Let’s start with a bit of jargon busting; in a nutshell, Ominchannel brings together the benefits of e-commerce and physical – what is known as “bricks and mortar” retailers.

Many start-ups and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would do well to incorporate omnichannel thinking in their own roadmaps
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As with many such things this trend was set by Amazon (which started setting up locations to support and extend its online operations) and others (Warby Parker and Shopify to name but a couple) have quickly latched onto its obvious advantages. Now companies such as Wal-Mart are wisely viewing physical stores as places where customers can pick up and return merchandise, a combination of e-commerce and physical retail that makes the purchase experience more convenient than either an e-commerce or retail store alone.

Ominchannel brings together the benefits of e-commerce with bricks and mortar retailers
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But those big names shouldn’t give the impression that this type of strategy only works on a large scale. Start-ups and Small and Medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) would do well to incorporate such thinking in their own roadmaps.

In an age where (not least because of the advent of immersive technologies and spatial computing) the physical and digital worlds are increasingly blending together, as are the shopping experiences that consumers expect. But while we wait for the world of Ready Player One, where haptic suits will routinely enhance Virtual Reality with physical sensations, humans will still get their tactile experiences in a “real world” shop.

In an age where (not least because of the advent of immersive technologies and spatial computing) the physical and digital worlds are increasingly blending together, as are the shopping experiences that consumers expect
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One company leading this trend is StickerYou, which successfully sells custom stickers and decals online, and is now planning to open the world’s largest sticker store in Toronto later this month. Tech Trends talks to their Founder and President, Andrew Witkin, about why they have decided to take the omnichannel approach, and what other digital retailers should take into account before going down that road themselves.

The first step says Witkin, is to do a thorough audit of what your start-up’s goals are, what products you offer and whether or not these products or services are significantly enhanced by an in-person experience
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“For example, at StickerYou, we offer customized, die-cut stickers, but there is a large gap between ordering stickers online and feeling the quality of a sticker, or being inspired by the creativity of sticker designs right in front of you, which is why we are opening a retail space in 2019,” he says. “When customers can experience these products in real time, it can help drive brand awareness in a way that e-commerce simply can’t. Having a brick and mortar location not only allows customers to experience your products in person, it also opens up a host of opportunities for savvy e-commerce retailers.”

These opportunities can range from hosting product and industry-focused workshops and events to gleaning in-person feedback from customers on products and services, a brick and mortar location, properly leveraged, can be a place for a brand to shine.

When evaluating this benefit, Witkin recommends that business owners look at the retail location as a channel that can push online sales rather than a store that is evaluated solely by traditional retail metrics.

“Your retail location works as both a store and an advertising space for your e-commerce business. As such, weigh the current per-click costs of online advertising against the potential costs of driving individualized shopping experiences through in-store brand interactions, drop-ins and walk-by traffic. If these types of interactions can be considered as impressions, then a physical retail space can break even or operate at a loss and still be ROI positive, as long as it succeeds in driving increases in online sales and overall lowered cost-per-click ad spend.”

“If your retail space breaks even, all marketing value generated by the store could be considered as free. As long as the KPIs of retail marketing campaigns are equal to or less than that of the current online strategies for your business, then the omnichannel strategy pans out for you.”

This alone will make the search experience a more memorable one, kind of like searching through records in a bin and discovering something new you didn’t know you were looking for.

They are getting ready to open a StickerYou store in the next few weeks in Toronto’s hippest quarter at 677-679 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada, and they are planning to make a splash (this will be, according to the company, the world’s largest sticker store) with a 3-storey tall vinyl graphic in collaboration with applied sciences company 3M.

The trend towards traditional retailers closing has also meant that commercial landlords have become more open to offers of short-term rent deals and pop-up concepts
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The store will be an experiential space, with stickerbombed walls, tangible product, a custom experience space where customers can see others’ designs and kiosks where they can create their own using StickerYou’s online StickerMaker. There will also be a Sticker Museum that details the history of stickers in the basement, and a sticker art exhibition is set to take place in the fall (the first of many), featuring works from sticker artists across the globe such as Shepard Fairey (think the iconic Obama “Hope” illustrations) and Matthew Hoffman (You Are Beautiful).

“Ecommerce retailers need to approach this from an entirely different perspective, and ask themselves what a physical store and buying experience adds to their brand that online channels don’t.”

The trend towards traditional retailers closing has also meant that commercial landlords have become more open to offers of short-term rent deals and pop-up concepts which carry lower risk for e-tailers to dabble in the omnichannel concept, according to Witkin.

“I would first evaluate if the business, merchandise or brand experience can be enhanced by a physical retail location. If the answer is yes, then I would start with a pop-up and test the waters.”

“The ROI on the retail investment can be viewed against the physical store’s sales as well as incremental online sales due to the additional brand awareness that the physical store generates.”

