The last decade introduced the world to the digitization of many sectors. This helped the global trade to increase worldwide as many developing and emerging countries became important trading partners and potential sales and development markets. Digitization has helped us to be more connected and perform our daily tasks more effectively. It has made the world a global village and people global citizens.

However, the economies built in the previous decade came crashing to the ground in the last few weeks as COVID-19 pandemic hit the world. While the pandemic has had a great impact on the global economy, it taught us how to fight and improve the current condition using technology. It has laid a new pathway by disrupting our lifestyles by enabling contact-less and virtual experiences. Even though the technology cannot prevent the onset of the pandemics, it can, however, help prevent the spread, educate, empower, and warn people around. Today, these technologies are emerging more than ever – mobile, cloud, analytics, robotics, AI/ML, 4G/5G, and high-speed internet.

Let us look at three technologies that are disrupting our lifestyle each day during this pandemic:

Artificial Intelligence and Machine Learning

From tracking the travel history of COVID-19 patents to analysing the symptoms of people exposed to the infection, the applications used by many governments do it all. These applications use chatbots to gather information from people, and the technology used in these applications is that of AI and ML. This enables the government to collect reliable information much easier and faster without any human intervention.

The advent of more such mobile applications and software will help ease the lifestyle of customers.

Extended Reality

Augmented and virtual reality is surely a boon in the world of lockdown and quarantine. This technology can be used in providing more meaningful and real experiences for people. The technology can help you see the world while you are locked in your home. This experience will change the way we travel, work, and relax. For instance: Realty brands can focus on using AR/VR videos to target their audiences by helping them take a walk-through the project while they are seated in the comfort of their home. This is an example of how a sector can use the contact-less experience to their advantage.

Cloud and Internet

The last few weeks have seen a great transition in the way the workforce can function. Companies got to believe that remote working and work from home concepts can be of their advantage. The transition to work from home and remote working has increased the dependency on cloud and internet infrastructure. The usage of this technology is set to remain the same even post lockdown and pandemic as many companies are moving towards welcoming a ‘hybrid’ way of working. This will increase the demand for teleworking applications and software for the team to be connected and interactive.

Talking about the internet, technology has changed the sector of education. It has enabled kids to learn and study from home using applications that require an active internet connection to connect with their peers and teachers. For times to come, e-learning will be an accepted norm for the parents and teachers alike.

The COVID-19 pandemic has demonstrated to the world that importance of digital readiness. The acceptance and usage of digital technology will allow the business and individuals to continue their work and chores as usual during the pandemic. The companies at large will focus on building necessary digital infrastructure by using the latest technology to stay connected with their employees and customers. The pandemic has increased their market competition by many folds, therefore businesses will have to take an approach that is human-centred and inclusive using technology governance.

Machines will take over our lives & How…

Electricity was one of the most incredible inventions of human after the fire, which changed human life in many ways. Now, after the electricity, Artificial Intelligence (AI) has drastically changed human lives. It is said that AI is yet to offer benefits to human. It was a prototype in the 1950s but has come up in many positive usages in recent times. What matters the most is the fact that we are getting encompassed with technology day-by-day and this is just the beginning of human’s much involvement in technology.

Everything has advantages and disadvantages, the case is no different for AI. The more we start making use of it, the more we will realize the negative impact of the AI. Just like when electricity is misused, we can even end up dying; AI is one of the most advanced things with its own set of disadvantages.

Setting aside the negativity, there is enough positive approach of the AI in the recent business set up. AI is said to decrease the workload and get the job done in one day which otherwise would have taken more than ten. Human intelligence created AI and it is expected to have a huge database that sets its own IQ. The evolution of the entire technology ecosystem has led to the free rise of the advanced and improved AI system that is bound to bring new changes in the present and future way of dealing with the business. Based on the ongoing trend, the future of AI-driven businesses will be something like this:

Digital business transformation

The megalith system that hid a lot of data is now being unleashed by the AI. It is bound to provide the best quality deals at an effective rate. The legacy of modernization has to lead to a lot of changes in the digitization process as well. AI is the next best option for us and so AI specialists are constantly finding a positive way out of it. There are chances that you will have to find a way to evolve your business with time on the lines of AI. The single work process is now shutting down. One business will have multiple users and multiple procedures based on the comfort of the people. With the onset of AI, the old process is going to break down or replaced by the new digital era.  

