It all started back in 2014, when we participated in the rescue of abandoned circus lions in Peru, a moment we knew would be extraordinary to capture in VR!  At that time, Oculus was a kick starter campaign that had just been bought by Facebook, so I procured the Oculus DK2, and a 360 VR camera rig consisting of 12 gopro cameras. 

 

Fast forward to late 2016, Reality Garage was founded, and we opened a VR lounge in the heart of Boulder’s Pearl Street Mall and quickly got to work.  

 

Our first commercial project was an interactive live-action VR production for Attention Homes Youth Shelter. The experience included a virtual walkthrough of the shelter's design and helped secure funding and community support for its construction.  From there, our team gained momentum, creating a range of VR experiences that blended live-action video, graphics, and interactive gameplay.

 

We launched our InspireXR platform and delivered numerous "infotainment VR" productions for companies like Tristate Energy and Oracle, as well as nonprofits like World Central Kitchen, Wings of the Rockies, and the Museum of Boulder. Beyond our productions and VR lounge, we facilitated VR events at film festivals, TED Talks, trade shows, and more, sharing the magic of VR with diverse audiences.

 

Then in about 2018, the fantastic folks from Imagine! Colorado established weekly visits to our VR lounge with a group of adults with cognitive disabilities. It was truly delightful to see these individuals light-up and expand their sense of wonder while experiencing African Safaris, Sky Diving, and many of our InspireXR productions. In 2019, Imagine! asked us if we could create an errorless learning vocational training VR application to help train their employees-in-training to learn how to package 12 packs at Left-hand Brewery (really good beer by the way.) This was a huge success, and much was accomplished, and results were presented that year at the Coleman Institute Conference on Cognitive Disability and Technology. 

 

Then came COVID :(

 

Needless to say, the arrival of COVID hobbled our VR Lounge, all event business, and all trade show related productions. We had to close our VR Lounge, downsize the staff, and pivot strictly to production work. Luckily we were awarded a grant from NIST to create an AR application for the Magic Leap that interfaced with IoT devices and provided a minority-report-like user interface for First Responders. We made it as a finalist in the “ChARIoT Challenge” competition. We also created an interfactive VR video application that interfaced with an AI chatbot (that we also created using Watson AI). This was training for SFBT coaches - this was for Denver University.  

 

And… then after Covid subsided, we began again to work with Imagine! Co, creating, “How to bus tables”, and from there, “Ride to Success” (how to ride a bus) for the state of Tennessee DIDD, Bagging Groceries for Imagine! Co, Work Place Etiquette for WORK Inc Massachusetts,  and Internet Safety for The Arc of Bristol County Massachusetts. We are currently working on a “Manufacturing and Assembly Jobs” for nebaworks.com