VR for Enterprise 2020

It is not the first time we meet a product from Pico. In November, we mentioned the new Pico G2 4K which we brought after VR Days in Amsterdam.

The Chinese Pico Interactive introduced two new products from the Neo 2 family: Pico Neo 2 Standard and Neo 2 Eye. These are almost the same standalone virtual reality glasses for the corporate buyer, the latter of which are distinguished by the presence of an eye-tracking system from Tobii.

Unlike the Pico G2 4K, the Neo family is better equipped. A New processor Qualcomm Snapdragon 845, or new 6 DoF stands for degrees of freedom. Simply put... this is because of cost. The hardware and software to have 6 DoF tracking are far more complex than 3 DoF tracking. Most mobile VR headsets use the built it inertial measurement unit (IMU) sensor to read its orientation. This is the same sensor that turns your screen landscape when watching a video on your mobile. Whereas, 6 DoF systems need infrared or optical tracking systems to track specific points on their headset or controllers in 3D space. The extra hardware increases the price but with greater functionality.

Additional technical information:

Neo 2 uses a single panel with software-based interpupillary distance (IPD) adjustment, something that Pico says should serve users with an IPD of between 55mm–71mm. The average person's IPD is a blow in the center of ~ 61–63 mm. So, they will not face any problems, but the physical IPD setting is very preferable because it helps a wider circle of people to pay attention to the sweet spot of the lens.

In the prototypes, the developers proposed wireless data transfer between the glasses and the computer at a frequency of 60 GHz. They made the new product in a sense more interesting than Oculus Quest, capable of this only through a Link cable.

Competitors offer this as an add-on, and Pico prepared it as an integrated function. However, at the last moment, Pico announced that the new product will not work with 60 GHz. Judging by the official website of the company, interaction with the PC remains, but at standard Wi-Fi 5 capacities.

Pico Neo 2 is the revolutionary Pico product. It was awarded the CES Innovation Product Award at the CES 2020 (American Consumer Electronics Show) in Las Vegas, USA. After his debut, it was well received by the media and visitors.

The partnership between the two companies puts Firefox Reality on every Neo 2 device giving you the ability to instantly send a video, a document, or a webpage directly from your computer to your VR headset through a "Send Tab" option that's built into the dropdown menu located in Firefox's URL.

While most VR headsets, such as the HTC Vive and Oculus Quest, market themselves as devices designed for gaming, education, socializing, and workforce solutions, Pico's Neo 2 is focused solely on business and education. Mozilla is well aware of VR technology's growing role as a tool in everything from recruitment and training to business marketing and day-to-day operations.

Competition is good for business and for consumers, and it helps to boost innovation and outreach, which is where Mozilla sees their partnership with Pico excelling. Shortly it is one more competitor for Facebook's Oculus for Business and HoloLens 2 with Microsoft Dynamics 365.

According to PR representative Lauren Cozza, to date, more than 200 thousand Pico VR headsets have been sold in the world. She mentioned various industries, including healthcare, education, marketing, and training.

Pico did not come up with a bicycle and decided to use the best solutions in their devices. For example, the eye recognition technology from Tobii has previously been used in the HTC VIVE Pro.

Let's compare technical specs with other popular devices on the market.

Our team has implemented more than one hundred different prototypes and finished projects on each of these devices. Any device with the necessary software is able to solve the needs requested by the business.

But, if you choose complexly, it is obvious that Pico Neo 2 is an excellent value for money for business! They give an almost maximum performance (remember that Vive is tethered to the PC), better image quality and the same mobility as the Quest.

The Quest is considered to be the flagship in the game market of VR. In the B2C market for Oculus only Valve with their Index headset can become a competitor. Their strength is in the amount of finished content for the consumers. Facebook doesn't stop spending millions on finished products like Beat Saber and buying development studios. Valve it's a world-renowned game-making giant and most recently turned the point of view on games in VR thanks to the release of Half-Life Alyx.

Definitely Pico surpasses the Oculus if your products need a quality visualization as a place with realistic nature or it's the surgery simulator where details are important.

The Pico Enterprise Management Program provides an added layer of custom support and technical resources designed for businesses, including AAA Support for direct connection with the development team, and flexible logistics and device customization (loading screen, firmware, etc.) options.

In addition, Pico already has successful use cases in which this affects staff training.

So, in 2019, in California, the Cosumnes fire department, in collaboration with RiVR and Pico Interactive VR, used VR to immerse the guys from the Fire Academy in several real-life fire scenarios. Before they start to fight fire in real situations.

Using a VR headset, firefighters can visualize and observe the development of a fire, the conditions of the smoke and fire situation that could result in serious injury or death. The simulator included seven unique immersive scenarios.

The program turned out to be extremely useful. Almost all of the firefighters in the program agreed that they felt better prepared for real firefighting emergencies due to their experience in the dive training program. And the head of the fire department, Mike McLaughlin, plans to continue to use this technology in future schools.

After mentioning how Pico actually works with useful and custom content. We must add a few words about the freedom of action that Pico provides to both developers and business.

It is also important for any creator, artist, developer or product owner to maintain their value and uniqueness.

Many of them need to limit the number of device capabilities before showing what they have created for the world.

For example, a business product is intended for a corporate client and is configured exclusively for a specific company. Or, imagine, that you are the owner of a special psychological technique for saving people from burnout. In both cases, it is very important that only their application works on the device. And the problem is that as soon as developers change something in the device itself, it starts to create compatibility problems, or works incorrectly.

Kiosk mode is, in fact, a way to show virtual reality in the most reliable way, allowing the virtual headset to work with only one specific application that automatically starts when the headset loads. This prevents users from accidentally quitting the application and losing them in the device environment.

Oculus has repeatedly received requests from the business to add a similar mode for both Oculus Go and the Quest.

However, their CTO John Carmack tweeted that Oculus plans to add this option in the future. And most likely only with a package for business. Oculus clearly does not want to limit the distribution of its content and applications on the device. Apparently in their plans for the future to sell their devices already with their solutions. In any case, there is no ready-made solution.

Pico is more loyal in this matter. They demonstrated as many as two modes at once for Pico G2 4K both for video and for applications.

Pico even has a detailed online guide on how to enable kiosk mode. According to this document, you need to create an APK, contact Pico and get the approved version of your product in a matter of time. All that remains is to download this application to the Pico headset using VRsideloader. After installation, just restart the headset to launch the application in kiosk mode!

The process does not require downloading to stores or many more other circles of Hell to start. A definite plus for business applications!

We think that Pico absolutely rightly became one of the most talked-about at CES 2020.

The headset is comfortable, balanced and an order of magnitude easier than the Quest.

Compared to previous products, the Pico Neo 2 has been significantly upgraded and overall performance is more than satisfactory. This is an excellent device for solving business problems, with a good bonus in gaming capabilities at a good price.

So, our development team would be more than happy to create great products and solutions for your business on Pico or other devices.