ThinkTank • FEB 2018
What is Virtual Reality? Virtual reality (VR) is the umbrella term for all immersive experiences, which could be created using purely realworld environment or situation, artificial, computergenerated content or a hybrid of both. It immerses the user by making them feel like they are experiencing the simulated reality firsthand, primarily by stimulating their vision and hearing. VR is also able to transpose the user. In other words, bring us some place else. Through closed headset or goggles, VR blocks out the current world, expand our sensory experiences and puts our presence elsewhere then. The immersion is quite dramatic, with some users reporting feelings of movement as they ascend a staircase or ride a rollercoaster within the virtual environment. What is Augmented Reality? Augmented Reality (AR) takes our current reality and adds something to it. It does not move us elsewhere. It simply alters or "augments" our current state of presence, often with clear visors. It is an overlay of content on the real world, but that content is not anchored to or part of it. Google Glass was a first attempt from Google to bring augmented reality to consumers and we’d expect to see more of this in the future. What really made AR experience mass market success and infiltrate our daily lives was the launch of Pokemon Go app in 2016.
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With virtual reality, you can swim with sharks. And with augmented reality, you can watch a shark pop out of your business card. While VR is more immersive, AR provides more freedom for the user, and more possibilities for marketers because it does not need to be a head-mounted display. Altogether the widespread development and consumption of this emerging technology boosted AR/VR market to reach $162 Billion in 2020. (market share), yet it has become evident that AR overshadows its cousin, winning public’s heart with its easy accessibility and practicality. From retail to education to manufacturing, AR is positioned to drive higher business value across sectors. No different than any technology that has preceded AR, along with success components that include performance and design, there are also a few big challenges for the near-term AR adoption and which it needs to overcome. Those risk factors fall into two main categories: social and technical. While social challenges involve the issues that aren’t directly tied to a technical support, but rather some of the potentially negative side effects of using AR apps, technical challenges are associated with things like the object or face recognition problem/issue and sensory accuracy. Let’s take a closer look at why the future of AR is uncertain.
甚麼是虛擬實境？
透過虛擬實景技術，你可以與鯊魚一同游泳；透過擴
虛擬實景是所有親歷其景體驗的統稱，當中可以是純
增實境技術，你可以使鯊魚從你的名片中游出來，雖
粹使用真實的環境、抑或是使用由電腦運算產生而成
然虛擬實景可以為用家帶來更大的感官衝擊，但擴增
的人造景色、甚至是兩者的混合所創建而成。用戶
實景卻為用戶提供了自由性，因為它不需要用戶使用
可以透過視覺和聽覺親身體驗模擬世界的經歷，它甚
頭戴式顯示器，讓企業在市場營銷方面提供更多可能
至可以轉置用戶，通過閉合的耳機或護目鏡，屏蔽眼
性。據估計在2020年，兩者的市場分額分別可高達
前的世界，以擴大感官體驗的方式把我們帶到其他地
1620億美元，並由擴增實景技術節節領先，不論是在
方。就如在虛擬實景中爬上樓梯或坐過山車時，我們
零售、教育或製造各個方面，它的可用性和實用性均
的身體會有移動的感覺。
提供高度的商業價值。
甚麼是擴增實境？
與以往的任何技術無異，擴增實境技術在性能、設計
擴增實境會在我們眼前的現實增加一些虛擬的東西或
和其他部份都面臨重大挑戰，這可以歸納為社會因素
改變一些實物的形態，但不會把我們轉置其他地方，
和技術因素。社會方面，長時間使用擴增實境產品可
它增加的資訊與現實世界的內容重疊，但不會固定在
能為用家在交際方面帶來一些潛在的負面影響；在技
其中或成為其中的一部份。在過去，Google曾經推
術方面，如臉部識別與感官準確度等仍然面對不同困
出的Google
難。就讓我們一起研究一下為什麼擴增實景的未來充
Glass就是使用擴增技術，然而，能推動
該技術成功深透至大眾市場的想必是2016年推出的 Pokémon Go手游。
滿變數吧！