If you’d have to pick any industry which would be the best fit for innovation in visual technology, which would it be? I’d bet the fashion and clothing industry in general would be among your top 5! Especially in the upcoming ‘new-normal’ post-covid19 world. Can you imagine waiting in line at your local Zara in front of a changing room to try on clothes that someone else tried on like 10 times? Didn’t think so. But you CAN imagine users standing in front of an AR fitting mirror and trying on different outfits with a tap of the finger. That’s why the fashion industry is eager for the innovations that augmented, virtual and mixed reality bring!

We’ve narrowed it down to an example from each of the 3 aforementioned technologies, AR, MR & VR innovative fashion solutions.

One of the main products that will lead the innovation of the fashion industry in augmented reality clothing is certainly the augmented reality fitting mirror. This product consists of a giant screen in front of the user with a camera which can track the users movements and allows them to try on literally an infinite amount of products, from hats, sunglasses, jeans, shoes, etc.

The AR fitting mirror is a product which can be used by fashion retailers by placing it in the store for the consumers to use and cut down the time they spend in the changing room whilst trying on various designs.

The AR fitting mirror can also be used by the producers of fashion products, where they can use it in their showroom to present new designs to clients!

So, the Augmented Reality Fitting Mirror is adaptable to both the B2C and B2B business model for the fashion industry!

Mixed reality can have some people confused, but to simply put it as Microsoft described it’s HoloLens 2, a MR device is a self-contained standalone Mixed Reality (MR) holographic computer, which enables users to engage with digital 3D content and avatars as holograms who can interact with the real world around them.

An great example for an MR solution for the fashion industry would be in using HoloLens2, or a similar Mixed Reality device mainly in conducting B2B. For example, lets say a fashion brand wants to synchronize their design for the next season with the factory which will produce the fashion products. A great way to do it would be by using holographic visualization. A 3D model of the design, or even an avatar (fashion model) wearing it could appear right in front of you, and you could change the design with a tap of a finger, view it from all angles, change lighting conditions, etc.

Virtual Reality offers by far the most complex, yet most immersive experience when it comes to visualizing different environments. Many industries already successfully use complex VR solutions for a variety of applications, like virtual training for employees, architecture plan visualization and the most recent trend is VR meetings and conferences.

One of the ideas of how the fashion industry could apply VR in a B2B environment is through a complex system for visualization of 3D models and designs regarding fashion innovation and clothing innovations.

Imagine that you could put on a headset and a pair of haptic touch gloves and be transported directly to a factory. There you could see exactly what kind of designs are being proposed for your products, and with the haptic gloves, you could actually feel the fabric, be it silk, cotton or something else.

This kind of solution would significantly reduce costs of sending cloth and design samples from the factory to the customer!

The fashion industry is definitely ready for a major technology innovation! Augmented Reality, Mixed Reality & Virtual Reality could easily be applied to a vast majority of processes in this industry.

The primary goal of video games is to help us relax and unwind after a long and stressful day. Millions of people across the world play millions of different video games on their computers and mobile devices to catch a break and blow off some steam. There are countless game categories in the industry, and all of them serve the purpose of entertainment.

However, that’s not necessarily what video games are all about. They can also be a lot more than just entertainment.

Serious games are special video games designed to offer more than just pure fun. They’re about changing the behaviors or attitudes of the player, teaching them and expanding their understanding and knowledge on a wide range of subjects. While regular games are played for reducing stress and boredom and the rewarding gameplay, the point of serious games is to understand the message of the game.

These serious games are often used by schools, universities, businesses, and corporations for game-based learning, or the process of gaining knowledge through playing games.

It is obvious that learning through a video game as opposed to learning from a textbook or by watching a training video is infinitely more dynamic and enjoyable. Serious games and game-based learning have a huge impact on modern life and dramatically increase the player’s motivation and engagement with the material.

Here are some of the most important benefits of digital game-based learning:

Given all of that, it is no wonder that companies all over the world are looking into introducing serious games to their training programs.

There are two types of skills a serious game may help develop: soft skills and hard skills.

Hard skills include technical or administrative procedures that are valuable to the way the company operates. They are relatively easy to learn because these skills tend to be new to the player/learner (depending on their experience) and are difficult to unlearn. Hard skills are easy to measure and quantify and easy to test. A person either knows how to do something, or they don’t.

