Augmented reality (AR) brings a lot of creative opportunity for businesses looking to work smarter.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
The recent success of Pokemon Go has again opened up the question about how useful AR can be beyond the gaming industry.<\/p>\n
Some of the hardware dedicated to AR is:<\/p>\n
Here are a few ways in which businesses could use AR and its associated technologies in the near future.<\/p>\n
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AR and virtual reality are showing a lot of promise within the training and education markets.<\/p>\n
These technologies allow a trainee to play through an AR situation as many times as needed to grasp a concept or a procedure.<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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A great option for creating mockups of new products, or working on virtual mechanical prototypes (like you see in the Iron Man movies).<\/p>\n
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.<\/p>\n
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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.<\/p>\n
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Beyond being a great tool for remote workers, AR will change the way we work in the future.
\nThere are so many potential applications yet to be discovered.<\/p>\n
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