also access metrics on how their app
performed via a dashboard.
Were in a time of tremendous
change in what is possible on mobile.
The potential for augmented reality is
empirically proven and available today.
With ZapWorks, were reimagining the
tools to deliver the best short-form
experiences fit for mobile. This opens
up exciting opportunities for the
next generation of digital creatives
and businesses to build new ways of
connecting with users.
Businesses
now
have
the
opportunity to create outstanding
bite-sized experiences. They can turn
their existing consumer touchpoints
into multimedia channels they control
and understand through improved
analytics, directly connected to the
device that matters most to people
in their daily lives. The opportunity to
rethink whats possible on mobile and
deliver increased engagement with
end-users is unmissable.
To find out what augmented reality
can do for you, visit www.zappar.com
08
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
If you think 3D is great, you havent seen anything yet

Virtual reality offers a different view of cinema, TV and online video, and is sparking interest throughout the entertainment industry, but requires a rethink of traditional storytelling to make it work
ENTERTAINMENT
CHARLES ORTON-JONES
his is the big one the

mother lode. If virtual reality (VR) can crack the
world of cinema, its going to change movies, television...
everything. Your nan will watch
EastEnders on the sofa feeling like
shes in Cindys cafe. The sets will
need rebuilding, because when your
nan looks round shell want to see
Ian Beales pasty face serving customers, not a cameraman and the
mic boom operator. Cinema will be
unrecognisable. Star Wars in VR?
Youd be able to explore the Death
Star like a tourist.
And the revenue? The studios will
be salivating. When Avatar became
the first blockbuster to really crack
3D at the cinema, it went on to be
the highest-grossing film of all time.
Just imagine what the first Bond
film in VR would gross. Even Daniel Craig might be tempted back for
a pay day of that
magnitude.
But its an if.
Right now we have
no idea how film
will translate to
VR. No Hollywood
movie has been
shot in the medium. Its too new.
What we have are
glimpses. And they
are tantalising. The music industry
is just starting to play around with
VR. The results are stunning.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers recently streamed a live concert from
Berlin, viewable on Samsung Gear
VR headsets or smartphones. Three
panoramic cameras placed on stage
with the band, the front row and
above the crowd gave viewers a full
view of the action. Icelandic singer
Bjork has created a VR video for her
song Stonemilker, which you can see
on YouTube.
Leicester rock gods Kasabian produced one of the best-shot VR concerts live from Brixton Academy.
Ambisonic sound meant viewers
got a true sense of direction as they
turned their heads. The concert was
filmed by VR agency Visualise and
even founder Henry Stuart is frank
about the newness of it all.
Its incredibly hard to film in VR.
Music videos are traditionally shot
on incredibly high-end cameras.
VR cameras are balls with lenses
pointing in every direction. They
are small, inherently. They shoot
badly in the dark, so you need the
house lights up which cant always
be done, he says.
Streaming live footage is tough.
Bear in mind that 4K gaming is beyond the computing power of almost
all home PCs and VR can be even
more intensive. He adds: To get

presence when you forget where
you are, VR needs to overcome a few
barriers, one of which is resolution
it needs to be 8K on two screens.
Well get there soon.
And yet even the early forays
are convincing. Columbia records
A&R vice president Mike Pickering
watched the Kasabian footage and
remarked: At times you know what
it feels to be one of the band. There
were times when I was leaning out
to shake the hands of people in the
front row. I lost myself.
Websites devoted to music VR
concerts are launching. MelodyVR
is gathering footage from 250 artists including The Who, Rudimental and Underworld.
The theatre is a fertile testing
ground for VR. The National Theatre (NT) created an Immersive
Storytelling Studio to give artists
a place to experiment with the
medium. Damon Albarn, Moira
Buffini and Rufus Norris created
wonder.land, an Oculus Rift-powered exploration of
the NTs musical
based on Alice in
Wonderland. More
than 90,000 people have watched it
to date. An immersive
installation
called Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel
is being held at the
NT currently, taking viewers back to the Dublin conflict of 1916. Its free of charge.
In cinema one of the most exciting
developments is the commitment by
Imax to develop premium experiences. Just as it does in traditional
cinema, by offering screens of unrivalled resolution, size and sound
quality, Imax will offer VR quality
beyond the consumer market.
The plan is to install VR pods in
cinemas and shopping malls to
showcase the highest possible quality experience. This means a headset
offering 5,120 x 1,440 (5K) resolution
and features dual 5.5 inch QHD displays providing a field of view of 210
degrees, double that of some rivals.
Imax is working with hardware
makers such as Starbreeze and directly with Hollywood studios to
create bespoke content. Its even
joined forces with Google to produce
an ultra-high resolution camera, to
be launched at the end of next year.
The first Imax movies will be five to
ten minutes long.
Imagine watching Star Trek,
says Rob Lister, Imax chief business development officer. And afterwards you move to the Imax VR
centre and theres a VR version of
Star Trek where you are flying the
Enterprise. You put on the headset
and headphones, use hand controllers, and your friends can see what
The key to making

VR work is decoding
the quirks and
strengths of VR
storytelling
VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING IS HERE TO STAY

VR VIDEO GAMING MARKET BY GENRE
VR VIDEO GAMING MARKET FORECAST BY CATEGORY

2018
2017
ESTIMATED VR HEADSET SALES 2016
31%
2,602,370
PlayStation VR
2019
2020
2016
23%
30
16%
27.5
2,316,632
Samsung Gear VR
10%
25
4%
22.5
10%
6%
HTC Vive
420,108
Oculus Rift
355,088
20
17.5
EDUCATION
$BN
ACTION
FLIGHT
SIMULATORS
SHOOTERS
HORROR
RACING
ENTERTAINMENT
Source: IHS Technology 2016
15
Source: SuperData Research 2016
APPETITE FOR VR VIDEO GAMING
FORECAST GLOBAL VR HARDWARE SHIPMENTS

12.5
10
9.6m
64.8m
183.8%
CAGR
7.5
2016
16%
of video game developers said

they are currently working on
a game for VR platforms, up
from 7 per cent last year
2020
Source: IDC 2016
2.5
GLOBAL VR SOFTWARE REVENUE SHARE
REVENUE
0
Hardware
78%
Gaming
software
Gaming
Other software
and services
22%
Other
So
:S
rce
up
erD
R
at a
ese
a rc
6
20 1
you are doing on a screen, so its

a communal experience. He explains that communal VR is also
being explored: You can see an avatar of your friend and are in a ride
or a rollercoaster.
So far no directors have been confirmed, but Mr Lister cites Michael
Bay (Transformers), James Cameron
(Titanic, Avatar) and J.J. Abrams
(Star Trek Beyond) as notable directors keen to make their mark in the
new medium.
Naturally, the key to making VR
work is decoding the quirks and
strengths of VR storytelling. One
key issue is that of direction. Think
of the shoot-out scene during The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The
camera zooms in on Clint Eastwood. Then Lee Van Cleef. Then the
15%
75%
said the next

game they make
will be in VR
said VR development
is here to stay
Source: Game Developers Conference 2016
Mexican outlaw. We see the sweaty

brows, then the guns. The pan gets
tighter and faster, until its a blaze
of eyes and eye brows. The score
soars, matching the camera.
Now in VR? The viewer can chose
where to look. They might spend a
minute looking at Clint, missing
Lee van Cleef going for his gun.
Theres no direction, so no tension
maybe no plot worth following.
VR filmmakers are acutely aware
of this. Adam Rae of indy VR filmmakers the O Collective stresses: Virtual reality is not, by any
means, an evolution of traditional
cinema. Rather than a step forwards, I see virtual reality as a step
sideways from traditional cinema.
The rules will be different. And VR
needs to find ways of being better
or theres no point. Mr Rae says:

Can the story be better portrayed
through traditional filmmaking? If
the answer is yes, then you would
be wasting valuable budget, time
and potential audience on creating
a VR film.
If you want to discover examples
of next generation VR filmmaking
then a good port of call is Digital
Brighton. Here filmmakers share
ideas and concepts. Its one of the
laboratories where the rules of VR
filmmaking are being thrashed out.
Simon Wilkinson of Circa69 is involved with Digital Brighton. Hes
been on a 14-nation tour with his VR
installations and says theres no rule
book for VR. We have a potential
punk moment on our hands, he says.
One of my first tour dates this
year was in Yerevan, Armenia. The

venue there provided three assistants to help run the show and, as
it turned out, they were all 15-yearold girls, who could not only code
extremely proficiently in multiple
languages, but also knew how to
use games engines, and had already
begun producing their own virtual
and mixed reality content.
We have the headsets for VR. We
have the computing power. All we
need now is content to match. When
there are no rules and no precedents to turn to, who is to say the
breakthroughs wont come from a
15 year old in Armenia?
Raconteur.net
09
08
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
If you think 3D is great, you havent seen anything yet

