World's 10 Best AR/VR Solution Providers, 2020

Vol 03 | Issue 05 | 2020

World's

FEATURING KEN EHRHART

Best

FOUNDER & CEO

AR/VR Solution Providers,

2020

Advancing Augmented and Virtual Reality in Businesses through Science, Art and Experience

Editor’s Desk An Upcoming Advancement

T

he concept of virtual reality is getting more fascinating than we could ever think. Do you remember the game ‘Pokémon GO’? That’s the game which had familiarized us to Virtual reality (VR) than anything before. Most of the people’s first experience with AR/VR is through gaming and entertainment. But today, the arena of these technologies is not limited to gaming and entertainment as automotive, healthcare, sports, marketing, and manufacturing are leading industries which are adopting AR/ VR as a new innovative way to achieve success.

Today, the biggest challenges with VR are encumbering headsets and display units. It requires powerful hardware device and equipment to generate the graphics. However, with development in the technology VR headsets and hardware devices are getting smaller and easier to contain. Facebook’s Oculus headset is a fresh example which will be available as the self-contained Oculus Quest version.

AR/VR has gained record growth in 2019. Now, there is a collective form of these technologies which is called XR or extended reality. This is a term referring combination of all real-and-virtual environments. It comprises human-machine interactions generated by computer technology and wearable and also includes augmented reality (AR), mixed reality (MR) and

virtual reality (VR). XR shows the ability to offer even greater immersion and realism, and going to strengthen its presence in the digital world and make further inroads during 2020.

Insights Success is bringing some exceptional AR/VR solution providers which are exemplifying user experience through multi folded advance AR/VR technologies. These are the companies that are making a perfect blend of technology, innovation and creativity and helping their users to step in the world of digital advancement. Insights Success in its upcoming edition “World’s 10 Best AR/VR Solution Providers, 2020” is applauding these companies and enlisted top of them which have created a milestone with their success.

The cover features Paracosma, a company that vision to make Augmented and Virtual Realities better than Reality. The company offers AR and VR application development and 3D content creation including both photo-realistic modelling and 360 media production.

Paracosma applications include: VR training for Oil & Gas handling to prevent spills and fires; VR surgery simulation to improve outcomes and save lives; AR machine maintenance to increase efficiency and reduce down time; video holograms for executive management training to pass along company culture and best practices; VR and AR games for brain fitness to maintain health and wellness; digital twins of facilities to visualize IoT data; 3D modeling to replace studio photography saving costs; AR imaging for testing features in product development; teleconferencing displaying live 3D point-cloud video avatars in virtual environments; consumer facing AR & VR for marketing and entertainment; and many more.

Also, while flipping the pages, don’t forget to go through the articles and CXOs written by our in-house editorial team and industry experts respectively.

It is true form of advancement, where we can experience two different worlds

Rohit Chaturvedi

Advancing Augmented and Virtual Reality in Businesses through Science, Art and Experience

Paracosma Inc

08

ARTICLE

22 Infrastructure Transformation Innovative Companies in the Space Industry

CONT ENTS Augmently, Inc. Delivering The Exceptional AR Experience

Artivive Bringing Art to Life

18 AUGMENTes Changing the Way We Shop

16

24

Augview Helping Organizations to be Agile

Digital Artow Enhancing Visual Experience through Multiple Realities

30 26

CleverBooks An Incredible Way to make Study come Alive

Snaappy Making Visual Communication More Approachable

32 You-VR A Worldwide VR Multiplayer Solution Provider

38 36

VR VISION INC Delivering Unparalleled Virtual World Experience

42

Editor-in-Chief Pooja M. Bansal Managing Editor Anish Miller

Executive Editor

Assistant Editors

Kaustav Roy

Jenny Fernandes Rohit Chaturvedi

Visualizer

Art & Design Director

Associate Designer

David King

Amol Kamble

Kushagra Gupta

Co-designer Karan Gaikwad

Senior Sales Manager

Business Development Manager

Kshitij S

Peter Collins

Marketing Manager

Sales Executives

John Matthew

David, Kevin, Mark, Irfan

Technical Head

Business Development Executives

Jacob Smile

Steve, Joe, Alan, Prathamesh

Technical Specialist Aditya

Digital Marketing Manager Marry D'Souza

SME-SMO Executive Prashant Chevale

Research Analyst Frank Adams

Database Management Stella Andrew

Circulation Manager Robert Brown

Technology Consultant David Stokes

sales@insightssuccess.com March, 2020

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Ken Ehrhart Founder & CEO

COVERSTORY

“

“Paracosma's success derives from the success of our employees and our customers. As an outsourced service provider our goal is delivering the highest quality expertise in the most efficient way."

Paracosma Inc Advancing Augmented and Virtual Reality in Businesses through Science, Art and Experience

A

ugmented reality and Virtual reality are two examples of modern advancements which have revolutionized visual communication. Be it education, communication, healthcare, defence or any other industry all are disrupted

by AR and VR to some extent. Despite the wide-ranging expansion of the technology there is still a broad gap of AR/VR expertise in the business arena where organizations are looking for implementation solutions. By considering this as an opportunity and focused on outsourced AR/VR Application Development and 3D Content Creation, Paracosma’s first goal is making augmented and virtual reality as good as reality.

Below are highlights of the interview conducted between Insights Success and Paracosma: What led to the inception of the company?

In 2016, when Paracosma was founded, Virtual Reality (VR) was just launching to consumers with the release of the HTC Vive and the Oculus Rift VR headsets. Although VR had existed for decades as a concept there were no mature companies offering VR development and very few engineers with VR experience. So, enterprises that wanted to explore the technology could not hire VR developers. We decided to solve the problem by building a talented team of VR experts who could provide services for hire to companies unable to build in-house teams.

This further enabled VR’s growth by allowing enterprises to start small with a low-cost proof of concept (POC) without the need to commit to investing in hiring new engineers or training existing ones. Once they saw the ROI (return on investment) from the POC, our clients could easily justify expansion to an MVP (minimum viable product) or full deployment of a VR solution.

This approach proved to be to be a perfect fit for the nascent VR market. And, we were able to repeat it with the birth of consumer Augmented Reality with the launch of

Apple’s ARKit and Google's ARCore in 2017. We now have numerous ongoing month-to-month client relationships and many multi-year repeat engagements and second phase projects with customers for both VR and AR. Describe your company and its cutting-edge Virtual Reality services which address all the needs of your customers.

Paracosma offers AR and VR application development and 3D content creation including both photo-realistic modeling and 360 media production.

Paracosma applications include: VR training for Oil & Gas handling to prevent spills and fires; VR surgery simulation to improve outcomes and save lives; AR machine maintenance to increase efficiency and reduce down time; video holograms for executive management training to pass along company culture and best practices; VR and AR games for brain fitness to maintain health and wellness; digital twins of facilities to visualize IoT data; 3D modeling to replace studio photography saving costs; AR imaging for testing features in product development; teleconferencing displaying live 3D point-cloud video avatars in virtual environments; consumer facing AR & VR for marketing and entertainment; and many more.

Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement?

Paracosma’s mission and vision statement reads: Making Augmented and Virtual Reality as good as Reality is not enough. Our Vision is to make Augmented and Virtual Realities better than Reality. Our Mission is to make Reality better through Augmented and Virtual Reality

"The advance of AR & VR technology is a reflection of the broader trend from 2D to 3D across all aspects of technology.

The shift to 3D enables everything from autonomous driving to deep fakes".

The first part Making AR & VR as good as reality is a business goal based on the guiding principle of the “Turing Test” applied to Augmented and Virtual Reality: our goal is the ability to create digital affects and worlds that are ultimately indistinguishable from real world experiences.

Secondly, we strive to do things with AR & VR that are impossible in real life, for example training in hazardous environments or visiting remote or completely make-believe fantasy worlds.

“

“The biggest obstacle to the adoption of AR & VR is the difficulty and cost of implementing and accessing the technology. Our goal is to make it easy and inexpensive, and thus pervasive."

Finally, everything we do is filtered through the goal of using AR & VR to improve the real world, hence Paracosma’s cofounding of the VR for Good Conference and other positive social initiatives.

How are your VR services unique from the other companies’ offerings?

Because of Paracosma’s large and growing team of 45 artists and 30 engineers and developers, we have skills and experience across a broad range of AR & VR and can maintain innovative R&D in many areas. This allows us to be a “one stop shop” for clients looking for help with their projects. This is in contrast with many smaller AR & VR companies that are resource constrained or limited to a narrow focus.

Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.

As someone studying technology treads for some 24 years, with 20 years’ experience building companies as a venture capitalist, and with more than 10 years’ experience in international market entry for tech companies; I am focused on building a sustainable global company, with a long-term focus on the future. This is based on my belief that we are entering a new phase of technology advancement. Where previously we transitioned from text-based computing to media rich html websites and from voice communications to video, we are now witnessing the transition from 2D to 3D. This goes well beyond consumer AR&VR to impact all aspects of life from autonomous driving to deep fakes.

Describe in detail about the work culture and the values that drive your company.

We believe that brilliant and creative people are born into every country and culture. Unfortunately, the potential of those superstars is often missed through a lack of opportunity.

We have been able to assemble a world-class team in Kathmandu and provide them opportunities they might not

otherwise have in Nepal. This directly benefits our clients by delivering passionate, best-in-class teams to solve their requirements at a fraction of the cost of US-based alternatives.

How is VR technology disrupting the entertainment and gaming industry?

Of course, there has been massive innovation in VR gaming itself, but some of the most exciting trends are less well known. For example, in the past movie production began with traditional filming, then it might have added a digital element for special effects, then later created marketing materials based on the film, possibly publishing a video game developed entirely independently from the original production. Now, production companies are starting by creating 3D digital sets and entire environments inside VR in 3D game engines. The real-world actors are then added through green-screen techniques effectively reversing the prior process. Finally, since the entire process from beginning to end was created in a game engine, marketing pieces and video game entertainment can flow seamlessly from the original production. We saw this for example with the Disney remake of the Lion King, which was effectively 'filmed' in VR. What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?

Our greatest asset is our people. Not just the quality and skills of the team, but the number of experts. This enables us to be generous in adopting new technologies as soon as they are available. Because of our low costs we can stand up a team or an R&D project even when we don’t yet have a client in mind.

Thus, we are able to stay current with the fast advance of AR & VR across virtually every platform and device as they are developed and offered commercially.

What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?

Through delivery of positive results for our clients, we have cultivated a pattern of increasing numbers of repeat projects and multi-phase engagements and increasingly ongoing month-by-month and year-by-year partnerships with our customers. As a result, we entered 2020 with more than 50% of our clients and projects being repeat/ongoing relationships. This is helping us scale our business from what was previously more custom project-based delivery to a focus on longer-term platforms and products that are being develop

World’s 10 Best

Solution Providers, 2020

in partnership with our clients.

Ultimately, this lowers costs for us and them while increasing quality resulting in a positive feedback loop that accelerates our growth.

Client’s Statements “They do amazing work and the results are breathtaking” “Having Paracosma’s ability to create stunning looking 3D resources with minimal turnaround time vastly increases our ability to deliver our product” - John Burton, CEO of UrsaLeo.

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Choose E xc e l l e n t, Choose Insights

Artivive Sergiu Ardelean Co-founder & CEO

A

Bringing Art to Life

rtists always look for new ways to differentiate themselves and their work from others in order to communicate with viewers. To address these needs, Artivive was founded by Codin Popescu and Sergiu Ardelean in January 2017 in Vienna, Austria. Thanks to Artivive, now haptic artwork can be augmented with digital augmented reality in just a few steps. This opens up a variety of potential design options choosing from a huge palette of media and gives artists a completely new way of expressing themselves.

AR, a New Art Form Artivive’s Co-founder and CEO, Sergiu Ardelean thinks augmented reality is a new art form where a new kind of narrative is born – similar to photography and film a bit more than a century ago. Artists can take visitors on a journey in time and explain what lies behind, enhance the art with illustrations or show how the artworks were made.

For museums, galleries and other institutions, Artivive offers a new and innovative way for the audience to interact with the exhibits.

Augmented Reality Evangelist Sergiu Ardelean worked for more than a decade in advertising and marketing where he had the opportunity to implement the first augmented reality campaigns worldwide for numerous brands. This experience helped him understand the augmented reality space and its power.

Being a creative person, he saw the potential of this technology in the art sector which eventually gave Artivive the motivation to start this project.

Linking Analog with Digital Art Artivive is the platform where artists build the future of analog and digital art. Its vision is to change how art is

16 | March 2020

www.insightssuccess.com

created and consumed and build the community around augmented reality art. At first, Artivive created an easy-to use augmented reality tool that allows artists to create new dimensions of art by linking analog with digital art. The digital layer opens the doors to a whole new world of creative possibilities.

Revolutionizing the Art Market After years working for an augmented reality advertising agency, Sergiu decided to take a trip around the world and then he organized a photo exhibition about it instead to have the usual slideshow with friends. One of them asked him: “ok, where do I download the app? You work with augmented reality all the time, there has to be something behind it.” This was the beginning of the Artivive project.

Artivive was born out of the idea to digitally revolutionize the art market and changing the way art is experienced. Its aim was giving artists, museums and galleries the opportunity to add a narrative component to works of art and for viewers to have a more interactive experience with the artwork.

Artivive is the platform where artists create the future of analog and digital art. Our vision is to change how art is created and consumed and build the community around augmented reality art.

Mirroring User Experience Artivive thinks that the biggest challenge while providing AR solutions would be to find a way in delivering a tool for people who are not so technically adverse. Sergiu thinks Artivive has to understand its users and their mindset and mirror it in its user experience it is building.

