Ken Swain thrusts a pair of 3D glasses and a computer joypad into my hand. He tells me to put my feet into what can only be described as an over-sized pair of slippers lay in front of me.
With my spectacles on and feet in place, I all of a sudden find myself stood in the centre of an oil platform, looking out at the ocean. With a quick flick of my thumb, I’m sent rapidly to the top of the rig’s crane and my legs turn to jelly. The squawking seagulls flying by in my eyeline don’t seem to care.
Swain tells me the display I’m standing in is just one illustration of how EON Reality’s technology can be applied to industry. It is used by oil and gas companies to train staff on health and safety issues, meaning they don’t have to fly workers out to real-life rigs at huge expense.
We’re stood in the futuristic showroom that forms part of EON’s new European headquarters, at One Central Park, in Newton Heath. EON chose Manchester over a host of other continental cities as the location for the HQ, which will create 240 jobs over the next three years. The base has two key components, the first of which is a computing coding college, in which EON will train 100 people a year for the next five years, completely free-of-charge.
Roughly half of the students who complete each year’s 12-month course will be employed directly by EON, creating 3D and virtual reality projects for its clients. EON has pledged to find jobs for the other 50 with its clients. One student a year will be awarded an internship in California or Singapore.
The other element is the showroom itself, which looks more like a theme park attraction than an office. It has slanting, mirrored walls, intentionally designed to disorientate visitors, as they are led into different sections, where they can try-out EON’s gadgets.
Source: Manchester Evening News
