Tech Talks | Jessica Wright, Peel X

David Tibbles: 00:00:03

Welcome to the tech talks podcast from theICEway and Seatrade Cruise. I'm David Tibbles. I work as a business development and product manager at ttheICEway. These tech talks look at technology and innovation within the cruise industry, theICEway host q&a sessions where tech leaders and innovators are all working diligently to create solutions that will benefit crews in a variety of different ways. Hello, everyone, welcome to the tech podcast. Let me introduce Jessica Wright, the managing director of Peel X. Jess, can you maybe introduce Peel X and sort of role within the cruise industry and where you're aiming for and possibly also briefly explain a little bit more about augmented reality and virtual reality? Because there's probably some confusion around the whole AR VR XR subject.

Jessica Wright: 00:01:00

Yeah, of course. Thank you so much for having me. As David says, I'm Jessica from Peel X. Were actually part of a larger organization, the Peel Entertainment Group, which has been providing turnkey and standard solutions to the cruise industry for over 20 years. But about 10 years ago, our creative studio team were joined by a talented team of developers and programmers and 3D modelers, and animators and myself. And that's how we started to develop our digital solutions for the tourism and cruise industry. So I suppose since then, we've been leveraging our long standing relationship with cruise lines, destinations, and port authorities. So we've developed a whole line of digital storytelling solutions. And what I'm talking about today mostly is app based augmented reality experiences, which we've been producing for about 10 years now. And they have been used in lots of exciting locations to provide tourists with unique destination experiences. So the difference between AR VR and XR, augmented reality is where you are overlaying digital content onto the real world environment. It's not always but that's usually through a user's mobile device. It might be where they are, which streams through the web, or it might be what we call slam or native AR, which is through absolution. So where your download as usual, download an app from the App Store. And then like Pokemon Go, everyone's always heard of Pokemon GO and you can walk around and capture characters. AR is that experience where you walk around a destination or location and you bring to life landmarks features stories, using AR where it overlays a digital layer of interpretation. And that might be something 3d, it might be something animated. And we can talk a bit about some examples of that later. Virtual reality, by contrast, is a totally totally immersive experience where you completely occlude the real world environment. So usually you wear a headset, and you go into a fully

Jessica Wright: 00:03:04

immersive environment, whether that might be CGI, so computer based, or live action, but it's a fully immersive space. And then I always say the XR is kind of the catch all term to describe everything. That's digital storytelling. And all its many forms at Peel X. Although a lot of what we do is augmented reality, which is what I suppose our specialism we do a lot of work in immersive projection in touchscreen displays, gamification, and use of gesture to kind of manipulate experiences and things like that. So we kind of cover the full spectrum of XR, really anything? That's a great story, we'd look at that first think about how we want to tell that story to give an audience a fantastic experience. And then look at what technological platform or solution fits that method of storytelling the best.

David Tibbles: 00:03:52

Yeah, I totally get that. So yeah, if it's cruise passengers and guests, you don't really want them walking around with the Apple headsets on bumping into things. And we've done quite a lot in the past on the tech zone with virtual reality and sort of more on the training side. So actually, yeah, training bridge crew and things like that, as well as looking at Yeah, sure, excellent experience, but I think more of the augmented reality is definitely better suited to cruise and we've certainly experienced that in the last few years. So more on the augmented reality side, what sort of key experiences to pay ALEKS offer an a sort of a mixture of historical sort of cultural or architectural or would you go to the cruise line and say write what kind of expectations do the guests have or themes or attractions?

Jessica Wright: 00:04:46

Yeah, we've worked on lots of different types of AR experiences in the past I suppose. It has a unique ability to spend a whole range of different themes and topics so that might be and kids AR treasure trail on board or ship for Exam. While we're using their branding their kids club mascot, for example of some IP that's already available. And we are creating an experience where you have to hunt out characters around the ship, and you go around with your device and kind of catch them all, so to speak,

David Tibbles: 00:05:15

that probably helps with just, if you did that, at the beginning of the cruise, just navigating around the ship as well. So yeah, cuz you could actually get people to different decks completely.

