ORamaVR STORY
ORamaVR was created to tackle a major health crisis that is currently affecting almost 5B people globally: the lack of access to affordable surgical care. This health crisis is the direct result of a lack of innovation in medical training over the last 150 years that has meant that the profession can’t keep up with the demand. The WHO is projecting that by 2030, there will be a staggering deficit of 18 million medical professionals. Meanwhile, the number of fatal medical errors keeps rising due to the fact that medical training is highly intensive: a master/ educator operates on a patient and the trainee/ apprentice observes and learns on-the-job, often practicing on real patients.
Medical extended reality (XR) training can change all that. Clinical studies have proven that medical XR training improves patient outcomes; however, current XR content creation cannot keep up with the demand, due to: a) lengthy content creation times b) high authoring costs and c) a very large number of different medical operations that need to be simulated in XR.
ORamaVR aims to accelerate the world’s transition to medical XR training by offering an IT software platform called MAGES™ SDK (Software Development Kit). This platform empowers institutions and developers to massively create high fidelity medical Extended Reality Simulations 8 times faster and for one eighth of the cost relative to current industry standards. These state-of-the-art simulations can thus quickly and more affordably be made available to hospitals, medical device companies, medical schools and medical training centres to train and assess their medical professionals. The outstanding benefits of this award-winning platform (MAGES SDK) have been demonstrated in 9 published clinical trials. Aside from drastically reducing development costs and delays, the platform has been proven to provide effective skills transfer from the virtual to the real operating table.
ORamaVR was founded in 2016 as a spin-off startup of the Foundation of Technology- Hellas, Institute of Computer Science (FORTH-ICS) and received initial pre-seed financing from the VC PJ TECH CATALYST FUND in Greece. Following a strategic partners’ demand, the company moved its HQ to Geneva, Switzerland in 2020. Numerous high profile institutions have already adopted and endorsed ORamaVR, including (but not limited to) the USC Keck School of Medicine, Los Angeles, NYU Langone Medical School in New York, the University of Geneva, the Swiss Foundation for Innovation and Training in Surgery(SFITS), Virtamed™ SA and the Inselspital Hospital system in Switzerland, the University of Athens, Greece and recently Western Governors University, Fayetteville State University, Atrium Health and the University of Michigan in USA as well as the University of Cologne, and nonNocere SA in Germany.
ORamaVR has been awarded the “best societal impact” award by the Latsis Foundation (2021), the Epic Games Mega-Grant (2020), the Augmented World Expo (AWE) Auggie award for “Best Societal Impact” (2019) and the prestigious FARE award by the American Association of Hip and Knee Surgeons (AAHKS) (2018). ORamaVR has attracted substantial deep-tech R&D grants from the European Commission and boasts important research and industrial partnerships, including Airbus, Telefonica, CNRS and Eurescom. In 2020, ORamaVR successfully concluded a financing round led by HTC Vive, a leader in enterprise virtual reality.
MASTER PLAN
(just between us)
Founded by a team of leading computer and life scientists, ORamaVR’s mission is to accelerate the world’s transition to medical extended reality training. Fast-tracking this transition can only be achieved through a ground-breaking computational and life science synergy working to put novel IT XR authoring tools directly in the hands of institutions. ORamaVR is committed to improving global health care and well-being by transforming how medical XR is being created (tools), not just how it is being experienced (content).
ORamaVR is a deep technology, spatial computing startup that is innovating in the field of med-ed-tech Extended Reality (XR) training by evolving current simulation authoring platforms. Our proprietary technologies and novel algorithms are based on state-of-the-art research conducted by our team of computer scientists, life scientists, researchers, mathematicians, physicians and surgeons in close collaboration with our top engineers, developers and digital artists turning this research into a novel, symbiotic XR authoring and simulation platform.
Clinical studies have shown that medical XR training works; and it is poised to radically change medical surgical/therapeutic/diagnostic training forever, as evidenced by the 50+ companies that have recently entered the market (VR in healthcare).
What radically differentiates ORamaVR from these other companies is that it democratizes medical XR content creation through its MAGES SDK platform instead of designing 1 simulation at a time, significantly accelerating the word’s transition to a new era of medical XR training. By providing affordable access to its MAGES SDK platform, ORamaVR directly empowers content creators and medical institutions to mass produce high fidelity medical XR training simulation content rapidly and for a fraction of the cost without having to outsource to specialized producers. ORamaVR is following deep-tech and computational XR medicine principles as opposed to manual 3D design work and customised assembly of existing software stack tools.
