What is XR?
XR is an umbrella term for all the immersive technologies, that can merge the physical and virtual worlds. The ones we already have today—Augmented Reality (AR), Virtual Reality (VR), and Mixed Reality (MR) plus those that are still to be created.
Impact of XR on Human?
There's a reason why AR and VR have such an impact on us. Humans are an extremely visual species, with around a third of the neurons in our brains devoted to vision. That's why something like a VR headset, which can completely alter what we think we can see, can have a profound impact -- especially once headphones and additional effects (like a breeze or some smells) are added. These capabilities of XR helps human to experience impossibilities and imagine what it would be like to be in someone else’s shoes.
XR on real world
One of XR’s main application in training is simulating real working environments. For example, companies can use VR to train pilots by mimicking challenging situations, such as landing, and AR to train technicians by displaying virtual diagrams. MR is a good choice for training surgeons, as it allows them to look inside a patient’s body in 3D without making a single incision. These kind of simulation training not only provides more freedom to explore things, but it also saves training costs to the companies, as these virtual contents need to be created only once and can be reused again. These training can be accessed from anywhere, anytime thereby breaking the disadvantage of on-location training.
Our solution to a real-life challenge on Aircraft Warehouse optimization
We had such opportunities to develop multiple solutions on XR technologies and one such solution is Aircraft Warehouse – Shop Floor Optimization, a virtual reality-based application developed on HTC Vive.
The challenge here was how to optimize an Aircraft warehouse to accommodate more raw materials, and our solution was to leverage the advantages of Virtual Reality to pre-visualize the real-world scenarios in the virtual world. This helped to perform better shop floor optimization without wasting much time and to use the same warehouse for storing different aircraft variants.
So we developed a virtual reality solution by recreating the 3D virtual clone of an existing real warehouse and simulated the real-world scenarios in the virtual world, which provided more choices for the warehouse manager to try out multiple combinations before implementing it in the real warehouse. This solution also helped the warehouse managers to validate the design layout of a particular warehouse to ensure whether it can be used for a reshuffling program – for example, premises for a large-sized aircraft warehouse were simulated in order to understand whether an existing warehouse for smaller aircraft could be used to house larger planes. By performing this analysis they got a clear idea about the challenges they would face in the real world. They saved a lot of time as well as cost, as the same 3D virtual contents were used to recreate the scenarios of different aircraft. This also proved to be a safe approach for warehouse maintenance -they really did not want to experiment with real raw materials, which are pretty heavy to move from one place to another.
Summary
So to wrap up, when you embrace XR technology, we will be able to offer an unrivaled experience that people won’t forget. We can create purpose-driven experiences that educate customers, employees, and investors alike.
With extended reality at the heart of your business, we can nurture a culture of digital transformation from the inside, using immersive technologies as part of your training, design, and marketing processes.
As this internal culture flourishes, our business will have the foundation to connect with customers in the same way.
After all, we live in a customer-centric age, where people don’t just buy products -- they buy experiences.