The mixed reality application from 2Sync integrates physical objects into the virtual world
When we put on VR glasses, we find ourselves in a new reality – a digital environment. We look around and discover a waterfall below us, see a spaceship battle above us or an attack by monster mutants in front of us. Anything is possible. But what we do not perceive at this moment with the world generated by the glasses: the space around us, the walls, other people, tables, chairs.
The start-up 2Sync has developed a solution that makes it possible to merge the real and virtual worlds. Users experience how their real environment is integrated into a new digital world. Their reality is covered with a “second digital skin”, as founder Moritz Loos puts it in the MediaTech Hub interview. With the right application and VR glasses, an entire apartment can be transformed into a gaming world in which we can not only move around but also feel objects. The VR experience is enhanced by an immersive experience.
Every object in the room becomes an element of interaction
The living room table in front of us appears as the wall of an ancient Mayan site, for example, while the door to the next room could be the entrance to a cave. Every real object is virtually mirrored – and can therefore be modified. And the application doesn’t just include the rooms and objects in them; multiplayer functions also allow you to play with others in the same VR application. The VR world can be entered together with friends. “Each player is registered in the room and sees the same table or what is made of it and knows where the other players are. They can be integrated into the room using the avatar function. We can even give each other a real high five in the game,” says 2Sync CEO Moritz Loos. It’s obvious that this is a win for the games industry.
But 2Sync’s mixed reality solution also opens up new opportunities in the B2B sector: with the second, digital reality, classrooms can theoretically be transformed into museums, rooms can be equipped for job training or our living room can be turned into a soccer arena or a historical Mayan site at the touch of a button. The soccer arena space on the gallery is actually our sofa, which we share with friends. In the Mayan site, we feel the old walls (actually our bookshelf) or walk around pillars (the room pillars). All objects in our environment are tangible and can be included. 2Sync recently built a sample application for Siemens in which employees are playfully guided through VR, AR and MR to familiarize them with it.
A room-independent and platform-independent VR experience
The technologies that 2Sync offers for this are platform-independent. In order for any surface to become an interaction element, it must first be captured. The prerequisite is a scan of the room, which can even be carried out using a cell phone. The VR experience itself, which 2Sync describes, is then room-independent and platform-independent. “We have built tools to describe the world parametrically and dynamically,” says Loos. Instead of static definitions, the programs are provided with a description that is independent of placement. This allows the digital world to adapt to the space.
After completing his master’s degree in media informatics at the Hasso Plattner Institute, Moritz Loos worked as a software developer on a location-based entertainment project, i.e. a VR application that only works in one room. This quickly became too static and too time-consuming for him. This is because all the associated assets, which also had to be measured for the real world in a very manual process, are built as virtual assets for the room only. How do I adapt the virtual objects to reality? Conversely, how do I find virtual objects for this object?
Instead of approaching these two questions from two sides, he looked for a solution to generate this procedurally using a room and developed the idea further for his Master’s thesis. The contact with co-founder Julian Zietemann, who worked as an IT management consultant, came about through the HPI founders’ meeting. 2Sync is now part of the MTH Accelerator. Together, they have developed games such as “Zombies” and “House Defender”, which are available to download free of charge and also serve as a door opener for 2Sync’s tools.
B2B market, games industry and location-based entertainment
Their software not only transforms our kitchen or living room into a zombie landscape – LBE (location-based entertainment) providers who operate VR areas in leisure centers also use it to open up new gaming functions for their guests. This is because there are arcades and VR arcades all over Germany that offer a lot of gaming space but have to keep a fixed area per player – often around 2×2 meters per person.
With House Defender, 2Sync has a game on the market in which the different room layouts of the individual game centers are easily integrated. For 2Sync’s VR environment, it makes no difference whether one of the rooms has a column in one place or is angled in another. Here too, several players are possible in one area. They can interact with each other and make use of a larger radius. The advantage of such areas is also that the providers scan their area professionally once, whereas home scans are often the preserve of the few technology enthusiasts, says Loos. The feedback from the halls is used to develop a specific game and to enter the US market. Whether for the games industry or the B2B sector: instead of creating a new reality, the start-up is constantly blurring the boundaries between our reality and the digital world with its application.
More about the MTH Blog
The media technologies of the future are already being used today – not only in the entertainment sector but in a wide variety of industries. For our MediaTech Hub Potsdam blog, we talk to tech enthusiasts, entrepreneurs and researchers once a month and tell the stories behind their innovative business models, ideas, projects or collaborations.
