Table of Contents
AR & VR App Development Services
Companies are looking to set their brand apart from stiff competition with key technological differentiators and emerging technologies. Several industries such as retail, healthcare and entertainment are heavily relying on Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) as ways to create affinity towards brand, build long-lasting customer relationships, and transform strategies and experiences for brands.
AR app development services are all set to redefine the way we work, interact with technology and with each other. Over a billion smartphone users will “likely create augmented reality (AR) content at least once in 2018, with at least 300 million doing so monthly, and tens of millions weekly,” according to Deloitte Global.
Augmented Reality or AR is the technology that adds digital objects to the existing experience. Usually, digital overlays can include 3D models and objects, textual data and videos.
According to Statista, the AR market is expected to “grow significantly- from 60 million users in 2013 to 200 million in 2018.” Augmented reality is now mainstream.
Several industries have discovered ways to use AR to gain strategic, competitive advantage outside of its traditional use in the world of gaming. AR can offer just-in-time information for workers in maintenance, marketing, customer support, training and development, as well as other sectors.
Often dubbed as the future of technology, VR app development services requires that a user needs a specific set of hardware and the device that helps the user immerse in the virtual environment with the head-mounted display (HMD).
The VR industry is expected to “grow and anticipated market size of virtual reality hardware and software projected to increase from 2.2 billion USD in 2017 to more than 19 billion U.S. dollars by 2020.”
Augmented Reality vs Virtual Reality
Businesses are making apt use of Augmented and Virtual Reality technologies to promote product and services, as well as connect with customers. AR and VR are making products and services accessible to new customers without the need of leaving homes. Virtual reality makes it possible for customers to tour a showroom or visit a shop eliminating the need to physically travel.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality is defined as “an interactive experience of a real-world environment whereby the objects that reside in the real-world are “augmented” by computer-generated perceptual information, sometimes across multiple sensory modalities, including visual, auditory, haptic, somatosensory, and olfactory.
Virtual Reality
Virtual reality (VR) is “an interactive computer-generated experience taking place within a simulated environment, that incorporates mainly auditory and visual, but also other types of sensory feedback like haptic.”
Augmented Reality App Development
The best part about Augmented Reality App Development is that it is available in mobile apps and aims to provide an enhanced user experience using smartphone cameras to view extra videos, text data or other multimedia content.
Here are steps towards effective Augmented Reality App development:
- Define and outline the purpose and objectives of application from the word go
- Analyze critical parameters about user experience and user interface
- Make content relevant, usable and available
- Determine ownership
- Develop a long-term strategy and plan
Virtual Reality App Development
Virtual Reality App development services aims to create a sensory experience using sight, touch, hearing, and more.
- Define the goals for the app
- Decide what platforms to design for?
- Designing for 360º experience (take 360-degree immersive videos
- Alternatively, make a 3D animation or construction
- Will app be for mobile devices (iOS or Android)
- Will it be for a VR headset (Oculus or other VR providers)
- Design User Interface
- Release the app
- Continuously monitor the process
Augmented Reality & Virtual Reality Role in Increasing User Engagement
- Augmented reality can improve brand recognition through effective use of innovative marketing and advertising campaigns to increase client or user engagement level. Many retail stores are using AR marketing to directly persuade consumers’ buying decisions through the use of apps accessible through smartphones and tablets.
- Augmented reality in advertising campaigns makes it easier for customer to take action. It is important to understand the need to consider and integrate the AR experience with your online and traditional commerce channels.
- Strategy using location-based AR helps people find stores with marker-based solutions to improve the experience for shoppers once they enter the store.
- VR is entirely about creation of digital worlds while AR is about enhancing reality with digital content. With augmented reality, customers can hold their smartphones up to a product in shop and be presented with all the information they could possibly want to know about it.
- With VR, designers and clients can view design in terms of size, scale and depth before going into production in real time. AR technologies allow clients to review design in real-world context.
Virtual Reality in Real Estate: Benefits & Use Cases
AR in Enterprises
Connected Remote Workers: Effective collaboration is the key to success in today’s modern age, allowing seniors to monitor other workers without being present in the same location. This feature serves as perfect setup for engineers or emergency medical responders.
Logistics and Warehousing: Smart glasses have the potential to improve efficiency by guiding workers to take shorter efficient routes and improving logistics and warehousing.
Simplifying Complex Tasks: AR technology can reduce manufacturing error rates removing out inefficiencies and decreasing costs. Multiple individuals can plan effectively and visualize project intricacies to enhance understanding.
New Age Learning: Training students to help decipher complex concepts in easy-to-understand manner. Augmented reality is redefining teaching not just for students, but also at corporate level.
VR in Enterprises
Retail: Companies are using VR to promote products, view the designs and recommend changes before user leaves the store, which saves resources for the enterprise and enriches customer experience.
Tourism: VR app development is replacing conventional videos to attract visitors. Popular tourist destinations are creating unique VR experience and allow tourist to experience the destination.
Education: Just like AR is changing the education industry, VR technology can be used to link various learning simulations. VR has helped many doctors understand highly complex and meticulous details of the human body.
Sales: VR can be used to improve customer experience showcasing old and future models which can showcase anywhere minimizing space constraint.
Emerging Technologies: Dawn of New Era
AI in AR / VR can predict the interface a user will require under multiple scenarios and show options for a User Interface to deploy AI for object recognition and tracking. Gestural recognition and tracking allows people to use manipulate 2D and 3D objects within a virtual space using specific movements.
Combining VR and AI forms such as Natural Language Processing (NLP) and machine learning to create a virtual ecosystem to interact with data in real-world field of view.
Augmented Reality is adding a complete new perspective along with the IoT’s ability to build a connected ecosystem from physical devices bridging the gap between physical assets and digital infrastructure. With advanced and special hardware & software, Augmented Reality overlays 3D digital content seamlessly to the real world-environment. Application of Augmented Reality and Internet of Things can help manage machines in remote locations in challenging climates or hazardous situations.
Is your Business Ready for AR/VR?
If you have established clear objectives for using augmented reality or virtual reality in business, analyze the business and technology challenges as well as have a strategy charted to minimize negative impact, your business should be well on the way to being ready.