I’m sure.
I see you have a Vive. You have a Gear.
I have no doubt you know about VR.
Before explaining exactly what I do, I often start by a question. If you had the very cool power to step back in time, which place, which time would you love to see? What would it be for you?
That’s the first time I have this answer. [laughs]
That’s a very scientific dream. Most people in France say the Revolution, the Middle Age. That’s very interesting.
We actually pretty much do this. My company is called Timescope. We develop time travel experiences thanks to virtual reality. We do two things actually.
We invented a hardware, which is called the Timescope machine, that you see here. It’s a VR terminal that works as a self-service system. You arrive in front of the machine. You are let’s say in a time now in a historical place. You say, "I want to go back to that time." You pick a content. You adjust the headset to your height. Then you can start a 360-degree experience and go back in time.
Exactly. You don’t have to put the headset. You don’t have to wear it.
You do the 360.
Because you are holding the machine. Thank you.
We do the hardware. We also do the content. That’s our specific thing that we do. We invented the Timescope machine that is now installed into 30 places in France, Paris, Le Havre, Arras, north of France, soon in the south of France.
We also produce 3D content which is actually three kinds of content, content which are historical reconstructions where we do the whole production process from the generalizers of the historical sources to the 3D content at the end of...
We use mainly CGI.
Exactly.
It would be great if we could technically use...
Whoa, that’s great.
That’s interesting. [laughs]
We gather all the historical sources. Then we model them. We are the specific touch about the CG that we use, that we produce, is that is very photorealistic and story-tells.
We also work on urban projects to show the future of locations, that can have past or that cannot be very rich in terms of past, on urban projects that need to be explained to the people. The Timescope is also a way to explain to the people how it will be.
When we were talking about fake news, it’s very different. But it’s also a way to avoid rumors and to speak in a very powerful way to the people. You know that VR is a medium which is very, very strong.
No. I know I have to check this out because I know that I saw that there is a Timescope that...
No, this is not me.
I’m the one owning the Timescope brand. [laughs]
Definitely.
Oh, yeah.
This is not on the Oculus market. It’s on the terminals that we have. We don’t put it online because usually, the experiences are made to be tried on-site directly.
I know I need to go for them.
Exactly. Would you like to try?
Let me see if I have battery left in my headset.
Sorry, I have no battery any more. I put it all on during the whole day !
I’m going to demo you these videos so that you can see the kind of contents that we produce. To give you an idea of it. For example, that’s Paris, the river bank, 400 years ago.
That’s exactly what the city hall looked like. The Galeries Lafayette, if you’ve ever come to Paris, you might have seen the gallery.
The beginning of the 20th century, that’s the Eiffel Tower, which is the equivalent, I would say, of the 101 Tower. From this point of view, we have four timescopes.
We work on making it really realistic. Paris at the...
...the World Exposition, exactly. When the...
...was read, yes. Then many other places in France. Sometimes it’s also very strong and very dramatic when we use World War I, when we reconstruct the trenches. This is for Kering, the luxury brand, where they are located.
That gives you an idea of the kind of content.
Definitely. I think that Taipei 101 is really like the observatory. You’re pointing at 101 Tower with big nice view would be such a cool experience to see how Taipei has changed over...
It really depends on how...
Assuming that’s possible for you to produce the content. I know you have a 3D studios. I have met some of them.
That’s possible.
We recommend if that’s the case, to give insights to the production so that they can produce something which has the potential...
In terms of budget, to give you an idea. For a Timescope machine, usually depending on the number of timescopes, depending on the engagement period, which means more rental, we are between 1,000€ to 10,000€ a month.
1 to 10 gives you an idea. If it’s more, our main contracts are on a long-term basis, four years usually, since it’s installed on a historical location. It’s designed to stay in outdoor spaces.
Usually that’s where we stand.
We have 96 percent of people who rate the experience as "Wow" and "Cool."
Completely.
Yes.
