Introduction to Managing Virtual Reality (VR) Projects

This brief article is intended to introduce you to some of the new techniques and lessons learned to date on Managing Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR) Projects, such as building a VirtualHospital or a new VR Game. This article is not about managing a virtual team that is geographically dispersed using tools such as televideo conferencing or document sharing technology.

Background & Definitions

Virtual reality (VR) is a multi-disciplinary field of computing technology, that emerged from research on three-dimensional interactive graphics and vehicle simulations in the 1960's and 1970's. Back then, VR helmets were too heavy and cumbersome, computers were too slow, and touch/feedback systems were still in their infancy. However, technology has changed dramatically over the past 40 years. Computers are now thousands of times faster and today's growing number of virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) systems deliver a greater sense of feedback and immersion to their users.

Definitions Augmented Reality (AR) - A live direct or indirect view of a physical, real-world environment whose elements are augmented by computer-generated technology and sensory input devices. See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Augmented_reality Virtual Reality (VR) - A three dimensional (3-D) technology which allows a user to navigate around and interact with a computer-simulated environment. See http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Virtual_reality

VR Project Management

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are just starting starting to take root across a growing number of industries. Over the next five to ten years, the growth and use of VR and AR systems in business is going to be huge. Managing projects to develop and implement these types of systems requires some rethinking and study of lessons learned to date to modify existing project management approaches.

The following are selected project management recommendations for next generation technology project managers based on a number of articles such as VirtualReality Will Change Business as We Know It and the Ultimate Guide for Virtual Reality Project Management.

• Not many organizations and software developers have experience in working on projects with 3D graphics or using VR platforms.
• Project Managers (PM) tasked with overseeing and managing a virtual reality project will need to educate themselves in depth on the technical requirements of the project.
• Project managers will need a graphics expert who is able to use 3D graphics and VR development platforms to build, test, and modify your project app...
• Hiring at least a part-time VR specialist consultant can help make sure you save a lot of time and money before you buy or start building your VR solution.
• Simple VR apps appear to be relatively easy to build initially, however the complexity grows exponentially as more features are added.
• Production of VR content can make up to as much as 80% of work required for making a VR app and it’s most likely going to be your biggest sources of expenditure for the project.
• Customer design changes during the development phase frequently generate costly ripple effects which create delay. Take great care in the planning and design phases of the project.
• Careful scheduling of major tasks and use of critical path methodology (CPM) continue to be key to successful project management.
• Everything that is created in VR will have to be displayed using a graphics processor unit (GPU). Currently, even the best computers today are still limited by the number of 3D objects they can manipulate. We are still in the very early days of VR and AR applications.
• Supporting your planned VR app on all mobile and desktop platforms will require a lot of additional tweaking and rework. Think about using a 3D engine such as Unity 3D or Unreal Engine that will allow your app to be deployed to more than one platform with minimal rework.
• Project Managers (PM) should be educated in the use of VR and AR technologies so they know how to apply these new technologies in their jobs. Using VR/AR technologies will help PMs in the design, development, testing and modification phases of future VR/AR projects.
• Remember, VR or AR solutions are all about people and social interactions rather than the technology itself.
  
  Some other articles of interest include How to Get Started with VR: Intro to Your First Virtual Reality Project, Virtual Reality and your Product Development Process, How to plan a Virtual Reality (VR) Marketing Project, Real Applications of Virtual Reality in Education, 10 Specific Ways Virtual Reality (VR) is Revolutionizing Medicine and Healthcare and other recent articles.

Findings & Preliminary Recommendations

The following are some key conclusions and recommendations for project managers as they consider transitioning from managing traditional projects to more technologically complex VR and AR systems design, development, and implementation initiatives.

• Development and implementation of VR and AR projects is relatively new. Experience to date has shown that estimated costs, timeframes, and complexities of these projects are often underestimated.
• Project Managers need training in VR and AR technology and tools before tackling this new class of projects. Hiring a graphics expert and a VR specialist for consultation is recommended.
• Make sure you use a 3D engine such as Unity 3D or Unreal Engine that will allow your app to be deployed to more than one platform with minimal rework. There are also a number of open source VR and AR development platforms that are now available.

There is still much to learn as VR and AR development and implementation projects become more ubiquitous over the coming years. Please share your recommendations and lessons learned with our audience.