Witkin sees the trend gaining momentum creating a new online/brick and mortar hybrid which is unlike either traditional retailers or online-only stores, but something better than the sum of its parts.

Many online retailers may only open one store, or a handful of stores
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“I believe more online retailers will get into physical retail,” he writes.  “However, I don’t believe the scale of stores will be the same as that of traditional retail chains. Perhaps an online retailer will have a few stores in a city, but I don’t believe many online retailers will go past that. Many online retailers may only open up just one store, or a handful of stores.”

Witkin also sees a paradoxical trend in the opposite direction to some degree with brick-and-mortar stores investing in their online presence. For some time, they focused on omnichannel pick up locations which gave them a good footing. However, he says these traditional brick-and-mortar retailers need to improve the merchandise experience in store so there’s more reason to engage products and not just pick things up from their physical locations.

The StickerYou store will open in mid-August at 677-679 Queen Street West, Toronto, Canada

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Bringing Digital and Physical Together with an Omnichannel Strategy appeared first on Tech Trends.

Tech Trends takes a look at the first-ever government run crowdfunding platform and what it hopes to achieve for the municipality of Biscay.

Crowdfunding has come a long way over the last decade or so, and it is fair to say that most people are not only familiar with the concept but have supported some sort of crowdfunded project themselves. Increasingly, therefore, the model is being seen as an essential part of the mix where it comes to financing not only individual projects and companies, but entire ecosystems. We’ve recently reported on such moves being made in places like Cornwall.

Crowdfunding has come a long way over the last decade or so
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The municipality of Biscay (Bizkaia) has gone a step further, however, launching its own equity-based crowdfunding platform. This is the first of its kind to be officially backed by a government for the purpose of encouraging investment and entrepreneurship in the region. The idea is to encourage ordinary people to invest in Basque start-ups by connecting individual small investors and companies seeking funding.

Biscay has launched its own equity-based crowdfunding platform, the first of its kind to be officially backed by a government
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The Crowdfunding Bizkaia website is initially launching with four start–ups, with another four set to follow shortly. The target is to manage between ten to twelve projects a year, selected from a pool of around thirty applicants currently being considered.

Biscay is known for innovation in many areas including its world-renowned gastronomy and education system
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Crowdfunding has become an essential part of the mix in financing not only individual projects and companies, but entire ecosystems
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Biscay is known for innovation in many areas including its world-renowned gastronomy and education system which is amongst the top in Europe and where most parents nowadays opt to have their children be taught in the Basque language.

Once a regional start-up is accepted onto the platform, it has fifty days to raise its funding target from the public. Once that is achieved, they will also have the option to apply for the government to match the amount raised – up to €30,000 per start-up. Bizkaia has initially set aside a €240,000 fund for this purpose.

This is not just about providing start-ups with seed investment, however, as each business accepted onto the platform also receives a year of free business mentoring and support, helping them reach their growth targets and opening new avenues for financing.

Citizen investors from any country are able to invest a minimum of €75-1,000 and a maximum of €3,000 per project
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Once a start-up is accepted onto the platform, it has fifty days to raise its funding target from the public
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Unlike private sector platforms such as Crowdcube – which allow any business to pitch for funds, the Crowdfunding Bizkaia platform only hosts business which have been vetted by the government to ensure that investors’ money is only channeled towards viable projects.

Businesses from any sector (apart from real-estate and finance) can apply as the aim is to promote a broad range of ventures to strengthen the economy and entrepreneurial ecosystem in the region. Start-ups seeking investment must therefore be headquartered in Biscay, which is hoped will also encourage outside companies to come to the area.

“We want to help grow good projects and attract the best ideas to the territory. Crowdfunding Bizkaia is our new and unique financing tool that offers investors the security of projects that have been screened by an expert team for their economic and financial viability,” says Imanol Pradales, Regional Deputy of Economic Development.

The four companies initially joining the platform are We Are Testers, an online marketing research tool; WATS, a social initiative created to eradicate violence in sports; FractalMed, a mathematical tool that forecasts disease progression in multiple sclerosis patients; and PoliMaker, a biodegradable thermoplastic polymer capable of becoming almost anything.

Juan Manuel Villanueva from FractalMed, said that crowdfunding is an important tool for developing social capital as well as helping start-ups overcome initial barriers such as financing.

Each company that applies to be accepted onto the platform is subjected to a rigorous financial and economic appraisal– similar to the due diligence process which would be conducted by a venture capital firm. This is very different from the situation in similar crowdfunding platforms where it is mostly up to the individual investor to assess the start-up’s viability. This high level of government scrutiny is a key differentiator for investors.

‘Citizen’ investors from any country are able to invest a minimum of €75-1,000 (varying from project to project) and a maximum of €3,000 per project. The annual maximum contribution each investors can make to start-ups on the platform is €10,000. Each company sets its own minimum contribution level, which translates into investor shares and eventually yields a return when a company makes a successful exit.

