The world is getting caught in the Alternate Reality momentum: Businesses are building their brands using AR-powered lenses. The number of apps that use AR content to engage users is on the rise. And all of this is changing our perspective on digitized content.
Everyone is familiar with Niantic’s Pokemon Go which became a benchmark of the year 2016. Niantic has since released more games like it – Harry Potter: Wizards Unite in 2019, which failed to amass the distinctive excitement of its predecessor, and Pikmin Bloom, released on November 2, for which the jury still stands.
Even outside the gaming world, AR easily found other applications. Many museums incorporated mixed reality technology to make their exhibitions more interactive. With Amikasa and IKEA Place we no longer have to wonder how a piece of furniture will fit in our home. And Snapchat filters are another famous example of AR in work.
But, actually, the real battle is for the space – the metaverse.
The 21st-century space race
Whether you’re aware of it or not, there is currently a huge turf war going on about the dominance over the AR/VR virtual spaces. Are you wondering what all that is about? Well, what those major companies are fighting for is the coveted status of the “go-to” AR/VR technology.
When designing an app within the Virtual or Augmented Reality space, the cheapest and fastest way to make it publicly available is to integrate it with the already existing technology, right? Otherwise, you would have to build, design, test the entire platform before finally releasing the app on it. So how developers choose the platform in the future will depend a lot on who has the best tech.
Google has been developing its AR technology ever since 2016. It has even, fairly recently, released the second edition of Google Glass. And although the newer Enterprise Edition is not commercially available and was solely designed to be used with a stable user-base due to limited configuration options, that hardly means that Google’s AR-inspired escapades are over. Google regularly dips its toes into the AR space by ingeniously promoting various events, holidays, and campaigns through 3D Google Searches. In April they brought to life the icons from Japanese popular culture and just last month they were raising awareness about Swedish endangered animals in a similar manner. However, until Google announces it’s building its own AR/VR space, they can’t become a major player in the race.
Microsoft has its HoloLens 1 and 2 which are also mostly focused on enterprises. Alex Kipman, the lead engineer of many of Microsoft’s Mixed Reality and AR projects, suggested during a WSJ event that the company is working on developing a more widespread consumer version of the HoloLens. The company has already started developing AR glasses for the military and has recently announced its plans to integrate avatars and mixed reality into Microsoft Teams. But, more importantly, it has Microsoft Mesh – the advent of a real metaverse.
Facebook, however, has gained a great deal of traction thanks to a recent viral video of its founder Mark Zuckerberg introducing Meta’s Metaverse. In the video, Zuckerberg demonstrated possible use cases of content and technology within metaverses and announced “Project Nazare,” an AR headset development project the company has been working on in secret.
Well. We are all now properly hyped for the space race that will mark the 21st century, especially because two of the Big Five are fighting for supremacy in the field. This could easily mean that there will be more tech and more platforms to choose from. One thing is certain, however – neither Microsoft nor Facebook will be able to create metaverses on their own. They will require the assistance of countless developers and content creators well-versed within the digital space.
A new direction for education
As you have probably noticed, new technology is being developed daily, which means that now more than ever, individuals and organizations can benefit from a revolution in education. The reskilling emergency is only now taking on its final form. With every new COVID wave, we become more aware of the misgivings of the current system in place. People need to learn more efficiently than ever but have instead been facing a whole new set of issues on top of the already existing ones.
Besides problems concerning large class sizes and a lack of individualized feedback, we are now also dealing with:
- Lack of available remote technologies for many students;
- Poor quality teacher-student communication;
- Little opportunity for interaction and socialization;
- Students and teachers who are fighting off the Zoom fatigue;
- Low levels of engagement and motivation;
- Impossibility of acquiring practical knowledge;
- Etc.
So, not only does it seem like the technology is making things worse – it looks like it is making the issues that have already existed branch out in entirely new unsatisfactory ways. But the issue is not really with the tools. The issue is with the system that only half-heartedly uses them.
That’s why we need to let go of the outdated familiarity and welcome the new age in education.
Studyum’s place in the metaverse
The technology that is capable of helping us learn better and faster isn’t just something that Studyum is “taping over” its foundation. They are the building blocks of the Studyum ecosystem.
Studyum is a next-generation edtech platform that gamifies your learning experience. It is built on the blockchain, ensuring complete privacy and security of learners who have the sole ownership over their data and get to decide what it is used for. In addition to full student autonomy, the use of volumetric content in Studyum’s lessons makes the learning participatory and engaging – more so than ever before. Learners get to interact with the content or make their own and allow others to learn from it.
Using a variety of hand gestures, you will get to find out about any topic that might interest you in a completely personalized setting. The volumetric content lessens the strain on your working memory and allows you to remember and retain more information than you would otherwise have been unable to. And during the entire learning experience, your celebrity coach will be right beside you to make sure you are ready and inspired to learn.
And, who knows – the use of AR in Studyum might just make it exactly the contributor one of the emerging metaverses is looking for.
