Ojibway Virtual Experience

  The Covid Pandemic made visiting locations all around the region impossible for nearly everyone. Fulcrum Visions took this opportunity to capture historic venues like the Lake Superior Zoo, Depot, Great Lakes Aquarium and many more spaces and create 3D virtual reality tours for visitors to utilize remotely. The solution that Fulcrum Visions is providing allows anyone to enjoy venues in a safe manner, especially for the elders who have difficulty traveling.

  Fulcrum Visions would like to capture museum and outdoor gathering spots like Spirit Mountain that are historic for the Ojibway community. This will create a digital record of these locations that can be taught to children and other communities that wish to learn about the Ojibway culture in this region.  

  This project can change the global perspective of the Ojibway community and the history of our people to better understand each other and our goals as a nation.

  The pandemic has illuminated a need for remote experiences for all of our community events and resources in the Northern Minnesota region. Many traditional locations and events have been difficult for elders to attend, particularly those with medical concerns. Families have been disconnected from ceremonies and positive interaction with community assets. The pandemic has deprived nearly everyone to the historical resources available at Ojibway museums and exhibits that have been shuttered due to Covid restrictions. There needs to be an historical record of these spaces that can be visited through the Internet.

  The problem that Fulcrum Visions is trying to solve is accessibility to community resources.

  The historical capture of specific tribal museums and spiritual locations in 3D will provide anyone to experience the spaces on their phone, tablet or computer in 3D. Viewers can also utilize virtual reality hardware to fully immerse themselves in the remote experience. These tools make visiting these locations much easier for interested viewers to explore remote locations that are relevant to Ojibway culture. This also allows worldwide viewers to experience the history and beauty of this area.

  Fulcrum Visions has the capability to 3D scan indoor and outdoor spaces utilizing the Matterport 2 camera, iphone 12 Pro Max, iPad Pro and cloud applications to create each individual space. Each location needs to be scanned in a way that allows for the entire space to be explored in 3D and with virtual reality tools. The scanner must be mindful of how the camera and applications interpret the information to create the best representation of a location.

  The Matterport application for 3D spaces allows for hyperlink tagging to additional resource websites or multimedia files to be integrated into each virtual space. The iPad Pro is the workshop that collects all of the data for a location to build the 3D space. The masterful design of a location requires focus on the details of what is being shown and providing a clean model to explore.

  Users can also utilize video conferencing tools to have a "guided tour" with the venue tour guides for a more complete experience for many people at once such as assisted living facilities, group homes that may view the tour together.

  I, John Saaristo, the founder and CEO of Fulcrum Visions, am a descendant of the Fond du Lac reservation and my mother is an enrolled member of the tribe and lives in Sawyer, MN at the elder housing building. My goal in life has always been to help the Ojibway communities in any way that I can with my abilities. My employment with the band includes, casino work, IT department work with the healthcare facilities and as an IT consultant to reservation committees.

  The locations I wish to capture are historic in nature and have significance to a number of people in the native and non-native communities. The Lake Superior Zoo would like to develop Ojibway curriculum for language and culture by utilizing the virtual tours created by Fulcrum Visions. The St. Louis County Depot is already captured for tours of the Ojibway Museum. Programs can be developed that are culture specific and honor the traditions of the Ojibway communities that connect to video conferencing tools that can record sessions and redistribute them on demand to visitors. Utilization of recording will help to preserve Ojibway language by archiving the sessions.

  Each one of the spaces that are captured becomes a snapshot in time of the location as it is represented in the exhibit or seasonal changes to the outdoor venues. Visitors can choose multiple virtual experiences over time that will change as needed and reflect changes in a clear, 4K high definition image. These spaces are an archive that can be referenced for a number of applications for physical construction and to provide schematic information about a historic location.

  I feel that my solution of capturing the spaces will allow for a rich, high quality "window in time" for a location that will be viewable for years to come in digital format. Preserving the changes over time will give us the opportunity to provide future generations with a clear picture of our history both from the past and the what is to come.

