It’s been a busy, exciting year here at Pocket Sized Hands! We’ve worked on a bunch of awesome new projects, welcomed new members into our wonderful team, and so much more – and hopefully 2020 is an even bigger, better year. But before that, let’s take a look back at our 2019… Growing Our Team Over the course of 2019, we expanded from having 3 full-time and 3 part-time employees at the start of the year, to 6 full-time and 1 part-time employee by the end!
The fintech industry is one of the biggest growing tech industries in the world with the advent of mobile banking applications, services like Google and Apple pay and digital banks such as Monzo or Starling Bank. The fintech industry is tackling problems such as security, banking access and financial education, what more can the fintech achieve by utilising AR and VR technology? In this blog we’ll explore some of the ways that the fintech industry can benefit from using augmented and virtual reality technology.
When we talk about safety training, most of us will think of boring training lectures and even more boring reading material. Although it’s a necessary evil, using these methods can be just that, boring, unengaging. What if there was a better way? Virtual reality presents a new method of safety training that is engaging, cost effective and significantly increases retention. Here are just a few benefits of using VR to provide employees with safety training.
Like virtual reality, augmented reality can provide the tools to create opportunities for your business and make your business more cost effective and profitable. Augmented reality can have an impact on the effectiveness of your products and services for a range of different industries. From marketing to engineering, AR can make your work processes more efficient. Let’s explore just a few of the industries that AR can impact. Marketing There are countless ways in which to market your business with augmented reality.
Digital Twins Digital Twins are 3D digital replicas of existing systems which uses data gathered by sensors predominately seen in IoT (internet of Things) devices from the physical ‘twin’ which is then sent to the digital replica. Digital twins can be something large like a large site like a shopping centre or an oil and gas rig to an individual part of a larger machine such as a jet engine.
This guest blog comes from Charles from Innovate UK, Innovate UK are part of UK Research and Innovation, a governmental funding body. Thanks to the rise of immersive technologies, the future of storytelling is changing. AR, VR and MR have the power to captivate audiences across the globe! They can not only change what an audience sees, but also feels. The UK is at the front of this creative revolution – and we’ve just taken another huge leap forward.
Oculus Quest The Oculus Quest has been hotly anticipated by VR developers and consumers alike due to the promise of wireless VR gaming. Games such as Beat Saber, Robo Recall and Superhot all are release titles of the new Oculus Quest VR headset. The standalone headset boasts 6Dof (six degrees of freedom) and two new Oculus Touch controllers. Alongside the Oculus Guardian system seen in previous VR headsets created by Oculus, the Oculus Quest VR headset makes for an incredibly portable VR headset.
HoloLens Released on March 30th, 2016, the Microsoft HoloLens is an augmented reality headset which runs on Microsoft’s Mixed Reality software platform based on the Windows 10 operating system. Inspired by the technology seen within Microsoft’s Xbox Kinect, the HoloLens are smart glasses that overlays objects and elements over the players vision. Using AR technology,the Microsoft HoloLens has been marketed towards businesses and enterprise. The HoloLens can impact businesses due to the headsets numerous applications, with the HoloLens able to train individuals, provide on-site guidance, visualise products for training and marketing purposes and allow people to work collaboratively in the same space.
Are the days of the paperback numbered? Increasingly, digital technologies are replacing traditional methods of communication. But is this such a bad thing? Immersive technologies such as augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are being used by companies and organisations from wide ranging sectors to communicate with audiences in an attempt to foster deeper connection. We’ve rounded up some of the best projects and schemes that are utilising new, immersive technologies in exciting new ways.
If you’re unfamiliar with AR (augmented reality) you might be surprised to know that yourself along with millions of others own an AR ready device, that is, if you own a recently released smartphone produced by either Android or Apple. Whereas VR (virtual reality) creates a virtual world in which players can interact with, AR overlays and works with the real world. In the past we’ve spoken about virtual reality training but what about AR training?
Telehealth is the use of technology, either internet or phone technology to assist in the healthcare of remote patients. Primarily, it involves the exchange of data so that doctors and other medical professionals can better treat and monitor patients with long term illnesses. This comes in the form of check-ups through telephone or video conferencing software, reminders to patient as well as live monitoring of patients. We’ve spoken about VR’s usage in the healthcare sector , with its ability to train medical professionals and treat mental health issues.
Attended by nearly 200 thousand people in Las Vegas, CES is one of the biggest trade shows in the world. CES or the Consumer Electronics Show displays the latest technology from companies like Google and Intel to Lenovo to LG. At CES, massive technology companies will showcase their existing products and announce new products to the public. VR companies such as Oculus and HTC will showcase VR hardware with HTC announcing their new VR headset at this year’s CES.
