Merck Moving Beyond Passwords: FIDO Paris Seminar.pptx
XR for Business 2018
1. INDEPENDENT PUBLICATION BY RACONTEUR.NET #0556 29 / 11 / 2018
FUTURE OF XR
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GROUNDING TECH IN
EXTENDED REALITY
LEAPING OBSTACLES
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INDUSTRIAL REVOLUTION12
4. 04 RACONTEUR.NET 05XR FOR BUSINESS
N
obody wants to sink money
in a gimmick and there’s
often a good case to be
made for hanging back a
little to watch how well a new tech-
nology works out for early adopters.
However, there comes a time when
an innovation has proved its worth
and it’s important to recognise
when that point has been reached.
Whether it’s Eastman Kodak’s fail-
ure to invest in digital photography
or Blockbuster dismissing the idea of
streaming video, corporate history
is littered with examples of organi-
sations that simply missed the boat.
It’s hardly surprising that many
organisations have taken a sceptical
view of XR (extended reality), seeing
it perhaps as a consumer technology
that has no real place in the commer-
cial world.
However, this could be a big mis-
take. With investment pouring into
the area from the likes of Microsoft,
ODG and Meta, analysts see it as a
booming technology that’s set for
far more widespread adoption.
“Virtual reality (VR) and aug-
mented reality (AR) technologies
are developing rapidly, with proof
of concepts and production deploy-
ments laying solid foundations for
widespread business adoption,” says
Mark Lillie, global chief information
officer programme leader at Deloitte.
“One of the most startling things
about the current landscape is
that there are two extremes when
it comes to understanding. We
either get a client approaching
us who knows exactly what they
want, the context that it’s going
to be used in and the potential
benefits to their organisation. Or
we get clients who really have no
idea what they want, they just
know they need to be looking at
immersive technology for their
future competitiveness.”
BIS Research predicts that the mar-
ket for AR will rise from $3.48 billion
in 2017 to a staggering $198.17 billion
by 2025, a compound annual growth
rate of 65.1 per cent. The technology
can, it says in a recent report, be seen
as just as ground-breaking as the
development of personal computers
back in 1981.
And in a survey earlier this year,
technology industry association
CompTIA found that three quar-
ters of companies were aware of VR,
with one in five already having a VR/
AR initiative underway; just under a
quarter are piloting the technology.
“Truthfully, we’re seeing less and
less resistance from C-suite exec-
utives and decision-makers when
it comes to VR, AR and MR [mixed
reality], certainly in comparison
to even just three years ago,” says
Shaun Allan, chief XR officer at digi-
tal consultancy hedgehog lab.
Return on investment
in reality technologies
can be protracted,
such are the lengthy
development times
Face up to reality before it’s too late
RoI
EMMA WOOLLACOTT
SerrahGalosonUnsplash
Many organisations fail to
understand the amount of
time and money required
The most common current use of
XR is in employee training, cited by
62 per cent in the CompTIA survey,
with half of early adopters using XR in
customer engagements. Other early
uses include virtual meetings (47
per cent), research and development
simulations (45 per cent) and on-the-
job information, delivering informa-
tion to an employee while they are
engaged with a task (43 per cent).
James Burrows, technical director
at Immersive Studios, says his com-
pany’s clients are happy using VR in
these niches because there’s already
a wealth of successful case studies
making the value proposition clear.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not see-
ing new, novel or unusual briefs, but
certainly we have started noticing
certain consistent trends in the what,
where and when of VR/AR,” he says.
“This means clients who fall out-
side those parameters tend to be
more cautious, for the simple rea-
son there isn’t the same body of
proven success.”
However, hanging back may mean
missing the boat, as XR is not a tech-
nology that can be implemented
overnight, and many organisations
failtounderstandtheamountoftime
and money required. Generating
content is comparable to producing a
video game; it’s time consuming and
requires highly skilled professionals.
“Clients have had a good ten years
of getting a handle on average budg-
ets for more traditional apps and web-
based projects, but suddenly those
assumptions go out of the window
when you add an AR or VR element
into the project,” says Mr Burrows.
“We’re only now getting to the
point where clients are starting to
understand the level of work which
goes into producing these sorts of
experiences and are planning these
sorts of amounts into their budgets.”
This high cost applies even in
the proof-of-concept (PoC) stage.
“Firms should work with the sup-
plier to scope the PoC so it fits their
budget and objective," says Jim
Tramontana, senior product man-
ager at Honeywell Process Solutions.
“Toooften,companiestrytovalidate
the technology by testing the entire
scope of the implementation. This
results in firms finding the PoC itself
too expensive and lengthy, meaning
results are difficult to validate.”
However, for those organisations
that are prepared to take the risk
and make the necessary investment,
the rewards can be significant.
According to a recent report from
the Capgemini Research Institute,
82 per cent of companies currently
implementing AR/VR say the bene-
fits are either meeting or exceeding
their expectations.
Indeed, efficiency improvements
mean that three quarters of compa-
nies with large-scale implementa-
tions say they’re seeing operational
benefits of more than 10 per cent.
Last year, for example, KFC intro-
duced a VR training simulation to
teach its “secret recipe” for prepar-
ing chicken. Using the simulation,
trainees were able to master the five
steps of making fried chicken in ten
minutes, compared with twenty five
minutes for conventional teaching.
Meanwhile, Boeing cut the time
engineers needed for wiring pro-
duction time by 25 per cent, after
replacing assembly manuals with
smartglasses displays.
“For businesses that are still ret-
icent about immersive technol-
ogy, we usually counter with the
same argument, no matter what the
industry. That is if they don’t start
looking at this now, they’re dead
in the water because one or more
of their competitors will be,” says
hedgehog lab’s Mr Allan.
“Simply put, if they don’t at least
dip their toe and have a go, they’re
going to be playing catch-up with
their competitors soon enough.”CompTIA 2017
Current state of XR adoption
XR initiative
already
underway
21%
Experimenting/
piloting with XR
23%
Planning to have XR
initiative in next year
18%
No current
plans/not sure
39%
Ways XR is used by early adopters
Employee
training
62%
Customer
engagement
50%
Virtual
meetings
47%
Simulation
in R&D
45%
On-the-job
information
43%
Commercial feature
S
ince Bryn Mooser co-founded
immersive media company
RYOT in 2012, the studio has
been pushing the boundaries
of what can be produced with VR and
AR. The idea of the company goes
back to the time he spent in Haiti’s
capital city Port-au-Prince, after the
devastating earthquake of 2010.
“I moved down to build a high
school and when I was there I met
my co-founder David Darg. We were
both film-makers who had an inter-
est in humanitarian work and we
started making films there,” explains
Mr Mooser.
It was very clear to him that the
global view of Haiti was cynical and
many people felt like there was noth-
ing they could do about global prob-
lems, but as technology advanced
and connected people around
the world through social media,
there was no longer any excuse to
do nothing.
“RYOT started as a news website
with a function where every story
had an action, so when you read
about something in the world, you
could actually do something about it,
whether it be to sign a petition, vol-
unteer or donate,” says Mr Mooser.
From creating the world’s first all-VR
film in a war zone with Welcome to
Aleppo to the first in natural disas-
ter VR with The Nepal Project, RYOT’s
work is now defining what is possible
in a fully VR world.
“My mission has always been how
do we use technology to try and
make the world a better place?
We began to experiment with new
technologies to tell stories and we
found our perfect medium with VR,”
explains Mr Mooser.
RYOT quickly made a name for
itself as the go-to VR firm for news
and documentaries, and developed
VR content for high-profile com-
panies, including The Associated
Press, HuffPost and The New York
Times. Today RYOT is focused
on building what the future of
content and media will look like in a
5G world.
“What will a movie or TV show look
like in 5G and how will you watch
content in the back of your driver-
less car when it’s enabled with 5G?
We believe 5G is ushering in the
fourth industrial revolution; it’s like
nothing that has come before and
it will create major disruptions in all
industries, from mobility to health to
technology,” says Mr Mooser.
Super-fast 5G internet will not only
offer mobile users more stable con-
nections and low latency, but this
game-changing innovation is set to
unlock exciting new types of expe-
riences. “We are focused on how
to help build and enable the prod-
ucts of the future, so the consumers
of tomorrow can’t live without 5G,”
says Mr Mooser.
