VR Together: experience everything virtually together

The solution? VR! Experience everything together in a virtual environment. How? The VR Together project makes this possible. Together with leading partners, TNO has created a new platform on which your 3D self can communicate virtually.

TNO takes next step in VR Together with partners

VR Together was a three-year collaboration between TNO and leading partners in the field of (immersive) virtual reality such as i2cat, CERTH, CWI, Viaccess-Orca, The Modern Cultural, MotionSpell and Artanim. It is a good example of the advanced solutions that can be created when TNO, universities and industry successfully join forces.

VR as a new basic need?

With VR Together, the project group is responding to the global need to be together and to communicate with each other in an almost lifelike way, regardless of borders and circumstances.

Imagine going to a virtual live concert together with your long-distance partner or your best friends. Or doing a live stand-up in your virtual office with the rest of your team working around the world. The possibilities are endless.

The role of TNO and partners in VR

Virtual reality has been around for a while. Besides TNO, parties like Facebook are working on applications in this field. Almost all players in this field see the enormous possibilities. However, the challenges so far have been too big to make it as popular and accessible as, for example, the smartphone.

VR Together removes an enormous barrier and provides the basis for a potentially popular service that addresses a basic need of people worldwide. Suddenly, the chance that the whole family will 'get on VR' is much greater.

This demonstrates the crucial role that TNO and partners play in giving promising technologies a push in the right direction.

A smile for the virtual bird

Giving people's avatars a true-to-life representation is a real challenge. TNO and partners have solved this by filming users with special cameras. They are then converted into a 3D photorealistic representation. The users see each other as in real life and can communicate with each other in a natural way.

Great opportunities for service providers

Lifelike 3D avatars that can communicate with each other is just the beginning. But a crucial beginning. The platform is now available for testing VR use cases and can even be converted into an end product by a service provider.

For which industries is virtual reality relevant?

There are plenty of great opportunities to build on the platform. Especially since the right pieces of the puzzle in terms of technology like 5G, revolutionary XR chips and increasingly affordable and portable hardware are becoming commonplace.

This makes it so suitable for use within the government, which benefits greatly from good, easily scalable communication. The entertainment industry, in turn, can use this to organise virtual live events where the audience can also see and hear each other. Service providers looking for the next generation of Unified Communication will discover a new service for business use.

VR: seizing opportunities together

Do you already have fomo? Or do you see the unprecedented opportunities that VR Together can offer? Then contact us.

Partners: i2CAT Foundation, The Modern Cultural Productions S.L., Artanim, Viaccess-Orca, Motion Spell, The Center for Research and Technology Hellas, Centrum Wiskunde & Informatica. This project is being funded by the European Commission as part of the H2020 programme - grant agreement no. 762111.