Each company that applies to be accepted onto the platform is subjected to a rigorous financial and economic appraisal
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This exit strategy again can differ from start-up to start-up, but examples of typical exit plans can include share buyback schemes, IPOs, or trade sales. As part of their investor pitch, each company provides an exit timeline, giving an estimate of when funders can expect a return on their investment.

Businesses accepted onto the platform also receive a year of free mentoring and support
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Another differentiating factor from traditional equity crowdfunding platforms is that the commission fees are substantially lower than the market average– with just 1% of the investment value going to Crowdfunding Bizkaia to cover its running costs.

This platform is just one part of the Biscay government’s larger effort to boost sustainable growth and situate the Basque Country as one of Europe’s most attractive destinations for entrepreneurs.

Each start-up provides an exit timeline, giving an estimate of when funders can expect a return on their investment
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One recent example of this was the launch of the Euro Fond Innova, where ordinary citizens can invest between £3,000 and £5,000 in a fund that will lend to Biscay start-ups in exchange for a tax rebate. The fund aims to raise €100 – 120 million to support Basque business. This is coupled with a range of other investment funds aimed at promoting local innovation. These include the Development Fund, a financing tool focusing on SMEs in the technology sector; FEIS (Entrepreneurship and Social Innovation Fund), geared towards socially beneficial business ventures; and Mikro, aimed at developing microenterprises, including cooperatives.

The Deputy General of Bizkaia, Unai Rementeria, explained that his government’s priority is to foster start-ups and encourage business growth through a strong industrial policy and a business-friendly taxation system. “This is one of many measures that makes Biscay an attractive place for entrepreneurship with the ability to attract projects from other parts of the Basque Country and Europe,” he concludes.

The platform is just one part of the Biscay government’s effort to boost sustainable growth
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Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasioon Twitter.

The post Crowdfunding Boosting Innovation appeared first on Tech Trends.

As any entrepreneur will tell you, failing is an essential part of the technology ecosystem, and the quicker the pace of advance, the faster an innovation can go from darling child to forgotten footnote

The infographic below digs up some of the bigger flops of the past few years, which have crashed and burned – or merely fizzled out after much initial hype and widespread buzz.

Failure is an essential part of technology and entrepreneurship
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Those involved in the latest Tech Trends might do well to study some of this recent history, lest they fall into the trap of making some of the same mistakes . VR, I’m looking at you…

New technologies can quickly crash and burn, or simply fizzle out
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Looking at how some of this doomed hardware has actually increased in value is also a reminder that mistakes are often a booster as far as collectability is concerned – from wrongly printed stamps to awkward mobile phones, failure can be a relative concept and value is in the eye of the beholder. Makes you wonder what an Oculus might sell for in 20 years’ time.

We look at some collectible doomed tech
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How Much Are Tech’s Biggest Failures Worth Today? – An infographic by the team at SilverDoor.co.uk

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Infographic: How Much are Tech Fails Worth Today? appeared first on Tech Trends.

Region wants to stimulate the local economy and create a sustainable future for health and social care through technology

The national healthcare ecosystem is undergoing a dramatic, fundamental shift with rising healthcare costs, increased demand on systems and growing, ageing populations placing our health and social care systems under unprecedented pressure.

By 2020 the Health Tech market is estimated to hit £37bn
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At the same time, the health tech industry is worth billions and the digital revolution, which has already reshaped many other sectors, is also transforming healthcare. By 2020 its value is estimated to hit around £37bn, with the UK thought to be on course to take a 5% share of that market.

The national healthcare ecosystem is undergoing a fundamental shift
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And while Cornwall might not be the first place that comes to mind as a tech hub, the region is steadily establishing a reputation for enabling innovation in the Health Tech sector. In fact, entrepreneurs vouch for the fact the region is unique in the way that it gives companies the independence and freedom to trial new ideas, making it a test bed for innovative solutions while also allowing those who live there to achieve a good work-life balance.

Nicola Lloyd from Invest in Cornwall says that this mix of entrepreneurship, community and sense of place is already attracting talent and business to the region: “In recent years, we have seen a growing interest in international businesses relocating to Cornwall and we’re delighted to see a strong pipeline ahead. This not only reinforces the strength of opportunities and capabilities for foreign direct investment in the region, but these global companies also generate more local jobs in the wider economy as a result.”

As part of this on-going drive to encourage businesses to consider moving to Cornwall, this month the NHS and other healthcare professional were for the first time brought together with health technology companies at the Maximising Technology in Health and Care event. Held at Falmouth University, the meeting explored technology solutions for healthcare issues in Cornwall and beyond.