Tech democracy

The freedom to create a database of any size in today’s world has a bulk. The estimated creation of data can be taken into account of 2.5 quintillion bytes. Thanks to this estimate that the AI found its way. The human’s constant contact with the machines has given way to the creation of artificial intelligence that can make the lives and the work of the humans a lot easier. AI is believed to lessen the task and offer freedom to create a database and make use of everything.

Harnessing the data

With the launch of AI, the data has been easily preserved. The data that we are harnessing has its own limitations and that has always been a problem which obstructs the smooth work process. Therefore, you will have to make sure that you find a good option to make sure that at no point the work creates a problem. The AI is the next best thing that technology has gifted the world and this can be the option to harness the data in a better way.  

The future of the business

Given the capability of AI, it has the potential to impact our future. It is about to change the history of innovation and can make sure that you get the best solution when it comes to getting the work quickly and efficiently. The AI market is rapidly growing, but when it comes to helping any layman, it is still to take up that place. The change is the most constant factor for any future and given the fact that AI is about to bring the most impressive and noteworthy change in the history of technology.

AI to Science

In 2013, MD Anderson Cancer Center set forth a “moon shot” project that estimates a cost of $62 million. It was believed to diagnose cancer and offer a suggestion of treatment. However, the project has stopped because of the exceeding budget, but it is still being worked on. We can say that it is not only the business that AI is about to touch but it is sure to awe human lives in every way possible. We will have to wait for the AI to come into the real being and how it will affect our lives. There are many trial and error methods that are in the picture, but we are yet to find the real usefulness of the AI.

The invention of computers, telephones, and mobiles has globalized the world, but to keep up with the pace of technological updates, AI is the gift that the masters have given. It is about to provide new wide scopes to the future of the business and it is always better to stay updated with the new things to know about the changes that we are going to see in the recent future.

There are always a set of doubts, bias, and worries that come with the AI, it is going to support the basic information. But making it adaptable to the environment matters the most. It is true that it is “Artificial” after all. There will be drawbacks and biases towards the creator. Therefore, AI might take a lot of time to come into the picture but the bell is already ringing.

AI is one of the best sources to create a stronger bond between human and machine. We will have to simply wait and what the result is and how the machine will take over our lives. It is important to make sure that machines do not take over us and that we have control over it. The AI for the future business is a prototype and can promise to offer the best quality result when it comes into practical usage.

To know more about how AI can help your business, reach out to us:

Design tips for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality, and Mixed Reality

Are you facing problems in evaluating the design of your AR, VR, or Mixed Reality oriented product?  

Today, we have laid down guidelines that will help you to objectively evaluate the design of your next project confidently.

Keep the following pointers in mind and you are good to go.

1. Identify your target audience and use cases

The first thing to do in the product development phase is creating ‘personas’ (a fictitious character that represents your target audience) and ‘use cases’ (the specific pain points or problems that your product intends to solve).

At any stage of the design and development process, if you feel that your product is not solving the specific problems or improving use cases for the persona then you should re-visit the fundamental design.

Therefore, it is recommended to test your product as early as possible with an external audience so that you can identify the fundamental design issues and make a successful product. This approach will be highly helpful while evaluating a design midway.

In case you have reached an advanced stage and have commenced the creation of a beautiful visual for your projects there is a risk of losing relevance.  Highly beautiful visuals may not be relatable for your users and that’s what distinguishes a great design from beautiful visuals.

