HTC Vive has teamed up with the World Economic Forum to help accelerate the “VR/AR for Impact” program that was launched in January last year as part of an effort to bring positive impact to the world through virtual reality. The VR/AR For Impact was created in support of the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals through augmented reality and VR content intended to create educational experiences with $10 million in funding. The Sustainable Development program aims to help improve the world in many ways by 2030, with the goal of putting an end to poverty and hunger, providing affordable and clean energy, maintaining clean water and sanitation, providing quality education, promoting gender equality, and building sustainable cities and communities.
In conjunction with the HTC Vive’s partnership with the World Economic Forum, a number of new content as part of the VR/AR for Impact initiative will be put on display at the United Nation’s Sustainable Impact Hub at the WEF 2018 in Davos, Switzerland. These AR and VR contents provide experiences that show the positive effects these technologies bring to the world in a wide variety of fields such as prosthetics, bio-engineering, medical services, and environment. One of the VR experiences set for exhibit at WEF 2018 is OrthoVR, which is meant to use VR and 3D rapid prototyping to help medical workers perform their tasks faster without compromising quality of work while providing a vast selection of prosthetics to countries with limited budget for such tools. Another content is titled “The Blank Canvas: Hacking Nature.”
It essentially explores many facets of bioengineering based on insights and materials provided by researchers in this field. The Blank Canvas uses new types of scientific visualization techniques to analyze the cellular and molecular mechanisms being studied to advance many treatments including gene therapy. WEF 2018 attendees will be able to take a look at these VR and AR experiences at the UN’s Sustainable Impact Hub on January 23. The World Economic Forum aims to help advance the VR/AR for Impact initiative in partnership with a core team of leaders in this field, with the HTC Vive serving to develop more AR and VR experiences as a core member of the group.