Tag: AR
- Introduction
- A Brief History Of Metaverse
- A Simple Definition Of Metaverse
- Metaverse And The Future Of Work
- Metaverse Applications In Our Work World
- Potential Concerns Around Metaverse
- Metaverse: What Lies Ahead?
Introduction
Metaverse is the next generation of the internet. Blending the elements of virtual reality, augmented reality, online games, social media, and cryptocurrencies; metaverse ushers in a novel phase of interconnected virtual experience, that reimagines the future of work. This blog will take you through everything you need to know about Metaverse – from history to how it will impact the future of work!
A Brief History Of Metaverse
In his 1992 sci-fi novel Snow Crash, author Neal Stephenson coined the phrase metaverse – probably the first time most of us heard it. The novel portrayed metaverse as a successor to the internet, depicting the author’s vision of how a virtual reality-based Internet might evolve in the immediate future.
Today, the metaverse is moving from hypothetical to real, inspiring enterprise tycoons to rebrand and innovate. The recent rebranding of Facebook, Inc. into Meta Platforms, Inc. was solely inspired by metaverse. In the Founder’s Letter, Mark Zuckerberg underscores that “We are at the beginning of the next chapter for the internet. The next platform will be even more immersive — an embodied internet where you’re in the experience, not just looking at it. We call this the metaverse, and it will touch every product we build.”
Ever since the publication of Snow Crash, the notion of metaverse has enjoyed constant popularity. The concept has highly inspired the creators of online virtual worlds such as Second Life and Active Worlds. The success of Snow Crash was such that it was made a mandatory read for Microsoft’s Xbox development team.
Until recently, the application of metaverse was restricted to internet-based video games and social media. Metaverse was predominantly used to improve the quality of immersion in virtual reality environments. The past two years witnessed a tremendous shift in the work culture, with remote and hybrid workspaces becoming the new normal. The application of metaverse technology in improving work productivity, creating interactive learning environments, and facilitating virtual reality home tours is on the brink and companies like Fingent are already on the track with best-in-class POCs and ace development skills.
Read more: What’s in Store for Real Estate this 2022?
A Simple Definition Of Metaverse
Metaverse is coined by joining two words; “meta” meaning beyond and “verse” referring to the universe. Literally, metaverse stands for a virtual world that lies on top of, or beyond the physical world. Metaverse is an extension of the real world that is amplified by emerging technologies such as extended reality (a combination of VR, AR, and MR), non-fungible tokens (NFTs), cryptocurrencies, AI, IoT, and more.
Metaverse And The Future Of Work
When the COVID-19 pandemic swept industries and stomped economies, the internet, and other work-from-home technologies helped us stay resilient and ensure business continuity. Many industries became technology-intensive, such as education, retail, conferencing & event management, etc. Metaverse will further transform these sectors by implementing virtual reality (VR) based wearables that allow users to experience and/or purchase the services with the help of immersive virtualization (without leaving the premises of their homes).
Imagine you want to go for a movie with a colleague after working hours or hang out with a friend for dinner. With metaverse, you’ll have alternatives for all these social interactions, especially when you want to avoid the hassles of a physical word, such as social distancing.
Metaverse will significantly transform the way we work by leveraging VR:
- Offers multiple choices with respect to work location and ways of working. Employees will no longer be confined to their workstation cubicles.
- Metaverse helps build a centralized digital work environment that will smoothen the transition to remote working.
- Freedom from tedious daily commutes, in-person meetings, expensive business trips, and professional office apparel.
- Guarantees physical safety from getting exposed to harmful viruses like COVID-19 or Omicron. Virtual collaboration reduces the spread of transmittable illnesses.
- Makes idea-sharing and collaboration more effective and accessible than ever. Easy to join virtual meetings and participate actively in discussions by gaining a near-physical experience.
- Eliminates the risks and hazards present in the physical world and makes the workspace safe and convenient for employees.
Case Study: How Fingent enabled a leading educational establishment to innovate their campus visits by leveraging virtual reality. Download now!
Metaverse in real-life: Two leading examples
One of the best examples to demonstrate the impact of metaverse on the future of work is the recently launched Horizon Workrooms. Introduced by Facebook, Horizon Workrooms is a virtual meeting space that allows you to collaborate with your coworkers virtually without feeling isolated or deprived of workplace interactions during remote work. The underlying virtual reality technology will help you join meetings as an avatar or dial into the virtual room using your computer through video call. Powered by VR and delivered via the Oculus Store, the Horizon Workrooms aims to leverage VR as a new computing platform that will reimagine the future of work.
Another notable example of the metaverse in a workplace is the latest Microsoft Mesh app. Mesh leverages a mixed reality experience that allows you to connect, share, and collaborate with your coworkers in immersive, near-natural virtual environments. Using Mesh, you can create AI-enabled 3D avatars that enable you to join meetings, visualize and annotate content, and use 3D objects to explain and point out features. The purpose is to make users feel like they are physically present in the meeting room. Currently, Mesh-enabled experiences are available for HoloLens and AltspaceVR users.
Metaverse Applications In Our Work World
In no time, the COVID-19 pandemic forced corporate employees and industries to shift from physical to virtual. Platforms like Zoom and Slack facilitated remote collaborations far and wide, and across different time zones. Organizations are discovering the new and improved possibilities offered by virtual collaboration tools, making metaverse an inevitable technology in the future of work.
Case Study: Fingent develops a unique mixed reality application for a leading university by combining facial recognition technology. Read more.
Top three industry applications of metaverse:
1. Real estate: In 2020, Upland.me, the leading blockchain-based metaverse tagged to real-world addresses sold a virtual property of the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) for a mammoth 23,000,000 UPX (US$ 23,000) in their year-end auction. While Upland’s target was to sell the virtual property at a premium of 65%, the deal secured them a massive premium of 368%.
Real estate brokerage firms and property trading companies can leverage metaverse to combine physical and virtual worlds, allowing users to buy, sell, and trade simulated properties that are mapped to real addresses. The application of blockchain-based cryptocurrencies will ensure the safety of transactions and the true possession of digital assets in the world of the metaverse.
2. Commerce: Fashion brand Gucci’s digital-only Dionysus bag was sold at a higher price than its physical version during an auction on Roblox- the leading video game platform. While the bag’s physical retail value was $3,400, it commanded a virtual resale price of $4,115, despite its non-transferability outside the Roblox environment.
Metaverse will offer consumers a more interactive in-store experience that allows them to try new products and explore novel brands using AR and VR sets. It’s a step ahead of the current e-commerce applications that will give way to 3D virtual shopping powered by metaverse.
Read more: Extended Reality: Six ways it is improving customer experience and helping brands grow
3. Education: A recent study reveals that around 91% of the world’s student population have experienced educational disruptions over the past two years. While emerging technologies accelerated the transition to online education, the academic world is still in a constant chase for immersive, inclusive, and interactive learning technology that can improve the educational ecosystem.
Education is a key focus area of the metaverse. Facebook recently announced that it will partner with Coursera and edX to develop a versatile AR curriculum. In the 2021 ASU GSV Summit, the Arizona State University exhibited a VR classroom that allows students to virtually explore a sanctuary of endangered species, which aroused the curiosity of the participants. Subjects like astrophysics, biology, surgery procedures, anthropology, etc. can be taught more effectively by leveraging metaverse.
