About our VR Challenge
During the JOTF project, we decided to create a manual to describe a step by step guideline to guide any user from zero to their first VR Tour using only a mobile phone and a computer. If you are wandering this blog post without knowing what a VR Tour is, we strongly recommend you to visit the following website:
Why is this challenge important for your future:
As you can see, a virtual tour is any digital solution that lets you walk around/explore a location or area without visiting it in person. Unlike a regular image of video, which is shot from a fixed view point, VR production captures every part of a location. In the travel industry, virtual reality can be used to capture tourism destinations in a unique and immersive way. This is achieved using specialized cameras, rigs, and softwares. The finished content can then be viewed on either a VR headset or a regular computer or mobile device.
Many people assume that VR content can only be viewed on a specialist VR headset but this is not the case. It is true that the first VR devices have existed since the 70’s. However, since then the technology has evolved as our microprocessors and computers have become faster, smaller and more powerful, making it not only possible to buy a VR headset for as low as 250 euros, but also has enabled VR content to be streamed through any device, including mobile phones and laptops through any web browser or app.
One of the biggest mistakes that companies in the tourism/hospitality/other industries make in regards to virtual tours is viewing them as an equal or alternative to real physical tours. In reality, digital tours are no replacement for visiting a place in person, but they can still be a valuable resource for any such experience, especially for people who have not made up their minds about visiting in person.
Actually, travel customers usually require lots of information before they book a hotel room. This may, for instance, require them to read descriptions, view images, look at videos, read customer reviews or seek opinions on social media. Through intelligent use of virtual reality, however, this process can be shortened significantly. For this reason, many hotels and travel companies are now providing virtual reality elements on their websites or apps, allowing users to experience a digital version of a hotel room, or even take a look at one of the nearby attractions. This immersion enables those in the travel industry to provide a kind of ‘try before you buy’ option for the first time.
Why is this challenge important for the future of industry:
VR Tours are being widely used and are becoming an industry standard for online visits to fabrics and industrial processes. Why would someone need a VR Tour in Industry? For instance, imagine a French automobile company willing to produce one of their components in Poland or China. In this case, thanks to VR tours, the French executives could know better how the Chinese or Polish company works, how their facilities are, how much space they have, whether they meet EU norms and regulations or not. Thanks to VR, French executives are saving money since they do not have to travel and visit every single Chinese/Polish manufacturer, they can visit faraway facilities without leaving their homes and, once they have the best potential manufacturer candidates, they can only invest time and money in visiting the best options available in the market. Furthermore, VR is also increasingly used for industrial training, as it has been shown that employees can learn things up to 4 times faster using VR than they would have done through classroom or e-learning. VR trainings can be as complex as a video game, but most industrial uses rely on virtual tours for safety training and onboarding training, as they are explained as videos where the employee can move from one spot to another just like in a regular virtual tour.
Conclusion
I hopefully convinced you to get yourself involved in VR. I can tell you it is getting easier for people to access to VR content, what we need now is to become the VR content creators and develop as many VR tours, VR Trainings and VR Games as much as possible to make VR more interesting and engaging for the final user.