How do the KPIs stack up across mediums?

In the contemporary world of design, your product is not only in competition with alike products but also with thousands of products across the medium.

For example, if your product is a game in the form of a mobile app, it is not only competing with other mobile games but other forms of entertainment as well such as escape rooms, movies, TV, and concerts. It is essential for your team to understand which mind space your product occupies to clearly identify the competitors across the platforms.

Beware! It is a common mistake to only compare KPIs within mediums. A slight progress in a VR product might be an edge against peer VR products but products on other mediums like mobile phone or computer may have already beaten your standards and have set a higher expectation for the user. 

So even if you are at the forefront of VR and AR technology, you are still behind the performance delivered by existing technologies. The user expects the same performance from your product in the virtual world as he is already getting in the real world.

How were the interactions examined?

The common variables while evaluating the design of your interactions in AR, VR, or MR are:

(i) Accuracy- How frequently the user’s intentions match the outcome

(ii) Ergonomics- Energy cost associated with the interaction

(iii) Learnability- How intuitive an interaction is to learn

(iv) Time to Complete- Time in which a particular action gets completed

The priorities of these variables vary with the type of product. However, if any of these factors score poorly, your design is very poor.

You might want to consider the following points before testing interactions in the above parameters.

•  Currently, stress test interactions are not tested for enough time. For example, if the intended user experience is meant to last for an hour, the stress test should be done for an hour. The interactions which feel perfect for the first five minutes might not be usable for the whole 1-hour period.

• Secondly, some product teams make the mistake of getting samples from excellent gamers for testing the interactions. Studies have shown results which prove that users who play video games frequently tend to learn faster and develop their abilities to do various cognitive tasks very quickly.

Because of such biased sample spaces, product team often wrongly conclude their designs to have excellent learnability while it may or may not have it.

For several reasons, it is crucial to run all the user tests on the mix of non-gamers and video gamers with no prior context of your product. It might be an easy option to run the test internally but your co-workers will already have enough context that they can once again bias the user test.

In fact, any developer who has experience in developing AR, VR, and MR is likely to learn the interactions faster than a user with no prior experience in these mediums.

How can features bring positive KPIs to your product if used together?

A great design is created by the synergy of complementary features which have positive KPIs. Standalone features perform well but when used along with similar features they can create a rich social experience.

If your design has numerous features with positive KPIs but without strong synergy, you should re-scope your design to bring in more synergistic features and remove the standalone features. This will help you in delivering a higher value to the Persona and either solve or improve the Use Cases accurately.

How can Core Loops help to add value?

Core loops are the repeatable actions in your product, It is very important to assess the core loops.

Like if your game is about 3D vegetable slicing, the frequent action is to swing the sword-

How does the user feel while doing that?

Is he enjoying it? Are the sound effects appropriate?

Product teams spend most of their time in iterating and testing core loops. External users should be involved in testing the core loops for the reasons we mentioned before.

For getting accurate feedback for AR or VR or MR, involving external users is a perfect way as of now.

The art style and visual design of a product are subjective but hopefully, the above framework helps you design better experiences and objectively evaluate the core design of your product. For more resources on AR, follow our blog.

Influence of AR technology in the Retail Sector

Do you remember the hype and crazy fan base of the game Pokémon Go which took over the news last year?

Hard to forget, right? With 500 million downloads that game was a mega-hit and has seen stars from the dust in no time.

The specialty of the game was Augmented Reality which added a virtual layer over the real-world environment by gamification of the reality. If you happen to be a follower of that game or any other AR apps you can easily tell how amazing your experience was with AR apps.

AR is gaining a lot of attention in the last few years and is set to receive major investment by 2021. Now that the AR market is booming, it will help a big chunk of industries to expand and make millions with AR’s aid.

Retail sector of the economy is always first in the race to adapt to the changing environment. Being at a nascent stage, AR hasn’t been thought upon by the retailers to inculcate in the business. But now they should think about it!

