Virtual Reality Moves to Real with Sensors and Digital Transformation

I was on a high-rise construction site 34-floors above the city.  I was talking to the construction crew when a fight broke out.  There was an explosion and the floor collapsed.  I removed the virtual reality (VR) goggles and laughed.  It was so real.  The VR solutions provided an incredible experience, almost like being there.  As good as my experience was, it was not reality.  It was a controlled pre-programmed experience - a notional idea.  Today, however, VR, sensors and sensory feedback technologies enable a notional idea to become reality – a Real-Reality.

IoT sensors extend our physical senses beyond our physical reach.  Haptic feedback systems enable us to physically feel distant objects and experience events, digital odors can be collected, profiled, transmitted and recreated locally on odor printers, 3D infrared scanners can capture and scale physical shapes and environments and transmit them anywhere to be used by 3D printers or in digital scenes.  We can visualize, sense, and mentally and emotionally experience events.  These experiences, which are data centric and data heavy, go far beyond virtual reality, to Real-Reality (RR). 

Wikipedia defines reality as, ”The state of things as they actually exist, rather than as they may appear or might be imagined.”  With enough sensors collecting data, and with the right VR solutions and sensory feedback systems in place, we can step across the line from virtual to real reality.  These technologies enable us to sense, feel, and experience actual events - potentially on the other side of the world.  This is a big deal. This can enable experts to be anywhere on the planet, with maximum understanding of local situations.

Although many of these technologies are still in their infancy, they hint of a time very soon when the ability to bring distant realities into homes, industry and boardrooms are not only possible, but commonplace.  The keys to making this future a reality, are measuring and collecting the right data, transmitting it, and optimizing the sensory experience.

How do we understand distant situations, activities, operations and events today?  In many cases a human tries to capture and recreate the situation in words, and then forwards as an email or message.  There are obvious limitations to this means of communication when fast moving and complex situations are involved.  RR solutions with the required level of digital transformation implemented, including real-time sensors and sensory feedback systems, can communicate these experiences directly to our minds and bodies from anywhere in the world in real-time, thus bypassing the limitations of intermediary humans and written languages.

RR enables experts from anywhere in the world to conduct medical surgeries, repair specialized equipment, manage factories, farms and other kinds of operations from distant locations.  The obstacles of the past that resulted in operational blind spots and incomplete information are quickly going away as RR becomes a reality - a real-reality.

Follow Kevin Benedict on Twitter @krbenedict, or read more of his articles on digital transformation strategies here:

1. Technology Must Disappear in 2017
2. Merging Humans with AI and Machine Learning Systems
3. In Defense of the Human Experience in a Digital World
4. Profits that Kill in the Age of Digital Transformation
5. Competing in Future Time and Digital Transformation
6. Digital Hope and Redemption in the Digital Age
7. Digital Transformation and the Role of Faster
8. Digital Transformation and the Law of Thermodynamics
9. Jettison the Heavy Baggage and Digitally Tranform
10. Digital Transformation - The Dark Side
11. Business is Not as Usual in Digital Transformation
12. 15 Rules for Winning in Digital Transformation
13. The End Goal of Digital Transformation
14. Digital Transformation and the Ignorance Penalty
15. Surviving the Three Ages of Digital Transformation
16. From Digital to Hyper-Transformation
17. Believers, Non-Believers and Digital Transformation
18. Forces Driving the Digital Transformation Era
19. Digital Transformation Requires Agility and Energy Measurement
20. A Doctrine for Digital Transformation is Required
21. The Advantages of Advantage in Digital Transformation
22. Digital Transformation and Its Role in Mobility and Competition
23. Digital Transformation - A Revolution in Precision Through IoT, Analytics and Mobility
24. Competing in Digital Transformation and Mobility
25. Ambiguity and Digital Transformation
26. Digital Transformation and Mobility - Macro-Forces and Timing
27. Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

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Kevin Benedict

Senior Analyst, Center for the Future of Work, Cognizant Writer, Speaker and World Traveler

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***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile and IoT Technologies are Inside the Curve of Human Time

We humans have a finite speed at which we can think, analyze and make decisions.  We can only focus on a small set of data before we are overwhelmed.  When important decisions must be made, our brains need time, significant time, to weigh all the variables, pros and cons and possible outcomes in order to arrive at a good decision.  In times of high stress where making fast decisions is required, many of us don’t perform at our peak.  In addition, weak humans that we are - need sleep.  We are not always available; we require daily downtime in order to function.