Virtual reality offers a different view of cinema, TV and online video, and is sparking interest throughout the entertainment industry, but requires a rethink of traditional storytelling to make it work
ENTERTAINMENT
CHARLES ORTON-JONES
his is the big one the

mother lode. If virtual reality (VR) can crack the
world of cinema, its going to change movies, television...
everything. Your nan will watch
EastEnders on the sofa feeling like
shes in Cindys cafe. The sets will
need rebuilding, because when your
nan looks round shell want to see
Ian Beales pasty face serving customers, not a cameraman and the
mic boom operator. Cinema will be
unrecognisable. Star Wars in VR?
Youd be able to explore the Death
Star like a tourist.
And the revenue? The studios will
be salivating. When Avatar became
the first blockbuster to really crack
3D at the cinema, it went on to be
the highest-grossing film of all time.
Just imagine what the first Bond
film in VR would gross. Even Daniel Craig might be tempted back for
a pay day of that
magnitude.
But its an if.
Right now we have
no idea how film
will translate to
VR. No Hollywood
movie has been
shot in the medium. Its too new.
What we have are
glimpses. And they
are tantalising. The music industry
is just starting to play around with
VR. The results are stunning.
The Red Hot Chilli Peppers recently streamed a live concert from
Berlin, viewable on Samsung Gear
VR headsets or smartphones. Three
panoramic cameras placed on stage
with the band, the front row and
above the crowd gave viewers a full
view of the action. Icelandic singer
Bjork has created a VR video for her
song Stonemilker, which you can see
on YouTube.
Leicester rock gods Kasabian produced one of the best-shot VR concerts live from Brixton Academy.
Ambisonic sound meant viewers
got a true sense of direction as they
turned their heads. The concert was
filmed by VR agency Visualise and
even founder Henry Stuart is frank
about the newness of it all.
Its incredibly hard to film in VR.
Music videos are traditionally shot
on incredibly high-end cameras.
VR cameras are balls with lenses
pointing in every direction. They
are small, inherently. They shoot
badly in the dark, so you need the
house lights up which cant always
be done, he says.
Streaming live footage is tough.
Bear in mind that 4K gaming is beyond the computing power of almost
all home PCs and VR can be even
more intensive. He adds: To get

presence when you forget where
you are, VR needs to overcome a few
barriers, one of which is resolution
it needs to be 8K on two screens.
Well get there soon.
And yet even the early forays
are convincing. Columbia records
A&R vice president Mike Pickering
watched the Kasabian footage and
remarked: At times you know what
it feels to be one of the band. There
were times when I was leaning out
to shake the hands of people in the
front row. I lost myself.
Websites devoted to music VR
concerts are launching. MelodyVR
is gathering footage from 250 artists including The Who, Rudimental and Underworld.
The theatre is a fertile testing
ground for VR. The National Theatre (NT) created an Immersive
Storytelling Studio to give artists
a place to experiment with the
medium. Damon Albarn, Moira
Buffini and Rufus Norris created
wonder.land, an Oculus Rift-powered exploration of
the NTs musical
based on Alice in
Wonderland. More
than 90,000 people have watched it
to date. An immersive
installation
called Easter Rising: Voice of a Rebel
is being held at the
NT currently, taking viewers back to the Dublin conflict of 1916. Its free of charge.
In cinema one of the most exciting
developments is the commitment by
Imax to develop premium experiences. Just as it does in traditional
cinema, by offering screens of unrivalled resolution, size and sound
quality, Imax will offer VR quality
beyond the consumer market.
The plan is to install VR pods in
cinemas and shopping malls to
showcase the highest possible quality experience. This means a headset
offering 5,120 x 1,440 (5K) resolution
and features dual 5.5 inch QHD displays providing a field of view of 210
degrees, double that of some rivals.
Imax is working with hardware
makers such as Starbreeze and directly with Hollywood studios to
create bespoke content. Its even
joined forces with Google to produce
an ultra-high resolution camera, to
be launched at the end of next year.
The first Imax movies will be five to
ten minutes long.
Imagine watching Star Trek,
says Rob Lister, Imax chief business development officer. And afterwards you move to the Imax VR
centre and theres a VR version of
Star Trek where you are flying the
Enterprise. You put on the headset
and headphones, use hand controllers, and your friends can see what
The key to making

VR work is decoding
the quirks and
strengths of VR
storytelling
VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING IS HERE TO STAY

VR VIDEO GAMING MARKET BY GENRE
VR VIDEO GAMING MARKET FORECAST BY CATEGORY

2018
2017
ESTIMATED VR HEADSET SALES 2016
31%
2,602,370
PlayStation VR
2019
2020
2016
23%
30
16%
27.5
2,316,632
Samsung Gear VR
10%
25
4%
22.5
10%
6%
HTC Vive
420,108
Oculus Rift
355,088
20
17.5
EDUCATION
$BN
ACTION
FLIGHT
SIMULATORS
SHOOTERS
HORROR
RACING
ENTERTAINMENT
Source: IHS Technology 2016
15
APPETITE FOR VR VIDEO GAMING
FORECAST GLOBAL VR HARDWARE SHIPMENTS

12.5
10
9.6m
64.8m
183.8%
CAGR
7.5
2016
16%
of video game developers said

they are currently working on
a game for VR platforms, up
from 7 per cent last year
2020
Source: IDC 2016
2.5
GLOBAL VR SOFTWARE REVENUE SHARE
REVENUE
0
Hardware
78%
Gaming
software
Gaming
Other software
and services
22%
Other
So
:S
rce
up
erD
R
at a
ese
a rc
6
20 1
you are doing on a screen, so its

a communal experience. He explains that communal VR is also
being explored: You can see an avatar of your friend and are in a ride
or a rollercoaster.
So far no directors have been confirmed, but Mr Lister cites Michael
Bay (Transformers), James Cameron
(Titanic, Avatar) and J.J. Abrams
(Star Trek Beyond) as notable directors keen to make their mark in the
new medium.
Naturally, the key to making VR
work is decoding the quirks and
strengths of VR storytelling. One
key issue is that of direction. Think
of the shoot-out scene during The
Good, the Bad and the Ugly. The
camera zooms in on Clint Eastwood. Then Lee Van Cleef. Then the
15%
75%
said the next

game they make
will be in VR
said VR development
is here to stay
Source: Game Developers Conference 2016
Mexican outlaw. We see the sweaty

brows, then the guns. The pan gets
tighter and faster, until its a blaze
of eyes and eye brows. The score
soars, matching the camera.
Now in VR? The viewer can chose
where to look. They might spend a
minute looking at Clint, missing
Lee van Cleef going for his gun.
Theres no direction, so no tension
maybe no plot worth following.
VR filmmakers are acutely aware
of this. Adam Rae of indy VR filmmakers the O Collective stresses: Virtual reality is not, by any
means, an evolution of traditional
cinema. Rather than a step forwards, I see virtual reality as a step
sideways from traditional cinema.
The rules will be different. And VR
needs to find ways of being better
or theres no point. Mr Rae says:

Can the story be better portrayed
through traditional filmmaking? If
the answer is yes, then you would
be wasting valuable budget, time
and potential audience on creating
a VR film.
If you want to discover examples
of next generation VR filmmaking
then a good port of call is Digital
Brighton. Here filmmakers share
ideas and concepts. Its one of the
laboratories where the rules of VR
filmmaking are being thrashed out.
Simon Wilkinson of Circa69 is involved with Digital Brighton. Hes
been on a 14-nation tour with his VR
installations and says theres no rule
book for VR. We have a potential
punk moment on our hands, he says.
One of my first tour dates this
year was in Yerevan, Armenia. The

venue there provided three assistants to help run the show and, as
it turned out, they were all 15-yearold girls, who could not only code
extremely proficiently in multiple
languages, but also knew how to
use games engines, and had already
begun producing their own virtual
and mixed reality content.
We have the headsets for VR. We
have the computing power. All we
need now is content to match. When
there are no rules and no precedents to turn to, who is to say the
breakthroughs wont come from a
15 year old in Armenia?
Raconteur.net
09
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
Taste and try

before you
buy in a new
virtual world
RETAIL
orget boring things like

physical products dragged
down by price points.
The future of retail is all
about the uplifting virtual world.
And the saviour has come from
an unlikely source, a chase for
pixelated characters from Japan.
Pokmon Go has stirred consumers imagination and now the lines
between the real and virtual are
blurred forever.
You can now tour the Egyptian
pyramids in a Thomas Cook travel
agency, zoom through Audis virtual
car showroom without leaving home
or with IKEA you can eye up your
kitchen augmented with new furniture. Pop on a headset or download an
app and theres a try-before-you-buy
experience out there for everyone.
These technologies are improving experiences for customers we know that people dont
like buying products, but they will
spend money on experiences, particularly millennials, says Luke
DArcy, UK president at Momentum
Worldwide, creators of a virtual reality (VR) experience for American
Express at this years US Open
Tennis Championships.
Airlines such as
Etihad give customers the chance
to experience destinations virtually
The technology, including augmented reality (AR), which overlays digital

information on to the physical world,
may have had false dawns in the past,
yet many believe the sweet point
has now been reached. Now there is
scalable computing power and machine-learning, believable visuals,
reduced development costs and increasing consumer acceptance, even
though only a small proportion of UK
shoppers have actually experienced it.
This is the most

immersive and
mediated physicaldigital experience
yet available to us
Of the many changes in the way
we live, consume media and shop,
it is the convergence of the physical
and digital worlds thats impacting
retail the most, says James Poletti, head of digital strategy at RPM.
Customers now dont differentiate
between physical and digital interactions they have the same expectations of both.
It helps that the tech has moved
from dedicated equipment, such
as headsets from Oculus Rift and

HTCs VIVE, to the pervasive and
popular mobile world of smartphones and tablets. Younger consumers are also increasingly curious about the new, which makes
the adaptation process faster
and easier.
With the release of Sonys PlayStation VR soon, the technology will
be available in homes globally, says
Tom Roberts, managing director
at Tribal Worldwide London. This
will offer endless possibilities for retailers to target customers without
having to lure them to the store or
spend money on traditional advertising. It will be exciting to see how this
accessibility will affect retail.
And the virtual future looks bright
as by 2025 the market is expected
to be worth $80 billion, roughly the
size of the desktop PC market today,
according to Goldman Sachs, $45 billion from hardware and $35 billion
from software.
In five years its hard to imagine
where it will be, if you look at how
far it has come since 2012 and cast
forward from there the mind boggles, says Henry Stuart, co-founder
of Visualise. We will have clarity
of vision that is like real life and the
resolution will be so high that pixels
are unperceivable.
PRODUCTS CONSUMERS WOULD CONSIDER SHOPPING FOR VIA VIRTUAL REALITY
57%
34%
32%
41%
34%
29%
CLOTHING
AND APPAREL
ELECTRONICS
40%
HOUSEHOLD
GOODS
LUXURY
ITEMS
TOOLS
BOOKS
OFFICE
SUPPLIES
33%
25%
SPORTING
GOODS
PET
SUPPLIES
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
XXXX
2
11
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
It can inspire shoppers and fire

the imagination now virtual and
augmented reality are moving into
mainstream retail
NICK EASEN
RACONTEUR
Andreas Rentz / Staff /Getty Images
10
24%
CONSUMER
PACKAGING
GOODS
20%
FOOD AND
GROCERIES
28%
I WOULD NOT
SHOP WITH
VIRTUAL REALITY
Source: Walker Sands 2016
Google recently launched Project

