Immersive tech like that seen in the Steven Spielberg blockbuster Ready Player One is around the corner, according to a South Korean tech entrepreneur.
The movie adaptation of Ernest Cline鈥檚 popular novel features characters which live almost exclusively within virtual reality and can move freely in the real world to duplicate those actions in the virtual space.
Benjamin Song, founder and chairman at South Korean 360 video firm Thirteenth Floor, believes all business will use immersive technology in the future.
鈥淭he tech from the [Ready Player One] movie is coming soon 鈥� it can almost do those things already,鈥� he said.
鈥淲ithin five years the AR and VR market will be ten times bigger than it is now 鈥撀� the tech is developing faster than the mobile phone, so that’s what we are expecting.鈥�
Song was speaking to 老九品茶Cloud at the two-day AR & VR Conference at Manchester Metropolitan University. South Korean government organisation Gyeonggi Content Agency flew its AR/VR project teams into Manchester for the conference as part of a global collaboration project.
The conference also saw tech giants such as BT and Microsoft exhibiting the latest augmented and virtual reality technologies alongside a programme of talks and presentations from sector-leading experts.
Renegade Fortress MR developer Ash Clement told us that immersive technologies are 鈥渃urrently for big corporates鈥�.
鈥淎t the moment they are for people with big budgets that want to experiment,鈥� he said. 鈥淲e need it to become more consumer-focused.
鈥淚n a few years鈥� time, when cheaper smaller headsets come down, it will eventually replace the phone and every other form of interacting with tech.鈥�
The Media City-based company works with mixed reality technology that scans the user鈥檚 area so that their environment becomes part of the immersive experience.
For example, it offers companies fire safety training using MR that makes it look as if there was an actual fire, so employees can safely practice exit procedures in their own office.
Clement says the key to immersive technology is about how companies display information.
鈥淭hey鈥檙e currently restricted to a screen but what MR does is allow us to break that information out into the users鈥� own environment,鈥� he said.
鈥淓veryone interacts with things in a different way so we give them customised experiences. Whether it鈥檚 reading or talking to an interactive presence, it’s all about how people want to interact in a more intuitive way.鈥�
The conference was aimed at developing new business partnerships and investments for Korean immersive technology companies in the UK. Those chosen to travel to the UK included Charm, a firm which collects cultural property & tourist attraction information based on AR position awareness technology.
Divecore, which produces VR experiences by converting images to VR content, was also there and is featured in our video above.