9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al.

XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times

R&D

Apple, Facebook, Google are going

big on immersive tech. Here’s AR,
VR, XR et al. decoded for you.

Getty Images

Synopsis

From augmented reality to extended reality, several technologies are emerging from labs for commercial
roll-out. This opens up a range of choices and use cases for consumers and enterprises. Moreover, its
impact will touch sectors from e-commerce and tourism to manufacturing and medicine. Here’s a primer
to bring readers up to speed on this fast-evolving tech segment.

Call it a fantasy wrapped in enigma — mankind’s quest to stay put on the comfy
couch and yet be present somewhere else is endless. And as far as fantasies go,
humans won’t stop at that — for, they want to look at the world from all angles
imaginable.

Thanks to leaps in technology and companies seeing compelling business models

in immersive experiences, reality is closing in on fantasy. So, what are these
“immersive experiences” exactly? There’s augmented reality (AR), virtual reality
(VR), and mixed reality (MR) — the last one is a combination of the first two.

Work on these technologies has been going on for decades and there are products
to show for that, but none has become as ubiquitous as, say, the smartphone.
Google Glass, Microsoft HoloLens, Facebook Oculus Rift, and several other AR/VR
products have been around in recent years Others such as Google Daydream
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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times
products have been around in recent years. Others, such as Google Daydream,
Cardboard, and Glass, had come and gone — and are now being resurrected. Many
others were either too bulky, expensive, or limited in application.

But it’s changing fast, as an array of immersive technologies emerge from the labs
for mass commercial roll-out. On the one hand, this development opens up a range
of choices and use cases for consumers and enterprises. On the other, its impact
will go beyond obvious sectors such as gaming and filmmaking, and touch a range
of others from e-commerce and tourism to manufacturing and medicine. Market-
research firm IDC predicts that worldwide AR/VR spending will reach USD160
billion by 2023.

Before going into the nitty-gritty of the technologies, here’s a preview of what the
heavy hitters in the business are up to in this sphere.

Big Tech’s obsession with immersive technologies

Social media giant Facebook is gearing up to launch Ray-Ban Smart Glasses with
AR. Apple has ramped up its AR/VR play over the past few years and the iPhone
maker could launch a product early in 2022. In April, Microsoft bagged its largest
contract — USD22 billion over 10 years — from the US Army for 120,000 AR
headsets. These will help soldiers use a modified HoloLens to improve their
situational awareness, target engagement, and decision making.

Facebook is accelerating its efforts in AR partly due to its dependence on

smartphone platforms from other vendors. With Android and iOS empowering
users to block ads, Facebook’s main money machine, mobile advertising, could take
huge hit. But if Facebook can create the next big platform — which it hopes to do
by teleporting people into new immersive experiences — it will set the rules. So, if
your friend posts videos of holidays in Egypt, you can also get there via a smart
headset.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg also predicts massive societal change stemming
from AR. “Imagine if you could live anywhere you chose and access any job
anywhere else,” he wrote in a Facebook post.Imagine a mining engineer sitting in
Manhattan directing a coal mine in Dhanbad! Or take a stroll on Mars or dive into
the depths of Mariana Trench, all from the comfort of your work-from-home (WFH)
desk. That sort of explains why Facebook bought Oculus for USD2 billion back in
2014. The latest Oculus headset includes cameras, costs USD300, and has sold
around 1 million units in December 2020.

Closer home, there are 60-70 startups developing AR and VR solutions for use in
sectors ranging from healthcare and education. On August 2, IIT Madras launched
the Consortium for VR/AR/MR Engineering Mission in India (CAVE) to bring
together industry and academia. CAVE’s key objectives include developing
affordable, indigenous immersive-media software and hardware and promoting
the local ecosystem.

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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times

According to industry body National Association of Software and Service

Companies (Nasscom), the immersive-media market, estimated to be at USD0.55
billion in 2018, is expected to balloon to USD6.5 billion by 2022.

With these markers charting out the terrain, let’s delve into the whys and
wherefores of immersive technologies.

It’s all about virtualising reality

Immersive technologies create an experience of reality or extend the reality of our

physical-world settings by immersing the user in a digital environment. VR, AR,
and MR are immersive technologies that enable experiences from the imagined to
the real. They can enable virtual tours of physical locations, say, to evaluate a
property or assess safety in a mine. They can also provide better shopping
experiences on e-commerce sites or physical stores, with users being able to try
dresses on “virtual mirrors”.

Virtual reality

Virtual reality creates a simulated environment via a head-mounted display

(HMD) — like the one Steven Spielberg created in the 2018 movie Ready Player
One. In the film, set in the year 2045, humans find salvation in a VR simulation of
the universe to escape the chaos of the real world.

“We don’t have to walk five feet to leave our world. We just have to put something
over our eyes,” Spielberg had said about the movie.

Once a VR set in switched on, the LCD or OLED panels inside fill the user’s field of
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, p
vision with whatever is being displayed — say, a 360-degree video, a game, or the
surface of the moon. Visually, the user is transported to wherever the application
wants it to go. In other words, the outside world is replaced with a virtual one.

Brief history: American cinematographer Morton Heilig invented the first VR

device called the Sensorama in the 1960s. However, the term VR was coined
much later by American computer scientist and visual artist Jaron Lanier in
1987.

VR issues: Early VR headsets were tethered to computers and were too bulky to
use, but some of the latest ones weigh 200 grams. The high level of brightness
makes VR headsets uncomfortable for long use. Low refresh rates, latency, and
poor battery life are other niggles.

