At the forefront of virtual reality: Sudbury's Kris Holland develops technology to digitally archive real-world spaces.

• Date: 01 November 2019
• Author: Romaniuk, Colleen

While virtual reality technology has been around for over 50 years, its application to everyday life has been slow to catch on. But that's not to say that it can't be useful--rather, we are just learning the extent of its usefulness today.

Kris Holland, Sudbury entrepreneur and president of Pure Realism, a VR content creator that digitally archives real-world spaces, believes that content is key.

"If you don't have content, the technology is meaningless," he said. "So how do we go about creating and capturing that content?"

In May, Holland was approached by one of his business partners with a problem: how do you connect with businesses around the world without all the necessary travel? Businesses spend thousands of dollars on travel expenses every year, not to mention, the steep carbon footprint left in their wake.

Holland began exploring remote meeting options. He ventured into VR because his partner's business, which focused on steel fabrication and furnace rebuilds, had a heavy visual aspect. After developing a customized platform, he realized that meeting rooms wouldn't be enough.

"It became clear pretty quickly that one of the issues that existed is getting the real world into the digital space."

During his research, Holland stumbled upon a lot of different techniques that just didn't measure up.

They were too slow, too imprecise, to create exactly what he was looking for. So he developed his own technology to bridge the gap.

He went to work on a new camera rig featuring 16 cameras combined with lasers...