Soft skills are the tricky part. They include skills that can be used in any number of jobs and disciplines, such as emotional intelligence, creativity, collaboration skills, negotiation skills, and more. They’re not so easy to observe or test and are a lot more difficult to train.

This is where serious games excel.

While corporate businesses have more than enough reliable methods of training their employees in hard skills, game-based learning is one of the few truly effective techniques in improving someone’s soft skills.

If you are curious about bringing game-based learning into your company, know that it can be a lengthy process. There are things to consider when deciding on what type of serious games to include and how to make the most out of them.

Here are four key aspects your games should have to deliver the right results:

The game can’t cause the learner to lose focus or somehow distract them. It also can’t skim over the learning material. There should be a nice balance between fun and education to keep the learner motivated and engaged.

The feedback the learner receives in the game is important for their progress. With a wide range of hints, instructions, badges, and encouragement, the game can easily guide the learner through what they need to accomplish (and ultimately learn).

Without risking it getting too out of hand, some friendly competition between employees is known to provide more fun and better results in a training session. Consider including leaderboards in your serious games.

Finally, don’t let the game get too boring. The whole point here is to learn through entertainment. Once your employees complete their first levels, offer them more challenges that will make them work harder and learn faster through it all.

You could tell more about the benefits of Immersive4Learning platform in some of our previous blogs.

Our company remained at the frontier of innovation thanks to partnership with the team behind NTC Learning, accelerated learning for talents.

The primary intention of the NTC Program is the practical implementation of new discoveries from the field of educational neuroscience in classrooms and everyday life. Play, as the child’s intrinsic motivation, represents the key factor of the NTC Program implementation.

Dr Rajko Rajovic, Creator of NTC pedagogical model holds PhD in neurosciences and has won a prestigious MENSA award.

With his team of renowned experts Dr Rajovic created the program that has been recognized and successfully implemented in 15 European countries so far.

In 7 countries it has also been accredited by the Ministry of Education, while thanks to several projects (IPA CBC, ERASMUS PLUS, UNICEF) it has been done in Europe (Croatia, Montenegro, Slovenia, Slovakia, Austria and England).

The role of our company and Immersive4Learning platform is to provide the technology support and to transform the accelerated learning into 3 D world of VR, AR and Artificial intelligence.

So far NTC Program functions in three implementation phases which follows the development stages of young and creative minds.

In the first phase the focus is on the complex motor activities, including fine motor skills, dynamic eye accommodation, rotation, balance, and movement.

In the second phase of the NTC Program learners move towards the abstract: abstract classifications, abstract seriations, and association.

Still, in the third phase learners develop divergent and convergent thinking, and functional knowledge. Those three phases encompass sensory-motor and cognitive development of children.

And to such a demanding program with international accolades our company’s platform becomes a perfect partner because of 4 main benefits for the learners and potential corporate partners who may invest in that project:

1. Our Innovative ITS enablesmulti-domain and multi-pedagogical model support suitable for the use within VR environments.

Divergent and convergent thinking is stimulated thanks to new environments and frontiers that VR worlds enable

2. Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning algorithms help the authoring process to teachers by providing guidance.

This support for teachers is manifold and has been created according to the feedback that was well-received: how to structure the material, which pedagogical methodology to use and how to generate VR spaces using templates and semantic analysis of teaching aims.

3. Monitoring the behaviour of students in the VR domain.

Monitoring is provided in multiple ways: by observing movements, eye focusing, type of interaction in order to classify the learning style which will then be used in the personalization process.

4. The automatic generation of virtual spaces and dynamic personalization methods.

In months to come our team is committed to integrate innovative NTC pedagogical model within VR Immersive4Learning platform.

You can also watch the video of Dr Rajovic’s presentation of NTC approach.

Virtual Reality has the huge application in the field of Smart Manufacturing since, this branch of manufacturing should optimize: concept generation, production, and product transaction.

If we look at the benefits of smart manufacturing in the short-term sense, brands and companies which decide to pursue such an endeavor will lower their cost of production; they will become more competitive on a dynamic, global market; and they will be able to make and market new innovative products out of the next generation of materials.