Read more: How virtual reality improves the standard of medical education and training
Potential Concerns Around Metaverse
Statista reports that an average of 34 million units of VR headsets would be sold by 2024. As industries increasingly embrace VR to meet both enterprise and consumer demands, the universal adoption of full-fledged metaverse applications doesn’t seem fair. However, we still need to overcome a few challenges that slow down metaverse adoption.
- New verification methods should be developed to solve identity theft and reputation loss in the metaverse. This is important to prevent crimes such as facial forging, footage and voice tampering, etc.
- Any online environment isn’t devoid of data and privacy concerns. It’s vital to improve data security and privacy protection methods to keep your data safe in the metaverse world.
- Robust digital currency and payment systems should be developed to ensure the security of transactions in the metaverse virtual marketplace. To ensure safe trading within metaverse, built-in transaction verification systems should be implemented.
- As metaverse is expected to bring more people from different countries together in a virtual collaborative space, it’s important for lawmakers to devise the legislation that governs virtual interactions. Countries need to focus on setting up virtual legal domains and making the digital space safe for users.
- Upgrading the application of metaverse from the realms of gaming, fun, and entertainment to the domains of learning, corporate work, and industries requires careful planning. The progression should be correlated with both the business outcome as well as the demands of customers and employees.
Read more: Reality technology services offered by Fingent
Metaverse: What Lies Ahead?
Though metaverse is advancing to take us to the threshold of a virtual universe, the technology is still at a nascent stage. As more tech giants and startups join the bandwagon, we can expect that metaverse will combine the best of reality technologies like AR, VR, and MR to transform the future of work. John Riccitiello, the CEO of Unity Technologies (developer of Unity game engine) observes that by 2030, Virtual Reality headsets will be as common as today’s gaming consoles.
Amidst the challenges that choke businesses during the pandemic, promising experiments around metaverse prove that remote work is a huge problem that VR could resolve. Industries that were hitherto dependent on on-site and field activities are taking a different path by embracing VR. We can expect that metaverse will soon be the efficiency driver in the new normal of work. If you have any queries on metaverse or need a demo on how VR can help you do business better, write to us.
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Explore InfinCEBuilding Ground-breaking Customer Experiences With Augmented Reality
For the unversed, experiential marketing is a unique and effective way to build brand awareness through face-to-face connections with consumers. Unlike traditional or online marketing efforts, experiential marketing engages all the five senses that bring about emotions to form lasting memories and drive brand loyalty. It allows you to connect with your customers in the most relatable way while building brand awareness and loyalty.
So, how can companies effectively incorporate experiential marketing to make their products stand out? The answer is quite simple: by embracing Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality.
Augmented Reality technology boosts experiential marketing by allowing consumers to interact with products or services with improved personalization.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality Detailed With Real-life Examples
Benefits Of Using AR In Marketing
As stores closed their doors and people remained indoors, Augmented Reality has received a lot of attention over the last year and will become essential for retailers as stores reopen worldwide.
AR is bringing the in-store buying experience into consumers’ homes. Consumers can now virtually experience how a cute summer dress, a pair of sunglasses, or sneakers will look on them. As a result, AR boosts the customer’s confidence when buying online. AR is also an excellent solution for people who are worried about trying products such as garments or footwear that numerous other hands have touched before them. The technology allows consumers to make decisions safely, without physically touching sample products kept in the shops’ display racks.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality For Immersive Customer Experiences
Sephora, a well-known cosmetic brand, has experienced great success with its Augmented Reality marketing strategy. The brand uses face recognition to help customers try makeup products before buying them in-store with their Virtual Artist app. Another example, Snapchat, which uses AR ads via snap filters.
Augmented Reality enables brands to show their customers what makes their products or services great instead of simply sending out marketing literature and thus allows them to connect with their customers better. This helps brands deliver memorable customer experiences and reduce costly returns.
Benefits Of Using AR In Experiential Marketing
1. Boost Sales
Let’s assume that you decide to re-decor your room. You will probably go through magazines and even visualize the furniture in the desired spaces. However, most often, you end up achieving a completely different outcome than what was intended.
So, that’s where AR comes into the picture. All you need to do is point your smartphone in the desired space, and you will be able to view (virtually) how your room would appear with all the desired items in place. This eliminates all the tedious trials and errors that can often lead to disappointing results. So, isn’t this unique and immersive approach a great way to attract your customers?
Read more: What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost E-Commerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
2. Save Unnecessary Marketing Costs
If you think that the new-age technology of AR and VR would cost you a fortune, you’re wrong. With advances in technology, gadgets and other technology components are becoming cheaper. For instance, AR ads are more affordable than traditional mediums.
AR’s targeted and personalized approach helps save up a lot from your budget compared to the conventional ways of communication. Additionally, it can be used for marketing campaigns as it is a highly efficient tool for advertisers.
3. Overcome Language Barrier
There’s no denying that people are more attracted to visuals than texts. As a result, visual images seem to have a language of their own. Both AR and VR use visualization to their advantage and excel in the process of communicating through moving images. While you may need a language to operate at the base level, users can easily find what they are looking for using the multiple options available.
4. Make Content That Goes Viral In The Social Space
Given the situation we are living in, social media has never been more relevant. It has changed the rules of advertising, and everybody is adapting to it. Advertisers are leaving no stone unturned to ensure their content reaches every potential customer of their brand.
Both Virtual and Augmented Reality technologies have the potential to make your content go viral. It is not only engaging and entertaining but also fascinating. The content is compelling enough to attract people of targeted age groups and helps communicate the brand’s message correctly.
For example, recently, Inphantry, a Boston-based digital ad agency, orchestrated an immersive AR pop-up exhibition in a Houston shopping mall. This was done to promote Nike’s AJXX8 sneaker, its latest addition to the Air Jordan line. Customers were given challenges such as dribbling, jumping, etc., wearing the sneakers and the Jordan branded bracelet with an RFID chip to track their scores.
On completion of the challenge, the high-scorers could experience the Air Jordan pop-up museum and lounge. Additionally, the participants were encouraged to share their pictures (of their experience) on social media. This strategy attracted over 2500 users and created the much-needed buzz around the newly launched sneakers.
5. Conduct Virtual Events
The pandemic has wreaked havoc in our lives both physically as well as emotionally. Most people are still not open to the idea of going out in a crowd, even at the cost of missing something important. In such cases, AR and VR technology comes to the rescue. The immersive technology allows the audience to access desired events virtually. Considering the times we live, immersive technologies are indeed a boon!
AR and VR platforms enable brands to engage and launch their offerings by organizing virtual corporate events, expos, and conferences.
6. Fulfill Training Needs
If any of your products or services requires technical training to understand its aspects, VR technology is what you need. It provides a personalized and interactive experience where the user can understand the product/service virtually. Moreover, this approach is highly effective as it can be re-run multiple times.
Additionally, the user can practice using the VR headset for as long as desired. This reduces any operational risks that the user could experience while using the actual product and helps educate them about it skillfully. That said, using AR/VR technology for training your users is more fun than traditional training sessions.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves The Standard of Medical Education and Training
7. Enhance Customer Service
The main goal of any business is to ensure that their customers are satisfied and thus increase sales. AR and VR technology can help educate customers in a fun way and help them make informed decisions. This prevents any conflict of ideas that may arise in the consumer’s mind. Thus, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality help in increasing customer satisfaction and sales.