In addition to the MAGES SDK platform, ORamaVR also provides two other complementary products: the MAGES SIM service that allows organizations to co-create custom medical XR training simulations together with the ORamaVR team using the MAGES-SDK, and the MAGES APP marketplace, which enables clients worldwide to download scientifically validated medical XR training simulations created by ORamaVR as well as affiliated institutions and developers using the MAGES SDK through a paid subscription.
Medical XR training simulations, XR editors, low-code authoring platforms, real-time, physics-based 3D simulation environments and XR cognitive training SDKs already exist independently; but, ORamaVR’s MAGES SDK combines all of these features into a single, powerful and easy-to-use platform. Current medical XR content is not being created swiftly, accurately and realistically enough to bring about the urgent global health care training transition necessary to ensure access to affordable surgical and anesthesia care. The MAGES SDK offers healthcare institutions, med-tech companies and XR content developers the tools and power to make this possible, fulfilling ORamaVR’s core mission to democratize and raise the quality and adoption of the whole medical XR industry.
The MAGES SDK, MAGES SIM service and MAGES APP marketplace are only just the beginning. At ORamaVR, our vision for the future is to build the most affordable and easy-to-use medical XR training platform and medical XR simulation marketplace to make XR medical training available to more and more health care providers and institutions, ultimately accelerating the medical training revolution.
So, in short, our master plan is to:
- Build a low-code medical XR training SDK
- Empower key medical institutions, med-device companies, and content creators to rapidly create medical XR training content by themselves using our SDK, using a SaaS B2B model
- Use that revenue to evolve our existing low-code medical XR training SDK into an affordable no-code platform
- Allow the critical mass of MAGES SDK users to populate a carefully curated and scientifically validated marketplace of high-fidelity medical XR training simulations to facilitate mass adoption
For now, let’s keep the above just between us.
ORamaVR TEAM
Dr. George Papagiannakis, co-founder and CEO/CTO of ORamaVR is a computer scientist specialised in computer graphics systems, extended reality algorithms and geometric computational models. His academic credentials include serving as Professor of Computer Graphics at the Computer Science department of the University of Crete, Greece, as Affiliated Research Fellow at the Human Computer Interaction Laboratory of the Institute of Computer Science in the Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Heraklion, Greece, where he leads the CG Group and as visiting Prof of CS at the University of Geneva. He has more than 100 publications in the field, and he is a member of CGS (Board Member), IEEE, Eurographics, ACM and SIGGRAPH professional societies. In 2011 he was awarded a Marie-Curie Intra-European Fellowship for Career Development from the European Commission’s Research Executive Agency. He was conference chair of the Computer Graphics International 2016 Conference, in cooperation with CGS, ACM, ACM SIGGRAPH and Eurographics Associations. In 2017 he published a Springer-Nature book on Mixed Reality and Gamification which achieved more than 77.000 downloads so far. His pioneering research has attracted more than 2M EUR external funding at FORTH and more than 1M external R&D funding at ORamaVR.
Professor Tsiridis is the Secretary General of the European Hip Society, Vice Chairman of Orthopaedic Surgery and Head of Adult Joint Reconstruction at PGH Orthopaedic Department of Aristotle University (AUTh) Medical School in Thessaloniki, Hellas. He is an Honorary Senior Lecturer at Imperial College London, UK; Fellow of the Royal (FRCS) and the American (FACS) College of Surgeons. He hold a PhD from the King’s College London UK; and an MD cum laude from the Athens University Medical School, Hellas. He completed his residency in London, fellowship trained in Boston Medical Centre, USA and Exeter, UK; sabbatical trained at Harvard Children’s Hospital and practiced as Consultant and Senior Lecturer in Leeds University Hospitals. He has published 170 papers (7,000 citations; h:39), several book chapters and he lectures regularly around the world. He is the editor of the “Adult Hip: Master Case Series & Techniques” by Springer 2018 and the president of the “MasterClass in Arthroplasty Conference” in Europe. He has received the “Rothman-Ranawat”, “Latta” and “Onassis” Fellowships and he is high volume arthroplasty surgeon. Entrepreneur in medicine has founded the C.O.RE (Center for Orthopaedic Research), the ART (Arthroplasty Registry Thessaloniki) and the Private Arthroplasty Center ICAROS.Ltd.
20+ years in AR, Computer Vision, Robotics and Innovation, Academia
Panos Trahanias is a Professor with the Department of Computer Science, University of Crete and ICS-FORTH. He received his Ph.D. in Computer Science from the National Technical University of Athens, Greece, in 1988. Since 1993 he is with the University of Crete and ICS-FORTH. Currently, he is the Director of Graduate Studies at the Department of Computer Science, University of Crete, and the Head of the Computational Vision & Robotics Laboratory at ICS-FORTH where he is engaged in and supervises research and R & D projects in brain-based modeling, human-robot interaction, robot navigation, remote-access robotic systems and augmented reality applications. He has published over 100 papers in technical journals and conference proceedings and has contributed in two books.