Transitioning to a more AR-friendly
digital environment may not be the
leap many consumers expect it to
be. For example, although few users
will be fully aware of the underlying
AR technology, every time face fil-
ters are used in popular social media
apps, they will be becoming more
comfortable with AR applications.
Businesses are building new prod-
ucts and services that are going to
enable consumers and businesses
alike to do things they never dreamed
possible via 5G. “It’s not enough to
just have lower latency and better
download speeds. The 5G solutions
that leverage those benefits could
be amazing. But is that enough to get
somebody to switch phones? I don’t
know,” says Mr Mooser.
Ideas that were once based in sci-
ence fiction are on course to become
increasingly feasible thanks to the
power of 5G. Driverless cars will
be able to communicate with each
other driving down the road and the
near real-time rendering of items in
AR can be wholly achieved.
“We’re at the tipping point right
now and we’re looking at how to
bring forward-thinking companies
on to the bleeding edge of technol-
ogy, and use that technology to tell
stories in a new way and capture a
new audience,” says Mr Mooser.
If companies want to remain at the
top of their market, it’s no longer
possible for them to gloss over AR/
VR technologies and 5G-enabled
services, as the impact of these
solutions will mean every industry
is about to experience a dramatic
disruption. A fully 5G-enabled world
will fundamentally change the enter-
tainment experience for viewers, in
part thanks to the ability of advanced
computing in the cloud.
Mr Mooser believes leaders will
approach 5G in one of two ways.
“Either they’re going to take con-
trol of the tremendous opportunity
to lead into the future or get left
behind, which if you look at histori-
cal trends, is what happens to many,”
he says.
In an age of disruptive startups that
have the power to transform entire
industries through the use of new
technologies, it’s now up to busi-
nesses to make sure they are inno-
vating fast with the right partners.
Mr Mooser concludes: “From a
business perspective, there has
never been a more exciting time.”
For further information please visit
www.ryot.org
RYOT is focused on building
what the future of content
and media will look like in
a 5G world
Bryn Mooser
Founder, RYOT
5G coming of age
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) clearly have
the potential to change dramatically how we perceive the
world around us. But much more work has to be done
for these technologies to move from their current
limited phase to become a truly transformative power
and revolutionise how content is consumed
5. 04 RACONTEUR.NET 05XR FOR BUSINESS
N
obody wants to sink money
in a gimmick and there’s
often a good case to be
made for hanging back a
little to watch how well a new tech-
nology works out for early adopters.
However, there comes a time when
an innovation has proved its worth
and it’s important to recognise
when that point has been reached.
Whether it’s Eastman Kodak’s fail-
ure to invest in digital photography
or Blockbuster dismissing the idea of
streaming video, corporate history
is littered with examples of organi-
sations that simply missed the boat.
It’s hardly surprising that many
organisations have taken a sceptical
view of XR (extended reality), seeing
it perhaps as a consumer technology
that has no real place in the commer-
cial world.
However, this could be a big mis-
take. With investment pouring into
the area from the likes of Microsoft,
ODG and Meta, analysts see it as a
booming technology that’s set for
far more widespread adoption.
“Virtual reality (VR) and aug-
mented reality (AR) technologies
are developing rapidly, with proof
of concepts and production deploy-
ments laying solid foundations for
widespread business adoption,” says
Mark Lillie, global chief information
officer programme leader at Deloitte.
“One of the most startling things
about the current landscape is
that there are two extremes when
it comes to understanding. We
either get a client approaching
us who knows exactly what they
want, the context that it’s going
to be used in and the potential
benefits to their organisation. Or
we get clients who really have no
idea what they want, they just
know they need to be looking at
immersive technology for their
future competitiveness.”
BIS Research predicts that the mar-
ket for AR will rise from $3.48 billion
in 2017 to a staggering $198.17 billion
by 2025, a compound annual growth
rate of 65.1 per cent. The technology
can, it says in a recent report, be seen
as just as ground-breaking as the
development of personal computers
back in 1981.
And in a survey earlier this year,
technology industry association
CompTIA found that three quar-
ters of companies were aware of VR,
with one in five already having a VR/
AR initiative underway; just under a
quarter are piloting the technology.
“Truthfully, we’re seeing less and
less resistance from C-suite exec-
utives and decision-makers when
it comes to VR, AR and MR [mixed
reality], certainly in comparison
to even just three years ago,” says
Shaun Allan, chief XR officer at digi-
tal consultancy hedgehog lab.
Return on investment
in reality technologies
can be protracted,
such are the lengthy
development times
Face up to reality before it’s too late
RoI
EMMA WOOLLACOTT
SerrahGalosonUnsplash
Many organisations fail to
understand the amount of
time and money required
The most common current use of
XR is in employee training, cited by
62 per cent in the CompTIA survey,
with half of early adopters using XR in
customer engagements. Other early
uses include virtual meetings (47
per cent), research and development
simulations (45 per cent) and on-the-
job information, delivering informa-
tion to an employee while they are
engaged with a task (43 per cent).
James Burrows, technical director
at Immersive Studios, says his com-
pany’s clients are happy using VR in
these niches because there’s already
a wealth of successful case studies
making the value proposition clear.
“That doesn’t mean we’re not see-
ing new, novel or unusual briefs, but
certainly we have started noticing
certain consistent trends in the what,
where and when of VR/AR,” he says.
“This means clients who fall out-
side those parameters tend to be
more cautious, for the simple rea-
son there isn’t the same body of
proven success.”
However, hanging back may mean
missing the boat, as XR is not a tech-
nology that can be implemented
overnight, and many organisations
failtounderstandtheamountoftime
and money required. Generating
content is comparable to producing a
video game; it’s time consuming and
requires highly skilled professionals.
“Clients have had a good ten years
of getting a handle on average budg-
ets for more traditional apps and web-
based projects, but suddenly those
assumptions go out of the window
when you add an AR or VR element
into the project,” says Mr Burrows.
“We’re only now getting to the
point where clients are starting to
understand the level of work which
goes into producing these sorts of
experiences and are planning these
sorts of amounts into their budgets.”
This high cost applies even in
the proof-of-concept (PoC) stage.
“Firms should work with the sup-
plier to scope the PoC so it fits their
budget and objective," says Jim
Tramontana, senior product man-
ager at Honeywell Process Solutions.
“Toooften,companiestrytovalidate
the technology by testing the entire
scope of the implementation. This
results in firms finding the PoC itself
too expensive and lengthy, meaning
results are difficult to validate.”
However, for those organisations
that are prepared to take the risk
and make the necessary investment,
the rewards can be significant.
According to a recent report from
the Capgemini Research Institute,
82 per cent of companies currently
implementing AR/VR say the bene-
fits are either meeting or exceeding
their expectations.
Indeed, efficiency improvements
mean that three quarters of compa-
nies with large-scale implementa-
tions say they’re seeing operational
benefits of more than 10 per cent.
Last year, for example, KFC intro-
duced a VR training simulation to
teach its “secret recipe” for prepar-
ing chicken. Using the simulation,
trainees were able to master the five
steps of making fried chicken in ten
minutes, compared with twenty five
minutes for conventional teaching.
Meanwhile, Boeing cut the time
engineers needed for wiring pro-
duction time by 25 per cent, after
replacing assembly manuals with
smartglasses displays.
“For businesses that are still ret-
icent about immersive technol-
ogy, we usually counter with the
same argument, no matter what the
industry. That is if they don’t start
looking at this now, they’re dead
in the water because one or more
of their competitors will be,” says
hedgehog lab’s Mr Allan.
“Simply put, if they don’t at least
dip their toe and have a go, they’re
going to be playing catch-up with
their competitors soon enough.”CompTIA 2017
Current state of XR adoption
XR initiative
already
underway
21%
Experimenting/
piloting with XR
23%
Planning to have XR
initiative in next year
18%
No current
plans/not sure
39%
Ways XR is used by early adopters
Employee
training
62%
Customer
engagement
50%
Virtual
meetings
47%
Simulation
in R&D
45%
On-the-job
information
43%
Commercial feature
S
ince Bryn Mooser co-founded
immersive media company
RYOT in 2012, the studio has
been pushing the boundaries
of what can be produced with VR and
AR. The idea of the company goes
back to the time he spent in Haiti’s
capital city Port-au-Prince, after the
devastating earthquake of 2010.
