Date Online: 2020-02-11
LAVAL, Quebec, February 11, 2020 - Urbanimmersive inc. ("Urbanimmersive", the "Company" or "UI") (TSX VENTURE: UI) (OTC PINK: UBMRF) is pleased to announce the launch of a new generation of websites powered by its propriety 3D emulation technology that aims to disrupt the market of single property websites: 3D Pocket Website TM.
3D Pocket WebsitesTM are a new type of single property websites in which backgrounds are replaced with high quality 3D immersive experience. Used in the real estate industry, home buyers can therefore visit properties in an immersive way while always keeping access to informational layers of a traditional website.
Demand for real estate single property websites shows to be constantly growing amongst real estate professionals. In parallel, demand for 3D virtual tours is rapidly growing to a point that it could become the norm. A 3D Pocket WebsiteTM is both a single property website and a 3D virtual tour.
Before Urbanimmersive 3D Pocket WebsiteTM, clients were only directed to 3D virtual tour technologies that required to be embedded within third-party websites to be distributed on the web. The reason is that most of them require an application or download time to be executed. An immersive 3D Pocket WebsiteTM does not require to be embedded to third-party websites neither require plugin nor download time to run. This technological edge translates into a more flexible, powerful and affordable 3D marketing tool.
Furthermore, 3D Pocket WebsitesTM are downloadable on a USB key and can run as standalone offline websites. This technological edge opens new business opportunities to resell the product as a 3D « souvenir » of the property sold.
3D Pocket WebsitesTM have been presented for the first time at a recent real estate photography tradeshow in Las Vegas where the reception from top producers has been overwhelming. Since then, number of photographers aligned to be first to use 3D Pocket WebsitesTM has been growing steadily without marketing effort from the Company.
The immersive environments of 3D Pocket WebsitesTM are powered by Urbanimmersive’s propriety immersive 3D emulator technology in which the Company has invested millions in research and development since its inception in 2007 and stopped its commercialization in 2016 as a result of a lack of funding. The recent improved financial position of the Company now enables Urbanimmersive to pursue its core vision of democratizing immersive environments.
Urbanimmersive’s technology enables anyone with a standard digital camera to create high quality immersive experiences at the fraction of the cost to specialized 3D camera hardware. Urbanimmersive has also made recently its technology compatible with the affordable Ricoh (360 Lens) Theta Z1 camera. With Ricoh Theta Z1, environments that were previously taking 60 minutes to shoot can be now completed within 15 minutes.
Immersive 3D navigation is created from the connection between multiple panorama images. Panorama connections (the clickable circles on top of images indicating where other panoramas are located with respect to the current one) are automatically positioned by Urbanimmersive, using advanced computer visual recognition technology and Urbanimmersive’s propriety path-builder algorithm (a video of the process is presented on Urbanimmersive website). The technology also uses artificial intelligence (‘AI’) machine learning image classification technology to automatically create additional layers of navigation options enabling visitors to jump to specific areas within the 3D environment. For example, a viewer could decide to jump from the kitchen to the master bedroom using this AI automated post-production feature. The fully automatic post-production process of a standard 3,000 square foot home takes about 3 to 5 minutes to render by Urbanimmersive render farm servers. This translates into quick turn around time for users and higher margins for photographers.
It also translates for Urbanimmersive in the possibility to offer this new product to real estate agents creating their own 3D virtual tours, which represents approximately 50% of the market share (not reached by photographers). 3D Pocket WebsitesTM could also be used by local businesses looking for websites primary focused on their visual content capital as an alternative to Street View Inside Building.
The Company also identifies business opportunities for its 3D emulator in the markets of off-site building inspections and building asset management. Security market for creating off-site training environments used by first responders, where clients often saw tremendous value in having offline 3D solutions for highly confidential projects, has been identified by the Company as another sizeable business opportunity. Another market for 3D Pocket Websites is 3D drawing artists large community looking to add value to their architectural 3D renderings.
360 lens cameras and 3D artist drawings (‘CGI’) that provide spherical visual content images shall open up other market opportunities to create Virtual Reality environments compatible with ‘VR’ lens such as Oculus Rift.
" Today is an important day for Urbanimmersive as we are about to value many years of research and development in the field of immersive technology, thanks to our financial and market leader positions. 3D Pocket WebsiteTM is the perfect blend of technology combining our recent acquisition of Tourbuzz and Urbanimmersive core technology. With the largest network of independent photographers in North America and market trends for virtual tours and ‘VR’, we could not ask for a better timing to launch this new technology", said Ghislain Lemire, President and CEO of Urbanimmersive.
" Our goal is to democratize the technology. We will provide our 3D emulator as an integrated added value into our existing single property platform and continue monetizing our advance single property website features. Going forward, we will focus on positioning our technology in our primary market and increase compatibility with other camera manufacturers. We will look for partners or business acquisitions to develop new market opportunities in rentals, local businesses, hotels & resorts, off-site training and building asset management markets. In summary, we know now more than ever what means our Company name: Urbanimmersive", added Ghislain Lemire, President and CEO of Urbanimmersive.
Find more information about 3D Pocket WebsiteTM at https://www.urbanimmersive.com/3d_pocket_website
About Urbanimmersive
Urbanimmersive is a leading SaaS business management solution providing mission critical solutions to visual content providers serving the real estate residential, commercial, construction and local businesses markets. The Urbanimmersive platform helps customers increase their operational productivity while helping in delivering the full potential of visual content creations through leading-edge websites builder tool, AI-backed image indexing, robust file transfer systems and interactive visual technology solutions. Urbanimmersive’s core technology is a 3D emulator powered by a visual content recognition post-production algorithm that delivers online and offline cost-effective alternatives to traditional 3D engines for the creation of immersive digital environments.
The 3D emulator enables to quickly create immersive environments of small existing and future spaces like houses to extremely large environments like stadiums, to which clients can interpolate multiple layers of interactive and contextualized set of data for many purposes such as for online marketing, building asset management and offsite training and inspection. The Company offers its advance features on a pay-per-use transactional business model and licenses its immersive technology in other market segments.
Caution of Forward-Looking Statements
Certain statements in this news release, other than statements of historical fact, are forward-looking information that involves various risks and uncertainties. Such statements relating to, among other things, the prospects for the company to enhance operating results, are necessarily subject to risks and uncertainties, some of which are significant in scope and nature. These uncertainties may cause actual results to differ from information contained herein. There can be no assurance that such statements will prove to be accurate. Actual results and future events could differ materially from those anticipated in such statements. These and all subsequent written and oral forward-looking statements are based on the estimates and opinions of the management on the dates they are made and expressly qualified in their entirety by this notice. The Company assumes no obligation to update forward-looking statements should circumstances or management estimates or opinions change.
For more information, please contact:
Urbanimmersive inc.
Ghislain Lemire
President and CEO
514 394-7820 X 202
ghislainlemire@urbanimmersive.com
Simon Bédard, CA, CPA, CFA, MBA
Chief Financial Officer
514 394-7820 X 224
