Villa, a virtual reality platform that is used by 700,000 people worldwide, is launching an avatar based on Generative AI. This AI assistant is equipped with extraordinary abilities to teach users and guide them through the expanding virtual environment.
Villa is led by Israeli entrepreneur Ofer Baharav, CEO of RealVR.ai, which launched the platform in June 2021. The launch came after a development process that lasted several years. According to Baharav, "Villa's user community has almost doubled in the last year, making it one of the most popular apps. The Meta Quest virtual reality helmet is in its own category. It is also supported by Pico helmets for enterprise use, and will soon be rolled out to Vision Pro. The app offers a free 7-day trial, with monthly and annual subscription options, and a special price for students. Villa began working to support Israeli students who are interested in learning remotely or those affected by the war. It offers them free access to the platform for a period of six months if used for academic needs."
Baharav also added, "Professors and students who are interested in adopting the platform are welcome to apply to promote the application. The Villa platform is also approved by the Geffen system of the Education Ministry. Virtual reality classes can be combined with Zoom for students who are not equipped with virtual reality kits. The platform is ideal because it allows students to experience a virtual visit anywhere on Earth in groups, or to create 3D models that can help illustrate and teach."
The benefits of AI learning and new opportunities for students
As part of the launch of the creative artificial intelligence capabilities, each user of the platform benefits from a private or group AI assistant. This is a move that has turned Villa into a comprehensive environment for learning, developing skills, and powerful collaborations between users.
Students can learn new languages, take lessons, develop skills, and get help answering complex questions. Facilitators can be used privately or in a group format and can be helpful in meetings or educational settings. Users can create lessons or tutorials based on what they learn from artificial intelligence. Groups can benefit from a collaborative facilitator who presents all the questions and answers to the group's audience.
In the field of language learning, Villa users can choose from more than 30 different sources and target languages. For example, users can ask the assistant to teach them how to count in French, read a story in Korean, or explain how quantum computing works in languages such as Hebrew, English, Russian, or Chinese. In addition, users can turn to the avatar to learn an entire curriculum in any subject, in any of the 30 languages included, and in the male or female grammatical gender.
Additionally, Villa now offers 3D virtual tours to anywhere in the world, while receiving 360-degree panoramic images that fully overlap the terrain outline and shape of buildings. In this way, users can most tangibly experience a trip to Jerusalem, Prague, New York, the Fiji Islands, or anywhere else in the world.
Villa also collaborated with Zoom to integrate digital communication into the system. The use of Zoom lets VR helmet users communicate with each other and collaborate smoothly. The move exposes users to the world of virtual reality independent of dedicated hardware.
Villa offers users a free trial period within its subscription plans, so they can test whether the platform is right for them. The price of a subscription starts at about $10 per month, and an annual subscription offers discounts and bonuses. Users are not required to have any knowledge of programming or general technology.
According to Baharav, "The interface in Villa in virtual reality provides an intuitive experience that moves away from using a keyboard and prefers actions such as voice dictation. Natural communication is preserved with the help of artificial intelligence. In virtual reality, communication makes it possible to create or transform voice commands into virtual elements in the virtual world. Just speaking will create reality: music, 3D models, places across the world, artificial intelligence images, lectures, lessons, and more. This approach guarantees a powerful and accessible experience for all users, without prior technical knowledge."