Hand in hand with smart manufacturing, Industries 4.0 are walking. The aim of Industries 4.0 is to close the gap between digital and real worlds, while using the technologies of cyber-physical systems such as Internet of Things, as well as Virtual and Augmented Reality.

ARVRtech had a great privilege to work with global client LafargeHolcim on their digital transformation project. They wanted to create Virtual Reality demo application with two main goals in mind: VR app will help them to fully test and explore capabilities of VR in terms of staff training in safety measures and presentation of manufacturing processes; while VR app will also position them as the company utilizing the latest technology and setting new standards in the community of their customers and friends who tried the app during the Open Day in LafargeHolcim cement plant in Mannersdorf.

VR Lafarge app created the effect of better understanding how is to be inside manufacturing process because usually only people who work in those venues can thread and explore there. Lafarge’s operations were demystified and portrayed in most realistic way thanks to the virtual reality format.

The formats that helped us achieve this effect of going into Lafarge premises were 360 video, 360 photo, 3D graphics, interactive elements which were activated upon user clicking on certain objects in 3D environment. This app was created for Samsung Gear VR, as well as for HTC Vive with extra functionalities and interactivity that HTC design offers in virtual world, such as joysticks controls and room scale tracking.

When ARVRtech created Lafarge VR app, one of the main effects that we wanted to achieve based on client’s requirements was to emphasize safety in company processes, by providing basic safety details when working at heights as well as description of personal safety equipment. Furthermore, various aspects of manufacturing process were presented such as:

When it comes to personal safety equipment, the menu showed all the prerequisites with personal safety equipment each individual worker needs, as well as safety related to work at height (harness that must be worn, and prohibiting people to walk under the moving equipment).

Another interesting point inside the menu of this app is the raw materials quarry. This quarry is showed as we zoom in the map of Austria where Lafarge factory is. You can view blast video inside the raw materials section. Different metrics are shown as we watch the video about the blast such as the noise level in dB, as well as average output, yearly production, bucket size, etc.

When it comes to the content related to Clinker production it is possible to watch 360 degree video in factory setting. You may click intuitively on Inside look to enter 3D graphics world and explore the main parts of kiln and calcinator by interacting with 3D models in virtual environment.

Finally, in the menu section you may also see the options for packaging the final product with basic product info. The products i.e. the sacks of cement are divided in red, black, green and gray categories and production sections. The inside of the factory is realistically filmed with all the production processes unfolding in front of our eyes that are curious of VR.

To sum up, VR is used in manufacturing for real; it is beyond gimmick and shiny, passing trend. Thanks to mechanisms of Virtual and Augmented Reality companies are able to test different manufacturing scenarios and to educate the huge number of employees about safety standards and work processes.

In addition, VR is a great tool for marketing and product presentation, allowing customers to experience the manufacturing process, products and appreciate company values.

Our collaboration with LafargeHolcim showed that when a client and service provider are on the same page about the results the tech solution should provide, building this tech infrastructure is incredibly easier and the focus is less on features than on impact. The most amazing VR clients always ask the question, ‘‘What problem are we solving?’’ instead of ‘‘What feature should we make?’’

You can take VR journey by watching video of LafargeHolcim VR Demo application.

Please contact ARVRtech team to provide you VR training solution that meets specific needs.

Image: LafargeHolcim archive

ARVRtech has built the initial concept of the platform Immersive4Learning, which will harness the potential of Artificial Intelligence and Virtual Reality and transform how people of different ages, skill sets and personalities learn.

Immersive4Learning is an innovative intelligent platform powered by Artificial Intelligence (AI) and a set of pedagogical models for enabling personalized learning process in the virtual environments.

This platform follows the growing trend of numerous VR devices and other hardware equipment that is available on the market. For example, cloud-based creator supports range of hardware items such as Oculus, HTC Vive, smart phones, tablets, PCs.

Immersive4Learning creates a brilliant synergy between the world of technology and pedagogy. Thus, AI assisted authoring with intelligent recommendations is created on the basis of semantic analysis of aims. This platform can be used in formal as well as enterprise education and in different domains, which makes it incredibly applicable to the needs of education market that truly seeks innovation.

