Tag: VR Technology
The implementation and development of immersive digital technologies such as Artificial Intelligence, Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, Machine Learning, and 3D Configurators have drastically changed the way the world works. These technologies have proven their importance in innumerable fields and applications such as the communication and IT Service industry, Real Estate Industry, Manufacturing Industry, and many more.
In this article, we will discuss about three of these world-changing technologies and their application in the field of real estate, so buckle up and let’s get started!
AR In Real Estate
When you own a real estate business you already know that it is an ever-changing business. One day its ways of marketing are traditional and the next to take a 180 degrees turn to a completely modern approach. In this fast-paced industry, the use of Augmented Reality tilts more odds in your favor. Before we move any further let us first reiterate the meaning of Augmented Reality.
Augmented Reality (AR) is the real-time integration of digital information with the user’s environment in the form of text, graphics, audio, and other virtual enhancements integrated with real-world objects.
Although the conventional way to purchase property may be exciting, it can also be extremely tedious and time-consuming. The implementation of Augmented Reality has made this daunting process easier and less time-consuming. AR has successfully instigated realtors, builders, and real estate agents to take the leap of faith toward the digital front. With the help of this technology, they can offer better customer experience, faster purchase process, exciting tours, and boost their overall conversion rate.
Through AR clients can explore several properties and tour these properties virtually with just a few clicks in the comfort of their homes. This magical AR teleportation significantly saves valuable resources of time, energy, and money. If none of these are reasons enough, it also makes the entire process more exciting and fun.
Read more: Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and Mixed Reality detailed with Real-Life Examples!
Top Benefits Of Augmented Reality In Real Estate
1. Time-Saving
Augmented reality real estate applications show customers information about the building infrastructure, their effective energy rating, panes of glass used, materials used for construction, and even information about the vicinity of schools, hospitals, and community centers around the property. Although the initial installation of AR applications for real estate may cost a lot, in the bigger picture, it saves you money. MagicPlan is one such app that focuses on generating floor plans from photos helping buyers and tenants get a better sense of how to use the space and meet their needs without wasting much time and money on multiple site visits.
2. Visualization
Details about building construction can be boring to have to screen through but when you add the element of augmented reality, clients get to emerge themselves into the dimension of the property. This keeps them engaged and interested. Augmented reality applications let the customer view the property from different angles not just the bits that are captured from a camera. Vera is an apt example. The application can transform buildings into digitally reconstructed buildings from the inside out through highly accurate three-dimensional visualizations
3. Enhance Customer Experience
With all the above-mentioned benefits, customer experience is already bound to be boosted due to AR. Virtual staging enables customers to customize the interior décor and view finished goods and furniture before putting them in place. The entire experience is guaranteed to boost the client’s level of satisfaction. RealAR, an app transforming 2D floor plans and 3D models into full-blown life-size walkthroughs, gained maximum fame during the pandemic, enabling time-saving and cost-effective floor planning.
VR In Real Estate
Just like AR even Virtual Reality has set its claws deep into the real estate industry. These two technologies generally go hand-in-hand making them a dynamic power couple.
Virtual Reality is a computer-generated simulation of any 3D image or environment that is made to be interactive in a seemingly real or physical way by an individual using special electronic equipment, such as a VR helmet.
VR meets real estate at the intersection called 3D walkthroughs. These walkthroughs are a brilliantly immersive experience that enables customers to interact with the virtual environment and tour the property as if they were actually on the plot. It is no doubt that VR real estate is the next big thing in this industry and almost every VR app development company offers a specific spectrum of services in the virtual reality that cater to real estate segments. VR walkthroughs became famous during the COVID pandemic and have continued to thrive ever since.
Benefits Of VR In Real Estate
1. Immersive Property Showing
After visualizing the property most customers want to interact with it and try to cop a feel of the surrounding, VR comes in handy here. VR’s biggest strength is seen here with its ability to showcase property with a realistic and immersive experience, giving the client a chance to thoroughly explore the property. This sense of realism, familiar physics, and interactive nature unite together to create a truly immersive property showing. Virtual 360-degree walkthrough tours of the interior and exterior of the house without visiting the property in person is one major example of VR utilized for property visits.
