Digital First Magazine – August 2021 – India Edition – Virtual Reality Trends in 2021

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INDIA EDITION

First Stop for Digital, Technology and Business Insights

IMPORTANCE OF RISK MANAGEMENT’S IN INTEGRATING AR/VR Hersh Shah, CEO, India Affiliate, Institute of Risk Management

THE ERA OF AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY Husain Khatumdi, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Ekostay

IMPACT OF AR AND VR ON THE TOURISM INDUSTRY Indraneel Guha, Creative Director, LivePixel Technologies

HOW AR & AI PLAY INTO DELIVERING A PERSONALIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE Kanav Singla, Founder & CEO, Adloid

AUGUST 2021

VR AND AR – A PANACEA IN THE POSTPANDEMIC WORLD

Ajit Padmanabh, Founder & CEO, Who VR

HOW VR WILL SHAPE THE PROPTECH INDUSTRY IN A POST PANDEMIC WORLD

Aryaman Vir, Founder & CEO, MYRE Capital

VR TECHNOLOGIES DEMOCRATIZE AUTOMATION IN INDIA

Dr. M. Manivannan, Professor - Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras

VIRTUAL REALITY

TRANSFORMING BUSINESSES IN 2021 1

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www.digitalfirstmagazine.com

August 2021

Vol - 2 Issue - 5

Virtual Reality Special Editor in Chief

Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD

Managing Editor Sarath Shyam

Consultant Editors

Dr. Johny Andrews Navya Venkatesh Shyam K

Anna Elza Roshni Rajagopal Nikita Thakur

Editorial Enquiry: admin@digitalfirstmagazine.com

Art and Design

Ajay K Das Manjunath R Rohith Poojary

Sales & Marketing

Suchithra S Reshma Ashokan

Arati Waghmare Rupali Mohankar

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Digital First Magazine August 2021

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MANAGING EDITOR’S NOTE

A Technology for Today’s Time

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hen schools and colleges closed during the pandemic, the education technology industry grew exponentially. COVID-19 was a blessing in disguise for the EdTech players. Similarly, Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality Technologies was another sector that experienced a surge in demand during the pandemic due to the necessity of companies to continue their business operations virtually. Using AR/VR technologies, many companies moved to virtual platforms for attending meetups to formulate various policies and strategies for their ongoing business. For instance, real-estate companies have started deploying AR/VR technologies for the virtual tour of properties, which increases the chances of purchase, thus further propelling the industry growth. In 2020, the global VR Market size was valued at USD 15.81B. It is expected to grow at a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 18.0% from 2021 to 2028.

Since social distancing has become a new norm, many people now prefer online services and products than visiting the store or offices offline. The trendy AR/VR technology is a lifesaver, as it offers the best customer connection and

engagement solutions. These technologies are diverse enough to handle B2B and B2C, whether it is real-time monitoring of factory equipment, service delivery, navigation, or product presentations. With more research and innovation happening in this space, AR/VR has become easier to deploy, and businesses are getting advanced opportunities to tip the profit scales to their sides. Today, automobile manufacturers extensively use AR/VR technologies for designing and visualizing the different features of mechanical parts before committing to building a model. Ecommerce websites, tourism, healthcare and whatnot, AR and VR have penetrated everywhere, and they can help businesses grow exponentially with their cool features and exciting user experience offerings.

With so much to offer, AR/VR technology is a fascinating and curious subject for tech enthusiasts. In this issue, industry experts in the tech space share their insights and opinions on Virtual Reality and how is it transforming businesses in 2021. We hope that our efforts help people who follow AR/VR technology trends to get a better idea of what is happening around us.

Enjoy Reading.

Sarath Shyam

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ADVISORY BOARD

Dr. Kuldeep Nagi, Ph.D, MBA, BSc.

Program Director of Ph.D, Recipient of Fulbright Fellowship Award & Dan Evans Award for Excellence and Writer columnist.

Mr. Amulya Sah, PGD PM & IR, PG Diploma in PM&IR (XISS Ranchi)

Senior Director HR. Former Head HR group Samsung R&D Institute India,Transformative HR Leader, Change agent, Digitization facilitator, Engagement architect, Trainer and Diversity champion.

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Dr. Varughese K.John, PhD, MBA, MPhil, MCom, LLB. Former Program Director, MS in Management Program, GSATM - AU

Dr. Ajay Shukla, Ph.D, MBA, BE. Co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer at Higher Education UAE

Mamta Thakur Former CEO (ASEAN), Arc Skills

Mr. Sreedhar Bevara, MBA, B.Com Former Senior General Manager: Panasonic Middle East & Africa, Thought Leader, Speaker & Author of ‘Moment of Signal’ (Amazon’s International Bestseller)

Want to Sell or find Investor for your Business?

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CONTENTS

ENTER THE

METAVERSE

18 COVER STORY

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VIRTUAL REALITY: THE IMMERSIVE BRIDGE CONNECTING ARCHITECTS & BUILDING PRODUCT MANUFACTURERS Gautam Tewari, Co-Creator, Trezi

WHAT ARE 3D ASSETS AND WHY ARE THEY SIGNIFICANT?

VR TECHNOLOGIES DEMOCRATIZE AUTOMATION IN INDIA

Janarthanan Kandasamy, Product Design Executive & Co-Founder, Geniuscrate

Dr. M. Manivannan, Professor Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras

EXPERT OPINION

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VR AND AR – A PANACEA IN THE POST-PANDEMIC WORLD

FIVE TECHNOLOGY TRENDS THAT WILL REVAMP THE FUTURE OF ONLINE RETAIL IN INDIA

IMPACT OF AR AND VR ON THE TOURISM INDUSTRY

Ajit Padmanabh, Founder & CEO, Who VR

Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

Indraneel Guha, Creative Director, LivePixel Technologies

CONTENTS 24

EXPERT OPINION

EMERGENCE OF AR/VR IN VARIOUS INDUSTRIAL SECTORS Shruti Khandare, Head of Marketing & PR, MyFundBazaar

HOW IS VCOMMERCE DIFFERENT THAN ECOMMERCE Santhosh Palavesh, Founder & CEO, BigBox

IN MY VIEW

LEADER’S INSIGHTS

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32 IMPORTANCE OF RISK MANAGEMENT’S IN INTEGRATING AR/VR Hersh Shah, CEO, India Affiliate, Institute of Risk Management

14 HOW VR WILL SHAPE THE PROPTECH INDUSTRY IN A POST PANDEMIC WORLD Aryaman Vir, Founder & CEO, MYRE Capital

40 DEMOCRATIZING AR TOOLS FOR SMALL BUSINESSES IN THE FUTURE - A READY TO USE PLATFORM FOR ALL Rajesh Subramanian, Founder, Ghoshak

5 TRENDS THAT WILL SHAPE THE E-GAMING INDUSTRY IN 2021 Deepak Aravind, Founder & CEO, Creative Monkey Games

64 48 THE ERA OF AUGMENTED AND VIRTUAL REALITY IN THE TRAVEL INDUSTRY Husain Khatumdi, Co-Founder & Managing Director, Ekostay

HOW AR & AI PLAY INTO DELIVERING A PERSONALIZED SHOPPING EXPERIENCE Kanav Singla, Founder & CEO, Adloid

56 76 IMMERSIVE TECHNOLOGY AND BRANDS – THE CONNECTION OF TODAY’S WORLD Uttam Kumar Pandey, Founder & CEO, Perceived Design

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IN MY

VIEW

How VR will Shape

the PropTech Industry in a Post Pandemic World Aryaman Vir, Founder & CEO, MYRE Capital

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he COVID-19 pandemic has caused real estate entities to re-devise their strategies, by integrating and utilizing advanced technologies as a tool to stay abreast with the evolving landscape. .PropTech can help the real estate industry adapt to changing trends fostered by the pandemic. Property technology utilises IT resources to assist real estate entities in their business operations, such as using payments platforms to conduct safer transactions, VR technologies for visualisation, advanced ML&AI algorithms for optimizing decision processes, and automation.

Over the past few years, the sector has become increasingly techcentric. The frontrunner that will change the real estate landscape in the post-Covid market is virtual reality (VR) Virtual reality technologies enable the viewer to engage in a completely immersive experience, allowing them to visually interact with the objects. This technology has major potential for marketing products and services that require the customer to sense them. One such instance is the need for a customer to explore a property such as a house, hotel room, workspace, etc. They can now remotely visit a property or site. Visualization of under construction projects is another

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VR technology opens a whole gamut of marketing opportunities for real estate entities

ARYAMAN VIR

Mr. Aryaman Vir is the Founder & CEO of MYRE Capital, a tech-enabled fractional ownership platform. MYRE Capital is a venture by Morphogenesis. Aryaman holds an undergraduate degree in Networked and Social Systems Engineering and a Master’s in Systems Engineering from the University of Pennsylvania. His background in engineering and a keen interest in Algorithms and Big Data Analytics has helped him envision a robust model that caters to a wide range of audiences interested in safe and profit yielding investments in the real estate sector. He has also created various models and processed data to identify trends and anomalies in the real estate industry.

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By using VR, builders can display digital visuals of the property and integrate it with personalised experience

way how VR is making a home buyer’s life easy as they now do not have to rely solely on 3D renders but can now touch and feel which makes it more realistic.

Real estate properties require a customer to interact with the property to not only verify, but also to experience it. VR technology opens a whole gamut of marketing opportunities for real estate entities. A Goldman Sachs report analysing the impact of VR technology in different industries surmises that ad spend on VR technology will yield more benefits than online ads. The market size is estimated to be at $2.6 billion by 2025. The pandemic has especially brought in incredible transformations in the use of VR technologies VR and property technology: VR can be utilised by different stakeholders in the supply side For real estate brokers - Reaching out to physically distanced customers: The most obvious benefit for real estate is that of conducting property tours online. The pandemic has made it difficult for real estate agents to enable a customer to experience a property. By using VR technology, customers can view, experience, and verify a property. This will make it significantly easier for the agents and customers to conduct online business.

For interior designers Personalised experiences: Customers will be able to interact with the environment and view it as per their utility. For example, customers

would be able to place furniture of their choice, wall paint, interior design, etc. Modular design and VR enablers them to evaluate various configurations For builders - Selling properties that are unfinished: Builders have to sell their units before construction is complete. This means the customer has to completely rely on the visualised versions of the property. However, by using VR, builders can display digital visuals of the property and integrate it with personalised experience. This will allow the customer to have a better understanding of the property.

The future of the property technology industry: As per a report by Housing.com, PropTech investments in India reached above $550 million in 2020. This investment rode on the back of the number of techenabled start-ups that have emerged since the pandemic began. Almost $2.4 billion have been invested in India’s PropTech market. With over 500 million internet users in India, and over 50% of real estate purchase decisions being taken online, the PropTech industry is poised to capitalise on digital technologies for marketing opportunities. With work-from-home becoming a feature of the new normal, it is estimated that over the next one year, 80% of prospective buyers are looking to purchase a residential property. 65% of these are hoping to move in to ready-to-move houses in 2021. As real estate services move online, how companies leverage PropTech will become one of the key differentiators for customers looking for great experiences and cost benefits.

