Yesterday, Unity Labs wrapped up its second VR/AR summit in Beijing as a successor to their first summit in Hollywood last February. The keynote, presented by VR visionaries at Unity, Vuforia, Sony, Samsung, and Valve, was delivered to a room filled with attendees ranging from engineers and programmers to film directors and artists. During the keynote, it was mentioned that VR is currently residing in the “winter” of market acceptance. However, the level of anticipation at the event suggested that spring may not be far away. The questions discussed were how to get there, and how VR can be applied across all industries far beyond gaming.
Winning over the world’s biggest mobile market
The ‘Chinese market’ refers to 1.3 billion people, four times the size of the US population, who use an estimated 1.5 billion PCs and 3 billion smartphones. China’s smartphone savvy population is also one of the most rapid adopters of VR, and in response, smartphone giants like Samsung, Sony, and Xiaomi are launching mobile compatible headsets supported by fully integrated VR product lines.
“While there’s always going to be a market for high-end VR devices like the Vive and the Oculus Rift, mobile will lead the way to mass adoption,” said Tony Parisi, Global head of VR/AR strategy at Unity.
The next step for the mobile giants is incentivizing independent content development for these platforms. Xiaomi is giving developers who use their SDK all content revenue, and Sony PlayStation’s China Hero Project is an incubation initiative that provides advisory and funding for aspiring PlayStation developers.
“The bottom line is, we are not excluding anyone.” Takehito Soeda, President of Sony Interactive Entertainment Shanghai, mentioned in the press conference.
Moreover to the quantity of content is the breadth of applications. Consumer acceptance is important, but for VR to thrive in the next few years, there needs to be significant intersection between VR and non-gaming industries.
Examples of VR applications
Aside from gaming, another consumer entertainment industry that is increasingly turning to VR for an immersive experiences is filmmaking.
“About 3 years ago, Unity was entirely focused on games. But there was a segment of creators we failed to engage – the linear storytellers,” said Sylvio Drouin, VP of Unity Labs, before demonstrating new toolkits at Unity that are now available to them.
In architecture and product design, the overhead cost of a faulty specification is intense. Mixed reality applications would enable makers to extend beyond 3D modelling and see the product interact with reality.
In aerospace exploration, astronauts can better experience the surface of Mars with VR gear such as Microsoft’s HoloLens that can process existing pictures and geological data. Even employee training in normal companies can be facilitated in the same way. New recruits would be able to tour the company production facilities and satellite offices through VR without the time and costs that physical transportation requires.
One of the most ambitious uses of VR is in healthcare education and surgery. Medical students can potentially observe and interact with simulated human bodies, which is likely more effective than cadavers. New surgeons are often trained in the operation room by huddling over the patient bed, which can be unsanitary and distracting for the performing surgeon.
Jiang Yang, Founder of Superb Medical Skills, a healthtech startup that organized the first live video streaming of VR surgery in China, highlighted the lack of developed surgery practices in rural parts of China. VR could allow thousands of doctors in rural hospitals to witness surgeries from world-class facilities. Meanwhile, in developed hospitals, doctors can explain the intricacies of a surgery to the patient’s loved ones by letting them ‘see’ what the operation entails.
Yu Xiao, the last speaker at the summit and a senior engineer at the Shanghai Nuclear Engineering Research and Design Institute, expressed the potential applications of VR in the high stakes industry. Xiao expressed that safety is the plant’s primary concern. A virtual plant that reflects all available data and can permit deep immersion would facilitate task training in a time-sensitive and pressurized environment. In addition, VR would allow engineers and operators of all levels to see what actually happens inside the plant after an action is made.
Conclusion
It was evident at the summit that entrepreneurs and developers are not shying away from VR innovation in traditionally centralized industries like healthcare and education. Everyone from tech giants to early stage startups knows that if a product can scale in the Chinese market, they’ve hit the bull’s eye.
Finally, the summit also demonstrated the level of energy and momentum of China’s startup ecosystem to those who are unfamiliar. Angel investor Cyriac Roeding of Silicon Valley wrote earlier this year that there is a lack of pretence in Chinese entrepreneurs that, in Silicon Valley, is often overshadowed by the ‘clubbiness’ of startup culture.
“Strip all that away. Get to the core of it, the true entrepreneurial endeavour, the obsession with the product and the company, come hell or high water.”
With careful optimism, VR is poised to make itself a home in China for the long haul.