Category Archives: EolianVR

The Real Estate Branding Revolution - Creating an Immersive Experience WIMS Consulting

The Real Estate Branding Revolution – Creating an Immersive Experience

We have seen the benefits of storytelling and branding as a marketing tool to create an experience for companies and people in almost every industry. As of late, we have seen the real estate industry begin using branding and storytelling to create a lasting impression on people to invoke emotions and appeal to their aspirations. But what does this look like and how can it best be leveraged?

Sports teams, athletes, actors, and “influencers” hire marketers, agents, and consultants to carefully curate, promote, and monetize their personal brand to better connect with fans. Restaurants are leveraging their atmosphere/vibe, décor, and community involvement to appeal to customers just as much as they focus on the actual food and beverage offerings. So why not real estate too?

Traditionally, real estate has been a game of square footage, location, and expectation of appreciation to determine value. The best players in the real estate game look past these objective features and focus on the subjective needs of their target market.

This means taking into account, and optimizing, the impact you can have on someone by establishing a memorable experience that will leave them itching to revisit the property, envision themselves living, working, or owning it, and at the very least passing it on by referring it to others.

Many in the industry are now treating their buildings and spaces like they are their own company by creating a brand around the asset that helps to differentiate from competition. Developers, investors, and brokers are leveraging technology more than ever to showcase their properties. Commercial and industrial buildings are now building their own websites, social media, their own videos, and marketing, and much more. Apartments and multi-family buildings are too. Plus they’re integrating CRM systems into the day to day operations to close the loop on leads, prospects, and track referral sources.

Some are now adding virtual and augmented reality walk throughs to show off the amenities, highlight key features, and visualize the surrounding community and more as well. Tenants (and potential investors) can get an even deeper feel for what a space can offer without having to physically be present in the space.

Creating a story surrounding a space to develop a certain desirable atmosphere for people matters more than ever. You are no longer just selling square footage as much as you are selling the ability to solve their problems, meet their goals, and help add value to their life, business, or whatever the case may be.

Building a brand that people want to share is a powerful tool. Creating that reputation of being the place to be essentially markets your space for you. This could be through adding more amenities such as a pool, a gym, a lounge, a rooftop patio, an art gallery, anything to foster an ambiance of originality that can be shared with friends and colleagues. People remember what they have not experienced before, giving you an advantage over competitors if you can differentiate in this way.

All of this adds incredible valuable for commercial properties, office buildings, and apartment complexes. If you can create an immersive impression, it can have an effect like the movie “Inception” that lingers longer after they visit the website, do a walk through, view a brochure, or watch a video. That is when you know you nailed it and is what you should aspire to.

What other approaches are you seeing being used to help tell these stories and create these brands?

The WIMS Guide Video Edition

The WIMS Guide Video Edition Ep. 1

Happy New Year and welcome to the new decade! After about 50 takes I figured what the heck, let’s just launch this thing. It’s raw and vulnerable, warts and all. Clearly I need a media training refresher from my wife who is a former TV reporter. But that’s ok, the polish will come later with practice and reps.

Without further ado, coming to you from the WIMS, Inc. War Room it’s The WIMS Guide video edition! I’ve procrastinated for years now on doing video content as surprisingly, it may be the one area I’m a little self-conscious. But that’s also why I needed to just put myself out there and DO it already. So here we are.

I definitely cringed a little (ok a lot) watching the play back, but I will absolutely get better. I’ll begin conveying my thoughts my clearly and concisely. But if you could give your boy a little grace here in the beginning, I’d appreciate it. Or don’t, feel free to roast me too I can take it.

As the blog this is meant to be about the never ending/ongoing journey of business, entrepreneurship, professional development and much more. I’m going to try to provide you with as much value as I can through the insights gained from running my companies, WIMS Consulting, EolianVR, and ARRE (along with perspective and experience gleaned from dozens of clients across a variety of industries and sizes). But I also want to learn more from you too, and even build a community around our shared insights and experiences.

