We are on a
course of discovery and while we might be seeing new, fascinating applications
geared towards leveraging Augmented (AR) or Virtual Reality (VR), self-driving
cars and sensors spread across a city to enrich people’s lives, we haven’t even
scratched the surface.
The innovations
seen in the last five years are already beyond imagination and the next five
will bring even more. Powerful computing
platforms coupled with efficient algorithms enable further mining of data value
and maximisation of data efficiency, thus forming a virtuous circle. This
allows companies to not only accelerate the integration of data but transform
it into something useful for consumers. In fact, without large quantities of
data, these new technologies wouldn’t be possible.
There are so many technological directions but
no clear answer for explosive outcomes. The ideas and
businesses that will succeed are those that conducted careful studies on
consumer trends and behaviour, access the right data and have the ability to scale-up
for any scenario.
A prime example is the Pokemon Go
phenomenon, which in just a few short weeks surpassed Facebook as the most
accessed application. Without location data, access to mapping datasets and a
global, scalable cloud infrastructure, it would have never have been possible.
Even with these things, connectivity was still an issue due to demand, making
true scalability when demand rises, critical.
In order for VR to take off in a
meaningful and practical way, cloud computing needs to be tightly integrated.
The future of this technology depends on it and will open new opportunities for
applications and usage models. Widespread adoption of this technology is
hindered not only by cost of the headset but the infrastructure needed
(processing power, graphics, etc.).
For example, a three minute VR video needs
approximately 100,000 processor cores which is the equivalent to five servers
processing non-stop for 100 days. With cloud computing, this can be run across
several hundred cloud servers making development and production faster and more
cost effective. With a technology like VR, UI is what makes or breaks the
success of your application.
With the algorithm capacity and infrastructure
provided by cloud computing technology, the ultimate experience of VR can be
greatly enhanced by increasing definition, minimising system crashes and
conserving bandwidth. On top of that, the development of VR technology requires
powerful and flexible infrastructure support from the backend to supply
visually rich and interactive content. Cloud not only improves efficiency but
lowers operational cost.
As cloud is leveraged more widely for these
technologies, we’ll start to see rapid developments happen in the industry,
particularly around the intended purpose, increased functionality and a better
UI. This will also translate to better user experience, whether the technology
is being used for consumer or business use.
Whether it is an AR/VR application or any other
cutting-edge technology high-quality data, robust computing platforms and
efficient algorithm platforms are critical. It’s only when these three things
come together, can we truly achieve a breakthrough and bring these technologies
into the mainstream.
The cycle of innovation seen today is nothing new,
but the iteration cycle has been drastically shortened and we’ll see what we
saw 20 years ago with the shift from the PC to the wireless era. Before many
companies could respond to the changes happening in the PC era, we entered the
wireless era and some enterprises just couldn’t keep up.
AR/VR technology will see the same as it represents
moving from a two-dimensional space to a three-dimensional one, enabling us to
understand the world at a deeper level. But, this will mean some of the early
adopters and innovators will fall and give rise to the second era of
applications in the space.