Tango in the United States allowing
retail shoppers to navigate to products in-store, while getting rewarded in a revolutionary way, so expect
this in the UK soon. In addition to
cameras and sensors found in smartphones, Tango devices are equipped
with motion, depth sensors and
vision software to create augmented reality experiences that wouldnt
otherwise be possible on a smartphone, says Mr DArcy.
Certainly, as people get used to new
ways of experiencing retail, they will
start to expect more from this technology, including greater interactiv-
ity. This will put high demands on

programming skills and knowledge
of how to interact, steering the path
for this experience, says Martin
Enthed, IT manager for IKEA communications. We want to be ready
when the technologies become part
of peoples everyday life, which is
why we started to explore them now
at an early stage in order to learn.
Right now what this technology is good at doing is bridging the
so called imagination gap. This
is where customers cant imagine
what a product will look like in say
their own home, so they dont buy it.
VR and AR are helping consumers
visualise furniture, paint, wallpaper
and carpet.
With computer vision and machine-learning, consumers are now
able to decorate their own rooms
virtually, says David Levine,
chief executive of Digital Bridge,
who is working with John Lewis
in this field. For basic things like
measurements or judging scales,
this has great potential in the
retail sector.
There is no doubt VR and AR retail
experiences can be memorable, high
impact and intense, and as Mr Poletti
puts it: This is the most immersive
and mediated physical-digital experience yet available to us. However,
the technology is only likely to reach
full commercial potential once it
becomes an integrated feature of
browsers and companies websites,
where the process of using it is seamless, requiring nothing more than a
single click.
raconteur.net
CASE STUDY: TYLKO
Tylko means only in Polish

and this furniture company
allows you to create and
order a personalised table,
bookshelf or shelving unit
using an augmented reality
(AR) app without leaving
the room it will furnish. In
fact your house becomes
the backdrop with your new
furniture displayed in-situ via
your smartphone.
Anyone can co-design
their unique piece by
starting with a basic, predefined shape and changing
its properties, such as
dimensions or finish, to
match their taste and space,
explains Mikoaj Molenda, cofounder at Tylko.
You get instant quotes
in the UK and the company

has teamed up with a
Swiss designer, so you can
personalise his furniture,
although Tylko has made sure
algorithms are in place that
respect the visual harmony of
his pieces.
Our technology offers
a level of personalisation
and customer engagement
that havent been possible
before, says Mr Molenda.
AR technologies challenge
the existing retail business
status quo. They allow brands
to move away from brick
and mortar to more dynamic
models, online and offline.
You can also create a video
with the app. The stars are the
furniture youve created shot
in various rooms in the home,
so you can see what youve
produced before ordering.
Their business model is
based on fully automated
production, no-middlemen
and delivery of the furniture
direct. The newest tech
helps us offer something truly
novel, says Jacek Majewski,
Tylkos co-founder. AR can be
seen as an important strategic
and branding mechanism in
this process.
3D VISUALISATION
IS THE ROUTE TO
EFFICIENT DESIGN
Traditionally, businesses have produced advanced prototypes to
test and trained staff in real environments, but now the advent of
3D visualisation technology enables them to do so more effectively,
quickly and at low cost
esign and testing processes

are typically expensive and
take a great deal of time.
Across industries, vast amounts of
money are injected into research and
development, testing and creating new
designs based on the results.
Such ways of working have caused
strategic problems due to the costs
and time involved, and firms have
witnessed competitors with bigger
budgets gaining an edge.
The growth of 3D visualisation
systems enables companies of all
sizes to change these processes. By
2020, organisations around the world
will spend $1.6 billion a year on the
technology, according to a report by
MarketsandMarkets.
The technology relies on affordable
advanced processing power, design
tools and virtual reality (VR) technology,
enabling teams to visualise and virtually
test designs, practically perfecting a
product before building it.
Numerous industries are already
benefiting. In the automotive sector,
businesses have typically designed and
built advanced prototypes out of a
variety of materials. They would then
adapt and rebuild them based on the
results, doing so potentially thousands
of times until a product is ready to
mass-produce.
Car companies based in the UK and
US, manufacturing globally, use 3D
visualisation to enable that process to
happen virtually.
Mike McDaniel, marketing manager
at Mechdyne, an advanced technology
solutions firm, says: They can find
flaws before spending time developing
car prototypes, dramatically lowering
the cost, and increasing their speed of

production and testing.
In
the
architectural
and
construction industry, businesses
usually build infrastructure based
on complex drawings. Using 3D
visualisation, they can now lift
their blueprints from 2D drawings
to create a virtual environment
they can walk around before it is
even constructed.
3D visualisation can
vastly shorten time to
market, while slashing
the cost of development
In such an environment, one person
can wear a headset to experience
a particular design virtually, while
colleagues in the room can see on a big
screen what the person is looking at.
The University of Salford is doing
just this to serve a variety of businesses.
It uses a large 3D visualisation display
system, called a PowerWall in its
THINKlab design space, for researchers
and designers to see their projects at
life size. Its use encompasses everything
from city and building design to aircraft
manufacturing and space exploration.
In the past, design teams used
visual aids, such as 2D drawings,
PowerPoint slides and rendered
animation of 3D models, to conduct
design reviews of complex projects,
says Professor Terrence Fernando,
director of the THINKlab.
Using the PowerWall, positioned

within an ergonomically designed
team environment, each member
can present their concepts and
make sure everyone has a clear idea
about the emerging design. Possible
faults can be identified and flagged
by various engineers from their own
perspective, avoiding any possible
clashes later in the product life cycle.
In the oil and gas industry, large
companies are also commonly using
the technology to create models of
the geology of an area before drilling.
Across sectors, there is also the
opportunity to use 3D visualisation
to improve training. Instead of
education taking place in a fixed
environment, which is uninspired and
does not represent a real situation,
VR experiences can be created
around real environments.
The military already uses the
technology to test how people react
in different hostile circumstances,
creating sensory and realistic
environments without staff actually
being in harms way.
In education, information can be
made more understandable, such
as showing how our solar systems
planets orbit the sun, or how a battle
in history was fought.
Visualisation enables organisations
and individuals to have new ways to
look at, explore, understand and use
data, explains Mr McDaniel. They can
vastly shorten time to market, while
slashing the cost of development.
3D visualisation is changing
industries to find out how you can
benefit, visit www.mechdyne.com
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
Taste and try

before you
buy in a new
virtual world
RETAIL
orget boring things like

physical products dragged
down by price points.
The future of retail is all
about the uplifting virtual world.
And the saviour has come from
an unlikely source, a chase for
pixelated characters from Japan.
Pokmon Go has stirred consumers imagination and now the lines
between the real and virtual are
blurred forever.
You can now tour the Egyptian
pyramids in a Thomas Cook travel
agency, zoom through Audis virtual
car showroom without leaving home
or with IKEA you can eye up your
kitchen augmented with new furniture. Pop on a headset or download an
app and theres a try-before-you-buy
experience out there for everyone.
These technologies are improving experiences for customers we know that people dont
like buying products, but they will
spend money on experiences, particularly millennials, says Luke
DArcy, UK president at Momentum
Worldwide, creators of a virtual reality (VR) experience for American
Express at this years US Open
Tennis Championships.
Airlines such as
Etihad give customers the chance
to experience destinations virtually
The technology, including augmented reality (AR), which overlays digital

information on to the physical world,
may have had false dawns in the past,
yet many believe the sweet point
has now been reached. Now there is
scalable computing power and machine-learning, believable visuals,
reduced development costs and increasing consumer acceptance, even
though only a small proportion of UK
shoppers have actually experienced it.
This is the most

immersive and
mediated physicaldigital experience
yet available to us
Of the many changes in the way
we live, consume media and shop,
it is the convergence of the physical
and digital worlds thats impacting
retail the most, says James Poletti, head of digital strategy at RPM.
Customers now dont differentiate
between physical and digital interactions they have the same expectations of both.
It helps that the tech has moved
from dedicated equipment, such
as headsets from Oculus Rift and

HTCs VIVE, to the pervasive and
popular mobile world of smartphones and tablets. Younger consumers are also increasingly curious about the new, which makes
the adaptation process faster
and easier.
With the release of Sonys PlayStation VR soon, the technology will
be available in homes globally, says
Tom Roberts, managing director
at Tribal Worldwide London. This
will offer endless possibilities for retailers to target customers without
having to lure them to the store or
spend money on traditional advertising. It will be exciting to see how this
accessibility will affect retail.
And the virtual future looks bright
as by 2025 the market is expected
to be worth $80 billion, roughly the
size of the desktop PC market today,
according to Goldman Sachs, $45 billion from hardware and $35 billion
from software.
In five years its hard to imagine
where it will be, if you look at how
far it has come since 2012 and cast
forward from there the mind boggles, says Henry Stuart, co-founder
of Visualise. We will have clarity
of vision that is like real life and the
resolution will be so high that pixels
are unperceivable.
PRODUCTS CONSUMERS WOULD CONSIDER SHOPPING FOR VIA VIRTUAL REALITY
57%
34%
32%
41%
34%
29%
CLOTHING
AND APPAREL
ELECTRONICS
40%
HOUSEHOLD
GOODS
LUXURY
ITEMS
TOOLS
BOOKS
OFFICE
SUPPLIES
33%
25%
SPORTING
GOODS
PET
SUPPLIES
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
XXXX
2
11
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
It can inspire shoppers and fire

the imagination now virtual and
augmented reality are moving into
mainstream retail
NICK EASEN
RACONTEUR
Andreas Rentz / Staff /Getty Images
10
24%
CONSUMER
PACKAGING
GOODS
20%
FOOD AND
GROCERIES
28%
I WOULD NOT
SHOP WITH
VIRTUAL REALITY
Source: Walker Sands 2016
Google recently launched Project

