With roots in Swedish gaming success Dice, Starbreeze and King, a new Swedish technology clusters focusing on virtual worlds are taking shape. With cheaper equipment designed for game or movie opens opportunities for industry to step in. Being able to walk around in a house that is not yet built or to be able to conduct training on expensive equipment without disrupting production has been a dream for decades.
– It feels like the development of VR gone in two waves, we attended the first wave in the early 90s and did a lot of projects with industry. Since the 2000s, there was a slump when vr disappeared, says Jonas Söderberg working with VR for IT research institute SICS in Kista.
He likes to recognize many of the visions that exist today from his own research in the 1990s. But there is a crucial difference between the visions.
– The equipment we used was expensive, he says.
very expensive even; cites the example of Jonas Soderberg to your computer from Silicon Graphics used to create virtual worlds which cost 1.2 million crowns. Today you can go far with a better mobile phone.
About the same time Jonas Söderberg and his colleagues at SICS worked to put together funding for its expensive equipment struggled Palmer Luckey across the Atlantic with learning to walk. The now 23-year-old American is the one who more than anyone else to stand as a symbol for the re-launch of their company Oculus.
The company launched with a highly successful campaign on crowdfunding site Kickstarter in August 2012. A year and a half later paid Mark Zuckerberg and Facebook $ 2 billion for the company that still only sold their VR goggles to developers.
Oculus glasses is expected to cost about SEK 4 000 when they are on the market next year, and the developing versions that are now being sold are already favorites for developing VR industry. Jonas Soderberg plans, for example, to use them in new research projects in the manufacturing industry.
In the same research project included Vasteras company byBrick. They have been specializing in producing VR visualizations for the really heavy industries. Among others stand equipment manufacturer Atlas Copco on the list of customers. They want to use VR for training and in the sale of large mining machines. One example is the mining loader Scooptram ST7.
– Historically, Atlas Copco has worked extensively with simulators to demonstrate and train on their machines. Now they see the opportunity to use vr instead, says Erik Stridell, digital business developer at Bybric.
The advantage to simulate the machine with a pair of VR glasses, rather than in a classic simulator, is that the equipment is easy to pack in a bag. It is also less expensive. But there are problems.
– As soon as someone puts on the VR goggles disappears he in VR world becomes unreachable. It’s not so good if you want to sell something to the person, says Erik Stridell.
To remedy it has taken Bybric develop a system in which the VR world can be controlled from an iPad of leading a demonstration.
Erik Stridell believe that interest in VR will grow properly and that those who work with industrial applications will need to compete with the gaming and entertainment industry for developers.
Piers Harding -Rolls analyst at IHS Technology, responsible for games. He believes that it is a fairly long starting stretch before vr glasses becomes public property.
– Even for experienced console gamers are a strange experience to take on a pair of VR glasses to play. It is not a natural experience, he says.
He believes that it will be a while until the hardware is good enough. And the cheaper versions he does not give much.
– To stop their phone in glasses adapter does not fit the mass market, says Piers Harding- Rolls.
He believes instead of a headset that is both lightweight and mobile, where all equipment is built. But it will, according to him some years before it is available.
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