Step into another reality: AR and VR industry features, cases, professions in 2021

Let's see how augmented reality has been used during the training of the American army, how PepsiCo has organized an alien invasion in London and which IT specialists are in demand in AR / VR companies now.

Various "smart" helmets, glasses that allow you to scan the battlefield and determine better the location of the enemy, have long been found not only in games — just watch the training of the American army to make sure of this.

Opportunities of using AR (augmented reality) in the military industry have been studied for many years: today, investments of several billion dollars and the development of technologies have allowed to create TAR (Tactical augmented reality) — a tool that can be used instead of night vision devices in the future.

TAR is one of the most bright examples of augmented reality: while using TAR, soldiers can get an idea of the location on the battlefield of both their teammates and allies, as well as enemies, which, in turn, will help to find optimal tactics for further actions.

Aliens in London

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The armed forces are not the only industry where augmented reality tools are used today. So, PepsiCo in 2014 turns one of the London stops into an AR attraction by installing a transparent screen with AR technologies — looking into it, people who were waiting for their bus saw a spaceship with aliens grabbing passers-by, as well as the fall of a meteorite.

VR vs AR

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In general, this is the main difference between virtual and augmented reality: while VR (virtual reality) involves a complete immersion into an artificially created world with the help of VR glasses or a helmet, AR leaves a person in the "current" reality and adds only some objects to it.

For example, this is what the popular game app PocemonGo does — it "settles" fantastic creatures into our world.

Immersion journalism - to understand and live

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In our article about digitalization of various spheres, we have already looked through the myth about the use of virtual reality only in the gaming and entertainment industries.

In addition to healthcare, retail and the agricultural industry, other fields are also turning to VR: for example, virtual reality has recently been applied even in journalism.

So, the Californian startup Emblematic group, is developing the service of immersion journalism with the help of VR technologies — journalists are "transferred" to any necessary reality, from an average day in modern New York to the war in Syria. This gives journalists the opportunity to "live" the stories and experiences they write about and understand them better.

Milk rivers and cookies - Oreo marketing campaign

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In addition, virtual reality has also been used in marketing during advertising campaigns: in 2016 Oreo launches a marketing campaign, the participants of which, can get into a virtual environment with landscapes of milk rivers and Oreo cookies with the help of one of Google's services.

"Blind spots" in using AR and VR

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However, today the use of virtual and augmented reality in different spheres still has its limitations — and, most likely, it will be so until a suitable solution can be found. One of the main "problematic" fields for applying AR and VR in Russia, according to experts, is education.

Despite the fact that there is sufficient potential for the development of altered reality technologies in this field, there are still many "white spots" that prevent this: the main one is lack of a comprehensive approach to the applying AR/VR tools in schools and universities. There is no unified software support system, good tutorials on working with such equipment and its monitoring - teachers simply cannot cope with this on their own because of constant high workload.

Another concern related to the use of virtual reality in international educational activities already is expressed by Jeremy Bayleson, professor of communications at Stanford University and founder of the laboratory for the study of VR.

It is important not to switch to the complete replacement of "live" teachers with technologies, but to understand how to competently integrate VR into the educational process

As a rule, during his classes, he uses virtual reality for 5 to 10 minutes, in order to "play" a situation for students in the necessary scenery.

However, the presence of "blind spots" in the use of virtual and augmented reality technologies is explained by the fact that AR and VR have received tangible development only in the last few years. Further developments will help to correctly integrate the altered realities into a variety of fields.

IT professions which are in demand in AR/VR today

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Now AR/VR companies are particularly keen to see the following IT specialists in their teams:

Software developers;
QA;
UX/UI designers;
Game engineers.

The main requirement for developers is experience with Unity, as well as knowledge of programming languages such as C#, C++, Java.

The demand for augmented and virtual reality in various fields has led to the fact that now there are more and more IT companies and startups offering AR and VR solutions — it is quite possible that in the future these two realities will become an integral part of the one in which we live today.

What else to read

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