The Next Dimension E-Book

Tom Emrich

• Herausgeber: John Wiley & Sons
• Kategorie: Fachliteratur
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 368

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024

Beschreibung

Your guide to transforming your business with spatial computing, featuring real use cases and proof points of augmented reality in marketing, advertising, and sales

Ready to revolutionize your business? The Next Dimension: How to Use Augmented Reality For Business Growth In The Era of Spatial Computing, by Tom Emrich, explores the power of augmented reality (AR) to propel your business strategy into the next wave of computing. Learn how AR is reshaping the digital landscape, crafting a new marketing mix, and evolving retail into a brand-new consumer experience. Gain valuable insights on realizing success with AR across the marketing funnel, activate and engage ‘Generation AR,’ and move beyond traditional ads with immersive campaigns that are co-created with your consumer. With real-world examples from brands like LEGO, BMW, Walmart, Gucci, Diageo, and more, this guide equips you with everything you need to use AR technology for immediate and impactful results.

What's Inside? Game-Changing Benefits:

• Spatial Computing 101: Get introduced to the future of computing. Understand how spatial computing transforms our relationship with technology and uncover the new opportunities it offers for your business.
• Your 3D Wakeup Call: Learn to spatialize your business by embracing 3D. Discover the latest consumer devices and develop a 3D strategy that maximizes your investment across consumer touchpoints.
• Marketing in an Augmented World: Explore how brands seamlessly integrate AR into their marketing mix. Dive into common mobile AR use cases and see how brand pioneers are marketing with mixed reality headsets like Apple Vision Pro and Meta Quest 3.
• Advertising in the Next Dimension: Break free from traditional banner ads with immersive AR campaigns. Learn to digitize print and out-of-home advertising and get a glimpse of future opportunities with smartglasses.
• Selling with Spatial Computing: Revolutionize e-commerce into AR-commerce by bringing showrooms to customers and making online shopping feel more tangible. Use AR to turn a trip to the store into an unforgettable experience.

Why The Next Dimension is Your Must-Have Guide:

• Groundbreaking Insights: Tom Emrich demystifies cutting-edge technology, breaking it down into simple, actionable steps that make AR accessible and exciting for everyone.
• Real-World Success Stories: Immerse yourself in inspiring case studies from pioneering brands leveraging AR platforms from Meta, Snap, TikTok, Niantic, and more. These include data points demonstrating how AR achieves results from awareness to purchase.
• Actionable Roadmaps: Receive detailed, practical guidance on effectively integrating AR, covering everything from innovative marketing tactics to measurement considerations.
• Future-Proof Your Career: Ramp up your knowledge, gain inspiration, and find out how to develop an AR-centric strategy to stay ahead in this ever-evolving tech landscape.

The Next Dimension is more than a book; it's your key to unlocking the digital frontier. Become a spatial computing champion and help take yourself and your business to the forefront of this technology.

Bonus for book owners: This book is AR-activated. Bring the cover to life with a WebAR experience created by EyeJack. PLUS, talk to an AI about this book with ‘The Next Dimension Book GPT.’

Leseprobe

Table of Contents

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Disclaimer

How to Use This Book

Bring the Cover to Life with AR

Talk to an AI About This Book

Preface: The Man from the Future

CHAPTER 1: Welcome to the Era of Spatial Computing

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

We Are All Digital Flat Earthers

I Sense, Therefore I Am

Mind the Gap

A Leap in Dimension

Our Post-Smartphone Future

The Age of Experience

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 2: Spatial Computing 101

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

40 Years in the Making

The Spatial Computing Tech Stack

The Eyes and Ears of Spatial Computing

If Computers Only Had a BrAIn

Merging Our Body with Bytes

Software Development for AR/VR

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 3: Your 3D Wake-Up Call

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

A New Device Ecosystem

It All Starts with 3D

Spatializing 2D Content

Gaming and the Metaverse

The State of AR Today

The Market Readiness for AR

Societal Considerations

The Year Is 2035

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 4: Marketing in an Augmented World

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

You Can’t Spell “Brand” without the “A” and “R”

Jumping the Immersive Innovation Chasm

Proving Value Along the Marketing Funnel

Collapsing and Twisting the Marketing Funnel

The New “P” in Marketing

Generation AR

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 5: Redefining Mobile Marketing

