Games bring entertainment and enrichment into our lives. The gamification market is one of the most rapidly developing sectors – it is expected to reach $38.42 million in value by 2026, almost four times as much as it was valued in 2020. The main reason for this aggressive expansion is the increase of the number of smartphones and mobile devices owned by the public.

Additionally, gamification systems can influence human behavior, increasing productivity and engagement, inducing innovation, curiosity, and positive emotions. Games are not used only for entertainment anymore – they are now an integral part of marketing, education, various types of training, tourism, and more.

So, what happens when a traditionally loved game like treasure hunt meets cutting-edge technology like augmented reality?

We’re not going to lie, the results are pretty incredible. But let’s start from the beginning.

Treasure hunt is a game in which participants have to find clues that will lead them to their “treasure” – some sort of a prize at the end of the game. A scavenger hunt is a similar activity; although in a scavenger hunt, participants typically look for specific hidden objects from a list, not a series of clues.

The original treasure hunt has been popular since the 1930s, especially among children. However, no one says that adults cannot have their own versions of treasure hunts and enjoy them just as much as the kids.

This is especially true if the classic treasure hunt concept is enhanced with augmented reality.

In augmented reality (AR), the real world is supplemented with digital content. To better explain this, here is an example: imagine that you are watching your friend swinging a broom around as though it were a lightsaber. When you switch on your phone camera in the right AR experience and point it at your friend, the broom handle can actually become a lightsaber on the screen!

To take part in an AR experience, all you need is AR software (a pre-made experience) and a mobile device that supports this type of technology. (Most smartphones do, these days.)

The clues that you find in the AR treasure hunt are in augmented reality. Typically, you have to find a specific trigger (an image or a QR code) to scan it with your phone to see your clue. You also might have to reach a certain location to have the AR clue show up on your mobile device. (Think Pokemon Go and all the different creatures scattered around the world.)

Here is an example of what an AR treasure hunt app may look like:

The most significant benefit of an interactive treasure hunt app is that it can be used in any business in any industry. Here are some of the advantages of incorporating this type of software solution into your work:

• Sky-high engagement. Whether you’re looking to increase brand awareness, brand loyalty, strengthen your relationship with your existing customers, or increase the engagement of your students or employees – there is no better way than a game in emerging technology. Augmented reality is still new enough for most, and incredibly entertaining to use. You never know what you’re going to get when you scan the next clue, and the excitement becomes palpable!
• Enhanced storytelling. Brands that tell their authentic story develop deeper bonds with their customers. And strong customer relationships lead to customer loyalty and repeat purchases. An AR treasure hunt app will help you tell your brand’s story in a way that’s not been done before. Each clue could be a part of your brand’s journey, and your consumers will love to follow that adventure as it unfolds.
• Increased retention. Textbooks, PowerPoint presentations, and monotonous training videos are a thing of the past. Not one student or employee can remember much from a dreary training session where a disinterested instructor drones on about an uninteresting topic. But even an uninteresting topic presented in a cool, innovative way can become fascinating! Studies have shown that, through the use of AR and VR, people tend to remember what they’ve learned better and for longer periods of time compared to traditional learning techniques.
• Stronger team bonds. If you’re not sure what activity to choose for your next team-building event, an augmented reality treasure hunt is a serious contender. Divide your employees into teams and watch them take part in some friendly competition to win the treasure hunt prize! Expect a lot of laughter, playful ribbing, and excited running around, especially if you organize an outdoor AR treasure hunt.

Based on the way in which clues are found and AR experiences are loaded on mobile devices, there are two primary types of AR treasure hunt games you can choose from:

• Marker-Based AR Treasure Hunt – Marker-based AR means that there is a marker – an image, a QR code, or a 3D object that you scan with your phone camera. The marker then triggers your AR experience. A treasure hunt game based on this typically involves participants looking for specific 2D or 3D images or QR codes hidden across a specific area. It can be used both indoors and outdoors.
• Geo Location-Based Treasure Hunt – An AR experience can also be activated by a GPS location. All a person needs to do is to arrive at the designated destination with their mobile device (and AR app), and their experience will start, guiding them through their task or hinting at the next location they need to visit. A GPS treasure hunt is better suited for the outdoors, but it can work indoors as well, with certain limitations.

All of those participating in the AR hunt need to have an AR-ready mobile device. Whether or not a phone is AR-ready is difficult to say, as there is a variety of technologies available for building augmented reality experiences.

If you want to make sure that all or most of your participants will be able to enjoy the treasure hunt, check with the software developers about the type of mobile devices their solution supports. If you’re looking for an app developed for a specific purpose, have a discussion with your software providers about the mobile device requirements.

Even if you have an AR-ready device, you cannot play a treasure hunt game unless you have the right application installed (or can access it via the web).

Treasure hunt software solutions can come in various forms. Here are some of the notable features they can have:

• Indoor and outdoor versions
• A single AR treasure hunt or a series of them
• Sign up screen (users who do not have the right username and password cannot participate)
• Augmented reality-based clues
• Questions and answers to make the game more challenging
• Hints
• “Ask a friend” via social networks option
• Cash prizes, or voucher rewards
• Leaderboard
• Game analytics

The software you’re planning doesn’t have to include all of these. You need to select the features that will drive the most engagement for your business and provide the most memorable experience for your consumers.

If you’re interested in an AR treasure hunt adventure for your customers, employees, or students, you’re in luck! ARVRtech happens to have just the right product for you. Take a look at our AR treasure hunt page and contact us with your project details. We’ll be more than happy to develop a game that will blow your competitors out of the water!

It’s 2019 and Virtual Reality has become a normal occurrence! In this article we answer the most frequent virtual reality questions we got from our clients and partners when starting new VR projects!

This is an easy one, and the answer to this can actually be found directly on our website FAQ section. Anyhow, Virtual Reality or simply VR is the full immersive 3D experience that the users receive with VR wearables. This computer generated environment is interacted by a person who either becomes part of this virtual world or is immersed within this environment and is capable of manipulating objects or performing a series of actions.