2. Virtual Staging And Interior Design
Virtual staging is essentially being able to adjust the elements in your surrounding and furnish rooms however they like while viewing the property through virtual reality. By letting the customer customize the interior décor and design of the property, VR creates a more enhanced customer experience. VR developers can create enticing features like allowing the user to change the materials in space, try different furniture settings, modify the floor plans, or check the view from innumerable angles.
3. Collaborative Virtual Meetings And Presentations
Collaborative Virtual meetings are a method of communication that is technologically mediated and can facilitate engagement in remote and hybrid places. This simply means that customers from all over the world can view the property and interact with the real estate agency to make a purchase through these meetings and presentations. With the assistance of VR, you don’t even have to be in the same country in order to browse for property there.
Here’s an example of how Virtual Reality has eased campus visits for students, especially for those geographically challenged to explore the various educational options offered by universities.
3D Configuration In Real Estate
Real estate prices across the world are skyrocketing, and people can’t afford to spend extra money on renovations after a building is raised. If purchasing the right property is challenging, constructing a building that meets all your needs is a bigger headache, but with the help of 3D Collaborative tools, this process becomes seamlessly easy.
3D visualization tools can assist users in designing digital buildings while displaying and configuring them in real time with photorealistic detail.
Benefits of 3D Configurations In Real Estate
1. Customization And Personalization Of Properties
3D Configurators help clients personalize their environment to meet their specific needs and keep the agency more customer-centric. It allows customers to select from a range of customizable options such as flooring, furniture, colors, lighting, and exterior views. 3D configurations are essentially a way to let customers personalize property to their specifications. Enabling 3D views of construction sites and updated reports even before construction starts saves time and money.
2. Real-time Pricing And Cost Estimates
Detailed 3D configuring can make justifying prices, placing quotes, and ultimately selling property much easier. The 3D configuration also provides clients with a detailed view of a property, enabling them to understand the features and aspects that drive its true value. It gives an overall understanding of special features such as underground parking, nearby schools, fancy landscapes, and more.
3. Designing And Visualizing Floor Plans
When you use 3D Configurators your project can be displayed in astonishing detail at any stage of construction. Customers can learn and see everything involved in the project and even take virtual tours around the property. They can visualize the floor plans, project specifications, materials, and much more. 3D visualization allows users to witness photorealistic imagery and enhance the elegance of the property on sale, including its interior and exterior views. Enabling 3D visualization models of real-estate designs helps get a clear idea of what the comp[leted project will look like.
Integration And Synergy Of AR, VR, And 3D Configuration
Integration is the combination of various elements to form an efficient system and synergy is formed when multiple systems work together towards a shared goal. When it comes to the above-discussed technologies, the synergy they form together is powerful and has left a strong indentation on the real estate industry.
1. Combined Applications And Benefits Of AR, VR, And 3D Configuration:
There are innumerable benefits of AR, VR, and 3D configurations in the real estate industry, such as – familiarity with the property, objective evaluation of the plot, high level of attention to detail, widening global opportunities, and a great marketing tool.
2. Enhanced Customer Experience And Engagement Through Integration:
As seen above, all three of these technologies have several strengths on their own, and when integrated, they form a mighty force. This powerful experience is the path to great customer experience and interactions, ultimately leading to increased profits.
3. Common Challenges Faced In Implementing AR, VR, And 3D Configuration For Real Estate Businesses:
Just as any new development would, even this integrated solution has its fair share of challenges: Cost of implementation, tossing agents out of employment, and the need to educate employees about the management of new technologies.
How Fingent Can Help
Today’s tech-savvy customers demand prompt responses, service efficiency, and enhanced experiences. To match up with the rising customer demands, Real Estate companies have no option but to adopt modern technology. AR, VR, and 3D Web Configurators are a few modern technologies enabling the Real Estate industry to create new paths of success opportunities. Fingent’s expertise in the domain has enabled many companies in real estate to innovate for better operations. Our experts use the latest technology to develop custom software solutions that cater specifically to unique property management challenges. Connect with our experts today to learn more about how we can help transform your property management business with custom-built technology solutions.