Jessica Wright: 00:05:26

Absolutely, and we can show their position relative to different decks and the flow pattern of the of the ship itself. And then sort of hide characters or hide content in perhaps destinations or locations around the ship that the cruise line wants to promote or push people to that they might not discover until you know, midway through their cruise, ordinarily, so I think is a good solution. Because it's one of those great activities that you might like to do on a CD, or if part of the whole family to kind of go around and have that experience. But I mean, outside of the kind of onboard experience of which there are many applications, we've done AR coloring in sheets and kids club, we've done wallpaper that comes to life and all manner of weird and wonderful things in the past that utilizes AR, as far as I suppose the destination side of things are concerned, again, I think different themes and topics work. And we will work directly with the cruise line destination on the port authority to look at what interpretation what cultural or historical information do we want to display. And that might be about picking out key features and interpreting them. It might be finding more undiscovered locations along the way. So we find that, you know, and I think we've gotten to talk about this probably a bit later in more detail with some of our case studies. But whether it's a desire to kind of uncover some of those more hidden histories or discover hidden gems, I think that's where AR presents a really kind of unique opportunity, it also helps to take people kind of maybe slightly more off the beaten track, or push them into parts of a destination where the tourism agencies are looking for people to go out to slightly different areas or find different parts of that place. And I think it has really good opportunity to do that, I suppose in terms of its use in the historical and cultural context, that's where AR is absolutely brilliant, because of course it

Jessica Wright: 00:07:15

can brings live things that aren't there anymore. And that's what we spend most of our time doing. To be honest, we're doing lots and lots of work with tourism bodies generally around there kind of strategy of how to bring stuff to life where there's perhaps not a lot to see anymore. So you know, archaeological storytelling in particular, it's fantastic for that. We did a project on the Outer Hebrides recently, which has won several awards, and it was a basically about how do we interpret the archaeological remains. And there were some fascinating examples along the trail route. And as you arrive at those locations, now, you might see small remnants of what was formerly a, you know, very impressive building, you can now see full 3d reconstructions of those archaeological sites and, you know, spanning 3000 years of really fascinating human history. And so the AR content in that context is displayed directly over the top of the archaeological remains in the real world environment, you know, and using your device, you can go inside, you can pan around, you can pick up objects, you can look at things. And it we've found that that has had, you know, amazing multi generational appeal as well, you know, that it's not just the digital natives or you know, Gen Zed, kids that are excited by that we've got everybody hands and knees crawling through the virtual roundhouse with their phone and sort of getting involved. And it's, it's been a really successful way of kind of bringing that hidden history to life in a in a kind of new and exciting way.

David Tibbles: 00:08:44

In my view, it goes away from that Instagram moment of people just going to a site or where they seen people take selfies and just take a selfie, you're learning something and you'll remember it more than just that little snap.

Jessica Wright: 00:08:59

So I think that's right, I think it's it has that ability to be genuinely engaging from a storytelling perspective. And yeah, leave that long lasting and kind of legacy through the way that it's very engaging with watching people doing that is a spectator sport. And it's quite, it's quite funny. But I think that, you know, there's that kind of stuff, which is, you know, very heritage based, it's very much about kind of the accuracy of the 3d modeling work that we do in terms of reconstructing that buildings. But equally we do, you know, we do lots of other projects where it might be a Halloween or Christmas trail, for example, that we're looking at much more of an animated and family friendly quality to the content and the augmented reality experience. So I guess it completely depends on what the cruise line or the destination or the port authorities looking for. And then we kind of work creatively and collaboratively to to come up with some great experiences.

David Tibbles: 00:09:55

I know that some locations that lend themselves more to do route augmented reality tours than others. Obviously, if you if you go somewhere like I don't know, London, for instance, there's a hell of a lot there anyway. So I presume in that case, you'd probably pare back on the augmented reality, because there's loads to see anyway. And there's loads of history, but but maybe in, in another location that, as you say, it's maybe got lots of historical value, but there's not much to see there, or presume you just increase that. So are there any places that you'd think, yeah, maybe it wouldn't work, or I presume you're probably gonna tell me that work anyway.

Jessica Wright: 00:10:38

When it will, it will work anywhere, because you know, the technology is very robust, as long as the GPS connection, it's tracking your movement, it's tracking your location, and it will prompt you when there's something in your, in your direct vicinity. That's that that it wants you to see or do. But I think that like all good experiences are good augmented reality experience is only as good as the kind of story that's underpinning it. So it means that to tell a narrative, it needs to have a reason to exist. It doesn't have to be heritage based, but it does need to kind of make sense and be engaging. So you know, say a good good Halloween trail can be as powerful as a history trail, for example. But in terms of locations, I think, yes, it does work anywhere. But where we've found that it's possibly most well suited is probably those slightly more remote or undiscovered destinations. I think particularly where travelers are probably more likely to be seeking kind of more of an independent travel experience. I think AR trails and experiences can really kind of fill a gap there, where perhaps there aren't as many of those the traditional shore excursion experiences on offer. And the great thing about it is it's very, very flexible and scalable and easily updatable. So I suppose in terms of investment, it's, it's a straightforward enough thing to get up and running to evaluating and grow pipe kind of organically. And I think that because the trails themselves don't rely on any other infrastructure or physical signage that makes that even more straightforward to process and even more appealing, I suppose to those slightly more remote or undiscovered destinations.

