Virtual Orwell

A STARTUP INCUBATED AT SPEEDMIUP FACES THE COMPLEX AND SHIFTING MARKET FOR VIRTUAL REALITY. WE TALKED TO ORWELL'S CEO, ANDREA ANTONELLI


 
Thinking of virtual reality immediately conjures up images of sci-fi movies and novels. But no matter how futuristic, the work being done by Andrea Antonelli, co-founder and CEO of Orwell-VR, a startup incubated by SpeedMIUp which today has 45 partners, is very much tied to the needs of the present. For instance, the needs of marketing: "We develop virtual reality software and immersive 3D content, such as three-dimensional animation or 360-degree video," Antonelli explains. “We are working on software that creates virtual trade shows, which links gaming to marketing and retail. It can be used by companies to allow customers to interact with objects in space.”

The idea behind Orwell-VR comes from the founders’ previous experience in 3D animation to meet the business needs of real estate companies and architecture firms. In 2012, when Oculus launched its first VR headset, "We became passionate about the topic and in 2014 we decided to start a new company called Orwell, a decidedly evocative name". Shortly thereafter, at the beginning of 2015 came the incubation phase at SpeedMIUp: "The faculty’s advice and tutoring was crucial in this first period, especially in terms of the business plan and for overcoming the critical junctures that always emerge when launching a firm.” Thanks to the success of a crowdfunding campaign launched last June (€200,000 was raised), "we think we now have sufficient strength to think about investment".

On the other hand, Antonelli and his colleagues are facing a complex market, especially when it comes to real-time, immersive 3D experience. However, we need to have a clear-eyed view of what’s happening: "While for smartphones, innovation turned out to be disruptive, for VR and, to a certain extent, for Augmented Reality (AR), the evolution has been more linear,” says Antonelli. “It’s been on the radar for several years, although only now prices of VR goggles are finally starting to fall. However, the market is still very much connected to gaming.” A second factor is that Virtual Reality and Artificial Reality are not part of the same evolution, but rather follow parallel paths. “VR is slightly ahead of the AR curve,” the entrepreneur goes on, «also because veritable AR, the one that maps the environment in real time, is held back by the cost of hololens (e.g. Google Glass) and requires more time for development."

The future evolution of AR and VR notwithstanding, the most pressing issue in the short and long term remains one, according to Antonelli: "The interaction with artificial intelligence. This is the most important and complex issue we’ll have to deal with."
 

by Andrea Celauro
Translated by Alex Foti