Urbanimmersive Inc. (“Urbanimmersive”, the“Company” or“UI”) (TSX VENTURE: UI) (OTCQB: UBMRF), a leading provider of 3D digital twin solutions for the real estate marketing industry, is pleased to announce the launch of 3D Digital Twins 360° Video Fusion innovation, a new technology set to disrupt the multi-billions market size digital twin industry. 3D VF bridges the gap between the immersive experience of 3D digital twins and the emotional engagement offered by 360° videos by seamlessly integrating both in one user experience.
For context, it’s worth noting that although the adoption of 3D digital twins has increased since the onset of COVID-19 lockdowns and physical visit restrictions, they have not become a standard practice in the real estate industry and have even seen a slowdown in adoption. The primary deterrents include the relative cost of creating these immersive 3D models, their lack of emotional connection with viewers compared to other media like videos, and fundamentally, the focus of 3D digital twins on showcasing homes for sale rather than helping agents present themselves to win more listings.
Unsurprisingly, 360° videos are gaining popularity. They allow viewers to rotate their field of view by 360° and are easily created with affordable, off-the-shelf 360° cameras. These videos are not only free and easy to make but also engaging, featuring audio components that foster a stronger emotional connection with viewers than 3D digital twins. More importantly, they showcase the real estate agents who record the home 360° video tours.
However, these 360° video tours present a significant drawback: viewers are forced to either watch the entire video or use the minute-second timeline to fast-forward to specific points of interest. This contrasts with 3D digital twins, where viewers can click to navigate freely within the environment.
Urbanimmersive has countered this issue with the development of its 3D Digital Twins 360° Video Fusion. This innovation automatically integrates 3D navigation loved by users into 360° videos, revolutionizing the 360° video viewing experience. It enables viewers to explore 360° videos just as they would with standard 3D digital twins. Rather than depending on the timeline to find a desired location, they can navigate in 3D within the video. The experience enables users to jump to a specific spatial location within the 3D tour and view the 360° video from this new perspective and field of sight.
The fusion goes way further than just enabling 360° videos with 3D navigation capability. In terms of technological innovation, the 3D VF innovation is characterized by an advanced level of interaction between the 360° video footage and the 3D scenes. They are synchronized in both time and space, ensuring a coherent and seamless 3D scene embedded within the 360° video. This synthesis yields a visual experience where the intricate 3D elements of the digital twins appear to be inserted into the 360° video scene. In other words, when the 360° video path changes, the 3D elements such as on-the-floor navigation pins, the 3D tags, the Jump-To virtual gates and 3D avatars are synchronously adjusted in the scene. In essence, the meta-data of the 360° video is employed to manipulate and control the 3D digital twin environments and objects, ensuring a seamless, integrated viewing experience.
In terms of production process, another innovation from Urbanimmersive development team is that 3D VF can be generated automatically. This automation advancement is opening many new licensing business opportunities as the main post-production cost remain entirely on rendering server time. 3D VF innovation is derived from our latest Ultra-Fast Scanning feature recently announced. Therefore, from the 3D VF provide the options to generate a detailed 2D floor plan drawing of the scanned space.
Unleashing New Digital Twins Capabilities
Text-to-Map
3D VF introduces enhanced navigation capabilities that offer significant benefits to stakeholders. This innovation begins by converting the audio track from the 360° video into text. Utilizing AI, the text is then transformed into geo-located, multi-lingual captions, allowing users to interact and jump directly to specific locations within the 3D tour and 2D map where particular words or phrases were spoken. In the context of home inspections, for example, professionals can search for terms like “concrete cracks.” The system then provides a list of instances where these words are mentioned, enabling users to click and be transported directly to the 3D locations associated with those terms.
Geo-matched Summary AI Report
The integration of 360° video fusion technology also facilitates the creation of AI-powered geo-matched summary reports. This feature enables every paragraph of the report to be linked directly to the specific captions and 3D locations within the digital twins that are referenced. For instance, in real estate marketing, a geo-matched summary report could include a paragraph focusing on a property’s exterior views. When this paragraph is clicked, the map displays all locations where comments about the exceptional views were made, offering an interactive and detailed exploration of the property’s features. The summary can also serve as an extended indexable text, enhancing the property’s online visibility and promotion.