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

Integrating AR as Part of Your Marketing Mix

Make Consumers the Main Character

Open a Portal to Your Brand World

Bring Content into the Consumers’ World

Awaken Your Product So It Can Sell

Add a Talking Twist to Your Packaging

Let Your Packaging Entertain Your Consumer

Gamify the In-Store Experience

Measuring Success with AR

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 6: Marketing in the Era of Spatial Computing

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

AR Headworn Wearables Are Already Here

Meet the MR Marketing Pioneers

Key Principles in MR Headset Marketing

Looking into the MR Crystal Ball

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 7: Advertising in the Next Dimension

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

Moving Beyond the Banner Ad

A Massive Opportunity for Advertisers

AR Ads That Go Snap, Insta, and Tok

AR Ads Outside the Walled Garden

Augmenting Billboards and Bus Shelters

Make Your Ad Jump Off the Page

Key Principles for AR Ad Success

Measurement and the Importance of Standards

MR Headsets—A New Frontier for Advertisers

Advertising in a World with AR Glasses

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 8: Selling with Spatial Computing

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

AR Sales Opportunities Today

Consumer Demand and Early Insights

Transforming E-Commerce into AR-Commerce

Using AR as a Physical Product Perk

The Rise of Virtual-Only Sales

Turn Catalogs into Retail Experiences

Bring the Showroom to the Consumers

Augmenting the Retail Space

Principles for AR Commerce

Measuring AR-Driven Sales Performance

Shopping in Mixed Reality

Looking at Retail Through AR Glasses

On the Horizon for Spatial Sales

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Notes

CHAPTER 9: Becoming a Spatial Computing Champion

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

Spatial Computing Needs You

Embrace Experimentation Enthusiastically and Eagerly

Commit to Lifelong Learning

Crafting an AR–Centric Strategy

Go Forth and Be Spatial

Sparking Spatial Strategies

Note

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

End User License Agreement

Guide

Cover

Table of Contents

Title Page

Copyright

Dedication

Disclaimer

How to Use This Book

Preface: The Man from the Future

Begin Reading

Acknowledgments

About the Author

Index

End User License Agreement

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TOM EMRICH

THE NEXT DIMENSION

HOW TO USE AUGMENTED REALITY FOR BUSINESS GROWTH IN THE ERA OF SPATIAL COMPUTING

Copyright © 2025 by Tom Emrich. All rights reserved.

Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc., Hoboken, New Jersey.Published simultaneously in Canada.

No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, scanning, or otherwise, except as permitted under Section 107 or 108 of the 1976 United States Copyright Act, without either the prior written permission of the Publisher, or authorization through payment of the appropriate per-copy fee to the Copyright Clearance Center, Inc., 222 Rosewood Drive, Danvers, MA 01923, [phone], fax [phone], or on the web at www.copyright.com. Requests to the Publisher for permission should be addressed to the Permissions Department, John Wiley & Sons, Inc., 111 River Street, Hoboken, NJ 07030, [phone], fax [phone], or online at http://www.wiley.com/go/permission.

Trademarks: Wiley and the Wiley logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of John Wiley & Sons, Inc. and/or its affiliates in the United States and other countries and may not be used without written permission. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. is not associated with any product or vendor mentioned in this book.

Limit of Liability/Disclaimer of Warranty: While the publisher and author have used their best efforts in preparing this book, they make no representations or warranties with respect to the accuracy or completeness of the contents of this book and specifically disclaim any implied warranties of merchantability or fitness for a particular purpose. No warranty may be created or extended by sales representatives or written sales materials. The advice and strategies contained herein may not be suitable for your situation. You should consult with a professional where appropriate. Further, readers should be aware that websites listed in this work may have changed or disappeared between when this work was written and when it is read. Neither the publisher nor authors shall be liable for any loss of profit or any other commercial damages, including but not limited to special, incidental, consequential, or other damages.

For general information on our other products and services or for technical support, please contact our Customer Care Department within the United States at [phone], outside the United States at [phone] or fax [phone].

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is Available:

ISBN 9781394262564 (Cloth)ISBN 9781394262571 (ePub)ISBN 9781394262588 (ePDF)

Cover Design: WileyCover Image: © Alexandr/Adobe StockAuthor Photo: © Kari Orvik

Dedicated to my dad, John Emrich, who disassembled our childhood computer and, in doing so, assembled my future in technology. Your curiosity became my career.