“There are very few other places in the country where I’ve seen such a ground swell of local support from the local community, the NHS and businesses,” says Liam Booth-Smith Chief Executive of research think tank Localis. “There is a huge breadth of businesses working in Cornwall that is making creating a sustainable future for health and social care a key part of their mission, and the region’s greatest natural resource is its opportunity with technology”

Although NHS England has said that it is looking to save billions from the health budget by embracing technology, however, the healthcare sector is a system comprised of numerous organisations renowned for being notoriously hard to penetrate – especially for SMEs.

“Within such a large organisation as the NHS, we’re always amazed at the talent, innovative ideas and opportunities proposed to us by some of the smaller players in the tech sector, but we rarely have the chance to meet so many health technology businesses in one place,” agrees Kathy Byrne, Chief Executive of NHS hospital Royal Cornwall Hospital Trust. “The event provided a fantastic opportunity to meet the businesses and entrepreneurs and start those conversations about their products and services that have so often led to improving the healthcare system,” she said.

The recognises that the health technology sector is a growing global market, not only comprising the development of apps and other digital technology tools, but also robotics and other smart devices. However, there is a recognised block to the growth of the sector, namely the willingness and ability of end users and consumers to adopt the solutions on offer, as well as the willingness of commissioners, care givers and consumers to implement and pay for those solutions.

“Our geography means that we have got coterminous health and social care organisations which are partnering with leading institutions such as Falmouth University to look at ways in which we can deliver integrated healthcare in rural, digitally enabled communities to improve outcomes and give people more choice and control,” says Cornwall Council Chief Executive Kate Kennally “We hope to promote the organic growth of partnerships between health technology businesses from across the world and representatives from the NHS, local government and health and care organisations – ensuring the right people are in the right place at the same time,” she believes.

Two early examples of such partnerships are EPIC and Smartline, both of which have recently secured funding within the region and by the European Regional Development Fund. EPIC is a collaborative project designed to improve the use of technology in both health and social care, while Smartline will help Cornish SMEs develop innovative products, processes and services by increasing understanding of how technology can be used to improve people’s health and wellbeing.

Cornwall is aiming to become a test bed for Health Tech innovation
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Smartline brings together an interdisciplinary team of epidemiologists, geographers, mathematicians and sociologists to explore possibilities for innovation using digital technologies, and how they can help connect communities – linking data in novel ways to improve product development in health and wellbeing across a range of sectors.

Professor Ray Jones of Plymouth University says his institution will organise 10 locality groups around Cornwall and identify problems in health and social care that have possible technology solutions. “In turn, EPIC will develop their ideas and help them apply for funding set aside to support individual projects,” he explains.

The project is also recruiting over 350 Coastline households from across the region to become a test bed for products, services and processes that will have wider county, national and even international reach. This involves installing sensors to monitor domestic environments – working with individuals, families and communities to understand their challenges and aspirations. It is hoped this will lead to a well-developed and flexible supply chain and high value jobs through new engagements between businesses and the knowledge base.

Connecting communities to help individuals take back control of their health and wellbeing
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Creative England will also work with the digital and technology sector supporting them to enter the health and social care market, identifying new products or services that can be supplied from Cornwall locally as well as to the rest of the UK and beyond.

“Our objective is connecting communities to help individuals take back control of their health and wellbeing. Cornwall has been the perfect starting point for this project as the infrastructure, talent, necessary resources and general sense of community already exists,” says Dr Tim Taylor, Senior Lecturer in the University of Exeter Medical School and Smartline Principal Investigator. “This helps to ensure that we are in the best place possible to organically develop the eHealth and eWellbeing market in the region by linking innovation to cutting edge research and working closely with Cornish SMEs to support R&D in this field,” he concluded.

For companies looking to get into Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance and support on how best to incorporate these into your brand strategy.

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedInand follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Cornwall Betting on Health Tech  appeared first on Tech Trends.

Intensive Venture Building Programme wants to turn ambitious ideas into marketable products in just three months.

Dynamic teams turn ideas and concepts into marketable products in a record time
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Article originally published in the Huffington Post

Nucleus Accelerator Showcases Lebanese Tech https://t.co/zWTK7tciaV via @HuffPostBlog

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) June 29, 2017

For companies looking to gain a competitive edge through technology, Tech Trends offers strategic Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation Consultancy services tailored to your brand.

Alice Bonasio is a VR and Digital Transformation Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio on Twitter.

The post Accelerating Tech Innovation from Lebanon appeared first on Tech Trends.

“It is estimated that the average cleaning company loses up to 55% of their customer base every year due to poor service,” says Martin Cudzilo. And he’s betting that Augmented Reality will help to change all that.

Cudzilo has over a decade’s worth of experience overseeing cleaning companies and developing technologies to make the cleaning industry more efficient. He’s also CEO and Founder of AR-Check, a start-up which combines AR technology and smart glasses to train, monitor and guide best cleaning practices in real time.

