Virtual Reality: Exploring the Potential of the Oculus Rift

Back in 1995, when I went to see a movie called Disclosure, the story line about sexual harassment in corporate America was OK, but what really fascinated us was this thing called virtual reality. In the movie, the virtual world was used to store confidential information in a system of files and folders within the computers. Who wouldn’t be riveted by a seemingly real virtual world created by computers.

Today, the Oculus rift is creating a similar spark in my imagination. Most people viewing this as a gaming tool, but I think it is going to revolutionize communication in a big way.

Let me suggest two areas where it can make a major impact:

Tele – Journey

I often tell stories to my daughter about how I grew up and what I did not have, so she will understand what she has and how privileged she is. I tell her about the village that my dad took my sister and I to for a month during summer vacation so that we could experience village life and understand different echelons of society. We would go and live with our grandpa and our aunt’s family—and we’d walk two kilometers at 6:45AM to wash and play in the river and use the neem tree sticks we had plucked from the trees to brush our teeth. I describe working in the fields, gathering groundnuts, weeding, and doing other farm work. I tell her about biking to the store to buy a bag of rice or sugar, or perhaps a can of kerosene. Even as I talk, I know that a picture is worth a thousand words. I challenge her to some day go and spend a month in that same village. Even better, I wish that I could immerse her in that world right from home with virtual reality.

Even better, imagine visiting Taj Mahal or the Bragatheeshwarar temple in Tanjore, South India without booking a flight or managing travel hassles. Imagine sitting in your own home and experience walking through the place with a knowledgeable guide offering detailed information, stories, and history of the place through the Oculus rift. Virtual reality can let us see places in a close fashion without leaving home. That is both cool and convenient!

Bragadeeshwarar temple in Tanjore, South India

Think, too, of the times that most of us have given someone a virtual tour of a new home or office, or potential rental space, using a laptop or smart phone. Imagine doing that with the Oculus Rift to create a world that blends virtual and real to have a touch and feel experience.

Tele – Commute   

Not all of the potential use cases are consumer/personal though. Today, many organizations, especially those in the electronics industry, are global. They are located in the United States, perhaps, and hire consultants and work with suppliers all over the world. Spanning continents can create a communication gap where things fall through the cracks and are missed. It’s never really like being in the same room.

Imagine enhancing video conferencing technology and turning the walls of the conference room or office into large screen TVs. The system might automatically mirror an office in India, for example, so that it seems as if the consultant 10,000 miles away is sitting in the next cubicle. Then, we can interact as if I were sitting right next to him—and I can glance over and see him. I know when he is in the office and when he has left for the day. Take it a step further—and think about how a headset like the Oculus Rift would simplify creating that kind of interaction. Of course, that would demand higher bandwidth and lots of processing power to create the high-definition real world experience I’m imagining.

I think that this is where Skype or any other video-conference technology is headed next. Today, everything is 2D, but using devices like Oculus Rift adds another dimension, to create a virtual world with many benefits:

  1. Users are much more engaged because it is as if they are right next to you. The torture of the conference call could be eradicated.
  2. The ability to touch and feel the things in the virtual real world.
  3. Significantly reduced travel and the associated cost savings
  4. The potential to have virtual parties, to build camaraderie and engagement among remote teams spread through multiple geographies.

I also think, in the future, the websites will support this type of technology to create better consumer experiences for their customers.  Perhaps we could wear the Oculus Rift and virtually test drive a new car, try on clothes or test out electronic gadgets.

How do you think this technology may be used to solve problems in the supply chain space? We would love to hear your thoughts.

