Vancouver Archives - Tech Trends

VR Minecraft – But Not As You Know It

Alice — Wed, 11 Jul 2018 04:03:34 +0000

From animal anatomy to digital twinning and mining simulations, this Canadian company is bringing game development know-how to immersive experiences

After meeting Charles Lavigne and Kevin Oke at the BCTECH Summit last month, we were enticed to visit their headquarters in the beautiful island of Victoria and try out their latest VR demos. But it wasn’t just the prospect of the beautiful seaplane ride from Vancouver that hooked us, but the fact that the Oke and Lavigne, after working for over a decade in the videogame industry with companies such as Microsoft, EA, and Ubisoft founded LlamaZOO to apply that experience to producing what sounded like an incredibly eclectic range of VR applications.

MineLife VR, for example, manages to synthesize large, complex, and vast spatial data into a life-sized, interactive, virtual reality experience. The platform fuses complex geospatial and mine planning data into an interactive, 1:1 scale virtual reality replica of the planned, current, and future states of a mine site.

MineLife VR manages to synthesize large, complex, and vast spatial data into a life-sized, interactive, virtual reality experience
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“It enables mining companies’ engineers, executives, and external stakeholders to immerse themselves in a mine plan, and interact with it through all the years of its life cycle from any angle, whether thousands of feet up in the air, or down on the ground, virtually walking through the mine site,” explains Lavigne.

This mining VR tools is fantastically flexible and enables you to fly and move around an accurately mapped countryside while adding and removing layers of info like roads, waterways, mining trucks, current installations and geographic data, letting you see the actual size and position of underground mineral deposits to enable the planning of surface infrastructure as well as below ground extraction techniques.

This mining VR tools is fantastically flexible and enables you to fly and move around an accurately mapped countryside while adding and removing layers of info like roads and waterways
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“By making this information easier and more efficient to access, transporting the data into high resolution 3D, and unifying it all into a seamless experience, it can be used in a variety of applications across community relations, resource management, mine planning and reclamation, and business development,” adds Oke.

By making this information easier and more efficient to access, transporting the data into high resolution 3D, and unifying it all into a seamless experience, it can be used in a variety of applications
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The sheer scale of it felt extremely impressive, as was their management of the VR sickness factor as I flew around into the air to drop down a mine hundreds of feet below. This was done by a nifty trick where as you flew around, your peripheral field of view moved in and blacked out a little, much like blinkers on a horse. It worked surprisingly well.

Key to this functionality is the concept of 3D “digital twinning” which turns companies’ existing data into a highly visual, remotely accessible, and real-time visualization. Digital twins are ideal for overseeing and optimizing machine, equipment, personnel, and site-wide operations. With Clarity 3D LlamaZoo can provide a wide range of their mining clients with centralized real-time tracking of equipment and vehicle positioning, health, and productivity, as well as planned vs. actual dig progress.

Key to this functionality is the concept of 3D digital twinning
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“They can avoid unplanned maintenance by remotely monitoring machine and equipment health and data and gain centralized data oversight by integrating any number of datasets into one centralized interface,” says Oke. The platform enables users to visualize the digital twin’s real-time and historic data, drill-down for detailed information on any part, machine, or process, and provide immersive cost-saving training.”

But as a pet owner the most fascinating experience they showed off was EasyAnatomy, an award-winning 3D canine anatomy study & reference app with Apple ARKit Augmented Reality functionality. It was built in partnership with leading universities and anatomists using MRI and CT data as source files, it features incredibly accurate and complete 3D canine anatomy linked to over 750 adaptive quiz questions. It has so far been adopted by veterinary students, professors, and professionals in over 120 countries.

“While textbooks present anatomical structures in 2D images, the VR app enables users to visualize the anatomy in lifelike 3D. EasyAnatomy enables endlessly repeatable dissection practice unlike cadaver dissection, which is complicated by ethical challenges, significant costs to universities, and limits students’ opportunities for study,” explains Lavigne.

As a pet owner the most fascinating experience they showed off was EasyAnatomy, a 3D canine anatomy study & reference app
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The veterinary app has been so successful, in fact, that the company is now working on a human anatomy version, as more medical schools are embracing immersive training in recognition of its greater effectiveness, specially in fields such as surgery and healthcare training.

