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avatardigital · 3 years

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Reasons why Virtual Reality is booming in the workplace amid the pandemic

There has been significant impact on human life amid the pandemic- both in good and bad ways. One such positive and dramatic impact has been the increase in the usage of virtual reality applications in the workplace. Covid-19 pandemic has resulted in a huge number of people working remotely from home across the world.

Last year, a PwC report had predicted that almost 24 million jobs worldwide would turn remote and use AR and VR by 2030, to work, train, and provide better customer service. Several companies like Spacial have created a virtual reality version of ZOOM which has seen 1000% increase in usage since the pandemic. Companies like Accenture are using Virtual Reality technology to explore different recruitment techniques.

Virtual Reality Booming in the Workplace- Here’s why

Virtual Reality has become more important since the COVID-19 era both internally as well as in relationship outside with the customers. Here is why the virtual reality technology is booming in the workplace amid the pandemic.

Marketing

Since the COVID-19 pandemic has struck, companies have had to reinvent themselves and search for all means to optimize revenue. For this, marketing is crucial and is considered to be an investment in the company for better growth. Virtual Reality is now applied to different marketing strategies to reach the customer in a more realistic, natural, and immersive way. By using virtual reality, companies are able to reinforce in the customer’s mind by showing that they are a leading company and what best services they can offer.

Simulation

Virtual Reality Simulations helps us to understand the behavior of a specific element when faced with a specific event. In the COVID-19 pandemic virtual reality has proven to enhance the quality of propagation studies in closed environments. Virtual reality technology has helped us believe that if something can be studied virtually with means of simulation, it is convenient to do so, as it maintains social distancing norms and prevents possible infections.

Communication

Virtual Reality tools like Zoom and Google meet have brought in and enhanced communication between employees at work place, teachers and students, and in general communication between the common people. Most companies have found videoconferencing tools their solution to maintain contact with the team. This helps employees stay connected and work together. Virtual Reality offers more closeness, better user experience, and greater immersion to those who use it.

Training

The onset of COVID-19 has brought a whole new dimension to training. With the use of virtual reality simulation technology, companies are being able to use better tools to train new and existing workforce. Virtual reality has enabled greater ease in updating the content of the training material or modifying the existing training structure. Even post COVID-19 the use of VR in training will become an essential component due to the advantages it holds.

Challenges that lie ahead

Like all technologies are a boon as well as curse, the VR has its own disadvantages too. VR can create plenty of opportunities for abuse. Any new technology needs time to build up and firm laws need to be created. With the advancement of Virtual Reality, companies need time to figure out the practices. Some practices can be regulated using current laws, while some will need precedents.

According to experts, Virtual Reality may pose a threat to privacy. Using VR technology, all information that has not been collected till date, is now being collected. Several companies collect physiological responses and personal information using VR, however maintaining the privacy of this information is also crucial. If an employee working at the company claims breach of privacy, the company can be sued at court according to state laws.

Virtual reality used in video conferencing platforms too has its own share of concerns. There have been several incidents of “Zoom bombing” where unwanted people have jumped into video conferences. An unwanted person rather than being dragged out from the venue, can instead be muted by the moderator.

Conclusion

The truth is like all innovation, Virtual reality technology is both a boon as well as curse. Virtual reality should be utilized by the workforce without causing the users inconvenience, privacy breach, and discomfort. It should only be used to enhance productivity, training, quality, and customer experience. If it works, companies can push further beyond the boundaries of excellence.

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avatardigital · 3 years

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How To Convince the Management to Adopt Augmented Reality Practices

If you keep up with the tech world, you probably have seen the huge potential augmented reality has, and if you ever worked on AR or tried one of the many groundbreaking Augmented Reality apps then you experienced it first hand. Your management didn’t, but we’ve got your back.

There are times in which the management of a company needs to be alerted to some ways it can do better, and as far as technology is concerned, there are other departments in the company that can keep up with it more than the CEO, as an example.

