Michelle da Silva
Weed VR’s augmented reality app allows users to have an interactive experience with virtual bud through their mobile phones.
Toronto’s Weed VR launches technology that will allow consumers to virtually touch and smell weed products online – getting a real high from the experience is still unfortunately out of reach.
For anyone who has ever been intimidated about walking into a shop to buy some bud, you may never have to – at least not physically.
Weed VR, a virtual reality dispensary for cannabis, is expected to drop before legalization in October.
Toronto-based Occupied VR launched the platform on 4/20 last year. In June, Weed VR – which stands for Weed Virtual Retail – was acquired by Biome Grow, a new company that owns Highland Grow, a licensed producer in Nova Scotia.
And the idea of creating a virtual library of the company’s strains was born.
“Eventually, our business plan is to start scanning other company’s products and provide those data sets as embeddable content on their websites,” says Fezz Stenton, creator of Weed VR and technical director at Occupied VR.
So far, Occupied VR has scanned and processed one of Biome Grow’s strains. It takes several hours to take thousands of photos of a single bud in order to create a 3-D model and then a highly-detailed virtual rendering of the object.
At a launch party at a Bay Street pub last week, nearly 100 attendees – mostly well-heeled Biome Grow business investors – were able to put on a VR headset (they used the Oculus) to try out Weed VR’s beta for themselves.
Using hand-held controllers, you can pick up the virtual bud, examine it from all angles and further inspect it using a magnifying glass. At the top of the viewfinder is a floating menu with information on the THC and CBD content of the strain, its scent and taste profiles, as well as its typical effects when consumed.
Part of the appeal for consumers purchasing at dispensaries has been the ability to touch and smell the product they’re considering buying.
But that won’t be allowed under new federal regulations, and especially not in Ontario where a government-run monopoly will be overseeing the sale of cannabis.
“You can’t actually look at, touch or smell the product before you buy it due to regulations,” says Stenton. “There are huge barriers that make it not a very compelling experience for anyone.”
Part of Weed VR’s appeal, especially for cannabis connoisseurs, is the “try before you buy” aspect, which you can’t currently get online with LPs, whose products you can only buy through the mail.
,
Source: Now