Disclaimer

The information in this book is provided for general informational purposes only. While the author has made every effort to ensure the accuracy of the information contained herein, the publisher and author assume no responsibility for errors, omissions, or contrary interpretations of the subject matter. The reader should consult a professional before making any decisions based on the information in this book.

This book was written independently by the author and does not represent the opinions or positions of any organizations with which the author is currently or has been affiliated. The content in this book is based solely on publicly available information.

How to Use This Book

Congratulations! You are now the owner of an AR- and AI-enabled book! Follow the instructions below to use these two technologies to maximize your experience with this publication.

Bring the Cover to Life with AR

A book about AR (AR) wouldn’t be complete without using this technology to show it in action. The front cover of this book comes to life using web-based AR. EyeJack created the experience using Niantic’s 8th Wall technology.

Follow these steps to activate the WebAR experience:

Grab your smartphone!

Scan the QR code on the back cover of this book with your smartphone camera or visit

ar.thenextdimensionbook.com

in your smartphone browser. Your phone must be connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data for the AR to function.

Tap on the “Start AR” button when the website loads.

Accept the permission prompts to give the web app access to your camera and motion and orientation sensors.

Tap the “Begin” button and point your smartphone camera at the front cover of this book.

Watch the book come to life with AR. Make sure your sound is on to experience the full effect.

You can record the experience and share the video with your friends and network using popular messaging and social media apps.

Talk to an AI About This Book

This book was used to fine-tune a GPT using ChatGPT so that you can talk with an AI chatbot about its content. You can use The Next Dimension Book GPT to summarize chapters, find key points, or have a conversation about the book to deepen your understanding.

Follow these steps to chat with The Next Dimension Book GPT:

Visit

ai.thenextdimensionbook.com

in your browser on a smartphone, tablet, laptop, or computer. For the AI to function, your device must be connected to Wi-Fi or cellular data.

If you are using a smartphone, you can scan the QR codes found at the beginning of each chapter in the “Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI” section to easily access this site.

Sign up or log in to ChatGPT to chat with this GPT.

Use the dialog box to message the GPT or choose from one of the suggested questions to get started.

Once you’ve talked to The Next Dimension Book GPT, it will automatically be added to your ChatGPT sidebar so that you can find and use it at any time.

Preface: The Man from the Future

I still remember the sound – the wrenching of bits and bytes tearing through a phone line that sounded as if it was being tortured to do something it wasn’t meant to do. It was the sound of dial-up Internet – the sound of the future.

I was a young adult when I accessed my first online bulletin board with my dad in the basement office of our house in Kitchener-Waterloo, Canada. I still remember being amazed that my computer could now do something as powerful as connecting me with people worldwide. These early days of the Internet were interesting. It was fascinating that I could now go online to access the world’s information, all while still expected to complete my university work using the traditional means of library books and microfiche. This feeling of living in the future while still footed in the present, where the new world and the old world intermix, would be a common occurrence in my life.

The next time I would find myself adopting new technology while the old working methods were still in play was around the emergence of the mobile Internet. I worked at a start-up in Toronto called m-Qube, an early innovator in delivering ads and content to mobile phones. There, I began to see firsthand the birth of the mobile web, the introduction of mobile media, and the new use of SMS and MMS, especially by advertisers. This was 2005, years before the iPhone, when feature phones and handheld devices from Blackberry showed us glimpses of the future of mobile computing. At that time, phones were mainly communication devices for many, but for me, it was clear that they were capable of so much more. Indeed, this became even clearer with the emergence of the smartphone.

Three years after the launch of the iPhone, the iPad was announced. Around that time, I was working in the publishing industry as a product manager. My mandate was to help the newspaper and magazine industry navigate the digital transformation mobile and tablets had ushered in as competition for printed products. I found myself again in familiar territory, where the old and new worlds meet. It was in this role that I was introduced to the power of AR (AR), and I devised a strategy to leverage AR to build a bridge between the legacy world of print and the rapidly evolving mobile and tablet one. While the technology was there, the requirements for AR, often needing a computer webcam, downloaded software, and huge AR markers, made it extremely challenging to sell to brands. Regardless, I was convinced even then that AR would play a major role in blending the physical with the digital.

