Apple Vision Pro rival HTC Vive’s VR used in healthcare, autos, space

This story is part of our Chief Innovation Officer Forecast series with Gizmodo, a business report from the front lines of the future.

Many have claimed that the “metaverse” is dead since Meta failed to make it profitable.

But just saying we’re in a “winter for the metaverse” doesn’t mean it’s done for good. Apple made a big splash releasing its spatial computing headset, the Vision Pro, at the beginning of February. And Taiwanese consumer electronics company HTC has been making virtual reality headsets for years — and, notably, garnering revenues (pdf) from them (though its headset business Vive is not yet profitable).

HTC launched its Vive brand in 2016. The first Vive virtual reality headsets were consumer-focused gaming products, but now they’re in use by hospitals, militaries, and businesses all over the world. Maastricht University in Netherlands is using them in neuroscience research and they’re on the heads of surgeons training at the University College London. They’re also in use at Boston Children’s Hospital, NYU Langone, and USCF Benioff Children’s hospital.

Vive headsets can be spotted on police officers and military personnel around the world as they learn de-escalation tactics. The U.S. Navy and Air Force are two branches of the American armed forces that use Vive headsets. They’re also used by Ford, General Motors, Nissan, Boeing, Airbus, JPMorgan, and American Express employees for training purposes and virtual meetups. What started out for — and is still popular with — gamers has expanded to a more IRL, in-the-field level of usefulness, both on Earth and beyond.

The Viverse has gotten more and more vivid over the years. Vive launched the latest update to its VR tech last week at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona: polygon streaming. The new technology enhances the quality of 3D objects in Vive’s metaverse, yet another step toward making virtual realities more tangible.

We spoke with John Dabill, HTC’s senior director of product operations for Viverse, Vive’s version of the metaverse.

Meta’s Quest may be for gamers, but HTC’s Vive is for big business

QZ: How has HTC Vive — along with its Viverse — evolved into a business product?

JD: So the initial starting point [for the Viverse was] for entertainment partners who wanted to have a model where gamers of all ages and all sort of gaming backgrounds could come in to a town center. But that technology has grown beyond gaming and entertainment…

There’s a lot of history with HTC in the VR space with business customers. A couple of years ago, we launched the Vive Focus 3, which was designed and built with feedback from earlier business customers to make it one of the most robust headsets and one of the most business friendly headsets at the time…So I think what’s happening really is we’re seeing the business use cases grow much faster.

QZ: How can VR headsets, and specifically the “Viverse” create time and cost savings for businesses?

JD: So Viverse is a platform as a service that operates a persistent space. So it means a business can have a permanent presence that is their own what we would call a spatial collaboration environment, what some would call the metaverse. And that can be used for all sorts of activities.

The metaverse is in space (actually)

QZ: What are some examples of HTC Vive headsets being used by businesses?

JD: We were approached by Nord Space to see if we could get the [Vive] Focus 3 headset working on the International Space Station…It’s been integrated with the exercise bike…so that the astronauts are wearing their Focus 3 headset doing their exercise…it’s mapping where they’re moving and they can pick forest scenes from Denmark…In the space station, it’s about escaping that environment for the real world.

Virtual reality is real-life training for doctors

QZ: What’s the potential for VR headsets in healthcare?

JD: Medical professionals can now do their training in VR, minimizing the risk to patients and also addressing a problem that seems quite obvious when you think. There’s always been this problem with medical training that, as a student, you have to have patients with [a] particular condition walk into the hospital at the right time when you’re there [in order to be trained]. So with VR training, you don’t need to wait for that patient to come in…So that’s enabled surgeons and medical professionals to be trained much more thoroughly.

We’re also working with partners where teenagers who’ve been affected by a disruption in their lives or lack of confidence can be connected with therapists.

We’ve had people with us this week that have started to use our Viverse solution to look again at how metaverse, spatial collaboration environments can help an elderly audience…getting back to childhood homes and memorable places that they perhaps visited in the past that they’re no longer able to.

HTC Vive isn’t scared of Apple Vision Pro

QZ: How does HTC feel about the buzz around Apple Vision Pro?

JD: We’re very pleased to welcome Apple to this space. We launched our first VR headset in 2016 on the market, so we’ve understood the potential of this technology for a long time. And having people like Apple come into this space and other partners, as well, it adds more credibility…it’s a really positive thing for us and the entire XR industry.

AI is in the Viverse

QZ: What does the future look like for Vive?

JD: We’ve also announced AI solutions being brought into our Viverse platform. So we have a real time live language translation within our Viverse platform, an AI avatar that can provide support and knowledge of information for businesses, and also for business meetings an AI assistant that will take notes in a summary of the meeting.