Mixed Reality's Bright B2B Future

Quite naturally, perhaps, the focus of the Mixed Reality industry to-date has been on the tech; the beautiful hardware and the increasingly beautiful outputs. The publicised Use Cases have been largely in gaming, architecture, education, and design. The chat has been centred on the tech an what it can do.

Flip the focus, though, to the everyday challenges and requirements of large organisations and you'll see that there are significant, measurable, and often immediate, benefits to be derived from the appropriate adoption of Mixed Reality technologies as part of an organisation's toolkit. The future of Mixed Reality, indeed of many related cutting edge technologies, lies to a large part in being the single most effective technology for tackling the everyday challenges and requirements of real world enterprises.

To put this into context here are four areas that we’re focusing on with an existing client. I've chosen these examples as they are specifically live, real-world, implementations:

Sustainability

Reduction of paper use in training and development. By implementing a classroom management app, a wireless LAN, and interactive models we have implemented a solution that is entirely paperless for all training and development. All classroom training is tablet-based driven by the trainers using the classroom management app. This is driven over a very localised wifi network without the need for internet access. All notes can be taken and stored electronically and all feedback and assessment is also done and circulated electronically. Scenario-based training is done in a shared Mixed Reality environment and those same models are available on the tablets that the employees work with every day. Before they visit a piece of equipment they can refresh their knowledge using the equipment that they already have to hand. The interactivity further enhances memory retention and refreshers are available on demand.

Safety

Critical safety training can be done without risk to the employees and without the cost of recreating dangerous environments or scenarios. ALL potentially hazardous environments can be simulated in Virtual Reality including 4D elements such as temperature, touch, and smell. Refresher training can be undertaken without the need for VR equipment using only the laptop/tablet/phone that the employee already has. Safety induction training can be done remotely before the employee has set foot on a company site. All of this can be objectively measured in the virtual environments using embedded eye tracking technologies and we are in the process of implementing that.

Quality

Online virtual collaboration spaces created to enable peripatetic collaboration on projects, films, builds, design without the need for (sometimes) expensive meetings. These environments can be tailored to ensure consistency of approach and outputs without the need for additional coaching of employees. All of the output of these virtual discussions is stored and distributed as required.

Availability

Company technology asset availability, and the availability of customer-bought assets, can be measurably improved through the adoption of 360-degree video streaming to enhance remote assistance from services operations centres. With one customer we’re taking this a step further to ensure that the technology doesn’t suffer, from 4g blackspots, by implementing a solution that couples 360-degree video streaming cameras with satellite communications. This ensures that remote assets are well-maintained while also reducing the cost of doing so by reducing the use of expensive engineers in the field and increasing the amount of remote assistance.

Engagement

It’s fairly well-accepted that the use of Mixed Reality technologies improves customer engagement. What is less well-known is that this is measurable far more effectively and immediately in a virtual environment than in the real world. Using eye tracking technology (and certain biometrics; some aren't yet perfect) you can immediately assess the impact of design changes on your subject. No need for expensive customer engagement centres and lengthy builds of environments such as “Secret Shopper” experiences. These can all be done quicker and cheaper in VR, they can be changed at the touch of a button, and the assessments can be analysed straightaway reducing cost and time-to-market with far more useful data to boot.

These are basic examples that I've chosen but, as with so much in the world of Mixed Reality, the possibilities are uniquely limitless. I was reflecting on this recently when reading the marketing bumf for a pair of carbon fibre cycling shoes. £500 per pair. Whether you think that’s expensive or not wasn’t the reason for the company to release said shoes. What they were doing was showing you the “Art of The Possible”. Their intention wasn’t to sell a tonne of £500 shoes but to demonstrate to a mature market there was a different way of looking at things and that they were the people to do that with.

The Mixed Reality sector is founded on the art of the possible. The challenge for all of us working at the leading edges of this technology is to flip the focus and help mature businesses understand how Mixed Reality, and associated technologies, can be the most effective (and cost effective) tool for addressing everyday challenges and requirements.