  The virtual tours that Fulcrum Visions creates are a cultural capture of time and spaces that are relevant to the Ojibway communities. Language programs are being developed with the organizations Fulcrum Visions has already created and updated.

  The virtual tours also address healthcare and mental health needs for people in the region that can't physically visit these locations. Sequestering due to the pandemic has caused conditions with mental health to degrade for many people. A renewed connection to community resources with virtual tours engages people to interact and hopefully improving health outcomes.

   Fulcrum Visions is in the pilot stage due to funding from venues.  I was able to capture locations like the St. Louis County Depot, Lake Superior Zoo, William A Irvin ship museum, the Norshor Theatre, the DECC and Amsoil Arena and the Great Lake Aquarium and many others. They did not have funds during Covid to pay, yet I took a leap of faith in providing the service to them. This opportunity was a way to see these spaces like never before in the virtual world.

  I feel that providing my services for this grant will help to illustrate the value of the digital captures that I create. Ongoing relationships with these organizations is leading to long term managed services engagements for Fulcrum Visions. The concept of my work is proven to all of these organizations and the next phase is to help customers monetize virtual customers.

  The digital front door tools that I create with 3D scanning can provide many helpful tools to an organization for virtual tours and remote visitors both inside and outside of a location. The Matterport application allows for viewing on any device as a web page experience or virtual reality hardware can be used for a fully immersive experience of a location. There are also add on tools that provide additional detail from the space.

  Many elderly or handicapped people have difficulty visiting spaces Fulcrum Visions has captured. The 3D environment allows for anyone to enjoy the exhibit or location in their own way with controls of their own. The experience provides an opportunity to enhance the quality of a visit that perhaps could not be done at these locations in person, for physical reasons or Covid restrictions and beyond.

  The environment for many locations will be forever changed by the pandemic and I feel that many people will look for virtual experiences like this to stay safe and enjoy different places remotely. There are additional enhancements that are able to provide more value in the virtual spaces over time. Google is also integrating a number of virtual reality features into its tools to create better content and information for its users.

  Virtual reality is not ubiquitous in our culture yet, but it is growing in popularity as the price of hardware moves down. There will be tremendous growth in this market for the next 5 years and beyond.

  The Matterport 2 camera is connected to a Manfrotto tripod with a quick release connector that allows for 360 degree rotation. The 360 rotation is controlled by an iPad that connects wireless to the camera in a privately connected network when capturing images.

  The images are collected from the space and the camera is moved adjacent from the last scan in order to align correctly and match the last image. Larger venues and outdoor require more captured photos and planning for usage and lighting of the space that you are capturing. This something that Fulcrum Visions has mastered and can provide that skill to its customers that have large venues and outside locations.

  Once all of the necessary images are captured to the iPad, they can they be processed in the Matterport cloud application. It is required to mark up the space before uploading for windows and doors that create problems for the scanning software as well as trim excess areas that are not part of the scan. When markup is completed the space can be uploaded to the Matterport cloud application and processed.

  After the space processes I am able to edit the space and add details for navigation, links to eCommerce  tools, multimedia files and additional information about the location. The Matterport capture information can be uploaded to Google Streetview which then provides the captures to people using Google maps which provides additional impressions for a business. Post production videos are also created for customer sites.

  Matterport is used for a number of vertical markets for Real Estate, commercial business, construction and manufacturing applications. There are new ways that the 3D scanning tools can streamline the inspection process with new construction as well as save money long term for the maintenance of a building.

  Large venue and outdoor locations require skill and vision on the part of the person doing the capture which Fulcrum Visions has mastered through over 100 engagements at customer locations.

Water Treatment Plant Using Matterport

Architectural Capture in Chicago

School safety and management

  There are concerns with people walking in front of the camera during capture and privacy concerns. This can be unavoidable sometimes due to the location that you are capturing. Matterport does have a built in blur tool that will automatically detect faces and blur them out so that a person is not identifiable in the virtual tour images.

