5/23/2018 Mike Koon, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
One of the biggest decisions a college student makes is where to live. With a long list of apartments to choose from, it can be a hard decision, especially if they don’t have the ability to tour the apartment in person. Enter Virtision. The University of Illinois startup is giving students going to school far from home, including international students, the opportunity to get a closer look inside an apartment using virtual reality.
Written by Mike Koon, Marketing and Communications Coordinator
This is one in a series of features on competitors in the 2018 Cozad New Venture competition, a program sponsored by the University of Illinois' Technology Entrepreneur Center that is designed to encourage students to create new businesses. The competition process offers teams assistance in the form of: mentors to help guide them through the phases of venture creation, workshops to help with idea validation, pitching skills, and customer development, and courses to enhance their skills and knowledge. Teams who make it to the final round of competition will had the opportunity to meet with venture capitalists, early stage investors and successful entrepreneurs who serve as judges. Cozad Teams earned over $225,000 in prizes at the Finals Event on April 25.
Enter Virtision. The University of Illinois startup is giving students going to school far from home, including international students, the opportunity to get a closer look inside an apartment using virtual reality.
“In the age of virtual reality, experiencing a place without having to be there is more commonplace,” noted co-founder and chief technology officer Brandon Chen. “This can apply to places like a museum, a hotel or casino.”
From the perspective of the apartment companies, they are looking for anything to get a leg-up on the competition.
“Right now, they are able to show a model apartment through a photo gallery, but that means they are constantly having to retake pictures,” said Rizky Wellyanto, CEO and co-founder of Virtision. “What if for instance, the complex is still being built? There isn’t an ability to show pictures. Yet that owner wants to be able to be competitive in attracting tenants for the coming school year.”
Virtision has created an algorithm that takes a 2D floor plan and converts it to a 3D model of the apartment. They are given the options for color of carpet and walls and how they want it furnished (if at all). Virtision has acquired some IKEA preloaded models. Prospective tenants are then able to navigate through the apartment virtually and can thus get a better feel for size and scale.
Wellyanto, who grew up in Indonesia, and Chen, who lived in Seattle, have first-hand experience in looking for apartments remotely.
The idea began as part of a project under the Data Driven Design Group run by Ranjitha Kumar, a professor in computer science. The students were asked to explore the usability of VR systems for tasks such as interior design. They have since added Ignatius Ho as a software engineer, Madison Ross-Ryan as lead designer, and Esther Tang to help with UI/UX design.
“We noticed that when we asked tenants to decorate, they are more conscience about details and saw more value in a unit after we put those IKEA models in there,” Wellyanto said.
In January, Virtision created its prototype and since has created partnerships with four real estate managers, which collectively own 2,000 units in Champaign-Urbana.
“We have learned that the college real estate market is a really niche market,” Wellyanto said. “The business cycle means that new students are moving in every September. Out-of-state and international student contribute quite a bit to their top line. Communicating with them can be challenging given the time and language differences. They often try to Facetime with them individually to answer questions, but what they are able to show them is not scalable.”
Virtision is building the algorithm anticipating a big growth in virtual reality goggles, but until then, it has made it easy to use on any computer or mobile device. They see it as a Google Maps for apartments.
“Our product is available through web and doesn’t require installing an app,” Wellyanto said. “It’s like an embedded YouTube video, however instead of watching video, a prospective tenant can watch an interactive scene.”
In the future, Virtision will allow users to add or remove furniture and even scan their own furniture to place them directly into the apartment scene. From the client side, whereas as now companies must send the 2D floor plan to the Virtision team to have them set up the 3D model, in the future, companies will able to upload the plan and decorate the apartments themselves.
They plan to sell the product on a subscription basis, targeting about $50 per scene per year, much less than what would be their prime competitor, Matterport, which charges $200 per scene and requires a $4,000 camera to help create a 360-degree panorama.
“Real estate managers are so competitive and we are trying to help them gain an advantage,” Wellyanto said. “So far they are seeing a higher click through rate when using our system. We are also receiving a lot of positive feedback from clients.”
To demo their latest prototype, visit Virtision.com.