David Tibbles: 00:12:14

And I presume you can keep it relevant by feedback from from customers taking their tour and make sense. Oh, yeah, that was really interesting. But I'd really like to know a little bit more about this, then obviously, you can probably fairly quickly spin up a new, a new version of the tool.

Jessica Wright: 00:12:31

Yeah, exactly. And I think we've got really good because it's at the base in our sort of in our CMS, and in the back end that we can see and our clients can see, we can review all have that data and those insights very readily to see, okay, which which points of interest are proving a, you know, appealing what axis? What dwell time are we accomplishing within these experiences? And how do we improve on that, that we've got really good, you know, insights within our framework so that we can monitor visitor preferences and their behavior, and then deliver those more kind of, I suppose, targeted or personalized experiences as well.

David Tibbles: 00:13:07

I'm just talking that she's with the dwell time, obviously, that with cruise lines, they're very often it's a real deadline to get back to the cruise ship, I presume we could build that in and sort of have a timer and say, yeah, you've maybe been here a little bit too long, which, obviously, with a tour guide with maybe holding an umbrella up, they've, they can control get back on the bus.

Jessica Wright: 00:13:31

That's a very good point. But yes, we'd be the first point where you land on the trail, it tells you, you know, approximately how long the trail experience is. And then you get you've got a bit of a you can see your progress along that trail route as well. If it is a trail, obviously, not everything is a is a predetermined trail, but often it is and you know where it is, you can see your progress relative to that to that trail, and we can put little flags in there to say, you know, hurry up, time's running out.

David Tibbles: 00:13:59

Excellent. And how do you actually sort of create those digital overlays and the interactive bits is, is it fairly technical to send a team to a location or, or I presume from dependent on the local sort of tourist authority? They may have a lot of that information to give you anyway?

Jessica Wright: 00:14:19

Yeah, it's it's very variable. You know, in some instances, we have to go to site where the mapping where it is, it has to be very accurate it can be and it is, and in that case, we would want to go and test and test in the location to make sure that that direct mapping onto an object and artifact place was was working. But often, we don't have too often having the coordinates, the geographical coordinates and the location of where we want the content to kind of spawn which is what we call it when the augmented reality experience itself spawns and then we don't necessarily need to have gone to that destination to do that. But it Yes, it is very accurate because it sensually aligns directly on to the feature in the world real world environment or directly onto a set of coordinates. So it can't, in theory, very can't go wrong. It's very reliable. And as I say the user can see their position relative to that to the location of contents, and they can see how far away they are from the next point of interest. And then when they arrive at that destination, there's a, there's a digital prompt within the app that stays like you've arrived at the location, there's something to see or do here. So very, I suppose very user friendly, very easy to kind of self guide and navigate, I should say, as well, I think because of the flexibility of the of the platform, it does mean that we can make very quick adjustments to things as well. So if we want to add new content in, remove things, change things, we can do that remotely, and then push those updates very quickly to the front.

David Tibbles: 00:15:55

You mentioned about the app, but what sort of technology and connectivity are required. Just thinking that if you're in obscure locations, we're probably really obscure would be somewhere like the Antarctic that has...

Jessica Wright: 00:16:08

I've got the Antarctic on here to talk about...

David Tibbles: 00:16:12

But yeah, how, how do you get around that or if there's very expensive connectivity fees in certain countries, or you need a roaming ECM or whatever,

Jessica Wright: 00:16:22

it's fairly straightforward, really, you need connection to download the app and to download the trails that you want to do in advance. So ordinarily, that will be done either as part of that pre travel phase, that's the perfect time to do it in the pre travel phase, or onboard, possibly also where there's Wi Fi connection in terminals, you know, in ports, but generally speaking, we would try and advocate a pre pre travel download, where you've got access to either Wi Fi or your own data. But once you've downloaded it, wherever you wherever you decide to do that, the download process is very quick and straightforward. So it doesn't it's not particularly heavy on the device. And then you can choose whichever trails you want to do and get those downloaded. But once that's done, that's it. There's no more requirement after that for any sort of connectivity at all. So once you've done that, you can turn off your data, you can just go for it because the actual content is then sat natively on the device doesn't require any further streaming, which, which obviously helps when it comes to pricey roaming charges and things like that. So if you've got it, that's it, it works. It's natively no further Wi Fi streaming connection needed.