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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times

VR products: The 2019 Oculus Quest was the first standalone VR product. HTC,
Samsung Gear, Xiaomi, PlayStation have come up with various models. There
are even cardboard devices that can be fitted into mobile phones — a category
inspired by the Google Cardboard, which is no longer available. The cardboard
sets, which enable users to experience VR via smartphone apps, cost around
INR500. Top-end models such as the Oculus Quest all-in-one 64GB VR gaming
system can cost around INR50,000. The availability of faster networks like 5G
that can solve latency problems while also helping in better design can make
these products more popular.

VR applications: VR was initially linked mostly to gaming, but it has a lot of

potential to recreate real-world experiences for education and training.Johnson

& Johnson has developed a VR software to improve training for orthopaedic

surgeons and nurses. Retailer Walmart uses VR for training purposes.
Facebook’s Oculus Rift VR headset offers immersive visual experiences that
replace the real world with a simulated world.

VR can help in education, healthcare, manufacturing, and other sectors. The

founder of Delhi-based startup KlipVR, Rishi Ahuja, says, “VR can fill gaps in
the current learning and development routine. Simulations of the solar system,
car engines, and the moon can help students learn better with VR.” KlipVR has
created a lot of VR content, including a virtual expedition to the moon.

Augmented reality

In the immersive tech world, VR is big, but its cousin augmented reality is bigger.
Facebook CEO, Mark Zuckerberg said in a January 2020 post: “While I expect
phones to still be our primary devices through most of this decade, at some point
in the 2020s, we will get breakthrough AR glasses that will redefine our
relationship with technology.”

Later this year, Facebook is set to launch Ray-Ban Smart Glasses in partnership
with Ray-Ban maker Essilor Luxottica, as reported in July. This is part of its plan to
make full-fledged AR glasses, which are a key part of Facebook’s new plans to build
the “metaverse” — a multi-modal technology platform that is supposed to blend
virtual and physical spaces, and can be used for shopping, work, and socialising.

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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times

In AR, digital images are layered on top of the real-world experience. This means
that AR users aren’t completely shut off from the real world, as happens in VR.
Instead, AR extends their “reality”. It has moved beyond Hollywood and gaming to
enable users set out on exotic journeys or do mundane inspection and repair tasks.

ARprojects computer-generated augmentations on top of reality, helping users

perform tasks better and efficiently. That’s what Google Glass achieved—
providing information like weather reports or enabling search, though it was
discontinued due to privacy concerns. The immersive tech is helping brands
empower their customers with better shopping experiences. Similarly, it has been
used to helped IKEA users fit furniture in their homes using the brand’s AR-
enabled app.

History: American computer scientist Ivan Sutherland developed a mechanical

tracking system called ‘Sword of Damocles’ in 1968, which is considered to be
the first AR head-mounted display (HMD). The HMD had to be attached to a
mechanical arm suspended from the ceiling of the lab due to its weight. The
formidable appearance of the mechanism inspired its name ‘The Sword of
Damocles’. This system used computer graphics to show users simple
wireframe drawings. Things have moved slowly since those early days and are
only now picking up pace due to better technologies, including computer
graphics and 3D and the availability of faster mobile networks.

AR applications: From Pokémon Go to training future surgeons, AR is moving

into many industries. It is being used in various industries such as aviation and
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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times

jet engines, automobile, smart cities, power, and refineries. In healthcare and
life-sciences industry, digital twins of humans can be used to perform complex
procedures, test impact, and foresee complications.

Among the more common applications of AR are apps like Google Maps, which
place digital directions on top of the real-world setting and show users where
to walk or drive. Google Lens is another application that enhances the search
experience. Google Lens identifies an object and gives all the essential details
about it.

Abroad, stores like Target have AR apps which enable users to choose a product
(like a dining table) and place it virtually in their homes. Essentially, it allows
consumers to “try out” a product before buying it. Facebook has plans to build AR
glasses to create 3D maps of the world.

But there are applications that might need both AR and VR to work together.
That’s here mi ed realit (MR) comes in
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9/15/21, 2:22 PM Apple, Facebook, Google are going big on immersive tech. Here’s AR, VR, XR et al. decoded for you. - The Economic Times
That’s where mixed reality (MR) comes in.

Mixed reality (MR)

MR is a blend of AR and VR and uses an HMD. However, unlike VR, a user is not
shut out from the rest of the world. Instead, the HMD is more like a pair of glasses
that overlays digital images on top of the user’s environment, just like AR. Because
of this, MR is sometimes called AR 2.0.

MR products: Microsoft’s HoloLens is a commercially available mixed-reality

device. It is a holographic computer that a user wears around the head, with
lenses over the eyes that project holograms which the user can manipulate and
interact with as if they existed in their physical surroundings.

Magic Leap, an American startup founded in 2010, which has raised USD2.26
billion from Google, Alibaba, and others, released an MR product called Magic
leap One and is planning an upgrade later this year. MR is still in its early
stages and it will take a while for MR products reach a large section of
consumers. Much also depends on the experiences users have with VR and AR.

MR applications: Sectors such as education, training, sports, healthcare, space

missions, construction, and mining have a lot of potential for MR applications.
Many use cases are in the testing phase.MR takes immersive technology to the
next level, serving as the computer of the future. Microsoft describes MR as a
“holographic computer”. As MR continues to evolve, futurologists are looking at
a time where all of computer work will be done with the help of an MR headset.

XR is where all this is headed

MR will extend reality to the edge, ushering in XR or extended reality, a

combination of AR, VR, and MR. XR devices will provide more layers of
information about the real world or create simulated experiences. It’s likely that
even before humans land on Mars, XR could help users experience the Red Planet
— or even the cold distant one, Pluto — in a very immersive way.

(Graphics by Sadhana Saxena)

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