According to a 2020 report, 58% of real estate brokers have a clearly defined digital strategy, a figure that represents a 6% increase from the two previous years and thus indicates that an increasingly large percentage of the real estate industry is buying into the concept of digital transformation.
While the real estate industry is — and always will be — centered around interpersonal interactions between buyers, sellers, and agents, technology plays a more significant role in these transactions than ever before. Innovative real estate firms worldwide are leveraging futuristic technology far more frequently, and those that fail to adapt will find it hard to keep up.
Technology such as machine learning (ML) software, artificial intelligence (AI)-powered mobile apps, drones, and augmented reality (AR) solutions are no longer just “nice to have” in the real estate industry. Digital transformation is an inevitability that real estate professionals must embrace if they want to thrive in such a rapidly evolving business space.
Why Digital Transformation Is Inevitable for the Real Estate Industry
While many factors fuel digital transformation in the real estate industry, the most potent catalyst is consumers. Home buyers and sellers have grown accustomed to being able to perform a variety of essential life tasks online thanks to the ever-evolving nature of smartphones and other sophisticated internet-connected devices.
According to a 2022 report, 51% of all home buyers found the properties they purchased via the internet. Another 29% found their dream home with the assistance of a real estate agent, whereas just 4% located the home they eventually purchased via traditional signage.
These statistics indicate that the vast majority of prospective buyers are taking charge in their search for their next home. Real estate agents who want to keep pace must incorporate futuristic technology into their sales models or risk finding it increasingly difficult to provide consumers with the efficient and primarily digital experience they prefer.
Still, the industry is about more than buying and selling homes and real estate technology means more than improving sales. Many property management firms want to leverage technology for payment platforms, leasing and facility management, back office processes, and more. Most important to these management teams is having all those processes in one place.
Read more: Reshaping Real Estate Operations with Fully Integrated End-to-End Software.
Futuristic Technology is Poised to Reshape Real Estate
The real estate industry can solve many existing challenges by embracing digital technologies. From complex workflows brought on by the multitude of activities required of a real estate firm to communication shortfalls, there are many leading technologies that property services can embrace as part of a digital transformation. While there is no single answer, some forms of futuristic technology that are already making a big splash in the real estate industry include:
1. ML and AI
Machine learning and artificial intelligence technologies are true game changers for the real estate industry. They enable real estate agents and brokers to automate redundant tasks, like creating timesheets, filling out paperwork, generating offer documents, or scheduling meetings. Within property management, automation can lead to higher sales volumes, efficient back-office solutions, and a more valuable experience for clients and management teams.
2. Mobile Applications
Real estate agents and property managers are always on the go, and while smartphones help them stay connected to clients and co-workers while in the field, these devices are only as good as the applications installed on them.
With that in mind, many real estate firms are turning to robust mobile applications that are purpose-built for the real estate industry. These applications can enable the performance of a wide array of tasks remotely, including approving documents, sending forms to clients, and much more.
3. All-in-One Property Management Platforms
Traditionally, real estate firms that manage rental properties have done so by using a cobbled-together network of disparate applications. Though that kind of approach works, it is hardly ever efficient or cost-effective. Fortunately, dynamic, all-in-one property management platforms like Rentmoji exist.
Created by Fingent, Rentmoji empowers property managers to govern every facet of property management from a single, user-friendly platform that includes a mobile application. The platform includes a suite of interconnected apps, each of which addresses specific property management challenges and pain points.
With separate sub-portals for tenants, owners, and vendors, the Rentmoji suite provides complete transparency for all parties and makes process automation a breeze. Rentmoji is the reality of futuristic technology for the present.
4. Drones
Drones enable real estate agents to capture aerial pictures of a home and property to provide a more comprehensive overview of each listing. Unique and captivating aerial drone photos on an online listing will help real estate agents make the properties they are selling stand out. In addition, multiple listing service (MLS) reports that properties with drone images in the United States are 68% more likely to sell.
Agents can also use drones to help assess property lines, landscapes, and potential maintenance concerns. Real estate agents and property managers can then use this information to help clients make informed purchasing decisions or evaluate upkeep issues.