Easy-to-use Tools

Exciting Future

To create in augmented reality, artists have to build an isolated solution that requires technical skills and invest a lot of time and money. According to the organization, few of the existing solutions offered by its competitors are difficult to use and have less usability and UX. The tools offered by Artivive are easy-to-use and have more usability.

Artivive is looking forward to an exciting 2019 and wants to continue to establish augmented reality in the art world.

It will keep building a constant dialog with its users in order to gradually extend and adapt the features of its tool to their specific needs.

Client Feedback

The creative tool Bridge by Artivive is intuitively designed and the visualization tool Artivive app for art lovers is also very easy to use. More than 7000 artists worldwide use Artivive’s tool for their artistic work. Artivive has already extended numerous exhibitions in cultural spaces. Artivive offers a unique open AR platform and an app with tailormade features for creatives and artists. Its approach is to let the artists create the narrative and the art. It distinguishes itself from other AR providers by focusing on artists, creative people, museums and galleries. Creatives and museums can register for an account on artivive.com.

www.insightssuccess.com

“We have been creating digital art for over three decades.

With Artivivie, we recently found a perfect tool to add another dimension to our work” (Station Rose, digital artists) “As a painter and experimental video artist, I found Artivive the perfect tool where my analog and digital work are blending”–(Maria Chalela-Puccini, Visual Artist) “It’s amazing how easy it works”–(Stella Rollig, Director of Belvedere Museum Vienna) “Artivive will replace the audio guides”–(PRof.Dr. Klaus Albrecht Schroeder, Director of Albertina Vienna).

March 2020 | 17

AUGMENTes Changing the Way We Shop Sundar Moorthi CEO & Founder

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ith the advent of the World Wide Web, our beloved planet Earth is changing at a rapid pace. The retail industry is not been left untouched by these changes. Thus, companies need to stand out from the competition, engage better, and create experiences their customers love. To help companies achieve this and with the mission to increase its customers’ revenue and decrease their costs by providing customized digital shopping solutions with a complete managed service, AUGMENTes was born.

The organization provides cutting edge digital consumer experiences that help retailers and brands to increase their online and in-store sales using Augmented Reality, mobile applications and Omni-Channel Shopping platforms.

AUGMENTes’ solutions attract and engage consumers across digital and physical environments utilizing cutting edge features including AR viewing and try on, 3D viewing, interactive digital catalogs, product customization, beacons, geo-fencing, push notifications, and more to entice purchases.

When the Focus is on Experiential Shopping AUGMENTes has developed solutions that allow consumers to shop for and then try the product on themselves or in their own environment. Decorating entire rooms with virtual furniture and home décor items,

18 | March 2020

recording their AR experience on video, sharing it with others and seamlessly placing orders, are just a few examples of what AUGMENTes’ AR solutions can do in the retail industry.

Experiential shopping has become one of the new focus points of the retail industry and the capabilities that AUGMENTes provides to its retail customers enables them to attract and engage consumers like never before.

The Veteran Leader As the CEO and Founder of the organization Mr. Sundar Moorthi has influenced it more than anyone else. Being a technologist, Mr. Moorthi has always kept track of new technologies and developments and evolutions in existing tech, ensuring the company's offerings always remain cutting edge.

Mr. Moorthi uses his knowledge of technology and what is possible to come up with functionalities that would make the end users’ life easier by providing a convenient and seamless experience. As he says, “Make sure you understand the problem you are solving and how your technology is valuable to your customer.”

Inception Story While developing and implementing advanced business www.insightssuccess.com

solutions for various major players across different industries, Mr Moorthi saw how the retail industry was lagging behind in terms of technology. After witnessing how unprepared retailers are to meet the consumer demands and expectations, he decided to apply his experience and try to help retailers to offer consumers the experience they deserve.

One of the key approaches that AUGMENTes uses when advancing its AR solutions is to think like the end user. As an organization, AUGMENTes always thinks, what functionality would a customer want to make their shopping experience more pleasant and convenient? This approach is then used as a guideline while designing and developing new features.

We unlock the remarkable power of the digital consumer experience to promote convenient shopping and build your brand across every channel and every device around the world.

When Tough Gets Going According to AUGMENTes, developing and creating commercial AR has multiple challenges, one of which is creation of 3D assets. The majority of retailers do not have 3D models of their products. So, a major concern when discussing an AR solution is how they are going to get the necessary 3D models.

A common question encountered by the organization revolves around the 3D model creation process. Without any previous knowledge, most people assume that some sort of scanner is required to scan the actual product in order to generate a 3D model. This causes further concern with retailers that offer larger products, such as furniture.

Fortunately, AUGMENTes has ways to generate 3D models from as little as images of the product (one from each side), relevant dimensions and digital material samples.

Standing Tall Amongst the Crowd In order to overcome the competition in the market, AUGMENTes prefers to focus on what sets it apart and tries to craft its message to best highlight that. While the organization offers feature rich solutions that provide the best possible customer experience, it strives to be a longterm partner with its clients in order to become an extension of their team, making them feel comfortable and surprising them with unmatched performance.

Additionally, AUGMENTes tries to stay ahead by keeping track of market conditions, trends and future technologies.

This allows the company to formulate a roadmap for product innovation that utilize the latest technological breakthroughs and aligns well with future customer needs.

The organization’s growth plan includes expanding its customer base from the jewelry and furniture verticals into

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many other B2B and B2C verticals as the AR technology becomes more in demand and adoption quickly increases.

Additionally, AUGMENTes hopes to expand into new geographic markets as its solutions would be beneficial to companies across the world. In the mean while AUGMENTes continues to push the envelope on what is technologically possible to improve consumer’s digital experiences and help make lives easier.

Client’s Feedback “The product works! The Support is fantastic! The prices are reasonable for the product we received. It’s just comfortable working with these guys!” – Mark Morgan, Marketing Director of Riddle’s Jewelry. “It was so easy to work with them! The team went above and beyond to exceed all of our expectations! We are really excited about our future with AUGMENTes!”– Frances Gadbois, President & CEO of Gadbois Jewelry.

March 2020 | 19

Innovative

Companies in the Space Industry

W

hat do we call an area that is not limited to a single planet and has no physical boundaries?

We call it the era of the emerging space resource industry. As humans, we became a spacefaring species 60 years ago when Russia launched Sputnik, the world’s first artificial satellite. We are the only species to achieve this milestone in the 4.5 billion year history of the earth. Later, the space industry began to develop after World War II, as rockets and satellites later found civilian purpose.

Today, companies around the world are in transportation, energy sector, construction, hospitality, real estate, etc. and they are looking for their next growth opportunity. Space is quickly becoming a place where the industries that power our global economy have started conducting business.

Future developments in the space industries include space tourism, satellite manufacturing, and the launch industry. In recent years, however, private spaceflight is becoming reality in the space industry.

