Virtually limitless: How can you work smarter with AR/VR technology?

“Have you ever wanted to be a superhero?” asked Steven King to a group of people seated on the steps just inside the Innovate Carolina Junction. “What would your superpower be?” The professionals—a mix of those who work in research labs, teach in college classrooms, and answer to corporate boardrooms—momentarily hedged in answering, but quickly understood. “Flight!” called out someone from the audience. King, the Reese Felts, Jr. Distinguished Professor of Emerging Technologies at UNC-Chapel Hill, grinned and acknowledged that the capabilities for actual human flight haven’t arrived quite yet. But he was quick to point out that for organizations that want to empower employees and customers with new professional superpowers—whether critical skills or the ability to engage in profound experiences—the secret isn’t asking them to put on superhero capes or masks. It’s asking them to wear VR headsets.

No longer viewed as gaming device novelties for kids, augmented and virtual reality (AR/VR) tools are winning the hearts of leaders in practically all industries. According to a group of experts who gathered at the Junction in downtown Chapel Hill, the reasons are clear: there are virtually unlimited ways that AR/VR technologies help organizations boost employee productivity and effectiveness—while delighting their customers with experiences that wouldn’t otherwise be possible. The panel of presenters—representing Fidelity Investments, the Hussman School of Journalism and Media, Kenan-Flagler Business School, and UNC School of Nursing gathered for the Signature Series event hosted by Innovate Carolina, UNC-Chapel Hill’s central team for innovation, entrepreneurship and economic development.

Below are five practical pieces of wisdom for organizations that want to use AR/VR technologies to shape the future of their work.

1. AR, VR, MR and XR? Yes, they’re different, but you can use them together.

If you’re like a lot of people who hear the “R” acronyms AR, VR, MR and XR tossed about, you might get them mixed up. Throw in AI (artificial intelligence), and your brain might go into full alphabet soup mode. What’s the difference between these technologies? And how are they related? King, who works as chief innovations officer at UNC Blue Sky Innovations, clarified.

• Virtual reality (VR). “I think of VR as a technology that takes me to a different time and place,” said King. “I put on a headset and can no longer see the world in front of me, but rather whatever a content creator wants me to see. VR involves a totally different location.”
  
  
• Augmented reality (AR). “Augmented reality is when we add to our existing environment,” said King, who noted that AR commonly occurs in mobile phone apps, but is evolving beyond the phone environment “We’re quickly seeing AR in more headset displays and glasses. Thinking about the professional superhero example, if I’m hiring Iron Man in his mask, he can see all of this contextual information that help him do his job.”
  
  
• Mixed reality (MR). “Mixed reality is where I can interact with the environment,” explained King. “This is where I can see things in the world that aren’t really there, take the objects, and do things with them. We call that mixed reality because we’re mixing the real world with the virtual world, and we’re able to interact.” He points to spatial computing as an example.
   
  
• Extended reality (XR). XR is an umbrella term that combines VR, AR and MR. King advises thinking about the “X” in XR technology as standing for “whatever is next.”
  

2. XR for business is on the rise—a few examples to spark your thinking.

Professional uses of XR are booming. It’s easy to get ideas for your own work by looking at a few of the many ways forward-thinking organizations use these technologies to support customers and employees.

• Data visualization. With data more widely and instantly available via the cloud, organizations can use XR technologies to give people new ways to visually interact with information. One such organization is Fidelity Investments. Jamie Barras, who leads the Emerging Technology Incubator at the Fidelity Center for Applied Technology (FCAT),  shared an application that uses XR to explore the potential of 3D data visualization capabilities that go beyond typical data reports of the past.  “We’re all used to looking at two-dimensional data in pie charts and line graphs, but when we start invoking the z-axis, all of a sudden we have different ways to look at data,” Barras said of her team’s XR-enabled project, which allows people to experience data visually as spheres suspended in space. “All of a sudden, we have this third dimension, which is a huge opportunity. Every time we’ve demoed this experience, people look at the data and say, ‘Wow, what’s happening? Look over there,’ or “Oh my gosh, can I walk through my data? Can I click on a button to see more information explode?’”

