Virtual reality has begun blending in thoroughly with our daily lives in recent years. But what does Virtual Reality look like in a continent as varied, unique and challenging as Africa?
Our guest is Walid Kilonzi, a pioneering Extended Reality Producer based in Kenya who works with academic institutions and creative spaces to create the next generation of African Extended Reality creators and developers.
Listen to the episode below:
Transcript
Andre
When we think about virtual reality, most of us imagined science fiction films like Lawnmower Man and Minority Report. But nowadays, this technology is prevalent and completely blends in with our daily lives. From gaming to medicine, education and even real estate. Virtual reality is real. But what is it exactly? And more specifically, how is it affecting a continent as varied, unique and challenging as Africa? Welcome to the new series of Tech Talk with Vodacom we're trending tape is made simple. I am Andre, and this is my co-host, Sharen.
Sharen
Hello, everyone. In today's episode, we'll be strapping on our headsets and diving deep into the world of virtual reality and covering the possibilities of this emerging tech and its impact on the African continent. Joining us is a special guest Walid Kilonzi, extended reality producer at the Kenyan-based VR company Fallowhide. So Walid, before we talk about VR as a concept, can you give us a brief overview of how your interest in VR developed and the creation and purpose of Fallowhide as a company,
Walid
Our idea of extended reality and virtual reality stems from solving problems. So we saw the need of creating a company that can service unique problems that are based here in Africa, how can we solve those problems with the massive technology? So my interest, personally in the arc started in 2016. And since then, I think it has been one of the most, as creating one of best challenges that I've had, because you kind of have to make it as you as you go. So in 2019, I decided to open up Fallowhide where we now made it official what we're doing this full time. Because in 2016, it was very early days, and the technology wasn't as good. So yeah, that's how I got started.
Andre
So tell me, virtual reality, you know, everyone has their understanding of how it works, what it is, we'll take us through exactly what virtual reality is, and what it entails.
Walid
Great. So before I break down virtual reality, maybe I want to also break down that extended reality. So extended reality is an umbrella term that hosts three other immersive technologies, which are virtual reality, augmented reality, and mixed reality. But virtual reality is simply a computer-generated simulation of an environment that can be interacted with, with ideally, anything that physical way. So if we wanted to make a simulation around a certain factory or a certain environment, we're able to do that in a VR headset, and you have your hands that you can interact with different objects, and so on. And apart from that, VR also has a site whereby you can shoot with specialised cameras called 360 cameras, and feel like you're somewhere else completely. So if you're in London, you're able to see what Nairobi looks like when we shoot the 360 films. So that's basically what virtual reality is.
Andre
You speak about extended reality and virtual reality, and you also mentioned augmented reality, what is the difference?
Walid
So the difference between virtual reality and augmented reality is that augmented reality uses a real-world setting, while Virtual Reality uses a virtual setting, meaning that in VR, you're not interacting with the real world in any way you're interacting with a completely digital world. And with augmented reality, and simplicity, imposing digital assets into the real-world space. So that's, that's the main difference between those two immersive technologies.
Andre
Can you tell us if some of the other industries that virtual reality has been making headways in which are being used productively?
Walid
So follow have been lucky enough to work in various industries, and we're using the same technology to kind of solve various problems. So for example, with the heritage we were lucky to work with Google Arts and Culture to be able to map McMillan Memorial Library in Nairobi, and where somebody will be able to see how that library looks like and even as it's going through renovations and all that being able to see that transformation. of that building. So in heritage, it's a wonderful tool. In manufacturing, we've worked with Nestle, to create a simulation for safety. And we're happy to say that that has had a large impact on Nestle when it comes to safety because of muscle memory and being able to be mastered a safety scenario. Also, we've worked with a manufacturer, also Coca-Cola bottlers, to be able to create several 360 videos to be able to immerse you into understanding how the Coca-Cola bottle would get from the factory to the dinner table. In tourism, we have worked with a county in Kenya called Machacas County, in partnership with Google Africa to be able to enhance tourism and create a greater digital presence for more than 150 hotels, and also working with machacas county to shoot more than 30 documentaries around tourism.
