Augmented Reality (AR) and Virtual Reality (VR) have been around, in some form or the other, for over 5 decades now, but it’s only in the last 7-10 years that these technologies have really come into their own. Whether it’s the ability of VR to enable you to immerse yourself in a location you’ve never been to in ‘real-life’, or the ability of AR to enhance your real-world environment, these technologies are here to stay.
With the evolution in hardware devices, especially mobile devices, as well as the growth in technology and platforms, AR and VR have finally come of age, even in India. In fact, the Indian VR market grew by a whopping 104.24% from 2013 to 2017 and is expected to reach an incredible $153 billion by 2020.
At the same time, it can be said that AR and VR are still in their nascent stages in India. For instance, only 170 AR/VR startups have emerged in the last few years, which is a small number given that close to 1300 startups were born in 2019 alone. Having said that, the industry is very much headed towards take-off and is expected to grow by 76% in the next 5 years.
Slowly but steadily, an ecosystem around AR/VR has started emerging in the country. The Indian government has initiated a number of programs to support the VR market. Private funds aren’t very far behind. For instance, IDG Ventures India and Axilor ventures are both investing in AR/VR companies through the Frontier Tech Innovators Program.
Apart from the regular suspects like gaming and entertainment, this massive growth in AR/VR is coming from a relatively unexpected area. In the past few years, businesses have found AR/VR technology to be extremely useful in training and communication. This has spearheaded the application of AR/VR in a wide range of industries— automotive, manufacturing, medical, defence, aerospace, education, medicine, and retail. In fact, apart from the surge in demand for healthcare and the increase in defence spending, the demand for AR/VR products in training will be the biggest factor propelling the growth of the industry.
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Whether it’s enabling surgery simulation or developing immersive experiences for employee training, AR/VR has been at the forefront of this innovation. Tacnic collaborated with Ashirvad pipes to create an interactive session using VR to train workers — using a multilingual Oculus Go base VR 360 training module. This was done by capturing the entire space with animations that focused on the operations of important machines.
While engagement and training of employees is one big use case for AR/VR, engagement of the core audience is also becoming central to the application of AR/VR technology. With organizations across industries — from retail to real estate to healthcare to automobile— incorporating AR/VR to enhance both user and employee experience, this is just the beginning of what could soon emerge as a trillion-dollar industry.
This article piece is authored by Skandha Gopalan, Co-Founder & Marketing Head, Tacnik & Samaaro
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