Nowadays VR devices can be classified into three distinct groups: Mobile based VR, PC based VR, and Standalone VR Devices.

VR which is mobile based can also be classified into two groups: cardboard and plastic. Cardboard VR is the cheapest option and is easily branded and spread out to customers. The other plastic VR devices are a bit more expensive then the cardboard option and have a range of producers. VR Viewers such as Homido VR are an example of a good quality product for experiencing VR on a variety of phones. On the other hand, Samsung has a dedicated VR viewer that works exclusively with their range of mobile phones, called the Samsung Gear VR.

As much as VR on a mobile device is convenient for promotions, events, etc. VR on a PC is a whole other ballgame! You could say that it’s thanks to the superior performance of the PC’s hardware and you wouldn’t be wrong. Using a desktop computer and a VR HMD is a great combination if you’re going for quality over quantity! Some of the hardware that we have experience with, and have used it to produce cutting edge VR experiences for our clients include HTC Vive and the newly released Vive Cosmos, as well as one of the first companies to bring out a state of the art headset, Oculus Rift. All of these require a high end PC to run, but the results are more then rewarding, and will leave your customers with their jaws dropped!

Last but certainly not least in this classification, the standalone VR devices are certainly a fresh addition to the world of VR HMD’s. They are a mix of both worlds from the groups above, mobile and PC. This group offers the flexibility of using a mobile device, and the extra quality of a dedicated VR HMD, which we see on the PC HMD’s. The main players here are not new though, its Oculus, with two main products, the Oculus GO, as an entrant option and Oculus Quest for more advanced users. HTC has brought the Focus to the party, a bit more expensive take on the standalone headset.

From the group above, it really depends on a lot of factors. What do you wish to achieve with your VR application, what is your budget, who is your target audience, are you going for quantity or quality, etc.

Although, from recent experience if your VR app is going to be used by a large number of people and you are going for quantity, then a mobile based VR is the best option for you!

On the other hand, if for example you know that you are going to have a dedicated place to show off your VR app, for example your company is exhibiting at a fair, or you have a VR app to show your clients at the office. In these cases, it is better to go for quality over quantity, and invest in a high end PC, and a PC based VR HMD.

And finally, if you would like to be versatile, take up a standalone version of a VR HMD device. The standalone version can be purchased for a price of a high end mobile phone, but offers a better quality VR experience than the classic mobile VR does.

So if you’re not 100% sure how you wish to use your VR app, start with a standalone version of a HMD device, and build on from there!

You can always start with one VR set, and then increase the number if a need presents itself! For example The New York Times once shipped around 300.000 Google Cardboard VR HMD’s (remember then from our list above?) to their subscribers, in order to reach their digital subscribers more directly and promote its VR app.

Also, one of our clients, Lafarge, purchased 10 Samsung Gear VR devices for a Health & Safety app taking users on a tour of the usually inaccessible parts of the factory!

VR has become the norm, and now it is easier to list the industries that are NOT using VR then those who are! Tourism, retail, real estate, education , healthcare, marketing, and many other verticals use VR to showcase their solutions in their respective areas of operation. VR has become mainstream there is no doubt about that, and the data proves that! Before we mentioned a report about the where AR & VR is headed conducted by Goldman Sachs, and they turned out to be more than right!

According to Statista the size of the AR & VR market is growing exponentially! In 2016 the size of the market is valued at USD 6.1 billion, in 2017. it has more then doubled to almost USD 14 billion, and for 2020, the AR & VR market is estimated to reach an astounding USD 143 billion worldwide!

According to a exclusive Bloomberg report, the VR market alone is expected to reach USD 44.7 billion by 2024!

Bloomberg has also specified that the Chines VR market is worth around USD 8.5 billion! And as China is pushing the low-cost model and a lot of their own brands are shipping out HMD’s, their large corporations may even have a jump on the biggest US and Japanese companies!

Has your industry niche used VR, or do your competitors use VR? If not, then you will have a jump start on them! Virtual Reality gives you an edge over the competition, and lets your users engage with your product or service easier.

Today it is more important then ever to follow the trends, and to keep up with your customers. By adding a VR experience you are doing exactly that and more, you are ‘wowing’ your users and you are giving yourself an advantage!

There are two main things to consider when determining the budget for a VR project: how complex the solution is, and what is the physical amount of working hours needed to get the job done. That consists of, designing, coding and implementing the solution. Also, it depends if you will provide the company with 360 photos, or 3D models, or if the company will do that for you per your requests.

One of the main factors is how much does a VR project team, consisting of developers, designers and project managers, charge for their time. For example, according to a rough market research, VR development costs in North America range from $50-250; Western Europe $50-200; Asia $10-50 and Eastern Europe $20-100. Now, the prices are not exactly corelated with the level of quality you will get! There are Western European companies that operate branches in Eastern Europe, but are notorious for the dedication of keeping the quality of work at a high level!

One of the most important things as well is good communication that must exist between the client and the developer company! If there are communication problems, that can lead to massive overtime, extended deadlines, and overall slow pacing of a project!

You could fill out a contact form with us, and GET A FREE QUOTE on your next VR project!

The more you know, the better! Having successfully reached the end of this blog posts just shows that you are willing to learn and are genuinely interested in this subject!

We hope you found the answers to these 9 virtual reality questions most helpful!

Here at ARVRtech, we keep close interactions with existing and future clients! We use our decades of experience in our business processes, in order to give you the assurance you need when discussing your needs as a valued client, and to offer you solutions which can fit any budget!

Don’t hesitate to CONTACT US, and we will be happy to reply, and discuss your ideas as soon as possible!

Do you see young people having their VR headsets on all the time? So, you naturally want to see what all the fuss is about, and then you suddenly feel nauseous and remove the headset instantly! Well you’re not alone, you have Virtual Reality Sickness, hey it even has its own Wikipedia page! Don’t worry though, read on and you’ll come across a few solutions you might try in order to overcome this new phenomenon!