Also, in real estate, we've worked with a company called ALP West Logistics to be able to shoot virtual tours, so that anybody who is you know, interested in a certain real estate we'll be able to see virtually and make the decisions even more quickly. And lastly, with follow hide, we've worked with Packaging Companies such as el Parque
We've worked with a company called Immersive Tech Africa, led by Arome Ibrahim. It's an NGO dedicated to democratizing and increasing access to extended reality in Africa. In East Africa,we also have a collaborator called Akoia and Co led by Nyambura Waruingi. And she's, I mean, the company is a creative enterprise producing and curating projects which emerge from extended reality and also cinema, visual arts and gaming. And lastly, in South Africa, and Southern Africa, Habitat XR led by Ulrico co-creating XR experiences about wildlife and the natural environment. So ideally, there's not a problem that XR cannot solve.
Andre
What kind of work goes into it, for instance, you spoke about doing things with Nestle at the Coca-Cola factory, and then also, the project you guys did with the virtual tour with Google Earth. What kind of work goes into doing that? And what kind of resources do you need to pull off a job like that?
Walid
Great. So with extended reality, generally, and also still within VR, you need to consider software development, and also filmmaking, but in a specialised kind of way. Those are the kind of the main two things that go into such kinds of creations whereby we need to sit down with the 3d artists and be able to recreate some of these places. We need to sit down with a developer to be able to kind of code different sorts of interaction by hand tracking its controllers, and then we need to sit down, of course, with the client to understand of course, what is the need. And what is the proper way before all of that? Then when it comes to like 360 filmmaking, it's a matter of getting to understand where are we going to film. And what are we filming? Or what is the story that we're trying to tell? Or what is the information that we're trying to capture? So ideally, those are the kind of the main things that would go into such kinds of productions.
Sharen
It's clear that VR is a viable career path. But how would one go about making VR? Is it something you can study towards or what skills do you need?
Walid
A few years back, there were basically no resources right now there are a bunch of resources made by industry leaders in the tech in the tech space. So guys like Google, have courses online that you can be able to kind of go through. But it kind of goes down into two things. Number one is, like I said earlier, software development, so getting to understand how to work unity, how to work Unreal Engine, and being able to kind of create specifically for VR, also with things like AR core, with augmented reality that Google offers that kind of platform for Android users to kind of experience augmented reality to the phones. So that's basically all just software development, and also like 3d kind of work that you need to do.
When it comes to 360 filmmaking, it helps if you have a background in filmmaking, because it doesn't change much. It's all about now changing per-hour production works. How do you produce that work, and also, lastly, how do you direct it? So those are kind of the main skills that you might need, but also, right now, what we usually joke about YouTube University has been able to just go through tutorials, or go through courses that have been set by the industry leaders and also the software developers of this software's that we use. It's very accessible right now.
Sharen
So logically, one would assume like the more companies that adopt VR tech, the more career opportunities there would be. But how accessible and affordable is VR?
Walid
From an equipment perspective, VR is still slightly expensive. There's no distributor on the planet on the continent, ideally, that sells it here directly to us. So we have to import from Asia or Europe, or from the Americas. So that in itself brings in the cost of customs, shipping, and all that. So even if it could get cheaper, you still have to pay for all those things. And some countries are more friendly than others where it finds customs duty, might not understand what the thing is. So they'll, they'll just put the same value of the gadgets, as the customs duty, which is kind of painful, but it is I would say it has still improved because originally headsets used to cost at least $2,000. If not $1,500, before you ship it, it's now in the range between 300 to $400. Before shipping and cost. So it's slightly still expensive. But it's becoming more and more affordable.
