By Technology
XR and Artificial Intelligence (AI): A Perfect Match
It may seem like generative AI has replaced the metaverse in the hearts and minds of technology enthusiasts, but there is a sort of symbiotic relationship between the two technologies: AI is being increasingly integrated into metaverse applications, while XR will serve – as Microsoft exec Lili Cheng put it – as “the eyes and ears of AI.” Moreover, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) support advancements in XR hardware, allowing for ever lighter, more capable, and efficient devices. AI is also vital for developing and scaling the metaverse into what we all envision the metaverse to be: A shared, persistent virtual world that responds to you, the user, and recognizes your surroundings. Here are 3 ways AI is already impacting the (enterprise) metaverse: A quick refresher on AI technology Artificial Intelligence (AI) is a branch of computer science concerned with training machines to mimic human intelligence in order to perform tasks ranging from simple perception to complex problem solving and reasoning. AI systems learn to simulate human cognitive functions by analyzing large amounts of data, looking for patterns and creating rules or algorithms to inform decisions. The most popular and familiar applications of AI are OpenAI’s DALL-E text-to-image tool and […]
5 min read
Human-Machine Interface: This Cutting-edge Earbud Can Control AR/VR
We recently had the opportunity to interview Dave Segal, Chief Innovation Officer and Founder of Naqi Logix. Naqi recently exhibited at the Augmented Enterprise Summit. During the event, the company’s product was named one of TIME’s Best Inventions of 2023. Learn more about the unique input device below. BrainXchange (Q): What is Naqi Logix’s origin story and where did the name come from? Dave (A): In 2013, after reading about a soldier receiving a “thought-controlled prosthetic arm,” I delved into the world of thought-controlled technology. My research uncovered thought-driven devices ranging from mouse cursors to cars and drones. While understanding the potential of brainwaves, I pondered if micro-gestures or head movements could be a better alternative. This would be an entirely new kind of human-machine interface (HMI), that would fit inside an earbud, where someone could control digital devices, robots, smart home IoT, wheelchairs, prosthetics, AR and VR without a mouse, keyboard, screen or camera. Instead, the blink of an eye, the raising of an eyebrow, or a slight tilt of the head would give you a kind of superpower over all the devices around you and the digital world. Q: What kind of technology company is Naqi Logix? A: Although […]
9 min read
Understanding VR Sickness: Do We Need VR Aftercare?
MY BAD VR TRIP In an April article for The Verge, Sara M. Watson wrote of her first experience in VR. Despite having read accounts of VR sickness, Watson said she wasn’t prepared for how awful VR made her feel. Nausea hit before she even completed set-up, leaving her lying on the bathroom floor and unable to “unsee” the imprint of a virtual grid on the floor. It may sound extreme, but such a reaction is not uncommon. There are reports of “VR hangovers” lasting hours following a five-minute simulation. Common physical symptoms include dizziness, headaches, and cold sweats, but VR users can also experience psychological effects like confusion and disorientation. Why is this? UNDERSTANDING VR SICKNESS Cybersickness occurs when your eyes see movement but your vestibular system – responsible for balance and spatial awareness – senses your body at rest. When screens aren’t involved, we call it motion sickness. Watson points out that the visceral effects of VR are by design. Virtual reality is “embodied”—the whole point is for it to be as immersive as possible, which inevitably impacts or disrupts our senses including “our sense of safety and orientation.” She talks of the mind-gut connection: Your brain in […]
4 min read
Why We Need to Adjust Our Expectations for VR
With last month’s announcements of Meta Quest 3 and Apple’s first mixed reality headset, now is a good time to get candid about the UX of XR. While the user experience has dramatically improved since “modern efforts” to build XR devices began over a decade ago, it still has a long way to go. Don’t get me wrong: Today’s XR headsets are useful. The value of immersive technologies for the workforce is undeniable, but office workers are not about to replace their laptops with Apple Vision Pro. I’ll focus mainly on VR: What Big Tech has failed to convey is that virtual reality is really hard, perhaps the hardest technology challenge of our time. Presentation videos like the one at WWDC set unrealistic expectations like all-day use, contributing to a cycle of hype and disappointment that overshadows what the devices can do today. A TALL ORDER The good news is that the time between each new generation of VR headsets is shrinking, which means VR is advancing quickly. The bad news is that we underestimated the challenges. While there has been no lack of investment, virtual reality has proved a lot harder than even the most innovative, financially endowed, and […]