Of course, these private companies also compete against each other and it could be argued that a new space race has begun. But while with an element of competition, the success of the past decades shows that is possible to collaborate in space. For example, NASA a major government agency has relied on privately operated launch services like SpaxeX for its satellite launches. The original space race began from the ideas and skills of visionary 22 | March 2020

theoretical engineers like Robert. H. Goddard, Wernher von Braun, and Konstantin E. Tsiolkovsky, etc. Today, space endeavors are propelled by a new generation of entrepreneurs including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, and Robert Branson. There are some more major players and innovative companies with the vision of space exploration and are as follows: SpaceX- SpaceX was founded in 2002 and has reached worldwide popularity with their historic milestones in space exploration. It is already the world’s most high-profile commercial spacecraft company. The aim of SpaceX is to revolutionize the space technology, with the goal of enabling people to live on other planets. Its success has been worth appreciating. Falcon 9 launch vehicle and Dragon Spacecraft are some of its milestones. Dragon Spacecraft has helped with regular resupply missions for NASA space stations.

Blue Origin- It was founded in 2000 by Jeff Bezos, the technological retail entrepreneur and CEO of Amazon, aims to launch people in space. It is fully reusable, vertical takeoff vertical landing (VVTL) space vehicle. Though its goal is different from that of SpaceX, it targets the Space tourism industry. It is focusing on commercially available, suborbital human spaceflight and has developed a vertical launch vehicle (new shepherd) for it. New shepherd is named after the Mercury astronaut Alan Shepherd, the first www.insightssuccess.com

Infrastructure Transforma on

American Astronaut to go in Space. It is designed to take astronauts and research payloads past the Karman line, the internationally recognized boundary of space.

Boeing- Boeing is the world’s largest aerospace company and leading manufacturer in space and security systems.

Throughout the last 50 years, Boeing has been integral in every major endeavor to escape earth’s gravity. The satellite industry has made the headlines since the launch of its first Mercury capsule to the current ISS (International Space Station).

NASA’s Space Launch System (SLS) is the most powerful rocket ever built. Boeing is the prime contractor for the SLS design development, test, and production of the launch vehicle. SLS is the world’s only super heavy rocket capable of transporting astronauts to deep space. NASA is setting its eyes on the exploration of Mars with the help of Boeing technology. Boeing has successfully launched all of NASA’s Mars probes and rovers aboard Delta 11 launch vehicles. Recently Boeing engineer designed a spacesuit to protect astronauts from dust, radiation and other hazards when exploring the surface of moon and mars.

Sierra Nevada Corporation- Selected by NASA, SNC’s Dream Chaser spacecraft is a multi-mission space utility vehicle. It used for transporting crew and cargo to LEO (Low Earth Orbit) destinations such as ISS (International Space Station). The system is designed to deliver up to 5,500 kg of pressurized and unpressurized cargo to the space station under the CRS (Commercial Resupply Service)-2 contract. It will carry supplies like food, water, & science experiments and returns to earth with a gentle runway landing. The spacecraft is selected by NASA to provide a minimum of 6 cargo missions to and from the space station by 2021. Sierra Nevada Corporation is making solid progress and likely to stay a key player in the private space company.

Northrop Grumman Corporation- NGC is a leader in science and exploration in space for more than 60 years.

Thiokol Chemical Company, now part of NGC developed the world’s first reusable space shuttle program in the late 1970s.

Contribution to NASA: July 20, 1969, was a historic day when the world watched, astronaut Neil Armstrong took mankind’s first steps on the moon. The success of NASA’s Apollo 11 mission is still remembered and celebrated.

Several heritage companies of NGC are recognized for the vital role they played in the achievement of the Apollo 11 mission. NGC designed, assembled, integrated and tested the Lunar Module (LM) of the Apollo program.

astronomers to make extraordinary discoveries. Launched in 1999, Chandra has found evidence for a significant new class of supernova. It has also uncovered evidence of a powerful outburst from the giant black hole at the Milky Way’s center.

NASA has a long tradition of utilizing Northrop Grumman’s spacecraft, including the Spirit and Opportunity rovers that landed on Mars in 2004. The rovers will help guide the Mars as it investigates the viability of microbial life on the planet now or in the past.

NASA’s James Webb Space Telescope will play an important role in studying planetary systems. NGC is the prime contractor for building the dreams of Webb technology. The telescope will be sensitive to infrared light which will enable it to understand an era of the universe just a few million years after the Big Bang.

Made in Space- MIS is the space-based manufacturing company, dedicated to making of reliable Additive manufacturing equipment and fiber optics (MIS Fiber) for Space. Additive manufacturing is also known as 3D Printing and is transforming the industry. It can manufacture larger and more complex objects faster, with finer precision and with multiple aerospace grade materials.

MIS Fiber Optics, on the other hand, is produced without crystals that affect signal loss. Later, these crystals provide superior data transmission capabilities, high-speed internet as well as enhancing technologies in space.

Virgin Galactic- Virgin Galactic is a spaceflight company founded in 2004 by British entrepreneur Sir Richard Branson. It is developing commercial space crafts and aims to provide suborbital spaceflights to space tourists. VG uses a larger, four-engine jet plane that carries passengers into space. It is similar in design to a private plane. These private space firms seem to have different interests in the space race, but actually, these companies share the same goals.

Looking at the future, there will be a need for laws, regulation, and controlling authority to govern space exploration. It will be necessary to have firm and wellunderstood protocols in the event space crashing, while there are serious issues around the safety of astronauts as well. At the moment, the UN’s Outer Space Affairs is responsible for promoting international cooperation in the peaceful uses of outer space. Perhaps, the entry of the private sector into space exploration will contribute to the growth of the economy as valuable targets for investment.

However, it will be interesting to see how healthy competition opens up in the development of the Space Era for Citizens.

NASA’s Northrop Grumman built Chandra X-ray Observatory and it continues to produce data that enables www.insightssuccess.com

March 2020 | 23

Augmently, Inc. Ziggy Kormandel

Delivering The Exceptional AR Experience

CEO & Founder

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ugmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been the hot topics among tech developers for several years. During that time, consumers living in the digital world have made the journey from two dimensions to three-dimensional realism. At present, there are frequent demonstrations of AR in our daily lives. It is both surprising and exciting to witness what engineers and designers are capable of doing with this technology. A group of creative designers at Augmently, Inc. are transforming the virtual world and taking it to an entirely new level.

Reforming the ‘Immersive’ World Transformations in the world of AR and VR have changed our outlook on the future. Augmently is one such change agent which has opened the gates to this brave new virtual world. Known as “the Augmented Realism Agency,” Augmently has thrived for the last three and-a-half years by delivering quality creative and successful implementation of the augmented reality experience for its customers and their brands.

In particular, Augmently has developed a patented augmented reality technology that allows mobile device users to virtually place and set at any angle a celebrity, character or product in a 360°environment of their choice. It seamlessly delivers matching lighting, color, and focus to make the finished image or product look strikingly real.

24 | March 2020

While offering a quixotic experience and introducing customers to a new and advanced virtual world, Augmently has built custom campaigns for companies that not only deliver strong ROI, but most importantly, drive truly memorable brand engagement.

The Innovator CEO The man behind the company is Ziggy Kormandel. Having founded Augmently, Ziggy also currently serves as its CEO. He began his career in visual entertainment as an art director during the “dotcom boom,” and is considered an expert in brand marketing.