Tango in the United States allowing
retail shoppers to navigate to products in-store, while getting rewarded in a revolutionary way, so expect
this in the UK soon. In addition to
cameras and sensors found in smartphones, Tango devices are equipped
with motion, depth sensors and
vision software to create augmented reality experiences that wouldnt
otherwise be possible on a smartphone, says Mr DArcy.
Certainly, as people get used to new
ways of experiencing retail, they will
start to expect more from this technology, including greater interactiv-
ity. This will put high demands on

programming skills and knowledge
of how to interact, steering the path
for this experience, says Martin
Enthed, IT manager for IKEA communications. We want to be ready
when the technologies become part
of peoples everyday life, which is
why we started to explore them now
at an early stage in order to learn.
Right now what this technology is good at doing is bridging the
so called imagination gap. This
is where customers cant imagine
what a product will look like in say
their own home, so they dont buy it.
VR and AR are helping consumers
visualise furniture, paint, wallpaper
and carpet.
With computer vision and machine-learning, consumers are now
able to decorate their own rooms
virtually, says David Levine,
chief executive of Digital Bridge,
who is working with John Lewis
in this field. For basic things like
measurements or judging scales,
this has great potential in the
retail sector.
There is no doubt VR and AR retail
experiences can be memorable, high
impact and intense, and as Mr Poletti
puts it: This is the most immersive
and mediated physical-digital experience yet available to us. However,
the technology is only likely to reach
full commercial potential once it
becomes an integrated feature of
browsers and companies websites,
where the process of using it is seamless, requiring nothing more than a
single click.
raconteur.net
CASE STUDY: TYLKO
Tylko means only in Polish

and this furniture company
allows you to create and
order a personalised table,
bookshelf or shelving unit
using an augmented reality
(AR) app without leaving
the room it will furnish. In
fact your house becomes
the backdrop with your new
furniture displayed in-situ via
your smartphone.
Anyone can co-design
their unique piece by
starting with a basic, predefined shape and changing
its properties, such as
dimensions or finish, to
match their taste and space,
explains Mikoaj Molenda, cofounder at Tylko.
You get instant quotes
in the UK and the company

has teamed up with a
Swiss designer, so you can
personalise his furniture,
although Tylko has made sure
algorithms are in place that
respect the visual harmony of
his pieces.
Our technology offers
a level of personalisation
and customer engagement
that havent been possible
before, says Mr Molenda.
AR technologies challenge
the existing retail business
status quo. They allow brands
to move away from brick
and mortar to more dynamic
models, online and offline.
You can also create a video
with the app. The stars are the
furniture youve created shot
in various rooms in the home,
so you can see what youve
produced before ordering.
Their business model is
based on fully automated
production, no-middlemen
and delivery of the furniture
direct. The newest tech
helps us offer something truly
novel, says Jacek Majewski,
Tylkos co-founder. AR can be
seen as an important strategic
and branding mechanism in
this process.
3D VISUALISATION
IS THE ROUTE TO
EFFICIENT DESIGN
Traditionally, businesses have produced advanced prototypes to
test and trained staff in real environments, but now the advent of
3D visualisation technology enables them to do so more effectively,
quickly and at low cost
esign and testing processes

are typically expensive and
take a great deal of time.
Across industries, vast amounts of
money are injected into research and
development, testing and creating new
designs based on the results.
Such ways of working have caused
strategic problems due to the costs
and time involved, and firms have
witnessed competitors with bigger
budgets gaining an edge.
The growth of 3D visualisation
systems enables companies of all
sizes to change these processes. By
2020, organisations around the world
will spend $1.6 billion a year on the
technology, according to a report by
MarketsandMarkets.
The technology relies on affordable
advanced processing power, design
tools and virtual reality (VR) technology,
enabling teams to visualise and virtually
test designs, practically perfecting a
product before building it.
Numerous industries are already
benefiting. In the automotive sector,
businesses have typically designed and
built advanced prototypes out of a
variety of materials. They would then
adapt and rebuild them based on the
results, doing so potentially thousands
of times until a product is ready to
mass-produce.
Car companies based in the UK and
US, manufacturing globally, use 3D
visualisation to enable that process to
happen virtually.
Mike McDaniel, marketing manager
at Mechdyne, an advanced technology
solutions firm, says: They can find
flaws before spending time developing
car prototypes, dramatically lowering
the cost, and increasing their speed of

production and testing.
In
the
architectural
and
construction industry, businesses
usually build infrastructure based
on complex drawings. Using 3D
visualisation, they can now lift
their blueprints from 2D drawings
to create a virtual environment
they can walk around before it is
even constructed.
3D visualisation can
vastly shorten time to
market, while slashing
the cost of development
In such an environment, one person
can wear a headset to experience
a particular design virtually, while
colleagues in the room can see on a big
screen what the person is looking at.
The University of Salford is doing
just this to serve a variety of businesses.
It uses a large 3D visualisation display
system, called a PowerWall in its
THINKlab design space, for researchers
and designers to see their projects at
life size. Its use encompasses everything
from city and building design to aircraft
manufacturing and space exploration.
In the past, design teams used
visual aids, such as 2D drawings,
PowerPoint slides and rendered
animation of 3D models, to conduct
design reviews of complex projects,
says Professor Terrence Fernando,
director of the THINKlab.
Using the PowerWall, positioned

within an ergonomically designed
team environment, each member
can present their concepts and
make sure everyone has a clear idea
about the emerging design. Possible
faults can be identified and flagged
by various engineers from their own
perspective, avoiding any possible
clashes later in the product life cycle.
In the oil and gas industry, large
companies are also commonly using
the technology to create models of
the geology of an area before drilling.
Across sectors, there is also the
opportunity to use 3D visualisation
to improve training. Instead of
education taking place in a fixed
environment, which is uninspired and
does not represent a real situation,
VR experiences can be created
around real environments.
The military already uses the
technology to test how people react
in different hostile circumstances,
creating sensory and realistic
environments without staff actually
being in harms way.
In education, information can be
made more understandable, such
as showing how our solar systems
planets orbit the sun, or how a battle
in history was fought.
Visualisation enables organisations
and individuals to have new ways to
look at, explore, understand and use
data, explains Mr McDaniel. They can
vastly shorten time to market, while
slashing the cost of development.
3D visualisation is changing
industries to find out how you can
benefit, visit www.mechdyne.com
12
raconteur.net
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2
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
Building on new reality in construction

Virtual and augmented reality are emerging into the property marketplace, using consumer-level technology
that lets planners, architects, builders and clients sample an immersive experience anywhere, anytime
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
JONATHAN BELL
THE VR APP STORE

FOR ANY HEADSET,
ALL IN ONE PLACE
As the virtual reality market grows exponentially, more and more
consumers, who want the greatest choice of products, are turning
to one company that can offer them apps for all devices
WEARVR
he explosion of virtual reality

(VR) content over the last few
years has offered consumers
and developers more choice than
ever before. The problem is that this
vast range can leave many consumers
feeling deluged while developers are
increasingly concerned about how
to get their products in front of the
widest audience.
Its this issue that has led to more
and more consumers as well as
developers looking to a new, fastgrowing independent VR app store
called WEARVR. We have content
for all headsets and thats why people
love us, says Andrew Douthwaite,
chief operating officer. Rather
than having to visit various different
stores and browse by system, we
have all the main options under one
roof. Customers can then download
content either directly from us or via
an external app store.
Visitors to the site are presented
with a menu with Oculus Rift,
HTC Vive, OSVR, Samsung Gear
VR, Android and iOS, and choose
whichever works best for their
headset. We started WEARVR two
Customers can
download content
either directly from
us or via an external
app store
years ago because it was difficult to

find VR content. Within four months
of launch and no marketing spend,
we already had 100,000 downloads,
says Mr Douthwaite.
The company has grown fast, raising
$1.5 million in February last year from
a group of Atlanta-based investors.
WEARVR now has over 1,500 unique
VR apps, more than any other store.
It has had more than 1.7 million
downloads, is currently closing its
second round of funding and is about
to launch into the Chinese market.
New features the company is
working on include personalised
recommendations, browsing in VR,
cross-platform
integration
and
exclusive titles, similar to Netflix
originals. The company is partnering
with new headset manufacturers
to bring WEARVR content on to
their devices. This is great news for
developers as it provides them with
access to new markets.
Having completed the first-ever
market research study for kids using
VR, it was clear to the company how
much youngsters understood and
enjoyed experiences in VR. We
launched our kids version, called
Bogglebox, promoting child-safe,
parent-friendly VR experiences.
The response has been terrific, says
Mr Douthwaite.
The company is very excited
about mobile, with their own mobile
app already installed more than
200,000 times. Mobile VR is huge
and is growing exponentially. Most
people already have the technology
to experience VR, sitting in their

pocket, says Mr Douthwaite. Theres
so much great content out there, our
app is the easiest way to find the best
and the newest.
But it doesnt stop there. Theres
a growing market for 360 video
experiences. Companies such as
Mentour 360 have an app available
through WEARVR, which offers users
a 360 film experience showing the
inside of a real cockpit and how a
professional flight crew works.
Other
experiences
include
architectural
walkthroughs
of
properties. For example, ViewPort
have several visualisations on
WEARVR that showcase the
opportunities in real estate.
Virtual reality is about so much
more than games, as were starting
to see, says Mr Douthwaite. It
also has medical and therapeutic
applications. The WEARVR team
see the potential for VR apps to help
people to handle stress and anxiety,
and to overcome phobias.
Meditation apps can now help
you to feel that youre lying on a
beach, for instance, with the sound
of the waves around you. Add to
these the use of physical sensations
and vibrations, and you can see how
virtual reality is being taken to an
exciting new level.
And thats something WEARVRs
growing army of fans are already
looking forward to.
For more information please visit
www.wearvr.com
irtual reality or VR is having one of its periodic moments. This years release
of consumer devices such
as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR have brought credible VR
systems into homes for the first time,
with the processing power of PCs and
consoles finally attaining the point
where complex graphical environments can become truly immersive.
01
ARCHITECTURE
AND PLANNING
Architects and planners have enjoyed

