Our Blog

We recently released our VR app called VRium into beta testing, with which you can study general chemistry in an interesting and interactive way. To make VRium as useful and user-friendly as possible, we invited Viktor Tokariev to test our application. Viktor holds a PhD degree in physical chemistry; he is a Senior Lecturer in Chemistry at the Karazin Kharkiv National University. So you can trust his opinion. Victor is an interesting conversationalist and a person truly keen on chemistry. He tested our application, pointed out soft spots and told us how we can improve the functionality. We talked with him about the educational process, discussed specifics of teaching chemistry to schoolchildren and students, and agreed on further cooperation. I think it’s important to clearly visualize fundamental chemical concepts and help students to get general knowledge and develop chemical intuition. These are necessary for materials and life sciences (where progress is crucial to find novel drugs and materials for energy and computing), but also at scale help to raise general public perception of science. I hope VRium app will help students to alleviate common pain points of chemical curriculum as well as master advanced chemical concepts. Of course, interactive VR applications like this one are even more useful during continuing global pandemic, when access to in-person chemistry classes is limited or absent. Viktor Tokariev, PhD in physical chemistry, senior lecturer at V. N. Karazin Kharkiv National University We will work together to refine the application to make the learning process of chemistry interesting, engaging and interactive.

A new mini-football season of the Kharkiv IT-League has begun. And our team starts it in a new status – as members of the Senior IT League. At the end of last season, we took second place in the Middle IT League and a victory in the transitional match with the Eastern Peak team made it possible to qualify for the Senior IT League. In the new season, stronger opponents, interesting matches and beautiful goals await us. Congratulations to the guys and we wish them victories in the new season!

Project: Scheme of the engine with the HoloLens 2 Working on the engine scheme as a part of the education apps for engineers in industrial companies. Technology stack: Unity SDK, MRTK Devices: HoloLens 2

The glasses are called Xiaomi Smart Glasses. It is a standalone Android-enabled device that does not need a constant connection to a smartphone. The internal under-the-hood of the glasses contains a quad-core processor, a battery, and Wi-Fi and Bluetooth modules. Xiaomi Smart Glasses weigh 51 g and have a 0.13-inch monochrome display, which is made using microLED technology. The device is also equipped with one 5-megapixel camera with which you can take photos and translate text in real time. The display of the glasses allows you to display notifications from your smartphone, helps with building a route, and shows information on incoming calls. Calls can be made using the built-in speakers and microphone. So far, Xiaomi Smart Glasses are only a concept and the company has no plans to put them up for sale.

Co-developed by Facebook and Ray-Ban, they have two front-facing 5-megapixel cameras that can take photos and videos. The glasses are also equipped with three built-in microphones and speakers, with which you can take calls and listen to music. You can control the device by clicking on the frame or by voice commands. The created content is stored in the memory of the glasses, which will be enough for shooting about 30 videos with a maximum duration of 30 seconds and about 500 photos. If necessary, you can connect to your smartphone via Wi-Fi and use the Facebook View application to upload existing photos and videos to it. The battery will last for about 6 hours with intensive use, and it will take about 1 hour to fully charge the device. The set comes with a portable charging case, the capacity of which will be enough to provide three days of continuous use of the glasses. Ray-Ban Stories will be sold in three frames: Wayfarer, Round, Meteor, and five colors. They will be available online and through the Ray-Ban branded network in the US, Canada, the UK, Italy, Ireland and Australia. Glasses start at $ 299 depending on design and model. The glasses have no built-in displays and no augmented reality function. This is, by the way, why we put the word “smart” in quotes. As developers of AR / VR / MR applications, we expected Facebook to showcase an AR device that would open up the benefits of augmented reality to more users. This has not happened yet, but we are optimistic about new developments of AR wearable devices and are confident that AR Apps will become an integral part of everyday life.

Many companies are beginning to understand the value of virtual reality technology as it caters to a wide variety of learning needs. This is largely due to the fact that VR pushes the boundaries of traditional learning, allowing you to create realistic learning scenarios in a simulated environment. Also, another important factor in the spread of virtual reality training solutions is that the cost of its implementation has fallen drastically. According to PwC, 23 million jobs will be using virtual or augmented reality by 2030. This will have the greatest impact on such large economies as China, the USA, the UK and Germany. This is the time when companies need to be proactive and forward-thinking to get the most out of virtual and augmented reality technologies. The main advantages of VR training: Ability to create a safe learning environment. Involvement of employees in the learning process. Reduced training costs. Development of practical skills. Scalability. Ability to track key learning indicators. Areas of VR training application: Simulation of complex processes in a safe environment, for example, actions in case of an emergency. Working out actions according to certain algorithms, instructions or checklists. Development of soft skills in areas such as customer service and management. Adaptation of personnel to the cultural norms of the company. Learning to work with equipment, machinery or complex processes. When considering how VR can be used to solve learning problems, companies in any case must understand their learning goals and determine which technology will help them achieve those goals.

