As of today, you can download the StoryUP VR application from the Apple Store or Google Play Store (in addition to the Oculus GearVR store), a major step for the growth of the virtual reality start-up that began its journey at the Missouri Innovation Center. Sarah Hill, StoryUP’s founder and CEO, describes the company as a positive media platform that utilizes virtual reality technology to immerse users in stories and experiences that have a positive influence on the user and society. StoryUP, is currently focused on utilizing the platform to relieve baseline symptoms of anxiety in hospitals, Veterans homes, and chemotherapy clinics.
StoryUP’s most recent VR film, See Beyond Labels, commissioned by Facebook, premiered at the Oculus House during this year’s Sundance Film Festival. Are You Listening, supported by Empowered by Light and the Leonardo DiCaprio Foundation, premiered a month earlier at the Dubai Film Festival. The company has also succeeded in securing clients including Google, Facebook, and Humana for their immersive media experiences. The StoryUP crew recently returned from Haiti, where they captured the impact of the Haitian Earthquakes on children who lost their music school and instruments. This spatial audio VR film, in association with London’s Aurelia Soundworks, will be released later this year on all VR platforms.
In November of 2016, one of StoryUP’s many philanthropic projects, Honor Everywhere, made national news. This virtual reality experience, supported by Jaunt and Central Missouri Honor Flight, aims to give veterans who are unable to travel an opportunity to experience memorials built in their honor. Since the CBS news story, the response has been overwhelming. In response, StoryUP is teaming up with National Honor Flight to ensure that the hundreds of requests pouring in from the family and friends of WWII, Korea, and Vietnam Veterans do not go unheard.
Whether it be through positive media stories, full-length VR films, virtual memorials, or immersive therapy, StoryUP is making an impact on the emerging virtual reality market – one that Missouri Innovation Center is proud to be a part of.
Download the StoryUp VR application from iTunes and Google Play.
Post written by MBA candidate Sean Miller while on assignment to MIC.