This means it falls upon IT professionals and the likes to alert their management to new groundbreaking technologies like is the case with Augmented Reality.

Having said that, it may be difficult to convince the people in charge that the expense is justified, and that’s just what we’ll write about in this article, giving you the tools you need to complete this daunting task.

Show Them All of The Added Layers They Can Add to Services and Products:

Good managers are always trying to add new layers to their services and products since they know that by adding more value to them they are expanding their chances for the business to succeed in many ways.

They can charge for those extra layers and increase their profits, or they can “offer” those extra layers free as the value so they can increase customer retention and acquisition.

No matter the goal, the added value is always valuable, and AR allows managers to add that extra layer they have been desperately looking for.

Demonstrate How They Can Harness

Augmented Reality

to Advertise, Promote and Cross-Promote:

To convince your management to adopt a new practice, you must first make them see it’s not something they will just throw money at to please you. This means you should focus on benefits. This comes in the way to improve the service, like the before header, or promote the services they have.

Augmented Reality brings you the opportunity to promote in a new way, and to cross-promote with strategic partners or points of sale.

This is something they may haven’t considered yet, and being able to promote your product right at the point of sale is something managers love.

Better than just telling them about it, test one of the already developed apps for it and show them.

Focus on the Benefits in Terms of Numbers, Profit and Market Share:

Another thing people who are highly analytical like are analytics of course. If you could prepare numbers beforehand, try to do so.

Try to show them there are a lot of profits to be had and an untapped market that more than makes up for the cost of investing in adopting AR.

If the potential is really there, then it will be fairly easy to put it on paper.

If you’re just doing it for vanity points, then you’ll probably have to approach things from another angle.

Uncover the Menace From Competitors Using It Before They Do:

You tried every positive argument you could and they still are on the fence? Well, time to switch it up and present them with a negative instead.

Make them imagine a world where their most direct competitor jumped on this opportunity before them and show them what a grim world that would be.

They would be perceived by your market share as the innovative ones and the ones who “think outside the box”.

Their products and services can get more value-added and surpass yours owns in terms of quality, or more.

Think of multiple ways this can affect their business, and then hit them with the notion that this would all be on your favor if you’re the first ones to make that leap.

Onboard Them in Some Augmented Reality Apps:

The best way to get them to adopt augmented reality and an augmented reality strategy are by getting them into the technology.

Show them an AR Marketplace and a few of the already launched apps or application demos to get them to really grasp what the concept is all about.

By using the apps they’ll hopefully start seeing the benefits of getting ideas on their own that will skyrocket your chances to convert them into Augmented Reality advocates.

Show Them Case Studies From Your Industry, or Another and Go, Pioneer;

Finally, you can search the web for case studies on your niche and industry and show them the success cases that are already out there.

On the other hand, on the off chance you can’t find any, show them a success case from another industry and give them the courage to pioneer those results in your own area of expertise.

You never know, it can work.

In conclusion, you can change your company even if you’re just starting or even from the position of an intern if you have the best interest of the company at heart and think AR can upgrade it to become much more successful.

One of the things you have to do is to focus on ways AR can help your company’s clients and add new value to their already existing lines of products and services.

Having said that, you also need to reinforce that

Augmented Reality

is a marketing powerhouse that should be harnessed as quickly as possible, alarming the managers to the risk of direct competitors doing it before you.

At the end of the day, we all know it’s hard to truly grasp the power of augmented reality without ever seeing applications for it first hand, so you should probably onboard them into the AR world with one of the apps or demonstrations already out in the market.

To sum it all up, you can research some data and numbers to back you up, relying on success stories and case studies to help make your point across.

Do this and you’ll help the company leap in the right direction, and with the company’s success, the managers will probably remember those who pushed them in the right direction.

Best of luck.