the benefits of 3D-design packages for
decades. As design tools have grown
in sophistication theyve evolved
to provide complete integration between structure, services and surfaces. A CAD model is a complex web
of interconnected elements; move
a pipe and you potentially impact
on the entire plumbing layout. Add
a window and a list of changes cascades down from lighting requirements, wiring diagrams, insulation
and heat loss calculations, structural
integrity and floorplan layout.
Sophisticated CAD software tracks
and computes all these variables,
integrating modelling tools with
building information management
or BIM systems. Whereas pioneering architects like Frank Gehry had
to transfer software know-how from
the aerospace industry, today dedicated packages such as Autodesks
widely used Revit take designers
from concept sketches through to
production drawings. Slotting VR
into this mix is not straightforward.
Most CAD systems can output
VR-compatible files for presentations and project review, and this
Consumer
augmented
reality
(AR) is also on the verge of a breakthrough, thanks to devices such as
Microsofts HoloLens.
Although VR applications have
been around for decades, with specialist systems developed in conjunction with computer-aided design
(CAD) software for high-end industrial and engineering applications, VR
and ARs new affordability brings it
within reach of small design offices
and contractors, as well as allowing
for ever-closer integration with the
consumer experience.
secondary role remains VRs chief

function in architecture and planning. The ability to walk around
an unbuilt space is a vital point of
communication between architects,
planners and their clients, as it effectively allows a completed building to
be reviewed, tweaked and signed off
before ground has even broken.
A host of cloud-based systems developed by companies including Visual
Vocal, Revizto and Iris are emerging
to act as online bridges between multiple 3D systems and the end-users
off-the-shelf headset or smartphone.
VR and AR still cant quite offer
the fine-grained detail necessary
for pure design tools. But in the case
of complex engineering-led infrastructure projects, VR and AR have
a more compelling role, bringing
design toolsets to help ergonomic
and spatial analysis. A virtual experience of a space like a factory or oil
rig, where machinery and services
can be placed and maintenance and
training issues addressed is a massive advantage.
For planning, the ability to augment existing environments or physical models with overlaid virtual
elements provides quick and easy
verification of proof of concept.
02
BUILDING AND
CONSTRUCTION
03
MARKETING AND SALES
VR comes into its own in largescale construction applications

where extensive planning can avoid
problems further down the line.
A detailed VR working model of a
building site as it moves through
the various stages of a construction
project, from demolition through
to fit-out, can help identify issues
Marketing is the area where commercial and consumer systems have the
most crossover. The very simplest VR
applications repurpose the technology we all carry with us our smartphones. Googles low-cost Cardboard
device and its forthcoming Daydream
headset, Samsungs Gear VR, even the
Avegant Glyph, are portable systems
that create surprisingly immersive
environmental experiences. For developers and estate agents, the most
convincing argument for VR is that
clients no longer have to visit a property to experience it, especially useful
if a development hasnt been built.
Off-plan sales presentations are
transformed so that every aspect of
a finished scheme can be served up
in a seductive, immersive environment that is taken straight from the
architects CAD files and enhanced
with additional datasets from interior designers.
These virtual presentation models
can also include a superficial level of
client interaction, such as opening
doors and cupboards, turning on
lights and changing the time of day
to explore different lighting configurations and options.
Different
furniture
combinations and materials finishes can be
swapped in and out in real time, a
popular option for developers who
might be offering furnishing packages on top of the cost of the property itself. AR can also be used on
about work phasing, health and

safety, and access.
Although VR for construction is
primarily a tool to streamline the
work process, it can also provide
clients with a way of constantly assessing and revising a design as work
progresses, allowing for changes and
revisions to be planned in advance.
In dynamic environments such as
retailing, the ability to model mer-
site, transforming empty shells into

show apartments, letting potential
buyers see how their own furniture
might fit in a space.
In the case of existing properties,
a VR-led approach is especially
seductive for time-poor clients
who are unable to schedule physical visits to multiple properties.
Estate agents such as Winkworth
and Redfin are rolling out 3D
models of select properties. A new
chandising and display before installation vastly improves efficiency,

while hotels can easily cycle through
changes in style and layout.
Virtaliss Visionary Render system
comes closer than ever to creating
the seamless, one-stop design and
construction tool. Even so, massive datasets are required to model
everything from the structural tolerances of the smallest bolt right
through to sophisticated real-time
lighting and rendering, meaning
that for now multiple software systems are still required.
AR systems offer a more direct
and immediate lens on to the
world, letting contractors overlay
proposed design changes at scales
ranging from desktop to city block.
Projects such as Googles Tango
AR system and the Smart Reality
app are bringing consumer-level
AR experiences to smartphones,
with applications and implications
for commercial uses waiting in the
wings. These include the ability to
turn 2D plans into 3D models on
screen, instantly communicating
issues about layout and form without having to wade through drawings or presentations.
industry is emerging, with companies including VRtisan, ArcMedia,

Matterport and IVR Nation going
beyond static renders and building real-time visualisations that
deliver similar levels of verisimilitude, but an enormous increase
in engagement.
raconteur.net
13
12
raconteur.net
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raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
COMMERCIAL FEATURE
Building on new reality in construction

Virtual and augmented reality are emerging into the property marketplace, using consumer-level technology
that lets planners, architects, builders and clients sample an immersive experience anywhere, anytime
BUILT ENVIRONMENT
JONATHAN BELL
THE VR APP STORE

FOR ANY HEADSET,
ALL IN ONE PLACE
As the virtual reality market grows exponentially, more and more
consumers, who want the greatest choice of products, are turning
to one company that can offer them apps for all devices
WEARVR
he explosion of virtual reality

(VR) content over the last few
years has offered consumers
and developers more choice than
ever before. The problem is that this
vast range can leave many consumers
feeling deluged while developers are
increasingly concerned about how
to get their products in front of the
widest audience.
Its this issue that has led to more
and more consumers as well as
developers looking to a new, fastgrowing independent VR app store
called WEARVR. We have content
for all headsets and thats why people
love us, says Andrew Douthwaite,
chief operating officer. Rather
than having to visit various different
stores and browse by system, we
have all the main options under one
roof. Customers can then download
content either directly from us or via
an external app store.
Visitors to the site are presented
with a menu with Oculus Rift,
HTC Vive, OSVR, Samsung Gear
VR, Android and iOS, and choose
whichever works best for their
headset. We started WEARVR two
Customers can
download content
either directly from
us or via an external
app store
years ago because it was difficult to

find VR content. Within four months
of launch and no marketing spend,
we already had 100,000 downloads,
says Mr Douthwaite.
The company has grown fast, raising
$1.5 million in February last year from
a group of Atlanta-based investors.
WEARVR now has over 1,500 unique
VR apps, more than any other store.
It has had more than 1.7 million
downloads, is currently closing its
second round of funding and is about
to launch into the Chinese market.
New features the company is
working on include personalised
recommendations, browsing in VR,
cross-platform
integration
and
exclusive titles, similar to Netflix
originals. The company is partnering
with new headset manufacturers
to bring WEARVR content on to
their devices. This is great news for
developers as it provides them with
access to new markets.
Having completed the first-ever
market research study for kids using
VR, it was clear to the company how
much youngsters understood and
enjoyed experiences in VR. We
launched our kids version, called
Bogglebox, promoting child-safe,
parent-friendly VR experiences.
The response has been terrific, says
Mr Douthwaite.
The company is very excited
about mobile, with their own mobile
app already installed more than
200,000 times. Mobile VR is huge
and is growing exponentially. Most
people already have the technology
to experience VR, sitting in their

pocket, says Mr Douthwaite. Theres
so much great content out there, our
app is the easiest way to find the best
and the newest.
But it doesnt stop there. Theres
a growing market for 360 video
experiences. Companies such as
Mentour 360 have an app available
through WEARVR, which offers users
a 360 film experience showing the
inside of a real cockpit and how a
professional flight crew works.
Other
experiences
include
architectural
walkthroughs
of
properties. For example, ViewPort
have several visualisations on
WEARVR that showcase the
opportunities in real estate.
Virtual reality is about so much
more than games, as were starting
to see, says Mr Douthwaite. It
also has medical and therapeutic
applications. The WEARVR team
see the potential for VR apps to help
people to handle stress and anxiety,
and to overcome phobias.
Meditation apps can now help
you to feel that youre lying on a
beach, for instance, with the sound
of the waves around you. Add to
these the use of physical sensations
and vibrations, and you can see how
virtual reality is being taken to an
exciting new level.
And thats something WEARVRs
growing army of fans are already
looking forward to.
www.wearvr.com
irtual reality or VR is having one of its periodic moments. This years release
of consumer devices such
as the Oculus Rift, HTC Vive and PlayStation VR have brought credible VR
systems into homes for the first time,
with the processing power of PCs and
consoles finally attaining the point
where complex graphical environments can become truly immersive.
01
ARCHITECTURE
AND PLANNING
Architects and planners have enjoyed

the benefits of 3D-design packages for
decades. As design tools have grown
in sophistication theyve evolved
to provide complete integration between structure, services and surfaces. A CAD model is a complex web
of interconnected elements; move
a pipe and you potentially impact
on the entire plumbing layout. Add
a window and a list of changes cascades down from lighting requirements, wiring diagrams, insulation
and heat loss calculations, structural
integrity and floorplan layout.
Sophisticated CAD software tracks
and computes all these variables,
integrating modelling tools with
building information management
or BIM systems. Whereas pioneering architects like Frank Gehry had
to transfer software know-how from
the aerospace industry, today dedicated packages such as Autodesks
widely used Revit take designers
from concept sketches through to
production drawings. Slotting VR
into this mix is not straightforward.
Most CAD systems can output
VR-compatible files for presentations and project review, and this
Consumer
augmented
reality
(AR) is also on the verge of a breakthrough, thanks to devices such as
Microsofts HoloLens.
Although VR applications have
been around for decades, with specialist systems developed in conjunction with computer-aided design
(CAD) software for high-end industrial and engineering applications, VR
and ARs new affordability brings it
within reach of small design offices
and contractors, as well as allowing
for ever-closer integration with the
consumer experience.
secondary role remains VRs chief