Here are 6 pressing reasons why you should incorporate AR into your retail business:

1. First of all, you can increase the capacity of the store without having to expand the store physically. This can be done by creating an immersive product catalog with an option to preview. With this online retailers can now overcome the disadvantage of not having a brick-and-mortar store. They can simply put the product they offer on their AR apps.

2. With AR, retailers can easily customize the product offering and offer tailored promotions on the basis of personal preferences.

3. AR enables you to quickly change the look and feel of the place and renew the products on display at a nominal cost. This keeps your customer base interested in visiting your store frequently.

4. AR assists in shelf identification and reporting missing items or give a warning for items which are wrongly placed. Also, AR can smoothen up the in-store navigation and assist the shoppers with the shortest route to their desired product. With AR mobile apps, customers can easily come up with their shopping lists and then according to that list set the navigation route through the store.

5. The customer-oriented benefits of AR are many. AR renders customizable UX content that matches user needs. In industries such as apparels, cosmetics, home decor,  and accessories, stores can allow their customers to virtually try on their products or to decorate their living room without actually having to physically buy the products. This feature will help architects, designers, and contractors a lot. As now they will be able to customize the design in real-time as per client’s requirements. For retail store owners, AR can help in increasing sales of the store and reduce the sales that they lost due to pre-purchase indecision.

6. Also, AR helps you to gather more information about your customer base and enables you to offer a more personalized and attractive rewards program.

Thus, AR enhances the shopping experience for customers. It offers new ways for retailers to engage customers and can enhance the value added by the retail landscape overall.

Investment in the AR technology

If we talk about leaders of the economy, they have already invested millions of dollars in the immersive capabilities of augmented reality. Let’s ponder over some of the AR initiatives by tech giants so far:

Google: Google has introduced ARCore for building AR apps on Android platform already.

Apple: Competing with the AR apps on the Android platform, Apple has introduced ARKit as a platform to develop AR apps for iOS devices.

Microsoft: Microsoft, on the other hand, is working on its own AR solutions such as Hololens.

Facebook: Facebook has already paid $2 billion for its AR venture named Oculus.

Following the lead, the startups have reached a $650 million investment in AR  with VividWorks at 1.7 million, Augment at 1.8 million, and Sayduck at 1 million.

Popular product segments that use AR technology

As per a report on the influence of AR on the retail sector, 61% of shoppers prefer to shop at stores that offer AR. The same report has given data on popular products to shop for with AR:

Here is what customers who frequently shop from retail store think of AR:

• 77% of shoppers think that AR will help choose products based on color or style
• 65% of shoppers think that AR will educate them with product information and utility
• 55% of shoppers think AR will make shopping fun

With the above stats, customers are already expecting AR in the retail sector.

Corporates who have implemented AR in their product line

1. Volkswagen

This German car brand utilized AR in print marketing on billboards. It works in a very simple way. The customer just needs to point the VW AR app at the billboard and the new Beetle bursts onto his phone screen.

Fascinating, right?

2. LEGO

This company came with an amazing idea. If you hold a Lego box or their printed catalog in front of a Lego Digital Box kiosk, you can instantly see the product displayed on the monitor. Also, the Lego AR studio brought the Pokemon Go to life, thus changing the way how children play with LEGO.

3. IKEA

IKEA made furniture shopping fun with its AR catalog that allows customers to use their mobile devices to visualize how a piece of furniture will look in their homes. Now, this is what we call a catch!

Other popular brands such as Coca-Cola, Siemens, Starbucks etc have also used AR in their marketing and branding campaigns. Read more about these AR brand campaigns.

Summing up

Retail sector should be on its toes to adopt AR and take advantage of its capabilities. AR is the future of their stores’ online and offline presence.

With betterment in their product-focused campaigns, AR can drive customers to the stores and shop frequently.  It has practically made shopping an enjoyable spree with realistic representations of actual products on the customer’s screen anywhere, anytime.