David Tibbles: 00:17:34

And how about if a user hasn't got a compatible device? So some of the demographics on cruiselines? are obviously, yeah, maybe not suited best to pick up a hand Droid or iPhone? Yeah, would you encourage the cruiseline, then to have some devices that they can kind of hand out?

Jessica Wright: 00:17:55

I think Loanable devices are definitely an option. We've seen that work really effectively elsewhere, where we want devices that can guarantee compatibility with the augmented reality aspect. I mean, having said that the majority of devices now are compatible with AR because they have either a gyroscope or accelerometer, it's required to do the AR element, but not all day. I mean, there's 1.4 billion active AR user devices out there. So there's quite quite a large market. But there are exceptions to that. And what we do in those cases is we have an AR and a non AR version of every trade. So automatically, the app, once you've downloaded it, it will it will know whether your device is compatible or not. And it will give you a prompt to say you are going on to the non AR trail. And then all of the AR experiences that users with a compatible device are able to access or just displayed in a different way in an in a non AR capacities. It's a slightly different experience, but they're not missing out on anything. So we've kind of covered that basis. But as you say, there is the option to have learnable devices as well. And as I say there is an alternative available.

David Tibbles: 00:19:02

And how about with a tour leader? I presume it could be designed that no one has their device, you have a leader with iPad or something similar and and they actually then do the tour. So is there get on a basket off a bus? And does that work at the moment? Or is that?

Jessica Wright: 00:19:20

Yes, it does. I mean, I think I would probably advocate more that if it's a combined package with a tour guide experience that users still use their own devices so that they you know, they've got a bit of autonomy around that. But you can sync that tool but like synced additional audio to or anything like that where the tour guide is leading. And the devices are synced to that tool so that they're only delivering the same content to everybody at the same time in connection with wherever they're at within that tour experience. But I think a hybrid model of guided tour with some complementary digital resources is really effective. I think that there's real value in thinking of things Just like that it doesn't necessarily have to be everyone off doing their thing independently with an app, it can be a very complementary resource from a traditional tour package. And that we've seen that working really well.

David Tibbles: 00:20:11

Obviously, you've mentioned that there's, you can have virtual signs and markers to guide people correctly. What other sort of interactive elements work well, to engage the users? Is there anything that really sticks out to you that you say, Yeah, whenever we do this, yeah, everyone says it's great. And you get that, that probably the dwell point lasting much longer than normal.

Jessica Wright: 00:20:34

I think that the fact that we specialize in the content side of things, and that's our focus, we always look at making sure whenever we're creating a piece of kind of interactive content, we're kind of we're looking at, okay, is it is it shareable? Would you want to tell your friends about this thing that you've just done or experienced? Is it lots of fun? Is it interactive? So can you do something? It's not just a passive thing that's kind of playing out around you? Is there something for you to do? So? Looking at? Small gamified elements? It's not necessarily a game, but it does give you some agency around. Yes, exactly. In a role to play within it, you know, and is it accessible? Can everybody do it? Is it simple enough so that everybody can do it? So we start from that point? And then we look at, okay, what are we making here, and I think in terms of things that people really, really enjoy, it's, it's those wow moments with AR so it's seen as I think, in one of the examples I gave earlier, you know, when you you literally can place an enormous structure on to a former building or, or a or a site where something used to be and see that full reconstruction and get inside and see it, I think people are really astounded that that's possible, particularly at that sort of large scale. And then if we can include some interactivity in there, so peeping under floorboards, or, you know, picking up objects and looking at things, I think that that's results in people sort of lingering a lot longer in a destination, and then perhaps they would have done before.

David Tibbles: 00:22:04

And just thinking about that overlaying a huge building where it originally sat, are you looking at anything sort of like digital twinning a ship so that before even going on the cruise, you can kind of virtually, and I know, quite a lot of consultants are doing that. And they have these digital twin? So if the audience doesn't know what a digital twin is, it's really just almost a scan of area. And then you can walk through it virtually either on your on your laptop screen or, or through an app. So is that something? Have you heard the cruise lines are interested in that or?