Nils Huebner (Chief Business Officer) is an international executive with 20+ years’ experience in sales & business development, corporate strategy, innovation & change management. Nils has lead businesses in the financial software industry and gained entrepreneurial experience and strong expertise in augmented and virtual reality technologies. Trained economist, ex-banker (Société Générale HQ), Nils has worked in leading positions and grown business for world renowned financial software companies such as SunGard and StatPro. Nils is also entrepreneur, CEO, advisor and investor to innovative tech startups (ARdictive, Virtual-Dive, Akwatyx, Whatizis, Entarena) with a strong expertise in the field of augmented and virtual reality technologies. Characterized by a collaborative, proactive and insightful leadership, showing the ability to design strategies, gain team & client support and transform strategies into tangible realities. Nils has joined ORamaVR to carry on its success to the next level of growth.
Amalia Kargopoulou, a skillful professional with a strong background in exports and administration, has joined the team as a Business Manager. In the work of ORamaVR, she channels her passion for human development. She holds a MA in Conflict, Security and Development (War Studies, King’s College London) and a BA in Political Science (Aristotle University of Thessaloniki).
Steve, or Stavros, Kateros has graduated from the Computer Science Department at University of Crete. There he obtained his BSc and MSc focused on Computer Graphics and Virtual Reality. He worked for 2 years as an undergraduate researcher at FORTH, in the Human Computer Interaction Lab. During his academic and research years he contributed in various journals and publications. Currently he is a PhD candidate focusing on the research topic of Virtual Reality and Human Interaction. The past 5 years he was a teaching assistant at the University of Crete for both undergraduate and postgraduate classes on Computer Graphics. From 2016 he works at ORamaVR, where he started as a VR content and tools developer and later led the User Experience team. His love for Virtual Reality and passion to share knowledge led him to the position of Head of Product Management at ORamaVR.
Paul Zikas is a software engineer with 7+ years of experience in AR/VR industry and academia. He earned his BSc, and MSc in Computer Science from the University of Crete specializing in computer graphics. Currently he is developing his PhD research topics at the University of Crete and at FORTH in the Human Computer Interaction Lab (HCI-FORTH). As an enthusiast in Computer Graphics and Game Programming, he designed various Mixed Reality applications for educational and entertainment purposes in mobile and desktop platforms. He is deeply experienced with VR/AR custom/industrial game engines with an excellent computer graphics knowledge. He started working at ORamaVR from its establishment as a software engineer, lead developer and now the Head of Product. In ORamaVR he is responsible for the training scenegraph, the Unity MAGES SDK and coordinating as well as developing the VR customization modules. He developed and maintained the authoring tools to create low-code VR training scenarios based on proprietary software design patterns. His visual scripting module has revolutionized the production of VR training simulations, providing a sophisticated tool to drastically speed up the content creation.
Nikos Lydatakis graduated from Computer Science department, University of Crete where he obtained both this BSc and MSc on Computer Graphics. He started as a research fellow at the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology – Hellas, on Computational Vision and Robotics Laboratory. He works in the fields of Virtual Reality from 2015. He is currently working at ORamaVR as Head of Product.
Michael Kentros is a software engineer with experience in VR and ML applications. He worked at the Computer Vision and Robotics Laboratory at FORTH, as an undergraduate and graduate researcher for 3 years. His main focus lies upon computer graphics with a key interest in developing applications for improving the user’s skills through analysis and assessment. He earned his bachelor degree in Computer Science from the same University of Crete, focusing on Serious VR Games that improve the user’s wellness. He also holds a M.Sc in Computer Science from the University of Crete, where he researched methods for VR skill assessment and recording, utilising Machine Learning. Currently, he is PhD candidate in the same university, researching procedures to improve the way users’ performance is assessed in VR training scenarios with ML, as well as working in ORamaVR as a Lead SDK developer.
Stratos Geronikolakis received his BSc. (2017) and MSc. (2020) degrees, from the Department of Computer Science of the University of Crete, specializing in computer graphics. He received multiple scholarships and an excellence award for his studies. A skilled C++, C# developer, with great interest in AR applications. During his studies, he worked as an undergraduate researcher at FORTH, developing an AR application for cultural heritage, also incorporating 3D reconstruction. He also contributed to low-level computer graphics global illumination research. His interest lies in developing 3D applications for cultural heritage across extended reality (XR). He has contributed to the computer graphics research field with publications, regarding the XR spectrum, cultural heritage and medical VR for various journals/conferences such as (Springer, SIGGRAPH etc.). He participated in and worked for various EU projects such as ViMM (Virtual Multimodal Museum) and national funded ones such as VRADA.
