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What we’ve noticed: How businesses impacted by COVID-19 are using virtual and augmented reality

With the global pandemic unfolding still and the increasing move to social distancing and remote working for many as a business working in virtual reality and augmented reality (XR) software development we thought it might be useful to share with you some of our observations on how some businesses are turning to XR to enable business continuity.

Property display & Staging

Increasing interest: Over the last few weeks we have seen an increase of interest from residential and commercial property developers from Australia and South East Asia in particular wanting to know how they can best leverage XR to support the sales process.

The principal pain point is this. Most have physical display homes but now customers can’t travel and visit the display homes.

Also while some developers may already offer “virtual tours” these are mainly through using 360 video (not VR) and lack the interactivity, immersiveness and data capture required to support the sales process to the level now needed.

We’re directing these businesses to our productXR engage, which was built specifically to enable developers to place end users (customers) in a rich, interactive immersive virtual experience of a built environment.

XR engage is also been used in infrastructure public and stakeholder engagement for communicating design intent and receiving feedback on design options.

Virtual training

Urgent need for virtual training solutions: Another area we have noticed a surge of interest is in the development and provison of virtual training experiences across soft skills and technical (hard) skills. This is across Australia but also Europe.

For many businesses who provide technical or soft skills training the current inability to provide training in a classroom or group based environment, as they may have done previously, means an urgent need to look for alternative – virtual – solutions.

We are directing these inquiries to our product XR learn which provides an enterprise grade solution to all these questions.

– What you need to know on virtual training

Learnings needed: However, we have also noticed that there is still some confusion among many learning and development professionals in organisations about what is XR and ‘virtual reality’ (no 360 video is not true “VR”); how best to deploy a virtual learning solution at scale across an organisation and how best to deploy virtual training in an environment with an increasingly remote and distributed workforce.

Get the whitepaper: If you would like a copy of our soon to be released whitepaper to help you be better informed on transforming technical and soft skills training using virtual reality you can submit your interest here.

Also in a few weeks organisations will be able to access the first of four innovative immersive virtual reality training modules for safety related training.

Training modules are provided by our industry partner JBHXR and are powered by Snobal and include CPR, First Aid in an ESI Environment, Pole Top Rescue and Low Voltage Rescue. Email to find out more.

Questions on scaling

Need for an enterprise grade XR solution: One of the key questions business ask is how they can best scale XR across their organisation whether it is for virtual learning or for enriching client and public engagement.We understand that few businesses wants a stand alone VR or AR environment or solution with limited access to updates and support. That’s why we’ve built all our XR products (including XR learn and XR engage) to be based off our cloud platform – Snobal Cloud.

Snobal Cloud makes it easy for organisations to create, deliver and analyse virtual experiences. It also makes it easy for business to scale any virtual environment or experience across the organisation and across diverse physical locations.

Finally one of the things we are all acutely aware of with COVID-19 is the scale of the impact on so many businesses – large and small – from so many sectors. If there is a way XR and other digital technologies can enable businesses across diverse sectors to survive and even thrive during these challenging and unprecedented times then that would be a good thing.

We hope this was helpful. If there is any questions you have on any of the above please don’t hesitate to reach out.

What we’re thinking

Hindsight is a wonderful thing.

Most likely you only need to look at various points in your own life when you progressed on a pathway despite the warnings maybe from friends your parents(!) or even yourself to agree with this.

Marc Andreessen, cofounder and general partner at the venture capital firm Andreessen Horowitz this week explores this very topic in the context of the health crisis we all find outselves in.

Granted the blog post is written looking through the lens of the US economy and how it is addressing (or you could say failing to successfully address) the current health crisis.

As Andreessen says “every Western institution was not prepared for the coronavirus pandemic” despite numerous warnings an event like this was going to happen – one day.

The WHO as you probably read in the papers this week, agree.

Programmed to ignore warnings?

Part of the problem of why we as human’s are pretty crappy at listening to warnings as Andreessen sees it is a “lack of imagination” or a “failure to build”.

We have top-end universities, yes, but with the capacity to teach only a microscopic percentage of the 4 million new 18 year olds in the U.S. each year, or the 120 million new 18 year olds in the world each year. Why not educate every 18 year old? Isn’t that the most important thing we can possibly do? 

But it got us asking why do people and the social bodies we gather under – political parties, organisations etc – ignore warnings?

Are we actually programmed as humans to ignore warnings? To ignore the facts?

Apparently – according to some cognitive behaviour and psychology studies – we are.

Cognitive scientists Hugo Mercier and Dan Sperber in their book “The Enigma of Reason,”  argued that our reasoning is really good at justifying beliefs we already believe in and making arguments to convince others. We become pretty bad at truth-seeking or if we do go looking for the truth we do it with a bias looking for truth that confirms what we already believe.

Ouch.

What’s this got to do with digital transformation?

Take digital transformation in organisations.

Despite years of numerous reports, webinars, conferences and calls for organisations across all industries to digitally transform or risk being “left behind”, the urgency and pace needed often does not seems to be there.