According to a research conducted on ‘Simulation Sickness’ by the US Army Research Institute there are two major theories on why simulation sickness occurs: Sensory Conflict Theory & Postural Instability Theory

The Sensory Conflict Theory mainly states that it is similar to a generally more well-known motion sickness, something a lot of people have experienced before they’ve reached the age of 12. Well this happens because our eyes are saying that one thing is happening, but all our other senses, like the inner ear, are telling as another. The mechanism is the same, but Virtual Reality Sickens and Motion Sickness are the opposite actually! When you experience motion sickness, your eyes are saying that you are stationary (sitting in a car, looking at the dashboard or a book) but your other senses are experiencing G-forces. And exactly the opposite happens when you put a VR headset on! Your eyes are trying to convince you that you are moving (like riding a horse here in an VR Archery game), but all your other senses are telling you that you are stationary!

The Postural Instability Theory on the other hand states that the sickness producing situations are characterized by their unfamiliarity to the participant. This unfamiliarity sometimes leads to an inability of the participant to maintain postural control. It is this postural instability that causes the discomfort-until the user adapts.

So now you are aware WHY Virtual Reality Sickens occurs and HOW it makes you feel nauseous! In order to get over that and be able to experience Virtual Reality in all its glory, we have prepared 5 tips you can try in order to overcome nausea in VR.

This is something that a lot of people can relate to when putting on a VR Headset for the first time. If you’re shortsighted like me you must have found it difficult to follow VR content at first, it was a blurry and dizzy nausea fest! When Samsung Gear VR became available, a lot of people criticized it for not being able to see the content clearly and it not being in focus. Turns out Samsung’s VR Headset was new to the market, and users haven’t figured out that they can simply adjust the lens of their VR HMD to fit the quality of their sight.

Some future VR HMD’s might solve this by allowing users to simply input their designated lens adjustment like n their glasses for reading before putting the headset on, or maybe even doing that automatically!

You might try and explore your VR device, HTC Vive for example has the lens adjustment dial on the bottom, so it’s not exactly intuitive for a person using it for the first time.

Not that long ago you would be watching cartoons on TV, and your parents would shout at you for sitting too close to the TV set, and ironically today, you just pick up a VR headset and you have two small high resolution screens just inches from your eyes!

But just as our parents were right about it not being all that healthy sitting in front of the TV for hours, it’s still not healthy to have a VR headset on for too long as well! If you’re immersed into a VR world for too long, you can easily become dizzy and lose your balance! So that’s exactly why it is good for your to take a break from time to time, that world’s not going anywhere.

A general rule of thumb to follow when the VR headset’s screens are inches from your eyes is that you should take a 5 minute break for roughly every 20 to 30 minutes of being in VR. Something @JakWilmot certainly didn’t pay attention to when he spent a WHOLE WEEK in Virtual Reality! (*Please DON’T try this at home!)

Yeah, we know how weird this sounds but just bear with us on this. Researchers from Purdue University think that they have found a solution to reduce the nauseating and dizziness inducing effects of virtual reality by doing something that was right under our noses (pun intended) the entire time! That’s right, they’ve done the research, in fact they had half the participants use VR with and the other half without the virtually added nose. The research found that those with the VR nose were in fact able to be in VR for 94 seconds more than those without.

This is not a complete solution, but it’s a great start. Because when you think about it, that’s how our brain operates in real life, we have our noses right in front of us the whole time, and they are constantly in our line of sight, it’s just that our brain is hard wired to ignore it. Maybe that will be the case in the future of designing VR experiences!

One of the best ways to avoid virtual reality sickness is to try and be as stationary as possible while being in VR. Newly designed VR worlds focus on letting the player teleport rather then walk, because that has proven to be one of the triggers of virtual reality sickness.

If you move your body extensively in VR it leads to you becoming nauseous. If however your keep stationary or limit your moves to a minimum, like what HTC Vive offers, it is far easier for your brain to adapt to the VR environment and avoid the negative effects.

Now this is something you can really overlook, but it greatly affects the way VR is displayed on the headsets if the headset is a PC based VR device, like HTC Vive, HTC Cosmos or Oculus Rift S. All of these require a high end PC to run, but they will also work on a lower then recommended requirements, although it would not look as good. That’s the thing, it’s not just about how it looks, its bout how it makes you feel. VR should be run on a headset that has a 90 Hz refresh rate, and it should run on 60 to 90 FPS, to give you that lifelike feel. If it’s lower than that, it will become jittery and can impact your experience, making you nauseous and dizzy.

As mentioned, a high quality VR experience requires a high quality, state of the art PC. HTC, has a dedicated page recommending PC specs for optimally running their headsets Vive, Vive Pro & Cosmos. They recommend an Intel Core i5 or AMD FX 8350; NVIDIA GeForce GTX 1070 or AMD Radeon Vega 56; 8 or more GB of RAM.

So just to conclude, these 5 steps will surely help you with NOT feeling nauseous after using VR.

VR is a great addition to our lives, and it would be a shame that there are people who cannot enjoy it because they experience virtual reality sickness, but you shouldn’t worry, as you’ve just read here, there are ways to try and prevent it, and surely if you choose to go on a journey, and make your own VR experience with us, we will try our best to make that journey smooth. So don’t hesitate to CONTACT US, even if you only have a question regarding an issue with VR.

Virtual environment leads to a totally new market with the potential for creation of new products for using various devices designated for it. Widely known glasses are used to present what VR really can do. It also leads to the creation of new apps and new ideas in approach to users and customers. The main goal to achieve in the future is to be innovative, especially in the areas of education, marketing or industrial uses of VR. VR presents the possibility for consumer and enterprise applications to showcase various use cases, from simulation and training to promotion of new products like test driving a new car with a completely realistic feeling, but without actually being in the car.

That is why we are going to present you with the 6 vr commercial applications as best practices how you can use vr, or maybe it gives you an idea to make your own vr product.

