Extended Reality
"Everything you can imagine is real". This statement is true indeed well technology has evolved a lot to take you to another world where you can reach the stars, land in mars, meet your friend in another country without even moving away from your chair. Extended Reality can help you to achieve your imagination and also makes you see beyond your imagination.
What is Extended Reality?
XR is an emerging umbrella term for all the immersive technologies. The ones we already have today- Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR) and Mixed Reality (MR) plus those that are still to be created. XR is rapidly making its way into industries and supplementing human Reality in unimaginable ways.
Augmented Reality (AR):
Most of us are already familiar with the game "Pokémon GO" and some filters in "Snapchat" where users virtually place a character somewhere in their surrounding environment. AR describes the interaction between virtual experience and the real world, which results in an augmented or supplemented environment. Augmented Reality can exist in any situation that contains two necessary features:
A camera to capture the surrounding environment
A processor to understand that environment and actively simulate a virtual object placed into that environment
Virtual Reality (VR):
As the name suggests, Virtual Reality (VR) creates an entirely virtual environment that allows users to immerse themselves in an alternate universe because virtual Reality is completely simulated, users can also supplement the virtual, simulated environment with controllers and other sensory stimulators. More advanced technologies, such as the haptic technology presented by Ultraleap, are working their way into the virtual reality market to provide users with next-level intractability and feedback. Tech giants like Google have created some VR apps like Google Cardboard, Google art & culture.
Mixed Reality (MR):
Think of mixed Reality as a hybrid between augmented and Virtual Reality. Its goal is to superimpose an interactive experience over the real world, allowing for both the simulated Reality and actual Reality. However, this technology may hold the most promising future for revolutionizing how we interact with actual Reality. Mixed Reality has already made its way into employee training, manufacturing, military, and the consumer sector. Imagine putting on your MR goggles to diagnose internal issues within your car, see your current performance, and adjust settings.
Real-world applications of the Extended Reality:
Video Gaming and Entertainment:
Most of us play video games, and without any doubt, all want some entertainment, right? All those entertainment and gaming industries are the foremost users of Extended Reality. Camera tracking and real-time rendering are combined to create an immersive virtual environment, allowing us to get the real feel of the scene.
Health care:
"Health is wealth". Improving technology helps us to find solutions for the health problems that are arising. Extended reality technology helps the surgeons to visualize the complexities of the organs in 3D, which enables them to plan each step of a complicated surgery well in advance.
Marketing
Extended Reality enables marketers to give their consumers a 'try before you buy' experience. It allows consumers to be transported to a place, immerses in that world and motivates them to explore it. As an example, Cathay Pacific used a 3600 video with hotspots to help potential customers experience the brand firsthand. That increased customer awareness by 29% and brand favorability by 25%.
Training
Extended Reality opens new avenues for training and education. People who work in high-risk conditions – like chemists and pilots – can train in safety from a more conventional classroom setting. Medical students, meanwhile, can get hands-on practice on virtual patients.
Real estate
Have you ever thought of being present in your future house and feeling it, before the work is done? Actually, it is possible. Extended Reality makes it easier for real estate agents and managers to close a deal by enabling prospective homebuyers to get a real feel of the property.
The essence of extended Reality:
In the end, concluding the XR, we can say that if properly used, XR may completely alter the experience of business as well as day to day life. XR is a blessing in disguise for the physically challenged people of the world. XR is the blending of unique elements of all VR, AR, and MR, which gives a new vision to the Technocrats of the world. It mixes the virtual world with a real one, promising the zenith for futuristic technology.
XR can be an essential supplement to the various industries for improving business capabilities. At the end of the day, constant up-gradation of the technology is a need of an hour to strengthen the world economy. Let be blessed by such evolutions.
An Article By: Jayashree Keerthana
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