Extended Reality Solutions
Extended reality solutions blend physical and digital worlds, resulting in cost reduction, process enrichment and user loyalty. Industries like retail, healthcare, high-risk industry training and manufacturing are already using XR to drive productivity and growth.
But for XR to deliver on its promise, it requires reliable connectivity. Fortunately, 5G could solve this problem, enabling seamless immersive experiences with minimal lag and latency.
Education
In education, XR is a powerful tool to create immersive learning experiences for students. Using virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR), students can learn complex concepts in a safe and fun environment. It also helps in improving student engagement and motivation.
Medical students can use XR to practice surgical skills in a simulated environment. Veterinarian students can explore animal skeletons or perform surgery in an artificial environment to learn the procedure. Construction and industrial workers can train for a hazardous job by practicing in a simulated setting before going to the actual site. This can notably reduce accidents and fatalities.
As XR continues to evolve, we may see new features that expand on its educational capabilities. For example, haptic feedback will make the experience more interactive and help students to build muscle memories that improve information recall. Another important element of an XR-enabled education is robust network connectivity. A slow internet connection can wreak havoc on the experience for those who are immersed in a virtual world. 5G technology has the potential to deliver high-speed, low-lag connections for an optimal XR education.
Training
Virtual reality helps train students, employees and patients in an immersive environment for learning and practice. This technology also facilitates remote meetings and collaboration, bringing geographically dispersed teams together. XR also increases productivity by eliminating distance barriers.
It enables doctors to practice surgeries on virtual models of the human body, and it can extended reality solutions help interviewees prepare for interviews in a safe, controlled environment. It can also be used for military training, firefighter drills, space travel, and construction site scenarios to prevent real-time accidents.
XR solutions can reduce training costs and lead to better business outcomes, including increased customer loyalty. In addition, XR can make work more engaging and exciting for employees.
Despite the benefits of XR, there are some concerns about the technology. It is vulnerable to hacks and breaches of privacy, as it collects huge amounts of personal data and can be accessed by unauthorized parties. It can also cause digital fatigue, which can result in cyber addiction and physical harm. Moreover, it requires stable connectivity, which is a challenge for many users.
Entertainment
XR technologies such as VR, AR and MR enable a wide range of applications in healthcare, education, architecture and engineering, military and defense, real estate, tourism and hospitality and entertainment. This is largely because they are highly immersive and provide an interactive and augmented experience to the user.
Moreover, XR solutions also feature built-in gamification to boost engagement. This enables users to participate in virtual field trips, interactive simulations, and augmented reality learning.
In addition, XR provides extended reality solutions on-demand access to real-time data. As a result, it has become an important tool for improving productivity and accelerating business decisions.
However, the long-term use of XR can cause eye strain and discomfort. It can also disrupt social interaction, and even lead to isolation and loneliness. Moreover, there are fears of privacy breaches as the technology has access to massive amounts of private information. This has made XR prone to cyber attacks and data hacks.
Healthcare
Extended reality (XR) enables healthcare to offer acute and long-term care in remote settings. This is possible due to its ability to create virtual environments that mimic real-world clinical settings.
XR allows medical practitioners to practice complex surgical procedures without having to risk their lives on actual patients. It is also helpful in training new medical students. It helps them learn anatomy and disease process in a more interactive way. It can also be used to relieve a patient’s pain as it can keep them occupied during treatment, and distract them from what is happening around them.
XR solutions are helping professionals in several industries to accelerate innovation, optimize their productivity and improve the customer experience. However, it is important to remember that XR collects massive amounts of private information and needs to be safeguarded at all times. Moreover, it may cause physical harm if people wear it for too long. It could lead to eye problems, nausea, dizziness, and headache. Also, it can reduce social engagement as users are isolated in an artificial environment.
Manufacturing
Streamlining manufacturing processes is crucial in the industry as it helps reduce cost and time. Moreover, it also helps boost productivity and ensures the product quality. Extended reality is a powerful tool that can be used to resolve many common issues, including the lack of access to the information or talent due to geographical distance.
In the manufacturing sector, VR-powered training is a great solution to help employees learn new skills and processes. Moreover, the technology enables subject matter experts to easily create step-by-step digital instructions overlaid on real-world equipment. This significantly accelerates and simplifies the training process and minimizes expenses. For example, Infopulse created a multi-user VR platform to train staff at Komatsu, one of the largest manufacturers of heavy equipment.
Besides, Watermark Products, an agency designing and manufacturing onboard products for airlines, leveraged AR to address time and production challenges in prototypes and testing. The company can now visualize mock-ups and validate product sizing to fast-track the delivery of their designs into the market. XR is one of the most valuable tools for manufacturers, as it allows them to make collaboration a seamless experience and boosts efficiency.
