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Helping Firefighters Douse Blazes Around the World, with RiVR's Alex Harvey
Firefighters
need to train like any other professional, and their training usually
involves setting a mock set ablaze - which, as you might imagine,
would be costly to reset. Enter RiVR, who are using 360 video and
photogrammetry to recreate these practice blazes digitally. CEO Alex
Harvey and Alan have a heated discussion on the topic.
Alan: Hey, everyone, my name is
Alan Smithon, your host for the XR for Business Podcast. Today we
have Alex Harvey, CEO and creative director at RiVR, a virtual
reality training and visualization company based in the UK. RiVR
harnesses the power of VR and photogrammetry technology to create
interactive, immersive training experiences. They're currently
working with the UK Home Office, UK Fire Service, Police Service and
the Department of Defense in the US. Their ultimate goal is to
enhance the way humans learn (I love that). Alex has a deep
understanding of the games industry, having worked on commissions for
the likes of Codemasters, the BBC, and Ford Motor Company. He's
obsessed with harnessing the latest A/V technology to make the real
world differences that we all need. He gets to work with incredibly
talented people to make this happen, and to quote him, "I love
the feelings and memories we can evoke in VR when technology,
creativity, and innovation collide." I love that quote. RiVR's
exhibited at six different VR shows this year, including CES Vegas,
and their technology has been reported on by the BBC. To learn more
about RiVR, you can visit rivr.uk.
Alex, welcome to the show, my friend.
Alex: Hi, Alan. Nice to meet
you. Nice to speak again.
Alan: Yeah. We've been kind of
back and forth on LinkedIn, and emails, and it's really finally great
to sit down and have a conversation with you.
Alex: It is such a busy world,
and it's great to chat in person.
Alan: Listen, let's dive right
into this. Explain to us what RiVR is and how it's making a
difference.
Alex: RiVR is “Reality in
Virtual Reality.” We've been creating VR experiences now for
probably nearer to three years with the production company, starting
back in 2014, but we started obviously with 360 video doing things
for Thomson Holidays -- you experience what it's like to be on a
cruise ship, or be on a plane. That was three years ago. Then we
started moving into the room-scale photogrammetry world, with very
much a significant push at RiVR for training, and using photorealism
to make sure that the users of our experiences are completely
immersed. I often say to people, “I want you to feel like you're in
the world, and not in a Simpsons cartoon world.” It is very much
pushing photogrammetry and photo realism into VR. You know, there's a
lot of people doing photogrammetry now, but two, three years ago? It
was only of the likes of--
Alan: That was you and Simon!
Alex: Yeah! [laughs] Me, Simon
and Realities.IO. They were the guys that were pushing it. And it
really felt like when I saw those early experiences of Realities.IO
and Simon's stuff, it felt like I was inside a video, but not quite?
I want to try and be inside video content. I think that--
Alan: Let me kind of unpack this
fruit for people listening. So, what Alex and his team do is they go
into a space, and they will take hundreds of photographs -- if not
thousands of photographs -- of the space, and they'll convert that
into a game engine-based experience, where you can actually walk
around. Now, what I think is really mind-blowing about what you guys
have done at RiVR is, not only do you create the environment, but
then you take specific parts of the environment -- for example,
you're doing fire recreation studies, and one of the things that you
can do is pick up the different items -- and I thought
View all episodes
By Alan Smithson from MetaVRse
4.5
1212 ratings
Firefighters
need to train like any other professional, and their training usually
involves setting a mock set ablaze - which, as you might imagine,
would be costly to reset. Enter RiVR, who are using 360 video and
photogrammetry to recreate these practice blazes digitally. CEO Alex
Harvey and Alan have a heated discussion on the topic.
Alan: Hey, everyone, my name is
Alan Smithon, your host for the XR for Business Podcast. Today we
have Alex Harvey, CEO and creative director at RiVR, a virtual
reality training and visualization company based in the UK. RiVR
harnesses the power of VR and photogrammetry technology to create
interactive, immersive training experiences. They're currently
working with the UK Home Office, UK Fire Service, Police Service and
the Department of Defense in the US. Their ultimate goal is to
enhance the way humans learn (I love that). Alex has a deep
understanding of the games industry, having worked on commissions for
the likes of Codemasters, the BBC, and Ford Motor Company. He's
obsessed with harnessing the latest A/V technology to make the real
world differences that we all need. He gets to work with incredibly
talented people to make this happen, and to quote him, "I love
the feelings and memories we can evoke in VR when technology,
creativity, and innovation collide." I love that quote. RiVR's
exhibited at six different VR shows this year, including CES Vegas,
and their technology has been reported on by the BBC. To learn more
about RiVR, you can visit rivr.uk.
Alex, welcome to the show, my friend.
Alex: Hi, Alan. Nice to meet
you. Nice to speak again.
Alan: Yeah. We've been kind of
back and forth on LinkedIn, and emails, and it's really finally great
to sit down and have a conversation with you.
Alex: It is such a busy world,
and it's great to chat in person.
Alan: Listen, let's dive right
into this. Explain to us what RiVR is and how it's making a
difference.
Alex: RiVR is “Reality in
Virtual Reality.” We've been creating VR experiences now for
probably nearer to three years with the production company, starting
back in 2014, but we started obviously with 360 video doing things
for Thomson Holidays -- you experience what it's like to be on a
cruise ship, or be on a plane. That was three years ago. Then we
started moving into the room-scale photogrammetry world, with very
much a significant push at RiVR for training, and using photorealism
to make sure that the users of our experiences are completely
immersed. I often say to people, “I want you to feel like you're in
the world, and not in a Simpsons cartoon world.” It is very much
pushing photogrammetry and photo realism into VR. You know, there's a
lot of people doing photogrammetry now, but two, three years ago? It
was only of the likes of--
Alan: That was you and Simon!
Alex: Yeah! [laughs] Me, Simon
and Realities.IO. They were the guys that were pushing it. And it
really felt like when I saw those early experiences of Realities.IO
and Simon's stuff, it felt like I was inside a video, but not quite?
I want to try and be inside video content. I think that--
Alan: Let me kind of unpack this
fruit for people listening. So, what Alex and his team do is they go
into a space, and they will take hundreds of photographs -- if not
thousands of photographs -- of the space, and they'll convert that
into a game engine-based experience, where you can actually walk
around. Now, what I think is really mind-blowing about what you guys
have done at RiVR is, not only do you create the environment, but
then you take specific parts of the environment -- for example,
you're doing fire recreation studies, and one of the things that you
can do is pick up the different items -- and I thought