The past, present and future of Immersive technologies.
Many people might not be familiar with the phrase ‘Immersive technologies’, but people might have heard terms like Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR) and Mixed Reality (MR). Well, there 3 very popular terms are nothing but the types of Immersive Technologies.
So, in this blog we are going to talk about the present and future of AR, VR and MR.
Before moving ahead it would be a good idea to give a proper definition of these three terms:
1.Virtual Reality (VR):
Virtual Reality (VR) uses VR headsets and other peripherals that enable the user to immerse in a virtual environment which can be totally different from where the user is in the physical world.
2. Augmented Reality (AR):
Augmented Reality (AR) is technology that places/projects computer generated images/graphics on top of real world objects or real world space so that the virtual elements resemble the real world entities to some extent.
3. Mixed Reality (MR):
Mixed Reality (MR) can be called “The best of both worlds” because it combines the real world with virtual reality. There is a very thin but strong line of difference between AR and MR and that is the users can interact with the augmented object with the movement of their body parts such as hands or legs in Mixed Reality.
People have heard of a product by Google known as ‘Google Glasses’. Google glasses (AR headsets by Google) was unveiled in 2013 and failed badly in the market. Well, apart from it’s design, price and privacy concerns, another thing that led to its failure was the fact that the gadget was way ahead of its time. But if you think that 2013 was the first year when this technology appeared, then my friend, you are wrong.
The Past:
Virtual reality’s history hails back from the year 1838 when Charles Wheatstone discovered an illusion of the mind. He demonstrated that if two 2-dimensional images would be put over each eye, the brain processed it as a 3-dimensional image. And by looking at these images through a stereoscope, gave the users a sense of depth. This was the first experience of humans with VR.
The development of VR continued and in the year 1957 Morton Heilig invented the first VR device called Sensorama. The user had to sit on a chair and put his head into a cabinet where he would see a 3D video, experience stereo sound and there was a fan which would blow certain perfumes that would smell according to the situation in the movie and the chair would vibrate in order to simulate disturbances.
Coming to the history of AR, Ivan Sutherland developed the Sword of Damocles (the first AR gadget) in the year 1968. This gadget used computer graphics to show user simple wire-frame drawings in the real world space. But it was a very bulky device and was so heavy that it would be suspended from the ceiling to support its weight.
By this time, we were capable enough to see 3D movies, experience stereo audio and other marvelous stuffs, but we lacked an important property, i.e. the interaction with the objects we see using these devices or the computerized objects.
In 1969, Myron Kreuger who had three projects called Glow flow, Meta space and Physics space which all led to the development of video plays. Video plays could analyze and process the user’s interactions in real world and translate them into interactions with the objects made via these headsets or the virtual objects.
Then in the year of 1989, Jaron Lanier, CEO of VPL Research coined the term Virtual Reality. The company has created many VR products like Data Glove. Hence, VPL or the Visual Programing Lab was the first company to sell these products.
The Present:
1. VIRTUAL REALITY:
We have experienced or can experience VR using a device called ‘VR Headsets’. Well, VR headsets are devices which are kind of bulky, fit on top of our eyes and in many cases, we have to put our mobile phones inside and playa video that is basically a 360 degree video or video having VR capabilities.
But this is only one example, tech giants like Lenovo, Apple and Sony are investing good amount of money in this sector. Some great VR products are Oculus Quest, Lenovo Mirage and the popular PlayStation VR. Apart from just glasses, there are other products like VR Treadmills, motion controllers and VR gloves. Using these gadgets, the users can experience a virtual environment so well that they almost forget where they are in the real world. Well, we have seen VR to be used mostly in gaming sectors and movie sectors, isn’t it? But these are only a few applications of VR. VR is used in many other sectors like tourism and education.
- Tourism:
In tourism, the user can wear the headsets and experience a place the he/she desires to visit for a limited amount of time so that they can get an idea of the place they are going to visit. if this sounds a bit odd to you then just think this: When you plan your holidays, you see some pictures of the place on the internet. But now instead of the picture, your tour guide/planner can give you a VR headset to experience the place in a 3d, 360 degree simulation so that you can get a better idea of the place you are going to visit.
- Education:
By using a VR headset, the whole classroom can be simulated. There is also something called as ‘Class VR’ which uses VR headsets to increase the knowledge retention of a student.
2. AUGMENTED REALITY:
Let’s travel back in time to the year 2016 when Pokémon Go was extremely popular. Well if you have played the game, you have experienced AR. The game used to access our camera to get an essence of the real world objects and simulate a 3-dimensional Pokémon on surfaces like streets and table tops using complex algorithms.
