New Realities: XR Set for Rapid Growth, Futurist Says

A Key Speaker at One of Europe's Largest AV Industry Events Discussed the Future of the XR World

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Amelia Kallman ISE London 2021
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Published: June 29, 2021

Demond Cureton

XR Today spoke with Amelia Kallman, a London-based futurist, author, and speaker on the sidelines of her keynote speech at the Integrated Systems Europe (ISE) London event on 24 June.

Ms Kallman is an expert in extended reality (XR/VR/AR), machine learning, artificial intelligence (AI), and the internet of things (IoT), among others, and produces and hosts the XR Summit for the ISE.

She also hosts the XR Star podcast and The Big Reveal, an innovation newsletter and YouTube channel on emerging technologies, and consults governments and businesses on their emerging tech needs.

XR Today: What is the significance of events such as the ISE London? How can industry leaders, firms, and futurists use these events to boost the integrated systems industry?

Amelia Kallman: It underlines how many aspects of connections and infrastructure that come into our offices and homes, and gives us an opportunity to connect and learn from competitors. It also reminds us we are an industry of communication and connections focused on people.

Technology is here to enhance the human experience to support us in our connections and businesses, and events such as the ISE London operate as such, to support human-to-human connections, and to allow technology to serve humanity and improve these experiences for everyone.

There’s also a great community of businesses and people involved, and I enjoy going to conferences and trade shows, where you can get hands-on experiences with the latest technologies, meet new people, find new synergies, and room for new collaborations, which only happens at events like these.

XR Today: What can you tell us about the current trends taking shape in the XR industry, namely amid the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic? Is the virus the biggest impetus to test and roll out these technologies, and how successful has the industry responded?

Amelia Kallman: We’ve seen a surge in uptake for XR technologies over the last 16 months, so the pandemic has boosted the development of XR, especially related to WebXR and vCommerce—the future of eCommerce going into immersive digital, 360 degree spaces—as well as games and virtual events.

So, while we haven’t been able to physically get together during the pandemic, we’ve seen the largest ever gathering of people inside these virtual worlds, which is significant and exciting for the future.

A lot of events have also entered the VR space, and what’s interesting is that 75 percent of people entering these spaces join from mobile phones or laptops, so they’re not using headsets exclusively.

Figures show only 25 percent of VR users join with headsets, but more people are buying them for their own use over this time. That number will continue to increase up to 50-50 percent usage.

This is important because it highlights some assumptions that VR is too exclusive, expensive, or elitist. But VR is actually more accessible across many platforms, whether on the laptop, from home, and others, which may influence people to buy headsets in the future.

VR headset costs are decreasing and as they become more integrated into enterprises, people may pass down older headsets to others within households—the same way computers proliferated homes as well.

Companies such as Facebook have begun running adverts inside the Oculus, marking how far these technologies have come, and AdMix has been helping firms brand inside these virtual worlds. There are huge opportunities coming and it will be interesting to see how brands take advantage of that.

Due to social media, augmented reality (AR) filters have become so commonplace and many are unaware that platforms such as Snapchat use these technologies.

When we talk about branding solutions, everyone’s already used to them, so the adoption phase where audiences need education on AR has already happened, allowing the industry to take off.

XR Today: According to reports, numerous industry leaders are experimenting with new VR/AR solutions. Amazon has opened an AR salon for clients. Showrooms from Jo Malone, BMW, and Volkswagen have also moved to AR technologies. Doctors and surgeons are deploying mixed reality (MR) solutions for patients. Which are the most exciting trends you have seen in the industry?

Amelia Kallman: Burger King posted an on-screen QR code during the MTV Video Music Awards, which would allow fans to visit a performance with Lil’ Yachty, and the ability to offer extra, exclusive content to build brand awareness was a sign showing “we made it” for the AR industry.

The medical sector is also using virtual reality to treat post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD), train surgeons, and others. There are some great stats in my latest podcast where I interviewed Sarah Ticho, founder and CEO of Hatsumi, on her report about the growing value of XR in healthcare.

We found that, coming out of COVID-19, nearly 30 percent of people in the UK suffered from mental health issues as a result of the pandemic, in addition to people with prior mental health concerns.

VR gives us ways to treat people, at home and in their personal time, by prescribing VR experiences to manage stress and phobias, as well as build social skills and others.

From a training perspective, global firms are using VR for empathy training and in the US, to instruct police officers, social workers, and human resources with inclusivity training.

For people who have not dealt with marginalisation, its vital to learn empathy and later, create structures needed to address the issues in the workplace.

XR Today: As the XR industry expands, becomes more complex and interconnected, and enters new vertical markets, cybersecurity will increasingly become more important. What are your thoughts on the threats cybercriminals pose to XR’s developmental progress, and how should the cybersecurity community respond?

Amelia Kallman: People often don’t consider that, if our computers, emails, social media and other systems can be hacked, so can our VR experiences.

Research shows that if a person’s VR experience is interrupted by threats or hacks, it could have significant impact on brain activity, as they interpret the experience as if it were really taking place.

There’s something called ‘gaming transfer phenomenon’, and people I know who spend lots of time in VR say that when they come out of them, their insticts are to walk in traffic like in the virtual world.

As we become more immersed in these worlds, the dark web is expected to enter the VR space. At the moment, the metaverse is a great place to do things that are too expensive, exclusive, or inaccesible.

The question remains how we as a society police these activities. There is no jurisdiction in the metaverse. Do we judge or prosecute activities in the virtual world the same as in the real world? If people commit crimes in the virtual world, are they more likely to do the same in the real one?

Speaking on cybersecurity, our VR experiences are no safer than personal devices or social media accounts. There is very little built-in security in these devices, which needs to be discussed more.

Along with normal cybersecurity concerns, if these devices are hacked, we don’t know the impact they could have on the brain, which could result in fresh traumas such as PTSD and other concerns.

XR Today: What role will the metaverse play as the XR industry develops this virtual shared space? How will it develop and later, interact with the physical world?

Amelia Kallman: It could become an extension of our offices and living rooms, where we can go into these spaces and entertain and communicate with each other, as well as an extension of events which have been moved into the hybrid event space, and we are just at the beginning of this new phase.

People have unexpectedly found a lot of benefits in digital events, such as saving costs, gathering real data for return on investment (ROI), attendee statistics, and other analytics, which is more difficult to monitor in real events.

If we’re looking at a future which includes online and in-person, then mixed reality should not be underestimated due to people attending such events as themselves compared to using avatars.

As far as nonverbal communication is concerned, there’s nothing like the real thing, but for the metaverse, these mixed reality events will become increasingly important for special events and others.

I typically do pub quizzes with my family in the US and imagine if they were sat around a table to interact in the same virtual space, which would be really interesting to see one day.

 

 

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