How VR and AR can solve business problems in multiple industries

Virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) are touching every facet of consumer life. If you want to get in shape, you can strap on a headset, hop on a bike and pedal through another world. 360 video can take you from the stadium to the race circuit, and you can tour the streets of a new locale before ever booking your plane ticket. New technologies like Samsung Odyssey equipped with built-in screens and audio feedback can create digital environments that consumers can fall into and interact with.

While consumers embrace these inventions, corporations are often slower to adopt and adapt. For enterprises trying but struggling to integrate, here are a few ways VR and AR can solve business problems across industries:

Inspecting Locations Abroad

Imagine you own a manufacturing company. You need to inspect one of your warehouses. The problem is you are headquartered in Boston, and the warehouse is in Rio de Janeiro. Manufacturers who operate on a national or global scale grapple with this issue all the time. Traveling to facilities for inspections costs companies thousands of dollars.

VR offers manufacturers mobility. By replicating the warehouse environment virtually, companies save travel costs by examining facilities remotely from a central location.

VR also brings benefits to the factory floor. Managers can use VR to train new employees before putting them on the production line. VR training exercises simulate what you see and hear inside a factory. When new hires transition from training to the production line, the environment feels familiar. This familiarity offsets the risk of injury and mistakes thereby improving safety and productivity.

Let’s say you want to integrate a new piece of machinery into your facility. Using AR, you could upload the dimensions of the equipment and create an image of how it will look inside your facility. These images allow you to validate that the equipment will fit inside your plant, or inform you of any modifications you need to make for the installation.

Customization Before Construction

What if you are a real estate agent hoping to sell a prospective homebuyer, but the model home hasn’t been built yet? Developers in the United States now conduct VR and AR walkthroughs of model homes that do not physically exist.

These experiences put power into the hands of consumers. Using VR and AR-based applications, buyers can hold a smartphone or tablet like the Galaxy S9 or the Galaxy Tab Active2 to move through a simulated home. As they interact with the space, they can preview different flooring, cabinetry and wall colors in the process enabling them to envision and customize their home ahead of construction.

A Healthy Alternative

Opioid abuse is a huge problem facing healthcare in the United States. Critics believe the drug is overprescribed. What if VR and AR could provide a drug-free alternative to opioids for pain management?

Studies conducted in university and private hospitals show VR therapy lowers self-reported pain scores. Researchers believe VR can provide an immersive getaway for patients undergoing chemotherapy, dialysis and other painful and uncomfortable treatments both inside and outside the hospital.

Although AR is still in its conceptualization face, the chance that these technologies can help is extremely encouraging for patients suffering from chronic and severe pain. While consumer applications continue to drive the future of AR and VR, we expect to see enterprises examining these use cases and leveraging ways they can impact their own businesses.

What use cases of AR and VR are disrupting the way your industry operates? Let us know by tweeting us at @SamsungSDSA.