Sensavis’ 3D educational software revolution reaches Singapore

A relatively young, innovating Swedish software developer of market-leading high quality and fully interactive 3D visualizations is now eyeing Asia as a big potential market. Signing up its first client here for ‘The 3D ClassroomSensavis is making initial inroads into Singapore with its 3D software for education purposes, which is really seen by experts as cut above the rest and is receiving great feedback from the market so far.

“This is a revolution we are presenting, in many perspectives,” says Fredrik Olofsson, President & CEO, who joined the company to build up a profitable business model, steering Sensavis to focus on the educational sector; a decision which has proven to be the right choice.

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Their first Asian client of their first software which was first launched in Sweden in late 2013, Tanglin Trust School, says the CEO, is a telling example of the kind of reactions they are getting on the market.

“I presented our product for two teachers and their Director of Learning. It took ten minutes and then they said: ‘We must have this!’ Once we get a meeting with a school this is usually the reaction.”

“We are very excited by the potential of 3D technology to help students to visualise and explore complex systems, such as the human body. Tanglin embraces new technology wherever it supports and enhances the learning experience for our students and we feel that Sensavis have developed a software tool which will integrate very well with our approach to teaching and learning,” commented the CEO of Tanglin Trust, Peter Derby-Crook. ‘The 3D classroom’ will be used in their Junior and Senior Schools.

“The innovation is relatively new, especially in an international perspective it’s very new. And it’s a great joy when something like this, built by a small company, can generate such attention wherever you present it.”

The product must really be experienced live to grasp it, while any description in words can give you an idea of what this is about: “We are building high-quality animations. So for example we have designed the human body in 3D and there’s nothing particular with that – many are doing that – but we allow that on a completely interactive level. The teacher can navigate via a computer mouse within the human body and look at fine details, for instance how blood absorbs the oxygen, on micro level within the lung.”

A customer described this 3D experience as what they had always expected and wanted: the ability to go beyond superficial visualization to truly experience the long-desired ‘fantastic voyage’ that 3D had always seemed to

Developed in collaboration with educators, Sensavis describes it as teacher-centric tool that reinforces the experience and increases interest while the product’s most important feature is its interactivity and the high degree of realism within the visualised material.

The idea is to be able to go from a high level of abstraction to a low level (from macro to micro) without having to skip a stage where pupils risk losing comprehension. This means that you have a teaching aid that does not limit how you present something; you use the product to explain exactly what you intend to, in the way that you need.

The teacher decides, in real time, how to present a certain topic, say a heart, and how close to zoom in to show how the heart functions.

“The main thing is to be a tool for teachers that enabes them to visualise during a school lesson how for example how the human body looks on the inside and thus making the students to really understand and in that way, increasing the motivation,” says Fredrik Olofsson.

“We continue developing content based on the requests from teachers. So we don’t follow any particular curriculum, instead we listen to the teachers: What is abstract for their students to understand? And we build our product based on that. So the whole idea with what we are doing is assisting the teachers to explain complex and abstract things so that all students understand, in all age groups. So our product is being used from kindergarten to college level,” he explains further.

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Currently the product includes six educational topics. The 3D Classroom is in use by more than 150 schools in Sweden, Finland, UK, the US and now also Singapore.

The software is based on the Windows platform and can from April this year run on an ordinary PC. Sensavis has met great interest from Microsoft.

“In particular in Asia they have really hooked on it and support us with various sales meetings and other partners. Though it’s a small Swedish innovation it has global appeal, since the teaching in these subjects works more or less the same the world over.”

Apex Business Advisory has helped Sensavis in entering Singapore and researching the Asian market, eyeing also Indonesia and Malaysia as markets where to start dialogues. The Indian market is also a target. There are very promising things in the works in Singapore, and they are going about things carefully step by step, says the CEO.

About Joakim Persson

Freelance business and lifestyle photojournalist

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