Since 2006, Atlanta-based Trick 3D, a high-end animation studio, has been wowing clients and consumers alike with its 3D and virtual reality animation for the likes of Delta Air Lines and that pesky Elf on the Shelf. Now, the company is turning its attention to a much larger audience—real estate developers and the millions of people who purchase pre-sold units form them every year.

At last week’s SXSW, the company launched Floorplan Revolution, which allows real estate developers to turn 2D floorplans into 3D, virtual model homes, which can help in marketing pre-build condos and apartments. Trick 3D didn’t invent the virtual show home; that’s been around for a while now. What it revolutionizes is the time, money and resources it takes to create one. According to Trick 3D founder Chad Eikhoff, after uploading a 2D floorplan to its cloud-based tool, developers can have a link to the virtual model home back within 48 hours at a special launch price (through March) of $950 per floorplan. The virtual model home can be viewed with developer-specific finishes and appliances, furnished and unfurnished, and in day and night lighting.

In developing the tool—a process that started in 2007 and later picked up in 2012 once the real estate market crashed and rebounded—Eikhoff looked at what else was out there. “A lot of people were trying to recreate a video game style, but what we found was that’s actually a very frustrating way to move around a space,” he says. “We created a very simple navigation that works across browsers, across platforms, loads quickly and is easy to use.”

Most of the process is scripted—walls, doors and windows get built automatically, but real, live people still create the initial design. Even though Eikhoff says the response to the launch has been overwhelming, the tool was built to be scalable, and so he doesn’t anticipate needing to hire additional staff.

Since its founding, Trick 3D has grown organically. “Always up and never down,” Eikhoff says of his staff, which numbers about 20 people, including a handful of freelancers.

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The immersive sense of reality that virtual reality (VR) gives a user under the headware seems so real. And according to Dr. Jeremy Bailenson, founder of Stanford’s Virtual Human Interaction Lab, the human brain’s inability to differentiate the real from the VR experience is something to take advantage of. But let’s forget about gaming for a minute. Bailenson spoke to the members of Entrepreneurs’ Organization (EO) Nashville last week about VR applications that may not be widely known now, but that could be useful for society soon.

Bailenson is co-founder of STriVR Labs, the immersive athletic training company that won Sports Illustrated’s 2015 Innovation of the Year and that Charisse Lambert talked about in her first #DigitalPPG column for Startup Southerner. While Balienson told the crowd that he certainly loves working with that product, which has made its way into both Division I football teams’ and NFL practice routines, much of his research projects have a different client in mind—society.

In a “mistake-free” VR experience, Bailenson explained that training for certain scenarios could be done repeatedly without facing any real dangers. There are now training simulations for natural disaster situations like earthquakes. The likelihood that someone would remember the procedure from reading a manual is low, while having gone through all the motions and emotions of being in one via VR is unforgettable—without requiring an actual earthquake to have the experience.

Likewise, Bailenson, a trained psychologist, broadened the scope of such workplace training to include one that addressed diversity. With the basis of the training grounded in empathy, a major tenet of contact hypothesis, he created a VR simulation for Cisco that allowed the user to see himself as someone of a different skin color, or in a different physical condition. The user would then experience this “world” as that person he saw in the VR mirror. The results from the initial study and actual implementation of the program in a work setting showed much higher understanding of the training by those who experienced it.

Bailenson also has developed similar modules that help reduce ageism via empathy that is hard to have when one can’t quite experience a different age in real life.

Bailenson’s mission to changing behavior by utilizing VR to bridge the gap also has led him to products that help the user understand what deforestation is like, without actually having to cut down trees to prove a point. Their testing showed that users who experienced the VR deforestation were more likely to purchase toilet paper made of recycled material. His studies that tested VR users’ ability to build self-efficacy, often in health-related cases, were equally intriguing.  

This idea of a mistake-free environment is intriguing, but what will happen once the human brain begins to be able to distinguish the real from the virtual? For now, VR’s capabilities are here to help solve the current issues in the world that require an urgent solution. 

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#DigitalPPG is a recurring column by Charisse Lambert, a writer specializing in the convergence of sports, tech, and urban brand campaigns.

How we watch sports is about to change in a major way. And at the heart of that transformation is a familiar gaming technology—virtual reality. What was once seen as fantasy, VR technology has quickly entered the sports world, and is changing the way coaches conduct practice and train players. It is also enhancing the fan experience by allowing an all-access approach to fans’ favorite sports teams, enabling the masses to experience what only a limited number might otherwise enjoy.

STriVR Labs, which stands for Sports Training in Virtual Reality, is a leader in the sports VR space. The company’s client list includes at least six NFL teams and even more college teams, including Arkansas, Auburn, Vanderbilt and Clemson. Video is shot on a 360-degree camera cluster atop a lightweight tripod, which is placed alongside selected players in practice. The video is uploaded to a VR database, where it can be viewed through an Oculus Rift headset.

The benefits of using VR technology is not lost on many who play contact sports like football, where injuries are an inevitable part of the game and head trauma has become a part of the public conversation. Programs are venturing into virtual reality as a perfect step forward in the world of athletic training. Because the mind has no way of distinguishing between a real situation and one generated by the technology, it is the ideal means of supplementing work on the field, on the court, on the ice, to further a player’s skill development and knowledge of the game. What virtual reality brings to the table is the ability to let athletes practice without stepping on the field, increasing reps while minimizing injuries.

At present, virtual reality is a high-end product that comes at significant expense. But that will likely change—as soon as this year. In the same ways that the earliest high definition tech wasn’t yet completely streamlined when networks began to switch to HD, we are still in the infancy of VR and the headsets on the market have yet to be perfected. But as companies like Samsung develop smaller, more comfortable VR wearables, many predict that the technology will see a boom similar to that of HD in the early 2000s.

And as the price point drops, look for the interest from teams and leagues in monetizing virtual reality to continue to skyrocket. The NBA made history on opening night this season when it became the first major sports league to offer a live-streamed version of a game in virtual reality. NASCAR and the NFL both have been in experimental stages with using the technology to stream events. Recently, FOX Sports began collaborating with company NextVR to bring live VR coverage of the Premier Boxing Champions (PBC) matches. And there was even the recent announcement from CNET founder Halsey Minor of a virtual reality network launching in the second quarter of this year that will focus on sports and music events.

It’s still early, but I am calling it: Viewing live sports via virtual reality will be the next big breakthrough on the sports broadcasting landscape. Mark it.

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