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What Is Mixed Reality And What Does It Mean for Enterprise?

This article is more than 5 years old.

People are often confused by the term mixed reality (MR), but it is important to understand it.

Why?

Because it’s the Future of Humanity.

What Is Mixed Reality?

Mixed reality is a significant advancement of augmented reality (AR) – the technology behind 2016’s Pokémon GO phenomenon. In a “hybrid” environment, interactive virtual objects can be mapped to the physical environment, blending the real and the virtual.

Microsoft HoloLens

Whilst the core premise of both AR and MR is similar, the crucial difference is the underlying technology. Mixed Reality is (for the moment, at least) headset-based, whereas AR is viewed through a flat-screen such as a smartphone or tablet. MR is also aware of the geometry of the environment around you – using it as the canvas for you to create immersive content that is defined by the space you are in.

The recent release of Magic Leap (ML) has been causing a lot of interest in MR, but the tech has been around for a while - Microsoft launched HoloLens in 2016. Currently, Microsoft is focused on solving enterprise needs, while ML is looking at bringing wonder and delight to our world. However, over time, the choice of mixed reality technology will melt away and we will be left with the most important bit…the content.

Magic Leap

MR Promises To Be A Genuinely Transformational Technology

Smartphones changed our lives because they gave us access to something that already existed - the internet - in a more convenient way. Mixed reality is also going to change our lives. Not by taking something that already exists and putting it in our pocket, but by completely revolutionizing how we view and interact with the world.  

The opportunity to decouple ourselves from our physical bounds will change how we exist in the world.

Just consider the impact it will have on travel. If we can have a life-like meeting via a mixed reality device, there’s less need for business travel and commuting. We’d save a whole lot of time, and money.

And what about education? If we have an always-on AI assistant that knows what we are trying to achieve - plus digital overlays bringing knowledge to us in real-time - do we need to learn skills in the same way? Imagine opening the bonnet of a broken down car and knowing exactly what to do to fix it.

Mixed reality will democratize intelligence.

Microsoft HoloLens

MR & Enterprise

In May 2018, a Toshiba survey found that 82% of enterprises predict that ‘AR smart glasses’ (or mixed reality) will be used by their businesses in the next three years. Mixed reality poses a huge opportunity to solve business problems - being able to see what you are trying to do is very powerful in a business context.

An example of this can be found with French manufacturer Renault Trucks. In collaboration with technology partner Immersion, the company has been using a HoloLens at its Lyon-based facility to improve quality control processes with its engine assembly operations. In a company statement, an engineer leading the project said, "In practice, quality control operators will wear Microsoft HoloLens smartglasses in which all the digitalized engine parts will be integrated. Via the glasses and Mixed Reality interface, operators will see decision-making instructions that will guide them through the most complex control operations. At the moment, operators working on control points are still using paper instructions." This is a clear step forward with regards to ease of operations.

Renault Trucks

Similarly, ThyssenKrupp, a German manufacturer of elevators and escalators, is also using HoloLens. Field technicians are using the device to ensure they have all the necessary information, literally in front of their eyes, to ensure they can fix the machinery as efficiently and effectively as possible.

Thyssenkrupp

BAE Systems, a multinational defense, security, and aerospace company, has also been using HoloLens in its processes to make electric propulsion devices. Through the use of the device, the company has realized a 50% reduction in assembly time.

Google Glass, The Second Act

Mixed reality in business isn’t limited to Microsoft HoloLens. In 2014, Google Glass fell flat in the consumer marketplace because of privacy issues, but in an industrial setting, the tech has excelled, resulting in Google Glass Enterprise Edition. The ‘hands-free device for hands-on workers’ has helped diverse clients from doctors to automobile assemblers. Training videos, annotated images, and quality assurance checklists can be easily accessed to ensure jobs get done safely and quickly. The glasses can also connect you to co-workers so they can see what you see through a live video stream to enable real-time collaboration and troubleshooting.

Glass Enterprise Edition

A Bright Future

Deloitte predicts that ‘more than 150 companies in multiple industries, including 52 of the Fortune 500, are testing or have deployed AR/VR solutions’. This means that over 10% of Fortune 500 companies are looking at new technologies to help improve their businesses. While a recent Forrester Research report asserts that by 2025, nearly 14.4 million US workers will wear smart glasses.

And that’s just enterprise. Mixed reality can, and will, add magic to our daily lives. MR allows us to write our own rules on how people see the world, and how they react to it. By marrying the physical and digital in unexpected ways, we can reinvigorate, stimulate and inspire. The possibilities for entertainment are endless.

Microsoft HoloLens