Virtual Reality panel: Ensuring no one is left behind

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my Hello everybody uh welcome to the

next session on the live stage uh my

name is marisel grandon uh I'm the CEO

of a small Communications company called

unfold stories I have a passion for

virtual reality and so I'm extremely

excited to get the opportunity to

moderate this panel today which is all

about virtual reality and how we can

ensure no one is Left Behind using this

new technology so

uh welcome and welcome to the audience

online as well and so I shall kind of

perch over here yeah this is good great

Arrangement so we have such a huge topic

to discuss here and 30 minutes which is

a major challenge so um I shall quickly

introduce you guys would you like to

just actually tell me who you are and

where you work okay um my name is V

runda I lead a team that's called

Innovation projects at deutche Valley

here right here next door you see the do

Val logo if you go outside there which

is Germany's International public

broadcaster 30 languages are programs

and information with a news

Focus great hi my name is Fred KZ I work

for the Innovation department at D

Telecom and um I'm I'm based in Berlin

so not here in BN super Christen gutun

I'm the executive producer at uh VR New

Media immersive content at the STG

action campaign in New York okay it's

great to have you all here now I know

you're all doing uh world class

innovation in virtual reality I'd like

to start with you Kristen because the

work of the United Nations in virtual

reality is um Second To None it had has

had so much impact around the world um I

wonder if you could tell us about where

the program is up to and uh a little bit

about what you're going to do in the

future yeah we started um in January

2014 um really looking at new ways to

convey the stories of some of the most

vulnerable people in the world and bring

them to some of the most powerful people

at the world so that we could put them

in the shoes of some of the people they

were making decisions about um over time

we've really started to evolve and think

about how do we use virtual reality and

expand the program so that it's

inclusive and and available to the

general public how can we use it for

fundraising how can we use it to educate

young people how can we use it as a tool

for discussions and policy it's great

that we're here so that people can come

to the virtual reality Zone and actually

step into the shoes of the people that

they are now thinking about and trying

to innovate about how they approach

these new these groups and include them

in the way they make decisions so we're

really looking at how at the next phase

which is impact and distribution so it's

exciting sure that's amazing so did

distribution is a a really key factor

when you're talking about virtual

reality uh because obviously there are

so many different platforms uh that you

can view this content different Hardware

um why is distribution important do you

think well we're still in the the

beginning of virtual reality so everyone

thinks oh I I need a headset but

actually that's not true um you know

YouTube has YouTube 360 Facebook has

Facebook 360 um there's a $10 Google

cardboard that you can pair with any

smartphone and any app so that it is

actually available to the general public

it's just a matter of making them feel

comfortable and making enough content so

that people want to keep coming back and

actually viewing it on a regular basis

that's kind of the the the the

challenges that we're having now in this

field I would say sure and and Frederick

would you like to tell us about what

you've been doing at dut Telecom right

so we wanted to do something in the

Innovative sector and look into VR as

well and also in an augmented reality

and we thought of so basically Christian

from rentl heading The Innovation

Department of dut Telecom he had the

idea to do something good and to

actually help the people who need it

most right now and so we tried to

develop an app that is now in beta and

that you can look at at the VR Zone as

well to help people and refugees

especially to learn language and social

skills with the help of these new

technologies right and this is where we

thought because what we saw in Germany

is like this 1 million refugees what

sounds a lot but given there are 30

Millions worldwide it's not such such a

big number but what we saw is if a wave

like that comes over a country and even

if it's such a rich country like Germany

it is then it's uh there are not enough

teachers for instance right to learn the

language there is enough money but not

enough teachers and this is a perfect

fit for technology actually because this

is where you can scale up unlimited and

help people really coming here and

integrating into the into the society

sure I I had a look at it yesterday and

I don't know if you've seen uh if you've

seen the um the demonstration going on

in the light in the VR Lounge it's worth

a look um I haven't seen anything that

does uh tries to do translation and

teaching in that in quite that way so

it's a really valuable um experience and

go check it out so um um I forgot your

name Wilfred um would you like to tell

me about what you've been doing at D

yeah um um yeah we of course have a

slightly different angle on on the on on

that on the technology um we're looking

at it uh will it will there be an added

value in virtual reality for a news

consumer is there something that we can

tell with virtual reality uh that we

can't uh without and um yeah one of the

uh one of the the fascinating things of

virtual reality is that you can create

things um

that don't exist so our first virtual

reality project was indeed to finish the

airport in uh in Berlin so um we we

actually rebuilt one of the the main

halls and and build an experience so

where um you could actually um land with

a plane then go through the gang way and

then be in the main hall pick up your

luggage so but why did we do it so we we

just I mean there are this is a major

Topic in in in Germany maybe already

throughout the world because the Germans

have lost their reputations for

finishing uh for for for straight and

and and deadlines and and work so

because this is we're waiting for this

to open like four years five years I

don't know lost track so um but um why

is that and that was a question we posed

to the virtual reality environment we

gave information for users um where the

technical problems are so give giving

them a very very new idea and that was a

feedback that we got we only published

it as a as a as a 360 video but but had

some some beta tests and C so we gave

them a sense of of of space and

magnitude so saying okay we have

problems here with some whatever pipes

with the heating whatever that sounds

pretty trivial but if you see it and you

see that these pipes have a 10 meter

magnitude and that in the context of the

building that is something new so we're

looking into how can we apply virtual

reality to the to news to news

environment how can we make our new

storytelling better and so after this

very very early beta project which was

like in it was between 24 and 15 we

finished in 25 we're now looking to make

the technology more applicable to um to

the newsrooms which is I think still a

way to go uh our first step is that we

create now in a in a um Google dni

co-funded project uh we we try to build

a very very simple uh content management

system where you can create a very very

simple story and include for example 36

videos all little bits of of virtual uh

of VR um Graphics so that's our next

step or it is just it just started first

of February it started we very curious