Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality as an opportunity for media creators

 

Acer Mixed Reality Headset Developer, Microsoft MR HoloLens, and Oculus Rift VR Headset

Here is the overall case for growth for the Augmented Reality market. ABI Research’s Augmented and Virtual Reality Devices and Enterprise Verticals report says the Augmented Reality (AR) market is "poised for quick growth powered by enterprise uptake." ABI Research forecasts Augmented Reality in enterprise applications will hit an inflection point in 2018, with smart glass shipments growing to 28 million in 2021 with a 227% CAGR.

Driving this growth is a steadily increasing interest in how Augmented Reality can benefit businesses, along with a gradually better understanding of available use cases and applications relevant to customer use and desires. ABI Research forecasts total market revenues—across devices, platforms, and licensing to reach $96 billion in 2021. The energy, manufacturing and logistics verticals look set to account for the largest market shares, but the healthcare, media, and entertainment markets will be the fastest growing, with 323% and 400% CAGRs respectively. 
 
Additionally, consulting analyst firm PriceWaterhouse Coopers in its 18th annual five-year Global Entertainment and Media Outlook indicated that the biggest source of media industry dollars will be consumer spending for internet access (presumptively for greater bandwidth connections). People will spend nearly $190.0 billion on connections in 2021, up from $140.3 billion in 2016. Internet video will grow with spending for subscription VOD (Video on Demand) services, including Netflix, Amazon Prime and Hulu.

Also, according to the PwC report, SVOD (Streaming Video on Demand) sales could surpass domestic movie box office revenues in 2019, which is something independent media makers could want to know about. But to the point of this article, PwC says Virtual Reality (and everything under that umbrella of alternative reality mediamaking) will start to come into its own by 2021, generating nearly $5 billion in revenues vs $421 million in 2016. PwC has interpreted that VR and other alternative reality media will contribute as much to media industry growth as TV advertising. 

The essential technological elements that construct AR/VR/MR projects 

• Gyroscopes and motion sensors for tracking
• HD screens or stereoscopic displays
• Fast, advanced microprocessors
• Omnidirectional cameras/360-degree cameras
• Photogrammetry to create 3D objects and environments
• Virtual Reality Modelling Language (VRML), X3D

Actually, for an exploding commercial digital technology with rising buzz, AR/VR has been around since the 1960s. And with the quick pace of developments and product innovations breaking new ground in consumer markets that are sure to roll out for years to come it may be somewhat challenging even for the current group of motion picture and associated media industry producers to find a new role in the emerging landscape and tackle the new opportunities for content production that will be presented in the years ahead.

Distinguishing between Virtual Reality, Augmented Reality and Mixed Reality

Concepts like Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality can't easily be explained through words and text alone, so there will be informative videos in this article that will be helpful to convey concepts behind the technologies more clearly.

Unlike Virtual Reality, which promises to immerse goggle-wearing users into imaginatively and spontaneously created digital worlds, AR overlays images and data atop the real world. A popular (and commercially successful) example of AR today is Pokemon Go, in which Pokemon characters appear on players' phone screens amid the streets or parks they are exploring.
 
AR systems use similar technologies found in Virtual Reality deployment, but where virtual reality attempts to replace the real world in an enveloping way, augmented reality only places objects within it.
 
In the following YouTube video content expert Dilmer Valecillos provides tips towards becoming a VR or AR developer.
 

As previously stated, in its early implementation Augmented Reality is used to visualize objects that aren’t actually in a space and create immersive experiences that engage its users through sight, sound, and even spatial experiences. When viewed through the appropriate glasses or headset, virtual objects can be manipulated into the real-world surroundings being viewed in real-time (this is in contrast to Virtual Reality that conjures forth a fabricated surrounding). This visual environment can be rendered in various ways. 

Augmented Reality 3D viewers let users place life-size 3D models in the environment with or without the use of trackers. Trackers are simple images that 3D models can be attached to in Augmented Reality. Augmented Reality browsers enrich a camera display with contextual information. For example, with Google technology, you can point your smartphone at a building to display its history or estimated value. 

Gaming is yet another way Augmented Reality is experienced, usually creating immersive gaming experiences that utilize one's actual surroundings.  Pokémon Go is widely acknowledged as one of the early successes in the use of Augmented Reality gaming where gamers attempt to catch the virtual Pokémon that are hidden throughout a map of the real world. 
 
The YouTube video explains what Augmented Reality is and how it works.
 

Possible Augmented and Virtual Reality apps for entertainment and media content creators to pursue

Most produced media content or stories for audience consumption are unveiled with a narrative or plot, but rarely is it non-linear as can be the case in gaming. A content producer or media creator will relish any opportunity to flex their creative muscle to satisfy a storytelling challenge with a way to explore new pathways in a story in a non-linear way and the simulated environments that AR/VR/MR create will present new opportunities to reach audiences through a medium suited to take on new challenges.

Then again it may just add a new dimension to content formats that are already familiar (music videos, motion pictures, or television programming that can be projected as long as it is done with AR or VR headset equipment). But regardless of AR being on a faster track for commercial deployment, its production requirements are likely to always embrace a lot of the same skills and talents that contemporary audio-visual production requires, resulting in new modes of presentation.

A simple connection to draw between the early implementations of Augmented Reality and Virtual Reality is that they both are applied in the field of gaming and animation graphics, a conclusion easily drawn regarding the early success of Pokemon Go. But as these alternate reality technologies develop and spread into greater mainstream use other categories of creative talent and design skills are likely to be drawn in as well. Here are some areas likely to be affected by new opportunities, with new developments as the field blossoms.

• Voiceover
• Video/film projections
• Graphic arts (Google Tilt Brush)
• Screenplay/story conception
• Psychology of film and simulated reality space
• Lifelike avatar creation and depiction
• Music and sound design
• Gaming concepts
• Animation skills

Although a substantive portion of alternate reality productions may not land squarely in the pure entertainment field, it would be wise to be aware that there would still be opportunities open to creators and implementors from the bullet list above in the fields of corporate brand, communications, public relations which are projected for fast growth in their use of AR/VR/MR.