While pirates reportedly, in fiction anyway, denoted the place on a map where they buried their treasure as “X marks the spot,” that is hardly the only use of the letter in literature. For example, Special Agents Fox Mulder and Dana Scully investigated the “X-Files:” marginalized, unsolved cases involving paranormal phenomena. The show kept viewers enthralled for 218 episodes—and two feature length films. The premise was, if nothing else, a view into the present when it was still the future.
And the present has its own X, XR (X Reality).” Short for extended reality, it is the convergence of the physical world and the digital world, used to describe immersive applications including AR (augmented reality), MR (mixed reality), and VR (virtual reality), used to enhance or simulate real-life experiences. XR technologies extend the participant’s experience by either merging the virtual and real worlds or by creating fully immersive experiences.
According to the Wi-Fi Alliance, deployment of XR applications in education, healthcare, and industrial settings are contributing to a strong market expected to grow from $33 billion to $125 billion by 20261. Virtual reality alone has seen a 224% growth since October 20192 as more people upgraded their smart-entertainment devices to provide more immersive experiences. The pandemic added impetus to this growth with many people working, learning, and socializing from home.
Obviously, perception becomes reality when the mind relates to what the eyes see and converts it into belief. Apple’s new Vision Pro headset adds to the growing inventory of XR appliances. The Apple Vision Pro is a spatial computer that blends digital content with the physical world, while allowing users to stay present and connected to others. Vision Pro creates a seemingly infinite canvas for apps that grows beyond the boundaries of a traditional display and introduces a three-dimensional user interface controlled by the most natural and intuitive inputs possible — a user’s eyes, hands, and voice. Apple silicon, in a unique dual-chip design, ensures every experience feels like it’s taking place in front of the user’s eyes in real time.
But what about connectivity? The Vision Pro allows multiple people to be virtually in the same room via Apple’s FaceTime app. Business meetings, formerly on Zoom or Skype, can suddenly seem to be in the office regardless of where the people are.
Of course, there is a catch. Connectivity, just as with today’s computers, will require connection to the Internet, and that in most cases, involves a network, probably a wireless one. Wi-Fi will have a significant impact on delivering the full potential of the XR market, providing high-performance connectivity for augmented, mixed, and virtual reality.
Work is now underway in Wi-Fi Alliance to further boost Wi-Fi to deliver connectivity that will help build connections between physical and digital worlds. New XR use cases for education, healthcare, and business will allow students, medical professionals, and employees to have more impactful, personal, and unique experiences.
As an example, Facebook Reality Labs believes that there are three walls in XR: the physical, the augmented, and the virtual. The physical is what we experience in day-to-day life. The augmented wall is one with layers. A virtual wall is one that “transcends time and space” and allows you to transition back in forth between realities. Development of new technologies, including portal systems and other Wi-Fi devices, will enable users to be transported through technology and gain a physical presence in another location.
Advancements coming to Wi-Fi will help build connections across the physical and digital worlds. Microsoft believes that Wi-Fi technologies, such as Wi-Fi 6 and Wi-Fi 6E will help provide connectivity to satisfy these demands. Microsoft’s Azure Remote Rendering, for example, allows designs to come to life for developers wanting to collaborate and see details without physically creating a prototype.
Experts from Cisco think premium XR experiences require high-performance Wi-Fi for four main reasons. The first is low-latency for responsive and lag-free experiences. The second is extreme reliability with advanced features and optimization for sustained XR-class performance. The third is power efficiency to assist rapid and efficient data transfers with advanced power save features. Finally, multi-gigabit speeds allow for instantaneous, massive data exchange which is necessary in XR.
As XR and its components expand into the consumer marketplace, they will also increasingly find a home in industrial and business applications. The WFH—work from home—trendline since 2020 has slowed but technology such as AR, VR, and MR, under the umbrella of XR, will give companies pause. Perhaps office work can be done remotely and still feel like it’s being done in a common environment, a virtual office populated by real people—virtually yet seemingly real. As Fox Mulder would say, “The truth is out there.”
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