Immersive Technology will be adopted only if it solves for trust

A great story is immersive

The very first book I read was called When Daddy Was a Little Boy. Those were the days when Russian books were easy to find and the cheapest gift to give. I got this book. The stories were all about "daddy" who had bad handwriting, got bullied, and in short struggled with many of the things I too was grappling with. The story was universal. That was my introduction to immersive technology.

I was mesmerised. I identified with the protagonist. When little daddy was sick, I felt feverish. When he was bullied, I was afraid. When he was sad, I cried. This was my introduction to the immersive power of storytelling. <read a page from that book>

A powerful story is immersive because it makes you suspend disbelief. When we evaluate immersive technology against this yardstick, where do we net out?

Immersive Technology

This week I was at MICA Business School attending the International Communication Management Conference (ICMC 2024). We discussed how immersive technologies create distinct experiences by merging the physical world with a digital or simulated reality. Augmented reality (AR) and virtual reality (VR) are two principal types of immersive technologies.

In a world where content is abundant, the viewer chooses to immerse themselves in a handful of options, they multi task while passively watching the rest.

"Stories don't change. Formats do," says Biren Ghose

"You can never enjoy a horror film on a mobile phone. You have to see it in a movie hall. The light, the sound, the collective gasp of the audience... all go to create the experience of horror," he says.

AR and VR - my take

I wrote about the possibilities of VR in May 2016. <Read this> The headset still looks too clunky. Apple's Vision Pro is still an expensive toy. The design is no better than what it was seven years back.

Can a BUILDING create an immersive reality?

Yes. The 18,600-seat auditorium, called Sphere in Las Vegas is being marketed for its immersive video and audio capabilities, which include a 16K resolution wraparound interior LED screen, speakers with beamforming and wave field synthesis technologies, and 4D physical effects.

Mass adoption depends on TRUST

There are companies that have created onboarding experiences in the metaverse. BMW uses augmented reality (AR) to accelerate the design and prototyping of new products. Skill building will be the biggest opportunity for immersive tech. Helping older people "travel" is a great use case in a world that is graying rapidly.

What if customers can engage with the Customer Service hotline in the metaverse? It is a great idea you would say, but since the agent's managers will have access to the interaction, the agent may find the metaverse interactions shaping his/ her performance appraisal. Data gathering, data privacy and usage will shape the adoption of technology that often assumes that privacy does not matter.

Immersive Tech is not just about flashy gadgets and fancy graphics. It is about telling stories that engage, inspire, and transform the audience. To create effective immersive experiences, we need to understand the medium, the message, and the context of our target audience. Immersive Tech is the art and science of storytelling. Every successful storyteller knows that a great story makes the reader or viewer suspend disbelief. A great story makes the reader leave the real world and step into the make believe world of the storyteller. That takes trust. Tech creators must understand that!

My podcast brings you storytellers

Every Wednesday at 7:30pm India time ie 6am Pacific Time and 9am in New York, join me on LinkedIn to listen to the world's best storytellers.

Bob Sutton the co-author (with Prof Huggy Rao) of The Friction Project recently told The Wall Street Journal how a firm spent two million hours each year on performance management, including completing forms, holding meetings and creating ratings.

Don't miss this episode.

In case you missed watching the first episode featuring the guy who started the first gaming company in India, watch this

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Have a question? Email me at abhijitbhaduri@live.com