Work made easier, wherever you are

VIVE Flow pushed the boundaries of XR, with a form factor that hadn’t been seen before. Lighter than the average smartphone, a compact format that fits easily into a backpack, and it even has built-in diopters. Diving into immersive experiences has never been easier.

Around the world the trend for flexible working has continued, with people splitting time between working-from-home and travelling to the office. It’s important to have options for how employees can continue to collaborate and learn, no-matter where they are.

In addition, we’re continuing to see strong examples of the positive impact VR-based interactions can have. Whether it’s for training, distance learning, bringing immersive experiences into the classroom, location-based entertainment, healthcare and rehabilitation, and much more. A large study by global leading consultancy PwC saw participants complete training up to 4x faster in VR than classroom training, while still being more focused and connected to the content.

So, HTC VIVE is introducing VIVE Flow Business Edition, featuring optimised software, and business warranty support.

VIVE Flow Business Edition gives organisations a new tool to deliver immersive experiences effortlessly. New software includes ‘kiosk mode’ which means content can be set for users to experience – queued up and remotely triggered – perfect for exhibiting at a trade show or running training sessions.

A powerful and flexible enterprise-ready solution, VIVE Flow Business Edition also comes with VIVE Business Warranty & Services (including a two-year commercial warranty, and expedited return/replacement if needed).

“VIVE Flow Business Edition is a ground-breaking VR glasses device that will enable healthcare organizations across the US and worldwide to leverage VR capabilities to improve patients’ lives,” said Eran Orr, CEO of XRHealth.

To create simpler and more intuitive experiences, HTC VIVE is also introducing Controller for VIVE Flow. This optional 3DoF controller can be paired with VIVE Flow or VIVE Flow Business Edition, giving users another way to control VIVE Flow.

Controller for VIVE Flow’s tactile buttons make it even easier to use at events with high turnover or for people unfamiliar with VR. From enjoying content and games to exhibiting at events or working from home, its intuitive controls help users navigate menus and immersive experiences with ease.

”VIVE Flow is the ideal companion device for Focal Point VR – the lightweight and easy to use form factor and great colour depth displays make it the perfect headset for remote viewers to comfortably ”virtually’ teleport to live events or to enjoy longform on demand 360 video content from live events and sports.” Jonathan Newth, CEO Focal Point VR

You can find out more about VIVE Flow Business Edition at https://business.vive.com/vive-flow and in Europe there’ll be a B2B webinar on Tuesday 5th July 2022 at 11:00AM-12:00PM BST. To learn more and sign up, head to https://htcvive.co/flowprl

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Website: LINK

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HTC and DISH Wireless are working together to bring low-latency, high-bandwidth private 5G (P5G) connectivity to enterprise customers across the U.S. P5G will offer enterprises the ability to expand their fleet of virtual reality (VR) headsets, as well as deploy remotely guided vehicles in warehouses and other industrial settings improving worker safety.

Building on the success of the P5G demos shown at CES and MWC this year, HTC brought its flagship remote-controlled mini racecar demo to Las Vegas for DISH’s Team Summit attendees to experience the true power of 5G. The demo leverages HTC’s P5G solution Reign Core from HTC’s subsidiary G Reigns, which debuted at MWC in early 2022.

Reign Core is a compact, portable P5G box specifically designed for VR enterprise use cases, including training, collaboration, design, and remote vehicle operation. It is compliant with 3GPP and O-RAN.

HTC’s demo let guests control scaled-down racecars on a mini track over a wireless 5G connection. Drivers sat with their backs to the track, watching a live feed of their racecar on TV monitors as they steered it through the course in real-time.

While drivers steered their racecars through the mini racetrack, high-fidelity VR content was concurrently streamed to multiple VIVE Focus 3 headsets. The content was streamed using the same P5G network used to control the racecars, illustrating robust 5G bandwidth capabilities.

“5G bandwidth can easily support the VR headsets of today, and the XR headsets and peripherals of tomorrow at mass adoption scale and with top quality performance,” said Dan O’Brien, GM Americas at HTC VIVE. “That means more effective remote employee collaboration, and solutions we haven’t even thought of yet. Trailblazers like DISH Wireless are laying the foundation for mass deployment and adoption of XR products and solutions for consumers and enterprises.”

“We’re building a SMART 5G™ network that will disrupt the way enterprises operate with advanced capabilities including customization, automation and agility,” said Stephen Bye, chief commercial officer, DISH Wireless. “5G’s reliability and low latency allow businesses to make better decisions regarding efficiency, worker safety and more.”