Humans operate in human time, a biological time influenced by the environment and universe that we live in.  Computers, though, are not subject to these human limitations and can act on algorithms and pre-determined decision trees 24/7 in milliseconds.

Human time challenges and limitations are not going away.  As IoT sensors and mobile devices proliferate, so also does the volume of real-time data and required analysis.  Humans, already at their limit, must somehow augment their capabilities to handle the massive increases in the volume and complexity of data.  Many believe, as do I, that the competitive marketplaces of today and tomorrow will be won by those with better and faster information logistics systems.  Systems that can collect larger quantities of data, analyze and execute relevant actions faster.

The new F-35 fighter jet in the USA’s arsenal has over 24 million lines of software code running it.  Why? It requires sensors, computers and sofware just to keep it in the air. Code is required to process all the data fast enough to augment the pilot’s skills.  In addition, the F-35 comes with a $500,000 custom helmet that provides a 360-degree view of the operational environment, and displays so much data pilots have reported suffering dizziness from information overload.  We have hit the wall of human capabilities, and we are only getting started.

The late military strategist and US Air force Colonel John Boyd, taught a key advantage in air combat was to get “inside” an opponent's decision curve. That means to understand the true situation faster, and then make better decisions quicker than an opponent.  He taught that humans need a simple formula for quick thinking.  His formula was OODA (observe, orient, decide and act). He taught a continuous cycle of observing a situation, orienting or understanding it, deciding what needs to happen and then acting quickly.  He taught that competitors executing OODA cycles faster than opponents had the advantage.  The OODA quick thinking process is proven, and has now made the leap from human time to computer time via artificial intelligence.

The leap from human time to computer time has relevance in business today, especially in the age of Mobile Me, where consumer’s expectations for mobile app performances demand instant responses.   Mobile apps and real-time consumer interactions are now in the realm of the F-35.  Consumers today demand more real-time information processing, decision-making and business process execution than are humanly possible without computer and software augmentation operating beyond the limitations of human time, and into the future of computer time.

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Watch my latest video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1uF2ntnskHA&feature=youtu.be.

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Kevin Benedict

Writer, Speaker, Analyst and World Traveler

View my profile on LinkedIn

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Subscribe to Kevin'sYouTube Channel

Join the Linkedin Group Strategic Enterprise Mobility

Join the Google+ Community Mobile Enterprise Strategies

***Full Disclosure: These are my personal opinions. No company is silly enough to claim them. I am a mobility and digital transformation analyst, consultant and writer. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Mobile Expert Video Series: Moshe BenBassat

I had the opportunity to sit down with the founder and CEO/Chairman of ClickSoftware, Moshe BenBassat yesterday in San Diego, CA and interview him on his background working with military planners, ballistic missiles, air forces and the history of his company.  We dig into the use of artificial intelligence in their workforce optimization software, and the critical role of enterprise mobility in field services.  I believe you will find this interview very interesting.

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Kevin Benedict, Mobile Industry Analyst and Mobile Strategy Consultant

Visit MobileEnterpriseStrategies.com

Follow me on Twitter @krbenedict

Join the Strategic Enterprise Mobility Linkedin Group

Full Disclosure: I am a mobility analyst, consultant and blogger. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

Print Ads and QR Codes Combined with Mobile Scanning Software

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Brooks Brothers is using QR (quick response) codes in its fall collection print ads that let consumers purchase the items they see right from the pages of Esquire magazine.  The challenge is getting customers to download the scanning software to their smartphone the first time.  After the mobile scanning app is downloaded, the process should be very easy.

