STARTUP SPECIAL ......................Virtual is the New Real

Virtual is the New Real   SmartVizX, which banks on disruptive technologies, is using virtual reality in real estate and product design There's a new kid on the technology block, and it is beginning to take the world by storm. Facebook was among the first to place its bets on it over a year ago, and now Microsoft, Google, Sony, Samsung and HTC are fast following suit. If you love Star Wars and Mario Kart and have ever held a Wii controller or owned an Xbox console, then you probably know how real gaming can feel. Now imagine that world to be even more immersive -virtually real -so real that you begin to question reality itself. Virtual reality (VR) was one of those things that people talked about in the same breath as sci-fi and landing on the moon and it definitely tests the frontiers of our imagination. But today, it is becoming the new reality. Until now, VR technology has mainly been associated with the entertainment industry. If you've ever worn an Oculus Rift -that clunky VR headset which Palmer Luckey devised in his parent's ga rage in California in 2011 when he was just 18 and Facebook bought for $2 billion in 2014 -you'll know how magically real the virtual world can feel. Wired magazine reports that the Rift's sleeker beta version was a big hit at last month's annual Electronic Entertain ment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles and is all set to revolutionise the entertainment industry when it is launched in 2016. Since Facebook bet on VR, there have been other tech companies that have announced their own headsets at different price points to bring the metaverse -the VR universe -to life. But it's not the headset or gaming or even the magical nature of VR per se that's most exciting. It's the amazing, transformative applications of this virtu al reality in fields as diverse as travel, education, real estate, healthcare, product and furniture design, automotives and fashion that has made the world suddenly realise the unlimited and disruptive potential of gamification. Reforming Experiences This technology has the potential to upgrade user experience, making complicated, uninspiring content easier to understand by transforming it into a vivid, immersive experience. And VR practitioners, technologists, content producers and game developers are making VR technology more accessible and inclusive for a much larger population than the hyper-committed hardcore gamers. In India, an early mover in this area is a startup called SmartVizX founded by architects Tithi and Gautam Tewari, who began by using VR technology in realty and  product design. Their company has already executed projects using VR tech in design visualisation and architechture for clients in the of fice systems and furniture business, like Bangkok-based Rockworth and HNI Corp, the US's second largest office furniture manufacturer, while Indian online and mobile classifieds listing portal Quikr has been quick to integrate the value of their VR tools to upgrade its real estate listing business. Others, like Sotheby's, are also interested. “I am super excited about what SmartVizX is developing... You will soon see us implementing the technology ourselves,“ says Ashwin Chadha, president, North India, Sotheby's International Realty. But the SmartVizX founders understand that this technology goes way beyond real estate. “We want to master VR as a technology and not limit it to just architecture or any one industry,“ says Tewari, who also has a masters in construction management. “We want to become the maker of VR tools for enterprises.“ The two architects incorporated SmartVizX on January 2015, spinning it off from a creative architecture and interior design consulting firm they had earlier started together in August 2014.SmartVizX has already hired 6 programmers and 8 artists which make up their 14-member team of game developers. The company took the initiative to invest in two Oculus Rift development kits that Facebook was preselling only to tech companies. With this, the team has already created three VR tools -Viviz for virtually immersive visualisation, Codew for collaborative design work and Archviz for architechtural visualisation. “So you'll be able to see, on current date, the view from your future balcony 5 years, 10 years down the line as accurately as possible,“ says Ashwadh Bollini, employee number three at the startup. Bollini moved from Chennai to Delhi to join the founders and holds a masters in game technology. Virtual Property But if you think Viviz is useful and fun, you're going to love what Archviz does. With this tool, which is offline and must be customised, you can not only walk inside your future home, up the stairs, down the corridor, through to the kitchen, looking up to see the ceiling and down to see the floor and all 360 degrees around; you can also, with one click, change the floor from white marble to shining granite or natural wood, change the lights, the color of the walls, add paneling or wallpaper, even set up your furniture, dress it up exactly how you want it. This really means that you can visit your dream flat before it even comes into actual existence, and ensure that the final `real' flat ends up being exactly as you dreamed it. So, no more getting taken in by builders and developers promising you the stars and delivering on barely 50% of their promises. “To be able to virtually buy before really buying, how cool is that!