Augmented Reality Applications:
8 Major Industries to Look Upon
Over the past years, Augmented Reality (AR) has garnered the attention of everyone from industry giants to consumers on the street. The potential power of AR is already being felt in fields like manufacturing, medicine, advertising, entertainment, sports, military logistics, education, retailing, and real estate. However, there are still companies that are not familiar with what Augmented Reality is.
Augmented Reality is the merging of virtual computer-generated imagery (CGI) with real-world situations or environments. It opens up a whole new way to interact with the world around us, bringing elements onto our phone screens, tablets, and desktop monitors.
Augmented Reality is a part of a larger concept of mixed reality and extended reality. Mixed reality refers to a scenario where physical and digital worlds coexist and interact in real-time. And digital work behaves and users can interact with them exactly the way they can with real world objects. Augmented Reality is a subset of mixed reality, in which virtual objects are superimposed on a human field of view.
Augmented Reality is becoming an integral part of our lives. From being used in warfare to changing the way we shop and improving customer experience, the integration of AR into everyday products and services is adding value to everyone’s time and money.
Here are ten use cases of AR for different industries:
1. Medical Training
AR has become an essential tool for training medical students. Our bodies have complicated nerves and organs that can be hard to internalize. For example, the human brain is an amazing organ, but it’s not the best idea to picture how your internal organs would look in three dimensions to understand it.
Through Augmented Reality, you can easily create 3D images of the organs and see them almost real-time, real-life size like, with real-life like behaviors. This helps surgeons understand complex procedures in minutes instead of hours or days!
2. Retail
One of the most exciting and surely next generation ways of using Augmented Reality is in the retail industry. Both online and offline retail players use Augmented Reality apps to their advantage to better engage with their customers. And now everyone can follow it as the technology has become more accessible and affordable for every business.
Although AR can get grouped with Virtual Reality (VR), it has the unique ability to merge real life with computer-generated visuals. This also means you can do incredible things like measure products with your smartphone camera or visualize furniture in your room before buying it. Augmented reality is used in virtual try on and leading to a lot of customer purchase conversions which was not happening earlier. There are various try-ons which have become popular like; augmented reality based eyewear try-ons, augmented reality based make-up try-ons, augmented reality based jewelry try-ons, augmented reality based furniture try-ons, augmented reality based electrical appliances try-ons, augmented reality based car accessories try-ons, etc.
3. Repair & Maintenance
Considering the potential of Augmented Reality in repair and maintenance, both industry analysts and members of the technology community are sure it will take over the entire industry.
The ability to instantly access information, contact remote technical support, and walk through complex repairs without touching anything is a dream come true for many in the industry. Whether you are an industrial technician or a repair room manager, AR has great potential to make your life easier. And don’t forget, AR will not only change how you do your job, but it will also change your life outside of work.
4. Design & Modeling
Augmented Reality is used for designing or modeling prototypes of new products. Therefore, it can be beneficial in the process of analyzing the results of testing a prototype. In addition, it allows us to give a clear idea about the modifications required to get the best alternative solution. This helps companies to quicken their design prototyping and use testing processes extensively. Thereby reducing product launch timelines and giving them an edge over their competition in the market.
5. Business Logistics
The flourishing development of mobile devices, affordable internet access, and online marketplaces give rise to new technologies transforming the logistics sector.
It can allow users to drop virtual markers at field locations and see other related data where they need it. While this is not a complex or challenging thing to do, it will be a practical and easy task for logistics managers and owners. And it will save time and data errors. It may be a long time before we see AR devices for logistics workers. But we expect to see more AR glasses designed specifically for workplace tasks. We envision a future where Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality devices are routinely incorporated into warehouse management systems.
The applications for these tools are numerous, as the benefits go far beyond the obvious (i.e., tasks that can now be done without any hands). Instead, managers will soon be capable of deriving insights from the data related to worker efficiency and training. One day, we may see entire warehouses run by robots and monitored and operated by AR and VR headsets—not to mention the logistical processes outside warehouses.
@InfiVR we have been working with several companies and their warehouse departments to provide virtual reality and augmented reality based solutions to ease their operations and training activities.
6. Tourism Industry
AR can also improve the travel experience—and even help combat the fear associated with flying. What’s more, with location-based features, a better experience can be provided to suit specific interests and needs.
For instance, the Hub Hotel from Premier Inn, a British resort, adopted Augmented Reality and made it compatible with the wall maps placed in the hotel. The wall maps show extra information about local places of interest when viewed using a smartphone or tablet.
In the future, apps that incorporate AR may provide even more exciting opportunities for travelers wishing to get immersed in an entirely new world.
7. Classroom Education
AR has the potential to be used as a part of almost every classroom activity or lesson. It is a tool that can be incorporated into any subject area and used in many ways.
Educators have already started using Augmented Reality in classrooms around the world, and given its potential to impact all aspects of education; we expect to see this trend continue.
@InfiVR we have worked with several globally leading universities & colleges in automobile engineering, aerospace engineering, petroleum engineering, medical training institutes, etc. to provide them with cutting AR / VR learning content which has received great feedback from academicians and students.
8. Field Service
Augmented Reality (AR) has enormous potential for the field service industry. It can display vital information to field service techs, such as equipment manuals, dimensional blueprints, and even direct procedure guides and video tutorials.
We see it as a natural fit for the architectural and construction industries. We believe that it has great potential to improve the quality of customer service and increase company revenue.
Conclusion
There are loads of advantages to Augmented Reality. It has the potential beyond blending the virtual world with real-world data, and it can be applied to nearly every industry. When properly used, Augmented Reality is a powerful technology.
By encouraging interaction and placing additional emphasis on an existing product or concept, the users’ experience gets a significant boost. This technology may be new to us now, but that doesn’t mean it will always be this way. There have already been some major developments in display technologies, leading to even cheaper AR glasses and enhanced smart phone based AR capabilities in a very short time.
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