The future of virtual reality and augmented reality depends on content, and above all, user experience and education.
Education
“We’re not talking about education in the traditional sense,” explained Jeremy Dalton, head of AR/VR at PwC. Instead, in order for the technologies to thrive in the future, it’s important people understand the potential of VR and AR.
Today, there are a lot of misconceptions out there that VR, specifically, only has applications for video gaming or entertainment, rather than a business tool. “This in itself is damaging or limiting the adoption rates in business, because of right off the bat there are negative and unconstructive thoughts about where VR could be used,” said Dalton.
In order to appreciate its true potential, the technology needs to be experienced firsthand, because unlike a lot of other emerging technologies — artificial intelligence or blockchain, which run in the background — VR (and AR) are very visual. It’s all about presenting that information in an effective manner that helps businesses to achieve their objectives. It works side by side with the user.
“It needs to be experienced to be better understood,” continued Dalton.
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User experience
The visual nature of both VR and AR means that user experience is of the utmost importance when it comes to adoption rates moving forward.
At the moment, “some people may find VR and AR disappointing in terms of its perceived resolution,” claimed Dalton. “In other words, somebody could put on a headset, notice the pixels on the screen and assume its a fairly low resolution device compared to a 4k screen… But, a lot of headsets are already 4k, if not more — the issue is that because it’s right next to your face, the pixelation is noticeable.”
To overcome this user experience problem, the resolution needs to increase beyond 4k.
The headsets themselves also need to be improved — currently they could be considered quite technical looking and not very interactive. “Fashionability comes into it,” confirmed Dalton.
VR and AR advocates need not worry, however. These issues of education — raising awareness — and user experience are being tackled.
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Future predictions for VR and AR
Looking towards the horizon, those anticipating the VR/AR revolution should expect headsets to become smaller, lighter, have a greater resolution, a greater field of view and become easier to use as business and consumer users figure out how best to view this new world.
“As opposed to having the input/output systems that we’ve been used to for for decades now in terms of keyboards, mice and 2D static screens that stay there on your table, we’ve now got a world where you don’t have a keyboard or mouse,” continued Dalton. “So, we’ve got to think about other input systems like your voice, buttons on the headset and traffic controllers — tracking the output system, as the screen is technically static, but it should feel dynamic.”
Culture
As with any emerging technology set to shake up how people interact and do business, there are natural cultural hurdles that have to be overcome.
“We’ve had cultural challenges throughout the ages in the technology space,” he said. “And, they’re always weird and awkward at the beginning. But eventually, as long as they do create value, people get used to them and they get adopted.”
Tech Leaders Summit
On 12 September, Information Age will once again host Tech Leaders Summit at the Royal Lancaster Hotel, London. This year, speakers at the UK’s most innovative tech leadership conference — including the CTOs of RBS and Ofcom and Sarah Burnett from Everest Group — will help dissect subjects, such as intelligent automation, emerging tech, agile and cultural transformation. With plenty of opportunties to network throughout the day, this event is not be missed. To find out about the latest innovations and how to lead your organisations and customers through the disrupted era, register here.
