Virtual or Mixed Reality? (A Case Study)
At this point, Virtual Reality has become widely recognized as a medium. Whether or not most people have actually tried it, they understand the basic idea.
Most people also recognize Augmented Reality, even if they don’t know it! If they’ve used an Instagram or Snapchat filter, they’ve used AR!
But when it comes to Mixed Reality… most people scratch their heads. Maybe that’s what you’re doing!
But if you lead a business and are interested in claiming a slice of the multi-trillion dollar Extended Reality market… then you’ve got to understand MR.
Mixed Reality lives in the space between VR and AR, where reality and computer-generated virtuality are blended together in different, fluctuating proportions.
In many ways, MR headsets are the most sophisticated headsets on the market (which also makes them the most expensive).
Instead of walking through all the hypotheticals, I’m going to walk you through an MR use case I played an integral role in, and call out some principles that you can apply to your own business.
Currently, I am the Senior VP of XR Product Strategy at GigXR, where we build immersive curriculum on XR platforms.
At GigXR, we made the decision to use MR headsets as our primary medium for learning. And ever since that decision, we’ve consistently been asked the same question:
“Why not use VR?”
And honestly, it’s a very good question! VR is an incredible medium with lots of excellent use cases.
- VR headsets are cheaper than MR headsets.
- VR and MR experiences are created using the same gaming engines such as Unity and Unreal, so it would be just as easy to use VR headsets.
- VR headsets have very accurate controller tracking.
Those are all valid points, seemingly in favor of VR.
And for a use case like training to operate a combine harvester for an upcoming corn season, VR is perfect!
- You need to drive something
- You need an entire environment that changes as your vehicle moves
- How realistic the corn stalks look isn’t relevant to effective training.
VR meets those needs perfectly.
- A user could hold a steer wheel in their hand with the game controller’s trackers on it
- A user could sit down with the VR headset on and not need to walk around
- A user is going to be able to see an entire farm along with where the combine harvester needs to go.
But at GigXR, we are creating trainings for healthcare professionals, which brings us to this key principle:
The demographic you’re creating for makes all the difference.
For healthcare training, there were a few key things we kept hearing in the many interviews we completed:
- We use our hands to take care of our patients
- Subtle differences in symptoms like neck dissension, hand coloring, or rashes lead to very different diagnoses and different interventions
- We work as an in-person team
- Communication is a huge deal within our team
- There is generally a “lead” who runs the show
Quickly and clearly, these data points led us straight to Mixed Reality. Let’s talk about why.
In VR, you have to create an entire 3D virtual environment. That means you’re spending resources (money as well as processing power) on the entire environment, instead of just the items you’re interacting with.
In healthcare training, a VR headset wouldn’t be as focused on rendering the subtle differences of rashes and wounds, or veins popping out. But an MR headset would be using all of its power to get those subtleties just right.
In Mixed Reality, with a headset like the HoloLens 2, users also have their hands free. They can use their hands to interact with the patients and medical equipment. In VR, most headsets are using controllers (although nowadays more and more are coming online with better hand tracking — but it’s still early tech, and most companies are still building using controllers.
But the most important data point was the communication skills and teamwork that are necessary for effective training.
Turns out, one of the BIGGEST pros of VR headsets is also its primary con.
Let me explain. My wife and I have always hosted board game nights at our house, and over the last couple years, we’ve started having VR nights as well! Playing VR games with 2 other people at my house is lots of fun, but it takes up a LOT of space. Each person needs their own dedicated area and we don’t get to talk with or see each other much.
Once everyone puts on a VR headset, everyone is in the virtual world and can no longer see or interact with anything in the physical world. It’s fun for a game night, because we can all explore our own VR worlds or games! But a game night with friends is very different than medical training!
We all have seen a very similar reality with the rise of remote collaboration. Let’s call it what it is: Zoom calls are NOT the same as in-person meetings. And honestly, I still am surprised by that!
👋 I can see most of your body motions…
👂 I can hear you…
👀 I can see your eyes and facial movements…
🤷🏾♂️ BUT there is SOMETHING totally missing; something you only get by being in the same physical space with each other.
When I have an MR headset on, I can see you and interact with you completely normally… PLUS interact with holograms that we can both see!
VR, at its best, is still just basically a 3D Zoom call.
Hopefully you see it as clearly as I do. Mixed Reality is an absolutely incredible tool: depending on the use case.
Don’t rule out anything in the XR realm.
Become an expert on your use case, what you’re really trying to accomplish.
Get very clear on the most important factors to you: engagement, immersion, realism, hand usage, scaling, accessibility, cost, etc.
When you’re clear on the use case, the platform will become just as clear.
Do you need further guidance on how to navigate this for your business specifically? DM me on LinkedIn and we can chat!
