Virtual reality on the cusp of enterprise adoption

But augmented reality might be the best stepping stone

Virtual reality (VR) has landed. The idea of a VR headset was almost a byword for migraines, dizziness and nausea, but the technology now offers sophisticated experiences from the high-end Oculus Rift to the budget Google Cardboard.

The technology has its uses in immersive gaming and virtual experiences for the consumer world, but there were questions as to whether it has any enterprise application beyond providing developers with another platform for which to make apps.

However, VR is slowly making its presence felt in the world of business at the same time that is beginning to accelerate its way into the consumer market with the imminent release of the HTC Vive.

Virtual business

The main challenge in the enterprise world is to ensure that VR is used in a way that benefits the business and isn't just a ‘me too' gimmick. Amba Hotels, located in Charing Cross and Marble Arch in London, is a good example of the former.

The company created an app with VR and creative agency Rewind that can be used with the Samsung Gear VR headset and Google Cardboard to provide virtual tours of its hotel rooms, restaurants and conference facilities.

Virtual tours are nothing new in the hospitality industry, but Amba Hotels wanted to allow its sales team to provide an interactive tour to clients when pitching conference services.

The sales reps can hand potential customers a headset and a compatible smartphone and leave them to look at the facilities at their leisure.

The idea is to make the whole pitching process more hands-on and interactive, which has the knock-on effect of getting the customer more engaged. The sales pitch becomes much more of a two-way process, which is more likely to persuade clients to sign up for the hotel's services, Amba told V3.

Expanding experiences

Another business use for VR, and arguably an area where it will see the most use, is providing more interactive experiences and services.

Technology consultants Accenture has worked with the RBS Six Nations rugby tournament to make match and tournament data easily understood and more engaging for fans.

Accenture used the Oculus Rift Developer Kit 2 VR headset to create a virtual stadium and locker room that can be explored in an interactive way as fans listen to facts and statistics from a virtual version of Rugby World Cup winner Ben Kay.

Car makers, which are often unexpected pushers of modern digital technology, are also getting on the VR act.

Volvo, for instance, has created an app that allows customers to have a virtual tour and test drive of the latest XC90 car. This allows them to see whether the car is to their taste without needing to visit a Volvo dealership.

Aerospace and defence company Lockheed Martin, meanwhile, is making practical use of VR with a Collaborative Human Immersive Laboratory that uses Oculus Rift headsets and an enclosed room with holographic displays to provide engineers with virtual prototypes of products being researched and developed.

The idea is to create full-scale virtual models of objects so that engineers can get an impression of their size and interior rather than relying on images rendered on desktop computers.

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Virtual reality on the cusp of enterprise adoption

But augmented reality might be the best stepping stone

Still early days

There are now solid examples of VR being put to use in the business world with an emphasis on customer-focused services, but it appears to have barely scraped the surface of what it could provide to forward-thinking enterprises.

Nick Millman, managing director of Accenture's big data and analytics division, told V3 that companies are showing more interest in VR but are not exactly rushing to put it into action.

"Different organisations are at different stages of maturity. I think we're still at the stage where most organisations are exploring what's possible. But there's certainly some early adoption of VR in business use cases, and there's an awful lot of exploration going on in terms of how it might be used," he said.

Millman explained how some industrial companies have been looking at using VR to train staff for operations in hazardous environments.

Matt Vernon-Clinch, projects director at Rewind, echoed some of Millman's views, but told V3 that VR is closer than we think in the business world.

"It's certainly growing as commercial products now become available. There's potential for VR across a whole range of mediums," he said.

"This is something where the conversations we're having have moved beyond people who want to do one-off activations and hang their brand alongside the letters ‘VR' in some marketing material, and become more about viable commercial activations and about putting VR products in the hands of the consumer."

Another way

VR may garner the attention at the moment, but augmented reality (AR) is arguably the technology that will take hold in the enterprise sector.

Much of the focus on AR headsets and glasses has fallen by the wayside since the Google Glass project was effectively canned for the short term.

However, the ability to superimpose images and graphical information over actual objects and scenes is potentially of more use in the corporate world than entering a virtual environment.

AR glasses have evolved from chunky wearable technology to lightweight frames such as the Epson BT-300 with cutting-edge screens and mobile processors.

These advances, coupled with improved voice control, have created headsets and helmet attachments that can place information such as diagnostics and instructions in the wearer's vision. This bypasses the need to access such information on a smartphone or tablet and frees up both hands.

AR glasses and headsets can make field and industrial workers safer and more productive, and avoid the need for costly mobile devices.

Companies such as Fujitsu already offer AR headsets as part of a technology suite designed to make data collection, entry and feedback more effective for workers in the field.

AR adoption is still in its early days, and the use of smart glasses and other AR wearables are being trialled rather than rolled out across a workforce, but the benefits for worker productivity and safety could make it a more attractive area to invest in than VR.

VR will certainly make its mark in the consumer market and at companies providing experiences for customers and clients, but its internal use looks to be more of a niche proposal better suited to training and high-end design.

Nevertheless, consumer adoption helps such technology to develop at a heady pace that permeates into the enterprise sector.

So while AR may be a good bet for companies looking to add new hardware to the mix, IT leaders could do worse than keep a weather eye on VR and its evolution.