The average cleaning company loses around 55% of their customers every year due to poor service
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The cleaning industry is desperate for a system that brings improvements and standardisation
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The industry is in desperate need for a system that can bring improvements and standardisation while also managing all aspects of the cleaning process, as demand for a reliable maid service is constantly on the rise. This tool will make the industry more effective, more productive and easier to manage and the payoff will be quality results for manageable costs.”

Detailed cleaning instructions are delivered through the company's patented smart glasses
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The plan is to initially deploy AR-Check mainly in critical industries such as hospitals and hotels, but there are potential applications across a much broader range of sectors such as restaurants, ships, airports or pretty much any large business that requires cleaning services.

AR-Check will be initially employed in critical industries such as hospitals and hotels
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The technology which the company patented delivers detailed visualized cleaning instructions via smart glasses which seem to work along the lines of the Microsoft HoloLens (which means it can also be perhaps described as Mixed Reality depending on who you speak to). It provides functionality that not only gives users a detailed breakdown of what tasks need to be completed, but in what order, what tools and agents to use, the correct tools, and even how much pressure to apply in order to achieve optimum results.

“That all translates into less mistakes, down-time, better quality work, and on-the-spot training,” says Cudzilo

The main USP of AR/MR technology offers in this context is its ability to empower business owners, allowing customers to monitor staff performance in real time based on location, day, time and any other work-specific criteria which can be customised to each client, such as contamination containment.

Customers can use this monitoring data to identify patterns and isolate common problems
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This is yet another great example of the immense commercial possibilities of AR and MR
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Customers can use this monitoring data to identify patterns and isolate common problems, addressing staffing needs and invoicing more accurately according to a detailed record of work completed rather than just hours spent on the premise.

“AR-Check is designed to improve quality and performance, providing greater transparency and cost-savings to the commercial cleaning industry. It will empower businesses to make better, more informed decisions without heavy reliance on cleaning intermediaries, saving money and resources and helping to create best practices that standardise cleaning processes and minimise contamination,” concludes Cudzilo, who is currently raising funding to develop and rollout the technology more widely.

This is yet another great example of the immense transformative possibilities that Augmented and Mixed Reality bring, not only to education and training, but to pretty much every commercial industry sector you can think of, which is why we’re seeing major players and Fortune 500 companies making significant moves towards embracing AR and incorporating it into their broader strategy. Our bet is that 2017 will continue to bring a exponential growth and breakthroughs in this space.

If you would like to find out how to leverage VR/AR/MR in your enterprise, Tech Trends offers Virtual Reality Consultancy support

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Cleaning Up With Augmented Reality appeared first on Tech Trends.

Investment is a pain point for any business, but small tech start-ups outside of main hubs like Silicon Valley often struggle to convince investors to take a chance on them.

And if you’re an average saver, putting all your hard-earned nest egg into one risky venture is hardly the most appealing or well-advised proposition either, let’s be honest. Most start-ups fail, and that’s not a bad thing. It takes failure for ideas to develop and funding the ecosystem as a whole is what makes the tech-fuelled economy of places such as London, Berlin, San Francisco and New York thrive in the long-term.

An innovative approach to tech investment is being pioneered in Spain's Basque region
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Those who are able to spread that risk make money over the long run by capitalizing on the start-ups which do bring in the big returns, but ordinarily that option isn’t open to the smaller players, who are mostly stuck with dismal returns brought on by the persistently low base interest rates we’ve been stuck with for the past few years.

Which is why we were interested to explore an innovative new approach being pioneered in the Basque country, an autonomous region of Spain which is keen to foster their tech entrepreneurial ecosystem by allowing ordinary savers to invest their money in tech, without the risk. It’s what’s known in the trade as a win-win, and if they pull it off it could very well provide an interesting template for other governments to follow.

Read all about it on The Next Web

How investing in a startup can be safer than leaving money in the bank https://t.co/D4d4oWrm7u pic.twitter.com/xtVd3mzMQO

— TNW @ SXSW (@TheNextWeb) March 14, 2017

The post Making Angels: New Scheme Encourages Savers to Invest in Tech appeared first on Tech Trends.

The UK Government are committing £2.5 million towards a new International Research Centre (IRC) based in Lebanon.

The Tech Hub is not about taking talent to global markets, but bringing global markets to them
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The British Ambassador to Lebanon HE Hugo Shorter, made the announcement this week while speaking at the ArabNet Beirut conference, saying that the IRC would act as a bridge between the thriving knowledge base in Lebanese Universities and the global tech industry, fostering partnerships with British institutions. The aim is to position Lebanon as the Middle East’s R&D hub, acting as a catalyst for economic growth, stability and job creation and a gateway between east and west.