This article was originally published on VRScout

Ever Wonder What The Inside Of A Dog Looks Like? There’s An AR App For That via @alicebonasio https://t.co/j5BmOwIrr8 pic.twitter.com/xgIMFxIkHL

— VRScout (@VRScout) June 20, 2018

For companies looking to leverage Immersive technologies such as VR/AR/MR/XR Tech Trends offers a comprehensive range of Virtual Reality Consultancy Services.

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 VR Minecraft – But Not As You Know It appeared first on Tech Trends.

B.C. Means Business

Tom — Fri, 25 May 2018 10:16:11 +0000

Tech Trends was in beautiful Vancouver for #BCTECHSummit the largest tech conference in Western Canada.

To steal a phrase from CNN’s cheeky wonder, Richard Quest, B.C. Means Business. Last week Tech Trends travelled to Vancouver for #BCTECHSummit 2018 and found a thriving state with a vibrant tech & start-up scene like few others.

I've rarely encountered a place where entrepreneurs, government and educators all see the future so clearly, and for Vancouver that future is tech
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Tech Trends travelled to Vancouver for #BCTECHSummit 2018 and found a thriving state with a vibrant tech & start-up scene like few others
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Think of Canadian industry and you might picture forestry, mining, oil and gas. And you wouldn’t be wrong, but I was genuinely surprised to find that British Columbia’s biggest sector is actually technology. The tech ecosystem of BC is booming and isn’t showing any signs of slowing down. Built for the World’s Fair Expo in 1986 the Vancouver Convention Centre hangs over the harbour and this year hosted almost 9,000 participants for nearly a dozen conference-related events over three days. 3,000 delegates connected with over 270 exhibitors and watched more than 200 speakers highlighting the transformations technology is driving across all industries and its impact on how we work, live and play.

Think of Canadian industry and you might picture forestry, mining, oil and gas and you wouldn’t be wrong but I was genuinely surprised to find that British Columbia’s biggest sector is already Tech
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“There is no better indication of the robust and dynamic state of B.C.’s tech industry than this event—which has touched a record number of people for a third straight year,” said Shirley Vickers, President & CEO of Innovate B.C. which delivered the event in partnership with the Government of B.C. “The #BCTECH Summit is where industry meets innovation, and the significant involvement of technology leaders, investors, senior government officials, students, researchers and business executives in every industry shows an unquenched thirst for innovation and collaboration in this province.”

To support the growth of the Tech sector and boost engagement across this enormous state B.C. is undertaking infrastructure projects on a scale that would have the UK government quaking in its boots and looking for the exit. The Connected Coast project will bring new or improved high-speed Internet access to 154 rural and remote coastal communities, including 56 indigenous communities – representing 44 First Nations – along the B.C. coast from north of Prince Rupert, to Haida Gwaii, south to Vancouver, and around Vancouver Island. The ambition of this new sub-sea network is immense and plans to place over 3,400 km of subsea fibre-optic cable, stretching from Prince Rupert south to Vancouver, then around Vancouver Island. In total, it is estimated that the project has the potential to benefit 175,000 British Columbians, living in 90,000 households.

To support the growth of the Tech sector and boost engagement across this enormous state B.C. is undertaking infrastructure projects on a scale that would have the UK government quaking in its boots
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Access to reliable high-speed Internet and cell phone service means that residents will be able to access online learning and health services, emergency notifications, news and participate in online discussions
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The impact of the project and the opportunities it will provide to these communities will be enormous. Access to reliable high-speed Internet and cell phone service means that residents will be able to access online learning and health services, emergency notifications, news and participate in online discussions and sharing. It will also open new economic development opportunities for residents who will be able to work remotely and participate in e-commerce and online business development.

