Hi, and welcome to the Arm 'What is' program series. In each episode, we explore a tech
topic to give you insight and perspective into some of today's hottest design trends.
I'm Brian Fuller, editor-in-chief at Arm and today we're going to find out what is XR?
And to help us with that, I want to introduce Ketan Shah,
senior director XR on wearables with Arm. When he's not helping us understand what is XR,
Ketan enjoys exploring the great outdoors in Southern California.
So let's dive right in. Ketan what exactly is XR?
Thanks, Brian. Before I talk about XR, I do want to start off by talking a little bit
about the metaverse. The metaverse is really an exciting new evolution of the internet
that we anticipate coming forward in the near future. There are obviously a lot of exciting
things about the metaverse that could be done for gaming, for transactions, store shopping,
and even using it for productivity and other things out there in the marketplace.
But to enable that particular metaverse experience,
XR devices are going to be a really an amazing gateway that Arm is going to be a
part of and supporting our partners and building and making sure that they are able to provide that
rich experience. There are going to be two types of devices that we anticipate seeing.
One is virtual reality. The virtual reality is basically about having this immersive experience,
right? That you can use for social, games, new life entertainment experiences,
even potentially even doing a, what I will call, a remote working experiences in collaboration.
And virtual reality is going to eventually bring such rich experience overall
that it will probably displace some of the particular screens in your home.
That could be a computer screen or something of that nature overall. A good example of a virtual
reality headset is from Meta, the Oculus Quest. It provides a really rich experience at a very
reasonable price point, that's using a lot of the Arm technology inside as part of it.
The other part that will enable the metaverse and the experiences is augmented reality.
Augmented reality is going to be able to bring rich experience to the individual
as they are actually moving around and mobile in their real world.
This experience is going to be able to provide additional augmentation
to that individual based on sensors and depth perception, things of that nature. For example,
you know, navigation could be also used for cooking purposes, social, those types of things.
And both of these devices are going to be in an amazing gateway that'll
provide those users a new set of internet experiences that they've not seen before.
That will probably give them a better experience, whether it's
immersive or even augment their particular day-to-day activities that they're doing.
Now, when it comes to implementing the technology,
does one size fit all or do these require generally bespoke design solutions?
We're seeing different types of implementations in the marketplace. For VR, we're seeing a lot
more reuse of smartphone technology that is even adding additional capabilities for graphics like
foveated rendering, eye tracking, other aspects. And the reason is that you need to be able to have
quick response times, high performance, and to be able to that immersive experience to the graphics
and the sensors and the VR headsets. So there, we're seeing a lot more commonality,
but we're seeing where VR headsets are pushing the limits in many of the new areas where
smartphones do not have to do, provide those types of services and experiences.
AR is actually a nascent space. It's a space that's not very well; it's developing. There's
a lot of exciting areas about how AR could be used. It could be used for navigation,
can be used for DYI cooking. So for example, if you're cooking, you know, it actually is able to
detect objects. So you're going to see a lot more what I would call, new innovations and experiences
to try those, you know, those experiences will be driven through the new innovations. And there
we're seeing what we would call low power. You know, Arm is known for our low power solutions
and that's one of the things that we're obviously able to bring to the table for these AR glasses.
Computer vision is another area that obviously is going to become more exciting and interesting
because you have to be able to detect objects and be able to process that.
So, I would say the innovations are going to be evolving
a lot more based on what smartphones have already brought to the marketplace.
And they obviously based on the form factor, you know, that the device,
that these devices are going to be able to support. ARs are typically augmented reality
are more about smart glasses. That means they have to be low weight in that sense.
They have, they don't have as much battery as a smartphone, so they obviously need to be more
efficient and what they do, they will have cameras that will be built into them in many cases.
And obviously, you know, thinking about security and privacy, you know, these
devices will be that AR glasses, smart glasses will have to be more, able to care for those
requirements. Virtual reality, as I mentioned earlier, will be more about bringing in
those smart phone-like experiences, but augmenting it with high performance and be able to use new
elements of sensors, graphics, gestures, things of that nature that were not used in smartphones.
But the good news is, that smartphone is a great basis for enabling these new experiences.
And will obviously, we'll bespoke type of solutions will build, will emerge over time.
Well, thanks Ketan. I think you've inspired us to figure out how to add XR capabilities
to these videos. Now, check out all our other "What is" episodes here and be sure to subscribe
to this channel because we'll be adding more as the year progresses. Thanks for listening!