Scale Your Marketing Efforts With AR
Summing up, it can be said that businesses must earnestly consider using Augmented Reality to boost experiential marketing and create ground-breaking experiences that will set them apart from others.
If you’re looking for a unique and one-of-kind opportunity for marketing and advertising, you can collaborate with Fingent. We software development experts offer immersive and interactive experiential marketing solutions using AR and VR. Explore our offerings by simply giving us a call, and we will be delighted to help.
What are 3D Web Configurators? How do they Boost Ecommerce Sales and Drive Customer Satisfaction?
Add More Zest to Your Ecommerce Marketing and CX with 3D Web Configuration
Having a digital infrastructure is inevitable, but it just isn’t enough to keep up with the competition. Achieving business success is about “wowing” your e-commerce buyers. In the post-pandemic world, businesses must find engaging and innovative ways to increase customer satisfaction and experience. A recent Frost & Sullivan study showed that by 2020, customer experience would overtake price and product as a key brand differentiator. True to this, business in 2020 was entirely driven by customer experience.
View Infographic: Business Technologies to Boost Customer Experience and Satisfaction
Local shoppers switched to online shopping, door deliveries were encouraged, telemedicine became more popular, mobile and internet banking users increased, and even classrooms became virtual.
So, how do you “wow” your customer in this age of online shopping? By giving them as close to the real experience as virtually possible!
How do you do that? With a 3D configurator!
A 3D product configurator allows your customers to see exactly how your product looks, acts and feels. It gives them a personal connection with their potential purchase. 3D configurators have become an integral part of the sales process and rising customer expectations during the pandemic, making it vital for specific industries.
This blog helps you understand what a 3D web configurator is and how it can help increase your e-commerce sales and boost customer satisfaction.
Read more:How Custom Retail Software Solutions Help You Gain a Competitive Advantage?
What is a 3D Web Configurator?
In the past, customers were satisfied to see a static photograph that they could easily zoom in and out. However, with the changed circumstances and digital development, customers would like to view how various product designs or features would look in real-time, allowing them to spin, zoom, scroll, and rotate. That is precisely what a 3D web configurator allows your customers to enjoy.
A 3D web configurator is defined as an interactive tool powered by 3D models that lets your customers personalize a product to their specifications in real-time. Plus, it allows them to choose custom options and watch them transform instantly, and receive estimates of the costs based on their customizations.
This service gives your customers the feel of being at your store because it gives them the ability to get the feel of the product, such as the color, texture, and other aspects of your product. Customers can watch it from any device without using plugins.
Essentially, 3D configurators are not just for retailers and car companies. All industries that sell customizable products can benefit from letting their customers see how their products look in real-time. Once this service is implemented, you can increase your ecommerce sales and boost customer satisfaction.
Read more: 6 Ways to Accelerate Business Growth and Success in 2021
How does a 3D Web Configurator Work?
A 3D web configurator accomplishes two pertinent e-commerce goals:
- A detailed exploration of your products
- The ability to customize the product to a customer’s specific needs
When your customers have not zeroed in on a particular product, your 3D configurator steps in to display different combinations and options for that product to inspire them to make an informed decision. In effect, your 3D configurator will help them check out the colors, styles, material and combine them in different ways until they create a personalized product. Then, as they mix and match their specifications, your configurator will allow them to see their combinations in 360-degree, in real-time mode, along with the price. Such precise control over their product will encourage them to make a purchase.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality to Deliver Immersive Customer Experiences
How 3D Web Configurators Boost E-Commerce Sales and Customer Satisfaction?
1. Enable omnichannel experience
As mentioned at the outset, 3D configuration solutions do not require a third-party plugin which limits the number of customers who can view your product. Above all, it can be formatted for events or used in interactive stores as it can also work offline. Such interaction encourages your customers to participate in your productions, ensuring you understand their choice and budget.
2. Grow your e-commerce sales
Your customers will have proactive control of what they want to buy as 3D configuration solutions allow them to try out various combinations virtually. Once you know their exact requirements, you can minimize errors, misunderstandings, and mistakes between you and your customer.
3D web configuration reduces barriers to the market as you will be able to release the options to your customers during the first stage of product development. Thus, you can grow your e-commerce sales as your customers know that you understand them clearly and provide them with quality products.
3. Save costs
3D web configurators can redefine and shorten the sales cycle as real-time customer responses/ reactions can help you create better outcomes. This allows you to track consumer behavior in real-time. Also, you can reduce the quantity of raw materials you need to stock as you will now create products as per request.
Furthermore, you can minimize significant expenses incurred in logistics and storage to a great degree. You can also personalize this unmatched 3D technology to become as responsive as the rest of your website.
4. Place your customers behind the wheel
As the factory floor entered the digital age, brands must let their customers take the driver’s seat for tremendous success. Only then will you precisely understand what your customers want. Knowing that will help you meet their demands accurately. The 3D web configurator allows your customers unparalleled freedom to bring their dream product to life, ensuring their satisfaction.
5. Distinguish your brand with a “wow” factor
Consumer attention has created intense competition between brands, forcing them to spend billions in an attempt to find the magical ingredient that will capture and retain the attention of their customers.
What determines whether their attention sticks or moves away is the “wow” factor that keeps them returning for more. A 3D configurator will help you ensure that your customers are “wowed” each time they visit your website because they would have truly enjoyed the experience. Your configurator can boost customer satisfaction by delivering the experience needed to attract and amaze your customers repeatedly.
6. Boost sales
3D web configurators increase conversion rates and revenues as your customers can make informed decisions without delay. It gives them all the information they require to make a quick purchase. For example, it offers details such as customization of the product, price, immediate and direct contact with the salesperson, detailed descriptions, and a strong call to action. Additionally, you can avoid cart abandonment scenarios through increased engagement.
Make 3D Web Configurators Your Launching Pad
Customer engagement and interactive product visualization can customize a product of choice and provide a tangible in-store experience to your online customers. It can become a launching pad for increased growth, higher sales, and conversions. Would you like to experience the power of a 3D web configurator and don’t know where to start? Get in touch with our software development experts right away.
Top 5 Misconceptions about AR and VR in eLearning
In this tech-savvy era, computer-based realities are a new way to perceive a surrounding. Two of the most trending reality technologies are Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR). Over the last few years, AR and VR have taken strides to become the most prominent consumer technologies. With developments in technology and broader accessibility, we started to discover more ways AR and VR can benefit various industries such as entertainment, automotive, transportation, oil & gas, aircraft, etc. AR and VR have helped many industries since their onset. Both technologies have a massive potential in immersive learning. The COVID-19 pandemic forced physical classrooms to go virtual globally. Since then, the education sector is witnessing the extensive application of reality technologies such as AR and VR to promote immersive learning.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standards of Medical Education and Training
What is immersive learning?
Immersive learning refers to a learning strategy – a future training method – that uses an artificial or simulated environment that puts learners in a highly interactive learning environment. Augmented and virtual reality technologies play a crucial role in today’s immersive learning scenario by offering a new way of using an eLearning screen.
