• Home
  • Latest
  • Fortune 500
  • Finance
  • Tech
  • Leadership
  • Lifestyle
  • Rankings
  • Multimedia
TechFuture of Work

This company is redesigning how it works with virtual reality

By
John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi
Down Arrow Button Icon
By
John Gaudiosi
John Gaudiosi
Down Arrow Button Icon
September 2, 2015, 1:20 PM ET
DIRTT

Interior construction company DIRTT (Doing It Right This Time) is using Oculus Rift headsets to show clients exactly what their banks, office buildings, and other projects look like before construction has even begun.

The company designed a wireless set-up that includes a backpack and Polhemus technology, which uses an alternating current magnetic field to track movement. Clients can walk around the room untethered and experience everything from the layout of the furniture to the location of the columns and windows.

“We allow the physical freedom to explore, and as part of that we’ve also integrated technology for motion tracking,” Barrie Loberg, CTO and co-founder, says. “When you physically walk forward, you walk forward in your virtual world. It’s an extremely compelling experience for the participant and it eliminates the motion sickness that’s common with VR because we’ve completely synchronized your physical motion with the virtual motion.”

DIRTT developed its ICE 3D design and specification software 10 years ago for 3D visual communication, and recently integrated VR into their custom set-up. The company, which generated $187 million for fiscal 2014, has seen its business increase while also saving clients time and money by offsetting expensive fixes before they physically occur.

Loberg points to a recent oil and gas project the company was working on, where the client’s design included a large column in their floorplan. They could see it in the plan view and in the renderings, but they weren’t sure if it was going to be a problem until they put on the HMDs. They unanimously agreed the column was in fact a big problem, and they changed their design.

“People need to form their intent and vision into a design, and they need to commit to purchasing that design so we can move forward,” Loberg says. “What VR does is take all of this to an entirely new level. With VR, you can feel the space! You are in the space, you are experiencing the space in a way that wasn’t possible before.”

DIRTT president Scott Jenkins credits video games for leading the wave of VR advances over the past few years. DIRTT built its ICE platform on video game technology and will soon be using consumer VR headsets designed for gaming to transform the interior construction industry.

“As soon as one of the VR units becomes commercially available, our plan is to send it to our entire distribution sales network so people around the world can experience VR with ICE and what it means for interior building,” Jenkins says. “We envision hundreds of people using it immediately within our network, and then ultimately growing to our end users. Ultimately, our VR experience will connect right to your computer in the way that a mouse connects today.”

Sign up for Data Sheet, Fortune’s daily newsletter about the business of technology.

For more Fortune coverage of virtual reality, watch this video:

About the Author
By John Gaudiosi
See full bioRight Arrow Button Icon

Latest in Tech

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025

Most Popular

Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Finance
Lorem ipsum dolor sit amet, consectetur adipiscing elit, sed do eiusmod tempor incididunt ut labore et dolore magna aliqua. Ut enim ad minim veniam
By Fortune Editors
October 20, 2025
Rankings
  • 100 Best Companies
  • Fortune 500
  • Global 500
  • Fortune 500 Europe
  • Most Powerful Women
  • Future 50
  • World’s Most Admired Companies
  • See All Rankings
Sections
  • Finance
  • Leadership
  • Success
  • Tech
  • Asia
  • Europe
  • Environment
  • Fortune Crypto
  • Health
  • Retail
  • Lifestyle
  • Politics
  • Newsletters
  • Magazine
  • Features
  • Commentary
  • Mpw
  • CEO Initiative
  • Conferences
  • Personal Finance
  • Education
Customer Support
  • Frequently Asked Questions
  • Customer Service Portal
  • Privacy Policy
  • Terms Of Use
  • Single Issues For Purchase
  • International Print
Commercial Services
  • Advertising
  • Fortune Brand Studio
  • Fortune Analytics
  • Fortune Conferences
  • Business Development
About Us
  • About Us
  • Editorial Calendar
  • Press Center
  • Work At Fortune
  • Diversity And Inclusion
  • Terms And Conditions
  • Site Map
  • Facebook icon
  • Twitter icon
  • LinkedIn icon
  • Instagram icon
  • Pinterest icon

© 2026 Fortune Media IP Limited. All Rights Reserved. Use of this site constitutes acceptance of our Terms of Use and Privacy Policy | CA Notice at Collection and Privacy Notice | Do Not Sell/Share My Personal Information
FORTUNE is a trademark of Fortune Media IP Limited, registered in the U.S. and other countries. FORTUNE may receive compensation for some links to products and services on this website. Offers may be subject to change without notice.


Most Popular

placeholder alt text
North America
'I meant what I said in Davos': Carney says he really is planning a Canada split with the U.S. along with 12 new trade deals
By Rob Gillies and The Associated PressJanuary 28, 2026
19 hours ago
placeholder alt text
C-Suite
Fortune 500 CEOs are no longer giving employees an A for effort. Now they want proof of impact
By Claire ZillmanJanuary 28, 2026
1 day ago
placeholder alt text
Real Estate
Ryan Serhant thinks the American Dream was just a 'slogan created by banks,' but it was really about FDR, the Great Depression, and an economic crisis
By Sydney Lake and Nick LichtenbergJanuary 26, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Personal Finance
Current price of silver as of Tuesday, January 27, 2026
By Joseph HostetlerJanuary 27, 2026
2 days ago
placeholder alt text
Commentary
Yes, you're getting a bigger tax refund. Your kids won't thank you for the $3 trillion it's adding to the deficit
By Daniel BunnJanuary 26, 2026
3 days ago
placeholder alt text
Success
As AI wipes out desk jobs, Citigroup CEO Jane Fraser says the company is training 175,000 employees to ‘reinvent themselves’ before their roles change forever
By Emma BurleighJanuary 27, 2026
2 days ago

Latest in Tech

Big TechRetail
Amazon is closing its futuristic Go and Fresh stores—showing logistics and tech aren’t enough to make old-school retail work
By Phil WahbaJanuary 29, 2026
2 hours ago
Big TechTesla
Tesla reveals $2 billion investment in Elon Musk’s xAI and officially kills the Model S and Model X
By Jessica MathewsJanuary 28, 2026
8 hours ago
Bald man with glasses and black shirt.
Big TechFortune 500
Microsoft demand backlog doubles to $625 billion thanks to OpenAI, but hefty spending and slower revenue growth spook investors
By Amanda GerutJanuary 28, 2026
8 hours ago
MagazineSamsung
How Samsung’s first-ever chief design officer is reinventing the electronics giant for the AI age
By Nicholas GordonJanuary 28, 2026
11 hours ago
Mark Zuckerberg, chief executive officer of Meta Platforms Inc
AIMeta
Meta beats on Q4 revenue as Mark Zuckerberg predicts a ‘major AI acceleration’ in 2026—with up to $135 billion in capex spending to match
By Sharon GoldmanJanuary 28, 2026
11 hours ago
ServiceNow CEO Bill McDermott
InvestingServiceNow
ServiceNow stock falls despite earnings beat as CEO Bill McDermott tries to get investors to stop thinking of it as a SaaS company
By Jeremy KahnJanuary 28, 2026
12 hours ago