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© Lars HübnerInterlake/Nextcreate

With Nextcreate into the metaverse

The content authoring tool for digital learning

The market for digital learning has experienced an upswing, and not just since the pandemic. Since 2017, global sales have increased by 35.28 billion euros – particularly in the B2B sector. Companies are one of the largest target groups for digital knowledge transfer and e-learning. They need to regularly bring their employees up to date or provide them with content – for example, to provide regular training for updates or to guarantee good onboarding in industries with high staff turnover. Authoring tools enable companies to easily create their own learning content. However, they are usually designed for the desktop.

So if you want to learn more, you sit in a classroom or office with a screen in front of you. Many studies show that the learning effect here is lower than through interactive or physical learning. In addition, the majority of employees are often “deskless workers” – they don’t sit in front of a screen. The heating engineer or safety technician is standing in front of machines during construction or maintenance and needs specific information. The complete documentation is rarely available on site. Even employees in system catering, who are often exposed to high stress levels, will not log onto the intranet to look up the required instructions when preparing food or maintaining kitchen machines.

A simple e-learning solution for B2B

The Potsdam-based company Interlake has now developed Nextcreate, a tool that can be used directly with smartphones, tablets or even VR glasses for digital expansion on site and can be called up for the various work phases. “We want to make such learning topics available to the masses. And software doesn’t solve the problems, it’s just an enabler,” says Sven Slazenger, CEO and founder of Interlake. “In the simplest description, we were looking for a solution to transport information from A to B. Retrievable on desired target devices such as tablets and cell phones that everyone has at hand and, on the other hand, so easy to use that anyone who knows Outlook can do it. We enable those responsible to create the content themselves very easily.”

Until the sale of its subsidiary Interlake Learning, Interlake already offered digital learning solutions and worked as an exclusive partner with Articulate, the global provider of a 360-degree storyline tool. The division was sold last year in order to focus on the main business – Microsoft cloud technologies. However, after customers repeatedly approached Interlake with requests for an easy-to-use and desktop-independent application, the company began developing an AR authoring tool that does not require high-end devices and can be used in series.

This is not entirely new: there are now a number of 3D authoring tools in the augmented reality sector – but these in turn need to be equipped with 3D elements. Very few companies have the appropriate content to hand. This is because three-dimensional content requires a lot of time and money. What everyone has available, however, is text information, images, data or videos. Interlake’s declared goal: to produce software for these requirements that does not require a “support nightmare”, says Slazenger. “Our tool enriches reality with digital information at certain points.” As a developer, Interlake cannot be compared to start-ups that collect large investments and quickly produce implementations thanks to high expenditure. Instead, the company only invests with its own resources, works closely with customers and along proven sales channels.

The necessary information is retrieved using digital anchor points in the room

An important project laid the foundation for Nextcreate: in collaboration with artist Sarah Settgast and musician Rolf Zuckowski, an interactive children’s book was created that was equipped with AR elements and a corresponding app. Anyone browsing through the book with a mobile device and app will hear the corresponding songs and texts – the corresponding pages are easily recognized using the photo function. Interlake CEO Sven Slazenger, who was involved here as a business partner on the publishing side, also arranged contact with Volucap, who also contributed lifelike miniature holograms of Zuckowski and Settgast with their volumetric studio. A statistical analysis in the background showed that the AR function of the children’s book was accessed with around 400 different mobile devices – the application worked without any problems every time.

The first beta version of Nextcreate is based on the same principle and offers a browser-based authoring tool that anyone can use to upload images, videos and texts. In order to get everything played out directly on site – at the point of need – digital anchors are needed that the program recognizes. In addition to QR codes, Interlake uses spatial anchors – anchor points in space that are used to recognize and call up the desired information. If you think further ahead and actually want to create content for the metaverse or 3D environments, you can also use Nextcreate. However, providers need the corresponding elements for this.

Interlake is currently concentrating on the B2B e-learning sector with Nextcreate, where it already has established contacts and sales structures. In test phases with an agricultural machinery manufacturer, for example, Nextcreate is providing maintenance documentation directly on the machines. A car manufacturer, a large bakery and a food service company are also among the beta testers.

There are also possible application scenarios in the cultural or tourism sector. For example, the digital extension can be used to provide additional information without disturbing the visual concept of the exhibition.

Nextcreate is moving from closed beta to public beta next month. Interested companies are welcome to participate by invitation.

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.