Several pedagogical models are used depending on the domain, age group and exact topic, which enables customization and personalization of the platform for every single user. Practically speaking, this personalization and value-adding is seen through dynamic monitoring of behaviour in VR environment and intelligent profiling of learning styles, just for starters.

There are several major benefits that this AI-powered platform provides at an unprecedented value than educational tools before. First of all, the educational sessions can be designed by teachers and delivered to students, so there is no need for hiring external help and oftentimes expensive consultants.

Then, educational material is presented in-line with respectable pedagogical models that benefit each student. Practically speaking, material is adapted to each individual depending on their pace of learning, as well as cognitive and psychological properties. Also, VR environment automatically detects learning style and progress, thus suggesting next steps and recommendations for improvement.

At the moment, given the fact that the project moved beyond the initial conceptualization and ideation stage, the main objective is to build Immersive4Learning platform hosted in the cloud. Then, a set of building blocks will be packaged as SDKs which will provide the necessary functionality for enabling AI-powered delivery of personalized learning experiences in the virtual environments. These learning experiences will be in different domains for both formal and enterprise education i.e. industrial environment.

The important aspect of Intelligent Tutoring System (ITS) is that it provides a way to customize the learning experience for a student on the basis of factors such as pre-existing knowledge, learning style, and the student’s progress through the content material. Learning with ITS can lead to higher outcome scores regardless of the level of schooling (elementary to postsecondary), and whether the research was conducted in a laboratory setting or a classroom

Therefore, Immerive4Learning integrates innovative ITS which is composed of four major parts, namely: student model, domain model, teaching model and presentation model. The models are developed so that they can work with the virtual reality content and are able to absorb different domains, for example mathematics, physics, manufacturing training, manufacturing maintenance and others.

The teaching models can be interchanged dynamically so that different pedagogical approaches can be used. The student model uses cognitive learning model to represent learning progress, ability, assessments and other learning aspects. The learning is dynamically monitored within the virtual environment by the AI Monitoring Engine so that the learning material is personalized accordingly in order to optimize the performance (e.g. achieve certain learning curve or mark).

Immersive4 project is led by a group of highly skilled engineers that gained their experience by working on the advanced computer vision, Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) projects with the leading organizations and institutions across the world.

The team has the manifold competences at a higher level, which range from product development and commercialization, team leading, entrepreneurial skills, Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning, content creation and pedagogical models and associated analytical skills, VR systems and all aspects of development, education and industrial education experience.

Virtual Reality (VR) technology holds the most promise in education through enabling immersive visual, auditory and interactive experiences, while engaging students’ imaginations in ways previously impossible. The ability to interact in these virtual worlds can enable a more intuitive, play-based form of learning. It has been concluded in different research studies (NCSU, Upskill) that significant performance improvements in learning are achieved when using VR technology.

According to Technavio’s market research report, it is predicted that the global VR in education sector market will grow at a CAGR of above 55% during the 2017-2021 period from around $200 million to $1.7 billion. The virtual environment allows students control over their learning in a consequence-free, explorative manner, through which they become empowered and more engaged.

Likewise, the cheaper, more readily accessible consumer-grade VR equipment is opening up new enterprise use cases such as learning and training, some of which have vast addressable markets.

Tractica estimates that the addressable market for the five largest areas (among which is enterprise education, training and learning) where enterprise VR will grow will be worth over $1 trillion in 2017. Tractica forecasts that the market for enterprise VR applications will grow from $592.3 million in 2016 to $9.2 billion by 2021, representing a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 59.6%.

Currently, enterprises spend vast amount of time and financial resources on training. VR technology will make this process much more efficient both in terms of learning performance and cost, providing clear business incentives for it to be deployed at large scale.

Immersive4Learning platform will target customers in the conventional (e.g. schools, universities) as well as in the enterprise education (large international corporations) for the creation and delivery of courses. Also, our solution can be delivered to a new set of clients: the existing educational platforms which currently lack the Artificial Intelligence components for the personalization, behavior monitoring and content authoring.

These platforms can be extended with the Immersive4Learning SDKs which can be integrated within these existing platforms in order for them to become more advanced and efficient.

To conclude, Immersive4 Learning will position itself as the intelligent platform for fast creation and delivery of the personalised VR educational courses on the global market due to the expertise of the team, innovative technology, market readiness and international partnerships.