Selected Links

AugmentedReality.Org Augmented Reality for Enterprise Aliance EuroVR Association Virtual Reality Society VR/AR Association

ClassVR Cinema 4D WebVR Open Source Virtual Reality (OSVR) Capterra List of Best VR Software Learn AR/VR Development Online

* Peter Groen and Jaime Bernhardt collaborated on writing this article about managing VR projects. .

Summerton's Duckfest 2019 a Big Success

The Town of Summerton’s Annual Duckfest Festival is now in its 4^th year. The Festival is a family friendly annual event that promotes Summerton as the "Duck Capital of South Carolina". Some of the many events associated with Duckfest include:

• Miss Duckfest Pageant
• Fall ‘Open Team’ Bass Tournament
• Duck Calling Contest
• Adult & Children’s Art Contest
• Dog Retrieving Demonstration
• Duckfest Cook-Off
• Live Music
• … and much more.

The following are some of the pictures from around town.

For more details about Duckfest, go to the web site at www.duckfestfun.com

Lake Marion Animal Hospital in Summerton, S.C.

Have you visited the Lake Marion Animal Hospital. This new local business started by Brad and Becca Phillips is located at 1349 Felton Street in Summerton, S.C. I stumbled across them the other day as I cut across the back road from Clarendon Hall school heading towards Interstate I-95. Surprise! What a great new addition to our community.

Lake Marion Animal Hospital was opened a couple of months ago by veterinarians Brad and Becca Phillips. Brad is a lifelong resident of Clarendon County and who was excited to be able to finally move back to Summerton. He and Becca met each other in veterinary school in 2014 where they were attending college on the island of Saint Kitts in the West Indies.

After completing college, Brad joined the Westside Veterinary Clinic in Florence, SC. He worked there for a year and a half before opening the Lake Marion Animal Hospital with his wife Becca. They offer a wide array of services at their facility such as spaying or neutering pets, giving them vaccines, detection and treatment for heart worms, dental care, x-rays, preventative care and general orthopedic surgeries.

In addition to visiting their Facebook page, you can give them a call at (803) 488-8800. Also, for more information and directions to their facility you can check out their web site. 

Brief Introduction to the Multiverse and Teleportation

The multiverse is defined as a hypothetical group of multiple universes. Together, these universes comprise everything that exists: the entirety of space, time, matter, energy, and the physical laws and constants that describe them. The different universes within the multiverse are often called "parallel universes" or "alternate universes". See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Multiverse

Does the multiverse really exist? Can we move between alternative universes? How does this relate to teleportation research? Who knows?!?

Back in 1952, Erwin Schrödinger gave a lecture in Dublin in which he jocularly warned his audience that what he was about to say might "seem lunatic". He said that when his equations seemed to describe several different histories, these were "not alternatives, but all really happen simultaneously".

Multiverse and the Physics Community: The physics community has debated the various multiverse theories over time. Prominent physicists are divided about whether any other universes exist outside of our own. Some physicists say the multiverse is not a legitimate topic of scientific inquiry. However, scientific inquiry into multiple universes persists.

Multiverse and Philosophers:

The possibilities opened up by multiverse theory, of multiple and parallel universes, have long been a topic of speculation by philosophers. What is new is the potential for some sort of scientific experimental confirmation or at least indirect evidence that alternative universes exist.

Whatever ultimately comes out of philosophers or scientists studying multiverse theory as it continues to evolve, it will probably be stranger and more wonderful than anything our present-day imaginations can come up with.

Selected Articles on the Multiverse

The following are some recent articles about the multiverse that you might want to read:

• NBCNews.com - What is the multiverse? Advances in physics over the past 30 years have led some scientists to the mind-boggling conclusion that the universe we inhabit might just be one of many in existence — perhaps an infinite number.

• Space.com - How an Inflating Universe Could Create a Multiverse The multiverse idea crops up in a few different areas of science. Perhaps the most enticing route to the multiverse is through our understanding of the earliest moments of the universe itself: the period of inflation. As best we can tell, the exceedingly early universe underwent a period of incredibly rapid expansion called inflation.
• Forbes - This Is Why The Multiverse Must Exist The Multiverse is the idea that our universe, and all that's contained within it, is just one small part of a larger structure. This larger entity encapsulates our observable universe as a small part of a much larger universe that extends beyond the limits of our observations—the ‘Unobservable Universe’.
• Forbes - What Is (And Isn't) Scientific About The Multiverse The universe is all there ever was, all there is, and all there will ever be. At least, that's what we're told, and that's what's implied by the word "Universe" itself. But whatever the true nature of the universe actually is, our ability to gather information about it is fundamentally limited—at least for now.
• Live Science - Our Universe Could Be An Expanding Bubble in an Extra Dimension Many versions of string theory require that reality consist of 10 or more dimensions — the three of space and one of time we normally experience, plus many others that are rolled up into an extremely tight point. Exactly how those extra dimensions are configured determines the characteristics of the universe we perceive. But...

