Sandra Bergmeir, Solutions Architect, WorldViz
Interviewed by Saana Häkkinen on behalf of Stereoscape
WorldViz is the industry leader in turnkey interactive visualisation and simulation solutions and provides world leading Virtual Reality expertise and unparalleled immersive visualisation experiences. Stereoscape is part of the WorldViz reseller network and we had the pleasure of talking with Sandra Bergmeir, Solutions Architect from Worldviz about the future of Virtual Reality (VR).
How do you see Virtual Reality can be used in business sector?
This depends highly on the type of business. But basically anything that can be supported or improved by a visual representation or simulation can benefit from VR. Product development and design reviews, maintenance and safety training, customer presentations, sales events and so on and so forth.
What kind of use cases do you have in business sector?
I think I mentioned the general ones above. Training I believe is one of the biggest parts. Also, a lot of construction and architecture as well as hospital design.
How much Virtual Reality is used at the moment in business sector?
The business sector is slowly starting to pick up on it. So far companies often don’t realize the business value of VR. That’s where we have to come in and help them understand.
What are the best ways to utilise Virtual Reality in companies?
I think the huge advantage of VR over all other types of visualisation is the immersion and full-scale models. Using VR in the design and development process can greatly improve and therefore shorten processes. It can help teams consisting of different people (like designers, engineers, executives and other stakeholders) can now communicate on the same level. This will save time and money!
What kind of cases are the most common for you in general?
We still are mainly working in the academic sector mainly psychology, vision science and neuroscience. These sectors have been using VR for a long time now. They’ve helped improve the technology tremendously which the enterprise can profit from greatly.
How do you see the future will be for Virtual Reality and how it will be used?
I think VR can potentially improve many parts of our lives. I believe that mainly businesses will use VR in the future and potentially the entertainment sector. The next 5 years will hold great technological jumps and I’m excited to see what’s to come.
What Virtual Reality enables that other interactive solutions don’t provide?
The sense of presence and the ability to physically experience a computer generated environment in a fairly natural way is VRs great advantage. It’s different to watch a movie or interact with a 2d or even 3d screen compared to actually being somewhere else.