function in architecture and planning. The ability to walk around
an unbuilt space is a vital point of
communication between architects,
planners and their clients, as it effectively allows a completed building to
be reviewed, tweaked and signed off
before ground has even broken.
A host of cloud-based systems developed by companies including Visual
Vocal, Revizto and Iris are emerging
to act as online bridges between multiple 3D systems and the end-users
off-the-shelf headset or smartphone.
VR and AR still cant quite offer
the fine-grained detail necessary
for pure design tools. But in the case
of complex engineering-led infrastructure projects, VR and AR have
a more compelling role, bringing
design toolsets to help ergonomic
and spatial analysis. A virtual experience of a space like a factory or oil
rig, where machinery and services
can be placed and maintenance and
training issues addressed is a massive advantage.
For planning, the ability to augment existing environments or physical models with overlaid virtual
elements provides quick and easy
verification of proof of concept.
02
BUILDING AND
CONSTRUCTION
03
MARKETING AND SALES
VR comes into its own in largescale construction applications

where extensive planning can avoid
problems further down the line.
A detailed VR working model of a
building site as it moves through
the various stages of a construction
project, from demolition through
to fit-out, can help identify issues
Marketing is the area where commercial and consumer systems have the
most crossover. The very simplest VR
applications repurpose the technology we all carry with us our smartphones. Googles low-cost Cardboard
device and its forthcoming Daydream
headset, Samsungs Gear VR, even the
Avegant Glyph, are portable systems
that create surprisingly immersive
environmental experiences. For developers and estate agents, the most
convincing argument for VR is that
clients no longer have to visit a property to experience it, especially useful
if a development hasnt been built.
Off-plan sales presentations are
transformed so that every aspect of
a finished scheme can be served up
in a seductive, immersive environment that is taken straight from the
architects CAD files and enhanced
with additional datasets from interior designers.
These virtual presentation models
can also include a superficial level of
client interaction, such as opening
doors and cupboards, turning on
lights and changing the time of day
to explore different lighting configurations and options.
Different
furniture
combinations and materials finishes can be
swapped in and out in real time, a
popular option for developers who
might be offering furnishing packages on top of the cost of the property itself. AR can also be used on
about work phasing, health and

safety, and access.
Although VR for construction is
primarily a tool to streamline the
work process, it can also provide
clients with a way of constantly assessing and revising a design as work
progresses, allowing for changes and
revisions to be planned in advance.
In dynamic environments such as
retailing, the ability to model mer-
site, transforming empty shells into

show apartments, letting potential
buyers see how their own furniture
might fit in a space.
In the case of existing properties,
a VR-led approach is especially
seductive for time-poor clients
who are unable to schedule physical visits to multiple properties.
Estate agents such as Winkworth
and Redfin are rolling out 3D
models of select properties. A new
chandising and display before installation vastly improves efficiency,

while hotels can easily cycle through
changes in style and layout.
Virtaliss Visionary Render system
comes closer than ever to creating
the seamless, one-stop design and
construction tool. Even so, massive datasets are required to model
everything from the structural tolerances of the smallest bolt right
through to sophisticated real-time
lighting and rendering, meaning
that for now multiple software systems are still required.
AR systems offer a more direct
and immediate lens on to the
world, letting contractors overlay
proposed design changes at scales
ranging from desktop to city block.
Projects such as Googles Tango
AR system and the Smart Reality
app are bringing consumer-level
AR experiences to smartphones,
with applications and implications
for commercial uses waiting in the
wings. These include the ability to
turn 2D plans into 3D models on
screen, instantly communicating
issues about layout and form without having to wade through drawings or presentations.
industry is emerging, with companies including VRtisan, ArcMedia,

Matterport and IVR Nation going
beyond static renders and building real-time visualisations that
deliver similar levels of verisimilitude, but an enormous increase
in engagement.
raconteur.net
13
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
Cedars-Sinai
14
Reducing pain
and treating
injured minds
and bodies
playful otter and fluffy

snowman arent the
first thoughts of anyone
needing pain relief or
suffering from dislocating psychological issues.
But the characters are at the vanguard of a treatment protocol that
provides a tantalising glimpse of a
future where computer games and
headsets could be standard hospital equipment.
The otter and the snowman are
part of virtual worlds which, in
basic terms, fool the brain to switch
off pain receptors and concentrate
on the images dancing in front of
the eyes in standard virtual reality
(VR) headsets.
Research
has
shown it can work
well for pain relief
and mental health,
and its efficacy is
now being tested
across conditions
such diabetes and
even paraplegia.
The results, in a
range of hospitals
across the United
States, are impressive with patients
reporting
their
pain diminishes and, crucially,
stays away. It appears distracting
the brain can lead to a recalibration of its pain pathways.
The how and why remain big
questions that need detailed clinical studies before it becomes accepted as a mainstream treatment.
Dr Brennan Spiegel, director of
health research at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, believes the brain becomes
overwhelmed when exposed to VR
imagery and shuts down pain gateways along the spinal cord. This
will block the pain because the
brain is too busy processing other
powerful stimuli such as a helicopter flight or dancing with Cirque du
Soleil, he says.
The hospital has treated 200

patients with VR over the last 18
months and is accelerating its use,
adds Dr Brennan, who is also conducting two clinical trials into VR.
No one truly knows what is happening in the brain, but we can see
VR working in two indelible moments. The first is within ten seconds
of wearing the headset when the patients turn their head as they become
cognitively immersed and then after
about three minutes you get the
physiological immersion, which you
can see in their body language. Their
breathing slows, they relax into the
bed or the chair and you see them
almost escape the four walls of the
hospital, and that is when you know
it is having an impact, he says.
His early studies have shown that
20 minutes exposure to VR games
reduced patients
pain by 24 per
cent and dropped
their mean pain
score, out of ten,
from 5.5 to 4. This
significant level of
change could lead
to quicker recovery
periods, reduced
hospital stays and
less reliance on
medication, particularly opioids.
But Dr Spiegel cautions against regarding VR as a miracle cure as not
everyone responds.
We do need evidence which, just
like for any biomedical advance,
needs to be rigorous, peer-reviewed research to help figure out
what works and what doesnt, he
says. But we are going to see more
and more of it in hospitals.
In the 18 years Ive been practising
medicine, I cannot think of anything
that has a more immediate benefit for a patient, short of restarting
someones heart. I can see someones
body language change within five
minutes so there is a future for this.
The otter and snowman are the
work of Seattle-based DeepStreamVRs Cool and SnowWorld software
programmes. A recent study by
In the 18 years Ive

been practising
medicine, I cannot
think of anything
that has a more
immediate benefit
for a patient,
short of restarting
someones heart
02
Bravemind
HEALTHCARE
DANNY BUCKLAND
Bravemind
01
03
01
Dr Brennan Spiegel
with a patient at
the Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center,
which has treated
200 patients with
VR over the last
18 months
02 & 03
Bravemind gradually immerses
military personnel
with PTSD in virtual environments to
allow the healing
process to advance
investigators at a Tennessee pain

institute found that Cool delivered
a 60-70 per cent pain reduction for
patients who felt the benefit for up to
48 hours.
Ari Hollander, DeepStreamVRs
co-founder and chief technical officer, believes VR is a potent therapy
because a digitally mature generation is willing to accept its potential.
Distraction is part of the equation, but it is lots more than that,
he says. We have seen brain-activity pictures and watched it move
from the centres about pain perception into cognition and other
activity areas, and distraction
cannot explain the results and
lasting effects.
He also feels the body can reroute
its pain pathways after VR exposure and that ability to change the
$5.1bn
estimated value
of the global
VR/AR market
for healthcare
by 2025
Source:
Goldman Sachs
2016
structure of brain behaviours has

immense implications for treating phobias and conditions such
as obesity and anorexia as well as
psychological conditions.
We have worked with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobia
therapies, behaviour change and
pain relief, and doing that in an
individually responsible way is a

tremendous thing, Mr Hollander
adds. We are going to build up a database of information and these systems will be doing diagnosis as well
as treatment soon. The future is for
VR to be used in dynamic personalised medicine.
Ferring Pharmaceuticals ran a
symposium in Paris in September
exploring how gamification can
improve adherence to medication.
Kristine Paridaens, its senior medical director gastroenterology and
endocrinology, global medical affairs, comments: Gamification is
everywhere, but its only recently that weve started questioning
the positive impact it can have on
peoples lives, particularly on their
health. Were keen to see health
gamification used to support clinical practice and thats going to
involve working more closely with
the medical community.
The economic impact could also be
transformative as 22.75 million prescriptions were written for painkillers in the UK in 2014, compared with
10.7 million in 2010, with experts
becoming increasingly concerned
about their long-term health risks.
But healthcare remains the trail
behind the comet-like progress of
entertainment and wellness VR
with Google, Samsung, Facebook
and Sony all chasing its mass-market appeal.
Getting an affordable product to
the high street involves less technical hurdles than achieving medical device approval, so progress in
healthcare VR will be dislocated
from consumer availability.
Professor Maged Boulus, chair
of digital health at the Alexander
Graham Bell Centre for Digital
Health, University of the Highlands and Islands, in Elgin, says
VR has graduated from a niche discipline ten years ago with research
papers only amounting to a few
hundred compared with the 6,500
circulating today.
VR can also be used to conquer
phobias and fears with exposure
therapy increasing doses of their
fear, such as heights or spiders,
with no risk, he says. It can

be used to develop social skills
or autism and relieve anxiety
and depression.
We can employ it to help carers
understand what it is like to have
schizophrenia and therefore have
more empathy with their patients.
Exposure therapy is at the core
of one of the most successful VR
releases, Bravemind, which assesses and treats military personnel
returning from Afghanistan and
Iraq with PTSD. Patients can be
gradually immersed into computer models of patrols, firefights and
conflicts that represent their traumatic experiences and allow the

healing process to advance.
The software, designed by the University of Californias Institute for
Creative Technologies, has shown
results that improved the mental
health of soldiers who did not respond to other forms of therapy.
VR is at its most powerful with collaborations involving digital designers, software engineers, clinicians,
psychologists, neurologists and patients, adds Professor Boulus. It is
akin to producing a movie with lots
of disciplines working in harmony.
The best is still to come over the next
three to four years.
Evidence that VR has stepped out
of the shadows and is shedding its
gimmicky cloak comes from the
recent release of the stage play
Ugly Lies the Bone, starring Meryl
Streeps daughter Mamie Gummer.
It received rave reviews for its harrowing portrayal of a female soldier using VR to help conquer her
corrosive PTSD.
raconteur.net
CASE STUDY: WALK AGAIN PROJECT
Paralysed patients are using