Represent a VR gaming future. The gaming industry is the most often first to think of when someone mentions virtual reality. In this industry, there is a huge market place. This is an action/racing game with a bit of strategy and science thrown into the mix in a rare and highly unusual micro world of the carefully recreated human cell. This is the right project to start your acquaintance with Cardboard VR or receive new VR impressions. The game is focused on Virtual Reality but you can play just fine without a set (Cardboard or any other).

A whole new concept on education showcased in the video about students and teachers from the local school in Canada who had a VR demonstration day to be able to experience it. Jay Shannon a teacher said that after two seconds of practice he could represent any function that he wanted on the board. Students impressions were amazing. VR gives them more interaction, presents a great visual tool and gives them an opportunity to understand more. Think about students with a smile on their face when they are going to your class, that could be the reason to implement VR in your educational method. If you have any idea, feel free to contact us to make the magic happen.

When you go out shopping for clothes, you go to the store and try them on to see if they fit right? That is a hard thing to do when you’re buying a sofa or a wardrobe! IKEA Place App lets you visualize a new armchair in your living room! The IKEA Virtual Reality Showroom gives you the experience of shopping in VR, also it gives the customers an abundance of information on various products that are in the VR space with them. The users can change colors of walls, products and more, giving them the opportunity of easily visualizing what they would like in their own home.

Through the Volvo Reality VR app, users can use Google Cardboard and their phone as a VR device. Though this app they can take a virtual reality mountain test drive of the Volvo XC90 on their phone! Using VR you can immerse yourself in the experience of being either in the drivers seat, or you can be a passenger taking a look around, and looking what features of the car you like most! And it is extremely safe, as you are actually experiencing all of this while sitting comfortably at home! This is just an example of what we can be done in the automobile industry. It is very likely that other car producers are going to do the same and more! Using VR brings the customer much closer to the action and can convert them to a potential buyer easily!

The storytelling campaign represents a great example in which The New York Times initially delivered Google Cardboard glasses to their subscribers in order to watch a VR movie. This can now also be experienced using Samsung’s Gear VR, and Google’s Daydream View VR. Why is this important and how does it represent marketing in VR? Everyone loves to be immersed into stories and to be connected. Using VR in marketing gives you a unique opportunity if you want to connect your product with your audience.

The last but not the least: industrial use of VR – VR is changing the industry with new potential. Especially in architectural engineering and construction. The best quote to describe the VR in industrial use is: “Experience it before making it.” Imagine that you can walk through a building, move things around, or just to take measurements as if they were in the actual space. The benefit of VR means to remove potential issues with a no extra cost. Real-time feedback on complex construction projects saves time and includes more people than it would be physical possible. Another benefit is better communication with the client and a better understanding of their needs from one side, and product on the other side. Using 2D plans or putting someone inside the 3D model can provide great visual help where you’ve got so far and what you did on a project. As a good example, we present VR Lafarge app which created the effect of better understanding how is to be inside the manufacturing process of a factory, because usually only people who work in those venues can thread and explore there. Another fantastic example is Paracosm’s 3D mapping solution which encompasses mobile reality capture, progress monitoring, and visualization to allow construction teams to capture job sites on a daily or weekly basis. Generating BIM models frequently and comparing them to actual onsite work allows teams to keep a close eye on projects, to make sure the work happening is in line with the original design.

We showed some great examples of how VR can be implemented in various fields. It has a lot of influence in education gaming and the car industry and also great use cases in marketing. Video or regular promotion puts you in the position of a viewer, but VR can give you an opportunity to be really involved and to have a real connection with some products. For example, if you want to buy a pair of new shoes, it is going to be great for you to have an option to try them on at least in the virtual world.

If this text gave you inspiration and you would like to create something new, then you should try to make useful VR apps which can help you even if you have zero experience. Create a VR experience for VR platforms such as Gear VR, Oculus Go, Oculus Rift, HTC VIVE, Google Cardboard (iOS, Android) and Web as a Native White Label app. If you wish to collaborate, let us know!

In 2019, augmented reality (AR) is one of the most promising technologies. With all the major players in tech – Apple, Google and Facebook adding AR capabilities to their platforms, now is the time to start thinking about how AR can be helpful for your company, no matter your industry.

Here, we’ll look at six companies that use AR in innovative and creative ways to solve real-life problems and refine and improve the way they operate. These 6 augmented reality retail examples will be sure to give you a motivational boost!

Back in September 2017, IKEA released an augmented reality app called IKEA Place. The app demonstrated AR’s potential to create immersive experiences. It works by allowing customers to virtually place furniture in their homes before buying them. In later versions, IKEA introduced the option to take a photo of any piece of furniture they like, then find similar or identical IKEA products through the app.

The app demonstrates that, even though gaming is the most popular genre of augmented reality apps, the market is ready for other apps that solve practical problems. IKEA Place also shows that retail AR apps can provide huge marketing value for a retailer.

An AR technology company launched one of the first AR marketing campaigns with Jaguar Land Rover which provided an in-vehicle tour of its latest SUV. The AR experience put the customers

Behind the wheel of a Range Rover Velar just months before it launched. The consumers would then have a virtual experience of sitting inside the car, viewing it in 360º seeing the real world all around them, interacting with hotspots to change trim and color, and in the end, book a test drive.

The campaign successfully achieved the pre-order goals for the launch of the Range Rover Velar. The promotion of the Velar with the AR experience beat industry benchmark scores and the engagement rate of the entire AR campaign was outstanding.

Star Walk is an astronomy stargazing app, which lets users identify and observe planets, constellations, and stars in real time on the night sky map. The users are able to see satellites overhead, find planets and identify stars in the night sky, while learning astronomy, studying the astronomical calendar and finding out all the secrets of outer space.

Star Walk was very well received by both users and critics. The app was downloaded over 10 million times. It has also won many awards like the Apple Design Award, the Parents’ Choice Gold Award, the Academics’ Choice Award, and the World Summit Award in “Entertainment and Lifestyle” category. Also, the Webby Awards 2012 nominated Star Walk in the “Education & Reference” category.

The app allows users to interact with 3D models that appear on any flat surface that the mobile device is pointed at. When users move the device forward, the model moves through different layers and cross-sections of the model from gross anatomy to the micro-anatomy of organs.