Mobile Expert Interview Series: Nokia's John Choate

I had the pleasure of interviewing Nokia's John Choate last week. He is working in the Augmented Reality (AR) space for mobile applications at Nokia's office in San Francisco. Isn't that a cool area to focus on? John's title is PMO 2.0. (Program Management Organization), and he works with the hardware and software sides of the Nokia business to bring them together and to define new technologies and solutions.

A funny side note - Nokia's offices are so high in an office building that their phones have a difficult time getting good reception and Nokia employees only use mobile phones. As a result Nokia employees are running around the office trying to find good reception. I must add that any mobile phone at that altitude, at that location, is likely to have the same challenges. It was just a reminder that there is more work to be done and that disconnected mobile smartphone applications are still needed, even in downtown areas. Can you image a field service technician trying to enter his mobile work order on a smartphone application that is dependent on real-time connectivity in that office?

Let's get back to the interview about Augmented Reality with John. Augmented Reality is described as a live direct or indirect view of a physical real-world environment whose elements are augmented by virtual computer-generated imagery or data. Nokia's Point and Find solution is one of those solutions. With Point and Find the user can point the camera phone at an object and snap a picture. The picture combined with GPS coordinates immediately identifies the object and displays information about it.

Point and Find is not just for buildings and landmarks. The user can snap a picture of a movie poster and information about the movie, nearby theaters and run times is presented. In addition, you can snap a photo of a 2D bar code and product information will appear. Nokia also supports video as well as digital photos with Point and Find.

AR is fascinating to me. Different movie posters can bring up different information. The posters are recognized and different data is found. For example, the same poster in London, because it is associated with a GPS coordinate, would bring up different information than the same poster in New York.

Slight graphical differences in a poster or sign could tell the Point and Find application to display different information. Your real-world reality can now be supplemented by historical facts, nearby businesses, crime statistics, favorite restaurants and anything else you can image. This is crazy powerful stuff to ponder.

I wrote an article last year called Network-Centric Field Force Automation on how the military is using similar technologies in their network-centric warfare strategies and how field services could learn from it.

John and his colleagues at Nokia have many amazing ideas on how this can add value to the hospitality, retail and travel industries to list a few. For example, a sports tourist spends five times more than a general tourist. It is a demographic that businesses would like to target. How can this be done using AR...use your imagination.

A Nordstrom shopper could simply snap a photo of a Nordstrom store and information about their favorite products, their locations and prices could pop up in AR. Perhaps the application could alert the Nordstrom attendants that a premium shopper had just arrived.

John used terms like "buying a world" in our discussions. A business could "buy a world" in the Point and Find solution and decide what to put in this AR world. Do they want to load this world with historical facts, crime statistics, tourist locations, hotels and restaurants? The owner of this "world" could add as many layers of information as they desired. They could identify the underground electrical lines, sewage systems, accident statistics, health inspection reports of nearby restaurants, tour packages or simply point to a Starbucks.

I appreciate John opening this AR "world" to us and introducing us to Nokia's Point and Find.

Related article:

Mobile Expert Interview Series - Jane and Keelin Glendon of HotButtons

If you are involved in or interested in SAP related enterprise mobility, then you are invited to join the Linkedin group SAP Enterprise Mobility.

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Kevin Benedict
Author of the report, Enterprise Mobile Data Solutions, 2009
Mobile Strategy Consultant, Mobile Industry Analyst and Web 2.0 Marketing Expert
http://www.netcentric-strategies.com/
www.linkedin.com/in/kevinbenedict
twitter: http://twitter.com/krbenedict
http://kevinbenedict.ulitzer.com/
http://mobileenterprisestrategies.blogspot.com/

***Full Disclosure: I am an independent mobility consultant and Web 2.0 marketing expert. I work with and have worked with many of the companies mentioned in my articles.

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