Whilst LIQUONA is known for several sector firsts, mostly their innovations in interactive video content and interactive 360 content, it is a little known fact that LIQUONA developed the world’s first disposable, cardboard Virtual Reality Suit.
Known as the VRR suit, it achieved levels of full body immersion that were not previously thought possible. It’s development sent shock waves through the Silicon valley establishment who realised they had been caught napping when the VRR suit was unveiled by a small British agency LIQUONA on 1.4.17.
The R&D team at LIQUONA had worked tirelessly across a 3 year programme to progress the cardboard technology that Google had first brought to the public in 2014 when Google Cardboard was released.
The Google cardboard is a fold-out cardboard viewer into which a smartphone is inserted, and was unveiled by David Coz and Damien Henry at the Google I/O 2014 developers conference.
However Google abandoned their plans to progress the cardboard viewer in to a full immersion VR wearable technology device. Google’s highly secretive project to progress their cardboard to full immersion was codenamed ‘Project Fold’ but it was abandoned after 2 years following disappointing results.
The reasons cited for cancelling Project Fold folding include Google having insufficient finances to draw on, and widely held concerns at board level that the project was simply too dangerous to continue: Early prototypes of a cardboard body suit had resulted in severe paper cuts, one of them resulting in life changing injuries.
Enter LIQUONA and their VRR suit, developed under a modestly financed programme codenamed Under Flaps.
During the project LIQUONA gave their own cameras exclusive access to some of their most sensitive inner areas, giving an unfettered insight to the work, and the corners that were cut to bring the VRR suit to the people of planet earth, mostly in the Surrey Hills area.
Featuring youtube influencer Louis Cole who was the first to publicly try the VRR suit, this promotional film was unveiled to the world’s media at the Leatherhead district business networking tea on 1st April 2017, after the cucumber sandwiches, but before the battenburg..
VRR suit sales figures have not disclosed by LIQUONA.
