The Polish market of VR and AR technology suppliers is a new and dynamically developing industry that, just as the whole gaming sector, could be quite successful in the years to come. Currently, the Virtual Reality Market (VR) is performing better and better, and the global value of this segment has exceeded USD 20 billion.
From the beginning VR (virtual reality) and AR (augmented reality) technologies were perceived as tools for entertainment. However, this trend is already beginning to change significantly. In foreign markets, and more and more often on the Polish market, there are more suppliers of VR and AR solutions unrelated directly to gaming. The latest survey of Informa Tech, a company that organizes such industry events as XRDC (AR, VR & MR Innovation Conference), shows that 38% of the respondents work on projects of broadly understood entertainment not related to the game market. On the other hand, 33% of the respondents take part in projects related to the area of education.
VR changes the face of education
Many companies use VR as a training tool, to stimulate employee engagement, resulting in faster learning and memorisation. VR enables employees to learn through practical experience, increasing the quality of learning. PwC recently conducted a survey “The Effectiveness of Virtual Reality Soft Skills Training in the Enterprise”, where the respondents were newly hired managers from 12 locations in the US.
– They received the same integrative leadership training in one of three methods – in a regular training room, as e-learning and as v-learning. The study clearly showed that trainees memorised content four times faster with VR than managers learning in a traditional room. They were also more focused than e-learning course participants – explains Kamila Kowalska, CEO of VRinHR, that creates immersive solutions for HR and L&D departments.
The effectiveness of VR solutions is mainly related to the lack of distraction factors, such as open e-mails, conversations with communicators, which often happens in e-training. This was confirmed by simulations prepared by VRinHR, which have already been used, among others, by managers from PZU Group. – We see the potential of using VR especially during the employee recruitment process, on-boarding and training. – adds Kamila Kowalska.
They opt for platforms and integrations
On the Polish market there are already tools available to facilitate the creation of applications and content for VR, thus reducing the costs of building solutions from the realm of virtual reality, which so far have been treated as one of the main impeding factors in spreading of this technology. A Wrocław-based company FREAM, being a member of the national ITCorner cluster, has built an innovative platform for creating, storing and distributing VR content based on photos, 360 video and 3D visualizations.
– Deciding to create Evryplace, we assumed that VR is simply the next step in the evolution of human interaction with technology, and that it will quite quickly become a popular form of using electronic services, today available on computers, mobile devices or game consoles – says Grzegorz Jabłoński, President of the Management Board of Fream S.A. – However, adoption of new technology is a long process, so technology companies such as ours, apart from building solutions, must also educate the market – adds.
Building the Polish VR/AR ecosystem
Everyday education of the market is the task for the international organisation VRARA Association, which has opened its formal branch (chapter). VRARA is a global association of experts and companies dealing with virtual and augmented reality technology. The organization includes creators, product and content agencies, marketing and consulting agencies and corporations such as Microsoft, Lenovo, Amazon and Google.
– We work together for market education, networking and advocacy of the use of these technologies in business. We are a liason between Polish and foreign technological companies and a meeting place to exchange knowledge and experience – explains Krzysztof (Chris) Wróbel, president of VRARA Poland branch and CEO of Virbe Sp. z o.o. The ambition of VRARA Poland is to build a Polish ecosystem for the development of VR and AR technologies.
VR solutions for business and education
Kamila Kowalska from VRinHR, in turn, who is a chapter vice-president in the branch, notes that with the development of this technology, the costs of implementing VR have significantly decreased. Virtual and augmented reality is gaining popularity, that is why it is more accessible, and more and more innovative VR solutions for business, education and non-gaming entertainment are appearing on Poland’s market.
A public task co-financed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland within the competition “Public Diplomacy 2020 – a new dimension”.
