While spread out and separated by strip malls and a tangled web of highways, the North Texas business community is interconnected in all types of ways despite the distance and urban sprawl.
It was somewhat of a surprise when Toyota announced in 2014 that it was moving its North American headquarters to the Legacy West area of Plano. However, they were not alone for long, with Liberty Mutual, FedEx and Deloitte opening large offices nearby shortly after. And while, it's typically these large moves that make the news (think Uber) there are many smaller, local movers and shakers helping these corporate giants both plant their feet in the region and to also stay on the cutting edge of technology.
“We believe in building close to where our customers are, it’s good for local economies, it’s good for communities," said Toyota North America CEO Jim Lentz at the Plano headquarters’ groundbreaking ceremony. “We’re confident that this campus will reflect the values of our company and those of our new neighbors… we’ll continue to build a foundation for our relationship between Toyota, the city of Plano and all of the North Texas communities.”
Now, more than 3.5 years and $1 billion later, Toyota and its nearly 4,000 employees have settled in to their campus. The latest addition to the company’s 2 million square-foot space includes the Toyota Experience Center (TEC) - a museum-like space that showcases not only the vehicles that have driven the company so far, but also the nuts and bolts of how a “continuous improvement culture” can be seen in the people and other products behind the wheel of the company. Though currently only open to employees, the space also shows-off some of the serious, local talent in the Dallas market.
Enter Groove Jones, a creative-technology studio that focuses on creating “experiences” for brands and consumers through AR, VR and artificial intelligence. Started in 2014, Groove Jones has expanded rapidly with now about 25 employees.
“We’re a really unique company,” said Dan Ferguson, founder and partner at Groove Jones. “We’re a technology studio that does a lot of work in the creative space…anything really kind of heavy-tech related that has a creative angle to it… so it’s content, it’s technology, its creative. We’ve just be constantly changing, breaking the rules and breaking down walls and really kind of helping explore and define what premium VR is.”
After meeting at a conference where Ferguson was speaking, Toyota asked Groove Jones about partnering up on the development of the TEC. Since then, the duo has worked on a number of products together, with the Lexus Augmented Reality Kit (LARK) being the highlight of the TEC’s experience; though the technology shows promise in benefitting both Toyota and vehicle consumers alike.
Lark started as an application to help sales and training staff, which has been expanded for use in the TEC. Over the course of about two to three months, Groove Jones has brought together expanding AR technology and real-world use.
“I think more and more… smart AR is going to be a part of our business in the future,” Ferguson said.
The LARK system consists of two parts, both of which combine cutting-edge technology and the mundane problems of everyday life. Both are a form of AR technology.
Part one allows smartphone cameras to detect the layout of a Toyota dashboard, giving users the ability to look at a dashboard on their phone, while looking through the screen users will see bits of information taken from an owner’s manual layered on top of the real-world imagery. Want to know what that knob does or what that indicator light means? Simply move your camera over the dashboard and interactive details on the feature’s purpose and how to use it show up.
Part two allows users who may not be sitting behind the wheel to access a 3-D model and be able to manipulate it in actual scale from the comfort of their living room.
“Once I visualize [merchandise] and I can see it in my environment, and I can see it to the size I have a much better idea of what it is versus seeing something on a screen. But if I can see it three-dimensionally I can get more excited about it; I have a higher tendency to buy something,” Ferguson said. “We all live through the lens of our camera anyway… this is all how we’re kind of growing up and doing this more and more.”
For Toyota employees, this means an easier way to learn about, understand and communicate the important information about a new car model’s specs to consumers. For those consumers, it means a potentially easier way to be more informed about their prospective buys, allowing people to pull up a full-size dashboard model of the vehicle their looking to buy, and manipulate and learn about the product’s features and functions.
“You always have to have that human connection… but technology enables us to communicate,” Ferguson said. “We’ve got to go out and evangelize the technology, and let people understand how it can be used and then turn those people into customers.”
While AR and VR comprise about half of Groove Jones’ business, the company’s been working on expanding the technology and use of those capabilities through a variety of spaces, including stints at the last two Super Bowls with the largest multiplayer quarterback challenge game created and other applications created for such recognizable names as Wells Fargo, Modelo and General Mills.
According to Ferguson, the company expects good things on the horizon. Though it’s been able to grow and expand for the last five years off of the funding of an early angel investor and through the quality of their product, the company is anticipating a funding round in the near future to help expand. Groove Jones will especially be looking at increasing its number and capabilities of its volumetric scanners (Groove Jones owns created one of the few in North America), which allow objects to be scanned and digitized for use in AR and VR applications.