5. AR/VR Technologies
Virtual reality (VR) and AR technologies benefit firms that sell yet-to-be-completed homes. Agents can use these technologies to give buyers a sneak peek of a home before it is built, and these digital images can help agents close more deals and bring customers’ vision of their dream home to life much more quickly as a result.
AR and VR technologies can also be used to digitally stage properties, an approach that is much more cost-effective than bringing furniture in just to stage a vacant home. Staging properties with AR/VR tech makes vacant homes more appealing and can thus speed up the selling process.
Read more: Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality: Transforming The Real Estate Industry!
How Fingent Can Help Real Estate Firms Embrace Digital Technologies
If you operate within the real estate industry and want to gain a definitive edge by investing in digital transformation, Fingent is here to help. We create customized, futuristic technology that is tailor-made for the needs of your business.
We understand the challenges that affect the real estate industry. You’re seeking solutions to marketing challenges that help you stand out against the growing competition, and your business wants to adapt to evolving tech trends. We have a track record of solutions that are here to help.
Our custom software development professionals have created numerous real estate software solutions for clients that engage in every facet of the industry, from single-family residential sales to commercial property management.
To learn more about how Fingent can help you step into the future, contact our team today to schedule a consultation.
According to a study by Autism Speak and the CDC, 1 in 59 children in the U.S has autism. While children and adults with autism have verbal, behavioral, and social skills challenges, they also have unique identities and preferences like anyone else. Some people with autism who are minimally verbal or non-verbal use iPad and voice apps to speak for them. Also, they use iPads as an educational tool every day. Tech like the iPad has led both parents and the autism support team to embrace virtual reality. Today, more and more counselors, therapists, teachers, and parents are leveraging Virtual Reality as a therapy tool to help autistic people to communicate and connect with the world around them better. For example, the Center for BrainHealth and the Child Study Center at Yale University’s School of Medicine used VR to help young adults with autism achieve economic and social independence.
Additionally, the technology is helping non-autistic people clear some misconceptions about autism and understand the reality of living with the condition.
While VR has been gaining attention recently, it was used for therapy as early as 1996. The studies in the 90s were promising, but VR was expensive, and headsets were bulky and uncomfortable, which was a major hurdle for people with sensory disorders. All these issues prevented VR therapies from becoming a viable option for people with autism.
Today, VR technology is not just cheap and accessible. The VR headsets are lighter and more comfortable too. So, researchers are studying the potential of Virtual Reality as a treatment tool for autism more than ever before.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standards of Medical Education and Training
Uses of VR in Autism Care
1. VR Apps
At the University of Haifa, researchers have created a VR app that trains kids to cross a road safely. This app simulates what it would be like to cross the road with cars and traffic lights. The interesting part of the app is that it allows kids to practice crossing the street without the real-world consequence of being hit by a car. Kids can practice each step as long they need and reduce the risk while learning a new skill.
Floreo is a VR learning and social skills app that therapists, parents, schools can use and support staff to help kids with autism. This app helps children learn social skills like reciprocity and planning for unexpected situations through social stories. It also helps them detach emotionally with interactive virtual sensory tools. The app can be installed on a smartphone or tablet with a Google Cardboard headset. It comes with a good data capture system making it easier to track individual goals.
2. VR Games
Teachers recommend that parents play games with autistic kids to help them learn to mimic skills like sharing and back and forth communication. Generally, autistic people can find it difficult to make eye contact or have a two-way conversation between people. This struggle can unintentionally push others away. VR games such as Playground, Astropolis, and non-VR software such as SketchUp use the VR motivator as both play and learning opportunities.
- Astropolis puts players in a spaceship to fly, using resources to ensure space colonies are happy and functioning. Players can collect and manage the resources and defend the colony as well.
- Maritime Defender is yet another mini-game they can practice letting pilots through a wormhole or not allowing them to pass through. This helps with decision-making and control-based skills.
- Stellar Prospector and Starjack improve perception and thinking, and autistic people are encouraged to play this game.
- Sketchup, a 3D architectural and designing software, helps draft objects and structures. It gives autistic kids and adults a creative outlet not found in any school setting.
