VIRTUAL reality is about to take another step into the future in Swindon, as Render Media hopes to harness AI (artificial intelligence) to make inanimate products speak back to users.

Immersive technology company Render Media, led by CEO Mark Miles, allows users experience products by developing virtual experiences viewed through a headset or phone app.

One of its free apps, AR Jet Engine, available at the iTunes store, allows school children to ‘walk up’ to a real jet engine, control the speed and watch the components spin close-up.

The company has also built virtual experiences for companies like Airbus, allowing visitors at the Farnborough Airshow to walk through planes and see new products, like the self-driving air taxis which users can see flying over a virtual city.

Mark told the Adver: “The thing with VR is that the message is personal to the user. So a company can use the same VR experience but they will get a different reaction.

“What it does it place the user at the centre of the brand, so you’ve completely reinvigorated the customer experience. For Airbus, people were trying out their products and were absolutely bowled over.”

The company, which employs only 15 people at its office on the Groundwell Industrial Estate, is now looking towards developing multi-user VR and integrating AI into its virtual experiences.

Mark added: “What if AI could bring products to life?”

“When you’ve got you headset on you could speak to a really complex piece of machinery and ask ‘how do you work?’ and it really speaks back to you.

“You’re giving personality to a piece of technology that’s really hard to comprehend, so it’s actually engaging a two-way conversation with a product.

“That’s where we’re going.The future is really exciting.”

“We’re having conversations with Intel and we’ve already be talking with IMB Watson, (IBM’s question-answering computer system) so we could be six months away.”