The 3D models can be accompanied by texts and can be viewed next to illustrations and photographs to help the user better understand what they are looking at.

The app can be shared on up to six devices, which means that some features of the app can be used on a mobile device, while other classroom-like features such as creating presentations and taking notes can be used on a larger device.

Thyssenkrupp, a leading German-based industrial engineering, and steel production conglomerate, has developed an app for Microsoft Hololens that helps their service technicians find and visualize problems with elevators. It also allows them to have remote and hands-free access to technical and expert information when on site. This resulted in a stress-free environment and significant time-saving. A service maintenance intervention can be done up to four times faster than before by using the application.

Their goal is to increase efficiency, raise elevator uptimes, speed up the service interventions and ensure mobility equipment is always running while providing each passenger with the safest and most comfortable travel experience.

In October 2015, Caterpillar developed a proof of concept AR app that assists technicians in performing service and maintenance checks. For examples, if users had to replace an oil filter on a skid steer loader, the app would give them detailed visual instructions of exactly how to perform the task.

The app itself is cross-platform and can be used on phones, tablets, and AR glasses. The apps also allow its users to take a picture of each step during the maintenance process and then get information about how the steps are performed correctly. This helps new and seasoned mechanics to complete their tasks faster while avoiding the possibility of errors.

Even though one of the first functioning AR systems was developed in 1992, augmented reality has already proved itself as an important part of many industries and is surely going to be even more important in the future. From education to construction to AR in browsers that provide experiential ads, augmented reality apps are being developed to enhance many industries. As thousands of AR apps get released every day, we can expect them to shape many industries and touch even more aspects of our lives.

Tim Cook once said, “I do think that a significant portion of the population of developed countries, and eventually all countries, will have AR experiences every day, almost like eating three meals a day. It will become that much a part of you.” If certain technologies make our lives easier and better, then they are bound to stay in our lives for a long time.

Which companies have you seen incorporate AR into their processes? Which AR experience would you like to try for your company?

‘I realized if you can change a classroom, you can change a community, and if you can change enough communities you can change the world.’
–Erin Gruwell

Studies are boring. Scratch that. Studies used to be boring.

There is one field that understands how important it is to develop constantly and to thrive with technology, and that is – the education field. The biggest minds are born in traditional classrooms. Therefore, the biggest leaders in sport, art, and science fields are born within the four walls of old and dull classrooms.

Actually, scratch that. They used to be dull.

In a rapidly changing world, education should be constantly developing. Education needs to catch up with new ways of teaching, and moreover, it needs to learn to keep pace with new ways of learning. One of the promising and progressive technologies of today, which can help with this, is virtual reality. Why should we take virtual reality into consideration when it comes to improving the education area and learning experience? Because we can all benefit tremendously from a cutting edge technology such as virtual reality. It enables us to have a jaw-dropping experience and mind-blowing moments.

Here are our top 5 benefits of virtual reality in education.

Virtual reality lets everyone have an slice of the pie. Or an equal share of education so to say, in this context. Education is not a stigma anymore thanks to VR. There are people, children mostly, who face limitations in accessing education because of various reasons, from disability to distance. VR eliminates those boundaries; It enables an easy start with any lesson. Everything is already set and easy to be moved if necessary. It is a rock-solid fact that teachers are in a constant search for better ways to educate children, including the children with special needs. Furthermore, it is known that some teachers used VR in order to teach children with autism how to cross the street and to be better prepared for the world outside-of-the-classroom. Moreover, it turns out that VR is more than welcome when it comes to supporting distance education. This way, the student gets a real and full experience of being in a classroom, instead of sitting in front of a computer or by video chatting.

The best learning results are achieved when you are involved, and when you get a chance to try something, fail and then do it right. Nothing beats personal experience, and virtual reality supports that. Just imagine nowadays when you say to children – Open your book, how unhappy they must be. It’s a passive action. After all, they are living in a world of technology and instant-and-live moments. However, if you tell them to open their books and to read out loud to see who reads faster, they will take it completely differently. Introducing gamification and competition is what can make them eager to learn. Offering an element of competition and gaming makes education more attractive. Moreover, VR enables the teacher to ‘gamify’ even the simplest lessons, like ‘open the tab’ or ‘close the door’ to a more complex multiplayer experience. Even more so, gamification can be easily logically incorporated into the topic of the lesson. For example, in a Stone Age era VR workshop, students can actually play a game of carving the stone, making a stone axe and learning about ancient people’s lifestyle.

Children are glued to their smartphones or other smart devices most of the time, making it challenging to draw their attention to anything that doesn’t include moving pictures or easy-on-the-eye content. But, VR education can compete with these expectations. Immediate engagement with VR means no distractions. The scenery is so vivid, attractive and engages participation so that evry student becomes involved 100%. Equally, if one doesn’t move in VR, nothing happens. Therefore, full participation is required. That is how a teacher can develop fast reflexes, attention to details and qucik thinking in children, all thanks to VR. In addition to that, that is how a student ends up enjoying participation in class.

Thanks to VR we can thrive as a society when it comes to complex matters, such as medicine and engineering. It is known that great results are 20% talent and 80% hard work. Therefore, in reality, a theory is nothing without practice. Also, there is a thin line when it comes to a simple chemistry experiment and learning how to operate on someone’s spine. Both are immensely complex and require state of the art equipment. This is where education in virtual reality steps in. It enables many people to gain experience in something usually hard to come by rather easily. VR allows students to experiment with things they don’t have access to at school. Also, VR can simulate nearly impossible and dangerous events and scenarios that cannot be experienced in a normal environment like, car crash, first aid, driving, car mechanics and much more in a completely safe environment. Basically, virtual reality can help create a bigger number of highly skilled professionals in different areas as soon as they step in the classroom.