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There are more than 1,600+ games on VIVEPORT in 2022, so it can be hard to make up your mind on what you want to play. No worries, we are here to help! Here are 5 games we believe you will definitely enjoy with yourself, with family, or with friends: 

Rating: 4.4 stars

Genre: Action

Number of Players: Singleplayer

It’s just you, your weapon, and hordes of enemies. Until You Fall is a VR sword fighting experience with a synthwave soundtrack that keeps your body active in neon-tinged environments. Attack, block, and dodge your way deeper into the heart of a neon fantasy world filled with magic-infused monstrosities.  Keep going…Until you Fall.

Rating: 4.7 stars

Genre: Adventure / Shooter

Number of Players: Singleplayer / Multiplayer

From the creators of the renowned zombie apocalypse game, Arizona Sunshine®, comes another epic VR action FPS game: After The Fall. 

After The Fall is a multi-player co-op action game, where players fight to survive the remains of an alternate 1980s LA filled with ferocious undead. Join forces with players worldwide to go head to head with the horde or towering undead bosses.

Rating: 4.8 stars

Genre: Casual / Social / Action

Number of Players: Multiplayer

Nostalgic for your classic playground games? Run, climb, and jump in VR using a unique locomotion method that only needs the movement of your hands and arms. Gorilla Tag is a fun and casual game for both kids and adults alike. Enter a virtual jungle to swing and socialize worldwide! You can also start private games with your family and friends to create your own curated gorilla tag experience.

Rating: 4.9 stars

Genre: Casual / Social / Sports

Number of Players: Singleplayer / Multiplayer

Putt putt your way through beautifully designed courses, collect lost balls, challenge your friends and unlock bonus levels. Walkabout Mini Golf provides 8 unique 18-hole courses for you to master. You can play solo, find 1v1 online quick matches, or create a private room with up to 5 players. In addition to your regular mini-golf experience, you can also find and collect 100 custom balls as you putt through the courses or solve treasure hunts to earn special putters.

Rating: 4.9 stars

Genre: Music / Social / Sports

Number of Players: Singleplayer / Multiplayer

Pound your drums to the sound of epic music and lead your Viking ship to victory! Ragnarock is a solo/multiplayer VR rhythm game in which you play a Viking captain competing in a ship race. With your two hammers, crush the incoming runes in sync with epic Viking music. Ragnarock’s multiplayer PvP mode invites you to participate in an exciting ship race in public/private games for up to 6 players. Gather your friends and family and climb aboard the Viking ship to start a rhythm journey with epic soundtracks.

Find out more of our staff-pick games. Check out VIVEPORT.

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In our previous blog posts, we cover the benefits of improving your mental well-being in the metaverse. Today, we like to turn our focus to physical well-being.

With the rising concern of maintaining our physical health, communities all over are now finding different ways to keep physically active. Regular exercise boosts your energy and also improve your mental wellbeing and cognitive function. 

While going to a gym is a great way to train, lack of convenience or time lead people to have to or prefer to exercise at home. After all, working out is a de-stressing process, and everyone deserves to choose what environment works best for them. 

According to a Colorado State university survey, participants’ willingness to exercise increased from 2 hrs to 4.7 hrs. In addition to that, their workout frequency also increased by more than 2 times.

Knowing the power of keeping active, let’s take a look at how VR can enhance your home workout routine:

• Immersive Environment

VR provides an immersive environment for you to start your workout journey anywhere and anytime; it can be in a beautiful forest or by a calming beach. 

People may argue that, why stay in and use VR when you can just go out your door? Our VIVERSE vision is not to replace real-life experience, but to enhance it. We want to make what is impossible in real-life possible for everyone in VR. 

Going out to explore the world’s natural beauty is wonderful, and everyone should take the time to enjoy your local nature. However, because of work or other responsibilities, we might not have time to do so every day. For example, it is not very safe for you to bike in a forest after dark or scale the side of a mountain just before your next afternoon call. 

VR provides a great solution to make working out convenient regardless of your circumstance. You can complete your workout and be fully immersed in numerous beautiful virtual environments even with the busiest of schedules.

Holofit, a gamified VR fitness app, allows you to ski in icy wonderlands, bike in the beautiful streets of Paris, and many more! The workout journey in Holofit is never dull, and you will be filled with curiosity to discover the whimsical virtual world as you ski, row, or bike.

• Gameful design

Working out in VR is like playing a game; it provides easy onboarding, real-time feedback, and enhances your workout experience by making it interactive and fun. 