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BY ROSHNI RAJAGOPAL

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hat does the future look like? Most movies with time travel or perhaps advanced alien civilizations give us a glimpse of how technology could be used and its impact on humans in the future. Flying cars, holograms, and teleportation. We’re getting smarter, and scientists and inventors worldwide are constantly trying to find solutions to problems. So, where are we headed? A contactless world, perhaps?

Well, we needn’t look any further. The future is here. In 1992, Neal Stephenson, an American writer, in his book Snow Crash talks of a world that is inside the internet. More recently, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg said the same. They both had a similar view on a completely virtual and augmented world, along with some physical elements. This year, in a speech, Zuckerberg elaborated on what’s in store for the company: investing in the Metaverse. This includes a version of Facebook that covers everything from social presence to company meetings to entertainment.

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Photo by Minh Pham on Unsplash Digital First Magazine August 2021

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Photo by JEST HO S.COM on Unsplash

Well, right now, Facebook is looking at meetings with an app called Horizon Workrooms, a flagship collaboration experience that allows people to work together in the same virtual space regularly of physical distance.

The beta version is available on Facebook’s Oculus Quest 2. This virtual meeting space allows members to join a meeting in VR with an online avatar or through a virtual room on their computer. Oculus also added features

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that allow you to sketch ideas together with keyboard and hand tracking, remote desktop streaming, video conferencing, spatial audio, and a mixed reality desk that makes it a pretty immersive experience.

Intending to bring the Metaverse to life, Facebook plans to focus on products for communities, creators, commerce, and virtual reality. But many gaming platforms, like Roblox, and Fortnite have already started

The convergence of virtual and physical worlds opens doors to new possibilities on the internet and perhaps to the future as well

adding metaverse-like elements into their gaming experience. The Metaverse isn’t just connected to gaming. But, if you have ever traded bitcoins or in any cryptocurrency, congratulations.

You’re already using metaverse elements! Be it an online avatar you took up for a show or a work meeting or even metaverse ‘cousins’ AR, VR, or mixed reality, you have already gotten a taste of what the internet has to offer. Imagine your everyday life, social gatherings, and work calls

being entirely virtual. Well, that’s what Facebook is planning.

Not sure if this could be a fair comparison, but I’m sure a good number of people have played Farmville. So, you have your farm, with your produce, cattle, and buildings. You can expand your property with the coins you collect, and your neighbours could be your Facebook friends. Imagine if that was a reality, a virtual world with its economy, own real

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Photo by Martin Sanchez on Unsplash

If you have ever traded bitcoins or in any cryptocurrency, congratulations.

You’re already using metaverse elements

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estate kind of them and just basically a virtual version of the world we live in today. That’s the Metaverse for you.

We all know that augmented reality and virtual reality can be completely immersive experiences. But, thanks to innovators, they have taken the word ‘immersive’ to the next level. The Metaverse is one such concept that marries the two, and internet giants like Facebook, Microsoft, and online gaming platform Roblox aren’t waiting around. The convergence of virtual and physical worlds opens doors to new possibilities on the internet and perhaps to the future as well.

With COVID-19 and social distancing, the metaverse idea has struck some of the most influential people on the planet. By investing in the Metaverse, they believe that we can create a new society altogether with new social norms and value systems, free from discrimination and maybe even socioeconomic disparities. They also believe that a new virtual world can give futures, researchers, and the like a new space for social experimentation, connection, and entertainment. One of the most recent ones was one Travis Scott’s concert inside of Fortnite, a one of a kind, ‘completely virtual event.’

So, what does it mean for us? Well, there is one thing we can look forward to: lesser contact. If the pandemic hasn’t taught us a lesson on hygiene and social distancing, the Metaverse will make your life a lot easier. You can attend meetings, social events like concerts or maybe even a wedding over the internet. For now, Facebook has only been exploring the world of business, but this could be applied to other fields as well. The education sector would immensely benefit from such a setup. With classes moving online, it isn’t as effective of how it used to be before the pandemic. And the entertainment industry. Like mentioned earlier, events could be more immersive with VR. The Metaverse could allow us to live a ‘normal’ social life without having a constant fear of contracting COVID-19 or any other disease for that matter.

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Higher Education Digest July 2020

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

Emergence of AR/VR

in Various Industrial Sectors Shruti Khandare, Head of Marketing & PR, MyFundBazaar

A model turned lifestyle influencer, Shruti Khandare has a lot of feathers to her cap be it winning Miss Cochin 2010, Miss Kerala First Runners Up 2011, Miss South India 2013 & placed in top 25 of Miss India 2014. She has even judged various fashion shows like Milan Fashion Show at the SRM University 2013 & Navy Queen Karwar 2013 along with inaugurating the coveted Kalyan Silks Showroom at Calicut. Shruti is the brainchild behind the branding, marketing & positioning of MyFundBazaar - an online mutual fund investment platform that provides you with smart digital financial advice and scientific portfolio allocation. She presently heads the Marketing & PR of MyFundbazaar along with creating unique financerelated content for her 81,000 followers on Instagram.

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Considering there is a lot of data to analyse, AR & VR bridges the gap to data visualisation that traders use to make important wealth management decisions

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ou never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete.” - R Buckminister Fuller The evolution of technology is a neverending process, be it augmented reality & virtual reality. While virtual reality is something that will take you out of the real-life and put you in a digital-friendly world, augmented reality takes content from the real world and adds some digital layers to it. Augmented reality intensifies

your feelings - sense of sight, hear and touch adds a third dimension to digitisation.

The history of VR & AR goes back to 1838 when Charles Wheatstone created his stereoscope, which superimposed an image over each of the user’s eyes, creating a distant 3D image. Over the years, the Wheatstone experiment & many more inventions contributed to the cutting-edge technology recognised today. More than a decade ago, the first real smartphone hit the market & made screens an essential ingredient of our lives changed how we communicate, work, travel,

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purchase & more. The first validation of consumer AR technology use came from the explosively popular Pokemon Go before which nobody had thought about AR experiences or applications on the touch of a smartphone.

With 75% of organisations with largescale VR & AR implementations having realised over 10% operational benefits & some expert sources claiming that in 2025 the market size of immersive technologies will reach an unbelievable $500 billion, AR & VR are making tangible contributions in business development. In the industrial companies, the primary areas where AR & VR are becoming efficient solutions are - repair & maintenance, inspection & quality assurance, design & assembly and immersive training.

While companies like SnapChat & Facebook have found entertaining ways to deliver AR experiences on social media platforms, retailers have developed AR apps to assist customers with online purchasing decisions. Quite like the IKEA app which gives consumers the ability to visualise furniture at the comfort of their homes, simply by holding their smartphone in a room or area. This not only removes fear consumers experience when shopping online for big items, but AR & VR provide an added convenience.

Car manufacturing is among the industries that found the most significant number of applications for AR & VR - be it from the shapes of handles & steering wheels to the aerodynamics & crash performance etc. Moreover, the most common use of VR in the transportation sector is in the education & training of employees - future pilots can gain first-hand experience training through VR. Additionally, natural resource extraction companies make extensive use of VR Technologies

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- specialists in oil & gas production enhance their skills with complex drilling equipment decreasing the risk of equipment malfunction. Furthermore, applications of VR in the airline manufacturing industry are similar in many ways to the automotive industry. Increasing productivity by 40% & reducing wiring production time by 25% Boeing achieved such spectacular results by equipping their technicians with hands-free AR devices.

With a rash of store closings, VR is an emerging solution to the challenges facing traditional as well as other strategy e-commerce companies have started experimenting with. Using AR/VR, retailers are offering customers everything from virtual fitting rooms to the ability to design & customise products where consumers shop virtually, entering stores using headsets instead of needing to be physically present. Also, across multiple branches of the military, AR/VR is being used to create large-volume simulation environments - providing an immersive way to train recruits & optimise operations - a software simulation company, Bohemia interactive Simulations is creating a ‘virtual training environment for tactical training, experimentation & mission reversal for land, sea & air. Not just the military, VR also provides an avenue for organisers to welcome more individuals into in-person events, enabling individuals to be at places virtually. The media sector has been equally eager to embrace the concept of virtual reality, looking to place audiences ‘inside’ their stories.

AR & VR have added a new dimension to the finance industry as well. Considering there is a lot of data to analyse, AR & VR bridges the gap to data visualisation that traders use to make important wealth management decisions. Holographic workstations offer

While companies like SnapChat & Facebook have found entertaining ways to deliver AR experiences on social media platforms, retailers have developed AR apps to assist customers with online purchasing decisions

2D & 3D elements that add to the bank’s existing processes & gives users better access to algorithms & trading tools.

Biometric security can be now introduced in an AR system that could then connect with a VR world giving access to VR bank services, make ATM transactions & even make payments. Not just that, for both employees & customers of financial institutions, AR & VR have huge potential for teaching people new information in VR Finance. The world of AR & VR has already impacted how financial institutions interact with customers, train employees, provide services & manage data.

To conclude, AR & VR technologies have clearly gained widespread popularity in various industry sectors despite having a range of challenges technological integration, data readiness, talent & general awareness. However, as these technologies evolve, industries need to keep up or face the risk of losing customers to immediate competition, or, worse yet, become irrelevant. Today, we are in a state of compromise with AR & VR devices considering none of them give users a complete, boundless & immersive experience - lacking natural wide field of view, limited display resolution, low brightness, a short battery life & lacking 3D sensing capabilities. Despite the extremely high development costs, the complexities of AR/VR devices & other challenges, these technologies are still tip-toeing into the commercial world, but early adoption has arrived. However, how close are we to mass adoption is a question we really need to ask ourselves. On the flip side, with improved immersive technology & AR capabilities, the form factor of our favourite consumer electronics will change & we’ll never look back.

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EXPERT OPINION

Virtual Reality: The Immersive Bridge

Connecting Architects & Building Product Manufacturers Gautam Tewari, Co-Creator, Trezi

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he AEC industry is formed by a wide range of stakeholders that collaborate and collectively create our built environment. Therefore, exhausting physical meetings at various stages of the design process and tedious design modifications form a dominant part of most work-flows. However, through the pandemic, the already exhausted work system has been further strained, bringing the industry to a standstill. Since architecture is so time-intensive, it is essential to rebuild our design process sustainably and efficiently.