  There are also some security concerns that need to be established when starting the project about whether it will be a public or private tour. The customer may want to put the tour behind a pay wall application and you need to find the best way to connect users with the 3D content.

  The last concern is image usage and capture from the tour that a visitor may use for their own purposes. This is difficult to control and Matterport can mitigate that with high quality images are offered along with the virtual tour on a customer site. Watermark images can be inserted where needed to ensure image content is not being redistributed. Fulcrum Visions works with customers to establish whatever level of security that is needed for their content.

  The three dimensional, virtual reality environments that are created for each venue or location provide a number of opportunities for positive outcomes in the community. The capture of historical spaces is important to many of our elders, and particularly veterans, that would like to see exhibits more frequently with guided tours from the organization. We can also benefit those with physical conditions that would preclude them from visiting certain locations due to concerns for mobility and safety.

  Children like my son on the Autism Spectrum can enjoy the locations in a way that will address tactile issues and it potentially can provide the student more freedom to explore that they don't usually experience in the real environment. There is a distinct difference in my son when he is interacting with a virtual environment and I feel it will be beneficial to incorporate these kinds of tours into regular visits for programming from the Depot, zoo or Aquarium for students K-8 and beyond.

  Another outcome that I think is a huge benefit from this type of capture is that it is a snapshot in time that allows for a historic record to be formed around digital content with high resolution. This can be used for historic reassembly of an environment in the future to help us learn from how we have developed a space or location. We can build a robust record of our world that can now be accessed easily through cloud based tools, and seemingly infinite storage capabilities.

  Providing a rich tapestry of our historic past is needed to establish new mediums for archiving our footprint on this world. The images of the past are not what they are now with 4K panoramic imaging that provides a detailed recording of what a place looks like. it is my goal to provide a high quality history record to be referenced for generations to come.

  Fulcrum Visions currently hosts or manages over 100 virtual spaces for customer needs for airbnb, commercial property, real estate, commercial businesses, museums, theaters and large community attractions. These customers have grown over the past two years of business for Fulcrum Visions and the goal is to acquire 25 new customers per year for different venue types and locations.

  The evolution of a customer space is what I look forward to developing with them. There are seasonal captures that will be very effective especially in the Northern Minnesota region. Fulcrum Visions can provide marketing and advertising videos from the virtual tours that can be used for television or social media advertising for the seasons. Consequently, art galleries and museums can capture each exhibit as a historical record of their work as a living archive.

  The end users of the spaces are defined by the number of visits that I see in both the Matterport statistics that are gathered from visitors. I also receive information on Google about the views of the Streetview images on their mapping engine. This provides a window into the usage and effectiveness of the virtual space for the customer. Currently Fulcrum Visions 4000+ images have been viewed 900,000 times on Google Streetview and maps, as of 5/19/2021.

  Fulcrum Visions has identified leaders for K-12 schools in the region, delayed/disabled children and assisted living facilities for the elderly are the focus for the most impact with this program. Outreach to schools to promote the programs available and enhance current offerings of education programs for children will be a priority. We will also look to contact local assisted living facilities and establish programming for them that will be enjoyable to residents such as zoo visits or depot train sessions and historical museums and venues.

  The locations that I have captured already are focused in the Duluth area and it can easily be expanded to locations surrounding the area given time. The ultimate goal would to be able to enhance additional locations around the Arrowhead region of Minnesota with this technology and highlight more places in a virtual environment that can be explored from anywhere in the world.

  Fulcrum Visions can scale the growth of this application very quickly and efficiently due to the nature of the tools that are used. The process is trainable and I will find necessary staff once work capacity levels grow beyond just myself. There are many tasks that need to be completed for each customer including video production and connecting to ecommerce solutions that are needed for the customer to sell products from their tour.

Good Health and Well Being

  The virtual tours that Fulcrum Visions creates for attractions allows for anyone to visit the location from the Internet. There are many groups of people that can't physically travel or navigate some of the venues due to physical issues. The virtual tours helps to promote mental health for those that are isolated from participating in community locations and events.

