ST. GEORGE — In an afternoon visit to the Atwood Innovation Plaza last week, Spark XR co-founders Jeff Peters and Jon Dean made sure to bring “The Pod” so students and community members could be transported to exotic locales in mere moments.

While the technology to instantly convey someone to a distant location has yet to be invented, Dean and Peters advertise their custom virtual reality experience as the next best thing.

The Pod, formally known as the XR-One, is shaped like a miniature grain silo, measuring 9 feet, 5 inches tall and 7 feet, 6 inches wide. Smooth metal bars wrapped in plastic panels frame a central space for a user to step in and experience detailed simulations augmented by vibration, wind and motion-tracking.

“Our vision for the pod is that you’ll see them in shopping malls and airport gates, museums and so on,” Dean said. “You could go up to a pod and say, ‘Okay, here’s a choice of different places I’d like to go or fantastic destinations I’d like to visit, whether that be simulation, education, travel or just playing fun games. So it’s ultimately about teleportation.”

With decades of experience as executives and producers in the video game industry, Dean and Peters launched their startup, Spark XR, from a home base in Salt Lake county. Their first partnership and public demonstration of their technology debuted in October 2021 with “AlUla Adventures.”

In an ‘Indiana Jones’-inspired experience, users are virtually transported to Saudi Arabia, specifically the UNESCO World Heritage Site of Al-’Ula. Spark XR and its partners worked to capture Al-’Ula’s eye-catching natural scenery and convey its archaeological significance in a memorable experience available at XR-One locations around the world.

The startup began showing its new platform at conventions and pop-up exhibits around the United States after delivering a pair of pods with custom software to their AlUla partners in the Middle East.

Dixie State administrators connected with Spark XR at the Silicon Slopes Summit 2021, as Cheryle Caplinger, executive director of strategic partnerships, said she saw a promising match in the up-and-coming startup.

“We thought there was so much possibility with Spark XR as they teleport to the metaverse with gaming, with hotels, with tourism, with the military, and with so many different applications,” Caplinger said. “We can help them, and they can help us – it’s mutually beneficial.”

At the invitation of Caplinger and her team, the VR trailblazers made a visit at the beginning of the year to learn more about the polytechnic university and its tech integration. Dean said he was immediately interested in the Makerspace and Atwood Innovation Plaza as a whole.

“We actually came down in January without the pod, we said, ‘Is there a way to work with you guys to actually build pods?’ because you (Dixie State) have a lot of the capability here to build this kind of thing,” he said. “Wouldn’t it be cool if we could actually build pods and have student involvement to learn what it takes, not just to build pods, but to build a business?”

During its short stay, students, faculty and staff could try the XR-One by donning a VR headset and stepping into “The Pod” while it briefly occupied prime real estate near the center of the Atwood Plaza’s interior.

DSU also organized a pair of free meetings for members of the public and students to hear Dean and Peters explain the inspiration, design challenges and goals of Spark XR in addition to answering questions about future partnerships, software compatibility and employment opportunities for aspiring tech entrepreneurs.

Lisa Welch, associate professor of Dental Hygiene at Dixie State, had the opportunity to experience the XR-One for herself after one of the question and answer sessions had concluded.

Welch said she had a little prior experience with VR as she’s been working with Dixie State to implement the technology in her classroom, and said her experience with Spark XR was particularly memorable for its sensory effects.

“I think this has a future everywhere,” Welch said. “It is absolutely unlimited what VR can do for us in the future – in malls, bowling alleys and absolutely in an educational setting. Not in every classroom, but in some settings a professor could assign an experience for students to go do. You could have a VR experience of a museum or place for art history or visit the Jurassic period for your paleontology class. It’s endless.”

So, can you buy one of the pods for your home or personal use? Maybe, provided you’re willing to pay at least $25,000 for the materials and labor to construct the pod itself, not to mention hundreds of thousands of dollars to develop more software tailored to your needs or interests.

Realistically, the pods are intended as public experiences sold to operators, with revenue shared between operators and Spark XR – similar to an arcade or coin-operated machine. With just a handful of pods operational worldwide, Peters said Dixie State might just be a home for more in the near future.

“They’re building a VR curriculum here: developing VR as a focus unto itself as well as asking, ‘ What does curriculum look like in VR?’” Peters said. “‘How can we partner together to do those types of things?’ Those are all discussions that we’re having as well as, ‘Okay, can we have a couple of pods here? Can students work on it and play with this as a nice little toy?’ Coming down here, actually bringing the pod to let people try it and continuing those conversations has been wonderful so far.”

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