Unity has announced plans to acquire Parsec for $ 320 million. This will be the company’s largest acquisition to date. Parsec was founded in 2016 and offers clients a remote desktop access tool. Interest in Parsec has increased as many companies are moving to telecommuting in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.

Sometimes we get requests for using native java methods from Unity code in the Oculus Application. Below, we describe one of the ways we can check if Wi-Fi and internet connection are enabled on the Oculus headset from the Unity Engine code part. In this sample application, we check if Wi-Fi is switched on or off on the Oculus app and if we have an internet connection to this Wi-Fi. At first, we need to call the native java class method using this code to call Wi-Fi availability: /// /// Send request to JavaClass to check if wifi is enabled on oculus /// /// private bool DeviceWiFiAndroidRequest () { var isWifiEnabled = false; try { // An activity provides the window where the app draws its UI. // Typically, one activity in an app is specified as the main activity, which is the first screen to appear when the user launches the app. // Get current activity in unity project from java classes. // AndroidJavaClass: Construct an AndroidJavaClass from the class name. // GetStatic: Get the value of a static field in an object type. using (var activity = new AndroidJavaClass ("com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayer"). GetStatic ("currentActivity")) { // Method "getSystemService": Gets the name of the system-level service that is represented by the specified class. // As the parameter arguments, we pass the name of the package with handle "getSystemService". // The class of the returned object varies by the requested name. // Get "WifiManager" for management of Wi-Fi connectivity. using (var wifiManager = activity.Call ("getSystemService", "wifi")) { // Call: Calls a Java method on an object. Call, T – return type // Call method "isWifiEnabled". Return whether Wi-Fi is enabled or disabled. Returns bool value. isWifiEnabled = wifiManager.Call ("isWifiEnabled"); } } } catch (Exception e) { Debug.LogError ("Android request exception: " + e.Message); } return isWifiEnabled; } After that, we need to check if we have an internet connection on connected Wi-Fi. Also, we need to call the native java class method. /// /// Request to JavaClass to check if internet connection is reachable /// /// private bool NetworkConnectionAndroidRequest () { var isNetworkEnabled = false; try { using (var activity = new AndroidJavaClass ("com.unity3d.player.UnityPlayer"). GetStatic ("currentActivity")) { // Get "ConnectivityManager" for handling management of network connections. using (var connectivityManager = activity.Call ("getSystemService", "connectivity")) { // Call method "getActiveNetworkInfo" that returns details about the currently active default data network. // Call method "isConnected" that indicates if network connectivity exists. Returns bool value. isNetworkEnabled = connectivityManager.Call ("getActiveNetworkInfo"). Call ("isConnected"); } } } catch (Exception e) { Debug.LogError ("Android request exception: " + e.Message); } return isNetworkEnabled; } After this, we have to use a coroutine to check these two parameters. We check each for 2 seconds. /// /// Check if the application is connected to Wi-Fi in coroutine /// /// private IEnumerator CheckDeviceWifiConnection () { yield return new WaitForSecondsRealtime (2f); while (true) { yield return new WaitForSecondsRealtime (checkDelay); wifiConnection = DeviceWiFiAndroidRequest (); wifiMessage.text = wifiConnection ? "Wifi On" : "Wifi Off"; } } /// /// Check if the application is connected to Wi-Fi in coroutine /// /// private IEnumerator CheckNetworkConnection () { yield return new WaitForSecondsRealtime (2f); while (true) { yield return new WaitForSecondsRealtime (checkDelay); internetConnection = NetworkConnectionAndroidRequest (); internetMessage.text = internetConnection ? "Internet reachable" : "Internet not reachable"; } } Below, you can see the full script for checking internet connection and Wi-Fi availability on the Oculus Quest 2 from Unity code using native java methods.

Feature: High-level detailed graphics and real-time lightings in any web browser. Using streaming from the webserver to the client browser and reading input from the device. All high-loaded processes compute on the web server. As a result, we receive an incredible graphic level that we can use in the promo application. Technology stack: Unity SDK, The High Definition Render Pipeline (HDRP), WebRTC, NodeJS. Devices: Web browsers (iOS, Android, Windows, macOS, Linux).