“I moved down to build a high
school and when I was there I met
my co-founder David Darg. We were
both film-makers who had an inter-
est in humanitarian work and we
started making films there,” explains
Mr Mooser.
It was very clear to him that the
global view of Haiti was cynical and
many people felt like there was noth-
ing they could do about global prob-
lems, but as technology advanced
and connected people around
the world through social media,
there was no longer any excuse to
do nothing.
“RYOT started as a news website
with a function where every story
had an action, so when you read
about something in the world, you
could actually do something about it,
whether it be to sign a petition, vol-
unteer or donate,” says Mr Mooser.
From creating the world’s first all-VR
film in a war zone with Welcome to
Aleppo to the first in natural disas-
ter VR with The Nepal Project, RYOT’s
work is now defining what is possible
in a fully VR world.
“My mission has always been how
do we use technology to try and
make the world a better place?
We began to experiment with new
technologies to tell stories and we
found our perfect medium with VR,”
explains Mr Mooser.
RYOT quickly made a name for
itself as the go-to VR firm for news
and documentaries, and developed
VR content for high-profile com-
panies, including The Associated
Press, HuffPost and The New York
Times. Today RYOT is focused
on building what the future of
content and media will look like in a
5G world.
“What will a movie or TV show look
like in 5G and how will you watch
content in the back of your driver-
less car when it’s enabled with 5G?
We believe 5G is ushering in the
fourth industrial revolution; it’s like
nothing that has come before and
it will create major disruptions in all
industries, from mobility to health to
technology,” says Mr Mooser.
Super-fast 5G internet will not only
offer mobile users more stable con-
nections and low latency, but this
game-changing innovation is set to
unlock exciting new types of expe-
riences. “We are focused on how
to help build and enable the prod-
ucts of the future, so the consumers
of tomorrow can’t live without 5G,”
says Mr Mooser.
Transitioning to a more AR-friendly
digital environment may not be the
leap many consumers expect it to
be. For example, although few users
will be fully aware of the underlying
AR technology, every time face fil-
ters are used in popular social media
apps, they will be becoming more
comfortable with AR applications.
Businesses are building new prod-
ucts and services that are going to
enable consumers and businesses
alike to do things they never dreamed
possible via 5G. “It’s not enough to
just have lower latency and better
download speeds. The 5G solutions
that leverage those benefits could
be amazing. But is that enough to get
somebody to switch phones? I don’t
know,” says Mr Mooser.
Ideas that were once based in sci-
ence fiction are on course to become
increasingly feasible thanks to the
power of 5G. Driverless cars will
be able to communicate with each
other driving down the road and the
near real-time rendering of items in
AR can be wholly achieved.
“We’re at the tipping point right
now and we’re looking at how to
bring forward-thinking companies
on to the bleeding edge of technol-
ogy, and use that technology to tell
stories in a new way and capture a
new audience,” says Mr Mooser.
If companies want to remain at the
top of their market, it’s no longer
possible for them to gloss over AR/
VR technologies and 5G-enabled
services, as the impact of these
solutions will mean every industry
is about to experience a dramatic
disruption. A fully 5G-enabled world
will fundamentally change the enter-
tainment experience for viewers, in
part thanks to the ability of advanced
computing in the cloud.
Mr Mooser believes leaders will
approach 5G in one of two ways.
“Either they’re going to take con-
trol of the tremendous opportunity
to lead into the future or get left
behind, which if you look at histori-
cal trends, is what happens to many,”
he says.
In an age of disruptive startups that
have the power to transform entire
industries through the use of new
technologies, it’s now up to busi-
nesses to make sure they are inno-
vating fast with the right partners.
Mr Mooser concludes: “From a
business perspective, there has
never been a more exciting time.”
For further information please visit
www.ryot.org
RYOT is focused on building
what the future of content
and media will look like in
a 5G world
Bryn Mooser
Founder, RYOT
5G coming of age
Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) clearly have
the potential to change dramatically how we perceive the
world around us. But much more work has to be done
for these technologies to move from their current
limited phase to become a truly transformative power
and revolutionise how content is consumed
6. 06 RACONTEUR.NET 07XR FOR BUSINESS
No standardisation
“There are more than eight different
VR/AR platforms that developers
work on, with no clear leader in sight
and no concerted effort towards
standardisation,” explains Thanos
Malevitis, Accenture Strategy’s
managing director for technology,
communications and media. “Major
platform companies with advanced
software, hardware and content
capabilities may be able to go it
alone by taking advantage of ‘win-
ner takes most’ platform dynamics,
but others will need to work together
in robust ecosystems to overcome
Hardware
Currently VR and AR headsets
are bulky and expensive, tethered
to specific platforms and unable
to display realistic pictures. This
has alienated consumers and hin-
dered the development of busi-
ness-to-consumer XR. Again, AR
is performing better than VR in
this area. Solomon Rogers, founder
and chief executive of immersive
content specialist Rewind, cites
German lift manufacturer Thyssen,
which has deployed mixed reality
HoloLens for its technicians as it
“has so many different models of
lift that not every technician knows
every lift”. He explains: “They can
No optimisation
Software and devices used across
industries will have to be opti-
mised for 3D experiences, explains
Accenture Strategy’s Mr Malevitis.
According to the XR Industry Survey
2018, potential adopters are deterred
by the lack of proof of return on
investment, and the challenge of
integrating the technology with
existing systems and processes.
“In most cases the benefit of XR is
measured on user experience, which
is difficult to quantify and compare
against costly software and device
investment,” Mr Malevitis explains.
“Unlike cloud-based solutions or
analytics and machine-learning,
the business case is less tangible.”
To overcome this, Amazon’s
Sumerian, Google Blocks and Adobe
Aero, among others, offer build-
ing-block technologies, tools to
Limited content
For consumers, lack of content has
proved a huge problem. “Oculus
Rift rushed into its huge investment
in hardware, but when the head-
set launched, there was almost no
content,” says Rewind’s Mr Rogers.
“Oculus is spending $0.5 billion
into content, but the killer app isn’t
clear. There are only a few compa-
nies right now that know how to
make good XR content and, for pro-
fessional developers, it may not be
worth their time or budget relative
to the installed base.”
Mr Rogers believes AR, which
overlays virtual images on to the
real world, as with 2016 sensation
Pokémon Go, is likely to spread
faster than VR in business to con-
sumer thanks to its ease of use
and existing content. “There is
the lack of standards and realise the
full potential of their investments.”
There is an OpenXR initiative
from the likes of Oculus, Vale,
Unity, Epic, Samsung, Magic Leap
and Google, among others, which
aims to develop a cross-platform VR
standard so applications only need
to be written once to run on any VR
system. Until the standard is in the
market, purchasing decisions on XR
may be held up.
look at a lift and navigate fixing it
with a feed back to base.”
Although in a market with no
clearly defined leader, even Microsoft
HoloLens has issues with convenience
andpricetag,whichlowersthechances
for widespread corporate use, accord-
ingtoAndrewMakarov,headofmobile
development at MobiDev. The answer
might be right under our noses as
mobilephonesareprovingsuccessfulat
deliveringAR,althoughwithVRthey’re
lessconsistent.
Ironically, there’s already evidence
that the smartphone itself will dis-
appear as XR spreads. In the future,
phones will be smart wearables, like
earbuds that have biometric sensors
and speakers, or rings and bracelets
that can sense motion, and glasses
that record and display information,
according to Amy Webb, founder of
the Future Today Institute.
build XR experiences through drag-
and-drop assets. An early proto-
type built on Sumerian by Fidelity
Labs involves a repurposed 3D vir-
tual persona, or host, that pro-
vides voice-guided visualisation for
investment data.
“Virtual hosts are probably the big-
gest building block of Sumerian that’s
obvious right now,” says Amazon
Sumerian’s general manager Kyle
Roche. “Having a character you can
make eye contact with, set up in the
same way you’d set up an Alexa skill,
just drag and drop in a browser, is very
attractive for some customers. You
don’t need specialised programming
or 3D graphics expertise.”
Mr Rogers at Rewind concludes: “In
the long run, everything will be fine.
