VREMO inclusion in a series of Industry 4.0 Forums

Apart from our participation at European Events such as ICT 2015 at Lisbon, or ECFI at Hamburg (as part of our international strategy), VREMO has been invited to assist to series of forums organized by RI3, dedicated this year to 4.0 industrial development projects and alternative project financing, strengthening VREMO as a potential 4.0 Startup. RI3 is a network of economic promotion and business, with the official support from the National Ministry of Industry, Energy and Tourism at Spain.

These forums are enclosed at the official announcement of the 10 Industrial Forums 2016 BAN-AVANZARI3.

At this moment we are already enrolled in the agenda of the following events, promoting VREMO as a startup example through FI-ADOPT accelerator:

• SALAMANCA (2nd March): See agenda
• ZAMORA (2nd March): See agenda
• GIJON (16th March) See agenda
• ZARAGOZA (17th March): See agenda

See more information of these Forums at RI3 official website.

The beginning of the community of VREMO specialists

We are proud to share the results of the first professional workshop or our community, where 12 specialists have participated from different sectors. This event has taken place the 6th of Februrary at Idus Learning center, in Burgos.

VREMO community is integrating specialists from different areas (education, health, personal development, mediation...) who are creating and using the first applications inside VREMO. The main thread is the Emotional Training, which is present in all the areas of our life: With our children (education related to personal values and emotional competencies), at the workplace, during hard life situations (health and personal development areas), ...

Our specialists collaborate together ot adapt new itineraries to the market, by integrating protocols, analyses, multimedia and 3D interfaces that make the tool more attractive and ecological.

With the our development design in our community (which is free), we may offer more and more solutions in a wide variety of markets, including some with less volume of custumers, but very important as well, such as people with rare diseases, autism, ...

The main points of the workshop have been:

1. VREMO news and opportunities for specialists: Creation, validation, utilization.
2. Presentation of active itineraries and results from the first validation tests performed with adult people at Personal Development area. 
3. Analysis of improvement of the tools related to development and sales channels. 
4. New proposals to develope and integrate the next training itineraries at the tool.

And as a result, we have not only enjoyed at this event, but we have defined the next creation of itineraries, and the first strategy to offer emotional training as a transversal skill, as a core strategy at Idus Learning academy. 

Real-Time information directed to our specialists

For our first release we aim to offer statistics to specialists related to the utilization of the tool: Which itineraries are more used, range of ages of the users, and other significant information to see the potential of the tool at different market segments.

This information is going to be available to be used by our specialists in their website afterwards, so we are using CKAN to offer a gateway to our real-time data. 

This functionality is expected to be up and running in few weeks. 

Available Environments

Apart from the specialist follow-up sections to manage their users and his VREMO strategy, we have developed 3 different environments to integrate the itineraries that are created and used by specialists:

1. 3D environment, to gamify the training sessions.
2. 2D-3D multimedia environment: Adapted to make the tool ecological, by the ability to introduce different multimedia components: Images, videos, 3D videos, audios... 
3. 2D minimalist environment: Prepared to be used directly by specialists, with people who don't require multimedia or 3D components, or intended to be used in devices with very limited resources. 

Since our main focus to the market is through specialists, in a full B2B strategy, these 3 environments are in constant evolution, being adapted according to our growing community of specialists that are cocreating new itineraries, routes, and protocols to be implemented in VREMO. 

Know more about our community. 

3D Environment

This environment is created to improve the user experience when having treatment or training sessions. The interface is combined with the 2D-3D environment to create a game experience by integrating the intineraries that specialists create. The great advantage of this combination is the availability to offer the training materials with or without the 3D environment, adapting to the device or user limitations.

This environment offers the GAME LOGIC experience, gamifying the specialists' solutions.
Moreover, installation is not required, but only web access, taking advantage of the last technologies related to the 3D over the Web (XML3D and Three.js).

2D-3D Multimedia Environment

The multimedia interface is the sandbox of the specialists: The template to integrate their protocols or training materials inside the application.

Inside this template, 2D or 3D elements may be added, and it allows the training to be available even if some devices are not powerful enough to run 3D over the Web.

To ease the use of advance 3D facial models, we are offering their emotional expressions inside videos, so we can ensure good quality and a realistic look without affecting the training experience.

Integration with the 3D Environment: 
This training zone may be integrated to the 3D Environment, which has been designed to use the same GAME LOGIC under the training itineraries. 

The training materials are abstracted from the 3D area (3D envirnoment) to allow the use of the materials in all devices, even if they are not available to run 3D over a website (through the WebGL technology).

Areas to configure at the 2D-3D Multimedia environment: 

• Multimedia components: Choosing between the following ones: Images, videos (and videos 3D), audios, text (inside images). 
• Valuation assets: Choosing between sliders, buttons and audio format. 
• Game logic integration: Including scoring system, placing the training inside the logic game, activating the training modules and performing the follow up afterwards by the specialist associated.