• Employee training and skill development. Common applications for XR include training simulations, skill development, workplace assistance, safety training, onboarding and orientations. Elizabeth Stone, an associate professor at the UNC School of Nursing, shared the Trauma Services VR Simulation created by co-panelist Christi Fenison, which presents an emergency medical situation from the point of view of a fictitious patient who sustained a head injury in a motor vehicle crash. The simulation trains UNC students to develop skills—communication, decision making, and patient-centered care—that are critical for responding to such emergencies in the real world. “Special features of the simulator include pop-up dialog and scenarios that ask you to make choices about how to communicate with the patient or provider,” said Stone. “Based on the decisions you make, the simulation goes down certain paths, one with less-than-optimal communication choices and one with optimal communication choices. You can make a decision, and then you see the results.”
  
  King also shared IDEAVR, a 10-module leadership training course with contextualized simulations that help people practice handling issues regarding diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI). “This simulation helps people find themselves in uncomfortable moments, make decisions and see how their decisions would play out,” said King, whose Blue Sky Innovations team led the development of the simulation with Kenan-Flagler Business School and Ernst & Young. “It’s a more comfortable way to practice than in real life, where a decision might go poorly for you.”

• Employee engagement and collaboration. Virtual worlds allow organizations and teams to participate in shared experiences, while enhancing team-building exercises and engagement with company culture, explained Fenison, co-founder of the company Cause + Christi. Fenison’s firm uses WebXR and virtual reality to create immersive 3D experiences for a wide range of clients.
  
  Fenison shared the Winter Lodge project, a virtual world that she developed for the Google Cloud team’s holiday party. “We created a virtual winter lodge retreat where Google Cloud’s remote teams came together to chat, explore the world, kayak on the lake, and participate in a scavenger hunt,” said Fenison. “They told us this was the first time that some team members met one another in a shared space and experienced presence with their global teammates.”

• Customer engagement and education. Organizations also use XR to engage and educate customers. In the financial services industry, Barras’ FCAT team developed a retirement readiness simulator for Fidelity clients. After putting on a VR headset, clients answer a few questions, such as their age, current salary and retirement savings. They then become immersed in a simulated virtual and educational path toward retirement. “This experience helps you understand the key levers for saving for your retirement, and once you answer the questions, you jettison outside onto a green path and move forward on a journey to retirement” she described. “You have key decisions to make along the way, and -together with simulated market conditions, you’re either saving enough – or you’re experiencing a setback in retirement funds.”
  
  In the retail industry, Fenison developed a virtual world called Golden Apple VR. “We worked with the famous Golden Apple Comics—a comic book shop in Los Angeles—to create a digital twin of its store, capturing all the details: from the posters and community art on the wall to on-the-shelf comic books, which are available in the store and online,” she said. “Golden Apple launched this world as part of WonderCon and brought in comic book creators who held Q&A sessions with virtual attendees. The virtual space familiarizes the public with Golden Apple’s brand, intrigues them to check out its comic books, and to actually visit the shop in LA.”

• Events and communities. Despite their wide use, attendees of traditional web seminar and other online events often experience a sense of separation from one another. “Social VR events, on the other hand, invite attendees into a shared experience, where they can interact, build, move around, and create relationships that break through geographic and physical barriers,” Fenison said. She noted that one advantage VR events hold over traditional webinars is the use of spatial audio, a capability that allows people in virtual worlds to experience sound in three-dimensional space: for example, in front of, behind, above, below or to the side. At virtual events, spatial audio lets people more naturally hear and begin engaging in one-on-one or small-group conversations without overriding the conversations of others. Fenison’s firm built a social VR world for a red-carpet premiere event hosted by the Tribeca Film Festival and Baobab Studios to promote the studio’s new VR interactive movie. Fenison also noted that virtual events don’t have to be one-time occasions. They can also serve as immersive social hubs that build longer-term communities. For instance, she shared a virtual comedy club that hosts live shows by professional comedians as well as open-mic nights where aspiring comedians can build confidence and get discovered. She also described a virtual café recreated from a novel, where an author hosts regular book readings from a setting depicted in her book.  

