upGrad partners with EyeWay Vision to create an AR learning experience

• E-learning platform Upgrad has partnered with an Israeli company to build an innovative wearable augmented reality platform.
• Currently, the Global E-learning market is valued at $144 billion and by 2026 it was forecasted to reach up to the US $374.3 billion.
• The incorporation of AR technology into online learning will create an engaging and immersive learning experience for students

upGrad today announced it has partnered with Eyeway vision, an Israeli company that develops innovative wearable augmented reality platform. This will provide the benefit of immersive augmented reality to Upgrad learners and with this Upgrad became the first Indian Edtech Company that will provide an enhanced AR-driven learning experience.

Looking at the statistics, according to market research by facts and factors in 2019 global e-learning market was estimated to value about $144 billion and by 2026 it was forecasted to reach up to US $374.3 billion. According to AR/VR analyst firm Digi-Capital, the Augmented reality and Virtual reality market are forecasted to reach more than $ 67 billion globally by 2024. Moreover, Upgrad’s learner’s base is more than one million from more than 50 countries, from which the revenue recorded is 165 Million USD for the fiscal year 2021.

Dr. Nikhil Balram, CEO of subsidiary company EyeWay Vision Inc. in Silicon Valley, charged with bringing products to market says that Partnering with Upgrad is the perfect opportunity to apply EyeWay’s advanced AR technology to enhance the whole learning experience by making it unprecedentedly immersive and distraction-free, gamifying online learning for high course completion rates.

EyeWay’s exceptional AR uses eye-tracking, direct retinal projection, and foveated projection to produce a tenfold improvement in visual enhancement. This can disrupt multi-billion-dollar markets like educational technology where an impeccable visual experience is a key to user value,”

To be sure, this initiative is still in the early stages, Kompalli said. "The challenge is to see how we can establish a very strong value proposition and user interface. Once we do that, we will figure out how to scale it," he said. The company may look at an actual deployment sometime next year.

Also Read: Augmented Reality Startup Playshifu raises $17 million from Inventus Capital India

"Incorporating AR technology into online learning is a compelling application that creates an engaging and immersive learning experience for students in digital education," said Anthony Rowe, Siewiorek and Walker Family professor of electrical and computer engineering, at Carnegie Mellon University.

"I think for the immediate phase of this partnership, it is more important for us to establish a strong value proposition and then figure out if it involves hardware, how do you package that as part of the entire program, pricing the value proposition, and deliver it as scale," Kompalli said.

Eyeway, which holds Samsung, Verizon, and ICONIQ Capital on the list of its investors, is also working on a prototype to develop an augmented reality-based head-mounted display, which is assured to be launched by Q4 2021. This will be further developed by Upgrad and its content partner to provide a better learning experience to learners. This move will make Upgrad the first Indian Edtech and very few in the world to bring Mixed Reality learning experience to online learners.

Follow IndianStartupNews on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter for the latest updates from the startup ecosystem.