Well if you haven’t played the game, you can still experience VR by just a Google search. Just head to Google using your smartphone and search ‘Labrador’ for an example. You will see a result “meet a life-sized Labrador Retriever up close” just press the “View in 3D button” below that. You camera will open, and you will see a Labrador Retriever augmented just near you.
Also we can’t forget Snapchat which introduced us to filters. Well yes, they were also AR filters as they just simulated a filter on you face virtually.
Like VR, AR is also used in numerous industries, like Automotive and Retail.
- Automotive:
The sign boards and signal lights can be simulated and placed on roads and people using AR headsets can see them and act accordingly. Also during driving tests, the hurdles and signs can be simulated and the drivers can see them and act accordingly.
- Retail:
The retail shops or malls can implement AR facilities. Consider that you are using a AR glass and you enter a grocery store or the grocery section in a mall. When you look at a product, the nutrient values will be simulated along with other information such as price and ingredient lists. In this way you can get the nectary information at a glance thus saving you a lot of time.
Even the world’s leading companies like Google and Facebook are using AR to give you they best experience they can. Let’s see some examples:
- Google Maps Live View:
Google maps uses AR to project the directions on real world object or in the real world space for people’s convivence while navigating.
- Facebook AR Maps:
Facebook bought an AR startup and is creating a 3D map of the world. And also Facebook is launching its own AR glasses soon.
3. MIXED REALITY:
MR is a very powerful technology and is used in education sectors, gaming sectors, infrastructure sectors, etc.
Many of you might have heard of the product called HoloLens from Microsoft. In 2020, we have an upgrade, HoloLens 2. It’s a very powerful MR headset using which you can simulate and interact with things that are not present near you in the real world.
The HoloLens 2 is a very popular gadget and open to purchase, but at a pricing of $3,500, it’s not affordable for all.
Lets see some applications of MR in the field of:
- Education:
When a teacher is teaching, using MR, she can simulate and control the figures that are necessary for the students to understand the topic. Implementing MR will help students understand better than by simply looking at a figure.
- Infrastructure:
In the construction sector, the dealer can show how the building will look at a certain place and also control the parameters of the building using hand gestures. This will reduce the effort and time taken to actually travel to the location.
The Future:
The future of immersive technologies are bright.. As of now, we need to carry a computing device with us for using these headsets. Also the headsets looks kind of odd. I mean you can easily point out someone using a MR or AR or VR headset in the crowd. But now, with the emergence of 5G technology, the latency has been reduced and the speed has been increased to a great extent. So now it is feasible for us to have the processing on cloud. So now, we can have less bulkier devices MR headsets, it will resemble a normal eyeglass to a greater extent. And now, we have glasses by a brand called Nreal that makes smart glasses that look like normal glasses.
So, this blog is all about the immersive technologies. We have gone through VR, AR and MR. But there is one more technology that is not mentioned anywhere in the blog. And that is XR which is the abbreviation for Extended Reality. So what is Extended Reality?
4. EXTENDED REALITY (XR):
We had three different technologies, VR, AR and MR. But if we combine these three technologies? Yes, XR is the combination of these three technologies. And certainly, XR is the future. And also we had different devices for VR, AR and MR and there will be just one device: One device to rule them all.
On May 2020, Qualcomm announced that they will collaborate with 15 global operators to deliver XR Viewers. These operators are planning to provide XR to their consumers along with 5G in 2021. XR viewers are glasses that have a Qualcomm chip and connect with the user’s smartphone which has a Qualcomm Snapdragon 855 or 865 chip (and probably all chips from Qualcomm that support 5G) by a USB type-C cable. Using these chips in the user’s smartphone, the XR Viewers will use the 5G capabilities. Some uses of XR Viewers are:
- Mobile Applications:
The applications that the users use, can also become fully MR based applications. So now you can actually use a similar kind of tech that you saw in sci-fi movies.
- Holographic Telepresence:
Also with such powerful technology and 5G, now in-person meetings can be revolutionized. The members can attend meetings from the comfort of their homes and their holographic projection will be seen at the workplace.
In the next 1–4 years, XR Viewers are expected to become wireless and in next 5–10, we can expect to have 5G to be integrated within the glasses itself.
So with this we come to the end of this blog. Hope you enjoyed reading and gained knowledge. Leave a response and a clap if you liked the blog.