2018 saw the release of the Oculus GO and the HTC Vive Pro as well as the announcement of the Oculus Quest and the rise of Playstation VR. It’s been a great year for VR with more games and headsets on the way, but what does 2019 have in store for the VR market? We discuss more below and look at the upcoming year for the VR market. Oculus Quest The Oculus Quest will be released in Spring 2019 and could potentially have a massive impact on the VR market.
Augmented Reality has become a massive part of our everyday lives, from playing games such as Pokémon Go to interacting on social media with Instagram and Snapchat filters. In this blog we’ll look to the future and discuss the biggest trends in 2019 in the augmented reality space. Mobile AR The mobile AR market is large and will continue to expand in 2019. The fact that hundreds of millions of people own a smartphone of some kind means that there are hundreds of millions of people already with AR ready devices.
First teased under the name of ‘Project Santa Cruz’, the Oculus Quest is a new VR headset from Oculus set to be released early next year in spring 2019 for around $399. In this blog, we’ll layout everything you need to know about the Oculus Quest and why it’s so important for the VR industry. The Facts The Oculus Rift has been a key figure in the VR space for a while, rivalling the HTC Vive, with both being powerful piece of hardware for games and other applications.
Mental health is a massive issue, with many people suffering from some sort of mental health issue. In the past we’ve spoken about using VR in the healthcare industry, mentioning VR’s use in exposure therapy. VR can treat multiple different mental health disorders, from agoraphobia to arachnophobia. In this blog, we’ll explore just 5 of the many ways in which VR can be used in therapy to help patients with mental health issues.
As technology has advanced, so have the ways in which we educate and tell stories. From interactive stories and games that engage and educate, to VR and AR being used in museums to create unique experiences. Recently, there has been a rise in the use of AR and VR in museums with history museums, science museums, heritage sites etc, taking advantage of augmented and virtual reality technology to teach and educate their audiences.
Using AR and VR for events and conferences to better engage and market to attendees, is becoming a more frequent occurrence. Using AR for conferences and events allows businesses such as marketing companies can market products using AR technology. Using VR for conferences and events, companies can engage those attending the event through virtual worlds and VR experiences. Using VR for events and conferences VR can provide a diverse range of virtual experiences, with various various sectors now starting to adopt the technology and apply it to their respective businesses.
When people think about augmented reality, most think about Pokemon Go or Snapchat . AR has various uses though; visualisation and marketing are just a couple of different ways AR can improve various industries around the world, the architecture industry is no different. Augmented Reality or AR consists of digital objects that integrate and interact with the real world. An example of an augmented reality technology is a recent project by Pocket Sized Hands, Follingsby Max AR.
Storytelling has always been at the heart of everything we do, from entertainment to journalism, from the values we instil in new generations to how we convey our memories. As technology has affected our daily lives, its impacted the ways in which we tell stories. Immersive storytelling is the use of immersive technology such as virtual reality and 360 videos to tell stories. By using these immersive technologies, stories are more impactful as the individual experiencing the stories feel more engaged and feel like they are a character in the story themselves.
Games in the past have been used in various other ways other to just purely entertain their players. Games have been used to train, teach, engage and inform players. By working with game companies, research institutes such as universities can create games that engage and educate players. Game companies can combine pedagogy and key learning objectives from academics alongside game design principles and techniques to create games that educate players whilst providing a fun experience.
The Oil and Gas industry is an incredibly complex, controlled industry which deals with a large amount of health and safety guidelines and compliance issues. Oil and Gas companies spend large sums of money on training new and existing employees to make them familiar with equipment and facilities. There are many challenges those working in the oil and gas industry face and VR has proven to be an effective tool to tackle some of these challenges.
Augmented and virtual reality are currently two of the fast-growing technologies with more and more consumers using AR and VR applications on their mobile phones and other devices. Industries ranging from the construction industry to the aviation industry are using augmented and virtual reality technology in business applications. The restaurant and catering industries are no different with the use of AR and VR being slowly introduced in these industries. Let’s explore how AR and VR is being used to better visualise and design in the food industry.
Today Apple has released iOS 12 for Apple mobile devices including iPads and iPhones. With it comes ARKit 2.0, an update to the existing AR SDK for iOS devices. ARKit 2.0 brings a whole host of new features and improvements. Let’s recap what exactly is ARKit and how ARKit 2.0 builds on the first iteration. What is Apple’s ARKit and What can it do? ARKit is an Augmented Reality(AR) SDK for IOS devices from Apple.
AR and VR can help to visualise, train and collaborate cheaper and more effectively than traditional methods in most sectors. The construction sector is yet another sector that will see big changes with the use of AR and VR technology. The biggest challenge that the construction industry is facing is visualizing and experiencing a construction project before it’s built. Any design changes that happen when construction begins can be costly and time consuming for construction and architectural companies.