Other VR games such as Vivecraft, Tilt Brush, and Medium also help build things in 3-D and 360-degrees without the real-world challenges like running out of supplies or messing up, or having to start fresh. These games do not get autistic people direct jobs in coding, architecture, art, and design, but ignite their passion and encourage them to pursue a career in those fields.
3. Tackling Phobias
Virtual reality can tackle phobias in autistic kids, such as fear of classrooms, balloons, animals, and public transport. Cognitive Behavioural Therapy(CBT), along with visualization and imagination, can combat the effects of these phobias.
Using VR, participants enter a “Blue Room” and navigate through a 360-degrees video projection of a scene usually accompanied by audio that replicates the object or experience they fear. Here the participants do not have to wear goggles as the therapist manipulates the scene using iPad controls. Also, the therapist uses CBT techniques to calm the participants when exposed to their phobias.
Read more: Top AR & VR Trends to Transform Ecommerce in 2022!
Conclusion
The VR technology enables therapists, medical professionals, and parents to leverage it to help people with autism learn differently and improve their communication skills.
At Fingent top custom software development company, we have the expertise to create apps, games, and software that can help autistic people connect and communicate with people around them. For more information, reach out to our team.
How Various Industries are Leveraging AR, VR, and MR Today?
Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality(VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) may sound the same to many of us. But do you know that each one is different? AR, VR, and MR are different tech concepts with characteristics that differentiate each from one another.
Here’s what you need to know about each of the technologies, along with a few examples.
Augmented Reality
Augmented Reality uses computer vision along with mapping and depth tracking to show the appropriate content to the user. This functionality allows the cameras to collect, send and process the data to show the appropriate content to the user.
AR is designed for unrestricted movement while projecting images or other objects that you are looking at and enhances the user’s physical environment with contextually relevant digital content in real-time. A user can experience Augmented Reality with a smartphone or special hardware.
Watch Video: Augmented Reality in Education Transforms Learning Experience
Some of the interesting real-world examples of AR
1. AR in Gaming
Games like “Pokemon Go” project a Pokemon on your screen, on top of whatever your mobile camera focuses on. Augmented Reality has beautifully combined the real world with the favorite Pokemon characters.
2. AR in Medical Training
Augmented Reality is finding its virtue in medical training today. For example, students at the Cleveland Clinic, Case Western Reserve University are learning human anatomy using AR headsets or glasses. AR allows them to examine the human body without the need for dissecting cadavers or watching live operations.
Read more: How Augmented Reality in Healthcare is set to Transform the Industry in Future
3. AR in Retail
The retail sector also has been taking advantage of AR to help customers have a more enjoyable and interactive shopping experience. For example, Harley Davidson has developed a unique mobile app for its customers that allows them to view a motorcycle in-store using AR and customize it by adding accessories, changing paint jobs, etc.
IKEA, the leading retail conglomerate, has rolled out AR-powered retail apps that allow customers to “try on” clothing remotely before buying them online.
Read more: How Top Brands Embrace Augmented Reality to Offer Immersive Customer Experiences
4. AR in Manufacturing
Augmented Reality enables the manufacturing industry to gain a competitive edge by helping companies improve quality and productivity. Workers can get assistance from AR gadgets to save time, reduce errors and increase efficiency. Some of the world’s biggest brands like Boeing and General Electric are already using AR in their manufacturing processes.
Using AR glasses allows Boeing’s technicians to easily view the wiring renderings in the aircraft fuselage without external distractions.
Augmented Reality enables GE mechanics to be more productive as the technology offers them step-by-step instructions and visuals directly within their line of sight. They also get alerts in real-time through AR smart glasses so that they can inspect every step before moving on.
Read more: How Augmented Reality Simplifies Equipment Maintenance
Virtual Reality
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.
As the main focus of Virtual Reality is on simulating the vision, you will have to wear a VR headset such as Oculus Quest or HTC Vive Cosmos in front of your eyes that eliminates any interaction with the natural world (avoids distractions). Typically, two autofocus lenses are placed between the screen and the user’s eyes. The lenses adjust based on the individual eye movement and positioning. To render the visuals on the screen, you can use an HDMI cable connected to the PC or mobile phone.