“The Tech Hub is not about taking the most talented to global markets. It is about bringing global markets to them. It is about returning Lebanon to being the gateway to the MENA, a bridge between East and West as it always was. Lebanon’s people are its most coveted resource. This partnership, the UK Lebanon Tech Hub, is about harnessing the potential of that resource. This partnership is about creating 25,000 jobs in Lebanon by 2025’ The UK is not just supporting Lebanon’s security and stability, but it’s leading the way in investing in Lebanon’s prosperity too,” said Mr. Shorter

The IRC will act as a portal for multinational and local companies of all sizes to undertake research and develop new solutions in these areas through a collaborative environment where commercial gain can be achieved for all. Its first project, a collaboration between the Lebanese University and the Geneva-based CERN European Laboratory for Particle Physics, amongst others, is already underway. The collaboration aims to produce the world’s first Fiber Optic Sensors System designed to measure parameters such as temperature, humidity, concentration of pesticides, fertilizers and enzymes in the soil of cultivated fields. This will empowers farmers by allowing irrigation that will result in water saving and increased crop yield, and cut the cost of watering farmer’s fields from $500 per hectare to under $80 per hectare

The IRC's first project is a collaboration between CERN and the Lebanese University
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UK Lebanon Tech Hub Chairman Nicolas Sehnaoui

“Lebanon’s real strength is in its brain power, reflected in its world-class education and its stellar diaspora,” says Nicolas Sehnaoui, Chairman of the UK Lebanon Tech Hub. “The hub’s R&D centre will bridge Lebanon’s academic strengths and knowledge capabilities with the global industry. Retaining our best talent is a game changer for our economy. Investing in our talents will harness their enormous potential to turn Lebanon into a globally recognized innovation hub all while creating jobs for our youth. ”

The International Research Centre is a key recommendation of a recent report by the UK Lebanon Tech Hub – a joint international initiative by the Banque Du Liban – which outlines a plan to create 25,000 jobs by 2025. The report examined 339 ICT companies in Lebanon to map out the local knowledge economy in relation to global trends. It estimated that by focusing on key growth sectors such as FinTech, HealthTech and Online Retail the country could add USD 7 billion to its GDP by 2025.

Lebanon’s real strength is in its brain power
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Lebanon is well poised to become a regional FinTech hub
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The report finds Lebanon is well poised to become a regional FinTech hub for the MENA region. The total assets of Lebanese banks now exceed USD $175 billion and they have been able to meet international standards by working with several successful FinTech companies such as Bluering.

The Wellbeing sector in the Middle East and Africa is expected to grow by 8.7% by 2018
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In reference to the growing Lebanese HealthTech scene, the report highlights that the Wellbeing sector in the Middle East and Africa is expected to have the most rapid growth, at an estimated annual average increase of 8.7 per cent over 2014- 2018; an opportunity for the realization and adoption of local solutions to solve local problems. For example, CardioDiagnostics, a medical technology startup from Beirut, that was recently invited to the White House and praised by President Barack Obama, is the world’s first Cloud Based Cardiac Monitoring Solution accessible from any internet-connected device. It is a wearable heart monitor that checks the electrical activity of the heart, detects abnormalities and alerts the hospital or physician who can evaluate and respond accordingly in case of emergency.

There is huge opportunity for Lebanon to be at the forefront of online retail industries
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The report also highlights the huge opportunity for Lebanon to be at the forefront of how retail industries are reimagining consumers’ shopping experiences via new channels of purchasing which leverage growing trends such as gamification. The global e-commerce market is expected to reach USD $1.5 trillion in 2018, with the MENA demonstrating the highest growth potential. At the same time, the percentage of Lebanon’s Internet users who purchase online is expected to increase, with a massive 20 per cent growth rate over the next five to seven years. Indeed, this is the highest growth rate worldwide.

Lebanon's ambition is to become the Tech Gateway to the Middle East
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Lebanon’s entrepreneurial ecosystem is indeed developing fast (even by tech standards), with the ICT sector in the country experiencing 8% annual growth over the past five years. According to a recent UK Lebanon Tech Hub report, this amounted to a market worth USD 400 Million in 2015, making it one of the top 20 entrepreneurial nations in the world. The country also boasts three of the top 20 universities in the Arab region – including the prestigious American University of Beirut – which support their ambition of becoming the “tech gateway to the Middle East.”

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Meet Zappar, a British start-up with the big ambition to become the “Google Cardboard of MR.”

The truth is that once you try out Mixed Reality it’s really hard to go back. Other tech – from smartphones and computers to VR headsets – feels clunky in comparison, and the world seems a much duller place without those friendly and convenient holograms, as you start seeing potential use cases for the MR literally everywhere.

But as Microsoft made very clear when we met, HoloLens is nowhere near a consumer launch yet. Sure, if you’re a dev with $3,000 spare and live in one of the 8 countries they currently supply, you can get your hands on one, but mere mortals will have to wait a long time to experience MR for themselves. Or so I thought.