VR to regain limb function
and walk again thanks to a
pioneering project.
Scientists developed
programming that linked
a virtual reality system to
patients brains and taught
them how to operate their
own avatar, or digital likeness,
in game play.
The mental imagery
needed to move their
characters to perform acts
such as kicking a ball is
believed to have the power
to stimulate surviving spinal
cord nerves that become
dormant when a patient is
restricted to a wheelchair or
bed after paralysis.
Eight patients, who had
been paralysed for between
three and thirteen years,
2
15
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
VR can be used to
conquer phobias
and fears with
exposure therapy
increasing doses of
their fear, such as
heights or spiders,
with no risk
Helping to heal broken minds and

bodies is a major contribution from
virtual reality as it is increasingly put
to work in healthcare
XXXX
used VR and a braincontrolled exoskeleton to

stimulate motor function in
the year-long study.
Researchers at Duke
University, North Carolina,
recorded the changes in
patients brain patterns,
muscle movements and
nervous systems.
The results, recorded in
the publication Scientific
Reports in August, were so
successful that four of the
patients were able to upgrade
their condition from paralysis
to partial paralysis and a
32-year-old female patient,
paralysed for 13 years, was
able to walk again.
Neuroscientist Miguel
Nicolelis, who led the
research, says most of
the patients also saw
improvements in bladder
control and bowel function.
What were showing in
this paper is that patients
who used a brain-machine
interface for a long period
of time experienced
improvements in motor
behaviour, tactile sensations
and visceral functions below
the level of the spinal cord
injury, he says.
AFFORDABLE 3D
360-DEGREE VR
VUZE, the new easy-to-use 3D 360-degree virtual reality camera
supported by sophisticated software, is opening up the market
hile 2D 360-degree videos

have become synonymous
with the term virtual reality
or VR, truly immersive videos, shot
and rendered in 3D, offer the magical
ability to let people experience
content as if they are really there.
Until recently the creation of such
content was the reserve of movie
studios and early adopters with huge
budgets and advanced technical
know-how. This is about to change
with VUZE, a new camera developed
by HumanEyes Technologies, that is
finally giving ordinary consumers the
ability to create true 3D 360-degree
VR content at a push of a button and
without breaking the bank.
Additionally, by integrating 3D audio
or spatial audio solution, VUZE offers a
true fully immersive experience.
The cost and complexity of 3D
360-degree VR content has been
a major obstacle to its widespread
adoption. The cameras used to
create such content are few and far
between, and are either comprised of
complicated rigs of multiple cameras
linked together or large cameras with
five and six-figure price tags.
The complex nature of stitching
and editing images together to create
360 videos is another significant
barrier. The software and processing
associated with 3D VR camera
technology require high-level editing
skills and expertise, making it difficult
for consumers and prosumers to jump
on board with VR content creation
and editing, and restricting the
industry to video professionals.
The process of filming in VR is
also time consuming, with a lengthy
content turnaround time making
shooting in VR an impractical solution
for short-term, time-sensitive projects.
With the launch of VUZE, all of
these barriers have been removed.
At a cost of 799, it is affordable,

and it is simple to use, from pushing
one button to shoot content
to using the software to stitch
content automatically and edit
the footage quickly in almost real
time. Technically VUZE is on par
with cameras many times its price,
producing stunning 4K content in a
point-and-shoot device that can fit
into your pocket.
In developing VUZE, the HumanEyes
Technologies team focused on
simplicity. Chief executive Shahar
Bin-Nun explains: Today the industry
is split between 2D VR cameras
that create 360 videos, and highly
expensive 3D cameras or rigs, like
Facebook Surround 360 or Google
Jump, that are complicated and
costly to use.
We wanted to create a product
that anyone could use and see the
results in minutes. We also wanted to
make it accessible to everyone at a
price that was reasonable for camera
and VR enthusiasts, professional
photographers and consumers.
The camera itself is small
and light enough for people
to take on a trip, and comes
with accessories that include
a tripod and selfie stick,
designed to make capturing
immersive content simple. Estate
agents, for example, who previously
lacked the skills and budget, will now
be able to use VR to enhance their
sales and marketing strategy.
The key to delivering such
a high-resolution 3D VR
content at a tiny fraction of
the cost of the $30,000plus alternatives has been
the companys 15 years
of experience creating
3D imaging software.
The camera is small and

light enough for people
to take on a trip, and
comes with accessories
that include a tripod and
selfie stick, designed
to make capturing
immersive content simple
Mr Bin-Nun says: The most
complicated part of creating seamless
360-degree video is not the actual
image capture, but the software
required to stitch multiple images
together as one unending sphere. While
other VR camera manufacturers, such
as Nokia and Samsung, are known for
hardware products, we had a significant
head start as we have been developing
3D imaging software for customers
across the globe for 15 years.
HumanEyes will be at the VR & AR
World conference at Excel London
on October 19 and 20, offering
onsite demonstrations of VUZE. So
far, feedback from industry leaders
and technology journalists who have
already been introduced to VUZE has
been overwhelmingly positive, says
Mr Bin-Nun.
He adds: Many are interested
in using the device for their own
production and content shooting,
and also agree that this is the type
of product and software needed
to move the industry beyond early
adopters, and film and gaming
companies with big budgets.
www.vuze.camera
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
RACONTEUR
raconteur.net
xx
xx / 2016
xxxx
05 / 10
Cedars-Sinai
14
Reducing pain
and treating
injured minds
and bodies
playful otter and fluffy

snowman arent the
first thoughts of anyone
needing pain relief or
suffering from dislocating psychological issues.
But the characters are at the vanguard of a treatment protocol that
provides a tantalising glimpse of a
future where computer games and
headsets could be standard hospital equipment.
The otter and the snowman are
part of virtual worlds which, in
basic terms, fool the brain to switch
off pain receptors and concentrate
on the images dancing in front of
the eyes in standard virtual reality
(VR) headsets.
Research
has
shown it can work
well for pain relief
and mental health,
and its efficacy is
now being tested
across conditions
such diabetes and
even paraplegia.
The results, in a
range of hospitals
across the United
States, are impressive with patients
reporting
their
pain diminishes and, crucially,
stays away. It appears distracting
the brain can lead to a recalibration of its pain pathways.
The how and why remain big
questions that need detailed clinical studies before it becomes accepted as a mainstream treatment.
Dr Brennan Spiegel, director of
health research at the Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, believes the brain becomes
overwhelmed when exposed to VR
imagery and shuts down pain gateways along the spinal cord. This
will block the pain because the
brain is too busy processing other
powerful stimuli such as a helicopter flight or dancing with Cirque du
Soleil, he says.
The hospital has treated 200

patients with VR over the last 18
months and is accelerating its use,
adds Dr Brennan, who is also conducting two clinical trials into VR.
No one truly knows what is happening in the brain, but we can see
VR working in two indelible moments. The first is within ten seconds
of wearing the headset when the patients turn their head as they become
cognitively immersed and then after
about three minutes you get the
physiological immersion, which you
can see in their body language. Their
breathing slows, they relax into the
bed or the chair and you see them
almost escape the four walls of the
hospital, and that is when you know
it is having an impact, he says.
His early studies have shown that
20 minutes exposure to VR games
reduced patients
pain by 24 per
cent and dropped
their mean pain
score, out of ten,
from 5.5 to 4. This
significant level of
change could lead
to quicker recovery
periods, reduced
hospital stays and
less reliance on
medication, particularly opioids.
But Dr Spiegel cautions against regarding VR as a miracle cure as not
everyone responds.
We do need evidence which, just
like for any biomedical advance,
needs to be rigorous, peer-reviewed research to help figure out
what works and what doesnt, he
says. But we are going to see more
and more of it in hospitals.
In the 18 years Ive been practising
medicine, I cannot think of anything
that has a more immediate benefit for a patient, short of restarting
someones heart. I can see someones
body language change within five
minutes so there is a future for this.
The otter and snowman are the
work of Seattle-based DeepStreamVRs Cool and SnowWorld software
programmes. A recent study by
In the 18 years Ive

been practising
medicine, I cannot
think of anything
that has a more
immediate benefit
for a patient,
short of restarting
someones heart
02
Bravemind
HEALTHCARE
DANNY BUCKLAND
Bravemind
01
03
01
Dr Brennan Spiegel
with a patient at
the Cedars-Sinai
Medical Center,
which has treated
200 patients with
VR over the last
18 months
02 & 03
Bravemind gradually immerses
military personnel
with PTSD in virtual environments to
allow the healing
process to advance
investigators at a Tennessee pain

institute found that Cool delivered
a 60-70 per cent pain reduction for
patients who felt the benefit for up to
48 hours.
Ari Hollander, DeepStreamVRs
co-founder and chief technical officer, believes VR is a potent therapy
because a digitally mature generation is willing to accept its potential.
Distraction is part of the equation, but it is lots more than that,
he says. We have seen brain-activity pictures and watched it move
from the centres about pain perception into cognition and other
activity areas, and distraction
cannot explain the results and
lasting effects.
He also feels the body can reroute
its pain pathways after VR exposure and that ability to change the
$5.1bn
estimated value
of the global
VR/AR market
for healthcare
by 2025
Source:
Goldman Sachs
2016
structure of brain behaviours has

immense implications for treating phobias and conditions such
as obesity and anorexia as well as
psychological conditions.
We have worked with post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), phobia
therapies, behaviour change and
pain relief, and doing that in an
individually responsible way is a

