Augmented reality (AR) brings a lot of creative opportunity for businesses looking to work smarter.
AR merges the real world with virtual experiences. It allows overlays and 3D objects to be viewed over real life video, either live with hardware like Oculus Rift, or in post-production of recorded video.
The recent success of Pokemon Go has again opened up the question about how useful AR can be beyond the gaming industry.
Some of the hardware dedicated to AR is:
- Google Glass
- Microsoft HoloLens
- Oculus Rift
Here are a few ways in which businesses could use AR and its associated technologies in the near future.
Training
AR and virtual reality are showing a lot of promise within the training and education markets.
These technologies allow a trainee to play through an AR situation as many times as needed to grasp a concept or a procedure.
Training can also be more in depth. For example, it’s easier to perform virtual open heart surgery than practise on real patients, and can be repeated over and over again.
Visualising Products
A great option for creating mockups of new products, or working on virtual mechanical prototypes (like you see in the Iron Man movies).
Visualisation of these 3D pruducts using AR will also offer a better idea of what the finished product would look like. Much better than a static image.
Improved customer service
There are already examples of AR and virtual reality being offered to customers in retail. Early examples of this include a room design tool from Ikea, where customers are able to place items virtually in their home and visualise how they will look.
New Ways of working
Beyond being a great tool for remote workers, AR will change the way we work in the future.
There are so many potential applications yet to be discovered.
If you are looking to integrate new technologies like AR into your business, we can help you out.