The problem with the tech indus-
try is that we’re always washing our
laundry in public; no one has time to
develop well, so they ship alpha and
beta versions for testing which fail
fast and often. That’s good product
design, but tough when you’re trying
to convince the public.”
a sense that businesses are look-
ing for use-cases; IKEA has a fur-
niture app that’s brilliant. I can
put chairs in every corner of my
room,” he says. “But that’s not
enough of an incentive for a con-
sumer to invest.”
The forthcoming Harry Potter
Wizards Unite AR game, in which
players find objects, fight each
other or unite to defeat monsters,
will be an important demonstration
of potential.
“Microsoft’s HoloLens is work-
ing with developer Black Marble
on truServe, a scene of crime
investigation app,” says Mr
Rogers. “It allows you to over-
lay clues, keep track of what you
know and place virtual markers
or gather multimedia evidence
without disturbing the physical
scene and potentially tainting
evidence. It’s a little like a crime
scene investigation game, so as
developers see what Harry Potter
can do, they will take inspiration
for business uses.”
Different design language
This is film-maker Sir Ridley Scott’s
problem: when the eye isn’t targeted
to just a small range of viewing,
but can rotate 360 degrees, design-
ers have to adapt to an entirely new
way of creating things. Designers
need to get a 3D game engine, learn
how to sculpt, animate and rig com-
plex things when they actually want
something that’s easy to use in a
familiar environment.
“It’s about internal buy-in,” says
Gareth Coombes from the Cambridge
Strategy Centre. “People don’t like
change. Innovation tech companies
have to find internal stakeholders to
prove they have to spend some money
to make some money.”
What are the main barriers to adopting extended
reality and how can you overcome them?
Five obstacles to leap
for successful XR
BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
Commercial feature
T
he potential application of vir-
tual and cross reality in enter-
prise is enormous, particularly
when visual and engaging expe-
riences clinch sales.
As a result, the real estate industry
will see some of the biggest growth in
its use, given its need to demonstrate
what properties will be like to walk
aroundandlivein,beforetheyarebuilt.
Its normal practice remains remark-
ably low tech, with sellers promoting
properties with glossy brochures and
generally quite basic information. The
same is true for architects and inte-
rior designers wanting to demonstrate
their ideas much better.
The latest VR and XR systems enable
potential customers to view and take a
virtual look around developments inter-
actively, and they can be anywhere in
the world while they are doing so.
“The traditional way of promoting
new luxury properties in different
locations is that the builder will go
out and conduct roadshows, one in
the United States, one in Singapore,
and around the world. So you have
people carrying brochures or models,
trying hard to convey what it will really
be like,” explains Shailesh Goswami
(Gosu), founder and chief executive
of FOYR, which creates VR and XR sys-
tems for the industry.
“Building firms can use our technol-
ogy to share links to virtual experiences.
There are no headsets and there’s no
special technology; everyone can see
what the new property will actually be
like using their normal devices.”
VR and XR becoming
affordable reality
for all real estate
Virtual and cross reality systems are yet to go truly mainstream outside
computer gaming, but that could soon change as the platforms
become open to developers, architects and interior designers
FOYR’s systems are available on
any web browser or smartphone,
and they are designed to be inter-
active and intuitive. Typically, archi-
tects, interior designers or property
developers would have found it com-
plicated and expensive to present a
virtual reality experience to a cus-
tomer, but with the new technology,
the experiences can be easily rolled
out from their designs, automatically
rendered for low-power devices.
A crucial element of making this
effective is a focus on transferring
content from legacy software already
in use by architecture, design or prop-
erty development firms, so they are
not obliged to start from scratch.
Integrating pertinent data is also a
key part of the process, with end-us-
ers able to request real-world details
about specific properties or designs
they are encountering virtually.
“Our aim is to simplify and democ-
ratise virtual experience creation,”
says Mr Goswami. “Part of that is about
making it extremely easy for people
to use. We want to make it possible
for anyone to create and offer virtual
designs and experiences very quickly.”
For FOYR, there is a dual focus on
making platforms as easy to use as pos-
sible, while also making them powerful
enough to be relied upon for demon-
strating quality design in detail. To this
end, the integration of artificial intelli-
gence has become vital because it can
be used routinely and automatically to
resolve any experience issues, as well
as recognising existing complex char-
acteristics on any design project for
faster rendering.
For the growth of VR and XR as a
whole, Mr Goswami views the wider
reliance on specially designed head-
sets as a lingering hindrance. Making
VR experiences available via browsers
and smartphones will go a long way
towards democratising the processes
across sectors.
“I still think it’s going to be a couple of
years before some of these alternatives
become really widespread,” he says.
“Until then our work is to simplify the
whole VR and virtual experience cre-
ation process and make it so that you
can write the code. To sell property
designs or other experiential products,
you have to have powerful VR that runs
on everyone’s normal devices.”
To find out more about simple and
accessible VR and XR in real estate and
interior design please visit foyr.com
Our aim is to simplify
and democratise
virtual experience
creation
B
ack in 2015, film director
Sir Ridley Scott was over-
seeing the The Man in the
High Castle for Amazon
and Ryan Gosling in the Blade
Runner sequel. Sir Ridley has
always experimented with new
technologies – he was an early sup-
plier to Amazon’s streaming ser-
vice – and decided to take a look
at virtual reality (VR) as a possible
creative medium.
“The problems were complex,” he
explained shortly afterwards. “It’s
hard to focus on a story when you
have infinite choices, and fast cut-
ting and editing make people feel
queasy. I’m not sure it’s the best sto-
rytelling medium.”
The following year, there was a
rush into VR from games compa-
nies, documentary makers and art-
ists, but since then, VR penetra-
tion has slowed down. There are
signs, however, that extended real-
ity (XR) – VR and its more accessi-
ble cousins augmented reality (AR)
and augmented virtuality – could
find a more natural home in the
business world.
Accenture’s Technology Vision
2018 survey found that more than
80 per cent of executives believe
XR will create a new way for com-
panies to interact, communi-
cate and inform, while 27 per cent
say it is very important for their
organisations to be a pioneer in
XR solutions.
And yet growth has been slow for
both. “The consumer sector and
the enterprise sector have experi-
enced similar amounts of growth,
but the majority consensus is that
this growth has been weaker than
hoped for consumers category,”
according to Simon Portman,
technology lawyer at Marks &
Clerk. So what are the five biggest
barriers to entry and how easy are
they to overcome?
7. 06 RACONTEUR.NET 07XR FOR BUSINESS
No standardisation
“There are more than eight different
VR/AR platforms that developers
work on, with no clear leader in sight
and no concerted effort towards
standardisation,” explains Thanos
Malevitis, Accenture Strategy’s
managing director for technology,
communications and media. “Major
platform companies with advanced
software, hardware and content
capabilities may be able to go it
alone by taking advantage of ‘win-
ner takes most’ platform dynamics,
but others will need to work together
in robust ecosystems to overcome
Hardware
Currently VR and AR headsets
are bulky and expensive, tethered
to specific platforms and unable
to display realistic pictures. This
has alienated consumers and hin-
dered the development of busi-
ness-to-consumer XR. Again, AR
is performing better than VR in
this area. Solomon Rogers, founder
and chief executive of immersive
content specialist Rewind, cites
German lift manufacturer Thyssen,
which has deployed mixed reality
HoloLens for its technicians as it
“has so many different models of
lift that not every technician knows
every lift”. He explains: “They can
No optimisation
Software and devices used across
industries will have to be opti-
mised for 3D experiences, explains
Accenture Strategy’s Mr Malevitis.
According to the XR Industry Survey
2018, potential adopters are deterred
by the lack of proof of return on
investment, and the challenge of
integrating the technology with
existing systems and processes.
“In most cases the benefit of XR is
measured on user experience, which
is difficult to quantify and compare
against costly software and device
investment,” Mr Malevitis explains.
“Unlike cloud-based solutions or
analytics and machine-learning,
the business case is less tangible.”
To overcome this, Amazon’s
Sumerian, Google Blocks and Adobe
Aero, among others, offer build-
ing-block technologies, tools to
Limited content
For consumers, lack of content has
proved a huge problem. “Oculus
Rift rushed into its huge investment
in hardware, but when the head-
set launched, there was almost no
content,” says Rewind’s Mr Rogers.
“Oculus is spending $0.5 billion
into content, but the killer app isn’t
clear. There are only a few compa-
nies right now that know how to
make good XR content and, for pro-
fessional developers, it may not be
worth their time or budget relative
to the installed base.”
