For months, technology mavens have been trumpeting that 2016 is the year of virtual reality. From McDonald’s to The New York Times, companies hoping to cash in on VR represent the who’s huge of both established industry and emerging innovation.
But even as products like Occulus Rift and Google Cardboard pop up ever more frequently in the popular lexicon, the VR status quo is far from stable. Ask someone on the street about the reality of virtual reality, and you’re bound to get a host of disparate responses that link VR to everything from video games and clunky headsets to the stuff of a science fiction novel.
Virtual reality in Chicago?
While Chicago isn’t exactly known for its contributions to VR (or its siblings, augmented reality and gaming engines), there are some local tech companies wetting their feet in VR’s virtual swimming pools.
One of those companies,
, said the VR status quo remains one of its biggest competitors.
From a VR perspective, InContext Solutions occupies a unique position. Launched in 2009, the company provides 3D, virtual renderings of in-store experiences that allow brands to test their concepts before bringing them to a brick-and-mortar store. Their flagship product, ShopperMX, leans on VR and gaming technology to help enterprise companies ensure an engaging customer experience.
“You’ve got highly realistic images in front of you that allow your brain to make the leap, but it really isn’t virtual reality as people expect it today,” said co-founder and CTO Tracey Wiedmeyer. “There's some confusion there even within the industry. We’re trying to help our clients understand the difference.”
VR meets Gaming meets Walmart
The company’s platform leverages elements of various up-and-coming technologies — like gaming engines, cloud computing, and data analytics — to produce a VR-experience tailor-made for the enterprise.
“If you launch a game engine ... you're catering to a specific audience for things like particle effects, smoke, and explosions,” Wiedmeyer said. “Those are things you use in games that don’t really apply to someone using that gaming platform for a B2B offering. We understood very early in the process what we needed and didn’t need so we could focus on what we had to build from scratch.”
It’s an uncommon application of nascent technology, particularly in the Midwest. Many newer VR or gaming companies lack public- or client-facing content altogether, and most that do have long since settled on one of the coasts.
Wiedmeyer said his company — one that’s had digital content in the works for nearly 10 years — has a leg up on many younger companies because they lead with content, instead of the other way around. Now, he said, they can focus on what the user experience and display look like, using the tech of today (and tomorrow) to stay ahead of the pack.
“3D virtual technology, gaming technology, CPU, service CPU — all these things that are accelerating from a technical standpoint make it easier and easier for our competitors to leapfrog us if we don’t continue to push the boundaries.”
Pushing boundaries, indeed. He said that this year, his tech and product team is hard at work in a number of areas, including creating a mobile app for their current platform. But they’re also working on broader VR tech, too, like room-scale VR (which helps bring physical movement and space into the equation) and tech that allows multiple people to enter a virtual space who aren’t necessarily in the same physical space.
Against the status quo
Today, the entire team sits around 90 — of which, about 35 are product and engineer team members Wiedmeyer oversees. Finding the perfect fit in Chicago can be difficult, he said, because many game developers that once called Chicago home have moved on to other markets.
But Wiedmeyer doesn’t look strictly at skill sets, because much of what a developer needs to be successful can be taught. Instead, he looks more for unteachable characteristics (like passion, transparency, a knack for collaboration and a tendency to ignore status quo) that align with the company’s overall culture.
That culture, he said, is critical for the success of their mission.
“We’re trying to bridge the gap and contribute to areas of the market we can continue to disrupt and really have a strategic advantage in terms of the IP we’ve built,” he said.
Images via InContext Solutions.
Have a tip for us or know of a company that deserves coverage? Shoot us an email or follow us on Twitter @BuiltInChicago.
.jpg)