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning component bring Immersive4Learning closer to patent-pending concept and relevant in the world of ICT services where technologies can become obsolete easily and if the management does not pay attention to disruption.

We at ARVRtech are eager to inform you how Immersive4Learning develops so that you can take this technology to your advantage and we possibly engage in long-lasting partnerships.

When it comes to new gadgets and solutions: they may confuse us, intrigue or amaze us, yet certainly they may not leave us indifferent. The interest and even passion for Augmented and Virtual Reality has expanded beyond the community of developers to experts in other industries and fans of latest gadgets and coolest technologies. Still, there may be some confusion left that needs to get clarified until these inventions become mainstream.

This text will help you understand main differences among Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality or in other words ‘‘let us discuss everything you wanted to know, but you were afraid to ask.’’ Just remember that HCI or human computer interaction is visible on numerous occasions via mice, keyboards, touch, voice, inc and even Kinect skeletal tracking.

Virtual Reality allows users to interact with the world of immersive multimedia or computer-simulated reality as if they are physically present in that environment. Where there is VR, there are plenty of head-mounted displays (HDMs) from Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Samsung Gear, Google Cardboard, etc. Slowly but surely, even the premium ones will become more affordable and available to a greater market segment.

Until the moment that each of us has a personalized headset as if nowadays is the case with mobile phone, we can try out high-end VR gears at trade shows, conferences and parties that companies and organizations organize. Another option is to experience web-based VR or to go for mass-market Google cardboards. One of the reasons why VR is so immersive is that when you move, the world around you adjust as if you were shifting your position in real life.

Recode defines head-mounted displays and experiencing VR content as if you ‘‘see through the screen in front of your eyes, which in turn is powered by a computer, gaming console or mobile phone. Thanks to specialized software and sensors, the experience becomes your reality, filling your vision; at the high end, this is often accompanied by 3-D audio that feels like a personal surround-sound system on your head, or controllers that let you reach out and interact with this artificial world in an intuitive way.

In addition, Augmented Reality provides direct interaction with real-world environment where elements are augmented by computer-generated content such as video, sound, graphics or GPS data. It is important to look at Augmented Reality as if being part of the extra layer to the real world; while the real-world content and the computer-generated content are not able to respond to each other.

Because technology for Augmented Reality i.e. mobile phones are already widely adopted and everybody around the world has them, many tech experts believe that Augmented Reality would be much more used than the VR.

PokemonGo was so successful and it opened doors of interest to those who did not know much about Augmented Reality, only to discover that there are plenty powerful and profitable AR enterprises world-wide.

And now, let us look at the phenomenon of Mixed Reality. According to Microsoft which pioneered Mixed Reality, Mixed Reality or hybrid reality means ‘‘merging of real and virtual worlds to produce new environments and visualizations where physical and digital objects co-exist and interact in real time.’’ Paul Milgram and Fumio Kishino were godfathers of Mixed Reality as they first mentioned this term in their 1994 paper “A Taxonomy of Mixed Reality Visual Displays.”

Foundry interpreted Mixed Reality as ‘‘an overlay of synthetic content that interacts with the real world and this happens in real time.’’ Several more outstanding examples from the physical world, ‘‘you place a digital object, such as a hologram, as if it was really there or an avatar of another person that shows the location where they were standing.’’ Also, inside the digital world ‘‘the physical boundaries of the real world, like walls and furniture, appear digitally inside the experience so that users avoid physical objects.’’

Although for some authors Mixed Reality seems to be most far-fetched, it opens new frontiers to human interaction with machines and experiences. Apart from Magic Leap, the cool hardware associated with Mixed Reality is Microsoft’s HoloLens. Thus, Windows Mixed Reality experiences can be delivered on two kinds of devices: holographic and immersive ones. The differences between these two devices are quite straightforward: holographic devices can place digital content in the real world as if it were really there; whereas immersive devices create a sense of “presence”, they actually hide the physical world and replace it with a digital experience.

According to Microsoft team, true mixed reality experiences can be created thanks to the combination of three kinds of input: computer processing, human input, and environmental input. The computer input from environments reached the next level thanks to ‘‘advancements in sensors and processing’’ whereas ‘‘environmental input captures a person’s position in the area thanks to head tracking, then surfaces and boundaries with spatial mapping and spatial understanding, as well as environmental sound, ambient lighting, object recognition, and location.’’

