Labbaik VR (virtual-reality Hajj simulator)

Labbaik VR is an app developed by a Karachi start-up to simulate the Hajj and Umrah in virtual reality, meant to teach and train people preparing for the pilgrimage through a virtual depiction of the holy sites of Mecca and Medina. ¹

Its project director, Adnan Maqbool, told Arab News that the team took the actual measurements of the sites down to the centimetre and shot some 80,000 photographs in 8K, so that details such as the textures of the pillars show, letting the user feel as if walking between Safa and Marwa, circling the Kaaba in the Masjid al-Haram and standing at the Jamarat. ¹ The company calls it "the world's first virtual reality Hajj and Umrah simulator"; that is its own description. ¹

The company said in July 2019 that it had trained some 30,000 pilgrims with it since the previous year, working with Hajj tour operators, in one-hour sessions with headset and controllers. Its chief executive, Shehriar Ashraf, said the aim was a safer, smoother Hajj for pilgrims and administrators through prior training. ¹ The paper reported that the core team, including the chief technical director Faisal Khawaja, had been to Riyadh to meet officials of the Ministries of Hajj and of Islamic Affairs. ¹

• Arab News Pakistan, 30 July 2019. ¹