Top 7 Virtual Reality Industry use cases

Today Digital Transformation has entered our life and we have been subconsciously using it in our day to day life. e.g. Smartphones, Smart cars, internet connected devices etc.

Virtual Reality technology has evolved dramatically in the past few years the costs of VR devices has gone down so it is all set to hit mainstream markets soon. While gaming applications like Pokemon Go have attracted most of the attention, there are many other use cases that could have a much larger impact on our lives.

Google Cardboard is a super low-cost headset ($15) to which a compatible, VR enabled mobile phone is attached to deliver the VR experience.

Other commercial product is Oculus Rift gear which has become extremely popular in gaming & business equally.

Here are some great VR use cases:

1.     VR for Tourism: do you want to sit on your couch and climb up the Eiffel tower? Or walk on the glass horse shoe at grand canyon? Wild Within is VR app available for experience of travel through rain forest in Canada. Travelers around the world are able to experience a helicopter flight around New York City or a boat ride around the Statue of Liberty.

2.     VR for Education: Over last decade eLearning had picked up very much. But it could not deliver hands on experience which is now possible with VR technology. Technicians can actually learn the real life examples and do their bit to solve the problems on the shop floor. Medical students can actually perform surgeries allowing them to make mistakes without any impact on actual patients.

3.     VR for Sales: Traditionally automakers have the showroom to show the cars to the customers and explain their features and sometimes a test drive is also possible. But customization of how the interior will look as per their choice was not possible which now can be done via VR.  Audi is experimenting this in London, where customer can configure their Audi with accessories as they want and drive virtually in real time.

4.     VR in Gaming: who does not know the excitement Pokemon Go had created and reached 50 million users in record time of 22 days.  Using AR/VR technology games have changed the life of seniors as well as teens. Game of Thrones has capitalized on VR and gone viral in various countries.

5.     VR in Designing: product designing is tedious task and changes to products based on the competition or customization is time consuming. This is where VR helps designers. They can now create the products easily, configure all the features and test them out. It is more popular in construction of buildings to see how the interior will look like.

6.     VR in Marketing: With Digital Marketing ads are becoming more intrusive. The best marketing campaigns use VR to create successful campaigns as users get completely immersed into the content, and create memorable experiences. Coca Cola created a virtual reality sleigh ride. New York times releases multiple immersive documentaries in their app. Finnair is showing their Airbus 350 via VR to attract more customers.

7.     VR in Sports coaching: The potential for VR in sports in endless. You get all the benefits of real-world interaction, but in a controlled environment. Showing is so much more effective than explaining, and experiencing something first-hand is that much more powerful again. Football, Cricket.

Virtual reality technology holds enormous potential to change the future for a number of fields, from medicine, business, and architecture to manufacturing. We are on the roller coaster ride !!

From Bullock Cart to Hyperloop – Digital Transformation of Travel

Remember when you were teenager and wanted to go on vacation with parents-you were asked to go to travel agent and get all the printed brochures of exotic locations?  

Then came the dot.com wave and online booking sites like Expedia, Travelocity, Makemytrip paved so much that took travel agencies out of equation.

We used to send holiday postcards to our friends and families back home, which are gone out of business due to social media postings on Facebook, Instagram.

Lonely Planet used to be the traveler’s bible, but now we go to tons of websites like TripAdvisor, Priceline which provide us with advice and reviews on hotels, tours and restaurants.

Now I am able to book my flight online, have my boarding pass on my phone, check in with machines, go through automated clearance gates and even validate my boarding pass to board the plane

The travel industry, like many others, is being disrupted by great ideas powered by digital technology and innovation.

Some of the digital innovations travel industry taken so far:

·     Online booking sites like Expedia, Travelocity, MakeMyTrip, Trivago

·     Mobile optimization with Wi-Fi enablement

·     Targeting and hyper-personalization with Big Data Analytics

·     Digital discounts on travel by Kayak, Tripadvisor

·     Smartphones for research vacations, deals, feedbacks

·     Wearables like Disney band for payments, room keys

·     Bluetooth beacons to guide travelers in the vicinity at airports

·     Virtual reality – see the places without even getting out of home

All such digital footprint of customers are collected and then analyzed by big data analytics to hyper personalized the experience.