ZapBox – a Kickstarter-funded project from UK start-up Zappar – is proposing to leapfrog Microsoft (and everyone else) by making a MR equivalent of Google Cardboard for a hundredth of the HoloLens cost – a mere $30. They launched it just over a week ago, aiming to raise $30,000 toward development. At the time of writing, however, they had already exceeded that goal, with 19 days still left to go.

The truth is that once you try out Mixed Reality it’s really hard to go back. Other tech – from smartphones and computers to VR headsets – feels clunky in comparison
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Although I kept an open mind as I went down to London* to try this out for myself, it was hard to picture how it would be possible to replicate the complex tech of the HoloLens on a cardboard device. It’s one thing to project 360 video on one of those, but quite another to integrate computer-generated elements in your real-world environment, in real time.

But as I put on the prototype headset – endearingly held together with brown tape – that Zappar’s Co-Founder Simon Taylor handed me, I was immediately impressed. The feed it displayed from Taylor’s iPhone 6 camera was accurate – if very slightly blurry at times – in every detail except for the rabbit peeking out of a hole on the table in front of me.

Like my Wonderland namesake I felt the urge to investigate further, and took a peek down that rabbit hole. As I stood above it I could actually see quite a way down, with no sign of the table underneath it. When I reached out my hand, it of course went straight through the rabbit hologram, but – crucially – it did touch the edge of the table exactly where I expected it to be. That’s when I started to get excited.

I tested my boundaries by walking around the small room, and was able to accurately and effortlessly navigate around obstacles such as chairs and laptops. I picked up my glass of water, and saw the half-eaten mince pie that Simon had been working on as he setup the demo. It all felt natural and real, in spite of the big blue bunny insistently waving at me, which reminded me of the opening scenes of that Playtest episode in Black Mirror.

This “video see-through” approach (in contrast to the optical see-through employed by HoloLens) works through a code that uses the smartphone’s camera to scan the environment for a set of specific physical markers. This allow for accurate, real-time mapping of the user’s location in relation to objects (both real and computer-generated).

“We call these markers pointcodes, and they’re the fundamental unit that makes all of this possible on a smartphone” explains Taylor, who did his Cambridge University PhD on Fast Object Localisation for Mobile Augmented Reality Applications before becoming Zappar’s Head of Research. “We lay out our marker codes onto the world like we want it and they help us map out the environment, whether that’s a table-top setup or a combination of wall and floor if you want a larger play area.”

The next demo is more interactive, so I get to try out the hand controllers; a pair of origami-like paper devices featuring pointcodes in every facet, neatly held together with Sellotape. And that’s another thing that shows how different this is from a regular VR experience: I put on the headset and by default look straight ahead, expecting Taylor to guide me and put the controllers in my hands. He does, before pointing out politely that I can look down and see my own hands – not a pair of floating gloves or a graphic representation of the controllers, but my hands – and so can do the job much better myself.

After I get the hang of it – it’s all pretty intuitive, specially if you’re familiar with devices like the Vive and the Oculus Touch – I then use one of the controllers as a laser pointer, which interacts with a hologram of a building projected on the table. It’s easy to see how that setup would be useful in educational settings or for presentations. Next up I’m instructed to use the other controller to press a holographic button with a moon symbol on it, which immediately dims the ambient light in the room. Pressing the sun-symbol button next to it undoes the effect, and I spend a fun few extra seconds just turning the lights on and off for kicks. It’s surprising how, in these virtual worlds, the simplest experiences are often the most compelling.

ZapBox – a Kickstarter-funded project from UK start-up Zappar – is proposing to leapfrog Microsoft (and everyone else) by making a MR equivalent of Google Cardboard
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Finally, I indulge in some “air finger painting” with their ZapBrush tool. And although this was nowhere near as slick as Tilt Brush, the potential is evident once they get around to refining colors, textures and templates properly. The main thing is that the 3D element worked flawlessly, and I could see my handiwork from all angles as I walked around the room, smugly avoiding the laptop bag I had left on the floor (something that surely would have sent me flat on my face had I been wearing the Vive).

There are certainly a few kinks yet to be ironed out; there’s a slight lag issue if you move around too quickly, and some design work on the controllers is needed to make them easier to self-assemble. There are also plans to fit a wide-angle adaptor for the phone camera lens that would allow it to continually scan for pointcodes without the need to keep your target area at the centre of your FOV. But the fact that this was supposed to be such an early Beta and that they felt confident in shipping to their 800+ current Kickstarter backers by April next year almost seems too good to be true.

ZapBox is proposing to give users a Mixed Reality experience for a hundredth of the HoloLens cost
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But it starts to make sense once you look at the company’s background. These are not newbies to this space, as Zappar has been experimenting with Augmented Reality and delivering commercial AR projects with a broad range of partners for the past 4 years. Their existing technology uses “zapcodes” (an evolution of bar/QR codes) to help devices recognize real-world objects and trigger interactions, and that is what they built on to create the pointcodes that make ZapBox MR possible.

