Isn’t it fascinating how intensely wrapped up we can get when engrossed in a good movie? Given how far technology has come, our normal setting for consuming entertainment such as watching a show on our couch in front of the television has changed very little over the decades in retrospect. However, everything is changing through the rapid advances that have been made in technology recently. As technology has progressed, ways of altering our reality have come to light where merging digital life in real time is set to change how everything is done.
Extended reality (ER) is a combination of virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR) and mixed reality (MR). Technology that is built on extended reality allows us to control the digital world while allowing it to merge into our reality. The power to create our own worlds will become an experience that is sure to amaze us by using the tremendous possibilities unlocked with extended reality. By diving deep into the world of extended reality we can understand the future prospects and exciting experiences that are to come from merging the virtual world with the real world.
VR has created many highly immersive experiences that have demonstrated integration to such a degree that it makes it challenging to distinguish between reality and VR in a mixed-reality setting. When you transform your surroundings with VR, you can control and craft many aspects of your entire surroundings to change them to reflect what you want them to be. It has become easy to relax and take in the most ideal experiences even when the real environment is not too conducive to it. VR has made many leisure and entertainment options, from watching a movie to virtually traveling around a country available to us as immersive experiences that are nearly indistinguishable from reality from a visual standpoint. With specific products being launched to bring VR technology to the masses such as the Apple Vision Pro, you will be able to completely transform your entire setting for a multitude of applications such as creating a personalized cinema in order to watch a movie.
The application of VR does not only excel in the entertainment industry but it can also be used for educational purposes. Walmart has successfully used VR to train its employees in the customer service department. This allows for new opportunities in education and training. Many individuals and organisations will be quite interested in getting out of the usual training habits that everyone traditionally goes through and switching to experiencing a new teaching style through VR, this might even create a greater urge to gain more knowledge within people.
AR is the process of connecting virtual elements to enhance the real world. While VR completely changed our entire surroundings, AR, on the other hand, shows us the massive potential unlocked by merging 3D images and digital information into real-world settings. One of the best examples of AR in action would be the popular mobile game Pokemon Go. The power and potential of AR are easily demonstrated through this game, Pokemon Go integrates digitally generated Pokemon into the real world by using AR—giving the game a real-world experience. Pokemon Go allows multiple users with the application to connect their gameplay and shares the same augmented environment with all players, allowing them to play Pokemon Go in a unified setting in real-time. The gaming industry is one area where AR technology thrives, showcasing most of its technological capabilities at present.
By using AR the possibility of creating engaging scenarios for teaching complex subjects by bringing theoretical applications to life. The power of AR will no doubt help students to understand critical situations clearly with demonstrations and examples that are brought to life and shown easily. This can potentially change how the education system works as more personalised information can be communicated through AR. By demonstrating certain theories through AR it can be reinforced in the mind to help students understand what is being discussed in a more efficient manner. The capabilities of AR don’t just stop here, IKEA being one of the largest furniture stores in the world has developed an AR-powered app that allows you to design your house and place their furniture within it, enabling you to know which product will work for you even before you visit the store or place the order. People now have the ability to plan the interior decorations of their house before even buying the product.
Combining AR and VR is thought to be the best of both-worlds approach known as mixed reality (MR). With haptics (technologies simulating touch or force application) the potential use cases and strengths of the technology behind MR are near endless. In practical simulations, students who are studying to become surgeons or pilots can finally practice in life-like and immersive scenarios. This gives people the opportunity to familiarize themselves with certain procedures and open them up to the possibilities of what can happen in the actual operation. Given that MR allows you to control digitized objects it makes the method for learning complex procedures easier as simulations of practical situations can be generated to familiarise students with real-life scenarios.
The launch of the Apple Vision Pro is one of the products that has the potential to make the use of mixed reality commonplace in daily life. Utilising the Internet of Things (IoT) this product also allows you to connect your Vision Pro goggles to your laptop to add a new and exciting dimension to work. By connecting these products together, multiple new possibilities for transforming your work environment arise.
ER is a combination of VR, AR and MR. Given the countless possibilities that have currently been uncovered with this technology, the full potential behind ER is yet to be discovered. These technologies progress at a tremendous pace and their true potential for delivering immersive experiences can be mind-boggling. What’s for sure is that more applications and advanced use cases are sure to be discovered in the near future. Not only is it exciting to see what is in store for us but also to see what lengths innovators will go to when advancing this type of technology.
Endless options for changing and creating our own version of reality is a fascinating experience that many people already enjoy. Hence, the future of ER will surely merge itself more closely into our lives. As interesting as ER is right now, it is only the tip of the iceberg that has still been discovered as the full potential for ER is yet to be harnessed. Our imaginations run wild in thinking of all the current possibilities enabled by ER, however, the real excitement is in seeing where ER technology will lead us in the future as we prepare to be mind-blown by the advancements we are yet to see.
(Jonathan Ferreira)