Quality Education

  The K-12 programs are adaptable for a number of venues like the Lake Superior Zoo and the Saint Louis County Depot that can provide quality guided tours over video conference. This can utilize the virtual model to move virtual visitors through the facility with a tour narrator to explain the exhibits. This helps to promote more engagement from students and provides a more rich experience from a remote location.

Reduced Inequalities

  Those that live a great distance from each of the attractions may have difficult traveling to visit them in person. Fulcrum Visions virtual tours allow people to access the desired venues from any Internet connected device so they can enjoy spaces remotely. Physical limitations for visitors is also mitigated with the virtual reality headset capabilities for visitors.

  There has been a challenge to find ways to monetize the virtual tour for the customer, even with the obvious "wow factor" that is provides for a location. I need to find a way to continue to bring value to the tour for Fulcrum Visions customers for their business needs for their facilities or organization. Integrating effective connections to software applications and ecommerce will illustrate value more clearly and help the customer to monetize virtual visitors.

  The Duluth market has not seen saturation with the Matterport tools because mostly it is used as a real estate application in this area. Fulcrum Visions is doing something much different with the technology that opens up the door to many businesses and organizations in this area and expanding out within a 150 mile radius to complete scans. Word of mouth and referrals have been the best way to procure new business.

  Financial concerns are focused on hardware functionality, storage for 3D spaces with Matterport and having iPad and iPhone resources to store captures completed. Redundant camera and iPad are desired to allow for any failures to be mitigated and to start a second team of scanners for projects.

  Advertising the virtual tours for a facility is also something that I have left to the customer with varying success. There should be a more prominent display of the virtual tour links for the web site location and use of QR codes for the direct link from smart phones.

  The Matterport tools allow for information to be added to each of the virtual spaces. The more that I work with customers I can identify highlighted areas that they would like to feature for their business. Fulcrum Visions can develop a project scope that includes regular updates and refreshed information for the customer site.

  Advertising for Fulcrum Visions has been through social media tools and promotion on the customer website for the tour. This needs to be increased and the quality of the posts can be improved with video hardware that Fulcrum Visions will be able to procure with the grant allocation. Marketing will include more youtube and video production to showcase the virtual spaces for customers. Customer signs can be developed with professional printing services and displayed prominently in the business windows and outdoor signs.  

  My background as a FDL descendant will be helpful to understanding the
different community needs for the spiritual location project.  I am a facilitator that works with many reservation entities to find our common ground and make progress for the next 7 generations. Capturing our history is critical at this time when so many elders are passing on with their knowledge of our culture.

John Saaristo - Full time

Todd Brown - Potential Marketing Manager

Internship program to be developed with local Tribal community college.

  I, John Saaristo, have been working in information technology careers for over 20 years, primarily focused on video collaboration. The Matterport tools were interesting to me and complimented the skills that I already had. I decided to learn Matterport working with a colleague who had the first airbnb locations that I scanned. Over the past two years I have become masterful at the Matterport application and camera and I can do things that I have not seen done by others.

  The understanding that I have about Multimedia and video conferencing gives me a more wide range perspective of a space that I capture. The experience that I have as an IT consultant for a number of technologies enables me to fully integrate my solutions into a business's needs and goals. The virtual tour can expand into a digital front door solution for Telemedicine services or whatever the need is for the customer. Discussing uses cases and outcomes helps to define the most effective way to accomplish that.

  My cultural and technical competency position Fulcrum Visions as the best company to develop virtual tours for exciting and historic locations. The collaboration between reservations could allow the Ojibway bands to see how we are all still very similar in our spiritual beliefs and understanding. We can all enjoy the sacred locations that this area provides.

  The majority of the workload is handled by myself, John Saaristo, for all of the customer defined goals for the project. Larger projects require assistance to complete the scans in a timely fashion and that is when I utilize outside vendor contractors to provide necessary work for a project.

