Transforming Enterprises: The Evolutionary Impact of Augmented Reality

29.06.2023 /

The terms « Metaverse, » « Virtual Reality (VR), » and « Augmented Reality (AR) » have become the buzzwords on everyone’s lips, especially after the recent Apple Worldwide Developers Conference. During the event, Tim Cook unveiled the Vision Pro, a Mixed Reality headset, combining elements of both VR and AR. This introduction marked one of the biggest and also riskiest products in years for the brand, unleashing a new era of spatial computing, as proclaimed by Tim Cook himself.

This VR and AR thematic has been however a well-known thematic for several years, with competitors having launched their own product such as Microsoft and their HoloLens headset, as well as Meta with Oculus Quest (VR focused though).

The first leg of early adopters will be the corporations, where AR/VR can help teams to be more efficient, in order to reinforce business and support employees. Specifically, AR proves more suitable to the workplace environment compared to VR, as it offers augmented elements within the user’s physical surroundings while maintaining awareness of the real-world environment. We have good reasons to suggest that AR, VR, or a combination of both will revolutionize the current landscape within enterprises.

Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality, the future of our companies?

First of all, one of the key applications for corporations of AR/VR technology for corporations lies in the ability to offshore talent, enabling workers to collaborate remotely from any location. This remote collaboration capability empowers organizations to leverage a global pool of expertise.

The AR/VR possibility is way more immersive than a simple Zoom call where people can use AR to collaborate quickly and communicate more effectively with each other. For example, using an avatar, hearing people speaking from various locations with the impression people are in the same open office, sharing collaborative content etc. This is completely different from our current set-up with remote work, where AR could allow employees to work in a shared virtual office, allowing people to sit next to colleagues, use a brainstorming room etc. Sound, by using spatial audio, makes the conversation way more natural, as the voice is placed in the location of the person who is currently talking.

Another potential application is the improvement of training and education within the workplace, with immersive instructions. For example, in an AR environment, the system can display information and step-by-step instructions on how to complete a repair, or specific training for a surgery. AR will literally combine practice with theory by providing an immersive experience, potentially improving memory retention.

Overcoming Key Challenges

However, there are still some major difficulties to overtake. One of the biggest is the needed investment to be made by the corporations as well as investments in the core network used to support augmented reality, not to mention some issues related to AR and VR headset for example, where it has to have the necessary speed in order to not experience VR/AR sickness, and to have good reliability. In fact, we all already experienced latency issues or a freeze during a zoom call, so using for example a hologram in a conference call could be much more difficult to run. Infrastructure spending must be done accordingly.

The material could be implemented as well. First for a comfortable point of view: it happens that actual headset, when wearing them for more than one hour, are a bit too heavy or uncomfortable to wear. Then from the battery issue where, with a device of that type of performance (and placed in your pocket), you would need to charge it every two hours.

If we solve this kind of problems, there is no doubt that with the ability to provide employees and workers with a fully immersive experience, both AR and VR will incrementally be a more and more increasing part of the toolkit for every business looking for improving efficiency and productivity.

And the Octogone Group, determined to leverage technological advancements to consistently deliver an increasingly optimal system to its clients in the future, will be on board!

Julie Attanucci, Analyst, Investment Group

Photo source: Apple, Microsoft