Perhaps it is best, however, if we just start by taking a step back before diving deeper into Mixed Reality (MR). Is there a difference between VR and AR, and what do the two things even mean? And yes, there is definitely a difference between the two things, although it is a slight technical difference:

• VR are digital environments that are placed over our reality (using VR glasses). In this way, we can go to another and different place that reminds us of reality. We might even forget that we are sitting at home on the sofa while we feel like we are on a beach in Bali.
• YEAR places digital objects as a layer on top our reality. Content in 2D and 3D on top of our real surroundings allows us to collect and see extra information that is relevant to the situation we are in. In this way, our physical world almost becomes a personal medium.

Read more about AR's role for our businesses here

What is Mixed Reality?

But VR and AR are evolving into something new and more advanced: MR. Here, our relationship with technology is changed from being personal to being co-creative. Technological devices go from storing our personal content (as our smartphones do) to being creative spaces mediated to us through technology.

The Mixed Reality experience takes place through a display that is mounted on the user's head. The experience combines the best of the physical and the digital world, where the user receives a real-time image of real surroundings superimposed on a layer of intelligent virtual objects. This symbiosis makes it possible to carry out completely new interactions through movements and vocalizations with a realism that is epoch-making.

The software behind MR is based on two core functions in particular:

• Image recognition: The technology quickly analyzes an image and identifies its content. It can be anything from walls, floors and tables to other objects that we interact with.
• Simultaneous orientation and mapping: The technology identifies where the user is and maps the surroundings precisely – at the same time. This requires a very special artificial intelligence (AI), where the computer constantly learns and develops new information. Virtual objects can interact with reality and with each other with a convincing degree of realism.

If we take a manufacturing company as an example, they will be able to use AR as a pair of glasses that offer a constantly accessible manual for the staff when operating the machines. Crazy smart! However, MR goes one step further. Here, the same glasses (or display) will itself be able to recognize the surroundings and the situation and automatically suggest relevant experts, systems or actions that are necessary to complete a task.

This is where Mixed Reality hits the companies

The digitization and technology experts at Accenture Lab predicts that it will be the consumer products, energy and welfare sectors that will initially implement Mixed Reality. They have identified the following three areas in the workplace that are essential to keep an eye on in the near future:

• Features with a focus on needs. When companies introduced smartphones, tablets, etc. into everyday life, it became possible for employees to have faster and easier access to the same information. MR goes one step further and presents employees with information in a physical space. The information will be tailored to the environment and context and thus be as relevant and accessible to the user as possible.
• Sharing of real virtual workplaces. New collaboration opportunities will arise with MR, as it is possible to connect a team in a shared virtual world over the physical one. Here, the team can collaborate on the virtual objects that are superimposed on the same reality.
• Experts at a distance. With MR, it becomes easier for companies to handle the need for support, coaching and advice for employees. The technology can connect the employee with the expert in no time and at minimal cost. Eg. an employee on an oil platform can stream what he sees to an expert, who can then process the information in 3D and send back his instructions in real-time.

MR will, by all accounts, change our daily life in companies considerably. Both large and small tasks will become easier, faster and smarter. But what does the time horizon say, when can we expect to have to adjust our business to Mixed Reality in everyday life?

The first MR products are just around the corner

Alex Kipman, who over the past 16 years has been the primary developer of more than 100 of Microsoft's patents, says in an interview with FastCompany, that Microsoft sees MR as the key to the future.

Kipman emphasizes that VR and AR technology has long been in a price bracket, which has made it difficult to convince private consumers of the technology. Smart glasses have e.g. more of an impressive proof of what we can develop rather than a product that changes our lives.

The same will probably apply with MRI; it can be a long process to integrate the technology into our daily lives, unless the hardware and software are made sufficiently cheap.

Therefore, during 2018, Microsoft will launch new Windows Mixed Reality Headsets, which unite the AR and VR experience within a price range of 300-500 dollars. With them, users can create a 3D space that they can personalize using media, apps, internet browser, etc. Their own digital universe where they can interact directly with their own ideas.