Press

Interview with Gerald Cai, business partner & co-founder of MXRi

Bio: Gerald Cai

1. What have you been busy with lately?

Been introducing our SnapLearn AR publishing at the various book fairs around the world! Taipei Book Fair in Feb, Bologna Children Book Fair in March, London Book Fair in April, Kuala Lumpur Book Fair in May and now excited to do the same at StoryDrive Asia in Beijing!

2. What is Snaplearn? Is it aimed at a certain age group?

MXR started life as a spin-off company from the Mixed Reality Lab of the National University of Singapore. Our founder, Dr Steven Zhou, researched, developed and patented the fundamental technology that enabled publishers to turn their print-based books into an AR reading experience. Our product SnapLearn and SnapEditor is an AR authoring and distribution platform purposed built from this foundation. We have worked with more than 100 publishers, creating more than 2000 AR-enabled books since 2010 and work across all genres of publications from picture books, textbooks, trade books to magazines.

3. How important is AR/VR for future education?

Research tells us that students learn best through multi-modal engagement. Using AR/VR, learners get to interact and visualise content in an interactive and immersive manner that improves understanding and knowledge retention. Essentially, any concepts that are Too Big ( Solar System), Too Small ( Human Cell), Too Complex ( Aircraft Engine), Too Far ( Ancient China) etc can be well presented using the AR/VR format.

4. Can you tell us a little bit about the influence of geographical and cultural factors on educational technology? How different is it that we learn and acquire knowledge for example in China, Singapore and Germany and what does that mean for you as a business?

I observed that developed markets that had invested heavily into web-based technologies will find it slower to move into the mobile space because of established infrastructure and strong incumbents dominating the previous medium. In emerging and rapidly developing markets like China, India, Indonesia etc, the appetite and readiness of mobile-based learning technologies is higher due in part to this. From a cultural perspective, Asian education systems are strongly rooted in the examination-centric model with the teacher lecturing in the front of class as the main format of knowledge transfer. This is changing too as globally, the emphasis is moving away from rote-memorisation to understand-application, especially in STEM subjects. These macro factors will fast-track the adoption of mobile-based, immersive AR learning and we are excited to help our publisher partners ride this wave together!

5. What’s the app you used the most in the last few days and generally speaking? Any other interesting app you would like to recommend that we might not be aware of?

Due to my travels around the world, Maps, Ride sharing and Weather forecast apps help keep me organised! To experience some nifty AR apps, I highly recommend "My Very Hungry Caterpillar AR" (Children), Froggipedia (Education) and 321Launch (General).

6. What do you think of the future of books, the future of book markets?

Print books have been an incredibly successful form factor for hundreds of years and I personally see that will continue for some time to come, especially in the children and education segments. However, readers and learners are demanding and benefitting from immersive digital experience. With AR publishing, we combined the best of both worlds, enhancing the storytelling of the printed word with lively AR interactions!

Gerald Cai will be speaking at the StoryDrive conference in Beijing (28 May - 1 June 2018).