Positive Business Impacts of MR, VR and AR

by Mathew Politansky | May 6, 2021 | Blogs, Hololens, mixed reality, Mobile App Development | 0 comments

Mixed Reality, Virtual Reality, and Augmented Reality are responsible for some major changes throughout all industries. Interactive technology has completely changed the way businesses undertake their training and day-to-day operations. The possibilities these technologies have to take businesses to the next level have only just started to be seen. VR and AR have caused major changes in the industry, however, the newer form of interactive communication known as MR is only in infancy. Even though it’s newer its possibilities for businesses are limitless. MR allows people to overlay holographic information with the real world, opening up a world of opportunities for businesses.

Below are some specific cases where MR, VR, and AR have had positive impacts on businesses.

Training & Education

Training and education are able to be streamlined and become more efficient through the use of a variety of MR, VR, and AR technologies.

Data has shown that VR-based training programs are able to reduce training times by 40% and improve employee performance by 70%. Through this companies are able to reduce unseen costs in training employees, including but not limited to employee time, materials and equipment.

VR training is able to walk employees through a virtual rendering of your business. For example, it can train your employees on the safety requirements of your warehouse without employees having to be on the warehouse floor. VR is able to give your employees detailed instructions, precautions, and rules in front of their eyes without them needing to leave the office.

MR has also been applied in training employees more efficiently. The interactive nature of headsets such as HoloLens gives employees an enriching training experience, allowing them to overlay holographic instructions and directions over real-world technology.

Aircraft leaders such as Airbus use Microsoft’s HoloLens headset to train their teams of engineers. This has resulted in Airbus seeing a huge improvement in their design efficiency, boasting an improvement of 80%.

Operations

The major benefit to businesses is the increase in productivity attributed to the implementation of MR, VR, and AR. Across all industries where VR technologies are used, a large increase in business efficiencies have been seen.

Aerospace leader Lockheed Martin implemented the use of the HoloLens in their Orion spacecraft project. Through using the HoloLens, the business was able to overlay visual elements of their engineering process on real-life sites. This reduced their overall touch labour, allowing Lockheed Martin to take an 8-hour activity and decrease it down to a 45-minute task. This means they are able to produce space crafts with lower costs, higher quality, and less time.

The Trimble XR10 combines the HoloLens 2 with a construction hat, allowing builders and designers to take mixed reality into active work sites safely. Overlaying holographic instructions and notes over a live construction site allows businesses to finish projects on time and within budget. Contractors are able to detect clashes, measure, create to-dos, and track errors within the onsite model. This allows construction workers to decrease the time it takes for them to complete projects by reducing downtime.

Design

MR, VR, and AR allow businesses to see their designs in 3D before construction and manufacturing take place. The innovative technology is able to let employees walk through their design as if it has already been built. The use of VR in this respect means you are able to walk around the design in an enclosed virtual world, however, they must remain tethered constantly to a PC powerful enough to run their design and VR software.

Mixed reality itself is able to be much more interactive when being used to display a design. The HoloLens is completely untethered, allowing it to be transported anywhere. Pairing this with HoloLens’s ability to overlay holographic images over the real world means that a business’s design can be placed on the construction site, allowing employees to see how the design would work on-site. This allows employees to pre-emptively see any issues that may occur during the construction and fabrication process. This saves any time that would be spent fixing mistakes after they are already built and increases your team’s efficiency.

E-Commerce

When buying items online one of the biggest drawbacks is not being able to see what the product looks like in person.  Mobile app developers are able to create AR and VR applications that allow people to see what clothes, furniture, and any other product would look like on someone, or within their home. This can greatly help boost sales, as it takes the guessing work out of buying online for customers.

Through the use of AR and VR customers are able to make more informed decisions about products. Users have been such big fans of this technology that now many e-commerce stores are implementing VR and AR technologies on their websites to allow customers to view their products.

Retail

Retail outlets have rushed to keep up with e-commerce stores, with many retail stores now trying to implement MR and AR technologies within their businesses. Major fashion outlet Zara has recently implemented the use of AR for their in-store clients. Through the use of their AR experience customers are able to point their phones towards mannequins, and see how the outfit would look like on a person. The customer can see a virtual model wearing the clothes they were pointing their cameras at in-store.

However, Zara’s AR campaign is rare for retail outlets. Most stores still haven’t brought on the technology, meaning that AR in retail is still in its early stages. AR could be the next step for retail outlets, maybe even implementing AR dressing rooms where people can try on clothes virtually.

Health Care

Health care is one sector that has been impacted majorly by the use of MR, VR, and Ar technologies. The most notable use is of mixed reality throughout surgeries, diagnosis, and education.

When implemented by surgeons Microsoft’s HoloLens provides beneficial help that is unmatched by any other technology. The hands-free headset allows surgeons to have any information they need in front of them in a matter of seconds. This makes surgery more efficient, and more reliable. Surgeons are also able to create 3D holographic models of parts of the body they are performing surgery on. This can be patient-specific, allowing a surgeon to see inside a person’s body before performing invasive surgery. This allows surgeons to plan better, and practice the surgery before it takes place.

MR also has remarkable capabilities when it comes to training new health care professionals. When the outbreak of COVID-19 happened, the HoloLens was put into use educating healthcare workers on the disease and allowing them to see its effects on the human body in real-time. The “HoloPatient: Covid-19” software provides a volumetric capture of an actual COVID-19 patient. Captured with over 100 cameras to record the original patient, the images are then stitched back together to provide a 3D rendering.

The app extension runs through the four stages of COVID-19 and its effects on the patient. This allows medical students and staff to exam the illness from the start of its incubation in the human body until the end. HoloPatient provides a safe environment in which doctors, nurses, and students, can recognise and diagnose symptoms from a typical COVID case without the risk of contracting the virus.

Conclusion

Ultimately MR, VR, and AR have had major positive impacts on businesses and industries. Using innovative technology and headsets throughout your business practices can help you increase your productivity, cut costs, increase customer engagement with products, and change the way your business operates as a whole.

The positive business impacts of MR, VR, and AR, are clear, and this certainly seems to be the future for businesses. If you are interested in implementing this type of innovative tech within your company The Mobile Apps Man is here to help with all your development needs Contact us to find out more about how innovative technology can completely innovate your business.