As the building industry navigates the paradigm shift towards technology, Virtual Reality has great potential to offer paradigm shifting sloutions. The process of selecting and acquiring the right building products for architects has often been tedious, with prolonged periods of design modifications and site visits. Through Virtual Reality, brands can create digital twins of their products that allow architects and clients to experience the products conveniently within the safety of their homes. Virtual reality also allows for the integration of these products into the design, to scale. With virtual collaboration plugged into the

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Gautam Tewari is the Co-Creator of Trezi, India’s first VR Platform for the Building Industry, developed under the ambit of his start-up SmartVizX. A graduate from the University of New South Wales, Tewari holds a masters degree in Construction Management and is a LEED-accredited professional. A skilled orator, Tewari has not only conducted several workshops for Trezi across the country in top architectural schools but has also been invited extensively to speak at trade events about the potential of Immersive Technology to revamp the workflows of the building industry. Apart from VR, Tewari is passionate about cricket, is a long-distance runner, fitness enthusiast, and an avid reader.

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same, various stakeholders can collaborate and pick inconsistencies leading to uniform visualisation the right products for the design efficiently. Digital instead of varying interpretations, leaving no room product categories and catalogues can be generated, for errors. This dramatically reduces the decisionallowing users to explore multiple offerings. By making time as it reduces the need for in-person creating digitals catalogues along with VR solutions meetings, tedious design modifications processes not only does it create a and erroneous selection of streamlined VR platform for products. Immersive and the AEC industry but also collaborative technology like offers an experience-based Virtual Reality can bring understanding of the product. accuracy in functioning and This offers an enhanced communication amongst market reach and networking all stakeholders, offering a Through Virtual opportunities to the building comprehensive technological product manufacturer, and solution that ensures that all Reality, brands better product understanding the stakeholders share the and awareness to the designer. same understanding of the can create digital Real-time design application, products to be used. along with swift decisionThe AEC industry twins of their making makes collaborative functions through a complex endeavours between designers network of interlinked and products that and building product interdependent processes manufactures financially carried out by different allow architects viable and time-efficient. professional teams. It is one and clients to Additionally, it also offers of the fastest-growing sectors stakeholders an opportunity to worldwide – and the nature of its experience comprehensively experience output is remarkably impactful these products within the and long-lasting. Therefore, the products project design, leading to better collaborative working is at product awareness and design the very core of the industry. conveniently understanding.

As we redefine and rebuild This significantly eliminates our working methods, it is within the safety the need for physical meetings, essential to create seamless and models or mock-ups, making convenient systems as well as of their homes it economically efficient future-ready and resilient ones. for the building product Virtual Reality offers a better manufacturers and sustainable and faster way for decision for the environment. Through making that is affordable and a cloud-enabled collaborative economically efficient. It is technology, building product a great way to communicate manufacturers, and vendors the user experience thus can reach every designer independent of their bridging the gap between client expectations and geographical location or scale. Not only do digital understanding and the final architectural product. tools provide greater visibility to building product Virtual Reality offers a power-packed, immersive manufactures but it also leads to a better understanding solution that is interactive and true to scale, of the product and its application into the design. delivering a revolutionary design experience to the The true to scale real-time experience reduces visual entire AEC industry.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

Importance of Risk Management’s

in Integrating AR/VR Hersh Shah, CEO, India Affiliate, Institute of Risk Management

Hersh is the CEO of India Affiliate, Institute of Risk Management and India Chairman of IRM Regional Group. Hersh has been delivering sessions on Enterprise Risk Management since the age of 21 and he has educated over 7000+ students from varied backgrounds.He has over 11 years of experience in audit and assurance, risk management, consulting and corporate finance including structuring strategic alliances & partnerships with specific focus in the education sector.

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As VR worlds become more sophisticated and immersive, users can find it increasingly difficult to separate the virtual from the real

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lthough most of us associate extended reality (XR) tools like augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) with gaming, XR usage has widened far beyond this industry.

A 2019 Accenture report had predicted that industrial spending in AR/VR will outstrip consumer spending by 2023. The pandemic has spurred this trend further, as businesses use XR tools to reduce costs, increase efficiencies, and facilitate remote working and employee training. XR has also progressed beyond AR and VR, to include haptics, robotics, holograms, Artificial Intelligence, and Machine learning.

Given the growing usage of XR tools in consumer experience and across business functions, it is critical that these be considered carefully in the organisation’s risk management strategy. Like other digital tools, such as cloud computing, XR can also be used for adverse purposes, and staying proactive and alert can help companies in utilising XR tools to their benefit without falling prey to the threat they may pose. However, we must first identify the risks associated with the growing usage of such tools, particularly AR/VR, before we move on to managing them.

Threat of privacy breach Few people realise the extent to which XR permeates our life today, or the amount of

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We must first identify the risks associated with the growing usage of such tools, particularly AR/VR, before we move on to managing them

personal data these tools can access through phones, wearable tech, or laptops. Apps like Snapchat and Facebook gather biometric data, such as speech, and retina and face patterns.

Many apps also use the phone’s hardware to track what we are seeing or listening to. We even allow apps and websites access to our location, messages, contacts, and other folders in our phones or laptops.

Although many apps have included safety features and permissions, users may not do their due diligence, or may become careless over time.

Superficially, these tools may seem innocuous or insignificant when compared to the experience and convenience that comes with the tradeoff. For instance, a gaming app that captures our image and morphs by adding interesting props may appear to be harmless entertainment. However, it also has access to our biometric data and may even have access to other sensitive information stored in our phone.

Unfortunately, there is no way of ascertaining or safeguarding this information, as data breaches can occur even when the company has extremely stringent cybersecurity.

Even companies such as Facebook and Apple have reported cyber breaches in the past, despite their intense focus on data security.

Risk of identity theft As VR/AR move towards a larger online presence, our virtual avatars will also transition to different forums, from socialising platforms to training modules at work. When we consider the access

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that AR/VR tools have to our personal data, including biometrics, there is a very real danger of identity theft. A data breach allows hackers the opportunity to hijack our avatars and access real-world permissions, such as those for making payments.

Mental impact While there are no definitive studies on the impact of XR on the mental health of users, there is a growing concern that it can foster addiction. The gaming industry, where it is most widely utilised, has repeatedly come under the scanner for its potential in spurring addictive playing habits.

The World Health Organisation has also included gaming disorder under its 11th Revision of the International Classification of Diseases. With the greater adoption of AR/VR in social media, we must make greater efforts to understand their impact on our mental health.

For instance, when used for social media, the experience of XR can exacerbate its negative effects, such as anxiety, depression, and low self-esteem, and create a disassociation with reality. As VR worlds become more sophisticated and immersive, users can find it increasingly difficult to separate the virtual from the real. The behaviours, ideas, and social interactions in the virtual world can, then, start to influence our real world.

Risk of exposure to antisocial behaviour or radicalisation Once VR worlds become commonplace, they will carry the dangers of online interactions, such as trolling, cyber bullying, and radicalisation. In fact, the immersive nature of these interactions can potentially create a bigger impact.

Exposure to such behaviour can influence real-world ideas and opinions.

Addressing XR risks The aforementioned risks may largely concern consumer behaviour, but we cannot discount its impact on businesses.

As we move towards greater adoption of XR tools, these factors can affect employee behaviour. In addition, these potential risks to consumers can eventually hurt the business’ image, reputation, and may even put it in legal jeopardy. For instance, ignoring cybersecurity norms or regulating user behaviour can attract unwelcome scrutiny by regulators.

It is clear, therefore, that there is a pressing need for companies to enact a robust risk management strategy that is future-capable, and agile enough to address these, and other, novel challenges in a comprehensive manner. Digital risk management qualifications, such as those offered by Institute of Risk Management, allow organisations to strengthen their risk management teams with the specialized expertise necessary to combat threats arising from the widening influence of XR technologies and applications, and help risk professionals bolster their arsenal of skills for this nascent, yet dynamic, domain.

With the power and influence that technology wields over our lives today, there is a valid concern, across civil society and various governments of the world, about its perils. The risks associated with immersive technologies like XR make it even more critical that we address these concerns through a transparent, systematic, and conscientious approach. Enterprise risk management techniques offer the most effective solution in addressing and mitigating such adverse events while ensuring that organisations can safely adopt XR to aid the pursuit of their business goals.

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EXPERT OPINION

What are 3D Assets and Why are They Significant?

Janarthanan Kandasamy, Product Design Executive and Co-Founder, Geniuscrate

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ulk, The House in (Academy Award-winning) Parasite Movie, The Weapons in Assassin Creed Game, The Billy Bookcase in IKEA website, Mercedes Benz Maybach S class in their Website have one thing in common. They are all 3D Models.

In today’s world, 3D Assets are everywhere and blend seamlessly with the real world. 3D modeling and computer graphics have been in development for several decades and were used predominantly in Animation, Gaming, VFX, and Architectural Industries. Due to the era of digital information technologies, 3D modeling and computer graphics techniques have become crucially important in recent years.

The process of building a 3D asset usually varies from one industry to another. For entertainment, Gaming, VR/AR it’s mostly manually modeled, textured, and Re-topped by 3D artists using industry-standard software. For Enterprise applications, they are 3D scanned and cleaned manually by CG Artists so that they are light and easily used across platforms.

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Janarthanan Kandasamy has Strong international expertise in the development of creative content for Entertainment, Gaming, and Enterprise VR/AR. He has been engaged in the development, service, and production of film, television, and digital solutions for global markets for more than a decade. He started up Geniuscrate in 2016 that provides consultations, services, and products in technologies such as Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality,3D Assets development,3D Animation, and Gaming.

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3D Assets are used in a wide range of industries such as Entertainment, Gaming, Automobile design, Product Design, Construction, Architectural, Simulation, Autonomous systems testing, in retail (Furniture & Fashion), and AR/VR. Let’s understand why and how they are used.

For industries such as Automobile, Architectural, and Construction 3D Models are often used to visualize how the product would look like, how aerodynamic they are, are they sustainable, etc. By using a 3D model in the initial process you have a 3 Dimensional blueprint that has been tested for maximum possible failures this saves a lot of time and money.

In industries such as Movies, Kids Animation, and Gaming the 3D models are the backbone. The entertainment industry is the driver of technology when it comes to 3D. The 3D tools that were used in a lot of movies have contributed to enterprise solutions a great deal. Autodesk the industry leader in 3D technologies has tied up with a lot of creative people and Hollywood studios where new ideas are given shape with their tools. The tools that are built for movies slowly gets optimized and used for enterprise designing and simulation such as Crowd simulation for Huge skyscrapers, stadiums, city planning, etc. (to name a few) AR/VR is the new kid on the block who everyone wants to befriend!

A simple definition of Virtual Reality is a technology that lets users interact, visualise and experience a digital world whereas AR is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view. This Technology is mainly developed using game engines like Unreal and Unity. Both the AR/VR 3D models are very crucial they have to look very close to reality. To achieve this lot of real-time data collection and implementation is used.

There is a tremendous scope in VR and AR

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and almost all the industries are trying to adopt them.

What are the Skills required by 3D Artists?

Aspiring artists who wish to work in the industry should possess an open mind and a lot of visual ideas. Software tools and techniques are mere tools that help you achieve your idea. A good creative person can excel in this business. This requires a lot of dedication and perseverance in work.