As technology gets better as also trade deals go down. And also as a company, we continue to lobby and to kind of push for Creative Studios like ours to be able to, you know, do business with ease by saying, Hey, could you help us with this? Could you help us with that also, generally the industry is growing so but for businesses, we've been able to replace certain budgets. So for example, if there's training going on, and this is how much it costs per year, we've been able to match that and create a solution around that with a VR or augmented reality. So in a way from business to business, I think it has become quite affordable and it has become quite a competitor to other solutions along certain problems or certain narrative solutions
Sharen
Now Africa, beautiful as it is faced a lot of pressing issues with regard to the education and healthcare sectors just to name a few, are there solutions we could potentially tap into through the strategic implementation of virtual reality to address some of these problems?
Walid
Definitely, we are kind of even overwhelmed with the idea of which one should we concentrate on. Because if we were to talk about, for example, field trips, some southern schools can't afford to take kids to the nearest, let's say, hydroelectric dam or the nearest park or things like that. So coming up with a service that would be able to, for them be able to experience it on a VR headset, and for them to get to understand very complex ideas and concepts through visualisation. But of course, the problem becomes the accessibility of VR headsets. And even if we had 1000, the question becomes How was the school going to be able to pay for it? Or are they renting and that brings a whole host of problems, because even some of the schools we're talking about don't have access to electricity. So also looking at augmented reality, where you can now physically see certain objects and possibly be able to interact with them. That's a more like clear path to kind of share this technology in schools and solve certain problems.
Mostly because, at least here in Kenya, most public schools now have access to tablets and laptops. And that makes it far, much easier to kind of integrate augmented reality, and be able to show some of these complex, you know, concepts to children all around, even in Africa. So I'd say definitely something we're currently kind of research. But we want to do it in a more sustainable way, in a way that we're using current infrastructure that already exists, or that won't destroy the school's budget in that kind of sense. So just using what they have to kind of address these technologies. And that's the beauty of it. You don't necessarily have to have a VR headset, you don't necessarily have to have a powerful phone or tablet. Ideally, any device that can have access to very basic computing processes can be able to interact with this technology. So yeah, definitely. It's something that's happening even very actively in West Africa, and also some few efforts here within Eastern Africa. But our approach is most Till on the research end of trying to see how can we make a sustainable service that would be able to outlast certain challenges. So for example, if a school doesn't have constant access to electricity or the internet, how can we make this offline? What kind of infrastructures do they currently have that can support basic computing, which one would work better VR, AR and so on and so forth?
Andre
What we see at the moment in virtual reality, a lot of the content and the concepts are coming from Europe and from America, and even Asia. But obviously, you are based in Africa and doing things from an African perspective, is there anything unique that is coming from Africa that perhaps you can tell us about?
Walid
Definitely, I think, more from the narrative perspective, where we're now you know, Africa has always had a challenge of our own self-perception. So we've always had Europeans describe who we are how Asians describe how we are, and how the Americans describe how we are, but we would not necessarily have the tools at the time to be able to do that. Or if we had the tools, we were just kind of kept down. So in this case, I think for the first time, and it feels like in a long time at the forefront of technology, Africa has kind of had these tools and has been able to kind of represent itself in various quote unquote, Metaverse, opportunities and also VR opportunities. So being able to tell our own stories, you know, in a unique way, in a powerful way, and representing what matters to us, not what the world thinks we're about. But also from a VR perspective, we've been able to understand that how we make our own simulations are not the same way how the Europeans are doing it. And also, Asians are doing it in a different way. And it's all a matter of what works here and what works elsewhere. So being able to also have that cultural exchange, to say, Hey, this is what works in Africa, we don't necessarily have to copy-paste what's happening elsewhere and to solve certain solutions.
So for instance, just as an example, most of the baby boomers who currently work in these multinational companies, I've never played a console before. So when you give them controllers, it becomes a whole issue. So we base some of our simulations on hand tracking, where they're able to kind of grab those digital objects within VR. In other markets, you find they prefer, for example, controllers, because maybe they had a Gameboy or something when they were growing up that they can relate to the controller. So a very simple example like that. So in many ways, we are glad to say that VR in Africa has kind of started to take its own identity, that it's not necessarily a copy-paste of what's happening elsewhere that there are certain things that can't be replicated here. From elsewhere. You have to do it in an African way.