It is important to notice that HoloLens and Mixed Reality will transform how we use some of standard Microsoft services such as Skype, Fragments and RoboRaid. With next Skype versions you can ‘‘collaborate and draw in someone else’s physical environment’’ while with ‘‘Fragments and RoboRaid users always believe that they remain in their physical world’’

If you are interested to see how ARVRtech can bring AR/VR/MR magic to your fans and clients, feel free to contact us.

AR and VR solutions are evoking intrigue and interest both among consumers and businesses that want to harness the potential of cutting-edge technologies.

In this article we will look at a variety of services that AR and VR companies can deliver, which can solve challenges of brands and end-users. Although AR and VR apps are not mainstream yet, the proliferation of hardware equipment and the readiness of technology for the next frontier seeks for tailor-made services that only specialized AR and VR companies can deliver.

In articles on our blog you had the chance to understand how AR and VR can be applied in tourism, retail, real estate, marketing, and many other verticals.

AR and VR companies are incredibly helpful to their clients as they offer tailor-made VR and AR expertise. This help ranges from the initial conceptualization and inception phase of the Virtual and Augmented Reality strategy to the consultations which technology should be deployed or which head-mounted displays or cell phones are the best tools for solving a particular challenge that the client has.

Rapid technological development has solved some old challenges and certainly created new ones. Innovative companies that care about behavior of their users have found sophisticated ways to measure their engagement, sudden emotional peaks and various interactions with technology.

AR/VR businesses that are serious about their growth and providing maximum value for their clients have the same approach: they constantly improve their solutions (sometimes incrementally, sometimes in a disruptive way) and measure metrics for success of VR/AR content that matter.

Due to its interactive nature, VR shows a new frontier for tracking, incentivizing or even rewarding particular user behaviours with holograms, avatars, eye tracking, security, MRI and EEG machines.

Because users have become immensely well-informed and suspicious of marketing efforts of many companies, we would suggest to potential VR clients to do things differently than the rest of the pack in their industry. Do not use VR to sell more or to interrupt your users more. Use VR content and head mounted displays to listen to your users better and understand their pain points. If you show the advanced level of empathy, not just the advanced technology, and your sales process is designed with the purpose of creating value and closing more, higher profits will come as the natural result.

Teams in VR companies that both have engineering expertise and understand how marketing functions may suggest to their clients which technology is applicable in their particular situation.

For instance, when brands decide to use 360° video they may film it in-house or adapt it on social media with stable frames and shots thanks to the best post-production software the agency may recommend. We witness the huge proliferation of social media platforms and hardware – where VR content actually answers the question on which social media to publish due to its nature of immersive experience that heavily resembles engagement in real life.

There are also companies on the market like ours that have developed VR/AR creation tools; for ARVRtech such creator is MRgenie and its very next version ImmersiveM platform. Our users can create and deploy AR and VR apps themselves on those two cloud-based platforms with drag and drop concept and without programming skills.

For our team of developers like in many AR/VR companies and studios around the world Unity turns out to be a key tool and engine for creating VR projects, whereas a small fraction of projects is made with Unreal Engine or Adobe.

Let’s say you are running a retail brand and you think about the next best ways to create 3D products for a shopping experience with a twist. AR/VR enterprises like ARVRtech may advise you when to scan products by rendered (you used computer graphics, yet you did not take a single photo) or by photogrammetry (when you mapped literally hundreds of separate images into a wire-frame).

ARVRtech has been working actively with AR technology from 2010 developing algorithms, products and custom solutions. Uptake of VR technology coincided with market penetration of new VR Head Mounted displays and controls, such as Oculus Rift, HTC Vive, Microsoft Hololens and many more.

The edge that ARVRtech has compared to other specialized companies that it can offer expertise ranging from algorithm development, end-to-end solutions and implementation on any AR and VR platform.

Hope this read was useful to you and the next time it will be easier for you to choose a AR/VR company that will not only meet your requirements in terms of quality, budget and human resources, but it will give you a better negotiating position. ARVRtech company remains at your disposal and you may always contact us for a free quote regarding your projects.