With the development of mixed reality technology, it is being continuously integrated into the application of various industries. Unlike virtual reality, where users are immersed in a fully digital world, mixed reality blends the real and digital worlds to create entirely new use cases. This isn't just limited to consumer-grade applications like entertainment or gaming, but enables businesses and organizations to design, build, sell, and research new products better and more efficiently than ever before.
The entire mixed reality ecosystem is rapidly evolving due to the influx of new devices and apps, such as Apple's highly anticipated Vision Pro. However, with different hardware devices capable of different capabilities, choosing the right mixed reality device for your business needs can now be trickier.
As different devices are built for different end audiences and use cases. So you need the right tools to do the right job, and not every mixed reality device can do the job in some demanding professional use cases.
But how do you assess which devices are best for your needs? To better understand what capabilities a mixed reality device needs, you need to start with a use case.
It all starts with the use case
Choosing the right XR equipment and technology starts with determining what you want to achieve at a higher level. In industrial design and professional simulator training, we can find some of the best use cases that use mixed reality technology and have a high ROI.
In industrial design, mixed reality can reduce design review from days to hours, as physical models can be replaced with life-size, photorealistic digital objects that can be edited in real-time. By using XR technology, designers and other stakeholders don't need to be co-located—they can participate in meetings from anywhere in the world. This can save companies tens of thousands of dollars per iteration of design reviews, and faster speed means more iterations can be completed in the same amount of time, and the end result is that the company can build a better product by applying the technology. In addition to saving companies a lot of time, the use of mixed reality technology in design reviews can save them hundreds of thousands or even millions of dollars per year.
Similarly, an hour-long simulation experience in a traditional flight simulator can cost thousands of dollars due to the prohibitive cost of purchasing, shipping, and operating a physical simulator. But that's nothing compared to flying a real jet fighter, whose cost consumption is expected to exceed $40,000 per hour. If you can replace a multimillion-dollar flight simulator with an XR headset, or reduce the training time required by each cadet to be on a real fighter jet even a little bit, the return on investment in a high-end headset will be staggering in the long run.
Once you've outlined your goals, start depicting your use case as specifically as possible. Consider practical questions, such as what you want people to achieve in a mixed reality scenario. How will they get the job done in practice: do they need to work with others in the same scenario? Do they need to move around? Do they need to use a controller or tool? Or can they use their own hands instead of a VR controller? What kind of visual quality do you need: is it enough if the graphics are simple and game-like? Or do you need realistic visuals?
These practical questions help you build a feature wishlist and ask the right questions to different technology providers. Only by choosing a device that meets the requirements of your use case can you achieve your highest goals and achieve an adequate return on investment.
Establish an inventory of mixed reality devices
For the best return on investment, you need to match device capabilities to your use case, and all devices are not the same for all tasks. Consumer applications such as entertainment or telephony have very different device requirements compared to enterprise use cases such as running professional design software.
For example, Autodesk VRED is one of the most advanced 3D automotive design software capable of displaying a photorealistic digital replica of a car, but it requires the headset to have extremely high resolution and color reproduction capabilities to achieve the level of detail that meets the needs of automotive designers. Once you're able to meet these requirements, the rewards can be amazing. In the case of the Investment Authority, they were able to speed up design reviews by about 98% and achieve significant cost savings by implementing a mixed reality initiative for their global design team.
To decide on the right type of device, you should at least answer the following questions.
What software do you need support?
Which 3D engine or software do you plan to use for mixed reality? This is the most critical question. Let's say the headset you wish to use doesn't have official software support. You may need to spend dozens or even hundreds of hours troubleshooting or building custom plugins. In the worst-case scenario, you may find that the device you bought doesn't even work. Therefore, choosing the right headset to support your critical applications will easily save you tens of thousands of dollars.
What level of visual quality is required?
Looking for realism, or is it better to work with a lower resolution? Do you need accurate color reproduction so that colors look exactly like the real world? Generally speaking, the more you want to match perfectly with the real world, the more high-end equipment you will need. If visual quality is very important to your use case, it doesn't make sense to buy a cheaper device just to save money, as it will ultimately hinder the quality of the experience and limit what can be achieved.
