The Virtual Bristol VR Lab - a startup incubation and remote worker networking space

在过去的两年里，布里斯托尔VR实验室成功地成为了VR和AR以及相关机器学习和物联网领域创业公司的孵化器，并举办了大量的会谈和会议来加速这一领域的发展。冠状病毒造成了巨大的破坏，导致远程工作和网络的增加，VR和AR将在这些领域发生变革。随着头戴式耳机销量的增长和员工搬到家庭办公室，人们将非常需要在共享的数字3d空间中聚集在一起。我们已经在AltSpaceVR等平台和《堡垒之夜》等电子游戏中看到了这一点，但这些平台都专注于引擎，而不是辅助技术社区和创业开发等应用。布里斯托尔虚拟现实实验室已经开始开发物理布里斯托尔虚拟现实实验室的虚拟数字镜像，可以为员工提供日常连接，可以举办虚拟会谈和研讨会，可以举办聚会活动，并启用其他新的网络方式。由于冠状病毒，我们看到社会需要实施并积极发展这一空间，向我们的当地成员和居民以及国内和国际受众开放，他们面对面合作的机会将越来越有限。主要目标是为布里斯托尔虚拟现实实验室的3D模型创建和添加功能，其中包括虚拟工作，一对一会议，“咖啡”休息，小型研讨会，研讨会和小组课程或放松的区域。一旦建成，我们将在AltSpaceVR举办，并利用布里斯托尔虚拟现实实验室的网络和跟踪历史，通过主办的活动和谈话来推动参与，以及提供真实世界的培训课程，帮助初创公司的成员，企业和公众成员使用他们的虚拟现实耳机或PC /手机访问空间。这将是一个创新的项目，因为目前还没有知名的虚拟会议空间，而为潜在的庞大的全球用户建立空间和扩展的过程将有助于其他公司建立自己的虚拟会议区域。—扩展影响—到目前为止，该项目在构建虚拟空间和运行活动方面取得了成功。我们希望与TechSpark（一家为25,000家公司和专业人士举办媒体和活动的组织）合作，在2021年1月至3月期间设计、推广和举办一系列活动，以鼓励更多公司利用虚拟空间。我们将与TechSpark合作开发商业模式，以推动产品的收入，从而在2021年实现自我可持续发展。我们还发现了Mac电脑使用空间的问题，并设计了一个解决方案，Mac用户可以从高端PC或服务器无缝地进行流，亚马逊正在为该项目提供GPU云积分，我们希望扩展该项目以开发此功能。

The Bristol VR Lab has, for the last 2 years, successfully been acting as an incubator for startups working in VR & AR, as well as associated ML and IOT, and has also hosted a huge number of talks and meetings to accelerate this field.The coronavirus has created massive disruption which is leading to increased remote working and networking, fields in which VR and AR are going to be transformative.With headset sales increasing and workers moving to home offices, there will be a great need for people to come together in shared digital 3d spaces. We are already seeing this in platforms like AltSpaceVR, and in video games like Fortnite, however these are focused on the engine and not the applications such as assisting the technology community and startup development.Bristol VR Lab has started work on developing a virtual digital mirror of the physical Bristol VR Lab, which can host daily connection for workers, can host virtual talks and seminars, can host meetup events and enable other new ways to network. Due to Coronovirus we see the societal need to implement and actively grow this space, open up to our local members and residents, and to a national and international audience, who will have increasingly limited opportunities to collaborate face to face.The main objective will be to create and add functionality to a 3D model of the Bristol VR Lab, with areas for virtual working, one to one meetings, 'coffee' breaks, small workshops, seminars and group classes or relaxation. Once this is built, we will host it in AltSpaceVR and use the network and track history of the Bristol VR Lab to drive engagement through hosted events and talks, as well as providing real world training sessions to help members of startup companies, corporates and members of the the public access the space using their VR headset or PC / mobile phone.This will be an innovative project - as such there is no well known virtual meeting space, and the process of setting up the space and scaling for a potentially huge global audience with multiple functionalities will be useful in assisting other companies set up their own virtual meeting areas.-- EXTENSION FOR IMPACT --The project has so far been successful in building the virtual space and running events. We wish to engage TechSpark, an organisation that runs media and events to an audience of 25,000 companies and professionals, to design, promote and host a number of events between January and March 2021, that will encourage more companies to make use of the virtual space. We will work with TechSpark to develop business models to drive revenue in the product to achieve self sustainability in 2021. We also have uncovered an issue with the use of the space on Mac computers, and have designed a solution where Mac users can seamlessly stream from a high end PC or server, and Amazon are providing GPU Cloud credits for the purposes of the project, we wish to extend the project to develop this capability.