Everything you need to know about immersive technology

What are immersive technologies?

Immersive technology refers to new ways of creating, displaying and interacting with applications, content and experiences. Immersive technology has transformed the digital experience by bringing together the virtual with users’ sight, sound, and even touch. 

Immersive technologies allow a person to feel part of an artificial, simulated environment – for example, immersive theatre requires the audience to interact with the set, props and actors, while an immersive air control dashboard may allow the operator to see and interact with real-time monitoring data.

Virtual reality 

Virtual reality (VR) completely replaces a user’s surroundings with a digital environment using a head-mounted display (HMD) with two near-eye displays, one for each eye. VR lends itself to both industrial applications and creative experiences with new modes of storytelling.

Augmented Reality

Augmented reality (AR) creates an immersive experience for users by blending the real with the virtual. Utilising computer vision and machine learning algorithms the device can understand the ‘real world’ in both a spatial and semantic sense. Digital Catapult has helped cultural institutions reach new audiences with AR and helped retail brands explore new AR-powered solutions to grow, and innovate within, their business.

Haptics

Haptic Technology is commonly known as ‘3D touch’ or ‘kinaesthetic interaction’. Unlike other immersive technologies it involves tactile feedback including pressure, vibrations, and movements. Haptics are likely to be the one of the main ways we interact with applications and content in future computing paradigms – be it spatial computing or the “metaverse”. In 2020 Digital Catapult mapped the UK haptic ecosystem to uncover some of the future use cases, players and opportunities – you can access the report here.

In summary, recent developments in immersive technologies have created new opportunities for businesses to solve problems, seize new opportunities, and push innovation forward.

Why immersive experiences or solutions?

The continued development of immersive technologies has already had an impact on the economy and in many industries because they offer new and exciting ways of interacting, analysing, and creating. Here are a few examples of why immersive experiences and technologies have been applied to existing cross-industry problems.

Training

From the military, to healthcare and sports, immersive technologies have transformed the way training is designed and delivered. The use of VR and AR has increased the speed and quality of training, and allows a more hands-on training experience which is very valuable and usually difficult to achieve in conventional classroom settings. This includes soft skills as well as technical ones,  for example handling difficult situations or managing a team.

Online retail

Immersive technologies can solve a frequent problem in online shopping:  customers simply don’t know how a product will actually look in-situ, either in their living room or on their feet. This is especially an issue for big-ticket items such as furniture. 

Developments in AR technology allow prospective customers to ‘place’ the desired item in their homes or on their body, making them more confident in their purchases. Companies like Amazon and IKEA are already using AR on their online platforms for this reason. ‘Virtual try on’ has filtered down to social media platforms such as Instagram and Snapchat – allowing consumers to try make-up or headgear on from within their social stream, driving engagement and purchases.

Immersive technology and Digital Catapult

 

Digital Catapult has supported tens of UK startups that have built immersive solutions, ranging from data visualisation to crime scene investigation. Through collaborative research projects, we have also published reports that give tools for thought to entrepreneurs on how to innovate new business models around immersive content and applications, and how to approach the design of their projects.

Meanwhile, Digital Catapult has partnered with leading businesses like Niantic, VIVE, Sky and Verizon to bring technology, resources, and expertise to the innovation community. 

Facilities 

Digital Catapult’s Immersive Lab facilities provide businesses with access to the latest immersive technologies, helping them to understand how to leverage and apply innovative technologies to their business problems. 

Digital Catapult has also invested in a number of physical production facilities: Imaginarium Studios – a performance capture facility, Dimension Studio – a volumetric capture and production company and, most recently, the Virtual Production Test Stage, a joint venture with our partners Target3D. These facilities allow us to not only understand the challenges facing productions working at the cutting-edge of technology, but offer a space to foster new workflows, ideas and technologies.

Accelerators

We have also supported the immersive ecosystem through accelerators and funding competitions. The Augmentor programme was designed to increase immersive startups’ investment readiness and accelerate their business growth.

The CreativeXR programme was designed for small businesses in the creative sector, bringing together creativity and technology to boost the early development of creative immersive experiences. 

Digital Catapult also provides commercial solutions for large businesses through a number of projects and workshops, inspiring and facilitating innovation in commercial contexts.

If you’re looking to solve business problems with immersive technology, contact us for more information.