Role of AR and VR in eLearning
Augmented Reality or AR is an interactive experience that enhances or augments real-world objects and projects computer-generated images and animations into it – like Snapchat lenses, Pokémon Go (game), and so on. It overlays or adds digital elements or imagery –in the form of text, graphics, audio, and other visual extensions – to a live view. On the other hand, Virtual Reality or VR is a ‘computer generated’ experience created inside a simulated environment. It immerses the user in a replicated/imagined world using a head-mounted device (HMD), shutting down the physical world. With the help of special manipulators, users gain the potential of intuitive and multifunctional interaction with virtual elements in VR.
Read more: Top 7 Ways AR and VR Can Impact Employee Safety Training
Both the technologies create new and interactive experiences for users through their immersive environment and accessibility in 3-dimension. Especially in the eLearning industry – which is all about using advanced technologies to enhance the learning experience – the alternate reality technologies AR and VR have been warmly accepted by modern learners because of the diverse benefits they offer. Few benefits include:
- Makes the learning more engaging and exciting
- Better online training mock-ups
- Makes learning a practical experience
- Customizes learning paths in courses
- Provides visual feedback in assessments with advanced learning analytics
Though AR and VR are trending immersive learning strategies, they are new in the Learning and Development space, and therefore, several myths are revolving around the topic. This blog will debunk five common AR and VR myths in eLearning.
Myth #1: AR and VR are the same
Many people believe that AR and VR are the same and can be used interchangeably. People often get confused between these two computer-based realities. Though both AR and VR play a massive role in immersive learning, the fact is that both these technologies have two entirely different concepts. Virtual Reality (VR) entails a complete immersion experience that displays a virtual environment to a person that blocks out the physical world by using a virtual opaque headset. At the same time, Augmented Reality (AR) adds digital elements or animations to the user’s real world using the camera on a smartphone.
Myth #2: AR and VR based apps are difficult to use
Even with an increasing number of users worldwide, some organizations still believe that AR/VR apps are more difficult to use than any other apps. This doesn’t seem right because such applications mainly meant for learning use high-end technology, making them more user-friendly. Skilled augmented/virtual reality developers ensure that the user interface is simply leading to the applications’ success perspective.
Read more: Accelerating AR/VR Adoption Among Customers
Myth #3: AR and VR are very expensive
Many organizations consider other training methods, as they believe learning through AR and VR is too expensive. When used right, AR and VR techniques can reduce costs and provide organizations with a high ROI in the long run. Many believe that VR apps can only be used with expensive gears and headsets. There are many affordable options and multiple authoring tools that businesses can consider to make AR and VR learning easy at a relatively low cost.
Myth #4: AR and VR are mainly for gaming and entertainment purposes
Because of the popularity gained by AR and VR with its practical use in the entertainment and gaming industry, people tend to think that AR and VR are primarily focused on these industries for entertainment purposes. But the fact is that AR and VR are not just limited to games. Though gaming and entertainment are the most prominent applications for computer-based realities, many industries embrace AR and VR in their marketing and advertising efforts, with widespread success.
Usage of AR/VR is trending in diverse sectors such as Manufacturing, Education, Event Management, Tourism, Automotive, Real Estate, Healthcare, Retail and E-commerce, Media and Entertainment, Defense and Military, and more. For instance, a global leader in medical imaging solutions, AccuVein uses AR to project an image of veins over skin for all medical imaging purposes.
Read more: Impact Of Augmented Reality In Education Industry
Myth #5: AR and VR may not stay for long
Many people say that AR and VR are just fads. The truth is that, as AR and VR offer many innovative ways to interact with the data around us and visualize it, reality technologies are expected to enrich users in the future years too.
Research & Markets reports that the global AR and VR market is projected to reach $1,274.4 billion in 2030, rising from $37.0 billion in 2019, and is predicted to progress at a robust CAGR of 42.9% during the forecast period (2020-2030). Key factors leading to the AR and VR market’s growth include the rising penetration of smartphones and tablet computers, increasing technology adoption among enterprises, and vendors’ surging focus on price reduction.
AR and VR lead among the emerging technologies and are being updated continuously. AR/VR development is a highly appreciated career today.
So, AR and VR are not fads and are going to stay for a long time.
Misconceptions are lifted for about every potential revolutionary technology, just like myths about AR and VR are prevalent in the mainstream now. AR and VR are emerging as crucial reality tech in 2021. Especially during this COVID-19 pandemic, which has turned our lives upside down, organizations need innovative eLearning techniques now more than ever. These computer-based realities can help enhance the learning experience more safely, engagingly, and productively.
Watch Video: How AR can be a powerful learning tool in the future
Fingent’s AR/ VR development team allows you to leverage the power of immersive learning with AR and VR and enjoy the experience! Contact us to know more.
Medical Virtual Reality offers excellent opportunities for healthcare providers, practitioners, researchers, residents, patients, and chemists. Here’s a brief overview.
Virtual Reality: Increasing success rate and establishing trust in medical education
In 2013, the World Health Organization (WHO) estimated a shortage of approximately 7.2 million health care professionals worldwide. The report also stated that this shortage is expected to reach 12.9 million by 2035. Besides the deficiency and disproportionate distribution of healthcare workers, the inadequacy of training programs also affects the delivery of uniform healthcare services worldwide. Leading healthcare organizations have been focusing on developing strategies that can increase the number of healthcare workers and enhance the quality and relevance of medical training.
In recent years, several modes of eLearning have been used to disseminate information and impart training to medical students, out of which Virtual Reality Applications deserve a special mention. Virtual Reality Environments (VREs) allow users to experience real-life scenarios via simulated counterparts and gain practical knowledge that would otherwise be difficult to comprehend in a real environment.
Read more: Is Mixed Reality the Future of the Healthcare Industry?
Here are a few examples of how VR improves medical education standards and how it enables novice medical personnel to learn concepts in environments that replicate real-life scenarios.
1. Reduce stress and anxiety among medical students
Medical and traumatic emergencies can be daunting and stressful, especially for the early-career medical personnel. Preparing novice doctors to respond effectively to medical emergencies before being confronted with a real scenario is challenging. Unnatural or high-cost training modalities fail to replicate the stress and gravity of real-world trauma management realistically. Immersive virtual reality (IVR) may provide a unique training solution.
VR-based medical training recipients report better learning of anatomical positions, reduction in surgery time in the real environment, increase in the safety of both physician and patient, positive psychological effects on learners, reduction in training costs and efforts, and overall improvement. 68% of nursing and 58% of medical interns reported that VR-based training has significantly reduced their anxiety about occupational needlestick or sharp injuries (NSI) prevention.
2. Ensure uninterrupted in-hospital training
During April-July 2020, when most countries went to stringent lockdown measures to curb the spread of the coronavirus, several medical colleges and universities adopted virtual reality to supplement the traditional in-hospital medical training. Due to in-hospital access bans, the training providers offered students virtual patient-based training, debriefing, and simulated clinical scenarios on a case-by-case basis, all via virtual reality environments.