Mr Rogers believes AR, which
overlays virtual images on to the
real world, as with 2016 sensation
Pokémon Go, is likely to spread
faster than VR in business to con-
sumer thanks to its ease of use
and existing content. “There is
the lack of standards and realise the
full potential of their investments.”
There is an OpenXR initiative
from the likes of Oculus, Vale,
Unity, Epic, Samsung, Magic Leap
and Google, among others, which
aims to develop a cross-platform VR
standard so applications only need
to be written once to run on any VR
system. Until the standard is in the
market, purchasing decisions on XR
may be held up.
look at a lift and navigate fixing it
with a feed back to base.”
Although in a market with no
clearly defined leader, even Microsoft
HoloLens has issues with convenience
andpricetag,whichlowersthechances
for widespread corporate use, accord-
ingtoAndrewMakarov,headofmobile
development at MobiDev. The answer
might be right under our noses as
mobilephonesareprovingsuccessfulat
deliveringAR,althoughwithVRthey’re
lessconsistent.
Ironically, there’s already evidence
that the smartphone itself will dis-
appear as XR spreads. In the future,
phones will be smart wearables, like
earbuds that have biometric sensors
and speakers, or rings and bracelets
that can sense motion, and glasses
that record and display information,
according to Amy Webb, founder of
the Future Today Institute.
build XR experiences through drag-
and-drop assets. An early proto-
type built on Sumerian by Fidelity
Labs involves a repurposed 3D vir-
tual persona, or host, that pro-
vides voice-guided visualisation for
investment data.
“Virtual hosts are probably the big-
gest building block of Sumerian that’s
obvious right now,” says Amazon
Sumerian’s general manager Kyle
Roche. “Having a character you can
make eye contact with, set up in the
same way you’d set up an Alexa skill,
just drag and drop in a browser, is very
attractive for some customers. You
don’t need specialised programming
or 3D graphics expertise.”
Mr Rogers at Rewind concludes: “In
the long run, everything will be fine.
The problem with the tech indus-
try is that we’re always washing our
laundry in public; no one has time to
develop well, so they ship alpha and
beta versions for testing which fail
fast and often. That’s good product
design, but tough when you’re trying
to convince the public.”
a sense that businesses are look-
ing for use-cases; IKEA has a fur-
niture app that’s brilliant. I can
put chairs in every corner of my
room,” he says. “But that’s not
enough of an incentive for a con-
sumer to invest.”
The forthcoming Harry Potter
Wizards Unite AR game, in which
players find objects, fight each
other or unite to defeat monsters,
will be an important demonstration
of potential.
“Microsoft’s HoloLens is work-
ing with developer Black Marble
on truServe, a scene of crime
investigation app,” says Mr
Rogers. “It allows you to over-
lay clues, keep track of what you
know and place virtual markers
or gather multimedia evidence
without disturbing the physical
scene and potentially tainting
evidence. It’s a little like a crime
scene investigation game, so as
developers see what Harry Potter
can do, they will take inspiration
for business uses.”
Different design language
This is film-maker Sir Ridley Scott’s
problem: when the eye isn’t targeted
to just a small range of viewing,
but can rotate 360 degrees, design-
ers have to adapt to an entirely new
way of creating things. Designers
need to get a 3D game engine, learn
how to sculpt, animate and rig com-
plex things when they actually want
something that’s easy to use in a
familiar environment.
“It’s about internal buy-in,” says
Gareth Coombes from the Cambridge
Strategy Centre. “People don’t like
change. Innovation tech companies
have to find internal stakeholders to
prove they have to spend some money
to make some money.”
What are the main barriers to adopting extended
reality and how can you overcome them?
Five obstacles to leap
for successful XR
BARRIERS TO ADOPTION
STEPHEN ARMSTRONG
Commercial feature
T
he potential application of vir-
tual and cross reality in enter-
prise is enormous, particularly
when visual and engaging expe-
riences clinch sales.
As a result, the real estate industry
will see some of the biggest growth in
its use, given its need to demonstrate
what properties will be like to walk
aroundandlivein,beforetheyarebuilt.
Its normal practice remains remark-
ably low tech, with sellers promoting
properties with glossy brochures and
generally quite basic information. The
same is true for architects and inte-
rior designers wanting to demonstrate
their ideas much better.
The latest VR and XR systems enable
potential customers to view and take a
virtual look around developments inter-
actively, and they can be anywhere in
the world while they are doing so.
“The traditional way of promoting
new luxury properties in different
locations is that the builder will go
out and conduct roadshows, one in
the United States, one in Singapore,
and around the world. So you have
people carrying brochures or models,
trying hard to convey what it will really
be like,” explains Shailesh Goswami
(Gosu), founder and chief executive
of FOYR, which creates VR and XR sys-
tems for the industry.
“Building firms can use our technol-
ogy to share links to virtual experiences.
There are no headsets and there’s no
special technology; everyone can see
what the new property will actually be
like using their normal devices.”
VR and XR becoming
affordable reality
for all real estate
Virtual and cross reality systems are yet to go truly mainstream outside
computer gaming, but that could soon change as the platforms
become open to developers, architects and interior designers
FOYR’s systems are available on
any web browser or smartphone,
and they are designed to be inter-
active and intuitive. Typically, archi-
tects, interior designers or property
developers would have found it com-
plicated and expensive to present a
virtual reality experience to a cus-
tomer, but with the new technology,
the experiences can be easily rolled
out from their designs, automatically
rendered for low-power devices.
A crucial element of making this
effective is a focus on transferring
content from legacy software already
in use by architecture, design or prop-
erty development firms, so they are
not obliged to start from scratch.
Integrating pertinent data is also a
key part of the process, with end-us-
ers able to request real-world details
about specific properties or designs
they are encountering virtually.
“Our aim is to simplify and democ-
ratise virtual experience creation,”
says Mr Goswami. “Part of that is about
making it extremely easy for people
to use. We want to make it possible
for anyone to create and offer virtual
designs and experiences very quickly.”
For FOYR, there is a dual focus on
making platforms as easy to use as pos-
sible, while also making them powerful
enough to be relied upon for demon-
strating quality design in detail. To this
end, the integration of artificial intelli-
gence has become vital because it can
be used routinely and automatically to
resolve any experience issues, as well
as recognising existing complex char-
acteristics on any design project for
faster rendering.
For the growth of VR and XR as a
whole, Mr Goswami views the wider
reliance on specially designed head-
sets as a lingering hindrance. Making
VR experiences available via browsers
and smartphones will go a long way
towards democratising the processes
across sectors.
“I still think it’s going to be a couple of
years before some of these alternatives
become really widespread,” he says.
“Until then our work is to simplify the
whole VR and virtual experience cre-
ation process and make it so that you
can write the code. To sell property
designs or other experiential products,
you have to have powerful VR that runs
on everyone’s normal devices.”
To find out more about simple and
accessible VR and XR in real estate and
interior design please visit foyr.com
Our aim is to simplify
and democratise
virtual experience
creation
B
ack in 2015, film director
Sir Ridley Scott was over-
seeing the The Man in the
High Castle for Amazon
and Ryan Gosling in the Blade
Runner sequel. Sir Ridley has
always experimented with new
technologies – he was an early sup-
plier to Amazon’s streaming ser-
vice – and decided to take a look
at virtual reality (VR) as a possible
creative medium.
“The problems were complex,” he
explained shortly afterwards. “It’s
hard to focus on a story when you
have infinite choices, and fast cut-
ting and editing make people feel
queasy. I’m not sure it’s the best sto-
rytelling medium.”
The following year, there was a
rush into VR from games compa-
nies, documentary makers and art-
ists, but since then, VR penetra-
tion has slowed down. There are
signs, however, that extended real-
ity (XR) – VR and its more accessi-
ble cousins augmented reality (AR)
and augmented virtuality – could
find a more natural home in the
business world.
Accenture’s Technology Vision
2018 survey found that more than
80 per cent of executives believe
XR will create a new way for com-
panies to interact, communi-
cate and inform, while 27 per cent
say it is very important for their
organisations to be a pioneer in
XR solutions.
