Augmented Reality or Virtual Reality has seeped its way into various industries like gaming, automotive and most importantly medicine.
Even though, AR Technology has been in motion from the 1960s, it is still a budding technology in various industries.
As the name suggests, augmented reality augments digital information onto reality. These virtual contents are typically in the form of digital imagery or sound, usually applied in 3D models or videos. AR works via the use of a range of sensors such as a camera, computer components or a display device.
Increasing expenditures in the healthcare industry and the need for cutting-edge technologies for the development of novel diagnostics and treatment therapies propelled the need for integrating AR technology in the healthcare industry.
Virtual Reality in Healthcare
Augmented or virtual reality is paving a way for itself in the healthcare industry. It’s expected that by the year 2020, the global market will reach a value of $1.5B. New AR innovations can help improve doctors and surgeons ability to diagnose, treat, and perform surgery on their patients more accurately. This gives real-time data and patient information faster, and more precisely than ever before.
Virtual Reality can also help in practicing medicine and education by allowing students and trainee physicians to visualize health issues and scenarios in a better way that they, one day, will be treating.
The benefit that AR can bring to the healthcare industry can be revolutionary and we are just witnessing the beginning of what is to come from AR in the field of medicine.
Key Factors Impacting AR
There are many factors that drive healthcare towards growth. However, some of these are really just opportunities that moves the industry forward.
Market Opportunities
Based on factors such as increasing investments in the AR market, proficient delivery of services to patients, and technological advancements in AR, the market is expected to grow significantly.
The incorporation of AR in medical imaging, surgical suites, and clinics, and its usage in training professionals to assist in complex medical procedures and surgeries are some of the most promising applications of these technologies so far.
Further, with the healthcare sector becoming digitalized at a rapid pace, owing to investments from prominent companies, the Virtual Reality industry might expand its area of applications at a robust rate in the coming years.
Market Restraints
On the other hand, there are factors that are responsible for restraining the growth of the market such as lack of proficiency among medical practitioners to adopt new technologies, threats related to data breach, and social issues such as public acceptance and retention.
The widespread adoption of AR headsets has been hindered due to multiple factors, such as health risks, chance of information security leak, and privacy issues. Also, common social issues, such as discomfort of people in wearing something all over can also act as an hindrance to widespread adoption of AR headsets.
Many times, most people are unaware of the advantages AR technologies offer. Another challenge faced by the market is lack of expertise among medical practitioners in the use of AR for medical procedures. Such a scenario is evident as even today there are a number of clinics that are using manual systems for managing and storing the records of the patients.
Human Factors to Affect Virtual Reality
1. Aesthetics:
The aesthetics of devices are an essential piece to mainstream adoption. Existing wearables tend to come in very bulky form factors, although there seems to be some laser-focus on ensuring that designs, even in their large size, seem sleek and modern. Finding the right aesthetic will increase the desirability of the device.
2. Comfort:
The current design of AR/VR wearables don’t allow for comfortable, prolonged usage. According to the review, comfort involves an acceptable temperature, texture, shape, weight and tightness. Devices shouldn’t limit the user’s natural movements.
3. Contextual Awareness:
Companies must consider and understand the scenarios in which AR/VR devices will be used. The comfort users perceive is strongly affected by the device’s purpose, varying significantly depending on social contexts. In a recent device I was testing, I found a workout challenge where I had to move around and jump.
4. Customization:
Wearables need to account for all our human differences in shape, size and dimension. To engage users, devices should enable customization in size, color and appearance for ultimate comfort.
5. Ease of Use:
Consider some of the most popular VR headsets on market today. Most of them use the combination of three form factors to provide the experience: the headset, a smartphone and headphones. The user experience of managing all the different pieces is clunky and takes away from the potential of VR. These interactions should be easy and seamless for the user.
6. Overload:
Human cognitive capabilities are finite and limited. The number of concurrent activities we can perform are very less. Consider an instance where you were having a conversation with a friend, but then they received a text and started responding to it? It’s likely that the action negatively affects your interaction. The same applies to AR wearables – they may take away from in-person communications, by making the user seem unengaged.