A recent report on students’ perception of VR-based medical training found that:
- 77% of medical students considered VR training to be a trustworthy platform for initial clinical assessments
- 94% remarked that VR is ideal for diagnostic activity, and 81% appreciated its usefulness in treatment options
- Furthermore, 84% of students felt that the scope of VR training would move beyond apprenticeship at a patient’s bedside
3. Immersive VR environments help develop empathy
The most significant advantage of virtual reality is that it allows users to experience any situation from any perspective. In that way, it can be called the “ultimate empathy machine.” Patients suffering from traumas such as memory loss, physical or mental abuse, age-related health issues, Alzheimer’s disease, drug addiction, and other ordeals need a soothing atmosphere and reassuring words to recover quickly. Immersive VR training is an effective teaching method to help medical students develop empathy towards such patients.
An educational project conducted by the University of New England (UNE) successfully used VR to teach empathy to medical and health profession students. The project used a VR tool called “Alfred Lab app” – to teach students about macular degeneration and hearing loss from a 74-year-old African American man’s perspective. Realizing an aged and ailing patient’s thoughts and concerns enables the residents to develop empathy towards such patients.
4. Improve practitioners’ skills, speed, and mobility in operating rooms
From rote memorization of theories, the modern medical training practice has evolved to imparting skills in life-like environments using virtual reality simulations. Even in the absence of faculty, VR systems enable students to learn practical surgical concepts when faced with a given patient. VR systems make medical training access more broad-based and flexible. Medical professionals can use VR to visualize the human body’s interior and learn better about human anatomy.
According to a study published by the Journal of Advances in Medical Education & Professionalism, the American Board of Internal Medicine (ABIM) has proclaimed that residents need to be trained by simulation tools before attempting any patient interventions in real life. The board also finds immersive VR training to be effective in mechanical ventilation and invasive hemodynamic monitoring.
Dr. Dimitris Stefanidis, professor and research scholar at Indiana University School of Medicine, concluded in a study that surgical residents who underwent training in laparoscopic suture using video simulators had reported improved operative performance, speed, and mobility at the end of the practice. Performing surgeries that require vast experience and sensitivity, such as an osteotomy (bone-cut surgery), can be simplified for surgeons through virtual simulations. Immersive simulations along with tactical feedback are safer and cost-effective than traditional teaching methods.
5. Impart health education and awareness among patients
In addition to practitioners, patients also can gain awareness of their medical conditions and treatment principles using VR. Clinical professionals can use simulated environments to communicate the impact of unpleasant lifestyle practices such as noxious drug usage, metabolic dysfunctions, obesity, growth of certain tumors, the effect of smoking and drinking on lung and liver functions, etc.
Chronically ailing and hospitalized patients can use VR goggles or headsets to experience their home in an immersive environment and chat with their family members. By installing a 360-degree camera in their home, the patient’s family can make sure that the patient experiences the interaction just like how he/she used to feel it while at home. During the COVID-19 pandemic, VR was highly applied in remote sites to facilitate telemedicine, control the spread of infection, plan, treat, and provide proper awareness to people regarding this disease.
Read more: The Application and Impact of Information Technology in Healthcare
Getting started with VR
Medical VR is no more a sci-fiction. VR-trained surgeons report a 230% boost in their overall performance compared to their traditionally-trained counterparts.
VR can help you conduct engaging medical conferences, help women get through labor pain, train surgeons and medical residents, reduce pain and anxiety among patients, and expedite recovery in physical therapy by tailoring exercises to patients’ therapeutic needs.
If your next question is how to start with VR, Fingent top custom software development company, helps you develop these virtual simulators:
- ACLS (Advanced Cardiac Life Support System)
- Accident Trauma Care Standard Operating Procedures
- Orthopedic or Cardiac surgical procedure that involves using complex tools
- Neo-Natal Resuscitation Simulator (GOLDEN MINUTE PROTOCOL)
Would you like to discuss that with our expert? Drop us a line, and a member of our team will get back to you shortly.
How AR and VR augment employee safety training programs in industries
Employee Safety has taken on a new meaning as the world totters and tries to wrap its head around COVID-19. The pandemic spared no prisoners as it touched every aspect of our life, including our work and our businesses. It has changed the way people work and accomplish their jobs and altered the way employers look at employee safety training.
For starters, traditional employee safety training usually takes one of two forms: on-the-job and classroom learning, which might be a problem at this time. Fortunately, the latest training methods that feature immersive technologies such as Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) demonstrate their ability to close the current gaps in employee safety training. This blog discusses the impact AR/VR has on employee safety training. Before we discuss that, it is crucial to understand why businesses require augmented and virtual realities now.
Read more: How Augmented Reality Can Simplify Equipment Maintenance
The increasing significance of AR and VR in employee safety training
Adapting to the new normal, most employees will continue to work from home. Others will face new measures and procedures when they return to workplaces. It can pose a challenge to employers as they struggle to find new methods to train new employees while following physical constraints like social distancing.
Before we look at the solution, let’s have a look at a few drawbacks of the traditional classroom training:
Drawbacks of the conventional classroom training
– Ineffective training procedures
Usually, safety procedures are taught with a combination of computer testing and classroom exercises. These methods do not allow repetition training. It is good but not good enough because it lacks effectiveness and does not encourage knowledge retention. Besides, social distancing norms make it difficult to arrange for classroom training.
– Doesn’t engage employees
As traditional learning techniques are not imparted in a realistic environment, they do not simulate the hands-on experience in scenarios that are tough to be recreated. Classroom learning is often not a useful or engaging teaching style for workers who are in highly mechanical roles. With such training, employers cannot risk a technician to perform their jobs effectively and safely on day one.
– Classroom trainings are expensive
According to the 2019 training industry report, on average, companies spent 1,286 dollars in 2019. The same report also mentions that, on average, employees received 42.1 hours of training. It proves that traditional training methods and materials are a significant expense for financials and lost work time. Employers must look for newer ways to train their employees. Thankfully, AR and VR technologies help support employee safety training.
Read more: How Augmented Reality Is All Set to Transform the Workplace
Top 7 ways AR and VR impact employee safety training
Workplace injuries cost businesses more than 59 billion dollars per year. However, companies cannot cut back on employee safety training under any circumstances. In professions where inadequate safety procedures are a huge risk to the employee, employers must ensure that safety training is practical and accessible.
1. No more trial and error
Specific jobs, such as working in power plants or manufacturing units, require that employees be trained before assuming full responsibility. Augmented and virtual reality help make simulations that allow for training that is safe and free of consequences. Employers can create an exact simulation of their operations and enable new employees to practice repeatedly. Such training allows them to see and correct their mistakes before they start using the actual equipment.
2. Risk-free immersive training
AR and VR technologies allow instructional designers, animation engines, and game designers to combine fun with practical learning. It raises levels of engagement in trainees. Besides attractive and fun components, AR and VR appeal to learners because of the risk-free training element. It eliminates the need for employees and trainees to be in the same location during the training session.
3. Increased retention and skill acquisition
Practice is the best way employees can sharpen their skills. It is a well-known fact that we retain much more information when we combine learning with “doing.” Compared to discussions, reading, lectures, or even audio-visual learning, hands-on-practice is the best way to retain information. AR and VR technologies allow for such training that increases knowledge retention and skill acquisition. These technologies enable employees to practice the concepts they have learned immediately.