My goal isn’t to build a Gary V or Grant Cardone or Ed Mylett style vlog. It’s to just force myself to get better, get out of my comfort zone, and try to serve my community in any way I can. That’s really all I can hope for. It could last a week, or a decade, we’ll see…

Here goes nothing!

 

The WIMS Guide Video Edition will focus on business topics such as Entrepreneurship, CRM, Marketing, Sales, B2B, Business Development, Web Design, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Artificial Intelligence, Data Analytics, Machine Learning, and much much more. To learn more about Mike Simmons and his company WIMS Consulting, click here. 

Eolian Health Care Manifesto

The EolianVR Health Care Manifesto

We at EolianVR know that the health care industry is fascinatingly complex, multifaceted, and one of the most vital pillars that holds society together. The implications of its direction, evolution, improvement, are paramount to us all.

Regardless of how quickly firms, researchers, scientists, and front-line providers can innovate, the inevitable counter-punch strikes as new diseases emerge, political and administrative bureaucracy bogs down progress, or the sheer volume of humanity’s growth tips the scales in the other direction. Nevertheless, we must persist and never relent in this noble pursuit of progress.

Absolute magic is performed every single day, in countless ways, across the entire globe as professionals in the space manifest modern miracles on demand to save lives and treat their patients. However, the magnitude of how far we’ve come is often diminished and unappreciated as there simultaneously is still so far yet to go.

Just because the road ahead is difficult, and at times downright overwhelming, doesn’t mean that we should simply accept the status quo and settle for the way things are. On the contrary, the hard problems are the ones truly worth solving.

These ideals and sense of duty are what inspired our team at EolianVR to make the commitment to the health care industry. We want to do anything and everything we can to help contribute, even if just in a small way, to our firm’s primary mission: to help save lives.

We pursue this mission by leveraging technology to build customized software platforms for our clients in the health care industry. Specifically, we build these new worlds primarily using augmented reality/virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning. Then, we maximize the value and exposure of these platforms by ensuring that they interface with the more prevalent and widely available technology of today, such as mobile/tablet devices and personal computers.

We are currently working with some of the most world-renowned and innovative health care organizations on the planet on a variety of use cases ranging from patient treatment, clinical research, training and education, surgical demonstrations, to even creating a virtual walk through of a children’s hospital to make it less intimidating for future patients before they arrive.

Not only do we have a vast amount of experience in the health care industry, but our patent pending platform is being built for several other high level industries as well (more to come!). Again, our mission of saving lives was the motivation and inspiration that lead to its creation and we’re only just beginning to perceive the widespread implications of its potential

Due to the fact that the sky is the limit with respect to what we can assist organizations with, we typically try to start by identifying one or two of the primary objectives that exist and use those as an initial pilot project. We work with the appropriate stakeholders to determine the most appropriate problems that need solved and build a project plan around the desired outcome. We lay out key goals and metrics, establish the appropriate budget and deadlines, and collaborate to track progress along the way. Each engagement is customized in this way and ensures that at the end our clients are pleased with the result.

As a firm we make sure to stay on top of the latest technological innovations in our space and remain device agnostic in our development so that we can always make sure our platforms and software work on the best hardware that the industry gets to market. This agile and dynamic approach allows our clients to remain confident that the solutions they invest in will always maintain value and effective regardless of what comes out next.

It’s truly our honor to do our part in helping the health care industry continue to innovate. We would love the opportunity to partner with your organization and build new worlds together to help save lives. Just reach out to [email protected]!

The Eolian Report Augmented Reality Virtual Reality Artificial Intelligence

The Eolian Report: 1st Edition 12.12.18

Industry altering advancements in the augmented reality, virtual reality, artificial intelligence, and machine learning space continue to be released at a rapid clip. It’s almost impossible to keep up, even for tech nerds like ourselves. Because of this, the team at Eolian decided it would be worth taking the time to highlight some of the most earth-shattering updates, curate those that are the most relevant in our area of expertise, and even add a little insightful context so you can convert them into action items when appropriate. We’re calling it “The Eolian Report”. This is the first of hopefully many editions and we hope you find tremendous value out of it.