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avatardigital · 3 years

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Augmented Reality Strategy- Why every organization needs it

Most of us are aware that the physical world is a three-dimensional world, where the data is trapped on screens and two dimensional pages. This gap between the digital world and the real world has prevented us from exploring the amount of information that can be available to us. In order to close this gap, a new technology has surfaced called the augmented reality. Augmented reality translates all the information in a context where we can directly absorb and act on it.

What is Augmented Reality?

Augmented reality is a type of technology that imposes images and digital data in the physical world, thereby closing the gap of human capabilities. Augmented reality is of new age and a wonderful interface between machines and humans. Augmented reality improves how users can visualize information, interact with different products, and receive and follow instructions.

Several organizations are already implementing it in logistics, training, product development, services, manufacturing, and marketing. Big organizations like Facebook, U.S Navy, Mayo Clinic, General Electric, and Amazon are implementing augmented reality and believe that it has a major impact of productivity and quality.

What does Augmented Reality Do?

Augmented reality helps transform analytics and data into animations or images and are overlaid to the real world. Currently, most AR applications work on mobile devices, but soon in years to come, this technology will also become available on smart watches and glasses too. AR has found its way both in the consumer as well as business to business market.

Some of the most common AR entertainment apps are Snapchat filters and Pokeman Go. AR applications are also very common in car models giving users the experience of line of sight and navigation features. In factories, AR helps workers in service instructions and production assembly.

How does Augmented Reality Work?

The augmented reality technology comprises of a camera equipped device such as tablet, smart phone, webcam enables laptop, and smart glasses which is loaded with the AR software. When the user looks at an object and points the device towards it, the AR software recognizes using computer vision technology and analyses the video stream.

The device downloads all information about the object from the cloud which is similar to the way web browser loads information through URL. The main difference between the web url based information and AR is that this technology presents information in 3D experience superimposed on the object rather than a 2-D page on screen. AR also provides real time information flowing from products and allows user to control by gesture, voice, or touchscreen.

When the user moves from that particular place or object, the AR orientation also automatically adjusts to the shifting context. The older information passes out of view and the new current information comes into view.

Advantages and Capabilities of Augmented Reality

1. Visualize

All AR applications have the ability to provide x-ray vision revealing all the minute details which would be difficult to see normally. For e.g. the AR technology used by a medical device company can convert the patient’s veins into a superimposed image on the skin giving crystal clear view of the veins for the clinicians to view.

2. Guides and provides instructions

AR is extensively used for coaching, training, and instruction. These capabilities improve the workforce quality and productivity. Traditional face to face training as well as written instructions can be hard, time consuming and expensive. AR easily helps address and mitigate these issues by giving accurate and step by step visualized guidance on tasks.

3. Enhances human decision making

Our mental capacity and cognitive function has limited ability to process and absorb information. AR is so powerful that is reduces the load on cognitive function and provides an enhanced overlay of guidance and real time data when and where needed.

4. Interact

The most common and traditional method used to interact is by using physical controls such as knobs, buttons, or touch screen. However, AR improves user interface and interaction in such a way that control panel is superimposed directly on the product. This virtual control panel can be operated through voice or hand gestures.

5. Cost reduction

AR enables new efficiencies which in turn significantly reduce costs involved in training, design, service, and assembly in a value chain. Augmented reality is also known to reduce manufacturing costs by decreasing the need for face to face interfaces.

Conclusion

In today’s era, there is a constraint in the lack of data and also how to assimilate the information available. Augmented reality helps bridge the gap between these challenges. Augmented reality helps unleash increase productivity and value towards the economy. Augmented reality helps reduce the fundamental disconnect between the digital data available and the physical world in which we assess and interpret this information. Augmented reality will transform how organizations aim to create products, train employees, serve customers, and maintain their value chain.

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avatardigital · 3 years

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Why is Augmented Reality Misunderstood: Understanding AR

Augmented Reality, although it’s a word many know, isn’t a concept that is already understood in the mainstream and it’s just really grasped in tight circles.