4. Allows self-paced learning
Each employee is different with varying levels of learning abilities. AR and VR allow each person to learn at their own pace. It means they can work on the same concept multiple times without the risk of injury to themselves or the machinery. This risk-free approach allows for self-paced learning and the ability to take the training until they master a particular concept.
5. Enhance the effectiveness of learning
Most employers have deemed it unsafe for their workers to share headsets to receive safety training in the current situation. Augmented and virtual reality allows employers to develop solutions where an employee can point his phone camera to a portion of the training manual that opens up additional materials or resources on his screen. This technique allows companies to train their employees about specific products, solutions, or services.
Read more: Impact Of Augmented Reality In Education Industry
6. Prepare employees for emergencies
Augmented and virtual reality are ideal for training employees to handle real-life situations. This technology is apt for safety training. It can minimize damage to the equipment and the cost of training. AR and VR allow firms to train employees to handle emergencies or real-time threats such as controlling a shooting situation.
7. Easy to customize training
Each organization and its requirements are different. Employees may encounter unique challenges and problems because of location, weather, or just the project’s complexity. AR and VR provide a considerable advantage in terms of flexibility and costs to offer company-specific training. It can accommodate a more tailored training experience.
The future of AR and VR in employee safety training
The safety risk is a real challenge that all industries face. Whether it is theft or operating potentially dangerous machinery, employees face risks, including physical hazards. Besides, the pandemic has necessitated a transition to a new way of life. There is currently a desperate need for new solutions that allow businesses to continue with some semblance of normalcy. AR and VR technologies provide organizations effective ways to train their employees while still preserving physical distancing norms. The use of augmented and virtual reality in employee safety training will become the new normal!
Want to explore how you can start with Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality technologies? Talk to us right away.
5G and the World of Work – An Overview
- COVID-19 to act as a Catalyst
- Remote Work: Story so far & Roadblocks
- 5G to the Rescue
- Impact on Video Conferences
- Impact on AR and VR
- Improved VR Training with 5G
- Improved AR Training with 5G
- Other ways in which day-to-day work will be different with 5G
- Real-world example
- Security and other concerns for 5G
COVID-19 to act as a Catalyst
Did you realize? The working world is evolving, forcing organizations to think and act differently. Nothing happens without a trigger. In most cases, these triggers are trends.
What are these trends? Globalization, Mobility, Changing Demographics, and Technology are a few to mention.
If we focus on Technology alone; Big Data, Collaboration Tools, Wearable Devices, IoT, Cloud Computing, and 5G are some of the recent trends. This blog will take you through how 5G is enabling organizations to Reimagine and Rethink the way they work and how 5G is solving a lot of tech headaches.
It was already predicted that an economic recession will spur investments in technology. The owners and CEOs will need to find alternate ways to increase efficiency, drive revenue, and meet customer needs. Remote work is one such measure companies are adopting to make it work. As firms worldwide embrace remote work in the wake of COVID-19, we expect remote working culture to be the next trend.
Remote Work: Story so far & Roadblocks
In fact, remote work culture was one of the most defining tech trends of the past decade. The report by GetApp found that remote work expanded by nearly 400%. Quoting the report “The rise of remote work during the last decade has been driven by the proliferation of powerful mobile devices, ultra-fast internet connections, and the pervasiveness of cloud-based storage and SaaS solutions.”
With all the above-said factors which enhanced the adoption and acceptance of remote work culture, companies also faced a lot of tech headaches in implementing it properly. The shoddy WiFi network will lead to the slowdown of internet speed, digital distractions, inefficient communication, poor video calls, heavy buffering, etc. Besides, in-person sociability or daily face to face interaction is a major factor that boosts employee productivity.
5G to the Rescue
To accelerate business capabilities, 5G is addressing the fundamental needs such as:
- Connecting more devices faster than it is now
- Reduce the lag time between devices
- Enabling the bulk volume of data transmission from a large number of devices with better responsiveness
- Higher bandwidth & lower latency
The above concerns can be addressed once 5G is implemented. Thus, 5G is going to reinvent the way people are working from home and the above factors enable 5G to host new business applications.
The current internet revolution makes it possible to work remotely without many disruptions, but 5G will enable VIRTUAL WORKING.
Let us look at the changes it will bring to different work functions:
5G will augment changes in remote work, virtual meetings, hiring, training, or other work functions.
According to the Consumer Technology Association, once complete, 5G will be 100 times faster and 5 times more responsive than today’s networks. Download speed of 20 gigabits-per-second means 5G will enable more specialized tasks at the workplace like:
- Hold remote meetings in virtual spaces, remote trouble shootings, remote business meetings, thus saving the operational cost
- Interactive digital whiteboards – 5G enables transmitting a lot of data in a very fast and responsive way and thus digital displays will be able to interact with mobile devices, applications, and cameras.
- Virtual and augmented reality – With 5G, it will provide more immersive & interactive content experience, to make it as fully-realized collaborative technology.
- 5G will enhance highly data-intensive services Multiperson video conferencing.
- 5G will empower IoT by allowing real-time collaboration between employees and things
- Real-time cloud processing will be easier with 5G as the speed and processing capabilities increase. It will boost productivity. How 5G Will Boost Enterprise Investment In Cloud
Read more: How 5G Will Boost Enterprise Investment In Cloud
Impact on Video Conferences
It seems that the combination of 5G and increased remote work will lead to more video conferences. This may be a piece of welcome news to people who have suffered through meetings, whether it was due to video freezing up, or forgetting to put the mute button on before making an awkward comment. 5G is all set to eliminate these deficiencies. Let’s see how:
- Speed: As mentioned above, 5G will be 100 times faster and five times more responsive than today’s networks. The increase in speed can improve streaming speed, download speed, video calls, and conferences with much more ease. More devices can work much more quickly and simultaneously with 5G.
- Bandwidth: The increased bandwidth, which is approximately allowing for 1,000 devices per meter on a connection will boost the network speed and fewer dropped connections. 5G bandwidths are projected to be 10 times higher than 4G LTE.
- Video Quality: Better speed and bandwidth can facilitate calls in HD and 3D without lag, latency and other interruptions
- Mobility: Mobility is one of the underrated advantages of 5G, one can easily connect with their partners, stakeholders, and colleagues via video, anytime, and anywhere. This is possible because 5G relies on higher frequency radio bands. The frequency of 5G ranges from 30GHz to 300GHz while 4G operates at 6GHz. It is a massive improvement.
Impact on AR and VR
5G can improve virtual meetings with the help of Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality. With 5G remote meetings could be held in virtual spaces. What would this look like? Each participant could be at home but feel like they are sitting around a table with the other participants, thus making use of VR technology. Also, new capabilities like digital whiteboards would also be available.
AR augments elements and other things in the real-world environment, whereas the task of VR is to immerse users fully in a virtual environment. The objective here is to manipulate and trick the minds of employees to feel and enjoy the immersive experiences. Although VR & AR is in use now with 4G, it hasn’t attained it’s full potential yet. AR and VR solely rely on network connectivity. Any disturbance in the connectivity will result in an unsatisfactory and unpleasant customer experience. By offering rich levels of computing power, 5G can take it to the next level.
