VR For Social Good
Interview with Trent Clews-de Castella, CEO Phoria
Melbourne-based Trent Clews-de Castella, CEO of PHORIA, is navigating the VR journey like a pro. 3D Tech Consultant turned Startup Co-Founder his team has visualised over 1,000 3D spaces since 2014- giving the Australian property industry a major upgrade and digitally immortalising artwork and heritage sites across Melbourne.
Recently morphing from creative media company Scann3d, to a transformational media company, Phoria also offers deep immersive experiences with psychological healing potential and is using the power of VR for social awesomeness— working with the Royal Children’s Hospital to help young patients travel the world through virtual reality to begin with!
Trent will tell us more at VRAR With the Best online developer conference 3–4th December but for now we got to ask him a few questions.
QYou’ve developed your fantastic interactive walkthroughs by Scann3d into transformational psychological journeys with Phoria — how different is it to create these two experiences?
Surprisingly different.
3D tours (interactive walkthroughs) are hands down, the fastest and easiest way to produce interactive and VR content. We use an innovative Matterport pro camera. This makes our job super simple and with their additional software processing, helps turn it around in a matter of hours.
Meanwhile, 360 videos with Phoria take a lot more tender love and care. We use a camera array, typically 10–12 cameras which records both visual and sound information. Here a professionally done 360/VR piece can take an average of two weeks per minute of finished footage.
QYour talk will cover VR/AR for social good — what is the most powerful example you can think of?
Hands down this one : Paraplegics are learning to walk again with virtual reality
QPersonally, what do you find most exciting about VR & AR today?
We are transitioning from computer games and entertainment towards life changing experiences. The ability to leverage immersive media to help scale techniques that typically been cost prohibitive. For instance, animal assisted therapy has a strong holistic impact on the recovery process, however there are a number of resource and hygiene challenges associated. Now we can actually provide a comparable experience to real life through VR at virtually no additional cost. Produce one animal assisted experience and then open it up for anyone else in the world to enjoy. Exciting stuff!
QWow the potential is incredible! What advice would you give to developers wanting to create some amazing experiences?
Get out there, push the boundaries and don’t be afraid to break stuff. It is the wild west at this point, no idea is too crazy.
QAre you looking forward to speaking at VRAR With The Best in December?
Absolutely!
Trent will explore the possibilities of VR for social good at our upcoming VRAR With The Best, Online Developer Conference 3rd-4th December.