Some of the skills that are required such as: 3D modeling: Process of creating a threedimensional representation of an object using 3D software. This representation, called a 3D model, can convey an object’s size, shape, and texture. The 3D model can be an existing item an imaginary one or a prototype.

Sculpting: 3D sculpting (or digital sculpting) is when an artist sculpts a 3D object on a computer with material similar to digitized clay. Software with brushes and tools that push, pull, pinch and smooth make it easy to create detailed sculpts that mimic real-life textures and objects.

Retopology: Often sculpted or scanned models are very high in resolution and very difficult to animate or convert as VR/AR objects. So, a similar model with a much lesser resolution is made and all the details are converted as various maps which can be applied while generating the final output.

UV Unwrapping and Texturing: A UV map is the flat representation of the surface of a 3D model used to easily wrap textures.

The U and V refer to the horizontal and vertical axes of the 2D space, as X, Y, and Z are already being used in the 3D space.

3D Texturing is wrapping a 2D image or painting around a 3D object and defining how light would affect it.

Engine Portability: Gaming, AR/VR requires the 3D model to work in game engines such as Unreal or Unity. The compatibility of 3D software and engines often varies so optimizing the 3D models as per the game engine is crucial.

A simple definition of Virtual Reality is a technology that lets users interact, visualise and experience a digital world whereas AR is a technology that superimposes a computer-generated image on a user’s view of the real world, thus providing a composite view

Shader creation: It’s the process of creating materials such as skin, wood rock, or steel.

The color of the object is applied over a shader node.

Bridging virtual and real worlds through tech: How will the use of 3D assets evolve? Some of the prospective future use cases are listed below, Digital Twins: A digital twin is a virtual replica of a physical entity where data is seamlessly transmitted along the sensors to provide desired information of the entity while virtualization exists simultaneously with the physical entity.

The growth in the digital twin market is stimulated by several factors such as growing usage of digital twin technology for predictive maintenance and rising inclination towards IoT devices and cloud-based storage solutions.

Autonomous System Testing: Virtual environments can be used to test autonomous systems such as self-driving vehicles. This reduces a lot of physical effort and cost that goes into testing these vehicles.

Metaverse: The idea of Metaverse was first told in the 1992 dystopian novel “Snow Crash”

by Neal Stephenson. Metaverse is a collective shared online space that incorporates Virtual space and the entire internet. It contains 3D objects, avatars, and sometimes replicas of a physical entity. The concept sounds fanboyish but has gained traction after Mark Zukerberg set his ambition for Facebook on Metaverse.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

Democratizing AR Tools for Small Businesses in the Future -

A Ready to Use Platform for All Rajesh Subramanian, Founder, Ghoshak

Rajesh Kumar Subramanium is an ex-Amazon and ex-SAP product and software developer with a rich experience of 15 years in the industry. From the SaaS capital of India, Ghoshak helps SMBs conduct their day-to-day operations like creating an online store, building a website, generating e-bills, sales reports, customer data, inventory management, and more.

Founded in September 2020 by Rajesh Kumar Subramanium, the retail-SaaS company raised Rs 1.2 crore in seed funding from his friends and family members last month. While working at the enterprise software company SAP, Rajesh realised he wanted to start a similar platform for small enterprises. He, however, went to work at Amazon for about 10 years before deciding to start Ghoshak amidst the pandemic while empowering the SMB owners in India.

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The world of fashion has begun to adopt AR technology. Companies are using AR to improve in-store consumer experience and social media commerce experience

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magine you walking into the nearby small store and viewing how beauty products look on your skin tone without applying the makeup and seeing how a newly arrived saree looks on you while wearing one. AR technology will make this a reality.

Augmented Reality (AR) has been on the horizon for some years, and it has been one of the biggest technology trends in recent times. There is a connection between human imagination and the universe. If our imaginative frequency concurs with the universe, you may see

things happening around as you imagined.

Augmented reality gives sense to this concept but in a very subtle manner.

AR has evolved through the years by significantly impacting industries like education and design space.

Many upcoming companies are working towards bringing the technology to the fore.

The real use of technology is when everybody can utilise it. Advanced technology is usually costly and is only available for more significant enterprises and we plan to make it available for small and medium businesses.

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Interior Design and Augmented Reality Are you excited to start your dream house project? What would it be to see the new home in 3D- 360-degree view? The floor map and the interior design are all onscreen and not on paper for a change where you don’t have to bother whether you understand; you can see everything in front of your eyes.

Ikea has a catalogue app in which the user can select and scan the image from the catalogue and see the desired furniture in the AR environment. One can use as many as 90 products from the catalogue and place them around in 360-degrees. In 2016, Ikea increased sales by up to 10 percent than in 2012. Apart from other aspects that have propelled growth, the AR environment has undoubtedly proven a game-changer.

Fashion and Beauty and Augmented Reality The world of fashion has begun to adopt AR technology. Companies are using AR to improve in-store consumer experience and social media commerce experience.

E-commerce companies have reported a 250 percent increase in conversion when products are viewed in 3D models. The ability to visualize fashion and beauty products in realtime reconnects physical and digital retail.

Several retail brands have rolled out AR in their apps and in-store experiences.

One of the common challenges is to choose the right product for your skin - Is this shade suitable for your skin tone? Would it look good on my face? AR can help consumers make the decision. When the tech is available to the common man through local stores, it will revolutionize the industry, assisting brands in penetrating the market much faster.

Bringing AR to retailers A new-age mobile & Saas based platforms are now providing state-of-the-art solutions to small retailers in the market who want to have an online presence. We are passionate about

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Globally the augmented reality market size was at 17.67 billion USD in 2020, and it may grow at the compound annual growth rate with a (CAGR) of 43.8% in the next ten years

our work with retailers, but we are equally driven to bring them the next big thing, Augmented reality.

This Augmented Reality section will be for the interior design retailers, which will work in tandem with the client’s requirement and the design on paper. In the future, this advanced technology will be available and will be affordable to SMEs.

Market Size of Augmented Reality Globally the augmented reality market size was at 17.67 billion USD in 2020, and it may grow at the compound annual growth rate with a (CAGR) of 43.8% in the next ten years. It is precisely due to the increasing demand for remote assistance and collaboration, making workflow management and optimization easy in any organization.

Many businesses are one step ahead of using AR-based apps for identifying, assembling, manufacturing, and repairing assembly lines. Mobile AR technology provides an immersive experience to the customers, and that is why it is more preferred in design engineering companies, especially where aesthetics is essential.

Our solutions are primarily built on Amazon’s cloud-based Amazon Web Services platform, which has further enabled the company to provide a seamless experience to its customers.

Conclusion The growth story of India is incomplete without technology. AR is here to stay. In some days it will be a part of everybody’s life. Major companies use AR extensively to provide a world-class facility and services experience before the client uses it. Today, our effort is to bring the most of AR to the retailers to sustain themselves in this extensively competitive market. Technology should be such that it is available to small and medium businesses by providing a leveling field with AR tech to compete against big retailers and e-commerce players.

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EXPERT OPINION

VR Technologies

Democratize Automation in India Dr. M. Manivannan, Professor - Biomedical Engineering, IIT Madras

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n the era of Artificial Intelligence (AI/ML), a new interface between humans and machines is needed. Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), Mixed Reality (MR), collectively called XR has the potential to play the new interface between humans and machines and drastically change automation - the way we design, manufacture, and maintain, including our healthcare system. It is merely a beginning, the roads ahead are green, but not without many technological challenges or limitations.

A recent survey shows that the travel-ban due to pandemic has helped accelerate the adoption of XR technologies in automation industries due to the ability to significantly increase efficiencies, reduce costs, and keep more workers safe. Even customers are safer with virtual customer visits. The pandemic has actually ignited innovations in XR. AR technology enables the merging of both real and virtual worlds, which are displayed via a mobile device, such as a smartphone or tablet, for the aim of supplementing information on real-world items. AR improves the situational awareness by delivering knowledge on demand based on relevant information overlaying on a physical object: and provide live remote assistance, including securing expert input if needed. In the future, when one buys home appliances,

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Dr. M. Manivannan is a professor of Biomedical Engineering in IIT Madras, Department of Applied Mechanics. He received post-doctoral training at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) in Cambridge.

He was a visiting scientist at the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) of Harvard Medical School (HMS) in Boston, and a visiting faculty in the Christian Medical College (CMC) Vellore.

Before MIT and Harvard, he received another post-doctoral training at the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) Maryland. In 2005 Dr.Manivannan set up the first Touchlab in India at IIT Madras, which is still unique in India. He has recently set up Experiential Technology Innovation Center (XTIC) which is the first multidisciplinary center for innovation in VR/AR/MR and Haptics in India. He has also setup the first Consortium for VR/AR/MR and Haptics in India known as CAVE (Consortium for Augmented and Virtual reality Environment).

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AR-manuals would be given in place of paper manuals - showcasing the power of AR in training and education.

VR technology makes the design process shorter, more tangible, far easier – allowing physical manipulation of the object, opening more possibilities, including remote collaboration. It allows finding flaws in a product by viewing it from different angles and assembling it virtually.

VR allows assessment of how individual elements of a system appear, say a vehicle or a factory, without building the system. VR allows for redundancy by allowing users to experiment with several options before making final decisions. VR enables for the evaluation of a system by analysing, planning, and charting modifications that are required in the physical world.

VR allows the practice of important tools and materials that would otherwise not be easily accessible. It allows making mistakes which otherwise is very costly and unsafe. On the production floor, VR trains machine operators or maintenance professionals on new equipment.

VR enables safety training by simulating hazardous scenarios on the production floor, such as chemical spills, fire risks, dangerous machinery, and noisy surroundings, without putting workers in danger.

The combination of Industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) and VR known as the digital twin a virtualized representation of a physical device, system or even a big factory - provides the data necessary to take modeling and simulation to new levels that are unprecedented. Converging physical and unreal, it improves the understanding of the real system for better decision making. This leads to reduced capital spend and maintenance costs, better risk management, and better customer service.

Intelligent vehicles (IVs) powered by XR technologies may increase the safety and efficacy of vehicle control (autonomy) and vehicle-tovehicle cooperation (connected vehicles). Combat autonomous vehicles can be teamed with a human using Human-Machine-Teaming (HMT) interfaces for better efficiency.

AR is used in several levels of healthcare automation, starting from visualizing information coming from multiple sensors into a single cohesive interface and showing potential causes of a patients’ state via analysis. It helps to detect, prevent and treat

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numerous diseases with increased efficiency, for example doctors can check the tumour, veins, organs and lesions without performing invasive procedures.

VR has already helped patients with personalized rehabilitation - patients with trauma, PTSD, depression, cancer and autism. VR will enable the patients with personalized surgical plans in a step-by-step, patient-

In the future, when one buys home appliances, AR-manuals would be given in place of paper manuals - showcasing the power of AR in training and education

specific process. The patient’s anatomy and pathology will be reconstructed and help the patients understand the procedure and treatment which results in enhanced patient satisfaction.

