Virtual reality: MiddleVR takes off

The National Center for Space Studies has just signed a contract with MiddleVR to use its Improov software, a collaborative work solution in virtual reality. REMY GABALDA / AFP

After NASA, CNES. To believe that the aerospace industry smiles at MiddleVR. This French start-up specializing in virtual reality (VR) has just convinced the National Center for Space Studies to adopt its Improov software. This collaborative virtual reality work solution allows geographically separated people to work together on 3D models.

CNES thus emphasizes that this technology will serve it in “the design of 3D models, for example for the [lanceur spatial] reusable Callisto, or the Ariane 6 ” firing range. Sébastien Kuntz, the founder of MiddleVR, explains in particular that the software makes it possible to “make real-size simulations of very large objects, where it would be impossible – or too expensive – to produce prototypes”.

The Improov software, awarded at the Virtual Reality Show in Laval (Mayenne) this year, stands out for its ability to manage complex 3D models (which requires special computer processing to render them in VR), or by the integration of practical features in the virtual world – such as the possibility of accessing his real workstation, and therefore for example to his emails, without having to remove the mask installed on his face. Improov also proposes to integrate virtual mannequins to measure the ergonomic impact of the projects developed, in particular to reduce the musculoskeletal disorders of workers in the design of a factory.

MiddleVR, which had initially positioned itself as a provider of tools for developers of virtual reality applications and in the development of VR training environments (practicing complex or dangerous manipulations on the GRDF or SNCF network, for example), is now banking on this new tool to develop its growth.

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Cover all of Asia

Founded in 2012 by Mr. Kuntz, who took his first steps in virtual reality about fifteen years ago at SNCF and then at Dassault Systèmes, MiddleVR currently has nearly 250 customers. French companies such as SNCF, GDF or General Electric, but also universities. The company achieved a turnover of almost one million euros in 2016, 70% of which was abroad. The company assures to be a beneficiary, “enough to support a team of fifteen people without having raised funds”, explains its president. To promote its expansion, it announced in February the opening of a sales office in China to cover all of Asia, and should soon do the same in the United States.

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