A revolution builds as virtual reality gets down to business
AUSTIN — Welcome to altered realities.
Most people don’t realize they are using augmented reality when they use their phone for directions or check to see if a restaurant on the corner gets good reviews. We are using computers much more often to understand our physical reality.
Technology also tends to creep up on society, inching its way into our lives so slowly that we barely notice. Then suddenly we can’t imagine a world without computer or smartphones.
Just such a revolution is underway as augmented and virtual realities are finally coming of age.
Augmented reality helps us with our surroundings, while virtual reality immerses us in a computer-generated world for a few minutes or hours. Based on what I experienced at the South by Southwest Conference in Austin, more of us will soon be visiting virtual spaces to learn new skills, experience faraway places, receive medical interventions or simply to be entertained.
One Japanese company offers VR flower arranging to create pieces that defy botanical and physical laws. Another allows visitors to fly like a bird or swim with dolphins. If you want something more realistic, fly an airliner around the world — in the actual time it would take, complete with scenery and air traffic control.
VR headsets today are mostly used for games, which can get expensive. Software that allows you and your friends to enter a virtual “Star Trek” world to command a starship costs $49, not including the $600 for a top-of-the-line headset and control handles.
VR experiences, though, are expected to generate $30 billion in revenue in 2020. Film-like narrative storytelling and business applications, such as employee training and shopping, will eventually outpace games.
“VR is a tool for the mind,” said Martin Taylor, chief con-
tent officer for Start VR and director of the upcoming VR series “Awake,” starring Jake McDorman and Analeigh Tipton. “This technology is improving every week, every month.”
The scenes in “Awake” were filmed with real actors using volumetric video, which allows the visitor to walk around the characters and explore the virtual set. Taylor said for the actors, the experience is more like a play on a stage surrounded by cameras. For the audience, they are on the stage, peering over the actor’s shoulders or standing next to them.
The system still relies on computer animation, but Taylor says it will improve with increased computing power and more advanced equipment. The simulations are real enough, though, for practical applications.
“We’ve dabbled in a few business verticals,” Taylor said. “There are a lot of practical applications in real estate and health care.”
Wire Stone, a division of consulting firm Accenture, developed a VR experience that allows Boeing to walk customers through new aircraft designs and to choose different configurations. Accenture is also developing VR showrooms for everything from kitchen renovations to luxury purses and clothing.
Companies are also working on gloves and shirts that provide a sense of touch, something called haptics. Some headsets will soon come with sensors that can detect the user’s brain waves and heartbeat.
“Anything that translates to television will translate into full immersion, haptic experience,” said Chad Darbyshire, executive creative director for emerging technology at Accenture.
In the workplace, supervisors will use game software to track employees’ locations using something gamers call “God view.” If the workers are wearing augmented reality equipment, such as goggles and headphones, a supervisor can use a VR headset to join them and see what they see from thousands of miles away.
“When you’ve got Ph.D.s who don’t necessarily need to be on the ground, they can say, ‘Don’t touch that, get away from this,’ ” Darbyshire explained.
The VR experience presented by Meow Wolf, an experiential arts company in Santa Fe, N.M., involved one visitor who watched over another who was in a VR fantasy world. Kara Kittel, the producer, said the business applications are limitless, though Meow Wolf is focused on art making.
“There are a lot of companies that are going to use these displays to enhance the working experience,” Kittel said.
Companies will need to think hard, though, about how the technology is employed and understand its limitations.
“Any type of communication has a danger,” Kittel added. “VR is a more direct form of communication, so I think it will improve things, but without direct contact with something physical that you are doing, there is always going to be the chance of a difference.”
We have seen computers go from huge mainframes to desktops to handheld devices. Headsets that augment, enhance or replace our reality are the next logical step.
Many will resist these new devices and experiences, but make no mistake, they are coming. And in 10 years, most of us will find it difficult to look back at a time when there was only one reality.