DriveVR is the first iPhone and Android virtual reality app development of its kind. DriveVR allows you to safely explore real-life driving situations via fully immersive VR. Your decisions could change your character’s life and the lives of everyone around them forever.

Gooii’s role in the development of this innovative VR app includes: App concept and content creation, design and photography and iOS and Android app programming. We produced the Virtual Reality video segments in association with our client The Safer Roads Partnership, part of the Worcestershire and West Mercia police force.

The Drive VR virtual reality app works with ‘Google Cardboard’ compatible headsets, readily available from as little as a pound. The app is fully functional without a headset, using a compatible iOS or Android mobile device.

Furthermore, having been nominated alongside global institutions such as the BBC and Guardian Media Group, our groundbreaking Virtual Reality app DriveVR was crowned VR Award Winner in the ‘Immersive Education & Training Award’ category. Gooii also received a nomination in the ‘Immersive Story Telling Award’.

Download VR Award Winning the DriveVR app for iOS and Android.

As well as building apps for Google Cardboard VR, Gooii are excited about the prospect of developing for PlayStation VR (PSVR). I have to admit I was a little dubious about Sony’s first foray into virtual reality but the thing just blew me away. The headset itself is light, comfortable and looks futuristic in a ‘Back To The Future II’ kind of way. Its only real downside is the spaghetti junction of wires used to hook up to the PS4, junction box and TV (second screen), but if Sony had to find a way to make the device (relatively) affordable this seems to be the best solution.

Putting on the headset genuinely feels like “you’re going in”, reminiscent of old films like ‘Tron’ or ‘Lawnmower Man’. The 3D effect is also superb, everything you see feels solid and real and, despite the PSVR lower resolution when compared to most TVs, or the Oculus Rift and HTC Vive for that matter, this is quickly put aside when the device takes over and transports you to a new world.

PSVR feels like a snapshot of VR’s future where slimmer, lighter, higher resolution headsets will be on the way in the next 3-5 years but Sony’s first attempt at Virtual Reality completely nails it and has to be experienced to be believed.

If you would like to talk to Gooii about developing a VR app for your business, please get in touch.

Google is already leading the way with cost effective virtual reality apps, by utilising existing mobile devices via their excellent Cardboard VR technology. Google have now officially announced the next step in their VRevolution by introducing the Daydream View VR headset, which enables high quality VR experiences with a simple smart controller using a compatible Google Pixel device, or any Daydream-ready phone. As well as developing for Google Cardboard VR our Nottingham Gooii office will also begin support for Google Daydream.

Learn more at madeby.google.com/vr

44 Music Logo Design

The Forty Four is an artist management company based in London. The 44 specialise in making great music and developing up and coming artists. Artists currently managed by The 44 include Gabrielle Aplin, Fono, Hannah Grace and Nottingham’s own Saint Raymond. Gooii Nottingham produced The 44 music logo design and corporate branding, as well as setup of a WordPress site. 44 Music ties in with Gabrielle Apin and James Barnes’ Record label Never Fade Records, with a logo also designed by Gooii.

Manx National Heritage Library & Archives

The iMuseum website gives users free and growing online access to the Manx National Heritage Museum Collections, Manx National Heritage Library & Archives and the Isle of Man Sites & Monuments Record. The website also features a vast searchable database of almost a million records including census and people records, family history records, births, deaths, baptisms, first world war internees as well as a host of other museum and archive records dating back 150 years.

What Were Their Challenges?

iMuseum contacted Gooii to ask for their specialisation in website design connecting to large datasets to create a solution that was simple, easy to use and give quick public access to the archives. Since launch the site has been really well received by the user base who have been impressed with the speed and clarity of the data delivery.

How Did We Do It? The Tech Bit

The site uses WordPress as a content management system for publishing curatorial blog content, whilst the Object, Archive and Library records are queried from an Elasticsearch index which is populated via Knowledge Integration‘s middleware CIIM product, through a bespoke CodeIgniter search UI, with Zoomable imagery delivered through a customised OpenSeadragon instance. WordPress was selected because of their previous experience with this platform and how easy it is to modify and add new content by staff at the museum so they are more self sufficient going forward.

What Did They Say?

Here’s what Jude Dicken, Information Manager at Manx National Heritage had to say about working with us:

“The team at Gooii have been great to work with, applying an imaginative response to our ideas; tweaking the look-and-feel of how information is delivered in response to user feedback; and providing expert online training and advice, making iMuseum responsive to smart phone and tablet by May 2016, a great turnaround.”

To view the site please visit: imuseum.im

For more samples of our websites please see our YouTube Channel

Virtual Reality may not be new but this year it will become both mainstream and affordable. Leading the VR charge are Oculus Rift, Sony and Samsung but as app developers it’s Google Cardboard VR that’s exciting us most.