The industry is moving so fast and adoption along with it. It won’t be long before you look around and notice how widespread and rampant AR, VR, AI, and ML use cases are being implemented all around you. Don’t blink or you might get left behind. We would love to convert everyone into believers but for the purpose of this we will do our best to remain objective and hope that the facts and trends will speak for themselves.

Full disclosure: we are also working on developing some incredible applications and have launched a few in our core verticals of military/defense, healthcare, and real estate. So, we may share some of our major milestones as well.

While we are biased on the subject and feel that everyone should at least be exploring the potential implications and use cases for their own businesses we completely understand the delay and skepticism. Because of this we’d love to hear from you all to see where your mindset is on the matter, whether positive or negative. Perhaps you’re a hardcore skeptic. Or maybe you have tried launching an AR strategy and it fell flat or never made it off the ground. Maybe you have been thinking long and hard about it but have yet to pull the trigger. Better yet, hopefully you’ve built and launched a program and it’s been achieving a lot of success and on the way to massive ROI. Either way please reach out and let us know!

-Mike Simmons, CMO

Now without further ado, time to check out some of the latest developments in the space:

General Business

Tesla Patent Application Mentions Augmented Reality Safety Glasses

https://www.forbes.com/sites/sebastianblanco/2018/12/07/tesla-patent-augmented-reality-safety-glasses/amp/

15 Examples of Augmented Reality to Inspire Small Business Owners

Walmart & Target Unwrap New Augmented Reality Features to Bring in Holiday Shoppers

https://mobile-ar.reality.news/news/walmart-target-unwrap-new-augmented-reality-features-bring-holiday-shoppers-0191066/

The 5G Conundrum: Who Will Build Tomorrow’s Digital Superhighway?

Healthcare

VR, AR and the NHS: How virtual and augmented reality will change healthcare

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/vr-ar-and-the-nhs-how-virtual-and-augmented-reality-will-change-healthcare/

Healthcare Augmented & Virtual Reality Market: Global Industry Analysis, Size, Share, Growth, Trends, and Forecasts 2018–2026

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4060124

Global Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) in Healthcare Market Extensive Study of Future Value Chain on Regional, Drivers and Technological Advancements Outlook 2018–2027

https://www.marketwatch.com/press-release/global-augmented-reality-ar-and-virtual-reality-vr-in-healthcare-market-extensive-study-of-future-value-chain-on-regional-drivers-and-technological-advancements-outlook-2018-2027-2018-11-30

Augmented reality in the operating theatre: How surgeons are using Microsoft’s HoloLens to make operations better

https://www.zdnet.com/google-amp/article/augmented-reality-in-the-operating-theatre-how-surgeons-are-using-microsofts-hololens-to-make/

FDA Approves Surgical Augmented Reality

https://www.healthcarepackaging.com/article/fda-approves-surgical-augmented-reality

AR and VR in healthcare: Five ways immersive tech is saving and transforming lives

https://www.compelo.com/ar-and-vr-in-healthcare/amp/

Technology Innovation in Virtual Reality in Healthcare Market to See Rapid Growth in Coming Year — Leading Players Are Google, Microsoft, Daqri, Psious Industry Analysis

http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/4053337/

Commercial Real Estate

With Augmented and Virtual Reality, Tour Your Office Before It’s Built [We have a platform called ARRE (Augmented Reality Real Estate) out that can help you do just this and so much more!]

