St. Louis Park business works to make virtual reality accessible

ST. LOUIS PARK, Minn. — At REM5 studios in St. Louis Park, the future is closer than you think.

We first told you about their augmented reality tech, as the company teamed up with tourism officials to use it to market the area.

With an augmented reality headset, the tech proved to be even more immersive. 

“Do we think this is the future of human-computer interaction? Yes, we certainly do,” said Amir Berenjian, co-founder of REM5.

He says tech like Apple’s upcoming Vision Pro headset is a decade plus away from being easily accessible for everyone, however. What he’s trying to figure out now:

“How can we still leverage these emerging technologies, leverage these spatial or 3D environments with tools that people already have at home.”

Enter the Metaverse – a virtual world that exists in cyberspace where people can interact with each other and digital objects in a shared environment. 

REM5 created its own 3D world called Simulacra – complete with AI integration.

You may have heard of tech like this before from your kids.

“200 million kids logged onto a platform called Roblox last month, Fortnite had over 250 million,” Berenjian said.

He said it is about taking popular tech and making it easy for everyone to use and interact. He showed us an example of a virtual museum visit. 

“You can access it right from the comfort of your own home, and if you wanted to, you could also visit it with friends and colleagues and peers,” Berenjian said. 

For Amir and other tech entrepreneurs, technology that was once only a dream is now virtually reality.

“A lot of people hear the word metaverse, or virtual environment, or augmented reality, all of these fancy buzzwords and they think ‘Oh, I don’t have those fancy goggles, I can’t do this,'” Berenjian said. “This is set up right on the average computer. If you can do a Zoom call or Microsoft teams, you can access Simulacra.”

REM 5 has partnered up with organizations like Target, the Minnesota Twins and General Mills on virtual reality and augmented reality projects. 

If your business wants to jump in with them, or If you want to see more of their digital work, check out their website. 

WATCH MORE ON KARE 11+

Download the free KARE 11+ app for Roku, Fire TV, Apple TV and other smart TV platforms to watch more from KARE 11 anytime! The KARE 11+ app includes live streams of all of KARE 11’s newscasts. You’ll also find on-demand replays of newscasts; the latest from KARE 11 Investigates, Breaking the News and the Land of 10,000 Stories; exclusive programs like Verify and HeartThreads; and Minnesota sports talk from our partners at Locked On Minnesota. 

Watch the latest local news from the Twin Cities and across Minnesota in our YouTube playlist: