Alums See Architecture Differently

In the world of architecture, three alumni of the College see things differently.

“When most people think about virtual reality goggles, they imagine the technology from the ’90s. Back then if you put those on you’d be immobile, dizzy, and eventually start puking. IrisVR is ten thousand steps above that,” explains Amr Thameen ’14, a 3D artist/designer at IrisVR, a Burlington-based company that is revolutionizing architecture design.

Founded by Shane Scranton ’13 and Nate Beatty ’14.5 in 2014, IrisVR uses virtual reality goggles intended for video games to allow architects to see and explore models of their work.

Starting the operation involved making connections, bonding with mentors and raising money until a major donor gave them thousands of dollars to begin their project. About a year ago, Scranton and Beatty got their hands on the Oculus Rift, the technology that would be to their entire operation. Valued at around $350, this goggle-like gadget allows Scranton’s computer program skills and Beatty’s designs to come to life: the wearer is actually able to view things true-to-size and virtually experience walking through the building. The viewer is visually transported to another place.

Using lenses in the screen that warp the image as it is projected, Oculus Rift provides the viewer a constant stream of vision into another world. The immersive technology is now much safer, cheaper and technologically-advanced than the version from the 1990s that made users physically ill and cost over $40,000.

“The first virtual reality model that I made was a model of the house I grew up in, and [I] thought: ‘Let me make a little video game out of the Oculus Rift and out of this model,’” said Beatty while showcasing the black and white footage during a TED Talk at the College in November 2014. “It tracked my head movements as I walked through the space. It is the inside of my house. It’s untextured, the lighting is pretty bad, it’s pixilated, and everything’s essentially horrible about it, except for the fact that when I was in the goggles walking around the place, I really felt like I was standing in my house. I couldn’t believe it! I was holding these goggles up to my face and I felt like I was home.”

Although the virtual reality model of Beatty’s house was relatively rough, others who viewed the house spoke of the “snow” outside of the house. Beatty and Scranton had not perfected the program to include existing weather patterns, but the white plane of nothingness outside of the house resembled a bed of fallen snow: the alternate reality was that convincing.

As of April 2014, the most recent version of Oculus Rift is now owned by Facebook, after the popular social media company bought the rights for $2 billion. It has only been redesigned once fully, meaning that as the virtual reality technology grows and changes, so does IrisVR.

“The challenge is developing a software for a hardware that’s not finished yet, so being prepared to pivot, change, and build on new information is a harsh reality,” says Thameen.

The existing technology involves a lot of time-consuming importing and exporting of files, essentially creating a small video game out of each file. This process usually crashes a computer before it is even finished. Seeing huge opportunities in creating new software to fix a problem both gamers and architects could benefit from, Beatty and Scranton set out across the country to prove that they had what everyone needed. Huge architecture firms like Gensler and Perkins+Will met their enthusiasm with doubt, but that doubt turned into awe once the Oculus Rift goggles were put on. To match the demand for their virtual reality software from the most powerful architecture companies in the world, Beatty and Scranton created a team to give the people what they wanted: the ability to virtually inhabit a space.

Now that they have a good amount of their software created, IrisVR has left the developing stage and entered the pacing stage, described by Scranton as “wondering when this company is going to take off and become the company instead of a company.”

Scranton sees IrisVR being able to help in the film, education and theater industries, but as of now its impact on the world of architecture is more than enough. The alumni plan to use a perfectly sleek and easy-to-use iPhone headset to match their existing app, but their main goal is to improve the virtual reality technology. Beatty and Scranton’s understanding of space and design has allowed them to create an innovative way of building, and in a society that is becoming rapidly more technology-reliant and technology-efficient, this can only mean good news.

“This company is always changing and shifting, so the future is really uncertain,”  Thameen said. “Will I even be here in four years? The industry is growing so fast!”

Thameen says that if he decides to leave IrisVR, he will certainly continue to pursue problem solving through design, and is still very much interested in the user experience. No other company in the world uses all three of those aspects in a more helpful or efficient way, so Thameen is likely to stay with the Burlington-based group unless another one comes along with something better. There is no way to predict IrisVR’s success or failure; however, this company that is re-envisioning reality seems to have a lot of excitement to look forward to.