Not long after, I started a blog on Tumblr dedicated to exploring a world beyond the smartphone. I began the blog to channel my growing passion for wearable technology, including its use for AR and VR. It soon grew to nearly 100, 000 followers before being acquired. Reaching this milestone inspired me to make the leap to become a writer full-time, and I wrote for various Canadian technology publications, including MobileSyrup and BetaKit, where I continued to focus on exploring the burgeoning world of wearable technology. It was the early days of wearables when crowdfunding enabled anyone to be a hardware manufacturer. The world of wearables at that time often felt weird and experimental, and too soon, it triggered that familiar feeling I had felt before of living in the future, and I knew that we were getting a glimpse into the next wave of computing.

I had promised myself at the mobile media start-up that if there were to be another wave of computing in my lifetime, I would spot it as early as possible and ride it toward opportunities. I had been early with mobile at m-Qube, but I was still green as a professional and had a lot to learn. This next time, I had hoped, would come when I was a little more seasoned and had even more to offer. It was clear to me that wearable computing was going to be that wave.

To find a way to be meaningful in this space, I started to host meetups. My first wearable technology meetup was in downtown Toronto in January of 2014. It was a seriously cold evening, and I showed up at the event space with pizza, beer, and a box of wearables that I had been collecting, including Google Glass. The plan was to have a few presentations and then mainly focus on demo time with the crowd, where they could go hands-on with devices, many for the first time. The event saw nearly two hundred people and convinced me to keep going. One meetup led to another, and I found myself building a community of over 120, 000, hosting events around the US and Canada. My mission was to foster adoption and facilitate innovation in wearable tech by providing a platform for the entrepreneurs, start-ups, and organizations already making this happen and a place for those new to the space to be inspired to take action. In short, I wanted to bring people together to help accelerate the awareness and adoption of wearable tech.

My acquisition of Google Glass, one of a handful of Canadians who had one, was instrumental in my relationship with AR. I wore Glass for nearly one year, exploring ways to incorporate it into my daily life, witnessing the questions and concerns it raised while it was on, and giving hundreds of demos to anyone who asked. Because there were so few Canadian Google Glass users, my role shifted from writing about wearable technology to being written about. It was while wearing Google Glass at a Tim Horton’s coffee shop in Toronto that a journalist gave me the moniker “Man from the Future.” Wearing Google Glass that year was truly like living in the future, and it further cemented my belief that wearables and AR are the next wave of computing.

My passion for AR and wearables led me to Augmented World Expo (AWE), the world’s largest spatial computing community, along with its founder, Ori Inbar. Like Google Glass, Inbar was pivotal in my journey with AR. A long-time believer in the power of AR to give us superpowers, Ori’s long-standing passion and devotion to AR and the AR community are major contributors to its awareness and adoption. I had the opportunity to co-produce AWE and grow the community alongside him for nearly six years. It was there that I met fellow AR enthusiasts and true AR pioneers. During that time, I watched wearables and AR/VR go from parts on a table in the expo hall to complete solutions and next-generation products. When I left the team, I knew it was the right time to roll up my sleeves and get to work in this space.

When I left, I still had that familiar in-between feeling of the new world meeting the old, but AR and VR, in particular, no longer felt too early but rather ready for the masses. I was eager to find work that would allow me to go deep with the technology and deliver value in the market. I found this in 8th Wall, a web-based AR start-up in Palo Alto founded by Erik Murphy-Chutorian that had done the impossible and made the web a powerful place for AR. My time at 8th Wall felt like a full-circle moment from my product days in publishing. The 8th Wall platform was delivering on the promise of AR to brands I had envisioned nearly a decade earlier. WebAR was a game changer for marketers and brands, and according to the company, the platform has seen thousands of commercial launches for top brands across industry verticals since its launch. While at 8th Wall, and later Niantic (best known as the publisher of Pokémon GO), which acquired 8th Wall in 2022, I became intimate with how agencies and brands use AR to grow their business. This included witnessing how AR was delivering tangible results across the marketing funnel.

Marketers and advertisers have always been among the first to adopt new technologies. They play an instrumental role in introducing and acclimating the mainstream with new tech, and the insights from early campaigns shape the entire industry. I wrote this book to celebrate the early marketers, businesses, and brands who have innovated, iterated, and realized ROI using AR. My hope is that these examples will give you the confidence and inspiration to use AR in your own business plans.

