New Documentary Highlights The Non-Consumer Uses Of VR

Varjo’s ironically-named VR IS DEAD – Stories Beyond The Metaverse documentary highlights 8 interesting non-consumer use cases of VR and mixed reality.

Varjo is a Finland-based company that makes and sells ultra-high-end tethered PC headsets with very high central angular VR resolution and passthrough mixed reality, mainly intended for enterprise and government users. The Varjo XR-4 series is the company’s latest offering, launched at the very end of 2023. The standard XR-4 is priced at $3990, while the XR-4 Focal Edition with camera autofocus costs $9990.

As such, as you might expect, all 8 use cases in the 30-minute documentary involve companies using Varjo headsets.

While we don’t exactly agree with the framing of the cynical introductory section about the consumer side of VR, it’s understandable that Varjo’s focus in the documentary is on enterprise, military, and healthcare, and why XR companies in these spaces might be frustrated by the widespread focus on consumer adoption when framing the industry’s success.

Here are the 8 use cases that Varjo’s documentary highlights:

Automotive Design (Honda)

Instead of using “expensive and time-consuming” physical mockups early in the development process, Honda’s team in California are now using mixed reality to evaluate both the interior and exterior of proposed vehicle designs.

Architectural Design (KPF)

Instead of being limited to static blueprints and guesswork, KPF in New York use VR to inhabit their buildings they’re designing before they’re built.

“We wanna minimize any onsite issues, so someone’s able to put on the headset and realize that maybe the proportions don’t feel right, or, oh, I expected it to look like this, but it doesn’t look this way.”

The New York team also uses VR to explore designs with offices around the US and even in Japan, without the need to physically travel.

Military Pilot Training (Cole Engineering)

Cole Engineering uses mixed reality to merge a real replica cockpit with a virtual aircraft and environment to train US military personnel to operate aircraft.

Cole says its simulator is “portable” and “forward deployable”.

Varjo headsets are also used as part of the first FAA qualified VR flight simulator, and in a simulator that trains Ukrainian pilots to fly the F-16 fighter jets the country has received from NATO countries.

Military Vehicle Training (Bohemia Interactive)

Bohemia Interactive Simulations is the sister company of the Bohemia Interactive game studio behind the Arma series and DayZ, and the engines the two companies use share a common origin.

Bohemia Interactive Simulations offer a wide range of military simulation and training services to militaries, both flatscreen and XR. In Varjo’s new documentary, they highlight two such mixed reality use cases: for first-person vehicle training, and for tactical planning at diorama scale.

“Normally with dome systems you can have it all around you, but the amount of overhead and space, let alone cost, is just not feasible to keep moving forward with when we have head-mounted devices that by putting it on, it’s essentially a 360 dome on your head.”

Military Medical Training (BlueRoom Simulations)

BlueRoom Simulations is using mixed reality to train Royal Australian Air Force medical personnel to save lives.

“Our unit is involved directly with training every single person that joins the Air Force through health. Doctors, nurses, medics, environmental health, all aspects of health. We do their initial training and convert their civilian skills across into military settings.”

Maritime Training (Force Technology)

Force Technology is using mixed reality to train civilian ship captains to pilot giant container ships.

“It gives you the flexibility that you can actually train in the local office. So it means you don’t have to travel to a simulator facility.”

Command Centers (Headwall Technology)

Headwall Technology replaces traditional multi-monitor command centers with mixed reality software.

“What would normally take the space of a large video wall or an 8 monitor set up or 18 panel video wall can now be delivered in just the headset.”

BCI Research (OpenBCI)

While OpenBCI used to use Valve Index, in 2022 it switched over to using Varjo headsets, finding the built-in eye tracking particularly useful.

“VR and AR are really good experiment platforms because you can put people in very realistic settings while also controlling it like you would in a laboratory.”