For example, the NBA has tried weekly broadcasts in virtual reality (VR). It was providing viewers with a chance to see the action from the best seats anywhere in the house. However, due to blurred pictures being reported, the VR broadcast was turned down. But with 5G this problem can be solved.
Improved VR Training with 5G
The limitation of 4G when it comes to the application in VR is already proven. With 5G and it’s better bandwidth and speed, VR training will be much smoother and effective. 5G will help unlock the full potential of VR by causing a 10X decrease in latency. In VR, users will lose interest when the latency is over 20 ms. 5G guarantees a latency of sub-5 or sub-2 ms latency, which will provide an amazing user experience. As VR is all about immersion – feeling like you are in the virtual environment – this is incredibly important. For VR head-mounted displays (HMDS), currently, it requires a powerful PC to run them, which limits the application and enjoyment of VR to a certain location. Implementing 5G will push the power consumption, storage, and processing power away from the PC and will push into the edge cloud.
Read more: Virtual Reality: The Revolutionary Force
Improved AR Training with 5G
AR is highly data-intensive – even a minute of AR will consume 33 times more traffic than one minute of a 480p video, so you can see the impact 5G is going to have on AR. One peculiar thing about AR is that it expands on human potential, allowing people and machines to function better together in a collaboration that what they both could do alone. AR superimposes digital information, enhancing the real world we see, offers additional information that improves the comprehension.
Imagine the conceptualized design of a product you are going to build printed in a piece of paper, and imagine you are seeing that product right in front of you, appreciating all the specifics, and realizing what it would look like in real life, this is the difference between AR training and traditional training. AR aids point-of-need visual learning in real-time. AR training organizations can enhance the experience of training around the existing data and information.
Organizations can train their employees and partners more effectively using AR. AR provides a highly visual and interactive format that is far better than normal text and video approaches. For example, imagine a SAAS platform or an Office Collaboration Software that enables employees to scan the product and receive direct training in a highly immersive experience. This will further increase productivity, reduce the time, and provide better flexibility.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality for Immersive Customer Experiences
Other ways in which day-to-day work will differ with 5G
Remote work was made feasible by high-speed broadband internet, video conferencing, and other technologies, thanks to the increase in communication speed. Now, the next challenge is simulating the collaboration and co-worker interactions of the traditional workplace. That’s where holographic calls come into the picture. It is possible through remote meetings that could be held in virtual spaces with the help of 5G. The holographic calls show us a 3D projection with the help of 5G. This is one such example of how day-to-day work will be different from 5G.
A holographic call allows companies to organize meetings in a shared holographic workspace. Participants can share the content, both 3D and 2D within this workspace. It will be visible to all other colleagues or clients attending the meeting.
It is also possible for anyone to interact with each other differently, like in the real world. Suppose, If a person decides to roam around the workspace, which is shared, their avatar, the disembodied version of their head and shoulders will move as well. Such movements are visible to everyone except the same person.
For digital whiteboards, 5G can further enhance connecting a large number of IoT devices from movement sensors to smart printers to usher the workspace environment to go digital.
Real-world example
Volvo Car is using HoloLens to demonstrate the extensive safety features of their cars to clients. The technology helps educate clients, close sales, and ultimately places the emphasis on safety, the key element of Volvo’s brand.
Read More: 5G Network Vehicle Safety and Security
Security and other concerns for 5G
Even though 5G offers huge potential for businesses around the world, it seems the technology is much more complex when it comes to security concerns.
- 5G will enhance location tracking and personal data collection. Since 5G signals are short-range, it requires more cell towers covering a much smaller area. It means they know your exact location which is a piece of sensitive information.
- As per a research study by Purdue University & the University of Iowa, 5G inherits many security policies and subprotocols from its predecessors, which are more error-prone and thus raise privacy and other security concerns.
To summarize, 5G is enabling us to work in new ways while keeping us more engaged and enhancing productivity. The role of technology is shifting from being a luxury to a necessity by acting as a central nervous system for the organization, and 5G is one among them. Thus, the world of work is changing rapidly and the organizations have to adapt. Is your organization ready for the 5G revolution? Get in touch with our custom software development experts experts today and know how your company can embrace the benefits of 5G.
How Is Augmented Reality Revolutionizing Education Industry?
Augmented reality is the latest breakthrough technology in the digital space. It has been almost half a century from when the concept of Augmented Reality first appeared in 1968, and as Augmented Reality (AR) is penetrating deeper, its uses continue to increase.
By 2022, worldwide shipments of smart glasses are estimated to reach 32.7 million units. And by 2025, the global augmented reality market is anticipated to grow noticeably to about 198 billion U.S. dollars. With such significant growth, it makes sense to consider how AR can benefit our daily lives. In this blog, we will discuss its impact on the education sector in particular. Let’s begin by understanding what AR is.
Read More:
What is Augmented Reality?
Augmented Reality is the bridge that connects the real world with the virtual world. Its popularity is growing rapidly in every industry from social media filters to surgical procedures. As the word augment suggests, AR enhances what we hear, see and feel. It has categories based on various technologies. Some of those categories are marker-based AR, markerless AR, projection-based AR, and superimposed AR. This makes AR useful for various industries.
There are various industries such as public safety, tourism services, entertainment and so on that are leveraging AR. For example, AR aids the automotive industry by assisting with various parameters such as navigation and speed. It helps people not to lose focus while driving because the application can be projected from a console on the glass which only the driver can see. In Healthcare, there are numerous AR applications that support the video platform and can project augmented hands on the patient. Wherever the surgery is taking place, a senior surgeon can guide a beginner in his surgery.
With many more industries benefiting from AR, let’s see how the education industry is revolutionizing with AR.
The Role of Augmented Reality in Education
AR is set to revamp the world’s conventional learning model. It can bring about a positive change in the location and timing of classes and make learning more engaging. Today’s learning process is becoming much more tuned to bring in the elements of interaction and creativity. By providing visual representations, AR helps students acquire, process, and remember information. Thereby, it helps them to test out their knowledge in practice.
AR technology has also helped students to learn and understand their surroundings. The British Museum has already begun using AR technology to help students understand certain displays. It has proved useful in providing students practical knowledge of subjects such as math or science. Let us look into a few more benefits of AR in the educational sector.
1. Edutainment versus Education
AR makes lessons fun learning. Today’s generation is not a chalk and board generation. Studies reveal that students are easily bored with standardized methods of teaching. The reality is that students tend to remember what they see more than what they learn by rote. AR takes them to the next level by helping them not just to see, but also experience and participate. As a result, AR delivers a positive impact on the students by giving them edutainment.
2. Simplify Complex subjects and Exemplify Abstract Concepts
AR breathes life into complex subjects that students are expected to learn. It can bring added creativity, interactivity and engagement to complex and abstract subjects. It simplifies the learning process. Both the teachers and the students likewise can thus take control of the educational process through AR.
Each student’s level of understanding and the pace of learning differs. Certain AR apps allow you to create personalized learning materials. Such apps allow the tutor to create content for the individual needs of each student. This way, students will get to learn complex subjects quickly and easily.
3. AR-Enabled homework
AR can also help students do their assignments and homework better. The fact that today’s generation is tech-savvy can be harnessed to promote education in a way that will appeal to the students.
