“VR, AR and Mixed Reality – Supporting Technology and Business Applications” was the theme of the 90th Tech Day, held in partnership with the University of Trás-os-Montes-e-Alto-Douro (UTAD) at the Altice Labs facilities in Aveiro.
The keynote, provided by Leonel Morgado from Universidade Aberta, presented not only the historical evolution of virtual reality and augmented reality (VR / AR), but also clarified the different perspectives and needs that will ensure the evolution of these themes which hopefully, among other improvements, will bring devices that are less intrusive and more suitable to natural interaction.
In order to illustrate how research around VR has been done, Maximino Bessa, from UTAD, was the next speaker and responsible for the presentation of MASSIVE, a multisensory virtual reality laboratory of INESC TEC located in Vila Real and coordinated by himself, whose assets were widely explained, namely through some projects and ongoing activities.
The following presentations, focused on practical cases, brought to the session the business vision and the new opportunities of practical and commercial use of these technologies. Luís Agrellos from Gema Digital and Herlander Santos from Altice Labs presented and demonstrated MEO Go VR, the new MEO application that transports users to a technologically advanced MEO living room where they can view their favorite channels on one giant screen as well as the best 360º videos of the SIC, FTV, SyFy, Clubbing TV and History channels, in a totally immersive experience. During this presentation there was still opportunity for the audience to try this application. Finally, Rui Guedes from Ground Control Studios showed what his Startup has been doing in this area and in the strong growth that VR / AR solutions have been experiencing.
After the exhibition moments, a panel discussion was moderated by Hugo Paredes, from UTAD. During the debate, which was lively, with great participation from the audience, it became clear that these technological areas are evolving at a fast pace and that there are many business opportunities, with experts’ estimates pointing to values over 100 billion euros for the next 4 years. Some specific cases were addressed, which mainly demonstrated the potential of gains in professional domains through the use of AR and the importance of VR in obtaining customer engagement. It was also highlighted the opportunity and importance of a collaboration between the Academy and Industry.