Technologies and the consequent trends are undergoing massive shifts day by day. The latest trend in the tech world is that of the reality technologies like AR and VR. Significant research and funding has went into these two fields. Pokemon Go comes to our mind with respect to AR which had users strolling all the parks all day long. The IKEA app reminds us of the potential of real world use cases of AR. VR is also growing in its own phase and a film based on VR has already got an Oscar. It has the potential to change how certain industries function and make a deep impact on the economy at large. In fact, the process has already started. Let’s have a look at various industries which AR and VR could have a deep impact on.
Millennials see social event experiences as a means of social capital and sharing their attendance and participation is important for nurturing their social identities. The success of events like Museum of Ice Cream has convinced many brands like Zappos, Red Bull to allocate their advertising budget to sponsorships and experiences. VR experiences have seen growing use during food and beverage events. Boursin Sensorium is a CGI based VR experience that has paired motion, tasting and scent samples of Boursin cheese. Patron tequila has used VR 360 degree videos to show behind-the-scenes preparation process at its event booths. Space Needle is a bar that is sky-high where users can enjoy the bar experience while being in the air virtually. Gunn beer and Innis made use of VR footage to complement its beer taste.
The focus of AR however has been in the use of augmenting the physical world with interesting and shareable content. Hololens is very heavily priced and hence most brands are stuck with mobile AR like the Coca Cola’s Christmas magic campaign where users could see virtual Santa and concealed scenes in select bus stops across New York city. There’s also another AR experience like the Patron’s tasting with a mini bartender.
Schools, universities are some of the institutions where AR&VR can be used to a great deal. There are programs like Titans of Space which will give a hard hitting experience of the cosmos to the students at large. Google Expeditions is an effort by the company to familiarize oneself with the famous trips all over the globe through VR. Juego Studios has developed some educational apps like IEEE Zappy Squirrel, Duck on the run, ReadyK! and Eco education etc.
Many K-12 schools give free tablets to their students. AR applications in these devices can be used to create immersive and interactive models for a host of subjects. With the use of engaging 3D models, students can learn complex information better with a wide understanding of topics. Top museums and historic sites have added AR capabilities to their art exhibits and places. Lengthy gazes into artistic pieces by art enthusiasts may be replaced by renewed experiences through AR. This is a fascinating way people can gain additive informative knowledge. Firefighters can be trained in virtual environments about the dangers in their profession without actually exposing them to it. Students can be educated about the dos and don’ts of the environments like the chemistry lab in the same way.
Healthcare industry has phenomenal benefits from the VR healthcare industry in terms of improving patient care and also in improving the recovery process. They can be of help in the following areas.
Paranoia – ‘Face your fears’ is the idea behind this as patients are subjected to virtual simulations they actually are afraid of in controlled environment. They can adjust the effect of the stimulus based on the will power of the subjects and hence this treatment is really good for people with phobias.
PTSD(Post traumatic stress disorder) – There is a prolonged exposure therapy called Bravemind which is used by military bases, VA hospitals and universities which uses VR to treat US troops who are under PTSD. The job of snipers may seem very savvy but in reality they have to focus for hours together on a single target and experience the stress that comes with it. Hence, this can serve as an effective treatment for them. Under this treatment stressful conditions are simulated. It is similar to paranoia except the stimulus here is aimed to increase stress levels whereas in paranoia the aim is to increase the fear levels.
Neuro surgery – Surgical theater uses AR and VR technology to aid surgeons to ready for operations by blending 2D scans layered to create a 3D model. Seeing the patient’s scan just before operations in AR&VR will help the doctor get a precise sense of the patient’s condition just before the operation.
Visuals, grandeur are very important in real estate sector. Usually a renter won’t even consider a property listing if there are no decent pictures. Redfin is a brokerage firm which helps people to buy and sell homes. They did a survey on this and found that properties listed between $200k to $1 million got sold in the range of $3,500 to $11,200 based on high quality photos that went with the listing on their portal. This meant that homes with higher quality actually could be sold at a higher price. Not only that the homes which had images actually got sold faster that those property listings which had no images.
Firms like Matterport and Youvisit are using VR to let prospective buyers immerse themselves and stand inside the properties. The customer did not have even to visit the property physically. We also have advanced a step in this direction as we have rendered a VR simulation on a villa. This trend could essentially make site visits irrelevant.
AR can be used to print big boards and catalogs that are a lot more attractive. One can have enhanced coverage with apps on app stores. If there are items for sale they can be geo-tagged and let customers explore it for themselves. AR can also be used for apartments to clients with changes in furniture and so on. Even the contact us and CTA buttons can be animated.
AR can help tourists browse through nearby tourist attractions and translate sign boards to their native language. Browsing and visiting local attractions, theme parks, restaurants and zoos will help them have the most amazing trip ever. The tourists not only enjoy travel destinations but also experience the educational content that comes with it. If there are historic sites then AR&VR can help in the portrayal of history to customers all over.
AR&VR can be used for thorough employee training. The contemporary process of creating training materials varies significantly in store, team and region. VR can be used to simulate the everyday environment of the workplace of the employee and learn the various tasks themselves. AR gives way for side-by-side training and execution by layering information on an employee’s view.
One quarter of the US companies have confessed to a recruitment process without proper training. This resulted in a 60% loss of the employees over 4-year period owing to not meeting the effective quality standards. As a solution companies are using AR&VR solutions to improve the training and hiring process. On boarding and subsequent training are getting picked on as a trend by top firms all over. Various firms are replacing lengthy boring corporate videos with immersive AR&VR renderings.
Uncertainty is the main thing which restrains users from buying things online. If AR is used to give shopping experiences then it can get done in a highly realistic manner in the selected environment. Marketing product catalogs with latest information and data can be easy. The increasing technological capability of AR glasses and its dwindling prices will ensure that they will display design, pricing and product specifications to the buyers while shopping online. VR is also a potential game changer in shopping. Alibaba has come out with a payment service that works in line with VR shopping. One-click checkouts are potential trends in the VR shopping experience.
It is due to lack of statistics that the use of AR and VR have not been accurately measured. They are increasingly being adopted by institutions all over the world. The fact that they can help tremendously in areas especially in healthcare is enough to say that they will be at the center stage in the tech world in just a short while. VR is projected to overtake the TV industry in a decade and AR is already much bigger than VR. So the reshaping of various industrial sectors through AR and VR is imminent and we at Juego Studios are following these trends very closely.