The 10 best mixed reality applications
Mixed reality can potentially revolutionise how we interact with the world around us. It can be used for a variety of purposes, including gaming, education, training, and manufacturing. Here are the top 10 mixed reality applications.
Mixed Reality application 1 : Remote Assistance
One of the MR use cases is remote assistance. A remote trainer or instructor can provide a remote worker with work instructions to execute a task. This can be helpful in a location which is hazardous or if a worker is a novice.
Using MR for remote assistance not only enhances productivity but also reduces the time to troubleshoot problems. Consequently, saving industries’ costs and providing a better customer experience.
Saint-Gobain, a building materials firm, is using Microsoft HoloLens to provide its factory workers with on-demand, virtual assistance from experts.
Mixed Reality application 2: Training and Onboarding
MR can be beneficial for organizations that are looking forward to providing their workers with in-just-time training or personalized training. For example, a worker can learn how to operate a new piece of equipment before working in real life.
MR helps in the effective visualization of critical processes which makes knowledge transfer robust, allowing workers to learn faster, follow the procedures with few errors and take accountability for their work.
Airbus is using mixed reality to train its employees on how to service aircraft. The company has created a virtual training environment that allows employees to practice servicing aircraft without having to use any real aircraft.
Mixed Reality application 3: Immersive Project Visualization
Mixed reality (MR) enables the viewing of 3D models, allowing users to navigate through them as though they were already constructed and engage in collaborative efforts. Its applications span a range of tasks including product design, engineering, and architecture.
For instance, architects can employ MR to present their designs to clients, enabling them to gain valuable feedback and ensure the practicality of their concepts.
Siemens is using MR to help its contractors visualize their projects. The company’s MR platform, called MindSphere, allows users to view 3D models of construction projects in real-time. This can help contractors to plan their work and to avoid costly mistakes.
Mixed Reality application 4: Remote Collaboration
MR allows employees to have virtual meetings in a shared virtual environment regardless of their physical locations. They can interact with each other in a full-body 3D holographic projection and communicate through voice and gestures.
This enables companies to reduce travel and logistic costs and allows remote teams to foster collaboration, idea-sharing, and problem-solving among team members, even if they are geographically dispersed.
By leveraging mixed reality, Ford’s remote teams can visualize and interact with 3D models of vehicles in a shared virtual environment. This allows for real-time collaboration, design review, and problem-solving, regardless of the team members’ physical locations.
Mixed Reality application 5: Logistics Picking
In most organizations, warehouse logistics are based on outdated paper-based systems, which can cause delays in finding the product and dispatching it to its respective destination.
Mixed Reality can help warehouse supervisors in many ways. For example, in identifying the picking location but also minimising sorting errors and providing clear instructions to correctly upload the products in the cargo area.
DHL experimented with a mixed reality application along with smart glasses to enable vision picking to warehouse operations which resulted in a 25% growth of the total picking efficiency along with increased productivity.
Mixed Reality application 6 : Academic Research
Traditional marketing research methods, such as focus groups, questionnaires, and one-on-one interviews, can be biased. This is because participants may be influenced by the researcher’s presence, or they may try to give the answer they think the researcher wants to hear.
MR allows researchers to create mixed reality applications that participants can interact with, and it can also be used to collect physiological data, such as heart rate and eye movements.
Volvo Cars has been using Varjo’s mixed reality prototypes in their workflow since the summer of 2018. This enabled them to iterate design and UX concepts quickly and to avoid tedious tool and software changes, saving a significant amount of money along the way.
Mixed Reality application 7: Architecture and Engineering
MR is being used by architects and engineers to design and visualize buildings and structures. MR can be used to create 3D models of buildings and structures, which can be used to identify potential problems early on in the design process.
For example, MR can be used to simulate how sunlight will enter a building, or how wind will flow around a structure. This information can be used to improve the design of the building, making it more energy-efficient and less likely to be damaged by wind.
Tokyu Construction uses Microsoft Azure Remote Rendering on HoloLens 2 to visualize finished buildings, enhance quality, productivity, and cost-efficiency, and stay at the forefront of construction technology.
Mixed Reality application 8: Augmented Surgical Training
Traditionally, surgeons rely on the information from MRI, CT scans, X-Rays and other records to determine the surgical requirement and procedure. MR can be used to provide these records right in front of medical professionals as well as assist them with surgery and other medical procedures.
Augmented surgeries aim to enhance precision, accuracy, and overall surgical outcomes by superimposing virtual information, such as medical images, real-time patient data, or navigational guides, onto the surgeon’s view.
With mixed reality devices, AccuHealth enables medical professionals to overlay electronic health records (EHR) and patient information onto their field of view. This allows doctors and nurses to view and interact with patient data in real time while maintaining a hands-free approach.
Mixed Reality application 9: Visual Impairment
MR devices can map and create a three-dimensional representation of the user’s surroundings. This mapping can help individuals with visual impairment navigate unknown territories by providing real-time audio cues to indicate obstacles, pathways, or points of interest.
Additionally, MR devices can capture and convert text into speech, allowing users with visual impairment to have text-based information read aloud to them. This feature can be useful for reading signs, labels, menus, or other printed materials.
NuEyes uses special MR glasses to help people with visual impairment. Using MR glasses, people can accomplish day-to-day computer work, travelling within airports, Ubers, and other cities.
Mixed Reality application 10: Design and Development
MR can streamline product development. Instead of doing back and forth, product designers can design a Mixed Reality application where they can visualize the product in a spatial environment and in a way that it would look in real life.
Additionally, with MR, product designers can reduce cost drastically since MR brings in collaborative processes, which enables faster feedback, prototyping, testing and reviewing.
By leveraging mixed reality devices like Microsoft HoloLens, Ford designers and engineers can visualize virtual prototypes of their vehicles in a three-dimensional space.
Many mixed reality companies have already started creating applications for organizations looking forward to improving workers’ productivity and overall business growth, offering innovative solutions to enhance collaboration, training, and operational efficiency.
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