Forerest Pruitt and Nicole Prebula, co-founders of ViatoR, won the 48Hour Launch competition..
A foreign language training program using virtual reality equipment to immerse students in a foreign culture won the top prize tonight among budding entrepreneurs who pitched their business plans after a weekend of working to turn their concepts into viable businesses.A foreign language training program using virtual reality equipment to immerse students in a foreign culture won the top prize tonight among budding entrepreneurs who pitched their business plans after a weekend of working to turn their concepts into viable businesses.
Forrest Pruitt and Nicole Prebula, co-founders of Viator VR, won the top prize of $1,200, plus thousands of dollars worth of business assistance and donated office space, after being picked by judges as the best business idea to emerge from this year's 48Hour Launch. The weekend event, which Co.Lab started in 2009, brings entrepreneurs together with volunteer programmers, marketers, lawyers and others to develop business plans in a single weekend.
Pruitt, a 23-year -old programmer with Bellhops. wants to immerse students trying to learn a foreign language in the culture of where the language is spoken. But unlike foreign exchange or travel programs, he think he can provide such an experience simply by allowing students to put on VR headsets and using the software his business is developing for interactive speech, motions and directions.
"Not everyone has the money or chance to travel abroad, but this technology will still give students a fun and interactive way to be immersed in a marketplace or a social event in a different country, and to be able to experience and interact with others in a foreign language just as if they were there," Pruitt said.
A 5-judge panel picked Viator VR for the business most likely to succeed among the seven ideas that teams pitched at the conclusion of the 48Hour Launch competition.
"The judges also gave a second place honor - and $800 cash and other business assistance - to another local education startup business known as Inclusive Makerspace. Cristol Kapp, a Red Bank school librarian, started the business as a way to help engage students with disabilities by giving them devices that allow them to participate in more activities and to create art, stories and other school work.
Mozilla Foundation, which helped sponsor 48Hour Launch along with Co.Lab., agreed to send two of the 48Hour Launch participants - Matthew Nassar and Ashlanett Sanders - to the MozFest in London in October. Nassar developed a talking, interactive bear known as Chatties, and Ashlanett Sanders pitched a real-time, interactive way for students to talk with workers and experience jobs where they may want to work in the future, which she calls Digital Windows.
Projects pitched Sunday ranged from drone-enabled utility repairs to Wi-Fi connected plush toys that allow kids to send and receive voice messages.
More than 100 entrepreneurs, volunteers and "Mozillians" working on promoting the Internet of Things participated in the weekend event, Co.Lab communications director Tia Capps said.