We can excuse the overblown headset company demos. These are useful in showcasing technology potential and generating interest (read money). But if the demos are this promising, they better be real. Verizon collaborated with other companies to deliver special 5G XR technology demos, the tech that is likely to change the scene for AR, VR, and MR enterprises.
Now, the promise of 5G is an old dream. Running currently on 4G networks, the futuristic VR experience simply isn’t possible due to the deluge of data in need of processing. 4G limits the viewing experience to a restricted locations, unable to open up the experience to vast audiences. That is where 5G XR technology comes in. Increase in speed and power combined with radical decrease of latency means the difference of location-free XR (Extended Reality) enterprises.
In theory, 5G would make it possible to XR-witness any event, anywhere in the world. Enjoying real-time VR concerts; doctors performing surgeries from afar; these would not be mere conjectures but realities opening up. ‘5G’s quicker round trip of latency for the rendering of spatial audio allows for the highest quality mobile VR experience’ Envrmnt’s Layton Diament concords’. In theory, in short, VR, AR, and MR would become everything we have hoped they’d be.
To test the theory and present it in its full glory, Verizon has released a few demos showcasing the game-changing potential of the tech. These are mostly use case iterations of 5G XR technology. The first of these comes from Verizon and Envrmnt. The demo portrays a VR rendering of a 100-instrument concert. It offers a full, 360 VR audio spatial experience whereby the sound is dependent on the user’s location within the VR space. It is a fully interactive experience that, Diament would have it, ‘wouldn’t be possible on a mobile headset without 5G and low latency compute’. Just imagine being able to see a concert from afar, or watch a game from the front row. Game-changing for VR entertainment industry.
As if that weren’t impressive enough, Verizon ad Arvizio have prepared another, this time Mixed Reality demo. It is a boat this time, or rather, a complex VR rendition of a boat. Users wearing VR headsets can collaborate in their real-time interaction with the same boat model. They can flip it, zoom in and out, and even walk on board together. Those without VR headwear are not left wanting. Anyone with a smartphone can join the session and interact with the model in an MR environment. It is easy to guess what use 5G XR technology will have on industry training, repair and maintenance, or indeed any manufacture enterprise that requires collaborative effort.
5G XR technology as imagined by Verizon, potentially, has the capacity to realize our wildest VR dreams. Aside from the obvious use cases like helping remote workers do the job effectively, it raises immersive to a whole another level of Joint immersive-ness, where people can ‘share data and interact with full-scale complex 3D images in near real time’, as Viacheslav Bielkin from Arvizio has it. Now isn’t that something?
