Virtual and Augmented Reality
Thomas Cook Closed for Business
How does a company in business for over 170 years suddenly go out of business?
Thomas Cook revolutionized travel doing amazing things to increase access inventing the package holiday or tour. At one point it seemed like every high street had a Thomas Cook Office on it featuring the latest deals for travel to faraway destinations. But this week, seemingly out of the blue they went bust – filing for bankruptcy and stranding some 600,000 passengers abroad leading to what some have called the largest non-war time repatriation in history.
Travel and Vacation is Increasing
Travel is not in decline – in fact, passenger numbers at UK airports increased by 85% over the past two decades, from 135 million to 251 million, with over 60% of the population in the UK taking a holiday – up 57% from the year before.
The industry changed, and Thoms Cook failed to understand that their traditional market was disappearing piecemeal. The advent of the internet changed the information equation and the need for a package that organized accommodation, transportation and hotel accommodation into a single package was increasingly irrelevant.
Lest you think the government will swoop in and protect you through the downtimes because you are so important to society – that might have been true, as it was for Thomas Cook back in 1948 when it was nationalized facing bankruptcy post the second world war, but this time around the government refused to step into a commercial matter.
Disruption of Your Business
No matter how secure you think your business is and how well protected you believe your solution is – you will be disrupted. Much o the technology and developments that will be in use in 10, 20 or 30 years time have not been invented yet. The pace of change has accelerated and our capacity to keep up with it is increasingly challenged. We struggle to track the change positing that the suggested trajectory is impossible, implausible, or ridiculous dismissing the idea this will come to ou reality and as Kelly Kevin notes in “The Inevitable”
We are constantly surprised by things that have been happening for 20 years or longer.
As we struggle to rise above our constant changing world and spot the world changing around us. We will be newbies for the rest of our lives dealing with the constant flow of change, the never-ending cycle of upgrades and the rapid nature of obsolescence.
Endless Newbie is the new default for everyone, no matter your age or experience.
Kelly Kevin notes in “The Inevitable”
Virtual Reality is Coming
It is easy to discount the virtual reality industry as “gaming” and not relevant to your industry or activity. After the early flurry of activity, the big splash Facebook made acquiring Occulus in 2014. But given the early systems, the heavy headsets that suffered from power challenges, resolution difficulties and even induced nausea in a substantial number of people, you would be forgiven for discounting the technology as interesting but not relevant.
The Revolution of the Telephone
For context – people said the same things about the Telephone, the Television, and the Home Computer. The 1876 internal memo from Western Union commented on the telephone:
This ‘telephone’ has too many shortcomings to be seriously considered as a means of communication. The device is inherently of no value to us.
History is replete with companies and individuals refusing to accept the changes sweeping across their world as Thomas Cook appears to have done, or at least responded early enough.
We are already seeing companies built on a foundation of bring Virtual and Augmented reality to different industries. I spent some time with Level-Ex at the Gamers Developers Conference earlier this year and interviewed Eric Gantwwerker who is helping the company develop simulators using gaming technology for medical education. As I commented at the time – I felt like a fish out of water attending this conference as it was so new and different to me.
But protecting your future is about disrupting the present, and the discomfort is important in knocking you out of the rut of life and allowing you to see the future that is coming but is invisible over the high walls built of comfort, tradition and status quo
Mixed Reality
Mixed Reality in Your Future
The better term and way of thinking about this future and how it disrupts you is “Mixed Reality” – the addition of other information into your sensory field (adn this could be more than visual and might include other inputs such as audio). There are many examples of this kind of innovation
Tackling the in-person problem of missing reality while recording your copy is the eyeQ
The latest in Full Resolution Solution from Varoshowing off their demo with Volvo
Education in the Medical Field
The Microsoft HoloLens to Teach Anatomy
And Teaching Dentistry
Augmenting the Medical Field
Overlay of Anatomy
Mixing Reality in Dentistry for Patient education and Decision Making
Incremental Steps To Mixed Reality
Don’t be Thomas Cook and find your path to staying ahead of the curve. Your incremental steps to this include
- Accept Discomfort in experiences and Try New and Different Things
- You don’t always need a purpose to Try SOmething – just savor the experience
- Discard the Bagge of Experience
- Question Everything – Adopt a Childs Mind to the Future and
- The One Constant is Change – Embrace being a Permanent Newbie and Relish the Learning Potential
I am attending the 28th Annual Scientific Meeting of the European Association for Osseointegration (EAO) [26-28 September] and will be speaking at the Osteology Networking Event “Going Digital” talking about these innovations and how you can stay ahead
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Joe Bormel On September 30, 2019 at 10:51 am
Thank Nick. Another eye-opening post (no pun intended). What grabbed me most was the Case Western student pointing out that dissecting a cadaver is a waste of time if you can learn anatomy better, faster, cheaper with the HoloLens.
It’s more than worth it to read your posts. I hope your readership is large and growing; this content is wonderful.