Prior to establishing Augmently, Ziggy was the Founder and CEO of 3DX, where he leveraged 18 years of experience to assemble a dream team of 3D experts.

Inspired by the Kim Kardashian app when it reportedly was generating $800k daily, Ziggy found an opportunity to take fan-driven mobile apps and personalizing them in ways that were never before imaginable. Leveraging the power and largely untapped capabilities of augmented reality, Ziggy then proposed a platform that would put lifelike video renderings of the world’s foremost celebrities in a fan’s living room or a company’s retail location.

Incomparable Advocacy Another defining feature of the company is Augmently’s dedication to solving any AR-related tech and creative

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challenge. According to Ziggy: “We’re a diverse team that boasts twenty-five years of technology, branding, and marketing experience. Our core strength is a unique ability to solve problems that most AR companies can’t.”

Augmently provides AR technology and campaign expertise for global brands who are looking to stand out from the competition. Its patented technology uses real video and photo images to create hyper realistic AR experiences for clients and partners rather than relying on traditional 3D computer generated objects. The technology created by the team of elite designers at Augmently is also enabled with video-on-video recording features that allow users to walk into their mobile device frame and record real-time video or upload a previously taken photo from any angle. Users can also add a celebrity, character or object to their scene and share it with their peers online and via social media. A recent trailblazing service provided by Augmently allows customers to present 3D models in AR that have an endless number of polygons. Augmently has developed the patented software which allows for 3D cinematic models (with hundreds of millions of polygons), to be used on AR for mobile phones.

Having a team with robust experience is the biggest advantage of Augmently. The company is not only a service provider, but a creative agency that creates winning campaigns for global brands. Augmently takes pride in supporting its clients with unique, engaging campaigns that drive sales, increase ROI, produce shareable content and help them stand out above the noise. Ziggy adds, “When done right, AR can be one of the single most powerful marketing tools wielded by any brand large or small.”

Overstepping Competitors Augmently is proud to have partnered with ISBX as its development partner with its stellar team of over 50 expert developers. As Southern California's leading mobile app

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We are a team of creative designers and engineers boasting over twenty-five years of technology, branding, and marketing experience while our core strength is ability to solve problems that most AR companies can’t.

developer, ISBX has done hundreds of successful apps for brands ranging from Nike and Sony to Lexus and Red Bull.

Most recently, Augmently has entered the healthcare sector in a partnership with stayhealthy.com, a leading healthcare lifestyle, engagement, and technology business. Already collaborating with global celebrities to launch unique AR consumer products and hardware/software devices, Augmently is continuing to innovate the kind of patented solutions that distinguish the company in the crowded AR marketplace. Ziggy speaks to this ongoing commitment: “Augmently’s mission is to provide the best and most realistic AR experiences possible with the devices of yesterday, today and the future”.

March 2020 | 25

Augview Mike Bundock Director & Founder

B

Helping Organizations to be Agile

orn due to the large shift in the IT market, Augview Limited is an augmented reality software development company specializing in the visualization of asset data. The leaders of the organization realized that there were a growing number of businesses who were looking for smart mobile solutions that can make their workforce more productive using the hardware and technology that they had already adopted. The organization provides utility and telecommunications companies with augmented reality capabilities – equipping field service personnel with cutting edge functionality which provides direct business benefits.

Delivering Ground Breaking AR solutions When it comes to solutions, Augview delivers two fundamental AR solutions. The dynamic 3D asset models created in Augview gives field staff in the utility and construction market the ability to view otherwise “invisible” networks. This enables them to locate the assets to be worked on quickly and then carry out installation and maintenance work while reducing collateral damage and rework.

The second solution is that of more efficient and effective asset data management. Field workers can use the data capture, editing and updating features to refresh the asset database with more accurate information in real time.

The Visionary Leader Mike Bundock, the Director and Founder of Augview is one of the leading experts in GIS. He has previous experience with multiple start-ups and GIS product development, including Smallworld Systems, which he initially helped to launch in the UK and Australia, before a successful Nasdaq IPO. Previously, he helped establish eMap and then its acquisition of Terralink from New Zealand government

26 | March 2020

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Mike has been the visionary, driver and lead technologist of Augview throughout the life of the Company, accurately predicting the timing of the arrival of complementary technologies along the way, such as Apple AR glasses next year.

When the Motto is Helping Others

AUGVIEW, making the

Watching subcontractors in hard hats and hi-visibility jackets staring at maps and bits of paper, scratching their heads trying to work out where they were standing and where to dig was the source of inspiration for Mike. From his GIS background and fascination with AR, he knew he could put a solution together to solve the problem that field operatives were facing. This is how Augview was born.

invisible – VISIBLE.

Three approaches have been critical in order to increase Augview’s attractiveness to the market; Ÿ

Augview is not aligned to just one brand of GIS database. It has been designed to access data from all the main proprietary GIS databases as well as any OGC compliant server.

Ÿ

Augview’s app operates on both iOS and Android devices.

Ÿ

The company leverages surface tracking technology which allows it to function with sufficient accuracy when the GPS signal is lost or unreliable.

Unhindered Operation is the Utmost Priority According to the company, the first challenge was the waiting game; mainly waiting for the hardware capability to catch up with the Augview software. Until recently, smartphones and tablets lacked reliable GPS to allow operating precisely. The addition of equipment like a Trimble antennae was necessary to provide sufficient accuracy. With the latest round of devices released by Apple and Samsung, this will be increasingly no longer the case and soon Augview can operate completely unhindered.

Now, the main challenge is moving prospective customers from the trial stage to regular on-going use. This is being addressed by a more professional sales and marketing approach. This involves closer hand-holding and follow-up with customers through the demonstration and trial stages.

Augview’s flexibility vis a vis database access and operating device is what currently gives the company its point of difference. Its first mover advantage is currently keeping it ahead of the competition.

What Lies Ahead According to Augview, the single biggest event which will encourage mass adoption of AR in the industry will be the launch of user-friendly augmented reality goggles. These devices will allow the users to experience applications like Augview with their hands free and it will eventually eliminate the need for smart phones and tablets. Augview technology has already been configured with these devices in mind and the company anticipates that appropriate devices will be available in the market by 2020.

Augview believes, this is still a fledging market and competitive products have started surfacing just recently

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March 2020 | 27

Clever Books Darya Yegorina Founder & CEO CleverBooks

An Incredible Way to make Study come Alive

I

n the era of rapid digital advancement, schools are now struggling to maintain relevancy in their classes.

Thanks to the rapid changes in the job market. Schools are obliged to innovate in order to sustain their development by building a strong ICT infrastructure to accommodate 21st-century learning demands for students.

However, it is not enough to simply add technology to existing teaching methods.

Technology must be used strategically to benefit students with quality digital content with strong academic relevance in order to provide effective learning. Thanks to the smart way of CleverBooks STEM subjects, which help to develop 21st-century skills and to teach kids how to think instead of what to think.

