These Are the Top Mixed Reality Companies in the World Today

1. Social VR

Mark Zuckerberg has called VR the most social platform he has ever seen, and we agree. It is different and far more experiential than social media. It allows people located all over the world to share experiences in a single virtual space. This can range from playing games, to touring historic points of interest, to new forms of distance learning, to corporate training experiences.

2. Entertainment 

Every aspect of entertainment is embracing mixed reality: players, fans and sponsors. Some niches, such as playing games, have been obvious to most observers. Others are not so obvious.

3. Search 

Search remains the most popular application in the current 2D, but as the people behind Google and Bing search are aware search changes dramatically when it moves into immersive technologies. Internal mapping is allowing people to find all the blue jeans available in a mall, perhaps while shoppers are escorted by the virtual celebrity of their choice.

4. 360° Cameras 

While they are a small step short of being VR or AR, 360° cameras have shrunk from over $10,000 to under $100 in just a few short years. These cameras can now be clipped onto your smartphone, where an app allows you to become the center of a photo that surrounds you in all six directions.

5. Headsets 

The headsets of tomorrow are the equivalent of the smartphone of today. Like phones, the componentry is vital to the product, particularly important is the quality of optics, and Lumus seems to be making the best. They could become the “Intel Inside” of the next generation of hardware.

6. Brains, eyes and gestures 

As we move from handsets to headsets, we will interact with devices in new ways, leaving the hands mostly free to do other things. There will be voice as AI devices that we call Digital Genies come to market.