Marketing firm: Virtual reality a real game-changer

Virtual reality is becoming reality for some Dayton-area businesses.

A marketing firm that focuses on serving manufacturers, Centerville’s Marketing Options, is offering clients virtual reality (VR) services they can offer their own customers.

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With VR, a company like Beville Engineering Inc. in Washington Township can design in new ways an oil refinery control room. Or the Schaefer Group Inc., of Beavercreek, can design an industrial furnace.

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When users don the right headgear and hold hand controllers, they can immerse themselves in that control room — or a virtual version of it — “walking” around any part of the room, checking out desks and monitors, walking through doors and more. Or they can “walk” inside a Schaefer-designed furnace.

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“It’s the difference between getting in a car and just walking around it,” said David White, national sales manager for the Schaefer Group.

“There’s still a place for 3-D animation, but this completely one-ups that game,” said Barb Castilano, owner of Marketing Options.

Marketing Options Design Engineer Brian Judd said he takes 3-D computer assisted drawings from clients to make the VR environments.

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“The 3-D CAD is really essential,” Judd said. But he added that he can create the immersive environments from two-dimensional drawings, too.

Read more about the local use of VR in Sunday’s Dayton Daily News.

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