Question No. 4 - Principles of Marketing BCOE - 141

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BCOE - 141 - Principles of Marketing

Question No. 4

What is augmented and virtual reality? State its advantages and limitations. 

• Augmented reality 

Augmented reality (AR) is an enhanced version of the real physical world that is achieved through the use of digital visual elements, sound, or other sensory stimuli delivered via technology. It is a growing trend among companies involved in mobile computing and business applications in particular.

Amid the rise of data collection and analysis, one of augmented reality’s primary goals is to highlight specific features of the physical world, increase understanding of those features, and derive smart and accessible insight that can be applied to real-world applications. Such big data can help inform companies' decision-making and gain insight into consumer spending habits, among others.

Augmented reality continues to develop and become more pervasive among a wide range of applications. Since its conception, marketers and technology firms have had to battle the perception that augmented reality is little more than a marketing tool. However, there is evidence that consumers are beginning to derive tangible benefits from this functionality and expect it as part of their purchasing process.

For example, some early adopters in the retail sector have developed technologies that are designed to enhance the consumer shopping experience. By incorporating augmented reality into catalog apps, stores let consumers visualize how different products would look like in different environments. For furniture, shoppers point the camera at the appropriate room and the product appears in the foreground.

Elsewhere, augmented reality’s benefits could extend to the healthcare sector, where it could play a much bigger role. One way would be through apps that enable users to see highly detailed, 3D images of different body systems when they hover their mobile device over a target image. For example, augmented reality could be a powerful learning tool for medical professionals throughout their training.

• Benefits of AR:

1. The primary benefit of Augmented Reality is that it can be used by anyone including mentally and physically disabled individuals.
2. It blurs the line of difference between the virtual and real world, thus increasing its usability and effectiveness in the area of application.
3. It possesses a highly interactive nature which enable to assess several instances in advance.
4. Success or failure of an instance can be determined by using the computing power of AR, thus saving a ton of money.
5. It finds its heavy usage in the field of health, thus increasing the accuracy of diagnosis for diseases. Since now, it has saved lives of numerous patients.

• Drawbacks of AR:

1. One major drawback of AR based application is the lack of privacy
2. AR based applications or devices cannot be leveraged without appropriate training thus increase costs and time involved
3. There can be certain instances where such applications have recorded low performance, thus reducing the overall appeal of the package.
4. It can get extremely costly to develop and maintain an AR based device or an application.

• Virtual reality 

The definition of virtual reality comes, naturally, from the definitions for both ‘virtual’ and ‘reality’. The definition of ‘virtual’ is near and reality is what we experience as human beings. So the term ‘virtual reality’ basically means ‘near-reality’. This could, of course, mean anything but it usually refers to a specific type of reality emulation.

We know the world through our senses and perception systems. In school we all learned that we have five senses: taste, touch, smell, sight and hearing. These are however only our most obvious sense organs. The truth is that humans have many more senses than this, such as a sense of balance for example. These other sensory inputs, plus some special processing of sensory information by our brains ensures that we have a rich flow of information from the environment to our minds.

Everything that we know about our reality comes by way of our senses. In other words, our entire experience of reality is simply a combination of sensory information and our brains sense-making mechanisms for that information. It stands to reason then, that if you can present your senses with made-up information, your perception of reality would also change in response to it. You would be presented with a version of reality that isn’t really there, but from your perspective it would be perceived as real. Something we would refer to as a virtual reality.

So, in summary, virtual reality entails presenting our senses with a computer generated virtual environment that we can explore in some fashion.

• Advantages of Virtual Reality:

1) Virtual reality creates a realistic world

2) It enables user to explore places.

3) Through Virtual Reality user can experiment with an artificial environment.

4) Virtual Reality make the education more easily and comfort.

• Disadvantages of Virtual Reality

1) The quipments used in virtual reality are very expensive.

2) It consists of complex technology.

3) In virtual reality environment we cant move by our own like in the real world.