And yet growth has been slow for
both. “The consumer sector and
the enterprise sector have experi-
enced similar amounts of growth,
but the majority consensus is that
this growth has been weaker than
hoped for consumers category,”
according to Simon Portman,
technology lawyer at Marks &
Clerk. So what are the five biggest
barriers to entry and how easy are
they to overcome?
8. 08 RACONTEUR.NET 09XR FOR BUSINESS
WHAT IS
XR?
Industry split on most exciting technology
XR product company stakeholders were asked to
choose the market that is the most promising
A version of augmented reality,
sometimes known as hybrid reality,
that merges the real and virtual worlds
and allows them to interact with
each other in real time
Mixed reality
Computer-generated graphics
overlaid on the physical world,
typically used with mobiles and
tablets through the camera
Augmented reality
Immersive headset experience
presenting a computer-
simulated, 360-degree-view
reality in a virtual world
Virtual reality
When XR is expected to become mainstream
Percentage of XR product company stakeholders who predict the following timeframes
Jabil 2018
6%
Already
mainstream
29%
1-3 years
34%
4-5 years
22%
6-10 years
8%
10+ years
1%
Never
6-10 years
Top industry use-cases for business XR and consumer XR
Percentage of XR product company stakeholders who believe the following
will be impacted by XR technologies
Business
Consumer
Medical 71%
Manufacturing 47%
Military 46%
Industrial 35%
Tourism 28%
Retail 23%
Transportation 20%
Other 4%
Jabil 2018
76%
36%
34%
30%
24%
Transportation 17%
Other 2%
60%
Gaming
Movies and television
Medical
Retail
Tourism
Ecommerce
AR/VR spending worldwide in 2017
Market share by industry ($bn)
When XR will generate a profit
XR developers were asked when they thought AR, VR and
MR would turn a profit for themselves and/or their clients
Consumer Other
Discrete
manufacturing
Retail
Personal and
consumer services
Process
manufacturing
6.2 3.7
1.5
1
0.8
0.7
38%
Medium term
23%
Long term
15%
Currently
profitable
11%
Project
not tied to
profitability
12%
Short term
1%
Never
IDC 2017
XRDC 2018
36%
26%
38%
Extended reality or XR, a relatively new development
in most circles, is an emerging umbrella term given
to all computer-generated environments that either
merge the physical and virtual worlds or create an
entirely immersive experience for the user
9. 08 RACONTEUR.NET 09XR FOR BUSINESS
WHAT IS
XR?
Industry split on most exciting technology
XR product company stakeholders were asked to
choose the market that is the most promising
A version of augmented reality,
sometimes known as hybrid reality,
that merges the real and virtual worlds
and allows them to interact with
each other in real time
Mixed reality
Computer-generated graphics
overlaid on the physical world,
typically used with mobiles and
tablets through the camera
Augmented reality
Immersive headset experience
presenting a computer-
simulated, 360-degree-view
reality in a virtual world
Virtual reality
When XR is expected to become mainstream
Percentage of XR product company stakeholders who predict the following timeframes
Jabil 2018
6%
Already
mainstream
29%
1-3 years
34%
4-5 years
22%
6-10 years
8%
10+ years
1%
Never
6-10 years
Top industry use-cases for business XR and consumer XR
Percentage of XR product company stakeholders who believe the following
will be impacted by XR technologies
Business
Consumer
Medical 71%
Manufacturing 47%
Military 46%
Industrial 35%
Tourism 28%
Retail 23%
Transportation 20%
Other 4%
Jabil 2018
76%
36%
34%
30%
24%
Transportation 17%
Other 2%
60%
Gaming
Movies and television
Medical
Retail
Tourism
Ecommerce
AR/VR spending worldwide in 2017
Market share by industry ($bn)
When XR will generate a profit
XR developers were asked when they thought AR, VR and
MR would turn a profit for themselves and/or their clients
Consumer Other
Discrete
manufacturing
Retail
Personal and
consumer services
Process
manufacturing
6.2 3.7
1.5
1
0.8
0.7
38%
Medium term
23%
Long term
15%
Currently
profitable
11%
Project
not tied to
profitability
12%
Short term
1%
Never
IDC 2017
XRDC 2018
36%
26%
38%
Extended reality or XR, a relatively new development
in most circles, is an emerging umbrella term given
to all computer-generated environments that either
merge the physical and virtual worlds or create an
entirely immersive experience for the user
10. 10 RACONTEUR.NET 11XR FOR BUSINESS
T
he ongoing trade spat
between Washington and
Beijing certainly makes
headline news, but behind
the ruffling of feathers over steel
pipes, wine and pork, there’s a much
bigger agenda. “What they are fight-
ing is not really a trade war, it’s a
tech war. A tech war is also a man-
ufacturing war,” according to Terry
Gou, chairman of Foxconn.
The Taiwanese electronics com-
pany should know; it employs more
than a million workers, many in
mainland China, and is a big sup-
plier to Apple. These tensions have
profound implications for the
extended reality (XR) industries.
Chinese investment in US tech firms
has officially been soured as the
Trump administration gets spikey
over alleged intellectual property
theft and unfair trade practices.
“Both the US and China see them-
selves as having a manifest destiny
to determine world affairs, and per-
ceive their economic and cultural
outputs as crucial to shaping how
the 21st century plays out globally,”
says Tim Mulligan, senior analyst
at MIDiA Research. “Technological
innovation is a crucial strand in
establishing global leadership.”
Alibaba, JD and Tencent are
among the Chinese tech giants
that have made big investments in
America. Alibaba is of note hav-
ing lavished hundreds of millions
of dollars on ultra-secretive Magic
Leap, a virtual reality (VR) startup
that’s arguably had difficulty mov-
ing beyond its own hype.
“Magic Leap will struggle to
continue development with the
likes of Alibaba not being able to
supplement their earlier invest-
ment rounds. This is true of other
US-based AR [augmented reality]
and VR ventures that have received
speculative investments from
China,” explains Mr Mulligan.
“However, money pumped into
mixed reality companies are going
to be subject to less US regulatory
oversight than say investments in
technology and telecoms infrastruc-
ture or back-end providers.”
You only have to look at the ban on
US companies selling vital compo-
nents to ZTE, China’s second-larg-
est telecoms hardware provider, to
realise this. Huawei is also banned
in the United States.
The numbers speak for them-
selves; in the first five months of
2018, overall Chinese investments
in the US fell to their lowest level in
seven years, a drop of 92 per cent,
according to Rhodium Group. It
doesn’t help that there’s been little
or no return on investment from the
nascent XR sector.
“Chinese companies don’t look
at foreign investments with a huge
appetite; it’s often more a vanity
investment than core to their strat-
egy. Chinese tech companies are
more obsessed with local develop-
ments because losing their domes-
tic market share is a much bigger
threat at this stage,” says Shann
Biglione, head of strategy at Zenith
USA and former head of business
transformation at Publicis Media
Greater China.
Rhodium points out that the tight-
ening of rules could have a chilling
impact on Chinese inward invest-
ment into the US, including money
moving into research and devel-
opment, as well as other innova-
tion-intensive activities. The trade
spat has also led to a mad scramble
in the tech sector before sanctions
kick in.
“Device-makers are aware of the
tensions. Faced with the rising
uncertainties, some vendors have
already begun increasing their pro-
duction and exports early to fulfil
the expected increase in demand
in the coming Q4 holiday season,
as well as in early-2019,” says Jason
Low, Shanghai-based senior ana-
lyst at Canalys.
“The big issue is that China and
its companies have to invest to stay
ahead of the game domestically.
XR is one of the top areas where
the country has put in a lot of time
and effort to create frameworks
to streamline this development,
as the industry requires key play-
ers from different areas, including
hardware, network operators, con-
tent providers and developers, to
work together.”
In the past, China’s tech giants
have looked for US startups, which
help them learn about new tech
and cutting-edge trends emanat-
ing from Silicon Valley, as well as
businesses that can complement
their core e-commerce offerings
at home. Their eyes are firmly on
the main prize of making money
out of China’s 900 million-plus,
hyper-connected consumers.
“There is enough growth to be
had in China. By 2020 you will have
600 million middle-class consum-
ers and companies will sell an extra
$2.3 trillion of goods each year by
that time,” says Tom Goodwin, head
of innovation at Zenith Media.