Jessica Wright: 00:22:39

Yeah, and and the cruise lines? Yes. And destinations, definitely, as well. And I think a lot of people in terms of their strategy are thinking about how does the digital twin support that pre travel stage of that wayfinding exploration and navigation piece. So whether that's a cruise line, or a city where you're about to travel to so we did a we did a digital twin of the Dublin City Centre last year, because they were looking at a new initiative. And that was using augmented reality. I mean, of course, you could navigate it in a number of different ways, but they decided to use AR. So you can sit basically see a two scale replica of Dublin City Centre, using AR You can put it on your tabletop at home or wander around the garden and look at it or wherever you want to go and you can access it. And then there was all these exciting popups of stuff around them signposting, perhaps destinations, attractions, maybe aren't necessarily on a traditional radar prior to them visiting. So it was a big part of the kind of the SmartOS initiative around, how do we get people excited about stuff that perhaps they don't know about yet? And how do we deliver that to them in a really exciting way. And that's really easy to see. And actually just the geographical navigation of that. And understanding that walking distances between places, was not that far, and encouraging people to build itineraries and think their way through that prior to them coming, I think, is a really exciting, new, I suppose, a new possibility. And I see that for cruise lines, definitely as well, with the ability to fully immerse yourself in the spaces that you can then go and enjoy when you do arrive on board. And you've kind of already you've already familiarized yourself, haven't you?

David Tibbles: 00:24:18

Yeah, excellent. So you've obviously worked with sort of local tourist authorities in Portal for a season, and they all generally positive on it. I presume there's a lot of questions, but is everyone seizing it and saying, Yeah, this is great. This is the future.

Jessica Wright: 00:24:33

Yeah, they are. I mean, we're working with loads of tourists authorities on their broader tourism strategy at the moment with with the focus on digital and smart tourism. So their aims and objectives might be slightly different. But you know, we will do all the research and we will tailor experiences that suit their specific kind of objectives. But what they see is I think they see or hope they do is that augmented reality and and sort of app based solutions provide an opportunity to promote that kind of deeper understanding and connection to place. By bringing some of those hidden histories to life or driving footfall to the lesser kind of trodden parts of a destination or a city. I think there's also a lot of discussion about the use of app technology. So handheld technology, we know most people have got a device, we know that digital natives make up more than 52% of the population. Now people have grown up with a phone, you know, they find those experiences very easy to navigate, very intuitive. And we can use app based solutions like this to also promote positive terrorist behaviors as well while you're in a destination. And they're also very accessible. So So from an environmental and accessibility perspective, I think there's a real drive at base technology to do some of this work. Of course, from a investment perspective, as well, as I've said, you get a relatively quick return on your investment, because it is literally digital and in the hands of the user, rather than any big physical investment in experiences that are, you know, physically in the destination. Plus, there's that real time feedback as well coming through all the time around the data and the insights to monitor that visitor behavior and those preferences, and be really responsive to those insights, and make rapid and regular updates and changes. It's something that you can, you know, continually reinvest in relatively easily once you've got the

Jessica Wright: 00:26:19

underpinning infrastructure in place.

David Tibbles: 00:26:21

Excellent, just conscious of time and sort of wrapping up. So what do you think sets px apart from a standard shorex? And I know, obviously, there's different flavors for everyone. And I'm not trying to say to you, yeah, standard choices will go away, because I'm sure they weren't, those tours will always continue. But what do you think kind of sets you apart at that moment, obviously, being new and technical is is great.

Jessica Wright: 00:26:49

We're quite unique in the sense that we approach things from a content creation perspective. First, the technology is almost secondary to that we found a method and a technological method of delivering great experiences. But for us, it's about creating those amazing experiences, finding those stories, and producing content that tells those stories in new and exciting ways that appeal to a broad user base. I think that that, that makes us quite unique. And also the ability to personalize and tailor content to suit individual preferences. I think that that's a really unique aspect of of a, an app based or, or an AR based solution like this, because we can serve up lots of different permutations of other experiences to suit different preferences or different ideas. So you could arrive at a destination and have multiple experiences to choose from, depending on what you're really interested in. So okay, it opens up that variety of choices.

David Tibbles: 00:27:48

Yes. Limitless, isn't it? Really? Yeah, it's just a list of the five tools that you can

Jessica Wright: 00:27:54

it's that kind of Netflix mental mentality, isn't it, you kind of go on and you've you've got everything available. You can be and yet, eventually it will start to serve you stuff that it thinks that you want to see or do based on things you've chosen before. So I think that's a really positive aspect of it. And and of course, that that speed of delivery return on investment, flexibility, and scalability. I think he's really, it again, is a real advantage to this sort of experience delivery.

David Tibbles: 00:28:26

Excellent. Well, thanks very much for the time today. It's been really fascinating. And I do totally agree that this whole extended reality. Yeah, definitely a potential to revolutionize cruise market for cruise guests. And, as we said earlier, give them more unforgettable experiences rather than that, just that quick click of a camera and I was there. So excellent. Thank you.

Jessica Wright: 00:28:52

Thank you so much. It's been a pleasure.