Science is awesome! Let’s teach STEAM, not STEM, Art adds creativity, an important part of the puzzle @brentbushnell #BCTECHSummit @bcic pic.twitter.com/Jy63HAYO43

— TechTrends (@techtrends_tech) May 16, 2018

The Connected Coast project is only one of multiple infrastructure projects B.C. is undertaking to help grow the local Tech sector and an excellent selection of speakers, sessions and panels featuring global thought leaders, explored the importance of Tech to the future of society and launched new initiatives and funding packages while celebrating the thriving Tech community already in Vancouver. Conference highlights included:

• 150 investors that represent $225B in capital watched 45 of B.C.’s most promising startups pitch in the Investment Showcase.
• Approximately 2,000 high school students participated in Youth Innovation Day to learn about the jobs of the future and a career in tech.
• Over 220 B2B Meetings were matched between 38 technology buyers with 98 local technology solution providers.
• Delegates from 16 countries and four continents complemented a strong international presence of companies including Title Sponsor Microsoft, Google Cloud, Lululemon, Amazon, Blue Origin, Lyft, Lockheed Martin, Sage, WeWork, LinkedIn, Salesforce, IBM and RBC.
• Premier John Horgan announced tech and innovation investments including over $102.6 million in funding for 75 research projects in B.C. and $10.5 million for entrepreneurial training for post-secondary students.

The Connected Coast project is only one of multiple infrastructure projects B.C. is undertaking to help grow the local Tech sector
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Tech is the foundation of our future! @jjhorgan
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Access to education was another strong theme of the summit and for the third year in a row, Youth Innovation Day was at full capacity with over 2,000 Grade 10–12 students attending the second day of #BCTECHSummit. There were also plans to use the new Internet infrastructure to reach out to native communities and in line with current reconciliation projects the First Nations Technology Council will offer remote first nation communities the possibility of entry-level technology-focused learning opportunities to ensure Indigenous people are competitive in the technology and innovation sector. Everyone will benefit from British Columbia’s support of this booming sector and as the Premier of B.C. the Hon. John Horgan said, “Tech is the foundation of our future” @jjhorgan True Dat!

What a location for the #BCTECHSummit closing bash! Yes, in the big ball thing! Congrats to @bcic and everyone involved for a truly excellent Tech Summit in glorious #Vancouver pic.twitter.com/ohBgNRSXAn

— TechTrends (@techtrends_tech) May 17, 2018

Tom Atkinson is a Digital Producer & Photographer at R3Digital and Reviews & Dept. Editor at Tech Trends. Connect on LinkedIn and follow him on Twitter @R3Digital

The post B.C. Means Business appeared first on Tech Trends.

Beyond STEM and into STEAM: How We Need Creativity to Power Technology

Alice — Mon, 09 Jan 2017 12:33:12 +0000

We hear a lot about the digital skills gap and the need to get more kids interested in STEM – Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics but there’s a missing element in that line of thought, which more people are starting to notice.

We should be encouraging STEAM – in other words adding “Art’ (in its broadest sense) to that list because creativity is an essential ingredient of technological innovation. And like any other skill, it needs to be taught, developed and encouraged from an early age and throughout our lives.

In this Huffington Post article I talk to Creative Director Chris Waind from Canadian start-up Finger Food Studios (the company behind Sphero’s app and collaborative platform) about how designers and other professionals in the technology industry need to develop diverse skil-sets and embrace divergent thinking, and what he looks for when recruiting his own creative tech talent.

Creativity and Technology go together like a horse carriage
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There’s a general perception, often perpetuated by the structure of our education system, that science and the arts are somehow separate – even irreconcilable – entities. Far from being incompatible, however, there’s a growing recognition that creativity and logic actually work to augment one another. Humanity’s greatest achievements have, in fact, resulted from cross-disciplinary thinking and collaboration.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the technology sector, where successful start-ups such Airbnb, Uber and Deliveroo have disrupted entire industries, not through R&D breakthroughs, but by leveraging tech creatively and providing new solutions to existing problems. And the cornerstone of this type of product development is the integration of “Art” – meaning imaginative and intuitive thinking – into the logical, analytical and technical processes that form the core of the Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics curriculum. Hence the fact that we’re seeing a shift from STEM into STEAM both in education and in the workplace.

We’re seeing a shift from STEM into STEAM both in education and in the workplace.
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There’s a general perception, often perpetuated by the structure of our education system, that science and the arts are somehow separate
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That culture of creative learning and curiosity is something that robotics company Sphero has been extremely successful in fostering. Since starting out as Techstars graduates in 2010 the Colorado-based start-up has sold over a million of its programmable robots in over 80 countries and built a global community around its product.