If you have an idea for an AR application and want to bring it to life, then just drop in a short message with your requirements and we will have our AR experts reach out to you.

Augmented Reality in Commercial Aviation

Augmented Reality enables an integration between virtual reality and physical reality. This technology has become really popular in multiple sectors including entertainment, business, healthcare, and aviation as well.

Why is AR a much-needed requirement in aviation?

In aviation, AR is considered as one of the necessary innovations to bring safety to the processes. The aviation industry has definitely evolved a lot in terms of safety. But there is still room for improvement. Pilot errors are the most crucial areas that requires work.

According to a survey, about 85% of aviation accidents happen due to an error made by pilots. However, this clearly suggests that there is something wrong with the techniques and technologies that pilots use while flying.

Even the smallest decisions such as checking the weather, reading control panels, evaluating the maintenance of an aircraft takes a lot of effort in the aviation industry. And that is where AR becomes a perfect solution.

Also with augmented reality, the market value is supposed to achieve $90 billion worth by 2020. This presents unique opportunities and benefits for the aviation industry as well.

1. AR navigation in commercial flying

Augmented reality is not a new term in aviation. However, it has been seen as a military technology for a long time. Jet planes all over the world use augmented reality navigation to fly, target, navigate and complete their mission. A glass screen in front of the pilot allows him or her to make correct decisions that keep the pilot and the fighter jet safe.

Now, the same technology is coming to the commercial flying. New startups are presenting augmented reality navigation systems for commercial pilots. These systems are able to make the visualization more advanced, which allows the pilot to make the right decisions and have a safe flight.

2. AR in air traffic visualization

Augmented reality has the capacity to make the air-traffic visualization more effective. Pilots will be able to have a 360-degree view with statistics and virtual images that make air traffic clearly visible to them. As a result, pilots can keep an eye on the air traffic and fly safely. The enhanced use of AR in air-traffic visualization can improve the safety aspect of the aviation industry to a great extent.

3. AR in aircraft maintenance

The application of AR in aircraft maintenance can result in amazing benefits in terms of safety. The commercial flight engineers can leverage AR to inspect and maintain their aircraft. The technology offers real-time details with a combination of technologies such as 3D scanning, sensors, and others. With such a comprehensive inspection, the maintenance of the aircraft can become incredibly successful, which brings safety to the industry.

In 3D scanning, AR technologies offer a clear visual of the aircraft which allows the engineers to easily find dents, scratches and other issues with the aircraft. The technology is already available in the military. And now, the commercial aviation industry is also starting to realize its importance.

Thus, to conclude, there is a big change coming in the commercial aviation industry with Augmented Reality, as these pointers have aptly depicted.

Technology Trends in 2018

Digital experts and tech giants have always talked about the importance of innovative computing technologies. These processes and methodologies will develop and bring down market costs to a great extent. The opportunity to innovate interactions will initiate organizational growth. Every organization would like to stay ahead of the growth curve, and that’s where they need the support of unique technologies.

What do the statistics state?

When it comes to assessing the growth and development of technologies, there’s no denying the contribution of tech giants like Apple, Amazon, Microsoft, Facebook, and Alphabet. These ventures together contributed a lot to the total market gains. In fact, federal investments in the digital market will touch the $95 billion mark by 2018. Now, we know how the technology market is going to shape up in the coming years.

Identifying the promising and prospective technologies at this juncture will be a great thing to do. We must have a look at the four exciting technologies that are expected to leave a mark in 2018!

1. IoT

Internet of Things is crucial, and it’s here to stay. According to market sources, a whopping $6 trillion will be allotted for IoT solutions within five years. If we take a look around, we will surely come across numerous smart homes.

People are already living in smart homes, waking up to smart alarms, and having smart voice assistants at home. The trend will increase over time, and the time isn’t far when every process will get automated. Internet of Things has already made an indelible impact, and it will continue to rule the tech arena in 2018 too!