Originally published at Smartgladiator.com on Feb 28, 2018.
28
Aug 2018
By Puga SankaraComments Off on Virtual Reality: Exploring the Potential of the Oculus Rift
Author:
Puga Sankara
About:
Puga Sankara is the Founder, CEO of Smart Gladiator LLC. Smart Gladiator designs, builds, and delivers market-leading mobile technology for retailers, distributors, and 3PL service providers. So far, Smart Gladiator LoadProof has been used to ship, receive, and scan more than 100 million boxes. SG LoadProof is a patent pending Centralized Enterprise Photo/Video Document System on Cloud for Supply Chain. SG LP is built on the fact that photos & videos are vital docs as important as POs/SOs/Legal Contracts/Fulfillment Orders that reside in ERP/WMS/TMS systems, that serve as compelling, conclusive, unequivocal proof of crucial, critical, vital operations executed in Supply Chain within/across orgs when fulfilling customer orders as well as meeting contractual obligations between orgs as merchandise is transferred between different parties that partake in Supply Chain functions & operations. And these photos/videos data should not be stored in someone’s Smartphone or Email Inbox or in their personal/work Computer, but should be stored in a Centralized Enterprise system, where such data can be pushed into super-fast, stored securely, accessible to all stake holders (CFO/Sales Reps/Customer Support/AR/AP) in an org, as well as facilitates super-fast retrieval/sharing. LP is an Enterprise System of record for Photo/Video docs & is as important as an ERP which is an enterprise system of record for POs, SOs, Legal Contracts between parties etc. that have huge legal ramifications, also as important as a WMS (Warehouse Management System) that hold indispensable shipment & fulfillment data on orders. Like how Instagram, Facebook, Snapchat etc. have evolved into social media platforms/systems that enable individuals to showcase their beauty/pretty clothes/lovely cosmetics/hep coolness etc., LoadProof is an Enterprise system that holds similar photos/videos, but for a different reason, not for show off, but to serve as compelling, conclusive, unequivocal & indisputable system of record and proof that can be presented even in the court of law, when there is a dispute between parties while they execute many facets of the Supply Chain functions & operations. SG LoadProof is also an Enterprise System of Record for Photos, videos and any other digital documents for your Supply Chain Network. A system of record (SOR) or source system of record (SSoR) is a data management term for an information storage system (commonly implemented on a computer system running a database management system) that is the authoritative data source for a given data element or piece of information. The need to identify systems of record can become acute in organizations where management information systems have been built by taking output data from multiple source systems, re-processing this data, and then re-presenting the result for new business use. In these cases, multiple information systems may disagree about the same piece of information. These disagreements may stem from semantic differences, differences in opinion, use of different sources, and differences in the timing of the extract, transform, and load processes that create the data they report against, or may simply be the result of bugs. The integrity and validity of any data set is open to question when there is no traceable connection to a good source, such as a known System of Record. Where the integrity of the data is vital, if there is an agreed system of record, the data element must either be linked to, or extracted directly from it. In other cases, the provenance and estimated data quality should be documented. The “system of record” approach is a good fit for environments where both: 1. there is a single authority over all data consumers, and 2. all consumers have similar needs Here, LoadProof is the System of Record for pictures and videos for all the entities in Supply chain who uses pictures and videos to track using any Supply Chain System infrastructure. 1. LoadProof provides accurate, thorough, complete, and latest information in pictures and videos related to any entity in the Supply chain that is tracked. 2. LoadProof is the single authority on pictures and videos related to any entity in the Supply Chain that is tracked 3. LoadProof doesn’t let any external system to copy the records being stored in it, which eliminates the data being duplicated in multiple places to preserve the data integrity and credibility. 4. LoadProof has a secured login procedure which lets only users with select level access to view the data and modify the records which helps in maintaining LoadProof is becoming the Industry Standard System for Photo & Video Docs for Supply Chain Smart Gladiator is located in ATDC - Advanced Tech Dev Center (tech Incubator) in Georgia Institute of Tech. Click for a demo - https://loadproof.com/apply Puga is a supply chain technology professional with more than 25 years of experience in deploying capabilities in the logistics and supply chain domain. His prior roles involved managing complicated mission-critical programs driving revenue numbers, rolling out a multitude of capabilities involving more than a dozen systems, and managing a team of 30 to 50 personnel across multiple disciplines and departments in large corporations such as Hewlett Packard. He has deployed WMS for more than 30 distribution centers in his role as a senior manager with Manhattan Associates. He has also performed process analysis walk-throughs for more than 50 distribution centers for WMS process design and performance analysis review, optimizing processes for better productivity and visibility through the supply chain. Size of these DCs varied from 150,000 to 1.2 million SQFT. Puga Sankara has an MBA from Georgia Tech. He can be reached at puga@smartgladiator.com or visit the company at www.smartgladiator.com. Also follow him at www.pugasankara.com. [Read More]
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