tremendous thing, Mr Hollander
adds. We are going to build up a database of information and these systems will be doing diagnosis as well
as treatment soon. The future is for
VR to be used in dynamic personalised medicine.
Ferring Pharmaceuticals ran a
symposium in Paris in September
exploring how gamification can
improve adherence to medication.
Kristine Paridaens, its senior medical director gastroenterology and
endocrinology, global medical affairs, comments: Gamification is
everywhere, but its only recently that weve started questioning
the positive impact it can have on
peoples lives, particularly on their
health. Were keen to see health
gamification used to support clinical practice and thats going to
involve working more closely with
the medical community.
The economic impact could also be
transformative as 22.75 million prescriptions were written for painkillers in the UK in 2014, compared with
10.7 million in 2010, with experts
becoming increasingly concerned
about their long-term health risks.
But healthcare remains the trail
behind the comet-like progress of
entertainment and wellness VR
with Google, Samsung, Facebook
and Sony all chasing its mass-market appeal.
Getting an affordable product to
the high street involves less technical hurdles than achieving medical device approval, so progress in
healthcare VR will be dislocated
from consumer availability.
Professor Maged Boulus, chair
of digital health at the Alexander
Graham Bell Centre for Digital
Health, University of the Highlands and Islands, in Elgin, says
VR has graduated from a niche discipline ten years ago with research
papers only amounting to a few
hundred compared with the 6,500
circulating today.
VR can also be used to conquer
phobias and fears with exposure
therapy increasing doses of their
fear, such as heights or spiders,
with no risk, he says. It can

be used to develop social skills
or autism and relieve anxiety
and depression.
We can employ it to help carers
understand what it is like to have
schizophrenia and therefore have
more empathy with their patients.
Exposure therapy is at the core
of one of the most successful VR
releases, Bravemind, which assesses and treats military personnel
returning from Afghanistan and
Iraq with PTSD. Patients can be
gradually immersed into computer models of patrols, firefights and
conflicts that represent their traumatic experiences and allow the

healing process to advance.
The software, designed by the University of Californias Institute for
Creative Technologies, has shown
results that improved the mental
health of soldiers who did not respond to other forms of therapy.
VR is at its most powerful with collaborations involving digital designers, software engineers, clinicians,
psychologists, neurologists and patients, adds Professor Boulus. It is
akin to producing a movie with lots
of disciplines working in harmony.
The best is still to come over the next
three to four years.
Evidence that VR has stepped out
of the shadows and is shedding its
gimmicky cloak comes from the
recent release of the stage play
Ugly Lies the Bone, starring Meryl
Streeps daughter Mamie Gummer.
It received rave reviews for its harrowing portrayal of a female soldier using VR to help conquer her
corrosive PTSD.
raconteur.net
CASE STUDY: WALK AGAIN PROJECT
Paralysed patients are using

VR to regain limb function
and walk again thanks to a
pioneering project.
Scientists developed
programming that linked
a virtual reality system to
patients brains and taught
them how to operate their
own avatar, or digital likeness,
in game play.
The mental imagery
needed to move their
characters to perform acts
such as kicking a ball is
believed to have the power
to stimulate surviving spinal
cord nerves that become
dormant when a patient is
restricted to a wheelchair or
bed after paralysis.
Eight patients, who had
been paralysed for between
three and thirteen years,
2
15
COMMERCIAL
COMMERCIALFEATURE
FEATURE
VR can be used to
conquer phobias
and fears with
exposure therapy
increasing doses of
their fear, such as
heights or spiders,
with no risk
Helping to heal broken minds and

bodies is a major contribution from
virtual reality as it is increasingly put
to work in healthcare
XXXX
used VR and a braincontrolled exoskeleton to

stimulate motor function in
the year-long study.
Researchers at Duke
University, North Carolina,
recorded the changes in
patients brain patterns,
muscle movements and
nervous systems.
The results, recorded in
the publication Scientific
Reports in August, were so
successful that four of the
patients were able to upgrade
their condition from paralysis
to partial paralysis and a
32-year-old female patient,
paralysed for 13 years, was
able to walk again.
Neuroscientist Miguel
Nicolelis, who led the
research, says most of
the patients also saw
improvements in bladder
control and bowel function.
What were showing in
this paper is that patients
who used a brain-machine
interface for a long period
of time experienced
improvements in motor
behaviour, tactile sensations
and visceral functions below
the level of the spinal cord
injury, he says.
AFFORDABLE 3D
360-DEGREE VR
VUZE, the new easy-to-use 3D 360-degree virtual reality camera
supported by sophisticated software, is opening up the market
hile 2D 360-degree videos

have become synonymous
with the term virtual reality
or VR, truly immersive videos, shot
and rendered in 3D, offer the magical
ability to let people experience
content as if they are really there.
Until recently the creation of such
content was the reserve of movie
studios and early adopters with huge
budgets and advanced technical
know-how. This is about to change
with VUZE, a new camera developed
by HumanEyes Technologies, that is
finally giving ordinary consumers the
ability to create true 3D 360-degree
VR content at a push of a button and
without breaking the bank.
Additionally, by integrating 3D audio
or spatial audio solution, VUZE offers a
true fully immersive experience.
The cost and complexity of 3D
360-degree VR content has been
a major obstacle to its widespread
adoption. The cameras used to
create such content are few and far
between, and are either comprised of
complicated rigs of multiple cameras
linked together or large cameras with
five and six-figure price tags.
The complex nature of stitching
and editing images together to create
360 videos is another significant
barrier. The software and processing
associated with 3D VR camera
technology require high-level editing
skills and expertise, making it difficult
for consumers and prosumers to jump
on board with VR content creation
and editing, and restricting the
industry to video professionals.
The process of filming in VR is
also time consuming, with a lengthy
content turnaround time making
shooting in VR an impractical solution
for short-term, time-sensitive projects.
With the launch of VUZE, all of
these barriers have been removed.
At a cost of 799, it is affordable,

and it is simple to use, from pushing
one button to shoot content
to using the software to stitch
content automatically and edit
the footage quickly in almost real
time. Technically VUZE is on par
with cameras many times its price,
producing stunning 4K content in a
point-and-shoot device that can fit
into your pocket.
In developing VUZE, the HumanEyes
Technologies team focused on
simplicity. Chief executive Shahar
Bin-Nun explains: Today the industry
is split between 2D VR cameras
that create 360 videos, and highly
expensive 3D cameras or rigs, like
Facebook Surround 360 or Google
Jump, that are complicated and
costly to use.
We wanted to create a product
that anyone could use and see the
results in minutes. We also wanted to
make it accessible to everyone at a
price that was reasonable for camera
and VR enthusiasts, professional
photographers and consumers.
The camera itself is small
and light enough for people
to take on a trip, and comes
with accessories that include
a tripod and selfie stick,
designed to make capturing
immersive content simple. Estate
agents, for example, who previously
lacked the skills and budget, will now
be able to use VR to enhance their
sales and marketing strategy.
The key to delivering such
a high-resolution 3D VR
content at a tiny fraction of
the cost of the $30,000plus alternatives has been
the companys 15 years
of experience creating
3D imaging software.
The camera is small and

light enough for people
to take on a trip, and
comes with accessories
that include a tripod and
selfie stick, designed
to make capturing
immersive content simple
Mr Bin-Nun says: The most
complicated part of creating seamless
360-degree video is not the actual
image capture, but the software
required to stitch multiple images
together as one unending sphere. While
other VR camera manufacturers, such
as Nokia and Samsung, are known for
hardware products, we had a significant
head start as we have been developing
3D imaging software for customers
across the globe for 15 years.
HumanEyes will be at the VR & AR
World conference at Excel London
on October 19 and 20, offering
onsite demonstrations of VUZE. So
far, feedback from industry leaders
and technology journalists who have
already been introduced to VUZE has
been overwhelmingly positive, says
Mr Bin-Nun.
He adds: Many are interested
in using the device for their own
production and content shooting,
and also agree that this is the type
of product and software needed
to move the industry beyond early
adopters, and film and gaming
companies with big budgets.
www.vuze.camera
16
raconteur.net
05 / 10 / 2016
RACONTEUR
DA RE TO RIS E
EVE: Valkyrie
might be the
first killer app
for virtual reality.
-CNET
AVAILABLE
OCTOBER 13 ON
2016 CCP hf. All rights reserved. EVE: Valkyrie, EVE and the CCP logo
are trademarks or registered trademarks of CCP hf.

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TRY SEEING LIFE THROUGH

Virtual and augmented reality are leaping into unexpected spaces

YOU HAVENT SEEN

VR promises a different view

TASTE AND TRY

VR and AR are moving into the

VR is helping to rebuild broken

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER

Seeing life through

Former assistant editor

Both virtual and augmented reality have huge potential

Writer and editor, he

Although this publication is funded through advertising and

group of schoolchildren are

could learn human anatomy with

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

DIGITAL CONTENT MANAGER

Seeing life through

Former assistant editor

Both virtual and augmented reality have huge potential

Writer and editor, he

Although this publication is funded through advertising and

group of schoolchildren are

could learn human anatomy with

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

Virtual experience boosts results among students

CASE STUDY: MINING INDUSTRY

While you can

or the things we have to

In the study, magnetic resonance

the crucial 20-minute window

says, in its current form, it could

board to their smartphone, may

Tel: 01827 262 229

ing simulations in which employees are asked to collaborate with

University of Pretoria, which

Improvements in learner retention

and also to illustrate the errors

Enlighten are an award winning eLearning

We work with clients to determine which of our eLearning, AR or VR

( 01827 262 229

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

Virtual experience boosts results among students

CASE STUDY: MINING INDUSTRY

While you can

or the things we have to

In the study, magnetic resonance

the crucial 20-minute window

says, in its current form, it could

board to their smartphone, may

Tel: 01827 262 229

ing simulations in which employees are asked to collaborate with

University of Pretoria, which

Improvements in learner retention

and also to illustrate the errors

Enlighten are an award winning eLearning

We work with clients to determine which of our eLearning, AR or VR

( 01827 262 229

VIRTUAL AND AUGMENTED REALITY

t was the sight of viewers in