With the emergence of mixed reality headsets, including the Meta Quest and Apple Vision Pro, I find myself again getting that familiar feeling that we are in the midst of a shift. The era of spatial computing is upon us, and it is the right time to harness the power of AR to futureproof and grow your business.

The future is now.

CHAPTER 1Welcome to the Era of Spatial Computing

Once you learn to wear, you can learn anything. Right now, you’re in a trap; it’s like you’re seeing the world through a little hole, just whatever your naked eye sees – and what you can get from that.” She pointed at the magic foolscap that was tucked into his shirt pocket. “With some practice you should be able to see and hear as good as anyone.

– Rainbows End by Vernor Vinge1

Chapter Cheat Sheet Powered by AI

I asked an AI to read this chapter and create a cheat sheet. If you only have five minutes to spare, here are the three must-know insights to help you level up your spatial computing knowledge.

Presence and Perception:

As computing shifts from 2D to 3D, it gains the ability to perceive and interact with the world around it. This enables digital experiences to feel more natural and tangible, allowing us to be present in these virtual moments.

Spatial Awareness:

Devices with advanced sensors and AI enable them to perceive and navigate physical spaces, bridging the gap between the digital and the physical and making digital interactions more intuitive and natural.

Business Transformation:

This technological leap transforms digital experiences by making them more immersive and engaging, requiring businesses to invest in new skills and strategies to take advantage of this new dimension.

 Want to talk to an AI about this book? Scan the QR code or visit ai.thenextdimensionbook.com in your browser to access The Next Dimension Book GPT.

We Are All Digital Flat Earthers

We are 3D beings living in a 3D world, yet almost half our waking lives are spent interacting with 2D screens.2 We may be multidimensional, but our digital experience is flat. From computers and laptops to tablets and smartphones, our smart screens offer us access to an online cosmos that is now fundamental to our way of living. But while these devices have let us surf the information superhighway, we have never really been able to dive deep into its waters and are stuck skimming the surface. A single pane of glass keeps the digital universe always just out of reach, allowing us to engage with it using artificial interactions such as clicks, taps, and swipes. This separation between us and technology limits its potential impact on our lives, constrains its capabilities, and often conflicts with our ability to be present in the physical real world. When it comes to our digital experience, we are like Alice at the beginning of her story, observing a world of wonder beyond the looking glass but have yet to step through the glass to immerse ourselves completely.

But this is all changing, and it is happening now.

Enter the era of spatial computing, a new computing paradigm that is shifting technology into the next dimension. The time has arrived for our digital experience to move from 2D to 3D. Spatial computing blends the virtual world with the physical world by enabling computers to perceive, interact, and navigate three-dimensional space. In this next wave of computing, the barrier between the digital and the physical is removed, and we can engage with technology as a part of our world rather than something separate from it. Fueling the spatial computing revolution is the growing ubiquity of sensors, advancements in artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning (ML), and the introduction of new devices, including AR and virtual reality headsets, autonomous vehicles, and personal and enterprise robots.

Spatial computing will break our technology free from the pane of glass it has been behind for decades and allow it to exist among us. In some cases, computing will be able to enter our world, quite literally walking among us by using its newfound ability to independently sense and navigate. In others, we will be able to enter the digital world and interact with it in a very similar way to how we engage with the physical world around us. Both are made possible with technology now present with us in the same dimension. With less of a separation between the physical and digital worlds, technology can be much smarter, more contextual, and more intentional, resulting in immersive, personal, and meaningful digital applications.

Every wave of computing has proven to change the world as we know it. Spatial computing will be no different. It will introduce a new way of living, changing all aspects of the human experience, from leisure to work and everything in between. Now is the time to understand how to harness the power of spatial computing to enhance your life and supercharge your business.

I Sense, Therefore I Am

It all begins with awareness.

Today’s computers provide us access to a wealth of information at our fingertips. But while they are great at storing and retrieving data, their ability to understand the world around them relies on us feeding them this information. Social media posts, vlogs and blogs, and Wikipedia pages are just a few of the explicit ways we have collectively empowered computers with knowledge we can access at any moment. Updating the collective digital mind is an active and ongoing process in the Information Age. This means that we spend a lot of our time generating this information, time that could be spent doing other things in the physical real world. It also means that computers may only have a partial understanding of our world as they are at the mercy of the quality and completeness of the information we provide. In turn, computing often lacks context, making applications less personal and meaningful.

