The next five to ten years will be significant for virtual reality (VR) technology. In fact, there are already signs that virtual reality is bringing us closer together, making geography irrelevant, and giving us the ability to experience new sensations like never before. How will businesses utilize this technology in the coming years?1) Brands will leverage VR technology to increase customer loyalty; brands and VR exist for each other. Organizations and brands can offer their customers story-themed VR experiences that will engage them in education and entertainment. This approach will create a whole new relationship between brands and their customers, making them active participants rather than passive bystanders. The hardest part for brands is getting customers to get a real sense of what it's like to be there, and immersive and interactive VR experiences allow for a deeper experience.2) Teleconferencing will change. Previously, teleconferencing was probably one of the most distasteful things in modern business: staring at a flat screen and having a delayed conversation to a pixelated image of a face. Virtual reality will change that, replacing it with more hands-on and natural-feeling meetings. As this technology develops, we can expect to experience new types of meetings that incorporate facial expressions, line-of-sight communication, and other human-specific elements. This will make our telecommuting lives better and our meetings more efficient. If this format fully matures, it may even dramatically reduce the need for business travel; 3) it will increase the volume of electronic transactions for products that need to be tried for suitability. One of the things that Virtual Reality, along with Augmented Reality, will have a huge impact on online shopping is the products that need to be tried and tested (whether it's clothes or furniture). Being able to "see" these things to decide if they are suitable or not will ease the concerns of buyers and boost online shopping, which is currently stagnant. It's an amazing experience to see how a sofa will fit into your living room before you buy it; 4) VR technology will transform the education market, with applications for all levels of education, including those developed for the university classroom, virtual reality can make the process of learning richer, more interesting, and solve problems in different ways that people can't solve individually in existing courses. Any company that can offer educational products that use VR technology will have a tangible opportunity; 5) The product design process will improve, and I think VR technology will improve the ability to design products. With VR and simulation, people can do user testing without having to be in the same room, and with faster feedback, modifications can be made faster, reducing the total cost of production; 6) People will have access to "ubiquitous" experiences. Currently, the biggest problem in e-commerce, for both stores and consumers, is that the physical object does not meet expectations. With VR technology, users will have the opportunity to operate the product "wherever they are" and better understand the product they are buying. The same goes for booking hotels, cars, travel and adventure. Virtual Reality will bring the world to you, just like the Internet, only this time with more detail in every aspect; 7) VR technology can enhance the experience of entertainment such as movies, media and games, and the entertainment industry is the first to be disrupted by VR technology. Imagine sitting in your living room and watching the Super Bowl through VR technology, which will put you right in the stadium. The impact will be similar in movies and games; 8) VR technology will impact the health and medical industry. With VR technology, possible futures can be shown as if they were real scenarios, which can lead to huge transformations. Athletes and doctors are already utilizing VR devices to demonstrate goals to be achieved, including perfect health and fitness. What VR will actually look like in the next five years, we can only speculate with the existing technology and applications. Of course, at present, there are also good innovative technologies in China, such as the stacked realm digital technology of light field VR, I hope they can be applied to the industry as soon as possible, so that the future of VR is more imaginative.
Personally, I am most interested in virtual reality applications that can facilitate learning and relationship building in a corporate environment. By facing a virtual audience, you can practice your public speaking skills; by working in a virtualized office for a week, you can experience how a company is run in Japan; and you can communicate remotely with your boss on a regular, face-to-face basis through an avatar. The amount of knowledge you could learn or teach would explode if the physical or geographic limitations were removed.
12) Geographic location will no longer matter
We live in a virtual age, and with tools like Skype and Google Ring Chat, it doesn't matter where you are. However, with virtual reality, in the future not only will geographic location no longer matter, but even people thousands of miles apart will seem to still be together.