There are a lot of reasons that make this happen, and throughout this article we thought on writing about these variables, commenting on how they play the part in making AR a misunderstood technology that is evolving slower than it should due to these factors.

If this sounds like your cup of tea, then read below and think about the implications of each variable we are going through, you’ll see many cases in which these play a part in detriment of AR adoption by the mainstream.

The Initial Flops of Augmented Reality: Too Early For Success

AR is an excitement technology that no doubt has the power to revolutionize the world.

As it stands now, it is a technology that can add value to everyone’s daily lives, but there was once a time in which this wasn’t true simply because AR was in its early stages.

We all know every new technology or industry takes a while to mature, and while many technologies spend these days being adopted by the fringe of the most early adopter pioneers out there, AR went too early to the mainstream, and this was one of the factors that lead it to be misunderstood.

You see, AR has an amazing novelty value, and people couldn’t wait but to use it just for the sake of using it and looking “cool”.

So, the first contact the mainstream had with AR was meaningless and often just a quick and innefective gimmick.

This lead the investors and business owners of the public develop a certain degree of skepticism, which led to the apreehensiveness some look upon Augmented Reality with.

The Adoptability of Augmented Reality: Too Niche for Mainstream Adoption

Augmented Reality needs technological devices to work with, and these technology devices aren’t mainstream yet – if you take smartphones out of the equation, which is fair since the most ellaborate and effective uses of AR still don’t work via Smartphone (unless we’re talking about some forms of retail).

The most ellaborate and therefore most usefull and groundbreaking AR developments still need some satelite hardware which isn’t yet mainstream.

On the other hand, when AR leaves the pioneers-only niche, its applications will become globally useful and transversally used, which will make this variable a thing of the past, and we’re quickly getting there.

How Security Concerns Hampered Augmented Reality: Lack of Cryptography Support

Lacking enough security to tame the beast was also one of the variables involved in creating a certain degree of skepticism towards AR.

AR usually works digitally and creating new connections either to the Internet or Intranet.

This creates additional vulnerabilities that can be exploited by hackers, which can be countered by cryptographic security measures.

However, cryptography for AR is evolving with a bit of delay, which is understandable.

Although there are plenty of solutions in the present, the past had many vulnerabilities open with no way to protect them, which made the rumor appear that AR had some serious risks for companies whose Intranet was conencted to important stuff or whose connection to the Internet could be exploited.

Privacy Concerns on Augmented Reality: The Risk of Corporal Abuse

Finally, privacy concerns were also a thing due in part to the previous factor but also by the fact the security breaches could affect consumer / user rather than the company behind the connection.

Personal data could be stolen and people could have their experiences invade their digital privacy, which made the initial concerns over advertising and whether it was ethic to have ads appear in front of consumer’s eyes through AR or not come into play.

Corporations could also be abusing the connection much like internet platforms are doing, and use the users as a source of data to sell to big data companies.

No one wants their privacy being used as a trade token, and as such AR gained a bit of a bad rep.

The Inexistance of Proper Digital Marketing Strategies and the Lack of AR Use Cases:

All in all, the entirety of these reasons together led to the fact there weren’t many use cases of AR that were more than gimmicks for a time, and that time in which AR was still an embryo of what it is today was a time in which nobody developed proper digital marketing strategies to complement the technology’s use.

The lack of proper planning and successful examples led that companies throughout the world only had the gimmicks to copy, and as such these gimmicks were the projects given the most exposition and made mainstream, which affected how the technology as a whole was perceived.

Fortunately though, AR has gone a long way and became something really groundbreaking as you can see in some apps that had real planning behind them.

Even 1 person indie development studios are doing amazing stuff as of now, and you shouldn’t let the misunderstood identity of AR stand in the way to adopting those.

We hope you now know more about the reasons which lead the Augmented Reality concept to be misundestood by many, and that if you were one of these people suspicious of AR you now feel comfortable enough to give it another shot.