7 min read
Gen Z Workers in the Metaverse: What Employers Need to Know
Though the term metaverse was invented before they were born, Gen Z is being called “the metaverse generation.” They’re also described as the “most ethnically diverse” generation, the most “entrepreneurial” generation, and the “loneliest” generation. But what do Gen Zers, the first true digital natives to enter the workplace, really think about the metaverse? And what do employers need to know about this next generation of workers and leaders who will make up about a third of the U.S. workforce by 2030? Introducing Gen Z To quote numerous articles, Gen Zers were “practically raised online.” Born between 1997 and 2012 (so turning 11-26 this year), Gen Z is a generation defined by technology, a generation that has never known life without the Internet, social media, and a world of information at their fingertips. Besides technology, Gen Z has been shaped by times of economic instability and sociopolitical unrest. Gen Zers grew up with terrorism and war, the Great Recession, gun violence, climate change, and political polarization. They’re now coming of age and starting their careers on the tail end of a global pandemic. As a result, they’re highly adaptable to sudden disruptions and paradigm shifts like the metaverse and digital […]
5 min read
How Enterprises Really Feel About the Metaverse in 21 Statistics
With headlines like Mark Zuckerberg Quietly Buries the Metaverse, VR is dead, the metaverse is dead. Maybe. and The Metaverse is Dead. Long Live the Metaverse, it can be nearly impossible to get a good read on the current status and long-term viability of the metaverse. Don’t read too much into short-term changes in investment strategy or assume that Meta and other Big Tech companies are completely abandoning their AR/VR/MR (XR) efforts in favor of AI or another emerging technology. Scaling back millions of dollars in investment in the face of a down economy is not the death knell of the metaverse. Such actions don’t cloud outlook but rather set the stage for more realistic expectations and timelines. So, how do business leaders and employees really feel about the metaverse right now? Here are 21 recent statistics: Plans & Budgets 63% of CXOs across the U.S., UK, and Germany believe the metaverse will be a game changer that will transform many parts of their businesses, the main benefits including accelerated time to market, greater innovation, and more. (Wipro Limited) 78% of CXOs across the U.S., UK, and Germany said the metaverse will enable them to build new business models. 56% see the potential […]
4 min read
A Quick Guide to XR-Adjacent Technologies: Web3, Blockchain, and NFTs
We’re still trying to define the metaverse, and with some companies seemingly halting their metaverse efforts, enterprises want to know if the metaverse is or is not the next big thing. It is, but we need to adjust our expectations and timeline—the metaverse is inevitable in some form. We will don VR headsets to perform certain jobs, meet sometimes as avatars in a virtual office, and try immersive experiences from our favorite brands. Interest and investment will ebb and flow over the next few years as with any new technology, but we are undoubtedly heading towards a metaverse or multiple metaverses where the physical and digital worlds merge to enable new ways of working, socializing, shopping, learning, etc. With that said, there are many new terms and technologies associated with the metaverse. We went over 5G, edge computing and AI, but what about Web3, blockchain, and NFTs? Let me put it simply for you and me both: Web3 What is Web3 and how is it different from the metaverse? Web3 is the third generation of the internet, essentially a new, decentralized model for using and governing the internet. Developers are currently working on Web3, building new protocols and apps for decentralized […]
5 min read
Goodbye, Google Glass: Remembering Some of the Earliest Use Cases
It’s difficult to quantify the impact of Google Glass on the entire enterprise AR market. Glass really took one for the team, and I genuinely do not believe the space would be as mature or use cases as numerous as they are today had it not been for Glass. Glass Explorer Edition inspired some incredibly imaginative professionals who, either officially or (in many cases) unofficially, created some of the first augmented reality POCs in enterprise. Back in 2015, when the media was calling Glass a failure and outing Glassholes in public, we began the Augmented Enterprise Summit. We took a chance on a budding market based on the stories of those early Google Glass Explorers. Let’s look back at some of the earliest AR use cases from 2013 and 2014: Stock pickers at Dutch e-fulfillment company Active Ants wore Glass for hands-free pick lists, reducing errors and increasing their speed. BMW tested Glass at one of its U.S. plants for quality control of pre-series vehicles. Workers used the device to document issues to show engineers. Capriotti’s Sandwich Shop used Glass to record new workers’ performance and the lunchtime rush, hoping to spot areas for improvement. At Copenhagen Airport, airport duty […]
