Virtual Reality (VR), Augmented Reality (AR), and Mixed Reality (MR) Primer
Richard Busulwa · 2022
Virtual reality (VR), augmented reality (AR), and mixed reality (MR) technologies represent continuing blurring of the boundary between the real world and the virtual world that enable enhanced or new experiences and enhanced or new business opportunities. These digital technologies can be leveraged to offer new virtual products and services (e.g. virtual-world products and experiences or enhanced real-world products and experiences), to make new operational efficiency breakthroughs (e.g. drastically improving staff training and enhancing technology-based support for staff through the use of augmented and mixed reality), to craft novel marketing campaigns (e.g. novel virtual, augmented, or mixed reality marketing campaigns), to approach after-sales support differently (e.g. virtual, augmented, or mixed reality guided repairs performed by customers), and much more. To realize the business value of these digital technologies leaders, managers, and supporting professionals to have a working understanding of how these technologies work, to understand the current and potential use cases for these technologies, and to understand how they can be leveraged to enhance organization efficiency, differentiation, adaptability, and agility. This chapter provides an introductory overview of the technologies, how they work, their business value, example use cases, common terminologies, and example vendors and platforms. The aim of the primer is to provide a base-level overview of the technologies in order to enable leaders, managers, and supporting professionals to undertake their own self-directed and more in-depth learning so as to keep up with rapid developments in these technologies and their applications.