How Edge and 5G Can Unlock the True Potential of AR and VR

VR has come a long way. From being a platform with limited entertainment and gaming capabilities, it has matured into a pathbreaking technology that can overcome many real-world limitations in healthcare, education, manufacturing, designing, space research, and law enforcement. In this article, we will talk about how AR and VR technologies can offer much more in the future, thanks to integration with groundbreaking technologies such as 5G and Edge Computing.

Have you ever wondered how someone practices to be a heart surgeon? Seriously, nobody wants a resident or rookie surgeon operating on their heart. Yet, budding surgeons have to get operating hours somehow in the same way that future pilots garner flight time experience. Well, thanks to virtual reality (VR) technology, residents and beginning surgeons can get the experience they need without putting nervous patients at risk. 

Medical training institutions are now able to combine 3D heart models with CT images of heart disease patients. Using a headset and motion controller, trainees can get a full 360-degree view of a patient’s heart and interact with its virtual features. An instructor can appear as an avatar, leading them through the process while explaining what students see in real-time. These virtual training sessions aren’t just for those starting in their careers. Long-time surgeons will use a VR session to practice on an upcoming complex surgery. For instance, a neurosurgical simulation lab gives neurosurgeons the ability to practice surgery on images based on the brain of the actual patient rather than a generic brain mapping. 

Learn more:  Overhaul Your Learning Technology by Integrating VR

Difference Between VR and AR

Fascinating things are happening in AR and VR technology. First, let’s review the difference between the two. Augmented Reality (AR) adds digital elements to a live view of one’s surroundings using something as simple as a smartphone. Classic examples of AR include Snapchat or the infamous Pokemon game that proved all the rage not long ago. AR utilizes an existing background seen by your camera and overlays a digital augmentation over it. For instance, you could have cartoon bears appearing in an actual picnic area you are facing. While AR retains some real-world elements, virtual reality (VR) is a complete immersion in a virtual world. Access to these virtual worlds requires a headset that completely blocks out the real world around you. You now view the world as it is being delivered to you through your headset.  

So the fact is that AR and VR are about much more than games now, and healthcare is only one of the many industries utilizing this technology. For instance, many factories now issue special AR glasses that give them the ongoing status and key performance indicators of machines that they look at on the manufacturing floor. The glasses also issue warnings about potentially hazardous areas or situations while working. The result is greater efficiency and improved worker safety. Retailers provide apps to their customers to let them see what new furniture or appliances will look like in their existing homes.  

How To Meet the Real-Time Data Needs of VR and AR?

The ability to augment our day-to-day realities or create entire virtual worlds for us to escape requires an essential ingredient – data. Not just any type of data, though, real-time data. The traditional paradigm of having data stored someplace to be used later is becoming less pertinent. According to IDCOpens a new window , nearly 30% of data generated will be consumed in real-time by 2025. That’s 30% of some 175 zettabytes of data. They also predict that the average person will have nearly 5,000 digital interactions per day in 2025, up from less than 1,000 currently. The question is, how do we get that data to people fast enough?

Given that AR and VR applications will require tremendous amounts of real-time data at scale and at very low latency in the future, let’s look at how these requirements could be fulfilled using other technologies.

Learn More: Using Virtual Reality To Improve Training Processes

The Speed of 5G

Think of how fast it takes to pull up a web page on your 4G smartphone. Anything more than a second is incapable of handling AR or VR. In a virtual world, you have to see what is behind the next corner in real-time. Speedy data transmissions are critical for AR and VR to operate effectively, which is what 5G provides. In fact, not only is 5G nearly a hundred times faster than 4G, it is up to 10 times faster than average broadband. It is these speed levels that will unleash the full capability of these two visual experiences.  

Greater Mobility and Stability

Imagine the potential of augmented travel experiences that allow you to point your phone camera at various tourist sites and receive information about their history on your screen. You could even find out the wait times of a venue before you even enter them. Of course, all of this depends on a stable and mobile experience. Consider the fact that 5G will support autonomous vehicles traveling more than three hundred miles per hour. 5G will also allow up to a million connected devices within an area of one square kilometer to communicate with one another. This type of scale and coverage is critical if everyone will take advantage of AR technology while in transit.  

Edge Computing and Reduced Latency

Any gamer can tell you latency can ruin a gaming experience. To ensure a consistent experience, gaming experts place the bare minimum for non-VR games at just above 50 ms of latency. That figure doesn’t work in full-blown VR worlds, however. Latency equating to anything more than 20 ms could even make you sick. Cybersickness is a real thing. It is closely related to motion sickness and can cause disorientation, fatigue, dizziness, sweating, eye strain and even nausea. In the same way that edge computing reduces latency for IoT sensory applications, placing computing power at locations close to where it is needed can significantly reduce latency.  

Learn more: Microsoft Goes Beyond Augmented Reality With Mesh, Its First Mixed Reality Platform

Reduced Rendering and Cooler Headsets

Let’s face it. Very few people think they look cool in a bulky VR headset. Even Popular Science Magazine wrote last year about the need to make VR headsets less ugly. Besides the data limitations of our existing infrastructure, VR’s popularity is probably being held back by their unfashionable style. Unfortunately, VR headsets are bulky out of necessity as it takes a massive amount of graphical rendering to combine and synchronize the motions of use with a separate digital world. The key, then, is to offload as many of these rendering processes as possible from the headset. This is referred to as split rendering. By moving the heavy lifting to edge computing locations connected by the speed of 5G, the headset can be smaller. In other words, not only can 5G and edge computing make VR more viable, but it can also reduce the social awkwardness of the required headsets. 

Conclusion

The only thing we know for sure is that we haven’t seen anything yet when it comes to AR and VR. We only know of their potential. The combination of Edge computing and 5G working together will serve as a fuel that will create a new world’s augmented realities that we can’t even imagine.  

What are your thoughts on the role 5G and Edge computing can play in realizing the true potential of AR and VR? Comment below or tell us on LinkedInOpens a new window , TwitterOpens a new window , or FacebookOpens a new window . We would love to hear from you!