With extensively networked digital properties and deep hooks into customer data collected via travel booking sites and social media channels, travel companies are delivering customized dream vacations according to the likes and preferences of today’s travelers.

Today’s trend is towards spending money on memories & experiences instead of material possessions.

Accordingly, travel companies are investing in their digital storefronts and omni-channels to keep today’s hyper-connected travelers snapping, sharing, researching and reviewing on the fly – leaving immense data footprints for marketers to leverage.

Bluesmart is a high-quality carry-on suitcase that you can control from your phone. From the app you can lock and unlock it, weigh it, track its location, be notified if you are leaving it behind and find out more about your travel habits.

Thomas Cook have introduced virtual reality experiences across select stores.

Digital disrupters like Airbnb have already put tremendous pressure on hotels.

Starwood Hotels have launched “Let’s chat”, enabling guests to communicate with its front desk associates via WhatsApp, Blackberry messenger or iPhone before or during their stay.

World has gone from Bullock Cart to Hyperloop today. The future will belong to those using data-based intelligence to offer better experiences, encourage exotic longer and more frequent stays, and build long-term loyalty.

Do you want to get on Digital bandwagon? 

Digital disruption in Customer Experience

In an age of digital disruption, great customer experience has become do or die. 

Digital technologies such as Analytics, Mobile, Cloud, Gamification, Cognitive computing, Artificial Intelligence and Social media have disrupted the customer experience.

Customer satisfaction has never been a higher priority than it is today, where fierce competition for space in the market means loyalties can change for the smallest reason.

Whether a customer is visiting the store, making a purchase through a mobile app, or liking a photo on Instagram, they must be able to engage your brand in a way that is both seamless and effortless, regardless of the device or channel. Match your channels to your customers’ needs and they’ll keep coming back.

Timing is everything in this ever-changing digital world. Every customer is a digital customer.

No matter your industry, every organization must deeply consider and transform the way they handle customer service. 

Understanding customers - their behavior, frustrations and needs - will allow you to identify what unique value you can bring to them. Big data analytics enable marketers to send customer communications that are more relevant, personalized and targeted than ever before

Initially considered a gaming innovation, virtual reality is turning out to be more mainstream, and the applications for organizations and purchasers are abundant.

Here are some of the reasons customers are giving for loving top brands:

• They are easy to do business with
• Hyper personalization that makes me feel great
• They are quick to resolve my queries
• Their product are class apart and their service is super
• Technical knowledge of their customer service staff is excellent
• They know me well when I call 

Today it seems that we’re not far from having drones landing on our lawns! The first time you experience something like this, it feels like a revelation but later it  will feel like it’s the norm.

Today’s customer delights are tomorrow's customer expectations. Apple, Google, Disney, Starbucks, Airbnb, and Amazon are just a few companies delivering these every day. Are you?

Digital Transformation helping Smart Cities flourish

A smart city is simply a community that harnesses digital technologies, such as Internet of Things, Big Data Analytics, Mobility, Drones & Wearables to improve the quality of life of people, optimize available resources such as electricity, roads and water in economically sustainable manner, and reduce environmental pollution. 

They are run just like businesses to with smart and user friendly services.

In smart city, IT is the major factor and the basis for providing essential services to residents. Smart Cities depend on data available to them from all the above technological advances to enhance the quality and performance of their services.

Smart Cities integrate and analyze massive amounts of data to anticipate, mitigate, and even prevent many problems. This data is leveraged, for example, to intelligently reroute traffic and reduce accidents, identify crime hot spots and target resources for crime reduction, and connect citizens at work or out on the town.

Younger people expect to have the city in their pocket — to find a cab, locate the next bus, find a nearby restaurant or event, report a pothole or broken streetlight, apply for their driver's license, or tweet to their government representatives. They want consistent, personal service via their smart device.

