AI and AR/VR
I would to blog this week on combining AI and VR (Virtual reality)/AR (Augmented Reality).
I would like to ask myself 2 questions and attempt to answer them with available articles out there that discuss about the questions.
- How AI relates to VR/AR?
- How AI helps create more powerful VR/AR enabled devices and businesses?
On the first question, as we know, AI/ML(Machine Learning) are about processing and analyzing a large set of data and provides a predictive answer to a request; While VR/AR are more about visualizing the data as images/video/audio or takes the current reality and adds something to it (AR). So, one could say that AI/ML could become the “mind” behind more impressive applications of VR/AR now and in a near future. As well said by the author in article [1]: “One lives in your computer (AI), the other is a computer you live in (VR)”.
On my second question, let’s analyze couple VR/AR devices out there and area of business and services that I believe are or will take advantage of a marriage between AI and VR/AR:
- Couples weeks ago, we studied AI and cloud computing and we blogged on the pair working together. Adding VR to the pair making it a trio, AI/Cloud/VR and applying could be apply to application such as virtual classroom. It would open up a new way in remote education and give a whole new dimension to online class. I am an SCPD remote student out of Tampa, FL, I wish I could feel more like being in the classroom during class hours and be able to see and ask questions to the lecturers as if I were actually sitting in the classroom! Article [2] touches on couple real-world use case of AI/AR.
- Extended Reality (ER): in article [3], the author mentioned: “VR developers have sought new applications beyond gaming and entertainment but progress has been limited, by and large, to training and simulation situations. Then, along came big data and artificial intelligence, and everything changed for virtual reality. We no longer speak in terms of virtual reality or even augmented reality, but in terms of extended reality (ER), with technology bringing many different types of data and realities into an environment that is both insightful and shareable.” Such applications could be in robotics, natural language processing to create an extended reality where “participants become part of a virtual ecosystem and can interact with and dissect data within their real-world field of view.”
- Autonomous Cars: AR program collect data over time that are used to train data models for image sensing.
- Visual search: “Pinterest released a beta version of Lens, an image recognition tool that enables users to click an image from their immediate surrounding or upload an image from their gallery to search for similar items on Pinterest.” [4]
- Travel: Bill gates and Warren Buffet agree that “automation and technology will make it easier for U.S. workers to actually get to their vacations.” [5]. AI powers travel recommendations, dynamic trips pricing, fly your plane (Boeing is making a pilotless airplane!). VR helps consumers “try before you buy” by help you be transported (VR glasses) to discover places you want to go and help you decide where you actually want to fly for your vacation. VR provide more than just still pictures of the places. “Now, there are 360-degree cameras. The multiple lenses capture absolutely everything, in every direction. The software (in real-time) stitches the images together instantly, producing photos and videos that a visitor can immerse themselves in.”
In summary, technology is taking a giant leap into improving our lives with the combination of AI and VR that provide endless applications.
[1]: https://medium.com/@dema300w/artificial-intelligence-ai-versus-virtual-reality-vr-947599749185
[2]: https://tdwi.org/articles/2017/04/04/ai-with-augmented-and-virtual-reality-next-big-thing.aspx
[3]: https://www.forbes.com/sites/steveculp/2018/04/30/virtual-reality-plus-artificial-intelligence-can-transform-risk-management/#3751ab7b756a
[4]: https://www.perfomatix.com/augmented-reality-and-machine-learning-come-together/
[5]: https://bigthink.com/jazzy-quick/how-ai-vr-and-ar-will-change-how-you-vacation
2 comments on “AI and AR/VR”
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I have many years of experience in wireless industry (at Nokia and Broadcom) and now in Fire Security Systems industry (at UTC).
Hi Patrice – thanks for bringing a lot of interesting ideas to the table involving AR/VR and their potential interaction with AI and big data as we know it today. I think your second point about extended reality is particularly interesting, especially when we consider the possibility of multiple augmented reality situations that interact in a larger virtual space. You mentioned that the current VR perspective is one for simulation and training – flight simulation training is one good example of that. To my understanding, it seems like extended reality would allow multiple AR/VR users to interact in a coherent, simulated environment, allowing them to experience the same simulated environment. Instead of being an individual experience in a simulated world, each user would be able to see how their interactions impact others’ experiences, and vice versa – this is a really cool idea to me because it seems like a manifestation of parallel worlds, where we can see (in a limited capacity) the “what ifs” which may not be practical to explore in the real world.
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Great post about AI and its application with VR/AR, I really like how you outlined the new scenarios of considering travel locations based on the article. This post reminded me of the time when google glass was the new craze that everybody kept talking about in terms of how it could “enhance reality” by feeding wearer’s with considerable data, which is kinda similar to this definition of extended reality. Google glass, to me, was typically concerned with augmented reality in which wearer’s would be able to “augment” their day to day activities, mostly through applications of multi tasking uses while wearing the google glass. I imagined a situation where google glasses are accepted and developed to the point where something close to extended reality, where data or descriptions of what we see are fed with explanations that allow user’s to interpret it, through the help of AI of course.