Story Lines That Will Be the Most Relevant at CES 2017

Story Four: Facing Virtual and Augmented Realities

Curran: “CES 2017 attendees will face virtual and augmented reality in a bigger way than ever at this event.”

• Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) transform the way individuals interact with each other and with software systems. They create a more immersive human experience. While already popular among gamers, expect to see more AR and VR products and services unveiled than ever at CES. Beyond visual devices, these will feature human senses and offer more practical use cases.
• For example, a company called Feelreal is running a Kickstarter campaign for its VR mask, which enables consumers to use other senses including smell and touch.The headset creates an immersive experience complete with micro-coolers, micro-heaters, and water misters.
• More on virtual reality:
• Recent virtual reality news shows market momentum that will escalate at CES. For example, the National Basketball Association recently announced plans to show its games next season using virtual reality.

• Meanwhile, there have been a gaggle of TV ads about use of virtual reality on smartphones. Count on more CES stories about using virtual reality on smartphones.
• Virtual reality is more likely to be used for consumer applications. Key markets include games and 3D films.
• VR can be a business application is for training scenarios. For instance, you are on an oil rig and something catches fire. What actions do you take? This could be a much less expensive version of a simulator such as those used to practice flying airplanes inside a simulator located on the ground.
• More on augmented reality:
• Augmented reality is like a graphic overly, such as 3D graphics, on a real-time view of a physical environment using a live camera fee or transparent lens.
• AR is more likely to be used for business applications.
• One example is for data visualization purposes such as product identification.
• Image recognition rather than barcode scanning gives a customer more information on each product such as price and specific dietary information.
• Another example is using Internet-enabled glasses to see exactly where airplane seats should be installed. This prevents imprecise installations that can require the seats to be re-installed.
• It can be used for voice calls, web browsing, film and TV streaming.
• AR hardware and applications will likely have more uses in transforming the real world than virtual reality, which will initially be used for gaming and entertainment.
• Digi-Capital forecasts the AR/VR market could hit $150 billion in revenue by 2020 with AR taking the bulk at around $120 billion vs. $30 billion for VR.

Story Five: The move to services on page 5…

Originally published on eWeek