Nowadays, everyone is talking about how the number one skill of the future is developing good social skills. The way we communicate with each other is what makes us prompt to solving problems and getting to know our surroundings. Therefore, social skills should also be taught, and there is no better tool for learning social skills than VR. Virtual reality enables the creation of any surrounding. So, children can learn how to react to different social situations and surroundings, including meeting digital avatars from all cultures around the world or being put in a scenario which deals with issues like racism or bullying. Children should learn how to respect diversity and how to interact in a diverse group. For this matter, VR can be a great tool to teach children how to experience empathy and to see the world through another person’s struggle.

Overall, using VR in education can only lead to creating a more innovative technological solution, because only when we are intensively using something we can truly test it and improve it. Therefore, VR can only support teachers’ effort in creating engaging and better-educated students.

ARVRtech is part of the ongoing EdTech revolution with its Immersive4Learning platform. The platform utilizes AI to make a personalized learning experience for students, and can be applied for a variety of use cases. Immersive4Learning helps improve regular education, language learning and is even used for industrial and corporate training!

‘‘Education is the most powerful weapon which you can use to change the world,’’
-Nelson Mandela

If this post sparked an idea, or if you would love to bring the joy of VR to your classroom, don’t hesitate to CONTACT US, and we can come up with VR solutions together!

Today we are discussing why VR is not a mainstream technology yet despite excellent projections that Digi Capital, Goldman Sachs and PWC gave for this upcoming technology.

On a weekly basis, we are receiving inquiries from potential clients, media people, investors and peers in other industries who want to grasp the potential of the VR market and to understand how with immersive technologies they can create the real value.

Now, let’s have a look at 5 common, real-life scenarios that happen in the interaction: VR company-client-users-general market.

Bear in mind that most of the notable resources state that AR and VR market will be fully ready in 2020 and VR revenue will skyrocket in that very year, and not sooner. Thus, if the issues below are solved, the expansion towards industries that need to undergo digital transformation with the help of VR will be easier.

These reasons can show you what is required for VR to become part of our life yet as much as some futurists have predicted to happen in the close future:

If the client requires a custom-made ICT solution, the company team needs to estimate what approach and technology are the best for the client’s particular requirement.

Thanks to the inquiry about client’s needs during the discovery phase, both sides will learn more about desirable outputs, methodologies, as well as the expectations.

What happens to us at ARVRtech often is that clients approach us with a particular idea how VR can help them at a specific part of their value chain or they present a challenge they want to overcome in their business and we try to identify if VR is the best tool.

Through our survey and discovery phase methodologies we make it clear what is possible to do, where the limits of technology exist, and what are associated costs for different types of VR platforms.

Thus, it is incredibly important that in the business development arena for VR, as well as for the entire ICT industry, work the people who are excellent at communicating in different languages and reaching consensus among various parties: the one of the engineering/development community and the one of the client and business/market size.

We witnessed with previous gadgets: from landlines to mobile phones that each of them becomes useful and valuable only if there are more people to use them. What is the point of being the only user of the smart phone if you cannot call anyone else?

Interestingly enough, the network effect typical for telecommunications industry could not be applied to the use case for Virtual Reality. People are not yet incentivized to buy VR devices since many people do not belong to publically-open VR communities as it is the case with social networks or messenger platforms.

Even the gaming communities in VR will not be sustainable, healthy and ecological if users rely on wearing headsets for a long period of time. Web-based VR may be much more beneficial to them in such cases.

The current state of technology is such that smart phones become a real asset so that we can timely deal with our work back log, connecting with our beloved ones or staying informed about the state of the world.

This is why there is a higher probability that the Augmented Reality content will be easily disseminated and more readily accepted than the one in VR since people already use their technology: mobile phones.

We have been discussing VR metrics so that this immersive technology brings results and users will need numerous touch points to fully harness its potential. In other words, we do not get to completely understand something as we first encounter it.

Instead we need to get familiar with VR in repeated occasions: when we hear about it initially and try it for the first time; when we ask teams in VR studios how they can help our brand; when we make together estimations what can be done so that VR answers creates value for our users; when we try and test the first version and the demo; when we get back into the studio after user’s feedback and successful debugging; when we launch our VR app and we continue to have a sustained feedback loop.

Answering this question of monetization goes hand in hand with answering the question: who will pay for Virtual Reality headset or VR and AR apps: the customer or the business owner i.e. big brand?

After working with more than 20 international companies from industries such as retail, smart factories, smart city infrastructure, education, event management who developed AR and VR apps with us it became evident that in the future also it will be the enterprise clients those who will request AR/VR or Mixed Reality apps because they will want their end-users to engage with it. So the consumer journey will be: Business to Business to Consumer. Unlike Facebook, Instagram or Whatsapp where consumers are already there and businesses will change their interaction.

Unless AR and VR are going to happen on big social media platforms, end-users will be targeted through apps and solutions of enterprise clients who want to engage through VR or AR.

Thanks to amazing design and user experience we decide to interact with a particular brand, community or technology.

If we look at the VR headsets available right now and how they feel to us, we may actually conclude that their design prevents us from wearing them longer.

Microsoft HoloLens is an exemplar state-of-the-art technology where we have greater flexibility in interacting with the real and virtual world.

Therefore, mixed and augmented reality from the usability point of you are much closer to an average user than Virtual Reality, often portrayed in these gears: Oculus Rift, Samsung Gear VR, HTC Vive, Google Cardboard.

It should not be forgotten for a single second that the usability of a product is one of the key metrics that contributes to product/market fit, which ultimately leads to greater customer satisfaction, market share and profit.

Today in this article we are outlining top 10 websites that can help us understand VR landscape. We will also mention the influential colleagues that pave the world towards the future where VR will be more readily used.

Founded in 2011, Road to VR is the world’s leading independent news publication dedicated to the consumer virtual reality industry. We explore the bleeding edge of virtual reality, augmented reality, and human-computer interaction. We’re charting the course between today’s immersive technology and that of the distant future, capable of perfect simulations of reality.
In a quote for Oanalitica Chris Madsen, the social VR liaison on behalf of Road to VR outlined the road ahead of us:

“Augmented Reality devices access, manipulate and present data in real time within the environment of the user. AR is becoming more powerful as evolving technology allows us to capture more environmental data than ever before. AR applications utilizing this data allow interactions relative to our physical space effectively giving us superpowers such as the ability to look through walls, identify unknown objects, read foreign languages and even get step by step visual assistance with problems all in real time.