2D Environment - For specialists

Not all the users at the Emotional Training market require or need a great multimedia interface. People with different limitations, or special treatments don't desire spending time by adapting the final user to a multimedia or gamifyied interface.

For these cases, this interface has been introduced in order to adapt the itineraries to a minimalist use by the specialist, through a mobile device or a tablet (or standard desktops), without the multimedia and 3D interface.

This environment allows the specialist to focus the tool into a guideline and a tracking solution to be used during his sessions with his final users (patients, students, trained people...)
This environment has three different functionalities:

• The collecting data section, currently implemented through a questionary template, plus support material before and after the main questionary route. 
• The follow up section: Where the specialist may check the user results, and the evolution of their metrics.
• The automation of materials handling: Sending automatically results, recommendations, training materials and follow-up resources, after the treatment/training session.

General 3D Integration 

Apart from our environments and available avatars to be used, we have integrated the possibility to easily introduce 3D animated models in any place of the training material. This feature is possible thanks to the XML3D technology, which allow us to adapt the tool to make it more ecological to the user.

You can see one example of this feature inside the tool at the map area.

Areas of application

The trainer is intended to focus on different areas related to Emotional Training and Social Integration.

Since VREMO is both, a creation and utilization tool, we have addressed the development model trough a commmunity of specialists who integrate their methodologies, protocols and materials into VREMO to take advantage of the new technologies and get a value enhacement.

Moreover, the natural power of the community relies on the colaboration from different disciplines in order to improve the itineraries, to validate them better, and to easily evolve them with time.

With this dynamic collaboration we can develope a solid open innovation ecosystem addressed to the market since the solutions are being used, improved and monetized through the utilization by the specialists.

Finally, we would like to remark the big potential to expand the use of VREMO, since our selling channels are integrated in the business model of our collaboratios (our specialists, such as psychologists, therapists, educators, coaches, enterpreneurs, personal trainers... )


The current areas that are being developed by our Community of Specialists are:

1. Emotional Recoginition and Intellectual Disabilities, for young people.
2. Developing Emotional Competencies, at Education.
3. Integrating Emotional Limitations at school support, at Education.
4. Decoding Emotional Disorders placed in the unconsciousness, at Healthcare. Knowledge related.
5. Decoding Emotional Disorders at mediation processes.
6. Emotional Training at business environment. 

Know more about our active community here.

You can ask for access to see an Alpha Demo of the product

These screenshots has bewen taken from our previous beta Demo. Feel free to add comments related to improvements or ideas that could be added in the platform. 

If you want to see it in more detail, for both specialists configuration and tracking, and users, please contact us to get access to the demo site.

The greatest trainers: Not-so-serious games

Nowadays there is usually a too wide gap between 2 different worlds: Commercial games and training ones.

The "first world" is trying its best in order to achieve maximum benefit from the market. These games are depending on the companies that are struggling to find the best commercial application.

And in order to develop the most profitable game, they look what users like most. They reach the market, check the applications which are hits, and create a new one.

The "second world" has a different focus, since it is based on a different sort of needs. This world is in charge of creating serious games, training games, simulation and virtual trainers...

This second world has the purpose of improving specific areas, such as people with special needs, or some application for a specific market.

Until this moment, in the past years, these two worlds have been able to live on their own, achieving incomes from very different markets. The commercial game industry did the best for the money, and now it has more possibilities to keep on succeeding, due to the natural viability it provides.

But... what happens with the applications created through expensive consortiums? These experimental apps have been to heavy to be mainained, since they have not been probably focusing enough in being viable tools. Of course they may have some business model based on licenses or some similar channel. But real market is much more challenging than defining a simple model to generate incomes.

In real market you have to consider how expensive or simple is adapting the tool, reaching customers, maintaining users... and more complex variables appear when we are talking about trainers.

A trainer is a tool that is not only intended to play, but it is a serious game: It has an added functionality which usually leads to a needed initial configuration, plus some learning curve of tool, and a compromise of a specialist to keep track of the user that is using the tool. And this idea is great, but it is a quite delicate point to model a functionality that may be easy to use and adapt to the market.

If specialists need to learn a hard configuration... they will not use the trainer as developers wish.
If the tool is to complex to understand by itself, it will not be used by users unless specialist force them to use; and this behaviour leads to a complete failure of the tool in the market.
If the tool is not funny by itself, users will not keep on using the tool. So without a push from specialist, the tool will be shelved again.

And in any case, specialists need a tool that help them with their job in a simple way. Minimum effort, maximum value added.

Why are these features so relevant? Because a tool will be only able to thrive in the market if it is widely used enough to generate thousands of incomes to maintain the support and evolution naturally required.

Thus, for today, we just want to leave a simple message to all trainer developers: Remember to create a Not-so-serious game: A "serious game" that has a strong component for amusement, in the same way games have. So taking this into consideration, you will make your trainer easier and fun-loving to use. People like learn having a good time, not thinking of working or just studying.

If people like, people will use it. Just this simple.