Landlords Look To Curate Tenant Mix So Companies Can Financially Benefit One Another

https://www.bisnow.com/atlanta/news/office/office-space-now-the-frontlines-in-the-war-for-talent-95092

NYC Virtual Reality Champions That Will Make Your Listings Pop

No more open houses? How AR will affect the real estate industry

https://venturebeat.com/2018/10/03/no-more-open-houses-how-ar-will-affect-the-real-estate-industry/amp/

3 smart tech-savvy companies leading commercial real estate into the future [They forgot to mention ARRE but that’s ok, we forgive them.]

https://www.bizjournals.com/boston/news/2018/09/01/3-smart-tech-savvy-companies-leading-commercial.amp.html

How 5G internet will enable ultra-smart workplaces

https://www.jllrealviews.com/trends/workplace/5g-internet-will-enable-ultra-smart-workplaces/

Military

Microsoft Wins $479 Million Army Contract for Augmented Reality Systems [One of the most earth shattering pieces of news of the entire year for AR!!]

https://gizmodo.com/microsoft-wins-479-million-army-contract-for-augmented-1830730198/amp

2017 Military Augmented Reality (AR) Headgear Market Growth Breakdown by Regions, Manufacturers, Types and Applications

https://nwunews.com/19850/2017-military-augmented-reality-ar-headgear-market-growth-breakdown-by-regions-manufacturers-types-and-applications/

Global Military Augmented Reality (AR) Headgear Market 2019–2023: Competitive Landscape, Advanced Theory, and Survey

https://industryjournal24.com/2018/12/global-military-augmented-reality-ar-headgear-market-2019-2023-competitive-landscape-advanced-theory-and-survey/amp/

US Soldiers Joined to Military’s Connected Cybernetwork Global Attack Machine

Industry Optimistic About Military Training, Simulation Market

http://www.nationaldefensemagazine.org/articles/2018/11/29/industry-optimistic-about-military-training-simulation-market

Artificial Intelligence/Machine Learning

5 Artificial Intelligence Trends To Watch Out For In 2019

https://www.forbes.com/sites/janakirammsv/2018/12/09/5-artificial-intelligence-trends-to-watch-out-for-in-2019/#78fc25d85618

5 Ways Artificial Intelligence Is Changing Architecture

https://interestingengineering.com/5-ways-artificial-intelligence-is-changing-architecture

Why Companies That Wait to Adopt AI May Never Catch Up

https://hbr.org/2018/12/why-companies-that-wait-to-adopt-ai-may-never-catch-up

Artificial Intelligence: Disruption Ahead

https://www.physiciansweekly.com/artificial-intelligence-disruption-ahead/amp/

2018 Call to Action

Happy New Year! I’ll save you the “new year new me/new year new you” talk (even though I’m always a sucker for self-improvement) and get straight to the point. You already know this is going to be your best year yet or you wouldn’t be reading this. And you KNOW it’s going to be my best year yet too. Now for the important part, HOW are we going to do that? This is OUR call to action!

Now I’m not some business guru, I’m still closer to the beginning of my come up, building the foundation of my future empire just like most of you. But I often have people reach out to me beginning with something along the lines of, “I’ve been meaning to reach out to you.” Or “I’ve been following/keeping tabs on you for months now and planning to hit you up.”

The reasons and motivations usually vary, it could be about entrepreneurship, marketing, CRMaugmented reality, blockchain/cryptocurrency, etc. My point in all this is to explicitly say, THIS is your invitation to reach out to me. Don’t wait another 3 months until your life gets less complicated (it won’t) or less busy (it won’t) before doing it. Now is as good a time as any.

It’s obvious we’re all ambitious people grinding our asses off to continue building our businesses and to add more value to our clients and prospects. If there’s a way we can help each other to do just that it’s very much worth at least a conversation.

Further, even if you’re not ready just yet, there’s a good chance I’ll be reaching out to you soon regardless. I will always make sure there’s something valuable tied to it though. But in 2018 I truly want to connect people in a way that helps them grow their businesses and networks. People ask me to make introductions/referrals to professionals in my network often. If it’s a connection that doesn’t make sense to you, you are more than welcome to say no thanks (or ignore it like some do). But keep in mind that on the flip side I’d probably make the intro for you too.