Virtual Reality uses speakers, goggles, and even handheld wearables to simulate a real-world experience. You can also employ visual, audio, and touch simulation to create a more immersive reality.
A few real-life applications of VR
1. VR in Education
Virtual Reality can make learning more engaging and immersive. In addition to schools and universities, virtual experiences can help businesses train their staff. Currently, Unimersiv is offering VR educational content for institutions and companies.
Case Study: Using 360-degree VR simulations, the University of North Carolina offers an immersive campus touring experience to aspiring students. Download now!
2. VR in Real Estate
For years, real estate agents have used photos and graphic designs to showcase properties to prospective buyers. Today, Virtual Reality has transformed real estate property tours, making them more personalized, immersive, and close to reality. Being an immersive technology, VR enables potential buyers to experience a 3D walkthrough and understand better what each property has to offer even before scheduling a physical site visit.
For example, Sotheby’s, one of the world’s leading luxury realty brands, offers Virtual Reality home tours and videos to its clients. Potential buyers can view properties and spaces from the comfort of their homes using a web browser, or a smartphone, PC, laptop, or through a wearable headset.
Read more:How Virtual Reality can Transform Your Real Estate Business
3. VR in Marketing
VR is helping businesses reach out to their audiences by launching immersive and engaging marketing campaigns. With the COVID-19 pandemic compelling people to shop online and companies to transform digitally, Virtual Reality is gaining more popularity as it is helping people get a feel for products without leaving their homes.
For example, IKEA has introduced a VR app that enables users to experience kitchen remodeling. Using the VR Kitchen app, you can explore the virtual kitchen and interact with the objects using a VR headset.
4. VR in Healthcare
Virtual Reality helps doctors understand their patients’ needs better as it provides an in-depth look into human anatomy. Today, VR is extensively used in surgical training.
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.
Read more: How Virtual Reality Improves the Standard of Medical Education and Training
5. VR in Travel and Hospitality
The travel industry is facing the hardest time ever in its history. However, vaccination rollouts on a global scale and international travel relaxations now give a fillip to travel, tourism, and hospitality. An early adopter of digitalization, the travel industry has already forayed into Virtual Reality. Travel businesses attract tourists and even promote holiday destinations through virtual staging and tours. Virtual Reality also allows people to explore the world virtually, especially those who cannot afford to travel.
Google StreetView is one of the best examples of how VR is being used in the travel industry. In addition to viewing panoramic images on a computer, it allows users to enable Google Cardboard mode for a Virtual Reality experience.
Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality, sometimes known as hybrid reality, combines the elements of both AR as well as VR. However, here the virtual content is not only overlaid on the actual environment but is fixed to and interacts with that environment. In simple terms, Mixed Reality lets you see virtual objects just like Augmented Reality, but these objects are capable of interacting with the real world. In simple words, Mixed Reality is more like immersive and interactive Augmented Reality.
MR is still in its nascent stages and may take time to create an impact like the other two technologies. One of the most remarkable Mixed Reality apparatuses is Microsoft’s HoloLens.
Opportunities provided by Mixed Reality
1. MR in Education
Mixed Reality allows students to see both the real world as well as the holograms. MR offers an immersive learning environment enabling students to understand better.
Case Study: Find how Fingent developed a unique Mixed Reality application for a leading university that enables users to identify people using facial recognition. Download Now!
2. MR in Manufacturing
Mixed Reality provides workers with real-time assistance, thereby facilitating manufacturing processes. The technology allows workers to see holographic instructions, so they know what to do. This minimizes human errors and improves quality significantly. Mixed Reality is also helpful for repairs and maintenance, especially in industries that require precision and expertise.
For example, Renault Trucks integrates Mixed Reality into its manufacturing process for enhancing engine quality control at one of its factories.
The blurring line between physical and virtual
While Virtual Reality takes you to the virtual world from wherever you are, Augmented Reality adds to the reality by projecting information on top of what you see. Mixed Reality combines both AR and VR. All these technologies, though powerful, are yet to make their mark with consumers. That said, they can completely change the way we use computing devices, gadgets, and technology in the future.
If you are eager to offer your customers immersive virtual experiences that surpass physical encounters, look no further than Fingent, a top custom software development company. Get in touch with us now!