As a tool for personal enhancement the possibilities are staggering. The most exciting thing to me is how artificial intelligence is converging with AR. Fully interactive AI assistants, teachers, doctors, guides, instructors, entertainers, companions and more will eventually be just a command away. What they will they look like and how they will function is a work in progress. At Morph 3D we are implementing dynamic, customizable avatars to provide AI’s, users and in-app characters a way to be represented in our multiple realities. We are living in the future, folks. Buckle up and enjoy the ride!”

VRARA is the global industry association for Virtual Reality & Augmented Reality that connects leading solution providers with brands and customers.
Our company had the pleasure of becoming a VRARA member and we connected with industry experts and potential clients on a massive scale. VRARA enabled us achieve what would be almost impossible to do in a traditional manner. Their advisory board and the multitude of international chapters is admirable.

Apart from membership and webinars VRARA portrays its mission at VR/AR Global Summit.

VRARA defines itself as an international organization designed to foster collaboration between innovative companies and people in the VR and AR ecosystem that accelerates growth, fosters research and education, helps develop industry standards, connects member organizations and promotes the services of member companies.

Since 2014 VRScout started to grow among the creative community of authors in Los Angeles, and it was created with the intention to cast a light on the development in virtual reality and the people behind it.
Now as we speak VRScout is among the world’s leading immersive media companies, reaching over 150 million people in 2016 and inspiring a community of explorers and creators through original reporting, immersive content crafted in our LA studio, and one-of-a-kind events.

Malia Probst has been one of the key people behind this medium, as a host of the VRScout Report, a weekly live video show and podcast discussing the best in VR.

VRFocus is a UK-based specialist technology news website, which covers all aspects of immersive technology. Meaning virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). VRFocus is primarily concerned with VR entertainment.

Upload VR is a California medium is dedicated to accelerating the success of the immersive technology industry.
When it comes to influencers these are our choices thanks to the selection of colleagues from Izea.

Rick King is a game developer who’s in VR, mixed reality and augmented reality. As one of the top VR influencers, he has 265,000 followers on Twitter, and often tweets a mixture of VR news and political posts.

Ryan Bell is the “beat poet of tech.” He has 49,800 followers, works as a media strategist for NASA’s Jet Propulsion Labs, and has carved a niche for himself in the digital storytelling and VR world. He’s also one of the founders of VR Scout, making him one of our top VR influencers.

Karissa Bell is a top VR influencer and a reporter for Mashable.com with 11,100 followers. The topics she covers are apps and social media, including VR apps.

Tipatat has 14,000 Twitter followers, and is an investor in and mentor for VR companies. He’s one of the top VR influencers and a general partner at the VR Fund, a venture capital firm devoted to VR projects. If you want to know what VR investors are looking for, he’s the guy to ask.

Malia Probst is a partner at VR Scout, and the host of the Real Virtual Show. As one of the top VR influencers, she regularly publishes news about VR on Medium, and has more than 10,000 Twitter followers.

Hugo Barra is the VP of VR for Facebook and Oculus. He joined FB in January of 2017 to lead Team Oculus there. As one of the top VR influencers, he has 121,000 followers on Twitter.

John Carmack is another top VR influencer with a connection to Oculus — he’s the CTO of the company. 839,000 people follow him on Twitter.

Josh Farkas is at work on a VR relaxation app for Oculus, and is the CEO of Cubicle Ninjas. The top VR influencer has 6,677 followers.

Sanem Avcil is the founder of a VR game company, and a top VR influencer who keeps her 139,000 Twitter followers up-to-date on what’s going on in the virtual reality and augmented reality worlds.

Rob Crasco is a VR evangelist and one of the top VR influencers with 23,500 followers on Twitter. He also has a YouTube channel dedicated to all things VR: Virtually Everything.

Influencer marketing and virtual reality can go hand in hand. After all, thanks to virtual reality, consumers have a real chance to try things out in real time, before they commit to buying, or before they even commit to seeing the item IRL. While people might not be adopting VR as quickly as they have other technologies (like the smartphone and tablet), there are a few who have jumped on the VR bandwagon and are happily leading the way.

IT professionals who work with both Augmented and Virtual Reality can provide us with the industry insights after taking the realistic view on both technologies. Due to the availability of smart phones it seems that AR will prevail much easier and it will be possible to use it in various industries. Personally I find it appealing how the creator of Magic Leap Rony Abovitz showcases the major differences between VR and AR.

“Our philosophy as a company (and my personal view) is to ‘leave no footprints’ in the brain. The brain is very neuroplastic and there is no doubt that near-eye stereoscopic 3D systems have the potential to cause neurologic change.”

Rony’s best observations can be viewed in the section Ask Me Anything on Reddit and below we outline 3 industry and end-user scenarios where AR is much better solution than VR.

There are several pre-requisites for Augmented and Virtual Reality to be used more often: hardware needs to be affordable and accessible; the technology should work all the time; and there should be social component to using it.

Because of these three reasons, AR is already much more wide-spread, which also indicates that humans who are using AR want to add a layer of content to their reality rather than to replace it with VR and to completely shut themselves off.

With AR learning and interaction becomes more collaborative due to the very nature of interface where people look at the markers and the additional content in person. In VR, specialized social networks are so far the only way for users to connect while each of them wears their own headset and has their own VR view to the world.

In VR there are so called 6 DOF (6 degrees of freedom) as users’ activity and gaze are tracked along the x, y and z axis. These 6 degrees practically mean that you may physically move yourself: left, right, forward, backward, up and down and you will get transported to a different world of immersive experiences.

On the other hand, in Augmented Reality, the quality of graphics, higher resolution displays and other metrics can be more rudimentary and basic since you are not viewing content directly, in front of your eyes and in the immersive manner. With Augmented Reality, technical requirements for you to make an app may be less demanding and certainly developers do not have to worry about consumers’ and players’ motion sickness.