Here is what future smart city can give you:

• Smart Traffic: Connected car sensors collect valuable real time data about traffic density and report it the control center, allowing to adjust traffic light sequences intelligently, as well as apply manual corrections whenever necessary.
• Smart Parking: Integrated with municipal Buses and private car owners, to build a highly efficient parking system.
• Smart Energy: Automatic lighting control, may vary from obvious night-time auto activation to dimming based on crowd density and weather conditions. Every home will have a smart meter to control the power usage and report in real time.
• Smart Buildings: Facilities including power management, lighting, physical security, fire safety and IT infrastructure.
• Smart Safety: Firefighters wearing sensors that let them know if the CO₂ in a building has reached lethal levels. Grid of connected CCTV cameras to ensure public safety. Air quality sensors detect pollution peak and warns people who are subject to allergies through their smartphones.
• Smart Charging: There are charging stations by the side of each road for electric vehicles, drivers can pay by flashing their wallet or even contact less payment.
• Smart Advertising: Personalized digital signs for people passing by.
• Smart Water System: IoT sensor enabled water systems which measure the flow, pressure, level and chemical content of the water to improve quality and usability
• Smart Views: Use of augmented and virtual reality to help people indoor and outdoor navigation.
• Smart Access: Users can open car doors or office doors by just touch of finger or even with IoT enabled sensors ensuring doors are opened when users are approaching
• Smart Commute: Connected cars and trains giving personal entertainment based on Big data Analytics insights.
• Smart Planet: Special lanes for bicycles for health conscious commuters helping zero carbon footprint

New York, London, Paris, Columbus Ohio, Dubai & Barcelona are the examples of smart cities around the world.

Smart Cities bring multiple rewards like better control of public spending, more engaged citizens in local development, improved performance of public transportation systems, lighter traffic and a reduced carbon footprint.

Smart Cities innovations have come a long way. All these digital technologies are future. Someday will come, to make Captain Kirk’s “Beam us up scotty” catchphrase true.

Virtual Reality and Digital Transformation.

Virtual Reality is making a lot of impact on the world we live in today. Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our 5 senses – Sight, Sound, Smell, Touch & Taste.

Our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains’ sense-making mechanisms for that information.

Virtual reality is an artificial environment, experienced through sight and sound.  Without the risks that would accompany those experiences in real life. 

In a virtual reality environment, a user experiences immersion, or the feeling of being inside and a part of that world.

One of the main problems with virtual reality is motion sickness. People suffer from nausea after spending a period of time in a virtual environment.

Today, Millennials will prefer to travel to Mars and chill with some aliens instead of spending time with family or friends and teenagers, may generate the boy or girl of their dreams in the head rather than real one.

But VR is helping Digital Transformation in a good way:

• Healthcare is one of the biggest adopters of virtual reality which encompasses surgery simulation, phobia treatment, robotic surgery, and skills training
• It is used as a training aid in many sports such as golf, athletics, skiing, cycling etc.
• It is particularly useful for training soldiers for combat situations or other dangerous settings where they have to learn how to react in an appropriate manner such as flight simulation, battlefield simulation
• Hollywood movies like TRON, The Matrix series, and Vanilla Sky are great examples of VR
• Real estate firms will be able to offer virtual walk-through and open houses through 360-degree experiences
• Theme parks like Six flags & Disney Land are launching VR roller coaster for a terrific experience
• Even McDonald’s in Sweden are now making happy meal boxes that turn into VR headsets for skiing
• GE connected experience labs are exploring the VR to experience & visualize the complex and dynamic Big Data datasets.

Samsung Gear VR, Google Cardboard is the decent gateway drug to VR while Oculus Rift, HTC Vive is the gold standard.

Virtual reality is going to allow anyone to do almost anything, anywhere we can imagine, with anyone in the world. Tomorrow you can sit on your couch at home and still do a skywalk at Grand Canyon or fly over the Eiffel Tower.

    Buckle up everyone, we’re in for one hell of a ride with Virtual Reality !!