2. Virtual Reality

It is highly imperative to track the growth of VR in 2018. Revenues of VR content will rise from USD 2274.24 million (2017) to USD 13964.98 million (2020). Head Mounted displays revenue too will rise from USD 3243.12 million (2017) to USD 6498.26 million (2020).

Although, this particular technology is taking giant strides towards development, there’s still room for improvement. Creation of attractive content and high-value services would be important. VR will stay, grow, and excel if experts innovate and improvise the VR-supported modules.

3. Chat-Bots

Enterprises across the globe consider customer service to be an integral aspect of their services. Consumer satisfaction is highly important, and this is where smart consumer-facing chat bots making all the difference to the CX industry.

Chat bots humanize machine interactions, thus helping you develop a personalized camaraderie with consumers on the other end. Advanced bots also leverage AI to ensure interactive UX. Looking at its ability to generate business with 47% of the consumers, the trend will surely grow and reach new heights by the end of 2018!

4. Augmented Reality

With the two most popular tech giants, Google (ARCore) and Apple (ARKit) making the first move, startups and other ventures will try their best to invest in AR. The sector is expected to grow in the next 4 years to touch $83 billion per year by 2021. The top brands are already planning to incorporate AR strategies looking at this disruptive trend.

Signing off

These trends will determine the market for innovative technologies in the coming year. If you are working in the digital sector, it’s high time to wait and watch out for them!

Using AR for Marketing & Branding Campaigns

Augmented reality has been a fairly new concept in the world of branding and advertising. But in 2017, it seems like every single brand is leveraging this technology to maximize their marketing and branding results. The ability to impact the perceptive environment of the viewer with the virtual technology has opened new gates for the marketers across the globe.

Everyday a new brand is launched and companies are wrapping their head around new and innovative marketing campaigns to entice the customer. If you need compelling reasons about how much of an impact Augmented Reality can have on your marketing campaigns, then this blog is all you need to get your wheels in motion. This post showcases 5  very successful branding campaigns that utilized augmented reality in a smart way.

• Celebrating moments with AR – Starbucks

In 2012, the world renowned brand Starbucks used AR as their go-to technology for an innovative and interactive valentines day marketing campaign. The campaign required users to download the AR app and hold it against their coffee cup to send a unique romantic card to their special person. This interactive and engaging customer experience resulted in a huge footfall at Starbucks outlets and proved to be successful

Watch video to understand how Starbucks has used AR in its marketing and branding initiatives.

• Environment Awareness with AR – Coca Cola

It always doesn’t have to be about business, some Brands aim to serve a larger purpose. Coca cola, a widely celebrated soft drink along with WWF used augmented reality to spread the alarming environment message of  global warming and melting of the Arctic circles. The campaign was made live at the Science museum in London where through AR, people were transported to the Arctic circle among Polar Bears and were given a real-time experience of the how the environment is being damaged.

This intelligent use of AR technology helped to establish an immediate connect with the audience and such an emotional yet important message was sent across in the right way.

Watch video on the Arctic home campaign

• Augmented Brochures- Siemens

Augmented reality can be an excellent choice to showcase product demos. Siemens is currently leveraging the AR technology to present their new product range. The customers can effectively experience the simulation of AR and see the products in genuine sizes. This way, the product’s design and size are now available to the customers no matter where they are. The augmented reality approach allows the brand to highlight and market the features of their product in the most effective manner.

Watch this video to know more about the campaign

• An Augmented Reality Car Race by Acura

The whole idea of using Augmented Reality in branding campaigns is to give the customer an unparalleled experience and engage him in a new way. Acura, set up an augmented reality race track where the drivers were given an AR helmet with unpredictable and unique environment challenges to drive the car in. In this way, the car was in real-time tested for safety and different road conditions and get a real-time experience of driving the Acura TLX.

