The Laval Virtual Awards ceremony recognizes the best VR/AR projects of the year.
Crédits photos : Prisma / Laval Virtual
Last night, Thursday July 8th, the 23rd Laval Virtual Awards ceremony was held during the annual exhibition. 12 virtual reality and augmented reality projects were awarded. The awards were given in the 8 general categories and also for 4 projects from the ReVolution competitions. Each year, the Laval Virtual Awards recognize the best immersive projects of the year.
8 prizes awarded in the general categories
Industry – SenseGlove Nova (SenseGlove)
SenseGlove Nova is a new version of haptic force-feedback gloves designed for professional VR training purposes. These gloves feature an updated flexible form-factor in combination with unparalleled haptic technologies and smooth hand tracking that enables users to feel shapes, textures, stiffness, impacts and resistance in VR. Companies can upscale all kinds of VR training programs, such as handling hazardous materials, carrying out complex tasks with multiple tools, learning to design and test physical prototypes.
Entertainment & Medias – Sensorium Galaxy (Sensorium)
Sensorium Galaxy — a next-generation social VR platform that connects people through world-class VR entertainment. Sensorium Galaxy leverages state-of-the-art blockchain technologies to make the future of content distribution safe for both the public and artists. The technology was first introduced to the public in 2019 at the Electronic Entertainment Expo (E3) in Los Angeles. Sensorium expects to attract over 1,8 million users by the end of 2022.
Education & Learning Content – Neoma Virtual Campus (Neoma Business School)
NEOMA Business School was the first European business school to strongly react to the COVID crisis by launching an online virtual campus for its students, professors and staffs. The project aims to provide a place where studying, teaching, meeting and chatting can happen again, without the need to move to our brick-and-mortar campuses. The tool they have chosen provides many features that enables us to stick as much as possible to the reality of a business school.
Healthcare – VirtySens (VirtySens)
VirtySens offers a multi-sensory and multi-directional immersive experience. The experience is accessible to a particular public: children, young adults, adults and seniors, handicapped or immobilised in a hospital room or medical establishment. There are many potential uses for the device we have developed: stress reduction and opening up to new sensory experiences for patients suffering from disabilities, re-education for hospitalised children, pre- or post-medical relaxation, relaxation and reconnection with their surroundings for senior citizens, etc.
Services – XR for Collaborative Urban Planning (Artefacto)
Artefacto is currently bringing to the market a new XR SaaS product that will enable stakeholders and citizens to visualize remotely or on site the future urban transformation and to contribute to an interactive co-creation process giving their feedback or analyzing results all along the design phase. The product will also enable Real Estate and Architectural Firms’ need to assess the district socio-urban condition to define a proper design brief before investing.
Sports – Tennis Esports (VR Motion Learning)
Tennis Esports is an authentic VR tennis application with real ball physics to play online from home or in the club against real opponents.
Virtual Worlds – Virbela (Virbela)
Within Virbela’s virtual worlds, organizers and companies are able to customize their own virtual expo halls, auditoriums, afterparty venues, and private networking spaces, all while accommodating thousands of attendees. Virbela’s virtual worlds replicate the chemistry of in-person events, helping to boost audience retention and participation. Attendees can network, spontaneously bump into a colleague, visit a company’s exhibition booth, or attend private working sessions in quiet rooms.
VR for a Cause – Sculpture Experience (ArtofCorner)
SCULPTURE EXPERIENCE: VR discovery tour of 6 sculpture masterpieces, from prehistoric to modern times. This immersive and interactive experience for Oculus Quest 2 allows the visitor to observe in real size six masterpieces of sculpture iconic from five periods of history, following an imaginary and poetic journey enriched by numerous media.
4 projects from ReVolution competitions rewarded
The ReVolution competitions provide innovation projects, tomorrow’s technologies or pioneering uses of VR/AR with an opportunity to exhibit. The projects are selected in each category for their quality and ability to transform the VR/AR sector. They exhibit at Laval Virtual in pavilions with the ReVolution label. The 3 categories of the ReVolution competitions are: #Startups, #Research and #Students.
ReVolution #Startups – Olfy
Olfy is developing a light and innovative accessory to add an olfactory dimension to your virtual reality experiences. The system works via Wifi and interacts directly with the virtual world. It allows you to have a perfect affinity between vision and smell for a more realistic and personalised immersive experience.
ReVolution #Research – Justin Beaver (Tilburg University)
Alexandra Sierra and her team developed a virtual empathic animal assistant immersive technology such as holograms in mixed reality, where users can interact with Justin. Justin Beaver is capable of voice interaction, make interactive stories, make smart conversations about science topics, nature, or describe objects/animals of a place as a guide tour animal, virtual instructor, or virtual animal.
ReVolution #Students Demo – Le Jeu du Sorcier (Arts et Métiers)
Le Jeu du Sorcier (The Wizard’s Game) is a game where you challenge Ellias, the evil wizard, who has locked a visitor in his magical chessboard. He challenges anyone to beat him in a game of chess to free the visitor. This is a cooperative game developed by students of the Institute of Arts et Métiers, where you have to collaborate in pairs to defeat the evil plans of the wizard.
ReVolution #Students Limited Time – Interview Factory (Polytechnique Montréal)
The #Students – Limited Time category of the ReVolution competitions is a 30-hour technology marathon. Several student teams compete to develop a virtual reality application in a limited time. This year, the theme was “The After World” and 5 international teams participated in this hackathon. A team from Polythechnique Montréal won the prize with their project “Interview Factory” to evaluate the practical skills of candidates in remote interviews.
14 awards given during the ceremony
A total of 14 awards were given out during the prestigious Laval Virtual Awards ceremony, hosted by Benjamin de Wit. In addition to the 8 awards in the general categories and the 4 awards in the ReVolution competitions, two others were awarded: the Grand Prix and the IVRC award.
The Grand Prize was awarded to VirtySens, which aims to take people on a journey through a multisensory experience in virtual reality. The IVRC prize consists of highlighting a student project from the ReVolution #Students – Demo selection. This project is then invited to go to Japan to attend the IVRC, the International Virtual Reality Contest. This year, the winning project is “Rebirth 2.0” from Arts et Métiers: an immersive application to help people affected by COVID-19 who have respiratory problems, with an interactive prevention part in the virtual world.