  As the business needs grow I would like to add an internship program to Fulcrum Visions that works with multimedia students at the tribal colleges. Video production services and additional scanning teams will be needed in the future as the company acquires new customers. Utilizing native students helps to expose them to the career that they would like to pursue while gaining on the job skills. Potentially Fulcrum Visions would look to organically develop staff through the internship program and hire them as full time employees.

  There are no barriers for the work that is being done other than skills with multimedia tools and following direction. Fulcrum Visions will always create an environment that promotes opportunity and growth for everyone, equally. Diverse staff bring new ideas and perspective that is needed to this type of work so that ideas do not stagnate.

  The Solve grant seems to fit my company and ideals very well for the communities you wish to serve. The products and services I provide allow for a new and innovative way to experience a location virtually that is not ubiquitous in our world. The virtual environments created have a low impact on the environment or the space that is captured.

  The solution is very scalable and manageable for Fulcrum Visions to plan and procure new locations on a regular basis. We also work with customers to build a plan for their virtual experience so that they can keep it fresh for visitors.

  This solution also addresses disparities for elderly and disabled visitors and makes things more accessible to them. The goal of Fulcrum Visions is to make the world more accessible to all through virtual tours.

  The business that I am creating is primarily a service business and I want to be sure that I am monetizing all of the service correctly as compared to the market rates for time. The virtual tours are not the only part of what Fulcrum Visions can provide to customers. The video collaboration and multimedia design tools can be enhanced for customer experience and integration into kiosk systems.

  Financial support is needed with the company being entirely self funded is difficult to maintain as you build business. Financial assistance will help to lift the company into a more safe place for providing services to customers.

  Public Relations is something that needs to be expanded so that details can be released to press organizations in a timely fashion. Development of advertising strategies from social media campaigns needs to be refined.

  Fulcrum Visions utilizes its reputation from work completed and word of mouth to expand business and being connected to the Solve program would provide a great deal of exposure to what the company can do.  

  Fulcrum Visions has worked to develop a long term relationship with its customers that are non-profit to be connected to their network. inclusion to their meetings and events as well as connection to other members has helped to build business. There are a number of other historical and spiritual organizations that can be partners to deliver content. This would include tribal groups, veterans organizations and non profit educational agencies. Formal agreements for partnership have not been procured and established at this point.

  Robert Wood Johnson Foundation is an organization that I have respected for many years with the work they do with public television. Fulcrum Visions is the definition of the indigenous Communities Fellowship with the plan to capture Ojibway museums and spiritual locations. If RWJ was to bolster the grant amount to Fulcrum Visions we can expand the focus of the locations to the larger space of the state of Minnesota and Wisconsin.

  The goal of Fulcrum Visions is to create an historic record of locations important to the Ojibway communities in the region. Fulcrum Visions already has established connections with tribal committees for tribal reform for the Minnesota Chippewa tribe and serves as a committee delegate for the Fond du Lac Band. These relationships will be leveraged to collaborate with each reservation to develop a plan for their best locations to capture virtually.

  The improved health outcomes will be primarily mental health improvement and communication and interaction with the community members. Those that have been sequestered for Covid may still have concern for physical travel and visiting in large groups. Utilizing virtual tours and vidoe conferencing it is possible for remote visitors to enjoy events in a safe way.

  The tools that are created with the 3D capture of a space also allow for virtual reality (VR) tools to be used to experience a space in VR. This is an innovative way to interact with students that will promote engagement and interaction within the virtual world. VR has not been integrated into the schools in a lot of locations and there are ways to provide headsets or google cardboard tools to the classrooms that will allow students to have their VR set up for exploration.

  The students can have a most robust experience with a virtual tour that helps to promote retention and allows students to visit the locations and find new things to explore. Our students with Autism and tactile issues also can thrive in this type of environment where they can explore independently.

  Core curriculum can be developed for all age levels and adapted to high school students and beyond. Virtual reality allows students to visit so many more places than ever before and see it in a new and innovative way.