An interview conducted between Insights Success and Darya Yegorina bridges the gap between natives and digital immigrants. Below are the highlights of the interview: What led to the inception of the CleverBooks?

CleverBooks was created by Darya Yegorina and Inna Armstrong. Both founders are moms, and they have noticed that their kids were not happy with the teaching & learning at schools because of the lack of technology. How can a kid be excited about learning if the school keeps on teaching the same way as it was 20, 30 years ago? Kids need to adapt 30 | March 2020

to the technological world and have innovative solutions at the primary stage to boost their creativity and develop digital skills for future jobs. At this moment, CleverBooks was born, to serve the gap between digital natives and digital immigrants.

Describe your company and its cutting-edge VR/AR services which address all the needs of your customers.

CleverBooks provides STEM-oriented global curriculumbased teaching and learning solutions for primary education.

Empowering Kids Learning in the acquisition of necessary for the 21st Century skills by utilizing the most innovative AR technology tools is our main goal.

We have a range of products for teaching and learning empowered by Augmented Reality. All products are STEM.org certified and global curriculum guidelines based.

The products aim to develop and enhance interest & curiosity levels in STEM, create the base for developing 21st-century skills, and focusing on personalized learning through kinetic, audial, and visual educational approaches.

Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement?

CleverBooks’ Mission CleverBooks delivers the most innovative educative www.insightssuccess.com

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products based on Augmented Reality technology and traditional education aids for kids around the world. We strive to empower a new generation of progressive and creative children by delivering the most innovative solutions at the most affordable prices because everyone has the right to access technology for efficient and progressive education. By doing this, we drive the digital revolution in every classroom around the world. We are defining standards for using Augmented Reality in the education sector and the future of education.

We help students to See, Hear and Touch the Knowledge.

CleverBooks’ Vision We believe that we are in this world to make great products with a focus on innovation. We believe that our solutions are here to change the way kids are educated today. The solutions should be simple and not complicated. We say no to the application of Augmented Reality to hundreds of industries because we believe that all the products we make are to have one single purpose – to change the education landscape. This is truly important and meaningful for us.

We strive for excellence and high quality because kids deserve to have the best. These values are embedded in every single product we make and come from our hearts.

How does your AR/VR services unique from the other companies’ offerings?

CleverBooks sets the standards in Augmented Reality to help kids improve test-score by up to 33% and increases retention rate by up to 100% with the latest STEM-oriented Augmented Reality (AR) technology that supports students' individual learning styles. Our products made with highquality curriculum-based content created by educators with different curriculum experiences. We make the products that we use ourselves and put our hearts and soul in them.

Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.

Darya Yegorina is a top influential global speaker (rated by Thinkers 360 multiple times) on the topic of AR in Education, the winner of Digital Female Leaders Award in the category of Entrepreneurship in 2018, named as Innovator by Irish Times in 2018, awarded Young Irish Entrepreneur in 2016, Women in IT 2019, Young European Leader in 2020 (#EYL40), featured in Inc.com, Forbes, CBS, and other global media as a promoter and facilitator of education technology for the best future of the kids in the world.

How is AR/VR technology disrupting the education industry AR is making a big difference in the education sector. As

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visual technology, it has a massive power to make education interesting, though-provoking, and personalized when applied correctly to suitable subjects & school grades.

What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?

Our company is working with Augmented Reality technology. It has a big spectrum of application and our main focus is to fully apply, integrate, and make it resourceful for the educational sector. The reason for this is the ease of use and integration in teaching and learning processes at any school and any country regardless of the technical level of teaching staff.

What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?

We change the way the educational content is delivered and the way the education is personalized through seeing, doing, using imagination, enabling students and teachers to merge the realities right in the classroom or at home.

CleverBooks aims to set standards for using Augmented Reality in the educational sector by leading bypass disruption.

March 2020 | 31

Digital Artow Dan Stefan Co-founder Digital Artflow

Enhancing Visual Experience through Multiple Realities

M

odern technology has been going through disruptive changes over the years. Adaptive augmented reality mixed in virtual reality can help to create a number of prototypes that allow you to have a clear vision of your project. Nowadays, you can search for any animal over the internet and can have a 3D rendered model of that animal right in your living room interacting with you through your smartphones.

Augmented reality and virtual reality are on the verge of emerging as mainstream technologies that will sustain an enduring impact. Digital Artflow, a company that develops creative prototype with these immersive technologies, provides a more direct experience by enabling to walk, fly and interact with their prototypes, either in an AR or VR environment.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Digital Artflow and Insights Success: What led to the inception of the company?

Initially, we started as a small group of freelancers and started with various web development projects. Later, we started developing visual applications for sales and customer engagement. We expanded our portfolio and began to specialize in 2D and 3D applications, slowly building a path towards product and service simulation applications, like visual product configurators, floor planning solutions and integration with various standardized platforms. In 2009, we decided to start the 32 | March 2020

company and then later offering development services for VR/AR applications.

Describe your company and its cutting-edge VR/AR services which address all the needs of your customers.

Currently, Digital Artflow has a few pre-built software solutions like Simplio3D (online product configurator) and InnoPlanner (floor planning system) that support both VR and AR to meet client necessities. Initially, we started utilizing Virtual Reality technology when customers requested an extension to their already implemented 3D product configurators using our prebuilt solutions.

Customers wanted to offer their potential customers an immersive product experience using VR headsets.

Therefore, most of our VR services are found in the development of ways to enable web applications to support VR when needed directly from an internet browser without the need for native apps. We also work with AR terminals, where we offer the possibility of web applications to track 3D products in real space, like furniture, jewelry, and clothing. In the last 2 years, we started to develop native applications for Virtual Reality using Unity for a few customers.

Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement?

Digital Artflow continues offering a compelling visual application for all industries and based on our experience we want to offer the best solutions using cutting-edge technology. We aim to transform the CPQ industry by www.insightssuccess.com

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introducing and integrating VR/AR technology with the known ERP/eCommerce platforms. Simultaneously, we want to preserve and grow our team values, culture, and ethics. These are the key to consolidate long-term healthy and productive relationships both internally and externally reflecting the universal trustworthy level of our agency.

How does your AR/VR services unique from the other companies’ offerings?

We are one of the few agencies focusing on WebVR and we connect VR/AR with several e-commerce platforms and we intend to further integrate the technology with other e-commerce platforms, web applications, and ERP systems.

We use agile project management methodology for our workflow.

Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.

Dan Stefan is primarily responsible for having the entire team under one umbrella, and the umbrella is Digital Artflow. He knows how to motivate and establish some general directions when it comes to community, innovation, and expertise within the agency. Last but not least, he knows how to convey his enthusiasm to others, which helps him a lot to stay connected with his team.

How is AR/VR technology disrupting the entertainment and gaming industry?

We are not focused on developing AR/VR for the entertainment and gaming industry, but we have witnessed a steady growth of applications using AR/VR technology in the last 2–3 years. In general, AR/VR is beginning to disrupt all major industries, and Digital Artflow is happy to be in this technological wave.

