Is a VR revolution near?

WHITE PAPERS VIRTUAL REALITY AS AN EVENTS TECHNOLOGY January 2015 Is a VR revolution near? New technology aimed at computer gamers will also create innovations for events exhibitors and organisers. Brought to you by

As some of the biggest names in technology prepare to launch consumer-priced VR kits, how could the events industry benefit from virtual reality? You may remember virtual reality as a concept that was much-hyped in the 1990s, but the results at a consumer level were disappointing. Today, VR is on the verge of making a comeback, with major new product launches immenent from Sony and Facebook-owned Oculus, including a device designed to adapt a Samsung smartphone into a virtual reality headset. This time, the technology looks like it s finally up to the job, which is where the hit TV series Game of Thrones comes in. At the far north of the Seven Kingdoms of Westeros stands The Wall protecting the realms of men from the terrors that live in the icy wilderness beyond, and guarded by the men of the Nights Watch. It is a defining landmark of the fictional world created by writer George R.R. Martin for his A Song of Ice and Fire series of epic fantasy novels, adapted for television as Game of Thrones by HBO. It has now also become a place we can visit, as a demonstration of the prototype Oculus Rift virtuality system. At the South by Southwest (SXSW) Interactive festival early in 2014, Oculus teamed up with HBO to show off its in-development VR headset. The device provides a 360-degree field of vision, in 3D, allowing wearers to view, and react to, their surroundings in a realistic manner. At the SXSW Ascend the Wall exhibit, visitors took turns to stand in a series of booths designed to look like the cage that carries the Nights Watch to the top of The Wall. Once inside, they were fitted with the Oculus Rift and a set of headphones, and entered the unreal world. The visuals were built using a gaming engine, and the booth s floor and walls were equipped with rumble packs to create the illusion of movement. Air vents provided a howling wind as the cage rose to the top of The Wall where the visitors were able to look out across the snow-covered landscape, walk along a selected path to peer over the edge, and see the dizzying drop to the bottom. PROJECTED MARKET 2018 Augmented Reality: $659.98 million Virtual Reality: $407.51 million Combined Value: $1.06 billion GLOBAL VIRTUAL REALITY GAMING MARKET 2012 US$ 466.6 MILLION 2019 US$ 5,839.9 MILLION Source: by MarketsandMarkets COMPOUND ANNUAL GROWTH RATE 39.2% 2013 TO 2019 Growth in VR is closely linked to augmented reality tech, which combines digital and real-world content in real time. Source: Transparency Market Research 01

