Who will win the device race?
With the Augmented (AR), Mixed (MR) and Virtual Reality (VR) device markets currently being saturated with devices, whose will come out on top?
Theorem’s Visualization Experience has been designed so that it is device agnostic.
When considering the three technologies there is no single silver bullet, all technologies have their unique features and benefits.
When thinking about adopting these technologies, the type of ‘reality’ (i.e. Virtual, Augmented or Mixed) that is chosen ultimately dictates the types of devices that will be available to you. These technologies and devices have not been developed with Engineering and Manufacturing in mind and the underlying software is not based upon CAD or PLM technologies.
The graphics and the devices are coming from a very different group of companies. They are coming from Apple, Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Sony, and Samsung etc. They are coming from the gaming and social media industries, and are not based upon the world we have traditionally worked in which uses CAD and PLM data and devices: Caves and Power walls suited to that data.
What we’ve seen in the past 12 months is that new devices are appearing all the time, and we know that before this year is out, there will be additional devices on the market. These new devices are significantly cheaper than VR Caves and Power walls, this low price point is democratizing the technologies and making them accessible to a larger audience.
It’s important to recognize that, and realize that this is a dynamic market. Given the scale of the companies involved – Apple, Facebook, Google and Microsoft etc. who already have commercially available devices, and with others working on their own technologies in this area, things are inevitably going to be constantly changing in the next 2-3 years.
Theorem’s Visualization Experience has been specifically designed and developed from the ground up to be device agnostic. It doesn’t matter whether it is a holographic display, or a tablet, or a VR device, the same application will run on any of those devices.
In addition, the data you prepare is created once and it can be used on any of the devices. It doesn’t need to be created specifically for Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality or Mixed Reality.
One of the things that Theorem recognize, having worked with these devices, is that there are different capabilities and capacities of each of the devices, and so some devices require the data to be optimized more than others.
We have ensured that data and device neutrality is there, which will protect your initial investments even as the technologies and devices develop and change.
Today, nobody really knows who is going to win the device race. Which are the best devices? Which are the devices that over time will win out? It’s too early to know and it will be a few years before it settles down. We don’t believe that there will be a single winner but that there will be a number of winners out there. In addition the different technologies deliver different experiences which means that there is not a one size fits all.
Read more on advanced visualization here: Exploring the Cognitive Gap and the potential of XR technologies
