Virtual reality poised to step beyond gaming as start-ups look for skills and funding

Icelandic entrepreneur Diðrik Steinsson is one of the few people in the world plotting the potential of Virtual Reality (VR) technology beyond games.

His Reykjavík-based company, Mure VR, is developing Breakroom, a convincing computer-generated office environment for anyone who wishes to escape the distraction of the open-plan office.

“We’re making software for hardware that doesn’t really exist yet,” said Steinsson, who started the company in 2014 with two friends.  

That is all set to change during the first half of next year when several major companies, including the top two manufacturers of video game consoles, Sony and Microsoft, launch VR headsets for use in peoples’ homes.  

It is the latest milestone in an industry that has had plenty of false dawns.

A Harvard University scientist showed off a face-mounted display in the 1960s, portentously nicknamed the ‘Sword of Damocles’. There followed an unsuccessful wave of virtual-reality technology in the 1980s and 90s, when limited computing power and cumbersome headsets failed to produce convincing experiences.

Today, a number of companies are betting that technology has advanced enough to try again, with new, improved VR software and hardware for applications ranging from video games, to films, education and social media. 

Detractors, on the other hand, dismiss it as fad which can bring about motion sickness.

The watershed moment came in March 2014 when Facebook acquired a start-up called Oculus for $2.23 billion.

Around the same time, Steinsson began working on his VR project, betting that when Facebook eventually released an Oculus headset, it would come with its own equivalent to the Apple iPhone’s app store, through which he could sell his software.

VR worlds cost a lot more than smartphone apps to produce and Breakroom has already clocked up around €230,000 in R&D costs.  

“It’s not like doing a new app for a phone or making a programme for an operating system that’s well known. It’s a new medium, so it’s very complicated,” said Steinsson. 

The people needed to create VR apps are not only expensive, but in short supply. “Software developers are not the most available workforce. It’s a common problem in tech start-ups. You have to try and steal them,” Steinsson said.

There are four companies working on virtual reality in Iceland, which as Steinsson noted is, “quite a lot when you think of how small our population is.”

After the failed investments of the 1980s and 1990s, the scene in Europe is slowly reviving. However, the pace is not fast enough for Spanish start-up Psious, which failed to get backing in Europe, before wooing investors in Silicon Valley.

Steinsson mentions StarVR, a French company that is gearing up to take on Facebook and Microsoft with its own VR goggles. Another French start-up, VideoStitch, announced a successful €2 million venture capital round in July.

Meanwhile in the US, new VR firms are appearing every week, along with new funding. As well as developments at Facebook, Google has recently announced a cheap and simple flat-pack VR device made out of cardboard.

Virtual office

In a market where 97 per cent are focussing on games, Steinsson believes Breakroom has a good chance of standing out from the crowd.

Offices around the world have traded in private work space for open plan arrangements - not a universally popular move. 

It puts employees at the mercy of constant interruptions, said Steinsson. He suggests employers that go open plan carry a false hope of improved productivity, or are just trying to keep costs down.

Steinsson believes his immersive world, developed with advice from an environmental psychologist, will not only eliminate stress but increase productivity. A demo is currently being tested.

There is a market for giving people the feeling of being somewhere they are not. People can slip on their VR ski goggles - if they do not care about seeming antisocial - and “enter their own virtual environment,” Steinsson said.