AI Assistants for Mixed Reality

Some people say the future of gaming is virtual reality. You will be able to do things in VR you could never do in the real world and that is very fascinating. But did you know that virtual reality has been around for nearly 20 years? And yet, it still feels like a random experiment instead of the next mainstream of gaming. So why does virtual reality still “suck”? Right now, the cost of entry for virtual reality is around $400 or $500 once you factor in all the different devices and games, and that’s just for entry-level models. If you’re looking for something more powerful, you’re looking at a minimum of $1,000, if not more. Most of these devices aren’t something you can just plug into a power outlet and instantly play with. VR headsets available today are heavy. But the worst part is not the money. Spending too much time in virtual reality can be disorienting. Wearing the headset for more than half an hour can leave your head spinning when you take it off. That reminds me of a song from 1985 by Dead or Alive saying:

“All I know is that to me, You look like you’re having fun

Open up your lovin’ arms, Watch out here I come

You spin me right round, baby, Right round like a record, baby

Right round round round”😊

So, what does the future of gaming look like? What can VR platforms do to become more successful? It needs to offer something that feels totally exclusive, whether it’s immersive environments or different ways to interact with your friends. Will there ever be a good reason to make people put on that headset? Some people say it’s not going to be VR but MR, mixed reality, or AR, augmented reality.

But no matter if you call it VR, AR or MR, virtual or mixed realities, in the end, there will only be one technology powering it all. It will completely change our way of doing things and viewing our world. It will be completely integrated into our lives. No one thinks much about having a supercomputer in their pocket anymore. It’s become a normal mode of existence. AR, VR and the junction point of mixed reality is the next logical step.

The future of MR is the ability to not only overlay objects onto the real world but to interact with them as well. It is going to be about mixed reality combined with AI assistant technology. All the things you can’t do in reality will be possible in virtual reality, projected into real life and making it look like a part of your real world. It will bring you into the scene and let you see things from perspectives you could never have imagined. It will let you see experiences you would have never ever thought of. But now try to imagine speaking to your AI assistant and it is becoming a part of your scene. The merger of mixed reality with AI assistant technology will create a world of imagination, which will break the boundaries between entertainment, education, and learning. Imagine speaking to your avatar and it responds to you like speaking to a human being. It listens to your commands and it asks questions to receive your next command. When you don’t feel the difference between speaking to real or a virtual person, we will know that AI assistant technology has merged with mixed reality. This reminds me of some lyrics from the Pointer Sisters:

“I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it, I’m about to lose control and I think I like it

I’m so excited, and I just can’t hide it

And I know, I know, I know, I know, I know I want you”😊

Today with a video game or a movie that you’re really excited about, it’s easy to share it with friends. You’re all seeing and experiencing the same thing, but when it comes to virtual reality, you can be sitting with someone in the same room who’s in VR and still feel like your worlds apart. Today, VR experiences we see are designed to be solo entertainment experiences. But with AI assistants the social element will make the difference. With AI assistant support there will be other people in your VR room because it will manage your game and be able to let others participate in your experience. And as we know from Facebook, Instagram and YouTube, shared experiences are more fun. We will see new kinds of games, where a big part of the game is sharing the information you’ve got with the people around you. Imagine building your own Ironman suit with your team. You have to make a lot of decisions like what materials to choose, make the design, discuss it with the team; the team writes the manual. You are in charge and you tell everybody what to do. One person operates the control panel, the rest of the team have to work out many different solutions, and that requires a spread of expertise. Someone is researching on the internet; someone is doing math puzzles to work it out. And when the suit is built, you start your game participation, and you wear a power suit, built together with your friends to win the next game challenges. This kind of playing is called “asynchronous gameplay” where different users have different kinds of information and have to combine them together to solve a problem in front of them. Sharing information and collaborating with different skills is nothing new but playing games with this kind of social experience will change the way we play and think our games.

The AI assistant you speak to, sharing ongoing operations with your team, and all of this happening in front of your eyes in a mixed reality world, this combination will make you feel like you’re really there, and that you are a witness to what’s happening, that you have a responsibility towards the people and events around you. That is what will make it so super exciting.

Reality is slowly becoming almost gamified. Designers and artists will be able to collaborate with others from miles away and project an imagined idea into a real-life space. Different perspectives and another person’s point of view will seamlessly become a visual activity to participate in. There’s no end in sight to what’s possible. Our ability to transform the world and our lives is limited only to our imagination. AI assistants combined with mixed reality, giving us a whole new world with rich and vast natural environments. This will bring a future of unlimited new possibilities.

Christmas is next week, and I can’t hold back mentioning that my favorite Christmas song is by Bryan Adams, saying beautiful words like:

“You know the time will come, peace on earth for everyone

And we can live forever, in a world where we are free, let it shine for you and me

There’s something about Christmas time, something about Christmas time

That makes you wish it was Christmas everyday, to see the joy in the children’s eyes

The way that the old folks smile, says that Christmas will never go away”

Have a good time. See you next week.

“Life is gigaaa!”