Many business leaders have stuggled with how to identify and iterate innovative technologies within siloed businesses units and then take the bold action needed to scale these initatives.

As this 2018 report by SAP highlighted the poor state of digital transformation efforts around the world has continued:

84% of companies regard digital transformation as crucial, yet just 3% have actually finished any company-wide effort.

The warnings about needing to digitally transform have been there for many sectors it’s just that these warnings didn’t appear to have an urgency to them or indeed were heeded.

Until now.

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Urgency compels action

COVID-19 has up-ended all our lives and work in some way and even has changed the way many of us work.

We all know it’s causing a massive need to shift business models, organizational workflows and service models for so many businesses.

And then over night it seems articles like this, this and this pop up all articulating that the pace of digtial transformation has cranked up. Apparently it’s become a ‘need to’, not a ‘nice to’.

“If the pace of the pre-coronavirus world was already fast, the luxury of time now seems to have disappeared completely…businesses that once mapped digital strategy in one- to three-year phases must now scale their initiatives in a matter of days or weeks.”  – ZDNet.

Marc Andreessen ends with a call to action to all businesses regardless of what we do.

Our forefathers and foremothers built roads and trains, farms and factories, then the computer, the microchip, the smartphone, and uncounted thousands of other things that we now take for granted, that are all around us, that define our lives and provide for our well-being. There is only one way to honor their legacy and to create the future we want for our own children and grandchildren, and that’s to build.

It is a time to build. But this time maybe we can all build better.

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What we’re reading & listening to

Below are just some of the articles and podcasts that have caught our attention over the last week.

How Tech Can Build

[Podcast] The World Ahead: Viral acceleration | Economist Radio

Google’s Thomas Kurian on COVID-19, customers in crisis and the big cloud fight

Why Are People Ignoring Expert Warnings?—Psychological Reactance

Digital strategy in a time of crisis

[Podcast] Philip E. Tetlock on Forecasting and Foraging as a Fox (Ep. 93)

SenseGlove is working on a “low-cost” force-feedback glove for VR

The GitLab Remote Playbook

Zapiers guide to remote working

How 5G and edge computing can enhance virtual reality

[Podcast] The Sunday Read : Closing the restaurant that was my life for 20yrs

Thanks for reading.

This post first appeared on Snobal Midweek.

Why do we use the term “social distancing” in response to COVID-19 when the more accurate term might be “physical distancing”? Physical social distancing does not mean virtual social distancing so why do we act like both terms are the same? And what might some implications be to business if it changed how it responds to physical social distancing?

Economic and Social Cost

We know physical “social distancing” comes at a “significant economic cost” as outlined by Kalipso Chalkidou of Imperial College London but maybe in the long term it doesn’t have to and maybe it is time we started to change how we view the issue.

Social distancing also has a significant health cost.

An analysis of scientific literature by Julianne Holt-Lunstad, a research psychologist at Brigham Young University in 2015 found that the quality and quantity of individuals’ social relationships is linked not only to mental health but to morbidity and mortality. Chronic social isolation increases the risk of mortality by 29%.

Image source: www.scottliddell.net

Social distancing

Social distancing is conveyed as potentially limiting the spread of COVID-19 and thereby potentially saving your life and the life of your loved ones and those in the broader community.

Social distancing practices are changes in behaviour that can help stop the spread of infections. These often include curtailing [physical] social contact, work and schooling among seemingly healthy individuals, with a view to delaying transmission and reducing the size of an outbreak.
– Coronavirus: What is social distancing and how do you do it? New Scientist

Physical “Social distancing” with COVID-19 is here to stay, writes Gideon Lichfield of MIT Technology Review and with it a whole host of changes to how we operate as humans.

Lichfield view of a life with physical “social distancing” is a disconcerting one. One that involves intrusive surveillance by flights, public transport and venues all for the public good as well as the massive economic damage to businesses and institutions that have relied to date on physical social interaction.

In the short term, this will be hugely damaging to businesses that rely on people coming together in large numbers: restaurants, cafes, bars, nightclubs, gyms, hotels, theaters, cinemas, art galleries, shopping malls, craft fairs, museums, musicians and other performers, sporting venues (and sports teams), conference venues (and conference producers), cruise lines, airlines, public transportation, private schools, day-care centers. By using the term “social distancing” to mean “physical distancing” perhaps we risk increasing confusion, social isolation and loneliness among people not to mention creating a landscape ripe for economic hardship for institutions and businesses that rely at the moment on social ‘physical interaction’ for eg art galleries, live venues, conferences and expos, shopping centres, retail outlets and museums.

But the reality is even when physically distanced people still socially interact.

They do this through the use of social media (connect with friends), live steaming (yoga and gym classes for example), and instant message platforms like Slack and Google Chat (collaborate and chat with colleagues).

So with that in mind maybe its time even from an economic point of view that we started to change how we frame the issue.