Their ever-growing list of backers is a healthy mix of developers and consumers, and Taylor says that this is the main reason they decided to go for Kickstarter in the first place.

“It’s not about the money,” he said. “If we want to make this work as an ecosystem we need to build that community.”

In addition to the flat-packed headset and hand controllers, those first users will get access to ZapWorks Studio, which uses an integrated Javascript-based API and promises to be user-friendly, making it easy to develop original content for the device without a lot of assets or code. The SDK should work seamlessly with the latest generation of iOS and Android smartphones.

When I was a kid, I remember building a “computer” out of cardboard and sticky tape. Back then I had to rely on my imagination to make that work of course, so it’s funny how I lived to see the day where cutting-edge technology actually does work with cardboard in such interesting ways. And if Zappar succeeds in making this an affordable and intuitive entry-level device for Mixed Reality – and fostering an ecosystem that produces the content to make people want to use it – they could very well do for MR what Google Cardboard did for VR.

This article was originally published on UploadVR

.@ZapparApp is bringing a mixed reality experience for just $30. via @alicebonasio#AR#MRhttps://t.co/Q50UbqsmEmpic.twitter.com/dprweL6CtQ

— Upload (@UploadVR) November 29, 2016

Tech Trends’  Virtual Reality Consultancy services offers support for companies looking to enhance brand strategy with immersive technologies such as Virtual, Augmented and Mixed Reality

Alice Bonasio is a VR Consultant and Tech Trends’ Editor in Chief. She also regularly writes for Fast Company, Ars Technica, Quartz, Wired and others. Connect with her on LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post A Google Cardboard for Mixed Reality? Yes please! appeared first on Tech Trends.

The other day I confess to feeling rather stressed. Deadlines were building up, noisy building works rattled all around me, and I was moving house the following week. That constant tight feeling in my chest couldn’t be healthy, I figured, so I decided to do something about it.

I remembered that a while back I was regularly using this site called calm which offered bite-size meditation sessions. You got to choose a soothing background, the length of time you wanted to spend (from 3 to 30 minutes) and off you went. Somehow those 5 minutes managed to make a real difference, I felt all my knotty muscles relax, my breathing was no longer shallow and painful, and I came close to nodding off a few times. I REALLY needed that. It was one of those days.

Meditation apps like Calm can be helpful, but they need to be mindful of user experience
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But when I arrived on the site and pressed the familiar “begin” button, it did not take me to my happy place. It led me to a ginormous list of unfamiliar meditation options, and nowhere could I see my 5-minute quick fix. In desperation, I clicked on the “emergency calm” option. Seemed appropriate. Unfortunately, that linked to a page telling me I had to subscribe to one of the premium packages in order to access it. That felt sadistic.

there’s a time, a place and a way to try and extract money from people, and this wasn’t it
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Now far be it from me to deny anybody their 30 pieces of silver, we’ve all got to make a living, I suppose, but frankly, there’s a time, a place and a way to try and extract money from people, and this wasn’t it.

This felt a bit like that episode of Black Books where Bill Bailey’s character Manny desperately seeks The Little Book of Calm to alleviate his panic attack (he ends up swallowing it to hilarious results, but I won’t spoil it in case you haven’t seen it yet)

Like Manny, I persisted, and eventually managed to find a few options which were still subscription-free. Bingo! Surely these were the original ones I remembered? I didn’t want anything fancy. No seven-day program, no “non judgment” meditation. Just my five minutes of mindfulness.

Finally, I spot it. Timed, guided meditations. I choose 5 minutes and prepare to be rescued. This is going to be good. I earned it. Soon, I will be hearing the familiar gentle voice… No I won’t. The British one has been replaced by an American.

My familiar, soothing guided voice had suddenly changed accents
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Don’t get me wrong, I’ve got nothing against American voices, but as a rule, they are better suited for action rather than relaxation. Maybe that’s just me, but I had also got used to the other voice, and this felt like a final betrayal.

My Calm fiasco illustrates the pitfalls start-ups face when monetising their product
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I skulked away, much more stressed than when I started. To me, this perfectly illustrates the pitfalls companies face when monetising their product. The very thing that people love most can become repulsive if you just randomly shove it behind a paywall. Managing user expectations and gently guiding them towards becoming paid subscribers is hard.

The very thing that people love most can become repulsive if you just randomly shove it behind a paywall
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For better of for worse we’ve grown used to having things for free. Tech companies have to either find a way to make us love their product so much we naturally feel we should be paying for it, or they have to figure out how to use our data to make money – an equally unattractive option to many users as reaching into their pockets.

For better of for worse we’ve grown used to having things for free
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I don’t have an easy answer to that. If I did, I’d probably be much richer – and less stressed… In the meantime you could always try out some of these tips from Health Ambition on ways to relax, all of which take less than 5 minutes, so worth a go!

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