Treeview
What sort of hardware platforms do you target on a project like this?
This project targets Microsoft HoloLens 2, mobile with AR capabilities, and the standard web. We have to remember that XR is just one component in a larger set of software solutions. It’s crucial to vertically integrate these technologies based on how you’re interacting with the data.
Having stakeholders around a table with HoloLens, discussing data on-site in a real environment, would be the highest tier of experience. But there’s still value in having a website with a 3D model that you can browse and interact with through chat prompts.
Let’s zoom out a bit and talk about your workflow when starting a new project. How do you begin to scope out what a project is going to be?
We call that the discovery phase. It’s about trying to understand what the client or the use case is about, not just receiving a list of requirements. It’s a brainstorm that we have with clients.
For many of these corporations, there’s value in deploying a solution. But there’s also a lot of value in the innovation approach, in knowing exactly what’s going on with this technology, exploring it, and doing some internal tinkering.
What’s the scale of what you’re normally building in terms of distribution?
With business-to-business projects, there is not a massive distribution. There are specific use cases and internal tools rather than customer-facing applications. However, we do have some clients, especially on the startup side, who have done more massive rollouts.
For context, we recently launched a free educational app for Apple Vision Pro. The project is called Inviewer, and it’s like a Wikipedia of interactive spatial content. This app is featured in the education category of the app store, which is pretty cool. After four weeks, it had about 2,600 users.
Are companies looking to hit certain metrics, like reducing time or improving knowledge?
One of our largest clients is a startup that’s a leader in employee training, though I can’t name it due to nondisclosure agreements. What I can say is that some companies are training employees for specific tasks, like installing an electric circuit.
There’s also huge demand in the market for institutions to provide context to, say, students about what they can do, especially for professional or technical careers. They want to get a feel for what it’s like to install solar panels, for example.
These kinds of applications address a real need in the market. They help people understand career options they might not have known existed.
You mentioned you developed for the Apple Vision Pro. How are the latest headsets, like the Vision Pro, changing what you can achieve?
Apple brought the whole concept of eye gazing, the concept of prioritizing windows, and the fact that those windows can be expanded. That’s a lot of new paradigms in the user-interface experience that Apple brought to the table, and it’s been amazing.