WordViz Announces Virtual Reality Platform
At Autodesk University WorldViz announced and demonstrated a new Virtual Reality (VR) platform. Codenamed “Skofield,.” I was very fortunate to try the product live and in action.
Worldviz was founded in 2002 and is a pioneer in the area of virtual reality. WorldViz specializes in the development and delivery of VR hardware, software, and custom solutions. Their patented and patent-pending products and services help businesses solve real-world challenges. They specialize in areas like product design, education, training, marketing, and consumer research.
You can think of their main product, Vizard, as the middleware that makes VR possible. Vizard takes 3D content and makes it VR ready. WorldViz provides the hardware and services to then transform that content into a user experience. VizMove is the world’s only “enterprise-class VR software and hardware solution”. WorldViz also offers a high-precision “warehouse-scale” motion tracking system called PPT, and professional consulting and content creation services.
Skofield
Skofield Park is a 35-acre open space preserve located near WorldViz’s corporate headquarters in Santa Barbara, California. I think this is an appropriate name for a beta program established to test Virtual Reality software. VR gets you outside your normal confines.
“Accurately conveying visual ideas to remote decision makers is still a huge challenge for companies,” said WorldViz CEO and co-founder, Andrew Beall. “We see it all the time – modern communication technologies such as telephony, video conference calls, and PowerPoint sharing simply can?t bring people together in a collaborative setting or enable decision makers to experience complex concepts, designs, and spaces first hand. Companies are spending a staggering $1.25 trillion globally on business travel to circumvent this limitation. We believe Skofield is the answer to that challenge.”
VR Presentations
Think of Skofield as a GoToMeeting – PowerPoint combination to present Virtual Reality. Just like GoToMeeting, Skofield therefore provides the ability to make someone feel present in a virtual location, The big difference obviously is you connect using headsets and present, review, and interact with visual content. This can be extremely useful for businesses needing to present highly complex and/or costly products.
Use the Presentation Designer to quickly pull together a VR presentation almost no different that how you pull together a presentation with PowerPoint. With the Designer drag and drop elements into the editor and add on interactivity with items like proximity triggers. The Presentation Designer additionally supports the insertion of PDFs and PPT slides to embed training manuals and other product information.
When presenting you move through different scenarios almost identically to moving through slides within PowerPoint. The presenter even gets a preview of the next slide right above their hand, projected from the handheld controller.
Depending on the hardware used by the user they can interact with the presentation in different ways. Interact such as move around the virtual space, zoom in on or interact with objects, annotate on objects, measure distances, or even use a virtual laser pointer.
Pricing and Availability
Supported headsets initially include the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive while other headsets will be added over time (depending on demand). Skofield also supports the current 3D displays, CAVE projection systems, input devices, and mobile devices WorldViz already supports.
Skofield is available as a cloud-based (SaaS) solution in addition to an on-premise solution which can be set up on your own servers. Pricing will be announced at a later date.
WorldViz is launching a beta testing program, which is designed to give companies early access to the technology. WorldViz will capture feedback prior to the final phase of development. Interested? Sign up at www.worldviz.com/skofield.