In most cases, better visual quality also means that you need a device connected to a higher-end computer. This is especially true for industrial 3D design and simulation software, such as Autodesk VRED or Lockheed Martin's software PrePar3D, which while can also be used for low-end headsets, high-end headsets will have better visual fidelity so that users experience more realistic visuals. This is because a standalone headset uses a different chipset compared to a PC-powered headset. While standalone headsets are more mobile, they don't produce the same visual quality that wired headsets provide in professional applications.
What are the requirements for a tracking system?
The tracking feature allows the VR XR app to synchronize your movements in the real world with those in the virtual environment in real-time. Without proper tracking, if you try to tilt or move the position of your head, the entire virtual world will move with the movement of your head, and without a tracking system, the user's movements will not be able to synchronize with the virtual reality world. This will result in an unrealistic virtual experience and even lead to VR motion sickness.
There are several location tracking providers in the market. While several headsets, including the Varjo XR-4, have already adopted internal and external tracking, SteamVR tracking using base stations remains the most well-known and widely used method of location tracking. Other solutions, such as ART and OptiTrack, can also be better adapted to different types of industrial VR XR use cases, such as automotive design, in-vehicle tracking, cockpit integration, and large-scale tracking.
Is the device designed for a single specific user, or is it intended for several people to wear?
It's critical to determine whether your device is primarily used by a single user or if multiple people are wearing the same device at different times. For example, not all headsets will allow you to wear glasses while using them, which can be a problem if there are multiple people using the same device.
If the user can't wear glasses, you'll need to order custom lenses (if the headset even supports switching lenses yourself) or purchase additional equipment for each user with different vision, which will increase costs and reduce usability.
Different people also have different sizes of heads, and the distance between their eyes is different (this is known as interpupillary distance or IPD for short). This means that the lenses inside the headset must also be adjusted to each individual's situation.
Some headsets can be automatically adjusted for each user, while others can be adjusted manually. If you need a device for multiple people who are not good at using XR headsets, you should choose a device with automatic IPD adjustment that has the following features.
What kind of control do you need?
You'll also need to consider the control schemes that your application needs to support. For example, will you be using a different controller or will you need gesture control support?
If your intended end user has little experience with mixed reality devices, a VR controller or other complex control scheme may not be the ideal solution. In these types of scenarios, built-in hand tracking can be a good choice because it allows users to operate with their own hands, and it also allows them to easily interact with tools or controls they're already familiar with (for example, a steering wheel or an airplane cockpit in a simulation training). However, this requires manual tracking, which is not supported by all devices.
Are there any special security or privacy requirements?
While some consumer-driven use cases, such as entertainment, are simple, professional mixed reality apps may have specific security or privacy requirements. These applications include medical research, ** applications, and high-safety environments such as nuclear power plants or other industrial sites.
For high-security applications, the country of manufacture or privacy policy can play a big role in choosing a device provider. For example, almost all consumer-facing devices are made in China, which means they don't meet high security and ** use cases. Some consumer-grade devices may even require you to hand over biometric information such as eye-tracking data to a third party.
For the highest safety requirements, devices need to comply with the Protocol Act (TAA) and other regulations, and only a few devices are able to meet this threshold. The Varjo XR-4 Secure Edition is fully TAA compliant, completely offline, and does not require users to create any type of account, ensuring full privacy and deployability.
What kind of technical support is available?
While it's important to buy the right equipment, it's also important to consider the technical support. For professional mixed reality use cases, it's important to provide dedicated support if anything goes wrong with the setup.
Because the use case, especially the technical side of a mixed reality simulator, can be very specialized, it may not be possible to find a solution on a generic forum. So you should make sure that the immersive device manufacturer can provide support if something goes wrong, and they can look at those specialized use cases that you might be using.
Summary
Mixed reality technology is advancing by leaps and bounds, but when it comes to demanding business use cases, not all XR devices on the market can meet your needs. You need to make sure that your device meets your requirements in terms of visual quality and performance, supports the critical software you use, is suitable for single-user or multi-user setups, and provides controls that meet those user requirements and experience levels.
In addition, you need to make sure that your hardware meets the relevant security and privacy requirements, and if something goes wrong, the device provider can provide you with support that goes beyond general forums and similar solutions. When you choose a device that meets these needs, you're bound to reap huge benefits, and the ROI of mixed reality has the potential to be unleashed as well.