What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?

We are using programming languages and frameworks for web development like PHP, JavaScript, three.js, pixi.js, React, HTML/CSS, SQL and for the development of VR/AR applications we use: WebVR, AR.js, and Unity.

product. Most importantly, they are patient, flexible and open to suggestions.”- Brian Berman, CEO, Expo90.

“I feel the need to share how pleased I was with their services, from the easy communication we had about my project, to the promptitude and the accuracy of the work.

Besides that, I was very surprised by the fact that we covered not only design angles but marketing ideas too. I feel satisfied with the final product that we, together, came up with.”- Don Tregartha, Creative Director, The Communications Agency

What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?

At Digital Artflow, we want to offer not only quality services and products but also an excellent experience between the client and the team. We want to keep the passion and enthusiasm within the team to innovate and create fun and wow services for our customers. To achieve this easily, we have built our own culture after which we work to reach our goals.

Testimonials “They hold a deep understanding of all the latest trends and technology available to produce a cutting-edge

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March 2020 | 33

Snaappy Making Visual Communication More Approachable Gal Shvebish Co-founder & CEO

S

cience has narrowed the line between reality and virtual.” AR and VR two leading agile technologies are an excellent example for this statement which are transforming view of digital world as we have never imagined before. Using VR gadgets as a bridge between reality and virtual world consumer's experience has increased exceptionally, on the other side AR is merging reality and virtual world and opening new dimensions in research, education, gaming, social media and various other sectors. Making AR a new way of communication and sharing emotions, Snaappy, an Augmented Reality company, creating 3D animated characters which help to express emotions when words are not enough.

Below are highlights of the interview conducted between Insights Success and Snaappy: What led to the inception of the Snaappy?

Snaappy was founded about 4 years ago as a totally different company than it is today. We started as a messenger for younger audience with many sophisticated visual and artificial intelligence features. Although, we had experienced an organic user growth, it didn't quite meat our initial expectations. Two years ago, we decided to use our 3D visual characters and broader our vision to a full blonde social network based on proprietary Augmented Reality technology.

Describe your company and its cutting-edge VR/AR services which address all the needs of your customers.

Our company is B2C AR first, which means we are

36 | March 2020

providing tools to end consumers so they could create, and share unique AR content such as videos, messages, location-based content etc. These days we are launching our first B2B AR services, allowing brands to take advantage of our AR content creation tools to launch innovative AR marketing video campaigns on different social platforms created by their own audience and their own 3D AR assets.

The first few marketing campaigns will be launched in China in a few weeks.

Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement?

Our vision is to build an eco-system of consumer products based on AR technology. We have started our journey with an AR social network at first and gradually we are adding more products. Now we are working on our second product as well which is a full AR game that is connected to the social platform. We hope that within a few years we could lead the AR landscape for social, entertainment and gaming, whether it is on mobile or on wearables.

How does your AR/VR services unique from the other companies’ offerings?

Our AR services are very different in vision and tech than any other AR services currently provided. I would like to focus on just 2 main points which I think are the most relevant ones: AR angle – we are building AR features based on a SLAM engine which are being used only through the back camera.

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themselves as AR (like Snapchat, Facebook, Instagram etc.) are built on face detection technologies which are utilizing the front camera. If one should look ahead to the near future, one would see that mobile AR is only a temporary phase towards the real wearable AR vison.

We take AR very seriously and we try to look at it as a serious content creation tool and not merely a gimmick.

When we analyzed the worldwide AR market, we found that most companies are investing their resources in creating a small amount of astonishing AR experiences that users might adore in a first glance but will never repeat it twice. We are looking at it from a totally different angle, we prefer to have far more AR experiences (we have more than 60M at the moment and counting) so every user who will launch our app could use it to tell their own story using the AR props they need and not tell the story that our product engineers want them to tell like on any other AR platform out there. In that case users understand they have much more freedom in Snaappy than on any other AR competitor (even at small quality cost).

Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.

As Snaappy’s CEO, Gal is leading the vision, product, business development and marketing efforts. Gal is highly involved with the day to day activities, creating the AR philosophy and making sure the company will align with it.

Furthermore, Gal is an experienced AR speaker, mobile speaker as well as an opinion leader who is lecturing all over the globe in front of different audiences about the present and future of AR.

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"we created over 60M AR experiences, so every user can find what they need to capture their precious moments”

What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?

We are working with many different technologies. The main ones are AR, AI, location and 5G. Most of the tech is being developed in house, except of the 5G that is being developed alongside selected telecom partners.

What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?

We want to become a world leader in the consumer AR space within a few years, specifically in the AR software apace (social, entertainment and gaming). Our strategy is to enhance short videos creation process to introduce AR use cases, benefits and best practices to the mass consumer market.

March 2020 | 37

VR VISION INC Lorne Fade

Delivering Unparalleled Virtual World Experience

COO & Co-founder

V

irtual Reality & Augmented Reality go hand in hand to achieve something that has never been accomplished before. The experience of VR/AR technology is exhilarating. Many applications in this field are yet to be explored, as you can have access to these technologies right in your hand in your smartphone and there are several creative things that you can do with it.

VR Vision Inc is one of the leading companies in VR/AR technologies to provide solutions for your business to empower and persuade it to the forefront of immersive technology.

Lorne Fade, Co-founder and COO of VR Vision Inc oversees aspects of VR Vision’s application development, event activation, hardware deployment, and 360 videography. He is responsible for guiding the company’s general direction and strategic priorities by utilizing his digital marketing background to drive business development forward. As well as driving sales for VR Vision through creative marketing campaigns and targeted advertising methods.

Below are the highlights of the interview conducted between Insights Success and VR Vision Inc: What led to the inception of the VR Vision?

I had been running a digital marketing agency for almost 10 years and was tired of the industry, plus I saw many competitors popping up and, scaling the business was

38 | March 2020

becoming increasingly more and more difficult. This led me to shop around for various buyers before exiting and having my customer base acquired by another larger digital agency here in Toronto. At this point, I took some time to travel and do some soul searching which led me to look into AI and immersive technology. One of my lifelong friends was unhappy in his enterprise sales role, and I had the marketing background, so we decided to put our heads together and start VR Vision as it seemed like an industry poised to take off and have long-term growth.

Describe your company and its cutting-edge VR/AR services which address all the needs of your customers.

VR Vision is an XR (Extended Reality) company that provides immersive technology solutions for business. We provide a virtual reality, augmented reality, 3D 360 video, web, and mobile application development for enterprise groups. We provide a full-service solution to help brands adopt technology and make it a full turnkey solution for adopting the technology.

Could you throw some light on your mission and vision statement?

Here at VR Vision, we aim to help brands adopt VR/AR technology and use it to empower and bolster their business outcomes. We are aiming to disrupt a variety of markets by providing safer and, more scalable training solutions using the power of VR/AR technology.

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How does your AR/VR services unique from the other companies’ offerings?