Ghislain Lemire, CEO of Urbanimmersive, commented, “Once you experience 3D VF, you immediately understand what was missing in the standard 3D digital twins used for marketing. Even packed with features such as 3D tags, video-conferencing, avatars, and other enhancements, standard 3D tours are a hard sell, a race to the bottom, as many clients consider them a ‘nice to have’ rather than a ‘must-have’. Our champion site clients who helped us test our 3D Digital Twins 360° Video Fusion have unanimously declared it a game-changer. Unlike standard 3D Digital Twins, this innovation not only places agents at the forefront but also conveys a wealth of information in a highly engaging manner that is uniquely achievable through video. Such positive responses affirm our belief that after a decade and a half of continuous evolution in 3D technology development, we’ve struck gold. The best 3D technology for the real estate marketing market is not the one that enables you to have the best 3D scene but the one that put forefront the agent.”
Rollout of 3D VF
Through extensive testing, the go-to-choice for a 360° camera capable of creating high-quality 360° videos with exceptional audio is the Insta360 ONE R with a wireless mic to enhance audio recording. Urbanimmersive is planning a progressive rollout of the new 3D VF to ensure a smooth distribution of capture hardware and a controlled ramp-up in post-processing. As such, 3D VF will initially only be offered by Urbanimmersive’s photography service brands, in specific markets with selected clients, before becoming available to all in December 2023.
Application for Real Estate Agents
In the realm of real estate marketing, the introduction of 3D Video Fusion (3D VF) heralds a novel approach to displaying properties, seamlessly combining a 3D tour, 360° video, and a 2D floor plan. Real estate agents, armed with an off-the-shelf 360° video camera, find it effortless to showcase their listings with enriched detail and interactivity. The process is straightforward: agents capture the property in a 360° video and upload it to Urbanimmersive’s servers. What they receive in return is a comprehensive Digital Twins 360° Video Fusion that elevates property presentation, offering an unmatched value proposition in the market.
Business Case Examples for Home Inspections
The integration of 3D VF technology is particularly transformative for Professional Home Inspection (PTP), bringing a slew of benefits that enhance both efficiency and quality of inspections. Inspectors’ commentaries become interactive, captioned, and geo-located within the 3D space, ushering in a new era of precision and context. Each observation and insight is anchored to its specific location within the physical space and floor plan, enhancing clarity and utility.
An automatic deficiency report generation feature alleviates the traditional manual process, ensuring that each statement is systematically linked to its corresponding location. This not only boosts the accuracy but also minimizes the potential for errors or omissions inherent in manually written reports. The fusion of 360° video breathes life into the 3D tours, offering stakeholders a richer and more immersive visual data source.
For home inspectors, the adoption of 3D VF is not a futuristic aspiration but a present-day reality. The technology is a harbinger of efficiency, reducing the time typically spent on crafting deficiency reports and ensuring that visual and textual data are integrally connected. The inclusion of both a 3D tour and floor plan, derived from a single video recording, eliminates the need for separate scanning processes, epitomizing convenience and efficiency.
Applications for Local Businesses, Hotels & Resorts, and Apartment Rentals
The introduction of Urbanimmersive’s 3D Video Fusion technology significantly amplifies the scope and impact of virtual tours for local businesses, hotels & resorts, and apartment rentals. While traditional 3D tours offer a silent walk-through experience, the 3D Video Fusion comes alive with a guide, providing an enriched, informative journey for viewers.
Local business owners can capitalize on this technology to present their merchandise in detail. Instead of a static view, customers can enjoy a dynamic exploration within the 3D environment of the local business, where each product’s features and benefits are explained, leading to an immersive shopping experience that bridges the gap between online browsing and in-store purchasing.
In the hospitality sector, hotels and resorts become more than an array of beautiful 360° images of a virtual tour. Each suite, amenity, and feature is accentuated by the personal touch of a host who navigates viewers through the space, explaining the intricate details, services, and exclusive offers. Viewers can decide to jump into a different suite, amenity depending of the interest.
For apartment rentals, prospective tenants enjoy a detailed view, enriched with a property manager’s or owner’s voice highlighting the unique features, benefits, and specificities of each available unit. It’s not just a 3D tour; it’s a personalized experience that caters to informed decisions, as viewers receive in-depth insights on not just the layout but also the lifestyle and conveniences that come with it.
3D Video Fusion stands as a paradigm shift, where silent 3D visuals evolve into informative, engaging narratives, transforming how spaces are presented, explored, and appreciated in the virtual space. It’s not just about seeing; it’s about experiencing, understanding, and connecting at a deeper level, driving informed decisions and enhanced engagement.