In ORamaVR, Stratos is responsible for incorporating MAGES SDK to new devices, multiplatform support and products distribution. By achieving the transition of MAGES SDK from desktop to mobile devices and the macOS platform, he made the first step of introducing ORamaVR products to various new devices and operating systems. Due to his expertise in tools and software for creating installers, he created the main installer that ORamaVR uses for its applications. His main focus is to bring ORamaVR products across different platforms, making VR training available and even more accessible to the world.
Stelios Georgiou has obtained his Master’s degree at Computer Science Department University of Crete. Skilled in C/C++, C# and experienced in Unity3D and Unreal Engine 4 with main focus in game development. Previously working as a research assistant at ICS-FORTH for two years and has three years of experience at the same company (OramaVR). Currently focused in VR/Cloud development.
Manos Kamarianakis is a mathematician researcher that specializes in Computational Geometry. He got his PhD in Applied Mathematics from University of Crete, where he studied the Voronoi Diagram of 3D spheres. He also holds a M.Sc. (Hons) in Mathematics from University of Crete, with specialization in Applied Mathematics, mainly concerning various types of Algebra and their applications as well as the design and analysis of algorithms. In the same University, he also obtained his 2 bachelor degrees, both in pure (Hons) and applied mathematics (Hons). During his studies, he got multiple scholarships for his performance as an undergraduate and graduate student. An Onassis foundation scholarship was granted to him in order to obtain his PhD. Currently, he is a post-doctoral researcher in the Department of Mathematics & Applied Mathematics and a developer in OramaVR, where he focuses in applications of Clifford and higher-dimension algebras.
Dr. Maria Pateraki is a researcher in the converging areas of Computer Vision and Photogrammetry with an established track record of developing vision systems for real-world problems. She has R&D experience in industry, research institutes and academia with participation in more than 25 EU, international and national funded projects and her research focus is with respect to 2D/3D object extraction and tracking, 3D pose estimation, 3D reconstruction and image matching. She obtained her Ph.D in Photogrammetry from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich (ETHZ) in Switzerland in 2005. Since 2008 is a Associate Researcher at the Computational Vision and Robotics Lab in the Institute of Computer Science of the Foundation for Research and Technology-Hellas in Greece. Prior to this post she has been a research associate at the Geomatics Department of the University of Melbourne and the Cooperative Research Center for Spatial Information (CRC-SI) in Melbourne, Australia and a postdoctoral fellow at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki, Greece. She has also been a visiting assistant professor at the Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, Greece (2012-2014) and a visiting lecturer and postdoctoral fellow at the Aristotle University of Thesaloniki (2006-2007).
Dr. Antonis I. Protopsaltis is a computer scientist specialized in computer graphics and computer-aided design (CAD). He obtained his Ph.D. in Computer Science at the University of Ioannina-Greece in 2010, his M.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science (Software Engineering) and his B.Sc. (Hons) in Computer Science in 1996 and 1994 respectively at Concordia University in Montreal-Canada. He is a Special Teaching Fellow of Computer Graphics with the department of Electrical and Computer Engineering at the University of Western Macedonia, Greece and Affiliated Research Fellow at the Laboratory of Mechanical Systems in department of Mechanical Engineering at the same University. He has conducted research on Geometric Modeling Methods for Reverse Engineering of Scanned Objects using Curves, Surfaces and Discrete Models (triangulations and point clouds), based on Geometric Constraints of Cross-Sections. His research interests are in the areas of Computer Graphics, Geometric Modeling of 3D objects, Reverse Engineering of 3D objects, Computer Aided Design – CAD. He has actively been involved in several Greek or European funded research projects in these areas. He is a reviewer for international scientific journals of high impact. He has been employed as lead computer graphics programmer in the industrial sector.
Eleni Grigoriou received her BSc degree in Computer Science from the Computer Science Department of the University of Crete, specializing in Computer Graphics and she is currently pursuing Master’s degree in Computer Science and Engineering at University of Crete. She focused her studies on Computer Graphics and Human-Computer Interaction. Her Bachelor thesis was about Big – Data Interaction with a Virtual Human inside Virtual Reality Environment. Her interests lie in the general area of Computer Graphics with an emphasis on User Experience and User Interfaces in Virtual Reality Environments. She started working at ORamaVR as Content and UI Developer and later as developer at Cloud Services. Her passion for Virtual Reality and Computer Graphics and the level of enthusiasm towards her tasks led her to the position of Product Manager and UI/UX. She developed and she is responsible for the ORamaVR website.