The physical is not the virtual

In education for example, there already exists online services that enable online learning and live streaming for replication of the class room experience. The impetus is now there with COVID-19 to accelerate adoption of these technologies among schools and universities. Yes, children may have to miss physical face to face classes with their teacher and classmates but that does not mean they need to miss virtual face to face classes.

In terms of art galleries and museums, there are technology solutions already out there that enable cultural institions not to mention conferences and expos to deliver rich, immersive and interactive virtual reality experiences to clients and customers.

So if the virtual solutions are there why haven’t these businesses virtualised their offerings en masse to date? Partly it has been due to technology development and adoption. It is only recently that VR hardware development has enabled wireless all in one headsets. But largely it has been due to drivers.

Galleries and museums, shopping centres, tourist operators, conferences and expos haven’t felt an immediate pressure to create rich, immersive and interactive experiences which can be delivered virtually and that still enable virtual social interaction.

Delivering VR experiences of their collection and gallety has often been more a “nice to” than a “need to”.

Five years ago in writing about the applications of VR across ecommerce and cultural institutions we observed:

The Smithsonian Institution — the world’s largest museum and research complex which has 19 museums and galleries has apparently 137 million artifacts, works of art and specimens in its collection with an estimated 2 percent on display at any one time. 

Museum Victoria in Melbourne, Australia holds 16 million items in “high-quality storage facilities”. The British Museum is reported to have 99 per cent of its collection in storage. 99 percent.

Imagine if these museums made all their collections available through building online virtual museums? A museum would be able to exponentially grow its audience share and offer to a global audience 24/7 364 days of the year access to all their collections currently in storage. Not to mention providing these museums with a channel for additional revenue generation through purchase of products from the virtual museum.

The world has changed a lot since 2015 and with it the need for many businesses to look to how they translate their unique offerings and value propositions to virtual offerings.

The technology solutions are there. All that is needed is taking that first step.

This post first appeared on Snobal Midweek.

We are currently with the declaration of COVID-19 as a pandemic in unprecedented waters.

Our response

At Snobal to ensure our response to COVID-19 is based on fact and science we have developed a tiered Response Action Plan and a COVID-19 policy.

These documents are about promoting the health and safety of our team members, our clients and partners, our families and the broader community in which we live and doing our bit to slow the spread of the virus across the broader community.

Some of the measures we have introduced include:

• For now, we will not meet face to face with known  people arriving from anywhere overseas in the last 14 days or those who have been in close contact with a confirmed case of COVID-19 within the last 14 days or those who are experiencing any of the known symptoms.
• We have ceased all business travel overseas at this time and are encouraging as per the Australian Government website and the Singapore Government, Snobal team members to reconsider all personal related travel at this time as there maybe a higher risk of contracting COVID-19 overseas and the health care systems in some countries are possibly already under strain and may not be as well-equipped as Australia to support foreigners.
• Our workspace has instigated a reception visitor health self declaration form.
• We are encouraging the practicing of enhanced hygiene and promoting a no handshake etiquette.
• We are declining all work conferences and events at this time.
• We are committed to transparency and openess with our team, clients and partners.
• As of Mon 16/03 all Snobal team members are working as a distributed team.

A computer illustration of coronavirus particles. Source: ConsumerReports.org

Our thinking

Virtual is our business

We are aware that for many businesses for eg those working in tourism, manufacturing and hospitality having their team members work from home (or distributed) is often not feasible.

At Snobal virtual is our core business. It is in our DNA. For close to six years we have built our company from the ground up with the vision of enabling business to leverage newer technologies like virtual reality, augmented reality (XR) and spatial computing to communicate and understand complex built environments, information and processes. As such the current health crisis means little disruption in how we work and how we deliver our platform and XR products to our clients.

For our client facing team, we are like all businesses taking the advice of local health authorities such as the Australian and Singapore Government websites and the WHO and following our response level plan and policy as outlined above.

Facing a virtual reality

For most organisations across all industries the case for accelerating the use of technology for businesses is now even clearer. For those organisations that might have been slow to adapt technologies the future is now certain. Facing up to a ‘virtual reality’ or way of operating is key to business continuity.

As outlined in this executive briefing from McKinsey & Co in China while consumer retail demand is down, it has not disappeared. People still need to purchase things only now they are dramatically shifting their behaviour to online shopping including for food delivery. As the executive briefing outlines it’s not like once these consumers behaviours and preferences are embedded that consumers will go back to pre-coronavirus ways of operating.

Finally….

It is a challenging time for all with a lot of global uncertainty. For those needing additional assistance to manage any mental health issues that may be arising the BeyondBlue website has some excellent resources. And for those businesses grappling with developing their COVID-19 policy and response action plan, there are some excellent resources and information out there including the Coinbase Planning and Response to COVID-19 . If you know of any other great resources please comment below as it may assist others developing their policies and plans.

And if you have any questions, queries or would like more information on any of the above please let us know.

Keep safe folks where ever you are.

Team Snobal

This article originally appeared on Snobal Midweek our weekly newsletter.