Is “Digital Reality” The Key To Expressing Holograms To Unfamiliar Users And Consumers?

“Digital Reality” is a new term being volleyed around the IKIN offices. What is digital reality? What does it mean? How is it different from other digital experiences? These are key questions for understanding the definition of digital reality and also for determining if digital reality is the best name to express the full scope of holographic technology’s potential to unfamiliar audiences. IKIN’s dimensional technologies are holographic in nature, which means they are digital but also inherently different from other immersive experiences, like those accessed across the far corners of the internet; different from the direct connections of video conferencing and from 3D perspective video games; different even from the dimensional experiences of VR and AR, which are perhaps the most conceptually similar but still technologically divergent from IKIN’s approach.

The Question Remains

So, the question remains, despite similarities with each of these digital experiences, what is the best way to express the 3D experiences of IKIN’s hologram technology in shortform? In exploring this question, let’s look a little more closely at the qualities of these other digital experiences to see what each offers and where they may come up short.

The Internet

The internet is the first medium many identify when thinking of digital experiences. It’s the most versatile and popular digital experience of those listed above. It’s also a bit of an unfair comparison because it is so far reaching and offers so many different forms of engagement. To focus this consideration, let’s restrict our thinking to only the experiences offered by traditional websites through computers, including traditional desktops and more contemporary smartphones and tablets. Thus, when talking about the internet, we’re talking about interacting through a mediated mouse, touchpad, or touchscreen. We’re talking: scrolling pages, clicking links, typing text. These are the means of navigation and participation. On these pages, we are offered access to text, images, sound, and video, as well as to real people acting in real-time or asynchronously. An online world is formed, but it is a user experience far removed from that of real life.

Video Conferencing

To–say–watch a movie online is a far reach from sitting down with an audience in a cinema to enjoy a new release on the big screen. Video conferencing, on the other hand, does attempt to replicate a real-world experience. We sit in front of our cameras and microphones and converse in real-time with real people who are experiencing something similar to their counterparts across the screen. We see faces and places that because they are captured via video and through microphones look and sound generally familiar to in-person interactions. But, the flatness of 2D video and the drastic unevenness of current audio quality make the digital experiences of video calls at best a convenient option for distanced communication and at worst an alienating poor replacement for reality.

3D Perspective Video Games

Video games have proven for decades that visual fidelity and complex sound design are not requisites to engaging digital experiences, that success on this front is achieved first and foremost through creative gameplay. Still, modern video games have evolved to a point that visual and audio realism are available options.

The Birth Of The First Person Shooter

A major turning point of achievement on this route came in the early ‘90s when Catacomb 3-D introduced 3D perspectives into the medium which was previously dominated by flat, 2D views. The screen and image remained flat, but the illusion of 3D space replicated the real world to a degree not previously seen. And, with it came a new level of engagement, which is embodied by one of the most popular current video game genres: the first-person shooter. In the early years, Catacomb 3-D gave way to the instant classics Doom and GoldenEye and eventually to massive franchise titles like Halo and Call of Duty. The concept of shooter games was not inherently novel, but the new perspective allowed for a dramatic increase in engagement through greater naturalism of vantage and movement.

VR & AR

Virtual reality and augmented reality have taken as their jumping-off point the presumption that naturalistic perspectives render experiences more similar to those of the real world than are offered by the above media. Thus, they have taken as their names handles that indicate mediations of reality. Virtual reality seeks to create wholly dimensional digital worlds through the closed-off lens of VR headgear and accompanying headphones and handheld controllers. Augmented reality, instead, chooses to imprint dimensional content “onto” real-world spaces through the use of smartphones, tablets, AR glasses, or similar flat screens that utilizes perspective manipulation to create convincingly 3D content. Steady improvements in both technologies and continued industry support have resulted in their increased popularity of late. And, part of this success is undeniably tied to the ability to express what distinguishes one tech from the other by building on the associational conjuring of reality and to dimensional digital media.

Digital Reality

This brings us to: “digital reality.” Modern hologram technology shares some similar conceptualizations and visual associations with VR and AR. All three are built on foundations of dimensionality. VR, because it is a fully-realized digital environment, is arguably more natively and convincingly 3D than AR, which has the limitations of a 2D screen. IKIN’s hologram technology uses not a 2D screen but a holographic screen that can generate authentic perspectives. The assistance of its native AI and face tracking software ensures ever-changing and realistic vantage points. IKIN has been able to achieve this level of realistic dimensionality without relying on headgear, which marks a distinct level of naturalism above either VR or AR. That it is also an exceedingly diverse means of digital engagement with countless real-world applications places IKIN’s hologram technology closer to real-life activities than its predecessors, suggesting that digital reality is aptly named.

What Do You Think?

IKIN is by no means locked into the term digital reality. But, it is food for thought as the RYZ and IKIN ARC holographic systems continue their march forward in development and application. The hurdles of conceptualization and effective expression continue as early adopters give way to regular users of the revolutionary new technology that are holograms. What are your opinions on “digital reality”? Does it give you a clearer idea of what to expect from IKIN’s holograms? Does it sound right off the tongue and resonate on the ear? Do you have a better name in mind? Let us know on IKIN social and YouTube accounts if digital reality is the right name for this holographic job.