A handy way of controlling a Virtual Reality (VR) property walkthrough is paying dividends for an Indian company.

Tech and website specialist IndiaProperty has launched its OmniTouch and OmniSense smart terminals that allow users to control VR real estate walkthroughs using hand gestures and can be used by developers and agents to promote their projects at property shows and events.

Motion sensors capture the hand gestures and enable users to indicate whether they want to turn left or right.

Ganesh Vasudevan, Chief Executive Officer of IndiaProperty.com ,says, “The most important stage in the home buying decision making process is the site visit, where the buyer gets to see a model apartment. In an under construction project, it is difficult to get a sense of how the finished apartment and project will look like in terms of the interiors, the amenities, landscaping etc.

“With OmniTouch and OmniSense, the buyer can get an immersive experience of walking through the finished project using hand gestures for navigation. This enables an immersive visualisation of not only how an apartment is going to look like when completed, but also allows the buyer to check out the views through the windows, the amenities that come with the project etc. as a result enabling the buyer to make an informed choice in selecting his/her future home.

“The platform also integrates elements like furniture placement and interior design themes, allowing the buyer to seamlessly move into the next phase of decisions post buying a home.”

Mr Vasudevan tells OPP.Today the products are set to revolutionize the home buying experience. “For builders, this is a cutting edge digital tool, which makes the model flat mobile, deployable at any relevant customer touchpoint unrestrained by geography, thereby enabling meaningful conversations with prospective buyers. Each smart terminal can showcase multiple projects of the builder.”

The buyer can also conduct a video discussion with the sales person via Skype from the smart terminal and updating project pricing, availability status, offers etc. can be done through over-the-air updates from IndiaProperty.

The use of hand signals in VR walkthroughs is an innovation that was borne out of insights from multiple user behaviour studies and interviews.

“We learnt that hand gestures are intuitively easy to understand, and provide a touch free medium to navigate through property, simulating an actual property visit experience. For example, a door knob can be opened by reaching out to the door….and so on.

“This is the first time that motion sensing technology and gaming engines have been seamlessly integrated and deployed for a VR based property tour experience. Use of gesture based navigation controls enables creation of life sized property experience centres which we think is the next level of digital marketing of real estate. Our platform obviates geographical constraints for marketing real estate by making the site visit experience truly mobile.”

There has already been strong demand for the terminals, which are being launched overseas during 2016, Mr Vasudevan says.

“The terminals are being used to promote large apartment projects, gated communities, villas and luxury residential projects.

“Real estate developers are the primary buyers of the terminals and they use it to showcase projects to their prospective buyers. Within a month of launch we have shipped 25 terminals and are in the process of rolling out to other cities.

“Builders primarily use these terminals as a point-of-sale marketing tool to simulate virtual site visits, thereby registering shorter sales conversion cycles. We expect to see at least a 20% lift in sales conversion efficiency for builders.

“We have currently launched it only in the Indian market and will be showcasing the terminals to NRI clients in the USA and Middle East in the first quarter of fiscal 2016.”

The technology stack has been designed and developed by IndiaProperty’s in-house research and development team and is similar to that used in high-quality video games rendering engines.