Since hardware for both technologies still needs to improve in UX, it will be possible to impress users with AR and VR in foreseeable future.

As it is the case with most of the digital transformation projects, AR and VR as enterprise solutions are not easy to implement. The buy-in from different stakeholders is needed, the technical rigor is a prerequisite, the timeline for project implementation and the budget should be precisely followed.

Therefore, when screens need to be provided for thousands of users and employees such as in projects for Industries 4.0 it is much more logical to use AR and web-based VR on the existing smart phones and the computers of employees than to buy thousands of VR headsets whose price ranges from dozen dollars to several thousands (depending on the company brand).

ARVRtech is providing solutions in both AR and VR space, depending on customer specific needs, and aiming to provide the maximum value and experience to the end users.

To analyze top eight educational systems in the world, we went through several resources such as WEF’s scores and literature including the book The Learning Revolution.

Let us start with the score that WEF found to be viable in assessing the readiness of the entire countries for educating the next generation at the highest level. The text is adapted from Independent’s article on the best educational systems in the world.

According to 2015 statistics Estonia invests on education 4% of its GDP. This strategic decision is in alignment with the country’s 1992 Education Act, which indicates that the goals of education are “to create favourable conditions for the development of personality, family and the Estonian nation; to promote the development of ethnic minorities, economic, political and cultural life in Estonia and the preservation of nature in the global economic and cultural context; to teach the values of citizenship; and to set up the prerequisites for creating a tradition of lifelong learning nation-wide.”

The striking results that Estonian education system achieves are in alignment with globally relevant work in e-governance that increases the competitiveness for both entrepreneurs and big companies.

The noblest work in education is to make a reasoning man, and we expect to train a young child by making him reason! This is beginning at the end; this is making an instrument of a result. If children understood how to reason they would not need to be educated.

Jean-Jacques Rousseau

Not too long ago in 2012 BBC stated that Qatar was “becoming one of the most significant players in the field of education innovation, supporting a raft of projects from grassroots basic literacy through to high-end university research.”

This country, rich in oil and obtaining competitive edge by education, has a strategy on a national level to improve education standards and teach citizens for jobs in 2030 thanks to Vision 2030 programme.

Qatar is a country with high percentage of expat experts so their decision was to offer free government-funded education only to its citizens, whereas most foreign nationals tend to send their children to private schools.

The hardest conviction to get into the mind of a beginner is that the education upon which he is engaged is not a college course, not a medical course, but a life course, for which the work of a few years under teachers is but a preparation.

Sir William Osler

Despite hosting head-quarters of many Fortune 50 ICT companies in Dublin and doing significant work in the field of education, recession hit hard Ireland’s education.

A recent report indicated that Ireland spent on education 15% less than the developed world during the height of the financial crisis, 2008 to 2013, which indicates important changes for the future.

When it comes to the secondary schools in Ireland, most of them are owned and managed privately, but the state funds them. Apart from that, state comprehensives and vocational schools exist.

I’m always ready to learn although I do not always like being taught.

Sir Winston Churchill

Netherlands is famous for its open attitude to learning, as schools typically don’t give much homework until secondary level and students indicate low levels of stress and pressure. Thus, 2013 Unicef study officially confirmed that Dutch children are the happiest in the world, leading the way of globally educational well-being among others. Schools are divided between “neutral” state schools and faith schools, with a tiny fraction of private schools.

The freedom to make mistakes provides the best environment for creativity. Education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you know and what you don’t.

Anatole Franc

Singapore scores incredibly highly in the PISA (Programme for International Student Assessment) tests, which measure and compare the performance of students in different countries. Still, it is very unfavourable for Singapore students, that since very young age their school system puts them under pressure.

Children want to learn to the degree that they are unable to distinguish learning from fun. They keep this attitude until we adults convince them that learning is not fun.

Glenn Doman

Belgium has four types of secondary schools: general secondary schools, technical secondary schools, art secondary education institutions and vocational secondary education schools. According to the Fulbright Commission in the US, which organizes student exchanges with Belgium and Luxembourg, “Education enjoys high priority, and the largest share of the regional governments’ annual budget in Belgium. The complete systems of public and private schools are available to all children between the ages of 4 and 18, at little or no cost.”

Learning how to learn is life’s most important skill.

Tony Buzan

Surprisingly enough, just 5% of children attend private schools in Switzerland. Depending on the region, the lessons are taught in different languages and German, Italian or French are the most common languages of instruction. From secondary schools students are separated by ability.

An education isn’t how much you have committed to memory, or even how much you know. It’s being able to differentiate between what you do know and what you don’t. It’s knowing where to go to find out what you need to know; and it’s knowing how to use the information you get.

William Feather

Finland is on the top rankings of global education systems and is famous for leveling the differences in abilities since all pupils are taught in the same classes. Consequently, the gap between the weakest and the strongest pupils is the smallest in the world. Finnish schools heavily rely on intrinsic motivation of students and they give relatively little homework, while there is only one mandatory test at age 16.

If you are planning for a year, sow rice; if you are planning for a decade, plant trees; if you are planning for a lifetime, educate people.

Chinese proverb

Bearing in mind all these diverse perspective, ARVRtech aims to be at the frontier of innovation and to provide the global solution for education: Immersive4Learning platform. By integrating real-life needs of the market and top-edge technology Immersive4Learning will provide the tools for learning for life as well as provide the foundation for the best learning tools and methods. The main question we should ask is „How to Learn?” and “What is the purpose of learning in the 21st century for the job markets that continuously change?”. Immresive4Learning platform will enable practicing and doing, as well as providing tools to collaborate and teach others – ultimately increasing students retention rates to 90%.

ARVRtech is leading the current EdTech revolution with our Immersive4Learning platform. I4L employs Artificial Intelligence processing in order to produce a personalized learning experience for users and can be applied for a plethora of use cases. ARVRtech’s Immersive4Learning platform helps to improves conventional education, enhances language learning and is even used for industrial and corporate training!