“At senior levels in Chinese corpo-
rations, they’re adamant that they
don’t need help when it comes to
tech. I’ve seen this time and time
again. From Huawei to Alibaba to
China Mobile to DJI. They are very
clear they ‘have tech covered’. It’s
not arrogance; they just have total
clarity on where their strengths lie,
and they feel software and manufac-
turing are perfect for their skillsets.”
It helps that there are five million
science and technology graduates
in China every year and their com-
petence levels are extraordinarily
high. They also have huge markets
to experiment in. Asia accounts for
59 per cent of the global popula-
tion. How consumers adopt XR here
today could be crucial to how it’s
rolled out worldwide tomorrow.
Asia has the fastest-growing mar-
kets when it comes to disposable
incomes. Consumers are crucially
leap-frogging traditional ways
of engagement when it comes to
digital experiences.
China also has a grand plan, con-
cocted by Beijing’s apparatchiks,
called Made in China 2025. It’s a
concerted national effort to domi-
nate high-tech industries globally,
moving China up the value chain as
labour costs grow.
The leading Chinese tech compa-
nies are vast, but their Achilles’ heel
is they conduct 90 per cent of their
business within the country. Even
so, such plans give Washington
law-makers the jitters.
By closing themselves off to China,
America could lose out. Chinese
companies will develop core tech-
nologies, including XR, whether
they get help from Silicon Valley or
not. They will also look elsewhere to
invest and are likely to be welcomed
with open arms. China is already
active in many other countries and
will increase this collaboration as it
is increasingly frowned upon in the
United States.
“Don’t forget that the reliance on
Chinese capital in Europe is far more
evident than in the US,” says Nick
Cooper, executive director and global
head of insights at Landor Associates.
“It is easy to overlook the fact that
innovation is thriving in multiple
locations around the world now.
Not only on London’s own Silicon
Roundabout and indeed Silicon Fen
in Cambridge. This emphasises the
UK’s lead in tech startups and invest-
ment within Europe. However, there
are many other vibrant centres of
tech excellence now, including Berlin,
Stockholm and Helsinki, and else-
where,suchasParisandAmsterdam.”
In many ways, being shut out of the
US could be a boon for China. It will
be forced to be more self-reliant when
it comes to the XR sector and other
tech developments, which it will incu-
bate, grow, exploit and then export.
Watch out.
NICK EASEN
Tech is targ et in US-China sanctions battle
Economic hostility and sanctions
exchanged between the United States
and China will impact development of
reality technologies, with winners and
losers on both sides of the trade war
Market leaders in VR
Revenue forecasts for the three largest virtual reality markets ($bn)
PwC/Statista 2017
Chinese companies
will develop core
technologies,
including XR, whether
they get help from
Silicon Valley or not
360-degree view
of the Temple
of Heaven in
Beijing, China
IdeaImagesviaGettyImages
TRADE WAR
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
5
4
3
2
1
0
US
China
Japan
Compound
annual
growth rate
47%
103%
65%
Commercial feature
F
or the last few years, virtual real-
ity in business has been much
discussed, but less widely har-
nessed. Today, far from being
a notional advantage for the future,
some of the world’s biggest companies
are seeing the benefits for their train-
ing programmes.
“Many industries from manufactur-
ing and mining to healthcare, trans-
port and energy, have moved beyond
the tyre-kicking stage with VR train-
ing,” says Tom Symonds, founder and
chief executive of VR training com-
pany Immerse.io, whose clients include
Shell, DHL and GE Healthcare. “With
large businesses already using the
technology to help people train more
effectively, it’s important for others to
consider it so they are not left behind.”
By using the company’s VR plat-
form, up to ten people anywhere in
the world can enter an immersive vir-
tual environment and interact with one
another, with additional people view-
ing a 2D version on their web browser.
During or after the training, educators
can comment on steps taken or guide
participants. The technology is used
across industries, from manufacturing
processes to delivery firms, defence to
flight, healthcare to mining, energy to
communications and beyond.
In addition to optimising broader
business processes through analysis
of the usage data, organisations can
gain cost-savings within the delivery
of training, simply because so much
less travelling and ongoing investment
is required thanks to the live and dis-
tributed nature of the platform. The
sheer immersive nature of VR train-
ing enables learning experiences that
VR is revolutionising
the way businesses
approach training
Virtual reality holds huge promise for businesses,
reducing the costs of training and dramatically
improving results through immersive experiences
impact learners on a deep level, driving
improved knowledge retention.
“Everyone learns best when they’re
focused and even the most brilliant
trainer cannot hold learners’ attention
for 100 per cent of the time. There are
so many distractions in a normal office
environment that people’s minds nat-
urally wander,” Mr Symonds explains.
“But once learners are in a VR headset,
being handed a virtual object by a col-
league, they are fully focused as there
is an immediate imperative to act and
to interact.”
For industries such as oil and gas,
where safety issues are of utmost
importance, the capacity for VR train-
ing to avoid potentially dangerous out-
comes is critical. Energy giant Shell is
using the systems to train for emer-
gency response.
“We can show a person the impact
of a delay in shutting down a defec-
tive piece of equipment by a few sec-
onds. This ability to recreate differ-
ent working scenarios means learners
understand and experience the conse-
quences of one decision over another.
They wouldn’t forget this training in a
hurry,” says Mr Symonds. “That offers
real value for businesses where main-
taining the highest levels of worker
safety is paramount.”
Immerse.io’s VR platform is under-
pinned by training data capture on
a large scale, empowering live or
post-session assessment. Managers
can see how well trainees have per-
formed in a given VR scenario and
they are able then to pinpoint where
improvements can be made.
The technology company’s in-house
developers work closely with clients
to create bespoke VR training envi-
ronments, but Mr Symonds says busi-
nesses also use his company’s platform
independently to create their own per-
sonalised environments.
“We’ve created a software devel-
opment kit that allows our clients to
create their own content or to import
CAD [computer-aided design] models
to run on the platform,” he says. “This
means companies can quickly and
repeatedly build the virtual environ-
ments they need, enabling them to
take enterprise-wide training to the
next level and deliver massive change
in their organisation.”
To find out more about providing
accessible, immersive VR training
across your business please visit
immerse.io
With large
businesses already
using the technology
to help people train
more effectively, it’s
important for others
to consider it so they
are not left behind
Two trainees
work together in
a collaborative
virtual space
to identify and
prevent a gas leak
11. 10 RACONTEUR.NET 11XR FOR BUSINESS
T
he ongoing trade spat
between Washington and
Beijing certainly makes
headline news, but behind
the ruffling of feathers over steel
pipes, wine and pork, there’s a much
bigger agenda. “What they are fight-
ing is not really a trade war, it’s a
tech war. A tech war is also a man-
ufacturing war,” according to Terry
Gou, chairman of Foxconn.
The Taiwanese electronics com-
pany should know; it employs more
than a million workers, many in
mainland China, and is a big sup-
plier to Apple. These tensions have
profound implications for the
extended reality (XR) industries.
Chinese investment in US tech firms
has officially been soured as the
Trump administration gets spikey
over alleged intellectual property
theft and unfair trade practices.
“Both the US and China see them-
selves as having a manifest destiny
to determine world affairs, and per-
ceive their economic and cultural
outputs as crucial to shaping how
the 21st century plays out globally,”
says Tim Mulligan, senior analyst
at MIDiA Research. “Technological
innovation is a crucial strand in
establishing global leadership.”
Alibaba, JD and Tencent are
among the Chinese tech giants
that have made big investments in
America. Alibaba is of note hav-
ing lavished hundreds of millions
of dollars on ultra-secretive Magic
Leap, a virtual reality (VR) startup
that’s arguably had difficulty mov-
ing beyond its own hype.
“Magic Leap will struggle to
continue development with the
likes of Alibaba not being able to
supplement their earlier invest-
ment rounds. This is true of other
US-based AR [augmented reality]
and VR ventures that have received
speculative investments from
China,” explains Mr Mulligan.
“However, money pumped into
mixed reality companies are going
to be subject to less US regulatory
oversight than say investments in
technology and telecoms infrastruc-
ture or back-end providers.”
You only have to look at the ban on
US companies selling vital compo-
nents to ZTE, China’s second-larg-
est telecoms hardware provider, to
realise this. Huawei is also banned
in the United States.
