Top 5 CIO Driven Industries Extracting the Power of Augmented Reality

By CIOReview | Wednesday, September 11, 2019

Augmented Reality–an interactive tool bolstering businesses to enhance the customer experience.

FREMONT, CA: Augmented reality (AR) technology is proving to be a useful tool with its extensive capabilities currently applied in fun applications like Instagram and Snapchat, and also games like Pokemon Go. Its potential is vastly extending to other sectors, including healthcare and manufacturing. AR technology brings elements of the virtual world into the real world, thus bridging the gap between the two worlds. AR adds digital features to a live view by using the camera on a smartphone, thereby providing an enhanced view of the world. Utilizing the capabilities of computer-generated display, text, sound, and effects, AR provides an interactive and reality-based display environment. It gives more freedom for the users, especially marketers, because it is not more immersive like VR.

Empowered by the opportunities provided by AR, CIOs of these 5 industries are taking complete advantage of AR to improve efficiency.

Education

AR provides a seamless and an exceptional experience for both teachers and students by offering a fun and immersive learning experience for learners of all ages. It enables them to quickly learn complicated concepts via 3D AR modeling empowering them to acquire knowledge from an outside source to fulfill their endless thirst for learning.

AR adds fun facts and historical data about events stimulate the interest among students. It can quickly grasp objects that are hard to figure out or beyond imagination. For example, Anatomy 4D is an app guiding medical students that works by scanning the printed targets, displays 3D models of the human body and allows to interact in a way that the user can study any part of the human body.

Manufacturing

AR will disrupt the manufacturing industry in a better way. To mention a few, starting with framing concept, prototyping and traditional designing, some of the complex processes in product design and development relying heavily on resources. A minor error in any of the above-mentioned process can lead to re-building or improving the old product that consumes more time and money.

In that respect, AR acts as an excellent tool for identifying manufacturing errors. Usually, experts have to travel to the worksite in case of distributed manufacturing operations. But, by providing ‘see what I see’ type of telepresence, the experts can see what the technician can see at the site. This will allow experts to offer maintenance support and perform inspections from anywhere.

Healthcare

AR impacts the healthcare industry by simplifying complex medical procedures. It has a wide range of applications during operations eliminating the need for traditional invasive cameras and probes. New AR innovations can help doctors and surgeons to enhance the ability to diagnose, treat, and perform surgery on their patients with improved accuracy and better understanding. AR can add value to practising medicine and education by allowing students to visualize health issues and other such scenarios better.

A practical application would be EyeDecide, a medical app that uses camera display for simulating the patient vision suffering from a specific condition enabling to detect the abnormality.

Construction

AR in construction offers a 3D model of a proposed design for space planning and visualization of the entire project. AR provides more potential for designers and architects, enabling them to visualize the end products such as rooms, floors, and buildings as a whole. Using AR, designers can accurately visualize the design, and when they spot any design flaws, they can make the required adjustments through a few taps.

Thus the professionals can make decisions to improve the design, thereby bring about changes in their model and minimize errors. It can also save time and cost by replacing and modifying the architectural plans to fit the client requirements using 3D models in the project planning phase before stepping into the construction site.

Retail

AR adds a crown to your business by enhancing brand value and sales through mobile devices. It allows brands to offer their customers' unique experiences on a single tap. Intelligent customers would prefer to try a product before making a purchase. To turn this need into reality, AR gives them an augmented shopping experience, as in clothing items, cosmetics, and a wide range of home-related products without directly interacting with them.

AR can take the branding materials to the next level by adding a virtual component. For example, when a user scans a printed material at the right spot with his mobile device, it gives more information about the brand than those conveyed in the brochure. In a competitive market, augmented reality campaign is the unique differentiator that allows the brand to stand ahead of its peers.

AR is not limited to kids but also a source of entertainment for adults too. AR is an exciting technology; businesses are focusing on bringing the fun platform into their world to kick start this new business approach. The benefits from AR are groundbreaking, and we are just witnessing the beginning of its impact in all industries. As growing businesses begin to realize the benefits of AR, its applications are multiplying exponentially and attracting the customers.