“ says Sravani Elango, an electronics and communications engineer with the company. This tool is like a virtual broker who can actually walk potential buyers through the final property before it even comes into existence. Additionally, builders, developers as well as ecommerce platforms can now take the property right upto the buyer, rather than the other way around. Unable to resist the chance of trying the Oculus Rift, this writer went to the SmartVizX office, where the quintessentially young startup team milled around, adjusting the Rift visor and describing the process. One can walk through several virtual rooms, changing flooring, ceiling and lights at will, climbing virtual stairs, looking out of windows and checking for views and experiencing, not imagining, what “eastfacing“ re ally felt like. “You can experience what this room will look like in morning sunlight, afternoon day light and in the evening sun,“ explained Chandan Singh, SmartVizX's resident  VR gaming expert, who has a diploma in animation and filmmaking. “The tool is able to build complex models and environments and engage with them immersively through this technology,“ he added. Imagine the next generation of this when coders and developers can add sensory and olfactory elements like heat, wind, mist and the smell of the garbage dump hidden below the fancy apartment! (US companies like Vapor Communications and Scentee are already working on how to allow scent to become part of digital messaging.) SmartVizX is getting more attention than it had bargained for. Earlier this month, at a NASSCOM “Start Up Konnect“ event which says it “connects founders and startup rockstars with investors through a walktheplank pitch challenge to calibrate their ideas and maximise poten tial“ and a Young Turks Conclave hosted by a television company, the VR tech startup got noticed by several investors, many of whom initiated contact with the founders later asking if they needed funding. They do but like several new-age entreprenuers in today's overheated entrepreneurial ecosystem, they are in the enviable position of being able to choose their investors. Detailed Descriptions “We are being circumspect about where we get our funding from because we want to partner with the right profile of investors, someone who will bring in intellectual capital and domain expertise, apart from just money,“ says Tithi, SmartVizX director. Tithi is the design brain be hind the company, the de tail oriented counterpart to Tewari's big picture dreams. “Market adviser DigiCapital says that that VR and its cousin, augmented reality (which overlays animations on the real world via special glasses) could lead to a $150 billion market by 2020,“ says Tewari and that is what SmartVizX is aiming to get a piece of. However, for now, both the founders are focussing on product design and real estate projects. “We provide detailed, 360 degree rich representations of real world properties through VR. We want to create high quality design virtualisation and disrupt current visualisation techniques through cutting edge gaming and VR techniques.Our walkthroughs are completely  interactive and immersive, transporting you into future homes, businesses and aspirations,“ says Tithi. “What they're building is clearly disruptive. A gamechanger. And what they've got going for them is that they're a good team, technology-wise they're solid and are getting customers. Plus, they're passionate about what they do...it's a great combo.Everything is right in the DNA,“ says Rajat Tandon, vice president NASSCOM and currently leading its 10,000 startups initiative. “They're currently at an inflexion point.The next step is scaling,“ adds Tandon, pointing out that the company will need to file for IPRs as all this is very new. “I was amazed to see how they've set out to change the game completely by bringing in gaming and VR technologies to solve the age old problems that plague our industry.I'm confident that it can disrupt the way this industry currently works,“ says Chakrit Vorachacreyanan, Rockworth president and executive director. If SmartVizX was earlier modelling itself on Magic Leap, the Florida-based Google-funded VR -a startup which has been working in stealth mode -it has finetuned its business model now, more along the lines of California -based WorldViz. “Actually, we're aiming to be better than that,“ says Tewari, with the typical optimism of a young entreprenuer. “We are hardware and platform agnostic, which means you can get our tools on mobile, tablet, laptop, PCs, web. “ He is confident that dynamic and real time visualisation can be downloaded on ordinary Indian internet connections in fairly high graphic quality. “They've got the right spirit,“ adds Tandon. So whats the catch? First, like any other startup, the company needs to navigate some standard pitfalls. It needs precise and focussed execution of its business plan and needs to continuously build and upgrade high quality VR products and service to world class standards and keep abreast with new technology. It can't afford to lose its focus, startup culture and momentum. It also needs to choose its partners and investors carefully, and keep its customers satisfied. More circumspect investors feel that companies like SmartVizX, which bank on disruptive technologies are sometimes ahead of their time, because there's a lag until existing companies understand and convert to new technology. However, at the same time, once the technology is being widely adopted, the market may quickly get populated with competitors, especially once the Oculus and others begin retailing. Although SmartVizX has the domain knowledge in building and design, VR technology is open source, so other areas are a free for all, all they have is a first mover advantage. Furthermore, the technology itself has its naysayers as well, with motion sickness being the top complaint.But if it can sidestep these issues, the sky is the limit.

Jyoti Pande Lavakare

ETM 2AUG15