Sphero owes its popularity not only to the endearing nature of its round robots, but to the amazing flexibility of the platform developed by their Canadian partners, Finger Food Studios. Their SPRK Lightning Lab app is platform agnostic and works with pretty much any device including Android, iOS, ChromeBooks, Amazon Fire, and Nook. It not only offers hundreds of ready-made hands-on activities, but caters for every level of ability simultaneously, without creating artificial or limiting silos. Complete beginners can start out by commanding their robots to perform simple tasks by using their mobile device (something as simple as drawing a path for the Sphero to follow, for example) and gradually engage in more complex activities as they gain confidence, using a block-based drag and drop interface, or eventually transitioning into writing text programming sequences in different coding languages.

Sphero owes its popularity not only to the endearing nature of its round robots, but to the amazing flexibility of the platform
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In spite of Sphero’s relatively high price point, they worked hard to avoid it becoming a “whitebread” product, explains Finger Food’s Creative Director Chris Waind. “We wanted it to work on legacy phones, not only because children were likely to be using hand-me-down models but because we wanted to get into inner city schools, so you could access it with a donated phone, for example.” That presented huge design challenges, not only with coping with smaller screens, but different specs and coding which required a dedicated QA team specifically testing and troubleshooting for those types of devices.

Waind says that building that platform was an incredibly ambitious and progressive project, and one that required his team to exercise their own creative skills through every stage of development. It began – like most projects at the company tend to – with one massive whiteboard session and a whole lot of “blue sky thinking,” setting out all the things they would ideally like to achieve.

“That board looked absolutely insane,” Waind recalls. We would have been happy to achieve a fraction of that, but the amazing thing is that we’ve since done most of what we envisaged on that day.”

Visualization is key to a lot of Finger Food’s projects (the company is currently developing cutting-edge Mixed Reality work for Fortune 500 clients) “Our designers and developers are often working to create things that are helping to visualize the data of the world,” says Waind, whose own fascination with the visual side of things was born from the challenges he faced growing up with dyslexia. At a time when most teachers still expected children to learn everything by rote, reading and writing was such a challenge he resorted to drawing everything, and this turned out to be a gift. “It meant I had a pretty good idea of what I wanted to do by the time I was eight. I failed in everything at school except Arts, Physics and English, and I firmly believe that this was due to having great teachers in those subjects.”

His story illustrates how important it is for both teachers and parents to support children’s learning in a flexible way in order to enable the development of their creative skillset. “My dad is an engineer, so from a very early age we were instilled with this curiosity about the way that things work, and were encouraged – much to my mum’s dismay – to look at any object and pull it to bits, see how it works, and try and put it together again.” He then goes on to say how his son inherited that same curiosity: “last night for our bedtime story we were basically reading manuals on compression cylinders and combustion engines, to make improvements to this technical LEGO set he was building” he tells me with a distinct note of pride in his voice.

But quite apart from all the fun, this “maker gene” is becoming an increasingly marketable skill in the digital economy, and is something that Waind looks for in recruiting for the fast-growing team at Finger Food: “Do you like to make things? That’s what usually determines whether someone will fit in here or not. We have this amazingly diverse team, but what unites us all is that every designer here is absolutely fascinated by how things work.”

The digital economy will demand that we integrate creativity in every aspect of learning and problem-solving throughout our lives
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Yet those skills are far from universally nourished and encouraged, even in current educational practices. Tests such as the Torrance Test of Creative Thinking (TTCT) which weigh factors such as fluency, originality and elaboration to measure children’s creative capacity have shown a worrying declining trend, prompting some commentators warn of a looming creativity crisis that could have serious impact on entrepreneurship.

CEOs acknowledge that creativity is a crucial success factor for their companies, yet to address the digital and creativity skills gap and equip children for the workplace of the future, we must do away with this artificial separation between “right brain and left brain.” The digital economy will demand that we integrate creativity in every aspect of learning and problem-solving throughout our lives.

From STEM to STEAM: How Science Needs Creativity to Flourish https://t.co/R4FV42C3SQ via @HuffPostBlog @Sphero… https://t.co/MhlbWBdYoW

— Alice Bonasio (@alicebonasio) January 8, 2017

For companies looking to get into VR/AR/MR our Virtual Reality Consultancy services offer guidance on how these technologies can enhance and support 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 LinkedIn and follow @alicebonasio and @techtrends_tech on Twitter.

The post Beyond STEM and into STEAM: How We Need Creativity to Power Technology appeared first on Tech Trends.