When the dust settles this time next year we’ll all have just got done celebrating the best year of our professional lives and strategizing on how to make 2019 even better. As my boy Tony Robbins says, “If you want to take the island, burn the boats!” I’m ALL IN on 2018 and I know you are too, so let’s get to work already and make it happen!

P.S. I’m always looking for new clients, investors, partners/collaborators, etc. so if there’s someone you think it would make sense for me to talk to please don’t hesitate to answer the call to action!

Eolian is Solving Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality’s Greatest Barriers to Mass Adoption

There has been significant traction and growth in the augmented reality and virtual reality industry over the past few years, that’s undeniable and obvious. However, neither has yet to make that inevitable quantum leap to mass adoption by individuals and enterprises. At Eolian, we believe that augmented reality, virtual reality, and mixed reality, are the next wave of computing, and will have an impact that far exceeds even that of the mobile one that we’re currently in. Some of the challenges that have been holding the industry back from that type of breakthrough are being overcome rapidly and as a company we are at the forefront of leading the charge.

VR Applications from the User Perspective

Three of the most common barriers to entry that cause hesitation with VR adoption from a user perspective are:

  1. The uneasiness/motion sickness that can occur from too much “teleportation.”
  2. The inaccurate destination area while teleporting with the current controller method is also a little cumbersome and frustrating at times when it sends you somewhere that you weren’t looking to go.
  3. The controllers themselves can be a burden as well, not to mention having your actual hands mimic real-life movements in a realistic fashion is what you’re training someone to do via the educational use-case.

To fix these issues we partnered with a company called Leap Motion which developed a hand tracking sensor that eliminates these issues and allows you to more seamlessly embrace the VR world.

The Constant Evolution of Hardware

A lot of businesses don’t want to invest a significant amount of resources into a project if by the time it’s completed there is already another better piece of hardware coming out. This could render a project obsolete, or require significant and expensive updates late in the game to make sure the application is compatible. In some cases, companies simply refrain from even trying to build something altogether rather than make that type of mistake. They’d rather wait it out to see which piece of hardware “wins” before diving in. That could be a big mistake if/when their competitors get a head start.

Even a six-month to one-year long software development project could experience multiple hardware changes, so agility and adaptability are crucial. This shouldn’t be seen or approached as a burden, but rather an opportunity. A great Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality company shouldn’t need to react or be caught off guard either, they should anticipate these changes and plan accordingly. Build with the next version in mind at all times, without breaking what was built for the previous hardware in case delays in that next thing happen (which is also just as inevitable).

We’re already able to create applications that can sync with multiple pieces of hardware, and even from various manufacturers too. While we have our preferences, there’s no room for romanticism in this business. You don’t have time to wait to see what users adopt and then start building for that. By the time you do they’re likely on to the next thing.

Supply Chain Disruption

When working with cutting-edge technologies supply chain issues can arise leading to unpredictability and volatility. We’ve already experienced them too many times, so we now work with various forms of hardware in conjunction to mitigate these macro level issues that can arise while implementing an Augmented Reality/Virtual Reality initiative at the enterprise level. It won’t always be perfect (even Apple must outsource some of their parts to Samsung after all) so planning ahead to make sure you have all the right components is crucial.

Would Companies Really Use AR/VR to Train Their Employees?!

Yes. They would, do, and will continue to do so even more so. One of the most widely used, and highest revenue grossing VR application’s right now is “Job Simulator.” Think about that for a second, kids and adults are going out of their way to pay for a game that simulates what it’s like to have a job rather than getting an actual job and getting paid to do it. Quite the contradiction, no?

Not only are they using this application, but it’s now the “most popular VR title to date” after surpassing $3 million in sales. So anyone that says, “but our employees would never want to receive virtual reality training…” you may want to re-evaluate your stance on the matter.

 

The Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality industry is still in the wild, wild, west phase but the opportunities and use-case applications are astounding. You may have dismissed it altogether after trying one silly headset and phone application, but we’d urge you to give it another look and keep an open mind as that’s not what Augmented Reality  and Virtual Reality are truly meant to be. But don’t just take my word for it, soon enough this technology will have infiltrated just about every aspect of your life as it is so don’t miss the opportunity to be an early adopter.

