Virtuplex Presents New VR Applications at the Forbes NEXT Big Thing Forum

Forbes’s new technology event focusing on innovations, futuristic visions, start ups, and science attracted hundreds of visitors once again this year. The extensive program included presentations by Czech and foreign speakers, panel discussions, practical workshops, and the popular NEXT Big Thing Arena where the Virtuplex was a partner. This technology and experience zone allowed visitors to try new technologies for themselves.

The Virtuplex installed its largest mobile VR space measuring 10x10 metres providing up to 5 people at once with enough free space to tour a project in virtual reality. The participants could interact with one another, ask question of Virtuplex representatives, and learn how VR could help their business. The tour was created to present visitors with the main segments where the Virtuplex is active, specifically real estate and development, retail, and interior design.

Mobile VR Space Transports People to Far-Flung Locations

The VR experience began at Prague’s iconic Masaryčka project designed by London-based Zaha Hadid Architects, presenting how VR was used in the design of the building’s exterior and its surroundings, while the sounds of the city and pedestrians walking by increased the feeling of immersion. After a few steps, visitors found themselves in a fictitious Masaryčka unit they filled with shelves and hygiene projects, replicating a store created by the Virtuplex that the company used to demonstrate the uses of VR in retail, which includes in-store marketing, wayfinding, and consumer behaviour.

Then the visitors were transported to the Slovak ski resort of Jasná where the Virtuplex is working on the Central Hotel for Tatry Mountain Resorts, including a tour of the hotel’s restaurant where handtracking was used to change the upholstery on chairs, the colour of the carpets, or a desk lamp with the swipe of a finger.

The tour was completed by a scene from a city where VR operators placed a model of the student Škoda Academy project, the Škoda Montiaq. Visitors could not just “sit” in the car, but also open the doors and change its colours.