Virtual Reality has been a hot topic since the boom of the internet era in the mid-90s. Though the concept is still latent in most domains, but not for long. The gaming and entertainment industry is already making full use of VR engines. Firms are investing huge money for acquiring VR companies, making it the best time to invest in Virtual Reality. Businesses are tapping it to be the next wave of digital world and consumers are watching with open eyes. Here are some ways, VR is reforming business strategies:
1 Rich Immersive Experience not only limited to gaming and watching movies
With Augmented reality and virtual reality, there are virtually no limits to the creativity of designers. VR offers interesting ways to convey information and its immersive nature caters to masses.
Shopping – Although e-commerce is growing rapidly, many people still prefer to buy clothes in-store. This is mainly because people look forward to trying them on. The convergence of virtual reality and fit technology is gradually allowing consumers to try products, right from the comfort of their homes.
Advertising – Marketers are creating campaigns to physically interact with consumers. This will allow them to track more relevant data and tailor their marketing. For instance, love has developed a VR cam with an eye tracking device, to know exactly where a person is looking on the screen.
Medical – virtual reality is helping disabled to regain motor skills and rehabilitate in the society. It is also helping autistic patients to develop social skills and increase brain activity. The immersive and interactive experience lets patients read human cues in details, by focusing on facial signs. It is also rehabilitating patients with mental stress and issues like PTSD.
2 Interactive tutorials, cloud-based meetings, and customer support
Software As a Service (SaaS) based ventures are most prone to the limitations of digital media. But VR is bringing the level of complexity down, to ease consumer efforts:
Customer Education – Comprehensive tutorials with interactivity, makes it easier to explain services and its complete functionality. It is much more engaging than simple videos.
Remote meetings – Imagine that you have a firm that has outsourced several business operations in various countries. The realness of virtual reality imparts a human touch to cloud telephony. It gives way to remote cloud-based board meetings. The interactive media also allows for the CEOs and higher-level management to interact with their employees, more personally.
Troubleshooting problems – Interactiveness is making the process of reporting an error fun and easy. The subsequent customer support is becoming an enjoyable experience rather than reading data and following instructions from a page.
3 Next level of Prototyping and Lab experiments
Technology-driven tools are getting better and more realistic than ever. It enables more realistic and detailed testing adding a human element without worrying about safety.
Companies are building product designs and translating them into VR to get insights into a product right at the beginning. Management and end-users are giving feedback early in the process, saving huge business finances. Architects can create a virtually finished design idea, complete with floor plans, doors, and furniture to explore the unit as a whole.
In the engineering domain, VR is vastly used for creating an interactive prototype. It has taken over cars, aircraft, boats and even household appliance manufacturers. Designers collaborate and immediately try and see if it works. Those people who are not directly in the design department can observe the usage and its effects.
Life-threatening laboratory experiments are being simulated in real-time. Immersive Virtual Experiment Environment (IVEE) allows for life-sized interaction with full-body motion capture. Integrating it with Augmented reality, an environment is created which is as natural as possible while allowing experimental controls.
4 A new Age of learning and traveling experience
Learning – Companies are using VR/AR for capturing and imparting knowledge in a better way. It is especially useful for skills that rely on in-person experience and need expensive types of equipment. The usability is diverse and being applied in multiple fields. Lectures are being accompanied by images, videos, and immersiveness to add special effects in a traditional classroom setting. Alchemy virtual reality is taking immersive education to a whole new level by delivering a narrative while exploring a plethora of different places.
Traveling – VR allows people to actually immerse themselves into an experience. Well built tours are being designed to make a person dive deep into Mariana Trench and even have a Mars expedition. The travel industry is also offering its customers a chance to experience a trip, hotel and tourist spots before investing their time and money. For instance, a cruise line company Carnival teamed up with AT&T and Samsung to give a full-blown experience of their ship voyage to potential customers. One can literally dive into a different culture and learn global skills.
5 Conducting interviews, complex training sessions, and office tours
Tours – VR allows you to travel through your workplace and even optimize it, while physically sitting at your home. New recruits can be given a virtual office tour and briefed about your company policies in an efficient manner. This new tech is creating interactive visualizations during the build-out and design phase of new office space.
Interviews – Large companies like HP or IBM are looking forward to building virtual conference rooms to interview people remotely. VR allows HR to focus on complete body language without actually showing the candidate.
Training – Imagine, your company deals with petrochemicals. You hire a new employee which requires hands-on complex training sessions through the refinery. Such sessions could be recorded easily and then played over. It keeps the vivid nature of experience by being able to explore, interact with objects and even meet other co-workers.
Conferences – Tech conferences are hot hubs for geeks and enthusiasts. VR allows you to “see” a product and be able to test it out. It cuts costs and time and allows you to be more productive.
Virtual Reality is still under development, but it is already creating huge ripples in diverse industries. Coupling it with AR, IoT, and wearables, the experience is bound to get more real than the reality itself. However, it will take some time to mature. Try some VR headset to realize, the hidden potential of this technological boom.
