The confluence of 5G and augmented reality has long been a cornerstone of conversations about digital outages. However, recently, both 5G and AR / VR have been at a level of maturity to truly cooperate and allow for new experiences that were not previously possible. Huawei’s recent Better World Summit highlighted this market trend well, with several vendors through AR / VR, networking and content showing as much of what is happening today as possible in the future.
The projected growth rate for augmented and virtual reality markets is significant, but some objective truths support this growth path.
5G is maturing rapidly in many regions, with operators looking for ways to differentiate their offerings and showcase their capability. RAs present a very compelling opportunity to do so, with elements such as transmission / edge computing and the AR cloud emphasizing not only network bandwidth, but also overall uniformity, latency, and reliability. There are currently 1.5 billion AR-enabled devices (via smartphones, tablets and smart glasses), and that’s even before the consumer RA smart glasses market has started. The main technological agents such as Apple, Google, Samsung, Facebook, Microsoft and many more are in different stages of RA activity, from strong investment and R&D to the complete RA product, software and services. The technical giants are not alone either, the rest of the players compete throughout the value chain. Hardware manufacturers such as Realwear have been competitive in the company, with some early consumers such as nReal and Realmax also in the market.
The potential of these companies and devices is wide, with many use cases and oriented to verticals where the RA can add value. Today, this has been primarily business applications, such as empowering and training remote workers; however, as 5G matures along with the consumer RA and VR markets, this element of consumption combines with the company to create ubiquitous opportunities.
Social media, entertainment, education, collaboration, healthcare, and retail are some of RA’s most promising growth areas when leveraging 5G.
The beginnings of social media RA are already in place, with RA filters and advertising on popular social networking platforms. Retail is also well established, as brands and retailers have taken advantage of applications such as virtual testing and visualization of RA products.
With COVID-19, the need for immersive collaboration was forced to show; along with part of the momentum surrounding the wider digitalization of companies, immersive collaboration will continue to grow.
Education and entertainment are ripe for the added value of RA, but they have yet to see the same level of activity as other apps and verticals. This changes, however, again, as both AR and 5G mature together to offer experiences that were not possible in the past.
One of the companies included in the Better World Summit was meleap, creator of an RA sport called Hado; Hado is already in 37 countries with almost 3 million players in total; digital sport is similar to a combination of traditional sports and sports in terms of content and networking requirements. There is both an aspect of the public (such as broadcasting and / or broadcasting for sports and sports), as well as the sport itself that takes advantage of the network. Great coverage with low latency can allow multiplayer games with the required level of connectivity, both for tournaments in dedicated locations and for regular consumers wherever they are.
LG U + was also included in the Summit, with a focus on opportunities and educational activity. LG U + partnered with KDDI to enable an RA library for educational content. This has expanded to a broader educational platform with content subscriptions and content from various areas; a KT effort is also geared towards teaching and online classes.
Enabling technologies and cross-market support meet the 5G and AR potential
To make the most of the potential of the 5G and AR markets, it is clear that both 5G and AR need to work together, but other technologies such as AI / ML and artificial vision, edge computing, IoT and smart city systems they must also be mature and appropriate. integrated into various ecosystems.
The advantages of network latency and total bandwidth are the easiest to understand. Downloading processing from the device to the network will improve battery life and factor devices in a much smaller way, but this requires low latency and high quality of service to deliver a good user experience. Existing connectivity methods often fall short in one or both areas, while 5G can ensure network latency and quality. In mission-critical applications, network cutting can even be used to ensure quality of service for specific applications.
Positioning is another element of the network that will benefit immersive content. 5G positioning may be more accurate than GPS, which is necessary for precision-sensitive AR / VR tracking. In addition, 5G positioning works indoors; compared to GPS or other indoor positioning technologies, 5G has the edge again.
Off-grid, other activating technologies help enable this aggressive 5G and AR vision. For example, AI is a necessary element for machine vision and improving the speed and accuracy of machine vision improves the user experience. With 5G, part of this processing that until now was done on the device can be downloaded to the network, taking advantage of the low latency of 5G to maintain this user experience. Products such as Apple ARKit, PTC Vuforia and Huawei’s AR engine take advantage of artificial intelligence to allow various types of tracking: wide movements, environment, face, hand, gestures, etc.
The powerful applicability of RA also means that technologies that are not necessarily necessary for RA can be leveraged for some use cases. For example, as the use of immersive devices becomes more ubiquitous, the need for content that matches that breadth grows. At home, this is easy to deliver, but in public and moving use cases, it’s a different story. IdT is already being leveraged in the enterprise as a source of data for RA use. Similarly, V2X communication and smart city connectivity can also be used to enhance data immersive experiences.
Conclusions
Huawei has been prolific in its messaging about 5G and AR / VR capabilities for years, and this remains the case for this summit. Globally, other providers and partnerships are also being formed, positioning 5G and its facilitators as a key facet of the augmented and virtual reality market in the future. The summit showed a wide selection of operators and use cases, highlighting the wide applicability and value of 5G. Network operators have the opportunity to demonstrate the capability and value of AR / VR use cases and the AR / VR market will continue to look for enabling technologies such as 5G, AI and edge computing to improve solutions and experiences.
Overall, it’s exciting to see enabling technologies coming together in a shocking way. For years, 5G and AR have been combined as important technology partners and today we are seeing how this partnership grows. RA devices are maturing and becoming more numerous, and content remains in both quality and quantity. The strengths of 5G in latency and overall performance support some of the most promising use cases of RA and other elements such as network positioning and cutting will further expand this support. Operators recognize opportunities as both a partner and a facilitator of RA / VR use cases. All these elements together create an attractive and attractive market that will allow the significant growth expected in AR / VR in both business and consumer segments.
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