Launching ARRE: Augmented Reality Real Estate

The augmented reality and virtual reality company that I’m a co-founder of, EolianVR, (DBA: “Eolian”), recently launched our Augmented Reality Real Estate platform (ARRE) specifically geared toward the commercial real estate industry. ARRE is an end-to-end system, complete with a platform, application, hardware, software, storage, and support that commercial real estate firms need to easily and immediately begin showcasing and visualizing large scale real estate assets in augmented reality.

This is a game-changing breakthrough for the commercial real estate industry as potential clients, investors, partners, and brokers, etc. can take a walk through a skyscraper, or 20 story office building, even before a single shovel (or excavator) strikes the ground. Architects can share their vision, make real-time adjustments, and determine the implications of said changes (i.e. total square foot change of the building, etc.) relatively quickly, in order to make sure a project remains within the necessary specifications, all before the project enters the tangible world.

You don’t like the color of the painting on the walls? We can change that. You prefer the reception desk be on the other side of the lobby? Done. You want to see a sliding glass door entrance to the building rather than revolving ones? You got it, just give it a minute. This is accomplished by leveraging technology such as the Microsoft Hololens, the HTC Vive, along with additional complementary & proprietary AR/VR hardware and software.

One can imagine the cost savings realized from a more efficient and streamlined project timeline. Think about less time-consuming walk throughs, change order processing, a simpler permitting process, along with countless other efficiencies that will be gained. Not to mention 3D building models are now rendered obsolete as in an augmented world, you can make real time digital changes to the building without having to spend thousands of dollars updating the model. How much money is lost (chalked up to customer acquisition/cost of doing business) right now just from things like lost efficiency from shuffling people around to your properties and making changes after they’ve already been built, $5,000, maybe $10,000 or even far more?

Take a moment to imagine something with me:

An investment firm’s key decision makers are sitting around their boardroom table in China while taking a tour of a proposed commercial building in New York, all while being able to make real time recommendations along the way (yes, they have headsets on). If they like what they see, they can then make a real-time offer from across the world. Once agreed the real estate developers can pass along their standard virtual contract, with certain covenants to be determined. While the lawyers review it, an initial deposit (binding or not) can subsequently issued via Bitcoin or another preferred form of crypto-currency (or even good ol’ US dollars if desired via an embedded payment processing application) which is deposited into an escrow account (also embedded in the application). All of this can happen in real-time, and soon enough will be how most large scale business transactions will be conducted. Within the next few years companies will be able to transcend international regulatory and currency barriers and just get down to business with the help of block chain technology. Of course, I’m simply summarizing for brevity’s sake, but things like this are just the beginning.

While the first iteration of ARRE is currently live and operational, subsequent editions and updates are subsequently being perfected as well that will leverage the latest and greatest technology to continue streamlining the commercial real estate industry as well as making it significantly more transparent.

One of Eolian’s core missions and mantra is focused on “Building New Worlds” and the launch of ARRE is certainly going to help us do just that.

About Eolian: Eolian is a software development and marketing production firm capable of conceptualizing and building Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) applications with practical uses in four main industries: Real Estate, Military, Healthcare, Education, and Marketing. Drawing from a combined 30+ years’ experience in software development and marketing, the team develops and deploys applications on the following VR and AR HMDs (Head-Mounted Displays): Microsoft Hololens, HTC Vive, Gear360, PlaystationVR, Google Cardboard, and Meta2 among others. Members of the team have already built applications such as interactive VR tours, interactive VR simulators, room-scale interactive trainings, hologram trainings, and much more. Eolian is also developing additional use-cases for additional industries such as: Travel/Tourism, Events/Venues, Golf Courses/Country Clubs, Action Sports, and Non-profits among others. For more information, please visit www.eolianvr.com.