Technology in the Age of Spatial Computing begins to wean itself off its dependence on us. Using sensors, it will gather information on its own, listening with microphones, seeing with cameras, and orienting itself with an array of sensors. This is an awakening for computing as it becomes aware of its surroundings, including the environment, objects, and people around it. This not only frees computing to learn beyond the silo of information it has access to today, but it also frees us from our active duty to build the collective digital mind. This changes our relationship with technology. Computers get to know us in a new, more intimate way, which enriches our digital interactions, making them more personal, meaningful, and valuable. And we no longer need to work so hard at providing technology with information about our world. This enables us to be more present with the happenings around us as we no longer need to stop and document them.

Spatial computing goes beyond just enabling awareness. Using AI and, in particular, ML, computers will be able to make sense of the large amounts of data they now possess. Interpreting and organizing this sensory information to produce a meaningful experience of the world will unlock the gift of perception. Computing will not just sense the world but make sense of it: images captured through cameras are recognized, and speech recorded using microphones is understood. This will enable us to do things such as talk to smarter virtual assistants embedded inside camera-equipped eyewear that lets them see what we see. Or ride in autonomous vehicles that can understand what is around them to safely drive us to a destination. And one day, it will also power robots that can navigate our space and interact with us as if they were humans.

Just as computing gains the ability to perceive the world around it, we will begin to use it to edit our own perception of the world. Wearable devices that merge our technology with our bodies will give computers access to our eyes, ears, and hands, influencing our senses. Robust sensors and advanced algorithms will lend our hands to the computer so that we can move digital objects in 3D space or allow computers to interface with our eyes and ears to edit what we see and hear. This will change our perception of reality by blending the digital world with the physical one. By harnessing technology that understands space, we will be able to transform our own experience of this world. This could be choosing to remove the physical real world completely to enter a simulation or experiencing both the virtual and the physical together in an augmented interaction.

Mind the Gap

By blending the physical with the virtual, spatial computing also promises to dramatically close the separation gap that exists between us and technology. This separation gap limits computing’s capabilities and impact and often causes technology to distract and remove us from being fully present in physical, real-world moments.

Computing on flat screens keeps us separate from the digital world, making it intangible and requiring us to learn a new user experience language to interact with. With spatial computing, our technological experience breaks out from the screen into our physical space, which allows for complete immersion and more intuitive interactions.

Today’s gap interferes with our ability to be intimate with technology and obstructs computing’s capacity to truly understand us and the world around us. Both are due to computing not being present in our physical space. This results in applications with little context of the world’s real-time happenings and a relatively cold computing experience based on taps of glass or mouse clicks. With spatial computing, this interference is diminished as computers join us in space where we can interact with the digital more tangibly, and computers can use their newfound senses to be more informed and deliver more personal and meaningful results.

Today, we cannot be present in a digital moment and a physical moment at the same time, which causes us to be constantly distracted as we try to multitask between the digital and the physical. Think about the simple task of taking a picture of your family at a theme park. Today, you need to remove yourself from enjoying the moment to document this and, in some cases, interrupt the moment completely to capture it. Or consider the times when you have engaged in text messaging or email or checked your social media feed quickly while at a dinner party. In all these instances, you chose to remove yourself from the present physical moment to engage quickly with the happenings in the digital world. The duality of our lives, one foot in the physical world with another in the digital, is a large reason why technology has a bad rap as being rude and antihuman. To be engaged with computing today, you can’t be fully present in a physical real-world moment. With spatial computing, we will no longer have to choose between being present in a digital moment versus a physical moment. That is because the moment will be unified as a blended augmented moment. In this hybrid moment, where virtual and physical meet, we will be fully present with both virtual and physical interactions simultaneously.

Presence is a critical aspect of spatial computing. On the one hand, spatial computing enables us to feel physically present within a virtual environment or the digital elements realistically situated in our physical space. Feeling present makes the virtual experience feel more natural and intuitive and helps us react and interact just like we do in the real world. On the other hand, spatial computing enables computers to have a presence in our physical world. This includes embodied technology in robots, autonomous vehicles, or disembodied virtual assistants whispering in our ears through wearable technology. In both cases, presence is made possible because of computing’s newfound ability to perceive, interact, and navigate 3D space.