VIRO MOVE is an innovative adrenaline-pumping VR fitness experience that combines the excitement of VR gameplay with a real-life workout. It not only effectively brings results of training in the gym or a fitness club, but, most importantly, it does so in a fun and engaging way.

You can also further motivate yourself by letting others join the fun. Invite your friends and family to compete with each other for the best times and highest scores.

One of the reasons people often skip the gym or prefer home workout is because they feel more at ease while working out independently from prying eyes.

We respect the boundary made for privacy’s sake, but we also believe in professional instruction and guidance to ensure safety and the best results. 

PowerBeatsVR trains your entire body with professional instruction and gameful feedback mechanics. Move along with the beat as you punch, duck, and dodge your way through challenging obstacles. The more you move and the stronger you hit, the higher your score.

Stay healthy and we will see you in the next blogpost!

Learn more about VIVERSE.

Stay tuned for more VIVERSE service reveals very soon.

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HTC VIVE has worked with many partners to provide efficient and effective training solutions for businesses. Let’s take a look at some case studies and the benefits of VR training:

• Reduce cost

Physical occupation training both directly and indirectly creates a tremendous amount of money for businesses. In traditional training of firefighters, an effective training facility can set an organization back by millions, not to mention the recurring fee for maintenance and update. 

“These multi-million-dollar training facilities don’t change much over time,” said Dr. Mullins,  Chief Technology Officer of FLAIM. “Trainees get used to them and stop learning quickly, so we have to set up props. These could be replicas of cars, trains, houses, industrial kitchens, but they can cost between $300,000–500,000 per simulation.”

FLAIM systems, an immersive VR simulation that combines patented haptic feedback technology with real-world firefighting equipment, has provided a cost-effective solution for firefighter training. Organizations can obtain a complete FLAIM Trainer system for just one-tenth of the cost of one physical training session.

• Increased efficiency

VR training not only saves businesses money but also time. Traditional training requires the presence of instructors to guide trainees, also someone to set up the props and space pre-training, and clean-up afterwards to be ready for the next training session. 

Most of the VR training programs don’t require an instructor to be there throughout the training, all the instructions and guidelines are already coded in the program. Participants can run several simulations in VR, without putting the time and effort to prepare and set-up the training environment, so that participants can put all their energy and focus on the training.

Research has also shown that training time is faster in VR than in traditional physical settings. The USAF Air Education and Training Command Tech Training Transformation(T3 team) recently partnered with officials at the Sheppard Air-Force Base and re-engineered a Crew-Chief Fundamentals course into VR. The result is impressive. The participants finished the course 46% faster, completing the 27-day course in just 12.5 days. 

• Ensure safety

VR training eliminates potential hazards that could happen during the training process. This is particularly helpful in hazard recognition, emergency situations and fall protection training. Trainees can fully immerse themselves in hazardous situations and figure out solutions for a variety of problems, without risking their life or health. 

Firefighting workforce are exposed to high levels of carcinogens that can cause harm to the crews in the longer term. “Firefighters have a much higher chance of cancer than the general public and FLAIM is committed to providing alternative training techniques to reduce this exposure,” said Dr. Mullins.

• Real-time feedback

During the training process, participants go through multiple steps to complete a task. Sometimes the participants can only find out what went wrong in the process after the training is over. 

VR training utilizes the technology and provides participants with real-time-feedback. We can see in the FLAIM systems case study that the system takes advantage of VIVE Pro Eye’s integrated eye tracking to identify and analyze eye movements and patterns.

“This helps to provide an unprecedented level of data, analysis, and insight into trainee behavior. Instructors can see what they’re seeing and offer real-time, first-person feedback. Trainees get better visualization through heat mapping. As a result, fewer things get dropped and missed, and better habits are instilled. Trainees are looking less at the fire and more at electrical or chemical hazards and the integrity of the ceiling—little things that can become big problems fast.”

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VR has shown itself to be a useful tool in the world of education. VR learning breaks the limitation of your immediate surroundings and grants learners the ability to learn through virtual aids only limited by their imagination. 

HTC VIVE is dedicated to creating not only hardware but also virtual environments for people to have extraordinary VR learning experiences. Research has shown that VR increases the quality of learning and retention by 70–90%. Let’s take a look at the benefits of having VR in education: 

Visualized Journey

No matter if you are learning about the composition of a grain of sand or the history of black holes, VR brings the visualized content to your eyes and enables you to explore every aspect of detail. This is a huge benefit for medical students learning about complicated surgeries. 

