i3 - November/December 2017 - 61

By Gary Arlen
C S PAC E

Facing Reality AR,
MR and VR Expand

Business

involving 300 KFC outlets in Beijing,
according to Michael Park, CEO/founder
of PostAR. The game incentivized consumers with the offer of winning discounts on meals, he says, noting that
the game was played 400,000 times in
its first three days.
Still, the focus hasn't dimmed
enthusiasm for emerging VR technology. A slew of premium VR game
titles are in the pipeline, including firsttime VR entries for two of Bethesda
Game Studios' popular series: Doom VFR
and The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim VR.
Lone Echo (a sci-fi, zero-gravity
Lone Echo,
adventure), RadianVR ("puzzles with
a sci-fi, zerogravity adven- a twist") and Metaworld (a massively
ture, creates
scaled "open world social VR experia convincing
VR experience. ence") also are generating attention.

Prepping Audiences

Courtesy Loan Echo

onsumers may have been surprised by the new iPhone
X's focus on augmented reality, but the industry is not.
Days before Apple introduced the new phone, a twoyear-old Facebook enthusiasts group recognized the industry's
focus on perfecting AR before VR, and reversed the adjectives
in its name to "Augmented & Virtual Reality."
Shortly thereafter, Microsoft introduced
its Mixed Reality (MR) headsets, affirming that AR and MR are imminent stepping-stones en route to widespread VR.
MR, also called "hybrid reality," combines
real and virtual worlds to produce new
environments where physical and digital
objects co-exist and interact in real time.
But the near-term buzz is heavy with
AR and MR action. Charlie Fink, whose
book, Expanding Realms: VR/AR 2018,
will be published next year, believes that
VR is in the "final stages" of becoming
a consumer product. Fink is upbeat about
VR adoption: it may take longer, but he
sees intermediate steps that will accelerate
VR use. Meanwhile, many people are
"already using AR apps," he says. He
emphasizes the easy functionality of AR
in retailing, travel and health applications,
which is driving that category.
"The VR and AR headsets coming to
market are going to merge with the

C TA . t e c h / i 3

introduction of Windows Mixed Reality
this fall," he says. He points to the growing
use of both AR and VR in business/enterprise applications, such as the work being
done by San Francisco-based Osterhout
Design Group, which recently unveiled
wearable goggles for hazardous material
workers. The smart glasses are a ruggedized version of ODG's existing devices,
intended to offer AR support for workers
in industries such as pharmaceutical testing, aerospace transportation and mining.
The headsets also offer augmented reality
and 3D experiences for gaming and other
consumer applications, as the company
showed at its CES 2017 demonstration.
ODG worked with China Mobile
to deploy its AR smart glasses among
the company's 800 million users and
encouraged companies to run marketing campaigns using AR experiences.
For example, Yum! Brands has used
AR apps for a smartphone game

The migration from AR to MR to VR is
being smoothed by the growing use of
360-degree videos. Many offer immersive
viewer-controlled experiences, if not full
alternative reality features. From slick
music videos to quick home video clips,
the 360-degree productions on Facebook,
YouTube and other popular platforms
presage the next wave of immersive,
user-controlled experiences.
This year's Emmy Awards helped
add credibility and awareness to immersive programming. For example, the
360-degree video, The People's House:
Inside the White House with Barack and
Michelle Obama won the Outstanding
Original Interactive Program award.
It was created by Felix & Paul Studios
and Oculus Studios.
Developers are also designing offshoots of the core technologies, such
as "Augmented Virtuality" in which real
world objects are merged into virtual
worlds, and a "Virtual Continuum" where
virtual spaces are populated with physical
objects and real people. There's a big
future for alternative realities - today's
AR/VR/MR tidal wave - or title wave -
shows no signs of ebbing.

2018

C Space brings together Hollywood
elite, marketing execs and creators
to share the synergies of content and
brand integration.
NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2017

http://www.ces.tech/Events-Programs/C-Space http://CTA.tech/i3

i3 - November/December 2017

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