Over Coffee® | Stories and Resources from the Intersection of Art and Science | Exploring How to Mak
“Refreshing Your Brain”
(Photo courtesy of Robin Moulder, and used with permission.)
“I posit that you should just do it all,” says 3lb XR and 3lb Games Founder and CEO Robin Moulder.
She’s speaking from experience.
In addition to being a software engineer, entrepreneur and XR innovator, Robin is, quite literally, a rock star.
As a founder of the 1990s alternative-rock band Jack Off Jill, she played bass, toured with her band and recorded albums–while working full-time in software and management.
And she found both careers fun and creatively fulfilling, as they involved her passions: music and technology.
“(It’s) switching my brain to another mode,” Robin says of her music. Exploring the different areas, she explains, “lit up” all the areas of her brain.
New creative applications
Today, Robin combines those two areas of expertise through her work in XR.
Earlier this year, her 3lb XR accelerator debuted a series of gamified virtual-reality training applications. These are hands-on simulations for safe and thorough training of staff in industrial, hospitality and medical fields.
“What really matters to me is that we, as a company, are very much aligned with your mission,” Robin says of the clients she serves.
That alignment can be groundbreaking.
Working with Tucson Medical Center, 3lb XR recently introduced a first-of-its-kind pilot program for medical staff. The simulations–which you can find on 3lb XR’s YouTube channel–include suicide prevention training, medical inventory and thorough cleaning procedures. So far, 1000 members of the staff have been training on various procedures through these simulations.
The benefits of these simulations? Learners can safely make mistakes and learn from them; physical supplies and facilities aren’t depleted; and trainees tend to become more vigilant through the interactive experiences.
{Plus, they tend to be fun!)
Robin says that’s just the beginning, as she and her team work to accelerate the metaverse by making hands-on VR training widely available.
While the “fun” element is very much present in these VR simulations, it’s equally so in 3lb Games’ creations.
The aspects of acceleration
Robin started Michigan-based 3lb Games in 2008. Their current release, an action adventure game, Vault of Stars, was released in early access for the Meta Quest 2 earlier this year. For their next release, Space Dragon: Unchained, your arms become VR dragons that are used to blow up planets! Space Dragon: Unchained will be released on November 3rd and can be waitlisted on the Oculus App Lab Store now.
We talked about Robin’s creative journey in music and technology, the story of 3lb Games and 3lb XR, and the ways Robin and her team are accelerating the metaverse–for everyone.
On this edition of Over Coffee® we cover:
- Robin’s creative journey with both music and technology;
- One of the creative lessons she uses today, from her dual careers;
- A favorite memory of some of the pranks she and her fellow musicians played on each other while on tour;
- The story of 3lb Games;
- How 3lb XR evolved from what Robin and her team were seeing in the XR world;
- What accelerating the metaverse can mean for someone in the arts;
- What’s next, for 3lb XR;
- One of Robin’s favorite reactions she’s seen, among participants using 3lb XR’s learning simulations;
- A closer look at 3lb Games’ upcoming releases.