Extended Reality: 3 Cool Things + 3 Bad Things

In the tech industry, folks tend to get excited by the potential of new technology while downplaying or downright ignoring the negatives. This article provides a high-level view of the good and bad of XR technology.

Apple is going head-to-head with the industry leader Meta and its Quest devices and positioning itself more akin to the Magic Leap, another serious player targeting the professional market.    

3 COOL THINGS

MAKING THE IMPOSSIBLE POSSIBLE

I remember experiencing 'TruBlue VR' for the first time. This is a VR experience of being in the ocean. You can reach out and touch sea anemones and they respond, and you see a big whale coming towards you, which is awe-inspiring - and scary!

And when Pokemon Go came out in 2016 it was probably the first time most of us had seen AR in our day to day lives.  Players could engage with virtual characters in their physical location. 

My business partner, Sheila Mackenzie tells the story of taking her mom back to her old street in Ireland with Google Earth in VR. With 360 degree photography, we can be the middle of almost anywhere - a mountain top, on a sailboat, in a forest. 

And it's also possible to time travel - want to learn about history? Go back in time. Or imagine experiencing the future or seeing a problem from a totally different perspective.

This ability to extend beyond our real-life constraints is a core part of the attraction that people have to these technologies, because it’s really cool.

THE POTENTIAL FOR GOOD

We believe XR is going to become part of our lives and that it has enormous potential to support problem-solving and creativity, to help treat mental health issues, and so much more.

It's being used clinically to treat PTSD, anxiety and for pain management. 

It's being used to widen perspectives and foster empathy, something the world needs more of.

And it offers a way of improving our ability to process information.

There’s a lot we can achieve using XR capabilities and it's exciting to see these applications unfold.

THE FUTURE OF LEARNING

We have information at our fingertips that is far beyond what we can process. Many educators using XR believe that combining Artificial Intelligence (AI) and XR will allow us to 'learn on another level'.

Younger generations are already growing up creating and playing games with their friends in metaverse environments of Roblox and Minecraft. They're likely to use AR for shopping and VR to go to a virtual concert.

And while it's still early days, XR has the potential to change the way we learn and collaborate at work too. Corporate training, knowledge sharing and collaboration will evolve beyond the corporate intranet and 2D Zoom call into a more effective tool for remote working.

Simulations are already being used more widely for safety training and for dealing with dangerous and difficult situations - like training first responders, social workers, support organizations, and customer service.

While there is amazing potential in XR, there are some very bad things too. Here are 3.

3 BAD THINGS

IT CAN MAKE YOU SICK

VR motion sickness is pretty common and can be mild to quite severe. Symptoms include nausea, disorientation, discomfort, eye strain, and drowsiness. Essentially this is caused by a range of factors within the VR environment that lead your brain to think you are moving, but your body is static.

As a result, some people get very sick being in VR, and it can leave them unwell for many hours after. In addition, this can affect specific populations different, for example, more women than men experience this.

So, using XR within a work context requires this problem to be solved. Hardware makers strive to minimize this negative impact, but how do we establish the baseline for an acceptable experience?

PRIVACY GETS COMPROMISED

here are significant privacy considerations in the adoption of this technology. Firstly, biometric data of users (we’re talking retina scanning, pupil dilation, facial expressions, heart rate, blood pressure, etc. etc.) - what’s captured, what’s stored, who owns it? How will it be used? What if it gets into the wrong hands?

And on the flip side, if you’re the person wearing Snapchat’s new ‘Spectacles’ glasses and you’re filming everyone as you walk around. What if they don’t want to be captured on video? What are their rights? How will you recognize and respect their rights? Who owns that video footage? Where is it being stored? How will it be used?

Answers to these crucial questions adequately addressed or we will be tacitly accepting  further erosion of individuals’ rights to privacy

DEEP FAKES AND MANIPULATION

XR in conjunction with AI is the dream team of deep fakes and manipulation.

We hear a lot about the need for “guardrails” for these new technologies. There is regulation emerging for AI and it will be required for XR too. At the moment it’s (almost) anything goes.

Recognizing the psychological and behavioural aspects of this technology are crucial to creating the right ethical and regulatory framework.

We believe more than ever that bringing a human perspective to designing XR products is critical.

OUR TAKE

In our view, creators in this space have a responsibility to actively recognize and minimize harms. Our own research looks at metrics for XR experiences and considers the human impacts.

While it’s still early days for enterprise adoption the potential is exciting and it’s not too early for innovation teams to start exploring this space.

It’s also not too soon to think about how we can influence the direction the use of these technologies can take. It’s in these early explorations where teams can learn a lot, both about the potential for good and potential for harms.