Meet BTS in the Living Room... 'Immersive Economy' Is Coming [Juhyung Lim's Tech Talk]

Breakthrough in the Untact Era: Accelerating the Shift to the 'Realistic Economy'
Intensified Competition in Technology Development such as Smart Glasses and Ultrahaptics
Content and Software Account for 68%... Cultural Competitiveness is Crucial

NCT127 'Beyond The Origin' video call scene / Photo by SM Entertainment

[Asia Economy Reporter Lim Juhyung] With the acceleration of the transition to an untact (non-face-to-face) era due to the impact of the novel coronavirus infection (COVID-19), the 'Extended Reality (XR) economy' has encountered an opportunity to fully emerge. XR refers to the so-called 'immersive technology' that overlays digital graphics such as virtual reality (VR) and augmented reality (AR) onto reality, creating new value by integrating it with industries and culture. Accordingly, not only major IT companies like Google, Facebook, and LG but also promising startups are intensifying competition in developing new hardware such as smart glasses and ultra-haptics.

Earlier in April, SM Entertainment partnered with Naver to hold the online concert 'Beyond Live.' This concert combined VR and AR to recreate performances of six groups under SM in a virtual space. 'Beyond Live' was viewed by over 75,000 viewers from 109 countries worldwide and reportedly generated approximately 2.4 billion KRW in revenue.

Meanwhile, Big Hit Entertainment, the agency of the group BTS, held an online streaming concert 'BangBangCon' last month, attracting 756,600 viewers from 107 countries worldwide.

On the 3rd, the Department of Thoracic Surgery at Bundang Seoul National University Hospital demonstrated the first domestic virtual surgery lecture using VR video.

As face-to-face contact decreases due to concerns over infectious disease spread in the 'untact' era, cases of using immersive technologies such as VR and AR as alternatives are increasing. Accordingly, there are prospects that the immersive economy, which integrates immersive technologies into various industries such as culture and healthcare, could become the mainstream in the post-COVID era.

Global accounting consulting firm PricewaterhouseCoopers, based in the UK, predicted in a report titled 'Seeing is believing' that the global VR and AR market will reach 1.4 trillion pounds (approximately 2170 trillion KRW) and create 23.5 million jobs by 2030.

Given this situation, domestic and international IT companies are moving quickly to secure the new hardware market that will realize immersive technologies.

◆Core of Immersive Technology Implementation: 'Smart Glasses'

Wearing 'Google Glass' / Photo by Yonhap News

Last month, Google acquired Canadian smart glasses manufacturer 'North' for 180 million USD (approximately 216 billion KRW). Rick Osterloh, Google Vice President, explained at the time, "North is a pioneer in user interface and smart glasses," adding, "It will help us continue investing in the future of hardware and ambient computing."

Smart glasses are devices that implement VR and AR in reality and are considered one of the core hardware components to open the immersive economy.

Before being acquired by Google, North developed the smart glasses 'Focals,' which resemble ordinary glasses. However, a small projector is embedded on one side, projecting images onto the lens to display VR and AR content to the wearer.

Google has shown interest in smart glasses technology development, having unveiled 'Google Glass' back in 2012. Meanwhile, US social networking service (SNS) company Facebook is developing AR glasses called 'Orion,' and Microsoft is planning a smart glasses product called 'HoloLens.'

Domestic companies are also accelerating development. LG Uplus announced on the 4th of last month that it partnered with Chinese startup 'Nreal' to produce a personal AR glasses product called 'Nreal Light,' scheduled for release in the third quarter (July to September) of this year.

◆Ultra-Haptics: Implementing 'Touch' by Emitting Ultrasound into the Air

'Ultrahaptic' technology that emits ultrasound inaudible to the human ear into the air to create tactile sensations / Photo by Internet homepage capture

While smart glasses implement the visual aspect of VR and AR, technology development to implement tactile sensations is also underway. This is the so-called 'ultra-haptics,' which allows users to feel virtual 3D objects with their hands by using ultrasound. This technology creates artificial tactile sensations by emitting ultrasound at frequencies inaudible to the human ear into the air, applying pressure to the hands.

The British startup 'Ultraleap,' which first invented this technology, is developing a small block-type kit that generates ultrasound. In cooperation with German conglomerate Bosch, it unveiled a controller at the 2017 International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas that can control electronic devices with hand gestures alone.

◆Software and Content Are Important in the Immersive Economy Era

Although competition in hardware development to realize the immersive economy is intensifying, there are also opinions that actual market growth will be led by software and content sectors.

According to a report published in 2017 by Dutch economic research consulting firm 'Ecoris,' the hardware share in the global VR market is expected to shrink from 73% in 2015 to 33% this year. Instead, the software share is expected to increase from 14% to 23%, and content from 13% to 45% during the same period. This analysis suggests that in the immersive economy, cultural competitiveness such as design and performance is as important as technological capability.

The government plans to enhance the competitiveness of immersive technology content through the 'Immersive Content New Market Creation Project.'

The Ministry of Science and ICT announced on the 7th that it will invest 20 billion KRW from supplementary budgets to support the production of XR-integrated content in various fields such as education and training, healthcare, and manufacturing.

This content was produced with the assistance of AI translation services.