To err is human, and so with the doctors and health workers. XR helps in safety training and systems - doctors and surgeons in training in their clinical skills on the personalized patients’ data

before entering into treatment or surgery. A VR patient can help the resident doctors practice their skills without harming real patients. A VR doctor can help real patients to get treated anytime without traveling and waiting. In a telemedicine setup, fully recreated patients’ bodies in VR can compensate for the lack of doctors by connecting and synchronizing multiple sensors.

One of the main limitations in XR is the lack of realistic touch feedback, specifically for training doctors for whom experiential training is vital. Using XR without haptic feedback is akin to humans without hands, specifically doctors, they can only see and hear things in XR. Inorder to convey patient interactions in XR, such as palpating, grasping, squeezing, pressing, and stroking, one currently requires a bulky, exo-skeletons, world-grounded kinesthetic feedback device (haptics devices). Providing touch feedback to bare hands in XR is still a challenge. Currently mass VR systems provide simple vibration which is too simplistic.

Users may suffer motion sickness in VR, and the unpleasant emotions may prevent future VR encounters; hence, VR sickness is viewed as an important problem that must be resolved urgently.

The size and weight of the headsets inhibit using the system for longer periods of time, usually not more than 20 minutes. Therefore the training sessions are usually restricted to within this time limit.

Whether it’s face recognition on high-end phones or healthcare, where it helps physicians analyse complicated medical data to diagnose patients, XR is making its way to India’s most distant corners.

Along with exponential technologies such as AI/ML, Drones, and others, XR will be a major disruptor for Indian society since what is now being seen in terms of automation and job losses due to automation is only the beginning. India better use these disruptive technologies for its strength. Agriculture and traditional healthcare systems are India’s strengths.

These technologies can improve the delivery and the efficiency of alternative healthcare systems or closely related agriculture, and can empower its rural economy where 70% of its population is. Safety, training, and efficiency are key factors for optimal operations in Indian Medical Systems such as Yoga, Ayurveda and Siddha.

Every Industry in India may soon need an XR Strategy to stay ahead.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

The Era of Augmented

and Virtual Reality in the Travel Industry Husain Khatumdi, Co-Founder and Managing Director, Ekostay

Husain Khatumdi is the Co-Founder and Managing Director of Ekostay, a homestay venture, and has served in those positions since November, 2017. Husain has over 5 years of experience in a broad range of leadership roles across the hospitality and real estate sector. Through the course of his career, he has managed and developed scalable businesses, with a deep understanding of the global and national hospitality and real estate market.

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Augmented Reality (AR) mixes the real world with the reel world and allows you to place digital media in front of people just like it is real

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ourism is important for the progress of all economies around the world. Tourism is also known to boost the revenue of the country. It also helps in creating thousands of jobs, helps in developing the infrastructure of the country and creates a sense of cultural knot between the foreigners and citizens. It basically contributes towards the complete growth and development of a country. Studies have shown that taking occasional vacations results in physical and mental health benefits. People who take some time away from their daily jobs have lower stress, a better outlook on life and more motivation to achieve goals.

Global tourism has grown steadily over years. As more nations evolve and develop and connectivity around the world becomes easy, travelling has also become easy. Travelling has really evolved with the advent of technology as technology has made it easier for people to plan the trip (as it saves time and helps in efficient planning). Also, young people have always had a sense of adventure and desire to travel and with the help of tech they can now do it hassle free. In today’s scenario, these are huge considerations for hoteliers.

Moreover, the tourism industry is a highly researched industry. A person deciding to travel to a new place, stay in a good and affordable homestay, eat local food would only be able to

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do so with research. Enter augmented reality which has truly brought a revolution to the travel industry. Augmented Reality (AR) mixes the real world with the reel world and allows you to place digital media in front of people just like it is real. In simple words, it showcases digital information into existing reality. Earlier people use to take the help of travel agents for any foreign trip they planned. These days, people prefer making the itinerary and organize everything by themselves, all thanks to AR. Augmented Reality (AR) is like a traveler’s new friend in the current scenario! It brings in several added advantages in the travel industry.

Immersive navigation places the tourist right in the location as if they are walking there live at the moment - this helps in easing the planning journey and boosting travel experiences.

Interactive elements enable the user to point their smartphone at a building or landmark and learn more about it, in real-time. This allows homestay and hotel owners to conduct virtual tours of their space and other amenities with a single tap on the user’s mobile screen. Moreover, a user may get all the details of a restaurant like its reviews, menus, table availability, and many more things by just pointing their phone at that restaurant.

From a tourist’s perspective, they may get all the information of the historical landmark just by pointing the phone/tablet towards it. It helps the tourists to enhance the entire travel experience and allow tourists to get all the information they need of a particular place.

AR also has many other applications such as AR museums, improving local transit and even conducting full-fledged city tours right from the user’s home, by seeing what someone else is seeing who is actually physically at the location.

Just like AR, Virtual Reality (AR) allows users to explore full 360 degrees of a particular area. While AR places the reel world in the real world, VR places you in a fully virtual world. Virtual travel helps visitors experience destinations that are remote and difficult to visit. This is a big advantage for people who

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would not otherwise be able to travel or visit any of these places in person. VR fills this gap and makes them feel they visited the location, without having personally visited it. This especially helps people with medical problems such as some phobia or even disability who cannot make it in-person, allowing them to not miss-out. While viewing through a particular device, it changes a person’s perception of their physical surroundings. Due to this feeling of physical presence, often tourists also can make better decisions of something he/she sees via VR. For example, walking around a hotel room, and seeing what kinds of views it can offer, or what is the exact layout of the room, makes the booking process much more comfortable and attractive. A virtual tour of a place can help you find some easter eggs and be prepared to not miss certain things that we might miss in person, and even help set expectations right.

Even though AR and VR are similar kinds of technology, there are some key differences between them. The difference is AR just augments the real-world environment by adding digital components to it. AR can be experienced through devices such as smartphones or tablets.

However, VR requires the purchase of virtual reality headsets to truly experience it in a good way. Since these products are relatively expensive, compared to the mobile phones and tablets which are easily available, AR is gaining a lot more traction and in-fact all brands are working actively on it in some way or the other.

AR also functions with few other mobile-based technologies such as GPS tracking and cameras.

Today, both AR and VR are actively being worked on and are a preferred research area for organizations in all different industries.

Travelling absolutely enriches and broadens your outlook. Then why not take full advantage of the means and technology to take the best trips of our lives. All in all, to have the perfect customized travel experience Indian consumers are now choosing personalized and unique experiences and thanks to these technological advancements, these have been made possible.

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EXPERT OPINION

VR and AR

– A Panacea in the Post-Pandemic World Ajit Padmanabh, Founder and CEO, Who VR

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isual acuity is the clarity of your eyesight, measured by your ability to identify letters or numbers on a standardized eye chart from a specific viewing distance. It is a static measurement determining the relative clarity of your eyesight in standardized conditions.

Visual acuity is quantified with Snellen fractions like 15/20 and 20/20, the latter being notable in popular culture as the epitome of normal vision, literally and metaphorically. Little did we realise that these 4 digits will shake humanity at its core and force it to change its vision and direction in the medium and long term, with huge costs in the short term as a result of millions of thriving lives lost the world over.

2020 – The Year of the Rat When we look back at 2020 as the year of the Pandemic, it marks a pivotal time in the history of humanity, especially for the modern civilization that we are all a part of. The hubris of

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Ajit Padmanabh is the Founder & CEO of Who VR, a company focused on Digital Heritage, with a purpose to marry the ancient with the modern. With 18 years of industry experience, he firmly believes in the power of immersive worlds to transform humanity. He is also a composer and musician with the moniker “World Void Web”.

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humanity was brought to the fore worldwide, a symptom of end-times across civilizations in human history. The last time it was the Year of the Rat was in 2008 – a year replete with natural disasters and the Great Recession – the world’s worst post-war contraction on record! 2020 brought the human world to its knees across all facets of civilization – economic, social and cultural.

Humanity’s achievements throughout time have been fostered through social and cultural connections which, in turn, drive its economics. The predicament humanity

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is facing now is not even a mirage – it’s a global test of humans, our systems and values – the entire socio-economic fabric of our existence on this planet! I am an optimist with an unshakable belief in the strength, capacity and capability of humanity to overcome adversity and rise – together! The scars of the pandemic have forced us to relook and rethink our ways of living. In what ways do we restructure ourselves to rise from the present? One of the answers, in my opinion, is leveraging technologies like Virtual Reality (VR) and Augmented Reality (AR).

As per the Congressional Research Service report titled Global Economic Effects of COVID-19 – IMF projected the loss of global economic output between 2020 and 2025 would total $28 trillion and 120 million jobs would be lost permanently in the tourism industry alone.

Investments in Digital Technology is a nobrainer in the 21st century and given the promise of Industry 4.0, it only makes sense to accelerate the same. VR and AR have been around since the end of 20th century but huge technological advancements in the last decade make it well positioned to lead the path of this economic acceleration. The focus of this article is on the 2 worst-hit industries on a global scale – Travel & Tourism and Health & Wellness.

VR and AR in Travel & Tourism In the pre-pandemic area, tourism had reached its peak with not only the developed economies but the emerging economies as well, joining the tourism bandwagon thanks to their raised standards of living and a greater appetite for exploration. The tourism industry has hit a nadir owing to the pandemic. According to a recent UN report, tourist arrivals globally in January 2021 were down 87% when compared to January 2020. VR and AR technologies are at the forefront of the economic recovery now. Museums, Hotels, Heritage centres and Airports embrace the technology to keep tourists engaged in the absence of real travel. Museums the world over provide some great VR and AR experiences. It’s interesting to note that the worst affected segment of the industry – tourist guides and operators – are very well aware of the technology. 87% have heard about or experienced VR with 73% willing to invest in it. VR and AR provide infotainment tours of ancient sites, natural wonders, museums with immersive narratives. These experiences allow you to consume the sights and sounds like never before, virtually teleporting you to the place in space and time. They also provide opportunities to immerse tourists in adventure sports, allowing you to have multi-sensory experiences from the comfort of your home – Realism in Virtual. The

potential for a surge in the industry’s revenue is unquestionable and will only accelerate return to normalcy.