3. Immersive learning has unexpected advantages.

Compared to traditional modes of instruction, XR-based immersive learning offers several advantages, which Stone outlined. Plus, she said that recent research indicates that learning outcomes, regardless of topic, are at least as good—if not better—with immersive learning compared to traditional avenues.

• Developing multiple skill types. XR tools are effective for teaching a range of skills: psychomotor (hands-on), cognitive (knowledge-based) and affective (emotional/attitudinal). VR sets—due to their somewhat basic hand controllers—still have limitations for teaching intricate fine-motor skills (e.g. surgical techniques), but are excellent for teaching fundamental hands-on tasks and advanced emotional or cognitive skills.  
  
  
• Learner-centered. XR technologies center around learners rather than classrooms or instructors. So, people can practice a skill repeatedly on their own—with ample opportunities to review feedback and correct mistakes—until they gain confidence and competency.
  
  
• Reduced time, space and supply constraints. Immersive learning happens outside the physical bounds of classrooms and time constraints of teacher schedules, bringing learners from around the world together in a common environment. For hands-on trainings, the use of virtual supplies or materials—rather than physical ones—can eliminate supply costs.
  
  
• Less distraction. Immersive learners become fully entrenched in their environments. They don’t pick up and scroll through their phones—major sources of distraction in traditional classrooms.
  
  
• Increased psychological safety. XR technologies allow learners to practice difficult skills or communication concepts free of judgment. They work in the privacy of their headsets without worrying about what instructors or coworkers might think.

4. XR is ideal for teaching interpersonal skills.

XR technologies are particularly well suited for teaching affective skills (feelings, attitudes and values), which are increasingly valued in the workforce because they influence how people interact with others. “No matter how good a student’s hands-on skills or knowledge is, if they don’t have strong affective skills—empathy, communication, the capacity to see someone else’s perspective, and the ability to work with other people—then they’re not going to be effective health care professionals,” said Stone.  

Stone highlighted findings from Fenison’s thesis research on VR training simulations, saying that emotion helps memories and new knowledge “stick” and that the human brain accepts emotion as learning, which then fosters empathy. She said that this is why VR and storytelling can become a powerful combination. “Stories are what learners remember because they create an emotional response,” she said. “Immersive experiences like those delivered through VR headsets draw the learner into the story, and then once people experience that narrative transport, their tendency to counter argue is reduced. So, immersive learning can be particularly effective in teaching about topics like bias because it leaves learners more open to persuasive messages and adopting positive ways of handling situations.”

5. Off-the-shelf vs. custom. It pays to know the pros and cons.

According to Stone, organizations that want to get started with XR for educational purposes should weigh the pluses and minuses of off-the-shelf XR products compared to custom-created content. Both are viable options, depending on an organization’s objectives, budget and access to talent.

• Off-the-shelf XR. These products are pre-created for common uses within specific industries. Off-the-shelf options are more budget friendly, but aren’t as tailored to an organization’s specific needs as custom content. “A lot of off-the-shelf versions are avatar based to provide consistent learning scenarios, interaction and choices,” Stone said. “And with AI integration, the avatars can be very realistic, not just for how they respond and talk to you, but also for how they look.”
  

• Custom-created XR. Custom XR occurs when organizations create their own content that is tailored to an organization’s needs with a high degree of specificity centered around familiar settings and equipment. The specificity of customer content can be highly impactful, but may be cost and time prohibitive. “The disadvantages of custom XR are that it’s costly and requires subject matter expertise,” said Stone. “At a minimum, you’ll need technical experts that know how to do the filming, editing and creative work, and then education and simulation experts. It can involve hiring real actors and producers, which is time consuming.”
  

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