AR emphasizes important concepts. By making images and information “pop out” of a textbook, AR can break the boundaries of textbook learning, which has been sidelined as boring and tedious and make it interactive and absorbing.
4. Use what they already have
According to the Pew Research Center, 95% of teenagers have access to smartphones. It makes sense to use this to their advantage in education as well. Neither parents nor teachers have to spend extra dollars on buying gadgets for AR learning. The AR app on an existing smartphone is all that is required for interactive learning.
5. Practical Knowledge at AR Labs
For various reasons, schools may choose to limit the scope of practical demonstrations. This is another fact that will change through the use of AR technology. With AR, students can perform practical experiments without the need of the physical lab. This is extremely helpful for professional courses. Students can also gain knowledge about safety procedures and potential hazards in the lab.
Augmented Reality is the Real Future of Education
According to a survey on the impact of interactive technology on marketing students, it is said that 87% were likely to attend the class, 72% were likely to participate and 70% students said that they improved their understanding of specific concepts. If this is true with interactive technology, how much more of an impact would AR have on the student’s attendance, participation, and understanding?
The children of millennials who are born between 2010 and 2025 are called Generation Alpha, which is considered the most technology-infused. AR education is poised to be the norm rather than the exception. According to the forecast, the AR market is expected to reach $60.55 billion by 2023, growing at a CAGR of 40.29%. Undeniably, AR is the real future of education.
Watch more on how Augmented Reality is creating an impact on the Education Industry.
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Fingent is on a go, to revolutionize education sectors with AR technology. With various education application platforms, Fingent is already helping organizations create effective collaboration between students and teachers. To know more about how Fingent can help you provide an effective and efficient learning ecosystem with emerging and trending technologies, get in touch with our experts today!
5 Technology Trends Real Estate Players Should Watch Out For
Digital transformation is today the hottest area of interest in almost every business sector. With the huge growth in a digital savvy user base, enterprises big or small are continuously investing in new age digital technologies and tools to help them serve customers better and survive the tough market competition. The real estate sector is no different in this regard as digital technologies have reshaped both the customer and property landscape over the past couple of years. From facilities such as a simple listing of properties online to AI enabled best property matching based on preferences, the list of digital innovations in the real estate sector is huge. If your primary business is centered around real estate, then the following 5 technology innovations should certainly be on your watch list for 2019.
Augmented and Virtual Reality Applications
Today, real estate is a globally accessible commodity and not restrictive to localized demand. A property may attract interest from buyers across the world and not just in the vicinity or city that it is located. The challenge then lies in providing a holistic experience for the interested buyer to have a good look and feel of the property before investing. It may not always be possible to bring them physically to the place due to cost or other travel related concerns. This is where technology such as AR and VR can make a difference. With hardware devices, making AR/VR capabilities, inexpensive and accessible, property managers can easily facilitate an AR/VR demo for buyers to make faster and better decisions from anywhere. Another useful application would be for homeowners to use AR/VR to decide their home décor or construction techniques. For example, the positioning of furniture, temporary or permanent interior fixtures, etc., can be decided way before the actual construction begins. This allows more planning and elimination of cost overheads wherein both buyer and builder would have a clear understanding of how the building is to be constructed.
Check out how AR and VR are revolutionizing the real estate industry.
This video is made using InVideo.io
Big Data Analytics
Real estate is one sector where pricing is a highly dynamic constituent. There are a number of factors influencing property or land prices and very often owners or enterprises that manage properties find it hard to offer competitive or profitable pricing to prospective buyers. However, several forward-thinking players have now started to utilize the power of big data analytics to get the most preferential pricing schemes that bolster both interests from buyers as well as maintain a competitive profit margin for sellers or property owners. Historical rental or property cost data along with trends such as demographic changes, population density, preferential behavior, amenity choices, spending patterns, etc., are supplied as data insights into powerful analytical systems. These in turn offer insights or in other words recommendations for property owners to price their offerings competitively and enhance the overall buying or rental experience for a consumer.
Related Reading: Find how Big Data is influencing the health care industry.
Innovative Property Management
The rise of start-up culture and the global workforce paradigm has impacted the real estate sector considerably. Today, it is not just one major tenant that leases an entire building or space within a building to set up its office, but several players invest to take up co-working spaces. In fact, studies have shown that shared workspaces have grown at an incredible rate of 200% over 5 years from 2013 to 2018. Co-working spaces facilitate companies to set up a presence where their best employees prefer to work thereby helping in boosting retention levels. For the real estate sector, this change in occupancy trend has called for the rise of innovative property management software that incorporates several new technology offerings. For example, power and other utility services have to be shared among multiple tenants in a co-working space and this requires the property management tool to be integrated with an IoT powered building management system that can monitor occupancy levels, adjust power and other environmental support features like lighting, temperature control, etc. Doing these tasks manually would require considerable overhead and hiring of a large workforce. Autonomous IoT integrated property management solutions can easily facilitate multiple tenants to collaborate in a workspace saving them the hassle of worrying about unwanted costs and the owners can have peace of mind without having to deal with manual supply and maintenance of essential support services.
Related Reading: Check out tips to select the right software for property management.
Blockchain Powered Smart Contracts
While some of the technology advancements we mentioned before require autonomous property management, blockchain is the key ingredient that can help make it possible in real time. The decentralized and highly immutable features of blockchain can help transform real estate management and property leasing considerably. An owner or landlord can easily rent out or sell portions of his property with agreed terms and conditions all recorded on smart contracts. The contract makes the details of the sale or rental highly encrypted and complies with all local laws and regulations. Besides, several government agencies are increasingly investing in blockchain to set up regulatory repositories that can autonomously validate land records, property and tax implications and much more. So, if real estate buyers can bump up their investments in blockchain, they can turn to become more compliant and legitimate in the market. This would increase affection for their offerings for prospective customers.
Digital Advertising and Sales
Today, a large portion of prospective buyers or leasing clients are hooked to social media and other digital channels to gain information. As a real estate dealer, you need to ensure that your properties are marketed in the right digital channel and reach the right audience within such channels. There are tons of social media advertising platforms that help you filter your target audience to the finest level. If you do not want to spend time on the filtering part, there are AI-powered tools that help do the job even better than humans. AI is not just limited to ad filtering for the real estate sector. There are intelligent chatbot applications available today for deployment in your website. These bots can converse with potential buyers when they inquire on your website, collect their information, suggest them the best choices based on their preferences, pass the right information to sales agents to take the lead further and ultimately help them close it quickly. From marketing automation to intelligent sales conversations, there is a host of digital solutions that the real estate players, can utilize to win customer hearts with personalization in highly competitive markets.
Related Reading: Watch out for the emerging technology trends of 2019.
No longer can the real estate sector be labeled as a laggard in terms of technology innovations. There are plenty of digital avenues where smart players can invest and stand out from the competition. We have showcased 5 of these avenues that are increasingly driving more value for adopters and we believe that these should be on the watchlist of any real estate player in 2019. Going digital friendly is no easy task, especially if you do not have a sizeable technology team in-house who is well versed in all these innovations. But that is where a technology partner like Fingent can prove to be the decisive factor in on-boarding the best technology innovations in your real estate business. If you are aspiring to be a leader in the real estate space through technology, talk to our experts today to explore the vast opportunities in digital transformation for your business.