Recently, we have been fascinated by the possibilities of Virtual Reality (VR), as a result, when Joyce saw her friend Terry Brock’s blog and interview with Dave Hodgson, president of 3-D Solutions, discussing various business applications, she knew she had to share the applications of technology with you.

Wise businessmen and women will look at these applications for how they may use them in their businesses---large and small.

Marketing and advertising

Virtual Reality can give consumers the opportunity to experience products and services in life-like interactions and demonstrations. With VR, marketers can offer their customers a chance to feel like they already own the product or have purchased the service. Particularly appropriate for high-end products and services that cost a lot to demonstrate, VR can dramatically reduce marketing costs with life-like and vivid experiences, designed to sell luxuries.

Retail and e-commerce

Using VR, prospects may tour a showroom or walk through a catalog, without leaving the comfort of their home or office, eliminating the need for many bricks and mortar stores.

Saving lives with VR

VR application for medicine and surgery are perhaps the most exciting, because they can save lives. Imagine that your surgeon might have an opportunity to practice an operation before touching your body. This practice allows surgeons to hone their skills and perform their operations better in less time. The faster surgeons can perform operations, typically, the faster the healing process.

New perspectives from drones

3-D Solutions makes flying ones that allow users to see aerial perspectives; with those additional points of view, people can often improve safety and give users a better sense of reality. Now, real estate agents can also use drones to create video tours of their properties.

Real estate sales

For a few years now, VR has been used to give homebuyers virtual tours of properties and the insides of homes. By combining drone technology with VR, real estate professionals give their potential buyers the experience of “being there".

An experience of being there without travel

Cruise marketers and hoteliers have also been using virtual tours for years to promote their staterooms and hotel rooms. We wrote about a real VR experience that Carnival Cruise Lines had arranged with Samsung (https://www.hermangroup.com/alert/archive_3-2-2016.html). Now destinations are beginning to use VR to give travelers the experience of a new city, hotel or other location before getting on an airplane.

Enhancing meetings

If you have ever seen the Oculus Rift video on YouTube, it is easy to understand why Facebook purchased the technology to enhance virtual meetings. Moving beyond video, VR gives users more realistic meeting experiences without leaving their offices.

What’s next for VR?

The possible applications for VR are amazing; the ones we have highlighted here are only the beginning. Imagine what could come with the combination of VR and artificial intelligence.? Wise businesses will begin today to start looking at how they might use this or other technologies to enhance their user experiences or better promote their goods and services today and tomorrow.

© Copyright 1998-2017 by The Herman Group of Companies, Inc., all rights reserved. From 'The Herman Trend Alert,' by Joyce Gioia, Strategic Business Futurist. (800) 227-3566 or www.hermangroup.com  

The Herman Trend Alert is a trademark of The Herman Group of Companies, Inc. Reprinted with permission