Kevin Wall, entrepreneur, producer, and co-founder of Dreamscape Immersive (Photo by Scott Gries/Getty Images For Tribeca Film Festival)
Ten years ago, a little voice whispered in producer and entrepreneur Kevin Wall’s ear about Facebook, and he got in before the IPO, giving him the resources to dream big dreams. When Wall heard that voice again, it was whispering about the transformative potential of virtual reality. He made a point of visiting everyone and trying everything the could access, including free roam VR pioneer, The Void, headquartered in Salt Lake, which Wall visited on his way to the Sundance Film Festival in 2016.
Free Roam VR uses backpack computers, head mounted displays, and arrays of sensors for complex real time motion capture, to fully immerse the user in a digital world, where they are free to roam and interact. The Void, whose system also includes mixed reality elements like haptic vests, wind, and theatrical set pieces, created the Ghostbusters VR attraction at Madame Tussaud’s in New York, and just opened a flagship center in Salt Lake City. Zero Latency of Australia has a growing number of centers in Asia (Australia, Tokyo), Europe (Madrid) and the US (Orlando) and just announced area development deals for Boston and Philadelphia, along with a major project in Dubai.
Here are my recent Forbes posts about The Void and Zero Latency.
The February, 2016, Sundance VR Forum featured a demonstration of a free roam system from a team from Geneva, Switzerland, Artanim. Wall saw in them what other experiences lacked. “You’re completely present,” Wall told me in an interview with co-founder Walter Parkes last week. “You have arms and legs, and a body. You can touch and shake hands. You can pick up a torch and pass it, or throw it.”
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Source: Forbes