VR and AR in Health & Wellness Health & Wellness has gained unprecedented attention in the pandemic times. The global VR and AR market in healthcare was valued at US$2 billion in 2020 and is expected to expand at a CAGR of 27.2% from 2021 to 2028. Surgical training has embraced VR and AR to enable better knowhow and preparedness in medical personnel. AR assists surgeons in tracing tumours, organs or even veins. With regards to Wellness, VR and AR companies are leading the way with corporates, frontline staff like medics, police and defence forces, providing neuroscientifically proven experiences to help them regain calm and focus, much needed in the new normal. Gone are the days when we had to look forward to care centres or retreats to rejuvenate our bodies and minds. We are in the midst of a global mental health crisis. With VR and AR, we have the tools to keep calm and focus anytime, anywhere thereby allowing large populations to not be impacted by the dire situation that prevails currently the world over. There are medically certified treatments for ADHD, PTSD and other mental and physical health problems in VR and AR. In the years ahead, VR and AR combined with Artificial Intelligence (AI) promises to alter the course of medical examinations and prognosis forever. The industry can catapult itself to protect humanity by embracing VR and AR technologies like never before.

Conclusion COVID-19 is undoubtedly a Black swan event with a long road to recovery. Embracing technologies like VR and AR in the worst-hit industries will provide an exponential growth prospect hitherto unseen prior. Great Adversities call for Great Actions. Mass-scale adoption of VR and AR technologies - A Panacea in the post-pandemic world - is imperative for the future of wellness and virtual travel for humanity.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

How AR & AI Play Into Delivering

a Personalized Shopping Experience Kanav Singla, Founder & CEO, Adloid

Kanav Singla, the founder and CEO of Adloid is obsessed with technology and aiming to have a positive impact on the lives of people through futuristic technological innovations. The tech enthusiast and business strategist always stay on top of emerging technologies. Kanav had a knack for entrepreneurship since his early college days in IIT Delhi. He was in his final year of civil engineering when the idea of Adloid was born. Hailing from an entrepreneurial background, he has always been high on entrepreneurial energy and knew that he was not cut out for the 9-to-5 corporate routine. As he was inspired to do something on his own and bring disruption through technology, he chose to skip campus placements and instead use the opportunity to get acquainted with several business leaders, including the CEOs of leading ecommerce companies.

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Using AR to navigate a store better as per one’s preferences or existing shopping lists enables customers to experience easier search and discoverability of applicable products

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ew-age technologies like augmented reality (AR) and artificial intelligence (AI) have transformed the way marketers and businesses interact with their customers. Among other major technological developments, these two have stood out in last few years. Yet, the existing capabilities are only touching the surface of what they can eventually be able to do. Analysts project a yearly growth with the market value increasing up to $89,847 in 2025 from $11,284 in 2019.

Similarly, research shows that the market size for AR will scale up to approximately

$209.2 billion in 2022 from $6.1 billion in 2016. With this anticipated boom, retailers are looking to capitalize on the rising gravitation toward AR and AI to make highly personalized recommendations to consumers as customer satisfaction is key.

Enhancing Store Navigation with AR As there is widespread use of smartphones, the popularity of the device is making them the primary target for the implementation of AR technology. The mobile apps on these smartphones employing personalized AR navigation are helping retailers deliver next-level customer engagement online. If a

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consumer wishes to search for a product by a general term, particular brand name, unique product code, these apps enable the shopper to search in different ways, as per their individual needs.

Once a consumer searches for a desired product on the app, they can easily tap on the specific item to start navigating from the shopper’s exact location on the product’s shelf location. Simply by following their phone’s AR-enabled navigation to each item, the consumer can complete their trip with greater ease than ever before. Using AR to navigate a store better as per one’s preferences or existing shopping lists enables customers to experience easier search and discoverability of applicable products.

Moreover, connected stores can be built and facilitated on AR functionality. Virtual try-on started off as a marketing approach by high-end brands across cosmetics and fashion brands, where most of them integrated mirror and colour and accessory try-on features into their apps. The idea then became popular as customers loved how they can try on different makeups and accessories, see if they match with their skin tone and dresses without having to visit a store. In addition, brands are using systems that capture everything together to give it a more realistic and interactive 3-dimensional and AR experiences to consumers. This also enables VTO with the help of any smartphone device, laptops or cameras. Thus, it feels as real as actually being there.

Using AR to Boost Sales The point of purchase in sales gives the exact time and location when a customer pays for a product or service. The online purchase can be processed through a virtual point of sale, such as website, landing page or mobile app. Making sure that the customer is fully engaged during the entire point of purchase is essential

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for avoiding abandoned shopping carts.

Increasing sales via visual engagement has shown proven results, delivering greater consumer conversions and ultimately achieving a greater level of success for businesses.

AI-driven Personalization makes its Mark When it comes to AI technologies, it’s evident that personalization tactics scale revenues for brands and retailers. AI can play a powerful role in creating a rewarding shopping online experience.

At its most sophisticated level harnessing AI, personalization looks at and analyses browsing behaviour, makes guesses about which underlying attributes are the most important, and then shows other products to the customers ordered by their attribute relevancy to what it’s guessing you’re looking for. The more you interact, the more information it can use to make guesses, testing and discarding or revising according to how you respond to what it offers up.

This is a basic version of machine learning.

Although the term ‘artificial’ may mean something dehumanized, but this non-human thing has allowed companies to provide a more personalized shopping experience for their customers. AI makes it possible to analyze millions of interactions on a daily basis. Even with the large data, the technology boils down to a single customer – the feel every marketer wishes to provide. Sales teams are now equipped with the information they didn’t even imagine having. They can now personalize the sales cycle using AI-driven software.

The apps help the sellers to engage with the right prospect with the perfect message at the right time.

Looking to the Future: Happy Shoppers are Key Customers long for the day they can leave a store feeling confident in all of

Increasing sales via visual engagement has shown proven results, delivering greater consumer conversions and ultimately achieving a greater level of success for businesses

their purchases, unhindered by thoughts that they could have bought more relevant items or annoyance from wasting too much time deciding what to buy. To help shoppers avoid these negative feelings and instead feel a sense of satisfaction and accomplishment, retailers are increasingly making it their mission to help shoppers both determine what they want and find what they need in real time.

Customer relationships are changing dramatically as CX is becoming a differentiator.

Brands have recognized the game-changing abilities of introducing AR into their pre-sales, point of sale and post-sale support operations.

Via a smartphone, AR enhances practical elements of personalized marketing, sales

and technical support, by extending content and interaction abilities, and providing value that goes way beyond simple novelty. These examples are just a small sampling of the potential AR can deliver across the customer relationship value chain and throughout the entire customer journey.

Though pegged a technology of the “future,” fully functioning AR and AI technologies are a concept that is not too far off the distant horizon.

As retailers revamp their stores with these features, shoppers will feel cared for as they are assisted at every touch point of the process.

The result is not only elevated sales, but also the development of loyal shoppers — the key to a thriving business.

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EXPERT OPINION

Five Technology Trends that will Revamp the Future of Online Retail in India Rajiv Kumar, Founder & CEO, StoreHippo

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etail is a rapidly growing sector and there is a neckto-neck competition. Technology has brought about a major transformation in this sector and hence, online retail is witnessing a surge. While earlier, offline retail dominated the market, now with the technological advancements, online retail has become the new fad. The e-commerce and retail sector has witnessed a transition in its working model to cope up with the millennial times.

While the pandemic came with its fair share of troubles in 2020, it initiated the journey of online retail and the technology will further drive its growth. In the present times, there has been an increase in the demand for the products. Additionally, customers now prefer contactless options.

In such a scenario, online retail seems to be a blessing in disguise.

Tech is indeed the future Online purchasing is on the rise and the figures will eventually increase. To survive in the cut-throat competition in the market, all

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Mr. Rajiv Kumar, a qualified Software Engineer, who has a 20+ years of experience, has offered his service to the Companies like Tata Infotech, ST Microelectronics, HCL Technologies, E-Trade Financial, Oracle, Waterfall Mobile, Tavant Technologies. With vast experience and deep knowledge of handling Technical Architecture and Technical Design Projects, he has started his own Operation of providing E-Commerce Solutions to the Small Medium Entrepreneurs and Individual Entrepreneurs.

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These features of Augmented Reality will bring about a transformation in the online retail industry

the e-commerce platforms are revamping their models. Technology has made the transport and availability of the products easy and smooth and has helped to meet the rising demand.

For the existing brands, their priority will be to deliver their best. For the new businesses, retaining the customers and having a recall value will be a major element in their business strategies. To ensure this, all firms would require up ergonomic technology to support their agendas. All they would want is to have a good customer experience so that they can reach one step closer to the final aim- they want their business to grow. This will lead to the easy availability and accessibility of premium products.

To secure one’s position, the platforms are increasingly adapting and adopting the use of the technology so as to gather consumer traction

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as what any firm wants is for their customers to have a good user experience.

Five major technology trends that will revamp the future of online retail in India are1. Artificial Intelligence Due to the increased preference on the digital space, firms will now rely all the more on AI. AI is here to stay and is being increasingly adopted by firms. Artificial Intelligence robots are the future and possess the capability to respond to queries, check the inventory, resolve customer issues and provide instant communication.

As per Gartner’s study, by 2021, 77% of retailers plan to imbibe AI, with robotics for warehouse picking. It also predicts that by 2021, customers will manage 85% of their relationship with the enterprise without interacting with a human. Enforcing the

adoption of chatbots will be the first major step in building the online marketplace driven by artificial intelligence.

With artificial intelligence, businesses will be able to focus on their sales and working rather than spending time in the backend work.

2. Voice commerce and social commerce In e-commerce, Voice-assisted technologies like Siri, Cortana, Google Voice Search, Viv, Amazon Alexa, Google Home help are great helpers in the technological advancements of the online retail sector. Known as Voice commerce, instead of feeding in our query via text, we command via our voice. All we need to say is, ‘’Okay Google’’, or ‘’Hey Siri’’, ‘’open Amazon’’, add the required items to the cart, click on purchase, and boom! ‘Your order has been placed and will be delivered soon’ is what you’ll hear.

Enabling purchases with just a few words, voice commerce could prove to be a gamechanger for the online retail industry.

Social commerce has also witnessed a surge and will definitely increase with the passing times. People now prefer buying directly from the app or website rather than purchasing through a third-party app.

They demand instant communication and purchasing processes and social commerce is just the right platform for them.

3. Augmented Reality While earlier customers used to buy from the physical stores only after thorough physical checks by seeing, touching, and feeling the product, now with the convenience of online retail, the customers have an option of viewing 360 appearances of the product, video demos, teleconsultations, virtual try-on options, 3D trials, etc.

These features of Augmented Reality will bring about a transformation in the online retail industry. Not only will it aid in simplifying and smoothening of consumer purchasing processes, but will also help the firms to offer good customer

service. AR will ensure that the customer buying experience is smooth and of high-end quality.

4. Contactless payments COVID-19 induced the contactless payment procedures and since then they have increased.

Online retailers and firms are making concerted efforts to invest their time and finances to ensure seamless contactless payment methods.

Digital payments are here to stay and online retailers are working to come up with tech-savvy solutions to facilitate and improvise the same.