Andre
Would you say that this is the tool that will allow Africa to tell its own story officially?
Walid
Definitely. It's kind of like a cultural renaissance. When people talk about, you know, the Western Metaverse, this, the eater has a specific look, we now have our own, you know, African metaverse. And what that means to us. We have very, very many creators within Africa, and we've made a lot of interesting VR Worlds to represent different parts from where they come from. And it's very exciting, the kind of feedback that people are getting, and you know, how perceptions are being destroyed in a very powerful way and how people begin to unlearn certain perspectives about this continent, it's been absolutely magical. So I would say, yeah, definitely, it's an African Renaissance in the creative sector, that allows us to, to kind of show what we're about and what our own Utopia looks like, doesn't necessarily have to have African patent or look like our Kunden, you know, kind of look, but it has its own image region, it has its own flavour, and its own excitement and its own purpose.
Sharen
So really looking forward to the future, like, what are your hopes and aspirations for where VR would be in the next 5 to 20 years?
Walid
Good, I think. I think the misconception around VR is that it's going to replace your phone or your laptop and I beg to differ. It's just one more screen that's going to be added into an African home into an African workplace and into the African entertainment space. And I think that's the kind of future that we will see specifically for VR, whereby it's now no longer a novelty, or novelty device, but rather a tool. So that creative processes like ours will be able to distribute quite easily. And which brings me to software development. I think, as of now, most of the VR companies within Africa create content for the, the for the device, but looking at our scenario somebody would be able to create a software development whereby we can build out of that kind of engine. So an engine that is meant for Africans, meaning that may be a competitor of Unreal or Unity. So I think that will be something quite interesting to see from an African perspective. And also, lastly, I think headset, manufacturing, we're not ways of that happening on the continent, we do have all the raw materials to be able to do that, we do have a lot of investors, even African investors who are very keen on technology here. And I think that would be really beautiful to see a scenario whereby it's an African headset that we can buy in our local shops, or even be able to kind of talk to distributors and make deals and be able to buy them in bulk. I think that's the kind of future I hope, and I think there's a lot of, I'd say proof that we that's the kind of future that we're headed towards.
So that's the kind of future I see. And also, I think, also getting to understand different perspectives and, and different cultures. So not just creating African content for Africans, but also looking at, you know, getting to understand for those who might not be able to travel, getting to understand different cultures even better in a more immersive way that you will be able to take somebody to Amazon forest, and for them to understand that kind of culture, and so on, so forth. So I think adding VR headsets or mixed reality headsets as an added screen software development, I think engine development. And also lastly had said manufacturing in Africa is the likely future that we will see in this space
Andre
Do you think that we'll put our own twist on headsets? Or will we just follow the generic Silicon Valley version of the VR headsets?
Walid
But one of the biggest problems that we have, when we're distributing content with VR headsets, is the VR headset is not built for African heads. And it's been a massive challenge, especially for African women. And that's a challenge that we've constantly tried to solve. We've talked to so many PhD professors in the US who are currently trying to kind of solve that kind of issue. So I would imagine that an African headset would be able to allow us to keep our very cool hairstyles, and still be able to kind of consume that kind of content, I would imagine that one of the interesting complaints, sometimes we'd get in certain places is that it especially if it's your first time wearing a VR headset, they are shy that their friends will laugh at them for whatever reason that they feel they might look silly, wearing such a device on the head. So I'd imagine an African headset would have a better, better aesthetic, it doesn't have to be futuristic in any sort of sense, but it just looks cool. The same way you would wear your shades.
In the same way, you'd wear some interesting eyewear. So I think definitely, it would have its own sort of twist. And just again, the kind of problems or the kind of experiences that we've seen with our clients, even when they joke about it or stuff like that. But I would imagine an African headset definitely can accommodate any sort of hair, you know, it's very, it looks very interesting and has a very nice aesthetic look to it. And also, of course, it is very small. So that way, those who kind of complain about the weight of the VR headset can also have, you know, a very seamless kind of experience. So that's how I would imagine that would go like.