Our services are custom developed with our own proprietary VR Vision SDK, which is a platform in which we can place various training modules and allow customers to access an array of training content in an easy and scalable manner. More companies offer one-off solutions, whereas we try to develop a fully encompassing solution that will last a much longer and allow for future updates and the ability to add additional modules at later dates.

Give a detailed description of the featured person’s influence over the company and the industry.

I am an avid technology enthusiast with a strong background in programming and gaming. This makes me passionate about the industry as a whole and challenges me to think outside the box and always be pushing the innovation envelope so to speak. In my digital marketing days, I did a lot of content marketing and public speaking and I have carried that over today where I speak at various conferences about VR/AR technology adoption and how brands can use immersive tech in a meaningful way. I am also a published writer on Forbes, Entrepreneur, Inc, Techcrunch, and various other technology blogs online.

How is AR/VR technology disrupting the entertainment and gaming industry?

VR/AR technology is starting to pick up steam and as a brand new immersive medium, it is allowing gaming and entertainment to be experienced in ways that just weren't possible before. Games are now full-body movement experiences and require work and exercise many times to be competitive. In terms of entertainment, we have seen countless examples of AR being used in the media, including a transparent Tupac performing recently at Coachella.

What technologies are you leveraging to make your services resourceful?

We utilize Visual Studio and Unity3D as well as C# for programming to develop many of the interactions and VR experiences. In terms of 3D modeling, we use a combination of Blender3D and Autodesk Maya. For texture, we use Substance Painter, Substance Designer, and Quixel Mixer. And lastly, for sculpting software we use ZBrush. All of these are combined in the game engine of Unity to bring them all to life in immersive environments.

An alternative to Unity is Unreal Engine, although this is typically only used for gaming related applications.

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As we continue to capitalize on the tremendous technological opportunities ahead we must always respect the competitive advantages that form the cornerstone of our brand – our people and our culture.

What are your company’s future aspirations? What strategies are you undertaking to achieve those goals?

We are growing rapidly at 200%+ growth year over year.

We are looking to continue to grow and scale the VR Vision brand and are currently raising VC funding to hire additional staff and service outstanding contracts. We are also launching our own SaaS sub-brands, Reality Well (a healthcare VR application for the retirement home industry) and WindXR (a wind turbine maintenance and training application for the renewable sector).

Testimonials Jason Palmer: VR Vision Inc. went above and beyond.

Internal and external feedback was overwhelmingly positive. Their team takes scope changes in stride, delivering work on time and within budget. Their adaptability and technical expertise supplemented the potential for continued engagement.

Irina Solovianenko: The product arrived quickly and in time for an important trade show. VR Vision Inc.’s work has a few bugs, but the client is overall satisfied with the program, leading to more work for the team. They lead a smooth workflow thanks to their top-notch customer service and project management.

March 2020 | 39

You-VR Cyril Tuschi

A Worldwide VR Multiplayer Solution Provider

CEO & Founder

F

ounded in 2015, You-VR is a solution provider for the entertainment industry (LBE) and added multiplayer B2B solutions. Founding the entertainment brand Vonderland for international content production is the third major step of You-VR.

B2B XR solutions are thriving very healthy and also the entertainment out of home solutions. You-VR plans to offer a system for home XR so that all games and applications can be played without a hassle, due to our software SyncReality for auto-adaptive playfields.

Cyril Tuschi with senior level experience in Film Production and Story development always thrives for stories bigger than life. This is the reason behind the contentious addition of AR/VR to the company’s production tools.

The Inspiration behind the Initiation Initially, while working on a Film project in Hong Kong, Cyril saw that all the topics discussed on the conferences he attended in Europe, were already implemented and scaled in HK and China. Also, when he experienced full-body avatar multiplayer VR for the very first time, he understood that it is crucial to plunge into immersive worlds always with other people—once you have a companion on this virtual uncharted territory, the unknown fields become less unknown, when you have a real person next to you.

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After this key experience he made the decision to only develop social VR multiplayer experiences.

Unique Products and Services You-VR offers, primarily, multisensory XR for theme parks and corporate B2B solutions for training and education, be it multiplayer with wind, heat, vibration, scents and full body avatars.

For home XR, the company synchronizes the real world with the virtual. With their product SyncReality, the content will be placed automatically within its Auto-Adaptive Playfields and the algorithms will do the placement in an aesthetical and dramaturgical manner which increases the quality of the experience.

AI, IOT and 5G will create the metaverse, where a virtual layer will be placed over the reality. It will be crowd sourced and steadily expanding.

Off course all topics privacy, “opt-in-as-a-standard” and health tests will be mandatory to build up a trustful relationship with the customers.

Best Solutions for Clients The biggest benefit for the B2B and LBE sector is the highest multisensory immersion within an affordable and scalable setup. Another huge advantage for the clients is a

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long tradition in storytelling and technology. The company builds interactive storyworlds, rooted in classical storytelling.

The XR industry is pretty well accelerating in the fields of hardware and utilities, but still quite flimsy, if we look at content and new ways of creating experience spaces.

Exactly that is the strength of You-VR– building creative bridges between linear content and interconnected storyworlds. Be it for training, education and onboarding or commerce and entertainment.

We synchronize and harmonize the real world with the virtual – and make sense by doing so!

Since You-VR is a company with a holistic approach, it can offer full service solutions, from technology advice, ideation and straight forward prototyping, content production, as well as marketing and servicing of the finished experiences.

The Future Roadmap You-VR founded in Berlin an Entertainment Branch under the brand name VONDERLAND. Within one year the company established creative satellites in Frankfurt (art & advertisement), Munich (R&D for auto-adaptive in-car entertainment), Shanghai (Location Based Entertainment und Brand Experience Centers) and LA (Content Development).

The main focus of the company at the moment is to developing a system and content for “Connected Entertainment”, which expands entertainment IP or products, as well as educational content to a broad variety of interactive Media, as AR apps, projection mapping, elastic content for synchronized in-vehicle content, multisensory multi-player XR and theme park attractions.

All these media platforms are interconnected via You-VR’s cloud backbone, so that the user can grow parallel to the ever-expanding transmedia experience.

“Connected Entertainment” usecase, accompanying a filmpremiere of a children’s blockbuster by a US major film studio.

Also in the pipeline is a second usecase together with our connected in-car entertainment partner Holoride.

Together with Holoride and Shanghai branch of Vonderland, You-VR is aiming at a market entry of its mutual content development projects for in-car entertainment in China.

One unique own product of You-VR is in development at the moment, to be integrated into the Vonderland “Connected Entertainment” System: SyncReality.

There are still many hurdles, to experience VR applications at home: no space, too much furniture, no haptic feedback.

The new platform and product SyncReality will solve all these problems. SyncReality will turn every home into a micro themepark by synchronizing the real world with the virtual – all obstacles become game objects and all IoT devices SFX-Elements of the experience.

To prove the power “Connected Entertainment” can have for the original IP and the current hyper-diversified market, we are in the middle of pre-production of an international

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March 2020 | 43