Virtual reality arrives on BD life sciences' stands

SQLI creates a new application pairing Oculus Rift with leap motion

As it offers cutting-edge solutions in the field of diagnosing infectious diseases, BD Life Sciences wanted to demonstrate its abilities in terms of digital innovation to its customers at international trade events with a virtual reality game application. It represents a first step towards the virtualisation of the organisation of laboratories with SQLI as a partner.

A demonstration of innovation at trade events

With 45,000 staff located in 50 countries, BD Life Sciences offers solutions for the most urgent medical needs.The world of health care is constantly changing and is a highly competitive field. In this context, BD Life Sciences wanted to promote its image as an innovative player at major trade events and European conventions on infectious diseases such as ECCMID last April or EuroMedLab in June. To do this, the group created a presentation which attracts visitors and creates a buzz on their stand with a dual aim:

  • To promote its new services such as BD AccrediWorld.com or e-learning
  • To show its customers and visitors the company's ability to innovate, and consequently stand out from the competition

To complete this new project, BD Life Sciences chose SQLI for its innovative proposals and its recognised technical expertise as a result of several projects already completed for the Group, such as the Mobile CRM.

A game developed in just one month which is both fun and technical

SQLI designed a new application uniting Oculus Rift and Leap Motion. The project took place over a very short period: in less than a month, SQLI developed a fun and visually attractive application in the form of a Roller-coaster.

The game's virtual environment was created with the 3D Unity framework.The game consists of virtually immersing yourself in a room with BD's colours. 3 columns stand in this room which represent its new services: e-learning, BD AccrediWorld.com (digital service for optimising accreditation processes) and BD CARE (Technical and scientific service).

The player must then select a column by staring at the pictogram. Then they are propelled forwards in a roller-coaster where the aim is to grab pictograms with their hands. It is at this point that Leap Motion unites with the Oculus virtual headset for an even more realistic effect.

« This project is exactly what we were looking for: the perfect mix between virtual, game and innovation.  On the stand, this gets the visitors involved and breaks the ice because it changes from the overly 'serious' subject of infectious diseases. Now our customers and potential customers can have a virtual experience through our world of services. It is an experience that you really need to live, and we are very proud of it. We were very impressed with the environment that SQLI created in such a short amount of time! We are very satisfied with the development. On the stand we attracted a younger audience, which means that there was both innovation and modernity. The rendering was so realistic that it was unsettling for some people who felt disoriented! The public was generally intrigued and the application was very well received. In the near future, we would like to push the virtualisation of the organisation of laboratories further with SQLI, » says Fabien Grandadam, Digital Services European Marketing Manager at BD Life Sciences.

« With this game pairing Oculus Rift with Leap Motion, our objective was also to evaluate the possibility of interacting with different objects in the virtual world provided and to offer the 'player' a memorable 360° immersive experience in our BD world, not only as a spectator but also as a participant. This possibility of interacting with our solutions is a very interesting point in the area of e-training courses for example,» explains Eric Defour, E-Business Coordinator at BD Life Sciences.

BD Life Sciences intends to reuse the application at future trade events and translate it into several languages. In light of this initial success with Oculus Rift, the Group would like to create a virtual laboratory with SQLI in which its customers could move around while being fully immersed. This laboratory would be dedicated in particular to BD Kiestra™ automation chains: http://www.bd.com/europe/labautomation Thanks to BD Life Sciences and SQLI, diagnosis in microbiology is being virtualised.