The numbers speak for them-
selves; in the first five months of
2018, overall Chinese investments
in the US fell to their lowest level in
seven years, a drop of 92 per cent,
according to Rhodium Group. It
doesn’t help that there’s been little
or no return on investment from the
nascent XR sector.
“Chinese companies don’t look
at foreign investments with a huge
appetite; it’s often more a vanity
investment than core to their strat-
egy. Chinese tech companies are
more obsessed with local develop-
ments because losing their domes-
tic market share is a much bigger
threat at this stage,” says Shann
Biglione, head of strategy at Zenith
USA and former head of business
transformation at Publicis Media
Greater China.
Rhodium points out that the tight-
ening of rules could have a chilling
impact on Chinese inward invest-
ment into the US, including money
moving into research and devel-
opment, as well as other innova-
tion-intensive activities. The trade
spat has also led to a mad scramble
in the tech sector before sanctions
kick in.
“Device-makers are aware of the
tensions. Faced with the rising
uncertainties, some vendors have
already begun increasing their pro-
duction and exports early to fulfil
the expected increase in demand
in the coming Q4 holiday season,
as well as in early-2019,” says Jason
Low, Shanghai-based senior ana-
lyst at Canalys.
“The big issue is that China and
its companies have to invest to stay
ahead of the game domestically.
XR is one of the top areas where
the country has put in a lot of time
and effort to create frameworks
to streamline this development,
as the industry requires key play-
ers from different areas, including
hardware, network operators, con-
tent providers and developers, to
work together.”
In the past, China’s tech giants
have looked for US startups, which
help them learn about new tech
and cutting-edge trends emanat-
ing from Silicon Valley, as well as
businesses that can complement
their core e-commerce offerings
at home. Their eyes are firmly on
the main prize of making money
out of China’s 900 million-plus,
hyper-connected consumers.
“There is enough growth to be
had in China. By 2020 you will have
600 million middle-class consum-
ers and companies will sell an extra
$2.3 trillion of goods each year by
that time,” says Tom Goodwin, head
of innovation at Zenith Media.
“At senior levels in Chinese corpo-
rations, they’re adamant that they
don’t need help when it comes to
tech. I’ve seen this time and time
again. From Huawei to Alibaba to
China Mobile to DJI. They are very
clear they ‘have tech covered’. It’s
not arrogance; they just have total
clarity on where their strengths lie,
and they feel software and manufac-
turing are perfect for their skillsets.”
It helps that there are five million
science and technology graduates
in China every year and their com-
petence levels are extraordinarily
high. They also have huge markets
to experiment in. Asia accounts for
59 per cent of the global popula-
tion. How consumers adopt XR here
today could be crucial to how it’s
rolled out worldwide tomorrow.
Asia has the fastest-growing mar-
kets when it comes to disposable
incomes. Consumers are crucially
leap-frogging traditional ways
of engagement when it comes to
digital experiences.
China also has a grand plan, con-
cocted by Beijing’s apparatchiks,
called Made in China 2025. It’s a
concerted national effort to domi-
nate high-tech industries globally,
moving China up the value chain as
labour costs grow.
The leading Chinese tech compa-
nies are vast, but their Achilles’ heel
is they conduct 90 per cent of their
business within the country. Even
so, such plans give Washington
law-makers the jitters.
By closing themselves off to China,
America could lose out. Chinese
companies will develop core tech-
nologies, including XR, whether
they get help from Silicon Valley or
not. They will also look elsewhere to
invest and are likely to be welcomed
with open arms. China is already
active in many other countries and
will increase this collaboration as it
is increasingly frowned upon in the
United States.
“Don’t forget that the reliance on
Chinese capital in Europe is far more
evident than in the US,” says Nick
Cooper, executive director and global
head of insights at Landor Associates.
“It is easy to overlook the fact that
innovation is thriving in multiple
locations around the world now.
Not only on London’s own Silicon
Roundabout and indeed Silicon Fen
in Cambridge. This emphasises the
UK’s lead in tech startups and invest-
ment within Europe. However, there
are many other vibrant centres of
tech excellence now, including Berlin,
Stockholm and Helsinki, and else-
where,suchasParisandAmsterdam.”
In many ways, being shut out of the
US could be a boon for China. It will
be forced to be more self-reliant when
it comes to the XR sector and other
tech developments, which it will incu-
bate, grow, exploit and then export.
Watch out.
NICK EASEN
Tech is targ et in US-China sanctions battle
Economic hostility and sanctions
exchanged between the United States
and China will impact development of
reality technologies, with winners and
losers on both sides of the trade war
Market leaders in VR
Revenue forecasts for the three largest virtual reality markets ($bn)
PwC/Statista 2017
Chinese companies
will develop core
technologies,
including XR, whether
they get help from
Silicon Valley or not
360-degree view
of the Temple
of Heaven in
Beijing, China
IdeaImagesviaGettyImages
TRADE WAR
2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 2021
5
4
3
2
1
0
US
China
Japan
Compound
annual
growth rate
47%
103%
65%
Commercial feature
F
or the last few years, virtual real-
ity in business has been much
discussed, but less widely har-
nessed. Today, far from being
a notional advantage for the future,
some of the world’s biggest companies
are seeing the benefits for their train-
ing programmes.
“Many industries from manufactur-
ing and mining to healthcare, trans-
port and energy, have moved beyond
the tyre-kicking stage with VR train-
ing,” says Tom Symonds, founder and
chief executive of VR training com-
pany Immerse.io, whose clients include
Shell, DHL and GE Healthcare. “With
large businesses already using the
technology to help people train more
effectively, it’s important for others to
consider it so they are not left behind.”
By using the company’s VR plat-
form, up to ten people anywhere in
the world can enter an immersive vir-
tual environment and interact with one
another, with additional people view-
ing a 2D version on their web browser.
During or after the training, educators
can comment on steps taken or guide
participants. The technology is used
across industries, from manufacturing
processes to delivery firms, defence to
flight, healthcare to mining, energy to
communications and beyond.
In addition to optimising broader
business processes through analysis
of the usage data, organisations can
gain cost-savings within the delivery
of training, simply because so much
less travelling and ongoing investment
is required thanks to the live and dis-
tributed nature of the platform. The
sheer immersive nature of VR train-
ing enables learning experiences that
VR is revolutionising
the way businesses
approach training
Virtual reality holds huge promise for businesses,
reducing the costs of training and dramatically
improving results through immersive experiences
impact learners on a deep level, driving
improved knowledge retention.
“Everyone learns best when they’re
focused and even the most brilliant
trainer cannot hold learners’ attention
for 100 per cent of the time. There are
so many distractions in a normal office
environment that people’s minds nat-
urally wander,” Mr Symonds explains.
“But once learners are in a VR headset,
being handed a virtual object by a col-
league, they are fully focused as there
is an immediate imperative to act and
to interact.”
For industries such as oil and gas,
where safety issues are of utmost
importance, the capacity for VR train-
ing to avoid potentially dangerous out-
comes is critical. Energy giant Shell is
using the systems to train for emer-
gency response.
“We can show a person the impact
of a delay in shutting down a defec-
tive piece of equipment by a few sec-
onds. This ability to recreate differ-
ent working scenarios means learners
understand and experience the conse-
quences of one decision over another.
They wouldn’t forget this training in a
hurry,” says Mr Symonds. “That offers
real value for businesses where main-
taining the highest levels of worker
safety is paramount.”
Immerse.io’s VR platform is under-
pinned by training data capture on
a large scale, empowering live or
post-session assessment. Managers
can see how well trainees have per-
formed in a given VR scenario and
they are able then to pinpoint where
improvements can be made.
The technology company’s in-house
developers work closely with clients
to create bespoke VR training envi-
ronments, but Mr Symonds says busi-
nesses also use his company’s platform
independently to create their own per-
sonalised environments.
“We’ve created a software devel-
opment kit that allows our clients to
create their own content or to import
CAD [computer-aided design] models
to run on the platform,” he says. “This
means companies can quickly and
repeatedly build the virtual environ-
ments they need, enabling them to
take enterprise-wide training to the
next level and deliver massive change
in their organisation.”
To find out more about providing
accessible, immersive VR training
across your business please visit
immerse.io
With large
businesses already
using the technology
to help people train
more effectively, it’s
important for others
to consider it so they
are not left behind
Two trainees
work together in
a collaborative
virtual space
to identify and
prevent a gas leak