Markus Proctor, Founder of EduPal, looks into a Google Cardboard virtual reality viewer that uses a smartphone to create an

inexpensive virtual experience. (The Daily Record / Maximilian Franz)

Cardboard viewer helps Md. virtual reality

startups deliver By: Daniel Leaderman Daily Record Business Writer October 2, 2015

Markus Proctor, Founder of EduPal. (The Daily Record / Maximilian Franz)

While a new generation of high-end, virtual reality headsets is slated to hit the market in the coming year —

potentially transforming gaming and home entertainment in the process — some local companies are taking

advantage of an open-source design to bring their inexpensive virtual reality applications to the market.

EduPal and Alchemy Learning, which showed off their respective products at Thursday’s Beta City event in Port

Covington, are using a design called Google Cardboard to turn smartphones into virtual reality displays so they can

reach a broader audience with their educational and health programs.

The phone display two nearly identical images or videos side by side; when the phone is placed inside the cardboard

viewer, each eye sees only one half of the phone. It’s not unlike the stereoscope viewers that have been around since

the mid-1800s, but with a 21st century twist.

Win Smith, co-founder of Alchemy Leaning, speaking at the Beta City event Thursday. (The Daily Record /

Maximilian Franz)

“Our mission is simple: We just want to help students achieve their highest potential,” said Markus Proctor, founder

of EduPal. “We see virtual reality as a very promising vehicle to make that happen.”

Proctor, 20, is a senior at the University of Maryland, Baltimore County who created his own tech-entrepreneurship

major with a focus on education technology. The system his team is developing will allow teachers to send their

classes on virtual tours of various locations — an undersea ecosystem, European cities, even the human body — and

ask questions within the virtual space, he said.

By sensing the angle at which the phone is being held, a virtual reality program can determine exactly where the

user is looking; this allows students to answer questions about what they’re seeing simply by staring at choice A, B,

or C.

The cost of a high-end virtual reality headset is expected to match that of a new video game system; the much-

anticipated Oculus Rift, for example, will likely cost upwards of $350. Google Cardboard viewers cost just $5, and

Proctor expects most students to be able to provide the most crucial piece of technology themselves.

“It’s difficult to find a student who doesn’t have a smartphone,” he said.

So far, Proctor has developed two of these virtual tours by licensing 360-degree still images available through

Google; he plans to move into the creation of 3D movies and “augmented reality” where users can move their hands

to interact with the virtual objects they see, he said.

A graduate of Charles Herbert Flowers High School in Prince George’s County, Proctor says he’s had good results

from tests of the tours at his alma mater and other schools. In one, students look at buildings in European and

American cities and compare the architectural styles; in another, they look at life in an undersea ecosystem.

Eventually, Protor wants teachers to be able to create their own virtual reality content and sell it to other educators

through EduPal.

“I know how hard it is to get the kids excited about something, and it’s really amazing to see this, in the classroom,

work,” said Maggie Schorr, a retired teacher who reached out to Proctor after stumbling onto EduPal’s website and

has been helping get the product into schools for testing. “The kids are absolutely, totally into it.”

Alchemy Learning believes VR can be used to change people’s behavior, specifically related to their health, co-

founder Win Smith told the audience during the Beta City pitch session Thursday. Studies have shown that such

behavioral changes can occur, he said.

One of the company’s products uses a virtual avatar to show users what will happen to their bodies over the coming

months and years if they don’t embrace a healthier lifestyle, as well as what will happen if they do, Smith said.

Business clients can use the product to encourage reluctant employees to participate in their corporate wellness

plans, he said.

“Alchemy VR is entirely smartphone-based so it’s very simple for employees to adopt it and it gives them an

engaging and — most-importantly — a private environment to start changing their behaviors,” Smith said.