Reduced distraction

In traditional learning settings, the lack of control over your environment can lead to many unwanted distractions. VR learning reduces outside distraction to the minimum. Use VR hardware to curate your very own learning environment within the metaverse. Keep your learning within your control.

Not limited to time and space

We can all agree that education should not only be limited to just classrooms or textbooks. While taking the learning out in the field is a great solution, cost, safety, and physical limitations are some of many things to consider. It is unlikely to have a field trip to Machu Picchu in the morning and the Taj Mahal in the afternoon. 

Now with the help of VR, every historical site in the world is just moments away. You can even travel back in time to relive historical events or hop aboard a spaceship and explore the universe.

Hands-on learning

Instead of just passively receiving information, VR learning provides a more hands-on, gamified experience. Gamification promotes higher engagement and increases students’ attention and focus. 

At the same time, hands-on VR learning motivates them to practice the skills they have learned. To quote American writer Dale Carnegie on this: “Learning is an active process. We learn by doing. Only knowledge that is used sticks in your mind.”

Support children with special needs

While traditional learning depends mostly on reading and listening, learning in the metaverse is a holistic experience. VR learning transforms plain words from lectures and textbooks into engaging and interactive experiences. This is particularly helpful for children with dyslexia or ADHD. 

VR learning also empowers children with physical disabilities to join their peers on spectacular journeys in the metaverse. Every student will have the ability to dive deep into the Mariana Trench to discover the mysterious marine ecosystem or fly up high above the atmosphere to observe the workings of planet Earth.

VR is the enablement of possibilities for everyone while creating better and more engaging learning experiences. It provides students of all ages to learn more effectively with fun and immersive interactions.

If you would like to learn more about the safety of underage children in the virtual world, check out this blogpost on VIVE Guardian.

Learn more about VIVERSE.

Stay tuned for more VIVERSE service reveals very soon.

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Boys & Girls Clubs of America and The UPS Foundation have announced that they will use the award-winning VIVE Focus 3 in their UPS Road Code program, which is focused on teaching safe driving techniques to teens in order to help reduce accidents.

The UPS Road Code program started in 2009 and has now reached nearly 60,000 teenagers in 265 Boys & Girls Clubs across the US. The program teaches defensive driving skills to teens, ranging from viewing habits to the consequences of risky behaviors – like texting or drinking while driving. Stronger defensive driving skills could help significantly reduce the 285,000 teen driver injuries that happen yearly in the US.

VR is such an effective learning tool because it allows students to repeat lessons as many times as they need, develop muscle memory, and get a real sense of time and space in virtual environments. According to a study from the National Training Laboratories, retention rates for VR learning are 75 percent, compared to 5 percent for classroom lectures and 10 percent for reading.

“Retention is key to real-world results, and immersive tech like VR leads the way in terms of training outcomes,” said Amir Khorram, Head of Enterprise Sales at HTC VIVE. “This is especially true on VIVE Focus 3, which was designed for enterprise level training. We couldn’t be prouder to be working alongside Boys & Girls Clubs and The UPS Foundation to help young people nationwide become safer drivers.”

By adding virtual reality (VR) to its toolkit, the UPS Road Code program is poised to strengthen its positive impact on teen driving. With VR scenarios developed by the firm Foundry 45, in collaboration with UPS road safety experts, and experienced in 5k on the HTC VIVE Focus 3 headset, the UPS Road Code program can now achieve a new level of immersion and training retention. The VR scenarios in the program leverage interactive animation, voice commands, and different driving environments for highly immersive and memorable training sessions.

“At Foundry 45, we’re passionate about safety training. So, when Boys & Girls Clubs and The UPS Foundation reached out to ask us about revamping their teen driver safety program using immersive technology we jumped at the chance,” said Dave Beck, Managing Partner at Foundry 45.

“Just the look on the teens’ faces while using the headset was awesome! The car that you sit in is really nice and the aspect of putting on your seatbelt is neat because you couldn’t do that on the simulator we had before,” said Jenn Barnes, Director of Club Operations & WorkForce Development at Boys & Girls Clubs of the Austin Area.

To learn more about the UPS Road Code program, click here. The official announcement from Boys & Girls Clubs of America can be found here. More information about VIVE Focus 3 can be found on the official product website here.

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Located in the southwestern tip of England, Cornwall is one of Great Britain’s most historic and beautiful regions. So when a developer has its eye on building new structures in a small village right in the heart of it, things can get complicated pretty fast.