5. Digitization is the key Businesses know where their customers are majorly present and having their business at the same position is essential. Hence, having a vast and diverse digital presence along with offering a great user experience is no longer an option but a pre-requisite to thrive in the present times. Hence, the increasing focus will be on developing their brand’s presence in the digital medium and to facilitate sales. They are ensuring that they possess the latest technology, product innovations, and a customer base.

They are diligently making efforts to secure the premier position in the market.

Summing Up There is less scope for personal interaction now.

The use and availability of chatbots, virtual personal assistants have been on a rise. While this technology was earlier used by banking and healthcare sectors, it has now spread its wings in other industries as well especially retail.

For the online retail sector, 2021 is set to be the year of change. According to figures from Statista, global retail e-commerce sales will hit US$4.88 trillion in 2021. Hence, the year will be filled with opportunities and growth. In no way can online retail replace the digital but of course the dominance has reduced. However, if used correctly, technology can help them both to co-exist and compliment each other rather than turning each other’s competitors.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

5 Trends that will Shape the

E-Gaming Industry in 2021

Deepak Aravind, Founder & CEO, Creative Monkey Games

Deepak Aravind is the Founder, CEO and the Creative Director of Coimbatore-based Creative Monkey Games and Technologies Pvt. Ltd. Unleashing the power of creativity and passion, Deepak has been a cricket fanatic since childhood and experienced a phenomenal gaming journey so far. Founded in 2015, Creative Monkey focuses on developing games in the sports segment especially cricket, racing, and casual genre. Well-known for their super engaging and high-quality games, it is a strong team of 12 creative individuals with a deep domain experience who are passionate about gaming. Every game delivered to gamers is the result of their fuelling passion and immense hard work and dedication.

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AR and VR hold immense promise in providing an immersive gaming experience. Since their inception, both AR and VR have made huge strides

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aming was a predominant trend in the West. However, with the rise of its popularity among the youth, gaming fever caught on in India as well. In fact, gaming has emerged as a lucrative business sector. The online gaming market is extremely diverse and fast-paced. As avid gamers are constantly craving for better gaming experience, they are no longer satisfied with the existing technologies.

In order to retain players, software developers and game creators need to keep inventing and implementing new technologies.

According to the report by KPMG, the e-gaming industry is poised to increase at the

rate of 22.1% from INR 43.8 billion to INR 118.8 billion by 2023. With the steady rise in consumption volumes, it is expected that soon local development and monetisation of the gaming industry will catch up.

Trends for E-Gaming Industry in 2021 The Covid-19 outbreak resulted in worldwide lockdowns that resulted in people being confined indoors with a lot of time to kill. As a result, the millennials took to playing online games. As a result, while the physical sporting world remained uneventful, gaming world came to life and became a promising alternative for the players. However, the online gaming

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industry was witnessing a meteoric boom even before the lockdown.

Here are the 5 key trends that are likely to shape the e-gaming industry in 2021:

purpose. Network slicing ensures smooth 3D augmented reality experience for the spectators, allowing them instant replay on their devices and 360-degree views of their gameplays.

1. Roll-out of 5G Networks As the 5G network ushers in an era of excitement and innovation in the current year, e-gaming will be one of the areas leveraging this development the most. The roll-out of 5G means faster download speeds, better streaming capabilities, and superior real-time gaming experiences.

Without having to install new infrastructure, e-gaming with the help of 5G will enable gamers to bolster their experience. 5G network will also foster virtualization and create network slices, with each slice designated a particular

2. Rise of Mobile Gaming The advent of 5G will provide the necessary thrust for making mobile gaming accessible to all. Research has shown that over 2.2 billion people have played games on their mobile phones in the past decade. The ongoing improvements in Chipset technology will bring mobile devices at par with gaming consoles like Xbox. This will mean more gamers and favourable outcomes for companies associated with e-gaming. In addition, it will also mean improved games at affordable prices.

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3. GaaS & Cloud Gaming The widespread success of Software-as-Service (SaaS) and Platform-as-Service (PaaS) has led to the model being adopted in the gaming industry as well. It is known as the Gaming as Services (GaaS) model and is touted to have the potential to transform the gaming industry completely. This service is expected to enable gamers to play online games irrespective of the configuration of the PC or mobile devices. In other words, a user would be able to play online games on any device without any drop in the overall game performance. This system will also eliminate the need for software updates, as games would come installed with the latest updates and ready to play.

Gaming is on the cusp of becoming a spectator sport and millennials are the most active demographic leading to the growth of the industry

4. Overtake by Millennial Spectators Gaming is on the cusp of becoming a spectator sport and millennials are the most active demographic leading to the growth of the industry. As per Nielsen market research report, nearly 71% of gamers watch gameplay consistently on YouTube and other similar video sharing platforms. The average age of this young demographic is coming out to around 35. The youth, especially those in the age bracket of 18-25, is more interested in viewing gamers battle it out in virtual sphere than in regular sports broadcasts. It is projected that by the end of 2021, the number of spectators is most likely to outnumber active gamers by 90%.

5. Emergence of AR and VR AR and VR hold immense promise in providing an immersive gaming experience. Since their inception, both AR and VR have made huge strides. For 2021, it is expected that the technology involved in both AR and VR will offer a more realistic and superior visual experience. Consequently, video game companies will be able to use this technology to enhance the overall gaming experience without requiring a video monitor. Statistics show that both the technologies have the potential to raise the revenues up to $20 billion in 2021.

Summing Up The continuous innovation and advancements in technology have introduced endless possibilities. Convergence between virtual and offline sports will keep drawing to a close as e-gaming adopts these trends and features which previously ruled over the world of physical sports. Factors like sponsorships, betting and advertising revenue will further develop the industry in 2021.

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EXPERT OPINION

Impact of AR and VR

on the Tourism Industry

Indraneel Guha, Creative Director, LivePixel Technologies

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echnology has been progressing at a fast pace, but it is still extremely underutilized in many spheres. However, the New Normal has brought more awareness about technology in all the fields especially travel and tourism. This has led to harnessing of technology in increasingly innovative and lucrative ways, that help not only businesses, but also their clients. Technology like AR/VR are impacting various aspects of the travel and tourism industry in a myriad of ways like:

1. Travel Promotion: Ministry of Tourism or Travel & Tour companies can use immersive technology to help their viewers/clients in many ways that would elevate the client’s experience and increase demand for bookings. ● They can have kiosks in their office or outlets at the malls or airports. These kiosks can be geared up with VR headsets that

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Indraneel is a techno-creative geek with over 20 years of creative experience. He has been credited with over 50 projects

by International Movie Database (IMDB) and 37 uncredited projects.

He started his creative journey as a 3D Artist with Mega Motion Studios and then moved to creating computer games as an Art Director at Paradox Studios. His passion to create the Wow factor on unreal objects took him to Computer Graphics at Pixion CCL. The ability to connect to the cutting-edge creative talent at Hollywood & Bollywood productions saw him marshalling 400+ skilled artists for global project deliveries at Reliance MediaWorks. Over the years he has designed, executed & delivered various projects for a wide spectrum of clients. As Chief Imagineer & Co-Founder at D-Ammo Imagineering he was the brain that takes charge of ‘Everything Creative’. His vast experience across various aspects of gaming, 3D, VFX and immersive technologies with global entertainment & media industry enables faster & effective creativetechnology solutions.

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Technology is the best way to enhance all of these aspects of tourism by creating more comfort through AR based apps that facilitate navigation, encourage adventure through providing appealing visuals of local attractions, and give a better sense of the beautiful scenery that awaits the clients at their desired locations.

can display a 360º virtual reality view of the different locations they offer across the globe. This would give clients the ability to really visualize the various locations in a more interactive way, and businesses can add imaginative narratives to create an almost life-like experience. ● It can show the best attractions and famous places in those particular locations. ● This will help the viewers to better choose their destination packages. They can even help foreign tourists know more about their travel destinations. Hotels can also give clients a better idea of their amenities and facilities, and give them a glimpse of the luxury that awaits them.

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● It can help tour operators who offer adventure tours. The VR experience of the adventures to a traveller can be very enticing to go for it.

Seeing pictures of a locations can never be as convincing as a 360-degree view of the destination. Interactive maps can also go a long way in helping clients navigate new places and find local attractions that might be hard to find otherwise. Tourism has to involve comfort, adventure, and picturesque sights all in one. Technology is the best way to enhance all of these aspects of tourism by creating more comfort through AR based apps that facilitate navigation, encourage adventure through providing appealing

visuals of local attractions, and give a better sense of the beautiful scenery that awaits the clients at their desired locations.

2. Virtual Travel Assistant: A supplementary AR mobile App can help travellers who need help with the local place at different locations. It can augment the favorite cafe shops or the famous theatre or probably help them back to their hotels or maybe just show all these in their own language. It may also help at the airports to guide travellers to the desired gates, or they may choose where they want to go and the AR app will show them the way in their chosen language.

Furthermore, such apps can make tourist spots more attractive by providing augmented tours of historic sites. An app that presents the rich history of a location like famous events and the story behind its architecture through object recognition technology, would amaze visitors and bring in more tourists. Every place has a story to tell, and that what makes it unique and worth visiting. An AR based app would make this story easier to access and present it in an exiting way as well. A tourist could simply stroll through a city and use their phone to find information about all the galleries, museums, and other landmarks.

Moreover, travel tours facilitated through AR based apps can offer unprecedented customizations. each tourist would want the content of style of their tour guide to differ.

With AR assisted tour guidance, the tourist can choose the content and style of delivery to cover topics they are especially interested in, and even have different options for adults and children.

Technology can assist a tourist at every step of the way, if only the tourism industry recognizes this largely untapped potential.

3. Virtual Religious Visits there are many instances where individuals are unable to physically visit places that

hold importance for them. Religious sites are one of them, and if we cannot bring the individual to the location, we can bring the location to them! Technology can in a sense ‘transport’ us and create experiences that we never thought possible. For instance, senior citizens who wish to visit religious holyplaces can now visit them virtually without the effort of physically visiting the places.

The immersive experience with effective sound can teleport them to any of these places. Voice overs can be a part of the story telling to enhance the experience.

4. Virtual Travel In the context of the current pandemic, travel has become virtually impossible for many.

Virtual reality technology can satiate one’s desire to travel. Virtual reality tours can offer immersive experiences where one can explore the most attractive sites of tourist destinations, and even discover the history behind the sites. While such virtual tours cannot replace travelling, it can provide a respite and a welcome escape from everyday monotony that many may feel. Voice overs that narrate the story behind the sites and provide interesting information can add extra incentive for clients as it becomes not only a pleasant experience, but also an educating one. These experiences can give clients a glimpse of their favourite locations, and even encourage them to travel there once the pandemic eases.

5. Travel Back in Time Reconstructing the history of a site through immersive virtual reality would not only make tourism more attractive for history buffs, but also amaze and entice travelers from all walks of life. Utilizing AR and VR to create 3D recreations of historically significant events or past eras would be like being transported to another time period for tourists, and make their experience more mesmerizing.

