In the age of digital and new technologies, virtual reality has emerged and in just a few years has become an indispensable need for many protagonists. Long associated with the world of gaming and entertainment, it has broken down certain barriers to move towards entrepreneurship. Companies often use it for marketing, training, or research and development. Several start-ups from the commercial, industrial, educational, or medical sectors are now relying on RV, due to its immense capacities, to produce innovative services and products. Zoom on some of the start-ups that have let virtual reality into their world.
According to the IHS Markit Institute, which specializes in analysis, information, and economic solutions, the virtual and augmented reality market is expected to grow by 72% in 2017, reaching $3.2 billion in sales. It is even expected to reach $110 billion in 2025, surpassing the $99 billion of the television sector, according to a report by investment bank Goldman Sachs. According to the forecasts of IDC’s Europe subsidiary (International Data Corporation, a provider of business information, consulting services and events in the technology sector, editor’s note), this ecosystem should follow its expansion in Europe, with an average growth of 85% per year between 2017 and 2022. The sectors that are expected to use this technology the most are industry, retail, and transport. Many companies are increasingly focusing on developing RV as an integral part of their product or service, in sectors as varied as commerce, education, and health.
Diakse and its virtual shops
Created in 2015 by Julien Berthomier, Florian Leray, Valérian Gagnaire, and Emmanuel Nexos, the French start-up Diakse develops a solution to help e-commerce sites from a retailer, an art gallery or a hotel by offering virtual sales shops. Objective: To offer a remarkable shopping experience comparable to real shopping excursions in physical stores and allow corporate customers to differentiate themselves from the competition. Customers can use a virtual reality headset, as well as a computer or smartphone, to visit willingly, view products, and make purchases, thanks to a 360-degree photo structure.
The start-up’s software products 3DVIꓱW, 3DIMMꓱRSE and 3DRꓱCO create an intuitive and customizable immersive experience with the integration of videos and other elements as well as the detection of user behavior via artificial intelligence and behavioral analysis technologies. With this, virtual shops are enhanced and reconfigured as a new customer is immersed. The brand or company using Diakse’s solution can easily integrate or remove its products according to its inventory. Through this device, they can highlight their history and values while optimizing their sales strategy. Major firms are using it today, such as the hotel group AccorHotels, the insurer AXA, or the world leader in luxury goods, LVMH, with its branch specializing in wines and spirits, Moët & Chandon.
OwnLabs and its science labs
Addressing the lack of science education and enhancing learning among schoolchildren and students in Africa. This is the goal set by the start-up OwnLabs, launched by young Senegalese engineers-entrepreneurs from the École Supérieure Polytechnique de Dakar and the Assane Seck University in Ziguinchor, by setting up virtual laboratories in physics, chemistry, and biology.
One of the CEOs, Abdou Khadre Diop, points out that a student in Senegal, for example, can complete his entire schooling without ever having put into practice the chemistry notions learned in class. With the help of a virtual reality headset that is 90% recyclable, a 3D display system, special lenses, and a smartphone, the start-up invites the user via its application to discover a scientific laboratory, to learn several concepts. OwnLabs won the grand prize at the 2018 Ericsson Innovation Awards for the Africa-Middle East region.
Hypno VR and its medical hypnosis solution
Founded in 2016 by Doctors Denis Graff, Chloé Chauvin, and Nicolas Schaettel, the start-up Hypno VR has the ambition to promote medical hypnosis, particularly in anesthesia, through virtual reality. Using VR helmets, it is developing a software solution that includes several hypnotic techniques, allowing patients to reduce the consumption of drugs and the appearance of side effects the following anesthesia while promoting the safety and smooth running of interventions for doctors. The patient will be immersed, according to his or her choice, in several visual worlds such as a beach, a seabed or a mountainous environment as well as in various musical atmospheres such as jazz, classical or electro. These different elements will stimulate the patient’s senses and focus his or her attention, which will plunge him or her into a hypnotic state where anxiety and pain will be put aside. The Hypno VR solution is now used in several establishments in Strasbourg and the company has just launched its marketing.
These start-ups coming from different sectors have relied on virtual reality to offer innovative products or services. Tech giants such as Google or Apple are not left behind. The firm created by Larry Page and Sergueï Brin is getting more and more involved in RV technology. In addition to the production of virtual reality helmets, it recently filed a patent to invent a system that makes it possible to detect the facial expressions of RV helmet users and to customize avatars more faithful to the emotions they feel. To make interactions more realistic, the technology is expected to rely on eye-tracking cameras and Machine Learning, an automatic learning algorithm. As for the brand with the apple, it would develop a VR/AR helmet called T288, according to CNET (information website dedicated to microcomputing, Internet and new technologies, editor’s note). Planned for 2020, it would have powerful features such as 8K screen resolution.
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