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)
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Why Implement Virtual Reality in your Real Estate Business
Virtual Reality is rapidly becoming a part of every modern business, and the real estate industry is not excluded from the list. In fact, VR technology opens up many innovative opportunities for real estate businesses to market their listings in a better way.
Generally, a real estate deal involves checking the listings, price negotiations, and an in-person visit to the property. This workflow is very robust and has always brought forth good results. However, it is very time-consuming for both the client and the realtor. Sometimes, visiting the property can be inconvenient for the homebuyers as well. This is where Virtual Reality tools can be a game-changer.
Related Reading: Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality: Transforming The Real Estate Industry
Virtual Tours
VR technology allows realtors to showcase the property to their clients as if they were there in the flesh. The client just has to put on a VR headset and experience an immersive three-dimensional tour of the property. Potential homebuyers can virtually visit multiple properties this way, even without having to leave their home once. This allows them to make an informed decision when buying or renting the property.
As for the real estate companies, employing VR tools allows them to expand their reach to more clients. As the internet is not confined to any physical boundaries or borders, realtors can offer their listings to global clients as well. This can be of great help to long-distance buyers as well as to those who are looking to migrate to a different country.
Realtors can also offer a 360-degree virtual tour of the property for clients who do not have access to a VR headset. Alternatively, they can create an interactive virtual tour, wherein the user can move from one place to another within the property by clicking on various hotspots. Both of the guided and interactive virtual tours can be easily included along with the property listing on the website.
Virtual Staging
Virtual Reality also allows realtors to add furniture and other essential items in the property so that it looks more appealing and cozy to the clients. Staging has been an integral part of the real estate business for years and is widely used when uploading photos of the property on the website. VR technology can make this more realistic.
Virtual staging is one of the best ways to market a newly built home or apartment. This can be done by creating 3D tours of the property with furniture and fixtures. That makes it very simple for the client to visualize how their future personal space will be. As this connects potential buyers to the property emotionally, it motivates them to make a quick decision.
Real estate businesses can also employ VR technology to boost the sales of under-construction properties using virtual staging. Realtors find it very difficult to market such properties because empty buildings and unfinished structures do not attract buyers at all. This gap can be efficiently filled using architectural 3D visualization and virtual staging tools.
Virtual Commerce
Virtual staging of the property has another benefit too. Apart from creating a premium and lasting impression on the potential buyers, it can also promote virtual commerce. Realtors can easily add a purchase option with any element when staging the property and creating the 3D tour. This allows the clients to customize the space as per their personal preferences.
For instance, real estate businesses can integrate an online store with the staged elements. This will give the clients the options to, say, change the style of the furniture or choose a different light fixture. This not only makes the virtual tour of the property more interactive but also allows customers to imagine how it will be when they move in.
Even if a client does not make any changes to the interior staging during the virtual tour of the property, there are still chances that they may find the items included in the 3D tour interesting and may buy them eventually when they buy or rent the property. This is always an added advantage for the realtor.
Related Reading: Tech Disruptors in the Real Estate Space
The Key Benefits of Employing VR Tools in Real Estate Business
The most striking advantage of incorporating Virtual Reality in real estate business is that it saves time for both the realtor and the client. It is much cost-effective than taking the client to check out multiple properties.
Besides, an immersive 3D virtual tour of all the properties listed on the website will be available round-the-clock to the clients, which means that they can virtually visit any property at any time. This allows realtors to work with more clients, which means more opportunities to sell a property.
Another great thing about VR technology is that it gives clients an instant sense of ownership. As they get the options to customize the space as per their liking during the virtual tour, checking out the different areas of the property quickly establishes a personal connection with the clients.
This can be very helpful in inspiring them to make a purchase or sign a rental agreement. It is also possible to add to the customer experience by including interactive tools in the virtual tour, such as mortgage calculators and neighborhood descriptions.
There is no arguing that Virtual Reality has already made an impact in the real estate industry. Most of the big names have adopted the technology for improving their reach, and soon, every real estate business will incorporate VR technology for better productivity.
If you would like to work with an expert to build your VR strategy, we custom software development experts can help you. Contact us.