Lenovo Tech World is an annual online event that brings together Lenovo leaders and big thinkers from across the globe. From innovative devices to connected spaces, individual computers to computing everywhere, traditional IT to digital industries, and from helping people to protecting our planet, Lenovo is tackling humanity’s greatest challenges. Through conversations with Lenovo partners and customers, the unveiling of our latest innovations, and interviews with industry leaders, Lenovo Tech World sessions show you how smarter technology empowers us all. Watch the keynotes (https://techworld22.lenovo.com/) and read some main takeaways below.
AR vs VR vs MR
If you’re not in the Extended Reality (XR) industry, terms can be a little confusing. XR includes augmented reality (AR), 3D digital overlays on transparent lenses to view real-world environments, and virtual reality (VR), immersive 3D experience in opaque headsets. AR and VR are converging into mixed reality (MR), the merging of a real-world and digital environments, almost like toggling between AR and VR. Today, it very much looks like MR is the future, and the future is bright!
Read more about Mixed Reality here: The ThinkReality VRX and the Road to Mixed Reality in the Enterprise Metaverse
From Devices to Spaces: How Innovation Is Blending the Virtual and the Real
This article originally appeared in Lenovo Story Hub. Read the full article here: https://news.lenovo.com/devices-to-spaces-innovation-blending-virtual-and-real/
Imagine a business meeting where a life-sized hologram of a colleague on another continent appears in front of a room full of people, without the need for special glasses – and the ‘hologram’ is able to interact with 3D models and even ‘high-five’ people in the room.
The technology, using a layer of coated glass and advanced life-size augmented reality projections, sounds like science fiction, but it’s just one example of how Lenovo is using innovative technologies such as 5G, augmented reality and VR to create new ways to seamlessly collaborate across the physical and virtual worlds.
Other Lenovo technologies which are breaking down the boundaries between devices, people and places, include PCs which unfurl a huge extra screen at the touch of a button, to XR headsets which can train top executives in the skills needed to become a world business leader.
These pioneering technologies are helping to reshape the way the world works, offering new, vivid ways to interact, collaborate and learn.
Let’s get phygital
Watching a life-size human being on a screen in front of you, able to interact with virtual objects (for instance by interacting with 3D prototypes or digital whiteboards) is a surprisingly powerful experience.
Lenovo Cyber Space
Lenovo’s Cyber Space offers a vision of how ‘mixed reality’ technologies can create a new way for people to interact – whether it’s a business conference, telepresence teaching, or two different offices mingling via two linked ‘Cyber Space’ set-ups.
The buzz word is ‘phygital’ (a cross between physical and digital), with people able to interact with digital objects such as 3D diagrams in the virtual world, or ‘high five’ people remotely to celebrate.
The technology, which is still at the demonstration stage, uses a type of coated glass which is semi-transparent and semi-reflective, allowing for a ‘holographic’ display where someone stands behind the glass and is able to interact with the content on the holographic display.
Users can interact with virtual content not just with their hands, but with their whole body. The ‘phygital’ display is powered by a high lumen UHD projector and real-time life-size AR, driven by 5G.
It’s an incredibly powerful teaching tool, and a vivid, real-feeling way for colleagues to ‘meet’ without ever setting foot on a plane.
The metaverse
Watch this video of Dr. Yong Rui, Lenovo Chief Technology Officer, as he explains the future of the metaverse.
What is the point of the metaverse? It’s a big question, but Lenovo is already pioneering technologies which might offer an answer – focused on enterprises, and the way we work, and helping to break down the barriers between the virtual and physical worlds.
At Lenovo we believe in an ‘open metaverse’ where technology and ideas are traded freely, rather than walled gardens, where one technology company dictates what experiences metaverse users can enjoy. It was that openness that drove the explosion of creativity behind the internet, and the same will be true of the metaverse.
In terms of the evolution of the metaverse itself, we’re probably at an equivalent stage to the mid-90s if we look at how the World Wide Web evolved. There’s a long way to go – but the world of work is already changing thanks to VR and AR technologies, with headsets such as Lenovo’s ThinkReality VRX headset enabling cheaper and more effective training, plus collaboration across countries and even continents, in AR or VR.
Interested in learning more?
Watch the keynotes from Lenovo Tech World 2022 here: https://techworld22.lenovo.com/. What do you think the future will look like? Share your response in the comments below.