Presence and perception are intricately linked in spatial computing. This synergy is an essential quality that allows it to blur the lines between the digital and physical worlds. Sharing space with technology in such an integrated manner opens new possibilities for businesses across industries. Harnessing these unique qualities of spatial computing as part of your digital strategy will be key to success.

A Leap in Dimension

A critical component of spatial computing is the shift from 2D to 3D.

Until now, our computing has been flat, using only the x and y axes, allowing content to exist in horizontal and vertical dimensions. Spatial computing introduces a third dimension, the z-axis, adding depth to our computing. This new dimension enables technologies such as robots that can walk, self-driving cars, and the creation of virtual worlds we can explore and interact with. 3D computing opens up new possibilities for applications focused on spatial understanding, intuitive and natural user interfaces (UIs), and enhanced realism and immersion. This will require a brand-new way of thinking about software design and development.

While this type of shift doesn’t happen frequently, we have seen leaps like this before. In the 1980s, the personal computing era saw a transition from text-based interfaces to graphical user interfaces, also referred to as GUIs.3 Made popular by Apple Macintosh and Microsoft Windows, the GUI revolutionized how users interacted with computers by introducing elements such as windows, icons, and buttons. Users could also see their actions on screen with pointing devices such as the mouse. Visual elements and common physical interactions came more naturally to users than text-based commands, making personal computing more accessible to more people, and were instrumental in the widespread adoption of the personal computer (PC).

Moving from command-line interfaces to a 2D graphical environment was a significant one, and it caused developers to rethink how to build software for users. The focus shifted from creating just functional software to emphasizing how user-friendly it can be. This led to the development of UI elements, such as drop-down menus, toolbars, and dialog boxes. These elements used visual cues and interactions that mimicked the physical world, such as dragging and dropping, to help users more intuitively engage with applications. At the same time, the way these elements looked – such as layout, color, and typography – also grew in importance to enhance usability and user engagement. This holistic approach to software design, which considers functionality and user experience, laid the groundwork for many of the design philosophies and best practices still prevalent today.

Like the introduction of the GUI, the move from 2D to 3D will trigger a new way of thinking about software development. Designers and developers will require a new approach to make use of spatial computing’s environmental integration, spatial awareness, and a brand-new set of input methods. This will require a shift from designing flat planes to creating dynamic, immersive environments where users can interact with digital objects as if they were there. As software becomes more integrated with the user’s physical space, developers must consider spatial logic, physics, and user movement and create interfaces that respond to hand movements, gestures, and gaze – which, in many ways, can be considered the new mouse. This spatial UI (SUI) will enhance user engagement by making digital interactions feel more instinctive, further blurring the lines between virtual and physical realities.

Developers and designers will need to familiarize themselves with 3D media and 3D software development. 3D models, textures, materials, shaders, particle systems, and animations are just some of the 3D asset essentials to 3D software development. Creating and integrating these assets requires a combination of artistic skills and technical knowledge, utilizing specialized software and tools. But luckily, not everyone will have to start from scratch. Many people working in 3D industries, such as gaming, will already be equipped with some of the fundamentals. In many ways, 3D games played on smartphones and game consoles can be seen as a precursor to spatial computing. We can look to 3D games to glean many of the same concepts that will be core to this next wave of computing, including the creation of 3D assets and environments. This expertise in 3D game development provides a robust foundation for the transition to spatial computing. Game developers have long tackled issues related to rendering complex environments, managing real-time interactions, and creating immersive experiences that react to a user’s actions – skills directly transferable to spatial computing.

As we move into the era of spatial computing, specialized skills in 3D will grow in demand. Ramping up your teams with 3D talent will be a competitive advantage. There is also a major opportunity to contribute to creating a new set of design philosophies and best practices within spatial computing. Establishing these frameworks by innovating in this space early could be a competitive advantage for businesses, especially those in the creative field.

Our Post-Smartphone Future

In the personal computing era, the computer was the star of our digital lives. The PC began as an expensive, clunky device that was anchored to a desk in our house. In its early days, the PC was meant to boost professional productivity, extending work from the office to the home. As PCs became more affordable and more user-friendly with the introduction of the GUI, people quickly started to use them for education, gaming, and other use cases. The variety of uses grew exponentially as PCs became connected to the Internet, which gave rise to new applications, including new forms of communication and social interaction. Eventually, PCs began to leave the confines of the home in a more portable form factor, the laptop. The ability to carry this computing power outside the home made it possible to work from anywhere and paved the way for mobile computing.