This marketing and branding campaign by Acura was a unique way to make customers excited about their new product.

Watch the video here.

• Media promotion with AR by National Geographic

With the new series called Genius, National Geographic has now entered the scripted show range. The media company decided to promote this Albert Einstein’s series through augmented reality. The technology was used at the SXSW festival 2017 where people got to go inside the virtual mind of Einstein.

The AR technology allowed the people to see the virtual networks in the mind of the genius that helped him in creating mathematical ideas and the concepts of physics. And finally, the ideas interacted with the visitors.

Watch the video here.

Thus, all these examples clearly show that AR is presenting some amazing opportunities for marketing. A versatile range of industries are leveraging this technology to enhance their engagement and personalize their marketing approach.

Augmented Reality – The Good, Bad and Ugly

Remember Pokémon Go? Yes, the game in which we had to trace the Pokémon and capture them. Well, it turned out to be one of the biggest Augmented Reality success stories in recent times. It also presented ways in which AR can go mainstream without impacting the ease of use and overall used experience generated by such new age technology disruptions.

But to drive the business in better ways, Augmented Reality has to overcome all the challenges which it faces. So, it won’t be wrong to say that there are still miles to go for AR to be embraced at a broader level by end users. Let us check out these challenges which are still restricting AR to come into the mainstream.

Challenges of Augmented Reality

1. Technical Challenges

When it comes to organizations who are looking to get a fully functional Augmented Reality solution, they will need a lot of components. Although the development process of AR applications is no different there are certain technical challenges like Unity 3D engine, content, hardware, awareness of the common public, and education.

On these fronts, we are still lacking by quite a distance. So, until and unless we are capable of tackling these technical shortcomings, AR cannot be properly visualized in an organizational scheme of things.

2. Devices used in AR

As mentioned earlier, AR apps are no different and can run in any of the tablet or smartphone. You can even call AR apps omnipresent. But what makes it lag are crucial hardware elements like cameras, screens, motion sensors, processors and lastly, high speed internet connectivity.

Now for a minute, let us assume that we have everything, but what about other hardware like Google Glass, HoloLens, AR headsets, and Meta, which are still far from the reach of common public to derive the delight and thrilling experience that Augmented Reality has the potential to provide?

3. Unavailability of Content for AR Apps

You have a smartphone, but you do not have any application to play- how will you feel? Yes, this is the same situation with Augmented Reality these days. We might get hardware like HoloLens and Google Glass soon but what about the content and AR applications that will provide the user with this unique experience? There is a huge demand for such interactive content and companies are still in the process of creating and generating such high engaging content on a regular basis.

So, in a nutshell, the AR ecosystem is growing gradually, but due to the lack of interactive content, people are not very motivated to adopt this new technology.

4. Lack of public awareness

This is more of a social challenge. Whenever a new technology is released it takes time to become widespread among its users. Same is the case with AR (Augmented Reality).

Common people are still not aware of the potential of AR and hence, they cannot even relate to it in their daily lives.  Therefore, it would not be wrong to say that AR is still in its nascent phase. It will take time to be fully embraced by the public.

Thus, these are the 4 challenges which Augmented Reality companies are facing these days. The focus should be that these challenges are soon overcome by devising and implementing the right business tactics.

Building An AR App

The world of mobile technology has seen tremendous upgrades since the last few months and it would not be odd to say it’s changing week by week. As most of the businesses today are linked with technology, it’s prudent to stay up to date with it. Augmented reality is one such technology that is gaining tremendous traction and experts believe the technology is here to stay.

Augmented Reality (AR) is a technology which allows overlaying of digital data on top of real world items or objects. As AR integrates digital information with real-time live feeds, it has plenty of opportunities for businesses to engage with customers and improve their revenues. Fashion, Retail, and Travel were the three original trendsetters who initially started to use AR in their businesses. Now they are taking it a notch up and implementing it on a large scale.

