In the Age of Experience, any technology that can help to deliver a superior customer experience is a bonus. Immersive virtuality (iV) – the full spectrum of technologies from augmented and virtual reality to holograms – is one of the most transformative advantages business leaders have ever received.
Why? Because unlike traditional forms of communication, immersive virtuality – especially virtual reality (VR) – is processed in the part of the brain that deals with emotion and memory. In other words, companies can use iV to create experiences that connect with their customers at the emotional level and create lasting memories.
VR is not new. The world’s most profitable companies have been using CAVE technology for decades. What is new is that Oculus, HTC, Google and others have freed iV from expensive CAVEs, making it widely available to all businesses with reasonably priced head-mounted displays (HMD).
Looking to leverage the new opportunities presented by immersive business, companies with iV experience have a huge head start. And they are not standing still. Armed with affordable, portable and increasingly collaborative HMD technology, companies are giving customers the chance to experience products in a natural, powerful way. But iV isn’t just for consumers. It’s also poised to be a game-changer at the industrial level.
For manufacturers, iV can play a critical role in product validation and problem detection. At aircraft manufacturer Embraer, designers around the world use it to simultaneously inspect and approve models in the same virtual environment. Factory workers wearing augmented reality (AR) glasses that display assembly instructions in front of them perform tasks more quickly. At the finished product stage, iV creates bond-building consumer experiences at retailers, in showrooms or via iV-enabled online applications.
Our customers must create and deliver unbeatable experiences to their own customers. That is why we purposely enabled the 3DEXPERIENCE platform to support iV along the different stages of experience development – product validation and problem detection, manufacturing assembly and training, and consumer-level product configuration – making it a valuable enabler of industrial experiences for manufacturers and stellar experiences for their customers.
Whether we are immersing ourselves in a virtual car to refine our choice of options or sending our holograms into a virtual city to discover ways to improve the experience of living in the real one, iV proves yet again that 3DEXPERIENCEs are the main currency of all business, including immersive business.