Google Cardboard VR is well within the reach of every modern smartphone owner, using cheap cardboard kits which can be purchased online for around £1 or downloaded for free and constructed at home. The user then places their iPhone or Android phone into the headset to view virtual reality content.

This is exciting stuff and a perfect fit for Gooii, as videos can easily be created and uploaded to YouTube or placed inside an app and launched on the Apple iOS and Android app stores. This opens up a new, cost effective and viable avenue route to VR content and company promotion.

It’s a very exciting time indeed. google.com/cardboard

The Royal Armouries is the United Kingdom’s national museum of arms and armour, and one of the most important museums of its type in the world. They have a long history, dating back to the Middle Ages and the celebrated core collection originated in the nation’s working arsenal, which was assembled over many centuries at the Tower of London.

The Royal Armouries are heir to one of the oldest deliberately created visitor attractions in the UK. Objects were being arranged for display to visitors as early as Queen Elizabeth’s reign in the 16th century. Their collection of about 75,000 items – excluding approximately 2,700 loans to other bodies – is now displayed and housed in our historical home at the White Tower in the Tower of London but also at our purpose-built museum in Leeds, and at Fort Nelson near Portsmouth.

Since 2005, the museum has also managed the national collection of firearms, started in 1631 by Charles I and assembled by the British Army, now housed at the National Firearms Centre. It currently employs 183 staff and receives nearly 2 million visitors a year across the three sites, who, except at the Tower of London, visit for free.

What Were Their Challenges?

The Royal Armouries needed a partner who could use their expertise and experience to deliver a world class web user interface to give the public access to the Collections site for research, educational and personal interest use. They needed the Collections website to give unprecedented access to their archives and feature large images of their collection objects with detailed information and history on that item, all that were unavailable online until now. Features required included the ability to search and examine items from the collection, data visualisations, as well as fast autoloading of content, related media and detailed object information.

Gooii have been instrumental with the team at RA in the design and user experience of the collections website all in line with the RA branding guidelines.

How Did We Do It? The Tech Bit

The Gooii solution is based on a mix of technologies. PHP code for page level rendering, the search interface is built using React JS drawing object data from an Elasticsearch index, aggregated from the museum’s various internal systems via Knowledge Integration’s CIIM architecture, providing the best in terms of speed of search performance and page visibility.

What Did They Say?

Stuart Carrington, Digital Manager at the Royal Armouries commented that the site was ‘excellent work by the team and the support has always been superb’.

collections.royalarmouries.org

For more samples of our websites please see our YouTube Channel

Gooii bring Artificial Intelligence to the BBC.

BBC RES (Research & Educational Space) is a research project that indexes and organises digital collections. Specifically, these can be from libraries, museums, broadcasters or galleries. RES makes this content more discoverable, accessible and usable to those in UK education and research sectors from one source. Not only does the RES platform include imagery but also TV and radio programmes, documents and text. Furthermore, the content is curated and always of high quality from many world class organisations. They currently include The British Museum, British Library, The National Archives, Europeana, Wellcome Trust and the BBC archives. Discussions are also taking place to add more collections from UK institutions to enhance its content further.

An integral element of RES was to invite key developers like Gooii to create innovative digital educational products. They will inspire learners, teachers and researchers by using applications powered by the RES platform. The Gooii offering was RESBuilder and it has a number of unique features.

How does RESBuilder work?

Unique to RESBuilder, you upload a document such as a subject syllabus if you are a teacher. Then browse to a page, highlight the unit description you are teaching and wish to collate resources against. This text is now sent to the IBM Watson Artificial Intelligence engine where it is interpreted into Concepts.

RESBuilder returns hundreds of pieces of content related to these concepts including video, audio, images and text. Also it provides links to related content for the user to discover. This content can now be collated into a learning package and distributed to students.

You can watch a more detailed recording of the RESBuilder product demo here made to the NEN Educational Network via the Gooii YouTube channel. Make sure you subscribe for more videos!

We recently provided consultancy services for Leicester County Council, this is what Engagement Officer Carla Harris-Marsh had to say about working with us.

“Using Gooii was a great experience. When we first approached companies to design and develop an app, we had an idea of what we wanted but weren’t sure how to get there. Gooii asked the questions that made us articulate what we wanted our end result to be, guiding us through the process with professionalism and expertise. We found Gooii to be knowledgeable, flexible, clear and enthusiastic about the process and our product. Gooii were also able to deliver to a tight time frame. All of this led us to feel confident about working with Gooii, knowing that we were in safe hands.”

If you’d like to work with us on your website or app, please get in touch at [email protected].