Liu Kai, Director of Pico Research and Development: Current situationand Reflections on the VR Industry

On October 28, the "VR International Creative Meeting" jointly organized by Insta360 and Pico was held at Pico headquarters in Beijing. I was fortunate to participate in this event as well. Liu Kai, Pico's Director of Research and Development, gave a keynote speech entitled "The Current Situation and Thinking of VR Industry Applications" at the event site and shared some thoughts of Pico for the VR industry in the past two years. Liu's speech is very exciting. Today I would like to include Part of the content to share with you.

Liu Kai first introduced the VR product form. In fact, the development of VR is included in the process of computer evolution. It also follows the basic principle of computer evolution. Starting from the PC and the Internet in 1990, the emergence of the mobile Internet in 2005 and the forthcoming generation of computers in input and output by 2015 New evolution. Faced with the question "Will human beings try to change the input and output of computers in the background when cloud computing and cloud storage are very powerful", the answer given by Facebook is to acquire Oculus and bring a new kind to humans through VR Of the output experience, the 2D display into a 360-degree panoramic scene, while the input method from the traditional keyboard and mouse to change the body's natural interaction (that is, the way somatosensory handle).

In fact, VR is not a new thing, this technology has been used in the industry for many years, the basic principle is the principle of optical convex lens. R & D personnel through the addition of convex lens head-mounted display with a gyroscope, allowing users to rotate the head system when the picture is also synchronized changes, so that users will feel the surrounding is a spherical environment. At the same time, this environment needs 3D stereoscopic effect, so you need head-mounted display for split left and right, the system of the left and right eyes were rendered different pictures, and then allow users to identify the brain, and ultimately the formation of a 3D stereo effect.

After a brief introduction of product form, Liu Kai then shared some of the data from IDC. In the first half of 2017, the shipments of VR products dropped from 2016 levels. The global shipments of VR products were 4.3 million. The shipments of VR products in China increased by more than the same period of the previous year. The shipments of the first quarter plus the second quarter The amount of 556,000. Liu Kai believes that the current situation from the market point of view, VR did not imagine so cold. Since 2015, the VR market has witnessed a year-on-year rate of increase with a year-on-year decrease indeed in the fourth quarter of 2016. This is a very normal phenomenon as the curve trend in any kind of technology development will always have a chance of getting hot again Then the stage of steady development, and even if the VR growth rate after the cold or maintained a high level.

From the domestic shipping situation, the VR glasses in 2016 the largest shipments, reaching millions, and the VR All in One growth rate is very fast, VR All in One found in the country to survive the soil, which is the application scenario . From the global market share, VR All in One’s share is still quite small, but some time ago Facebook released a new VR integrated machine Oculus Go, the future will be released HTC VIVE all in One, the industry giants released one machine will be a market signal. In the domestic Pico early launched a split VR All in One,VR All in One in terms of both domestic and global are in a leading position.

IDC VR product shipments forecast shows that VR product development is not a radical growth, but will maintain a steady increase in 2021 global VR market reached 50 million units in the market size. The development trend of the domestic VR market is very optimistic. It is generally in line with the rest of the world and even better than foreign markets. It will reach 17 million units by 2021. By 2020,VR Headsets, VR all-in-one PCs and PCVRs will be in thirds of the world. The market share of VR Headsets will gradually decline. The market share of VR all-in-one devices will gradually increase and gradually become equal to PCVR.

After the data forecast link, Liu Kai shared some cases of Pico's application in the industry. The first case comes from commercial marketing. In fact, many companies want to be able to use new technologies or models to attract the attention of their marketing activities so as to achieve the purpose of promotion. Mengniu Group purchased Pico 2500 VR all-in-one, scattered in 130 cities nationwide 800 sales outlets, and customized the Mengniu brand-specific VR games, which is the first large-scale domestic VR line marketing activities. Consumers in the supermarket to buy enough Mengniu 68 yuan product you can play the game on VR all-in-one, and the game is also the exclusive content of the Mengniu brand, which formed a closed-loop system, but the content can also be constantly updated.

At the Toyota RAV4 conference, the organizers provided 450 machines with video of the product at the same time so that the audience here could understand the various functions of the product from different perspectives. At the same time, this event is also the first VR event in Asia with the VR unit. The Pico NEO, as a VIP gift for Toyota's global car debut, has played a role of a detonator for Toyota's new product launches. The product, but also for brand building to help.

On education, Liu Kai shared Pico's chemistry lesson in Beijing's 12th. At the beginning of the class is still taught by the teacher, when it comes to a certain detail, the students will participate in some experiments through VR under the guidance of the teacher. This is a VR exploration of education, VR All In One as a supplementary teaching aids, can help teachers explain something that can not be presented in words. For example, a terrain and topography is not vivid by explanation. With a panoramic video, students can instantly understand the characteristics of the terrain. For another example, the solar system and the problem of the size of the planet can be easily solved by computational vision. So, VR really has a lot of applications in the field of education.

Similar to the field of education and training areas, Pico developed for the China Eastern Airlines cabin training system and maintenance training system. In the training system, trainees can simulate the entire operation process of lamp replacement through VR equipment, thereby drastically reducing the training cost, saving resources and improving the re-use rate. In addition, for some design-type scenarios, VR allows multiple designers to work together in a virtual space where they can discuss and modify together in a virtual product environment, such as a car or a building. These applications are not available in existing computer products, VR can create irreplaceable value for customers in these areas.

The last case is the police psychological stress training. Through the experience of similar war games, VR can hone the psychological quality of soldiers, while supporting the use of the system also includes some test the level of physical stress equipment, the official and then according to individual circumstances as a basis for judging different individuals for which specific positions based on , And then maximize the maximum performance of each individual. These are the application scenarios that combine the characteristics of VR with the specific needs of customers.

After the above case sharing, Liu Kai said that at present Pico is involved in the application of the industry mainly in the areas of business display, education and training, offline experience, these industries have the following characteristics, and these features are VR scenarios: First, the industry Second, VR can bring a completely different experience to the industry; Third, this different experience can bring effective value to customers (save capital, promote sales and enhance the brand Wait). Partners involved in the application of VR industry can refer to the above characteristics, in practice try to do some pilot projects, and then gradually extended to various industries.