Various types of Augmented Reality Apps

Marker based AR Apps

You must have identified, searched or installed something using QR code. If so, then that technology is enabled using Marker-based Augmented Reality. A device like Smartphone or any other device having a camera can be used to see virtual superimposed on real life objects. Animated and 3D images can also be seen with the help of AR technology.

Location-based AR Apps

The GPS of each mobile device helps to provide the accurate location of the user. Location based AR apps use this feature of a mobile app to send personalized deals and offers to a consumer.

Some things to know before developing an AR-based app

1) Imagery

A user-friendly Imagery should be the primary consideration while developing an AR-based consumer app. It should not be over the top but be realistic and easy on the eye.

2) Programming Languages

The programming languages of choice to create AR based apps for businesses are C# and C++. Also, some other skills which are essential for the successful creation of the app are practical knowledge of 3D modeling and Imaging.

3) Factors to consider

• Finalizing the use case and appropriately selecting the SDK’s suitable for the business requirements.
• Create the target objects and take use of the cloud recognition technology if required.
• SDK selection is of critical importance for the success of the project. The important and commonly used SDK features are Reliable Target Recognition, Multiple Targets Recognition, and Dynamic Target Recognition.

Prospects of Augmented Reality

There is tremendous scope for AR in the future in not just fashion and retail but across multiple industries of the business spectrum. Education is one such field where it can be a Game changer. Also it can be very useful while learning a new language as can be seen from some popular apps which have been downloaded million of times.

For a developer building a new app for AR can be highly rewarding but for a business’s it can bring multiple benefits in terms of revenue gains and enhanced user engagement.

Augmented Reality Applications

The phenomenal success of Pokemon Go showed the world the limitless possibilities of Augmented Reality in the field of entertainment and gaming. However not many are aware of the possibilities Augmented Reality opens up in the field of medicine and healthcare.

Today, we take a look at the ways in which AR can influence the realm of healthcare.

1 – Telementoring

This application of AR vastly expands the range and expertise of the physician working on a complex procedure. Suppose if a given operation requires deeply expert ands of a specialist but he/ she is not available on the hospital premises (or may be present in an altogether different geography), AR can come in handy.

With AR, a medical professional can become actively involved in an on-going procedure. This is achieved by virtually superimposing his/ her hand using Google Glasses for showing the right way to do a detailed task during the operation.

2 – Vision aid

Most of the legally blind people have a little bit of vision left in them. However this is not sufficient to do daily tasks like recognizing faces or reading or evading obstacles in their path. The startup VA-ST helps them to recreate some sense of vision using Augmented Reality. This will create a rough outline of a face (somewhat like a stenciled sketch). This will enhance the level of vision available to the user in poorly lit areas and those with lower level of visibility can figure out an object or a person in front him or her, to a better degree.

3 – Nursing aid

Nurses often find it difficult to find a vein on the patient’s vein to draw blood or inject drugs. While many can do so precisely, there are other who need 2-3 attempts before they are able to locate a vein. Accuvein is integrating Augmented Reality into its handheld scanner that makes this task quicker and more efficient. Using this scanner, nurses can easily locate the patient’s vein. The device has been tested on almost 10 million patients and the outcome has been exceptional. The device has proved to be 3.5x more likely to locate a patient’s vein on the first go itself.

4 – Better drug knowledge

Patients can get step by step dosage, mode of action, and its benefits simply by scanning across a bottle of the medicine. Users have the option to scan both the packaging as well as the printed text stuck on the bottle to uncover richer information about a particular drug’s benefit and probable side effects.

5 – Medicinal study

None of the fields within healthcare has seen the phenomenal benefits of AR as it is with the medicinal education field. Examples will be ARnatomy that uses OCR in its app to match a specific word like cranium and flash important details with visuals and information.

These are the different ways in which AR can interact with healthcare IT and create an immersive 3d world for precision based medical science education and procedures carried out by medical professionals.