When it comes to coastline views, success means thinking ahead. You have to tread carefully and know exactly what your impact will be. Wrong moves are not only a potential legal issue, they are a fast path to neighborhood wrath. Especially if what is lost is a prized view.

That’s where Marraum Architects comes in.

Based in the coastal town of Penryn, architectural firm Marraum specializes in finding new ways to help clients realize visions through real-time technology. In an industry where artistic renditions just don’t cut it anymore, Marraum has moved exclusively into VR, using it for over six years to offer clients a way to explore future developments, and suggest iterations before developers break ground.

Recently, they put this method to great use in an upcoming coastal project, enabling clients to find an optimal, neighborhood-friendly design with the help of Twinmotion and HTC’s new VIVE Pro 2.

The benefits of a digital view  

For this small village project, Marraum was tasked with carefully designing three bespoke residential houses. Due diligence was done, of course, to ensure the structures would satisfy future residents, but after seeing the plans the client had a few minor concerns. No matter how detailed a set of plans may be, it’s still difficult to fully appreciate things like the size of the rooms, or how structures would complement (or detract) from their surroundings, without being there.

“The challenge was that each design had to be tailored to differing briefs, yet still work together as a whole,” says Adam Laskey, co-owner and director of Marraum. “The actual site has a gradient, so it was important to understand how each property sits, and how they can benefit from the views. Working in VR enabled our clients to fully understand the whole scheme, which also meant the changes for the next stage of the development were extremely thorough and clear.”

Once Marraum’s designers added their BIM models to Twinmotion, they were able to recreate the environment as it currently stands—including sight lines and placement of the neighbors.

“We wanted our client to walk away knowing how each property interacts with one another,” Laskey says. “The plot has amazing water views, so we had to carefully position the buildings on the site to ensure that the future residents would be able to take full advantage of the scenery, all without detracting from the neighbors or dealing with restricted views. With VR, they could see it all from their virtual windows and gain that peace of mind.”

By wandering around the prospective houses in VR, the client was also able to understand the true scale of the build. The rooms—which seemed small on paper—proved much more spacious in the experience, giving the client what they needed to feel confident about the design and any suggestions they made in the moment.

The path to photorealism 

Marraum began experimenting with VR nearly 10 years ago with a basic Google Cardboard. Four years later, they were fully embracing VR, making it the first architectural firm to use it in the region and do it all in-house. They started with a combination of Archicad, VIVE VR HMD’s, and a basic VR package. It got the job done, but the output was also limiting. Models lacked the high-definition quality available today, while the experience was best served in short, small doses to avoid eye strain, lag, and overall discomfort.

Things quickly changed, however, once they learned about Twinmotion. Now, they’ve been using it for years

“Our previous VR software package was a lot simpler. The graphics were not as good as they are now, and it didn’t always provide a pleasant experience for our clients,” says Laskey. “Twinmotion lets us work in more detail and content, which ups realism and increases immersion during walkthroughs.”

For the Cornwall project, however, Marraum reached a new level. As a regular VR user himself, Laskey has followed the development of headsets and immediately pushed for Marraum to embrace HTC’s VIVE Pro 2, upgrading their previous VIVE headsets that had replaced the Cardboard almost right away, over six years ago. Along with a more comfortable fit, the new headset also significantly reduced latency and offered a class-leading 5K resolution for highly realistic textures. For a model that encourages exploration, being able to remove the lag that frequently comes when people quickly turn their heads in VR is a huge step forward.

With the new hardware in place and photorealistic VR models running in Twinmotion, the clients didn’t just engage in the model, they embraced it, spending over two hours exploring the VR creation. It was simply a better experience overall.

Beyond Cornwall 

While the Cornish development may add a new chapter to the storied history of this coastal village, the results show how impactful VR walkthroughs continue to be for both Marraum and the archviz industry as a whole.

With any VR build, engagement is the name of the game. A 3D world might have incredible visuals and enable users to move around it like a dream, but if they are uncomfortable the whole time, that’s all they’ll take from it. By blending Twinmotion and the VIVE Pro 2, firms like Marraum are finding ways to remain competitive, as they continue to break down the hesitations that hold projects back.

“The use of the new tech has enabled us to refine and get results much quicker than before,” says Laskey. “The ease of use and the reasonable setup costs mean we can offer VR as standard across all of our projects. This has also helped increase clients’ understanding of their projects and reduced changes during the construction process, which saves them both time and money.”

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Website: LINK