• Live Science - String Theory May Create Far Fewer Universes Than Thought String theory is an attempt to describe the whole universe under a single "theory of everything" by adding extra dimensions of spacetime and thinking of particles as miniscule vibrating loops. Many string theorists contend it is still the most promising direction for pursuing Albert Einstein's dream of uniting his general theory of relativity with the conflicting microscopic world of quantum mechanics.
• The Guardian - Stephen Hawking's final theory sheds light on the multiverse Reality may be made up of multiple universes, but each one may not be so different to our own, according to Stephen Hawking’s final theory of the cosmos. The work, completed only weeks before the physicist’s death, paints a simpler picture of the past 13.8 billion years than many previous theories have proposed. Published in the Journal of High Energy Physics, the new work is the result of a long collaboration with Thomas Hertog, a Belgian physicist at the Catholic University of Leuven.

Interdimensional Travel & Teleportation

Now to shift topics a bit and briefly look into ‘Interdimensional Travel’ - moving between alternative universes in the multiverse. Is it possible? What’s the current thinking about interdimensional travel and how does it relate to the topic of teleportation?

Interdimensional Travel: Do Doors to Interdimensional Travel Exist

Scientific discussions about ‘Interdimensional Travel’, and the portals that might allow it, are everywhere these days. Cosmologist Lisa Randall told the Smithsonian, parallel universes may in fact exist in other dimensions, separated from our own familiar surroundings by distances vastly smaller than the size of an atomic nucleus—in other word, right next door. Using ‘black holes’ as the solution for how to open a portal to these other dimensions has been popular in science fiction for decades. What is astonishing is that a growing number of scientists are now starting to think and talk about it. Do your own quick Internet search for scientific articles on Interdimensional Travel.

Cosmology is a branch of astronomy that involves the origin and evolution of the universe, from the Big Bang to today and on into the future. According to NASA, it is "the scientific study of the large scale properties of the universe as a whole." See https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cosmology

Will We Have Personal Teleportation in the Future?

Last year, Chinese scientists successfully teleported photons 300 miles into space, renewing the conversation about teleportation in the future.

Quantum teleportation takes on a new dimension - New Atlas

Recently, a team of scientists from the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Vienna, and the University of Science and Technology of China have conducted an experiment showing that quantum teleportation can not only be done in three dimensions, but theoretically it can be done in any number of dimensions. Further exploration into quantum teleportation, the complete conversion of every particle in your body into information, down to the atoms that can then be transmitted to a receiver located wherever you intend to go, all comes down to something called quantum entanglement-which is well over my head.

Teleportation is the theoretical transfer of matter or energy from one point to another without traversing the physical space between them.

Teleportation Update: It will be achieved incrementally this Century Many believe current technology provides no possibility of anything resembling the popular fictional form of teleportation we have seen portrayed in Star Trek movies. However, I prefer to listen to experts like physicist Michio Kaku. He has stated in a number of venues over time that he believes "It is physically possible to teleport an entire human being across the room or maybe onto Mars." We may just have to wait a few more decades before it is possible.

Keep an eye out on this whole field of study as it continues to unfold over the coming decades. It’s really exciting stuff.

Selected Links Google Search on ‘Teleportation’ Michio Kaku: Are there Extra Dimensions? YouTube Videos on ‘Quantum Teleportation’

Summerton SC Annual Health Fair - October 5, 2019

The annual Summerton SC Health Fair will take place October 5, 2019, in the Clarendon School District #1 Community Resource Center Gym at 1154 Fourth Street - from 10am to 1pm. All Clarendon County residents are welcome.

Some of the many sponsors of this event include CVS Pharmacy, Summerton Primary Care, Lake Marion Artisans, Hope Health, Walmart Vision Center and many others.

Free flu shots for Medicare patients, free screening for blood sugar levels and blood pressure, free vision tests and more are being offered. Hope to see you there. 

Keep our local community healthy and secure!