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EXPERT OPINION

How is

vCommerce different than

eCommerce Santhosh Palavesh, Founder & CEO, BigBox

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he first-ever TV commercial aired on July 1, 1941, made by Bulova Watches, forever revolutionizing the world of advertisement. People love videos because they are quick, entertaining, and engaging. Even Google algorithms prioritize websites that have video content which means a better ranking for your online business. vCommerce is strategically using high-quality video content to sell services or products on the internet. China started the video commerce trend by popularising live-streaming retail, and the global COVID-19 pandemic pushed it to the forefront. It is popular among the younger demographic that had to shift their in-store shopping habits to online purchasing.

Indian retailers have been in a digital war of their own with tough competition in the eCommerce market. 80% of eCommerce revenue generated in India does not belong to the average Indian retailer.

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Santhosh Palavesh, a serial tech entrepreneur is the Founder & CEO of BigBox – India’s first ever Video Commerce (V-Commerce) marketplace that helps traditional shop owners to digitise their business in a matter of minutes. Santhosh’s passion for technology has enabled him to work with multiple start-ups helping them to build their products from scratch and launch in the market. With an overall experience of 13 years, Santhosh has created successful go-to-market strategies for start-ups across Blockchain, Ed-tech, E-commerce, SAAS, B2C/ B2B and Gaming platforms.

Constant recognition of his work and the significant knack for digital technology motivated him to build UMM Digital - a passionate venture established in his sophomore year is now a successful product innovation & digital transformation firm handling 500+ clientele, staffing 120+ employees in five different countries.

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SMEs have yet to crack the formula to become a successful eCommerce venture.

From high website costs to reluctant consumers, the Indian retail industry is plagued by problems.

Indian retailers v/s eCommerce ● Major market share owned by two eCommerce giants ● High website and maintenance costs with low conversion rates ● Internet connectivity issues ● Lack of trust from consumers ● High rate of refunds and returns ● Expensive delivery charges ● Lack of technical know-how ● Difficult algorithm by most ecom platforms Even though the online market is tough, with the ongoing pandemic restrictions, many retailers had to make a move to eCommerce. People have drastically changed their shopping habits which were clearly witnessed in the past two years. The Indian E-commerce market is expected to grow to US$ 200 billion by 2026 from US$ 38.5 billion as of 2017.

Today there are approximately 1 billion cell phones in the country, and with rapid digitalization and better internet connectivity, more than 50% of Indian consumers will shop online by 2026. The competition in the eCommerce industry will only get more brutal, and the Indian retailer needs to find a way to survive. vCommerce can provide respite from the high expenditures and slow returns from eCommerce platforms. With integrated video calling, new vCommerce players are changing the game for the average Indian retailer. Consumers love the in-store experience provided by video chat, and retailers benefit from a number of vCommerce perks. vCommerce the future for Indian Retailers ● Sell quickly through video calls ● No complicated algorithms ● No need for a laptop ● Easy to create catalogs ● Interact with genuine customers to reduce returns

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Switching to a vCommerce platform can help Indian retailers make a huge difference in the way they sell their products

● Utilize your sales skills instead of worrying about technical know-how ● Create virtual branches to expand your business ● Give your customers the in-store experience ● See quicker results with video selling Indian retailers are known for their innate selling skills and warm customer service. Even though COVID19 forced a lot of Indians to shift to online shopping, they miss shopping in real-time. Many consumers expressed concern about buying things like furniture, vehicles, and expensive electronics online. With video shopping, consumers can trust the store because they have already seen the product.

Why Consumers will love vCommerce ● Virtual shopping, real-time experience ● Visual representation of the product ● Hyperlocal market ● Shop from anywhere & anytime ● Manage privacy ● Video call to start shopping vCommerce will prove to be the best way to shop in the coming years and give Indian retailers the boost they have been looking for. Building eCommerce websites takes time, money, and skills, and even after all of the work, 90% of Indian online businesses fail to make it.

Shift to the vCommerce market from an eCommerce market is inevitable. Will the Indian retailer’s market use the vCommerce platform to get out of the COVID19 rut? Or will they pass on this fantastic opportunity?

Indian Retail: the future India has the second-largest population in the world, which means it has a billion consumers for the retail industry. Yet, the retail sector remains largely unorganized. With rapid urbanization, better internet connectivity, and more customer spend, the retail industry will prosper in the country. The problem is how the average retailer will compete with eCommerce giants like Amazon or Flipkart?

Switching to a vCommerce platform can help Indian retailers make a huge difference in the way they sell their products. Let’s have a look at the advantages of vCommerce over eCommerce for the Indian retail industry: ● Better conversion rates than eCommerce.

22% of online businesses fail within the first year of business. Building and maintaining a website is a huge expenditure and takes a lot of time. Consumers do not like or revisit websites that look unattractive, are unresponsive, or crash several times. With a vCommerce model, retailers do not need to build an external website because they can directly sell through video chats. ● Personalized selling. The Indian consumer is frugal with their spending and may not trust some random website or social media ad. The many fake websites, cheap products, and online frauds plaguing the internet will help immensely if the consumer can see the product before purchasing. The Indian retailer also has the opportunity to wow their customers with their innate selling skills. ● No catalogs. Creating an impressive and high-resolution catalog means hiring a professional photographer and models and investing a lot of money. It becomes a hectic task for retailers who sell multiple products like garments or shoes to keep your catalog updated.

Selling through a video chat means you can directly show your products to the consumer, and all you need is your phone. ● Customer loyalty. Consumers love a personalized shopping experience as opposed to buying from a catalog. They want to look at the product before investing their money. Through video selling, retailers can build a huge customer base that will remain loyal to their brand.

The COVID19 pandemic changed the Retail industry forever, and it is slowly recovering.

Consumers are willing to start shopping more, but eCommerce is not meeting their expectations.

A vCommerce platform will encourage a hyperlocal market and bring the Indian Retailer to the forefront. It is time to make the switch.

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LEADERS’S INSIGHTS

Immersive Technology and Brands – The Connection of Today’s World Uttam Kumar Pandey, Founder & CEO, Perceived Design

Uttam Kumar Pandey is the Founder and CEO at Bangalore-based Perceived Design. In 2019, he came up with the idea to establish this venture which aims to build products and services to transform brands digitally with interactive immersive technologies besides AR and VR being its prime highlights. The visionary strived to set up a brand that would work to bridge the gap between the physical world and the digital world seamlessly. With this vision, he has successfully built a content creating product which enables brands to design experiential digital engagement like AR and VR in a few clicks.

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When brands use tools of AR, VR, and 3D content in their messaging, they are likely to attract more customers and connect them all the more with their offerings in the online space

T

he use of immersive technology by brands has increased over the years. Leveraging the 360-degree space to create a new reality has been helping them in modifying their operational and marketing strategies so as to cater to the changing needs and preferences of modern consumers. Such technologies are not only helping them in reaching one step closer to their business objectives and their target audience but also helps them in communicating with their customer base effectively and in influencing their purchasing decisions.

Immersive technologies connecting the brandsand the consumers As per a global study by Accenture, a leading consulting firm, immersive experiences in digital

commerce using Augmented Reality, Virtual Reality, and 3D technology push consumers to choose alternative shopping channels. It further states that consumers connect more with products that make use of these tech-savvy solutions and also helps brands drive their sales.

Immersive technologies imitate the physical shopping experience and provide the shoppers a similar in-store experience in the virtual setup. They not help bridge the physical divide between the store and the customers but also help the brands to enhance their customer engagement by replicating in-store experiences in the online world.

The shopping sprees of consumers in the virtual space have become enriched, engaging, and satisfying all thanks to the immersive technologies. They help in extending a good customer experience along with helping the brands

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in tapping unexplored markets at the global and increasing their conversation rates. AR and VR help brands increase their awareness in the market as well as give them a competitive edge in the market and provide the buyers an opportunity to interact with the brands in the virtual space before they can make their purchasing decision.

How brands use immersive technologies to connect brands with the world Brands are utilizing AR and VR not only help to organize virtual tours but have also been using these for enhancing their advertising and marketing activities. They have indeed given a new definition to the term ‘online shopping’ and helps brands to reach customers at every stage of the sales funnel.

Customers can be in their bedrooms and could try the product or scroll through the 3D catalogs and imagine how the product would fit in without visiting the store. This real-life simulation of the brand’s product offerings in the virtual space helps them to virtually try the products before they make their quick and smooth purchasing decisions.

The brands using immersive technologies can benefit as the customers can look, touch, feel and try the product in the virtual space and this increases their credibility on the brand and its offerings. These solutions have made the online shopping experience for the consumers all the more convenient, smooth, easy, and engaging. When brands use tools of AR, VR, and 3D content in their messaging, they are likely to attract more customers and connect them all the more with their offerings in the online space.

The brands can utilize these technologies and modify their communication and make it all the more personalized and customized in order to attract new customers. Be it virtual showrooms created via VR technology, AR-enabled content, 3D models on product pages, personalized makeup products, and palettes, VR-based test drives, and in-store experiences, AR-enabled gaming and make-up tryon services, almost each and every industry has been increasingly making use of these technologies.

Immersive technologies help consumers to try before they buy in the online space and hence help brands to persuade the customers to buy the product or the service. Passé are the days when these technological advancements were just a mere option. In the present times, when the competition

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is cut-throat, being tech-savvy is indeed the need of the hour for any brand in any sector to have an edge over the other players in the market and for it to rise and shine.

How can brands create and adopt immersive technologies?

To create such state-of-the-art and tech-savvy solutions, brands need to have a clear business objective. They then need to conduct in-depth research and identify the required technological tools that could be feasible and effective for their business keeping into consideration their target consumers, the licensing guidelines, the supported devices, and operating systems, along with the capacity and the benefits of the chosen tool/ tools. Once this list has been curated, the brands then need to market their technology so that their consumers are aware and educated about its existence and usage.

Since brands can’t create and incorporate these technologies on their own as doing so could cost them finances and time, they do so via the assistance of firms specialized in creating these techie solutions.

These dedicated organizations help in providing highend immersive technologies to the brands so as to help them achieve their business goals, boost the business’ growth and also help them interact and engage effectively with their existing customers and tap the potential buyers as well.

Summing Up! Immersive technologies with their plethora of benefits have been paving the way for Industrial Revolution 4.0 and are indeed here to stay. They are also carving the path for a myriad of opportunities to be explored by the brands and are enabling them to technologically connect with their existing and target consumers. Brands have been using these cutting-edge technological solutions to enhance their offerings and customer experience which will further elevate customer engagement and will help the brands connect well with their customers and will also drive their sales. It is these immersive technologies that will evolve all the more in the times ahead and will contribute majorly in the growth and development of brands across industries in the future and will enable them to connect seamlessly and efficiently with consumers across the globe.

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Digital Magazine HigherFirst Education Digest August 2021 October 2020

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Higher Education Digest October 2020