3 min read
A Quick Guide to XR-Adjacent Technologies: 5G, Edge Computing, and AI
Despite the hype and confusion of the present, the world – firstly the business world – is moving towards the metaverse. But what is the metaverse? What is XR’s role in the metaverse, and what does 5G, edge computing, and AI have to do with it? Though the word has come to encompass pretty much any XR experience, the metaverse can be understood as an emerging business model and social sphere bridging the physical and digital worlds. The metaverse is a lot of things – an extension of our work and social lives, a new frontier or marketplace for corporations to compete and target consumers, an ideal space for experimental or predictive simulation using digital twins, etc. – but one thing it is not is real. Instead, we have many different virtual worlds and immersive experiences requiring different devices, apps, profiles or avatars, and digital currencies to access. Moreover, the unified metaverse envisioned by futurists like Mark Zuckerberg might never come to fruition as it would require a level of cooperation and interoperability that’s hard to imagine in Big Tech as we know it today. So, why all the talk about “the Metaverse?” Many people refer to the metaverse […]
5 min read
BrainXchange’s Definitive Guide to Enterprise XR and Wearable Tech Adoption
Over 8+ years and nearly 10 events, BrainXchange has enjoyed a front-row seat to a computing and workplace revolution that promises to make organizations and their workforces more agile, connected, and mobile than ever before. During that time, we witnessed the rise of numerous AR/VR/MR (XR) use cases and next-generation immersive devices and platforms influenced by the early adopters who shared their stories at our events. The Definitive Guide is the result of this experience and, more specifically, the product of hundreds of discussions with enterprise end users themselves.
1 min read
2022 Year in Review: Key Developments in the Enterprise XR Space
Last year, to summarize the 2021 XR market in three bullet points, I wrote, “1) Apple glasses rumors, 2) Mark Zuckerberg’s philosophical musings about the future of work, and 3) The Metaverse.” Well, not much has changed: Journalists are still analyzing patents and code to deduce Apple’s AR hardware plans, Meta and others are still refining their vision for the future of work, and we still don’t know if there will be one metaverse or many metaverses. Let’s see what the major enterprise XR market players were up to in 2022: AUGMENTED/MIXED REALITY After committing to OpenXR/WebXR support and reiterating its intention to target businesses, Magic Leap dropped its second-generation headset in September to enthusiastic reviews. Available in three editions starting at $3,300 for the Base model, Magic Leap 2 has twice the field of view and is half the size of its predecessor, and boasts major optics advancements: In particular, reviewers praised the headset’s reduced eyestrain and unique dynamic dimming feature. In February, a Business Insider report cast doubts on the future of Microsoft’s HoloLens mixed reality headset. Following this, Microsoft worked to position its full technology stack for the enterprise metaverse, forming an internal team in October to […]
6 min read
An Opportunity Too Big to Ignore: Metaverse Stats You Oughta Know for 2023
Did you catch our July roundup of 50+ intriguing metaverse-related statistics? We’re back with more (sometimes conflicting) research findings and survey results to inform your organization’s metaverse strategy in the coming year. Innovation 51% of companies are either in the process of integrating virtual reality into their strategy or have already built VR into at least once dedicated line of business. (PwC) 36% of executives say the metaverse will revolutionize business, while 82% expect metaverse plans to be a part of their business activities within three years. (PwC) 66% of business execs say their companies are actively engaged in the metaverse. (PwC) 46% of CIOs and CTOs “consider the metaverse to be very important to their innovation strategy.” (PwC) Energy companies are currently allocating 18% of their digital investment budgets to the metaverse. (Pew Research) Money The metaverse economy could generate up to $5 trillion in impact by 2030, “equivalent to the size of the third-largest economy today, Japan.” Much of that impact will be seen in e-commerce, followed by virtual learning, advertising, and gaming. (McKinsey & Company) Gartner places the enterprise digital twins market at $183 billion by 2031. Applications 86% of companies using augmented reality for onboarding say the technology has improved the […]
2 min read
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