SPECIFICATIONS SONY SONY PROJECT MORPHEUS PROTOTYPE Device Processor unit, head-mounted unit Display Method: LCD Panel Size: 5 inches Resolution: 960 X 1080 per eye Field of View: 90 degrees Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope Connection Interface: HDMI + USB SPECIFICATIONS OCULUS OCCULUS RIFT DEVELOPER KIT 2 Device Processor unit, head-mounted unit Display Method: OLCD Panel Size: 5 inches Panel resolution: 960 1080 per eye Field of View 100 degrees Sensors: Accelerometer, Gyroscope, Magnetometer Connection Interface: HDMI + USB Virtual becomes very real The general concensus was that the experience was scarily real, and it was able to trigger real attacks of vertigo for anyone with a fear of heights. It was a startlingly successful introduction to the new generation of VR a technology which has so far only found uses in high-end commercial or military settings. The arrival of consumer-priced tech will bring this within reach of smaller businesses, and events are a field ripe for virtual innovation. VR has already found a number of practical uses. Industry website vrs.org.uk cites medical training through surgical simulation, paramedic training, and military combat training as three areas that have already benefited, allowing people to learn in a simulated environment before making critical decisions in the real world. The technology is, quite literally, a life-saver. Other existing uses include universities and manufactureres for research and development, while some architectural firms are using VR to create realistic walk-throughs of their plans as part of the design process. At the top of the scale is the Cave Automated Virtual Environment a room where a combination of 3D display panels or projectors creates a 360-degree view, including ground and sky. With 3D glasses, objects can be made to float in front of the viewer. A 3D headset, combined with a suit equipped with motion sensors, achieves much the same result. For events, the applications are still to be explored. The technology is almost here, and organisers and exhibitors at the leading edge will be experimenting within the next few months. We can probably expect the first wave of innovations to be with exhibitors at shows, using VR devices that they own. Exhibitors may be followed by organisers, both for shows and for meetings, but for this second wave the improvement to the audience experience is more incremental, and many possiblilites will rely on technology owned by the end user. Showing off in cyberspace Exhibition stands are ultimately a sales tool, and the first stage of adoption of VR for events will most likely be as an enhanced means of displaying an exhibitor s wares. And as soon as one business successfully innovates, competitive pressure will force others to follow. With VR technology, exhibitors can create 3D immersive audio-visual content, where the entire field of vision is occupied by the display. Users will be able to explore this virtual space, walking through the digital exhibit and viewing objects at different angles. This is enabled by a tracking system built into the headset, which follows its movements and feeds the information back to a computer. The computer responds by changing the images or content to match the change in perception and maintain a sense of realism. This will adapt applications already being used for more advanced purposes such as with CAVE and apply them at a consumer or sales-force level. Let us use a highly successful series of property shows as an example. For each exhibition, property developers display intricate architectural models of planned buildings, or of entire communities, to entice buyers. With VR, sales teams will able to take prospective customers for a stroll through the development s streets, or a walk-through of their as-yet unbuilt dream home. The virtual tour offers widespread potential. A pharmaceutical company can take you to the laboratory to meet its researchers, or on a journey through the cellular make-up of a virus; a manufacturer takes you to its state of the art factories; an engineering firm gives customers an opportunity to walk around or even operate its latest heavy machinery; a tourist resort takes potential guests onto their hotel terrace to enjoy the sea view. Something that cannot be experienced in the real, limited space of an exhibition stand can be experienced in the virtual space. Enhanced content for organisers Imminent uses for event organisers are less certain or obvious although as a sales tool to attract business, the same points apply as for show exhibitors: give potential customers a virtual tour of your event as part of your sales pitch. There are, however, some interesting ideas that are worth exploring. These include incorporating VR as a side-feature at a conference. If we go back to our exhibitors example of 02

HOW IT WORKS: + 2. + 2. Image is a combination of two separate 2D images, offset slightly as if seen from left and right eye 1. 1. User sees a single 3D image occupying entire field of view 6. 7. 5. 3. 4. 3. Images are displayed on an OLED tablet screen 4. Field of view for each eye only covers part of the screen 5. Lenses remove distortion and focus the image 6. User s eyes are enclosed by headset to restrict vision to what is seen via the headset 7. Sensors track motion and movement in the virtual environment a virtual tour, the same concept could be applied to conference material, such as by having a VR breakout area where headset stations are loaded with experiences that follow up on keynote presentations. In the longer term there is potential to turn the digital content many events already produce, such as videos of a conference s proceedings, into VR presentations. These could be experienced by the user not just as an image on a screen, but as a 360-degree virtual reality recording, where a virtual attendee experiences the session just as if they were in the conference hall. Turn your head, and you would even see the person sitting behind you. Conference sessions could also be enhanced by VR material, just as we use slide shows today. These are, of course, applications that would rely on the end users having access to their own VR headsets, and we are probably a long way from the point where that becomes commonplace. The current technology Although we are looking here at commercial applications, it is the potential for entertainment that is opening up new opportunities for VR. In most basic respects, the idea is exactly the same as it was 30 years ago, when the first experimental goggles-and-gloves systems were pioneered by Jaron Lantner and the 1980s tech startup, VPL Research and which was applied to a series of disappointing systems aimed at gamers in the 1990s. For these older products, the concept was sound, but the supporting technology wasn t powerful enough to deliver. It s these other bits of tech miniature LCD screens, motion sensors, and the computing hardware and software to run them that have evolved and come down in price. There are two big names behind current moves in the market: Sony with Project Morpheus, and Oculus VR a start-up that was bought by Facebook in 2014 for USD 2-billion with its Rift headset. Both are well advanced as prototypes and the Rift at least is slated to go on sale during 2015, while Sony is being more coy about release dates for its product. Both are primarily aimed at gamers, whether using a gaming console or PC, immersing players in the game rather than simply viewing it on a screen. Oculus Rift is already available as a kit for developers, to create content ready for a general release. The same is true of another path to adopting the technology, as an add on to mobile devices. The break-out here is the Samsung Gear VR, which is a collaboration between Oculus and the Korean electronics giant, designed as an accessory for the Galaxy Note 4. The mobile phone clips into the headset, which then allows the user to play games or watch movies as an immersive, 3D, virtual reality experience. Demo models have allowed viewers to view videos and photos, with positive results. Popular tech website Gizmodo described the Gear VR as an awesome proof of concept for phone-based VR, predicting this is almost undoubtedly the way virtual reality will make its way to the masses. Gear VR went on sale in December 2014, but like the Rift is an innovator edition aimed at developers although it 03

