FridayFive- BEST of the week gone by in AR/VR/MR/3D/AI & Games-36
Hi There
AR was the star for the last few months. Hogging the limelight as businesses scrambled to go digital.
As usual, we begin to hear murmurings on the bleak future of VR / MR.
It's futile to predict the future of any technology & its best left for hindsight analysis. Let's not make it look like a race between AR & others.
It's too early to sing paeans to one & write off the others. AR has shown its value but that doesn't imply VR has less value.
One does not decide the future of the other.
It's crucial that we don't associate both because each technology will thrive in the right context.
People will keep pushing boundaries to discover newer & practical applications for each technology.
In this edition, we see why VR is here to stay regardless of the occasional bouts of skepticism.
In this week's edition
Big Ideas: Flight Simulators, Kart Simulators, Sports & VR
Use Case: VR for Banking
Droplabs: Wearable Shoes
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Big Ideas & Virtual Reality ( VR)
At any given point of time, someone somewhere is working on the next big thing
Most big ideas only come into our mindspace a long time after it becomes common knowledge.
Where do we look for inspiration & how do we get connected to this stream that might become a river.
Every technology has its early adopter, some of them go on to become the flag-bearers. VR too has a small band of big thinkers.
They are creators, investors, authors, researchers, futurists & filmmakers who work in the shadows as they continue to push the boundaries of VR technologies.
They believe VR has the potential to solve big problems.
Lets a keep a lookout for some of these outliers who plan to shape our future.
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What makes VR such a unique medium.
Learning to fly a plane is a task that needs long hours of training & repetition.
Flight simulators were one of the earliest systems that used VR to train civil & air force pilots.
Mistakes do happen while training too, but in a VR flight simulator, there is no threat of irreversible physical or material damage.
Imagine, what a colossal loss of life it would be on a real, half a billion-dollar plane. Just that you know, commercial flying is safer than driving a car.
Yet, no amount of data can stop us from feeling anxious as our plane takes off & many of us do wonder if the pilot is good enough.
Over the years manufactures have invested billions to develop safer planes & better pilots.
VR simulators play a small but important role to ensure flying is safe for all of us.
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Car racing is a popular international sport with events happening all year round.
As we all know things can go wrong within seconds on the race tracks any given day.
Its both an expensive & dangerous sport with serious risk of permanent physical & material damage.
You guessed it right, race car drivers also use VR simulators to minimize errors & increase their chances of winning.
But things have taken an interesting turn here.
In the last few years, with the advent of esports, racing is no longer dependent on multi-million dollar mean machines from a Mclaren or Ferrari.
Simulators have disrupted & democratized racing. You don't have to be super-duper rich to race one of these mean machines.
There's a third beneficiary here, VR simulators are also used to train new drivers.
From its origin, as hardware rigged to a giant, screen only system, to the present integration of VR with full-motion kart simulator is nothing short of evolutionary.
Thus, what began as a high tech sport for a few rich guys has found middle ground & gone mainstream.
The models or make of the car simulators differ's for each use case.
Yet, in all three situations, VR simulators help the car driver hone her skills, practice by repetition, improve performance & minimize errors.
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Some might argue flying a plane or race car is a hi-tech job & needs a hi-tech solution- like VR.
Not really.
Sports is another domain where VR is used to improve player performance.
For some years now, US college football teams are using VR systems to improve a player's performance. That doesn't mean video has lost favor or a coach isn't needed.
VR is another tool in the hands of the team & coach to train their athletes to be the best.
Tokyo Olympics was to be a grand showcase for some of the best uses of AR/VR/3D technology in sports.
Immersive tech has just got started in sports & the best is yet to come.
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Case Study- VR for Banking
As far-fetched as the title looks- the designers who wrote this case study think otherwise.
‘Case Study-World's First Mixed Reality VR / AR Banking UX/UI Design Concept’ Paints their vision for the future of interactive banking
Technology has broken through many barriers in this decade & I am convinced ‘VR for Banking’ when it happens will be nothing short of a revolution.
Moreover, these visionaries believe
" To succeed in the digital world every company should expand its digital transformation plans and include a VR/AR strategy".
Both AR/VR is a subset of '3D Strategy' that was the focus of last week's episode.
At the same time, do bear in mind, this vision is truly viable if AR/VR devices find the same critical mass as smartphones.
Thus, for the moment suspend your disbelief & indulge these designers & their concept for mixed reality banking.
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Droplabs: Wearable Shoes
When wearables hit the market a couple of years ago- quite a few of my friends flaunted their band-aid watches for the obvious reasons
Then & even now I feel, these features can be found in smartphone apps. Then why lug another piece of hardware & add to the stress.
Most wearables revolve around fitness watches, cameras & sound systems. There are a ton of brands out there but they all play in the same space.
I can't speak for what products may come in the future, my observations are rather based on what I see online or on people i know.
We all know what happened to Google Glass or why we only get to watch videos from Magic leap. Also, I am not sure putting a tracker on a kid or an ECG monitor on me is really an unmet need.
So what's different with 'Droplabs Wearable Shoes'.
It might not seem like the most intuitive thing to do but packing software & hardware into a cool pair of shoes is not an easy proposition.
Droplabs without a doubt have designed & developed a disruptive product. I really hope listening to music will be re-defined with this innovation.
Markets have a mind of their own & time will tell if these shoes have the staying power to become a success.
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With that, we come to the end of Episode 36.
In case you are working on your '3D Strategy' Episode-35 has some usable ideas.
Have a great weekend.
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