Achilles Apostolou grew up in Athens, Greece. He earned his BSc in Computer Science from the University of Crete specializing in Computer Graphics. Having always been interested in 3D Graphics and Digital Arts, he spends most of his time designing 3D Content for Virtual Reality as well as researching advanced Media Technologies. In 2022, he began his Medialogy MSc studies at Aalborg University Copenhagen, with a focus on Computer Graphics and Virtual Production. Achilles joined ORamaVR in late 2019, initially working as a 3D Designer and VR Content Developer. In his current role as Technical Director, he is responsible for supervising the 3D Content Pipeline as well as working closely with both the Development and Design Teams.
Michael Dodis is a computer scientist from the Computer Science Department, University of Crete, Greece. He first came into contact with programming through Unity, then went on doing lower-level projects with computer graphics. He is currently working on the Networking side of interactive VR applications.
Achilleas Filippidis graduated from Computer Science Department of the University of Crete with a specialization in Computer Graphics. His thesis was about a cross-platform VR optimized visualization system of human body anatomy in both Unity 3D and Unreal Engine 4. His interests are mainly in Computer Graphics and Game development. Currently, he is working in the Unreal Engine 4 team.
Ioanna Kartsonaki has a BSc in Computer Science and is currently enrolled in Computer Science and Engineering MSc in University of Crete. Her undergraduate studies were based on Computer Graphics, and her thesis was focused on the capabilities of real-time, virtual reality, graphics running low power hardware. Before joining ORamaVR, she gained industry experience in Front End development.
She has worked on several ORamaVR products as a Unity developer and has contributed in publications. The past year she started developing methods and tools for the Quality Assurance of the VR products. Alongside these, in her studies she explores how Human Computer Interaction can be implemented in Augmented and Virtual Reality.
Dimitris Angelis recently received his Bachelor’s Degree at Computer Science Department in the University of Crete and is now a Master’s student. He is mostly interested in Machine Learning and Software Development. In his bachelor thesis, he explored feature selection and classification algorithms and is currently working as a Machine Learning Engineer.
Antonis Tsioulis is a multimedia artist and 3D animation technician. He has graduated from IEK DELTA 360º as an animation technician and has worked in various projects as a story boarder, background and concept artist for animation movies and videogames. His interests lie in the intersection of concept design and 3D modeling. He is currently an undergraduate Fine Arts student at the Aristotle University of Thessaloniki while working as a 3D content designer/artist for ORamaVR.
Petros Haralampides is a graduate of the Norwich University of the Arts, where he obtained his MA in Game Art. Coming from a background of educational AR/VR game development, he is now working as a 3D art generalist for ORamaVR. He is interested in 3D modelling, animation, texturing, and rendering.
Michalis Tamiolakis is a computer scientist from the Computer Science Departement, University of Crete, Greece. He Specializes in VR Development and has experience with Physics Simulation, especially in Unity. His thesis was “Soft Deformable Meshes for Mobile VR”, in which he developed a state of the art system for Softbody Simulations, build on top of the default Unity’s PhysX engine. He currently works in Unity Projects and Physics Simulations for the MAGES SDK.
John Petropoulos recently finished his studies at Computer Science Department in the University of Crete. He is mostly interested in creating games and in general graphics development. In his bachelor thesis, he explored and developed Cutting, Tearing and Drilling of rigged 3D models inside the Unity engine. He is currently working as a software engineer contributing mainly on Unity projects.
George Marios Kokiadis is a post-graduate student in the Computer Science Department, University of Crete. He completed his BSc in 2021 with a Thesis focused on Mobile XR and continues his academic path with an MSc in Multimedia Technology. His interests include XR Technologies, Video Effects and Editing, as well as Graphic and Sound Design.
Nick Marmaras is a computer scientist from the Computer Science Department, University of Crete, Greece, implementing stages of software and Game Development. With the knowledge of object-oriented Game Programming accustomed to developing video games, he is currently a VR content developer in Unreal Engine 4.
ORamaVR ADVISORY BOARD
Hospital for Joint Diseases Medical Director International Patient Services NYU Langone Medical Center, USA
Professor of Electrical Engineering and Computer Science, Stanford University, Multi-scale Architecture & Systems team, Stanford, USA
ORamaVR products support UN
sustainable development goals:
SDG3: Good health and well-being
SDG4: Quality education