What is Assisted Reality and Why Should We Care About It?

Assisted reality's potential to provide context-based and hands-free assistance has created a lot of hype around the technology.

Augmented Reality (AR) already has several mind-blowing use cases. But a similar technology, referred to as assisted reality, is gaining tons of attention nowadays. Assisted reality is related to AR, like a less-popular cousin. But it is much different from AR. Unlike AR, assisted reality is not an immersive technology. AR connects information with specific physical objects and overlays it on them in a semi-virtual environment. Assisted reality, on the other hand, never connects information with specific objects; instead, it just displays additional information on the head-mounted devices worn by users. These head-mounted devices enable hands-free assistance to users in different situations. Due to these capabilities, assisted reality is gaining a lot of traction across different industries.

The Reason Behind the Hype of Assisted Reality

Assisted reality has gained a lot of hype because of its ease of implementation and numerous benefits that it provides to businesses and individuals.

Context-Based Assistance

As mentioned before, the assisted reality is not an immersive technology that overlays information on physical objects. Instead, it provides context-based assistance to users. The information displayed on assisted reality devices will not change merely with reference to changes in the background environment. The assisted reality also won't just provide object-specific assistance. Instead, it will assist users based on their specific requirements by analyzing a large number of factors and individualizing every user and every situation.

Real-Time Information

Imagine a labourer in a manufacturing company takes the wrong approach while making a product. A lack of real-time information provided to that labourer will result in wasted time, damaged products, and increased cost of rework. Assisted reality helps in providing valuable real-time information to users. Whenever an employee uses wrong work methods, assisted reality can display the optimal approach in a step-by-step process to reduce costs and time, and enhance the quality of end products.

Hands-Free Operation

Head-mounted displays of assisted reality technology enable hands-free operations. For instance, it can display instructions to perform specific tasks on device screens. Workers can follow the instructions and guidelines on these screens to easily perform those tasks. This can help workers to quickly and effectively tackle emergency situations. For instance, when a machine breaks down, assisted reality can assist any person, be it a mechanic or not, to quickly repair the machinery.

Assisted reality provides many benefits, which may lead to businesses rushing into implementing the technology. But before incorporating it into their daily operations, businesses must build a structured plan to implement it. There are various factors to consider for implementing assisted reality, such as device selection for specific use cases. By coming up with an implementation plan that accounts for these challenges, it becomes easier for businesses to incorporate assisted reality into their daily operations.