is being made quite widely available for sale in the United States, so provides a practical and cost-effective route to exploring the use of VR. The headset is priced at USD 199 in the United States, on top of the cost of a Galaxy Note 4 at around USD 800 full price so about USD 1,000 for a functioning VR system to experiment with. Samsung has also demonstrated a 360-degree 3D camera, developed as Project Beyond, although there are no indications of a release date or cost at the time of writing. How effectively this can be combined into an interactive VR presentation will depend on the support industry that emerges for the technology, and the software packages available to create content. Given the corporate muscle being put behind the concepts, that should only be a matter of time, and probably not a long time, at that. However, there are still some technological hurdles to overcome before the Gear VR, or its successors, can become mass-market products. Heat can slow the devices or make them shut down, battery life is a problem, sensors will need refining to provide accurate motion trackers, and using a mobile device to deliver a cinema-like experience can show up normally imperceptible shortcomings in their screens. The business opportunity The full potential of VR as an add-on for exhibition stands most likely lies in systems designed for use with gaming consoles or PCs, where the external hardware provides the processing power and the tethered headset provides the user interface. Sony s Project Morpheus is designed to be fully functional with the Sony PlayStation 4 and work with the PlayStation Vita. While Sony is reluctant to give a release date, gamers who have tested the prototype have rated the experience as very real, and a 2015 launch seems a reasonable expectation. There is speculation about prices starting at around USD 1,000 per unit, plus around USD 400 for the console. That makes it more expensive than the Gear VR, but more fit for purpose. The best initial package for exhibitions will most likelty be the Oculus Rift, which is currently in development as an accessory for PC gaming (although console-ready versions may follow), and so will be the most practical in terms of building a complete VR system for commercial applications. While it s expected to hit the consumer market during 2015, Oculus is already selling developer kits to create content. Oculus says it is working on higher resolution, positional tracking so we can track full movement through space, reducing motion blur, latency - all those issues that really can take you out of the experience sometimes, so the Rift is as invisible as possible. Along with the system itself, an ecosystem of third-party peripherals is also taking shape. These include Samsung s Project Beyond camera already mentioned, the Virtuix Omni multidirectional treadmill, which allows the user to walk freely within a virtual space without moving in the real world, and the University of Southern California s Project Holodeck, which uses motion controllers and positional sensors already in use as computer game controllers to provide the impression of being inside a virtual world. Are we there yet? So, is now the time to rush into virtual reality? Probably not, but it is the time to start thinking about the possibilities, and to move cautiously towards adopting those that might suit your business. A wide range of industries have adopted commercial VR systems for a wide range of uses, and the potential to enhance a product demonstration at an exhibition is significant. For those businesses who struggle to show their wares properly within the confines of a trade stand, VR can offer an extremely valuable enhancement. Oculus Rift is the most likely breakthrough product in this respect, because of its open approach to supporting a developer community, its cooperation with other tech companies to create ancilliary products, it is being engineered to work in unison with a PC (or Mac), and simply because it is very likely to be the first of the new generation of consumer-priced VR systems to reach the market. Sony will most likely emphasise the gaming market at first, using Project Morpheus as a selling point against rival consoles. It can t do that if it makes it too widely available for other platforms. For personal use, the future most likely rests with mobile devices, such as Samsung s Gear VR and the immitators who are sure to follow at the first sign of commercial success. Take-up will be driven by entertainment, and Gear VR s potential to deliver a 3D cinema experience from a device you can fit into a handbag. If enough people buy into this idea, then it will become a valuable tool for event organisers as an add-on to their existing menu of digital content. What does seem very likely is that virtual reality is close to the point where it becomes part of the way people experience entertainment and communicate with each other. It will affect the events industry the only questions are exactly how, and when. ESTIMATED PRICING SAMSUNG GEAR VR USD 200 headset USD 800 Galaxy Note 4 SONY PROJECT MORPHEUS USD 1,000 headset USD 400 PS4 Console OCULUS RIFT USD 200-400 headset Other hardware variable 04