In the mobile computing era, the smartphone is undeniably the new center of our digital lives. The smartphone goes beyond the laptop’s portability, enabling us to use computing wherever we are, so much so that it feels like an extension of ourselves. But while we have been carrying around this supercomputer in our hands for over a decade now, it hasn’t always been as powerful nor portable. Like the PC, the mobile device also had a journey in miniaturization, cost, and connectivity-driven use cases. Once carried in a suitcase or embedded in cars, mobile devices, like the PC, began to enter the mainstream as a work device. These devices were clunky, like the early days of PCs and laptops, and were also inaccessible to many people due to their high cost. Eventually, these devices became more powerful and smaller, moving from feature phones and PDAs (personal digital assistants) to the smartphone’s modern form factor. Like the Internet in the PC era, connectivity was a major contributing factor to the widespread adoption of mobile devices. Cellular connectivity, beginning with 3G, expanded the use of mobile beyond communication and data management to eventually every facet of our modern-day lives.

So what will the new device be at the center of the spatial computing era? Wearable technology. While we may feel today that our smartphone is an extension of ourselves, wearables will truly deliver on this. Wearables will shift our computing experience from something we hold in our hands to something we wear on our bodies. We will likely have a myriad of wearables on our person that work in tandem with smart devices in our environments, creating a device constellation suited for 3D computing. This may include smartglasses, hearables, smart rings, brain-sensing smartwatches, and haptic vests. All these devices help to lend our body to computing, granting it access to better understand you and the environment around you to create more immersive and meaningful digital interactions. While we are early in our wearable journey, wrist-worn wearables such as the Apple Watch and Fitbit have already inched us toward this future. Millions of users now wear tech on their wrists, which senses their movement and biometrics and begins to merge their tech experience with their body.4 This is the same with hearable devices, such as Apple AirPods, which put digital assistants and sensors for spatial audio in people’s ears.

While a set of wearables will play a key role in spatial computing, the hero device in this computing era is expected to be headworn wearables such as smartglasses and head-mounted displays (also referred to as HMDs or simply headsets). Like the mobile era, which saw car phones, feature phones, and PDAs before the convergence of the smartphone, we should expect to see a variety of different headworn wearables available for enterprises and consumers in the early days of this category. The device journey will follow similar patterns as the PC and mobile era in a stronger enterprise start before reaching widespread consumer use. Today’s smartglasses and headsets are like the early days of PCs, clunky and expensive, and not expected to leave the office or home. These devices are also finding the most immediate value in professional use cases, including reimagining working from home with co-presence capabilities and an infinite canvas for applications for the ultimate multitasker as a monitor replacement. But it is only a matter of time until such devices become smaller and more powerful, making them more wearable and attractive to more consumers. And new use cases will be unlocked by advancements in connectivity, both cellular and Wi-Fi, making these devices more of a staple in our everyday lives and eventually replacing our smartphones.

We are still years away from fully realizing our post-smartphone future. In the meantime, we will see the role of the smartphone change as the adoption of wearable technology rises. Our smartphones will become computing hubs for wearables, allowing these devices to be smaller and more comfortable by offloading the computation to the phone. Early wearables will benefit from being tethered to the smartphone with the upside of making them more fashionable and comfortable to wear. This relationship will also extend smartphone applications and services to wearable devices, which will introduce a new opportunity for smartphone apps. This dependency on the mobile device will only strengthen the role the smartphone has in our lives. But it will begin to change our relationship with our phones, eventually seeing us leave them in our pockets as we interact with our wearable devices instead of tapping on the screen.

Smartphones will also act as companion devices to wearables such as headsets, extending its use. Here, smartphones will be used to bridge the indoors with the outdoors, giving headset-applications value outside or on the go, significantly increasing the time spent by a user. They will also be used to connect headset users and mobile users, whether they are in the same room or in different places, dramatically increasing the number of people that can engage with the app.

Understanding where we are in our wearable adoption cycle and the new role the smartphone will play through this journey will be essential to any successful spatial computing strategy.

The Age of Experience

Computers that are present and able to perceive the world are arriving just in time to bolster the Experience Age (also known as the Post-Information Age) that has already begun.